Markus Andrews

The Greek prime minister has reiterated his offer that Athens could loan alternative treasures to the British Museum as a way of resolving the decades-old dispute over the return of the “stolen” Elgin marbles. Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the issue ahead of a meeting with Boris Johnson, and criticised his British counterpart’s stance that the fate of the marbles is not up for discussion.The sculptures — which adorned the Parthenon temple in Athens before they were removed by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, and brought to the UK more than 200 years ago — have long been a source of tension between Greece and the UK.Earlier this year, Boris Johnson insisted Britain was the legitimate owner of the marbles, now labelled as the Parthenon Sculptures in their British Museum exhibit. But Mr Mitsotakis has reiterated Greece’s position that the treasures should be returned to their country of origin, and confirmed he would bring up the matter in the talks with Mr Johnson. “Our position is very clear,” the Greek prime minister said in an interview withThe Telegraph. “The marbles were stolen in the 19th century, they belong in the Acropolis Museum and we need to discuss this issue in earnest.”He also explained his proposed solution to the deadlock, which he first raised just weeks after his centre-right government came to power in the summer of 2019. “I am sure that, if there was a willingness on the part of the government to move, we could find an arrangement with the British Museum in terms of us sending abroad cultural treasures on loan, which have never left the country,” he said.“Refusing to discuss the topic seems to me, given the context of everything that has been happening in terms of the return of cultural treasures, to be rather an anachronistic approach,” he said.Mr Johnson earlier this year ruled out returning the marbles, telling Greek newspaper Ta Nea he understands the “strong feelings” of the Greek public and its prime minister on the issue.“But the UK government has a firm longstanding position on the sculptures which is that they were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum’s Trustees since their acquisition,” the UK prime minister said.The British Museum says it first received a request for the permanent return of the marbles from Greece in the 1980s. On its website, it says Lord Elgin received permission from authorities to remove half the remaining sculptures from the ruins of the Parthenon in the early 19th century. This took place while Lord Elgin was the British ambassador to the Ottoman empire, which ruled Athens at the time. Greek campaigners have insisted the occupying power did not have the legitimacy to authorise such an action involving a central part of Greek cultural heritage. Mr Mitsotakis also raised the issues of the marbles in a speech in France earlier this week, calling for talks between the UK and Greece to bring the marbles back to their original country. “It is essential that the Parthenon marbles in London should be reunited with the majority of the Parthenon sculptures in Athens,” he said. Greece’s half of the marbles take pride of place at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, with panoramic views of the Parthenon itself, in a display designed to easily house the other half in the event that they are returned. In 2019, the then-president of Greece called for the sculptures to leave the “murky prison” of the British museum where they were “held as trophies”.Additional reporting by agencies More

The Scottish Conservatives leader has referred himself to parliament’s “sleaze” watchdog for failing to fully record his MSP salary and all his outside earnings as a football referee.Douglas Ross has apologised after it emerged that he had not declared £28,000-worth of earnings on his register of interests at Westminster.The Moray MP – who also became an MSP following the Scottish elections in May – has reported his mistake to the office Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.In a statement Mr Ross said: “This was an error on my behalf that shouldn’t have happened, and I apologise for not registering these payments on time.”He added: “Since realising my mistake last week, I contacted the Office of the Register of Interests and made them aware of the situation. All payments have now been declared, including those from my MSP salary that are donated to charities.”Mr Ross’s undeclared earnings included just over £6,700 for his work as a match official for the Scottish Football Association (SFA), according to The Herald, which first reported his failure to record financial interests.The Scottish Tory leader is also said to have failed to declare just over £21,000 in earnings from his job as an MSP.The SNP accused the leading Tory of missing crucial votes to “rake in” extra cash as a match official. “Triple-jobbing Douglas Ross is knee-deep in the Tory sleaze scandal,” said the party’s Westminster deputy leader Kirsten Oswald.She added: “It’s time to blow the whistle on Tory sleaze. People in Scotland deserve better than this – and Mr Ross must finally decide whether he wants to be an MP, MSP or full-time referee.”Boris Johnson’s government remains mired in sleaze claims following the botched attempted to rip up the current Commons standards system to save former Tory cabinet minister Owen Paterson from suspension.Revelations about outside earnings – and questions about the former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox voting by proxy while offering legal services in the Caribbean – appeared to have badly damaged the Tory party in the polls.A poll by Savanta ComRes for the Daily Mail put Labour six points ahead of the Tories. And a separate YouGov poll found that two-thirds consider the governing party “very sleazy” amid the flurry of negative headlines. More

Labour has opened up a six-point lead over the Conservatives as a row over sleaze continues to damage the government, a poll has suggested.Forty per cent of people would vote for Labour in an election today compared to just 34 per cent for the Tories, according to the latest Savanta ComRes data.The survey, which was conducted on Thursday, signals a pronounced shift from last week, when pollsters gave the Conservatives a clear lead over their political rivals.This is the third time in as many days that different pollsters have indicated the government had lost its lead over Labour.The Savanta ComRes poll, commissioned by the Daily Mail, presents by far the largest swing away from Boris Johnson’s government of the three. Wednesday’s Redfield & Wilton poll put Labour two points ahead and Thursday’s YouGov poll had both parties level on 35 per cent.The Tories’ decline in popularity has been attributed to the public’s concern over sleaze allegations which have engulfed Boris Johnson and his party over the past fortnight. Two thirds of voters now believe the Conservatives are “very sleazy”, according to YouGov.This unflattering view comes after the prime minister attempted last week to let Tory politician Owen Paterson avoid a 30-day suspension for breaching the Commons lobbying rules. The MP resigned his position in the ensuing backlash.The government was then beset by further accusations of sleaze, after it was reported that it gave peerages to nine former Tory treasurers, who had all donated at least £3 million to the party. The SNP matter referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police, but the force confirmed on Friday that it will not investigate the “cash for honours” claims.Tory MPs’ second jobs have also been in the spotlight, particularly Geoffrey Cox, the MP for Torridge and West Devon, who has earned almost £1m working in the British Virgin Islands.It has also emerged that MPs have claimed £1.3 million from the taxpayer to rent flats in the capital while letting out their own London properties. Despite this string of sleaze accusations, Mr Johnson claimed on Friday the stories would not affect the Tory’s performance in two upcoming by-elections, which will be held following the death of Tory MP James Brokenshire and the resignation of scandal-hit Mr Paterson.Culture secretary Nadine Dorries also dismissed a possible downturn in her party’s polling results in a WhatsApp message sent to Conservative colleagues this week.In comments seen by The Times, she rubbished her colleague George Freeman’s assertion that it “will take a lot more than good words to repair” the damage caused to the Conservatives by the current sleaze row.Instead, she pointed out that her party managed to win the 2010 general election despite the 2009 expenses scandal, which she described as a “billion times worse” than the latest debacle.“Last week wasn’t great, but it was a long way from the worst,” she wrote.The recent slump in the Conservative’s polling is still likely to worry some of its MPs. James Sutherland, the recently-elected MP for Bracknell, said: “The left are not in government, they want to be in government, and they’re looking for weakness.“And I think in many ways, what has happened over the last week or so has provided that opportunity for them.” More

The Metropolitan Police will not investigate allegations that Conservative donors were given peerages in return for gifts totalling £3m or more.Scottish National Party MP Pete Wishart wrote to Met commissioner Cressida Dick demanding an inquiry after reports that 15 out of 16 Tory treasurers in the past two decades have been sent to the House of Lords after passing the donation threshold.Mr Wishart accepted the police decision not to investigate, but said that the issue provided further proof that Westminster’s standards system is “broken”.In a letter to the SNP frontbencher, the Met’s special inquiry team said they had considered possible offences under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 and other legislation.But Det Insp Trevor Normoyle wrote: “There is insufficient information upon which to launch a criminal investigation.”Mr Wishart responded: “If it is not illegal to hand out peerages in return for millions of pounds in donations then it should be illegal – and it is absolute proof that Westminster is institutionally corrupt.“The fact that Boris Johnson, and his predecessors, have handed peerages to dozens of millionaire Tory Party donors absolutely stinks and it is an appalling abuse of the system.“The independence of the police is paramount and we respect their decision, which is based on the evidence that is immediately available and the law as it stands.“However, the fact that the Tories could get away with the shameful practice of dishing out peerages to their wealthy donors proves that the Westminster system is broken beyond repair and will never be fixed.“The Tories might have got off the hook for now but the court of public opinion will find them guilty as charged. People in Scotland are looking in horror at what’s going on at Westminster. The sooner Scotland can become an independent country, and shake off this broken system, the better.”The 1925 act was passed following a cash-for-honours scandal three years earlier in which then PM David Lloyd George was found to have been charging £10,000 for a knighthood, £30,000 for baronetcy, and £50,000 and upwards for a peerage.In 2006 a number of people connected to Tony Blair’s Labour administration were arrested in connection with alleged offences under the act. More

A Tory MP has been accused of “cheating” his constituents out of “valuable MP time” after meeting just one businessman at a surgery in his Yorkshire constituency.Earlier this week Nick Fletcher, the MP for Don Valley, denied claims that he had faked a visit to Thorne after posting an indentical selfie to his Facebook page for the third time in 10 months.“Great to spend the afternoon in Thorne. It is good to see it thriving again after a tough year,” Mr Fletcher captioned the post, which appears to have been taken on a quiet, pedestrianised high street in Thorne and uploaded to Facebook on 10 November.In the image, Mr Fletcher, who was first elected to parliament in 2019, is seen standing outside shops. Christmas decorations – including trees – can be seen hanging from the walls of buildings close by.The same photo was uploaded to his page on two other occasions on 21 December last year – after prime minister Boris Johnson tightened Covid lockdown restrictions – and 20 September this year, when he participated in several parliamentary votes.When approached by The Independent for comment about the most recent posting of the picture, Mr Fletcher said: “Having spent the afternoon walking round Thorne with a local businessman and calling at a local café for a coffee, I forgot to take a photo.”So, on my next visit, I’ll make sure to take a new photo to promote this great town in #DonValley!”Councillor Craig Ellis, the Labour mayor of Thorne and Moorends, claimed that he had seen “no proof” or “advertising” that a constituency surgery took place on 10 November.“Although posting an old photo three times is not crime of the century, it’s Mr Fletcher’s actions after the event that are frustrating,” he added.“For him to meet with just one local business owner is morally and ethically wrong. In my eyes, every business owner in Thorne deserves to be listened to – not to mention the wider community. We feel let down and he should be held accountable for his actions.”When asked by The Independent for further comment, a spokesperson for Mr Fletcher said that he held a constituency surgery in Thorne for one businessman.After he posted the selfie on his Facebook page for the third time earlier this week, locals mocked the red wall MP. “When you like a selfie so much you’ve used the same picture three times…” one said in the comments.“How come Xmas trees are up when not putting them up till after 12th?” another wrote. Mr Fletcher was elected to his seat at the December 2019 election, when he ousted Labour incumbent and former minister Caroline Flint.He won 43.2 per cent (19,609) of the vote compared with Ms Flint’s 35.2 per cent (15,979).According to his website, Mr Fletcher has spent his entire life living and working in the Doncaster area and has been running his business there for 25 years. More

A union is calling for Boris Johnson’s independent adviser on ministerial interests to step down from his role as chair of a top London university over alleged undeclared conflicts of interest.The University and College Union (UCU) is scrutinising the role of Christopher Geidt, chair of King’s College London (KCL) council.The union is calling for KCL to suspend and investigate him over his role as chair of the international relations and corporate responsibility board at investment firm Schroders, and an advisory role at weapons firm BAE Systems from 2016 until April this year.UCU has also called for clarity over Lord Geidt’s trip to Oman to sit on the Privy Council of former dictator Sultan Qaboos bin Said.According to website Declassified UK, Mr Geidt made the trips in 2018 and 2019 to advise the sultan, who died last year, on economy, security, and foreign policy while sitting as a crossbench life peer in the House of Lords – and never declared his role to Parliament.The Cabinet Office suggested to Declassified that Lord Geidt’s visits to Oman were unconnected with his membership of the Lords – but the website said that the government department did not reveal in what capacity he had made the trips.A photo in former foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan’s memoirs In the Thick of It: The Private Diaries of a Minister shows he was on an Oman with Lord Geidt, Bank of England ex-governor Lord Mervyn King, then MI6 head Alex Younger, air chief marshal Sir Stuart Peach, and UK national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill.UCU said Mr Geidt needs to explain his visits in light of “Oman state organs [having] multiple partnerships with the college”.KCL’s website shows that a number of its departments have links to Oman’s government in areas relating to medical care and dentistry.Lord Geidt, a former private secretary to the Queen, was appointed as Mr Johnson’s independent adviser in April. He had then cleared the PM of breaking any rules over the £200,000 refurbishment of 11 Downing Street via a loan from a Tory donor.In a letter seen by The Guardian, the UCU, which represents about 1,500 academic and staff members, called on the university to ask Mr Geidt to step aside pending an investigation into whether his interests were properly checked.The UCU said it could be considered a potential conflict that he was an adviser to BAE Systems at the same time as the KCL endowment fund was invested in the defence company through an intermediary fund.KCL’s interest in BAE Systems, Mr Geidt’s role as paid chair of a board at Schroders, and KCL’s endowment fund being invested in Schroders funds were only revealed though a freedom of information request, the Guardian reported.The UCU’s letter said: “It is vital that a time of major crisis in higher education, with threats to funding cuts, a proposed 25% cut to the staff pension, the astronomical rise in student tuition fees, and an increasing divide between management and the people who make our university, that good governance is not only done in deed, but seen and sincere. “We cannot see a prudent course of action except to suspend Geidt from his post pending a full, independent review.”A KCL spokesperson told The Independent: “These claims of conflicts of interest are simply untrue, as we have robust processes to ensure that investment management decisions are made entirely independently. “Lord Geidt has no involvement with investment management decisions, and no influence over investment policy and strategy. “The university does not have any investments in BAE Systems. As part of our policy all members of Council, including the Chairman, disclose their interests every year.“We strongly reject the unfounded allegations that Lord Geidt has used his personal position at King’s for his own benefit. Lord Geidt provides invaluable service to King’s and we have absolute confidence in his continuing stewardship.”A spokesperson had told The Guardian that it is “aware of the open letter” from UCU and that it is “following our standard procedures in response.”The UCU previously passed a motion of no confidence in Lord Geidt – 46 votes to three – at a meeting in April. More

The world’s hopes of avoiding catastrophic climate change were hanging in the balance tonight, as the deadline for a global deal passed without agreement and Boris Johnson warned: “We risk blowing it.”The two-week United Nations Cop26 summit in Glasgow, which had been due to conclude at 6pm on Friday, was extended as negotiators from 197 countries talked into the night in the hope of securing agreement, with an announcement now expected on Saturday afternoon.The prime minister urged his counterparts in countries around the world to show “conviction and courage” by giving their negotiating teams leeway to make the compromises needed to keep the world on track for limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.He made it clear that there was no prospect of improving on a draft text tabled early on Friday, which was criticised by environmental campaigners for being too weak on issues like fossil fuel energy and financial assistance for poorer countries and vulnerable low-lying nations.However there was widespread recognition of progress made in the proposed Glasgow deal, including action on methane, increased clarity on plans to step up emission reduction and an expression of “deep regret” from the rich world on missing targets for financial assistance to the most vulnerable.Cop26 president Alok Sharma said revised documents for the agreements would be issued early on Saturday and would then be debated, with the summit expected to wrap up in the afternoon.Boris Johnson believes “an ambitious outcome is in sight” at Cop26, according to a readout of his call with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on Friday evening.A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “They discussed progress in the ongoing Cop26 negotiations in Glasgow and agreed that an ambitious outcome is in sight.”The leaders committed to work together to help resolve outstanding issues in the talks and reach an agreement at Cop26 that works for all countries.”As horse-trading entered its final stages, major carbon producers and emitters like Saudi Arabia and China were resisting the inclusion of an explicit pledge on ending fossil fuel dependency, which would be the first of its kind in a UN climate deal.The provision was watered down in Friday’s draft, so that an earlier call to phase out coal and end fossil fuel subsidies became a demand to accelerate “the phase-out of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels”.Activists warned that this would allow polluting countries to carry on pouring money into carbon energy sources, giving themselves cover by promising carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology which has so far proved able to absorb only a fraction of one per cent of emissions.The Global Witness campaign said the “false promise” of CCS “should not be used as an excuse to keep the coal industry alive”. And US climate envoy John Kerry said continued subsidies for fossil fuel energy production were “the definition of insanity”.While the world struggled to deliver the $100bn promised in 2009 to help poorer countries cut emissions and adapt to the extreme weather caused by warmer temperatures, some $2.5 trillion has gone into subsidies for fossil fuels over the last five or six years, said Mr Kerry.“We’re allowing to feed the very problem we’re here to try to cure,” he told the conference. “It doesn’t make sense.”But UK officials were fearful that even this softened wording on fossil fuels may not survive into the final text, as polluting countries seek to avoid direction on how they should achieve the emission reductions they have promised.Beijing and Riyadh were also resisting new requirements on transparency around the scale of emissions and the measures being taken to rein them in.And there were continued differences over the implementation of the final element of the 2015 Paris Accord still to be formally signed off – the so-called Article 6 mechanism for carbon trading, which has the potential to blow up a deal in Glasgow.China indicated it was willing to support an agreement, but said the latest draft lacked “specific and detailed arrangements” on how the rich world will deliver funding for adaptation and mitigation measures.The EU and US were resisting the creation of a new “Glasgow funding facility” to allow African countries and island states to access swift sources of cash to deal with loss and damage from climate-driven disasters like hurricanes.Analysts voiced concern that a failure to shift on finance could scupper an agreement altogether, with the G77 coalition of developing countries potentially resorting to filibustering to talk the summit out over the weekend.The UK presidency was holding out hope for a formal request in the final agreement for countries to come back next year at the Cop27 conference in Egypt with enhanced pledges on carbon emissions. This would mark a significant step up in the so-called “ratchet” agreed at Paris, which required new pledges only every five years, and reflects growing concern that action is not coming fast enough in what has been called “the crucial decade” to 2030.Speaking from London as negotiations entered their vital final stage, Mr Johnson said: “What everybody needs to do now is recognise that we really are in the final furlong, and it’s in the final furlong where the horses change places.“What needs to happen now is that people need to understand that the deal that’s on the table – the so-called cover decision – that is the text.“We either find a way of agreeing it or I’m afraid we risk blowing it. That’s the reality.”Mr Johnson said he had been telling fellow leaders in phone calls: “This is the moment – tell your negotiating team how important this is. Tell them to have the conviction and the courage to come together and agree that cover decision because people are watching this around the world. It’s a moment of massive choice for the world.”He acknowledged that it had never been possible to guarantee a maximum of 1.5C warming at Glasgow, but insisted that the deal on the table provided a roadmap to “enable us to go forward and start to remove the threat of anthropogenic climate change”.Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said the world wold have to “resit its climate exam” next year in Egypt.The likely deal in Glasgow “will represent modest progress, but on climate modest progress isn’t enough”, he said.“We know what the aim was, which was to halve global emissions this decade,” said Mr Miliband. “We weren’t going to get all the way there, but we’ve made, I’m afraid, pretty glacial progress.”Speaking on behalf of the EU, European Commission vice president Frans Timmerman said he feared his one-year-old grandson will have to “fight other human beings for water and food” if the world fails to properly tackle the climate emergency.“It’s quite a thought to understand that – if we succeed – he’ll be living in a world that’s liveable, he’ll be living in an economy that is clean with everything at peace with his environment,” Mr Timmermans told delegates.“If we fail – and I mean fail now, in the next couple of years – he will fight with other human beings for water and food.“That’s the stark reality we face.“So, 1.5C is about avoiding a future for our children and grandchildren that is unliveable.” More

Boris Johnson has warned “storm clouds” of Covid infections are gathering over parts of Europe as many countries prepare to reintroduce restrictions ahead of Christmas.The prime minister said he was concerned about the wave of cases across central and eastern Europe, and the threat of the virus on the UK’s promising progress.While the country still has a higher seven-day rate of new reported cases than others, the number is continuing to decrease – from 362.2 cases per 100,000 people down from 412.1 in the most recent week.Mr Johnson urged people to continue to come forward for their Covid vaccinations and booster jabs, to avoid another wave of infections as seen in other European countries.Speaking on a visit to Sidcup, he said: “The UK has built in a huge amount of protection, thanks to the vaccine rollout and people’s amazing willingness to come forward and get jabbed.”We have got a situation now where there is no question that there is a wave of infection coming across Eastern Europe, Central Europe, you are seeing numbers rise in Germany now very steeply and I am concerned about the disease, the Delta variant being passed between those who have been vaccinated, indeed those who have been double vaccinated.He continued: “What I’m saying is that I’m seeing the storm clouds gathering over parts of the European continent.”And I’ve got to be absolutely frank with people, we’ve been here before, and we remember what happens when a wave starts rolling in.”His comments came as the Dutch governmen announced a return to partial lockdown from Saturday, with shops and restaurants ordered and shops to close early and fans barred from large sporting events in a bid to stem rising Covid cases.Caretaker PM Mark Rutte said restrictions that the Dutch people had thought had ended for good would be in place for three weeks.New data from the Office for National Statistics suggests infection levels are continuing to fall across the UK.The figures show that about one in 60 people in private households in England had Covid in the week to November 6, down from one in 50 the previous week.This number is around one in 45 people in Wales, down from one in 40, and one in 75 people in Northern Ireland, down from one in 65.In Scotland it is one in 85, down from one in 80 the previous week. More