Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson doesn’t need to attend an emergency debate in the Commons on standards and sleaze and can follow proceedings on television from his office, a cabinet minister has said.It comes after Sir Keir Starmer insisted that a no-show by the prime minister at the parliamentary debate on Monday would demonstrate that he was “either too arrogant or too cowardly to take responsibility” for the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal.Just last week the government was forced into a humiliating U-turn over the decision to block Mr Paterson’s 30-day suspension with plans to create a Conservative-dominated committee to rewrite sleaze rules MPs have to abide by.Asked whether Mr Johnson will be attending the debate, the international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told Sky News: “I’m afraid I don’t know that.“These sorts of debates are usually led and fronted by the ministers — I imagine, but I’m afraid I don’t know, that Jacob Rees-Mogg and the [Commons] leader’s team will be probably be covering.”Quizzed on whether Mr Johnson should be attending, she replied: “My opinion would be that no he shouldn’t be there.“He will no doubt — as we all do — have the House of Commons on in his office as he’s dealing with many, many other issues that only a prime minister that can deal with.“He will get a briefing of the key issues raised by colleagues from across the House later on, I believe that the Leader and other ministers will be well placed to take the despatch box this afternoon.”On the contentious issue of MPs’ second jobs and amid reports the Commons standard committee is considering banning politicians from having consultancy roles, Ms Trevelyan said: “This has been an issue that has kicked around for many years.”“My view is that most of who do for instance, those who doctors and nurses who continue to maintain their professional credentials and indeed serve in their original profession, I think the question of MPs holding jobs that involve lobbying perhaps should be looked at again.“But I don’t think we should have the removal of the ability to maintain or have a second job because it brings a richness to our role as members of parliament as well the work we do day-to-day in our constituencies.”Ms Trevelyan also suggested that people were elevated to the House of Lords “for all sorts of reasons” amid allegations of access to the upper chamber for Conservative party donors.A joint report by The Sunday Times and Open Democracy claimed that wealth benefactors “appear to be guaranteed a peerage if they take on the temporary role as the party treasurer and increase their own donations beyond £3 million”.On Sunday, the SNP MP Pete Wishart, claimed the honours system had been “abused” by the Conservatives, adding: “The Metropolitan Police should launch a fresh cash for honours investigation”.But Ms Trevelyan defended the peerages on Sky News, saying the party wanted a “rich mix” of people in the House of Lords.She said: “I don’t think that someone who happens to have been an extremely good businessman and has made a great deal of money through business activity – usually also an enormous amount of philanthropy as well, those are the sorts of people who are across our country, amazing people of all political colours – that they should be barred from going to the House of Lords because they have made a lot of money, employed many, many thousands of people, run incredible businesses at their own risk, that that somehow is a bar, that’s not the case.“Those who choose to put themselves forward in political environments, as well as their business and philanthropic ones, will go through the process just like anyone else and we want a rich mix in the House of Lords of voices with experience of all the sectors of our country.” More

The government is pledging new funding totalling £290 million, largely to help countries across Asia and the Pacific better prepare for extreme weather and other potential changes.Diplomats and negotiators are hoping to raise further funding pledges from other countries to add to the billions already raised from states including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the US.Ministers from various countries are to focus on the issue on Monday with a dedicated “climate adaptation loss and damage day”.Governments including Bangladesh, the Maldives and the Netherlands – which are expected to be among those most severely impacted by climate change as sea levels rise – are expected to attend the meeting. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, UK International champion on adaptation and resilience for the COP26 presidency, said: “We must act now to stop climate change from pushing more people into poverty. We know that climate impacts disproportionately affect those already most vulnerable.“We are aiming for significant change that will ultimately contribute to sustainable development and a climate-resilient future for all, with no one left behind.” More

Ministers were advised by a watchdog to remove some interview panellists for top jobs at the BBC and the British Film Institute (BFI) because they were “not sufficiently independent.”The commissioner for public appointments also stepped in to change the panel recruiting a chair for the new university regulator, Office for Students.The interventions were revealed in a Freedom of Information request by The Guardian.Peter Riddell, whose term as commisioner ended last month, advised ministers that being “sufficiently independent” means to “not be politically active, to be independent of the department and of the body concerned, and to be familiar with senior recruitment and the public appointments principles”.Ministers followed his advice and appointed panellists that the watchdog judged appropriate.There are no rules preventing ministers from appointing political donors or allies to roles leading public bodies, but the panels selecting candidates for the positions have to include a non-political senior independent panel member (SIPM).A panel recommending the new chair of the BBC included Catherine Baxendale, who was shortlisted to be a Tory parliamentary candidate in 2017 and donated £50,000 to the party when David Cameron was PM.Richard Sharp – a former adviser to chancellor Rishi Sunak, who has donated more than £400,000 to the Tories – was eventually appointed to the role.Conservative peer and donor James Wharton, a former Tory MP, was selected to oversee the Office for Students (OfS).Mr Riddell told The Guardian that the original panel of five assembled by the Department for Education for the OfS job included three that had “clear” links to the Conservative Party and “no one with recent higher education student experience.”The eventual panel included Theresa May’s ex-chief of staff Nick Timothy, former Tory MP Eric Ollerenshaw, and Tory peer Laura Wyld. Vue cinemas founder Tim Richards, who has not declared any work or donations for a political party, was selected to lead the BFI.A government spokesperson told The Independent: “The commissioner found no breaches of the code in the cases highlighted; he was properly consulted by ministers as required. “Public appointments are made in line with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. There is no automatic presumption of reappointment and ministers may decide to make a reappointment, or launch a campaign to attract fresh talent.” More

Keir Starmer has urged Boris Johnson to apologise to the country for his handling of the corruption scandal engulfing the government.The Labour leader said a no-show by the prime minister at a parliamentary debate on Monday would demonstrate that he was “either too arrogant or too cowardly to take responsibility” for the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal which saw the government attempt to scrap a standards watchdog to support the MP.And other opposition parties on Sunday night pushed for a sleaze inquiry to be set up.Labour took to the airwaves on Sunday hunting for resignations – with shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire demanding senior Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg does so, and then urging Mr Johnson himself to “consider his position”.“If I was [Rees-Mogg], I’d be considering my position. That’s what I think he should do today. I think his position is untenable,” she told Sky News, adding that the prime minister should also “consider his position this weekend”.But the opposition is worried Mr Johnson will try to deflect blame for the episode – which ended up a calamitous U-turn late last week – by sending an underling to take his spot in parliament on Monday.Speaking on the eve of the parliamentary showdown, Sir Keir told reporters: “Boris Johnson needs to attend this debate, answer for his mistakes, apologise to the country and take action to undo the damage he has done.“The country is yet to hear a word of contrition over his attempts to create one rule for him and his friends and another for everyone else. He must now come to the House and say sorry. “And he needs to go beyond just words. Today, the prime minister must begin to clean out the filthy Augean stable he has created.”Sir Keir demanded that Boris Johnson confirm he would not nominate Owen Paterson for a peerage, and branded the prime minister’s approach to party discipline “disgraceful”. The Labour leader suggested that Mr Johnson “believes there should be one rule for him and another for everyone else – and that the Tories are concerned with their own interests, not those of the country”.Speaking earlier in the day, Sir Keir said that Mr Johnson could be starting fights with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol and fishing rights to distract from sleaze scandals in Westminster. “I am afraid that I can’t help think that the prime minister is constantly trying to pick a fight on things like this so he hopes people don’t look elsewhere in the forest, which are things like the Owen Paterson affairs,” he told the BBC.Ahead of the debate Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain, who secured the emergency debate, said last week’s events were “just the latest example of political cronyism and corruption” – citing “dodgy” Covid contracts and a luxury villa holiday paid for by a Tory donor which was later cleared by the independent commissioner for standards.She added: “We need an independent public inquiry, with the powers and resources to get to the bottom of this Conservative sleaze scandal.”Under the proposed terms of the inquiry, witnesses would be compelled to provide evidence and the investigating body would be able to secure written documents.Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is reportedly planning to launch a review of the Commons’ standards procedures in the wake of the scandal – though he is expected to wait until after Monday’s three-hour debate.MPs were deluged with angry correspondence after the Tories tried to abolish an independent watchdog to let Mr Paterson off the hook for a Commons suspension. Mr Paterson, who ended the affair by resigning, had taken tens of thousands of pounds in cash from two companies he was lobbying for.The episode was the latest in a string of scandals relating to lobbying, MPs’ pay, and political donations in recent months – including revelations that former prime minister David Cameron had personally lobbied chancellor Rishi Sunak on behalf of now-collapsed bank Greensill Capital. More

The EU could plunge Britain into a no-deal Brexit if Boris Johnson ditches his agreement on Northern Ireland, the Irish government has warned.Speaking on Sunday, foreign minister Simon Coveney said that any move to trigger Article 16 and suspend the protocol would have “serious” consequences.Mr Coveney said continuation of the free trade agreement between the UK and EU was “contingent on” the Northern Ireland deal continuing to operate.Suspending the free trade agreement would see British businesses hit with new tariffs and even worse terms than they enjoy now outside the single market. “I believe that if the British government essentially refuses to implement the protocol, even with the extraordinary flexibilities that are now on offer, and instead looks to set it aside then I think the EU will respond in a very serious way to that,” Mr Coveney told broadcaster RTE.The minister added: “It means that the Trade and Cooperation Agreement that was agreed between the British government and the EU was contingent on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, which includes the protocol.“One is contingent on the other. So if one is being set aside, there is a danger that the other will also be set aside by the EU.”The Irish foreign minister said the consequences would not include a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which he said the EU would not reintroduce. Ireland is not the only country to issue the warning. Belgium’s deputy prime minister Vincent Van Peteghem made similar comments regarding the free trade agreement in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Friday.Speaking to the same broadcaster Mr Coveney said triggering the protocol would be “a significant act that would damage relationships between Britain and Ireland”.Giving his assessment of the situation, he added: “I think all the evidence now suggests that the British government are laying the foundations to trigger Article 16.”The interventions come after Lord Frost, the UK’s Brexit negotiator, said the drastic course of action was “very much on the table and has been since July”.The protocol was designed to stop a hard border from appearing between Northern Ireland and the Republic, but also puts controls on trade between Britain and the EU.The UK has taken issue with the controls it signed up to and says it wants the agreement to be changed. The EU has presented proposals, but the UK says they do not go far enough.Some speculative reports suggest Mr Johnson wants to trigger Article 16 – the agreed mechanism to suspend it – after the Cop26 climate summit is over and Britain is no longer in the spotlight.On Saturday former Tory MP John Major said it would be “colossally stupid” to trigger Article 16, branding the approach “absurd”.And on Sunday Labour leader Keir Starmer suggested that Boris Johnson was “constantly trying to pick a fight on things like this so he hopes people don’t look elsewhere” – such as sleaze scandals.Sir Keir would not be explicitly drawn on whether his party would oppose the government in triggering Article 16 – a mechanism built into the Northern Ireland protocol that effectively suspends the deal. There is not expected to be a vote in parliament on the matter.But he said: “I don’t think that triggering Article 16 will resolve the dispute in relation to the Protocol in Northern Ireland. That isn’t in the interests of the communities in Northern Ireland or businesses in Northern Ireland. What is in their interests is resolving the issues.“Because of the way the Protocol was drafted, because of what the prime minister signed, it is perfectly true that there are checks from Great Britain to Northern Ireland – we want to reduce those.”The Labour leader added: “What I am saying is don’t rip up the protocol because that has that very important central purpose, which is to protect the no border in Northern Ireland.”Sir Keir said that as an alternative he would like to see “both sides sitting down and resolving this”. More talks between Lord Frost and his EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic are scheduled for next week.The Labour leader, who was previously seen as a major supporter of a second referendum, said repeatedly throughout the interview that he wanted to “make Brexit work” – a slogan he used in his recent party conference speech. More

Cabinet minister declines to defend colleague over attack on standards commissionerBoris Johnson is facing a civil service probe into claims his government threatened to strip funds from his MPs’ constituencies if they did not toe the line.Backbenchers were allegedly told by Conservative whips the people they represented would lose out if they did not back the government. The Liberal Democrats have demanded Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, investigate.It comes after a difficult week for the PM, who was forced into a screeching U-turn on plans to rip up the Commons standards regime.His government had whipped MPs to back the scheme and also to put the suspension of Owen Paterson on the back burner, but realised in less than 24 hours it would be unable to force through its plans amid widespread backlash.Some 100 Tories rebelled on the vote amid what one called “genuine rage” at the treatment of parliament.Jacob Rees-Mogg, who as leader of the House was the face of the attempted reform, is now facing calls to resign. His position is “untenable”, claimed Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire on Sunday.Show latest update

1636295915EU would suspend Brexit deal if UK suspends NI protocol, says CoveneyIreland’s foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney has said a UK move to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland protocol could see the EU doing likewise with the Brexit trade deal.Mr Coveney warned the EU would respond in a “very serious way” if the UK triggers Article 16 of the protocol to suspend Irish Sea trading arrangements.He insisted the EU was in “solutions mode” and could go a “little further” in terms of trying to streamline checks required on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.However, he warned there was a limit to the EU’s flexibility and criticised the UK government for adopting a tactic of asking for a lot while offering nothing in return.”I believe that if the British government essentially refuses to implement the protocol, even with the extraordinary flexibilities that are now on offer, and instead looks to set it aside then I think the EU will respond in a very serious way to that,” he told RTE Radio One.He said that did not mean the introduction of a hard border on the island of Ireland.The minister added: “It means that the trade and co-operation agreement that was agreed between the British government and the EU was contingent on the implementation of the withdrawal agreement, which includes the protocol.”One is contingent on the other. So if one is being set aside, there is a danger that the other will also be set aside by the EU.”Jon Sharman7 November 2021 14:381636295315Eustice ‘storm in a teacup’ comments unhelpful, says Conservative MPGeorge Eustice’s decision to dismiss the row over parliamentary standards as a “storm in a teacup” was unhelpful, a Conservative MP has said.The environment secretary took to the airwaves this morning to try to bat aside criticism of the government. He claimed the widespread anger about how the government tried to put Owen Paterson’s lobbying case on the back burner at the same time as trying to overhaul the standards regime was merely a scuffle inside the Westminster bubble.However, Robert Largan told Times Radio today “it’s not very helpful” to be as dismissive as that.He said: “When you get things wrong, you have to acknowledge them. And be honest about it.”Jon Sharman7 November 2021 14:281636294721Exclusive: UK’s Brexit losses more than 178 times bigger than trade deal gainsAll of Boris Johnson’s new post-Brexit trade deals put together will have an economic benefit of just £3 to £7 per person over the next 15 years, according to the government’s own figures.The tiny economic boost – amounting to just 0.01 to 0.02 per cent of GDP, and less than 50p per person a year – is dwarfed by the economic hit from leaving the EU, which the government estimates at 4 per cent of GDP over the same period, writes Jon Stone.Jon Sharman7 November 2021 14:181636293455Government must locate its ‘moral compass’, says senior Conservative MPSenior Tory Tobias Ellwood said the government needed to find its “moral compass”.The Commons defence ommittee chairman told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend that “there is genuine anger amongst the ranks at the moment”.”We should not deny that this was a dark week for British democracy,” he said.He warned the latest row followed previous controversies including the prorogation of parliament at the height of the Brexit rows and suggested Boris Johnson needed to think about how he would be remembered.”There is a pattern of behaviour and we need to recognise that eventually that starts to stick,” Mr Ellwood warned.”He needs to think about his legacy and what it’s going to be. I think we have lost our way and we need to find our moral compass and get back to what the British people want us to do – good policy, good governance, leadership, statecraft.”That’s what is needed at the moment rather than manipulating the system for our own survival.”Jon Sharman7 November 2021 13:571636292292Starmer responds after Brian Cox explains his move away from LabourSuccession star Brian Cox has explained why he stopped voting for Labour, having voiced their campaign broadcasts until as recently as 2007, saying Scotland “has always been sidelined”.Asked why his politics has changed, the Dundee-born actor and independence supporter told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “We really haven’t got enough time, it is a long story, and it comes really down to what I thought was a failure of social democracy. Also the Iraq war, that affected me, Blair’s hubris affected me. And I saw the party going in a certain direction and I was really very concerned.”Cox insisted he was a “socialist” saying he agreed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on “many things”, and said he was “devastated” by Labour’s losses in the north of England in the 2019 general election.“But I have to put my country first because I looked at what has happened to my country and I am disgusted,” he added. “And the penny only dropped later because I was young, I was ambitious, I wasn’t thinking about politics.”Appearing on the same programme, Sir Keir Starmer responded: “It is certainly true we have to do a lot of work in Scotland.”The Labour leader ruled out any deals with the SNP to help win power at Westminster, but added: “The most important thing is actually respect, and listening to Scotland has to be a central part of this.”Andy Gregory7 November 2021 13:381636291296Keir Starmer appears to abandon pledge to abolish House of LordsKeir Starmer has refused to recommit to another one of his 10 leadership election pledges – this time on his vow to abolish the House of Lords.Asked on Sunday, in light of revelations that Tory donors are habitually being granted peerages, whether he stood by the promise made in 2019 the Labour leader would only say the institution “needs change”.Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has the details here:Andy Gregory7 November 2021 13:211636290407Boris Johnson’s poll rating sinks to record low as nearly half of UK thinks PM is ‘corrupt’Boris Johnson’s approval ratings have hit a record low of -20 after a four-point slump, according to an Opinium poll which found nearly half of UK voters believe the prime minister and his party to be “corrupt” in the wake of the paid lobbying scandal.In its first poll conducted after Owen Paterson’s resignation on Thursday, Opinium found the Tories’ lead over Labour had narrowed to just one percentage point, dropping by three points to a rating of 37 per cent.While Sir Keir Starmer’s approval ratings improved by a mere point, sitting at -9, the pollsters reported finding a “substantial narrowing” in public opinion over the past week on the nation’s preferred choice for who should occupy No 10. You can read the full story here:Andy Gregory7 November 2021 13:061636289627Cop26: Boris Johnson urges nations to make ‘bold compromises and ambitious commitments’ in final summit weekBoris Johnson has urged world leaders to make “bold compromises and ambitious commitments” as the Cop26 climate crisis summit enters its final week, writes Jon Stone.In an intervention marking the half-way point of the meeting, the prime minister warned that his colleagues have “one week left to deliver for the world”.A week ago around 120 leaders and theirs negotiators, officials and ministers gathered in Glasgow with the stated aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C.Jon Sharman7 November 2021 12:531636288487Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald has warned the UK government that suspending parts of the Northern Ireland protocol could endanger the wider Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU.Ms McDonald was referencing the potential for the EU to take retaliatory action if the UK follows through with its threat to trigger the suspension mechanism – Article 16 – in the post-Brexit arrangements for Irish Sea trade.On the prospect of the UK triggering Article 16, Ms McDonald told BBC NI’s Sunday Politics: “It would demonstrate just again colossal bad faith and demonstrate again that Ireland, the north of Ireland in particular, is collateral damage in the Tory Brexit as they play games and play a game of chicken with the European institutions.”I would also say that if the British government imagine that they hold all of the cards they are wrong and they’re playing a very, very dangerous game, up to and including perhaps jeopardising the entire withdrawal agreement.”Ms McDonald said the EU proposals for addressing issues with the protocol had gone further than many had anticipated.”But, you know, everything has its elastic limit,” she added.”The reality now is the ball is at the foot of Boris Johnson and his Government, and they need to act in good faith and they need to adopt a position that is serious and that has a long term view.”If they don’t, well, then the consequences, I think, will be very grave indeed.”Jon Sharman7 November 2021 12:341636287345Opinion: We need a bold new type of NHS – the National Housing ServiceAt some point, we are going to have to admit that the British dream has failed, writes Jordan Tyldesley.If the American dream is about the equality of opportunity based on individual goals, its British equivalent is our addiction to home ownership and the way in which aspiration has become synonymous with bricks-and-mortar.Jon Sharman7 November 2021 12:15 More

All of Boris Johnson’s new post-Brexit trade deals put together will have an economic benefit of just £3 to £7 per person over the next 15 years, according to the government’s own figures.The tiny economic boost – amounting to just 0.01 to 0.02 per cent of GDP, and less than 50p per person a year – is dwarfed by the economic hit from leaving the EU, which the government estimates at 4 per cent of GDP over the same period.According to analysis commissioned by The Independent from top academics at the University of Sussex UK Trade Policy Observatory, the much-trumpeted free trade agreements (FTAs) “barely scratch the surface of the UK’s challenge to make up the GDP lost by leaving the EU”.Mr Johnson has boasted of the deals creating a “new dawn” and representing “global Britain at its best” – but just two of the dozens announced since the UK left the EU are expected to have any measurable economic impact at all.Official estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility point to a Brexit loss of more than £1,250 per person over the coming years – more than 178 times the most optimistic prediction for the benefits from the trade deals.The analysis notes that the vast majority of FTAs announced by the government – such as those with South Korea, Singapore, or Vietnam – are simply attempts to replace treaties that those countries have with the EU, which Britain previously enjoyed as a member.“They add nothing to UK trade, and, because they are not perfect replicas, actually harm it very slightly,” wrote top trade economist Professor L Alan Winters, who conducted the analysis with Guillermo Larbalestier, the centre’s research officer.Labour seized on the findings and said the government had “gambled” on Britain’s prosperity and lost. The opposition called for Mr Johnson’s barebones Brexit trade deal with the EU to be improved so that the UK would “stop the haemorrhaging of our trade with Europe”.A source at the Department for International Trade claimed the analysis was based on “old, static” figures – though most of the data was released just last summer as part of the government’s strategic case for the agreements. “Our Global Trade Outlook – published in September – shows the centre of gravity on global trade is moving away from Europe and towards fast-growing markets in Asia-Pacific,” a spokesperson for the Department for International Trade said of the findings.“Our strategy is latching the UK economy to these markets of tomorrow, and seizing the huge economic opportunities as an agile, independent trading nation.”But according to the analysis prepared for The Independent, even a new agreement with Japan, which the UK government has presented as a significant win that goes beyond what was agreed with the EU, is “modelled extremely closely on the EU-Japan agreement, with a few small differences”.In that case, the benefits of a minor extension on digital trade are expected to be overshadowed by a technical change to customs rules, which will put some UK exporters at a disadvantage compared to their EU counterparts.Taking the EU’s own deal with Japan into account, the academics wrote: “Relative to having no agreement, the government estimated that [the Japan agreement] would raise UK GDP by £1.5bn (0.07 per cent, or £22 per head), but relative to what the UK would have had without Brexit the gains will be negligible or negative.”Only in the case of the deals in principle with Australia and New Zealand is there expected to be any new economic benefit – but these countries represent such a small part of UK trade that they have little effect. The analysis also notes that the agreements have not yet been signed or ratified and are so far just “agreements in principle”.The DIT source added that the government wanted another “wave of ambitious trade deals with major economies like India, Canada, Mexico and the Gulf” – though these are yet to materialise. The government has in recent months stopped claiming it is close to a trade deal with the US – previously the biggest prize – after Donald Trump’s election defeat dashed any hope of it happening soon.But the UK Trade Policy Observatory academics dismissed the idea that trade agreements could ever conceivably counteract the economic damage of Brexit.“Non-EU partners account for about half of UK total trade and so, to counteract the OBR’s 4 per cent loss from Brexit, would require agreements with each and every one of them to induce trade changes that create a 4 per cent increment to UK GDP. That is nowhere in sight in the numbers in the table,” they wrote.“The sad answer is that the government is happy to accept, on our behalf, the economic losses from Brexit in return for political benefits (sovereignty), and trade agreements with other countries are merely making the best of a bad job from an economic perspective.”Emily Thornberry, the shadow international trade secretary, told The Independent: “The government’s great economic gamble has been that we could make up for the losses created by their botched Brexit deal by increasing our trade with the rest of the world.“But what this analysis shows is that – even according to the government’s own figures – that gamble was always doomed to fail.“It is time for a change of course. The government cannot continue ploughing on with a policy that isn’t working; we need action instead to stop the haemorrhaging of our trade with Europe, and fix the holes in the Brexit deal.” More

Keir Starmer has refused to recommit to his leadership election pledge to abolish the House of Lords, the latest in a string of policy U-turns.Asked on Sunday whether he stood by the promise made in 2019 the Labour leader would only say the institution “needs change”.During the 2019 Labour leadership campaign Sir Keir made ten pledges – including a commitment to “abolish the House of Lords” and “replace it with an elected chamber of regions and nations”.He was asked about the policy on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show in light of revelations that Tory donors are habitually being given seats in the body.”We certainly need change in the House of Lords. What I’ve done, Andrew, is I’ve set up a commission to look at the future of the UK, including the institutions such as the House of Lords. Gordon Brown is leading that and I’ll look at it,” he said.Asked whether he had abandoned the promise to abolish the chamber, he said: “I’ve said we need to change the House of Lords. I stand by that. I’ve asked Gordon Brown to look into exactly what those changes should be.”Most peers in the Lords are appointed by the government or opposition, with some there because they have a hereditary title dating back to the feudal era.The upper house gets to vote on all government legislation, which it can delay and revise. The Lords pledge is not the first from the leadership election to be abandoned by Sir Keir. To win the contest the former shadow Brexit secretary laid out a left-wing platform similar to the party’s 2017 manifesto – including commitments to taking utilities into public ownership, tax increases for the highest earners and corporations, and free movement with the EU.But these pledges have gradually been jettisoned by Sir Keir, who apparently does not consider the promises binding on his leadership now in office.Asked on the same programme whether he had ditched a Labour manifesto promise of banning MPs from holding second jobs, Sir Keir said he agreed with the “principle” of the plan but avoided saying he still endorsed it. More