Markus Andrews

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the outcome of the Cop26 climate summit will be “life or death for millions of people” living in countries most effected by extreme weather.Justin Welby said the talks, due to begin in Glasgow on Sunday, are “emergency surgery” for the world.The former oil executive, who in 1987 resigned from the fossil fuel industry after 11 years to train for Anglican priesthood, added that leaders must deliver for “the whole human family”.Dr Welby is due to visit the summit on Monday. Ahead of his visit, he warned that radical action is needed but said there is still time to “save our world from the worst of the catastrophe”.He said: “The Cop26 climate talks are emergency surgery for our world and its people.“The outcome will be life or death for millions of people. That’s how seriously we must take this moment.“The eyes of the world are on Glasgow: leaders must deliver for the whole human family. “We can, and must, choose life, so that our children may live.“If these talks do not deliver, we face a dark, disturbing future – but there is still time, just, to save our world from the worst of the catastrophe.“This is a chance to start living in a way that is healthier, kinder, and better for everyone.”The Church of England has divested from coal companies and says it will pull investment by 2023 from oil and gas firms that are not on a pathway to zero emissions.It has also led the way on an initiative now supported by investors with funds worth about £30 trillion to assess companies’ climate performance.Dr Welby said he hopes the plight of communities most affected by climate change will be highlighted at Cop26.“It is their voices that I hope are heard, along with those of everyone on the burning front lines of climate injustice: the poorest, most vulnerable, and marginalised people already living with droughts, floods and vanishing natural resources,” he said.“People who face ruined lives and livelihoods, mass migration, instability, famine, war, and death.“People who see our prosperity, our vaccines against all manner of diseases including Covid-19, and yet do not share in their benefit.“We can no longer ignore the cries of people who are oppressed and of the groans of our Earth.”Earlier this month, Dr Welby was one of dozens of faith leaders including Pope Francis to have made a joint appeal to governments to commit to ambitious climate change targets at the upcoming Cop26 conference. More

Boris Johnson has claimed no one wants his Covid “plan B“ to be implemented now – despite a chorus of pleas from medical leaders for immediate restrictions.“Absolutely everybody” agrees there is no need to move to tougher curbs despite high infection rates, except “possibly the Labour Party”, the prime minister insisted.The claim came as Mr Johnson urged people not to be “overconfident about their level of immunity” by spurning the opportunity of a pre-winter booster jab.Asked if he could guarantee a good Christmas, the prime minister – speaking at the G20 summit in Rome – said: “I see no evidence whatever to think that any kind of lockdown is on the cards.”Earlier this month, hospital and doctors’ leaders urged ministers to move to plan B – compulsory mask-wearing, Covid passes for crowded events and working from home – to avert a looming disaster for the NHS.Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “It is time for the government to enact plan B of its strategy without delay because without pre-emptive action, we risk stumbling into a winter crisis.“We are right on the edge – and it is the end of October. It would require an incredible amount of luck for us not to find ourselves in the midst of a profound crisis over the next three months.”The head of the British Medical Association echoed the warning, branding the government’s refusal to take further preventative action “wilfully negligent”.Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the advisory Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, warned further lockdowns could not be ruled out.Since then case rates have dropped slightly, but the number of deaths topped 1,000 a week and experts say the future path of the pandemic is very hard to predict.Mr Johnson told journalists: “Yes it’s true that cases are high, but they do not currently constitute any reason to go to plan B.“I think that’s agreed among absolutely everybody – apart from possibly the Labour Party.“So we are sticking with the plan and I think, rather than thinking new restrictions, the best thing everybody can do is get that booster jab as soon as you’re offered it.”Calling it “a very important message”, the prime minister added: “I think people don’t quite realise that the first two jabs do start to wane. There is a waning effect on the first two.“How sad, how tragic it would be if people who had other complications, other compromises in their health, got seriously ill because they were overconfident about their level of immunity and didn’t get their booster when they needed it.”The latest figures show coronavirus infections in England have increased to the same levels as at the height of the second wave in January, with one in 50 people having the virus last week.That amounts to about 1.1 million people and a rise on the week before, when about one in 55 people in England were thought to have Covid. More

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Cop26 will be the “world’s moment of truth” as he urged leaders not to let the opportunity to bring about an end to climate change “slip away”.Downing Street said the United Nations’ Cop26 summit starting on Sunday will be one of the biggest events the UK has ever hosted, with 25,000 delegates expected from 196 countries and the European Union.Ministers, climate negotiators, civil society and business leaders are set to take part in talks and debates over the course of the two-week conference.Mr Johnson, who is due to fly from the G20 in Rome to Glasgow on Sunday evening, said: “Cop26 will be the world’s moment of truth.“The question everyone is asking is whether we seize this moment or let it slip away.“I hope world leaders will hear them and come to Glasgow ready to answer them with decisive action.“Together, we can mark the beginning of the end of climate change – and end the uncertainty once and for all.”Pictures show Mr Johnson bumping fists with French president Emmanuel Macron, after Mr Johnson had said that the pair could discuss the UK-France fishing dispute during the summit.The ongoing post-Brexit conflict has seen France ask the European Union to inflict trade sanctions on the UK over the latter refusing to award a certain number of licences to French fishermen to operate in British waters around Jersey and Guernsey.Mr Johnson has brushed off the row, saying that “there are bigger fish to fry, everybody knows that.” It comes after he had threatened to do “whatever it takes” to protect the UK’s interests.Now, although he is urging global leaders to deliver plans to prevent global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5C degrees above pre-industrial levels, he has also expressed doubts over the Cop26 summit’s success.While in Rome, he said during interviews that he still rated the chance of success as no more than six out of 10.The Cop26 summit is aiming to encourage countries to advance their net-zero commitments to the middle of the century and reduce emissions rapidly over the next decade through commitments on phasing out coal, switching to electric cars and planting trees.Developed nations are also being urged to pay £73 billion per year to help poorer nations deal with the effects of climate change.Mr Johnson will host an opening ceremony attended by dignitaries, alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, before giving a speech on Monday.Prince Charles and Sir David Attenborough, the Cop26 People’s Advocate, will be among those to also address world leaders as environmental advocates for Britain.The Queen will address the delegates in a pre-recorded video after she was told by doctors to avoid the summit and rest following a visit to hospital last week. More

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has revealed that she is open to becoming a foster parent when she leaves politics.In an interview with Vogue published days before the Cop26 climate change summit being held in her home city Glasgow, the SNP leader reflected on what she might do after she leaves Holyrood and her official Edinburgh residence Bute House.She said that “fostering chidren may be something [her and her husband] would think about” when she eventually steps out of the public eye.She told the magazine that her and partner Peter Murrell, 56, the chief executive officer of the SNP, have “only stratched the surface of talking about” whether to foster a child.Ms Sturgeon, 51, added that she has become “really involved in and passionate about improving the opportunities for young people who grew up in care”.The couple married in 2010 after dating for seven years. In 2016, Ms Sturgeon had revealed in the book Scottish National Party Leaders that she suffered a miscarriage in 2011 while she was deputy first minister. In a statement released following the publication of extracts from the book, she said: “This was obviously a painful experience for Peter and I and while [the author] Mandy has known about it for some time, she has always respected our decision not to talk about it publicly.“I gave her the go ahead to make reference to it now in the hope that it might challenge some of the assumptions and judgements that are still made about women – especially in politics – who don’t have children.“There are many reasons why women don’t have children. Some of us simply don’t want to, some of us worry about the impact on our career – and there is still so much to do, through better childcare, more progressive working practices and more enlightened attitudes, to make sure we don’t feel we have to choose.“And sometimes, for whatever reason, having a baby just doesn’t happen– no matter how much we might want it to.”Speaking about the miscarriage, she has said she was uncertain if she could have been a mother while leading the Scottish government.Ms Sturgeon said, as reported by the BBC: “If the miscarriage hadn’t happened, would I be sitting here as First Minister right now?“It’s an unanswerable question, I just don’t know. I’ve thought about it but I don’t know that answer. “I’d like to think ‘yes’ because I could have shown that having a child wasn’t a barrier to all this, but in truth I don’t know.” More

There is “no chance” of an agreement to prevent runaway climate change at Cop26 given current carbon-cutting pledges, Boris Johnson has admitted.One day before the crucial summit in Glasgow, an increasingly gloomy prime minister appealed to countries to “get their act together” to rescue the event from the risk of total failure.“Where we stand today, there is no chance of us stopping climate change next week,” Mr Johnson said, speaking at the G20 summit in Rome.“There is no chance of us getting an agreement next week to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees.“What we could conceivably do if everybody gets their act together, what we could do, is get an agreement that means that Cop26 in Glasgow is a way station that allows us to end climate change.”The comments come after the prime minister failed to persuade Chinese premier Xi Jinping to beef up the commitment to curb CO2 emissions by the world’s biggest offender.Beijing has disappointed No 10 by refusing to budge on its plan to reach peak emissions no later than 2030 – rejecting Mr Johnson’s plea to bring that forward to 2025.With Mr Jinping skipping the summit, there appears little prospect of a deal to prevent global temperature rises of more than 1.5C since industrialisation.Currently, the planet is “way off track”, the United Nations has warned, on a path to 2.7C – and, experts say, 2.1C even if existing CO2-cutting commitments are kept.Just 7.5 per cent would be chopped off predicted annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 – far from the 47 per cent reduction that is needed.India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are among other major emitters that have yet to submit new plans for cutting emissions by 2030 to the UN.Mr Johnson also repeated his apocalyptic warning that civilisation could collapse “like the Roman Empire” unless the climate emergency is averted.Speaking in the famous Colosseum, he said: “The Roman Empire, they weren’t expecting it and they went into reverse – we had a Dark Ages. It’s important to remember things can get dramatically worse.”The prime minister’s spokesman denied he was increasingly gloomy, insisting he had always believed that success at Cop26 was “an extremely difficult challenge”.However, on Friday, No 10 said its aim for the summit was commitments to “halve emissions by the end of this decade”, to keep a 1.5C temperature rise within sight.The UK is declining to push for a tougher “rachet” mechanism – to force countries to prove progress towards announced goals every two years, instead of five – apparently fearing that would not be agreedAnd Cop26 will not attempt to agree a specific figure for reducing expected gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emitted by 2030, which will await further summits. More

Britain’s largest charity of emergency food parcels has warned foodbanks will have to “pick up the pieces” this winter after Rishi Sunak resisted calls to reverse a cut for all universal credit claimants at the Budget.The chancellor did unveil extra support for around two million universal credit recipients who are in work – decreasing the “taper rate” – but campaigners have stressed that many will still be left struggling to make ends meet, including those out of work.Earlier this week the Resolution Foundation’s post-Budget analysis said that despite the Treasury’s changes to universal credit, around 75 per cent of the 4.4 million households claiming the benefit will worse off.This is largely down to the decision to remove the £20-per-week uplift to the benefit – introduced at the beginning of the Covid crisis – earlier this month, the think tank added.Speaking to The Independent, Garry Lemon, the director of policy and research at the Trussell Trust foodbank group, stressed that among all the spending announcements on Wednesday “there just wasn’t enough for some of those in our society who need it the most”.“I’m talking about people who cannot work,” he said. “That might be due to disability, illness or caring responsibilities for example.“That headline universal credit pick up doesn’t help them, but these are the people we see disproportionately at foodbanks and I would say they deserve support too.”“The chancellor himself recently said that everybody should be able to afford the essentials – we as a society can all agree on that – but these people were frankly ignored in the rhetoric of making working pay and in the big spending decisions.”

The chancellor himself recently said that everybody should be able to afford the essentials – we as a society can all agree on that – but these people were frankly ignored in the rhetoric of making working pay and in the big spending decisionsGarry Lemon, Trussell Trust He added: “From the point of view of someone who represents food banks, I’m deeply disappointed by the Budget. Obviously it’s a welcome thing to see low-earning people being able to keep more of what they earn, don’t get me wrong, absolutely welcome that, but foodbanks are once again going to be left to pick up the pieces for people who can’t work.“I really wish we as a nation could begin to have a more grown-up conversation about work, about who can and who can’t. This is all taking place in the shadow of £6 billion being taken back out of universal credit – it’s a huge, huge cut”.Conservative MPs who had been calling for the decision to remove the uplift to be reversed, including the former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, however, have welcomed the move to cut the taper rate – the amount of every £1 lost when someone takes on work – from 63 per cent to 55 per cent.Nigel Mills, a Conservative MP who sits on the work and pensions committee, who had been pushing for the chancellor to keep the uplift over the summer, said: “The big reduction in taper rate and increase in work allowances are very positive, especially starting from December. For claimants with children these will replace the £20 a week uplift pretty well.However, he told The Independent: “For those not in work this will be of no assistance. Sorting out the rate of withdrawal of benefits is positive but doesn’t fix a problem with the starting level.”Unveiling the change to the taper rate on Wednesday – the final announcement in his Budget speech – Mr Sunak said what he called a “tax on work” would be reduced no later than 1 December.“The universal credit taper withdraws support as people work more hours. The rate is currently 63 per cent, so for every extra £1 someone earns, their universal credit is reduced by 63p,” he said.“To make sure work pays, and help some of the lowest income families in the country keep more of their hard-earned money, I have decided to cut this rate, not by 1 per cent, not by 2 per cent – but by 8 per cent.” More

Richard Tice, the Reform Party leader, has announced he will enter the contest in the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election, as he hit out against the “Consocialism” of Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party.Formerly known as the Brexit Party, Mr Tice’s party advocates lower taxes, has campaigned against what it describes as “woke nonsense” and protested against the “erosion” of civil liberties during the coronavirus lockdowns.The by-election was triggered after the death of James Brokenshire, a former Conservative cabinet minister who died of lung cancer earlier this month at the age of 53.Mr Brokenshire had served as the MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup since 2010, and last won the seat almost 19,000 votes ahead of his Labour rival – a considerable majority.The south-east London constituency has also returned a Conservative MP since its creation in 1983 and was previously held by the former prime minister Ted Heath.Despite the clear Conservative lead in the constituency, Mr Tice told the Daily Telegraph he wanted to send a “powerful message to Boris Johnson” about the impact of the his government’s manifesto-busting decision to increase taxes.Mr Tice, who replaced Nigel Farage as leader earlier in 2021, argued that electing an MP from Reform, which has not returned an MP to the Commons, including under the title of the Brexit Party, would be a “massive wake up call”.“Though it is awful that this election is happening at all, I am standing to ensure that a choice is given to the people of Bexley and Sidcup,” said Mr Tice.“Reform appeal to voters in this traditionally Conservative seat is to use this moment to send a powerful message to Boris Johnson and his Cabinet. Voters here did not expect the prime minister to deliver Consocialism, a highly taxed, highly regulated nanny state.“We now have the highest overall taxes for 70 years and the lowest medium term growth forecasts for 60 years. It means authoritarian controls and record long waiting lists.“It means much higher energy costs even as we approach the foothills of the net zero cost mountain.”On Saturday, the Conservatives also selected Louie French, a councillor of eight years who previously served as deputy leader of Bexley council from 2018-2021, to contest the seat.Mr French said: “James Brokenshire was a friend and mentor to me and it’s an honour to have been selected as the Conservative candidate for Old Bexley and Sidcup, where I hope to carry on his excellent work.“I will campaign to ensure that outer London areas like Old Bexley and Sidcup are not forgotten or left behind by the mayor of London and City Hall.“And I will work to improve access to GPs and healthcare services, building directly on James’ work with Queen Mary’s Hospital, so residents can get a face-to-face GP appointment at a time that suits them.”Labour has already selected Daniel Francis – a Bexley councillor and former leader of the Labour group on the council.In a video message, Mr Francis, who lives in the constituency, said he would work “tirelessly” for the community if elected. More

London summons French ambassador over post-Brexit fishing rowThe PM has suggested the UK is poised to trigger a legal battle with France over the ongoing fishing dispute as early as next week.Boris Johnson said he was “worried” Paris “may be about to become in breach, or is already in breach” of the free trade deal agreed between the UK and the EU, and left the possibility of escalating the issue on the table.It comes after the French president suggested that the UK’s “credibility” is at stake, with Paris threatening to retaliate against Britain’s limited granting of licences for French boats.Speaking to the FT, Mr Macron said: “When you spend years negotiating a treaty and then a few months later you do the opposite of what was decided on the aspects that suit you the least, it is not a big sign of your credibility.”Paris is threatening to increase checks on British boats, stop them landing in French ports, slow customs arrangements in Calais and increase tariffs on energy bills in Jersey from Tuesday.Show latest update

1635604282Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 15:311635604034The Queen is ‘on very good form’, PM saysBoris Johnson has described the Queen as being on “very good form” in an interview with Channel 4 News earlier today.It comes after she was advised by her doctors to rest for at least the next two weeks and to undertake only “desk-based duties”, according to Buckingham Palace.The Prime Minister said: “I spoke to her majesty and she’s on very good form.” “She’s just got to follow the advice of her doctors and get some rest and I think that’s the important thing. I think the whole country wishes her well.”Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 15:271635602043Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 14:541635602006Britain has failed poorest nations on climate, chief government adviser warnsLord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee, told The Independent the UK had “caused climate change more than anyone else”, but not done enough to secure global funding for those now hit hardest by its effects. He also described the UK’s decision to slash the foreign aid budget as “immoral.”He said: “The one weakness we go in with is over helping the developing countries.“Britain has caused climate change more than anyone else. We invented the Industrial Revolution, it’s part of our history. We’ve caused climate change and we’ve got to pay for it.“The fact that we haven’t yet put together the money which we promised to help the developing countries move from where they are to where they ought to be is a considerable drawback.”Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 14:531635600273No 10 has said they are working to resolve post-Brexit fishing dispute with FranceDowning Street has said the Government wants to resolve the dispute with France over post-Brexit fishing rights but have declared they will “act in a calibrated manner” should Paris proceed with their threats.The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We have been working with the French government to issue more licences. We stand ready to continue that work.“We have seen a number of comments from the French government at varying levels in recent days and weeks that we don’t think are justified.“If France were to proceed with the threats that they have set out, we will act in a calibrated manner.”Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 14:241635599662Sinn Fein deputy leader says balance of power in NI has “shifted irreversibly”Michelle O’Neill has hit out the DUP after their boycott of the North-South Ministerial Council, calling their “continued denial” of equality and rights “dead-end politics.”Ms O’Neill said during her opening speech at the party’s Ard Fheis that the balance of power at Stormont has “shifted irreversibly” and the political unionist majority is gone.“It is for the people to decide the next first minister, not the DUP. Sinn Fein is aiming to return as the biggest party, not for the sake of it, but to deliver change.“[The DUP’s] boycott of the North-South Ministerial Council has been declared unlawful by the High Court.“Their futile stunt to provoke outrage is in vain. Harking back to a bygone era of unionist rule is a lost cause too.”Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 14:141635594341Disgraced MP Rob Roberts to have Conservative membership reinstatedChair of the Labour Party Anneliese Dodds described the move as “scandalous”, saying Mr Roberts “should have resigned as an MP the moment he was suspended”.“That he is now set to return to the Conservative party shows they’ve let him off the hook,” she added. “Yet again, there’s one rule for Tory MPs and another for everyone else.”Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 12:451635592435PM warns of new ‘dark ages’ if world fails to tackle global warningThe world could be hurtling toward a new “dark ages” if it fails to confront global warming, the prime minister has warned as in an appeal to the world’s leading economies to do more to cut emissions.“Civilisation could go backwards and history could go into reverse,” he said in an interview with Channel 4 News.“Here we are in the Colosseum of Vespasian, the Roman Empire, they weren’t expecting it and they went into reverse. We had a Dark Ages.“It’s important to remember things can get dramatically worse.”Mr Johnson was in the Italian capital for a summit of the G20 leaders ahead of the crucial Cop26 climate change talks which start in Glasgow on Monday.Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 12:131635591271Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 11:541635591237Food banks will have to ‘pick up the pieces’ after Budget, the Trussell Trust has warnedBritain’s largest charity of emergency food parcels has warned foodbanks will have to “pick up the pieces” this winter after Rishi Sunak resisted calls to reverse a cut for all universal credit claimants at the Budget.Speaking to The Independent, Garry Lemon, the director of policy and research at the Trussell Trust foodbank group, stressed that among all the spending announcements on Wednesday “there just wasn’t enough for some of those in our society who need it the most”.He added: “From the point of view of someone who represents food banks, I’m deeply disappointed by the Budget. Obviously it’s a welcome thing to see low-earning people being able to keep more of what they earn, don’t get me wrong, absolutely welcome that, but foodbanks are once again going to be left to pick up the pieces for people can’t work. Emily Atkinson30 October 2021 11:53 More