Markus Andrews

The foreign secretary says everything possible is being done to bring Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe home after she lost her most recent appeal in Iran – a setback that her husband described as a “wake-up call” for the government.Liz Truss said the Iranian decision was “an appalling continuation of the cruel ordeal” for the jailed Briton.“Instead of threatening to return Nazanin to prison, Iran must release her permanently so she can return home,” Ms Truss said. “We are doing all we can to help Nazanin get home to her young daughter and family and I will continue to press Iran on this point.”MP Tulip Siddiq said Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe could be sent back to prison “at any time” after her sentence of one year plus a one-year travel ban was “upheld with no court hearing”.Just spoke to my constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard.Nazanin has lost her latest appeal and her sentence of 1 year plus 1 year travel ban is upheld with no court hearing.She could now be returned to prison at any time.The PM must act now to #FreeNazanin— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) October 16, 2021 “This is yet another piece of devastating news for my constituent, her family and the millions around the world who care about her,” the MP said. “Whatever the prime minister has been doing to free Nazanin is clearly not working.”Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe has also criticised the government over the case, saying it “does not deal with problems until they become crises”.He said he had urged the government as recently as Friday to take quicker action over the appeal.“The longer we waited, the more chance of bad news. I didn’t expect the next day to get bad news, but we did,” he said. “That’s [the rejection of the appeal] the Iranians signalling they’re not prepared to wait forever and they will do what they need to do.“Is this going to be a wake-up call for the government? Maybe, maybe not. One of the challenges I find with this government is that it doesn’t deal with problems until they become crises. This is Iran threatening a crisis. One hopes that the government takes it seriously.”Mr Ratcliffe, who has been campaigning for his wife’s return home since her original incarceration in 2016, said he had been surprised by Saturday’s news.He said he thought her appeal would have ended up being rejected in November after a “drawn-out court process” as Iran was “always going to confirm guilt, regardless of whether there is any”.The family of the British-Iranian national marked 2,000 days since her arrest there at the end of last month.Mr Ratcliffe and the couple’s 7-year-old daughter Gabriella stood on top of a snakes and ladders game board in Parliament Square symbolising the dilemma of being caught between two governments. Ms Zaghari-Racliffe, who was arrested while on vacation in Iran in 2016, is one of several people with British or dual-British nationality now being held there.She has been in custody after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government.Ms Zaghari-Racliffe was taking her daughter, Gabriella, to visit her family when she was arrested and was sentenced to five years in prison.Four years of her sentence were spent in Evin Prison, before she was moved to Tehran where she was placed under house arrest.Not long after her release this year, she was was convicted of “spreading propaganda against the regime”.The family have reportedly been told by Iranian authorities that she is being detained because of the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding £400m debt to Iran.Amnesty International UK chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh, who has been campaigning for her release alongside the family for a number of years, said: “This is terrible news and is just more torment on top of five-and-a-half years of suffering for Nazanin and her family.“Nazanin was subjected to a deeply unfair original trial, was rushed through a farcical second court process and is now confronted by more time behind bars – it’s absolutely excruciating to see this happening.“We’ve said repeatedly that Boris Johnson, [Foreign Secretary] Liz Truss and others in government need to genuinely step up on Nazanin’s case and other cases where British nationals are being persecuted in Iran.“We want to see action urgently, and this must include the government setting out a clear strategy for securing the release of all British nationals unlawfully held in Iran.” More

Labour and the Liberal Democrats will not contest the expected Southend West by-election following the murder of MP Conservative MP Sir David Amess, it is understood.The parties will follow the precedent of Jo Cox’s murder in 2016, when the main opposition parties refused to select candidates in the subsequent Batley and Spen by-election “as a mark of respect”.Ms Cox was murdered by a neo-Nazi outside a constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire.Sir David was killed while meeting constituents at a routine public surgery on Friday.Labour peer Lord Pendry said leaving the seat uncontested would “honour” the Conservative politician.“This is an occasion when you see the leader of the opposition and the prime minister together, and it shows that our democracy transcends all that sort of thing,” he said. “I think we should be saying that whoever the Conservatives put up, it is their seat because they were deprived of it, so they should have it back.“I think all the major parties should stand aside in the interest of democracy and our own democratic way of life.”Senior Labour figure who knew Sir David Amess “pretty well” gets in touch to propose that Opposition parties should give Tories “a free run” & not stand in Southend West by-election.— Jon Craig (@joncraig) October 16, 2021 A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and counter terror detectives are currently investigating his motivations, say Essex Police – potentially linked to Islamist extremism.The investigation is being led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command who declared it a terrorist incident. More

Relatives of Sir David Amess expressed bewilderment and shock at his killing as hundreds of well-wishers lit candles and left tributes at the scene of the attack in Southend, Essex, on Saturday. Two cousins laid flowers outside the church where he was stabbed multiple times during a meeting with constituents.“Can’t believe this has actually happened,” read an attached card. “RIP David. Thinking of your lovely family. We will always love you. Cousins Moira and Pat.”Paramedics tried to save the Conservative MP’s life for more than an hour on the floor of Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea. The suspect, a 25-year-old man who made no attempt to flee, was arrested on suspicion of murder. More

MPs are set to be offered beefed-up security in their constituencies in the wake of the murder of Sir David Amess, which could include a regular police presence at weekly surgeries like the one at which the MP for Southend West was stabbed to death on Friday.Police forces contacted all 650 MPs following Sir David’s death to offer reassurance and support, with some deploying officers to public events MPs were attending.Home secretary Priti Patel said MPs should not be “cowed” by the fear of violence from carrying out their duties as elected representatives of the public, including holding meetings with constituents to discuss their concerns.But there were deep divisions between members of the House of Commons about the way ahead, with prominent backbencher Tobias Ellwood urging colleagues to suspend all face-to-face surgeries until a police review of safety was completed, and veteran Tory Sir Bernard Jenkin saying it was time to switch to online video conferencing rather than imposing the financial burden on police of protecting in-person meetings, which he said were “frankly not really necessary”.As Ms Patel joined prime minister Boris Johnson, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle in laying wreaths at the site of Sir David’s death in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, counterterrorism police continued to question a 25-year-old UK national of Somali origin who was arrested at the scene of the attack and is being held on suspicion of murder.The Independent understands that early indications from the investigation are that the suspect is thought to have acted alone, rather than being involved in any conspiracy with others to target the MP.Police are believed to be combing through mobile devices and computer equipment for any indication of links with others in a crime that is being treated as potentially having been motivated by Islamist extremism.Two addresses in the London area were searched on Saturday in the hunt for clues.Chief constables are due to report back to Ms Patel by the end of the weekend on any gaps identified in the protection offered to MPs, though it is not thought that any new package of support will be finalised in time for a statement she will make to the Commons on Monday, when proceedings will be devoted to tributes to Sir David, a highly respected MP of 38 years’ standing.The home secretary wants to ensure a uniform approach to the issue by forces across the country, after complaints from some MPs that forces outside London do not take the issue as seriously as those in the capital, where counterterrorism units are based.Since the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox outside a constituency surgery in 2016, MPs have been automatically entitled to funding from parliamentary authorities for equipment such as CCTV, panic buttons, additional locks, and keyfob-style alarms at their homes and offices.No firm decisions have yet been reached on whether these and other security measures could be extended to more venues where MPs meet members of the public. And it would be an individual decision for each MP whether to accept any support – including police guards – that was eventually offered. It is thought that many would reject measures that might create a barrier to open interaction with voters.Speaking after visiting the scene of the crime, and following talks with police, security services and Speaker Hoyle, Ms Patel said that MPs must not let violence of the kind seen on Friday “get in the way of our functioning democracy”.She refused to be drawn on the security changes being considered, but said that it was “absolutely” possible to balance MPs’ safety with the need for constituents to have access to their representatives.“We will carry on,” said the home secretary. “We live in an open society, a democracy. We cannot be cowed by any individual or any people with motives to stop us from functioning to serve our elected democracy. We have measures in place and we will continue to review and strengthen measures.”But one of Westminster’s most senior MPs, mother of the house Harriet Harman, said there must be change to political practices, declaring: “We cannot have the death of an MP being a price worth paying for our democracy.“All MPs value that connection with their constituency. That’s why we’re different from other democracies – we don’t go about in armoured cars and only meet in secure offices with police presences,” she said.“But I do think that with the second death of an MP in just five years, we do have to consider how we change things. No one wants MPs to hide away, but we’ve got to agree a safe way to do it.”Ms Harman wrote to Mr Johnson, calling on him to convene a cross-party review of MPs’ safety in a Speaker’s Conference, a rare political event happening only once a decade or less in which senior figures from across Westminster and wider public authorities come together to address fundamental issues of electoral democracy.Jacqui Smith, former Labour home secretary and chair of the Jo Cox Foundation, said Ms Patel’s review must go beyond simple questions of physical safety and address the wider culture of hostility that has developed towards politicians.“All of us have a responsibility to protect our democracy, which is so important for this country,” she said. “We can’t do that unless we protect and respect those people who are elected as part of it.”Sir Bernard Jenkin said that he had stopped advertising the location of weekly surgeries, instead requiring constituents to make appointments before being told the venue.And he said: “So much is now done online. Covid has changed everything.“I think there’s a great understanding in the public after an event like this that we cannot use up massive police resources to protect us doing something that frankly is not really necessary. We have to be available to our constituents, we just have to find other ways of doing that.”Labour’s former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said she would prefer to talk to constituents from behind a screen, but felt that a police presence at surgeries would be “off-putting” to individuals who may be seeking help with sensitive problems involving the criminal justice system.Many MPs posted photos on social media showing themselves going ahead with surgeries and other constituency events, in a signal that they would not let the attack deter them from doing their jobs.Labour’s Karl Turner said he had CCTV in every room of his constituency office, but accepted that it was not possible to protect himself completely without alienating constituents.“You can do as much as you can possibly do, but if a knife-wielding maniac bursts into your room, what can you do about that really?” said the Hull East MP.“I think you’ve got to take the risk. I’m not pretending to be any kind of a hero, far from it, but I think it is a pretty bad deal if you can’t see your MP.” More

Former health secretary Matt Hancock’s appointment as a United Nations special representative in Africa has been withdrawn.There was no immediate explanation for the decision not to go ahead with the appointment, which appears to have been rescinded at a high level in the UN.The news was welcomed by anti-poverty campaigners who said it was inappropriate for Mr Hancock to work on Africa’s recovery from the Covid pandemic because of his role in blocking moves to make vaccines available to millions of people in the developing world.Mr Hancock announced that he had been offered the job Tuesday, declaring he was “honoured” to have been offered a role helping the UN Economic Commission for Africa on the continent’s pandemic recovery and sustainable development.In a letter posted on Twitter by Mr Hancock, UN under secretary-general Vera Songwe, said his “success” in overseeing the UK’s vaccine rollout was a “testament” to the strengths he would bring to the role.But eyebrows were raised at the timing of the appointment, revealed on the day that two parliamentary committees released a scathing report on the UK government’s response to the pandemic.Now Secretary General António Guterres’ chief spokesperson has said that the appointment is not going ahead.“Mr Hancock’s appointment by the UN Economic Commission for Africa is not being taken forward,” said spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. “ECA has advised him of the matter.”Mr Dujarric offered no explanation for the abrupt about-turn, sparking speculation that Mr Guterres had ordered the withdrawal of the offer in response to negative reactions to its announcement.But there were also suggestions that Mr Hancock had simply fallen foul of a rule that special representatives cannot be sitting members of their home country’s parliament.Campaign group Global Justice Now welcomed the development, which came after it raised concerns about Mr Hancock’s role in supporting the UK government’s opposition to proposals for an intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.The waiver – first proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020 – would allow poorer countries to manufacture their own doses of vaccines developed in the rich world, increasing overall global supplies and providing access to protection for hundreds of millions of people currently unable to get a jab.It has the the support of countries including the United States, Australia, France, and almost all low and middle-income countries, but the UK was among a group of states which blocked its introduction at a meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s intellectual property council TRIPs last week.Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden said: “It is right for the UN to reconsider this appointment.“If Matt Hancock wants to help African countries recover from the pandemic, he should lobby the prime minister to back a patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines. If he’d done that when he was in government, tens of millions more people could already have been vaccinated.“The last thing the African continent needs is a failed British politician. This isn’t the 19th century.”Mr Hancock resigned as health secretary in June after leaked CCTV footage showed him kissing an aide, in breach of social distancing rules. More

The sister of murdered MP Jo Cox has said her partner suggested she stand down from being a member of parliament in the wake of the killing of Sir David Amess.Kim Leadbeater, who represents Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire, said she felt “frightened” following the fatal attack on the Conservative MP at a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, in Essex.The Labour member said: “My partner came home and said ‘I don’t want you to do it any more because the next time that phone goes, it could be a different conversation’.”She added: “Totally shocked by what has happened to think that something so horrific could happen again to another MP, to another family. And scared and frightened – a real rollercoaster of emotions.”Ms Cox was the last serving parliamentarian to be killed before Sir David on Friday. She was stabbed and shot to death in her constituency – also Batley and Spen – while on her way to meet constituents at a surgery in Birstall in June 2016.Speaking about Sir David, Ms Leadbeater said: “My phone started going straight away, my mum and dad, my partner, my friends, ‘Are you OK?’ and I was OK, I was visiting a school.”But the shock and the feelings for us as a family, obviously what we went through and another family are going through that again, it’s horrific. It’s hard to put into words how that feels for me.”The main people I am thinking about are David’s family, his friends and the community he represents and has represented for such a long time.”I think that’s the thing that people need to understand, it’s about a lot of people whose lives have changed forever today.”People still come up to me and talk to me about where they were when Jo was killed. Their lives have just been changed.”She added: “At the heart of it are David’s family and friends. I know for them now that their lives will never be the same again, they will think about this every single day for the rest of their lives.”Even David’s staff – so many other people today will have been out there trying to do the right thing, trying to do a really important job in public life, and this happens.”I cannot believe that this has happened. It feels very raw for me.”I know from messages I have received from politicians across the political spectrum, for them it is incredibly raw.”Friday’s attack has now been declared a terrorist incident by police. A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and the investigation is now under the control of counter terror detectives. More

MPs must not be “cowed” by the threat of violence in the wake of the murder of Sir David Amess, home secretary Priti Patel has said.Ms Patel has ordered a police review of MPs’ security following the killing at a constituency surgery in Sir David’s Southend West seat, and is expected to address the House of Commons on Monday.Speaking after laying a wreath at the scene of Friday’s tragedy in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, Ms Patel described Sir David as “a man of the people, killed doing a job that he loved, serving his constituents as an elected democratic member”.Following Sir David’s death, there have been calls for an end to face-to-face surgery sessions at which MPs meet constituents to discuss their concerns and hear their opinions, usually on Fridays when they are free of parliamentary duties.Conservative backbencher Tobias Ellwood has urged colleagues to call off in-person surgeries until the completion of the security review, while veteran MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said there was no justification in the age of online video conferences to continue a practice which is “frankly not really necessary”.Ms Patel would not be drawn on any security changes being planned, but said that MPs must not let violence of the kind seen on Friday “get in the way of our functioning democracy”.“I’ve convened meetings yesterday, I’ve been with the Speaker of the House and with the police and our security services to make sure that all measures are being put in place for the security of MPs so that they can carry on with their duties as elected democratic members,” she said.“I think it’s important for all members of parliament… (that) we carry on doing our duties. We live in an open society, a democracy where we are accessible to the people. That is right and proper.“We have measures in place to safeguard our MPs. There have been a lot of lessons that have been learned over recent years following the appalling murder of our former dear colleague Jo Cox. Those measures are always under review.“There is direct communication taking place right now with all 600-plus MPs as to their whereabouts, what they’re doing in their constituencies, to make sure that they are protected, so that they can go around serving their constituencies in that open way, but in a safe way.“It’s important that that continues.”Ms Patel said it was “absolutely” possible to balance MPs’ security with the need for constituents to have access to their representatives.“David was a dear friend of mine, a loyal friend and colleague and man of the people,” she said.“He was killed serving his own constituents and constituency.“We will carry on, we live in an open society, a democracy. We cannot be cowed by any individual or any people with motives to stop us from functioning to serve our elected democracy. We have measures in place and we will continue to review and strengthen measures.“We will continue to absolutely stand by the principles that we are elected by, to serve our constituents in the open way in which we have been doing, but also recognising that there are safety and protection measures that we have to undertake too.” More

England and Wales’s first domestic abuse commissioner has warned the government risks missing an opportunity to make a “historic shift” in the handling of the problem unless it U-turns on serious violence legislation this week.Peers in the House of Lords are to vote on proposed changes to Priti Patel’s Policing Bill which would create a legal duty on local authorities and police forces across England and Wales to make domestic abuse, domestic homicide and sexual offences a priority in their serious violence prevention plans.Speaking to The Independent, domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs said the amendment could deliver a step-change, ensuring a focus not only on crisis provision for women fleeing violent partners but on early intervention and preventative measures to stop abuse from occurring.And she warned that failure to place a legal requirement for domestic abuse to be included in the new-style plans could lead to the issue being sidelined in large areas of the country.Ms Jacobs – who was appointed in 2019 after more than 20 years’ frontline work with abuse survivors – said that the Lords debate was “timely” because of the heightened focus on violence against women in the wake of the murders of Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry, Nicole Smallman and Sabina Nessa.“There is more public conversation now than ever about what we do about violence in the home and on the street and particularly geared towards women,” she said.“So much of the conversation is about how we find ways of preventing abuse and changing people’s behaviour and the frustration for me is that here we have this legislation specifically designed to do that in relation to serious violence, and yet it doesn’t include domestic abuse and sexual violence.”The bill will create a new responsibility for authorities in each local area, covering not only police and courts but also councils, housing, health and education services, to co-operate on drawing up and implementing a plan for tackling serious violence.But Ms Patel insists that it must be for each region to decide for itself on the priorities for plans, to allow them the flexibility to respond to issues like knife crime, guns or “county line” drug-dealing which are specific problems for them locally.Ms Jacobs said the emphasis on local selection of priorities was inappropriate for domestic abuse, which affects areas across the country evenly rather than being concentrated in particular hotspots.And she said it was precisely the collaborative approach set out in the bill which is needed to usher in the next stage of the UK’s response to domestic abuse.After scarcely being considered a problem at all in the middle of the last century, the need for crisis support for abuse survivors – beginning with the women’s refuge movements of the 1970s – was now firmly established, she said. But there was not yet an adequate formal structure for preventative action which could nip domestic violence in the bud.“There is a historic shift which could be undertaken now,” Ms Jacobs told The Independent. “This legislation aligns with precisely the change we want to achieve and it makes perfect sense to put it into law now.”The cross-party amendment tabled by Tory peer Baroness Bertin and backed by fellow-Conservative Lord Polak, Labour’s Lord Rosser and crossbencher Lord Russell of Liverpool provides a means for ministers to make the necessary change, and campaigners are “still hopeful” of a change of heart when it comes before the House of Lords on Wednesday, she said.Closer co-operation between different services could mean abuse victims being spotted earlier and interventions being made before violence escalates, she said. And there was growing evidence that partner abuse in the home has an impact on children’s later involvement in anti-social behaviour or crime.The transformative potential of legislation could be seen in the Domestic Abuse Act which established her own office in law, and delivered “a huge step forward” in the provision of safe refuge for abuse victims and their children by placing a legal duty on local authorities, said Ms Jacobs.But she said that too often the issue was “siloed”, with individual housing, healthcare and policing initiatives operating in isolation from one another.And she warned that this would continue to be the case unless the bill contained a legal requirement for abuse to be included in every serious violence plan.Only half of the 18 violence reduction units covering major urban areas across England and Wales have included domestic abuse as a priority in their own plans, she pointed out.Ms Jacobs said: “There is a lot of solid evidence, for instance, that health settings see a diverse range of survivors who the police don’t see, because they are a trusted environment,” she said. “They see people earlier than the police, who may not be contacted until they have suffered years of abuse.“And yet we don’t have health squarely in the middle of conversations at a local level.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “Protecting women and girls from violence and abuse is a top priority for the Government.“The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will ensure that the police, local authorities, health bodies and others work together to prevent and reduce serious violence.“Baroness Williams will set out the Government’s position when responding to the debate on Baroness Bertin’s amendment.” More