Markus Andrews

Police in Warsaw said Monday that four people, including a nephew of the prime minister, were detained during a massive protest against government policy that critics say could cost Poland its European Union membership. Organizers and Warsaw authorities say that up to 100,000 people took part in the protest in downtown Warsaw Sunday to show their support for the EU. A nephew of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki alleged that a police officer kicked him in the head while he was on the ground being detained.Warsaw Police spokesman Sylwester Marczak confirmed the temporary detention of Franek Broda, with the use of handcuffs, but did not address allegations of police brutality. Broda, 18, is a government critic and a LGBT rights activist.A few dozen people were fined for lighting flares and obstructing traffic during the protest and subsequent march to the headquarters of Poland’s ruling right-wing nationalist Law and Justice party. Similar protests were held in many other cities. They were sparked by a top court’s ruling last week that the Polish Constitution overrides EU law when they clash. Critics say the ruling can be seen as a rejection of EU values and may potentially lead to “Polexit,” or the nation being forced out of the 27-member bloc. Poland’s government has been in conflict with the EU for six years as it seeks control over the courts and judges. The EU views the pursued changes as an erosion of democratic checks and balances.EU membership is appreciated in Poland, having brought wide freedoms, including the freedom to travel, and an economic transformation to the central European nation which had endured decades of communist rule until 1989.Morawiecki and party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski have denied taking a course to leave the EU, but the government is increasingly at odds with the bloc’s leading bodies. More

Boris Johnson’s government has promised that £54m promised to France to help prevent small boat migrant crossings will be paid “in the coming weeks”.Attempting to smooth over a row with Emmanuel Macron’s government, Home Office minister Damian Hinds said a delay in payment was purely the result of an “administrative process”.His comments come after French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said “not one euro has been paid” in the sum pledged in July to help bolster security on the coast.Asked on Monday when the cash would be handed over, Mr Hinds said: “We are working closely with the French and I expect that question that you have raised to be finalised in the coming weeks.”Despite the recent war of words with France over the migrant crossings, the Home Office minister denied any “political” issue had led to the delay in France receiving the money.He told BBC News: “It is a process to be worked through when you are transferring what are very large sums of taxpayers’ money.”Home secretary Priti Patel has risked escalating the row with France after she reportedly sanctioning plans to forcibly redirect migrant boats back across the Channel.The French government has warned that turnaround tactics would have “a negative impact on our co-operation”.Defending the government’s plans, Mr Hinds said: “I would like to see increased activity, increased turnback [of migrants]. France is a safe country. If you are seeking asylum, you should claim it in the first safe country you come to.”The minister also insisted there was no chance of France cutting electricity to Jersey, despite claims by French maritime minister Annick Girardin of “retaliatory measures” over a post-Brexit fishing rights row.Asked if the lights will stay on in Jersey, Mr Hinds told Sky News: “Yes … France and ourselves are among the strongest allies in the world. I have absolute confidence in the strength and depth of our relationship with France.”Addressing the £54m security payment, Mr Darmanin told French media at the weekend: “For now, not one euro has been paid. We are asking the British to keep their promises of financing because we are holding the border for them.”During a visit to Dunkirk, the senior French politician also called on the UK to take measures to reduce its “attractiveness” for migrants without residency papers, without elaborating.Since the start of the year, more than 18,000 people have succeeded in reaching the UK on board small boats. A flurry of crossing attempts last Friday saw 624 people reach the UK – the fourth highest daily tally on record during the current crisis.Crossings continued on Saturday with at least 491 people, including children, arriving in Britain after making the perilous journey.Labour shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called on home secretary Priti Patel to “come clean” over her strategy to tackle small boats crossings. More

A Conservative MP elected as the Red Wall turned blue has said she is “overwhelmed by the outpouring of love” after publicly saying she is bisexual.Dehenna Davison said her sexuality was not a big deal and “just part of who I am”.The 28-year-old was elected to represent Bishop Auckland in 2019, the first Tory to hold the post since the constituency’s creation in 1885, as Boris Johnson secured a majority in Westminster.In an interview due to be broadcast on GB News on Monday, Ms Davison said: “If anyone were to explicitly ask me, I certainly wouldn’t try and hide it because I don’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of.”The reason I haven’t done a kind of, ‘By the way, guys’ is because I don’t want being bi to be considered a big deal.”If I did a very public kind of coming out parade, that would be me saying there’s something really unusual about this and trying to make a big deal of it when to me it’s not. It’s just part of who I am.”In the interview, previewed in The Daily Telegraph, Ms Davison spoke of how she was in the process of divorcing her husband and was in a relationship. She added: “It’s going really well, and I’m very excited about it. But we’ll see, the future is a very exciting place.”In a tweet on Sunday evening, she added: “Really overwhelmed by the outpouring of love this evening. Thank you so much for your support.”Conservative colleagues were among those offering their support to Ms Davison, with Peterborough MP Paul Bristow tweeting “Good for Dehenna Davison. Spot on. It’s not a big deal but by saying this – in a wide ranging interview – will undoubtedly still help others.”The LGBT+ Conservatives Twitter account wrote: “We’re so proud of our friend Dehenna Davison!”We welcome her to our community with open arms and are so excited to continue working with her as she enters this new chapter in her life.”PA More

The police feel “more let down than anybody” about the murder of Sarah Everard, Home Office minister Damian Hinds has said.Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “I think everybody is shaken by this terrible case. It is also really important to take a moment once again to pay tribute to all the men and women who serve in our policing service who feel more let down than anybody by this terrible sequence of events.”They put themselves in danger day after day and in protection of the rest of us and they deserve our support.”Ms Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a serving police officer who used his handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest.Referring to a public inquiry announced by Priti Patel that will look at how Ms Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, was allowed to remain in the police, Mr Hinds said: “It is actually more important even for them than for anyone else that this inquiry gets to the bottom of this.”He added: “This case goes to the heart of that question of trust.”In the wake of the killing, Dame Cressida Dick, the most senior police officer in England and Wales, said she wanted the force to regain the public’s trust and announced a review – separate to the public inquiry – of “standards and culture”.Mr Hinds’ comments come as it was revealed almost 2,000 police workers have been accused of sexual misconduct in the past four years.The allegations – including of rape and offences against children – are spread across 39 forces and were made against officers, special constables and PCSOs.A Freedom of Information request found 370 allegations of assault, nearly 100 of rape and 18 child sex offences.Channel 4’s Dispatches found 8 per cent of the claims led to a dismissal.But two thirds led to no action against the accused.Mr Hinds described the figures uncovered by Dispatches as a “shocking figure”.A Home Office spokesperson said: “As the public would rightly expect, we take police integrity very seriously and have already taken steps to overhaul the police complaints and discipline systems in order to increase transparency and accountability.” More

Rishi Sunak has been criticised for looking to save of billions of pounds by “recycling” money from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) windfall as aid spending.Campaigners believe the chancellor is preparing to use a large portion of the windfall in the overseas aid budget rather than on top of it.The government decided to cut aid spending from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of national income this year, a move that was widely condemned and met with a rebellion of Conservative MPs.Britain has received £19bn in a payout from the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDRs) to help poor countries ailing from the coronavirus pandemic.Other countries are spending their allocation from the fund in addition to existing budgets, but The Guardian reported that Mr Sunak will stick to an internationally agreed rule that allows 30 per cent of IMF lending to count as aid. Romilly Greenhill, the UK director of the One Campaign against poverty, said she expects the government to recycle around 75 per cent of its SDR payout, saving up to £5bn in the coming years.She called on the Mr Sunak to use his spending review on 27 October to change course, adding: “It’s even more outrageous that we are the only rich donor to be considering counting this money as aid.“Because of the way SDRs work this money comes at barely any cost to the UK taxpayer. It’s literally taking charity away from those most in need.”Two former Conservative international development secretaries have urged the chancellor to reconsider. Andrew Mitchell, who also led the Tory rebellion against the aid cut, said the move would have a “devastating effect on humanitarian causes British people care about and send a terrible message about global Britain”.Justine Greening, in the role from 2012 to 2016, said: “Britain has already reduced its aid spend from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of gross national income. If we are to be a truly global Britain then we should now be focused on having the maximum impact with what remains.”“It would be counter-productive to effectively even further reduce the aid investment that saves lives and keeps fragile states stable.”The Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran accused the government of sending “completely the wrong message” ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.“This Conservative government has dealt yet another damaging blow to Britain’s global reputation, by recycling aid money to avoid helping the world’s poorest people,” she said.The Treasury did not deny the plans, and a government spokesperson, said: “The UK is one of the leading international aid donors and this year we provided over £10bn towards poverty reduction, climate change, and global health security. We will return to the 0.7 per cent target when the fiscal situation allows.” More

Labour has accused Boris Johnson of turning a blind eye to tax havens, as the party released new research showing that £44bn of public money has gone in contracts to companies with links to territories of concern.Almost eight out of 10 (77.5 per cent) of the government’s “strategic suppliers”, providing services and goods on a massive scale to public sector organisations, have connections of one kind or another with tax havens – often small island territories which attract businesses by keeping corporation tax rates ultra-low – said Labour.And the proportion has been growing under Mr Johnson’s leadership, from an estimated 73.5 per cent in 2019 when he came to office.The party is calling on chancellor Rishi Sunak to throw the UK’s weight behind a global minimum corporate tax rate of 21 per cent at a key meeting of finance ministers from the G20 group of major economies later this month.A global rate came a step closer on Friday with the agreement of 136 countries and jurisdictions – including many of those branded tax havens – to implement a 15 per cent minimum tax from 2023, as well as to ensure that a quarter of any profits above 10 per cent made by global firms are reallocated for tax purposes to the countries in which they operate.After years in which multinational companies, including online tech giants, have been accused of minimising payments by shifting profits to countries with zero or low-tax regimes, Mr Sunak said the agreement created a “clear path to a fairer tax system, where large global players pay their fair share wherever they do business”.But Labour accused the chancellor of standing in the way of a tougher 21 per cent minimum, initially proposed by US president Joe Biden, building on proposals drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).Labour made no specific allegations against individual companies in its analysis of government contracts.But it found that some 31 out of the 40 firms classed as strategic suppliers – because they receive contracts worth more than £100 million per year or are deemed significant to their sector – have links to countries regarded as tax havens because they operate either zero-tax corporate regimes or levy 10 per cent or less on company profits.These links range from owning subsidiaries or group entities in territories such as Jersey, Guernsey, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands or Bermuda to having registered tax residence in such places.The new analysis comes in the wake of the publication of the so-called Pandora Papers, detailing the use of tax havens to minimise payments, and revealing the extent to which they have been used by major Conservative donors.Speaking ahead of the 13 October meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington, Labour’s Treasury spokesperson James Murray said: “The prime minister and chancellor have repeatedly turned a blind eye as British businesses on our high streets are undermined by tax-dodging tech giants like Amazon.“The chancellor must use the G20 finance ministers’ meeting this month to finally back a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 21 per cent as we and others have been calling for.“In his conference speech this week, the chancellor said he cared about tax dodging.“Now he needs to show that’s not just talk – especially given the serious recent revelations about Tory donor links to tax havens and senior Russian sources.“Labour would take the lead on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure a strong global pact to tackle worldwide tax dodging. Ending the race to the bottom is crucial to taxing fairly, and to helping our high streets and British businesses to thrive.”Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy last week launched a new taskforce on illicit finance with the aim of making the UK the most inhospitable place in the world for dirty money and ill-gotten gains.Labour’s dossier listed companies including BAE Systems, which it said had won contracts worth £14.7bn since Mr Johnson took office in July 2019 and has listed subsidiaries in Jersey, Qatar and the Isle of Man, as well as Serco (£6.8bn in contracts, subsidiaries in Qatar, Bahrain, Guernsey, Jersey and UAE), EY (£6.6bn in contracts, entities or member firms in Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bahrain, Gibraltar and Isle of Man) and KPMG (£2.8bn in contracts, subsidiaries in Guernsey, Gibraltar and Bermuda).The Independent reached out to the companies for comment. An EY spokesperson said: “EY is a global organisation operating in over 150 countries across the world. We are committed to complying with all laws and regulations in all jurisdictions.”A Serco spokesperson said: “Serco is an international business operating in many countries. These subsidiary companies exist to enable us to delivery services in the countries concerned, for example we employ 3,000 people in the Middle East delivering essential services such as air traffic control and defence base support, and manage leisure centres in the Channel Islands.”A government spokesperson said: “The government has high standards and expects that public sector suppliers will pay the tax they are obliged to. “Non-payment of taxes is already an exclusion ground and this feature is maintained in the Procurement Green Paper.“We’ve led the world in tackling tax avoidance and evasion and in improving tax transparency, spearheading global initiatives to help tax authorities uncover income and assets held by their taxpayers.” More

It is “reasonable” for Boris Johnson to go on holiday while the government battle with the deepening energy crisis, a cabinet minister has said.Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on Sunday defended the prime minister’s decisions to fly to Marbella for a break.Mr Kwarteng, the minister responsible for the government’s crisis response, said he was in regular contact with the prime minister via WhatsApp.“I believe he has gone away. I’m not sure where he’s gone,” Mr Kwarteng said.“But what I would say is I am in regular contact with him. He’s also had a year-and-a-half in which he’s almost lost his life to Covid, his mother passed away very sadly two or three weeks ago and he may have decided to take a short break.“I think that’s something reasonable.“I’m in regular WhatsApp contact with him, I spoke to him only a few days ago. I’m not sure when he’s supposed to have left the country.”The prime minister is reported to be holidaying at a private villa on the Costa del Sol.But it was left to Mr Kwarteng to assure the country that supplies of energy would not be interrupted during the winter.Back in August, then foreign secretary Dominic Raab, persuaded Boris Johnson to allow him to stay on holiday in Crete during the Afghanistan crisis.Mr Raab memorably dismissed claims that he had been paddle-boarding while Kabul fell, claiming that “the sea was actually closed”.The prime minister cut short his summer holiday in Somerset this year after just one day when the Taliban seized Kabul in August. He returned to the West Country shortly after the last UK troops left Afghanistan.His domestic holiday last summer in Scotland nearly ended in “catastrophe” after he was swept out to sea while paddle-boarding.His winter 2019 holiday to the Caribbean led to him being brought before the Commons standards committee due to a discrepancy over how the trip was funded.Spain was on the amber list for overseas travel until last Monday when the traffic light system was scrapped. Fully vaccinated travellers are now only required to take a test on day two after returning to the UK. More

An internal row over the government’s response to the gas and energy crisis erupted into the open in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon. Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, had told broadcasters in the morning that the Treasury was in talks with the energy industry to work out ways to help it through the crisis.But the seemingly benign suggestion apparently provoked fury at Rishi Sunak’s department.Treasury sources told Sky News: “This is not the first time the BEIS secretary has made things up in interviews. To be crystal clear, the Treasury are not involved in any talks.”The barbed outburst prompts questions about relations between different parts of government, with the UK facing a difficult winter and soaring fuel bills. The Sunday Times had reported that Mr Kwarteng was preparing to ask the chancellor for billions for a manufacturing industry bailout.This would help to prop up business in the steel, ceramics, chemical and glass sectors – some of whom are facing production halts due to the rising energy costs. Mr Kwarteng told Sky News that some businesses needed short-term help. “What I’m very clear about is we need to help them get through this situation – it’s a difficult situation, gas prices, electricity prices are at very high levels right across the world and of course I’m speaking to government colleagues, particularly in the Treasury, to try and see a way through this,” he said.Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the government had spent the morning “infighting about whether they were in talks with each other”.“In the teeth of a crisis of its own making, the government has put its ‘out of office’ on. The prime minister has gone on holiday, no one knows where the chancellor is, and this morning we understand the business secretary has entered the realms of fantasy,” she said. “The two key government departments responsible for the current cost of living crisis have spent this morning infighting about whether they were in talks with each other. What a farce. If government ministers can’t even tell the truth about each other, then what hope do we have for the challenges facing our country?“We need urgent answers on who exactly is running the show. The government needs to get a grip because the British people are paying the price for the prime minister’s incompetence.” More