Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson’s government has been urged to end “secrecy” after it emerged that a Covid contract handed to a Conservative Party donor’s firm is still under wraps after 18 months.Clipper Logistics – whose boss has donated £730,000 to the Tories – secured a deal to deliver personal protective equipment (PPE) last year without facing any rival bids.Government figures show the deal for the firm’s services was renewed at £650,000 a month – which means the contract has cost the taxpayer an estimated £11m.Labour demanded the government comes clean and publishes the full details of the “secret” contract, as well as dozens of other Covid-related contracts which have yet to be published.Deputy leader Angela Rayner, said: “Ministers must publish this contract, and all other secret pandemic contracts, immediately.”The senior Labour MP added: “The Tories have spent billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on dodgy contracts for their mates. We have paid the bill for over two billion pieces of useless equipment and nearly a million pounds a day just for storing it.”Steve Parkin, executive chairman of Clipper Logistics, has given £730,000 to the Tory party since 2016 in eight separate donations, the Electoral Commission’s register shows.His firm initially won a three-month government contract worth £1.3m to take responsibility for the delivery of PPE to all NHS Trusts in March 2020.In a written answer to Labour, health minister Jo Churchill said the contract was then extended to £1.95m for another three months, followed by “monthly extensions at estimated values of £650,000”.The government has also confirmed that Clipper Logistics have “distributed all PPE since April 2020”, taking the total value of the contract since last spring to £11m.Labour has demanded that all details are published on the government’s contracts database, asking why ministers were still failing to be open “if there’s nothing to hide”.Amid an outcry over alleged cronyism, a court ruling in March found that 100 Covid contracts had not yet been released when Mr Johnson told MPs they were “on the record for everyone to see”.It followed a High Court ruling which found that the government had acted unlawfully by handing out contracts during the pandemic by failing to publish details in a timely way.Ministers have also faced flak over “eye-watering” levels of waste. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found in July that 2.1 billion items of PPE ntended for the NHS had been deemed unfit.And last month health minister Lord Bethell admitted the government was in dispute over £1.2bn worth of PPE deemed “substandard” or undelivered.The Good Law Project campaign group – which has taken legal action in bid to get Lord Bethell’s to hand over phone messages – said the contracts in question amounted to 10 per cent of the money spent on PPE at the peak of the pandemic.Repeating her call for an inquiry into how contracts were awarded during the pandemic, Ms Rayner said: “The public inquiry needs to start now, with full access to all contracts and documents, including all government business carried out on personal email and WhatsApp accounts.”The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said Clipper Logistics has been used as a sub-contractor by one of the NHS supply chain contractors.A spokesperson for the department said: “The Department of Health and Social Care has not awarded a contract to Clipper Logistics and has no contract to publish.” More

A Conservative councillor has been suspended from the party after being linked with a far-right, white nationalist organisation by an anti-racist campaign group.Worthing councillor Tim Wills was alleged to be a supporter of Patriotic Alternative (PA) – a group that claims to want to preserve the “indigenous population” of the UK.The organisation was founded by Mark Collett, a former publicity director for the British National Party (BNP), in 2019. The far-right group has also been accused of presenting migrants as a “threat to the survival of white society”.Cllr Wills, who represents Marine Ward, Worthing, joined a regional PA chat group on the messaging platform Telegram in June 2021, according to Hope Not Hate, which published material allegedly posted by the councillor.Cllr Wills allegedly discussed “white genocide” during the chat – a conspiracy theory that suggests white people are being “replaced” by non-whites in western nations.“My view is Covid is a loss-maker for us,” he reportedly posted. “We just need to concentrate on white genocide … because many of our white race are convinced about vaccines, but not about our replacement, and need to be informed about this?”In a second message, he allegedly told other members of the group chat to “remember the 14 words” – referring to a white supremacist slogan, which states: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”Mr Wills was also claimed to have criticised the Conservative Party in the group chat, saying the party was “the worst for talking the talk and never delivering”.“Trying to infiltrate and influence those in power is our initial best way forward as we have no chance of political power any time soon, sadly,” he allegedly said. “My view is Tories are best of a rotten lot as still have a right-wing minority who are on side.”A spokesperson for the Conservative Party told The Independent: “Cllr Tim Wills has been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation.”Nick Lowles, CEO at Hope Not Hate, said: “It is frankly abhorrent that a councillor representing the Conservative Party in Worthing not only actively supports Patriotic Alternative – an antisemitic, white nationalist organisation – but has openly endorsed racist conspiracy theories.“The fact that Tim Wills believes that there is a ‘right-wing minority’ within the party who support his views could act as a wake-up call to those who still deny the scale of the issue facing the Conservatives when it comes to racism and Islamophobia within its ranks.“It is clear that Tim Wills should be immediately expelled from the Conservative Party and lose the whip as a councillor, but it is also time for the Conservative Party, as the party of government, to take serious steps to tackle the threat of far-right extremism within its ranks.”According to Sussex Live, Cllr Tim Wills said “No comment for me to make” when approached outside his home. The Independent has also contacted the councillor for comment. More

Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries has been accused of being detached from “the real world” after she claimed the universal credit cut will not push anyone into poverty.The £20-a-week cut to millions of incomes risks 500,000 people in the UK falling into poverty, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has estimated.And the Legatum Institute – a right-wing think tank led by Tory peer Baroness Stroud – has warned that more than 800,000 people are at risk of falling below the poverty line.But Ms Dorries claimed “nobody” in Britain would be made poor by the government’s decision to axe the £86-a-month uplift.Asked by journalist Owen Jones how many face poverty, Ms Dorries said: “Nobody. Nobody is … No, no, no, because no, Owen – of course not.”The Tory MP added: “Because what we’re doing, what we’re doing is giving people a step out. By lifetime skills guarantee, by all the money being invested.”The newly-appointed culture secretary was then pulled away by an adviser in the behind-the-scenes video on the Tory conference.Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Ms Dorries’ comments “show just how far away the Conservative Party is from the real world”.The opposition MP added: “Charities and food banks have been warning for months that taking £1,000 away from millions of families in the midst of a Conservative cost of living crisis will push children into poverty.”It follows outrage over a video showing work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey singing “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” only an hour after the £20-a-week cut came into force.The benefits minister was filmed partying at a conference karaoke event in the small hours of Wednesday – the day her department began cutting the incomes of 5 millions households.Her cabinet colleague Nadhim Zahawi said on Thursday that it was “unfair” to link the minister’s karaoke session and the unfortunate lyrics of the power ballad to the cutting of universal credit.Labour called the timing of her performance “a disgrace”, but the education secretary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that “parties and dance-offs and singing” is a feature of all party conferences.Mr Zahawi added: “I think [it’s] slightly unfair to sort of link this with what we’re trying to do to help the most needy with that half a billion that we announced just as we were getting to party conference.”The universal credit row comes as a Tory MP defended branding politicians’ £80,000 pay packets “really grim”.Sir Peter Bottomley has been criticised for comments made in an interview with the New Statesman, where he claimed it was “desperately difficult” for newer parliamentarians to survive on the amount they are paid.But he told radio station LBC on Thursday that he stood by his remarks, before claiming that those who make money as “a good teacher, a good social worker or a good trade union official” would be “significantly worse off” if they went into politics. More

A fundraiser has been set up poking fun at a Tory MP who used a media interview to complain about his £82,000 salary amid a cost of living crisis.Sir Peter Bottomley, the Conservative MP for Worthing West and the Father of the House of Commons, described MPs’ pay packets as “really grim”, despite their wages putting them in the top 5 per cent of earners in the UK.He called for members’ salaries to be boosted to somewhere in the region of £100,000, saying the situation was “desperately difficult” for newer MPs, adding: “I don’t know how they manage”.Now, a Gofundme user going by the name of Simon Harris has shown his concern for Sir Peter by attempting to raise £20,000 to boost his earnings.“Support this Tory MP struggling on £80k a year,” the page description reads.“I am raising £20,000 for Sir Peter Bottomley who has courageously admitted that he is ‘struggling’ on the current MP’s salary of £80,000 per year,” it adds.The page was created on Wednesday and has so far raised £70 from six generous donors.In an interview with the New Statesman, published on the day when the £20 uplift to Universal Credit was axed, Sir Peter called for MPs to get a pay rise,  pointing out that their salaries do not cover expenses.He suggested taxpayers should foot the bill for the things the rest of the public has to pay for, such as food and travel.The median salary in the UK is just over £31,000, according to the Office for National Statistics, while those paid in excess of £80,000 are in the top 5 per cent of earners.An increase of £18,000 a year to MPs’ salaries would represent a rise of almost 22 per cent.The government this year offered NHS staff a rise of 3 per cent.Speaking on LBC Radio on Thursday morning, Sir Peter defended his comments and suggested he would be in favour of slashing numbers in the Commons in order to increase MPs’ pay.He also claimed that “a good teacher, a good social worker or a good trade union official” would be “significantly worse off” if they went into politics.According to the government’s Get Into Teaching website, a qualified teacher working in inner London can earn a maximum of £50,953 and up to £41,604 for the rest of England and Wales.The median salary for a social workers is £37,000 according to payscale.com.Trade union officials can earn between £30,000 to £80,000, according to the National Careers Service. More

Boris Johnson jokes about number of children Jacob Rees-Mogg has during Tory conferenceThe EU Commission is not open to renegotiating the Northern Ireland protocol, its vice-president has said.Boris Johnson’s government continues to blame that section of the Withdrawal Agreement for trade friction between Great Britain and the territory. “We will not renegotiate the protocol as the UK requested,” Maros Sefcovic told a virtual event on Thursday.Elsewhere, the prime minister’s conference speech about his vision for a “high-wage economic revival” has been condemned as “economically illiterate” bluster by a leading think tank.Amid severe staff shortages widely blamed on Brexit, Mr Johnson rebuked businesses for reaching for the “same old lever of uncontrolled immigration” and suggested British workers should be prioritised instead.After he spoke to Tory delegates at the party’s conference in Manchester on Wednesday, the free market Adam Smith Institute criticised his words as “vacuous and economically illiterate”.The organisation added that it was “reprehensible” for him to suggest that asylum-seekers make the country poorer. “This dog whistle shows that this government doesn’t care about pursuing evidence-based policies,” it said.Show latest update

1633617306GoFundMe page set up for Tory MP after salary complaints A GoFundMe page has been set up for a Tory MP who complained his salary was too low. It has so far received £70 in donations.Peter Bottomley MP recently told the New Statesman wants politicians’ pay to rise from £80,000 to £100,000. The fundraising effort, set up in jest by Simon Harris, hopes to bridge this gap. “Support this Tory MP struggling on £80k a year,” the page description reads.“I am raising £20,000 for Sir Peter Bottomley who has courageously admitted that he is ‘struggling’ on the current MP’s salary of £80,000 per year,” it adds.Rory Sullivan7 October 2021 15:351633615806No return to school ‘bubbles’, education minister promises There will be no return to the “bubble” system in schools, the education minister has said. Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News: “I don’t want to return to bubbles. Because actually you saw the fall off in attendance which really does harm mental wellbeing, mental health of children.”His comment comes after roughly 200,000 children missed classes last week due to Covid-19. Rory Sullivan7 October 2021 15:101633614606Minister’s karaoke song choice ‘insensitive’, claims Khan It was “insensitive” of a minister to sing (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life as a cut to universal credit came into effect, the mayor of London has said.Sadiq Khan spoke out after it emerged that work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey sang the ballad early on Wednesday in Manchester.He said: “All of us are entitled to have a good time and let our hair down.“There’s nothing wrong with going to karaoke and singing accordingly.“I think it’s a bit insensitive to sing a song – having the time of your life – on the eve of these cuts.“I’m hoping it was just an oversight, I’m hoping it’s nothing more than that. I’m hoping it’s not the Secretary of State deliberately being insensitive, and I think I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.”Rory Sullivan7 October 2021 14:501633613390A social worker can earn more than an MP, claims Tory politician “A good social worker” can earn more than a politician, a Tory MP has complained.Peter Bottomley, the longest-serving male MP, caused a backlash after he suggested that politician’s salaries were “desperately difficult” for some of his peers. The Father of the House said he had not expected the New Statesman to run his comments.However, he later told LBC he stood by them, adding that “a good teacher, a good social worker or a good trade union official” would be “significantly worse off” if they became a politician. Shadow child poverty secretary Wes Streeting said he was “infuriated” by Mr Bottomley’s initial remarks, particularly since they coincided with the government’s cuts to universal credit, which experts predicts will cause tens of thousands of children to fall into poverty. “This is my problem with the Tories – it’s not that they’re evil, bad people who go into work every day thinking ‘How can we plunge more kids into poverty?’ but, as Peter Bottomley‘s comments show, they just don’t know what life is like for a hell of a lot of people in this country and they make policies that are actively hurting people who are going out, working hard, trying to make the best for their family and are really struggling.”Rory Sullivan7 October 2021 14:291633611906Food bank users see little chance of ‘high wage’ economyBoris Johnson promised yesterday to build a “high wage, high skill” Britain.But food bank users see little chance of this happening. Zoe Tidman heard the thoughts of a group at a food bank in south-west London: Rory Sullivan7 October 2021 14:051633610732Labour ‘better on business taxes’ than the government, says CBI boss Labour is looking “better on business taxes” than the Conservatives, the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said.Speaking at a CBI-led event on Thursday, Tony Danker said: “The crisis we have is every single piece of business taxation seems to be going up and I don’t think that’s a great plan for growth.”He also suggested that there was a “serious pressure on wages” as the labour market is as “hot as hell”.His remarks come after Keir Starmer’s party promised to scrap “unpopular” business rates, while the government raised the national insurance levy. Rory Sullivan7 October 2021 13:451633609613Leader of Welsh opposition takes time off to recover from Covid The leader of the Welsh Conservatives is taking time to recover from coronavirus, he has said.In a statement, Andrew RT Davies, said: “As some of you are aware, over the past fortnight I’ve been fighting a dose of the flu and subsequently coronavirus.“I’m starting to recover but I will admit it’s knocked me for six and has had an impact on my mental well-being.“Like many men, I’ve always believed I had a shield of invincibility, and like many who have struggled, I’ve contemplated whether I should make this public.“However, as a leader, I believe you should set an example and I want to be open and honest – in the good times and the bad – as I know many people have struggled and will do with their mental health.Paul Davies will assume his duties during his absence.Rory Sullivan7 October 2021 13:261633608122Companies hike pricesFirms are increasingly passing on soaring costs to consumers as the supply chain crisis wreaks havoc across the economy, with official figures revealing that one in 10 firms has hiked prices.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said its latest business survey showed nearly a third of companies have faced a higher-than-normal increase in the cost of materials, goods and services – with construction, services and manufacturing firms the worst hit.As firms battle against rising costs of everything from energy to staff wages, they are resorting to increasing price tags to consumers to weather the inflation pressures.The latest ONS survey showed that 10% of businesses reported increasing the price of goods and services in early September – up from 8% in mid-August and 4% in late December.Of these, nearly a quarter (23%) were retailers across the wholesale and consumer-facing sectors and 25% in the manufacturing industry.Boris Johnson said this week inflation fears were “unfounded”. Jane Dalton7 October 2021 13:021633607460EU Northern Ireland proposals ‘very far-reaching’New proposals on the Northern Ireland Protocol proposed by the EU will focus on animal checks, customs, medicine supplies and providing a voice for Northern Irish representatives in the EU, European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic has said.“It’s a very simple proposal but from our perspective these would be really, I would say, very far-reaching proposals,” he said.“I sincerely hope that it will be seen as such by our UK counterparts and they engage constructively in our discussion, because I think we have to move from the tough political rhetoric, from the threats we hear all the time, down to the business that actually solves the problems.”He added: “We want Northern Ireland to benefit from the access to the biggest trading bloc in the world. We want to make sure that there will be no hard border.“The protocol is not the problem. On the contrary, it is the only solution we have.“Failing to apply it will not make problems disappear, but simply take away the tools to solve them.”Jane Dalton7 October 2021 12:511633606334Supreme Court ruling ‘deals blow to SNP’s indyref2 plans’Nicola Sturgeon’s aim of a second referendum on Scottish independence without consent from Westminster has been dealt a blow by a Supreme Court ruling stating that Holyrood overreached its powers by trying to introduce two new bills that were incompatible with UK law, according to unionist legal experts. Matt Mathers reports:Jane Dalton7 October 2021 12:32 More

Nicola Sturgeon’s bid for a second referendum on Scottish independence without consent from Westminster has been dealt a blow by a Supreme Court ruling stating that Holyrood overreached its powers by attempting to introduce two new bills that were incompatible with UK law, unionist legal experts have said.The Scottish National Party brought forward two bills relating to children’s rights and local government, both of which were passed by MSPs on 16 March ahead of Scotland’s elections.But lawyers for the UK government had raised concerns about the legality of the proposed legislation. Officials in Whitehall suggested amendments to the bills but these were rejected by the Scottish government.In a 34-page judgement issued on Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the bills were “outside of the legislative competence of the Scottish parliament”, citing the 1998 Scotland Act which governs devolution.Lord Reed, the court’s Scottish president, gave the sole judgment, with which four other senior judges unanimously agreed. The judgement said the bills “will return to the Scottish parliament so that these issues can receive further consideration.”Unionist constitutional experts have claimed the case, brought by lawyers for the attorney general, Tory MP and QC Suella Braverman, makes it harder for Ms Sturgeon to call for a unilateral poll on independence.The SNP has ramped up its campaign to break away from the UK after winning an historic fourth term at the Holyrood elections in March. Earlier this year  the party formed a coalition with Scotland’s Greens, which is also pro-independence, giving nationalists a majority at Holyrood.Publishing details of the power sharing arrangement in August, both parties pledged to hold a second poll on the constitutional question within five years and preferably by the end of 2023.UK prime minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said his government will not grant a second vote following the divisive 2014 campaign. Power to call a referendum resides at Westminster.A defiant Ms Sturgeon has said she will hold a “legal” poll with or without consent from London, arguing Mr Johnson is “not entitled to stand in the way of the democratic choices of the people of Scotland”.But unionist legal experts have claimed Wednesday’s ruling could undermine those attempts.Adam Tomkins, professor of constitutional law at Glasgow University and a former Scottish Conservative MSP, said the judgment had undermines the lawfulness of any future referendum bill.The ruling did nothing to harm children’s rights in Scots law but may well prove to torpedo any argument that Holyrood can legislate solo for an indyref2 bill”.Pamela Nash, chief executive of Scotland in Union, said: “This ruling is a reminder to the SNP government, which wants to waste more taxpayers’ money on a court battle over a second referendum, that it should instead focus on using its extensive existing powers and stop trying to undermine devolution.”John Swinney, the SNP deputy first minister, said the ruling highlighted the limitation of devolution and vowed that the protections in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Bill would go ahead.“While we fully respect the court’s judgment and will abide by the ruling, we cannot help but be bitterly disappointed,” he said.“It makes plain that we are constitutionally prohibited from enacting legislation that the Scottish parliament unanimously decided was necessary to enshrine and fully protect the rights of our children.”The Supreme Court ruled that four parts of the children’s bill and two provisions in the local government one were incompatible with UK law.In an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, Ms Sturgeon said it would be “unthinkable” for Mr Johnson to deny Scots another say on independence.“I can’t look ahead and tell you exactly how this constitutional impasse is going to resolve itself, but it will resolve itself — and it will resolve itself on the side of democracy, because actually, the alternative is pretty unthinkable,” she said. More

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said face masks could be made mandatory in England’s schools again – but ruled out a return to the “bubble” system to deal with Covid cases.More than 200,000 pupils were estimated by the government to have missed classes last week due to the coronavirus – up two thirds on the previous week.Mr Zahawi ruled out a return to the “bubbles”, which classes and year groups sent home for ten days if one pupil in a group tests positive for the virus.“I don’t want to return to bubbles,” the minister told Sky News on Thursday. “Because actually you saw the fall off in attendance which really does harm mental wellbeing, mental health of children.”The recently-appointed education secretary added: “I don’t want to return to that. My priority is to protect education and keeps schools open and children at school.”However, Mr Zahawi did confirm that the government’s contingency plan for the winter could see face coverings made mandatory in England’s schools once again.“We have got a contingency plan as you would expect me to do … it contains lots of things, including wearing masks, absolutely,” he said.Despite Mr Zahawi’s reluctance to re-introduce the strictest Covid measures, dozens of schools up are said to be bringing back masks to combat a deal in Covid cases among pupils.Schools across the country – including London, Greater Manchester and Cumbria – have told students to wear masks again in communal areas due to a rise in cases in school or the local area. Some councils, including Devon and Cornwall, have also asked pupils to wear face coverings in schools this term. The government says local public health directors may advise schools to “temporarily reintroduce” stricter measures if there is a “substantial increase” in Covid cases in its setting or they are in local areas targeted for extra support.But Geoff Barton from the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) told The Independent: “There is nothing which prevents schools and colleges taking their own decisions to use face coverings as part of their risk management plans, and some may well have decided to do so taking into account the circumstances in their context.” Last month, headteachers told The Independent they were imposing their own stricter versions of the government’s test and trace system in a bid to prevent outbreaks and further disruption.National guidance stopped recommending face masks in communal areas in secondary schools in May, while children have not been required to isolate after being identified as a close contact of a Covid case since August. Earlier this week, ASCL called the latest statistics on Covid-related absences in schools “grim”. More than 100,000 pupils in England were out of school last week with a confirmed case of Covid-19, according to government figures.In total, the government estimated 204,000 pupils in England were absent due to a Covid-related reason. which includes a positive test, suspected case and school closures, on 30 September – a 67 per cent jump compared to two weeks before.The National Education Union’s vice president Louise Atkinson said a growing number of schools had brought back face coverings and social distancing. “We fully support any schools bringing back such measures,” she said.It comes as the education secretary admitted there had been problems with the supply of CO2 monitors being rolled out to schools.Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Zahawi said: “So we’ve had several thousand delivered. By the end of this month we’ll be touching sort of 80-90,000, and then through November, we scale up to all 300,000 will be delivered.”Asked why the delivery had taken so long, the minister said: “I think it’s – obviously I’ve only been in department for two weeks – but I think it’s a combination of supply and making sure we’ve got supply, and then working with schools to see how many they need in each school. But we are ramping up through this month and next month.” More

Even the “Brexit optimists” on our panel agreed that the prime minister’s plan to drive up wages was “for the birds”. Emily Carver of the Institute of Economic Affairs said it was possible that wages in some shortage sectors, such as lorry drivers, might rise, but that Brexit was unlikely to lead to higher earnings for the whole economy.Julian Jessop, who admitted that he was unusual as an economist in supporting leaving the EU, agreed, although he thought there might be benefits from lower regulation costs and non-EU trade in the long term.Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London, said that there was little evidence yet of wage increases even in areas such as hospitality, where labour shortages have been acute. And he made the point that if wages did rise, the money would have to come from somewhere, most likely from companies putting up prices, in which case people overall would be no better off.The panel agreed that labour shortages were largely the result of coronavirus lockdowns, and affected most countries in the world – workers going home to be close to family and often finding other jobs. Britain may be more affected partly because we relied on foreign workers more, and partly because Brexit makes it harder to import new workers to replace the ones we have lost.But the high price of natural gas has nothing to do with Brexit, as Anna Isaac, The Independent’s economics editor, explained. That is mostly to do with the world economy bouncing back unexpectedly sharply from the Covid recession, compounded by labour shortages and supply problems.To watch the event in full play the video below Brexit: Exploring the hidden costsMany Independent readers who joined the event demanded to know if there were any benefits to Brexit, and our pro-Brexit panellists did their best to point to sovereignty regained and to the speed of the vaccine programme. Some readers asked if we thought that the hardships caused by Brexit would change the minds of enough voters to reopen the question. The problems of pig farmers, who have had to start killing and burning their stock because of a shortage of abattoir workers, are striking, particularly as farmers tended to be strongly supportive of Brexit.Sign up to John Rentoul’s View from Westminster newsletter for free by clicking here I said I thought it was unlikely that there would be any appetite among any politicians for reversing Brexit, and that it was hard to imagine the Labour Party even proposing to renegotiate the terms of the EU trade deal. So far, Keir Starmer has talked only of making the existing deal work better.My thanks to all our panellists for taking part in what was an interesting discussion, solidly grounded in fact rather than rhetoric. If you weren’t able to attend the event, I would say it would be well worth watching the recording. More