Markus Andrews

Covid passes for entry into nightclubs and mass events will be introduced in Wales after a technical blunder saw a Tory politician fail to vote.Welsh Labour’s plans were expected to end in a tied vote after all three opposition parties vowed to vote against it.However, the proposals scraped through by 28 votes to 27 after Conservative MS Gareth Davies was unable to get onto Zoom to cast his vote remotely.Darren Millar, the MS for Clwyd West, could be heard trying to intervene on behalf of his colleague, according to WalesOnline.But he was told by presiding officer Elin Jones that all attempts to get him onto the relevant software had taken place.The Welsh government will press ahead with the plans next week despite calls for a re-vote.Asked about the close vote, first minister Mark Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It was an extraordinary moment, but what was really extraordinary was the fact that opposition parties were not prepared to support this simple measure which will help to keep people safe from coronavirus.”He added: “The vote is taken on the floor of the parliament, the way the vote is conducted is not for the government, that is for the parliament. It is members’ responsibilities to make sure they are in the chamber or on Zoom and 59 of 60 members managed to do that.”The Senedd was sitting in a hybrid format, with some of the 60 members present while others attended the session remotely.The Welsh Conservatives said the incident highlighted why significant votes should be held in person.“A number of members across political groups experienced technical difficulties with the voting system this evening, which demonstrates why the hybrid Parliament in Wales must come to an end,” a spokesperson said in a statement reported by WalesOnline.“We reaffirm our view that such significant votes should be held in person on the floor of the Senedd and Welsh Conservatives remain steadfastly opposed to the introduction of Covid passports.”The new rules, which come into force from Monday 11 October, will require people in Wales to use the NHS Covid pass to show their vaccination status or recent negative test result before attending certain events.It will be mandatory for entry to nightclubs, indoor non-seated events for more than 500 people, such as concerts, outdoor non-seated events for more than 4,000 people, and any setting or event with more than 10,000 people in attendance.Tuesday’s technical blunder was not the first mishap to change a Senedd vote. In 2006, the Welsh government was forced to hold a public inquiry into the ambulance service after health minister Brian Gibbons, who was opposed to the move, accidentally pressed the wrong button in the chamber when it was time to vote. More

Justice secretary Dominic Raab appeared to suggest misogyny can be “a woman against a man”, as he was grilled over the government’s plans to tackle violence against women.Boris Johnson has ruled out making misogyny a hate crime, arguing it would overload the justice system and make the fight against rape and domestic violence harder.The prime minister said he wanted the justice system to “enforce the existing laws” rather than introduce any new ones.Asked whether the government was taking misogyny seriously enough, Mr Raab told BBC Breakfast: “So I think insults, and of course misogyny, is absolutely wrong – whether it’s a man against a woman, or a woman against a man.”Presenter Sally Nugent challenged Mr Raab’s remarks: “You said misogyny is absolutely wrong whether it’s a man against a woman or a woman against a man – is that what you meant to say?”Mr Raab responded: “What I meant was, if we are talking about things below the level of public order offences of harassment, intimidation, which are rightly criminalised – if we are talking about, effectively, insults with a sexist basis – I don’t think that criminalising those sorts of things will deal with the problem that we have got at the heart of the Sarah Everard case.”The justice secretary also argued that there was no point in “trying to legislate away what is an enforcement problem”.He added: “Just criminalising insulting language – even if it’s misogynistic – does not deal with the intimidation, the violence and the much higher level of offence and damage and harm that we really ought to be laser-like focused in on.”Among the many people mocking Mr Raab online after he appeared to suggest misogyny could be directed against a man was former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal. He tweeted: “If you don’t know what misogyny is then you’re never going to find it.”The Lib Dems’ equalities spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said: “It’s little wonder the Conservatives are failing to tackle misogyny when their justice secretary doesn’t even seem to know what it is.”Mr Raab also rejected criticism over the Sarah Everard inquiry after MPs, campaigners and legal groups raised concerns that it is not on a statutory footing – meaning that it will rely on voluntary cooperation from the Metropolitan Police and cannot compel witnesses to give evidence.The justice secretary claimed witnesses would co-operate with the inquiry into the “systematic failures” that allowed Sarah Everard’s killer to be employed as a police officer.Mr Raab told Sky News that, “we are not going to have a problem getting to the truth of this”, and said he was confident police officers would co-operate with the review into murderer Wayne Couzens’ actions.Asked by LBC whether an inquiry without powers to compel witnesses would get to the bottom of the case, he said: “We’ve had inquiries [without statutory powers] that have got to the truth.”Arguing that the public want “swift action”, the minister added: “A statutory inquiry would be much more long and drawn-out”. More

Boris Johnson will declare he wants to move Britain to a “high wage” society on the same day as his government comes under fire for cutting the incomes of millions receiving benefits.His Conservative Party conference speech comes as reports suggest the party leader is only weeks away from signing-off on a minimum wage rise.The Times said the lowest earners on the so-called national living wage – the minimum wage paid to those over the age of 23 – could receive about £9.42 an hour, an increase of just over 5 per cent.Mr Johnson was pressed about a possible hike in the hourly floor rate by ITV News ahead of his speech, and did not rule out a rise, saying: “We will take guidance from the low pay commission, and we will see where we get to.”The Low Pay Commission (LPC) advisory body, set to submit its proposals by the end of October, estimated that its recommendation would be an increase to £9.42 an hour in a report earlier this year.Asked about the scale of the possible rise ahead, senior cabinet minister Dominic Raab told BBC Breakfast: “We will take any recommendations the [LPC] makes very seriously.”Any increase would be to the government-set national living wage, which is different from the voluntary living wage set by the Living Wage Foundation.Labour was critical that the prime minister’s speech comes on the same day that his government will carry out its cut to the £20 per week universal credit uplift, which was brought in at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.Sir Keir Starmer’s party plans to drive a van around the perimeter of conference venue Manchester Central during Mr Johnson’s speech, displaying a poster urging ministers to “cancel the cut” to the household incomes of millions of people.Mr Raab said on Wednesday that the government wanted to wean UK businesses off the “cheap drug of unskilled labour from abroad”.Asked about the end of universal credit uplift, the deputy PM said: “The £400 billion that the government has put in to supporting the economy, workers and the most vulnerable is just clearly unsustainable long term. The universal credit uplift was always going to be temporary.”As well as the furore around the benefits reduction, Wednesday’s closing speech comes against the backdrop of a supply chain crisis that has seen military drivers drafted in to deliver petrol and warnings of empty shelves in shops at Christmas.But despite consumer and industry concerns, Mr Johnson will defend his restrictions on foreign workers and insist there will be no return to the “same old broken model” of “uncontrolled immigration”.The PM brushed off concerns that increasing pay for lorry drivers and other shortage occupations will drive up prices in the shops – saying on Tuesday there is “no alternative” to wage-fuelled inflation.Mr Johnson will use his conference speech to say: “The answer is to control immigration, to allow people of talent to come to this country but not to use immigration as an excuse for failure to invest in people, in skills and in the equipment or machinery they need to do their jobs.”His goal is to move “towards a high wage, high skill, high productivity economy that the people of this country need and deserve, in which everyone can take pride in their work and the quality of their work”.One of the problems he will highlight is adult social care, which the Tories have promised to reform using money raised from a manifesto-busting 1.25 percentage-point rise in National Insurance.“We are dealing with the biggest underlying issues of our economy and society. The problems that no government has had the guts to tackle before,” he will say.The prime minister’s promise to “level up” parts of the country that had missed out on the economic success of London and the south-east was a key part of his pitch to voters in former Labour areas – the so-called Red Wall.But the Chesham and Amersham by-election defeat in June has caused concern among Tories about the focus on northern areas. Mr Johnson will attempt to bridge that gap by insisting that all parts of the UK can benefit from his plans.On levelling up, he will say, “helps to take the pressure off parts of the overheating south-east, while simultaneously offering hope and opportunity to those areas that have felt left behind”. More

Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey was captured singing “I’m had the time of my life” only an hour after the £20-a-week cut to universal credit came into force.The benefits minister was filmed partying at a Conference Party conference karaoke event around 1am on Wednesday – the day her department began cutting the incomes of millions of households.Labour condemned the timing of Ms Coffey’s revelry – pointing to the lyrics of Bill and McKenna Medley’s 1987 power ballad (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.Nadia Whittome MP said: “Do you know who aren’t having the time of their lives? The six million low-income families whose universal credit she’s just cut by £1,000 [a year].”Sir Keir Starmer’s party plans to drive a van around the perimeter of the conference venue in Manchester during Boris Johnson’s speech on Wednesday – displaying a poster urging ministers to “cancel the cut”.It came as Baroness Philippa Stroud – a former adviser to Iain Duncan Smith and chief executive of the Legatum Institute – called for a vote on the contentious cut, accusing the government of “putting our poorest people into poverty”She said research by the think-tank had concluded the decision to remove the £20-per-week uplift will push 840,000 people into poverty, including 290,000 children.“This is … a really bleak day for many, many families up and down the country,” Baroness Stroud told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“At this moment in time, MPs have not voted on this at all, it’s been a decision taken by the executive, so my intention is to bring a vote in the Lords, cross-party vote that would say to the House of Commons, think again on this issue.“Is this something we really want to do as a civilised nation, putting our poorest people into poverty is surely not the way forward as we come out of the pandemic?”Save the Children said one child every second will be affected by the widely opposed cut on average over the next month.But deputy prime minister Dominic Raab defended the cut as it came into force on Wednesday, insisting that the government could not afford to make the uplift permanent.“The £400 billion that the government has put in to supporting the economy, workers and the most vulnerable is just clearly unsustainable long term. The universal credit uplift was always going to be temporary,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Elsewhere, the senior cabinet minister Michael Gove was seen dancing with Tory MP Tom Tugendhat in a Manchester hotel on Tuesday night.Mr Gove showed off his now-familiar moves to a karaoke version of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody.He used his Tory conference speech on Tuesday to joke about being caught on camera at a nightclub in Aberdeen last month. “Dance like nobody’s watching they say. Well I did. But they were watching.”Boris Johnson made a reference to Mr Gove’s dancing at the start of his conference speech on Wednesday. “Wasn’t he brilliant my friends? … Let’s hear it for Jon Bon Gove-y!” More

France has been accused of stealing five million coronavirus vaccine doses destined for the UK.President Emmanuel Macron allegedly worked with EU chiefs to divert the large batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs to his country earlier this year.The vaccines were expected to arrive in the UK but were instead redirected from Holland at the eleventh hour, according to The Sun.The newspaper quoted senior government sources as saying the “outrageous” move could have cost lives if not for the UK’s successful rollout of the Pfizer jab.AstraZeneca boss Ruud Dobber had announced publicly on 22 March that a vaccine batch was expected to arrive in Britain from its Halix site in Holland.But it reportedly never arrived, having instead been diverted to the EU’s scheme.The Sun said it was also claimed France made a veiled threat to prime minister Boris Johnson that it would cut off supplies of Pfizer, which would have jeopardised Britain’s vaccine rollout.The alleged incident is said to have sparked a major row between Mr Johnson and his French counterpart.It came at a time when Mr Macron was criticising the AstraZeneca vaccine, claiming it was “quasi-ineffective” and telling reporters the jab “doesn’t work the way we were expecting to”.He also appeared to criticise the UK’s vaccine rollout strategy, which at the time had resulted in more people being given a first dose than any other European country.The European Union was simultaneously threatening to impose export controls on Covid-19 vaccines after a major row with AstraZeneca, which was accused of cutting initial deliveries to the bloc by up to 60 per cent.A government source told The Sun: “The French stole our vaccines at the same time as they were slagging them off in public and suggesting they weren’t safe to use.“It was an outrageous thing to do and not the action of an ally, which was made very clear to them.” More

Boris Johnson is to speak today at the Conservative party conference taking place in Manchester this week.Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivered his first in-person speech on Monday morning and Communities Secretary, Micheal Gove, also spoke at this conference this morning but all focus will be on the Prime Minister when he takes the stage today.When is Mr. Johnson’s speech?The official Conservative party agenda says that the Prime Minister will talk on Wednesday 6 at 11.30am.Where can I watch?We will be streaming the speech live on Independent TV. What will Mr Johnson speak about?The PM is expected to focus on a “change of direction” and “levelling up” of his party’s outlook, under their slogan – “build back better”.In a statement on Sunday, Mr Johnson said: “Build back better means we want things to change and improve as we recover.He spoke of the tackling the country’s long term challenges and people’s priories, such as “on social care, on supporting jobs, on climate change, tackling crime and levelling up.”He added that Tory ministers are “getting on with the job, with a strong and united team – making the tough decisions, focused on what really matters to people.”The PM is also expected to address the current fuel crisis, shortages of HGV drivers and the potential of empty shop shelves.Mr Johnson’s speech coincides with the cut of Universal Credit today by £20 a week, and comes in the weeks following a significant cabinet reshuffle. More

Food banks are expecting a surge in demand for their services and say vulnerable people will be plunged into poverty “almost overnight” because of a cut to Universal Credit.The £20-a week uplift, introduced at the start of the pandemic, is set to be scrapped despite fears hundreds of thousands of people will be “massively hit”. As an estimated six million of the UK’s poorest brace for the change to their incomes from Wednesday, groups that run food banks have shared their concerns over what this change will mean for their users. “We’re anticipating a huge surge in need for independent food banks as the impact of the cut to Universal Credit and cost of living increases take hold,” Sabine Goodwin from the Independent Food Aid Network told The Independent.“On top of this, many of our food banks are struggling to access food supply.” The co-ordinator at the group, which represents over 500 independent food banks in the UK, added: “It’s critical that the government reverses its decision on Universal Credit and ensures social security payments and wages match the cost of living so we can put an end to poverty and the need for food banks in the UK.”The Salvation Army also said it was bracing for a surge in demand for its food banks.“The government worked hard throughout the pandemic to protect people from financial hardship, but the loss of the furlough scheme and the Universal Credit uplift will plunge vulnerable people into poverty almost overnight,” Lieutenant-Colonel Dean Pallant from the charity and church said.The charity’s food bank in Keighley gave 3,600 people food parcels during the 12 months to March 2020, which members fear will get worse with the benefits cut. Meanwhile, Bradford Central Foodbank helped 2,500 people in just one month during the pandemic and manager Josie Barlow said many more will soon need support. She told the BBC: “People will be massively hit by the cut in Universal Credit. People going from £409 as a single person down to £323 a month. It is a 21 per cent cut in income.”She added. “Especially in winter with electricity bills, fuel prices are rising, that combined with the furlough scheme ending, it is going to really push so many more people to needing a foodbank.”Gary Stringer, a volunteer at the same foodbank who is on Universal Credit, told the BBC the weekly cut of £20 to the payment was a “big concern”. “I do worry about it because I’m trying to look for work at the moment. There is nothing available,” he said. From Wednesday, no assessments will include the uplift, meaning that from 13 October – a week later – no payments will be received that include the extra money.Boris Johnson is preparing to tell the Tory party conference his “levelling up” agenda is key to supporting left-behind communities.Ahead of this speech, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, defended the £20 weekly cut.“Of course the emergency support we have provided was because of the pandemic,” he told Sky News. “As we come through the pandemic, with youth unemployment going down, employment going up, we need to transition. We don’t want to see people reliant on the welfare trap.”But the change has faced criticism from charities, think tanks and unions from across the political spectrum and calls for the government to U-turn on the decision.The Whitehawk Foodbank in Brighton called for the £20 top-up to be reinstated “immediately”. It said it gave out a “staggering 3,689 parcels” last year and was “concerned this will increase again”. The Trussell Trust, which has a network of hundreds of food banks in the UK, also said it wanted to see the decision to cut Universal Credit by £20 a week reversed. A government spokesperson told the BBC: “As announced by the chancellor at the budget, the uplift to Universal Credit was always temporary. It was designed to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic, and it has done so.” They added: “Universal Credit will continue to provide vital support for those both in and out of work and it’s right that the government should focus on our plan for jobs, supporting people back into work and supporting those already employed to progress and earn more.”The Treasury has been contacted for comment by The Independent. Additional reporting by Press Association More

French fishermen have reportedly threatened to cut off crucial Christmas supplies to Britain in an escalation of the ongoing Brexit row.They warned that they will blockade the port of Calais and the Channel Tunnel if negotiations over fishing licences fail.Brits “will not have so many nice things to eat” at Christmas if the issues aren’t resolved, one French official said. Only 12 twelve small French boats have been granted the licence to fish in its territorial waters out of 47 applications. French fisherman have now accused the UK of failing to grant them enough permits to make a living. Olivier Lepretre, chief of the powerful northern France fisheries committee, told the Daily Mail:“If negotiating fails, we will stop all French and European products reaching the UK, and we will stop all British products reaching Europe. “Unless Boris backs down, the Brits will not have so many nice things to eat this Christmas. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”French Prime Minister Jean Castex told MPs on Tuesday that: “Britain does not respect its own signature.” “Month after month, the UK presents new conditions and delays giving definitive licences… this cannot be tolerated,” he said.Mr Castex also called on the EU to get “tougher” with the UK. His colleague, Europe minister, Clement Beaune, warned that Paris and Brussels would take “measures to put pressure on the United Kingdom” within days. Mr Beaune commented on the shortage of fuel in the UK, with a veiled threat about cutting off energy supply from France. He said: “We could imagine, on the subject of energy – the Channel Islands and the United Kingdom depend on the supply of energy and out ability to export it. “The United Kingdom thinks it can get along all by itself and then bash Europe. Since that doesn’t work, they escalate their aggressiveness. We will not be pushed around.”The row comes as Britain reels from the affects of multiple supply and labour shortages. The UK’s Brexit minister hit back at the comments from France on Tuesday, saying that it was “unreasonable” to suggest that the UK was acting in bad faith when it allocated post-Brexit fishing licences. The European Commission said it had “taken note” of the UK granting 12 out of 47 small boats a licence “at this stage and that further evidence could be provided for the remaining.” More