Markus Andrews

All electricity in the UK should be produced from clean sources by 2035, prime minister Boris Johnson has announced.The target means a rapid switch from the remaining coal and gas-fired power stations to wind, solar and nuclear energy within 15 years, with fossil fuels used only with carbon capture and storage technology to avoid greenhouse gas emissions.Environmentalist group Greenpeace UK welcomed the new target, but said that the transition away from climate change fuels would be made “slower and more expensive” because of the government’s insistence on continuing to make nuclear part of Britain’s future energy mix.And Liberal Democrats accused the Conservatives of “dropping enough balls to fill a creche” on clean energy, pointing to official figures showing renewables growth slowing sharply in the last six years, after quadrupling under the coalition.Mr Johnson’s initiative comes after the government set a goal of ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 as part of a drive for net-zero emissions by 2050.The prime minister is hoping to encourage other nations to commit to net-zero targets at the crucial COP26 climate summit which he will chair in Glasgow next month, with the aim of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.Speaking on a visit to a Network Rail site during the Conservative conference in Manchester, Mr Johnson said: “We can do for our entire energy production by 2035 what we’re doing with internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. “From 2030, you won’t be able to buy any more a new hydrocarbon-fuelled internal combustion engine car and we’re going to move either to EVs (electric vehicles) or vehicles powered by hydrogen or clean power of one kind or another. “And that will make a huge difference to our CO2 output, to controlling climate change, to the planet, but it will also put the UK at the forefront of this amazing new industry of clean vehicles. “And what we’re also saying is that by 2035, looking at the progress we’re making in wind power – where we lead the world now in offshore wind – looking at what we can do with other renewable sources, carbon capture and storage with hydrogen potentially, we think that we can get to complete clean energy production by 2035.” The prime minister said a shift to renewable energy sources by 2035 would protect consumers from fluctuating import prices for oil and gas. “The advantage of that is that it will mean that, for the first time, the UK is not dependent on hydrocarbons coming from overseas with all the vagaries in hydrocarbon prices and the risk that poses for people’s pockets and for the consumer,” he said. “We will be reliant on our own clean power generation, which will help us also to keep costs down.”Greenpeace UK chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: “All senior politicians have now realised that gas needs to be taken out of the electricity system. That realisation is to be welcomed, as is the 2035 decarbonisation target. “But the government remains unhealthily attached to nuclear technology, hoping against all experience that it will improve to the point where it becomes competitive with renewables. “As we have learned over the last 70 years, nuclear just doesn’t get cheaper. The case for large-scale reactors is weakening day by day as it becomes more and more obvious that the future of energy is a decentralised, flexible grid that makes use of new storage technologies whose costs are falling sharply, as well as cheap and rapidly deployable renewables. “Trying to prop up the nuclear industry will just make that transition slower and more expensive.”Lib Dem energy spokesperson Wera Hobhouse pointed to Business Department figures showing UK renewables capacity grew almost fourfold from 8 to 31GW between 2009 and 2015, but had since increased by little more than 50 per cent to 48GW.“The Conservatives have utterly neglected the UK renewables industry to the point where coal power stations are being fired up,” she said. “It’s insulting that the prime minister is talking a good game on green electricity whilst families are left feeling the pinch this winter, thanks in no small part to the UK’s overreliance on gas and Government inaction on renewables.” More

A Conservative party donor who helped fund Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign was involved in a major corruption scandal, according to an investigation into a trove of leaked financial documents.Mohamed Amersi reportedly advised Swedish telecoms giant Telia on a £162m deal with the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former ruler Islam Karimov – a payment later described by the US authorities as a “bribe”.The Swedish company was later fined £700m by the US authorities over the deal and accepted that the money given to Gulnara Karimova was a “corrupt payment”.Mr Amersi’s name featured in the massive leak of financial documents known as the “Pandora papers”, which allegedly tie world leaders to secret stores of wealth.The Tory donor was involved in the controversial payment to Ms Karimova using a Gibraltar-based offshore company in 2010, according to an investigation by BBC Panorama and The Guardian.Mr Amersi’s lawyers have denied that he “knowingly” helped facilitate any corrupt payments and had “no reason” to believe the money given to Ms Karimova might be a bribe.They said underlying arrangements for the deal were in place two years before his involvement.Chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Monday that the HMRC will inspect the leaked Pandora Papers, the documents arranged by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposing the secret financial dealings of some of the world’s most powerful people.Asked if he had ever benefited from an offshore arrangement, he told Sky News: “No. I haven. I’ve seen these things overnight … and of course HMRC will look through those to see if there’s anything we can learn.”Asked if London’s reputation as a centre for tax avoidance was a source of shame, the chancellor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s a source of shame because actually our track record on this issue is very strong.Mr Sunak also told the BBC that the Tory Party follows the law by carrying out all required “compliance checks” on donors.Mr Amersi – who was at the centre of an alleged “cash for access” row in the summer – has given nearly £525,000 to the party since 2018, Electoral Commission records show.He revealed in July that a group of wealthy Tory donors known as the “advisory board” had been developed to connect the party’s biggest financial backers with ministers.A client of Tory co-chair Ben Eillot’s concierge company Quintessentially, Mr Amersi said the donors’ group worked in a similar way to the private firm. “One needs to cough up £250,000 per annum or be a friend of Ben,” he told the Financial Times.Daniel Bruce, chief executive at Transparency International UK, said the latest allegations show due diligence on major donations should go beyond “the box ticking exercise” of finding the donor on the electoral roll.“These allegations add further weight to the case to reform regulation of political donations in the UK. There is a clear and growing consensus that the current rules controlling the money in British politics are out-of-date and in need of urgent reform,” he said.The ICIJ said the dump of 12 million files are linked to about 35 current and former national leaders, and more than 330 politicians and public officials around the world.Tony and Cherie Blair avoided paying £312,000 in tax on the purchase of a London property by acquiring an offshore company, the leaked papers reportedly show.But in a tweeted statement, the Tony Blair Institute said the premises were acquired from “an offshore company which the Blairs had had nothing to do with”.It added: “[Cherie Blair] brought it onshore. No stamp duty was payable because it was the sale of a company. But capital gains tax – likely to be much more than the stamp duty – will of course be payable when it is resold.“The allegation that [the Blairs] avoided tax is therefore completely false. They have always paid their taxes in full and never used offshore avoidance schemes of any kind.”Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah was alleged to have used offshore accounts to spend more than £74m on luxury homes in the UK and the US.DLA Piper, a London law office representing Abdullah, told the consortium of media outlets that he had “not at any point misused public monies or made any use whatsoever of the proceeds of aid or assistance intended for public use.” More

The Conservative Party has been urged to return hundreds of thousands of pounds to a major political donor following claims he was involved in a telecoms corruption scandal.Mohamed Amersi’s name featured in the massive leak of financial documents known as the “Pandora papers”, which allegedly tie world leaders to secret stores of wealth.The Tory donor advised Swedish telecoms firm Telia on a £162m deal with the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former ruler in 2010, according to the BBC and The Guardian – a payment later described by US authorities as a “bribe”.Mr Amersi’s lawyers have denied that he “knowingly” helped facilitate any corrupt payments and had “no reason” to believe money given to Gulnara Karimova might be a bribe.Boris Johnson said on Monday that Mr Amersi had been properly “vetted” before the party accepted his donations – but Labour said the money should now be returned.“It’s really concerning that the Conservatives have accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds from a man who appears to be closely linked to one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals,” said Labour chair Anneliese Dodds.“This is not the first time that Mohamed Amersi has been embroiled in controversy. The Conservatives should return the money he donated to them and come clean about who else is getting exclusive access to the prime minister and the chancellor in return for cash.”Mr Amersi – who was at the centre of an alleged “cash for access” row in the summer – has given nearly £525,000 to the party since 2018, Electoral Commission records show.He revealed in July that a group of wealthy Tory donors known as the “advisory board” had been developed to connect the party’s biggest financial backers with ministers.Responding to news about Mr Amersi and the Pandora papers, Mr Johnson told reporters: “I see that story today. But all I can say on that one is all these donations are vetted in the normal way in accordance with rules that were set up under a Labour government … We vet them the whole time.”Rishi Sunak also deflected questions about Mr Amersi – saying the party had carried out a series of “compliance checks” on all donors. He also said the HMRC will “look through” the Pandora papers “to see if there’s anything we can learn.”Asked if London’s reputation as a centre for tax avoidance was a source of shame, the chancellor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s a source of shame because actually our track record on this issue is very strong.”Mr Sunak also said tax avoidance was a global problem and claimed the UK was leading the world in “improving transparency”.Meanwhile, the Tony Blair Institute has responded to allegations that Tony and Cherie Blair avoided paying £312,000 in tax on the purchase of a London property, after they were named in the Pandora papers’ leaks.In a tweeted statement, the former Labour prime minister’s institute said the office premises were acquired from “an offshore company which the Blairs had had nothing to do with”.It added: “[Cherie Blair] brought it onshore. No stamp duty was payable because it was the sale of a company. But capital gains tax – likely to be much more than the stamp duty – will of course be payable when it is resold.“The allegation that [the Blairs] avoided tax is therefore completely false. They have always paid their taxes in full and never used offshore avoidance schemes of any kind.”Following the release of financial papers, the Crown Estate said that it was looking into the £67m purchase of a London property from a company which, The Guardian said, had acted as a “front” for family of Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev.A spokesman for the Crown Estate said: “Before our purchase of 56-60 Conduit Street, we conducted checks including those required by UK law. At the time we did not establish any reason why the transaction should not proceed. Given the potential concerns raised, we are looking into the matter.”Duncan Hames, policy director at the campaign group Transparency International UK, said the disclosures should act as a “wake up call” for Mr Johnson’s government to deliver on measures to tackle “dirty money”.“The UK must redouble its efforts in tackling illicit finance, bringing in long overdue transparency reforms to reveal who really owns property here as well as resourcing regulators and law enforcement to clamp down on rogue professionals and corrupt cash held in the UK,” the campaigner said. More

Children could be asked to wear Covid face masks in classrooms again if cases of the virus surge over winter, Nadhim Zahawi has suggested.The education secretary said the measure is part of contingency plans being drawn up by his department to ensure lessons continue over the coming months.His comments came after figures published over the weekend suggested one in 20 secondary-age children in England were infected with the virus last week.The Covid rate, which came from Office for National Statistics data, was the highest of any age group reported since the pandemic struck in March 2020.Children are classed as very low risk and their chances of becoming seriously ill are extremely rare.Speaking at a Conservative Party fringe event hosted by the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange on Sunday, Mr Zahawi said his priority was to ensure children don’t miss out on crucial lessons. He said: “On face masks, you know we have contingency plans in the department.“If we see further disruption my very strong focus has to be to protect education.”He added: “We have got contingency plans to make sure that education remains open because, actually, what they told us is they really value being back at school with their schoolmates, in front of a teacher learning, and letting those creative juices flow.”Face coverings and masks had been recommended in schools following the return of pupils to the classroom in March. But they were scrapped on 17 May as Covid restrictions began to ease as part of the UK’s roadmap out of lockdown.Critics of children wearing masks in schools said they disrupted learning by obstructing communication. Teachers, however, warned the decision to remove face coverings was hard to reconcile with the evidence on safety.Masks do not offer full protection against the virus but they do help to limit its spread, multiple studies have shown. More

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has declined to rule out a hike in income tax ahead of the next election or whether the government will allow councils to increase bills in order to pay for social care.It comes after the Local Government Association (LGA) warned that council tax may have to rise to plug a black hole in social care, claiming that authorities in England face extra cost pressures of almost £8 billion by 2024/5 “just to keep vital local services running at today’s levels”.Boris Johnson is also “acutely aware” of the state of local authorities’ finances – depleted during the Covid crisis – and is mulling proposals to increase the social care element of council tax, according to The Times.Quizzed on whether he could guarantee the public won’t see a rise in council tax, the chancellor told Sky News: “Social care is funded by a max of different ways — one way is through local taxes, like council tax.“Later in the year, we have something called the local government finance settlement, where the secretary of state for local government sets out all the plans for local government for the coming year.”But, he said, it wouldn’t be “right for me to pre-empt that”, adding: “What people should know is we want to put more money into social care that’s why we took the decision we did [to increase national insurance]”.But with a looming increase in national insurance in April 2022, rising energy bills, the decision by ministers to end the £20-per-week universal credit uplift, and the end of the furlough scheme, Labour is likely to seize on the comments.Describing the manifesto-busting decision to increase national insurance contributions from April 2022 — which will later become and NHS and social care levy — Mr Sunak added: “No chancellor wants to do that.”“But just remember why we did that — that was to make sure our NHS could get the significant resources that it needs to help recover strongly from coronavirus and also alongside that to usher in some reform to social care that governments have ducked for decades.” In a separate interview on BBC Breakfast ahead of his speech to the Conservative conference, Mr Sunak also declined to rule out hiking income tax ahead of the next election.“Recently we did make a significant announcement on tax and it was a difficult decision to make, especially for a Conservative chancellor and a Conservative prime minister, but we took that decision because we wanted to make sure the NHS got the significant funds it requires to help recover strongly from coronavirus.”Elsewhere, the chancellor echoed comments from a recent interview, conceding that supply chains may still face disruption at Christmas, but insisted the government was trying to “mitigate” the problem.“As we’ve said, we’re seeing supply disruption, not just here but in lots of different places, and there are things we can try and mitigate, and we are,” Mr Sunak told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“But we can’t wave a magic wand. There’s nothing I can do about the decision by a country in Asia to shut down a port because of a coronavirus outbreak — there’s very little I can do, or anyone can do about that and that will affect lots of countries and lots of supply chains.“But be assured we are doing everything that is in our control to try and mitigate some of these challenges.”Asked again on whether there could be shortages at Christmas, the chancellor said: “We are doing absolutely everything we can to mitigate that.” More

The chancellor Rishi Sunak will commit more than £500m in fresh funding to help people back into work as he seeks to stem the continuing turbulence of the coronavirus pandemic.Mr Sunak is shifting the focus on getting people into new or better jobs as the government comes under sustained pressure over a major squeeze on living standards.He will use his speech at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Monday to set out his vision of shaping the economy around “the forces of science, technology and imagination”.The chancellor will pledge to “make the United Kingdom the most exciting place on the planet” through enhanced infrastructure, improved skills and scientific investment.He will announce that the new funding will be used to help workers leaving the furlough scheme and unemployed over-50s back into work, while the “kickstart” scheme for young people will also be extended.But he has resisted expanding all of the support announced during the pandemic, with the furlough scheme ending and the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit falling away.Labour said extending the schemes “will do nothing to compensate” for the tax rises and the cost of living crisis, but businesses welcomed the “pivoting from furlough to economic recovery”.Fresh warnings of hardship have also been issued over the rise of the energy price cap and price hikes in shops.Household budgets will sustain a further blow next April when national insurance contributions rise by 1.25 per cent to help fund the NHS and social care.Ahead of his first in-person speech at the conference as chancellor, Mr Sunak said he is “ready to double-down” on his promise to “do whatever it takes” to recover from Covid-19.He said the furlough scheme protected 11 million jobs and the UK is “experiencing one of the strongest and fastest recoveries of any major economy in the world”.He added: “But the job is not done yet and I want to make sure our economy is fit for the future, and that means providing the support and skills people need to get into work and get on in life.”The kickstart scheme helping young people on universal credit will be extended to March next year under the measures. The £3,000 incentive for new apprentices will be extended until the end of January.Individuals who have come off furlough and are on universal credit will also be prioritised for help to find jobs under the “job finding support” scheme lasting until the end of the year.The Treasury said more than £500m of new funding will be used, coming from the education and the work and pensions departments. Further details will be set out in the upcoming spending review.Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds, said: “The government’s struggling plan for jobs has failed to hit its original targets; it is not creating the number of jobs needed and has failed to address the supply chain crisis Britain is experiencing.“Giving himself an extended deadline will do nothing to compensate for the chancellor’s tax rises, cost of living crisis and cuts to universal credit which are set to hammer millions of working families.”Matthew Fell, the chief policy director at the Confederation of British Industry, said: “Businesses will welcome the chancellor’s plan for jobs pivoting from furlough to economic recovery.“With record vacancies and widespread labour shortages, this package’s success will be measured by its ability to get people back into work.“Businesses are committed to playing their full part in training and re-skilling the workforce of tomorrow as we move towards a new economy.”PA More

Boris Johnson is facing appeals from within his own party to delay a £6bn welfare cut by six months to help get the country’s poorest families through a cost-of-living crunch expected this winter.With energy and food bills soaring, and wage pressures expected to feed through to higher inflation, charities fear that the removal of the £20-a-week “uplift” to universal credit (UC) and working tax credits will force millions into hunger and hardship over the coming months.Scheduled for Wednesday, the cut – which has been branded “cruel” by one Tory MP – threatens to overshadow the prime minister’s keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on the same day. But Mr Johnson said on Sunday that it would not be “appropriate” to keep the uplift as the Covid-19 pandemic wanes, saying he was not willing to “raise taxes to subsidise low pay”.The architect of UC, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, said that if the uplift could not stay indefinitely, it should at least be kept until disadvantaged families have weathered the winter.And Conservative MP Nigel Mills told The Independent: “With the cost of living going up sharply, this is not the time to take that help away.”Analysis from the anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that 5.5 million families will lose out by £1,040 a year through the loss of the uplift, pushing half a million people – including 200,000 children – into poverty.The foundation’s Katie Schmuecker said: “The prime minister is abandoning millions to hunger and hardship with his eyes wide open. The biggest ever overnight cut to social security flies in the face of the government’s mission to unite and level up our country.“People’s bills won’t get £87 a month cheaper from Wednesday, and families are already anxious about how they will get through a looming cost-of-living crisis. This decision is set to plunge half a million people into poverty, and shows a total disregard for the consequences. The prime minister cannot say he has not been warned; he must abandon this cut.”A poll for The Independent found that less than one-fifth (19 per cent) of voters supported the plan to slash UC, with 59 per cent saying the level of the benefit should be maintained or increased. Even among Conservative voters, just 34 per cent thought it was right to remove the uplift altogether, against 43 per cent who said it should be maintained or increased, and 13 per cent who said it should be kept at a reduced rate.“I think most people do want us to be as generous as we can to people in the most need, after they have been through such a difficult time,” said Mr Mills. “Voters get the need to control welfare spending and give people incentives to work, but they also think people should have a decent standard of life. “Being tough is fine, but being cruel gets you into a very difficult position with voters.”Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a £500m hardship fund to assist struggling families with grants for food, clothing and bills this winter.And on Monday he will unveil another £500m package to help unemployed people and workers coming off the furlough scheme to find new jobs.The next phase of the chancellor’s Plan for Jobs will include work coaches for low-paid employees on UC, a support package for over-50s to stay in work, and an extension to the Kickstart scheme, which helps young people into employment.Mr Sunak said: “At the start of this crisis I made a promise to do whatever it takes, and I’m ready to double down on that promise now as we come out of this crisis.”But Mr Mills said: “If we have £1bn to spend, then maybe universal credit is a better way to get money into people’s pockets than forcing them to apply for hardship grants or coaching schemes. A six-month extension would only cost £3bn – and maybe less, if the government is right about people getting back into work and working longer hours. That is less than 1 per cent of what we have spent on the pandemic.”Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mr Johnson said that the uplift was one of a number of support measures introduced in response to Covid-19 that were no longer needed. The “fiscal meteorite” of the pandemic had added £407bn to government spending, he said.“There was a whole package of measures, from furlough to Bounce Back loans to the Covid uplift, that are no longer appropriate,” said the PM.“What we would rather do is help people into better-paid, better-skilled jobs – which is what is happening. I’d rather see that than raising taxes to subsidise low pay.”But Sir Iain said: “Of all the things that have gone wrong in the pandemic, universal credit is the one thing that has quietly got on and helped support people without [their] having to queue up at jobcentres.“Even if the government is determined to do this, I would urge them to think about this over the period of the winter, not do it now. Think about it in February, March, as they approach the Budget, when they know what the cost of living is, when they know what inflation is, when they know what the difficulties are in the marketplace.“Things are moving in the wrong direction and that is going to hit the poorest in society the most. We need to make sure we keep the support measures in place for them.”TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady told a meeting on the fringe of the Manchester conference that the cut was “immoral”, adding: “It’s never too late to think again; no shame in changing your mind – I would really hope the government changes its mind on this one.”And Ryan Shorthouse, CEO of the conservative thinktank Bright Blue, said the government was making a “serious mistake”, saying: “A lot of people who need and deserve universal credit are in left-behind areas, and we’re making a substantial cut to their income.”Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine said Mr Sunak’s packages “don’t come close to what people needed from the chancellor ahead of the winter”.  “As the cost-of-living crisis begins to hit, people want job security and to know they can pay soaring household bills,” she said.“Instead, the chancellor wants to end furlough, slash universal credit and raise taxes at the worst possible time. If the government thinks the answer is just to reannounce Kickstart – which is miles off meeting its targets – then they are out of touch and out of ideas.”And Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “The government’s struggling Plan for Jobs has failed to hit its original targets; it is not creating the number of jobs needed and has failed to address the supply chain crisis Britain is experiencing.“Giving himself an extended deadline will do nothing to compensate for the chancellor’s tax rises, cost-of-living crisis and cuts to universal credit, which are set to hammer millions of working families.”The row came as TUC research found that one-fifth (20 per cent) of key workers had had to cut back on spending during the pandemic.Some 6 per cent said they had been forced to take on a second job to make ends meet, and 3 per cent said they had used food banks. More than a quarter (27 per cent) of the key workers said they did not feel they were fairly rewarded for the work they do.Ms O’Grady said: “Our shop workers, care assistants and school support staff have worked tirelessly to keep this country going through the pandemic.“The very least they deserve in return for their hard work is a decent standard of living for their families.“But many are struggling just to pay their basic bills and put food on the table. And one in five are facing the trauma of running out of money before payday. That’s not right.“Enough is enough. Ministers must use the autumn spending review to give all of our key workers the pay rise they so badly need. We must get the minimum wage up to £10 an hour to stop millions of working people from living in poverty.” More

Furious Labour MPs in Merseyside have turned on Keir Starmer after he wrote an article forThe Sun.MPs accused the Labour leader of betraying Liverpool and said he was “not fit” to lead to party following the publication of an opinion piece in the tabloid, which is widely boycotted on Merseyside for its coverage of the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Sir Keir had promised not to give interviews to the paper during his leadership campaign at a hustings in the city in January 2020.Ian Byrne, MP for Liverpool West Derby, said families of Hillsborough victims, survivors and the city itself “smeared by the rag” would feel “profoundly betrayed”. Mr Byrne, himself a Reds supporter who attended the FA Cup semi-final with Nottingham Forest at which 97 Liverpool fans died, added anyone who wrote for the paper was “not fit” to be Labour leader.Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said she felt “deep anger” and had written to Sir Keir asking him to come to Liverpool to meet the families of those killed and survivors.Paula Barker, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, wrote on Twitter: “I do not subscribe to the view that we need to have a relationship with the rag in order to win an election – this is 2021 not 1997. He does not do this in my name.“Nevertheless, I apologise to everyone in my city, especially Hillsborough families and survivors.”Steve Rotheram, mayor of Liverpool City Region, added: “My position on that (supposed) newspaper and Labour politicians engaging with it has not changed.“The piece published today has unsurprisingly upset a lot of people across my region. The S*n is not and never will be welcome here.“I have been in touch with Keir to reiterate my position and express the disappointment that I and many others feel.”Joanne Anderson, directly elected Mayor of Liverpool, said Labour “should never work with this paper.”Liverpool supporters groups and Hillsborough survivors also spoke out over the article, which they described as a “kick in the teeth”.“This is hard to take. The lies in the S*n are part of the reason survivors still struggle and we have lost so many over the years. We will never forgive and never forget,” said the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance.Sir Keir has previously acknowledged the pain the newpaper caused with its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster. “This city has been wounded by the media — The Sun [has] hurt this city,” he said in Liverpool during the Labour leadership campaign. “I certainly won’t be giving any interviews to The Sun during this campaign.” But this week he wrote for the paper in a opinion piece criticising Boris Johnson over the “chaos” the shortage of HGV drivers has wreaked on Britain. The Merseyside boycott of The Sun came after it published notorious falsehoods on a front page headlined “The Truth”, alleging blame for the disaster laid with drunken Liverpool fans.After a justice campaign spanning three decades, victims’ families and survivors were vindicated in 2016, when a jury at the inquests unanimously ruled the fans were unlawfully killed and Liverpool supporters played no part in causing the fatal crushing at the Leppings Lane end of the Hillsborough ground on 15 April 1989.The Sun made a front-page apology in 2012 in the wake of the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which led to the 2016 inquests, and again at the conclusion of those inquests. More