Markus Andrews

The current petrol supply crisis is a consequence of the post-Brexit transition away from a low-income high-immigration economy in which employers were able to fill vacancies by hiring cheap labour from abroad, a senior cabinet minister has said.Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s comments represent the most explicit link yet made by a member of Boris Johnson’s government between Brexit and the labour shortage which has left the UK with 100,000 fewer HGV drivers than it needs.Mr Kwarteng said that employers opposed to higher wages were trying to use public pressure over essentials like petrol to force the government to issue large numbers of visas for foreign workers. And he agreed that the government must “tough it out” rather than submit to demands to change course.Speaking to the ConservativeHome website, Mr Kwarteng said it was “absolutely right” to say that businesses were highlighting shortages in trades like road haulage, fruit picking and meat processing in the hope of pressuring the government into opening the doors to labour from abroad.For many Leave voters, he said, Brexit was about the stagnation in wage levels seen following the introduction of free movement for EU workers in 2004.Mr Kwarteng was asked whether “this difficulty with the petrol” was part of a debate about the sort of economy the UK should have after Brexit, in which some employers “basically want to go back to the old ways… they want government to issue hundreds of thousands of visas, and they’re trying to use public pressure to get you to change course”.“That’s absolutely right,” he replied. “Having rejected the low-wage, high-immigration model, we were always going to try to transition to something else. What we’re seeing now is part of that transition.“You’re quite right to say people are resisting that, particularly employers that were benefiting from an influx of labour that could keep wages low.”An aide later insisted that Mr Kwarteng was agreeing that it was right to say that some employers were resisting higher wages, not that it was right to say that the petrol supply problem was caused by the Brexit transition rather than a sudden spike in demand.Mr Kwarteng insisted that the current crisis with petrol supplies was “stabilising”, but said that it could take a year before higher wages resolved the problem of staff shortages in areas previously reliant on a cheap European workforce.“I think this is a transition period,” he said. “As economists would describe, between Equilibrium A and Equilibrium B there’s always going to be a transition period.“I think it could be quite short…“This particular issue of immigration from the EU was something that started in 2004, and completely transformed the way we did our economy. In fact, the Romanian extension was in 2013 … and that was only eight years ago, and then three years after that we voted for Brexit.“In terms of the global economy, I think you can see very rapid shifts. I think in a year we could be in a totally different place to where we are today.”Mr Kwarteng said that he was receiving positive data on investment into the UK and prospects for British steel companies, which led him to believe that issues around supply chains and trade following Brexit would recede in the future.“In terms of the economy, I think things can turn round very very quickly, and in five years’ time I don’t think we’ll be talking about this,” he said. “We’ll be talking about other things.”The business secretary came under fire from Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who accused him of trying to “pass the buck” by blaming business for a problem caused by the government itself.“People are suffering because of this government’s incompetence and inaction, and it’s clear Tory ministers just don’t care,” said Sir Ed.“The business secretary’s words show yet again how out of touch this Conservative government is. They’re blaming the British public, British businesses – anyone but themselves. It’s time for ministers to take a good hard look in the mirror. This is a crisis and we need real leadership, not another round of ‘pass the buck’.” More

The Green Party’s newly-elected leaders have vowed to boost the number of Green MPs in parliament and become the “real opposition” to the Conservative government.Members of the party in England and Wales have elected councillors Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay as the new co-leaders, after Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley stood down.“We’re determined to see more Greens elected in England and Wales,” said Mr Ramsay. “We’re here because we want to lead our party to success … to be the real opposition to this feeble Conservative government.”The Green Party has only one MP, Caroline Lucas, but has three members on the London Assembly and around 400 councillors across England and Wales.Mr Ramsay told The Independent: “We’ll be working to increase the number of Greens at all levels of government. We’re on a really positive trajectory – we’ve trebled the number of councillors and seen the party third in the opinion polls.”The co-leader would not share a target number of winnable seats for the Greens at the next general election, but insisted the party’s fortunes could change quickly.“Politics in this decade is not going to look like politics of the past – we’re seeing a tipping in the climate, and there will be tipping points in politics,” he said.With only one month to go before the crucial Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, Ms Denyer said she wanted the party to hold Boris Johnson’s government to account over its promises to address climate change.The co-leader said: “We will use the opportunity of Cop26 to call out this lacklustre government on its lack of climate leadership and greenwashing.”It comes as the prime minister said bolder commitments were needed from world leaders to make sure next month’s Cop26 “counts”. On Friday Mr Johnson tweeted: “We’ve see positive progress so far, but it isn’t enough.”Mr Ramsay and Ms Denyer, a Bristol City councillor, were elected after receiving 44 per cent of the first preference votes and 62 per cent of the second round vote, the party announced on Friday. They beat Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack, who came second.“Our country is in crisis – pumps running out petrol, empty shelves in supermarkets and millions heading into winter fearing rising fuel bills, all worsened by our society’s addiction to fossil fuels,” said Mr Ramsay. “More than ever we need strong Green voices to make the compelling case for a green transition.”Mr Ramsay and Ms Denyer said the party would continue to push for a Green New Deal – having outlined plans to invest £100bn a year on the transition to carbon-neutral economy and create new jobs.The new leadership also promised to fight for the insulation of Britons’ homes, a public transport system built on clean energy and food production which is less intensive and more nature-friendly.“We know voters trust us, we know they think we’re nice,” said Mr Ramsay, speaking after the result was announced on Friday.“Now we must demonstrate that we’re a serious political force – that we get things done, and that we have a vision which no other party has and the plans to achieve it.”The Scottish Greens have joined the SNP in the Scottish government after a power-sharing deal agreed in August saw co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater become government ministers.However, the party has been accused of performing a “U-turn” on manifesto promises after it failed to bring forward a moratorium on halting large-scale waste incinerators north of the border. More

Home secretary Priti Patel has claimed she has “a lot of compassion” and “cares deeply about people” as she defended her department’s handling of a series of controversies.The Home Office has come under fire over the Windrush scandal and its “hostile environment” policy aimed at increasing the removal of asylum seekers and foreign-born criminals.But Ms Patel rejected the idea of an uncaring department, saying: “It’s an incredible organisation, it really is.”Speaking to The House magazine ahead of the Conservative Party’s conference in Manchester, the cabinet minister said she did not “relate” to the idea of a hostile Home Office.“For people that know me, they know that I care deeply about people and I have a lot of compassion,” Ms Patel said – before claiming she “always put names and faces first”. The home secretary said: “I would mention Windrush, the work that I have led in terms of Windrush compensation, overhauling the scheme, setting up stakeholder groups, putting people first, treating people and thinking of people rather than just cases.”Ms Patel added: “For too long this has been a case-working organisation, and I always put names and faces first.”Around £1.5m was paid out to victims of the Windrush scandal, which saw Britons classed as illegal immigrants, the latest figures show. But two of the victims last month launched legal proceedings over delays in receiving their compensation.The Home Office spent more than £370,000 to settle a top civil servant’s tribunal claim after he quit amid allegations of bulling by Ms Patel.Former permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam accepted the six-figure sum earlier this year after launching legal action against the home secretary and accusing her of a “vicious and orchestrated” briefing campaign against him.Ms Patel has also come under fire over the deportation of foreign-born criminals, described by human rights groups as “inhumane”, and the housing of asylum seekers in ex-Army barracks found not to be suitable for human habitation by Public Health England.Ms Patel defended giving £54m to France to support its coastal patrols in a bid to reduce the number of migrant boats coming across the English Channel.“There is no such thing about money for nothing. Let me be very clear about that,” the minister said, adding that she still had a “constructive working relationship” with her French counterpart despite “honest” conversations.The home secretary also defended the UK Nationality and Borders Bill, currently moving through the Commons, which aims to rapidly remove asylum seekers who come to Britain via “illegal” routes.Asked if the Home Office is still considering a plan to push back migrant boats towards France, Ms Patel said: “Everything we do is legal and within the law.“I rule nothing out in terms of stopping the boats and saving lives, because by the time people are in the water, their lives are at risk.”The home secretary could not say whether the first group of Afghans refugees coming to the UK through the government’s resettlement scheme after fleeing Taliban would be given a home before Christmas.Challenged on whether some Afghans will still be in hotels by Christmas, she said: “I don’t know – it’s for local government. It’s for them to work with the resettlement team to bring that together.”On Friday Ms Patel boasted about ending the use of “insecure” ID cards for entry into the UK, as EU, EEA and Swiss citizens now need to show their passports.Despite the growing alarm over the shortage of drivers and food sector workers, she tweeted that the move would help “deliver on the people’s priority to take back control of our immigration system”.The full interview with Ms Patel runs in The House magazine’s Conservative Party conference special, available from 3 October. More

“Poor policy” from Downing Street led to delays in the official response to the coronavirus pandemic which has killed more than 135,000 people, Boris Johnson’s former director of communications has said.Lee Cain – whose resignation last November sparked the chain of events leading to Dominic Cummings quitting No 10 – rejected suggestions that unclear official messaging was to blame for worsening the outbreak, insisting he was “proud” of the impact achieved by daily Downing Street press conferences and slogans like Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS.But he said that government decision-making early in the crisis was hampered by “compromises” between public health and the economy, telling Politico’s Westminster Insider podcast: “You can’t make good comms of bad policy.”In his first interview since leaving No 10, Mr Cain said he believed that the government eventually came to the right decisions on Covid, but not as quickly as it might have done.“One of the challenges early on is we were making policy in real time,” he said. “We didn’t really understand the virus, and we were making decisions that were transforming people’s lives.“I was often in the room with the PM trying to get the policy in the right place, so that we could communicate something that was sensible. And I think in some of those early stages, the policy just wasn’t in the right place. I think people were too often trying to make compromises.”Mr Cain said that early advice from scientists that pubs should be shut was countered by economic interests within government warning of the damage to finances and jobs that mandatory closure would cause.The result was the short-lived policy announced by Mr Johnson in mid-March 2020 that pubs could stay open but the public was advised to avoid going to them.“The communicators in the room were very forthright in saying: ‘This is obviously not going to hold up. As soon as it hits the media, this will be pulled apart. And we’re best just closing the pubs now’,” said Mr Cain. “But that’s not where we ended up. And I think that’s just one of those examples of poor policy.”Mr Johnson’s comment that he was still shaking hands – including with people at a hospital where Covid-19 patients were being treated – was also a “mistake”, said Cain.“The right decisions were always made,” said the former No 10 aide. “Sometimes maybe we could have gone a bit earlier, potentially, but the right decisions were always made. “Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight … we’d probably all lock down a week earlier. But again, the challenge with all of these things is just that these are big decisions that you’re making, in real time.“He (Mr Johnson) was acutely aware of the devastation this could cause economically … Obviously the first duty of any administration is to save lives. But you also want to limit the economic pain that people are going to suffer.” More

The launch of Scotland’s coronavirus vaccine passport app has been hit by widespread reports of technical problems.Members of the public complained they were unable to get the NHS Scotland Covid Status app to work, after it was made available to download on Apple and Android devices on Thursday afternoon.Proof of vaccination is now needed to enter nightclubs and large events in Scotland, although the Scottish Government has agreed a grace period during which the scheme will not be legally enforced.Addressing the reports of a glitch with the app, a Holyrood spokesperson suggested “extremely high initial traffic” was to blame, advising people to “try again a couple of hours later”.Users reported being unable to register on the app, while others shared screenshots showing they were unable to get past the first log-in page.It comes after a legal bid by the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) Scotland to delay the vaccine passport scheme’s rollout was rejected by the Court of Session.Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Roddy Dunlop QC, who was appointed to represent the NTIA, described the app as “the worst I have ever tried to use”.“I am not prone to hyperbole. I promise,” he said. “And I instantly recognise that I was originally instructed to challenge the introduction of Covid passports and so am not neutral.“But try the app; look at the comments below. This is, literally, the worst app I have ever tried to use.”Former Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw called the launch a “farce”, claiming the app “is the SNP government in a nutshell. Rushed, ill conceived, ignorant to opposition and fundamentally doesn’t work”.Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, an infection expert at Edinburgh University, also revealed she had been unable to get the new app to work, as she appeared on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday morning, arguing the scheme “may persuade some of the hesitant people” to get jabbed.“Larger studies on international travel showed that [proof of vaccination] is increasing the vaccine uptake between 5 per cent and 10 per cent in the younger generation, which is exactly what we need,” Dr Tait-Burkard said.“And in France, we see that the more day to day life gets curtailed by the need of having a vaccine passport, that has again driven uptake very clearly.”Speaking about the app’s launch, deputy first minister John Swinney said: “Vaccine certificates have a role to play as part of a wider package of measures. They add a further layer of protection in certain higher risk settings.“This is a very limited scheme and we hope this will allow businesses to remain open and prevent any further restrictions as we head into autumn and winter.”There are currently no plans to introduce certification for the wider hospitality industry but this will be kept under review over the autumn and winter months, according to the Scottish Government.Exemptions to the scheme include the under-18s, participants in vaccine trials, people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, and those working or performing in the venues.While the scheme will not be legally enforced until 18 October, the legal requirement for businesses to keep information about certification status confidential and not use it for other purposes came into effect on Friday.A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Some people may be experiencing issues which are likely to be caused by extremely high initial traffic and a large number of users trying to access the app at once.“We advise people whose data is not found to try again a couple of hours later.”Additional reporting by PA More

Nobody is to blame for the fuel crisis which has seen pumps run dry and motorists fighting over petrol at filling stations, a Home Office minister has suggested.Policing minister Kit Malthouse said shortages at petrol stations may persist for another “week or so” – and Boris Johnson will review the situation if it deteriorates further.But petrol retailers warned that the crisis could drag on far longer, with normal conditions unlikely to return for “a number of weeks”.More than a quarter of the nation’s service stations have no fuel, and another 20 per cent have only one grade in stock, said the Petrol Retailers Association.PRA executive director Gordon Balmer told Bloomberg Radio: “It will take a number of weeks to get it back to more normal running levels.”.Asked on LBC who was to blame for the supply problems leading to lengthy queues at filling stations, Mr Malthouse responded: “Does it have to be somebody’s fault?”Host Nick Ferrari replied: “Yes, it does. There are people queuing for two and a half hours to get petrol. Something has gone wrong – normally someone is to blame.”Reluctant to criticise the public for the recent outbreak of panic buying, the minister said there were “complicated reasons about the stimulation of demand in a period which people are anxious”.Earlier this week transport secretary Grant Shapps admitted that Brexit was “a factor” behind the fuel crisis, sparked by a drastic shortage of lorry drivers.The government has also committed to issuing 5,000 temporary, three-month visas to foreign drivers to encourage some EU hauliers to return to Britain. But Mr Shapps also claimed foreign workers had helped create “systemic” problems by holding down wages.The PRA said there had been no improvement in petrol supplies at their petrol stations since Wednesday – more than a quarter (27 per cent) of its members were still out of fuel on Thursday.Mr Malthouse claimed the situation had “stabilised” and said he hoped to see an “improvement” in the situation in the coming days.His downbeat assessment contrasted sharply with comments by other ministers in recent days that the situation would swiftly return to normal as drivers resumed their usual buying patterns.“My latest briefing is that the situation is stabilising, that we are seeing more forecourts with a greater supply of fuel and hopefully that, as demand and supply come better into balance over the next few days – week or so – that we will see a return to normality,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Mr Malthouse added: “I think if things started to deteriorate further, obviously the prime minister and the secretary of state for energy, whose responsibility this is, will have to review the situation.”One petrol station owner in Surrey condemned the government for suggesting the situation was under control. “It’s like they’re gaslighting the public. It was chaos yesterday, it was chaos today, and it will be chaos tomorrow,” the unnamed owner told the Daily Telegraph.It comes as union leaders have attacked moves to extend the relaxation of lorry drivers’ hours amid the current shortage of workers in the sector.Unite said the maximum number of hours that drivers can drive, due to end on Sunday, will be extended to the end of October. Ministers are to consider extending the change into the new year, the union said.“This is yet another knee-jerk response to a crisis which has been building for nearly 20 years – and the blame for that lies entirely at the door of the employers, and their willing partners, the government,” said general secretary Sharon Graham. More

Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick is “willing to change” and can lead reforms at the force, the policing minister has claimed.The police chief is under intense pressure to resign after details emerged of serious failures in the build-up to Sarah Everard’s killing, saying the murder had brought “shame” on her force.But policing minister Kit Malthouse defended the commissioner – saying she had “one of the top three most difficult jobs in the country” and remained the “right person for the job”.The Conservative minister told Sky News: “I want a police leader who is transparent, willing to learn, willing to change, and has a commitment not to be defensive about the failings of the organisation – and I think that’s what we’re seeing in Cressida Dick.”Describing Dame Cressida as “dedicated and talented”, he added: “She is committed to whatever changes come out of the lessons learned of this horrible episode.”Mr Malthouse said the crimes of “monster” Wayne Couzens – the Met Police officer sentenced to a whole-life term for the murder of Sarah Everard – had shaken public trust in the police.“It’s struck a devastating blow for the confidence people have in police officers out in the public realm,” said the policing minister. “Thousands and thousands of police officers will have to work harder, much harder, to win public trust.”Tory MP Caroline Nokes, chair of the women and equalities committee, joined the former Labour justice secretary Harriet Harman and a chorus of other leading figures in calling for the commissioner to step down.Ms Harman, who chairs parliament’s joint human rights committee, told the commissioner in a letter it was “not possible” for her to stay in post as “women’s confidence in the police has been shattered”.Ms Nokes told The Independent: “It is clear that change is needed in the Met, to make sure the confidence of women is restored. Rebuilding the trust that is needed will be an enormous challenge for Cressida Dick, and one I am not convinced she can meet.”The Met commissioner – heckled by people calling for her resignation outside the Old Bailey on Thursday – said Sarah Everard’s murder has brought “shame” on the force, admitting: “A precious bond of trust has been damaged.”Dame Cressida promised to learn “any lessons” from the case, but has faced heavy criticism for the failure to put forward any reforms or new strategy on violence against women and girls.The force admitted on Thursday that a 2015 allegation of indecent exposure linked to Couzens was missed during his vetting process, and that investigations continue into whether he was responsible for other crimes.Five officers are reportedly under investigation for sharing offensive material with Couzens in a WhatsApp group before the killing.The Met has also taken the extraordinary step of issuing safety advice to women who are suspicious of male officers, suggesting they “shout out to a passer-by, run into a house or wave a bus down” if in fear.Mr Malthouse said it would be “perfectly reasonable” for anyone approached by a lone police officer who has concerns to call 999 and seek reassurance. “I’m afraid that’s where we’ve got to,” he told Sky News.Labour MP Jess Phillips, shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “it is not women who need advice in this space” – calling on the government and police forces to take complaints more seriously and “prioritise” violence against women and girls.She added: “If I’d been Sarah Everard that night, I would have got in the car … So the suggestion that somehow we have to change our behaviour, once again, is a bit tiring.”Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer rejected calls for Dame Cressida to be replaced in the wake of the case, but said called for the law on violence against women and girls to be strengthened. “We need a victims’ law. We have needed a victims’ law for years,” he said.Home secretary Priti Patel said there were “serious questions to be asked” of Scotland Yard, but did not call for Dame Cressida’s resignation. More

The UK faces a shortage of pigs in blankets this Christmas as a lack of butchers threatens to disrupt supplies of pork, industry leaders have said.In the latest twist of the supply chain crisis hitting Britain in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit, the government has said it is “working closely” with the pig industry to “address the pressures industry is currently facing”.As with the petrol shortages, which saw the military mobilised to drive petrol tankers, ministers are now reportedly mulling relaxing visa rules for up to 1,000 foreign butchers.The industry is short of some 15,000 workers, according to the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), which has forced its members to just focus on keeping supermarkets stocked with basic cuts of meat.While supermarket shelves are already missing some pork products which have been rationalised, the butchers shortage also risks causing animal welfare issues on farms as mounting numbers of livestock await slaughter, raising the prospect of an imminent cull of 150,000 pigs.“We really should have been producing Christmas food from about June or July onwards this year and so far we haven’t, so there’ll be shortages of party foods and things like pigs in blankets. Anything that is labour-intensive work could see shortages,” a BMPA spokesperson told The Times.The industry body warned as far back as mid-August that shortages of “the more complicated lines like pigs in blankets and gammon roasts” already looked “inevitable”, with many meat companies already six weeks behind their Christmas production schedules.While Priti Patel, the home secretary, is reported to be against easing visa rules, the Home Office said it is “closely monitoring labour supply and working with sector leaders to understand how we can best ease particular pinch points”.With butchers already classed as skilled workers under the UK’s immigration system, ministers have discussed relaxing the requirement for them to speak a good level of English, according to The Times, which quoted a government: “We’re not going to return to freedom of movement by incrementally adding every sector to points-based immigration.”In addition to the 5,000 temporary visas to be issued to foreign HGV drivers, the government announced on Sunday it would also relax visa rules for 5,500 poultry workers, after the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) urged Boris Johnson to do so.Calling for an urgent meeting with Ms Patel and immigration minister Kevin Foster, NFU president Minette Batters warned a cull of up to 150,000 pigs was “potentially a week, ten days away”.“I do not feel anybody can preside over a welfare cull of healthy livestock. I don’t believe it has happened in the world before and it cannot happen now,” Ms Batters told the BBC.Lizzie Wilson of the National Pig Association said the shortage of butchers meant processors were operating at 25 per cent reduced capacity, leaving “about 120,000 pigs sat on farm currently that should have already been slaughtered, butchered, be within the food chain and eaten by now”.“It is getting to the point where we are saying to government if we don’t get some help soon we’re going to have to look at culling pigs on farm, because that’s our only option now,” she said, adding “there are some producers that have already had the conversation.”Just weeks ago, the prime minister insisted “Christmas is on”, following concerns about the supply of turkeys. Ministers were forced to strike a deal using taxpayers’ money to pay the operating costs of a major US-owned fertiliser manufacturer to ensure the supply of CO2 for the food sector.A spokesman for the Department For Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We understand the importance of seasonal labour and we are aware of the challenges that the pig industry has faced in recent months because of the Covid-19 pandemic and labour shortages, and Defra has been working closely with the pig and processing sectors during this time. “We are keeping the market under close review and continuing to work closely with the sector to explore options to address the pressures industry is currently facing.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “Similar challenges are being faced by other countries around the world. We want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad. Our Plan for Jobs is helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work.“The government encourages all sectors to make employment more attractive to UK domestic workers through offering training, careers options wage increases and investment.”While the Covid pandemic has exacerbated labour shortages, Brexit and new immigration rules have also played a role, with the British Poultry Council warning last year: “The great British Christmas cannot survive without access to non-UK labour.”Additional reporting by agencies More