Markus Andrews

Matt Hancock is to have his personal emails and WhatsApp messages searched as part of a legal battle over millions of pounds’ worth of antibody test contracts handed out during the coronavirus pandemic. A High Court judge ordered that both the former health secretary’s government and non-government communications used for Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) business should be searched for relevant material.The proceedings were brought against the DHSC by the Good Law Project, who claim that more than £80m in contracts were awarded unlawfully. The legal campaign group say that Abingdon Health received three contracts in April, June and August 2020 that were not published until October. The Good Law Project also claim that the contracts were awarded secretly and directly to Abingdon Health without advertisement or competition and that they “comprise very substantial unlawful public subsidies”. Mr Hancock has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that he was not involved in the awarding of the contracts and that they were approved through formal processes. Petitioning the High Court to order a search of the former health secretary’s “non-government communication systems” — which is believed to include WhatsApps — Good Law Project barrister Joseph Barrett said that Mr Hancock was the “ultimate decision-maker” in awarding the contracts and that he had used multiple personal email accounts for government business. Mr Barrett further alleged that the DHSC had “either destroyed or otherwise put beyond recovery or refused to search or disclose almost all of the repositories and documents of the four most senior and important individuals in the case”.Philip Moser QC, for the DHSC, which is contesting the claim, argued that Mr Hancock’s role in awarding the contracts was “limited”.“There is no reasonable basis on which to seek such disclosure, because Mr Hancock’s involvement in the matters which are in issue in these proceedings was limited and, in any event, any communications from the then Secretary of State would have been caught by the existing disclosure exercise,” he said. Ordering the search to take place, Mr Justice Fraser said: “It seems to me that even though his involvement has been described as ‘limited’, ‘limited’ can still be quite significant.” The full trial is due to take place from 6 December. More

New foreign secretary Liz Truss will on Wednesday demand the immediate release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other British detainees being held in Iran when she meets her Iranian counterpart at the United Nations.Ms Truss’s meeting with Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the fringes of the UN general assembly in New York will be the first between Iran and the UK at foreign minister level since 2018. It was postponed from Monday after the Iranian delegation got stuck in Tajikistan and were unable to travel to the US.The foreign secretary has followed her predecessor Dominic Raab in rejecting outright Iranian attempts to link Nazanin’s fate to the resolution of a  egal case over the UK’s non-payment of a £400m debt relating to tanks sold to the country’s former shah before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the most prominent of a group of Anglo-Iranian dual nationals held by Tehran, will mark her 2,000th day detained in Iran on Thursday and her supporters have called for the Foreign Office to step up pressure on Iran by imposing sanctions on 10 officials seen as implicated in state hostage-taking since 1979.The 10 Iranians – lawyers, jailers and propagandists – would be subject to UK travel bans and asset freezes.First detained in 2016 after visiting Iran with her first child, aid worker Nazanin was sentenced to a further year’s prison in April after being found guilty of propaganda against the Iranian government. She denies all wrong-doing.Speaking on the eve of her meeting, Truss said she would urge her Iranian counterpart to “ensure the immediate and permanent release of all arbitrarily detained British nationals in Iran, and to begin working with us to mend our fractured relations”.She said she had spoke to Nazanin’s British husband Richard and assured him she would press his wife’s case “very firmly”. More

With some powerful NATO allies at odds over a submarine sale, the group’s leader suggested Tuesday that members need to focus on “the big picture” and not let the dispute between France and the U.S. and Britain open an ongoing rift.A U.S. and British deal to supply nuclear-powered subs to Australia — which had been set to buy diesel-powered ones from a French company instead — has France crying foul, with support from European Union diplomats. But NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg didn’t take sides during an interview Wednesday, instead emphasizing cohesion about the alliance’s major goals. “I fully understand France’s disappointment. At the same time, NATO allies agree on the big picture on the most important challenges, and that is that we have to stand together” to address common challenges, including a shifting global balance of power, he told The Associated Press on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly.Stoltenberg said he was confident that France, the U.K. and the U.S. “will find a way forward and to not make this disagreement create lasting problems for the alliance, because we all see the need for allies to stand together and to continue to modernize and adapt NATO.”French officials have repeatedly decried the deal as a betrayal, with Defense Minister Florence Parly describing it Tuesday as “breach of trust between allies and a strategic turning point.” European Union foreign ministers expressed solidarity with France after a meeting on the assembly sidelines Monday night. Australia argues that the submarine deal was about protecting its strategic interests amid broad concern about China’s growing assertiveness. The U.K. and the U.S. have insisted the disagreement shouldn’t shake up their overall relationships with France, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying the deal wasn’t meant to be a “zero-sum” arrangement and is “not something that anybody needs to worry about and particularly not our French friends.” More

Boris Johnson has dismissed growing fears of a cost of living crisis this winter, despite senior Tories echoing warnings of what one charity called a “toxic cocktail” of rising bills.Asked if “people are going to really struggle this winter” – as soaring heating costs are piled onto benefit cuts, rising inflation and looming tax hikes – the prime minister replied: “No, because I think this is a short-term problem.”Interviewed in New York City, Mr Johnson also denied people are wondering “how they are going to put food on the table”, insisting: “I don’t believe people will be short of food and wages are actually rising.”But the claim of a short-term problem was rejected by the Resolution Foundation think tank, which warned of “a cost of living crunch” – even if the immediate gas supply problems ease.One charity told The Independent that juggling falling income with higher costs would be “an impossible task” for many, while a second said rising prices would be “devastating and in some cases lethal”.Mr Johnson dismissed the warnings despite his own business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, admitting some families would have to choose between eating and heating their homes.“It’s a difficult situation, it could be a very difficult winter,” Mr Kwarteng acknowledged, when pushed on the controversial £20-a-week cut to universal credit, from October.Damian Green, the de-facto deputy prime minister under Theresa May, warned of families struggling to keep “heads above water”, while Gavin Barwell, her chief of staff, pointed to “a real political danger”.But Downing Street rejected the idea of “additional help” in the weeks to come, Mr Johnson’s deputy spokesman saying: “We already have schemes in place to help people out over the winter.”The “cocktail” of rising costs was already brewing as the end of the Covid furlough scheme for workers coincides with inflation hitting 3.2 per cent – and tipped to break through 4 per cent by the end of the year.The universal credit cut will swipe more than 10 per cent of income from around 1 million families, experts say – while national insurance will leap next April, to fund the NHS and social care rescue.Heating bills are already rising – after Ofgem hiked the price cap from an average of £1,138 per year to £1,277 from next month – even before the gas supply shortage struck.Its impact will only be felt next April when it is expected to push the cap through the £1,500 barrier, consumer champion Martin Lewis predicted.On his visit to the United Nations, Mr Johnson said “spikes in gas prices”, like food supply problems, were caused by “the world economy waking up” and would soon be over.“We will do whatever we can to address the supply issues but this is a short-term problem,” he told ITN News.On the BBC, the prime minister claimed success in creating “high-skilled, high wage jobs”, adding: “Unemployment is falling very rapidly, jobs are being created, wages are rising.”But Mike Brewer, the Resolution Foundation’s chief economist, told The Independent: “Britain is facing a cost of living crunch this autumn as rising food prices and energy bills, the cut to universal credit and the end of the furlough scheme collide.“While some of the pressures are likely to be transitory, that doesn’t make it any easy for families to cope in the here and now.”Peter Smith, director of policy at the fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, said: “This toxic cocktail of challenges will leave millions of households struggling to cope with less income and higher costs. For many, it will be an impossible task.”A spokesperson for Fuel Poverty Action said: “The increased prices will be devastating, and in some cases lethal – even before this series of price hikes, and before the pandemic, over 10,000 people were dying every year due to cold homes in the UK.”And Richard Neudegg, head of regulation at the comparison website Uswitch warned, of the price cap: “There is a timebomb there, where it can go up again in April and consumers are already struggling to pay the bills.”On Good Morning Britain, Mr Kwarteng was told of families facing “the choice between heating their homes and staying warm or eating, parents who may forego meals in order to feed their kids”.Told he needed to “offer them some hope, the business secretary replied: “You’re right”. More

American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri has claimed people knew Boris Johnson had a “crush” on her, but claimed it had “no bearing” on her business pursuits.Ms Arcuri, who attended trade missions with Mr Johnson during his tenure as mayor of London, has previously claimed she had an intimate relationship with the now prime minister between 2012 and 2016.Her comments came amid a hearing by the Greater London Assembly probing how businesses become involved in the GLA in relation to overseas visits and opportunities to receive taxpayer-funded sponsorships.A separate inquiry by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found no evidence the then-mayor influenced the payments of thousands of pounds to the US businesswoman and said it would not launch a criminal investigation in 2020.However, it suggested Mr Johnson would have been “wise” to declare a conflict of interests, suggesting failure to do so could breach the Nolan principles of conduct in public life. The prime minister’s previous press secretary has claimed he acted with “honesty and integrity” in his relations with Ms Arcuri.Facing questions from the London Assembly’s oversight committee on Wednesday over her former relationship with the mayor and whether his office were aware, she said: “I don’t necessarily want to go into answering personal details”.However, she went on: “It was not so much that people knew about my secrets anymore than I knew of theirs – I could name at least three high profile figures.“People knew that there was an interest of the mayor in me, that he had somewhat of a crush on me when we went to events, everyone could see the dramatic difference of this man when I entered the room.“There was not ever a time where I felt I had to say anything — people kind of assumed what they wanted, but there was never any discussion about any of it.”Asked whether people in the mayor’s office were aware and whether they should have declared anything, Ms Arcuri went on: “Whether or not they assumed whatever they wanted, it didn’t change the fact that really Jennifer Arcuri was the most annoying, perseverant hustler.“My relationship with the mayor, or non-relationship, had really no bearing in my complete pursuit of London and my ability to build a business.”Ms Arcuri said she formally attended a trade mission to Malaysia in 2014, adding others weren’t “mentioned in the press”, including a cyber-select mission to Washington DC, and a trade mission to San Francisco.“I would just go and show up and find my London friends,” she said. “Because that’s what it takes to build a business.”She later added: “The mission I remember being a formal delegate on was the one to Malaysia, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur.”Pressed on whether she offered her opinions or ideas with the mayor on how trade missions could be improve, Ms Arcuri added: “I am definitely one to give my opinions. I gave my opinions on many things.“Things like the trade missions were not on my agenda of issues to discuss. He asked ‘how was the trade mission, was it beneficial for you?’ and I would say yes, all is well, and that would be the end of it. There would be never any kind of discussion beyond that. I would never go in details.”Speaking earlier this year, Mr Johnson’s former press secretary said: “Of course the prime minister follows the Nolan principles when conducting himself in public life.”Asked whether Mr Johnson would be prepared to give evidence to the GLA’s oversight committee, she replied: “I’m just not going to get into these hypotheticals. An independent body has looked at this in depth and found no case to answer.” More

Government departments have spent at least half a million pounds since 2016 trying to block the release of information under transparency laws, an investigation has found.Lawyers working for six government ministries have challenged rulings by the Information Commissioner and left taxpayers to foot the legal bill. A government spokesperson said “particularly sensitive” information should sometimes be kept from the public, but transparency campaigners argued that ministers should not be using public money to hide things from the public.It comes as new polling conducted by Savanta ComRes found that 71 per cent of people said that they were concerned at increasing government resistance to disclosing information. Just one in six of the people surveyed (18 per cent) said they were not concerned. The biggest spender on lawyers was the Department of Health and Social Care which racked up legal bills of more than £129,000 fighting a single case to try to stop the release of ministerial diaries. In that case a judge eventually ruled that most of the information should be released, against the wishes of the government.The same department also spent £20,000 trying to stop journalists from obtaining information about fire safety in hospitals, as well as £87,000 preventing the release of drafts of a policy document about childhood obesity. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government also spent £38,950 trying to block the release of ministerial diaries to another journalist, while the Department for Work and Pensions spent over £80,000 defending three appeals agains the information Commissioner.The Department for Education also separately racked up a bill of more than £52,000.Peter Geoghegan, editor-in-chief of investigative outfit openDemocracy which conducted the investigation in the legal bills said: “At a time when the public are concerned about government secrecy it is deeply ironic that government departments are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money to hide information from the public. Ministers need to stop using public money to hide from public scrutiny.” Last year it was revealed in official figures that free access to government information has plunged to record levels under Boris Johnson’s premiership.Civil servants in the orbit of Downing Street are increasingly failing to respond to freedom of information requests in line with their obligations – with the Cabinet Office the worst performing.The Cabinet Office now answers just 64 per cent of freedom of information requests on time, down from 85 per cent in 2019. As recently as 2017 it was answering 95 per cent of requests.The government has also been caught advising public bodies on how to circumvent freedom of information regulations.A government spokesperson defended the approach taken by ministers and civil servants to transparency. “The government is committed to being as transparent as possible, but when considering FOI requests we have to balance the need to make information available with our duty to protect sensitive information,” a government spokesperson said. “Just like any other public authority, under the FOI Act the government has a right to appeal ICO rulings and set out our position when we feel there is a need to protect particularly sensitive information, including related to national security and personal data. “We are routinely disclosing information beyond our obligations under the FOI Act, and releasing more proactive publications than ever before.” More

Stars of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing should get their Covid vaccinations, Boris Johnson has said.The prime minister weighed into the row during a visit to the US to meet president Joe Biden.Two unnamed professional dancers on the hit show have reportedly refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, causing complications before the show’s return, with celebrity guests said to be unhappy to be partnered with them.In an interview with GB News in New York, Mr Johnson was asked what message he would send to any of the dancers resisting inoculation.“Everyone should take their jabs,” he replied.“Everyone should take their jabs and I’m saying that not in a hectoring and bullying way, but just because I think it’s a great thing to do.”Strictly Come Dancing returned to TV screens on Saturday with a pre-recorded launch show revealing which professional dancer each competitor has been matched with, before the live show kicks off on 25 September. More

US president Joe Biden has given a big boost to Boris Johnson’s faltering preparations for November’s climate change summit in Glasgow, announcing he will double the US contribution to a $100bn-a-year fund to help developing countries adapt.The announcement brings the fund to around $85bn – still $15bn short of the total which rich countries pledged that they would deliver by a deadline of 2020.Mr Johnson admitted this week that he had only a six in 10 chance of hitting the crucial target by the time he hosts the UN COP26 summit in six weeks’ time.Mr Biden had already doubled the US contribution to climate finance to $5.6bn in April this year, and today told the United Nations that he would now work with Congress to do the same again.Speaking to the UN general assembly in New York, the US president described climate change and the continuing coronavirus pandemic as “urgent and looming crises wherein lie enormous opportunities,” if the globe can “work together to seize” them.He warned that the world will face further pandemics, and that without action on pollution, humanity will suffer “the merciless march of ever-worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes” and intensifying heat waves and sea level rises.“Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past, we are fixing our eyes and devoting our resources to the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future,” he said in his first general assembly address since entering the White House in January.The $100bn (£73bn) fund, first promised at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, is intended to help low-income countries invest in alternative energy supplies to reduce their dependance on fossil fuels like coal, as well as to adapt to a likely future of extreme weather, droughts and natural disasters caused by global warming.OECD figures showed last week that only $79.6bn (£58bn) was mobilised by richer countries in 2019 – 2 percentage points up from the previous year but still well short of the for 2020.Mr Johnson has made hitting the target a key goal of the Glasgow gathering, alongside improved commitments to cut carbon emissions, phase out coal power and switch to electric cars. More