Markus Andrews

The reshuffle was more dramatic than expected, with Liz Truss promoted to foreign secretary, Dominic Raab moved to the justice department and given the deputy prime minister title, and Michael Gove given the hardest brief: housing. Commentators have struggled to see a theme, which means several have been offered. I saw Truss’s promotion as an attempt to balance the overweening power of Rishi Sunak in Boris Johnson’s cabinet. It was notable that the chancellor lost three of his four junior ministers in what looked like an attempt by the prime minister to assert his authority in the Treasury. Others saw the shuffle as a sign that Johnson was preparing for an early election, with the trusted Oliver Dowden sent to Conservative HQ as party chair to sort out the machine. But “allies” of the prime minister have briefed The Times this morning that he is aiming for an election in 2024 rather than 2023. That would fit with the other theme that has been read into the changes, which is that Johnson wants to focus on delivering his manifesto promises, which would take time, with Gove at the housing department perhaps the most important part of the “levelling up” plan. The revolt of the nimbys that destroyed Robert Jenrick’s attempt to ease planning restrictions to allow more houses to be built means that this is one of the government’s hardest challenges, and Gove, who was reported to be “bored” in his previous troubleshooter role at the Cabinet Office, can get stuck into it. The other important function of a reshuffle, of course, is simply to keep the ministerial merry-go-round turning, so that older MPs can be retired as gracefully as possible and new talent can be promoted – giving hope and buying loyalty from the ambitious new intakes of MPs.But what does it mean for the government and what does it mean for Sir Kier Starmer’s opposition? How will it affect international relations? What will it do to the continuing Brexit complications, and how we continue to battle Covid – and what about the next general election? I will be here at 4pm today (17 September) to answer your questions. If you have a question, submit it now, or when I join you live at 4pm.All you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments below. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box to leave your question. Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they will be hidden until I join the conversation to answer them. Then join us live on this page at 4pm as I tackle as many questions as I can. More

Trans women should be allowed to enter all public places, the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey says, as he accuses Boris Johnson of stirring up “a culture war” on the issue.In a pre-conference interview, Sir Ed also said local people should be allowed to block housing developments – but denied that meant no hope for people desperate for a home.“I’m a YIMBY,” the Lib Dem leader declared – meaning Yes In My Back Yard – insisting communities are ready to allow housebuilding, as long as they have a say in it.On trans rights, he was asked whether there are any “places in our society where biological males can’t go”, but told BBC Radio 4: “No”.Sir Ed accused the prime minister of “making it a culture war”, appealing for a “mature, open, tolerant debate” instead.He attacked No 10 for “trying to stir division in our country, division on this issue, division on issues around race”, saying: “I don’t think that’s acceptable.”“If you’re a real statesman, if you want to bring people together, you don’t stir up divisions, the way that Johnson’s doing,” Sir Ed said.The party leader will use the conference – which is being held online – to position the Lib Dems with an anti-Tory stance, vowing to never help to put Mr Johnson back into Downing Street.Sir Ed was a cabinet minister in the Cameron-Clegg coalition after the 2010 election, but – asked if the Lib Dems would facilitate a Tory government at the next election – he replied “No”, in an interview with the Financial Times.He has also ruled out a formal alliance with Labour or the Green party, but the traditional policy of equidistance between the big two parties is effectively over.“We can take a lot of seats from the Tories in the next election and we are a big threat to the Tories in their heartland,” Sir Ed told the FT.On his shock Chesham and Amersham by-election win, the leader added: “I was genuinely staggered on the doorsteps by how many people said that they won’t vote Conservative until Johnson goes.”On housebuilding – after opposition to the government’s loosening of planning laws was a key issue at the by-election – Sir Ed agreed local people should have “the ability to stop” developments.But he denied there would be fewer desperately-needed homes, telling the BBC: “If you work with the community, you will build those houses.”Sir Ed condemned the new planning laws, now expected to be paused by the new housing secretary Michael Gove, because of the Tory backlash as “a developers’ charter”.“The Conservatives want to hand power over developers to build whatever houses they want, wherever they want,” he said.“Liberal Democrats want to empower communities, so we get the houses that local communities need.” More

Shops are to be allowed to sell products in pounds and ounces again after the government pledged to review a ban on marking and selling products in imperial units as part of post-Brexit changes to EU laws.Brexit minister Lord Frost set out plans on Thursday to ditch EU rules that no longer suit the UK following its depature from the bloc last year.The government intends to review the content of retained EU law – which was preserved in UK law for continuity after the transition period ended in December 2020.A document titled “Brexit opportunities: regulatory reforms” includes plans to permit the voluntary printing of the crown stamp on pint glasses and review the EU ban on markings and sales in pounds and ounces, with legislation set to come “in due course”.Other reforms include introducing digital driving licences, test certificates and MOT processes.Boris Johnson said that he would bring imperial units back to shops as part of his pitch to voters in the 2019 general election, promising “an era of generosity and tolerance towards traditional measurements”.On Thursday, Lord Frost also claimed that “gloom-mongers” had been proved wrong following the UK’s exit from the EU.“A lot of things haven’t happened that the gloom-mongers said would happen and I don’t think are going to happen,” the minister told peers.However, critics have argued that Brexit has exacerbated the issue of shortages in shops across the UK in recent weeks, as well as causing ongoing uncertainty over Northern Ireland’s trading arrangements.Earlier this month, the head of the Food and Drink Federation warned Britons that staff shortages, triggered by Covid and Brexit, had damaged the “just-in-time” delivery model, meaning food shortages in supermarkets and restaurants were now “permanent”.Despite this, Lord Frost claimed that the UK’s economy was “prospering vastly” under the arrangements put in place by the government.He added that the purpose of the reforms was to “improve the productivity of the UK by putting in place regulations that are tailored to our conditions”.Other plans put forward by the government include allowing shareholders to use digital certificates instead of paper and changing regulations governing clinical trials and medical devices.“We are a high standards country. That doesn’t mean we don’t intend to change them. The world moves on,” Lord Frost insisted.“High standards need to reflect the context we are operating in. I am sure there will be change, but don’t believe those changes will result in regression of standards.”On Thursday, Labour’s shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry dismissed the government’s plans, arguing that the title “Brexit opportunities” had been badly chosen due to current supply shortages on supermarket shelves.Ms Thornberry told the Commons that the country was facing “continuing shortages of staff and supplies exacerbated by the government’s Brexit deal, while businesses across the country face mounting losses in trade with Europe”.She also warned that people in Northern Ireland remained “stuck in limbo as the government refuses to implement the Brexit deal that they negotiated”.Additional reporting by PA More

Australia could become the target of a nuclear strike by China following the security agreement with the US and UK which will lead to it acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine fleet.According to the Global Times, a newspaper viewed as a mouthpiece of the Communist Party in Beijing, Chinese military experts fear the vessels could be upgraded with a nuclear arsenal, despite assurances that they will only carry conventional weapons.Chinese military experts have supposedly warned of a potential strike on Australia, this was because, claims the Global Times, it would be relatively easy for Washington and London to equip the vessels with ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. In the report an unnamed senior military expert says that only nuclear armed states have nuclear-powered submarines and their role is to launch nuclear missiles in the event of war. The sources said assurances by Joe Biden and the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison on nuclear weaponry were “meaningless”. It would be “easy for the US and UK to deploy nuclear weapons and submarine-launched ballistic missiles on the Australian submarines”, says the unnamed military figure. In another story the state-backed publication, which often uses colourful invectives and is used for sabre rattling against perceived enemies, warned that Australia could be targetted as a warning to others if it acted “with bravado” in allegiance to the US, or by being “militarily assertive”.“Thus, Australian troops are also most likely to be the first batch of western soldiers to waste their lives in the South China Sea,” it said. In its official reaction, the Chinese government stated the proposal to introduce the nuclear-powered submarines was a dangerous development. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said  it “seriously damages regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race and undermines the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”. In reality, there is no likelihood of the Chinese government launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Australia because it is acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine fleet. India, a country which has been recently in armed clashes with China, has long operated nuclear-powered submarines in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The agreement between Australia, UK and US has, however drawn criticism from allies as well as China.  The deal, put together swiftly and largely in secrecy, means that France will lose a $90bn (£65bn) contract to build diesel-powered submarines for Australia. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, decried a “stab in the back” from Australia, saying “we had established a trusting relationship with Australia, and this trust was betrayed”. Mr Le Drian said what has happened showed that Mr Biden was behaving no better than Donald Trump: “The brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr Trump used to do. I am angry and I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.” Gerard Araud, the former French ambassador to Washington, tweeted : “France has just been reminded this bitter truth by the way the US and the UK have stabbed her in the back in Australia.”Other officials said relations with America were the worst since 2003, the times when the French were called “cheese eating surrender monkeys” for refusing to join the US and UK in the disastrous Iraq invasion. Joseph Borrell, foreign affairs and security policy chief for the European Union, which had just unveiled its own Indo-Pacific strategy, concluded that “we must survive on our own as others do. I understand the extent to which the French government must be disappointed”. Theresa May asked how the Aukus pact will cause the UK to respond should China attempt to invade Taiwan. “Can I ask him what are the implications of this pact for the stance that would be taken by the United Kingdom in its response should China attempt to invade Taiwan?”Boris Johnson replied: “The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law and that is the strong advice we would give to our friends across the world, and the strong advice that we would give to the government in Beijing.”The reactions were partly due to shock at what had unfolded. Just a fortnight ago the Australian defence and foreign ministers had reconfirmed the French agreement. Emmanuel Macron had looked forward to future cooperation when hosting Mr Morrison in June. Yet now we know, firstly privately from British officials, then publicly from defence secretary Ben Wallace and national security advisor Sir Stephen Lovegrove, that the Australians had first approached over switching to the agreement with the UK and US back in March. “This has been a project in gestation for some months – right through the Afghanistan drawdown – and is a powerful illustration of how we are building new long-term partnerships rooted in Britain’s values, its scientific and engineering excellence, and in our alliances” said Sir Stephen. What happened in Afghanistan was already a sign for European states that America’s position had not changed that much since the departure of Mr Trump. President Biden had carried on with his predecessor’s policy of hastily pulling out forces, with all the consequences that ensued. There was little consultation with Nato partners, who had no choice but to withdraw their troops as well. The Biden administration was turning its focus on the Indo-Pacific. It is not the first to seek to do so. Barack Obama had also attempted the move to the east but was held back to the Middle East by the rise of Isis. The Aukus agreement formalises the attempt to check Chinese expansionism. Defence secretary Ben Wallace said: “China is embarking on one of the biggest military spends and military investments in history. It’s growing its navy and air force at a huge rate, extremely fast. Obviously it’s engaged in some controversial and disputed areas. “That is what China is doing at the moment and it’s right that the UK alongside other allies such as Australia stands up for the rules-based system and international law.”  More

Scotland’s government has called for support from the military to help deal with long delays for people waiting for ambulances.First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised “unreservedly” today to people affected by extended waits, adding that the health service was dealing with its most challenging combination of circumstances amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.Those affected include the family of Gerald Brown, from Glasgow, who died aged 65 while waiting 40 hours for treatment.The Scottish government’s request to the military relates to the support of mobile testing units currently deployed by the Scottish Ambulance Service, which would then free up resources within the service, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.A spokeswoman for the MoD said: “The Ministry of Defence has received a request from Scottish Government under the Military Aid to Civilian Authority process.“We are working hard to identify where we can most effectively assist other government departments and civil authorities.”The request’s confirmation by the MoD had come hours after Ms Sturgeon told MSPs during First Minister’s Questions that the possibility of the government asking for help was “under active consideration”.She had said that the government was considering seeking “targeted military assistance to help deal with short-term pressure points” in the ambulance service, as well as providing additional funding “to support new recruitment”.Ms Sturgeon added: “Such military assistance is already being provided to ambulance services in England and of course we have had military assistance for other aspects of the pandemic over the past 18 months.”Health Secretary Humza Yousaf will make a statement in Holyrood next week to set out measures being taken by the Scottish Government to ease the health care crisis.It comes after he said on Wednesday (15 September) that people should “think twice” before calling for an ambulance.The Tory leader Douglas Ross criticised his comments, calling them “dangerous and reckless”.He had urged Ms Sturgeon to apologise on his behalf – which she did not. Instead, she said people should “never hesitate in calling an ambulance if that is the intervention they think is required”.Meanwhile, the Scottish Ambulance Service would be contacting Mr Brown’s family to apologise for the delay in response and to “pass on [their] sincerest condolences”, a spokeswoman said.“All findings and lessons learned will be shared with Mr Brown’s family as part of the investigation process,” she added.His death has been reported to the Procurator Fiscal, who said an investigation was “ongoing”.Mr Brown’s bereaved relatives were told that he could have survived if help arrived sooner, The Herald newspaper reported. More

As a practical result of the cabinet reshuffle, Britain will soon have to get much more used to the voices of two previously relatively low-key politicians – the former secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Oliver Dowden, and his surprising successor, Nadine Dorries, whose announcement was an unusually well-kept secret in this notoriously leaky administration. They highlight two important aspects of what Boris Johnson is up to.First, then, Nadine Dorries. She has always been an extreme Boris loyalist, and that’s a quality he values (though doesn’t always reciprocate). She’s a former nurse, writes historical novels set in Britain’s near past of Heartbeat, Call the Midwife and a post office in every village, and was a health minister during the pandemic, and mostly managed not to disgrace herself. More than anything, though, she is a dedicated and sincere populist-nationalist of a kind and to a fanaticism that is still relatively rare even in today’s purged Conservative party. In particular, she is a sworn enemy of the British Broadcasting Corporation and all it stands for (or at least all that its enemies on the right imagine it stands for). Her role will be to terrorise the corporation into a state of subjugation, and it’s precisely her unreasoning demeanour that makes her so well-suited to the task at hand. There is, in other words, no point trying to argue with her. It suits Johnson well to allow such a figure to rough up the corporation while he remains relatively aloof from the unpleasantness and maintains useful and friendly relations with Laura Kuenssberg. If Nadine goes too far one day then the PM can be quietly distanced from the gaffe or unpleasantness. Ms Dorries second objective, again deploying her unique gift for twisted logic and the deduction of a kamikaze pilot, will be to insert Paul Dacre, former editor of the Daily Mail, to head up the media regulator Ofcom, and thus a chilling effect on the entire media landscape, rather as his critics say he did in the Mail newsroom. Mr Dowden, for whatever reason, didn’t succeed in getting Dacre done, so to speak, and spawned into Ofcom; and so Johnson has, so to speak, called the midwife. Her forceps are ready. The public should be ready to see much more of her forceful personality, one that Johnson must hope will be almost perfect for the prejudices of the former red wall.Which brings us to the more emollient sounding Mr Dowden, co-chair of the Conservative Party. He’ll be looking after the political side of things, while his co-chair Ben Elliot keeps on with the untidy business of fundraising. Traditionally, the Tory chairman in the first half of a parliament was supposed to clear up after a general election and concentrate on internal party affairs, such as membership and campaigning. Then there’s a swap to a chair with a more public-facing, all-purpose presentational role – articulate, deeply partisan, getting the message across. Hence Mr Dowden – a former PR man, he learned the smooth arts of politics as deputy chief of staff to David Cameron, a typical graduate of the Cameron-Osborne era. His past (also a Remainer, predictably) doesn’t seem to have done him any harm. As the “minister for the Today programme”, he will be the go-to spokesperson ready to explain how the prime minister’s words have been taken out of context, or explain patiently what the new justice secretary really meant to say about taking the knee, or, indeed, what point Ms Dorries was really trying to make during a meeting with BBC bosses. He’ll be busy.In his first public utterances, Mr Dowden, a little mischievously, told the nation to be ready for a general election. Perhaps what he, this time, meant to say was that his party should be on a war footing and in permanent campaign mode as it launches wave after wave of new culture wars against the opposition, with Ms Dorries in the thick of it. He doesn’t quite have the common touch, it’s fair to say, of a Lee Anderson or Andrew Bridgen, but there are limits, and this is the cabinet, the public face of the party, that will be charged with having something to show for their four or five years in office, other than a gigantic pile of debt and record taxes – Gove building the houses, Javid cutting waiting lists, Zahawi sorting the schools out, Patel stopping the migrants, Shapps getting things moving, and all the rest of it. They’ll all be busy. More

Boris Johnson’s new international trade secretary has been accused of climate emergency denial after a series of tweets came to light in which she insisted the world was not getting hotter and dismissed global warming campaigners as “fanatics”.In the messages, sent between 2010 and 2012, Anne-Marie Trevelyan approvingly quoted the work of groups which have rejected the mainstream scientific consensus that human activity is driving climate change.And she stated that one such group had provided “clear evidence that the ice caps aren’t melting after all, to counter those gloom-mongers and global warming fanatics”.Labour condemned the Berwick MP’s elevation to the cabinet just weeks ahead of the COP26 UN conference being chaired by Boris Johnson in Glasgow, at which the prime minister is hoping to persuade countries from around the world to sign up to ambitious carbon-cutting targets.Ms Trevelyan was promoted to the International trade brief on Wednesday from a more junior role in the business department where she had responsibility for clean growth.Her controversial comments on climate change date back to before she entered parliament in 2015, but after she had fought the previous general election as a Tory candidateIn one tweet, backing a campaign against wind farms in 2012, she said: “We aren’t getting hotter, global warming isn’t actually happening.”And in another message she praised as “intelligent” an article about the “global warming myth” by the Climate Realists group, who argue that temperature rises cannot be blamed on manmade carbon emissions.In 2011, she gave her support to outspoken climate emergency denier Lord Lawson for “hitting back” at then energy secretary Chris Huhne’s “ideological obsession with manmade climate change”.Shadow international development secretary Emily Thornberry highlighted the string of messages, with the comment: “At least the last Trade Secretary only hired climate change deniers…”She was referring to Ms Trevelyan’s predecessor Liz Truss, who hired former Australian PM and climate sceptic Tony Abbott as a UK trade envoy.Ms Trevelyan later insisted she was “proud” of the government’s action on climate change and will make it “a priority” in her new job.“This government is united in achieving our ambitious climate target goals,” said the international trade secretary.“Having worked directly on COP26, I am proud of what we have already done to tackle climate change and embrace a greener and cleaner future, including being the first major economy to legislate for a Net Zero target by 2050 and launching a bold plan for the UK’s world-leading hydrogen economy.“As International Trade Secretary, climate change and protecting the environment will remain a priority as I negotiate ambitious trade deals around the world.”Mr Johnson’s reshuffle continued into a second day on Thursday, with the prime minister finalising non-cabinet jobs and promoting a raft of female Conservative rising stars ahead of the first meeting of the new cabinet at 10 Downing Street on Friday.Former biomedical scientist Maggie Throup was made vaccines minister, following Nadhim Zahawi’s appointment yesterday as education secretary.Lucy Frazer and Helen Whately moved to the Treasury as financial secretary and exchequer secretary, while barrister Victoria Atkins was promoted to minister of state at the Ministry of Justice.Gillian Keegan was promoted to minister of state rank at the Department of Health, while Chloe Smith moved from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Work and Pensions.Other appointments included Alex Chalk as Solicitor General and Conor Burns minister of state at the Northern Ireland Office. Robin Walker was moved from Northern Ireland to education. Justin Tomlinson left the Department for Work and Pensions to become Tory Party deputy chair.After sacking three cabinet ministers on Wednesday, Mr Boris also ejected a raft of long-serving ministers of lower rank.Downing Street confirmed that Nick Gibb was leaving the Department for Education after 10 years as a schools minister. In a clear indication he had been sacked, the former minister said he was “sad” not to keep the post.Also ousted were former culture secretary John Whittingdale, who had been a fierce critic of the BBC licence fee as media minister, and Jesse Norman, who leaves the Treasury after five years in government. Fears that Mr Johnson’s new culture secretary Nadine Dorries intends to declare war on the BBC were stoked by a cabinet colleague, who said she would take on “crackpot” programmes funded by the licence fee-payer.Defence secretary Ben Wallace suggested that Ms Dorries – a best-selling author of romantic fiction – was more in tune with the tastes of the British public than BBC executives.“What’s great about Nadine Dorries is that she produces culture that people buy and actually want to see, rather than some of the more crackpot schemes we’ve seen being funded in the past by taxpayers money,” Mr Wallace told Sky News.“I think she’ll bring realism to it.” More

The Dutch foreign minister, Sigrid Kaag, resigned Thursday after the lower house of parliament passed a motion of censure against the government over its handling of evacuations from Afghanistan amid the Taliban takeover.In a parliamentary debate Wednesday night, Kaag acknowledged that the government’s slow or muddled response to warnings about the situation in Afghanistan meant some local staff and people who had worked as translators for Dutch troops in the country had not been evacuated.After the motion was passed Thursday, Kaag immediately said she would tender her resignation, saying that parliament had decided “that the Cabinet has acted irresponsibly.””I can only accept the consequences of this judgment as the minister with ultimate responsibility,” she added.Don Ceder, a member of the faith-based Christian Union, said in a statement earlier Thursday that the party supported the motion against Kaag and a similar one against Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld — a move that secured majority backing for the censures.Ceder said the government “failed to show decisiveness, to show compassion, to pick up on signals and ultimately to take responsibility for people for whom we bear responsibility.”Kaag was a minister in a caretaker Dutch government that is in power amid drawn-out negotiations to form a new ruling coalition following a general election in March.Kaag, who leads the centrist D66 party, has been closely involved in those talks along with caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy won the most seats in the election.It was not immediately clear what effect her resignation would have on those negotiations. Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that Kaag said she would remain D66 leader and continue in the coalition talks.In her resignation speech, she said D66 ministers would remain in the caretaker government.Kaag’s resignation came a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson demoted Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab as part of a Cabinet shake-up. Raab had faced criticism for delaying his return from a holiday in Greece as the Taliban took over Afghanistan last month. More