Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has rejected a plea to introduce emergency work visas after a Conservative MP warned that “crops are rotting in the fields” of his constituency due to labour shortages.Roger Gale, who represents Thanet, said producers in his local area have had to throw away vast quantities of produce because there are not enough people to pick it or transport it to market.Businesses across the country have been hit hard by a shortage of workers since Britain left the EU’s single market and ended free movement at the start of the year. Many sectors that were previously staffed by migrant workers from the European Union have struggled to recruit enough employees, with repercussions along the supply chain.Addressing the prime minister Mr Gale said: “We’re at harvest time, and Mr Speaker, all is not safely gathered-in. In three weeks Thanet Earth in my constituency, one of the largest glass house companies in the country growing tomatoes has had to trash £320,000 worth of produce because of no pickers and no drivers.”Because of a lack of labour force the crops are rotting in the fields and on our trees. Mr Speaker, will my Right Honourable friend, seek to introduce immediately, a Covid recovery visa, so that this year’s crops are not lost?”Mr Johnson rejected the plea and said the existing arrangements were already sufficient to deal with the issue. He claimed the problem had been going on “for a long time” – in an apparent bid to absolve his own recent ending of free movement from blame.”He’s absolutely right in what he says about the importance of buying British eating British,” the prime minister said, wearing a wheat sheaf badge at his suit breast pocket to mark “British Farming Day”.”Our food is the best in the world, and he’s right also to address the problems in the supply chain that we’re currently seeing, but we are taking steps. And of course, this has been a problem for a long time, but what we have here we have is a seasonal agricultural workers scheme, which we’ll use to ensure that British farms get the labour, that they need.”Last week the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said that while most farms were “just about surviving” the current lack of drivers was unsustainable and urgent action was needed to prevent more serious problems with food deliveries.Some UK farmers have been told to throw away milk because of a shortage of lorry drivers to collect it, while one dairy logistics firm warned of a “collapse of parts of the supply chain”. More

Boris Johnson has refused to explain how Universal Credit claimants should recoup their looming £20-a-week cut in payments, as he branded criticism of the move “absurd”.In fierce clashes in the Commons, the prime minister was challenged to set out how many hours of extra work will be needed – after a Cabinet minister wrongly claimed it is just 2.But Mr Johnson declined to say whether the true figure is higher or lower – after experts concluded the answer is up to 9 – and instead criticised putting taxes “into benefits”.Keir Starmer, speaking ahead of a Commons vote on the controversy, said a single parent on the minimum wage would have to find an extra 9 hours a week “just to get the money back that the prime minister has taken away from them”.“Why is the prime minister choosing to take a tax system already loaded against working people and making it even more unfair?” the Labour leader demanded to know.The £20-a-week cut – which will kick in next month – is predicted to plunge half million more people into poverty, including 200,000 children.Labour is staging a Commons vote, but it is certain to be defeated and even Conservative MPs critical of the reduction are resigned to it going ahead.Downing Street later said Tory MPs will be told to abstain on Labour’s motion to cancel the cut, which means it will pass – but have no impact, because it is non-binding.The prime minister’s press secretary said: “As a general rule we don’t vote on opposition day debates”. Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, got her sums badly wrong when she said claimants should find more work because “£20 a week is about two hours’ extra work”.It was quickly pointed out that Universal Credit is deliberately “tapered”, so a huge chunk of the payment is taken back as earnings rise.The respected Resolution Foundation think-tank said claimants take home as little as £2.24 per for every hour worked on the national minimum wage of £8.91, after travel and childcare costs.They would need to work an extra six hours a week to make up the £20 cut in support – rising to nine hours if they pay tax and National Insurance, it found.Sir Keir said: “The truth is that these low-paid workers can’t work longer hours to get back the money the prime minister is cutting from them.”“The reason is this: why would they have to work an extra nine hours, a full day every week, to get that £20 back – because of his broken tax system.But Mr Johnson replied: “What I can tell him is that under this government, for the first time in decades, wages are rising.”He added: “Of course, what they want to do is to continue to take money in taxation and put it into benefits. We don’t think that’s the right way. We want to encourage high wages and high skills.” More

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will shake up his Cabinet on Wednesday, attempting to move on from a series of political missteps and U-turns.Johnson’s office said the prime minister would appoint “a strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic.”Several underperforming ministers in the Conservative government could lose their jobs, including Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab who faced strong criticism last month for delaying his return from a holiday in Greece as the Taliban took over Afghanistan.Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is also under fire for his performance during the pandemic, which has seen long periods of school closures, sudden policy shifts and the cancelation of major exams two years in a row.Johnson carried out a sweeping government shuffle after his December 2019 election victory, sidelining lawmakers considered insufficiently loyal or lukewarm in their support for Britain’s departure from the European Union. That left him with a strongly pro-Brexit top team, but critics say it shut many ambitious and competent lawmakers out of government. More

Boris Johnson is poised to take the axe to his cabinet, as Downing Street sources confirmed he will conduct a reshuffle of ministers this afternoon.Senior figures thought to be at risk in the first major reshuffle of Mr Johnson’s premiership include education secretary Gavin Williamson and foreign secretary Dominic Raab.And home secretary Priti Patel has been tipped by some in Westminster as a candidate for the chop, after her failure to stop the growing numbers of small boats bringing refugees across the Channel from France.Mr Johnson has only days to complete the reshaping of his top team before he heads to the US for a speech at the United Nations General Assembly early next week. This week was effectively his last chance to carry out the widely-anticipated reshuffle in order to give new ministers time to prepare for high-profile speeches at next month’s Conservative annual conference in Manchester.And he will be pleased to be able to distract attention from the Commons debate and vote called by Labour this afternoon on the upcoming £1,000-a-year cut in Universal Credit payments.A Downing Street source said: “The prime minister will today conduct a reshuffle to put in plac a strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic.”The source added: “Yesterday, the PM set out his plan for managing Covid during the autumn and winter.“But the government must also redouble our efforts to deliver on the people’s priorities. The PM will be appointing ministers this afternoon with a focus on uniting and levelling up the whole country.”It is expected that Mr Johnson will call ministers facing the sack to his private office in the House of Commons following the weekly session of prime minister’s questions, sparing them the ordeal of walking up Downing Street in front of TV cameras.Senior appointments are expected to be made this afternoon, with more junior ranks filled on Thursday.Mr Williamson’s position has long been under threat after a series of calamities over exams and school reopening.And Mr Raab has been put at risk by his decision to remain on holiday as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.But it would be a virtually unprecedented development for a prime minister to sack his effective deputy – a position which Raab holds as First Secretary of State.Ministers thought to be under consideration for promotion including grassroots darling Liz Truss, chief whip Mark Spencer and Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who lost her cabinet rank when her Department for International Development was merged with the Foreign Office.Mr Johnson has so far been reluctant to sack senior colleagues, many of whom have been allies since the Brexit referendum campaign. He held on to housing secretary Robert Jenrick when his position was questioned over links with developer Richard Desmond.His biggest government shake-up since entering Downing Street – the post-election revamp of February 2020 – became a major reshuffle only as a result of then chancellor Sajid Javid quitting rather than see his advisers fall under the control of Dominic Cummings in No 10. More

The health secretary has defended Conservative MPs who refuse to wear masks in parliament, following criticism of his party’s lax attitude to the safety measure.Speaking on Wednesday Sajid Javid said masks were just one of a “suite of measures” that could be taken to prevent illness and said many MPs were vaccinated or might be getting regularly tested as an alternative.Images from the Commons chamber since MPs returned from summer recess show a marked partisan divide on mask-wearing, with the government benches largely unprotected – in contrast to the opposition. Though masks are no longer a legal requirement, the government still recommends the public wear them for prolonged periods in enclosed spaces with people outside their own household – with parliament fitting the bill exactly. Asked about the issue in an interview, Mr Javid also declined to tell people to wear masks at the upcoming Conservative party conference, a mass gathering of the party faithful in Manchester kicking off next month.He also defended a decision not to require people to provide proof of vaccination to attend the mass event.Asked why Tory MPs seemed so reticent to wear their masks, Mr Javid said there were “circumstances where people should consider wearing masks” and that the “advice hasn’t changed”.But adding that the government had “got rid of the legal requirements around masks, he told the BBC’s Today programme: “It’s not just one particular measure – masks, for example, and that’s it – there are a suite of measures. “Your infectiousness for example is affected by whether you’ve been vaccinated or not, it doesn’t mean that, of course, if you’ve been vaccinated that you can’t be infectious, I’m not saying that at all.”But there’s a suite of measures that should be taken into account. Vaccinations; are you getting regularly tested, especially if you’re visiting vulnerable people; masks are part of the measures.”Questioned on the lax rules planned for Tory conference, Mr Javid said he was “sure many of [those attending] will wear masks”.But he stopped short of recommending then, adding: “If they’re meeting with people that are a complete stranger, people will actually choose to do that. But many also will be vaccinated, many will also be been taking tests…”He added that there was no “need for a vaccine passport given where we are with Covid at this point” but said the policy was there was an option if the pandemic “gets out of control” again.Anti-mask and anti-lockdown sentiment has been widespread in some Conservative-supporting publications read by MPs since the beginning of the pandemic.Masks have been recommended in countries around the world as a means of reducing the spread of the virus. More

Poland’s most powerful politician says the country’s future is in the European Union and that there will be “no Polexit,” but that Poland at the same time wishes to remain a sovereign country.Jaroslaw Kaczynski who is the head of the ruling conservative Law and Justice party, made his comments in an interview with state news agency PAP that was published Wednesday. It follows some harsh comments last week about the 27-member bloc from some key members of his party which led many opposition politicians to accuse the country’s leadership of seeking to take the country out of the EU.Some political observers in Poland, where support for EU membership is very high, also fear that harsh comments about the EU could put Poland on a path to leaving the bloc by accident. But Kaczynski told PAP that Poland won’t follow Britain s example and won’t leave the EU.“There will be no Polexit. It’s a propaganda invention that has been used many times against us,” said Kaczynski, who is also a deputy prime minister. “We univocally see the future of Poland in the European Union.”Last week, two high-ranking Law and Justice officials made strong comments about the EU after the bloc moved to punish Poland financially for actions that increase the governing party’s control over the courts. Brussels says they violate the rule of law.Ryszard Terlecki, the party’s deputy leader, said that if things don’t go the way Poland likes, “we will have to search for drastic solutions.””The British showed that the dictatorship of the Brussels bureaucracy did not suit them and turned around and left,” he said.Marek Suski, another leading party member, said that Poland “will fight the Brussels occupier” just as it fought the Nazi and Soviet occupiers in the past.Suski added: “Brussels sends us overlords who are supposed to bring Poland to order, to put us on our knees, so that we might be a German state, and not a proud state of free Poles.”Poland accuses the EU of infringing on its sovereignty by opposing changes to the country’s judicial system introduced by the government, which is led by Law and Justice.Kaczynski argued that rule of law is an area of responsibility alone for the member states and “cannot be the subject of the type of interference that is currently occurring.”In his opinion, member states aren’t being treated equally, which goes against the bloc’s principles.“We want to be in the (European) Union, but at the same time we want to remain a sovereign state,” he said. “We want what was agreed in the treaties to be very strictly observed.”The EU, however, argues that because the EU’s legal order is integrated, it is essential to protect the independence of courts in each member state. More

The government has hired US banking behemoth JP Morgan to advise on the future of Channel 4, as ministers consider putting the publicly-owned broadcaster up for sale.A 10-week public consultation into the potential privatisation of Channel 4, ordered by culture secretary Oliver Dowden in June, came to a close on Tuesday night.The Wall Street giant has been drafted in to provide corporate financial advice and analysis to ministers as they consider the responses, The Independent understands. Labour’s former shadow culture secretary Tracy Brabin accused the government of having brought in the “wrecking ball” before the end of the consultation, while her successor Jo Stevens alleged the process had been a “sham”.The appointment has not yet been officially confirmed by the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, but an announcement could come as early as Wednesday.Established under Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1982 to offer a cultural alternative to the BBC, Channel 4 was built on a unique model in which it is owned by the government but receives its funding mainly from advertising.Despite recording a record financial surplus of £74m at the end of 2020, in addition to significant digital growth, Mr Dowden argued in June that privatisation ensure Channel 4 “keeps its place at the heart of British broadcasting” and “secure its future as a successful and sustainable public service broadcaster”.The network’s potential privatisation was announced as part of plans to “make the media landscape fit for the 21st century”, with Mr Dowden also floating plans for tighter regulation on impartiality and accuracy rules for video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime “so public service broadcasters can compete with international rivals”.But the move in June also came amid repeated attacks from Conservative MPs over perceived bias at Channel 4 – as well as the BBC. When the potential sale of Channel 4 was announced, Tory MP Craig Mackinlay claimed it had “sealed its own fate” with “one-sided” news coverage.Meanwhile, opposition to the sale of the broadcaster continues to brew, with a report by consultancy firm Ampere Analysis suggesting on Tuesday that as many as 60 production companies in the UK could go bust as a result. Nearly 140 of the 200 firms estimated to have worked with Channel 4 were found to rely on the broadcaster for at least half of their business. Facing MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee the day before Mr Dowden’s announcement in June, Channel 4’s chair Charles Gurassa suggested “big American conglomerates” would be among the potential investors if the broadcaster was privatised.Mr Gurassa later wrote to Mr Dowden in July warning that the board had “serious concerns that the consequences [of privatisation] will be very harmful, both to the UK’s creative economy and to the choice and breadth of distinctive British-made content available to UK audiences”.“Without a transparent assessment of the implications of such a decision, the government is in danger of sleepwalking into the irreversible and risky sale of an important, successful and much-loved British institution,” he wrote. More

Labour has called on Conservative MPs “to do the right thing” and back a vote calling for the Government to scrap its plans to cut Universal Credit (UC) amid fears it could plunge millions of Britons into poverty.Ministers have come under sustained pressure to reverse the decision to end the £20-a-week uplift introduced to support families during the Covid-19 pandemic.During an opposition day debate on Wednesday, Labour will call on Tory MPs who oppose the welfare cut to vote with them in a non-binding motion.Universal Credit recipients could lose £1,040 annually if the Prime Minister goes ahead with the cut. Analysis from Labour also suggests the removal of the uplift would take £2.5 billion from the economies of the North of England and the Midlands.Ministers plan to begin phasing out the uplift from the end of September, based on individual claimants’ payment dates.Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “Today, Labour is giving Conservative MPs the chance to do the right thing.“They must choose between their blind loyalty to the Prime Minister and looking after their constituents.”Labour’s intervention comes after mayors from eight of the country’s major urban areas warned the government that nearly a quarter of families in their cities face a £1,000-a-year hit to their incomes due to the proposed cut.The eight Labour metro mayors – representing areas including London, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, the West of England and West and South Yorkshire – warned that the benefit cut would affect nearly 2 million families.The mayors – including London’s Sadiq Khan and Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham – warned Mr Johnson: “Time is running out for your government to cancel this cut and the devastating consequences it will bring.”Director of policy and campaigns at Action for Children Imran Hussain said the cut “will see hundreds of thousands more childhoods become overshadowed by poverty and hardship”.Ministers have claimed that the uplift, which will be phased out from the end of the month, was only ever designed to be a temporary response during the pandemic. Chancellor Rishi Sunak told the BBC that “the best way to help people is to help them into work and make sure those jobs are well paid”.According to the latest government figures, there are 5.9 million people receiving UC payments in the UK – nearly double the three million making claims before the pandemic. Some 40 per cent of claimants are already employed.Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey sparked fury on Monday after saying that removing the cut would only mean “two hours’ extra work every week” for claimants.However, her analysis was disputed by the Resolution Foundation who noted that claimants who work additional hours see their benefits reduced. For each £1 earned, the UC payment falls by 63p, the charity said.According to the charity’s analysis, a claimant would need to work an extra nine hours a week to make up for the removal of the uplift.Conservative MPs have also criticised the removal of the uplift.Tory MP Nigel Mills, who urged the government to push back the cut until March, told The Independent: “When people find they can’t make ends meet they will get upset and angry. The backlash and anger will really build when they lose those extra payments.”Andy Street, Tory metro mayor for the west Midlands region, said on Friday he was “very concerned” about the consequences of the cut on people’s incomes.A Government spokesperson said: “As announced by the Chancellor at the Budget, the Universal Credit uplift was always a temporary measure designed to help claimants through the economic shock and financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic, and it has done so.“Universal Credit will continue to provide a vital safety net for those both in and out of work and it’s right that the Government should focus on our Plan for Jobs, supporting people back into work and supporting those already employed to progress and earn more.” More