Markus Andrews

A group of 24 peers have been have been placed under investigation following allegations they breached transparency rules by failing to give details about the companies they run.Conservative peer Lord Julian Fellowes, creator of the Downton Abbey series, is among the group of politicians to be probed by a parliamentary watchdog over their financial interests.Cross-bencher Lord Alan Sugar, star of The Apprentice, will also be investigated by the Lords Commissioners for Standards – the body examining whether peers failed to properly declare details about their companies.Campaign group Unlock Democracy had submitted a formal complaint to the watchdog – claiming dozens of peers were in breach of the rules by failing to provide “clarity” about the nature of their businesses.Tom Brake, the former Lib Dem MP who is now director of Unlock Democracy, said he “welcomed” the fact that the commissioner had now launched an investigation.He told The Independent: “It’s about transparency and accountability. The public is entitled to know when a peer is making a contribution to a debate whether they or not they have a potential business interest. It’s not burdensome to comply with the rules.”It follows an investigation by Open Democracy, which first highlighted the potential breach of transparency rules over the apparent failure to declare basic details about the companies they run.Code of conduct rules state clearly that if a peer is a director of a company, they are expected to explain to the parliamentary what that company does “where this is not self-evident from its name”.Major Conservative Party donor and Tory peer Lord Bamford – owner of the digger firm JCB – is another of the 24 peers subjected to the probe announced on Monday.His declaration on the Lords’ register of interests lists his directorship in a company called Editallied Limited, but does not provide any more details.Labour peer Lord Carter is also under investigation by the standards watchdog. He has declared his directorship of offshore company Primary Group Limited, based in the tax haven of Bermuda – but has not provided further details.Tory peer Lord Nat Wei claimed he had made only an “administrative” error in his declaration, saying he had already apologised to the commissioner and updated his details.“I believe the omission of information on my register of interests was an administrative oversight on my part and having apologised for this to the Standards Commissioner my register of interests has now been updated in line with the revised code of conduct,” he said.Labour MP Margaret Hodge, the former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said in July, when the potential rule breach emerged, that “the whole thing leaves a bad taste in the mouth”.She added: “Failure to [explain what a company does] is of course not itself an indicator of wrongdoing, but the sheer scale of the problem shows that there is a problematic lack of transparency in the Lords.” More

Boris Johnson has been accused by Sir Keir Starmer of being “incapable of international leadership”, as he described people eligible for evacuation left behind in Afghanistan as a “national disgrace”.The Labour leader’s remarks came as the prime minister defended the 20-year intervention in the region, insisting the armed forces enabled millions of girls to go to school while protecting the UK from terrorism.Speaking after Mr Johnson provided an update to MPs, Sir Keir claimed the government did not have a plan for to “get everybody out” of the country, who remain eligible for sanctuary in Britain, following the closure of Kabul international airport last week.“There is no international agreement on resettlement of Afghan refugees,” the Labour leader said. “We have a prime minister incapable of international leadership, just when we need it most”.He added: “History will tell the tale of Operation Pitting as on of immense bravery. We are proud of all those who contributed, their story made even more remarkable by the fact whilst they were saving lives political leadership was missing in action”.The Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, who also chairs the Commons Defence Committee, said that the limits of UK and Western influence had been “exposed” by the crisis in Afghanistan.“There’s now a void of leadership in the West and Nato,” he added, insisting the government needed a “complete overhaul of Whitehall to upgrade our strategic thinking” and foreign policy if Britain wanted to fill the void.During the debate on Monday, Mr Johnson also told Theresa May — his predecessor in No 10 — that the government had “no direct information as yet” over any increase to the UK’s terror threat following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban insurgency.In his update, the prime minister said 15,000 people were brought to safety during the evacuation, but revealed 311 people eligible to come to the UK through a special resettlement scheme remain in Afghanistan.He said of those people, 192 had responded to calls, adding: “We will do absolutely everything we can to ensure that those people get the safe passage that they deserve using the levers that I have described”.Referring to the imminent 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Mr Johnson told MPs: “If anyone is still tempted to say that we have achieved nothing in that country in twenty years, tell them that our armed forces and those of our allies enabled 3.6 million girls to go to school.“Tell them that this country and the Western world were protected from Al Qaeda in Afghanistan throughout that period; and tell them we have just mounted the biggest humanitarian airlift in recent history.” More

New checks and red tape for trade across the Irish Sea – including a ban on the sale of chilled meats – will be delayed again, under an expected deal between the UK and EU.The government is poised to announce further extensions to post-Brexit ‘grace periods’ until at least the end of the year, possibly as early as today.A government source said Brussels had agreed to pushing back implementation of the new rules from the start of October – for the third time – saying: “So sausage wars are on hold.”But the stopgap deal will only kick the can down the road and does not mean the EU is ready to freeze the Northern Ireland Protocol and end oversight by EU courts, as the UK has demanded.The Irish government again insisted there is “no appetite” in EU capitals to rewrite the agreement, arguing solutions “can be found within the existing agreement”.The further delay will avert the immediate threat of checks on goods of animal origin entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain and the significant new paperwork involved.Most controversy surrounded the ban on chilled meats crossing the Irish Sea – the so-called ‘sausage wars’ – which is also set to come into force from next month.The latest delay is likely to require the UK to abide by Brussels’ food standards rules, but ministers insist that does not amount to the “dynamic alignment” it opposes.The source declined to say whether the grace periods would be extended for as long as six months, but said it would push back the new rules “quite far”.The two sides remain far apart, with the UK demanding a “permanent solution” to the crisis – while the EU insists the delays must be used to arrange for retailers to obtain meats from the Republic of Ireland.A July “command paper” from the UK ramped up tensions further, demanding the grace periods become permanent and a halt to EU legal action for non-implementation of the Protocol.David Frost, the Brexit minister, also insisted the Protocol “must no longer be policed by EU institutions and courts of justice” – the bedrock of the 2019 deal signed by Boris JohnsonThe grace periods were extended in both March and June, the second time with the agreement of Brussels, but only for three months.Leo Varadkar, the Irish deputy prime minister, acknowledged the Protocol was causing “real disruptions”, which the European Commission wanted to address.But he told the BBC: “We don’t really see the case for renegotiating it so soon, we think most of the solutions can be found within the existing agreement.The Protocol requires all goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland to follow EU regulations, creating a trade border in the Irish Sea. More

A minister was forced to backtrack after claiming a British veteran who served in Afghanistan had taken their own life – admitting he had made a “deeply embarrassing” mistake after seeing the post on social media.Armed forces minister James Heappey said on Monday morning that a soldier who had been with him on his own last tour in Afghanistan had died by suicide in recent days, apparently distraught over the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.But Mr Heappey later apologised and said the claim was “inaccurate” – revealing that he had based his claim on an apparent suicide note posted on social media.“A suicide note was shared on social media at the back end of last week which referred in very, very accurate detail to the tour that I served on which was with 2 Rifles in Sangin in 2009,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.The minister added: “I am deeply embarrassed to have reflected on something which I had seen on social media, and struck me as very true and had affected me deeply.”A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was still looking into the viral social media post shared on Facebook – but officials believe it is likely to be a fake.The Independent understands that MoD is still looking into the origin of the initial post as well as double-checking service personnel records. But officials have conducted an initial check through personnel records, and are confident the suicide note is fraudulent.The blunder occurred when Mr Heappey told Sky News host Kay Burley that at least one veteran from the conflict had taken their own life “because of their feeling over the consequences of withdrawal”.But he later corrected himself on both BBC’s Breakfast and GMB – and apologised to Sky News journalists on Twitter for making the claim on air.“I’m sorry to have said something that might not be true. The note referred very accurately to my last tour of Afghanistan with 2 RIFLES in 2009 & I’ve spent weekend fearing colleague had taken their life,” said Mr Heappey.He added: “However, MoD aren’t certain that note is real so wanted to clarify … Army & MoD working quickly to establish whether note is real or not.”Despite making the claim during his Monday media round, the junior defence also admitted there had been “an awareness, I think, already within the MoD over the weekend, that potentially that that suicide note may not be real”.Mr Heappey, a former army major who served in Afghanistan with The Rifles, said his “main message” had been that too many veterans had taken their own lives while struggling with mental illness in recent years.“I’m very worried about the mental health my friends and former colleagues at his time,” Mr Heappey said. “That’s why the government, the nation, needs to put our arm round our veterans and tell them how proud we are of what they did.”Boris Johnson will announce details of an additional £5m to help military charities offering support on mental health issues to veterans with the aim of ensuring “no veteran’s request for help will go unanswered”. More

Tony Blair has suggested he may have been naive to think Afghanistan could have been permanently “remade”, even as he issued a strong defence of western interventionism and values days after the UK and US ended their hasty withdrawal from the country.The former prime minister, who sent British troops into Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago, said the chaos that saw tens of thousands flee its returning theocratic rulers showed people identified with western liberal values no matter where they lived.Britain and Europe must be willing to defend democracy and free expression in the face of religious tyranny and the threat of terrorism, he said.Mr Blair added that he believed making those systems stick in Afghanistan “didn’t fail because the people didn’t want the country remade”, but because the Taliban conquered it through violence.“The barrier to nation-building is usually not the people, but poor institutional capacity and governance, including corruption, over many years. And, above all, the challenge of trying to build whilst internal elements combine with external support and try to destroy,” the ex-Labour leader told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).On Afghanistan, Mr Blair added: “One of the most depressing things I have heard articulated regularly over the past weeks is the idea that we are foolish in believing that western notions of liberal democracy and freedom are exportable, or will ever take root except in the somewhat decadent terrain of western society.“Maybe my generation of leaders were naive in thinking countries could be ‘remade’. Or maybe the ‘remaking’ needed to last longer. But we should never forget, as we see the women of Aghanistan in the media, culture and civic society now flee in fear of their lives, that our values are still those which free people choose.“Recovering confidence in our values and in their universal application is a necessary part of ensuring we stand up for them and are prepared to defend them.”The 68-year-old was speaking 20 years on from 9/11 and focused his address on the threat posed by Islamic terrorists.Islamism as an ideology incompatible with open societies and a source of violence represents a “first-order security threat” that will strike the west whether it intervenes or not, Mr Blair told the RUSI meeting, rather than a “second-order” one which might be dealt with on a local, case-by-case basis.He said the danger to Europe from Islamic jihad was growing and that leading nations should come together to create a coherent strategy for countering it – with a particular emphasis on Europe given the US’ withdrawal from active military engagements.That could include working with people in Muslim-majority countries who want to take back control from extremists, as well as helping governments in, for example, the Sahel region of Africa protect their citizens from insurgencies and boost anti-poverty measures, Mr Blair said.Such an approach “will likely encompass more than conventional counter-terrorism” work, he said, adding: “We needs some boots on the ground. Naturally our preference is for the boots to be local, but that will not always be possible.” More

Japan s outspoken Cabinet minister in charge of vaccinations, Taro Kono, has the most popular support to become the country’s next leader, according to opinion polls released Monday, as potential candidates jockey to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.Kono, 58, a graduate of Georgetown University and fluent in English is a rarity in Japanese politics, which are dominated by elderly men. He has many fans among younger people, with whom he communicates via social media. He has also served as foreign and defense ministers.Suga’s sudden announcement on Friday that he will not seek another term as head of the governing Liberal Democratic Party in a Sept. 29 vote opened the way for an array of candidates.The head of the governing party is normally elected prime minister by parliament because the party and its coalition partner hold a majority of seats. Suga, who took office a year ago, has faced nosediving popularity over his government’s coronavirus response, which many saw as slow and limited, and for insisting on hosting the Olympics despite widespread opposition over health concerns. Having a fresh leader is important for the Liberal Democrats ahead of an upcoming general election that must be held by late November. A telephone survey conducted on Sept. 4-5 and released Monday by Japan’s Kyodo News agency showed nearly 32% of the 1,071 respondents said they preferred Kono as the next prime minister, with former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba trailing with 27%. Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, the only person who has announced their candidacy, was third with 19%. Both Kono and Ishiba have expressed interest in running but have not announced their candidacies as they continue to seek support from party lawmakers.As is customary in Japan, the survey did not provide a margin of error. Polls of that size normally have a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.Two other weekend surveys, by the Yomiuri newspaper and TBS television, also ranked the top three potential contenders in the same order. Public popularity does not directly affect the choice of prime minister, who is elected by parliament from candidates presented by various parties.Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who resigned last year because of ill health but is still influential in the governing party, is reportedly backing former Internal Affairs Minister Sanae Takaichi, who shares his right-wing ideology and is seeking to become Japan’s first female leader. Former Gender Equality Minister Seiko Noda, who is also seeking to be the first female prime minister, was nearly tied with Takaichi with about 3-4% support in the surveys. More

Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out Labour support for a controversial rise in National Insurance to pay for social care reform – saying it would unfairly punish young people and low earners.Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak are thrashing out the final details, but the government is set to announce a tax hike to raise around £10bn per year to help “fix” the social care system.Reports suggest National Insurance will be increased by 1.25 per cent – sparking angry warnings from Conservatives about the danger of breaching the 2019 Tory manifesto not to raise NI, income tax or VAT.The Labour leader made clear he also opposed using NI, saying it would disproportionately affect younger and lower income workers.“We do need more investment in the NHS and social care. But National Insurance, this way of doing it, simply hits low earners, it hits young people and it hits businesses,” said Sir Keir.“We don’t agree that is the appropriate way to do it. Do we accept that we need more investment? Yes we do. Do we accept that NI is the right way to do it? No we don’t,” the Labour leader told The Mirror.On Sunday shadow cabinet minister Lisa Nandy indicated Labour was ready to consider a tax on wealth to help pay for social care, and the TUC called for a £17bn hike to capital gains tax to fill the funding gap.Backing the “broad principle” that those with most should bear the greatest burden, Ms Nandy said this could mean that “those who make their money out of something other than income – out of assets – pay a bit more”.Sir Keir did not rule out the possibility Labour would propose an increase in capital gains tax to pay for social care, but said no decision would be reached until the next Labour manifesto.The respected think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggested that increasing basic and higher rate income tax by just under 1.5 per cent would raise a similar amount to a one per cent hike in National Insurance contributions (NICs), and would spread the burden across the generations.Former minister Jake Berry, leader of the Northern Research Group (NRG) of Tory MPs, warned against a plan which appeared aimed at elderly voters in affluent southern seats.Mr Berry, one of the “red wall” MPs holding former Labour seats, told BBC Radio 4’s Today that since NI was not paid by people who are retired there was also a question of intergenerational fairness.“It doesn’t seem fair to me – particularly following this pandemic where so many people have taken great sacrifices to keep people safe, it’s particularly hit the youngest, particularly hit those in work – that we then ask those in work to pay for people to have protection in care,” he said.Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg and international trade secretary Liz Truss are believed to be among a number of cabinet ministers hostile to the NI rise expected to be announced this week.Mr Rees-Mogg appeared to show his disapproval in his column in the Sunday Express – citing George Bush Sr’s promise not to create new taxes in his successful bid to be US president, before he went on to raise taxes and lose the next election to Bill Clinton.Tory grandees also shared their dismay at the plan. Peer Lord Hammond, chancellor between 2016 and 2019, also said he would “vote against” any plan involving a NI rise in the Lords.“Economically, politically, expanding the state further in order to protect private assets by asking poor people to subsidise rich people has got to be the wrong thing to do,” he said.Lord Clarke, the Conservative chancellor between 1993 and 1997, said a NI rise would be is “too heavily weighted on the lower paid,” while former Tory PM Sir John Major warned against the move targeting workers and employers by arguing it is “regressive”.Lifetime contributions on care will be capped at about £80,000 under the government’s plan, according to the Sunday Times. An announcement is expected on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.Reports suggested that £5.5bn more funding has been agreed for NHS shortfalls later this year, including to help clear the backlog caused by the Covid pandemic.Meanwhile, Sir Keir said he would be happy for his 12-year-old son to receive a Covid jab if the vaccine is an expansion in the roll-out approved by government’s chief medical advisers.“I am in favour of everybody having the vaccine if they possibly can,” said the Labour leader. “Therefore if the advice is for that age children to have it, we would follow that advice.” More

Footballer Marcus Rashford has urged the government to keep the £20 Universal Credit top-up to prevent thousands of children from going hungry.The England and Manchester United player said “devastatingly” child food poverty is getting worse instead of better.He is now calling on supporters to write to their MP about backing recommendations to end the “child hunger pandemic” in the UK.It comes after new figures revealed 15 per cent of households have experienced food insecurity in the past six months – levels that are about 27 per cent higher than before the coronavirus pandemic.“What is it going to take for these children to be prioritised? Instead of removing support through social security, we should be focusing efforts on developing a sustainable long-term roadmap out of this child hunger pandemic,” he said.The striker is calling on people to urge their MPs to pressure ministers ahead of the Spending Review to make funds available to widen the eligibility for schemes such free school meals.The three recommendations he is supporting, part of Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy, aim to guarantee every child at risk of going hungry gets some good food every day.The first is to expand free school meal eligibility to all children aged seven to 18 in all households earning £20,000 or less after benefits, and to children that are undocumented or living in immigrant households with “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF).The second is to provide long-term funding for the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, increasing eligibility in line with free school meal expansion.And the third is to expand Healthy Start eligibility to all households with pregnant women or children under five earning £20,000 or less after benefits, and invest in a communications campaign to increase uptake of the scheme which provides free vouchers to buy milk, fruit and vegetables. This follows his previous campaign, which saw more than 1.1 million people sign a petition on the parliamentary website.Speaking to Good Morning Britain on Monday, Mr Dimbleby said Rashford was an “amazing” voice for the cause, adding: “He’s lived it. He can really talk to the experience and he gets rid of this idea that somehow this nanny state-ism or this is things that families should be able to do for themselves by painting a picture of what it’s like to be in that situation.”Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, added: “It’s extremely distressing that now even more children lack a secure, nutritious diet compared with last year.”Boris Johnson is coming under pressure from charities, campaigners and even Tory MPs to scrap the end of the temporary £20 Universal Credit uplift introduced during the pandemic.Recipients could lose £1,040 annually if the prime minister goes ahead with the cut, with new research suggesting carers, shelf stackers and hairdressers could be among the workers hit by the biggest overall drop in welfare payments.Rashford, 23, waged a high-profile campaign last year to persuade the government to provide free meals to vulnerable youngsters in England throughout the school holidays during the coronavirus pandemic, forcing prime minister Boris Johnson into a U-turn.He also became the youngest person to top the Sunday Times Giving List by raising £20m in donations from supermarkets for groups tackling child poverty.The £WriteNow campaign encourages the public to visit Rashford’s campaign website endchildfoodpoverty.org/write-now and follow the steps to write to their local MP.Additional reporting by Press Association More