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Boris Johnson has been accused of undermining the rule of law in the UK after his latest attack on “left-wing” lawyers, having claimed they acted “against the public interest”.Some of the country’s leading legal figures said they were appalled by the prime minister’s remarks about the profession, which follow his previous comments dismissing human rights lawyers as “lefties”.On Thursday Mr Johnson told LBC Radio: “The Labour opposition has consistently taken the side of, I’m afraid, left wing criminal justice lawyers against … the interests of the public.”In a rare intervention, the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland issued a statement saying they “deplored” Mr Johnson’s “political posturing”.And the Law Society, the professional body representing solicitors in England and Wales, told The Independent that the “deeply concerning” remarks put lawyers at risk.“Solicitors have a professional obligation to act in the best interests of their client, whoever they may be, and their personal and political views do not come into it,” said a spokesperson for the Law Society.“Repeated government attacks on the integrity of the legal profession are deeply concerning. This divisive language serves nobody and puts lawyers and their clients at risk.”The Faculty of Advocates accused Mr Johnson of trying to gain “political capital from a baseless mischaracterisation” of the legal profession.The advocates’ body said: “These comments go hand-in-hand with recent pronouncements by the home secretary and appear to be part of a strategy to undermine the rule of law.”It added: “It is essential to a fair system of justice that those charged with crime have legal representation. Without such representation, no conviction would be safe. For the prime minister to undermine that principle, with the aim of political posturing, is damaging to the rule of law.”Last year home secretary Priti Patel was accused of putting the lives and safety of lawyers and court staff at risk after she branded those defending migrants as “lefties” and “do-gooders.Criticising Mr Johnson’s latest comments, former Treasury solicitor Sir Jonathan Jones said that all criminal justice lawyer – regardless of their politics – either prosecute on behalf of the state or defend members of the public.Sir Jonathan tweeted: “The government is developing a habit of setting up conflict between aims [and] principles where none should exist.”The high-profile legal blogger Secret Barrister called on justice secretary chancellor Robert Buckland to apologise for Mr Johnson’s “egregious attack on the rule of law”.He said it was another “outrageous assault on lawyers who independently prosecute and defend the most serious cases in the criminal courts”.Sarah Forshaw QC tweeted: “I don’t think anyone would accuse me of being a ‘left-wing’ criminal justice lawyer. And yet I agree wholeheartedly with the Secret Barrister – as does anyone else who works within and truly understands our criminal justice system.” More

Boris Johnson’s government gave taxpayers’ money to a private firm to conduct political polling on key opposition figures – including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, newly-published emails show.Dominic Cummings, former senior No 10 adviser, asked Hanbury Strategy to do polling on the government’s response to the Covid pandemic before the company was handed a £580,000 contract.Emails released by the Good Law Project show that concerns were raised by senior civil servants that polling done by Hanbury on Sir Keir, London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan and others would show political bias.One civil servant said on email: “Hanbury measure attitude towards political figures, which they shouldn’t do using government money, but they have been asked to and it’s a battle that I think is hard to fight’.”But Mr Cummings told the most senior civil servant responsible for Covid contracts to sign off on it, and said that if “anybody in CABOFF [the Cabinet Office] whines tell them I ordered it from PM”.Labour said the newly-released emails showed “all the hallmarks of a racket” and claimed taxpayers’ money had been “abused”.The party suggested that the public money given to the polling firm “should be paid back by the Conservative Party”.The Good Law Project has shared emails revealed during its legal challenge over the awarding of a Covid contract to Hanbury to do opinion polls on the government’s handling of the crisis.It has emerged that Mr Cummings personally called Hanbury founder Paul Stephenson – a former colleague on the Vote Leave campaign – to asked him if his company would assess public views.At the most recent court hearing in Good Law Project’s judicial review, Mr Cummings said it was “my expert opinion” that Hanbury was the only firm who could do what was needed.But civil servants were alarmed at Hanbury’s involvement, the emails showed. One wrote: “This all makes me really uncomfortable. Ben Warner wants us to spend £110k of public money per month with the agency who were behind vote leave who have no mainstream polling experience.”A senior government communications official said he would have “preferred” that questions about Sir Keir and Mr Khan’s handling of the Covid crisis not to have been asked by the polling company.But he said the polling questions provided a “benchmark” against whom the credibility of government spokespeople on the pandemic could be assessed.Evidence unearthed during the latest court hearing also showed that former No 10 adviser Ben Warner – another Vote Leave veteran – had directed civil servants to his private WhatsApp, rather than his official email address.Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “This has the hallmarks of a racket – not a government acting in the national interest during a pandemic.“Taxpayers’ money that has been abused in this way should be paid back by the Conservative Party. Taxpayers’ money is not the personal cashpoint of Conservative ministers to dish out to their mates.”Ms Rayner added: “We need a fully independent inquiry into the government contracts that have been handed out over private email and WhatsApp so we can get to the bottom of this scandal.”Mr Cummings later responded on Twitter to the release of documents, claiming that he knew Hanbury pollsters could “connect instantly” with the No 10 data science team. He also argued that taxpayers “gained” from his swift efforts to commission research.The former No 10 strategist then got into an argument with Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, over the issue on Twitter.“Why poll opposition figures?,” Mr Ashworth asked, before suggesting that Mr Cummings would have been “outraged” if a Labour government had done the same thing.Mr Cummings responded: “The idea was to figure out which NON-government people most trusted for *public health comms*. This was SENSIBLE! It had nothing to do with politics and I said explicitly ‘keep separate covid/political research’.”Asked whether Mr Johnson believed political polling on public opinions regarding his opponents was a fit use for taxpayers’ money, a Downing Street spokesman said: “This is an ongoing legal proceeding so I can’t comment specifically on any of it.“But in general, in response to what was an unprecedented global pandemic it was vital that we undertook research into public attitudes and behaviours.”The Good Law Project launched a judicial review against the government last October over its decision to award Hanbury a Covid contract without a competitive tender, accusing the government of apparent bias and favouritism.Last month the High Court ruled that the government’s award of £560,000 Covid contract to the Public First market research company – who bosses also had ties with Mr Cummings – was unlawful. More

Boris Johnson’s government has been accused of bringing in Covid vaccine passports “by stealth” after a change in the NHS app which allows venues in the UK to seek proof that customers are double-jabbed.The wording on the NHS Covid app has been changed to include a “domestic” section, which tells people they may need to show the pass “at places that have chosen to use the service”.The Liberal Democrats expressed outrage at the move – claiming the government had introduced a new form of Covid certification onto the nation’s phones without seeking MPs consent.Urging the government recalls parliament, Lib Dems home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: “The government has just committed to vaccine passports by stealth. This deceitful move is deeply shameful.”The MP added: “We now have a new ID card snuck onto our phones without even as much as a whisper from the government.”Previously, NHS Covid app users were given the choice of using it to show their vaccination status for foreign travel, or at one of the government’s pilot sporting events.But the government said it wants to bring in compulsory Covid vaccination certification for nightclubs and other large, crowded venues by the end of September.Mr Johnson has said proof of double-vaccination will be required at such venues – but has promised MPs a vote on any changes that would make the vaccine certification mandatory.The Lib Dems and a group of around 40 backbench Tory MPs remain firmly opposed to any push towards vaccine passport use in shops, restaurants, nightclubs and any other domestic setting.Dozens of Tory, Lib Dem and several Labour MPs have signed a Big Brother Watch declaration against denying individuals “access to general services, businesses or jobs”. Hospitality industry chiefs also remained opposed.Leader Sir Keir Starmer today said earlier this week he is ready to support “passports plus testing” to enable mass-attendance events to admit large audiences – but said he would rule out vaccine passport checks to access healthcare or food shops.Mr Carmichael said: “The Conservatives are no strangers to a U-turn, they should have no problem with doing the right thing and scrapping vaccine passports for good.“At least when Tony Blair tried to introduce ID cards he put a bill to parliament, this lot won’t even open up parliament to debate it. They must recall parliament now if they are serious about this.”The Lib Dem MP added: “To get your vaccine passport, you have to type and click through a bunch of options. Just think of the faff getting into hospitality businesses, who don’t want it and can’t afford to pay staff to police it.”Foreign secretary Dominic Raab suggested earlier on Thursday that vaccine passports were a way of “coaxing and cajoling” more people into getting their jabs.He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I was in France earlier this week. We’ve seen when they signalled in various different areas that you would need double vaccination in order to proceed in one or other area you got a big surge of people getting the double vaccinations.” More

Unions have urged Gavin Williamson not to scrap most BTECqualifications, saying such a move would be “reckless”.The education minister has been urged to keep these qualifications which “play a vital role in helping young people progress” in the next stage of their lives.Announcing a shake-up earlier this month, the government announced it would stop funding poor-quality qualifications that overlapped with new T-levels.The Department for Education (DfE) said apprenticeships, A-levels and T-levels – two-year technical courses that are the equivalent of three A-levels – will become the main progression options after GCSEs.A group of 12 organisations have urged the government to rethink plans to scrap funding for “the vast majority of applied general qualifications”.“These are well established, well respected qualifications that play a vital role in helping young people progress to higher education or employment, and in meeting the skills needs of employers,” their letter said.“For many students, studying one or more applied general qualifications will be a more effective way of accessing, remaining in, and progressing from 16 to 19 education than studying A levels or T levels.”The government said the reforms would streamline post-16 qualifications into an academic path leading to further study and a technical path leading to work.It said the shake-up would “remote low-quality qualifications that lack job prospects” and mean qualifications will need to prove they provide employers with required skills or lead to good higher education courses, as well as a “real need for them to be funded”. The 12 groups – which includes the Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL) union, the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA) and National Union for Students (NUS) – have said disadvantaged students would “have the most to lose” by the changes, saying research shows “applied general qualifications are engines of social mobility”.The Social Market Foundation found 44 per cent of white working-class students going to university had at least one BTEC, while 37 per cent of black students did so with only BTEC qualifications, their letter said. “Applied general qualifications like BTECs are popular with students, respected by employers and provide a well-established route to higher education or employment,” James Kewin from SFCA said. “So it is hard to fathom why the government wants to scrap most of them and force young people to choose between studying A levels or T levels from the age of 16.”Meanwhile, ASCL’s Geoff Barton said: “Applied general qualifications give many disadvantaged young people an established route to higher education, apprenticeships and future careers.”He added: “It would be reckless of the government to ditch these qualifications simply to clear the way for T-levels which may well prove to be a good option for some young people but are largely untried and untested.”The government has already removed funding for more than 160 duplicate qualifications – and from August this year, it will remove funding for more than 2,200 qualifications which they say are not being taken by anyone each year.The DfE will now review all the other level 3 qualifications to assess whether there is a real need for them to be funded.A spokesperson for the department said: “Great qualifications are essential to helping everyone, regardless of their age or background, to reach their career goals and get good jobs.”“Our reforms will simplify and streamline the current system, ensuring that all qualifications are fit for purpose, are high-quality and lead to good outcomes.”The DfE spokesperson added: “We are putting employers at the heart of the skills system and boosting the quality of qualifications on offer so that all students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, leave education with the skills employers need.” More

Boris Johnson government is “increasingly confident” that more countries can soon added to England’s amber and green travel lists, a senior minister has said.Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he hoped more international travel links could soon be opened up for British holidaymakers, as other countries speed-up their vaccine roll-out.“We’ve done the job we had to do domestically and as we see other countries catch up if you like, I think we are increasingly confident that more countries will go either onto amber or onto green,” Mr Raab told Sky News on Thursday.The cabinet minister said holidaymakers would have to wait until next week to see if any changes were made to the travel light system, but he added: “The momentum forward is positive”.Mr Raab did not rule out the possibility of the popular destinations of France and Spain moving onto a different list at the government’s next review point a week on Thursday.The government is considering whether to move France from the “amber plus” list, which means double-vaccinated travellers still have to quarantine, back onto the amber list, according to reports.But Mr Raab said no final decision would be made until next week. “No-one wants to get France onto the amber list or the green list more than I do – but I think it’s right to take evidence from the experts about the variants and the risks that they pose,” he said.He told LBC: “as someone who wants to go on holiday, as someone who’s got lots of businesses in my constituency that want to travel for commercial purposes, we want to get out of the travel restrictions as soon as possible.”The cabinet minister refused to rule out the possibility there could be tougher rules for Spain, amid reports it could be moved to the so-called “amber plus” list next week.Asked what holidaymakers thinking about booking a trip to Spain should do, Mr Raab said: “You’ll have to judge it on the traffic light system we’ve got in place right now.”The foreign secretary also defended the government’s decision to allow fully-vaccinated tourists from the US and EU into the UK without quarantine from Monday – claiming there was the “right level of security and assurance”.But Mr Raab admitted the government “cannot guarantee” that US and EU travellers will not try to show fake vaccine certificates.He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We can’t guarantee that some people might not do it. I think it is highly unlikely.”The foreign secretary added: “The point here is that, with both the European countries and the US, we are talking about high-trust countries with whom we have not just an intuitive level of high trust, we have active co-operation.“So we know that we can straighten out any discrepancies we might come across pretty quickly.”The foreign secretary also revealed he had been contacted by his counterparts in other countries after Wednesday’s announcement to lift restrictions on travellers from the US and EU.“Overnight I’ve had foreign ministers messaging me to say, ‘We’ve noticed the [US-EU] announcement, what can we do to do this on a reciprocal basis’,” he told Sky News.Mr Raab said the government was keen to set up travel corridors with other “high-trust” countries.“The key thing about the EU and EU, we’ve got high trust in the mechanisms for verifying double vaccination – those are the kinds of countries we’d want to pursue.”Transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday that he hoped the US and other countries would drop its ban on UK travellers “in time”, having spoken to his American counterpart Pete Buttigieg.Mr Shapps said: “We can’t change that on the other side but we do expect that in time they will release that executive order, which was actually signed by the previous president.”Despite the diplomatic pressure to create a travel corridor, unnamed aviation industry sources told The Telegraph that the US may not its overseas travel ban until September. More

Boris Johnson’s government “cannot guarantee” that US and EU travellers coming to the UK next week will not try to show fake vaccination certificates, a senior minister has said.The government has decided to open England’s borders to allow US and EU travellers who are fully vaccinated against Covid to enter without the need to quarantine from Monday.While Labour attacked the move as “reckless”, concerns have been raised that the paper Covid vaccine certificates widely issued in the US could easily be falsified.Asked about the possibility, foreign secretary Dominic Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We can’t guarantee that some people might not do it. I think it is highly unlikely.”Mr Raab said: “The point here is that, with both the European countries and the US, we are talking about high-trust countries with whom we have not just an intuitive level of high trust, we have active co-operation.”The foreign secretary added: “so we know that we can straighten out any discrepancies we might come across pretty quickly.”Mr Raab claimed there is a “double lock” of written certification and proof of US residency for American travellers, which he said could allow “further checks if there is any suspicion of fraud”.The foreign secretary also confirmed that people in the US and EU who have received the Chinese Sinopharm or Russian Sputnik jabs would not be eligible for the quarantine exemption.He added: “We feel this is a modest opening up of international travel but one that has the reassurances that we can take further steps forward as we build confidence in the system.”The foreign secretary also revealed he had been contacted by his counterparts in other countries after Wednesday’s announcement to lift restrictions on travellers from the US and EU.“Overnight I’ve had foreign ministers messaging me to say, ‘We’ve noticed the [US-EU] announcement, what can we do to do this on a reciprocal basis’,” he told Sky News.Mr Raab said the government was keen to set up travel corridors with other “high-trust” countries.“The key thing about the EU and EU, we’ve got high trust in the mechanisms for verifying double vaccination – those are the kinds of countries we’d want to pursue.”Transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday that he hoped the US and other countries would drop its ban on UK travellers “in time”, having spoken to his American counterpart Pete Buttigieg.Mr Shapps said: “We can’t change that on the other side but we do expect that in time they will release that executive order, which was actually signed by the previous president.”Despite the diplomatic pressure to create a travel corridor, unnamed aviation industry sources told The Telegraph that the US may not its overseas travel ban until September. More

Boris Johnson risks allowing a new Covid variant to “run rampant” through the country by further easing restrictions for EU and US travellers, Labour has warned.People visiting from the US and the EU who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus will be allowed to enter England without the need to quarantine from next week.The new rules will come into effect at 4am on Monday, with transport secretary Grant Shapps expressing hopes the US will become more relaxed about allowing Britons to visit “in time”.But following an encouraging few days in which Covid-19 case numbers in the UK have fallen from above 50,000 on 17 July to 27,734 by 9am on Wednesday, Labour sounded warnings over the impact of the travel changes.Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: “The government’s track record on our borders has been one of recklessness and confusion.“They are in danger of continuing this by setting out changes in policy, applying to England only, without the scientific data and criteria we need to make sure we don’t see another Johnson variant run rampant through the country and damage the effort of the British public.“We want to see international travel opened up safely.“Ministers need to be clear on what progress has been made on reaching reciprocal agreements for Brits travelling abroad – particularly regarding the NHS app being accepted as proof of Covid status.“We also need a clear green and red list and the country-by-country data to back it up.”The rule change will also apply to fully vaccinated EU and US visitors to Scotland from Monday.The Welsh government said it “regrets” the move to remove the quarantine requirement in England, but added it would be “ineffective” to have different rules for Wales.Ministers in Northern Ireland will consider their position on the charge at Thursday’s meeting of the powersharing executive.Currently, only travellers who have received two doses of a vaccine in the UK are permitted to enter from an amber country – such as the US and most of the EU – without self-isolating for 10 days, except those returning from France.Professor Christina Pagel, director of the clinical operational research unit at UCL, said she was worried about variants that are better at infecting people who are already vaccinated given that those who are fully vaccinated could still catch and pass on the virus.Speaking to the Guardian, she said a “worrying new variant could emerge” in the US or Europe – or “a variant that emerges anywhere will spread everywhere” if travel were less inhibited between those places and the UK.Hailing the policy change, Mr Shapps said: “Whether you are a family reuniting for the first time since the start of the pandemic or a business benefiting from increased trade, this is progress we can all enjoy.”Asked whether he was confident the US and Europe would reciprocate in allowing fully vaccinated travellers from England without needing to quarantine, Mr Shapps said: “I’ve just spoken to my US counterpart today and in the US they still have an executive order which prevents travel from the UK, from Europe, from several other countries to the US.“So we’re saying, ‘You can come here, you can come visit, you can come see friends, you can come as a tourist if you’ve been double vaccinated and follow the rules without quarantine’.“We can’t change that on the other side but we do expect that in time they will release that executive order, which was actually signed by the previous president, and bans inward travel.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

The Northern Ireland protocol could become a constant problem in relations between the EU and UK, peers have found.They warn that this could happen if both sides refuse to change their “fundamentally flawed” approaches to resolving the dispute.A House of Lords committee, created to look at the controversial post-Brexit trading agreements in Northern Ireland, has suggested that NI could become a “permanent casualty” of Brexit should a compromise not be found soon.The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed on to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. This is done by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods.However, currently the EU and UK are unable to agree on the implementation of new checks and processes on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.The committee expressed concern over the “fundamentally flawed” approaches of both the UK and the EU. They said that the UK approach had a “lack of clarity, transparency and readiness” and suggested that the EU approach showed a “lack of balance, understanding and flexibility.”An introductory report has been published by the committee on the arrangements which they feel have created problems on trade in the Irish Sea.Although the committee has members who hold a variety of political viewpoints, which include nationalist and unionist peers from Northern Ireland, their findings were agreed on by all.The report found that there had been a “serious deterioration” in relations between London, Belfast, Dublin and Brussels. It also suggested that the EU mistrusts whether or not the UK is acting in good faith. The committee felt that the UK, on the other hand, thinks the EU is adopting a disproportionate approach to how the protocol is being implemented.Chair of the committee, Lord Jay of Ewelme, called the disagreement “a real worry,” adding that compromise, even if difficult, was urgently needed.He said: “That won’t be easy, but it is an absolute necessity that the UK and the EU should now work together urgently to identify solutions if Northern Ireland is not to become a permanent casualty of the Brexit process.””The tensions over the protocol currently seem insoluble. Yet that was also true of the political situation during the Troubles. But the peace process ultimately took root and flourished, through a process of time, patience, dialogue, and most of all trust. Those same qualities are now needed to address the problems that Brexit and the protocol present.”He went on to add: “If there is no resolution, if it just festers, it seems to me it will become a constant irritant in the relationship between the EU and the UK and it will become an irritant within the island of Ireland, between north and south.”I cannot see that that is in the interest of either community or any of the communities in Northern Ireland nor of business people in Northern Ireland nor of the economy of Northern Ireland and that’s what worries me, that’s why I really do think it is important to reach an agreement here.”This is not something in my view that can just be allowed or should just be allowed to fester. I think that’s a real worry.”The committee also found that trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK had been “significantly disrupted,” with a risk that some British businesses could withdraw from the NI market.Another concern was the UK-EU agreement on veterinary standards, with both sides called on to find a compromise in their rules.Finally, it was suggested that alternatives to the trading agreement should be considered with the Stormont Assembly set to vote in 2024 on whether or not to drop these arrangements.Additional reporting by PA More