Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson must begin delivering on his levelling up agenda “at pace” if “real progress” is to be made this summer, a 50-strong group of northern Conservative MPs has demanded.Calling on the prime minister to “show the north some love”, the Northern Research Group (NRG) urged the government to commit to a further year of funding for so-called red wall seats.Publishing a 10-point plan, the group said road tax must be abolished and also demanded the end of fuel duty, which it suggested should be placed a with a road pricing system with revenue raised retained in the north.The NRG added that central government should “automatically” provide special grants under the towns fund scheme to deprived areas outside of London — ensuring an “equal process”.The policy demands comes as Mr Johnson prepares to deliver a keynote speech on Thursday on his election slogan promise to “level up” the country, with pledges to to rejuvenate the high street as Covid restrictions are eased.Chairman of the NRG Jake Berry said: “We have been in lockdown longer than any other area of the country. It’s time for the government to show the north some love with a summer of levelling up for the north.“People in the north want their children to be able to get a world-class education and then good, well-paying jobs locally rather than being forced to migrate southwards.”He added: “This is an opportunity for the government to reaffirm its commitment to the north, on which the prime minister now relies on for his majority in Parliament, by encouraging investment and getting jobs and industry back in the north.“Since December 2019 we have heard a lot about plans to level up the north, now is the time to show how we can deliver. Our 10-point plan cuts through the red tape that Whitehall departments try to tie this whole agenda down with”.“No one in the north cares about internal governmental turf wars. They want real jobs, real change, and real opportunities. It’s time to start delivering an ambitious programme at pace if we are going to see real progress this summer.”Earlier this week, the NRG also demanded the government drops its plans to cut the £20 universal credit uplift, telling The Independent the increased payments had been a “life-saver” for many during the crisis.“Keeping the uplift is not a zero-sum game for the government. Many people on universal credit are in work or want to be in work and we shouldn’t pull the rug from under their feet,” the group said.Ahead of Mr Johnson’s speech on Thursday, a government spokesperson said: “The prime minister is determined to level up the UK and deliver a fairer, stronger society — one where whatever your background and wherever you live, everyone can access the opportunities they need to succeed.“While talent and potential is distributed evenly across the country, opportunity is not.“That’s why, as we emerge from the pandemic, it’s vital that we do not make the mistakes of the recovery from the financial crash, and seize this moment to ensure a better quality of life for people in every part of the UK”. More

One in every five pounds donated to the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2020 came from individuals or companies with substantial interests in the housing market, a new report claims.The research from Transparency International UK — detailing the extent of Boris Johnson’s party’s reliance on the sector — suggests there has been a “worrying dependence” on a small number of wealthy financial backers with “significant property interests”.The anti-corruption organisation’s report — House of Cards — claims that around 10 per cent of all political party donations over the last decade came from individuals and companies with property interests.Around 80 per cent of the funds (more than £60 million) went to the Conservatives, it added, with property-related donations accounting for a fifth of the party’s reportable donations.The report also highlighted that between 2015 and 2019, just 10 donors with major interests in the property market accounted for a tenth of the donations to the Conservative Party coffers.“While we have seen insufficient evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt any direct quid pro quo arrangements of donations or decisions,” the report states, “this dependence creates a real risk of aggregative corruption, whereby the actions of ministers are incentivised by the party’s financial ties to interests groups in this policy area”.Examining transparency over who is lobbying ministers, the organisation added that the current arrangements were “woefully inadequate”, with ministers known to have held 669 meetings with 894 separate interest groups to discuss housing between January 2017 and March 2020.Of these, government departments provided “little detail”, “with the topic of discussion for more than 40 per cent described merely as ‘housing’ or planning’,” the report claimed.In a series of solutions, Transparency International UK suggests introducing an annual £10,000 limit on donations from individuals and companies and introducing a comprehensive statutory register of lobbyists.Duncan Hames, director of policy at the organisation, said: “While it is no secret that political parties receive much of their funding from a relatively small number of donors, the extent to which the Conservative Party depends financially on those with major property interests is of serious concern.“An unhealthy reliance on those with vested interests in one sector puts ministers under pressure to provide exclusive access which creates a real risk that decisions are skewed in their favour.“Breaking this dependence is key to removing the risk of undue influence and freeing government to explore bolder solutions to address the housing crisis.”Commenting on the report, Anneliese Dodds, the chair of the Labour Party, said: “It’s no wonder the Conservatives are resisting more transparency on property ownership, when party coffers are stuffed full of so much cash from major overseas property tycoons.“This is yet another example of how the rules around transparency for lobbying ministers aren’t fit for purpose. We need to know who is lobbying ministers, what they want from government and what is discussed when they meet. We need urgent reform.”However, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Government policy is no way influenced by the donation the party receives — they are entirely separate.“Donations to the Conservative Party are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully within the law. Fundraising is a legitimate part of the democratic process. The alternative is more taxpayer-funding of political campaigning, which would mean less money for frontline services like schools, police and hospitals.“The Conservative Party is delivering on its manifesto commitments to deliver more homes, with new housing supply having rise to its highest level for 30 years. Working with the housing industry is an essential party of getting new homes built and regenerating brownfield land.” More

Boris Johnson’s government has been accused of protecting extremists who spout “hate speech” on campus by enabling them to sue universities and student groups.Academics or visiting speakers will be able to seek compensation through the courts under the government’s controversial legislative plan to expand freedom of speech.Labour said the plan would give free rein to Holocaust deniers, anti-vaxxers and other extremists by allowing them to spread their “harmful and divisive” ideas at universities and colleges across England.Sir Keir Starmer’s party, which has described the bill as “troubling and dangerous”, failed on Monday evening to block its passage through parliament, with MPs rejecting an amendment that would have denied it a second reading by 367 to 216.Speaking in the Commons before the vote, Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said: “The whole House should object to a bill that amounts to legal protection for hate speech.”Ms Green said the right to freedom of expression was already enshrined in law, adding: “Because of this bill, a group spreading division and hatred on university campuses won’t just be legally protected – they’d be able to sue a university or student union.”The Labour MP said she worried that “harmful conspiracy theorists”, such as anti-vaxxers, would be protected to speak at universities by the proposed law.Under the government’s plans, the Office for Students, the higher education regulator in England, would have the power to impose fines if any institution breached a condition to defend freedom of speech.Education secretary Gavin Williamson denied that Holocaust deniers would be protected by the new law – insisting it would not override existing laws banning hate speech. “This bill will not, and never will, create a platform for holocaust deniers,” the minister told MPs.The education secretary claimed the government wanted to tackled a “growing intolerance” across England’s campuses which was thwarting academics’ desire to “freely and fiercely seek out the truth”.Mr Williamson even suggested Charles Darwin – the legendary naturalist who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection – might struggle to get his ideas heard at England’s universities today.“Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if Darwin had not felt he had the freedom to be able to challenge established thinking? We have to remember, there are those Darwins out there who will challenge the consensus.”Senior Tories claimed the government was involved in a “battle for Britain” in attempting to tackle “modern McCarthyism”, as they lined up to support the legislation.Senior backbencher David Davis said: “Today there is a terrible outbreak of intolerance in modern society, the so-called culture wars, which remind me of nothing so much as McCarthyism in the United States … this is like the early stages of a totalitarian repression.”But Labour said there were only a very small number of events cancelled at universities, amid claims of an worrying “cancel culture” on campus.Ms Green said figures from the Office for Students showed that only six out of roughly 10,000 events at colleges and universities with external speakers had been cancelled last year. More

Home secretary Priti Patel has been accused of “stoking the fire” of racism by an England footballer after players from the national team were racially abused following the Euro 2020 final.Tyrone Mings criticised Ms Patel for her comments on taking the knee last month, when she dismissed the team’s anti-racism protest as “gesture politics” and suggested fans had a right to boo the players if they wanted to.Mings, who played in England’s group stage matches, responded directly to a tweet by the home secretary in which she said she was “disgusted” by the racist abuse sent to players.The footballer replied: “You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ and then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.”In a separate tweet, the England player added: “Waking up today and seeing my brothers being racially abused for being brave enough to put themselves in a position to help this country, is something that sickens, but doesn’t surprise me.”Three players, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who missed penalties in the defeat to Italy on Sunday received racist abuse on social media in the hours after the game.In a post also published on Monday, England captain Harry Kane made clear that those who sent abuse to players would not be welcome to support the team.“Three lads who were brilliant all summer had the courage to step up and take a pen when the stakes were high,” Kane wrote on Twitter.“They deserve support and backing not the vile racist abuse they’ve had since last night. If you abuse anyone on social media you’re not an England fan and we don’t want you.”Their comments came after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of failing to show leadership by being reluctant to criticise fans for booing the team for taking the knee against racism.Although the prime minister said those responsible for the abuse “should be ashamed of themselves”, Sir Keir said that his words would “ring hollow” due to his past actions.Former England player Gary Neville also accused Mr Johnson of condoning the booing of players and suggested that he had promoted racism with his past comments.The PM’s official spokesperson did not initially condemn individuals who booed England’s players ahead of the tournament last month but the line from Downing Street changed days later to say that Mr Johnson wanted to see fans “cheer, not boo” the team.In response to a request for comment on Mr Mings’ post, the Home Office pointed to Ms Patel’s statement in the Commons and her tweet earlier today condemning the abuse.Additional reporting by PA More

Boris Johnson had hoped that announcing the end of England’s Covid curbs would be a moment of triumph; a chance to herald the glorious day lockdown is lifted forever and life can get back to normal.But instead, our usually care-free prime minister appears fretful. Officials at Downing Street are anxious about the risks which lie ahead once controls end on 19 July. There is no talk of “freedom day” inside No 10.The prime minister claimed only last week that the link between coronavirus infections and hospitalisations had been “severed”. But the government’s modelling shows the number of seriously ill people in hospital from Covid is set to soar again this summer.If virus cases reach 100,000 a day in the weeks ahead as the government expects, then hospital admissions could reach 2,500 a day, says leading statistician Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter.Johnson has talked for many months about the final big step in his roadmap out of lockdown being “irreversible” – promising an exhausted population the process was a one-way deal. Things can only get better, as it were.Betterment no longer appears inevitable. What if some reversals become necessary if the virus lets rip once again? What if some restrictions need renewed? Not only would each change in policy be highly embarrassing for the PM, but it could also significantly weaken his authority.A return to full lockdown anytime soon appears unthinkable for political reasons. But even small shifts and changes in guidance will be extremely difficult to manage. Labour, the Lib Dems and the more cautious scientists will shake their heads and say, “We told you so”.More damaging still, a significant chunk of a weary public may decide to switch off. Will anyone really listen to what the prime minister has to say once he has ended all legal controls?There is reason to believe Johnson will have to keep on tinkering with his public health messages. The legal requirement to wear a mask will be ditched in England on 19 July. But the rhetoric on mask-wearing has already shifted towards a more cautious approach.In recent weeks cabinet ministers shared glee at no longer having to wear a face covering. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said at the end of last month he would stop donning one “as soon as possible”.Now, Downing Street insists there will be clear guidelines and an “expectation” to carry on wearing face coverings on public transport and closed spaces.There has been a subtle change in the big push to get workers back into the office. The government is lifting the advice to work from home where possible – but will recommend companies look at only a “gradual return” to workplaces over the summer.Nightclubs will be allowed to open from 19 July without any legal requirement for clubbers to show Covid any certification. But venues owners will now be encouraged to use the NHS app in the same way it has been used at big pilot events.Johnson also faces an enormous challenge in asking the public to stick with the concept of contact tracing and self-isolation. A poll by the Sunday Times found four in 10 people have already deleted the NHS Covid app.The test and trace service, meanwhile, is said to be “panicking” as it scrambles to fill thousands of positions needed to deal with the imminent rise in Covid cases.Each fresh rise in cases and hospitalisations will pile pressure on the PM in the weeks ahead. Opposition parties and public health officials asking why 19 July had to be a big bang moment, and why it had to come before Britain’s young adults were double-vaccinated.Over the past six months, the success of the vaccination rollout has gifted Johnson some of the credibility and popularity lost at the height of the Covid crisis last year.But the months ahead are fraught with difficulty. The prime minister will be asking the country to enjoy normality but remain vigilant for the virus – not unlike last year’s Matt Lucas parody of our leader offering mixed messages. Johnson’s authority and credibility are once again on the line. More

A third wave peak of Covid infection across England is expected around mid-August and could lead to 1,000 to 2,000 hospital admissions per day, government scientists believe.Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, warned that the NHS would experience pressure from an expected rise in serious illness from Covid once legal restrictions are lifted in England on 19 July.“What we would hope, if we all go very carefully over the next period, is that the next peak will be significantly lower than the peak we saw in January, which put huge pressure on the NHS,” he said at the Downing Street briefing on Monday.“But to think we aren’t going to have any pressure on the NHS is not fully realistic,” Prof Whitty added.Boris Johnson confirmed that England’s final Covid curbs would end on 19 July – but warned that life cannot yet go back to normal. “This pandemic is not over,” he said at Monday’s press conference.From next Monday there will be no legal obligation to wear masks or socially distance. But Mr Johnson said that the government still “expects” people wear masks in enclosed spaces, such as on public transport.While the instruction to work from home where possible is being lifted, Mr Johnson made clear he was not ordering workers back to offices – with companies to be given guidance for a “gradual return to work over the summer”.Prof Whitty said that going slowly through the next step was “essential” to reduce the scale and the impact of the “exit wave” which lies ahead this summer.Both hospitalisations and deaths will go up this summer, with the peak of the third wave expected mid-August. But Prof Whitty claimed the pressure on the NHS would not be “unsustainable”.He said there were was “extremely wide agreement that whenever we go through the next step, there is going to be what’s called an exit wave – there will be a wave associated with that”.Prof Whitty added: “The slower we take it, the fewer people will have Covid, the smaller the peak will be, and the smaller the number of people who go into hospital and die. So, going very slowly through this step is really essential.”Boris Johnson warns lockdown lifting does not mean life is going back to normalThe senior government adviser also said there was agreement between the scientific community that the recent four-week delay to the final stage of the road map helped reduce the spread of Covid transmission.But there is “no clear evidence” that delaying the next step of the road map again would make a difference, Prof Whitty said. “There is no such thing as an ideal date – all the possible dates have downsides,” he said.“There is no clear evidence, in comparison to the previous occasion when a delay was clearly going to make a difference … that the delay now is going to make a difference. What is going to make a difference is going slowly.”Under the latest modelling released by the government’s Sage advisers on Monday, the peak of the wave is not expected before mid-August, when there could be 1,000 to 2,000 hospital admissions per day.Deaths are expected to reach between 100 and 200 per day – though there is a large amount of uncertainty. More

Boris Johnson has been accused of sending “mixed messages” after confirming the end of lockdown restrictions in England next Monday while urging people not to indulge in “a great jubilee of freedom from any kind of caution and restraint”.In an announcement which was far from the long-anticipated declaration of “Freedom Day”, Mr Johnson cautioned that life cannot simply go back to normal on 19 July, warning: “This pandemic is not over.”While legal requirements on the use of face-coverings and social distancing will be lifted, people will be expected to keep using them in enclosed public spaces, such as on buses and trains. And while the government is dropping instructions to work from home where possible, Mr Johnson said he did not expect a rush back to the office on Monday, calling for a “gradual return to work” over the summer.There was confusion over whether pubs and restaurants could be caught in a voluntary scheme for nightclubs and other large venues to check revellers’ Covid status before admission.Official guidance said only that new “Covid pass” checks, using the NHS app to determine vaccine and test status, would be encouraged in “large, crowded settings where people are likely to be in close proximity to others outside their household”, prompting the head of the British Beer and Pub Association to warn that this must not be used to impose vaccine passports on drinkers by the back door.Labour accused the government of taking a “high-risk, indeed fatalistic approach” at a time when daily coronavirus infections are running at 35,000 and are expected to reach 100,000 within weeks.Instead of the “cautious” approach the prime minister has promised to follow, Mr Johnson and Mr Javid are “pushing (their) foot down on the accelerator while throwing the seat belts off”, said shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth.And the authors of a letter to The Lancet branding the government’s plans a “dangerous experiment”, which has now been signed by 1,000 scientists and medics, accused Mr Johnson of pursuing a policy of “herd immunity through mass infection”.The group, including clinical epidemiologist Dr Deepti Gurdasani of Queen Mary University London, Prof Trish Greenhalgh of Oxford University, Prof Christina Pagel of University College London and Prof Martin McKee of the London School of Tropical Health and Hygiene, said that ministers had decided to remove almost all public health measures despite being advised to expect up to 2 million infections in the coming weeks.“A strategy that chooses mass infection in children and young people now as a way to protect the vulnerable in winter, instead of taking the time to vaccinate our young, is unethical and unscientific,” they said.“It risks burdening a generation with long Covid, the long-term consequences of which are unknown.”In a Downing Street press conference shortly after the new relaxations were confirmed by health secretary Sajid Javid in the House of Commons, Mr Johnson acknowledged that hospitalisations and deaths would continue to rise following the lifting of restrictions next week.But he said that mortality was at the lower end, and infections in the middle, of the projections made by experts when his roadmap was first set out in February.And he said that delaying until September would mean “reopening as the weather gets colder, and as the virus acquires a greater natural advantage, and when schools are back”. Mr Johnson said that England was meeting the government’s four tests for easing restrictions: successful vaccine deployment; reduced hospitalisations and deaths among those with jabs; no surge in cases putting unsustainable pressure on the NHS; and no new variants of concern.“We think now is the right moment to proceed, when we have the natural firebreak of the school holidays in the next few days,” said the PM.“But it is absolutely vital that we proceed now with caution. And I cannot say this powerfully or emphatically enough. This pandemic is not over. This disease, coronavirus, continues to carry risks for you and for your family. We cannot simply revert instantly from Monday 19 July to life as it was before Covid.”Guidelines for the clinically extremely vulnerable will be updated, he said.The general secretary of the public sector union Unison, Christina McAnea, said:  “Now isn’t the time to ditch mandatory mask-wearing. The prime minister should be providing direction to the public, not sidestepping the responsibility that comes with government.“Rising infections have more than made the case for keeping masks in shops, schools, on public transport and in other enclosed spaces. But a plethora of mixed messages is sowing confusion where clarity is needed.”And the Unite union’s national officer for health, Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, called for a continued legal requirement for social distancing and mask-wearing in NHS buildings.“We understand that a number of trusts in England will insist on the wearing of masks after next Monday – and this should be backed up by the law,” he said.“What the prime minister is doing by his mixed messaging is causing confusion to NHS staff and the public. What is needed is clarity, in the same way that you know you can’t legally smoke in public places.”And Prof Azra Ghani, chair in infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College, said: “The decision to fully lift seems to be driven by an ‘if not now, then when’ approach under the assumption that the only option available is to remove all restrictions at once.”Modelling by the government’s SPI-M independent advisory committee showed that a rapid increase in contacts was likely to result in the “worst possible scenario, with higher peak levels of hospitalisations and more deaths than under scenarios where the change in contacts occurs more gradually”, she warned. More

Politicians who choose to stoke so-called “culture wars” and who champion the “anti-woke” agenda for electoral gain are pitting working-class communities against one another, according to a new report.Warning that the UK could be headed for US-style divisions, the Fabian Society said rows over issues such as racial equality and cancel culture were being enflamed by vested interests in the media and politics.The Labour-affiliated think tank’s report, published on Monday, said culture wars were amplified by social media platforms rather than reflecting real-life attitude divides amongst the public.The report comes just a week after prominent US pollster Frank Luntz suggested “wokeism” is on course to become the biggest dividing line in British politics within 12 months.Originally, the term “woke” meant someone who is opposed to racism, although it has broadened recently to include other social issues.Kirsty McNeill, co-author of the Fabian Society report, said: “The temptations for all political parties are clear.”Riling up a base and pointing it at an imagined enemy is much easier than doing the hard yards involved in meeting the prime minister’s ambition to ‘level up’.”Equally, ignoring rivals’ attempts to sow division won’t help Keir Starmer assemble a broad and diverse coalition to back his vision of a fairer country.”The public deserves better than fabricated fights.”The Fabian Society said there were lessons for the left and right to prevent Britain from becoming as fractured as the US.The group’s analysis found that clashes about tradition and identity are usually instigated by those seeking political, personal or commercial gain.And while these culture wars may result in significant public divides, the report found this only happens after controversies are whipped up by the “pedlars” of such divisions.Roger Harding, the report’s second co-author, added: “Culture war pedlars often use contrived stories to pit working-class communities against one another and caricature movements for racial and LGBT equality.”We need to have the confidence to call out what they are doing so we can build on the public demand – especially amongst working-class people up and down the country – for action on jobs, climate change and building a better future for the next generation.”The so-called culture wars have been played out over a number of controversies in recent years, from whether Rule Britannia should be played at the end of the Proms, to supposed calls to have the film Grease “cancelled”.Rows have also erupted over the Black Lives Matter movement, the England football team taking the knee before matches, and over LGBT+ rights.Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, told the Museum of the Home in Shoreditch, east London, it must “retain and explain” its controversial statue of slave trader Robert Geffrye after a petition was launched calling for its removal.Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, criticised a group of Oxford students who reportedly voted to remove a picture of the Queen from their common room due to the monarchy’s links with colonialism.Last month, elections expert Professor Sir John Curtice claimed that the Conservative Party were seeking to “tap into” a wider set of values held by those who voted to leave the EU in 2016 through an “anti-woke agenda”.The Fabian Society report’s authors concluded that these rows were fuelled by politicians looking to caricature movements for equality, by commentators who personally profit from controversy and by media and social media platforms who see commercial gain in the clicks and coverage the outrage generates.Andrew Harrop, general secretary of the Fabian Society, said: “It will not be easy to end the culture wars which have become a valuable tool for cynics on the right.”These fake controversies create division between people with shared economic needs and they distract the public from a low tax, low regulation, libertarian worldview that few in Britain support.”Progressives of all stripes – and the Labour Party in particular – must focus their energy not on winning culture wars, but on calling them out, building bridges and ending these divisive battles.”Speaking last week, Mr Luntz – who spent three decades working for the Republican Party in the US – said culture wars are “not what the people of the UK want”.“The problem with woke and with cancel culture is that it is never done. The conflict and divisions never end,” he said. “This is not what the people of the UK want – but it’s coming anyway.”Additional reporting by PA More