Markus Andrews

Shamed MP Rob Roberts is to be able to return to parliament after serving his six-week suspension for sexual misconduct, after ministers decided not to table a motion for expulsion from the Commons.The Delyn MP has been suspended from the Conservative party and is expected to return in 12 July as an independent.But Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg has decided not to bring forward an expulsion motion, despite making clear that he believes it would be “honourable” for Mr Roberts to stand down as an MP.It is understood that Mr Rees-Mogg considers that attempting retrospectively to apply an additional sanction would violate the independence of the panel set up to investigate grievances in the Commons.Challenged over why the government was not taking action to force the recall of the MP, Boris Johnson’s press secretary today told reporters: “Rob Roberts had the whip suspended and is no longer a Conservative MP. Any further decisions on the whip are a matter for the Chief Whip.”Discussions are under way at the House of Commons Commission over possible changes to parliamentary rules to trigger automatic recall for significant breaches.Mr Rees-Mogg has argued in the Commission – which also includes the Speaker of the Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle and representatives of opposition parties – that changes could be made without the need for legislation.Any such change could be taken into account by the Independent Expert Panel when deciding punishments for MPs found to have breached their code of conduct in future.The Leader of the Commons last month told MPs: “Following a case of this severity in which it would be honourable for a member to stand down after the withdrawal of the whip, we need to look at whether the process is striking the right balance between the defendants, protecting the confidentiality of the complainants, and in ensuring consistent outcomes across different types of conduct case.”Mr Rees-Mogg said it was “frankly ridiculous” that there are more serious sanctions for “somebody who uses a few envelopes incorrectly than for somebody who is involved in sexual misconduct”.In its report last month, the IEP found that Mr Roberts made repeated and unwanted sexual advances towards a male parliamentary staff member, using his position as his employer to place him under pressure to accede. He was also found to have made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature and been overly intrusive about the complainant’s personal life.A motion for expulsion can be tabled by the government, the opposition or the Backbench Business Committee. More

One of the UK’s biggest mobile phone networks has announced roaming charges for Britons travelling to the EU, in a blow to Boris Johnson’s Brexit celebrations.Customers of O2 have been told they will be billed £3.50 for every gigabyte (GB) of data used above a new limit of 25GB, from August.The move comes after the Christmas Eve trade agreement signed by the UK left open the option of the return of roaming charges – which were scrapped across the EU in 2017.In an embarrassment to the prime minister, it was announced on the fifth anniversary of the Brexit ‘yes’ vote, as he hailed the result as a spur to improving people’s lives.“The decision to leave the EU may now be part of our history, but our clear mission is to utilise the freedoms it brings to shape a better future for our people,” Mr Johnson told MPs.At Christmas, all the biggest UK operators said they had no plans to reintroduce roaming charges, but ministers admitted they had no plans to prevent them doing so.The agreement merely encouraged operators to have “transparent and reasonable rates” – raising the risk of a return to the huge pre-2017 bills, sometimes running to hundreds of pounds.In its email to customers, O2 announced “changes to our roaming fair usage policy”, from 2 August.“As your monthly UK data allowance is over 25GB, you can still use your data in our Europe Zone,” one customer was told.“But it’s now subject to a Roaming Limit of 25GB. Once you’ve reached this limit you’ll be charged an additional cost of £3.50/GB.”The Independent has attempted to contact O2 about the switch, but nobody at the company answered the phone.In December, O2 played down the return of roaming charges, saying: “We’re committed to providing our customers with great connectivity and value when they travel outside the UK.”The government says it has passed legislation to protect holidaymakers, including a £45-a-month limit on any charges for using mobile data abroad before having to opt into further useThere are also requirements for customers to be informed when they have reached 80 per cent and 100 per cent of their data allowance.And operators must take “reasonable steps” to avoid customers being charged for accidental roaming in Northern Ireland, which would happen if a phone locked onto the mobile signal coming from the Irish Republic. More

England’s events industry will face considerable financial losses even if minimal Covid restrictions are maintained by Boris Johnson beyond 19 July, according to leak of an internal government economic impact assessment.In a stark analysis, officials suggested that under the existing restrictions, hospitality and leisure firms were managing just 60 per cent of pre-pandemic turnover from 2019, with an even lower figure of 51 per cent for indoor seated venues.The document was reportedly produced by the Events Research Programme, which has been conducting pilots of major events with little or no restrictions in controlled environments over several months to explore ways to reopen safely.Events in the first phase of the pilots included a comedy club and nightclub in Liverpool, the FA Cup final at Wembley stadium, the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and a mass participation run in Hatfield.According to Politico, the pilots did not find a serious spike in transmission, but economic modelling suggested maintaining any “non-pharmaceutical interventions” would result in businesses closing and a multi-billion pound price tag.It comes as the prime minister plans to ease all remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England on 19 July – a date he has referred to as the “terminus” point – after delaying the original plan to fully unwind measures on 21 June by four weeks.However, government plans on a whole host of issues, including whether Covid certification will play any role domestically, remain unclear. Ministers are also expected to publish a review of social distancing guidelines examining the 1 metre plus rule and the use of face coverings ahead of 19 July.Analysing three scenarios – high, medium, and low intervention models – the economic impact assessment reported by Politico concluded that continuing with even the most lenient measures, including only face masks as a mandatory rule, the industry as a whole would reach 82 per cent of 2019 turnover.Keeping the “high intervention” model, which included scrapping social distancing but maintaining face masks, Covid certification, and attendance caps, the impact assessment found the events industry overall would reach an average turnover of 69 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.The figures are more stark in the highest model for indoor seated venues such as theatres and cinemas, with the impact assessment projecting just 59 per cent of turnover compared to 2019 – with an attendant cost of around £4.88 billion.The government has so far declined to publish the findings of the programme, but speaking on Wednesday, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, John Whittingdale, told Sky News it would be released ahead of 19 July when restrictions are planned to ease.Raising the issue in the Commons on Tuesday, the Tory MP Mark Harper, who chairs the lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, voiced his “fear” that the data on large pilot events had not been published because “it would have demonstrated that we could have safely opened on 21 June”.Mr Harper said he suspected the numbers are “fantastically positive” after pilot events held at sporting, music and other venues have not caused any Covid-19 outbreaks and he is “a little confused” as to why the numbers have not been released.The Department for Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment. More

Today, 23 June 2021, marks five years since the British public voted to leave the European Union, sparking perhaps the messiest divorce deal in history.Since then we have witnessed a fisheries standoff, political uproar over the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol, the signing of a trade deal with Australian – which promises to add just 0.02 per cent to the UK’s GDP – and, of course, the ongoing “sausage war”. In newly published polls, conducted to commemorate this anniversary, it has been suggested that Remain would win a second Brexit referendum by a narrow margin if the vote were held today.A Savanta ComRes survey found 51 per cent of respondents would now vote Remain, while 49 per cent would vote Leave, based on interviews conducted last week.Compared to the results of the 2016 referendum, where 51.9 per cent of people voted to leave and 48.1 voted to remain, the nation appears to remain as divided as ever.The polling also showed that very few people had shifted positions, with only 6 per cent of Remainers saying they would now vote Leave, and 7 per cent of Leavers claiming they would change their vote. So, what would you do if you could vote again? Or indeed if you could vote for the first time? We at The Independent want you to tell us how you would vote if the referendum was held today, using the comments section below.Let us know if you would vote Remain or Leave – or even if, after all the confusion and empty promises, you don’t know how you would vote, let us know that too. All we ask is that when you comment with your preference, you tell us the reason behind your choice. To leave a comment you must be registered, if you aren’t then just scroll to the comments section below and click “sign up”. More

Boris Johnson has been accused of insensitivity towards rape victims when he dismissed as “jabber” a series of questions from Keir Starmer about the low level of rape prosecutions.Labour’s domestic violence spokesperson Jess Phillips branded the comment at prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons “disgraceful” and demanded an apology.But the PM’s press secretary insisted that Mr Johnson’s remark was “absolutely not” a mark of insensitivity to victims, saying he had been trying to highlight Labour’s failure to support a bill to implement tougher sentences.After Sir Keir demanded an explanation for the “appalling” 1.6 per cent prosecuction rates for rape complaints, the prime minister offered an apology to victims of rape and sexual violence for the “frustration” they experience from the handling of complaints by the criminal justice system.But he blamed low prosecution rates on delays in extracting records from victims’ mobile phone, as well as police and lawyers presenting cases which are “not in a fit state” to secure a conviction.And he said that the quickest way to clear a backlog of cases in the courts was to ensure a rapid rollout of vaccinations against Covid-19, telling MPs: “We are getting on the with the job. They jabber, we jab. They dither, we deliver.”Ms Phillips raised a point of order in the Commons to demand an apology, telling MPs: “When questioned about the falling rape conviction rate, (Mr Johnson) asserted that this was merely ‘jabber’ and not something that sees, for every 60 people who come forward to say they have been raped, one charge.”In response, deputy speaker Eleanor Laing issued a call for MPs to observe the requirement for “good temper and moderation” when discussing sensitive subjects.Sir Keir told PMQs: “On the Prime Minister’s watch rape prosecution convictions are at a record low, court backlogs are at a record high, victims are waiting longer for justice and criminals are getting away with it.“This wasn’t inevitable, it’s the cost of a decade of Conservative cuts and even now the government isn’t showing the urgency and ambition that’s needed.”But Mr Johnson insisted that he had invested in independent sexual and domestic violence advisers and the Crown Prosecution Service and ordered an end-to-end review of the handling of rape complaints – whose report prompted an apology to victims from ministers last week.“Of course to all the victims of rape and sexual violence, all the victims and survivors, of course I say sorry for the trauma they have been through, the frustration that they go through because of the inadequacies of the criminal justice system,” he said.Challenged by Starmer over why rape convictions had “plummeted” on his watch, he replied: “There are considerable evidential problems, particularly in recovering data from mobile phones and that has been an obstacle to the speedy preparation of cases and too often … cases go from the police to the CPS not in a fit state, and too often those cases are not in a fit state when they come to court.“There is not a good enough join-up across the criminal justice system … and that is exactly what we are addressing now by our investments and with our end-to-end rape review.”But the deputy director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Deniz Ugur, told The Independent: “To answer the question of why the number of rape convictions and prosecutions have fallen to record lows cannot be boiled down to how quickly information is collected from victim’s mobile phones. The government’s own end-to-end rape review highlighted that the requirement to hand over personal and sensitive data is one of the principal reasons for victims withdrawing from the process. This is one small part of a broken justice system.“Fundamentally, we know that the justice system isn’t set up to centre the needs to victims and survivors of rape and that this results in women being let down time and again. We need to see commitment and ambition translated into actions which reflect the urgent transformation needed to deliver justice for women”Reports of rape have almost doubled in the past five years, but the proportion of recorded rapes prosecuted has plummeted to 1.6 per cent.CPS figures for 2019-20 show 1,439 suspects were convicted of rape or lesser offences in England and Wales last year – the lowest level since records began, and down from 1,925 the previous year.Following the publication of the rape review, the home secretary, justice secretary and attorney general said they were “deeply ashamed” and admitted that thousands of victims have gone without justice.Survivors whose cases were not charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) called for the decisions to be reviewed in light of the findings but the government has refused.It has unveiled a suite of reforms that aim to increase the level of prosecutions to those seen before a steep drop-off in 2016.Campaigners and experts told the Commons Home Affairs Committee that the target should only be considered a “first step”.Giving evidence earlier on Wednesday, Dame Vera Baird QC, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, said it had taken “a long time” for ministers to apologise for failings across the criminal justice process.She said prosecutions started plummeting when the CPS “took a deliberate decision to increase the conviction rate” and became concerned about taking “weak” cases forward.The decline happened after years of funding cuts to police and the CPS, but the government’s review only contained two glancing mentions of “reduced resources”.Emily Hunt, a survivor and independent advisor to the government, said it was “not the time for a pat on the back” and warned that rapists who are not prosecuted may strike again.“I think we need to do better and prosecute rapists,” she added. “I’m also aware we can’t just flip a switch, the culture needs to change in the police and the CPS.” More

The defence secretary has attacked Russian “disinformation” in claiming warning shots were fired at a British warship off Crimea and vowed to “uphold international law”.Ben Wallace said Moscow’s false claims about the incident were nothing new, telling MPs: “We are not surprised by it, we plan for it.”“Disinformation, misinformation is something that we have seen regularly,” he said, adding: “We will not shy away from upholding international law and our rights on the sea.”Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the Commons defence committee, said the families of service people would be “reassured”, suggesting: “This is actually more of a war of words.”Mr Wallace said the UK ambassador in Moscow had not been summoned and insisted, on UK activities in the region: “We take all steps to make sure we are not escalatory or indeed provocative.”Moscow had made similar untrue claims of having “chased out” another Navy ship, HMS Dragon, a few months ago.The comments came after Russia’s defence ministry claimed a patrol boat had fired shots at HMS Defender and that a Su-24M warplane dropped four high explosive bombs in its path in the Black Sea.“The destroyer was warned in advance that weapons would be fired in case of a violation of the Russian state border. It disregarded the warning,” claimed a statement reported by the Interfax news agency.“As a result of joint actions of the Black Sea Fleet and the Border Service of the Russian Federal Security Service, HMS Defender left the territorial sea of the Russian Federation.”The latest flare-up comes amid months of tensions between Moscow and the West following a build-up earlier this year of Russian forces on the border with Ukraine.The Kremlin – which annexed Crimea illegally in 2014 – has been angered by the movement of Nato warships in the Black Sea, which is seen as offering support to Ukraine.But, in an earlier statement posted, the Ministry of Defence insisted: “No warning shots have been fired at HMS Defender.“The Royal Navy ship is conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law.”Mr Wallace said that HMS Defender had been “shadowed” by Russian ships and had been “made aware” of training exercises in the area.“This morning, HMS Defender carried out a routine transit from Odessa towards Georgia across the Black Sea,” he said.“As is normal for this route, she entered an internationally-recognised traffic separation corridor. She exited that corridor safely at 0945 BST.“As is routine, Russian vessels shadowed her passage and she was made aware of training exercises in her wider vicinity.” More

Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis has expressed confidence that the EU will agree to changes to the Brexit deal covering Northern Ireland, ahead of a deadline next week. The Northern Ireland Secretary told the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee that fixes to the accord were necessary and that he was “optimistic” they would happen.It comes amid reports that the EU is set to grant the UK an extension to grace periods on imported chilled meats – amounting to a temporary ceasefire in the so-called “sausage trade war”.Lord Frost, the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, on Tuesday told MPs that the protocol was not “sustainable” in its current form and needed to be amended.Following those comments, on Wednesday NI secretary Mr Lewis told the parliamentary committee: “We have been very clear that the current position of the protocol is not sustainable and we need to rectify that and I am optimistic and confident we will get that done in the time ahead.”I think it is reasonable for anyone to take the view that there will be changes, there has to be.”He added: “Pretty much every single business or business representation group we have engaged with has had issues with the protocol that they want to see resolved.”The protocol effectively treats UK territory Northern Ireland as part of the European Union for customs purposes, and was designed to avoid politically sensitive border checks with EU member state the Republic of Ireland.But it has created additional checks for goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain, which have angered both unionists and businesses – some of whom has stopped exporting to the territory because of new bureaucracy.The situation, which has seen shortages of some goods, is expected to worsen when more grace periods end later this year.But the UK has already unilaterally extended grace periods on supermarket supplies and parcels, and has been threatening to do the same on chilled meats. The EU has so far publicly said the UK must stand by what it signed, and has threatened to use trade sanctions included as an option in the agreement to force the issue.But in a change of approach, Commission officials on Wednesday will brief EU member state diplomats on a possible three month extension to the chilled meats clause, subject to conditions.The conditions would involve the UK continuing to align with European food safety rules for the duration of the period and require both sides to look for longer-term solutions.Maroš Šefčovič, the Commission vice president who had led on Brexit issues since the retirement of Michel Barnier, is understood to have recommended member states accept the extension to avoid inflaming sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland going into the marching season. EU sources have over the last few weeks accused the UK of doing little to implement the Northern Ireland deal since it began to apply at the beginning of this year. More

Remain would win a second Brexit referendum by a narrow margin if the vote were held today, new polling suggests.Five years to the day since the 2016 referendum took place, a Savanta ComRes survey found 51 per cent of respondents would now vote to remain, whereas 49 per cent would vote leave, based on interviews conducted last week.Compared to the results of the 2016 referendum, where 51.9 per cent of people voted to Leave and 48.1 voted to Remain, the nation appears to remain as divided as ever.The polling also showed that very few people had shifted positions since the 2016 referendum. Only 6 per cent of Remainers said they would now vote Leave, and 7 per cent of Leavers would now change their vote to Remain.Chris Hopkins, Savanta ComRes political researcher said: “On the five year anniversary of the Brexit vote, this poll shows a country just as divided as it was during the campaign, with a re-run of the referendum on a knife-edge according to this voting intention.”Polling found that if the question was put differently, around re-joining the EU, more people favoured remaining outside the trading bloc rather than rejoining it. Responses were similarly divided, however, with just 51 per cent of respondents in favour of staying out of the EU.Just over 30 per cent of respondents considered Brexit to have been a success, while 34 per cent said it had been a failure.The one area where respondents seemed to agree was around divisiveness — 51 per cent of respondents said Brexit had left the country more divided, compared with the 13 per cent who found the UK to be more united now than it was five years ago.Mr Hopkins said that if questions around Brexit were put to the public today, those in favour of remaining would need to focus on persuading those in the Leave camp to reconsider, rather than trying to engage potential Remainers who did not vote in 2016.“If either of these questions were to be put to the British people again, those who did not vote in 2016 look to be a key source of Remain/Rejoin support, and there are always likely to be sceptics regarding whether such potential voters would even turn out in any future vote.”Therefore those still in favour of Remaining or Rejoining would need to do much more to convince Leavers that they’d made the wrong decision in 2016, rather than relying on those who did not vote last time to turn out,” he said.The polling was based on 2,191 interviews conducted by Savanta ComRes between 18 June and 20 June. More