Markus Andrews

Gavin Williamson has vowed to “drive forward” a change which would see university offers be based on actual exam results.The government announced plans last year to overhaul the current system, which sees universities make offers on predicted grades.A consultation has been carried out over this change, which the education secretary has said would support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.Speaking to parliament on Monday, Mr Williamson said the government is currently looking at the results from this and wanted to bring forward a post-qualifications admissions (PQA) system “as rapidly as possible”. “We would like to do that without legislation and in co-operation with the sector,” he said. “But if we aren’t able to have that co-operation, we will drive this forward.”The government launched a consultation into this potential reform of the university admissions system amid concerns about the accuracy of predicted grades.One option being considered by ministers would see students apply to university and receive offers from institutions after A-level results day – and the start of university could be pushed back.The other option would see students apply in the usual way during term-time, but offers would only be made after results day in the summer.A Ucas director said earlier this year the university admissions body would “cautiously” support the second model, but the first option – which would see students apply to university after A-level results day and start courses in January – was “a step too far”. In the consultation document, Mr Williamson said the system using predicted grades is “limiting the aspirations of students before they know what they can achieve”. “We know that this disproportionately affects the brightest children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds,” he said, adding he wanted to “smash through ceilings” stopping students from reaching their potential. Speaking about the proposed reform on Monday, he said: “All the evidence from the Sutton Trust and so many others is very clear than PQA goes to help children from the most disadvantaged families more than any other.”“That is why we will make it happen.”Last year, a survey by the Sutton Trust, a social mobility charity, suggested working-class students were more likely to say they would have applied to a more selective university if they had known their A-level grades first.Previous research from the charity found high achievers from disadvantaged backgrounds were more likely to end up achieving better grades than predictions compared to those who are better-off.Back in 2017, research found the university admissions process relied too heavily on predicted grades and personal statements, which could put poorer pupils at a disadvantage. More

Boris Johnson’s woes over his government’s controversial planning reforms have deepened after they came under fire from his own father.Stanley Johnson warned the proposals could undermine ministers’ efforts to protect nature.In a separate development, two Tory MPs rebelled to vote with Labour and against the changes in a non-binding vote in the House of Commons.On Friday senior Tories warned the prime minister to change course on the plans or face more defeats in southern seats, after the party’s defeat in the Chesham and Amersham by-election.Two former cabinet Damian Green and David Davis told The Independent the reforms would allow developers to ride roughshod over local communities, as they called for them to be urgently rethought.Before the vote, Mr Johnson’s father told Times Radio: “I think that we have to be tremendously careful before we push through planning reforms, which themselves may serve to undermine the very basis of our nature protection programmes.”He added: “We are arguing that the nature protection, bio-diversity, are of extreme importance now. Not only an importance in itself, but an importance as a means of delivering the climate change objectives we’ve all been talking about, which we’re about to sign up to, we hope, in the Glasgow conference. So it is tremendously important these things are given the weight they need to be properly given. And I’m not convinced that telling the Horsham District Council: ‘Yes, you’ve got to build 1,000 house or whatever it is’ , giving them no room of room to manoeuvre, is the way forward.”Steve Reed, shadow housing secretary, had challenged Tory MPs opposed to the reforms to “put your money where your mouth is”.In the end two rebelled, Anne Marie Morris, the MP for Newton Abbot, and William Wragg, who represents Hazel Grove, in Greater Manchester. Tory MPs has been expected to abstain.At the weekend Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, said the plans had been “mischaracterised” and at “no time has this proposal been about suddenly indiscriminately bricking over the countryside”.In a Commons debate before the vote, Labour claimed the changes were “paying back” Conservative Party donors from the housing sector and “selling out” communities.In December the government said it remained committed to building 300,000 new homes a year in England.Mr Reed highlighted concerns over the rights of communities to object to planning applications.He told MPs: “It’s fair to say the Conservatives’ planning reforms are not popular with voters – and that’s not because voters are Nimbys (‘not in my back yard’) as ministers rather offensively like to brand them – but because residents rightly want and deserve a say over how their own neighbourhoods are developed.”Housing minister Christopher Pincher said the reforms would bring a cumbersome paper-based system into the digital age.The current system was “not fast enough, it’s not consistent, nor is it clear, nor is it engaging enough,” he said.He added that the proposals would not diminish the ability of local communities to take part in the planning process. “On the contrary, they’re designed to give communities more, not less, of a say through better information, easier means to take part and crucially with a clearer voice when it can make a real difference.” More

Campaigners are taking Boris Johnson’s government to court over its failure to investigate allegations of Russian interference in UK elections.The High Court will on Tuesday hear an application for judicial review of Mr Johnson’s refusal to comply with the recommendations of parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, which last year warned that Moscow was targeting the UK with disinformation on social media and through other channels, in the hope of influencing votes from the 2016 EU referendum onwards.The report, published in July 2020, said that protecting the UK’s democratic system “must be a ministerial priority”. But it found that London’s response to allegations of Russian interference stood in “stark contrast” to the Mueller Report inquiry in the US, which found evidence of “sweeping and systematic” attempts by Vladimir Putin’s regime to influence the 2016 presidential election.The High Court will be told that no such investigation has been launched in the UK despite the ISC’s recommendation that “there must be an analogous assessment of Russian interference in the EU referendum”.The case has been brought by campaign group All the Citizens alongside Labour MPs Ben Bradshaw and Chris Bryant, Green Caroline Lucas, the SNP’s Alyn Smith and peers Lord Strasburger and Baroness Wheatcroft.It was initially rejected by a High Court judge on grounds that it was “non-justiciable” because it dealt with issues of the exercise of state sovereignty.But the claimants hope to overturn the finding in a hearing before a different judge on Tuesday, allowing it to go forward to full judicial review.Lawyer Tessa Gregory of Leigh Day told The Independent: “This isn’t politics by the back door. We are asking the court to ensure the government is upholding its duty under the Human Rights Act to protect our democratic system and ensure free and fair elections.“The government has a legal duty to ensure the protection of our electoral system and the only way it can do that is if it investigates credible allegations of interference. In this case we have highly credible allegations of interference.”The landmark case – funded by around £40,000 in donations from the public – is the first time that sitting MPs and Lords have taken legal action on grounds of national security, and comes after the government blocked the publication of the ISC’s Russia Report for nine months. The MPs said they were determined to take the case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if they are denied judicial review by UK courts. More

Downing Street insiders are being urged to avoid the misleading term ‘freedom day’ in relation to 19 July, when all Covid restrictions are set to be lifted in England.There has been an internal push among civil servants and government figures to move away from this rhetoric as it is feared to be giving the wrong impression that the UK’s epidemic will come to an end as of next month.Scientists have warned that there are “many unknowns” ahead which make it difficult to determine how Covid will continue to impact life in the months and years to come, including the threat posed by new variants and uncertainty surrounding the longevity of immunity.Some ministers have taken to saying ‘freedom day’ in meetings, but have been encouraged against using the term. One government source said the media had been responsible for coining the phrase.Downing Street has adopted a more cautious tone in recent months as part of efforts to better manage the expectations of the British public, having previously failed to deliver on a number of its promises with regards to the Covid crisis.The decision to delay the lifting of restrictions by four weeks to 19 July is one example. Insiders say the government would have pushed ahead with reopening in the same circumstances this time last year but is now desperate to avoid any backward steps in the roadmap and ensure the release from lockdown is final.Internally, some senior government figures are still hopeful that restrictions can be lifted before 19 July – but both the prime minister and business secretary have publicly indicated that England will likely keep to its current timeline.“Looking at where we are, looking at the efficacy of the vaccines against all variants that we can currently see … I think it’s looking good for 19 July to be that terminus point,” Boris Johnson said on Monday.Scientists have meanwhile warned that the government needs to tread carefully amid the ongoing rise in cases driven by the Delta variant and provide more clarity on what comes next once restrictions are eventually lifted.Professor Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organisation, said Downing Street was “quite right to move away” from the term ‘freedom day’, explaining that there is too much uncertainty ahead to declare Britain’s fight against Covid as over.He said the current surge of infections is “not likely” to die down before 19 July, with it unclear as to when the UK’s cases will start to fall. The “constant threat” of new variants which may be able to better escape immunity generated by the vaccines and the “unknown rate of loss of immunity”, particularly among the elderly, also mean that Britain “cannot rest on our laurels” from next month, Prof Costello added.Susan Michie a professor of health psychology at University College London and member of Sage’s sub-group on pandemic behaviour, said that keeping Covid-19 suppressed in the future will be a “long-term” responsibility carried by the government and across society.“Putting an emphasis on one specific day is likely to provide people with a false sense of reassurance that the Covid-19 risk is less than it is,” she said.“‘Freedom day’ would be much better replaced with a term such as ‘Building Back Better’ to focus on how we can change things to not only lift remaining restrictions, but keep them lifted.”Prof Michie explained that, to avoid future restrictions, the government needs to make public places safer. She pointed to the example of Belgium, where public spaces have monitors to assess ventilation quality, and New York City, where every school classroom has its ventilation status posted on a public website.She also called for tighter border controls to prevent the seeding of new, highly transmissible variants, and said more funding and resources are need for local public health teams to better tackle future outbreaks that emerge across the UK.Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said if the government was willing to allow the public to “live with the virus” – as it has said so on a number of occasions – then a “clear vision of what that means is needed”.“If people are saying we need to live with the virus, they need to spell out what that means for ordinary people,” he said. “What does that involve? We haven’t had any clarity on that at all.“If it means people have to pay large sums for PCR tests every time they go abroad, that poses major challenges for ‘global Britain’. It it means lateral flow testing for every day events, that’s also a major challenge.“Slogans like ‘freedom day’ are frankly meaningless unless we have detail. This is why a number of people are saying to go for elimination, even if it is very aspiration. But at least we’ll have a clear pathway then.“At the moment, are we just going to go on with opening up and locking down every time a new variant comes along? That way our future is decided by the virus. It’s not in the hands of the government.” More

After the ‘sausage war’ comes the culture clash – the European Union is preparing to cut the “disproportionate” amount of British film and television shown on the continent after Brexit.The move would be a blow to the UK’s lucrative entertainment industry.It also risks increasing tensions between the UK and the bloc, alongside rows over the sale of sausages in Northern Ireland and the dispute which led French fishermen to try to block a Jersey port earlier this year.Despite Brexit, UK programmes and films are still classed as “European works”.But a leaked EU document, seen by the Guardian newspaper, reads: “The high availability of UK content in video on demand services, as well as the privileges granted by the qualification as European works, can result in a disproportionate presence of UK content with the European video on demand quota and hinder a larger variety of European works”.The issues arises in part because of the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, which says that the majority of airtime must be given to European content on terrestrial television and that it must make up nearly a third of content on video on demand (VOD) services like Amazon and Netflix.Some countries go further, insisting on higher quotas.The document warns the high proportion of UK films and television programmes “may affect” the objectives of the directive.The European Commission has now been asked to carry out a study on the risks British programmes pose to the EU’s “cultural diversity”, according to the paper.Adam Minns, the executive director of the Commercial Broadcasters Association (COBA), warned any change could be a serious blow to the industry in the UK, saying: “Selling the international intellectual property rights to British programmes has become a crucial part of financing production in certain genres, such as drama.”A UK government spokesperson said: “European works status continues to apply to audiovisual works originating in the UK, as the UK is a party to the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT).” More

Chancellor Rishi Sunak shared concerns last autumn that Boris Johnson had “no plan” to deal with coronavirus and was wrongly delaying a second lockdown, the prime minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings has claimed.In a series of messages on his Substack blog, Mr Cummings repeated his description of the PM as “like a shopping trolley” veering from side to side of the aisle without any clear direction.And he said that the UK could have avoided the need for a second lockdown altogether if it had followed up the first set of restrictions properly, but said this opportunity was lost because Mr Johnson “totally bogged it”.Mr Cummings, formerly Mr Johnson’s most senior adviser at 10 Downing Street, said that decision-making at the top of the government was “horrific”.“When you watch the apex of power you feel like ‘if this were broadcast, everyone would sell everything and head for the bunker in the hills’,” he said.“It’s impossible to describe how horrific decision-making is at the apex of power and how few people watching it have any clue how bad it is or any sense of how to do it better. It’s generally the blind leading the blind with a few non-blind desperately shoving fingers in dykes and clutching their heads.”Mr Cummings also called for an investigation of the use of “do not resuscitate” instructions for people with learning difficulties who developed Covid-19, saying it was clear that “some terrible stuff happened”.Asked if the issue was discussed in government, he replied: “Not in front of me – we were told these decisions were taken in quite a decentralised way. But I think this whole issue does need urgently addressing now, clearly some terrible stuff happened.”Mr Cummings rejected claims that the chancellor – who had launched the Eat Out to Help Out scheme to support the hospitality industry during the summer – resisted scientists’ call for a return to economic and social restrictions as Covid-19 cases grew in the autumn.Instead, he insisted that the delay in September 2020 was down to “a PM decision against advice of scientists, data team, me and others in No10”.Cummings exempted Sunak from criticism in his epic seven-hour testimony to a House of Commons inquiry into the handling of coronavirus last month, reserving his scorn for Mr Johnson and health secretary Matt Hancock.And answering questions on his blog today, he repeated that the chancellor had supported him, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and others in pushing the PM to ditch the “herd immunity” strategy and order a lockdown in March 2020.Mr Cummings added: “September decision not to act seriously was a PM decision against advice of scientists, data team, me and others in No10. It wasn’t a Cabinet decision or ‘cos of Sunak’.“Sunak’s view was the same as all serious people July-Oct: there is no plan, just a trolley smashing side to side, we can’t keep telling people ‘go back to work arghhh stop lockdown arghhh go back to work covid is all nonsense argh save the NHS…’ etc, which is what PM was doing July-Oct.”The former adviser – who quit in November after a power struggle with the PM’s wife Carrie – repeated his assertion that Mr Johnson is “obviously unfit” to be prime minister.He said that he plans to write later this week about the reasons why he helped to install Mr Johnson in 10 Downing Street.But he did not contest the idea that the PM regularly lies to the public, adding: “No10 lies routinely cos that’s the PM’s personality.”Mr Johnson’s “greatest strength” is that he is “more self-aware than almost anybody else in politics”, but this only comes to the fore when he is in “fear of imminent career death”, said Mr Cummings.“Sadly he keeps it hidden from himself most of the time,” he said. “He’s a much more complex character than he seems, behind the mask is … another mask.”He described Mr Johnson as “a pundit who stumbled into politics and acts like that 99% of the time but 1% not – and that 1% is why pundits misunderstand him/underestimate him”.Cummings dismissed the idea that his former boss Michael Gove was running the government behind the scenes.Asked about Gove, he said: “He did not have ‘huge responsibility and influence’. Nobody in the Cabinet has much responsibility or influence.“The CHX (chancellor of the exchequer) leads a powerful institution and he has a lot of power. But Gove does not, he does not ‘run’ the CABOFF (Cabinet Office) nor is he even told much about what it’s doing.“One of the myths of the media is ‘Gove is a key player in Downing Street’ – it just isn’t true.”He voiced his preference for bringing in people from outside politics to run key projects, as Katie Bingham did with the vaccines taskforce.And he added: “The Tory Party is hideous obviously, but that was part of the point of doing Brexit – to put a bomb under them all so they all have to change. And they are changing. Not fast enough.”The “crucial question” in UK politics is “how to accelerate the change/obliteration of existing parties”, he said. More

Australia will enjoy an exports boost six times greater than the UK from the controversial trade deal agreed between the two countries, experts say.UK sales will grow by just 0.35 per cent from the agreement, the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) forecasts – compared with a 2.2 per cent jump for Australia’s businesses.Its analysis also predicts a puny output increase for the UK of 0.07 per cent, less than half the 0.16 per cent stimulus it predicts for Australia.“These are very small numbers,” said Professor Michael Gasiorek, director of the observatory at the University of Sussex, adding: “We see a bigger positive effect for Australia than for the UK.”The conclusions come after the government admitted the average household would be just £1.20 a year better off from the deal, which would boost GDP by only 0.02 per cent over 15 years.Prof Gasiorek also warned that agricultural trade with the EU could slump by more than any increase with Australia – if relaxing rules on food standards triggers a clash with Brussels.Announcing the deal last week, the trade secretary Liz Truss repeatedly refused to guarantee that meat treated with antibiotics, or pesticides, will continue to be barred.Australia uses 16 times more antibiotics for poultry farming than Britain, allowing farmers to crowd animals together to make meat cheaper – but sparking criticism about their conditions.Ducking questions about antibiotics, Ms Truss accused critics of demanding “regulatory harmonisation” and saying only: “We are not lowering our food import standards as a result of this deal.”But Prof Gasiorek warned: “Liberalising agriculture may set a precedent with regard to future agreements (for example with the US) and it remains to be seen quite what has been agreed with regard to food standards.“Allowing the import of foodstuffs with different standards to those of the EU may well cause further difficulties for the operation of the Northern Ireland protocol.”If it prevented an agreement with Brussels to ease Irish Sea checks, it could “reduce UK agricultural trade with the EU more than it increased it with Australia”, he said.The UKTPO study, modelling the impact on trade in 148 industries and sectors, concludes that the economic boost is tiny because Australia is far away, its economy is small – and tariff levels are low to start with.“Economically the deal remains a poor substitute for the trade lost with European markets due to Brexit,” the professor added.He also warned crucial details – on services, digital trade, public procurement or, rules of origin – remained to be sorted out, with the deal unlikely to be wrapped up until the autumn.The deal has already alarmed farmers, because, contrary to pledges of 15 years’ protection, tariffs will be scrapped immediately on imported beef and lamb.There is also anger that MPs will not – as The Independent revealed – be allowed to scrutinise the text until the autumn, when they fear it will be too late. More

Boris Johnson tells planning critics they’re wrong despite by-election humiliationDominic Cummings has launched his latest attack on Boris Johnson’s government, declaring that the “horrific decision-making” of those in power amounted to “the blind leading the blind”.The former Downing Street advisor told subscribers to his Substack page that his experience in government was “fascinating but very troubling”.“The world is so dangerous, there are so many very smart and able people – when you watch the apex of power you feel like ‘If this were broadcast, everyone would sell everything and head for the bunker in the hills’,” Mr Cummings said.It came as Matt Hancock attempted to play off reports that MrJohnson called him “totally f***ing hopeless” in his handling of Covid-19 by arguing that the prime minister only made the comment because he was “stressed”.Amid speculation around his position in the government, the health secretary insisted on Monday that the revelation had not been embarrassing for him.Show latest update

1624287014Newest MP in Westminster arrives with ‘warning’ for Johnson The UK’s newest MP has arrived in Westminster with a warning to Boris Johnson that his “Blue Wall” of seats in southern England is vulnerable to the Liberal Democrats, according to the party’s leader.Sarah Green secured a shock by-election victory for the Lib Dems last week in Chesham and Amersham, a seat that had been Conservative since its creation in 1974.The Conservatives held the seat with a majority of more than 16,000 in 2019 but Ms Green ended up winning it by 8,028 votes.Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told the PA news agency: “There’s this Blue Wall which is now vulnerable to Liberal Democrat attack.“People focus on the Red Wall in the North, but the Tories had better watch their rear flank because the Liberal Democrats are coming after them.”He added: “There is no doubt that there is a large number of Conservative MPs now who will be looking over their shoulder, Conservative MPs who represent what we call the Blue Wall seats that are now vulnerable to the Liberal Democrat advance.”Conrad Duncan21 June 2021 15:501624285751Sunak shared concern over Johnson’s handling of Covid, Cummings claimsDominic Cummings has claimed that chancellor Rishi Sunak shared concerns that Boris Johnson had “no plan” to deal with Covid-19 and was wrongly delaying a second lockdown last autumn.In a series of messages on his Substack blog, Mr Cummings said that the UK could have avoided the need for a second lockdown altogether if it had followed up the first set of restrictions properly, but Mr Johnson “totally bogged it”.Our political editor, Andrew Woodcock, has the full story below:Conrad Duncan21 June 2021 15:291624284823Our political commentators John Rentoul, Andrew Grice and Kate Devlin will be discussing the fifth anniversary of the Brexit referendum on Wednesday with guest speakers David Gauke and Lord Adonis.You can find out how to sign up to the event below:Conrad Duncan21 June 2021 15:131624283906Fears over Europeans living in UK who have not yet applied for settled statusThe government has said it is working hard to identify tens of thousands of Europeans living in the UK who have yet to apply for a new post-Brexit residency scheme ahead of next week’s cut-off date.Downing Street said a “small minority” of those eligible for the settled status scheme had yet to come forward amid concerns that EU citizens – as well as nationals of Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – could lose their benefits if they miss the 30 June deadline.The Times reported that official estimates circulating in Whitehall at the start of the month calculated that of the 820,000 European benefits claimants in the UK, about 130,000 had yet to apply.Of those, about 90,000 were said to be in receipt of universal credit.“We are making sure that anyone receiving benefits is given every opportunity to apply to the EU settlement scheme,” the PM’s official spokesperson said on Monday.“We are working hard to identify existing claimants who are yet to apply and encouraging them to do so.“Anyone who has applied for the scheme by the 30 June deadline will have their rights protected until their application is decided.”They added: “In line with the (Brexit) Withdrawal Agreement, those who have reasonable grounds for missing the deadline will be able to make a late application.“We will continue to work hard to identify the remaining small minority who have not yet come forward.” More