Markus Andrews

Sinn Fein says the UK government has agreed to legislate for Irish language protections at Westminster by October, paving the way for agreement at Stormont on power-sharing in Northern Ireland.The matter has been at the centre of a row that threatened to prevent the resumption of shared rule following the resignation of DUP leader Arlene Foster.Sinn Fein deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill was automatically removed from her post on Monday following Foster’s departure and she must be nominated to the role again within seven days.However, Sinn Fein has made clear it will not renominate — a move that would collapse the devolved Executive — unless the DUP agrees to press ahead with legislating on the Irish language.Irish language laws are an unfulfilled commitment within the 2020 deal that restored power-sharing at Stormont.New DUP leader Edwin Poots has vowed to implement all outstanding aspects of the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) deal, including Irish language legislation — but has declined to promise it within the current Assembly mandate. Speaking in Belfast in the early hours of Thursday, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said: “Tonight the British government has agreed to legislate for Acht na Gaeilge and the cultural package at Westminster. This will happen in October with Commissioners appointed by March 2022.“We told the British government that this is the only viable option to deliver these rights as the DUP were unwilling and incapable of delivering on their commitments. It is deeply regrettable that the DUP chose to block rights in this way for so long.“Tonight we have broken through all of that.“Irish speakers have been waiting for fifteen years for basic rights and recognition to be delivered. This is important for Irish language speakers and for wider society because power sharing is based on inclusion, respect and equality.“There is an important responsibility on the Irish and British government to ensure no further delay.” More

Rishi Sunak says he is ready to hand £4bn to pensioners next year to keep his “triple lock” pledge, despite rejecting a Covid catch-up plan for schools as too expensive.The bounce-back from the pandemic has pushed average wage rises close to 6 per cent – which, under the controversial rule, would then become the increase in the state pension.Asked if he was willing to pay that bill – put at around £4bn by economists – the chancellor replied: “That’s how the triple lock works. That is government policy.”The announcement on pensions comes just two weeks after Boris Johnson’s education catch-up tsar quit in protest at the refusal to spend £14bn on helping pupils recover from lost lessons in the lockdown.“You would give an extra £4bn to pensioners, even as you’ve denied catch-up for tutoring school kids whose education has suffered in the pandemic?” interviewer Andrew Neil asked.“Your numbers are correct, but they are speculation at this point,” Mr Sunak replied, pointing out many forecasts during the pandemic had been wrong.In the interview on the new GB News channel, the chancellor also:* Failed to rule out tax rises to plug the vast Covid spending black hole – admitting he had a “job to do at the spending review in the autumn”.* Declined to say whether householders or the Treasury would fund the £10,000-per-home bill for replacing CO2-emitting gas boilers – as required to meet climate targets.* Defended the huge changes to be made, when the UK accounts for only 1 per cent of global carbon emissions – pointing to an economic boost from selling new technology to other countries.* Described himself as a “fiscal Conservative” rather than a One Nation Tory or believer in “big government”.The triple lock promise ensures pensions rise annually by whichever is the highest of average earnings growth, inflation or 2.5 per cent.Average weekly pay, excluding bonuses, rose by 5.6 per cent year-on-year in the three months from February to April – with some forecasts predicting it could reach 8 per cent.The increase has been distorted by earnings plunging during the first lockdown in March last year, prompting suggestions the Treasury will try to wriggle out of the triple lock, when pensions rise next April.Asked who will pay to replace gas boilers, Mr Sunak replied: “We all pay, the government doesn’t have any separate money of its own.“But how we make this transition will be a question of what’s the right technology to do it? What’s the right timeframe to bring it in?”And, asked to define his personal politics, the chancellor said: “Of course I’m a fiscal conservative,” saying he was always conscious he was spending “other people’s money”. More

MPs have voted by a margin of 461 to 60 to back Boris Johnson’s plan to extend lockdown restrictions in England to 19 July, despite a rebellion by Tory backbenchers in the House of Commons.It means limits on numbers for sports events, theatres and cinemas will remain in place, nightclub doors will remain closed and people will be asked to continue working from home where possible.Several furious Tories rounded on the prime minister for the four-week delay, which he said was forced on him by surging cases of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19.That variant could push the R rate up to 7 if left to spread without any restrictions, Susan Hopkins, a Public Health England chief warned. Any value above 1 means the virus is spreading exponentially.Another 9,055 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in 24 hours — the highest since mid-February — nine more people have died.And health secretary Matt Hancock revealed the number of people taken to hospital suffering serious virus effects jumped by 48 per cent in a week, as the Delta variant continued to spread.Mr Johnson’s margin of victory for the delay was swollen by 188 Labour votes as 49 Conservative MPs broke ranks to vote against the delay to step 4 of his roadmap out of lockdown, which was initially pencilled in for 21 June. Six Labour MPs and five members of the DUP also voted against, while 125 MPs did not vote.The scale of opposition – on top of critical comments from cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg – underlines the difficulties facing Mr Johnson.At Prime Minister’s Questions, Tory MP Philip Davies questioned why Mr Johnson was not trusting “the common sense of the British people and his conservative instincts of individual freedom and individual responsibility” rather than the advice of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).The prime minister insisted he did not want to see Covid restrictions last forever but “a little more time” was needed to vaccinate millions more people to help combat the spread of the Delta variant.And Conservative William Wragg asked: “When can we expect the coordinated chorus of Sage members recommencing their media appearances to depress morale?”Mr Johnson replied: “I believe that academic and scientific freedom are an invaluable part of our country and I also note that my scientific colleagues would echo my sentiments that we need to learn to live with Covid.”In a sign that cabinet ministers have concerns about the extension, Commons leader Mr Rees-Mogg told his ConservativeHome podcast: “You can’t run society just to stop the hospitals being full, otherwise you’d never let us get in our cars and drive anywhere or do any of the other things that people want to do, so there has to be some proportionality.”In a seven-hour debate, a string of senior Tories spoke out against the plan, after the PM admitted he cannot absolutely rule out a further delay if dangerous new strains of the virus emerge.Former cabinet minister Sir John Redwood said: “It’s time to trust people more, it is time to control people less.”And ex-minister Tim Loughton said: “I’m done with making excuses to my constituents for when their lives might just get back to some degree of normality.”Another former member of cabinet, Karen Bradley, said she could not explain to her constituents why they have to wait longer for joyful events like big weddings and family get-togethers.“Life is about the joy that you can get from these occasions and events, and … we’re constantly being told we can’t have that joy because it will impact on the science,” she said. “We have to accept that we cannot save every life.”Backbencher Richard Drax accused decision-makers in government of feeling that, with the country “muzzled, acquiescent and fearful”, they were free to “creep out with their shovels and move the goalposts at will”.And veteran Thatcherite Sir Edward Leigh warned that Mr Johnson faced a backlash at the ballot box for his party.“This whole debate is a mortal threat to the Conservative Party,” said Sir Edward. “This is never going to end. At the end of this month, they’ll be another variant … the Peruvian variant, Paddington Bear will be arrested at Paddington station and put in quarantine, it’ll go on and on and on.” Former minister Huw Merriman said that young people “need to see a return” to normality. He said: “Too many of us making decisions have forgotten what it feels like to be a 20-year-old or how miserable it is to be a 20-year-old right now. “They have made those sacrifices, they need to see a return. They need to see the return this summer.” Tory MP for Poole Sir Robert Syms said that just 23 people were in hospital and two in intensive care with Covid in the whole of the southwest of England. In his home county of Dorset there was just one coronavirus patient in hospital.“The restrictions are totally out of kilter with the sense of the problem,” he said. “(There are) hundreds of couples that want to get married, businesses that want to be viable, people that want to get their lives back in order. I just think the balance is wrong.”Conservative Steve Baker – a prominent opponent of lockdown restrictions – described the current situation as a “dystopia” and told the Commons: “We have transformed this society for the worse. “We have put in place a culture of habits which will take years to shake off, culture and habits which distance people from one another and diminish their quality of life, the quality of relationships that they have with one another.” More

Matt Hancock says he ‘doesn’t think’ he’s hopelessHealth secretary Matt Hancock has denied a claim that he is “hopeless” after leaked texts by former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings suggested that this was how Boris Johnson described him early in the coronavirus pandemic. The prime minister said Mr Hancock was “totally f*****g hopeless” last year, according to a message published by the former advisor on social media.Mr Cummings, who has blamed Mr Hancock for failings during the Covid-19 response, published a screenshot apparently showing a WhatsApp exchange between himself and the PM on 3 March last year.The former aide also claimed that Mr Johnson plans to quit no more than two years after the next general election.It came as Lord Frost told MPs that talks with the European Union were making little progress. The two sides are locked in a dispute over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the part of the Brexit divorce deal aimed at avoiding a hard border with Ireland.Show latest update

1623827217Morning!Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live blog bringing you the latest news and analysis straight from Westminster.Joe Middleton16 June 2021 08:061623827412Tariffs axed immediately on Australian beef and lamb, triggering fears that farmers will be sent ‘to the wall’Tariffs will be scrapped immediately on imported beef and lamb from Australia, triggering accusations that the trade deal struck by Boris Johnson will send UK farmers “to the wall”.The small print of the first major post-Brexit agreement – revealed by Canberra, as the UK government tried to keep it under wraps – revealed a pledge to protect farmers for 15 years has been dropped.Instead, Australian farmers will effectively be handed tariff-free access from day one, up to a “cap” on sales that is 60 times the current level of imported beef, writes The Independent’s deputy political editor Rob Merrick.Joe Middleton16 June 2021 08:101623827885Nick Watt: Man charged after BBC journalist chased by anti-lockdown protestersA man has been charged after a BBC journalist was chased by anti-lockdown protesters in Westminster.Video footage showed Newsnight’s political editor Nicholas Watt being pursued by protesters from Whitehall into Richmond Terrace on Monday afternoon.Chiara Giordano has the latest on this breaking storyJoe Middleton16 June 2021 08:181623828612PM seeks path through ‘restrictive regulation’ as he plots UK’s Brexit futureBoris Johnson has said that a path through the “thicket of burdensome and restrictive regulation” must be cleared to fulfil the potentials of Brexit.The Prime Minister welcomed a report from a taskforce of senior Conservative MPs setting out their ideas for taking advantage of life outside the European Union’s regulations.Mr Johnson pledged to give the “detailed consideration it deserves” to the document from the taskforce led by Brexiteer Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader.The Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR) set out more than 100 recommendations including to cover a new regulatory framework and reforms for high-growth sectors.In a letter to the taskforce, the Prime Minister thanked them for the “substantive plans that will really put a TIGRR in the tank of British business”.Sir Iain, former environment secretary Theresa Villiers and ex-minister George Freeman were tasked earlier this year with reshaping regulation and seizing opportunities borne from Brexit.Their proposals include replacing General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with a UK Data Protections Framework.They further recommend allowing pension schemes to invest in start-ups and building a new UK clinical trials network building on the success of the coronavirus vaccine development.Joe Middleton16 June 2021 08:301623829335UK less prepared for climate crisis than five years ago, advisers warnThe UK is less prepared now than it was five years ago for the escalating effects of the climate crisis on people and wildlife, according to the government’s own advisers.As carbon dioxide levels continue to climb, the UK is experiencing more intense heatwaves, wildfires and floods, and greater risks to its food supply and health systems, the experts say.But the rise in climate effects is not being met with sufficient action from the government, says the assessment from the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee (CCC).The Independent’s climate correspondent Daisy Dunne has the detailsJoe Middleton16 June 2021 08:421623830498Gove promises July 19 will be end of Covid lockdown restrictionsMichael Gove has promised that July 19 will be the end of lockdown restrictions in England when pushed for clarity by Susanna Reid on GMB.Mr Gove responded with simple “yes” when asked by the presenter if the country would finally open up in mid-July.He added: “The data shows we should be in a position to have vaccinated so many people by that date in July that we will be able to lift restrictions.“None of us can predict the future with 100 per cent certainty, there could be something bizarre and unprecedented that occurs. “But on the basis of all the information we have then we will have successfully protected such a large section of the population and of course children will be facing the summer holidays and that brings the infection rate down. So we are as confident as confident can be.”Joe Middleton16 June 2021 09:011623831690Ministers ‘appear complacent’ over risk of care home closuresThe coronavirus crisis has highlighted the urgent reforms needed in adult social care with many providers living “hand to mouth”, an influential group of MPs warns today.The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the sector and emphasised that care is not properly funded.The committee also accuses ministers of appearing “complacent” about the potential for care home operators to fail.The Independent’s Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has the detailsJoe Middleton16 June 2021 09:211623832646Treasury set to ‘extend ban on evictions for unpaid commercial rent’The Treasury is expected to extend the current ban on evictions for unpaid commercial rent past the end of this month after delaying the easing of further restrictions, according to reports.The ban, which stops landlords from taking tenants with rent arrears to court, is due to end on June 30 but could now be extended into the new year, as reported by the Daily Mail.A new arbitration system could also come into force in a bid to solve disputes between landlords and commercial tenants affected by the coronavirus pandemic.More than 1,100 UK nightclubs remain unable to reopen, while thousands more hospitality and leisure firms have seen trading constrained by virus curbs.On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said plans to remove remaining pandemic restrictions on June 21 have been pushed back to July 19 amid concerns over the spread of the Delta variant, which was first identified in India.Hospitality leaders had called on the Government to extend the current rent moratorium and provide further financial support.Last week, the chief executives of trade groups UKHospitality and British Retail Consortium (BRC) told MPs that both sectors have accrued a combined £5 billion in rent debt.Joe Middleton16 June 2021 09:371623833430Get the latest politics news and analysis in your inbox every dayAre you a politics obsessive? Do you want the latest cutting-edge news and analysis straight from the heart of Westminster? Fortunately here at The Independent we have you covered from dawn until dusk.Adam Forrest writes Inside Politics, the essential morning briefing setting you up for the day ahead in British politics, each and every morning at 8am.And John Rentoul, brings you View from Westminster, delivering the short, sharp analysis you need to make sense of what really happened in British politics during the day. It will land in your inbox at 6pm.Click the link below to sign up to these newsletters:NewslettersThe latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.Joe Middleton16 June 2021 09:501623834883Lord Frost admits ‘not much progress’ in EU talksBrexit minister Lord Frost acknowledged talks with the European Union were making little progress.The peer is facing MPs this morning at the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, amid a disagreement between the UK and EU over the way the Northern Ireland Protocol – the part of the Brexit deal aimed at avoiding a hard border with Ireland – is being implemented.Lord Frost again restated the UK’s threat to unilaterally suspend parts of the arrangement, a point made repeatedly by Boris Johnson in recent days.He told MPs “there are discussions going on the whole time” with Brussels. “It’s happening all the time, it’s just that we are not making much progress despite all the ideas that we have put in,” he said.He added that “all options remain on the table” over the NI Protocol but that the Government would prefer to “find a negotiated way forwards if we can.”Asked about the uncertainty the row was causing for businesses, he said “there comes a point where the unsatisfactoriness of the current situation and the attempts to operate it contributes to the uncertainty and instability”.“And then a responsible effort to bring stability and certainty can improve the situation rather than make it more difficult,” he said.“So obviously if we judge that’s the situation then we look at the range of options that might bring further stability.”Joe Middleton16 June 2021 10:14 More

Matt Hancock has insisted that he does not believe he is “hopeless” despite Boris Johnson apparently twice using the description in text messages about the health secretary.Former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings today published screenshots of the WhatsApp messages on his blog, as he launched another broadside against Mr Hancock.In one message late at night in March 2020, Mr Johnson apparently branded his health secretary “totally f*****g hopeless” because of low levels of coronavirus testing.And in a second the following day, he responded to Mr Cummings’ worries about ventilator supplies by saying: “It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless.”As Mr Hancock set off to the House of Commons to deliver a statement hours after the publication of the blogpost, he was “doorstepped” by Sky News.With Mr Hancock obeying official advice to keep car windows open to provide ventilation, the reporter was able to shout to him: “Are you hopeless, Mr Hancock?”Despite his face-mask muffling his voice, the health secretary can be clearly heard to reply: “I don’t think so.”Mr Johnson did not respond as he left Downing Street when reporters called out questions to him over whether he truly thought Mr Hancock was hopeless, and if so why he had not sacked him.But Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth branded the Cabinet minister “hopeless Hancock” in the House of Commons.Responding to a statement by Mr Hancock on the delay to lockdown easing, Mr Ashworth told MPs: “The right honourable gentleman is now forever branded as ‘hopeless Hancock’ by his own leader.“When they watch the news tonight, when they know that (the govenrment) failed to protect our borders, when they know that they allowed this variant to take off, and when they saw that restrictions are being extended, I think many of our constituents will no doubt repeat the prime minister’s expletive-laden sentiments about the secretary of state.” More

A former Tory minister whose report has triggered plans to curb the power of people to mount legal challenges has accused ministers of misrepresenting his findings.The Ministry of Justice intends to restrict judicial review on the grounds that Lord Faulks found judges are increasingly deciding the merits of laws – which should be the role of Parliament.But Lord Faulks told an inquiry by MPs: “That wasn’t the language that we used in our conclusions.” More

Boris Johnson has a “clear plan” to quit as prime minister within two years after the next election, expected in 2023 or 2024, his former top adviser Dominic Cummings has claimed.Mr Cummings – who was Johnson’s right-hand man until his resignation in November after a power struggle with the PM’s wife Carrie – said the plan meant the UK would be living with “chronic dysfunction” in government for around another five years, unless “some force intervenes” to remove Johnson.In an explosive blog lashing the government’s response to the Covid pandemic, the former Vote Leave supremo said that Mr Johnson’s promise of a public inquiry is designed to delay official findings on his performance until after he has left office.Mr Johnson sparked outrage by announcing that the inquiry will not even begin until 2022, with opposition parties demanding an immedate start to allow the authorities swiftly to learn lessons from the early stages of the pandemic.In a message on his £10-a-month Substack blog, Mr Cummings said that Mr Johnson’s plan after winning the election will be to leave office swiftly to “making money and having” fun rather than seek to stay in power for the long term.The election is currently scheduled to take place in May 2024, but Mr Johnson’s plan to abolish fixed-term parliament legislation would allow him to move it forward, with May-July 2023 tipped as the most likely dates.If Mr Cummings’ claims are correct, this could mean the prime minister leaving 10 Downing Street by 2025 or 2026.“Unlike other PMs, this one has a clear plan to leave at the latest a couple of years after the next election,” wrote Mr Cummings. “He wants to make money and have fun not ‘go on and on’.”The public inquiry “will not start for years and it is designed to punt the tricky parts until after this PM has gone”, said Mr Cummings.This meant that the UK would have to live with “chronic dysfunction” for about another five years, unless “some force intervenes”, he wrote.“From the perspective of good government and ethics the Cabinet and MPs should intervene,” said Mr Cummings. “But this is unlikely while the polls have the Conservatives around 40 per cent-plus, because our political system incentivises party loyalty over good government and ethics. “Senior civil servants will wait for the polls to move before trying to ‘push what is falling’. “But the systemic incompetence surrounding the PM is such that his operation is programmed to unravel — he always does, No10’s structure makes it impossible for anybody to govern properly, and he rejected the plan to change how No10 works. “Just as I said 2017-19 ‘This No10 will unravel, some of us should prepare for what comes next’ the same is true now. This No10 will unravel — it would already be unravelling if Starmer were not also useless. “People need to prepare for what comes next. Preparations — planning, building tools, preparing a team and so on — made in 2018-spring 2019 proved vital July-December 2019.”Responding to Mr Cummings’ claim about plans for an early departure following the next election, Mr Johnson’s press secretary said: “The PM has actually been asked this before and has said himself it’s utter nonsense, so that still stands.“As you know, the PM was elected in 2019 and continues to focus on delivering the manifesto we were elected on and leading the county out of the pandemic.” More

Boris Johnson has been urged to “make access to medicinal cannabis products on the NHS a reality” by the mother of Alfie Dingley, who she says is only one of three patients with a prescription for this treatment.Hannah Deacon has written to the prime minister to ask him to ensure other children can get the same treatment as nine-year-old Alfie, which she said “saved his life” and “stopped his severe epileptic seizures for many months at a time” .Alfie, who has a rare form of epilepsy, was the UK’s first patient to get a permanent license to be prescribed medicinal cannabis on the NHS when he received one several years ago.Specialist doctors have been allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis to patients since 2018, when the government changed its rules over the treatment following a high-profile campaign by families, including Alfie’s parents.In her letter to Mr Johnson, Ms Deacon said: “It soon became clear that the legal change was, however, well intentioned, a complete failure, with families still denied access to an NHS prescription at every turn.”She added: “So far, just three prescriptions for whole plant cannabis have been issued on the NHS, and every single one of these children had a media campaign behind them to put pressure on the government.”Ms Deacon put this down to these unlicensed medicines not being commissioned on the NHS.She said the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, an advisory body, relies on evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCT).“RCT data which is designed for single compounds, cannot effectively gather data on the medicinal properties of this plant without losing the benefits of the whole plant,” she said.“Unless the fact is more widely acknowledged, we will remain forever stuck with access blocked for very poorly children who are either left suffering unnecessarily, forced to pay thousands of pounds privately or even more worrying drawn to the black market.”Ms Deacon added: “This abominable situation is putting the power of some of these children’s wellbeing at the hands of criminals.“As a parent, you would do anything to ease the suffering of your child and that is what we are seeing: desperate parents forced to purchase dangerous products off the black market to treat their children with substandard, dangerous, and most importantly illegal products.”She asked the prime minister to meet with her to discuss how to “stop this suffering” of patients and “make access to medicinal cannabis products on the NHS a reality”.Earlier this year, campaign groups said more needed to be done to increase the availability of this treatment on the NHS for children with severe epilepsy.A NICE spokesperson said: “The fact that NICE made no population-wide recommendation for the use of cannabis-based medicines for people with severe treatment-resistant epilepsy should not be interpreted by healthcare professionals as meaning that they are prevented from considering the use of these medicines where that is clinically appropriate in an individual case. They added: “Patients in this population can be prescribed cannabis-based medicines if the healthcare professional considers that that would be appropriate on a balance of benefit and risk, and in consultation with the patient, and their families and carers or guardian. We have clarified the guideline to make this clear.”A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The government changed the law to allow specialist doctors to prescribe unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use where it is clinically appropriate and in the best interests of patients.“Licensed cannabis-based medicines are funded by the NHS where there is clear evidence of their safety and clinical effectiveness.”Downing Street has been approached for comment. More