Markus Andrews

Tens of thousands of children and babies in the UK could be left in limbo within weeks amid mounting delays in the processing of their EU settlement scheme applications, lawyers and charities have warned.Experts warn of a “disaster waiting to happen” as over 80,000 youngsters are still waiting for a decision, while many others are said to have not yet applied due to difficulties meeting “rigid” evidential requirements or parents simply being unaware they need to apply for their children.All EU nationals and their family members in the UK, including children of all ages, must apply to the EU settlement scheme by 30 June, with those who do not automatically becoming undocumented.The only exception is babies born after their parents have been granted EU settled status. But those born to parents with pre-settled status must still apply, and they must do so within three months of the baby’s birth.Charities have reported a surge in requests for help from parents having difficulty applying for EU settlement for children and newborn babies or those waiting long periods for an outcome for their child’s application.Campaign group the3million has written to immigration minister Kevin Foster expressing “concern” that many parents with EU settled status have not realised their children are not automatically covered under the scheme, or are finding it difficult to prove their children’s residence.An analysis of government figures, seen by The Independent, shows that as of March 2021 children made up 26 per cent of the current backlog of applications, despite only accounting for 15 per cent of applicants overall. More than 84,700 children were still waiting for a decision in March.While the overall backlog reduced between December 2020 and March 2021, the proportion of children crept up from 22 per cent to 26 per cent – indicating that these claims are taking longer than average to process.

This is putting tens of thousands of children at risk. That they run up such a backlog for a group they recognise as vulnerable, and that they made it harder to clear such cases, is a scandalDr Kuba Jablonowski, research fellowAnd more recent figures published by the Home Office this week, which provide no breakdown of children, show the overall backlog has risen again since March, from 323,730 to 334,500 – suggesting that the number of children waiting will have also increased.Lawyers say the delays are likely to be due in part to the Home Office’s requirement, introduced on 1 January, that children must show evidence they were in the UK prior to the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December.Caseworkers are said to be requesting this evidence after a child’s application has been submitted, creating further delays, as it is often difficult for parents or guardians to obtain the relevant documents, such as school or employment records, for a young child or a baby.Luke Piper, head of policy at the3million, accused the Home Office of focusing too heavily on “rigid requirements” on proof of residency rather than applying discretion on a case-by-case basis. “If an applicant is the child of people with settled status the caseworkers should just pick up the phone and talk to the parents. They shouldn’t refuse the child or cause delays,” he said.Dr Kuba Jablonowski, research fellow at Exeter University, who carried out the analysis, said: “This is putting tens of thousands of children at risk. That they run up such a backlog for a group they recognise as vulnerable, and that they made it harder to clear such cases, is a scandal.”The Home Office has said that any applicant who has not received a decision by 30 June will continue to have their rights protected until their application is concluded.However, charities are concerned that agencies required to check immigration status, such as the NHS and employers, will not be aware of this and could deny people access to basic services while they are waiting for a decision.Marianne Lagrue, of Coram Children’s Legal Centre, said a verbal assurance was “not enough” to ensure that one’s rights would be protected.“Their access to education, healthcare and services that they need in crisis are dependent on these services understanding those individuals’ rights. There’s so much scope for human error,” she added.Marieke Widmann, of the Children’s Society said the charity had seen a “huge rise” in enquiries about EU settlement over the past few weeks, with most asking for help with children’s applications.“We are getting emails and calls from parents confused as to whether their children need to apply to the scheme, some asking how to make an application from the start. Others who have applied, but have not yet had a decision, are worried about the impending deadline,” she said.“We are concerned that support services are at full capacity and so many parents have no idea where to turn for help. Even worse, there are no doubt many out there who haven’t yet realised they need to apply for their child.”

The government needs to, urgently, improve the backlog and make sure cast iron guarantees are in place to guarantee eligible citizen won’t lose their rightsBambos Charalambous, shadow immigration ministerMs Lagrue warned that many children were likely to end up not receiving EU settlement either because their parents or guardians were not able to complete the application process or did not apply at all.“For newborn babies it often it won’t be felt until years later. It will come as a shock. It feels like a disaster waiting to happen,” she said.“Children will suffer needlessly and there might not be an obvious route for support for them to rectify the situation. They’re totally at the mercy of the adults in their lives taking the responsible action, but they are the ones who will feel the full force of any consequences.”She called for faster decision-making and “clear and unequivocal” information to be provided to agencies such as the NHS and employers about the rules.Shadow immigration minister Bambos Charalambous warned that children were being “left behind” due to the Home Office “failing to have control of the scheme”.“The government needs to, urgently, improve the backlog and make sure cast iron guarantees are in place to guarantee eligible citizen won’t lose their rights,” he said.Mr Foster said: “It is completely inaccurate to suggest children who have applied to the EU settlement scheme will be left in limbo.“Through our targeted campaigns to encourage parents to apply for their children, we have seen a rise in applications from under 18s, which accounts for higher numbers of applications being processed.“Since the scheme launched in March 2019, there have been more than 5.6 million applications and more than 5 million grants of status and I would encourage anyone eligible who hasn’t applied, or has not done so on behalf of their children, to apply now.” More

A second delay to the end of all Covid lockdown restrictions would only occur if something “unprecedented and remarkable” happened before 19 July, Michael Gove has claimed, one day after the government was forced to push back the deadline due to a rise in infections.Boris Johnson confirmed the final phase of England’s roadmap would be deferred by four weeks, from 21 June to 19 July, at a Downing Street press conference on Monday – telling the media it was “sensible to wait a little longer” to allow more people the chance to get vaccinated. Leading scientists had warned that the fast-spreading Delta variant, which was first identified in India, would lead to a “significant” rise in hospital admissions if stage four went ahead as planned next Monday.Mr Gove said he shares the prime minister’s confidence that 19 July “will be the terminus date” and when asked about the circumstances in which it could be extended further, he told Sky News: “It would require an unprecedented and remarkable alteration in the progress of the disease.”Crucially, though, Mr Johnson last night declined the opportunity to give a “cast-iron guarantee” that the new July deadline would be the true end of lockdown, instead going only as far as to say he was “confident” based on the current data and advice.This is a tactic Mr Gove seems to have echoed. Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain earlier on Tuesday, the Cabinet Office minister made an outright promise that 19 July would mark the end of lockdown – before withdrawing it moments later.Asked by host Susanna Reid “can you give us a promise that 19 July will be the end of it?”, Mr Gove replied: “Yes”.However, he then immediately added: “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 large sections of the population … so we’re as confident as confident can be about that date.”Tory and opposition MPs lambasted the government after the delay was announced, accusing ministers of incompetence over their handling of a myriad of issues including Covid variants, border policy, and NHS Test and Trace failings. Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday evening, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the government’s “sieve”-like border policy allowed the Delta variant to enter Britain and become the dominant strain. He told MPs: “Rather than red-listing this variant, we essentially gave it the red-carpet treatment as 20,000 people were allowed to arrive from India over a number of weeks in April, even though the warning signs were there. “That essentially seeded this Delta variant across the country.”At the same session, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas added there was an “utter failure to suppress the virus through basic infection control: tracing and isolation”.Addressing health secretary Matt Hancock, who was taking questions, and fellow MPs, she asked if he felt “any shame that the reason we have to delay the end of these restrictions is entirely down to the incompetence of his government”.“It is a disaster,” she added, before telling the chamber any assurances Mr Hancock could give were “too little, too late”. Asked on Times Radio what his thoughts where on the government’s failing to put India on the red travel list quicker, Mr Gove said: “We can always look back and wish that we’d done things differently but we operated on the basis of facts that we had at the time, and India was placed on the red list before the Delta variant was a… variant of concern.“And again, you know, the decisions that ministers, that doctors, that scientists have to take can never be made with perfect knowledge.”Several scientists have suggested the Delta variant would have made its way into the UK at some point regardless of stricter border policies.Asked whether it would have made a difference if Britain had stopped people coming from India in early April, Professor Graham Medley, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Potentially – I mean it’s speculation.“The newer Delta variant is now quite common around the globe so it would have ended up in the United Kingdom at some point, but perhaps it would have been delayed.“It’s really the competition between the virus and the vaccine so, had the variant arrived in the country when we’d had more people vaccinated, then it may well not have grown in the same way that it has.”A slew of Tory backbenchers expressed their anger over the delay to easing restrictions, with former minister Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), telling LBC radio he thinks “we could have moved ahead perfectly safely on 21 June”. “Some of us, I’m afraid, are a bit worried that we’re not going to actually move forward on 19 July,” he said.“Ultimately we’ve reduced the risk of this disease hugely by our fantastic vaccination programme, and, as the government says, we’ve got to learn to live with it, but the problem is every time we get to that point, ministers seem to not actually want to live with it and keep restrictions in place.”However, Prof Medley said delaying the roadmap was necessary and that it is still possible the UK could return to seeing hundreds of coronavirus deaths a day.Mr Johnson told the press conference on Monday that “at a certain stage we’re going to have to learn to live with the virus and to manage it as best we can”, but said this would be better aided by increasing the number of people vaccinated when restrictions come to an end. “At the end of [the four-week delay] … we do think that we will have built up a very considerable wall of immunity around the whole of the population,” he added. Subsequently, Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, announced that all those over the age of 18 should be able to book a vaccination “by the end of this week”, and that the NHS aims to offer second doses to two thirds of adults by 19 July. More than 41 million people across the UK have so far had a first vaccine – 78 per cent of the adult population – while some 30 million have had a second. More

Today’s daily politics briefingTrade experts have said the UK’s trade deal with Australia will only deliver minimal economic benefit to the UK economy. The GDP boost created by the pact would likely be closer to zero than the government’s 0.02 per cent estimate, according to David Henig, UK director of European Centre For International Political Economy. Joe Spencer, partner at accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson, also called the agreement “unfavourable”. “UK farmers are increasingly being asked to offer protection for the environment, while the government is withdrawing support to them at the same time,” he said.Such criticism comes after Boris Johnson said the UK and Australia’s post-Brexit trade deal shows “global Britain at its best”, while promising it would benefit both British farmers and consumers. As part of the first agreement negotiated from scratch since London left the EU, Britons under 35 will be able to work more easily in Australia, while British cars and Scottish whisky can be sold there more cheaply. Amid worries that British farmers will be undercut by Australian meat exports, the government said the sector would be safeguarded by caps on tariff-free imports. Show latest update

1623768028UK government keeping Scotland in dark The SNP have criticised the UK government for keeping the devolved nations in the dark about the UK’s trade deal with Australia. Scotland’s trade minister Ivan McKee said the UK government was supposed to brief the devolved administrations on it this morning. However, this meeting was postponed “because we were told, ‘not enough of the deal is nailed down’”, he said.He tweeted that he was therefore “very interested to read so much informed coverage” about the pact. Mr McKee’s party colleague Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, echoed his words. “Yet again, Scotland is being kept in the dark and not consulted on a deal that could have serious and damaging consequences for our economy,” he said. Rory Sullivan15 June 2021 15:401623766828Hormone-fed beef not to imported from Australia, government says Earlier today, the National Farmers Union expressed its concern from the scant details on animal welfare in the Australia trade deal. In response, a No 10 spokesperson said: “We are absolutely not compromising our high animal welfare and food safety standards.“The government continues to champion the top quality produce of British farmers both for domestic consumption and overseas markets.”They added that hormone-injected beef will not be appear in British supermarkets as a result of the agreement and that further details would be given soon. Rory Sullivan15 June 2021 15:201623765658Rees-Mogg defends football fans who boo England players for taking the knee Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has defended fans who booed the England football team for taking the knee, saying there was no evidence that they are racist. Speaking to Conservative Home, the leader of the Commons claimed: “I think they are booing the BLM movement — I think that’s quite clearly a reaction to what is now known about BLM and the underlying political message which is one that is not sympathetic to the United Kingdom as a nation”.His claims are at odds with the prime minister, who said he wanted to “see fans cheering, not booing”. Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has the story: Rory Sullivan15 June 2021 15:001623764458PM to meet with speaker after tongue-lashing Boris Johnson will hold talks with Lindsay Hoyle, after the Commons Speaker gave him a tongue-lashing for announcing the delay to lifting Covid restrictions at a press conference – rather than in the Commons – but it may not be straightaway.“The prime minister is going to be meeting with the Speaker to discuss this,” his spokesman said. However, asked when, he replied: “In due course.”Mr Johnson has watched the footage of Nick Watt, the BBC political reporter being abused by anti-lockdown mob and was as appalled as everybody else.“This footage is deeply disturbing. Journalists should never face that kind of behaviour,” his spokesman said, adding: “Violence, threats and intimidation like this is never acceptable.”The prime minister is also throwing his weight behind Cressida Dick, despite criticism of her in the Daniel Morgan report. Asked if the Met Commissioner has his full support, his spokesman replied: “Yes.”Downing Street also made clear the full removal of all Covid rules will only go ahead on 19 July if the four existing tests are met, meaning the policy is still “data not dates” – despite Mr Johnson calling it “a terminus date”.Rob Merrick 15 June 2021 14:401623763258Controversial Australia deal will only deliver minimal benefit to British economy, experts say Trade experts have offered withering assessments of the UK’s trade deal with Australia, saying it will deliver minimal economic benefit while harming the environment. David Henig, UK director of European Centre For International Political Economy, said the GDP boost from the pact would likely fall much lower than the government’s 0.02 per cent estimate. Joe Spencer, partner at accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson, was equally scathing, calling the agreement “unfavourable”. “UK farmers are increasingly being asked to offer protection for the environment, while the government is withdrawing support to them at the same time,” he said.Rory Sullivan15 June 2021 14:201623762058SDLP vows to legislate on Irish language at Westminster The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) will seek to introduce an Irish language amendment to a bill on Northern Ireland passing through the House of Commons. The Northern Irish party made the pledge in the event that Sinn Fein and the DUP do not introduce the change at Stormont. The Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill will have its second reading on 22 June, after which the SDLP’s two MPs could table amendments. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said it was a “disgrace” that the Sinn Fein and the DUP were threatening to collapse the government over the issue. “They have learned nothing from the last time they brought us to the brink. Fourteen years leading government and these parties have clearly demonstrated that they are incapable of delivering on their commitments,” he said. His words come as the DUP warned the UK government not to get involved in what it sees as a devolved matter.Rory Sullivan15 June 2021 14:001623760858Post-Brexit science and medical research threatened with £14bn funding shortage, MP warns The UK government needs to find £14bn to keep its promises to fund vital post-Brexit scientific and medical research, MPs have warned.Their report reveals that only £1bn of the £15bn needed to stay in the flagship Horizon Europe programme for the next seven years had been found. Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has the details: Rory Sullivan15 June 2021 13:401623759658Gove adamant that British farming sector will be protected Parroting the party line, Michael Gove has said the Australia deal provides “significant new trading opportunities for the UK”. He also claimed that the agreement’s mitigations did enough to protect the British farming sector. The cabinet office minister said Australia and the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership) presented exciting possibilities for the UK. “But it’s also the case that we’ve got very high environmental animal welfare standards here and they’re an asset, not just good things in themselves, it also means that UK farmers have a quality mark that the world recognises when they’re selling their produce abroad,” he added. Rory Sullivan15 June 2021 13:201623758474Patel gives statement following ‘alarming’ reportPriti Patel has issued a statement following the report into Daniel Morgan’s death. She said no redactions to the report were required but she had to take account of national security issues.Describing the report as “deeply alarming”, she said the public looks to the police for protection and that the overwhelming majority of officers use their powers properly. Baroness Nuala O’Loan, the crossbench peer who chaired the panel, criticised Ms Patel moments ago for delaying the report’s publication. It was supposed to be published on 24 May, Baroness O’Loan said, but Ms Patel reportedly decided at the last minute she must read it.Baroness O’Loan said the panel was disappointed by the move, which she considered to be “wholly unjustified”, as the report was “previously vetted”.Sam Hancock15 June 2021 13:011623757965Met Police ‘institutionally corrupt,’ says report into detective’s murderThe full report from the Daniel Morgan independent panel has finally been delivered. You can read it here. Baroness Nuala O’Loan, the crossbench peer who chaired the panel, is currently delivering a lengthy statement about the panel’s findings.Here is some of what she has said so far:“From the beginning, there were allegations that police officers were involved in the murder, and that corruption by police officers played a part in protecting the murderer(s) from being brought to justice.By not acknowledging or confronting, over the 34 years since the murder, its systemic failings, or the failings of individual officers, by making incorrect assertions about the quality of investigations, and by its lack of candour, which is evident from the materials we have examined we believe the Metropolitan police’s first objective was to protect itself. In so doing it compounded the suffering and trauma of the family.The Metropolitan police were not honest in their dealings with Daniel Morgan’s family, or the public. The family and the public are owed an apology.As I said, the Metropolitan police concealed from the family of Daniel Morgan, and from the wider public, the failings in the first murder investigation and the role of corrupt officers. That lack of candour, over so many years, has been a barrier to proper accountability. In 2011 the Metropolitan police said publicly, for the first time, that police corruption had been a factor in the failure of the first police investigation. However it was unable to explain, satisfactorily, what that corruption was or how it affected the investigation.”Baroness O’Loan also criticised the current Metropolitan Police leadership, including commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, for slowing down its work by failing to give prompt access to necessary records and computer systems.Sam Hancock15 June 2021 12:52 More

Scotland is “unlikely” to ease coronavirus restrictions further at the end of the month as had been planned, Nicola Sturgeon has said.Speaking in Holyrood, the first minister did not rule out the further relaxation of rules – moving to Level 0 – on 28 June but said the Scottish government wanted to “buy ourselves sufficient time” to allow the vaccination programme to continue its work.She suggested that Scotland would not return to “much greater normality” until later in July at the earliest. “Given the current situation – and the need to get more people fully vaccinated before we ease up further – it is reasonable to indicate now that I think it unlikely that any part of the country will move down a level from 28 June,” Ms Sturgeon said.“Instead, it is likely that we will opt to maintain restrictions for a further three weeks from 28 June and use that time to – with both doses – as many more people as possible.“Doing that will give us the best chance, later in July, of getting back on track and restoring the much greater normality that we all crave.”Ms Sturgeon said it was a “difficult and frustrating” development but “while this setback is not easy, it is worth remembering that we are living under far fewer restrictions now than was the case a few weeks ago”.She added: “The current situation is not what any of us want – but equally it is not lockdown. And vaccination is – with every day that – helping us change the game.”Level 0 is described as “near normal” but a number of restrictions still exist, including limits on the number of people individuals can meet socially in groups, and people are still advised to work from home where possible.Earlier, government figures indicated Scotland has recorded two coronavirus deaths and 974 new cases in the past 24 hours.The daily positivity rate was 5 per cent, down from 5.2 per cent the previous day, according to figures published on Tuesday.There were 137 people in hospital on Monday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up from 128 on Sunday.Seventeen people were in intensive care, no change on the day before.The Scottish government’s announcement follows confirmation on Monday by Boris Johnson that England would see a four-week delay to Covid rules easing, buying more time for people to receive vaccinations.Additional reporting by PA More

The home secretary has condemned the handling of the murder of Daniel Morgan as “one of the most devastating episodes” in the history of the Metropolitan Police.Priti Patel has written to Met Commissioner Cressida Dick to demand answers after an independent panel accused the force of “institutional corruption”, following a £16m probe into the unsolved murder of the private detective.Father-of-two Mr Morgan was brutally killed with an axe in the car park of a south London pub in 1987.Despite four police investigations, an inquest, disciplinary action, complaints and other operations, there have been no successful prosecutions.A report released today found the force’s “first objective was to protect itself” over allegations that corrupt officers were involved in the murder.But Ms Patel herself and her department also faced criticism over her controversial decision to delay the publication of the report last month, arguing that she needed to read it first and citing “national security”. Baroness Nuala O’Loan, the chair of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel, criticised the move saying it was not “justified in this case”.Questions were also raised about the role of the Home Office, following a tweet by Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s special adviser when the former prime minister was home secretary. He wrote on Twitter that he had pressed for an inquiry into the murder at that stage but that a senior Home Office official had “argued we could not have one because ‘who knew where it would end up’ given historical corruption in the Met”.After the report’s publication, Ms Patel told MPs “Daniel Morgan deserved far far better than this”. The “deeply alarming” findings revealed examples of corrupt behaviour and a litany of mistakes by the Met which “irreparably damaged the chances of successful prosecution,” the home secretary said. She told the Commons: “The report accuses the Metropolitan Police of a form of institutional corruption.“Police corruption is a betrayal of everything policing stands for in this country. It erodes public confidence in our entire criminal justice system. It undermines democracy and civilised society.” While the “overwhelming majority” of officers use their power honourably she criticised those who do “terrible harm” by misusing it or who “indulge cover-up or ignore corruption”.She announced she had written to Dame Cressida Dick to demand a detailed response to the panel’s recommendations for the Met. The home secretary has also asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to consider how best it can look look at the issues raised by the damning report.And she said an upcoming review of the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) would be brought forward and would now start this summer. Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs Alistair Carmichael accused Ms Patel of political interference over the report. He said: “It is totally unacceptable for the Home Secretary to have held up the publication of this crucial report for four weeks.“For no good reason, Priti Patel has extended the agonising wait for Daniel Morgan’s family and all those interested in uncovering the truth about his murder.“The government must guarantee that in future any independent reports like this will be completely free of political interference and not suppressed or delayed by government ministers.” More

Boris Johnson today hailed a “new dawn” in the UK’s relationship with Australia after the terms of a new free trade deal was agreed.The prime minister heralded the “fantastic opportunities” in the accord, which is forecast to grow the economy by 0.02 per cent over 15 years.Mr Johnson and his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, agreed the central elements on the deal on Monday night, a statement released by No10 said.Despite the prime minister’s positivity over the new deal there have been concerns raised by British farmers about food welfare standards and disquiet that they could be undercut by cut-price imports.Mr Johnson said the trade agreement will adhere to the “strongest possible” animal welfare standards, while Mr Morrison insisted that Australian standards were “very high”.What are the details of the deal?Neither the UK nor Australia have released substantial detail on the deal yet and ministers have said the full text will be published in the “coming days”, which brings us no closer to a definitive timescale.However, the little we do know is that Mr Johnson has offered Mr Morrison a zero-tariff, zero-quota trade pact. It will save British consumers £34m a year on Australian products.It will also mean that British products such as cars, Scotch whisky and confectionary will be cheaper to sell to Australia.Downing Street also confirmed a 15-year cap on tariff-free imports to the UK and other “safeguards” expected to be brought in to protect British farmers.The Government has not given an up-to-date estimate on how much the UK economy will benefit from the deal. But, in its position paper ahead of negotiations, it said an agreement could increase British exports to Australia by £900m. UK trade with Australia was worth £18.5bn in 2019. By comparison, UK trade with the EU was worth some £668bn during the same year.The same position paper also said a deal would see the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) – a measure of economic growth – rise between 0.01 per cent and 0.02 per cent, and Australia‘s by between 0.01 per cent and 0.06 per cent.The announcement also said Britons under the age of 35 will be able to travel and work in Australia more freely – although details remain unclear.Are there any concerns about the free trade agreement?In short, yes. British farmers have concerns that the deal will see them undercut by Australian rivals. In particular, there are fears that smaller beef and lamb producers in Scotland and Wales will be unable to compete with the typically much larger Australian farms.The Scottish Government has repeatedly raised concerns over the deal, which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said will be a “betrayal” of Scottish farmers if import standards do not match those on domestic production.The National Farmers Union (NFU) have also raised concerns about provisions on animal welfare and the environment.NFU president Minette Batters said in a statement today: “We will need to know more about any provisions on animal welfare and the environment to ensure our high standards of production are not undermined by the terms of this deal.“The ultimate test of this trade deal will be whether it contributes to moving farming across the world onto a more sustainable footing, or whether it instead undermines UK farming and merely exports the environmental and animal welfare impact of the food we eat.”What have the government said?Speaking at Downing Street following the announcement, Mr Johnson told reporters: “Now, thanks to this deal, we hope there will be even more trade between the UK and Australia.“The idea is that we will be able to do even more because we are taking tariffs off, so for Northern Ireland, Northern Irish machine tools, this will be good news.“It will be good news for British car manufacturers, it will be good news for British services, for British financial services and it will be good news for the agricultural sector on both sides.“Here, we had to negotiate very hard and I want everybody to understand that this is a sensitive sector for both sides and we’ve got a deal that runs over 15 years and contains the strongest possible provisions for animal welfare.”Additional reporting by PA More

The UK and Australia have announced the broad outlines of a free trade deal which would eliminate tariffs on a wide range of goods.British-made cars, Scotch whisky, biscuits and ceramics will be cheaper to sell under the pact, while Australian producers are set to benefit from boosted exports of lamb and wine, the government said.The agreement is the first negotiated from scratch since Brexit, as earlier deals with countries including Japan and Canada were built on existing agreements struck by the EU. However the deal has sparked controversy, both among British farmers who fear they could be undercut by cheap imports, and by environmental campaigners who warn that it opens the door to “destructive mega farms” and “biodiversity chaos”.Why are activists so concerned? Climate campaigners have warned that the deal would not only give tacit approval to controversial farming practices in Australia, but would also “lower the bar” for future trade deals the UK is seeking to strike. Among their list of concerns is that Australian farmers are permitted to use pesticides, which are banned in the UK, including neonicotinoids, which harm pollinators including bees.They also point to the use of antibiotics to treat infections, particularly for animals which are intensively farmed, and the approved practice of “mulesing” – a painful procedure that involves cutting flaps of skin from around a lamb’s tail to produce stretched scar tissue which holds less moisture and faeces and attracts fewer flies. Australian farmers may also use growth hormones in cattle.In addition, activists are worried about the impact on deforestation and animal loss in Australia. A report from the Wilderness Society – a US-based conservation group – warned in 2019 that beef production was the leading cause of deforestation and land clearing in Australia, with analysis suggesting that 73 per cent of all deforestation and land clearing in the state Queensland was linked to the practice.“Due to high land clearing rates in the state of Queensland, Australia is now a designated global deforestation hotspot. This is driving significant biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to poor water quality running into the Great Barrier Reef,” the research said.The Wilderness Society also stated that in the last five years more than 1 million hectares of forest clearance has been attributed to cattle farming, and Australia now has the unenviable title as world leader for mammal extinctions.Greenpeace said most of the deforestation was due to weak legislation and rollback of protection in Australia making the practice technically ‘legal’. The organisation claimed this also meant the UK’s current proposed new due diligence law that only tackles ‘illegal’ deforestation would not stop beef from these farms entering the UK.Commenting on the announcement, Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, said: “Despite green rhetoric at the G7 Boris Johnson has just given a massive vote of confidence to exactly the kind of intensive, destructive mega farms that the UK should be trying to move away from.“He is aligning Britain with a country that’s way behind on climate action, and one that completely ignores its beef industry driving further climate and biodiversity chaos through the mass clearance of forests ,and its routine use of hormones and pesticides.“It has lowered the bar significantly for other countries looking for trade deals – Brazil being of most concern with its similarly destructive farming methods driving mass deforestation at the expense of people, wildlife and the climate. Britain will be expected to accept the same laissez-faire approach to food and environment standards that this deal allows.”Tanya Steele, CEO of WWF UK, said the agreement would “drive a coach and horses through efforts to put UK farming on a sustainable footing”.“If the UK government is serious about global environmental leadership, then it must get serious about sustainable farming – not just here in the UK, but across every country we import food from,” she wrote in a comment piece for The Independent. “Unfettered access to UK markets should reward those who meet our standards on climate, nature and animal welfare – and should not prioritise outdated farming systems, like Australia’s, which are fuelling the climate and nature crisis.”She said the trade deal with Australia “sets a dangerous precedent” which could mean “opening the UK market to agricultural imports that have contributed to widespread deforestation in the Amazon”, adding: “There is no economic benefit to be gained from trading our planet away.”What has the UK government said?Boris Johnson has called the proposed trade deal an example of “global Britain at its best” and said the agreement “opens fantastic opportunities for British businesses and consumers”.The details are yet to be unveiled however there was no mention of environmental or animal rights safeguards and only a single reference to climate change in the government announcement. “The leaders reaffirmed the enduring partnership between the UK and Australia during their discussion and agreed to work closely together on defence, technology collaboration and tackling climate change – including through a future Clean Tech Partnership,” the statement said. Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, claimed that how Australian farmers operated had been “mischaracterised” during the discussion around the trade deal.“Australia is a friend and ally,” he told Sky News on Tuesday. “I think that there have been one or two points that have been made about Australia during the course of this debate that mischaracterise how Australian farmers operate and the opportunities also for UK farmers.”Trade secretary Liz Truss said previously that no new trade deal would permit the import of hormone-treated beef.A spokesperson at the Department for International Trade told The Independent the government was “not compromising our high animal welfare and food safety standards”.The spokesperson added: “It is a fundamentally liberalising agreement that removes tariffs on all British goods, opens new opportunities for our services providers and tech firms, and makes it easier for our people to travel and work together.“A final agreement in principle will be published in the coming days with the full detail.” More

Pledges to protect UK involvement in vital scientific and medical research after Brexit are threatened by a £14bn funding gap, MPs are warning.Boris Johnson opted to stay in the flagship £80bn Horizon Europe programme – which pools talent and ideas to achieve breakthroughs – even as his trade deal meant leaving other projects.But it has now been revealed that the UK has legally agreed to pay £15bn over the six years to 2027, but is only able to say that £1bn of that sum has been found.The funding gap emerged after ministers were accused, in March, of planning to slash domestic research funding by up to £1bn a year – with spending now having to come from the same pot.The Commons European Scrutiny Committee quizzed Amanda Solloway, the science minister, in an attempt to find where the missing billions were going to come from.“Her estimates predict the up-front cost of the pan-European fund to the Treasury to be £15bn over the seven-year programme,” the MPs say.“The programme will then invest the majority of this back into UK science projects. However, the report found that just £1bn of this has so far been committed.”The report warns of “substantial uncertainty about how the UK will meet its contribution”, given it is slashing its contributions to the EU after Brexit.“Annual payments are likely to be £1bn early in the programme, climbing to around £3bn in later years,” it points out.There are also fears that the UK could yet be excluded from some key areas of Horizon Europe, quantum and space, with the government now challenging the European Commission.A Nobel Laureate was among leading scientists who warned of the consequences of failing to continue participation in Horizon Europe, warning the fight against Covid-19 would be damaged.The axe was about to fall, last autumn, because the objected to the EU’s demand that it pay in 18 per cent of the budget – but appeared to have been resolved.Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel prize winner and president of the Royal Society, said the UK would no longer be a “science superpower” unless the dispute was resolved.The Royal Society pointed out that the UK has received £1.5bn from Horizon programmes over six years – more than any other country and a fifth of the total.Among the programme’s successes are everything from leukaemia treatments to hydrogen cells that fuel zero-emission buses.In her evidence to the committee, Ms Solloway “stated only that the source of funding for future annual contributions will be determined at the spending review” in the autumn, the report says.Some £250m was being spent on Horizon Europe association, with an overall boost to research and development funding of £1.5bn in 2020-21, she said. More