Markus Andrews

The minister in charge of preparations for a UN climate summit has been criticised for travelling tens of thousands of miles by jet.Alok Sharma had urged people to make “small changes in the way we go about our day-to-day lives” in order to cut their carbon emissionsBut an analysis by the Daily Telegraph newspaper found that Mr Sharma took 25 flights in three months, travelling up to 73,853 miles between January 31 and May 12.The newspaper estimates that the COP 26 president’s travel had an environmental footprint equivalent to around 17 tonnes of carbon.The government said that while online discussions could play a role, face-to-face meetings were key to the success of negotiations in preparation for the climate summit.But one anonymous Conservative MP criticised the minister, branding him ‘air miles Alok’.“This isn’t so much about preparing for COP 26, it is a bit more like a gap year. Why didn’t he go online? They held the G7 online,” they told the paper.COP 26 will be held in Glasgow in the first two weeks of November. The meeting is seen as a key date in the fight against climate change and will see countries upgrade their emissions reduction targets for the first time since COP21 in Paris. Flying is very carbon-intensive. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change says that emissions accounted for 7 per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 and were 88 per cent above 1990 levels. The advisory panel has recommended “reducing passenger demand for flying through carbon pricing, a frequent flyer levy, fuel duty, VAT or reforms to Air Passenger Duty, and/or restricting the availability of flights through management of airport capacity”. Responding to the analysis, a government spokesman said: “Helping the world tackle the climate emergency is an international priority for the Government.“Virtual meetings play an important role, however face-to-face meetings are key to success in the negotiations the UK is leading as hosts of COP26 and are crucial to understanding and seeing first-hand the opportunities and challenges other countries are facing in the fight against climate change.” More

The government this week unveiled major reforms to the way Britain’s railways will be run. There’s no doubt that these are significant changes and represent the biggest change to the industry’s structure since privatisation in the 1990s.Some commentators have suggested that the railways are effectively being renationalised, but this isn’t really correct. To understand why, let’s unpack the reforms.Before the pandemic, railways were operated by private franchise holders. Private companies bid for and won contracts to operate a certain franchise for a number of years, in a competition run by the Department for Transport (DfT). More

The government’s original plan to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic was to let the virus rip through the population to spread herd immunity, Dominic Cummings has claimed.In a post on social media the former top Downing Street aide said the media had failed to properly scrutinise and instead “parroted” the government’s claims that it had never advocated the approach, despite evidence to the contrary.His comments come ahead of an appearance before a joint committee of MPs on Wednesday, when he is expected to pin the blame on Boris Johnson for failures in the UK’s response to the coronavirus, which left over 150,000 people dead.“The media have been generally abysmal on Covid, but even I’ve been surprised by one thing: how many hacks have parroted Hancock’s line that ‘herd immunity wasn’t the plan’ when ‘herd immunity by September’ was literally the official plan in all docs/graphs/meetings until it was ditched,” he said on the post on Saturday afternoon.In a 5 March 2020 interview Boris Johnson said there was “a need to stirke a balance” in imposing restrictions that would flatten the peak of the pandemic to reduce strain on the NHS but allow “the disease, as it were, to move through the population”.More follows… More

The son of the murdered private detective Daniel Morgan has said the home secretary is compounding his family’s grief by blocking the publication of a report into the killing. Mr Morgan’s son, also called Daniel, said Priti Patel should bring “our torture to an end” by allowing the findings to be published.An inquiry panel set up in 2013 to look at the case had been expected to publish the report of its investigation into the role of police and media corruption in Mr Morgan’s killing on Monday 24 May. But on 18 May, the Home Office said the report could not be published until Ms Patel had reviewed it and made any changes she thought necessary.A spokesperson for the government department said Ms Patel wanted to make sure the report complied with “national security considerations”.Ms Patel herself told Channel 4 News that she thought it was important for her to look at the report before the information was entrusted to the public.“I think it’s important that I, as home secretary, actually receive the report before it is published,” she said.“I have yet to receive this report and I think it’s right that I receive the report and read it before laying it in parliament. That is standard practice when it comes to reports of this nature and that is absolutely the right process to follow.”Writing in The Guardian, the victim’s son Daniel said: “I urge the home secretary to stand aside. You say you want to review the report over concerns relating to the Human Rights Act and national security. You know you have made no preparations for any such review, because none was ever envisaged on your part.“You have said you understand how we feel and you don’t wish to compromise the integrity or the independence of the panel and their work. If this is true, we see no reason for you not to desist immediately, so that the panel’s report may be published as it stands without any further delay.”In a message posted on Friday, Alastair Morgan, the brother of the murdered man, said: “Having been briefed by the panel on the current situation, all I can say at this moment is that discussions between the Daniel Morgan panel and the home secretary to resolve this situation are ongoing.”He said that Ms Patel “would have received the report one day before publication, as is the convention, but she blocked publication and insisted she was entitled to redact if she saw fit”. He added: “This was not part of the deal.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “Under the panel’s terms of reference agreed in 2013, it is for the home secretary to make arrangements for the report’s publication to parliament.“Until the panel provide the home secretary with the report, she is unable to make those arrangements or meet her responsibilities to ensure it complies with human rights and national security considerations, should these arise.“We hope the panel will reconsider and provide the Home Office with the report so those checks can begin swiftly and we can publish soon.” More

Dominic Cummings will use a parliamentary committee appearance next week to wreak havoc on Boris Johnson’s administration, allies of the former aide said. On Wednesday Mr Johnson’s former chief of staff will give evidence to MPs about the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and friends say he is intent on destroying the prime minister.“He’s basically going to try and napalm him,” one ally of Mr Cummings reportedly told The Times newspaper.Enmity between the pair grew as Mr Cummings departed No 10 in November following an internal power struggle with allies of Mr Johnson’s fiancée Carrie Symonds. But months of silence from the former adviser turned to riotous anger in April after No 10 sources blamed Mr Cummings for leaking the PM’s texts.The former Vote Leave strategist hit back hard, denying the claims and dropping several other related and unrelated bombs on the government operation.He accused the PM of a “mad and totally unethical” scheme to get Tory donors to pay for a Downing Street flat refurbishment, and claimed Mr Johnson had refused to accept a leak inquiry to protect a friend of Ms Symonds.But it is at Wednesday’s joint meeting of the Commons health and technology committees where Mr Cummings is expected to spill the beans on what went on behind the scenes during the pandemic.He will be appearing at a session headlined Coronavirus: Lessons Learnt, and is expected to accuse Mr Johnson of being responsible for excess deaths during the pandemic.Britain has suffered one of the worst death rates in the world from Covid-19, with repeated delays and dithering over the introduction of lockdown measures blamed. More

Sinn Fein would be the largest party in both Northern Ireland and the Irish republic if fresh elections were held today, polls show.The nationalist party has opened up a significant lead over its nearest unionist rivals north of the border, after a sharp collapse in support for the hard-right DUP.And in the south it has enjoyed a narrow but consistent lead in polling for the next Dáil elections since the start of the year, just ahead of Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael, according to a poll of polls.The party could capitalise on its buoyant support in elections to Stormont scheduled for next year, but would have to wait until early 2025 for the next scheduled general election in the Republic of Ireland. A new survey for the Belfast Telegraph conducted by pollster LucidTalk shows Sinn Fein with a 9 per cent lead over the DUP. The unionist party’s support has halved since the general election 1 months ago with a historic low of 16 per cent. Its slide comes amid a backdrop of loyalist discontent over Brexit, and the replacement of its leader Arlene Foster with Edwin Poots.The survey found that the DUP’s support has fragmented between the even more hardline Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), the more moderate Ulster Unionist Party, and the non-sectarian Alliance party. The Alliance is itself on 16 per cent in joint second place, trailing Sinn Fein on 25 per cent.In the Republic, a polling average calculated by the website Politico Europe has Sinn Fein averaging 29 per cent of the vote, ahead of Fine Gael on 26 per cent and Fianna Fáil on 15 per cent. The Republic’s government is currently a coalition between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.At Stormont, securing a place as the largest party would guarantee Sinn Fein the office of first minister under the power sharing settlement. The deputy first minister would automatically be drawn from the unionist community.Parties in the Republic have been reticent to form coalitions with Sinn Fein because of the organisation’s historic links to the IRA – with then Taoiseach Mr Varadkar saying it was “not a normal party”.But the leadership of his rivals in Fianna Fáil was reported to have softened on the idea of working with the left-wing republicans, although such a pact did not materialise after the last elections.In the Republic Sinn Fein has grown its support in recent years by focusing on economic and social issues such as housing.A LucidTalk poll commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland’s Spotlight programme last month found only a narrow majority of people in Northern Ireland now oppose a united Ireland.The poll found that 49 per cent of the North’s residents favour remaining a part of the UK while 43 per cent supported leaving. The same survey found that in the Republic, 51 per cent favour a united Ireland with 27 per cent supporting a continuation of the status quo. More

The BBC should consider paying compensation to whistleblowers who raised concerns about how the corporation obtained its controversial interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, a senior Tory MP has said.The national broadcaster has faced intense criticism in recent days following a damning report by Lord Dyson which found that it had fallen short of “high standards of integrity and transparency” over the 1995 episode of its current affairs series Panorama.The inquiry said journalist Martin Bashir acted in a “deceitful” way and faked documents in order to obtain the interview with Diana, adding that an internal probe into the programme in 1996 had been “woefully ineffective”.Julian Knight, the chairman of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said on Saturday that there was a need to strengthen editorial policy at the BBC, with less “kowtowing” to the “talent”.The Tory MP added the corporation should reflect on the way it treated insiders, such as graphic designer Matt Wiessler, who tried to expose the methods used to obtain the interview.Mr Wiessler complained he had been sidelined after he raised concerns that fake bank statements he mocked up for Mr Bashir had been used by the journalist to persuade Diana to take part in the Panorama programme.Mr Knight noted that the former employee clearly believed that BBC director-general Tim Davie should now meet him to hear directly what he has to say about the scandal.“He is clearly very emotional, he feels this has probably impaired his life to a certain degree,” the Tory MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“I think the BBC needs to have a real open mind in terms of the possibility of compensation but also how it interacts with people like Mr Wiessler who clearly have faced quite profound consequences due to this fiasco.”Mr Knight has already written to Mr Davie asking for an explanation as to how Mr Bashir came to be rehired by the BBC as its religious affairs correspondent in 2016, even though it was known that he had lied over the bank statements.On Friday, former BBC executive Tim Suter, who was part of the 1996 internal investigation, stepped down from his board role with media watchdog Ofcom.It came after the Duke of Cambridge condemned the BBC over the interview, arguing that it had fuelled his mother’s “fear, paranoia and isolation”.“The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others,” Prince William said.“It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her.”The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, also condemned the corporation over the inquiry’s findings, saying that the “ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life.”Additional reporting by PA More

The BBC is facing “serious questions” as to why Martin Bashir was rehired in a prominent role and then promoted despite longstanding allegations of “deceit” over the Princess Diana interview.Julian Knight MP, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said he is writing to director-general Tim Davie to inquire as to why Mr Bashir was re-employed by the corporation in 2016 despite what Lord Dyson’s report this week concluded was a “serious breach” of editorial rules which was later covered up.“There are serious questions still left to answer,” Mr Knight said. “Why was Martin Bashir rehired, with the BBC knowing what they knew?“I want to know how the BBC can reassure the committee that there could be no repeat of the serious failings that have been highlighted by the Dyson report.”Earlier, former director of BBC News, James Harding, sidestepped questions on whether the then director-general Lord Hall – who led the original “woefully ineffective” investigation – had had any role in the rehiring.In an awkward interview aired on BBC News, Mr Harding said he was sorry Mr Bashir had returned to the corporation because it had made things “more difficult for everyone”.But he was visibly uncomfortable when asked if Lord Hall had informed him of the earlier investigation into Mr Bashir.“What I was saying is that BBC News hired Martin Bashir, and so the responsibility for that sits with me,” he said.Meanwhile, Mr Davie has written to staff at the BBC, saying lessons must be learnt following the publication of the report, and adding that the findings were “particularly upsetting” in the light of the corporation’s commitment to honesty.“Personally, I am deeply proud of the BBC that I run today, as I know you all are,” he wrote. “We should all take pride in continuing to work for the world’s leading public service broadcaster.“Right now, the best way to build and preserve our reputation is to keep delivering outstanding work across the organisation, earning the trust of audiences. Thanks to all of you for continuing to achieve this as we go through this demanding period.“We have much to reflect on. I know that we now have significantly stronger processes and governance in place to ensure that an event like this doesn’t happen again. However we must also learn lessons and keep improving.”Mr Bashir left the BBC in 1999, four years after his Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales, to join ITV. In 2016 he was rehired as the BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, before becoming religion editor.Earlier this month, he stepped down from the role and left the BBC, citing health reasons following Covid-19 complications, shortly before the publication of the Dyson report.“I can’t help feeling that the fact he was hired back in 2016 has made things more difficult for everyone, so I am sorry he was,” Mr Harding said.“Lord Dyson’s report, as I understand and as I read, has clearly spoken to Lord Hall at some length. In terms of rehiring, the rehiring was done by BBC News. I ran BBC News; the responsibility for it sits with me.”Lord Dyson did not investigate why Mr Bashir was rehired by the BBC because he did not consider it “sufficiently closely related” to his terms of reference.A BBC spokesperson said Mr Bashir’s post “was filled after a competitive interview process”, adding: “We now of course have the Dyson report. We didn’t have it then. [Mr Bashir] has resigned from the BBC. There has been no pay-off.”Ministers seized on Lord Dyson’s findings to make it clear that changes to BBC oversight will be discussed in a forthcoming review.They are known to be considering appointing a new board staffed with more ex-editors and journalists to adjudicate on complaints about the BBC’s output.But the move would come amid what is widely viewed as a “culture war” against other British institutions, and after the recent appointment of a senior Tory to the existing board.Richard Ayre, a former member of the BBC Trust, condemned Martin Bashir’s now-notorious interview as “shameful” – but raised suspicions about the government’s motives.“I don’t know what is to be gained by scrapping yet another board of governors at the BBC and coming up with something different, unless it is that politicians want to get ever tighter control of the BBC – which of course is always a real, real risk,” he said.The midterm review of the BBC’s charter, starting next year, means the devastating findings of Lord Dyson’s review could not have come at “a worse time”, he continued.“Every government will use a BBC crisis as leverage against the BBC, because every government wants to get the BBC under its thumb,” said Mr Ayre.Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, echoed these fears, saying: “This historic wrongdoing must not be used as a reason for the government to try and further undermine the BBC’s status as a strong, impartial public sector broadcaster.“Any changes to the editorial board must be free from government interference. In the wake of this scandal we must not lose sight of the fundamental importance of maintaining a strong, independent free press which is able to provide robust scrutiny of the government of the day.”The warnings came after culture secretary Oliver Dowden said the government would “consider whether further governance reforms at the BBC are needed in the mid-term charter review”.Justice secretary Robert Buckland pointed to Mr Bashir’s use of “false documents, forgery etcetera”, laid bare in Lord Dyson’s 127-page report.“The government has, in the light of these serious findings, to consider the matter very carefully and comprehensively indeed,” Mr Buckland said.It was also announced that former BBC executive Tim Suter, who was part of the 1996 internal investigation, has stepped down from his role on the board of Ofcom in the wake of the report.The Metropolitan Police said it would assess the report “to ensure there is no significant new evidence”, after having previously decided not to launch a criminal investigation.And Boris Johnson, on a visit to Portsmouth, said: “I’m obviously concerned by the findings of Lord Dyson’s report. I’m very grateful to him for what he has done.“I can only image the feelings of the royal family and I hope very much that the BBC will be taking every possible step to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”In his report, Lord Dyson said the “deceitful” Mr Bashir had used fake bank statements to gain access to Diana before playing on her fears about the royal family to trick her into being interviewed in November 1995.The tactics had “seriously breached” BBC editorial rules, he said.Michael Grade, a former BBC chair and a Conservative peer, led demands for reform, saying: “It’s time that there was a proper editorial board with real powers, reporting to the main board, but with specialist knowledge.“People who are ex-journalists or have had senior editorial responsibility in the media, who know the questions to ask and know how to judge what’s going on.”Government insiders insist there is no plan in place to overhaul BBC governance, despite ministers’ threats.Mr Johnson’s spokesperson insisted the review would only look at the corporation’s governance and regulation, not its editorial independence. 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