Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has told farmers alarmed by the axeing of tariffs on Australian meat in a post-Brexit deal not to be “frightened of free trade”.The prime minister appeared to back Liz Truss, the trade secretary, in the bitter Cabinet row, telling MPs that such agreements offered “great things” to farmers.Both the SNP and Plaid Cymru warned the planned deal – if it offers free access to Australian beef and lamb, as expected – would ruin Scottish and Welsh farmers.“Farmers will lose their livelihoods, rural businesses will collapse and families will be driven off the land,” Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, alleged.Warning many Tory MPs “privately agree”, he urged Mr Johnson to “ditch a deal that would send our farmers down under”.But the prime minister said the SNP “grossly underestimate their ability to do great things with our free trade deals” to export their own agricultural products.“This is a country that grew successful and prosperous on free trade around the world,” Mr Johnson told MPs.The stakes could not be higher for what would be the UK’s first new trade deal since Brexit – which Ms Truss is desperate to seal before next month’s G7 summit in Cornwall.Farming groups fear it would set a dangerous precedent for future agreements – particularly with the US – which would leave British farmers struggling to compete with cheap imports.They are backed by George Eustice, the environment secretary, and Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, while Brexit negotiator David Frost is thought to side with Ms Truss.Under the plans being negotiated, the tariffs of 20 per cent that Australia pays on all exports of beef to the UK would be cut to zero over the next 15 years.Mr Gove is believed to be concerned that the controversy will boost support for Scottish independence, because farmers north of the border could be hardest hit.But ministers backing the deal say tariffs are protectionist and scrapping them will cut prices in the shops – delivering a tangible benefit for leaving the EU.A further controversy surrounds the effect on the climate emergency of encouraging greater meat-eating, when government advisers say the public needs to eat less.At prime minister’s questions, Mr Blackford said: “As a member of Scotland’s crofter community I understand just how disastrous the Brexit trade deal with Australia as proposed by this Tory Government would be for Scotland’s farming and crofting sectors.”But Mr Johnson teased the SNP leader as “a humble representative of the crofting community”.“I don’t think that he does justice to crofters, to farmers across the country and in Scotland as well, because I think he grossly underestimates their ability to do great things with our free trade deals, to export Scottish beef around the world.“Why is he so frightened of free trade? I think there’s a massive opportunity for Scotland and for the whole of the UK and he should seize it and be proud of it.” More

Keir Starmer has called for Boris Johnson to ditch his “confused and contradictory” traffic light system for travel overseas.The Labour leader accused the government of triggering a surge in holiday-makers with mixed messages over the rules on trips to “amber list” areas, which include most of the countries in the world.After days in which ministers have contradicted one another over whether travel to amber list countries like France or Spain is permitted to visit friends or take holidays, Mr Johnson told the House of Commons that trips are allowed only in “extreme circumstances”.Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Mr Johnson said: “You should not be going to an amber list country except for for in extreme circumstances, such as the serious illness of a family member. You should not go on holiday.”But Sir Keir told him: “Yesterday morning the environment secretary said people could fly to amber list countries if they wanted to visit family or friends. By the afternoon a government health minister said nobody should travel outside Britain this year, becaiuse travelling is dangerous.“The prime minister said that travel from a country should only be where it’s essential. By the evening, the Welsh Secretary suggested, some people might think a holiday is essential.“The government’s lost control of the messaging.”Sir Keir said that 170 countries had been placed on the amber list on Monday, removing the previous ban on travel and requiring people arriving from those destinations in England to quarantine at home, not at an airport hotel.“If he doesn’t want people to travel to amber list countries, if that’s his position, why is he making it easier to do so?”Sir Keir told MPs that since the trade restrictions were loosened on Monday, 150 flights have been going every day to amber list countries, with travel agents reporting “surges” in holiday bookings.“This isn’t a coincidence,” he said. “It’s because of the messaging.”And he told Mr Johnson: “We are an island nation. We have the power to stop this.“Why doesn’t the prime minister drop this hopeless system, get control of our borders and introduce a proper system that can protect against the threat of future variants of the virus?”Mr Johnson retorted that the Labour position on borders was “hopelessly confused”, accusing the party of wanting to “cut the whole country off from the rest of the world”.But Starmer said Labour had been calling for “blanket hotel quarantine” for arrivals in England for months.Denouncing the government’s policy on border control as “a joke”, the Labour leader said: “Our borders have been wide open pretty well throughout the pandemic.“There was no hotel quarantine system in place until February this year. Flights are still coming in from India. And even as the variant is spreading, the prime minister decides now is the time to weaken the system even more.“It’s ridiculous.”The prime minister said the UK has “one of the strongest border regimes anywhere in the world”, with 43 countries on the red list, requiring arrivals in England to quarantine in an airport hotel.He added: “If you travel to an amber list country for any emergency, any extreme reason that you have to, when you come back, you not only have to pay for all the tests but you have to self-isolate for 10 days – we will invigilate, we are invigilating it, and people who fail to obey the quarantine can face fines of up to £10,000.” More

Priti Patel’s attempt to review a long-awaited report into an unsolved murder linked to police corruption is “suspicious”, relatives have said.Daniel Morgan, a private investigator, was brutally murdered in the car park of a London pub in March 1987.Despite five police inquiries and an inquest, no-one has been brought to justice over the father-of-two’s death, and the Metropolitan Police has admitted that corruption hampered the original murder investigation.Mr Morgan’s brother Alastair, who has been campaigning for justice for three decades, said the Home Office had “no right whatsoever to ‘review’ the panel’s report”.“It makes a mockery of the panel’s independence,” he wrote on Twitter. “We’re now looking to the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel to defend their independence and fend off this unwarranted intervention from the home secretary. We’re very hopeful that they will.”A previous statement from the family called the delay a “kick in the teeth”, and said that waiting for the report’s findings had been “torture”.Raju Bhatt, a lawyer representing Mr Morgan’s family, told the Radio 4 Today programme that his relatives have “every reason” to be suspicious about the motives behind the delay, after decades of failures over the case.He said: “From the family’s perspective they have every reason to be suspicious about the motives behind this very belated and completely unwarranted intervention by the home secretary.“We have to remember that the Home Office itself was complicit in the failings to confront this police corruption all through these decades until the panel was set up.”The independent panel, which was established by Theresa May in 2013, said its findings were originally due to be published in parliament on Monday.It said it was then told that a backlog caused by Prince Philip’s death had delayed the report until 24 May.“There was no mention by the Home Office of a need to review the report,” a statement from the panel said.“However, the panel was informed on Monday that a publication date will not be agreed until the home secretary and Home Office officials and lawyers have reviewed the contents of the panel’s report.” More

A Labour shadow minister has said he cannot reveal his party’s policy platform or values because they are currently subject to “confidential” discussions. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said discussions had taken place with Keir Starmer at shadow cabinet level about what the party wanted to do in government – amid criticism that it has few concrete policies.But asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme about the outcome of those discussions and “what does the Labour Party now stand for?”, the shadow health secretary said:”They’re confidential meetings. The Labour Party understands that we have got to speak to the British people about their priorities, and their interests, and their concerns.”We’re launching a big policy review which we’re going to take to the country and we’re going to engage the country in a discussion and a debate and we’re going to listen to the country about what it is they want, how it is they want the country to change.”Labour sources said Mr Ashworth had been trying to incidate that shadow cabinet discussions were confidential, not that the party’s policies were. Asked again about his claim of confidentiality, Mr Ashworth said: “I was talking about the particular meeting. But we are going to be having a big policy review with the country.“And of course the meetings aren’t confidential, that was more of a throwaway comment, but we’re having big policy review with the country and you’ll see Labour coming out with exciting ideas.” He did not however reveal any policies.Sir Keir’s party has been criticised for allegedly having too few policies, and for apparently trying to calibrate its approach to the electorate based on polling, consultants, and focus groups.Distinguished elections expect John Curtice warned this week that the party had been “inviting people to vote for a vacuum”.Asked about policies Mr Ashworth said “we can do much better than we’re doing at the moment” on schools, healthy and the environment, but declined to get into specifics.

They’re confidential meetings. The Labour Party understands that we have got to speak to the British people about their priorities, and their interests, and their concerns.Shadow health secretary Jonathan AshworthDuring the Labour leadership election Sir Keir said the 2017 general election manifesto drawn up under Jeremy Corbyn was the party’s “foundational document” for policy going forwards.But since becoming leader he has done little to argue for the platform. This week he said the party’s policies would be completely overhauled, having appointed MP Anneliese Dodds chair a new policy review. In February this year Sir Keir vowed to be as bold as Labour was in 1945, when it built British post-war social democracy by nationalising swathes of industry after the Second World War.Sir Keir matched his rhetorical commitment with a promise of 100,000 start-up loans for small businesses and a new “British Recovery Bond”, which would be similar to the already existing NS&I bond.Labour currently trails the Conservatives in the polls by around 10 points, with Sir Keir’s leadership ratings now lower than his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn’s at the same point in his leadership. More

Tens of thousands of EU citizens in the UK could lose their legal status next month because of an “arbitrary” deadline that will leave vulnerable people in an “intolerable situation”, MPs and peers have warned.There is just over a month to go before the government’s deadline for the EU settlement scheme (EUSS) – which guarantees post-Brexit residency – closes on 30 June.More than 50 parliamentarians from all parties and in both houses have written a joint-letter to Boris Johnson warning that EU citizens will be forced out of the country “overnight” unless the “cliff-edge” is removed.They say that even if only 1 per cent of the estimated 4 million EU citizens are not able to apply on time, tens of thousands of people will be left vulnerable to detention and removal.The Home Office’s outreach campaign has failed to reach sufficient numbers of EU citizens amidst a pandemic that has severely disrupted support services, the letter warns.Neale Hanvey MP, who coordinated the cross-party letter, said: “Some of the most vulnerable EU citizens who chose to make the UK their home now face an utterly intolerable situation. “One that the prime minister personally promised would not come to pass. That is why I led this cross-party letter to put pressure on the prime minister and his government to do the right thing. “This issue drives to the very heart of who we want to be as a society and the relationship we hope to have with our European neighbours.”Mr Hanvey added : “The more than fifty parliamentarians who have signed my letter now call on the prime minister to urgently remove this arbitrary and inhumane deadline and grant automatic settled status to all EU citizens resident in the UK as a matter of urgency.”Research from the Migration Observatory at Oxford University indicated that vulnerable groups, such as elderly people, those with physical or mental disabilities or homeless people, are more likely to slip through the cracks.Recent evidence from the Children’s Society also found that only 39 per cent of identified EU looked-after children and care leavers have submitted applications to the settlement scheme, and only 28 per cent have secured their status.The Home Office provided 72 front-line charities with funds to assist in marketing and advertising the EUSS scheme.Marianne Lagrue, CORAM Children’s Legal Centre (one of the charities funded by the Home Office to provide EUSS support) said: “It is positive that the Home Office has provided funding for charities, local authorities and community organisations to reach some vulnerable EU citizens and family members, and that it continues for a short time beyond the EUSS deadline. “However, that funding could never reach everyone. If anything, it has demonstrated to us as grant-funded organisations the high level of need that still exists with under 50 days to go. “The support work undertaken by grant-funded organisations should not be used as a justification for not taking action to amend the EUSS to protect the rights of EU citizens and their families.”The Independent has contacted the government for a comment. More

People should make up their own mind whether to travel to amber list countries for holidays under Covid-19 regulations, a government minister has said.Amid confusion about official advice on the issue, Gillian Keegan said whether to follow guidelines or not was a matter of “personal responsibility”.Boris Johnson on Tuesday warned against holidays to amber-listed destinations, while environment secretary George Eustice said people could travel to them to see their families and friends.There was further confusion after health minister James Bethell described foreign travel as “dangerous” and said that “traveling is not for this year”.But he was again apparently contradicted by Cabinet minister Simon Hart, who rounded off Tuesday’s mixed messaging by stating: “Some people might think a holiday is essential. I can think of a quite a lot of people who do think that.”Asked about the advice on Thursday morning skills minister Ms Keegan told Sky News: “The British public have been amazing both in getting the vaccine and, you know, adhering to all the lockdown rules”But, you know, this first step is the first step in the next stage of the journey. And we think it’s the right step.”Asked specifically about the amber list, she added: “This is guidance from the government. You know, we haven’t we haven’t legislated to ban people from going on holiday.”And as with many of these things that we’ve had throughout the pandemic, this has been about really relying on the great British public to be sensible and looking at the guidance that we put in place and taking their own decisions.”But echoing the prime minister’s comments, she cautioned: “We wouldn’t advise going on holiday to the amber list countries.”During the pandemic the government has divided countries into red, amber, and green list categories – with a sliding scale of restrictions on each. Travellers returning from a green country must take a pre-departure Covid-19 test but do not need to quarantine on return. Amber countries require a quarantine period of 10 days on return with tests on day 2 and day 8, while people returning from countries on the red list are being made to pay for expensive hotel quarantine. The issue of what travel is permitted has come to the fore in recent days after the government lifted a general restriction on holidays abroad. Speaking on Tuesday Labour’s shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The Conservatives’ border policies have unravelled into dangerous chaos within a matter of hours since international travel was opened up. “There is a lack of strategy, which has meant the UK Government, and their own ministers, are giving out conflicting and confused advice about whether people are allowed to travel, especially between ‘amber list’ countries.”Labour has been clear that there should be a pause on international travel, to guard against further importing of dangerous strains, setting back hopes for ending restrictions.” More

The government has been criticised by its Whitehall watchdog for failing to properly prepare for a threat of the scale of coronavirus.In a report released on Wednesday the National Audit Office (NAO) said Covid-19 has exposed a decades-long weakness in government and divisions in wider society. Gareth Davies, head of the body, said coronavirus had “stress-tested the government’s ability to deal with unforeseen events”.In its report the NAO said ministers had been left without a “playbook” to respond because of the lack of paper advance planning.And the watchdog warned that the crisis had “laid bare existing fault lines within society, such as the risk of widening inequalities, and within public service delivery and government itself”.It comes after former Downing Street chief of staff Dominic Cummings said the government’s pandemic planning had been “part disaster, part non-existent” and that the government’s tendency to “secrecy contributed greatly to the catastrophe”.Mr Cummings, who is due to appear before MPs next week, said the lack of public scrutiny was still affecting the response to the rise of the new variant from India.In its report, the NAO said government pandemic communications had sometimes been unclear and were not always timely. And it also highlighted that guidance on personal protective equipment changed up to to 30 times up to the end of last June, adding to a sense of chaos. The watchdog also reiterated criticism of the way in which PPE and other contracts had been awarded to suppliers.The report estimated that the total government extra spend on Covid-related measures amounted to £372bn up to March this year taking into account the full lifetime cost of all policies.It warned that already struggling local government finances had been “scarred by the pandemic”.”Covid-19 has required government to respond to an exceptionally challenging and rapidly changing threat,” said NAO chief Gareth Davies.”There is much to learn from the successes and failures in government’s response.”He added that lessons earned were “not only important for the remaining phases of the current pandemic, but should also help better prepare the UK for future emergencies”. More

A nurse who cared for Boris Johnson when he was suffering the effects of Covid-19 has resigned over the “lack of respect” the government is showing the NHS and healthcare workers.Jenny McGee, who looked after the prime minister for two days when he was in intensive care in St Thomas’ Hospital in London, said: “We’re not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I’m just sick of it. So I’ve handed in my resignation.”Her remarks about pay refer to the government’s proposed 1 per cent pay rise for NHS staff.Ms McGee also criticised the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.“Lots of nurses felt that the government hadn’t led very effectively – the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages. It was just very upsetting,” she said.She made the remarks in a Channel 4 documentary “The Year Britain Stopped”, which will be broadcast on 24 May.Ms McGee also described her first sight of the prime minister when she arrived at her shift, saying: “All around him there was lots and lots of sick patients, some of whom were dying. I remember seeing him and thinking he looked very, very unwell. He was a different colour really.”Ms McGee, from Invercargill in New Zealand, was one of two nurses thanked publicly by Mr Johnson after he was treated for Covid-19.After being discharged on 12 April, the prime minister praised both Ms McGee and Luis Pitarma, from Aveiro in Portugal, for helping save his life. “I can’t thank them enough,” he said of the doctors and nurses at St Thomas’.Ms McGee said when she looks back on the period she spent with with Mr Johnson she thinks it was a “weird” time.She said she had been asked to take part in a “clap for carers” event at a garden party at Downing Street last July, but declined.She and another nurse had been invited along by the Prime Minister to celebrate 72 years of the NHS.She said: “It would have been a really good photo opportunity. You know, kind of like Boris and his NHS friends, but I wanted to stay out of it.”Lots of nurses felt that the government hadn’t led very effectively, the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages.”It was just very upsetting.”In a statement released on Tuesday through Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Ms McGee said: “After the toughest year of my nursing career, I’m taking a step back from the NHS but hope to return in the future.”I’m excited to start a nursing contract in the Caribbean, before a holiday back home in New Zealand later in the year.”I’m so proud to have worked at St Thomas’ Hospital and to have been part of such a fantastic team.”A No 10 spokesperson said: “Our NHS staff have gone above and beyond over the past year and this Government will do everything in our power to support them.”We are extremely grateful for the care NHS staff have provided throughout the pandemic in particular.”That is why they have been exempted from the public sector wide pay freeze implemented as a result of the difficult economic situation created by the pandemic.”At the same time we have invested £30m to support staff mental health and are expanding the number of places available for domestic students at medical schools in England to continue expanding our workforce.” More