Markus Andrews

Labour is demanding an investigation into allegations that Priti Patel breached the ministerial code of conduct by lobbying fellow ministers over a PPE contract for a Tory donor and former adviser.Deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds wrote to the cabinet secretary Simon Case asking him to investigate what they described as a “glaring and flagrant breach” of the code.Documents obtained by the Daily Mail show that the home secretary wrote to cabinet colleague Michael Gove after being contacted by a client of Samir Jassal over a £20m deal to supply personal protective equipment early in the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020.Health secretary Matt Hancock responded that the masks being offered by Pharmaceuticals Direct Ltd (PDL) were “not suitable for the NHS”. But the company was later awarded a £102.7m contract for a higher-specification face covering.PDL contacted Ms Patel for help with the cancelled £20m deal after an introduction from Mr Jassal, who previously worked as her adviser and has twice stood as a Conservative parliamentary candidate.According to the papers obtained by the Mail, Ms Patel forwarded the letter to Mr Gove and said the potential loss of the order was putting PDL under “financial pressure”.“I would be most grateful if you could review this matter urgently … and work with the company to distribute and supply these masks,” she wrote.A reply from Mr Hancock said experts agreed the KN95 mask offered by PDL was not suitable for use in the NHS, but aded that he “appreciated”  the company’s efforts and had asked officials to liaise with them.In July, PDL secured a £102.7m contract to supply the superior FPP3 masks, in a deal which is now being challenged in a High Court judicial review brought by the Good Law Project campaign group.A spokesperson for Ms Patel said she did nothing wrong: “The home secretary rightly followed up representations made to her about the vital supply of PPE.“During a time of national crisis failure to do so would have been a dereliction of duty.”But in their letter, Ms Rayner and Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “Given that the home secretary was introduced to PDL by her friend Mr Jassal, and the home secretary then immediately took it upon herself to lobby on PDL’s behalf, it is difficult to reach any conclusion other than that the home secretary lobbied the government on behalf of PDL as a favour to her friend, Samir Jassal.“This would represent a glaring and flagrant breach of the ministerial code.”They added: “The public has a right to know why the home secretary lobbied ministers on behalf of a client of Samir Jassal, her friend, former adviser and a prominent Conservative Party activist, candidate and donor.“The public also has a right to know why the home secretary was demanding that huge amounts of taxpayers’ money was wasted on face masks that the Health and Safety Executive had found to be unsafe for use by frontline NHS staff, and why in the grips of the first wave of this awful pandemic the home secretary was spending her time lobbying to help her friends get rich quick rather than focusing on her job – securing our borders against the virus and working with police to keep our communities safe.“This investigation must include not only the representations made by the home secretary on behalf of PDL in this instance, but also any further representations and any impact this or any other lobbying had on PDL being awarded a subsequent contract worth over £100m.”The code governing government ministers’ conduct states that “ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests”.The row comes months after Boris Johnson overturned the finding of his former ethics adviser that Ms Patel had breached the code by bullying staff at the Home Office, prompting the resignation of adviser Sir Alex Allan.Good Law Project director Jolyon Maugham said: “Why did Jassal, a man connected to past and present Tory PMs, ministers and peers, reach out to Priti Patel for help?“What was his role in winning the £103m contract? What relationship did his connections with the party have to the £103m contract won by Pharmaceuticals Direct?“These are the questions at the heart of our judicial review of this most troubling of PPE contracts.”Mr Jassal and PDL have been contacted for comment. More

People infected with the Indian variant of Covid-19 may have used public transport to travel home after arriving in the UK from the south Asian country during a crucial four days before it was placed on the government’s “red list”, a health minister has acknowledged.Boris Johnson’s government is coming under fire for delay in implementing the highest levels of control on movements from India, amid claims it allowed the entry of the B1.617.2 variant of coronavirus which is now surging in areas like Bolton, Blackburn and Bedford.Thousands of people flew to the UK between the government’s announcement on 19 April that India was about to be placed on the high-risk list for England and the moment the order came into effect at 4am on 23 April, requiring arrivals to go into managed quarantine at airport hotels. And many others arrived after 2 April, when Bangladesh and Pakistan were placed on the red list, but India was not despite higher levels of infections, which surged dramatically later in the month. On 2 April, recorded infections in India were running at about 90,000 a day – or one in every 15,000 of the population – compared to 4,700 in Pakistan (about one in 45,000) and 6,800 in Bangladesh (around one in 24,000).The announcement that India was going on the red list was made as Boris Johnson cancelled a trip to the country planned for the end of April, which would have been his first major overseas visit since becoming prime minister and a crucial part of his post-Brexit “global Britain” drive to establish new trade links with other parts of the world.At the time, the delay in adding India to the list was branded “inexplicable” by the SNP, while House of Commons Home Affairs Committee chair Yvette Cooper challenged health secretary Matt Hancock to explain why it had not been put on the list earlier.“This week, Hong Kong identified 47 covid cases on a single Delhi flight,” Ms Cooper told the Commons on 19 April. “Before Friday, we still had 16 direct flights from India and many more indirect ones.”Evidence from Public Health England shows that between 2 and 23 April, cases of the Indian variant were detected on people who had travelled to the UK from variant hotspots Delhi and Mumbai and domestic transmission began to take place.The sharpest rise in cases came in the week from 19 April, as demand for India-UK flights went through the roof, with thousands of people rushing to get to Britain before the red list ruling came into effect.The chair of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, Layla Moran, said: “Boris Johnson must take responsibility for the failure to prevent the Indian variant taking root in the UK. Once again the government acted too late, and the country is sadly paying the price.”The Liberal Democrat MP told The Independent: “They announced on the Monday that they were going to add India to the red list, but then it didn’t actually come into force until the Friday. Our group heard in our session that week that all the flights from India to the UK were full.“If they’re going to announce an area with variants of concern is going on the red list, it needs to be immediate. And they shouldn’t be waiting a number of weeks after a variant of concern is found to put that country on the red list at all.“The blame for the surge in the Indian variant lies at the door of Boris Johnson.”Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said that the surge in cases of the Indian variant “brings into sharp focus Boris Johnson’s reckless failure to protect our borders in this crisis”.And Ms Cooper, said: “The Government was warned about the India variant – cases had been rapidly rising there since February – – but inexplicably delayed putting India on the red list until 23 April, after many thousands of people had returned from India bringing in many hundreds of new variant cases.“When they did finally add India to the red list – two weeks after they’d added Pakistan on 9 April – they gave travellers four days’ notice to rush back. Why didn’t they introduce additional testing for those travellers before they were able to get on public transport home?”Health minister Edward Argar told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it was not possible to know how many people – if any – on flights from India were infected with the new variant, but said he believed the “overwhelming majority” would have complied with quarantine requirements to self-isolate for 14 days at home.Asked if these people would have used public transport to travel from airports to their homes to start quarantine, he said: “Some may have done. That’s always a possibility.”Mr Argar defended the decision not to place India on the red list at the start of April.“The decisions made on whether any country moved to the red list were made on the basis of the evidence,” he said.“There are a number of factors that were taken into consideration in the advice that was given to ministers on which country should be in which list. Some of that is infection rates, some of that is new variants, some of that is also the genomic sequencing capacity of a country to identify variants.  India has a significant genomic sequencing capacity.“On the basis of the advice at the time, the decision was taken to Pakistan and Bangladesh on the red list at a particular point, and India on that list subsequently.”Mr Argar said that UK’s border restrictions to minimise the risk of variants entering the country are “among the strictest and the toughest in the world”, with passenger required to submit a locator form informing the authorities where they will reside during their quarantine period and tests at two and eight days for those arriving from amber or red list countries.While people arriving from countries on the amber list – as India was for most of April – are allowed to quarantine at home unsupervised, Mr Argar said that “the evidence we’ve got is that the overwhelming majority comply with the quarantine requirements”.The minister said there was no “hard and fast answer” on how many people arriving from India during April were infected with the variant.But he insisted that the number of people arriving from a particular country was not the key issue.“We know that this variant is highly transmissible,” he said. “One person could bring in a variant, and that could transmit quickly. It is impossible to completely hermetically seal the borders of a country.“I do think we’ve got the right border controls in place to do everything we can to minimise – you can never totally eliminate it – but to minimise the risks.”Mr Argar said that there had been a “minor increase” in people attending hospital in Bolton with Covid symptoms, mainly unvaccinated people in the 35-65 age group, but no significant rise in admissions.There is no evidence yet of increased risk of severe illness, death or vaccine resistance from the new variant, he said.But it may be up to two weeks before scientists establish whether it is only marginally more infectious than previous variants or as much as 50 per cent more transmissible.Mr Argar defended the PM’s decision to go ahead with relaxing lockdown restrictions on Monday despite the uncertainty.“From all of the evidence we have at the moment, it’s safe and it’s the right thing to do to go ahead on Monday with the easing of restrictions,” said the minister. “We will see in the coming weeks whether anything that emerges from the evidence changes.” More

Parliament’s standards watchdog is said to believe that Boris Johnson’s holiday to Mustique was worth more than double the £15,000 he declared in the Commons register.Kathryn Stone, the commissioner for standards, has also said the bill had not been met by Tory donor David Ross as the prime minister has insisted, according to the Daily Mail.The revelation will heap further pressure on Mr Johnson as he faces various investigations into whether he properly declared any donations to cover the lavish refurbishments of his official flat.Downing Street insisted the PM “transparently declared the benefit in kind” of the luxury Caribbean holiday, and noted that Mr Ross confirmed the declaration is “correct”.The parliamentary commissioner for standards confirmed this week she is still investigating whether Mr Johnson properly declared the holiday on the private island 16 months ago.In the Register of Members’ Interests, the prime minister declared the trip with fiancee Carrie Symonds as a “benefit in kind” from the Carphone Warehouse founder who has a villa on the island.But the Daily Mail reported that Ms Stone believes the break was worth more than twice the declared £15,000.Mr Johnson was said to have refused to accept the ruling and is trying to have it overturned to avoid the risk of being suspended as an MP.A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The PM transparently declared the benefit in kind in the Commons Register of Interests. The Cabinet Office was aware of the declaration and was content it was appropriate.“A spokesman for Mr Ross confirmed the PM’s declaration is correct and the accommodation was facilitated as a donation in kind.”This week, a spokesperson for Mr Ross said in a statement: “Mr Ross facilitated accommodation for Mr Johnson on Mustique valued at £15,000.“Therefore this is a benefit in kind from Mr Ross to Mr Johnson, and Mr Johnson’s declaration to the House of Commons is correct.” More

Sir Keir Starmer will discuss his childhood, career in law and leading the Labour Party from his spare bedroom during lockdown in an interview with Piers Morgan.The Labour leader join the broadcaster for an hour-long episode of Life Stories, due to be filmed next month and expected to air on ITV in the coming months.It will be the first interview with a party leader on Life Stories since former tabloid editor Morgan interviewed Gordon Brown when he was prime minister in 2010.Sir Keir is expected to discuss his childhood in Surrey, his family life and move into politics from law, culminating in his appointment as Labour leader last April.Labour has been in turmoil since the by-election defeat in Hartlepool last week, with setbacks in council elections in England followed by a botched reshuffle.The results were a major setback for Sir Keir as the party tries to recover from its general election defeat under his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, which was its worst since 1935.Morgan said: “It’s very unusual for party political leaders to submit themselves to such lengthy personal interviews and I am delighted that Sir Keir has agreed to talk to me about his fascinating life.”It promises to be a memorable and very revealing Life Stories show.”ITV’s head of entertainment, Katie Rawcliffe, said: “Sir Keir Starmer promises to be a real treat for our ITV audience.”Additional reporting by PA More

The admittedly narrow victory for Edwin Poots in the Democratic Unionist Party – by 19 votes to 17 – nonetheless marks a departure from the style and direction of his predecessor, Arlene Foster, forced out of office to make way for him. The defeated candidate, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, was seen, fairly or not, as a “continuity Arlene” figure, more of a pragmatist and less of a traditionalist than Poots – though the differences between the two men, and indeed across Ulster unionism more generally, are easily and often exaggerated. Poots is a true Paisleyite, and always has been, like his father before him. He comes from a political place unlike anything else in the British Isles. At any rate, Poots now calls himself the “authentic voice of unionism”, thinly disguised code for a tilt towards some of the more muscular tendencies within the unionist movement. His victory has huge implications for Brexit too, most likely leading to some sort of renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement, and thus the wider Brexit deal. In not taking on the position of first minister – but remaining as agriculture minister – Poots seems to want to concentrate on the political and campaigning aspect of leadership, rather than the administrative and bureaucratic. After all, the elections for the Northern Irish assembly next May will be crucial, and time is short. Poots may even try somehow to bring together the various separate and sometimes bickering brands of unionism into some sort of coalition or electoral alliance; he spoke of “reaching out to other leaders in unionism”. Oddly, he might occupy the kind of role that Gerry Adams and John Hume on the Republican and nationalist side for a while – party leader semi-detached from the government of the province. More

Government must step in to save Liberty Steel jobs, says Ed MilibandLabour risks being out of power “for a very long time” if internal party feuds continue, deputy leader Angela Rayner has warned. It comes as the Tories extended their poll over Labour to 15 points.Days after a bitter clash with Sir Keir Starmer over her role at the top of the party, Ms Rayner said “the bond hasn’t been broken” – but admitted the Labour leader does “cheese me off now and again”.It comes as the Serious Fraud Office announced an investigation into the empire of steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta and its links to Greensill Capital – the firm in the spotlight over David Cameron’s lobbying activities.Meanwhile, Brexit tensions and Northern Ireland’s troubles past and present are set to dominate discussions between Boris Johnson and Irish premier Micheal Martin on Friday.Mr Martin has raised concerns about UK government moves to unilaterally bar prosecutions of British soldiers involved in the Troubles.Show latest update

1620974051Good morningGood morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling UK politics coverage. We’ll be bringing you live updates from Westminster and beyond as the day progresses.Matt Mathers14 May 2021 07:341620976506Cameron shown no mercyDavid Cameron was shown no mercy yesterday as he appeared before MPs in two virtual parliamentary committees, in what he admitted was a “painful day”.For those of you who missed it, here are some of the main takeaways from what was a gruelling afternoon for the former prime minister, who was told his “reputation is in tatters”.Matt Mathers14 May 2021 08:151620976636Boris Johnson and Taoiseach to discuss Brexit and Northern Ireland troublesBrexit tensions and Northern Ireland’s troubles past and present are set to dominate discussions between Boris Johnson and Taoiseach Micheal Martin on Friday.Our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports: Matt Mathers14 May 2021 08:171620977146Howard Beckett: Unite official suspended by Labour for tweeting Priti Patel ‘should be deported’A senior Unite official has been suspended by Labour after tweeting that Priti Patel was “disgusting” and should be deported in response to the immigration stand-off in Glasgow.Howard Beckett, the assistant general secretary who is standing for leadership of the union, posted the message after Border Force officials detained two men.My colleague Alastair Jamieson reports: Matt Mathers14 May 2021 08:251620977430ICYMI: Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser ready to quit if advice ignoredBoris Johnson’s new independent ethics adviser has said he is ready to follow his predecessor in taking the “nuclear option” of resigning if the prime minister ignores his recommendations.Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports: Matt Mathers14 May 2021 08:301620979441Angela Rayner: ‘Magnolia politics’ putting off voters, Johnson’s personality cutting throughAngela Rayner has said “magnolia politics” is putting voters off the Labour Party.The party’s deputy leader told Politico’s Westminster Insider podcast people want “authenticity” in their politicians.“For a long time, people have felt that politicians are just saying what they think they want to hear. Or they try to ‘triangulate,’ is the word that they use. I call it ‘magnolia politics’,” she said.“Let’s not offend anyone, and have no opinion on anything … I think all parties were a bit (guilty) of that. And Boris just sort of cut through that.”Matt Mathers14 May 2021 09:041620981479Cameron was ‘open and transparent’ during MPs’ grilling, minister claimsDavid Cameron was “open and transparent” while answering questions from MPs yesterday about his conduct while lobbying for Greensill Capital, a minister has claimed.Facing questions in parliamentary committees, Mr Cameron refused to reveal his salary while at the firm and would not be drawn on how much he stood to gain in share value had the business proved successful.He insisted his lobbying was done in the spirit of public service, and denied knowing about Greensill’s perilous financial position before asking ministers and officials to grant it government loans.Mr Cameron also said he only attended board meetings at the company to discuss “geopolitical matters and such like”.Speaking to Sky News this morning, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was a “difficult time” for Mr Cameron.”I think David Cameron did the right thing to come before two select committees yesterday and to be open and transparent about his dealings with government, with ministers,” he said.Asked if the former Conservative leader’s reputation has been damaged by the controversy, Mr Zahawi said: “Clearly this was a painful period for him and, as he said yesterday, it cannot be easy for a prime minister to go through this.”It’s a difficult time for him and I think we should respect that a little bit as well.”Matt Mathers14 May 2021 09:371620982316Labour MP roasted for claiming wage laws mean ‘curry is worth more than a human’A Labour MP has been roasted more than any curry ever could, by showing he has a pretty bizarre understanding of economics.Posting on Twitter, Jon Trickett, the Corbyn ally who represents the Yorkshire constituency of Hemsworth, claimed that because the price of a takeaway is more than the hourly minimum wage, it meant that we live in a society in which “curry is worth more than a human”.My colleague Kate Plummer has more details below: Matt Mathers14 May 2021 09:511620982924‘Writing on the wall for Labour’, David Miliband warnsLabour’s former foreign secretary and one-time leadership contender, David Miliband, has warned the party “the writing is on the wall” in terms of its future.Mr Miliband, who left politics after he was defeated by his brother Ed in Labour’s 2010 leadership contest, said the party is in a “hole” and that it has “no divine right to exist”.Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Miliband said the only positive thing to come from Labour disastrous performance in last week’s local elections is that “people now see the writing on the wall, and have a real debate about what that means.”Matt Mathers14 May 2021 10:021620983555Wales pauses relaxation of some rules amid Indian variant cases, ‘nothing off the table’ in EnglandWales has held back relaxing restrictions on allowing small events and meeting people due to concerns about the Indian variant of coronavirus, Mark Drakeford has said.The first minister said there were 17 cases of the variant in Wales as of Thursday, with a concentration in northwest England causing concern due to its proximity and link with the Welsh northeast.Wales will move to alert level two on Monday with the reopening of indoor hospitality and entertainment venues, but Mr Drakeford said his government would pause further easements if “the risks in doing so would be too great”.On Friday, Mr Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We were considering a small number of further easements from Monday but have decided to hold back on those until we get the advice from Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) who met yesterday, our own scientific advice which we’ll receive imminently, just to make sure that we are continuing to take a precautionary approach in case the Indian variant is on the march, and therefore Wales would be vulnerable to it as well.”Meanwhile, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said “we will take nothing off the table” when asked if local lockdowns are being considered by officials in areas with a surge of the variant first identified in India.He told BBC Breakfast: “Over a year of dealing with this pandemic suggests that the most effective way of dealing with this, because we have had such a successful vaccination programme, is the surge testing by postcode, the genome sequencing and isolation, so that is our focus, that is our priority.“But we will take nothing off the table, whether it is regional or national further measures that we would need to take, we will deal with this.”Matt Mathers14 May 2021 10:12 More

A former Labour MP admitted he wanted a sexual relationship with a parliamentary worker, a tribunal has heard.Mike Hill texted the woman, known only as Ms A, saying he “craved” her body and was “in love” with her. Ms A has accused the former Hartlepool MP of a campaign of sexual harassment and bullying over a 16-month period. She also claims he groped her and rubbed his penis against her body. Mr Hill, who stood down as an MP earlier this year, has denied the allegations against him.During cross-examination at the Central London Employment Tribunal, Mr Hill was questioned about text messages he sent to Ms A.In one, which was read out to the tribunal, Mr Hill told her: “You know that I crave your company and intelligence and conversation all the time. But that I also crave your body too.”Asked repeatedly by the claimant’s barrister, Samuel Nicholls, if that meant he wanted to “have sex” with Mrs A, Mr Hill replied: “Part of having a relationship would be that.”In another message, Mr Hill wrote: “Of course I will escape when I can, I want you to be part of my future. You know how much I love you.”Asked whether he loved the claimant, Mr Hill told the tribunal: “At some stage, I believe I was in love with her.”He went on to text her: “I’m truly sorry, I hope we have a future in the long term.”Hoping I could look after you and care for you like I have done. Didn’t know your feelings were a million miles from that. Sorry. I couldn’t cope with a loveless future as I have that now.”If I could propose to you today, I would. But if you’re not interested, then what’s the point. I’d end up in torture.”Mr Hill, who was married at the time of the messages, said he accepted that the claimant did not want to enter into a romantic sexual relationship with him.He said he was “wearing my heart on my sleeve”, which was “not unusual” for him.He also told the tribunal that his “emotions were all over the place” at the time.Earlier in the hearing, he said he had received sexual harassment training while in a previous role as a regional organiser for the Unison trade union.He said he was aware the claimant had post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.The tribunal, which is due to last a week and a half, continues. More

A rising star in Sir Keir Starmer’s frontbench team has announced he is to temporarily step back from politics after he was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the age of 38.Wes Streeting said the confirmation of his illness had come as “an enormous shock” but that his prognosis was good.In a video message posted on his Twitter feed, the shadow child poverty secretary, who was promoted last week, said he would not be returning to work until he had made a full recovery.Sir Keir, who described Mr Streeting as a friend as well as a colleague, said he was sure he would return “even stronger and more determined than ever before”.In a video message the Ilford North MP said: “Back in early March, I went into hospital with a kidney stone and, at the time, a scan identified a lump on the same kidney.”Around a month later, in April, unfortunately that lump was diagnosed as kidney cancer.”While receiving a cancer diagnosis at the age of 38 has come as an enormous shock, the good news is because of that kidney stone the cancer has been caught early, my prognosis is very good, and I should make a full recovery.”He added: “But it does mean I have to take time off work for treatment.”My family have made it very clear – and actually so has Keir – that I will not be coming back until I’ve made a full recovery.”Hopefully that won’t be too long but in the meantime, bear with me and thank you very much in advance for your support.”Mr Streeting, a former president of the National Union of Students, is regarded as a staunch ally of Sir Keir.He was an outspoken critic of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, over his failure to tackle anti-semitism in the party.Sir Keir has lost a number of key members of his team in recent days. His parliamentary aide Carolyn Harris stood down after she was accused of exacerbating tensions between Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner in the wake of last week’s defeat in the Hartlepool by-election.And shadow minister Kate Hollern resigned after she was accused of trying to intimidate a colleague who was helping a parliamentary staffer who had raised allegations of sexual harassment against a former Labour MP. More