Markus Andrews

France should suspend all immigration from outside the EU for up to five years and push the bloc to toughen its external borders, Michel Barnier has said.The EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator, who is thought to be considering a tilt at the French presidency, said the European Union’s external frontier had become a “sieve”.“I think we have to take the time for three or five years to suspend immigration,” he told public broadcaster France 2. Mr Barnier said any suspension should exclude students and refugees, “who we need to treat with humanity and care”.He called for a discussion with other EU member states about making the bloc’s external border “more rigorous”.And the French politician claimed there were “links” between immigration and “terrorist networks that infiltrate migrational flows”.Asked whether his comments would call into question his reputation as a moderate Gaullist, Mr Barnier said: “The problems of immigration are not moderate. I know, as the politician that I am, to see the problems how they are and how French people experience them and to find solutions.”Mr Barnier is understood to have his eye on becoming the candidate for centre-right party The Republicans.However, most polls currently suggest that the 2022 contest will be a two-horse race between the incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, and the far-right Marine Le Pen. Immigration from outside the EU is a national competence for member states, and a suspension would be within the gift of the French government, although toughening the EU’s external Schengen border would require the cooperation of other EU member states. Mr Barnier pointed to planned budget increases for the EU’s border guard force, Frontex, and moves to deploy 10,000 new uniformed guards.The proposals put forward by Mr Barnier would not affect free movement with other EU countries. More

Keir Starmer’s poll ratings are now worse than Jeremy Corbyn’s at the same point in their respective leaderships, polls show.A new survey from YouGov conducted on Monday found Sir Keir has a net rating of -48, with just 17 per cent of voters saying he is doing well and 65 per cent saying he is doing badly.At around the same point in Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in September 2016, Sir Keir’s predecessor had a net rating of -40 per cent.21 per cent of voters then believed Mr Corbyn was doing well while 61 per cent thought he was doing badly. Mr Corbyn had by this point survived an attempt by internal opponents to oust him as leader, winning the 2016 leadership contest by 62 per cent to 38 for his rival Owen Smith.His ratings stayed around the same level until 2017, recording a net score of -43 per cent in mid-December.The dire comparison is a blow for Sir Keir, whose pitch to Labour members centered around the idea that he would be more popular with voters than Mr Corbyn.But his approach has so far failed to bear electoral fruit, with Labour last week losing a slew of council seats across the country last contested under Mr Corbyn.An embarrassing parliamentary by-election defeat in Hartlepool, a seat Labour won in 2017 and 2019, has also sparked a wave of criticism, as has his handling of an ensuing reshuffle.A source who was close to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership told The Independent: “Keir is proving the old adage right that if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything. “Jeremy’s ratings were low at this point after a year of being savaged by the media and his own MPs. Keir’s had a softball ride. “Unless Starmer develops a backbone, shows people what he’s about and what his alternative for the country is, his ratings will fall further in an election rather that rise dramatically like Jeremy’s did.”Keir Starmer’s team did not respond to a request for comment on the poll findings.Labour sit as far as 10 points behind the Conservatives in the voting intention polls for the next general election, according to the latest surveys. More

Labour leader Keir Starmer’s woes continue to mount after his closest parliamentary aide suddenly resigned.Carolyn Harris, who had served as Sir Keir Starmer’s parliamentary private secretary since he became leader last year, has left the role.It marks the continuation of a torrid weekend for the Labour leader, who carried out a strained reshuffle of his top team after the party’s defeat in the Hartlepool by-election last week.A mixed bag of results in elections across the UK on ‘super Thursday’ also led to an onslaught of criticism, much of it aimed at the leader, from multiple wings of the party.In the job Ms Harris was supposed to act as Sir Keir’s ‘eyes and ears’ with other Labour MPs.But relations are understood to be strained. Some accuse Ms Harris of acting as a “cheerleader” for Sir Keir, rather than reflecting back the concerns of Labour MPs to the leadership.In a statement Ms Harris confirmed she had left her post. The MP for Swansea East and deputy leader of Welsh Labour said: “It has been the proudest moment of my career to co-chair the campaign that saw Keir Starmer elected as Labour leader, and to serve as his PPS (parliamentary private secretary) for the past year.Stepping back from this role is the right thing at this moment, coming as it does after some trying personal times and an ever-increasing workload as Deputy Leader of Welsh Labour.“I have enjoyed every minute, and look forward to supporting Keir the best way I can in the months ahead.”The surprise announcement comes just 24 hours after Sir Keir tried to draw a line under the events of the last few days. Yesterday in a public sign of a rapprochement he and his deputy Angela Rayner were spotted having a cup of coffee in Westminster. Over the weekend he had been forced to give her a number of new roles after a backlash against reports she had been demoted. As part of the reshuffle Sir Keir did sack his shadow chancellor and chief whip. But Labour MPs expressed concern he had emerged from the exercise with his leadership weakened not strengthened.He is expected to travel to Wales soon, one of the parts of the country where Labour exceeded expectations at last week’s elections. Meanwhile, the architect of another key victory last week, Andy Burnham, the re-elected mayor of Greater Manchester, warned the party had become “too cautious” under Sir Keir and had been penalised for it at the ballot box. More

Boris Johnson has “betrayed” workers by abandoning a promise of new laws to stamp out the abuse of low-paid staff, angry unions say.A government-ordered review into the flouting of protections in sectors including hand car washes, agriculture, social care and construction was completed more than a year ago.It also warned of a growing risk of exploitation as unemployment rises because of the Covid-19 pandemic and following changes to the immigration system after Brexit.But the promised Employment Bill has been dropped from the Queen’s Speech – triggering protests that a pledge that workers will be “treated with dignity and respect” has been broken.“We need action now to deal with the scourge of insecure work – not more dithering and delay,” said Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC.“Zero-hours contracts and other exploitative working practices like fire and rehire must be banned once and for all.”Warren Kenny, the GMB union’s acting general secretary, said: “We have been fobbed off repeatedly by ministers with promises to level up workers’ rights with an Employment Bill. Well, the Bill is still missing in action.“Warm words on workers’ rights are betrayed by this government’s abject lack of leadership. This is an historic missed opportunity.”And Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, said: “The government have missed the opportunity to show leadership and shape the future of work over the coming years, and it is workers who will pay the price.”In February, Matthew Taylor quit as director of Labour Market Enforcement, attacking the government’s failure to act – amid controversy over whether workers’ rights will be watered down after Brexit.“Ministers and officials appear to be indifferent or complacent about a body that was set up to ensure effective accountability and insight into the scale and nature of non-compliance,” he said.Mr Taylor attributed the failure to act to “inertia and incompetence” – while acknowledging that “some people will think this is ideological”.Chief executive of the Royal Society for Arts, he was appointed director of Labour Market Enforcement in 2019 by Greg Clark, the-then business secretary.He previously investigated how to beef-up protections for workers without sick pay and holiday pay in the so-called “gig economy” for Theresa May, which produced some changes.An Employment Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech as long ago as December 2019, to take forward other aspects of those proposals – but has still yet to appear.The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We will introduce the Employment Bill when the time is right given the profound effects the pandemic is having on the economy and the labour market.”The criticism came as it was confirmed a social care plan – promised by the prime minister on his first day in office, in 2019 – has also been shelved again.Matt Hancock, the health secretary, blamed the pandemic for preventing the government from giving it “as much focus” as hoped, adding: “I think people will understand that.” More

A minister who resigned from Boris Johnson’s government over the failure to protect armed forces veterans of the Northern IrelandTroubles has voiced his frustration at the absence of legislation on the issue in today’s Queen’s Speech.Former Army captain Johnny Mercer said the government had promised its legislative timetable for the coming year would include action on the issue.But the list of 25 new pieces of legislation unveiled by the monarch in the House of Lords today did not include a bill. Instead, there was only a promise that legislation to address the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and end the “cycle of investigations” would be brought forward at some point this year.There was anger from both sides of the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland at recent reports suggesting that ministers want to scrap criminal trials both both veterans and former members of paramilitary groups in favour of an approach similar to the “truth and reconciliation” model used by Nelson Mandela in South Africa.A recent trial of two British Army paratroopers accused of murdering IRA member Joe McCann in 1972 collapsed after evidence gathered by the Historical Enquiries Team was ruled inadmissible.Responding to the absence of a bill in today’s Queen’s Speech, Mr Mercer said: “I was personally promised this on a number of occasions. It was never delivered. Hence I resigned. “My successor promised it would be in the Queens Speech. It is not. At some stage, we must fulfil our promises to our veterans.”The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We will fulfil our commitments that we have set out and there will be legislation announced on this in the coming weeks.“So, we will deliver on that commitment.” More

Boris Johnson will grab back the power to call a snap general election when he is most likely to win it, by scrapping fixed five-year Parliamentary terms.A Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill will reverse the change introduced by David Cameron’s government – which frustrated attempts to send the country to the polls during the Brexit crisis.It will “restore tried and tested powers for bringing forward UK general elections”, the Queen’s Speech argues, handing the decision back to MPs.It paves the way for the prime minister to stage an election as early as 2023 – if his poll lead and Labour’s turmoil continues – although one is not required until the end of 2024.There is no mention in the documents of a shake-up expected to make it easier for the Conservatives to win future mayoral elections – after Labour claimed 11 of the 13 posts fought in England last week.Ministers sparked an outcry with plans to switch from the supplementary vote system – which transfers a second preference, so a candidate achieves more than 50 per cent backing – to the first past the post system used in general elections.However, further measures can be added later in the legislative process to Bills announced in a Queen’s Speech.Meanwhile, a Judicial Review Bill will “protect the judiciary from being drawn into political questions and preserve the integrity of judicial review for its intended purpose”.Critics see the legislation as an attack on the power of people to mount legal challenges, in revenge for embarrassing court defeats during the Brexit saga.Theresa May was humbled over invoking the Article 50 exit notice without MPs’ approval and Mr Johnson humiliated when judges ruled his shutdown of parliament was unlawful.But No 10 has said it wants to stamp on challenges mounted by people not directly affected by decisions, purely “with the aim of frustrating” the government.The document lists the examples of ensuring “a large infrastructure project is not delayed because an impact assessment has not been properly done”.“An additional effect will very likely be to reduce delays in the immigration and asylum system,” it says.As expected, an Electoral Integrity Bill will “require identification to vote in a polling station, as already required in Northern Ireland”.The move has sparked fears of US-style “voter suppression” and warnings that large numbers of poorer and ethnic minority voters will be turned away.Earlier, the health secretary Matt Hancock admitted there were only 6 cases of ballot fraud at the last election, but argued: “I think that’s six cases too many.” More

Controversial plans to make ID mandatory for people who want to vote in elections are expected to be outlined in Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech.The proposal forms part of Boris Johnson’s government’s plans to reform electoral laws, sections of which ministers claim are aimed at tackling voter fraud.In an exclusive interview with The Independent on Monday, one of the prime minister’s own senior MPs, David Davis, described the voter ID proposal as an “illiberal solution for a non-existent problem”.The Queen’s Speech is delivered to mark the start of the parliamentary year.It is written by the government, and designed to allow the prime minister of the day to outline his or her priorities for the months ahead, and can include proposals to reform areas such as social care, the environment and the economy.Multimillion pound planIn this year’s Queen’s Speech, the government is expected to announce a multimillion-pound plan that would stop people from voting unless they can show photographic ID. Voters in Northern Ireland are already required to do this.Mr Johnson’s administration first committed to introducing checks at polling stations in October 2019 – for both parliamentary elections in Great Britain and local elections in England – but the plans failed to materialise during the last parliament.Under current rules, anyone who is registered to vote can do so simply by showing up to their local polling station and giving an official their name and address.Downing Street has said voter ID requirements are reasonable and necessary to crack down on voter fraud.Defending the plans earlier this week, Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said: “Showing ID to vote is a reasonable approach to combat the inexcusable potential for voter fraud in our current system and to strengthen the integrity of our elections.”Showing ID is something people do when they pick up a parcel at the post office or a library book.”He added: “The 2019 voter ID pilots showed that in elections where photo ID was required, 99.6 per cent of electors were able to cast their votes without a problem.”Low levels of voter fraudAccording to the Local Government Chronicle, a total of 819 people were turned away from polling stations because they did not have formal ID and did not return during a May 2019 trial of the scheme.MPs and campaigners have hit out at plans to make voter ID mandatory, with the Labour Party describing them as “cynical and ugly”.Critics say that barriers could be erected for millions of eligible voters who lack photo ID, which they said were “disproportionately” from ethnic minority and working-class backgrounds.Young people are often also less likely to have a drivers licence or passport, critics of the plans say.According to the most recent data from the Electoral Commission, 595 cases of alleged voter fraud were investigated by police in 2019, with just a handful leading to a conviction and two individuals given a police caution.The electoral watchdog concluded in the same year that the UK has “low levels of proven electoral fraud” and that there “remains no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud”.In the aftermath of previous trials, the body previously said that it could not “draw definitive conclusions…about how an ID requirement would work in practice, particularly at a national poll with higher levels of turnout or in areas with different socio-demographic profiles not fully represented in the pilot scheme”.“Cynical and ugly”Labour’s shadow justice minister and Tottenham MP, David Lammy, said: “This is a cynical and ugly attempt to rig the system to disempower the poorest and most marginalised groups.”Alba Kapoor, a policy officer at the race equality think tank Runnymede Trust, told The Independent: “One in five people in the UK electorate do not have any form of photo ID. These people are disproportionately BME and working class, who will effectively become disenfranchised as a result of this legislation.“Focus should be on the fact that voter registration numbers are far lower among the BME electorate, instead of unnecessary Voter ID legislation.”The Electoral Reform Society that has been pushing against the ID plans since they were first floated by Mr Johnson’s administration, said: “Voting is safe and secure in the UK, so rather than inventing problems, the government should focus on the real issue in politics – including 9 million people missing on the electoral roll, and the glaring loopholes in our lobbying laws.”Mr Davis said plans were “unnecessary” and “pointless”, adding: “It’s yet another unnecessary ID card approach from the government. There’s no evidence that I’m aware of that there is a problem with voter fraud at polling stations.” More

Queen Elizabeth II has presided over the State Opening of Parliament for the 67th time, making her first major public ceremonial appearance on Tuesday since the death of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to lay out the government’s legislative priorities for the year ahead.The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall joined the Queen at the event but there were no horse-drawn carriages as much of the customary pomp and ceremony of the historic occasion was stripped away as a precaution against Covid-19.Her Majesty, in day dress and hat, instead travelled from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster by car and gave a brief 10-minute address to a sparsely-populated House of Lords in which she outlined 26 laws ministers hope to pass over the coming months.As is customary, the Queen’s address was drafted for her by No 10 and detailed Boris Johnson’s plans to “build back better” from the coronavirus pandemic and “level up” opportunities across the country.In his introduction to her remarks, the prime minister said: “We must harness the ingenuity and resolve that has been revealed in the struggle against Covid-19 and use it to create a stronger, healthier and more prosperous nation.“We have been given an historic opportunity to change things for the better, level up opportunities across the whole of the United Kingdom, and address the problems that have constrained us far too often before.”When the Queen began to speak, her address contained several surprise omissions, with the specifics on long-awaited social care reforms expected by pundits not forthcoming.Proposals on social care will be brought forward later this year, the government has since said – despite Mr Johnson’s promise when he entered No 10 two years ago that he had already prepared a “clear plan” to fix the system.“We will bring forward proposals to reform adult social care so that every person receives the dignity and security they deserve,” the PM said. More