Markus Andrews

Laurence Fox, the former actor and self-style “anti-woke” campaigner, has lost his deposit in the London mayoral election after receiving less than 2 per cent of votes.Mr Fox, who set up his Reclaim Party to run in the race and campaigned on a platform of scrapping the coronavirus lockdown, won 47,634 ballot papers – 1.9 per cent of votes – in Thursday’s election.As a result, he has lost his £10,000 deposit paid to London Elects, the Greater London Authority team responsible for organising the election of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.Candidates must secure 5 per cent of votes or higher to retain their deposit.Mr Fox is not the only candidate to lose his deposit. Liberal Democrat Luisa Porritt, Piers Corbyn, Count Binface, Mandu Reid of the Womens’ Equality Party, and Peter Gammons of Ukip also waved goodbye to their £10,000.Labour candidate Sadiq Khan, who won his second term as the mayor of London, secured 55.2 per cent of the vote in the second round of counting. He has promised an expansion of the ULEZ low-emissions zone, as well as more affordable homes in the capital and greener jobs in the city’s post-Covid rejuvenation.Mr Fox had sought to wage a culture war against Mr Khan during his election campaign, saying: “Someone needs to unlock London now, and I can tell you one thing: Sadiq Khant. And Sadiq Won’t. Sadiq Khan is ashamed to be British.”The Lewis actor finished in sixth place behind Niko Omilana, whose manifesto included ideas such as “all racists will have their teeth removed”, “to have to price of Fredos lowered back to 5p” and “to introduce stop and serve, which will include free school meals”.Fox took to Twitter to say he is “profoundly moved” by those who voted for him, and congratulated both Sadiq Khan and Shaun Bailey. More

Michael Gove has confirmed the next stage of lockdown easing will go ahead on 17 May despite admitting he is “genuinely worried” about the India Covid variant.The cabinet minister said Boris Johnson would announce on Monday that the lifting of restrictions on indoor mixing will proceed as set out on the government’s roadmap.It means restaurants and pubs will be free to reopen indoors, museums and hotels can reopen, and performances and sports can resume with caps on audience numbers.Mr Gove also indicated that “friendly contact” such as hugging can resume between friends and family, who will be allowed to meet indoors in groups of six and outdoors in groups of 30.Mr Gove told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge: “I’m genuinely worried, as everyone should be, about incidents of variants of concern, but there’s no indication at the moment that it need slow down the relaxation that we have as part of the roadmap.“I anticipate that the prime minister tomorrow will signal that we can enter into the next stage of relaxation in England.” The India variant, or B16172, was declared a variant of concern by Public Health England on Friday. Officials said that cases of this variant more than doubled, from 202 to 520, in the country over the last week. But the body added that there is currently “insufficient evidence” to suggest that it causes more severe illness or makes Covid-19 vaccines any less effective. Mr Gove said “friendly contact” between friends and family will be allowed from 17 May, but added that social distancing recommendations will remain in place elsewhere. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “It will be the case that we will see people capable of meeting indoors and, without prejudice to a broader view of social distancing, it is also the case that friendly contact, intimate contact, between friends and family is something we want to see restored.” Asked about hugging, the head of the Oxford University vaccine group Professor Andrew Pollard told Mr Marr that was time to start relaxing such restrictions. He said: “I think it is time to start, based on the very careful modelling that’s been done, relaxing some of those restrictions,” adding that “we’re in a very fortunate position here in the UK”. From 17 May, up to six people or two households will be allowed to meet indoors, while groups of under 30 will be allowed to gather outside. Pubs, cafés and restaurants can to seat people inside, while hotels, hostels, B&Bs, cinemas and children’s play areas will be allowed to reopen. Performances and sporting events can take place in and outdoors, as long as the seats are only half full. There is a cap of 1,000 people inside and 4,000 people outside, although up to 10,000 people can attend events at very large outdoor venues where social distancing is possible. The government has already announced that some international travel for leisure can resume from 17 May. However, only 12 destinations are currently on the government’s green list, such as Portugal and Israel, and not all of them are accepting foreign visitors. More

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday invited the leaders of the U.K.’s devolved nations for crisis talks on the union after Scotland’s pro-independence party won its fourth straight parliamentary election.Nicola Sturgeon leader of the Scottish National Party, said the election results proved that a second independence vote for Scotland was “the will of the country” and that any London politician who stood in the way would be “picking a fight with the democratic wishes of the Scottish people.”The United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with devolved governments in the latter three.Johnson congratulated Sturgeon on her re-election, but said to the leaders of the devolved governments that the U.K. was “best served when we work together.” The letter invited the leaders to a summit to “discuss our shared challenges and how we can work together in the coming months and years to overcome them.”Final results of Thursday’s local elections showed that the SNP won 64 of the 129 seats in the Edinburgh-based Scottish Parliament. Although it fell one seat short of securing an overall majority, the parliament still had a pro-independence majority with the help of eight members of the Scottish Greens. Sturgeon said her immediate priority would be steering Scotland through the coronavirus pandemic. But she said an independence referendum was “now a matter of fundamental democratic principle.” Johnson has the ultimate authority whether or not to permit another referendum on Scotland gaining independence. He wrote in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph that another referendum on Scotland would be “irresponsible and reckless” as Britain emerges from the pandemic. He has consistently argued that the issue was settled in a 2014 referendum where 55% of Scottish voters favored remaining part of the U.K. Proponents of another vote say the situation has changed fundamentally because of the U.K’s Brexit divorce from the European Union, with Scotland taken out of the EU against its will. In the 2016 Brexit referendum, 52% of U.K. voters backed leaving the EU but 62% of Scots voted to remain.When asked about the prospect of Johnson agreeing to a second Scottish referendum, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said Sunday “it’s not an issue for the moment” and that the national priority is on recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.“If we get sucked into a conversation about referenda and constitutions then we are diverting attention from the issues that are most important to the people in Scotland and across the United Kingdom,” Gove told Sky News. “Instead of concentrating on the things that divide, let’s concentrate on the things that unite,” he added.The Scotland results have been the main focus of Thursday’s array of local elections across Britain. In Wales, the opposition Labour Party did better than expected, extending its 22 years at the helm of the Welsh government despite falling one seat short of a majority.Labour’s support also held up in some big cities. In London, Mayor Sadiq Khan handily won a second term. Other winning Labour mayoral candidates included Steve Rotherham in the Liverpool City Region, Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester and Dan Norris in the West of England region, which includes Bristol. More

A House of Lords committee has called for a legal limit on numbers of new peerages, after Boris Johnson was accused of stuffing the red benches of the Upper House with his cronies.And the cross-party panel said that plans to cut the size of the Lords should be accelerated, including by ending the system of by-elections to replace hereditary peers.Theresa May agreed in 2017 to a voluntary restraint on appointments to the House of Lords, as part of a “two out one in” system designed to reduce the size of the second chamber to 600 over a decade.But her successor Mr Johnson was today accused of “undoing” the effort by appointing 79 new peers in less than two years in office compared to 43 by Ms May over a three-year period.The appointments – including his Brexit negotiator David Frost, aide Eddie Lister, donor Peter Cruddas and brother Jo Johnson – brought the total number of peers above 830, maintaining the House of Lords’ position as the second largest legislative chamber in the world after China’s National People’s Congress.In a report today, the Lord Speaker’s Committee on the Size of the House said that the voluntary approach was “too vulnerable to political events” and should now be replaced by a legal limit on appointments.Committee chair Lord Burns said:“The evidence shows that a voluntary approach is no longer working and any progress that has been made is being undone by too many appointments. “A new approach is therefore required if we are to make serious progress in this area.”The committee found that plans to reduce the number of existing peers were being implemented as set out in 2017, with 119 leaving during that period.But it said that in the same time, there have been 113 new appointments, nearly double the Committee’s recommended limit of 60.The Lord Speaker, Lord McFall of Alcluith, said:“Lord Burns and his committee have done important work and have proposed practical solutions to address the size of the House.“As Lord Speaker, I plan to raise these issues at the highest level. Now is the time to redouble our efforts and accelerate progress, not to give up. Ultimately, a smaller and more effective House will be of greater benefit to the public we are here to serve.” More

Michael Gove has repeatedly swerved questions over whether the UK government would attempt to block any legislation on a second Scottish referendum in the courts.Speaking after the SNP claimed a new mandate for a vote on Scotland’s future, despite falling just short of an overall majority at Holyrood, the Cabinet Office minister said it was a “massive distraction” to talk about future disputes.It comes as Boris Johnson heads for a constitutional clash with Nicola Sturgeon, who cemented her place once again as first minister of Scotland in the election, which could result in a Supreme Court showdown.Pressed on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday whether the UK government would look to block legislation from the Scottish Parliament pushing for a second referendum, Mr Gove insisted: “No, what’re working on doing at the moment is working together to deal with all the challenges that we face across the whole United Kingdom.”“If we get sucked into a conversation about referenda and constitutions then we are diverting attention from the issues that are most important to the people in Scotland and across the United Kingdom,” he added.Quizzed again, the senior minister went on: “To my mind, I’ll put it gently, a slightly skewed set of priorities to imagine that that is the most important issue.“Nicola Sturgeon to her credit said that the most important thing was making sure we dealt with this pandemic and that’s what we’re laser focused on.”Asked a third time, Mr Gove added: “No, we’re not even going there at the moment. What we’re concentrating on is making sure we work on recovery.“We’re not going to go there,” he said. “To go down this route, to start speculating about this type of legislation, or that type of court hearing and all the rest of it, is just a massive distraction.”Speaking after Mr Gove’s comments, the Scottish first minister said it would be “absurd and completely outrageous” if the UK government went to court in an attempt to block a second referendum.“It would mean a Conservative government had refused to respect the democratic wishes of the Scottish people and the outcome of a democratic election and tried to go to the Supreme Court to overturn Scottish democracy,” Ms Sturgeon told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.With all results declared north of the border, the SNP had increased its representation at Holyrood by a single MSP — to 64 — one less than the 65 needed for an overall majority.Alongside eight MSPs from the Scottish Greens, who also committed in their manifesto to a referendum, Ms Sturgeon insisted the results clearly demonstrated that a fresh vote is “the will of the country”.Under Article 30 of the Scotland Act, the first minister must seek authorisation from the UK prime minister for a referendum, something which Mr Johnson is likely to withhold.But she has pledged to “proceed with the legislation that is necessary”, warning that if it is passed by the Scottish parliament, the PM would need to go to the Supreme Court to stop it. More

Keir Starmer is imminently expected to reshuffle his top team amid recriminations over the party’s poor electoral performance and outrage over the decision to sack Angela Rayner as party chair.The Independent understands the Labour leader will unveil changes to his shadow cabinet later on Sunday in the first step of a shake-up of the party after he promised changes in response to the defeats on “Super Thursday”.As well as undertaking a reshuffle, Sir Keir has also hired Gordon Brown’s former chief pollster Deborah Mattinson – who has written a book about why Labour lost the so-called “Red Wall” at the 2019 general election – as director of strategy.It comes after Ms Rayner, the deputy leader, was removed from her position as national campaigns coordinator and chair on Saturday evening in a surprise move that escalated bitter in-fighting in the party’s ranks.Ms Rayner will be offered another senior position within Sir Keir’s team, but her office declined to comment, fuelling speculation over whether she will accept an alternative role. It is unclear whether Anneliese Dodds will retain her job as shadow chancellor, after speculation she will be moved from the position.Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, said his “understanding is that Angela Rayner is going to take a different position in the shadow cabinet”.“She has been a fantastic deputy leader, I am proud she is deputy leader of our UK party,” he added.The move to sack Ms Rayner from the role as party chair and national campaign coordinator led to accusations that Sir Keir was “scapegoating” the senior MP, blaming Labour’s dismal showing on his failure to offer voters a compelling vision.Reacting to the news, Andy Burnham, who was re-elected as mayor of Greater Manchester with an increased majority just hours earlier, posted on social media: “I can’t support this”.Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell insisted that Ms Rayner’s sacking as national campaign coordinator was a “huge mistake” by Sir Keir, adding: “I haven’t spoken to Angie. And let me be clear, I don’t have any brief for Angie – I didn’t support her as deputy leader, I supported Richard Burgon.“When the leader of the party on Friday said he takes responsibility for the election result in Hartlepool in particular and then scapegoats Angela Rayner, I think many of us feel that is unfair, particularly as we all know actually that Keir’s style of leadership is that his office controls everything.“It is very centralised and he controlled the campaign, so many of us think it is really unfair.”Another senior Corbyn-era figure, Diane Abbott, also told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday it was “baffling” why Sir Keir had decided to remove Ms Rayner from the position, adding: “She didn’t take any of the big decisions around Hartlepool and we’ve not heard anywhere in the country people saying they didn’t vote Labour because of Angela Rayner.” More

Boris Johnson is set to admit that his plans for investment to “level up” disadvantaged areas of the country will be hit by the need for additional spending to help the NHS to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.With a backlog of 4.7 million patients awaiting treatment, the prime minister will use Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech to warn MPs that extra money is needed to restore and rebuild the health service, and will promise to put it at the heart of his agenda over the remaining three years before the next election.Downing Street acknowledged that the coming years will see “significant constraints on public spending” due to the unprecedented scale of borrowing for the coronavirus response, which will make it “more challenging” to deliver on Mr Johnson’s levelling up agenda.But there was no immediate announcement of new money for the NHS, and health experts warned that recovery will be hampered by the absence of legislation to reform social care.The Queen’s Speech, which sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the coming year, is expected to make reference to the prime minister’s “ambition” to reform social care funding but will not commit him to tabling a bill in the 2021-22 session.There is deep frustration among health and care professionals over delays in delivering the plan to “fix the crisis in social care once and for all”, which Mr Johnson claimed to have prepared when he arrived in power in 2019.Suzie Bailey, the director of leadership at the King’s Fund health think tank, told The Independent: “Any investment in the NHS is always welcome and it’s good the government is recognising the size of the backlog.“However, what is needed is serious consideration of a long-term plan for the workforce, recognising the need to bridge the vacancy gaps in hospitals, mental health, primary care, community services and GPs and to respond to the well-being needs of NHS staff. “A recent survey found 44 per cent reporting feeling unwell as a result of stress in 2020. If you ask any chief executive, their biggest priority would be workforce recovery – having sufficient staff and staff who are well enough to be able to deliver.The government is expecting demand on the NHS to increase further in the coming weeks and months as people who have held back from visiting doctors during the pandemic come forward for treatment. Officials were said to be drawing up plans to deal with the unprecedented backlog.Mr Johnson is planning to make an “honest” assessment to the public about the huge scale of the challenge of ensuring that patients get the care that they need and to say that NHS service recovery will be central to his plans to level up the country.The government has announced £325m for diagnostics equipment and £1bn to kickstart elective services, as part of total additional funding of £92bn over the next two years.The Queen’s Speech will also bring forward legislation to empower the NHS to innovate and embrace new technology, as well as reforms to the Mental Health Act to address the impact of the pandemic on people’s wellbeing.A No 10 source said: “We have to be honest with the public about the damage done to the NHS by coronavirus and the scale of the challenge ahead.“Now more than ever the NHS is the government’s priority – and recovery of patient services is at the heart of that.“We need to achieve a national recovery that spreads opportunity and transforms the whole UK, and this Queen’s Speech will have that ambition at its core.”Mr Johnson is also promising legislation in the Queen’s Speech to support jobs, businesses and the economy in the wake of the pandemic, while delivering on commitments to create safer streets and neighbourhoods and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.The prime minister said: “The impact of the pandemic on people’s lives has been unique in our history.“My government is still focussed on beating this disease, saving lives and livelihoods and rolling out vaccines, but I am also determined that we look forward and get on with fulfilling the promises we have made to the British people.“Not only will we address the legacies of the pandemic, we will go further to unite and level up the country, fight crime and create opportunities up and down the country for businesses and families to build brighter futures.” More

Sadiq Khan has won a second term as Mayor of London, beating Conservative rival Shaun Bailey by a narrower than expected margin.Mr Khan, the Labour candidate, won more than 1 million first-preference votes, but turnout was only 42 per cent.In his victory speech, he said he wanted to “build a brighter future” for London after coronavirus.The incumbent gained 1,013,721 first-preference votes compared to Mr Bailey’s 893,051, then a further 192,313 second-preference votes compared to Mr Bailey’s 84,550.The result was declared at 11pm on Saturday.The Green Party came third behind the two main candidates, with Sian Berry getting 197,976 first-preference votes and 486,798 second-preference.Actor-turned-populist Laurence Fox gained 47,634 first-preference votes, while novelty candidate Count Binface beat Piers Corbyn with 24,775 against 20,604.It provided a glimmer of hope for Labour after it received a drubbing in local elections in England, losing control of a host of councils and a humiliating defeat in the Hartlepool by-election.In his victory speech from City Hall, Mr Khan said he was “deeply humbled” to be re-elected as mayor, and pledged to a build a “better and brighter future” for the capital following the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s in this spirit that I promise to lead London over the next three years, building bridges between the different communities in our city, building bridges across cultural, social and class divides,” he said.Mr Khan was first elected mayor of the capital in 2016 in a landslide victory, breaking the Conservatives’ eight-year hold on City Hall.The human rights lawyer-turned-politician became the first Muslim mayor of a major European capital.Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, southwest London, tweeted: “Once again Tooting’s own proves that hope always trumps hate. So proud.’’In his speech, Mr Bailey said Londoners had not “written him off”.“As I went through these, for me what was two years of campaigning, one feeling felt familiar to me, one challenge had always felt the same and that was the feeling of being written off – by pollsters, by journalists, by fellow politicians,” he said.“But it’s no surprise to me that Londoners didn’t write me off – when you come from where I come from and see the things I’ve seen as a poor boy who’s been homeless, who’s been unemployed, a youth worker in the city — you understand London is generous in spirit and will give you a hearing.” More