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Boris Johnson has urged members of the public not to breach lockdown restrictions by attending a planned vigil for missing-feared-dead London woman Sarah Everard.The Reclaim These Streets event is scheduled to go ahead on Saturday on Clapham Common, one of the locations Ms Everard is believed to have walked through before her suspected kidnap and murder. As well as marking the death of the 33-year-old, the event was tipped as an opportunity to reclaim the space amid a broader national conversation about the safety of women and girls in public areas at night.Asked whether the prime minister would advise people to steer clear of the event to avoid the risk of spreading Covid-19, Johnson’s official spokesman said: “We must urge people to remember that we are still in a pandemic and ask that they continue to follow the rules. “We would ask the public to continue to follow social distancing rules, but we do understand the strength of feelings in this case.”Under lockdown rules currently in place across England, it is against the law to leave your home except for a short list of reasons, including work, education, childcare, exercise or recreation with one other person, compassionate visits, essential activities like buying food and attending support groups of up to 15 people.Police can issue £200 Fixed Penalty Notices to people meeting in large groups, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400. Organisers of an illegal gathering can be fined £10,000.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayA spokeswoman for the group organising the vigil said it plans to appeal to the high court to challenge the Metropolitan Police’s interpretation of coronavirus restrictions with regard to human rights law.They claimed that while initially the force had appeared supportive of the vigil, they later withdrew their support – warning organisers that they would face fines of tens of thousands of pounds in fixed penalty notices as well as criminal prosecution.In statement, Reclaim These Streets said: “The Metropolitan Police said that they were ‘trying to navigate a way through’ and that they were ‘currently developing a local policing plan’ to allow the vigil to take place and to enable them to ‘develop an appropriate and proportionate local response’ to the event.”But they said that on Thursday, the Metropolitan Police “reversed their position and stated that the vigil would be unlawful, that their ‘hands are tied’ by the Covid-19 regulations and that, as organisers, we could face tens of thousands of pounds in fixed penalty notices and criminal prosecution under the Serious Crimes Act.”The group added: “We have decided to seek an urgent order from the High Court confirming that the Metropolitan Police’s understanding of the law is wrong.”The request for an order was expected to be heard on Friday ahead of the planned vigil in the evening. The Met was not immediately available for comment.Reclaim the Night marches and rallies have taken place in the UK since 1977, when the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group sought to use the events as a direct response to the serial murders of Peter Sutcliffe – also known as the Yorkshire ripper.In a statement on their website, organisers of the event said: “We believe that streets should be safe for women, regardless of what you wear, where you live or what time of day or night it is. We shouldn’t have to wear bright colours when we walk home and clutch our keys in our fists to feel safe”.“It’s wrong that the response to violence against women requires women to behave differently. In Clapham, police told women not to go out at night this week. Women are not the problem.” More

Goods sales to the EU plunged by 40.7 per cent in January – and imports slumped by 28.8 per cent – the largest declines since comparable records began in 1997.But David Frost, picked by Boris Johnson to negotiate the Christmas Eve agreement, pointed to pre-Christmas “stockpiling” and “Covid lockdowns across Europe” as explanations for the slump.“These effects are starting to unwind,” he argued, adding: “Freight volumes between the UK and the EU have been back to their normal levels for over a month now, i.e. since the start of February.”Lord Frost, now the Brexit minister, also said: “Many businesses have made the changes needed to trade effectively with the EU, but we are focused on providing active and extensive support to others who need to adapt.”But David Henig, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, said such denial flew in the face of “pretty much every reputable trade specialist and 100 years of trade theory”.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdaySam Lowe, senior research fellow at The Centre for European Reform think-tank, said: “I mean, it’s not particularly difficult to understand.“If you put up large barriers to international trade, the expected result is trading becomes more expensive and difficult, and therefore there is less trade than if the barriers were not there.”And Anton Spisak, a former Foreign Office policy adviser – pointing to an 83 per cent plunge in fish exports to the EU – taunted Lord Frost, saying “Somewhat difficult to stockpile fish, I think.”Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the figures were “an ominous indication of the damage being done to post-Brexit trade with the EU”.“The practical difficulties faced by businesses on the ground go well beyond just teething problems and, with disruption to UK-EU trade flows persisting, trade is likely to be a drag on UK economic growth in the first quarter of 2021.”That view echoes the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury watchdog, which forecast a £2.5bn hit to the UK economy – 0.5 per cent of GDP – in just three months. But Lord Frost called for “caution when interpreting these statistics”, insisting: “This month’s unique combination of factors made it inevitable that we would see some unusual figures this January.”Mr Henig warned the economic damage would continue, saying: “It will take some time for all of the goods and services trade effects of Brexit to become clear.“But there is currently little reason to think that forecasts of the order of a 5 per cent hit to GDP over a few years are likely to be wrong.” More

Rishi Sunak has admitted he remains “very bad on sugar,” consuming a cinnamon bun, muffins, cookes and cake every day.A recently resurfaced video clip from 2019 revealed the Chancellor considered himself a “total addict” to a Mexican variety of Coca-Cola which is sweetened with extra cane sugar.In a new interview the chancellor said he had cut down on the soft drink but continues to eat a lot of sugary goods.“I’m very bad on sugar. I eat a lot of sugar,” Mr Sunak said. “I have cinnamon bun in the morning, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast, cookies and cake in the afternoon. So I eat quite a lot of sugar.”He also told Politico’s Westminster Insider podcast that his favourite escape from work is playing 1990s video games, describing Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo as his “happy place”.He said: “Mario Kart on the SNES [Super Nintendo Entertainment System] is my happy place. My brother actually gave me a Christmas present a couple of years ago which was genuinely one of the best presents I’ve ever received – they relaunched SNES in this mini format. It was epic.”Mr Sunak also said Hinduism remains “an important part of my life” and revealed that he put a statue of Lord Ganesh on his desk to watch over Boris Johnson while the prime minister was first struck low from coronavirus.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday“Lord Ganesh is still on my desk in No 11 [Downing Street],” Mr Sunak said. “My wife was insistent we left it in there.”He added: “When the PM was sick … he was using my office in No 11, and I took all my stuff out – but Akshata was insistent we left that there for him, to keep an eye on him as well.” More

The government’s £4.8 billion “levelling-up” fund is funnelling cash to Conservative-voting areas by ignoring standard measures of deprivation and poverty when deciding where money should go.Labour has criticised the fund for disproportionately directing regeneration cash to wealthier Tory-voting areas above ex-industrial and mining towns. The government has now published the methodology for allocating cash, which appears to explain the disparity – which sees areas like leafy Richmondshire and Newark ranked above Barnsley and Salford as a priority for money.The former two areas’ MPs are chancellor Rishi Sunak and communities secretary Robert Jenrick, respectively. The formula for allocating cash does not take into account the usual indicators of deprivation, including the standard public sector Index of Multiple Deprivation.Instead, the fund disproportionately targets money at rural areas by prioritising those with low productivity and long commutes to work, with favours traditionally Conservative parts of the country.Any area’s council can make a bid to the fund, but their applications are judged on whether the fund judges that they are in a needy category or not.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayThe formula for categorising areas is based on a weighted index that takes into account area’s level of unemployment, productivity, and skills.But it also incorporates the length of the commute to the nearest town with 5,000 jobs, and how many empty commercial premises and homes it has.A previous analysis by the Financial Times newspaper found that 14 places in England that were wealthier than average were included in the fund’s most needy category. All of them have Conservative MPs. Boris Johnson previously said the disproportionate payments to Tory areas was because his victory at the 2019 election meant “there are a lot of Conservative-represented towns”.“I’ve asked about this and I’m told that the criteria was entirely objective – it takes in data on poverty, employment and so on,” he said.
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Labour has stepped up its election campaign attack over nurses’ pay by issuing a direct challenge to the Conservative candidate for London mayor to rebel against Boris Johnson’s 1 per cent offer. In a letter to Shaun Bailey, the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner called on the Tory candidate to “stand with our NHS heroes” by joining his Labour rival Sadiq Khan in demanding a bigger rise.The move came a day after Keir Starmer put the row over the pay offer at the heart of his campaign for the 6 May elections in London, Scotland, Wales and around 150 English councils, declaring: “A vote for Labour is a vote to support our nurses.”And it came as Mr Khan announced action to put nurses and other key workers on the frontline of the battle against coronavirus at the head of the queue for affordable housing.The London mayor said that new guidance for the capital’s borough councils will include an expectation that those on the list of key workers – also including police officers, transport workers, firefighters and teachers – should get priority access to homes to buy or rent below market rates.Mr Khan said: “London’s key workers are the lifeblood of our city and we all depend on their hard work every day – to keep us safe, to care for us, and to provide other essential services. “Their heroic service during the pandemic has further highlighted the injustice that many key workers still can’t afford to live in the capital. Making it easier for key workers to live in the city they serve with such dedication is the very least they deserve.”Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayIn her letter to Mr Bailey, Ms Rayner said that around 200,000 NHS workers in London will be left worse-off if the 1 per cent rise goes ahead at a time when inflation is expected to outstrip that figure.She pointed to legislation on the NHS long-term spending plan, tabled by the government last year, which was based on the assumption of a 2.1 per cent rise for all NHS staff.And she asked Mr Bailey: “This pay cut is the ultimate kick in the teeth to all our NHS heroes who have done so much to keep us safe over the past year. They have worked long hours, at times without the proper PPE, and too many have lost their lives working on the frontline.“My question to you is this: will you stand with our NHS heroes and call on the Government to give them the pay rise they deserve, or will you back Boris Johnson’s pay cut for our frontline workers?”Meanwhile, Mr Bailey went on the attack on Mr Khan after the mayor’s comment in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard that London “isn’t safe for women and girls”.The Conservative candidate – who was this week accused of politicising the case – has promised to recruit 8,000 more police and back stop-and-search, as part of a drive to reduce crime in the capital.Mr Bailey told TalkRadio: “He’s sat in front of us with a straight face and said that ‘London is no longer safe for women.’  That’s a failure on his part, that’s his job 1.01, the first thing he should be doing is making London safe for everyone.“If you look in London, if you’re black you’re four times more likely to be murdered. The black community’s been screaming at the mayor for a very long time to be protected, to have the police service out there on the streets but then the mayor’s refused to back the police, refused to make that section of the community safe and now we’ve got another section of the community that by his own admission is not safe.” More

Boris Johnson is facing a huge backlash from Conservative MPs in the north of England after the government decided to “call in” a controversial plan for a new deep coal mine in Cumbria.Communities secretary Robert Jenrick has told local leaders a public inquiry would have to be set up following “increased controversy” over the proposal, according to a letter seen by The Independent.It comes only days after US climate envoy John Kerry warned UK ministers that coal has “no future”, as pressure builds on No 10 to uphold its authority on carbon reduction ahead of the UN Cop26 summit in Glasgow in November.Tory backbenchers in the north of the England have reacted with fury to the news, complaining their constituencies could miss out on investment if the mine does not go ahead.In a statement, the MP for Workington Mark Jenkinson said the move represented a “capitulation to the climate alarmists,” adding his disappointment “cannot be overstated”.He reportedly told a WhatsApp group for fellow Tory MPs in so-called “red wall” seats in the north that ministers had “bowed to climate terrorists”.Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough and Whitby, told the WhatsApp group the UK could now be forced to buy steel “from those lovely Chinese people instead”, according to The Sun.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayThe government had come under fire from climate campaigners for refusing to intervene in the controversial Whitehaven coal mine plan, approved by Cumbria County Council on three separate occasions.In a letter sent to local leaders, Mr Jenrick’s department explained his change of heart came in light of a recent report from the UK’s independent climate advisers warning the UK must move away from using coal production within the next few decades.The letter stated: “The secretary of state has decided to call this application in because of the further developments since his original decision.“The Climate Change Committee’s recommendations for the sixth carbon budget have been published since he was advised on this decision … Furthermore, controversy about the application has increased.” More

Always keep your paperwork in order. Meghan Markle has kept “plenty of receipts” for her bombshell claims, according to Oprah’s best pal Gayle King. Meanwhile one of Meghan’s closest friends has revealed “there are plenty of emails and texts” still to come out. All the Brexit paperwork has clearly proved too much for Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. Having admitted trade problems are worse than teething, the government has decided on a whole series of delays on border checks. Downing Street now needs to get its paperwork in order for a looming lawsuit from the EU.Inside the bubblePolicy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today: More

A crucial system for the UK’s border security is running at least three years late despite “staggering” cost to taxpayers and may not be able to cope with expected passenger numbers, a scathing report has warned. The Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) project is the latest in a “miserable record” of “exorbitantly expensive” Home Office digital programmes stretching back 20 years that have failed to deliver either for the taxpayer or for border security, a Westminster spending watchdog found.Despite being initially slated to go live in 2019, the programme is being used by only 300 of the intended 7,000 border staff, with full rollout now not expected until March 2022, found the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.In a scathing judgment on Priti Patel’s department, the cross-party committee found that the Home Office’s record on delivering technology programmes was “poor”, with another project – the Emergency Services Network – six years late and costing taxpayers £650m a year.Delays to DSAB have already cost the taxpayer £173m, following on from losses of at least £340m on a predecessor e-borders programme which was ditched in 2011 after eight years in development without ever coming into service.The project was launched in In 2014 with a budget of £199 million to deliver a digitised border control system by 2019. But in 2019, it was “reset” by the Home Office, extending its delivery timescale by three years and adding £173m to the bill.Meanwhile, the report said, Border Force staff are using legacy systems which are at least 15 years old and are regarded by the department as “expensive, difficult to maintain and unfit for its future needs”. Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdaySome 140m passengers each year at 56 entry points to the UK are intended to pass through DSAB, which is regarded as is “crucial” to delivering national security objectives to protect the public from terrorism, crime, illegal immigration and trafficking and facilitate the legitimate movement of people across the border. But today’s report said that the Home Office still has no proof that it will be able to cope with passenger volumes at pre-Covid levels, “let alone the 6 per cent annual growth in the volume of passengers” the Home Office predicts.The committee blamed “optimism bias about delivery and a failure to be open and transparent about delays” for leaving the Home Office exposed to additional expense as it waited too long to reset the programme.The Home Office has failed to “identify, acknowledge and be transparent about problems” in delivering tech programmes, the report said.The committee called on the department’s top civil servant, permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft to report back within three months on a review of all of its major technology programmes.In a damning summary of the committee’s findings, the report said: “The Home Office has presided over a litany of failure in nearly 20 years of non-delivery of digital border programmes, with significant delays introducing additional costs to taxpayers, continued dependency on contractors to maintain legacy programmes, and delayed delivery of benefits to Border Force officers, other users and passengers.” And chair Meg Hillier said: “Immigration and border security are among the biggest political issues of our time. “It is incredible that the Home Office can have failed so badly, for so long, to deliver technology that is crucial to our national security objectives: crucial to protecting the public from terrorism, crime, illegal immigration and trafficking, and crucial to facilitating legitimate movement across the border.“The Home Office has struggled to get to grips with the technical challenges, resetting the programme and changing the leadership repeatedly. And it is the taxpayer hit by both the financial cost and the risks to our security.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “The home secretary agrees with the assessment made by the Public Accounts Committee of historical issues at the Home Office.“She is working closely with the permanent secretary to make changes within the department, and deliver value for money and results for the taxpayer.“Following the reset of the Digital Services at the Border programme in 2019, the rollout of the new Border Crossing system is on schedule to be completed by the end of June 2021, delivering increased efficiency and providing a better experience for travellers.” More