Markus Andrews

Postal voting forms should be sent to every household in areas holding elections this May to ensure that fear of coronavirus does not stop elderly and vulnerable people and ethnic minorities from casting their ballots, London mayor Sadiq Khan has said.His call came as Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the government of undermining democracy and public health by failing to take steps to encourage people to sign up to vote from home by post.Ms Rayner accused ministers of “burying their heads in the sand”, warning that government inaction risks disenfranchising voters while delivering dangerously crowded polling stations and long queues on election dayMr Khan wrote to the constitution minister, Chloe Smith, urging the government to fund a mail out by local authorities, warning that low turnout could fuel inequalities that already see disproportionately few votes cast by disadvantaged parts of society.His letter came as Ms Smith announced new rules on campaigning to allow free and fair local elections for 149 English councils, 13 directly elected mayors, and 39 police and crime commissioners on 6 May, the same day as elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.Mr Khan welcomed the decision to press ahead with the largest ever set of ballots outside a general election, many of them – including the London mayoral vote – postponed from 2020.But he warned that staging the ballots at a time when England will still be in step two of Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown, with outdoor gatherings limited to six people and indoor mixing still banned, could lead to historic low turnouts – especially among black and minority ethnic (Bame) communities, vulnerable people and the elderly.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“I am still concerned at the potential for low voter turnout, given the circumstances under which the elections will be held,” wrote the mayor. “We know that the virus disproportionately affects Bame people, as well as older and vulnerable people, and we must ensure that they are similarly not disproportionately affected when it comes to being able to cast their vote.“I welcome the government’s move to make it easier to vote by proxy and the publication of the Election Delivery Plan, but I urge you to go further. “I am therefore calling on you to launch a widespread public awareness campaign on postal vote registration [and] make further funding available to local authorities to send postal vote registration forms to every household.”Mr Khan insisted: “This is not a party political issue, rather it would maximise participation in our democracy.“I am concerned that unless messages about the options available to vote in the elections are conveyed widely, through a government-backed campaign, and not just in London, but other regions too where elections are being held, there is a very real chance that the voting inequalities that already exist in our society will be further exacerbated in May’s elections.”And Ms Rayner said: “The government has had nearly a year to sort this out and protect our democracy, but ministers have once again been too slow to act. “With ten weeks to go, we are yet to see a proper plan from the government setting out how these elections will be run safely, while councils face shortages of electoral staff, lack of venues, and funding uncertainty.”She added: “It is clear that fairly stringent measures will still be in place in May, so it is completely inexplicable that the government is not taking urgent action to get people signed up to vote from home by post.”New rules announced by Ms Smith will allow party activists in the local elections to campaign outdoors in a Covid-secure way from 8 March.Individual campaigners will be permitted to deliver leaflets and speak with electors on their doorsteps, but must always be socially distanced and not enter inside people’s homes.From 29 March, the planned provision for six people or two households to meet outdoors will permit activists to campaign in a group in their local area.The government this week published draft legislation that will enable voters who have tested positive for Covid-19 or are self-isolating to apply for an emergency proxy vote at short notice before election day.Ms Smith said: “Democracy should not be cancelled because of Covid. Voters appreciate being well-informed and campaigning is an important part of effective elections.“The guidance I have set out can give voters and candidates confidence that free and fair elections can be delivered on 6 May and, most crucially, in a Covid-secure way.“I urge political campaigners to continue to show social responsibility, and for parties, agents and candidates to ensure that their campaigners understand the clear rules.” More

A taskforce to crack down on Covid fraudsters is to be launched in chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget next week.Backed by £100m of government money, the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce will deploy a team of more than 1,250 HM Revenue and Customs officials to investigate and prosecute people who have unlawfully claimed cash under schemes designed to help businesses and workers weather the pandemic.They include businesses which claimed furlough payments for more people than they employ or took the support – up to 80 of wages for staff who would otherwise be laid off – while employees continued to work as normal.Some restaurants are believed to have made substantial Eat Out to Help Out claims despite all of their staff being on furlough at the time when the scheme was operating last summer.HMRC have already opened about 10,000 inquiries into suspected fraudulent activity and have in some cases begun criminal investigations.Arrests secured so far include a West Midlands man suspected of furlough fraud totalling £495,000.Mr Sunak said: “Our coronavirus support schemes have helped millions of honest, hard-working people – but a small minority have seen this pandemic as an opportunity to defraud the taxpayer.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“This will not be tolerated, which is why the new taskforce will crack down on this criminal activity.”The new taskforce will be announced as part of a package of measures to tackle fraud and abuse that will also include raising awareness of enforcement action in order to deter criminal activity.Officials will sift through payment data, PAYE records, other information, and reports from the public to identify potential wrongdoing.Alongside the taskforce, the Chancellor is expected to announce measures to further tackle fraud in the Bounce Back Loan scheme. It is understood that this will build on guidance issued to lenders which has resulted in the prevention of over 42,000 fraudulent or ineligible applications and include action to prevent and deter rogue company directors from abusing the scheme. More

Rishi Sunak risks a “financial crisis” if he fails to raise taxes to pay for coronavirus spending, and must be ready to increase taxes on ordinary workers and shoppers as well as big business, former chancellor Kenneth Clarke has said. The Tory grandee said Mr Sunak should ditch a core promise of Boris Johnson’s 2019 Conservative manifesto not to raise rates of income tax, VAT or national insurance, to enable himself to start paying down the historically high £2 trillion debt accused as a result of massive borrowing to prop up the economy during the pandemic. And he said he would scrap tax reliefs for over-65s, who currently do not pay national insurance contributions on earnings.The chancellor has sparked a row with backbench Tory MPs by signalling that he will use his 3 March Budget statement to “level with” voters about the need for belt-tightening to pay for his £280bn package of support for jobs and businesses hit by Covid-19.With a rise in corporation tax from 19 to 23 per cent expected next Wednesday, some Conservatives have said Mr Sunak should instead focus on extending coronavirus support and investing in growth to take Britain out of its economic doldrums.But Lord Clarke, who is credited with leading the UK from recession to financial stability as chancellor from 1993-97, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Sunak must not shy away from rises in personal taxes like income tax, national insurance and VAT.The Tory peer – briefly expelled from the party by Mr Johnson for opposing a no-deal Brexit – said that the chancellor must extend successful elements of his coronavirus support package, like the furlough payments which cover up to 80 per cent of wages of workers who would otherwise be laid off.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 weekdayBut he added: “That means more spending, more debt by the government. “What he also has to do is start actually preparing for how he’s going to get that debt under control, how he’s going to return the burden of debt to normality, how he’s going to raise taxation.“Every sensible person knows that this spending we’ve embarked on to stop the economy collapsing is taxpayer spending. This is the taxpayer’s debt that we’re piling up now. “And if we don’t actually get it under control and signal how are we going to get back to fiscal common sense before inflation comes back and interest rates go up, we’ll face a financial crisis, with the burden of paying interest on it, overseeing it and the problem of renewing it when it comes up.”Lord Clarke said that the chancellor has scope to increase taxes on business, which remain low in the UK by comparison with other highly developed states.But he said he would put corporation tax up “cautiously” while focusing his attention on personal taxation.“The three main taxes – income tax, VAT and national insurance – provide more than half of the revenue, they are tied to spending and income and are progressive,” said the former chancellor. “He must look at them.”Lord Clarke dismissed the significance of breaking manifesto promises not to hike the main tax rates, pointing out that the authors of the document had no idea of the massive economic blow which would shortly hit the country.“I think you could explain the manifesto to any sensible person by pointing out that was written with no-one predicting anything like the Covid crisis or anything like the borrowing that the government has had to embark upon,” he said.And he said backbenchers must be persuaded that the burden of paying for coronavirus support must fall largely on the traditionally Conservative-voting older middle classes.“This crisis has been so unfair,” said Lord Clarke. “It has hit the poor, the young, the low-paid and the vulnerable. “The comfortable middle classes, the older middle class, comfortable and retired, are actually financially better off because of the crisis because their house prices have gone up, their investments have increased in value thanks to quantitative easing and they saved money which they haven’t been able to spend on their holidays. “I personally would make all people over the age of 65 who continue with full time work pay the same tax as people under 65.” More

Rishi Sunak will use next week’s Budget to set out new plans to get young people in England into work after the disruption to their careers caused by coronavirus. The chancellor will announce £126m funding for 40,000 new traineeships, alongside new cash incentives for firms to take on apprentices and a new programme allowing apprentices to work for a number of employers within a sector rather than stick to just one job.The initiatives won the backing of the son of former prime minister Tony Blair, Euan Blair, now chief executive of Multiverse, which matches young people with apprenticeship posts.But the Learning and Work Institute said that Mr Sunak must go further by extending furlough support to pay the wages of staff who would otherwise be laid off, maintaining the Kickstart plan for young jobseekers and keeping the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit.The think tank’s chief executive Stephen Evans said the chancellor’s announcements were welcome, but added: “Speed is of the essence: the extra traineeships announced last summer are yet to be delivered, so we need an urgent focus on action on the ground. “And we need more clarity on how all these initiatives fit together: we have argued for a youth guarantee to ensure all young people are offered a job, training place or apprenticeship. “The Plan for Jobs will make a difference, but with unemployment likely to rise further the government will need to go further, including extending furlough support and Kickstart and keeping the uplift to universal credit in place.”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 weekdayDetails of the plans emerged as the chancellor came under continued pressure to extend coronavirus support for businesses beyond the end of Boris Johnson’s roadmap for lifting the bulk of restrictions to social and economic life by June.With Mr Sunak expected to say on 3 March that the package of furlough payments, business rate reliefs, eviction bans and VAT breaks will be extended in line with Mr Johnson’s timetable, business organisations and unions have queued up to urge the chancellor to extend it further to the end of 2021 to give companies a chance to get back on their feet.Today, the Betting and Gaming Council issued a plea for the extension of business rates relief for a full 12 months, to help betting shops and casinos after a year in which gross gambling yield fell by £1.7bn.“With premises shut for much of the past year, this would help protect jobs and remove a major financial pressure on businesses that have suffered a significant loss of income during the pandemic,” said BGC chief executive Michael Dugher.Meanwhile, the Food and Drink Federation called on Mr Sunak to announce a review of regulatory burdens on the industry, warning that companies will lose many times the £260m of profit which the government predicts from proposed promotional restrictions and a ban on online advertising.Under Mr Sunak’s “flexi-job” apprenticeship scheme, young people will be able to sign up to agencies which will place them in posts with a series of employers within a sector over the course of an apprenticeship.From July, employers will be able to bid for money from a £7m fund to create agencies, with the first flexible apprenticeship due to start in January 2022.The scheme is designed to allow young people to gain experience in industries such as film and TV which often rely on short-term projects rather than a continuous stream of work.Cash incentives for employers to take on apprentices will be increased from April to £3,000 per recruit, from the current level of £2,000 for a 16-24-year-old and £1,500 for over-25s.And £126m of new money will go into traineeship places for 40,000 16-24-year-olds who lack the skills, experience and confidence to start an apprenticeship or job, and are offered work experience, coupled with England, maths and digital skills training, for between 6 weeks and 12 months to prepare them for work.Mr Sunak, said: “Our Plan for Jobs has spread opportunity and hope throughout the crisis, helping people back into work and harnessing their talents for the future.“We know there’s more to do and it’s vital this continues throughout the next stage of our recovery, which is why I’m boosting support for these programmes, helping jobseekers and employers alike.”Euan Blair said: “By backing the employers creating more apprenticeships, these incentives should support firms to tackle critical skills gaps and help power the economic recovery.“We’ve had over 100,000 applications for our recent tech and digital apprenticeships and some of the most talented people in the country are pursuing this route. It’s great to see apprenticeships playing a central role in the government’s thinking.” More

First-time buyers with small deposits will get a leg up onto the property ladder with a mortgage guarantee scheme in next week’s Budget.Rishi Sunak plans to incentivise lenders to provide mortages to first-time buyers and current homeowners, with just 5 per cent deposits to buy properties worth up to £600,000.The chancellor will set out on Wednesday how the government will offer lenders the guarantee they require to provide mortgages covering the remaining 95 per cent.The Treasury said low-deposit mortgages have “virtually disappeared” because of the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.The prime minister, Boris Johnson, said: “I want generation rent to become generation buy and these 95 per cent mortgage guarantees help to deliver this promise.”Young people shouldn’t feel excluded from the chance of owning their own home and now it will be easier than ever to get onto the property ladder.”The scheme, which will be subject to the usual affordability checks, will be available to lenders from April.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 weekdayIt is based on the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme introduced in 2013 by David Cameron and George Osborne, that ran until June 2017.Aiming to reinvigorate the market following the 2008 financial crisis, that scheme was said to have helped more than 100,000 households buy a home across the UK.Mr Sunak said: “Owning a home is a dream for millions across the UK and we want to help as many people as possible.“Saving up for a big deposit can often be difficult, and the pandemic has meant there are fewer low deposit mortgages available.”Additional reporting by PA More

But Mr Hancock warned that “this isn’t over yet”, pointing to figures which showed that the recent fall in case numbers is now slowing, and has flattened completely in some areas of the country.One in five local authority areas in the country has seen a rise in numbers of cases over the past week, he told a 10 Downing Street press conference.And deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam warned that Britons cannot afford to let their guard down and “take your foot off the brake” by relaxing their observation of social distancing rules by meeting relatives and friends.“We are not yet collectively as a country in the right place,” warned Prof Van Tam. “All the rules still apply until we are in a much safer place.“It’s a bit like being 3-0 up in a game and saying ‘We can’t lose this’. But how many times have you seen the other side come back and win 4-3?“Do not wreck this now. We are so close.”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 weekdayMr Hancock said: “The data show that we are heading in the right direction. “The number of cases is now down to one in every 145 people and the rate of decline is continuing. But actually the pace of it is slowing.“The rate of hospital admissions shows a fall of 40% over the past fortnight. But there are still 15,485 people in hospital, and that’s far too high.“The number of deaths has more than halved in the last fortnight. But 380 deaths were reported each day on average over the last week, and that is far too high.“The good news is that the link from cases to hospitalisations and deaths, which has had a grim inevitability throughout 2020, that link is now breaking thanks to the vaccination programme. “The pressure on the NHS means that the UK chief medical officers have agreed that the UK alert level has been moved down from level five to level four, which is, of course, great news. But level four still means that there is significant pressure on the NHS.“The number of cases is now falling by only 15% a week. In some areas of the country that has flattened entirely, and one in five local authority areas has seen a rise in cases in the last week.”And he added: “This stark picture shows that this isn’t over yet.“The stay-at-home rules are still in place for a reason. Every action that you take, every time you put your mask on, every time you stay at home, you’re playing your part. This is on all of us to keep this under control.“This is still a deadly virus. We will get through this. But we have to stick at it. We must remain vigilant.” More

Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister has ordered officials to stop construction of permanent facilities for post-Brexit checks on agri-food goods arriving from Great Britain.Gordon Lyons, a DUP assembly member for East Antrim, also ordered a halt of further recruitment of inspection staff and an end to charges levied at the ports on traders.He said the move was in response to the “practical difficulties’’ and uncertainty caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol.Irish Sea trade checks, which are taking place at existing repurposed port buildings and other temporary facilities, will continue. Mr Lyons’ decision relates to ongoing work on new purpose-built inspection facilities.The minister made the announcement in an interview with PA news agency, claiming his officials have been warning him that the port control posts are unlikely to cope when the regulatory grace period ends at the start of April. He told PA that supply chains into Northern Ireland were also unlikely to hold up when the red tape increases on that date, adding: “It’s a real nightmare for us and it’s going to be causing us an awful lot of problems.“The risk to Northern food supply in those circumstances will remain high so there’s a lot of practical difficulties with all of this and that’s causing us a huge amount of uncertainty.”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 Mr Lyons said he believed his decision to halt work on the facilities was “a reasonable and proportionate step to take” and insisted the UK and EU had to find “permanent solutions” to the issues caused by the protocol.He added: “My own point of view is I think the protocol needs to be scrapped, it is not working. The evidence we have so far shows it’s not working and it’s only going to get worse at the end of the grace period.”However Sinn Fein deputy first Minister Michelle O’Neill branded Mr Lyons’s move a “stunt”. She tweeted: “The protocol is a consequence of Brexit. The DUP championed Brexit and must own the consequences. Business and society need certainty, not stunts.”SDLP infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon questioned whether Mr Lyons could take the decisions without wider approval of the Stormont Executive, describing the move as “controversial and cross cutting”. A UK Government spokesman said: “This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive. We remain in close contact with them.’’ New inspection facilities were being constructed by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to fulfil a legal duty under the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol agreed between the UK government and the EU after Brexit.The protocol necessitates checks on goods entering the province from Great Britain and red-tape restrictions on the movement of goods have mounted despite previous assurances from Westminster that such trade barriers would not exist.Earlier this week DUP leader Arlene Foster and other members of her party launched court action to argue that the new goods checks were imposed without public consent, claiming that the protocol was putting the Union at risk. More

Political tensions in Armenia remained high Friday, a day after the prime minister accused top military officers who demanded his resignation of an attempted coup.Nikol Pashinyan has faced opposition calls to step down over a Nov. 10 peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce fighting with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The peace agreement saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that had been held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century.Earlier this week, Pashinyan dismissed the first deputy chief of the military’s General Staff that includes the armed forces’ top officers. In response, the General Staff called Thursday for Pashinyan’s resignation, but he doubled down and ordered that the chief of the General Staff be dismissed.Pashinyan’s spat with the top military officers encouraged the opposition supporters. Over 20,000 rallied in the Armenian capital, demanding the prime minister’s resignation, while Pashinyan led his own supporters at a rival rally.Some opposition demonstrators put up tents outside the government headquarters and barricaded the main avenue to press their demand for Pashinyan’s resignation.The top military officers didn’t make any further moves Friday in the wake of their demand for Pashinyan to step down.Pashinyan’s order on Thursday to dismiss the chief of the General Staff, Col.-Gen. Onik Gasparyan, is subject to approval by the nation’s largely ceremonial president, Armen Sarkissian, who has three days to decide.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 weekdaySarkissian, who has had previous frictions with Pashinyan and earlier called on him to step down, met Friday with the General Staff chief and opposition leaders but didn’t make any public statements. Speaking at Friday’s rally, opposition leader Vazgen Manukyan said that “the next few days will be decisive for our struggle.” He added that if Pashinyan succeeds in forcing the General Staff chief out, “the army will rise.” The crisis has its roots in Armenia’s humiliating defeat in heavy fighting with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh that erupted in late September and lasted 44 days. A Russia-brokered agreement ended the conflict in which the Azerbaijani army routed Armenian forces — after more than 6,000 people died on both sides.Pashinyan has defended the peace deal as a painful but necessary move to prevent Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region, which lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. The political crisis in Armenia is being watched closely, particularly in Russia and Turkey, which are competing for influence in the South Caucasus region. The United States and the European Union have urged all parties in Armenia to exercise calm and to de-escalate tensions.Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed. More