Markus Andrews

Efforts to ensure LGBT+ people are represented at the highest levels of government have stalled under Boris Johnson, according to the UK’s first openly gay male MP.Lord Chris Smith said the glass ceiling in parliament had “well and truly been broken” in terms of gay and lesbian members of the Lords and Commons – but claimed progress had since slowed.“The glass ceiling in the cabinet has been broken by quite a number of us over the years,” he said.“Sadly at present they seem to want to put it back in again.”Lord Smith, a former Labour cabinet minister, who revealed in 2005 he was HIV positive before standing down the same year, told the BBC in an interview to mark LGBT+ History Month that the prime minister had a “blind spot” on the issue.He encouraged Mr Johnson to “look to the greater talent that is out there”, saying it would “include some people who happen to be lesbian or gay”. He described the lack of openly LGBT+ cabinet ministers as a “matter of great regret” and urged the prime minister to bring in a more diverse team in “the next year or two”.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 government spokesperson told the BBC the prime minister was “committed to doing more to make sure the government fully represents the people it serves”.Lord Smith of Finsbury, who as culture secretary introduced free admission to British museums and galleries, spent 12 years as the only openly gay MP in the Commons after his election in 1984. More

The government will respond to a petition to make the day when all coronavirus restrictions could be removed a bank holiday after it was signed by more than 10,000 people.Boris Johnson has said he is “very optimistic” he will be able to completely end all of England’s coronavirus restrictions on 21 June. The prime minister warned “nothing can be guaranteed” and urged the nation to be “prudent” by continuing to follow the rules after he published his road map to gradually ease the third national lockdown over the coming months.Around 17,000 people had signed the petition on Parliament’s website calling for 21 June to be made a new national bank holiday on Tuesday night.The petition will receive a response from the government within 24 hours. It would would be considered for debate in Parliament if it garnered 100,000 signatures.David Metcalf, who created the petition, wrote: “We’d like the government to create a one off Bank Holiday, to be known as Merriweather Day, on Monday 21 June 2021 as an opportunity for families and friends to come together.”Earlier in the day, Downing Street said 21 June was the “earliest date” date for step four – when all coronavirus measures could be eased.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 weekdayWhen asked if Mr Johnnson would consider making the date a new national bank holiday, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “As it says, 21 June is the earliest for step four.”And as the road map sets out we need to continue to look at the evidence and data as we move through the road map.” More

Rishi Sunak is reportedly preparing to extend the stamp duty holiday which is due to end next month until the end of June.The chancellor will use his Budget on 3 March to move the tax break in order to bolster the property market as the UK recovers from the economic impact of lockdown, The Times reported.The government made a vast majority of house buyers exempt from paying the tax on properties worth up to £500,000 until the end of March, allowing people to save up to £15,000 in tax.The paper said extending the policy could cost the Treasury around £1bn.It also reported that Mr Sunak was expected to extend the furlough scheme, which is set to end on 30 April, until the end of June as people could return to work – at a potential cost of £4bn each month.The government has already spent £300bn on coronavirus measures to shield the economy over England’s three lockdowns.It comes after the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) urged Mr Sunak not to end the stamp duty holiday.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 report by the centre said the tax break had increased house sales to their highest level since before the 2007 financial crisis.Data shows that after an initial decline in sales between April and June 2020, the number of transactions increased from 132,090 in the second quarter to 225,870 in the third quarter and 316,300 by the end of quarter four – the highest level since 2007.The think tank’s research shows that stamp duty revenues actually rose by 27 per cent in Q3 compared to Q2, from £1.1bn to £1.35bn, and suggests they will rise again in Q4 given the continued increase in transactions.The think tank called on the government to either permanently increase the threshold on primary residences to £500,000 – at a cost of £3bn – or abolish it altogether.Additional reporting by Press Association More

There can be few cases more complicated and tortured than the war by proxy between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. The pair, once political allies and firm friends, are now engaged in mortal political combat. If the latest explosive claims made by Salmond against Sturgeon and others are upheld, it will mean that, among other things, she lied to the Scottish parliament, broke the ministerial code and she will have to resign. Resign, that is, in the middle of a pandemic during which she has mostly been held to have acquitted herself well, with crucial parliamentary elections in a matter of weeks, and little public clamour for her to go.It is an extraordinary state of affairs. It might have been better, all round, if their differences, profound and vital though they are, could have somehow been resolved in the purely political domain. Instead, they have been, and are continuing to be, fought in legal and quasi-legal arenas, with procedure taking precedence over substance, and bewilderingly so. More

In a heavy defeat for the government, the House of Lords backed a cross-party amendment to the Trade Bill by 367 votes to 214 — majority 153 — which would allow a parliamentary panel of judicial experts to make an initial determination on whether genocide had been carried out by a signatory to an agreement.The vote is the latest iteration of the legislative tussle between the House of Lords and Commons — known as parliamentary “ping pong”.With original proposals to give the High Court powers to determine whether a foreign power has committed genocide rejected by the government, the crossbench peer Lord Alton put forward a fresh amendment on Tuesday.Proposing a “tweak”, Lord Alton pressed for a parliamentary panel of former judicial experts — rather than the High Court — to be involved in making a determination on whether genocide has been carried out by a signatory to a trade agreement.Arguing for the measure, Lord Alton told peers: “We have failed to predict genocide, we have failed to prevent genocide, we have failed to protect victims of genocide and we have failed to prosecute perpetrators of genocide.“The genocide amendment is a modest attempt to begin to address some of those failings. The all-party amendment is a genuine attempt to try and meet the government halfway.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“We have tweaked the government amendment, which would enable the appropriate select committee to refer evidence, if they have found some, to an ad hoc judicial committee comprised of members of our House who have served at the highest levels of the judiciary.“Although emphatically it is not a court, which was the preferred option of peers, it would be empowered to determine whether the evidence is sufficient to support the claim that genocide has been or was being committed by a state counter-party to a bilateral trade agreement.”With peers overwhelmingly backing the measure, the amendment will now be passed back for a vote of MPs in the Commons, paving the way for a possibility of a significant Conservative rebellion once again.The issue has gained traction in recent months, with dozens of Tory MPs defying the government and voting for the measures, highlighting growing evidence of human rights abuses against the Uighur people, including reports of forced sterilisation, women being held in detention camps and rape.“As survivors of the Holocaust, we know the trauma of genocide,” they wrote in their open letter to Mr Johnson.They added: “Going forward as global Britain, the UK has a chance to be an international leader on this issue. We in the UK have identified the problems at the UN and with the limited jurisdictions of the international courts.“Yet, we are proposing no solutions to these problems. The obligation to prevent and punish genocide arises where the UK learns, or ought to learn, of a serious risk that genocide will be committed. It is imperative that the UK makes a preliminary determination of genocide whilst we still have time to act.”“Trade is not worth the price of a people. We simply cannot stand by when others remain silent. We cannot stand by whilst we carry on business as usual. Please meet with us ahead of the vote on the genocide amendment to discuss the changes we urgent need to see.”Addressing the UN Human Rights Council earlier this week, the foreign secretary Dominic Raab urged the United Nations to respond to China’s “appalling treatment” of the Uighur people, suggesting “no-one can ignore the evidence anymore”.He went on: “We see almost daily reports now that shine a new light on China’s systematic human rights violations perpetrated against Uighur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang. The situation in Xinjiang is beyond the pale.“The reported abuses – which include torture, forced labour and forced sterilisation of women – are extreme and they are extensive. They are taking place on an industrial scale.” More

Scotland’s economy will begin a “phased reopening” from the last week of April, as the country moves to a regional level system of coroanvirus restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.The move represents a break from the roadmap out of lockdown unveiled on Monday by Boris Johnson, who has made clear he will ease restrictions across the whole of England, regardless of regional infection rates.Ms Sturgeon also broke from Mr Johnson’s approach by telling the Scottish Parliament that she is ready to accelerate the introduction of restrictions after the end of April if evidence shows that it is safe.The Scottish first minister said that her framework for leaving lockdown was “deliberately cautious at this stage”, but would be flexible to respond to data on falling infection and death rates.She said that relaxations from 26 April will include the phased reopening of non-essential retail, pubs and restaurants, gyms and hairdressers.In stark contrast to Mr Johnson, who said he hoped to return England to near-normality on 21 June, Ms Sturgeon said that any dates set beyond the end of April would be “arbitrary” at this stage.Scotland has already moved independently from England by allowing the reopening of schools for all younger pupils from this week – two weeks before the return to classrooms south of the border.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 weekdayAnd Ms Sturgeon told MSPs that it was not “fair or reasonable” to set target dates months into the future.“I would love to stand here and say that by 21 June, we’ll all be back to normal completely,” she said.“I can’t say that with any certainty at all, because I don’t know what the grounding for that is, I don’t know what assessment gives confidence on that.“Much as I would like to go further out with dates, I don’t think it is fair or reasonable to do that right now, because we need to make sure that we have proper assessment and a proper basis for the confidence that the things we’re seeing might not be able to be guaranteed but have a reasonably good chance of being deliverable.“That’s my level of confidence in what I set out today. By two or three weeks’ time I hope to have the same level of confidence when we look further into April and perhaps even beyond to May.“But I think we’ve got to continue to treat people like grown-ups on this. People are fed up, we’re all fed up with this and we really want it to be over.“But I think we all have developed an understanding that it can’t be magicked away. We’ve got to get there in the right way, and in a way that is going to prove to be sustainable.” More

The Brexit trade deal will not be fully approved by the EU until the end of April, after the UK reluctantly agreed to a two-month delay.Ministers had resisted the move, insisting the “provisional application” given in December should end this month and warning about the “uncertainty” created.Although Michael Gove gave the go-ahead, he said the new ‘partnership council’ – which businesses hope will ease the crisis caused by the Christmas Eve agreement – should not “begin work” until ratification is completed. Brussels, unlike the UK, gave the deal only provisional approval after the frenzied negotiations continued into the final days of 2020 and the European Parliament refused to rush it through.It has allowed the new trading arrangements to be applied in practice, even though the European Parliament and the EU Council of national leaders have not yet signed it off.The request for delay flowed from the need to make the text available in all 24 EU languages, for scrutiny by the Parliament and the national governments.Brussels has played down any fears of the deal lapsing – but some believe any delay creates a vacuum in which the growing tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol could fester.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 More

Too much Brexit ‘red tape’, says Keir StarmerAlex Salmond’s written evidence has been removed from the Scottish parliament’s website, and is set to be replaced with a redacted version, after the Crown Office raised concerns about possible contempt of court. The former first minister’s evidence relating to the Scottish government’s infamous mishandling of harassment claims was published on Monday evening, ahead of his appearance at the inquiry this Wednesday. The Crown Office had written to Holyrood’s corporate body to ask for redactions or for the evidence to be removed from the website altogether. Meanwhile, a senior DUP MP has warned that the Northern Ireland Protocol has “the potential to cause political instability” as his party called on the government to remove it and restore the nation’s ability to trade freely with the rest of the UK post-Brexit.Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told MPs that Northern Irish businesses were experiencing “enormous difficulties” with their supply chains and warned it was the government’s “responsibility” to act.He said: “That is why we are calling on them to use their powers under the protocol to take the necessary action through Article 16 to resolve the diversion of trade, the disruption in trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and to restore the citizenship rights of the people of Northern Ireland to trade freely with the rest of the UK, a freedom they have enjoyed for 200 years.”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 weekdayShow latest update
1614092114Our deputy political editor, Rob Merrick, has more details below on the delay to the full approval of the Brexit trade deal:Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 14:551614091486Brexit deal will not be fully approved until end of April, Gove saysThe Brexit trade deal will not be fully approved until the end of April as the UK has agreed that the provisional application of the agreement should be extended, Michael Gove has admitted.The deal is yet to be ratified by the European Union and Brussels had requested an extension to the 28 February deadline.“Provisionally applying the agreement was not the United Kingdom’s preferred outcome given the uncertainty it creates for individuals and businesses and indeed the parties,” the Cabinet Office minister said.“Extending the period of provisional application prolongs that uncertainty.”In a letter to European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic, Mr Gove said the UK expected the EU to “satisfy its internal requirements” before 30 April and “that we would therefore not be asked to further extend the period” beyond that date.Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 14:441614091138Sturgeon breaks with England by announcing return to tiered restrictionsScotland’s economy will begin a “phased reopening” from the last week of April, as the country moves to a regional level system of coronavirus restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.Our political editor, Andrew Woodcock, has more on this breaking story below:Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 14:381614090426Salmond lawyers demand legal justification for redacting evidenceAlex Salmond’s lawyers have demanded to know the legal justification for the Scottish parliament redacting swathes of his written evidence, warning that the decision could jeopardise his planned appearance before a Holyrood committee tomorrow.The Scottish parliament took down evidence from its website today, in which Mr Salmond alleged Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code, after concerns about possible contempt of court were raised by the Crown Office.It was replaced with a redacted version of the written submission with five sections censored.“Our client’s submission was carefully reviewed by us and by counsel before submission,” David McKie of Levy and McRae solicitors wrote.“There is no legal basis for the redactions that we are aware of which you now propose having gone through that extremely careful exercise.”Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 14:271614089998Labour warns delaying gender pay gap measures could cause ‘permanent damage’Labour has warned that the decision to postpone enforcement measures against companies that do not report their gender pay gap by an extra six months could cause “permanent damage” to gender equality.Marsha de Cordova, shadow women and equalities secretary, said on Tuesday that all available evidence suggested that the coronavirus crisis was having “awful consequences” on women’s representation in the workforce.Our women’s correspondent, Maya Oppenheim, has the full story below:Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 14:191614088920Johnson should apologise for remarks about journalists, Labour saysBoris Johnson should apologise for his suggestion that journalists are always “abusing” others, Labour’s shadow media minister has said.“For Boris Johnson to say journalists are ‘always abusing people’ probably says more about his own career,” Chris Matheson said in a statement.“It is particularly troubling coming so soon after the prime minister stood by one of his ministers who attacked a journalist who was just trying to do her job.”Mr Matheson added: “We know from Donald Trump that these kind of assaults on the free press are dangerous and designed to stir up distrust and division.“Boris Johnson should withdraw these remarks and apologise.”Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 14:021614088029Our reporter, Adam Forrest, has more details below on the removal of former SNP leader Alex Salmond’s evidence to the inquiry into harassment allegations against him:Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 13:471614087666Car-makers ‘paddling furiously below water’ to maintain post-Brexit supply chainsCar-makers are “paddling furiously below the water” to maintain their supply chains post-Brexit, an industry leader has warned.Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, told MPs that the movement of parts had been “difficult” since the end of the transition period.Mr Hawes told the Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee that there was a “pervading sense of relief” in the industry that an agreement on trade had been negotiated with the EU.“We ended up, I think, with a deal that in many ways works for the sector, most obviously in the avoidance of tariffs and quotas which would have been a severe brake on the industry,” he said.“However, it doesn’t mean zero cost. The industry is trying to manage its supply chains. We are integrated within the European, if not the global, industry, so the supply chains do stretch far and wide.“All the industry is … I characterise it as paddling furiously below the water to keep things going.”Mr Hawes added that the administration required to move goods in and out of the UK is “significant” and a “major challenge”.Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 13:411614086324Boris Johnson suggests journalists are always ‘abusing’ othersBoris Johnson has suggested that journalists are always “abusing” others and that “guilt” led him to swap the profession for politics.Speaking to a group of schoolchildren, the prime minister said: “When you are a journalist you think ‘great, great job’… But the trouble is that… sometimes you find yourself always abusing people or attacking people.”Our Whitehall editor, Kate Devlin, has the full story below:Conrad Duncan23 February 2021 13:181614084651PM: Vaccine passports could be banned in some circumstancesA government review of Covid vaccine and testing certification could lead to a ban on demands for proof of immunity in certain circumstances, Boris Johnson has suggested.The PM’s comments raise the possibility that the review, to be led by Michael Gove and report by 21 June, will bar employers from implementing “no jab, no job” rules or pubs and restaurants excluding people who have not been vaccinated.Mr Gove’s review is expected to look not only at the question of vaccine passports but also into whether people could be issued with official certification to prove a recent negative Covid-19 test, possibly in the form of an entry on the NHS smartphone app.​Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi previously warned the implementation of vaccine passports could lead to “discriminatory” issues.Our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports:Sam Hancock23 February 2021 12:50 More