Markus Andrews

Hundreds of renters have been thrown out of their homes in the middle of lockdown after the government caved in to landlord lobbying and introduced loopholes to its eviction ban. New figures show eviction attempts by landlords doubled during the winter coronavirus lockdown, while more than 500 households were forced out by county court bailiffs.The government promised in March that nobody would be made homeless because they had lost their income due to coronavirus, and put a blanket ban on evictions.But after lobbying from landlord groups, ministers introduced new loopholes to the policy so that those hit hardest by the pandemic and furthest behind on rent could be kicked out.As of January, anyone with rent arrears over six months can be evicted, even if the shortfall was accrued during the pandemic. Previous versions of the ban required debt to have been built up over nine months or more, not including that accrued after the start of the first lockdown. The 500 households figure for those forced out by bailiffs is likely to be “the tip of the iceberg”, as overall homelessness rose by nearly 4,000 households to 68,680 in the most recent data available.In the final quarter of 2020 more than 2,000 orders were issued for people to leave their homes.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 weekdayLabour said the government was breaking its promise and that the ban needed to be strengthened. “Far from ‘putting their arms around the British people’, the government allowed hundreds of renters to be evicted during lockdown,” said shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire.“This is just the tip of the iceberg, as tens of thousands were made homeless during the winter months.“Everybody deserves security in their home, but throughout the Covid crisis, the government has consistently made last minute decisions that put renters at risk.“Ministers promised nobody would lose their home because of coronavirus, but the current ban isn’t working. The government should give people security in their homes, by strengthening and extending the ban for the period that restrictions are in place.” More

One of Alex Salmond’s accusers said she has found the ongoing Holyrood inquiry into the original probe of the former first minister’s conduct “more traumatic” than the High Court trial, in which she gave evidence.During an interview with the BBC’s Sunday Show, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said ministers had “let down” the “courageous” women who came forward to accuse Mr Salmond once before and were in the process of doing it again.“It takes a lot of courage to report sexual harassment, particularly against a very powerful person,” she told presenters on the programme.“I think that [the investigating committee] really had an opportunity to ensure that they could investigate the creation of procedures that would make it safe and easy for women to come forward and they have made it significantly harder.”The 2020 investigation into Mr Salmond, after 10 women accused him of sexual assault, was previously found to be “tainted by apparent bias” by the Court of Session, prompting officials to launch a fresh committee inquiry into the process.Mr Salmond challenged the legality of the Scottish government’s original investigation and it emerged that the government-appointed investigating officer, Judith Mackinnon, had made prior contact with two of the complainants.The judicial review was eventually conceded by the Scottish government and Mr Salmond received a £512,250 payout for his legal fees. Mr Salmond was ultimately acquitted of all 13 of the sexual assault charges against him.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 weekdayHis accuser spoke out on Sunday to claim the government was now exploiting the experiences of these women for its own “self-serving political interests”.She said the committee investigating the initial probe had turned the issue into a “political fight” and suggested any of its findings would be “utterly useless”. She also denied claims that there had been a conspiracy to target the former first minister.Asked about the complaints procedure, the woman said: “From what I can see it hasn’t been fixed yet and I think the thing that’s really disappointing, particularly through the committee process, is that the fact that committee members have turned this into a political fight has effectively allowed the government to get away with not being properly scrutinised by members on its procedures.”She added that the case had made it “much harder for women to be believed and for women to be able to come forward”.Criticising the way the committee has acted, she said: “It’s actually, in many ways, more traumatic than the experience of the High Court trial.”The woman said she had hoped the committee would “properly investigate the government” in order to help eradicate sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace but, instead, “what has happened is they have taken your very personal experiences and they have exploited them for their own self-serving political interests, and that in and of itself is something that’s really traumatic”.
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From having panic alarms installed to encountering vitriolic abuse on social media on a daily basis, it is no secret female MPs see their political careers plagued by harassment both online and in person.Nadia Whittome, the youngest MP in Westminster, may have only been a parliamentarian for just over a year but she already has firsthand experience of how this abuse plays out.The 24-year-old, who is the Labour MP for Nottingham East, tells The Independent of how she has been forced to go to the police over death threats and is regularly subjected to hate mail and racist abuse on social media.She says she no longer looks at her own social media comments and her staff have to spend their time trawling through hate mail and racist abuse.“I’ve had death threats,” Ms Whittome says. “I don’t look at my social media comments. It is a bit irritating so much time from my staff team has to go into archiving hate mail and abuse.”She adds: “It is probably in a sense not so bad for me as I don’t look at it. But my staff do and they are already doing a very difficult job. My team and I serve a constituency that has been hit very hard since 2010 with high levels of deprivation. Some of the cases we deal with are harrowing, so they don’t need to see racist abuse in their inbox as well. With death threats, we go to the police.”Research has found black and minority ethnic female MPs are subjected to far more abuse online than their white peers – with a previous study by Amnesty International discovering black female MPs and journalists were 84 per cent more likely to be mentioned in abusive tweets than white women.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 weekdayMs Whittome’s Labour colleagues have also suffered abuse. While Diane Abbott has endured daily rape and death threats, Dawn Butler was forced to shut her constituency office after racist threats against her intensified. Racist harassment of women MPs escalated further last summer – with The Independent reporting on the deluge of abuse and death threats black women MPs suffered after voicing support for Black Lives Matter protests.Ms Whittome, who is of Punjabi descent and the first ethnic minority MP to be elected in Nottingham, also hit out at the divisive politics employed by the Conservative Party as she warned the women and equalities minister Liz Truss was seeking to pit people against each other.Ms Truss, who also serves as the international trade secretary, recently announced the government would be moving the UK’s equalities agenda away from so-called fashionable issues of race and gender. The Conservative minister criticised “the left”, “identity politics”, “virtue signalling” and “the idea of lived experience” in a speech in December.“It just makes me so angry,” Ms Whittome says of the speech. “I think how dare she – when she is part of a government which has inflicted such pain and misery and poverty on our communities. How dare she try to pit us against each other.“For Liz Truss, issues of racism, trans rights, homophobia and misogyny might feel like a sideshow but for people I represent and for people all over the country, when the police stops and searches you regularly for no reason other than you’ve been profiled. Or when you can’t get a job despite doing everything you could to get the qualifications you needed.“Or when you are regularly abused in the street. Or you’re a young LGBTQ person and you have been kicked out of your home and your homeless and there is nowhere for you to go because support services have been cut. That is not a fashionable issue. That is your real life.”Ms Whittome called for the Labour Party to tackle the “so-called culture war head-on” and argue that it is not “your migrant neighbour or colleague” who is responsible for the UK’s fall in living standards, but it is instead “landlords” and “bosses” and a government which “enables” them.“Whether you are a retired miner from Mansfield or a young Deliveroo rider in Nottingham or a Bulgarian mum cleaning the houses of parliament, we have more in common with each other than we ever will have with those people who are trying to divide us,” she adds.The politician, who previously worked as a hate crime worker and a carer, went on to argue the Covid crisis has disproportionately affected women as they are more likely to work in sectors which have seen major job losses. They are also more likely to carry out frontline roles in care work, the NHS, supermarkets and education, where they are at risk of contracting coronavirus due to having face-to-face contact with the public, she says.A spokesperson for the Equalities Office said it is examining how the government can “open up opportunities” to all in a bid to address “unfairness” within society.  “To everyone, no matter their class, ethnicity or background, this is not a case of choosing one group over another,” the representative added. “We want equality for everyone, everywhere.“It is important that we also consider and remove the barriers some face due to geography, community and socioeconomic backgrounds alongside our existing commitments. This new approach will broaden the drive for equality and empower individuals in this country.” More

Dominic Raab refuses to say if he would have voted to impeach Donald TrumpForeign secretary Dominic Raab downplayed the impact of Brexit on Sunday, claiming the EU is not the real threat when it comes to businesses fleeing England’s capital. “If we’re really honest about it, the challenge to London as the global financial centre around the world will come from Tokyo, New York, and other areas, rather than from those European hubs, particularly if they start to erect barriers to trade and investment,” he told the BBC.Meanwhile, children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield has said the £20-a-week boost in Universal Credit, which is due to end in April, should be extended.“This isn’t the time for families to have that uncertainty or that drop in income,” she told Sky News’ Sophie Ridge on Sunday programme. It comes as Labour MPs, including the party’s leader Sir Keir Starmer, urged against using tax rises as part of the recovery from coronavirus.In an interview with The Times over the weekend, Sir Keir said: “Over the course of the recovery, tax rises are not the right way to ensure that we go forward to a more thriving economy. Shadow Treasury minister Bridget Phillipson said the government must avoid tax rises on families as the UK attempts to recover from the pandemic, telling reporters “it would be economically illiterate”.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
1613314255MPs demand China and Russia banned from supplying UK militaryMPs are calling on the government to ban China and Russia from any involvement in supplying equipment to Britain’s armed forces.The Commons Defence Sub-Committee said nine companies operating in the UK defence sector had been acquired by Chinese firms in recent years, including a firm printing circuit boards used in the American F-35 fighters operated by both the British and US armed forces.The committee said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) should publish a list of countries it “considers friendly and from whom investment should be encouraged”.Tom Batchelor has the story:Sam Hancock14 February 2021 14:501613312755Labour MP criticises Hancock for boasting about vaccine rolloutTooting’s MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan has condemned Matt Hancock for boasting about the success of the UK’s inoculation programme.Dr Allin-Khan, of the Labour Party, took to Twitter to say she had “choked on tears while watching patients say goodbye to their loved ones via an iPad”, in response to the health secretary’s claim he had “danced a little jig” over the “joy the jab’s giving” Britons. Mr Hancock made the comments in an article he wrote for the Daily Mail – Dr Khan included a screenshot of the headline in her post. It comes as Scotland announced on Sunday it had recorded almost 1,000 more deaths involving Covid-19, bringing the country’s total death toll to 6,715.
Sam Hancock14 February 2021 14:251613311296‘Holyrood inquiry more traumatic than trial,’ Salmond victim saysA woman who made sexual assault allegations against Alex Salmond has said the ongoing Holyrood inquiry is more traumatic for her than the trial was, the BBC reports. The woman was one of nine who gave evidence against the former first minister at the High Court last year. Mr Salmond was previously cleared of all 13 of the sexual assault charges against him.A committee is now investigating the Scottish government’s handling of the original complaints against him.The woman in question told BBC Scotland political editor Glenn Campbell that she believed the inspection had turned into a “political fight” that made it less likely that other women would report any concerns.She said the row had “effectively allowed the government to get away with not being properly scrutinised on its procedures”.SNP MSP Linda Fabiani, who heads the committee, told the BBC she was “really sorry” that the woman felt that way.Sam Hancock14 February 2021 14:011613309723Hammersmith Bridge shines red to get government attention on Valentine’s DayHammersmith Bridge has been lit red in a Valentine’s Day message aimed at highlighting ongoing delays to its repair.The 133-year-old West London bridge has been closed to traffic since April 2019 when cracks appeared in its pedestals.Frustrated residents have now projected the “UK’s biggest Valentine’s Day card” onto the bridge to mark the six-month anniversary of its full closure, with the message reading: “Broken Hearts. Broken Promises. Broken Lives. Broken Bridge.”My colleague Bethany Dawson reports:Sam Hancock14 February 2021 13:351613307717UK-US Brexit deal ‘could fill supermarkets with cancer-risk bacon’A transatlantic trade deal between America and Britain could see UK stores flooded with “dangerous” bacon and ham, according to the author of a new book.Meat in the US is cured with nitrites extracted from vegetables, the Observer reports – something not permitted by the European Commission because of evidence that it increases the risk of bowel cancer. It is widely believed such meat will be a condition of a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal, which the UK government is under intense pressure to deliver.In the US, processed meat is mixed with nitrites from celery juice to keep it “pink” and preserve it so it can stay on supermarket shelves longer. Nitrites are harmless in themselves, the newspaper states, but when they are cooked and ingested, they produce nitrosamines which are carcinogenic.“The American processed-meat industry acts just like big tobacco,” Guillaume Coudray, author of Who Poisoned Your Bacon Sandwich?, told the Observer. “It obscures the truth about nitro-meats and clouds the facts for its own commercial benefit – and they have been at it for decades. They have done this despite clear and overwhelming evidence that nitro-meats cause bowel cancer.”Sam Hancock14 February 2021 13:011613304715Government extends eviction ban until end of MarchMinisters have announced the government will extend its eviction ban for another month but loopholes for landlords will stay in place.Most renters will now be protected from bailiffs until 31 March after another decision made just a week before the lapse of the current period.But campaigners point to exemptions that are already seeing many of those worst hit by the pandemic summoned to court for possession hearings and facing homelessness.Jon Stone has the story:Sam Hancock14 February 2021 12:111613302655UK must ramp up action in state collusion murder enquiry, taoiseach saysBritain’s government needs to “step up” over promises to hold an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, the Irish premier has said.Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Britain must Ireland had investigated terrorist killings where collusion with security forces was suspected, and reiterated calls for Britain to reciprocate. Mr Finucane was shot dead in his family home in north Belfast in February 1989 by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in an attack found to have involved collusion with the state.NI secretary Brandon Lewis previously said he was not taking a public inquiry off the table but said further examinations of the case by police and a police watchdog should conclude first.Mr Martin told the Sunday Times: “The Irish government fulfilled its obligations (under the Weston Park agreement), the British government hasn’t fulfilled all its obligations in respect of the murder of Pat Finucane.“I think the British government needs to step up on that front as well, and I will work with (them) in relation to that.“I think there’s a vested interest among British security interests and Provisional IRA intelligence interests never to have the truth come out.“I think the Provos would just as well not want it to come out, so they procrastinate on an awful lot of issues and so (does) British intelligence.“It’s very clear the Provisional IRA was heavily infiltrated in the end.”Additional reporting by PASam Hancock14 February 2021 11:371613301016Raab refuses to comment on Donald Trump impeachmentDominic Raab has refused to say whether he would have voted to impeach Donald Trump, after the former US president was acquitted in a narrow senate vote on Saturday.The foreign secretary said he did not want to “get dragged into” in the internal politics of the United States following an impeachment trial over events at the US capitol.It comes after 57 senators voted to convict Mr Trump and 43 to acquit, but a two-thirds majority is required in the chamber for impeachment.Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more:Sam Hancock14 February 2021 11:101613300441Raab ‘downplays’ risk of EU taking London business after BrexitDominic Raab has downplayed the risk of the EU taking business away from the City of London after Brexit, saying the city’s real challenges come from New York, Tokyo and others.“If we’re really honest about it, the challenge to London as the global financial centre around the world will come from Tokyo, New York, and other areas, rather than from those European hubs, particularly if they start to erect barriers to trade and investment,” foreign secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC on Sunday.Sam Hancock14 February 2021 11:001613299126‘Universal credit should be extended,’ says commissionerChildren’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield said the £20-a-week boost in Universal Credit, which is due to end in April, should be extended.She told the Sophie Ridge on Sky News programme: “It’s had an important impact and that needs to continue.“This isn’t the time for families to have that uncertainty or that drop in income.“What we do know with very young children that are bearing some of the brunt of that increase in poverty, if you fall behind before you get to school you have very few chances to catch up during your school day.”Additional reporting by PASam Hancock14 February 2021 10:38 More

Over 15 million people across the UK have been given their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, the vaccines minister has announced.The figure, reached on Sunday, means the governent is likely to have clinched its target to vaccinate everyone in the top four priority groups.Ministers had said they would offer a dose of the vaccine to everyone over 70 and everyone who was clinically extremely vulnerable by 15 February.Front line health and social care workers, as well as care home residents and their staff are also thought to have been jabbed.The 15 million milestone was thought to be a key indicator of the ambitious target set out by the prime minister on 4 January.But it is not known how many people outside the top priority groups have been vaccinated too, in a bid to stop doses going to waste.The NHS vaccine programme has been the fastest in Europe, with nearly half a million people a day getting jabbed over the last week.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 weekdayVaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said in a tweet: “15 million! Amazing team. We will not rest [until[ we offer the vaccine to the whole of phase one, the 1 to 9 categories of the most vulnerable and all over 50s by [the end of] April, and then all adults.”More follows… More

MPs are calling on the government to ban China and Russia from any involvement in supplying equipment to Britain’s armed forces.The Commons Defence Sub-Committee said nine companies operating in the UK defence sector had been acquired by Chinese firms in recent years, including a firm printing circuit boards used in the American F-35 fighters operated by both the British and US armed forces.Six of the nine companies list defence as a key business area.The committee said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) should publish a list of countries it “considers friendly and from whom investment should be encouraged”. All those countries falling outside of this list “should be barred from investing in the UK’s defence supply chain, including China and Russia”, they said.The continued and widespread use of overseas firms in the UK defence supply chain left it open to “potentially hostile foreign involvement”, the MPs warned.Huw Walters, director of economic security and prosperity at the MoD, reportedly told the committee that MoD officials “very much welcome foreign investment”.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 approach,” the report said, “has meant that foreign involvement, no matter how defined, is widespread in the UK defence industry” and is currently estimated at around 20 per cent of contracts. China in particular had a record of large-scale intellectual property theft which the report said put any UK firm working alongside Chinese suppliers at risk of having their technology stolen.“Countries which consistently involve themselves in intellectual property theft, and regularly behave contrary to the UK’s values, such as China under the Chinese Communist Party, should be categorised as hostile,” it said.“Investments from countries, such as Russia, that regularly engage in espionage against the UK, or its allies, should also be classified as hostile.”
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The 133-year-old West London bridge has been closed to traffic since April 2019 when cracks appeared in its pedestals.The bridge then closed to pedestrian, cyclist and river traffic in August 2020 after a heatwave caused the faults to “significantly increase”.Frustrated residents have now projected the “UK’s biggest Valentine’s Day card” onto the bridge to mark the six-month anniversary of its full closure.Billed as the “UK’s biggest Valentine’s Day card”, the message reads: “Broken Hearts. Broken Promises. Broken Lives. Broken Bridge.”Organisers said it was addressed to a number of politicians, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, London mayor Sadiq Khan, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, and Hammersmith and Fulham Council leader Stephen Cowan.A government task force was launched in September last year with the aim of “opening the bridge as speedily as possible”, Mr Shapps said.He argued that at the time there had been a “lack of leadership in London on reopening this vital bridge”.Helen Pennant-Rea, chairwoman of the Hammersmith Bridge SOS Residents’ Group, said the “Valentine’s Day card” was intended to be a “fun and entertaining way to draw attention to what remains a serious issue”.She said: “It is a great shame that we need to raise further attention to the complete inability of politicians from all parties to find a satisfactory solution, to proceed with the funding and works to repair Hammersmith Bridge.”Also, to deliver the urgently needed temporary pedestrian crossing.”Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which owns the bridge, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister in August stating the estimated cost to make it safe and “avoid a potential catastrophic failure” is £46 million. More

Dominic Raab has refused to say whether he would have voted to impeach Donald Trump, after the former US president was acquitted in a narrow senate vote on Saturday.The Foreign Secretary said he did not want to “get dragged into” in the internal politics of the United States following an impeachment trial over events at the US capitol.But the Conservative MP also said he trusted the US system to make the right decision, after Mr Trump was deemed not to have incited protesters to storm Congress.Seven senators from Mr Trump’s own Republican Party including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney had joined Democrats in voting to convict Mr Trump, but their support was not enough.57 senators voted to convict him and 43 to acquit, but a two-thirds majority is required in the chamber for impeachment.Asked about his view on the issue in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Raab said: “I would say that we we’ve always said we trust the US system of checks and balances to resolve all of those issues.”My focus has been on working with the new administration. I spoke to Tony Blinken yesterday we’re cooperating on a whole range of issues, including the nuclear issue around Iran, many others, Myanmar, and will continue to do so.”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 result means that Mr Trump was found not guilty of inciting the deadly Capitol riot. He is the only president in US history to ever have been impeached twice and the first to have it tried in the senate after he left office. More