Markus Andrews

Heather Wilson describes herself as a “freethinker”. Hailing from a Protestant family in North Belfast, in 2017 the 29 year-old became the first woman from a Unionist background to stand for election for the SDLP, the nationalist party instrumental in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. She may not be alone. A generation ago, Protestant nationalists were almost unheard of, but a LucidTalk poll for the Sunday Times in January suggests a few other “freethinkers” are breaking through.Over 47 per cent of  all voters backed the status quo against 42 per cent who support a united Ireland, and 11 per cent who were undecided. Among 18-44 year olds, a boundary that stretches the term “young voter”, 47 per cent supported reunification, while 46 per cent back staying in the UK. The remaining 7 per cent are undecided.“There’s change coming and it’s very exciting,” Wilson says. “It gives young people in particular the chance to be part of something bigger.” More

The Scottish National Party has been the slickest political machine in the UK over the past decade, moving from plucky outsiders to the natural party of power in Scotland.Factional turmoil was left to Labour and the Tories. The SNP was too busy creating order and harmony in the independence movement, moving the idea of breakaway Scottish state from a lost cause to an increasingly-likely scenario.Yet internal feuding has finally erupted. There is the dramatic rupture between the party’s two towering figures, current boss Nicola Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond – the once-close allies who are now sworn enemies.There is the row over the sacking of MP Joanna Cherry from the Westminster team’s frontbench. And there is a dispute over the timing of second independence referendum, and how best to play the coming stand-off with the UK government.So how deep do the divisions go? Can they be healed? And could they damage the party’s push for another independence referendum in the coming year?Ms Sturgeon will certainly be keeping a close an eye Ms Cherry, who fumed about getting “sacked” from her frontbench role earlier this week. The QC is part of a small group of MPs who have remained loyal to Mr Salmond – insisting that he should have been reinstated by the party after he was cleared of sexual assault charges last year.It is no coincidence that the Salmond loyalists – Ms Cherry, Kenny MacAskill and Angus MacNeil – are the only SNP MPs without any shadow ministerial portfolio at Westminster.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 rift comes with the added bite of unresolved issues over transgender rights. SNP MP Kirsty Blackman suggested trans people were leaving the SNP because of the behaviour of Ms Cherry and others in the party, saying: “Things have moved on since the 80s.”Ms Cherry accused Ms Blackman of “lies and smears” which helped enabled a “vicious threat” to her safety – now subject to a police investigation.Cherry and some SNP councillors had signed up to a pledge stating that women “have the right to maintain their sex-based protections”. This was perceived as an attempt to work against the party’s plan to make it easier for trans people to gain legal recognition.Neil Mackay, author and columnist at The Herald, says the party is in “absolute mess” despite being well ahead in the polls for the Holyrood election in May.“There are multiple schisms at the moment – splits over identity issues, splits along Salmond-Sturgeon lines, and splits along the best path to independence. It’s deeply riven party at the moment. Very dysfunctional and toxic.”The mess will get messier still next week, when Mr Salmond gets to testify at the Holyrood inquiry examining the Scottish government’s botched handling of allegations against him. His backers made clear in the recent BBC documentary The Trial of Alex Salmond that the former leader feels he was victim of a conspiracy aimed at preventing his return to frontline politics.Ironically, the renewed focus on Mr Salmond – very much yesterday’s man – has become a way of thinking about the future of the party. Many commentators have suggested the treatment of his allies is a worrying sign of autocracy in Edinburgh.The Telegraph’s union-supporting Scottish editor Alan Cochrane says it shows how the “ruthless lady” at Bute House (Ms Sturgeon) will “tolerate no dissent” from those willing to challenge her leadership.Mike Small, editor of the influential pro-independence website Bella Caledonia, has no truck with this argument. He suggests the “Cherry faction” at Westminster may wish to consider leaving the party to avoid doing damage to the independence cause.“It’s all reminiscent of the collapse of the Labour Party in the 1980s or the implosion of the Tory party in recent years,” he notes. “At some point … you either leave because you are convulsed with such rage or you are booted out.”As intriguing as the Sturgeon-Salmond fight may be, there are far bigger strategic disputes looming over the high-stakes chess match which follows the Holyrood vote this spring.Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, recently told The National newspaper that indyref2 “must” be held in 2021. He argued that the Scottish government would be entitled to hold another ballot “quickly” if they win the Holyrood election in May.There are those demanding Ms Sturgeon declares a “wildcat” referendum if Downing Street refuses to sanction one. Chris McEleny, a SNP councillor with a large online following in the independence movement, has an even more radical “plan B.”He has argued a majority SNP win in May would be a mandate for Ms Sturgeon knock on the door of No 10 and demand negotiations over Scottish sovereignty, without any further ballot.Ms Sturgeon has been as non-committal as possible, saying only that she wished to hold a referendum in the “earlier part of the next Scottish parliament”. Her initial strategy will be to stoke outrage over Boris Johnson’s refusal to grant the vote, sparking a legal battle very likely to end up in the Supreme Court.Support for a breakaway among Scots has crept up marginally over the past year. There has been a small but consistent majority in favour of independence ever since the pandemic hit early last year. The reality of Brexit was expected to give the independence support another bump at the beginning of 2021.But as the polling guru Sir John Curtice points out, the average level of support for “Yes” in the latest three independence polls is 53 per cent – down slightly on the 55 per cent recorded during the last three polls of 2020.The Herald’s Neil Mackay thinks SNP divisions may have something to do with it. “Nicola Sturgeon is perceived by the Scottish public to have handled the pandemic well, so it’s no surprise to find the party ahead in the polls,” he says. “But could support for the SNP and support for independence be even bigger? I think it probably could.”The commentator adds: “It’s politics 101 that a divided political party isn’t successful, and will tend not to be seen as being good at governance. If it wasn’t as riven by splits, then support for independence could be even higher than it is now.”Ms Sturgeon and SNP may well defy political gravity and win a comfortable majority at Holyrood in May. But things may get trickier during the high-stakes constitutional drama to follow.Wavering Scots will be forced to consider whether the SNP looks like a sovereign government-in-waiting – a permanently superior force to the rabble at Westminster – or just another bunch of squabbling politicians. More

The World Health Organisation’s special envoy on Covid-19 has suggested Britain should consider offering vaccines to poorer countries once everyone over the age of 50 has been inoculated.Dr David Nabarro said it was “totally understandable” the UK had ordered 400 million doses of vaccines, but stressed the “priority” was to ensure to most at risk of getting severely ill or dying for the virus in all countries receive a jab.His comments came as Nadhim Zahawi, the minister responsible for the vaccine rollout, said he was confident the government could reach its “tough” target of offering a vaccine to all those over 50 by May.When this phase is completed ministers will then turn their attention to accelerating the vaccination programme for millions of younger adults, with plans for “jabs at work” under discussion in government, according to The Sunday Telegraph.But pressed on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge programme whether the UK should begin giving away vaccines to other countries once the most vulnerable and over 50s have received their vaccinations, Mr Nabarro replied: “I think we should. “Of course, each prime minister, each group of MPs, has to form their own decisions but it is really a question of what makes sense economically, what makes sense for society and how it will want to be remembered in 10 or 20 years’ time.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“If we want to be remembered as a world where those who have the cash can afford to vaccinate their whole populations but countries that didn’t have the cash to cope with a dramatically increasing death rate amongst health workers, I don’t think so. “I don’t think that’s how any individual really wants to be seen when they look at themselves over the years. I think it’s perhaps time for a global decision on wheat the priorities should be because in the end we’re human and humans need to be able to work with each other whatever their race, whatever their ethnicity, whatever their role.”The UK government has suggested it could share “excess” doses with neighbouring and developing country, but has not specified when that could be the case.Speaking last week, the international trade secretary Liz Truss said the government must first ensure the British population is vaccinated, but added: “In future months we hope to be in a position to help other countries with vaccine supply.”As official government figures showed the UK had given at least one dose to 11.4 million people, the mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham also suggested that poorer areas of the country where life expectancy is lower should be given additional supplies of Covid-19 vaccines.“It has to be a judgement based on health,” he said. “It also is the case that those same areas where life expectancy is lowest tend to be the places where more people are out at work in those key professions, working in essential retail and supermarkets or driving buses or driving taxis, so clearly they are at greater risk.”I’m not saying diverge completely from the phased (approach) set out by ages put forward by the JCVI [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation], but what I am saying is put greater supplies of the vaccine into those areas where life expectancy is lowest and allow greater flexibility for people to be called earlier.”Mr Zahawi also told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme he was confident all over 50s would be offered a jab by May, as he revealed that nearly 1,000 vaccines a minute were administered in an hour on Saturday morning.“The limiting factor is vaccine supply so the vaccine supply remain finite,” he said. “I can tell you that yesterday between 11 and 12 o’clock we almost got to 1,000 jabs a minute, we got to 979 jabs a minute.”“I’m confident we’ll meet our mid-February target of the top four cohorts, I’m also confidence because I have enough line of sight of deliveries that are coming through, that we will also meet the one to nine cohorts by May. It’s a tough target by the way, many, many people who are clinically extremely vulnerable have to be reached by GPs, some can’t travel.” More

Vaccine passports would be “discriminatory” and the government has “no plans” to introduce them in Britain, Nadhim Zahawi has said.In his strongest remarks against the case for documentation proving an individual has been inoculated, the minister responsible for the vaccine rollout said “that’s not how we do things in the UK”.However, Mr Zahawi suggested that if other countries require immunisation passports, individuals could be able to seek records from their GPs to enable future travel.Greece, which relies heavily on the tourism industry, has previously suggested the country could waive Covid quarantine restrictions from May for arrivals who can prove they have been vaccinated. But asked whether the government was considering introducing a style of vaccine passport in the coming months, Mr Zahawi told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show: “No, we’re not. “There are several reasons why we’re not doing that. One vaccines are not mandated in this country, as Boris Johnson has quite rightly reminded parliament that’s not how we do things in the UK, we do them by consent.“We yet don’t know what the impact of vaccine on transmission is and it would be discriminatory.”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 weekdayTackled on the same issue in a separate interview on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge programme, Mr Zahawi added: “If other countries obviously require some form of proof, then you can ask you GP because your GP will hold your records and that will then be able to be used as your proof you’ve had the vaccine. But we are not planning to have a passport in the UK.”His remarks came as official government figures showed over 11.4 million people had received their first dose in the UK, with ministers confident of offering jabs to everyone over the age of 50 by May.Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, however, suggested coronavirus vaccine passports “may be necessary” and stressed the government should be “open” to the concept.“There are complicated issues to do with this vaccine passport,” he said. “Is it just for international travel? Is it about as you go about your business in your society? “That’s got to be looked at but meanwhile while that’s being looked at, we’re five or six weeks on from the South African variant being discovered. We still don’t have a quarantine system in place — so let’s proceed a step at a time. Of course let’s look at the vaccine passport, but let’s get the quarantine right and let’s get the vaccine rollout right too.”Last week, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “There are still no current plans to rollout vaccine passports. Going on holiday is currently illegal but we have always been clear hat we will keep the situation under review.” More

The new data, based on a survey of the RHA’s members, was detailed in a letter sent by the association to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove on Monday pleading for “urgent intervention” to support critical supply chains. Largely blaming Brexit for the dramatic drop, Richard Burnett, the RHA’s chief executive, wrote that he “warned repeatedly that there was a lack of clarity over how the new arrangements would work and that hauliers, traders and manufacturers were confused, having had insufficient time to prepare” ahead of 31 December, which marked the end of the Brexit transition period. “Since transition, we have worked tirelessly to demonstrate the devastating consequences these changes are having but it is very clear that Government are not doing enough to address them,” he said in the letter, which was first reported on by the Observer. Mr Burnett stressed that he did not believe the coronavirus pandemic was to blame for the dramatic drop in exports, writing: “For clarity, the current situation should not be considered a consequences of Covid. If anything, the absence of the pandemic would have made it worse, because volumes would be greater.”In an interview with the Observer, the RHA head said that in addition to the 68 per cent drop in exports, around 65 to 75 per cent of vehicles coming over from the EU were going back empty due to issues on the UK side and as a result of some British companies temporarily or permanently stopping exports to the EU. 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 situation, Mr Burnett told the publication, has been “deeply frustrating”, with the RHA head accusing ministers of failing to listen to repeated warnings from the RHA and other industry experts. The RHA head took specific aim at Mr Gove, calling him the “master of extracting information from you and giving nothing back”.The Independent has contacted Mr Gove’s office for comment. The RHA has also been contacted for further response. More

Matt Hancock has urged firms with more than 50 employees coming into work during the coronavirus lockdown to apply to for regular rapid-result coronavirus tests in an expansion of the workplace scheme.The Department for Health and Social Care stressed the drive forms part of an effort to “normalise testing in the workplace across both public and private sectors” and identify asymptomatic cases of Covid-19.According to government statistics, 112 organisations across the UK have so far signed up to take part in mass testing – spanning 500 sites.Officials said that businesses with more than 50 employers continuing to travel to work will now be able to join the programme and access the lateral flow tests, which can produce results in less than 30 minutes. Only firms employing over 250 staff previously qualified and frontline workers, such as police, firefighters, border force staff and civil servants working on the Covid-19 response, are among those who already have access to regular quickfire tests.Dan Shears, the director of health, safety and environment at GMB union, said the rapid tests are “not a magic bullet”, adding: “It is vital that employers understand the limitations and take steps to address them. 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“Everyone wants to ensure that infectious workers keep away from the workplace, but this means getting the introduction of testing right – with confirmatory testing to avoid ‘false negatives’ – and crucially ensuring that all protective measures to reduce transmission are implemented to the maximum.”In a statement, Mr Hancock said: “To save lives and protect the NHS, we have again asked for everyone to work from home. But we know that for some this is not possible, which is why the workplace rapid testing programme is so important.He added: “Employers should regularly test their staff, and this drive across government to raise awareness and encourage more businesses to introduce rapid testing for employees is incredibly important. “When you consider the around one in three people have the virus without symptoms and could potentially infect people without knowing it, it becomes clear why focusing testing on those without symptoms is so essential.“We are already working with many employers to scale up workforce testing, spanning the food industry, retail sector, transport network, and across the public sector too. I strongly urge businesses and employees across the country to take up this offer of rapid testing to help stop this virus spreading further.”Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, aded: “Businesses across the country have been working extremely hard to keep their workforces safe during the pandemic, with retail, manufacturing and energy companies among those already take up the offer of workplace testing. “I urge even more employers to do the same to help stop the spread of the virus and protect our NHS. We want to be able to reopen the economy and recover our way of life as soon as it is safe to do so, and large-scale workplace testing will complement our work in getting the British people vaccinated.” More

During a virtual meeting on Friday afternoon in Downing Street, Boris Johnson held private conversations with bereaved families who have lost loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic.While welcoming the meeting, the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Group – representing 2,500 people – said it was “not only hurtful, but pretty disgraceful” that the prime minister had refused six times to meet with the organisation. Set up in the first months of the crisis, the group’s members have been repeatedly pushing No 10 to launch a public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic. “We family members, and the country, deserve answers,” they say.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

British towns with the most immigrants and highest levels of diversity tend to do far better economically than areas with little, a study has found.An analysis of local authorities in England and Wales shared with The Independent shows a strong link “between rising prosperity and rising diversity” – with diverse areas doing better “almost regardless of which metric you use”.The study, commissioned by anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate is a challenge to negative perceptions of immigration, and concludes that “growing diversity is an inevitable part of increasing prosperity – and, potentially, a contributor to it”.It also makes recommendations about how the government and local councils can manage demographic change alongside economic growth.The study looked at indicators in 285 council areas outside of big cities, including economic growth, house prices, reductions in deprivation, employment, and wages between 2011 and 2019.It then compared these factors to metrics like the proportion of the population born outside the UK, the proportion whose parents were born outside the UK, the extent to which the population is transient, and the local level of non-white British ethnic heritage.The areas looked at excluded London boroughs and areas in other larger UK cities; by contrast the selection covered 49 of the 53 so-called “Red Wall” seats won by the Conservatives in the 2019 election.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 results were striking: the 50 places with the highest rises in GDP through the 2010s saw their non-UK born communities grow at more than twice the pace of the 50 authorities with the lowest GDP rises.Similar results were found on other metrics: the 50 towns with the highest increase in property values saw the number of births to non-UK born mothers increase at three times the pace of the 50 council areas with the smallest property price increases.Areas where deprivation eased had twice as rapid an increase in non-UK born populations than areas where deprivation intensified.And in communities with an above-average level of population transience, the median salary rose by £3,379 during the period studied, faster than the £3,307 in those with below-average transience. On jobs the study found the 50 local authorities with the greatest increase in employment during the 2010s saw an average 2.2 per cent increase in their non-British populations, compared to the 50 with the smallest rises that saw just 0.8 per cent.The report recommends that the government should acknowledge the relationship between growth and diversity, and that the Home Office should update its immigration rules to “support the process by which communities get more diverse”.The charity also calls for targeted funding for areas to “ensure that economic growth is accompanied by investment in infrastructure” to accommodate population rises.”Failure to do so can easily swell into community tensions,” the report warns, citing housing, GP access, community facilities, and school funding as important areas of focus.And the report, set to be released on Monday, also calls on politicians to use inclusive language and to stop perpetuating fallacies about immigration, which might get in the way of communities living together.
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