Markus Andrews

No 10 has accused Labour of spreading fear about the threatened £1,000-a-year cut to Universal Credit – despite admitting it could still go ahead.Defending Boris Johnson’s decision to boycott a vote in the Commons tonight, his press secretary said it was “not the proper moment” to be discussing it.
Labour was accused of spreading “concerns about whether or not the uplift will be extended” – when the Chancellor had promised to make a decision “in due course”.
However, the press secretary, Allegra Stratton, admitted the cut could still go ahead, in April, saying: “We haven’t made a decision.”
She defended the prime minister’s likening of alleged “intimidation” ahead of such votes to the crisis in the United States, but admitted: “Clearly, it is not like the storming of the Capitol.”
He “believes all of us, in our political language and debate need to remember to be civil and kind to each other”, Ms Stratton added.
She ducked a question about whether this applied to Mr Johnson himself, after he accused Brexit opponents of “collaborating” with the EU – and once likened Jeremy Corbyn to Stalin.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 Stratton was also unable to provide any examples of bullying and intimidation of Conservative MPs, ahead of a previous Commons vote on free school meals, as the prime minister claimed.The Labour-inspired motion calling for the cut to be halted – to “give certainty to six million families” – will pass tonight, after Conservative MPs were told to abstain.
In a bizarre WhatsApp message on Sunday, Mr Johnson accused Labour of “playing politics and inciting the worst kind of hatred and bullying (of a kind seen sadly across the Atlantic)”.
However, his press secretary switched tack, arguing Tory MPs would not oppose the motion, as would be expected, because the vote was premature.
“Today is not the right and proper moment for the government to be talking about the £20 uplift,” Ms Stratton insisted.However, asked if that weekly increase, introduced because of the pandemic, would be saved, she replied: “We haven’t said whether or not we will continue. The Chancellor will be coming forward in due course.” More

Boris Johnson is facing intensified pressure to formally announce an independent inquiry into his government’s handling of coronavirus after Sir Keir Starmer insisted bereaved families “deserve to know when it will start”.As the government’s official death toll from the crisis reached 88,590, the Labour leader told The Independent that ministers had “failed to learn lessons from the first phase of the pandemic”.“The tragic result is that Britain has suffered more deaths during the second wave than the first,” he said. “Every life lost to this virus is a family shattered. The prime minister promised an independent inquiry, and those families deserve to know when it will start.”His call came as the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who secured a commitment from Mr Johnson in July 2020 to hold “an independent inquiry into what happened”, also insisted that families who had lost loved ones deserved answers.In a message to the prime minister, Sir Ed demanded: “Announce one tomorrow. If you’re not, why not? What are you afraid of? “You promised in the House of Commons from the despatch box there would be an independent inquiry. Deliver on your promise. Get the Covid inquiry done.”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 weekdayWhile Mr Johnson pledged to hold an inquest in July, he argued that it was not the right moment to “devote huge amounts of official time” while the government was focusing its attention on combating the pandemic, and No 10 declined to provide any further details.Major questions remain over the format of the independent inquiry, including whether it will be set up on a statutory basis under the 2005 Inquiries Act, which will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence, or a non-statutory basis similar to the Chilcot inquiry into the 2003 Iraq invasion so that some hearings can be held in private.Speaking to The Independent  Sir Ed said the government can start the preparatory work immediately by outlining the inquiry’s remit, establishing a time frame and kicking off the process to appoint an independent chair to oversee the proceedings.“I think he’s [Mr Johnson] now got to put his mind to it whether he likes it or not,” he said. “The reality is if he’s making this claim the vaccination rollout is going to bring this thing to an end and the end is in sight … then clearly if that’s what he believes what is the barrier to making the preparations for the inquiry?”He added: “He should announce it now, there shouldn’t any delay: terms of reference, who is going to do it, and let them get ready. In anything like this they need some preparatory work to get themselves going and this is going to be a huge, huge inquiry.“By appointing the legal team they can start the preparatory work and then they can agree when you actually press go, so people engaged in the pandemic then have to come and give evidence. “Clearly, I’m not suggesting Chris Whitty [chief medical officer], Patrick Vallance [chief scientific adviser] and all of the rest of them, or indeed ministers, should be appearing before the inquiry now. But there’s a huge amount of work that can be done.”In the absence of an official inquiry, former Tory cabinet ministers Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark launched a joint parliamentary inquiry into the pandemic in October, as they warned any public inquest would come “too late” for the immediate lessons that should be taken onboard by government.Mr Hunt and Mr Clark, who chair of the Commons health and science committees respectively, are expected to publish a report on their findings in the spring and have so far quizzed officials including Sir Patrick and Professor Whitty and examined issues such as social care and the approval of Covid-19 vaccines.A separate All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) — chaired by the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran – also began an inquiry last year and has held numerous evidence sessions, probing the widely-criticised NHS Test and Trace programme, lockdowns and exit strategies, and preparations for a pandemic, including the government’s 2016 simulation of a flu outbreak, Exercise Cygnus.Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser to government between 2000 and 2007, told The Independent: “We should have had an inquiry before now, we might have saved the day, but an inquiry as soon as possible would be good.”However, he warned: “I think now it’s almost inevitable the prime minister is going to hang back until he feels the epidemic is over. One of the issues is if it’s up to the prime minister … I think he would delay until the next election, or after it, it’s hardly going to be a good report.”Sir David, who founded the Independent Sage group to mirror the government’s official Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, also claimed the country could have experienced 10,000 deaths throughout the pandemic, as he described the current toll as “disgraceful” and placed blame on “astonishingly poor decision-making”.Dismissing Mr Johnson’s remarks about an inquest diverting officials’ attention away from the fight against Covid-19, he added: “Of course they would be calling government in to answer, but it certainly wouldn’t be a distraction from managing the epidemic.”Jo Goodman, a 32-year-old who lost her father in April, said that families who had lost loved ones “have a right to answers”. She co-founded the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group and has been repeatedly calling for an independent public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic, including a rapid first phase review.“I just felt there had to be some kind of accountability and lessons had to be learnt so that other lives were saved,” she told The Independent.“It’s been such a traumatic way to lose someone: both through knowing it could have prevented and on top of that all the restrictions that have been in place have really heavily impacted on the grieving process. We have a right to answers.”Ms Goodman added: “The best time for the rapid review phase would have been the summer because obviously there would have been a little bit of respite from the volume of cases we’re seeing. We do believe that a public inquiry should be instigated as soon as possible in order to get going as quickly as possible.“Whether it’s practical to do it right now when we’re at the peak is a kind of open question. Obviously the priority right now is saving lives, but there must be an inquiry and it has to happen soon.”The pressure on Mr Johnson comes as polling showed the public’s approval of his government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis had dropped to its second lowest rating since the pandemic began.A survey published by Opinium Research on Saturday night found only 30 per cent approve of the government’s handling of Covid, compared to 50 per cent who disapprove.The survey, which also gave Labour a four-point lead over the Tories in voting intention, was conducted on Thursday. More

Keir Starmer has branded Boris Johnson “pathetic” and told him to explain in person to affected families why he wants to cut their support payments by over £1,000 a year.Speaking ahead of a vote on whether to reduce Universal Credit payments for six million families the Labour leader said the prime minister should come with him and speak to those struggling face-to-face.Mr Johnson had accused Labour of a “stunt” for forcing a vote on the £20-a-week cut later today.”If the prime minister is going to call it a ‘stunt’ he should probably come with me to the food distribution centre this morning and explain to me why he thinks that what’s a lifeline for them is a ‘stunt’. It certainly isn’t from their point of view” Sir Keir told ITV’s Lorraine programme.Sir Keir said the £20 a week uplift, introduced last year but now set to expire, was “the difference between being able to pay the gas, electricity, and internet bill combined” for many families.The Labour leader said he suspected that Tory MPs, who are being whipped to abstain on the Labour motion, would prefer to vote with the opposition but were being blocked by the government.”Here’s the truth: I actually think in their heart of hearts quite a lot of Tory MPs know that cutting this money to people who desperately need it in the middle of a pandemic is the wrong thing to do,” he told the programme.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”They know that, they probably want to vote with us but because of the tribal way we do politics they can’t. “So the prime minister is now saying in answer to the question ‘do think this uplift should stay or not’ he’s saying ‘I don’t want to say yes and I don’t want to say no, so we’re going to abstain. No view on whether it should stay in place or not.'”I think that’s pretty pathetic and a lot of Tory MPs are worried about this. They know as constituency MPs they all do a surgery … they know that families desperately need this money.”Some Conservatives have criticised the government and urged Mr Johnson and his chancellor Rishi Sunak to change course.Tory MP and former Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb told Times Radio on Monday morning now was “not the moment to withdraw that money from these families”.A report by the Resolution Foundation think-tank on Monday warned that the government would be pushing Britain’s poorest households further into poverty if the cut goes ahead.
UK news in picturesShow all 50 More

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour on Sunday, Lord Kim Darroch, who stepped down from his post in July 2019 after private cables in which he had criticised President Donald Trump came to light, said the UK would be “lucky” to strike a trade deal with the US over the next four years.“Biden has said in the last few weeks that doing trade deals is not a priority for him for at least the first part of his presidency and my guess is that certainly covers the next 12 months, it may cover the next 24 months,” he said, according to PA. However, when Mr Biden does get around to hashing out trade deals, Lord Darroch suggested the UK was unlikely to be the first country to come to mind. “When he comes to do one, there are two much bigger trade deals that he could potentially do, rather than a deal with a medium-sized country of 65 million people,” he said.“One is he could resume the talks that never finished in Obama’s time on an EU-US free trade deal and the other is that he could take America into the trans-Pacific partnership, which is potentially a huge advantage for America and would start to counter Chinese influence in that region,” he said.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“So honestly I have my doubts about whether a UK deal will be a priority. I think it’s a stretch to imagine it actually happening in a Biden first term, but we might strike it lucky, we’ll see,” Lord Darroch said.Mr Biden is just days away from taking office, with his inauguration set to take place on Wednesday. The incoming president did briefly touch on the possibility of a UK-US trade deal in the lead-up to the 2020 election, tweeting in September that Brexit must not threaten the Northern Ireland peace process.“We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,” Mr Biden, who has Irish roots, said. “Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period,” he said. Since then, however, Mr Biden has not given any indication that a trade deal with the UK would be a priority. Meanwhile, EU Director General for Trade Sabine Weyand has said the bloc is pushing for a swift engagement with the Biden administration to resolve trade disputes he will inherit, including over digital taxes and commercial aircraft subsidies.   More

Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer are engaged in war of words over the level of benefit payments offered during the coronavirus pandemic, as the virus continues to ravage Britain’s economy.The Labour leader has accused the prime minister of being “pathetic” on payments – urging No 10 to make sure a recent increase in universal credit aimed at helping hard-pressed families isn’t cut back in April.Mr Johnson, however, has accused Mr Starmer of “playing politics” and stoking Trump-style “hatred and bullying” over the issue. So what exactly is behind the row, and how soon might it get resolved?What kind of money could people lose out on?Last year the government temporarily increased universal credit by £20 a week, but the uplift is due to expire in April – potentially hitting the incomes of almost six million individuals and families by around £1,000 a year at time many are struggling with job losses and reduced hours.Labour wants the government to give people some reassurance by guaranteeing the uplift will be extended. Mr Starmer’s party will use an opposition day debate in the House of Commons from around 3.30pm on Monday afternoon to force a vote on the plans. And Conservative MPs are expected to abstain on the issue.So the vote could see the universal credit uplift extended?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 weekdayNo. The opposition day motion will not be binding, so it won’t actually change anything. But it will give Labour an opportunity to bring the issue to wider attention and ramp up the pressure.  Mr Johnson has tactically ordered his MPs to abstain on the vote to avoid the potential embarrassment of having the Tory party vote against money in people’s pockets, an attempt by No 10 to take the sting out of the row for now.In a bizarre message sent out to Tory MPs, the prime minister accused Labour of stoking Trump-style “hatred and bullying” by trying to “play politics” with the issue in the Commons.
He said in his WhatsApp message: “We can be proud of what we are doing to tackle all the consequences of the pandemic and if labour decides to stop playing politics and to stop inciting the worst kind of hatred and bullying (of a kind seen sadly across the Atlantic) then I may think again about legislatively vacuous opposition debates.”
How much support is there for extending the uplift?As well calls from as Labour and several anti-poverty charities to maintain the uplift, Tory MPs in the Northern Research Group (NRG) said scrapping it now would be “devastating”. In a statement issued on behalf of the 65 MPs in the group, Carlisle MP John Stevenson said it had been a “life-saver” for people during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Tory MP Stephen Crabb said he would vote against his party whip and support Labour’s motion. Removing almost £100 a month from hard-hit families “isn’t the right thing to do,” he told the BBC.Keir Starmer suggested “in their heart of hearts” many Tory MPs want to back Labour’s vote to keep the £20-a-week uplift and he called Boris Johnson “pathetic” for ordering his party to abstain.The Labour leader told ITV’s Lorraine on Monday: “If he’s going to call it a stunt, he should probably come with me to a food distribution centre to see these families this morning and explain to them what is a lifeline to them is a stunt, because it certainly isn’t from their point of view.“I actually think in their heart of hearts quite a lot of Tory MPs know that cutting this money to people who desperately need it in the middle of a pandemic is the wrong thing to do, they know that, they probably want to vote with us but because of the tribal way we do politics they can’t.”
How likely is it the government will extend the increase before April?Senior cabinet minister Dominic Raab gave little away when asked about it on Sunday. He stressed the £20-a-week increase was a “temporary measure” – but suggested a decision on whether it would remain would not be made until March.
The foreign secretary told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We have a March budget coming up and I think it is right to have scrutiny right the way through, but this is a political debate rather than the government’s measures which can, I think, be looked at in the round rather than dripped out one by one.”How damaging would the cut in April be?The row comes as the Resolution Foundation think tank issued a warning that scrapping the uplift will lead to a particularly tough 2021 for low-income households – predicting their incomes could fall by 4 per cent.
The think tank estimated that the withdrawal of the benefit increase would drive up relative poverty in the UK from 21 per cent to 23 per cent by 2024-25, pushing a further 730,000 children into poverty.
Karl Handscomb, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “The decision on whether to keep the universal credit boost will help define whether this is to be a parliament of ‘levelling up’ living standards, or pushing up poverty.” More

Scottish fishing industry workers descended on Whitehall on Monday to protest Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal.Footage showed dozens of large lorries driving through central London adorned with slogans showing workers’ fury after experiencing problems exporting fish to the EU.One truck was emblazoned with “Brexit Carnage”, while another said “Incompetent Government Destroying Shellfish Industry”, as they parked up just metres from Downing Street.Others had their business logos proudly displayed amid claims the sector could collapse and that fish prices have plummeted due to the bureaucracy that has left catches rotting at the border.Mark Moore from the Dartmouth Crab Company joined his Scottish colleagues for the protest and told LBC that the exporting issue was nationwide, and “we are all in this together”.He added: “The situation is almost unworkable and we need change, our industry is spiralling downwards.”Mr Moore said about 50 trucks had been due to travel to the capital. More

Boris Johnson’s government has demanded that Russia releases Alexei Navalny “immediately”, following the Kremlin critic’s arrest in Moscow upon flying home from Germany.The opposition leader’s detention by Russian authorities has drawn international condemnation – with some western nations calling for sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s government.“It is appalling that Alexei Navalny, the victim of a despicable crime, has been detained by Russian authorities. He must be immediately released,” said foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who stopped short of threatening any further action against Russia.  Mr Raab added: “Rather than persecuting Mr Navalny, Russia should explain how a chemical weapon came to be used on Russian soil.”
Russian police detained Mr Navalny on arrival in Moscow on Sunday after he flew home to Russia from Germany for the first time since he was poisoned last summer using using Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Germany said it has ‘unequivocal evidence’ the Kremlin was behind the attack. Prior to his arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Russia’s prisons service said the 44-year-old had violated parole terms from a suspended sentence on a shaky 2014 embezzlement conviction.Following the news of his arrest, a host of British MPs used Twitter to call for his release. Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy led the calls for action, tweeting: “Alexei Navalny was the victim of a cowardly chemical weapons attack. He has shown great courage in returning to his homeland.”She added: “His detention is unjustifiable and an insult to the Russian people. He must be released immediately and his attackers brought to justice.”Defence committee chairman Tobias Ellwood called Mr Navalny’s decision to return to Russia “incredibly brave”. Mr Ellwood said: “Poisoned by the FSB yet he chooses to return to Russia and has now been arrested. Incredibly brave stand by Navalny in the name of democracy as we head towards Russian parliamentary elections.”Labour MP Catherine West called for a coordinated response “at speed” from the UK government, the EU and the incoming Joe Biden administration in the US. “It can’t be right that an opposition leader, whose life was almost taken in an aggressive poison attempt, is arrested on arrival,” she said.While the foreign ministers of the UK, Germany, France and Italy called for Mr Navalny’s release, Lithuania said it would ask the EU to swiftly impose new sanctions on Russia. Czech foreign minister Tomas Petricek also said he wanted the bloc to discuss possible sanctions.
Jake Sullivan, one of Mr Biden’s top aides, told Moscow to free Mr Navalny, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Twitter he was deeply troubled by Moscow’s decision to arrest Navalny.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Western concern over Mr Navalny’s case, casting it as an attempt to distract from the West’s own problems. “You can feel the joy with which these comments are coming out,” said Mr Lavrov.
“Judging by everything, it allows Western politicians to think that by doing this they can divert attention away from the deep crisis that the liberal model of development finds itself in,” he said.   More

The first stage of Jeremy Corbyn’s legal challenge to overturn his suspension as a Labour MP will begin in the High Court today.Lawyers acting for the former leader want the party to disclose documents relating to the process of his suspension.They want the Labour Party release papers relating to Mr Corbyn’s initial suspension as a party member, and negotiations with Keir Starmer’s office over his reinstatement. The release of any documents showing there was a deal could be politically explosive in Labour circles, as Sir Keir had publicly set himself against lifting sanctions on his predecessor.  Mr Corbyn was initially suspended by the party after he said the scale of anti-semitism in Labour had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.But following a clarification in which he said anitisemism concerns were “neither ‘exaggerated’ nor ‘overstated’” he was readmitted to the party by its ruling NEC.The party never revealed which rule the Islington North MP had been suspended under.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 an outcry about the lifting of the suspension, Sir Keir suspended Mr Corbyn’s whip, essentially preventing him from sitting as a Labour MP.That whip suspension is reportedly being kept under review.The High Court hearing will take place virtually via Microsoft Teams, and begins at 2pm. More