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In a letter to Boris Johnson, she said that she was stepping down from the government role to spend “precious time” with her family.Ms Tolhurst, who represents Rochester and Strood, said she hoped to have the opportunity to serve again in government “in the fullness of time”.She wrote: “Following on from some devastating news for my family, after much consideration and deep reflection, it is with the great sadness that I am writing to notify you of my intention to step down from my role as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government, so that I am able to care for, and spend some precious time with my family in the coming months.“It has been an immense privilege to serve in your Government under three different departments – in my current role as Rough Sleeping & Housing Minister, and previously as the Small Business Minister in the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, and as Maritime, Aviation, and Security Minister in the Department for Transport.”Downing Street said that assistant whip Eddie Hughes has been appointed as her replacement.Mr Johnson said in reply to Ms Tolhurst that he was “very sorry” to receive her resignation, and thanked her for her contribution to government.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 weekdayHe later tweeted to say his thoughts were with Ms Tolhurst and her loved ones at this “difficult time”.The prime minister wrote: “Kelly, very sad that you’re standing down from government. You’ve been a brilliant minister at three departments but family must come first.“My thoughts are with you and your loved ones at this difficult time.”Press Association More

The travelling political circus of the G7 that will descend on the rugged shores of Cornwall in June is variously seen as the premier diplomatic event of the year or as a talking shop which causes untold disruption but delivers little of value.After being becalmed all year by the coronavirus pandemic, the little resort village of Carbis Bay can prepare to be turned upside down by the arrival of at least 10 world leaders, each trailing crowds of advisers, security personnel and media in their wake.Rings of steel will be erected, whole swathes of the countryside be closed to the public and warships patrol the coast as a thousand TV cameras focus their stare on the likes of Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron gathering for a tete-a-tete in an idyllic setting.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

Prime ministers and presidents from the group of leading industrialised powers – the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan – will descend on the five-star Carbis Bay beach resort near St Ives for a three-day diplomatic jamboree from 11-13 June which will cause enormous disruption but is estimated to be worth as much as £50m to the county.It will be the first in-person summit of world leaders in almost two years, after last year’s G7 in the US was cancelled and the G20 in Saudi Arabia went online because of Covid-19.Mr Johnson, who is hosting as holder of the annual rotating G7 presidency, said he will ask fellow leaders to “seize the opportunity to build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous”.He will use the event to promote his vision of a post-Brexit “global Britain” and to try to build consensus behind action on climate change ahead of the UN COP26 conference in Glasgow in November.And he will seek to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the new president, who previously branded him “a physical and emotional clone” of Donald Trump.While Johnson’s image was cemented in many US minds by the outgoing president’s description of him as “Britain Trump”, Downing Street believes that Mr Biden’s arrival provides an opportunity to foster transatlantic cooperation on a number of the prime minister’s priorities.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayIt is thought the G7 summit could mean the UK hosts Mr Biden’s first presidential trip outside of North America in what would be seen as a diplomatic coup for Downing Street.Mr Biden has indicated his determination to reverse Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord of 2015, and Mr Johnson will seek to work closely with him on persuading other states to scale up their global warming commitments at Glasgow.And he has aligned himself with Biden’s priority of spreading democracy internationally by inviting Australia, India and South Korea to the Cornwall summit.The one-off expansion of the G7 group of major industrialised powers into a so-called D10 of world democracies was resisted by some other members, including Italy and France, which fear the development of the group into an anti-Chinese front. Mr Johnson said that the choice of Cornwall as location for the summit will focus the eyes of the world on the beautiful and historic region, adding that its status as a centre for green innovation made it an appropriate setting for a gathering expected to discuss climate-friendly economic growth. More

Sir Keir Starmer could scoop a historic victory for Labour in the 2024 general election if he is willing to work with other progressive parties to maximise left-of-centre seats, according to new polling analysis seen by The Independent.But if the Labour leader refuses to collaborate with Liberal Democrats and Greens, he risks a repeat of the December 2019 election, when Boris Johnson’s Tories won a landslide on a hard Brexit platform despite a majority of voters backing parties offering a second EU referendum.Despite a narrow lead for Labour in the poll, the analysis suggests that Mr Johnson can hold onto his overall majority at Westminster if Nigel Farage repeats his 2019 move of standing aside candidates to allow Conservatives to consolidate the right-of-centre vote.Internationalist campaign group Best for Britain – which fought for a second Brexit referendum and is now pushing for strengthening of the EU trade deal – examined the results of a massive 22,000-voter Focaldata poll, conducted in December on the MRP method which allows figures to be broken down to a constituency-by-constituency level.The raw figures, released earlier this month, suggested a neck-and-neck race with the Tories on 36 per cent and Labour 38, resulting in 284 seats for Conservatives and 283 for Labour, with Lib Dems holding onto just two. This outcome would set the scene for a likely Labour-SNP coalition government with Nicola Sturgeon demanding an independence referendum as part of the price for her support.But the BFB analysis suggests that the situation would change dramatically if Mr Farage stood down his new Reform UK party to give Tories a clear run, as he did with the Brexit Party in the run-up to the 2019 poll.In this scenario, Mr Johnson could boost Tory representation to 319 – saving his own Uxbridge seat in the process – while Labour could crumble to just 251 seats and the Liberal Democrats be wiped out altogether. On this calculation, Conservatives would be on the brink of an overall majority in the 650-member House of Commons, possibly requiring support from the DUP to get them over the line.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 weekdayHowever, if Labour, Lib Dems and Greens were prepared to work together, the analysis suggests an entirely different outcome, with Labour claiming an overall majority of around 50 at Westminster with 351 seats in its best result since 2005. Starmer’s party would seize back almost all of the Red Wall constituencies lost to Tories in the Midlands and north of England in 2019, while Lib Dems would edge up to 12 seats and Greens would hold onto their sole constituency in Brighton.Even if bolstered by support from Farage, Conservatives would see their tally of MPs collapse from 365 now to just 205, while not only Mr Johnson but cabinet ministers Dominic Raab, Robert Buckland, George Eustice, Grant Shapps, Simon Hart, Alok Sharma and Alister Jack would be at risk of losing their seats.This scenario would free Starmer from dependence on the SNP, but would almost certainly require a commitment to reform of the first-past-the-post electoral system, as smaller parties demand proportional voting as the price of their participation.The analysis emerged shortly after former Conservative cabinet minister Stephen Dorrell used an article in The Independent to call on Sir Keir to lead a Progressive Alliance to unseat Johnson.Best for Britain chief executive Naomi Smith said: “Labour has done well to rebuild since last year’s election collapse, but as things stand they will need the support of other parties to make a return to government in 2024.“This reliance is even clearer when you add Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party into the picture, previous iterations of which have stood aside for Conservative candidates over the last two elections in a show of nativist unity.“If Keir Starmer wants a shot at No 10 in three years, the party must be open to working with the Greens and Lib Dems, particularly given the impending constituency boundary changes and SNP strength north of the border.”BFB’s analysis of the Focaldata polling is based on a calculation undertaken prior to the 2019 election on how supporters break between parties when their preferred candidate stands down in favour of an alternative who is better-placed to win the seat. More

Reported government plans to replace a £20-a-week benefit uplift with a £500 one-off payment have been described as “madness” after experts said they would bring unemployment support to its lowest level in almost 30 years.The proposal was denounced as an “inadequate sticking plaster” by Labour, which is campaigning to keep the weekly payment – worth £1,040 a year to 6 million of the UK’s neediest families and due to be scrapped in April.With Tory members of the 50-strong Northern Research Group calling for the emergency uplift to be kept until the end of the lockdown, Labour is hoping to inflict a humiliating defeat on Boris Johnson in a Commons vote on the issue on Monday.The Treasury refused to confirm reports that chancellor Rishi Sunak hopes to buy off any rebellion with the offer of a one-off lump sum  for all those on Universal Credit at the end of March, at a cost of about £3 billion.A source said no decisions had been taken and all options remain on the table.But the prime minister suggested last week that he was determined to press ahed with the UC cut, telling MPs he would “rather see a focus on jobs and a growth in wages than focusing on welfare”.Mr Johnson said “the best thing is to get people into employment”, despite the fact 39 per cent of those on UC in October were in low-paid work.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 £20 payment was introduced last spring to help poorer families cope financially during the pandemic, and was intended to remain in place for 12 months.The Child Poverty Action Group warns that its withdrawal will hit 6 million families and push 200,000 more children below the breadline.And the Resolution Foundation think tank today said that replacing it with a one-off payment would be “a bad way of getting cash to those who will need it most over the year ahead”.Foundation chief executive Torsten Bell warned that the timing would mean no one-off payment for the 800,000 people predicted by the government’s official forecasters to lose their jobs when the furlough scheme expires in April.And he said it would be “madness” to plunge basic unemployment benefits to their lowest level since 1992 – taking account of inflation – at a time when the Covid-battered economy needs a boost from consumer spending.As a proportion of average weekly earnings, ditching the £20 payment would leave support for the unemployed at its lowest level since the Second World War, at around 14 per cent compared to more than 30 per cent in the 1960s, according to the calculations of the Foundation, which studies low-income issues.Mr Bell said: “A one-off payment to those on Universal Credit to compensate for planned £1,000 cut in April is not a good idea for two big reasons “This plan would mean the level of our basic unemployment benefit would be cut to its lowest level since 1992 – that’s madness, particularly at exactly the point at which unemployment is set to rise.“A one-off payment is a bad way of getting cash to those who will need it most over the year ahead. Six million households are relying on Universal Credit, but it’s not the same households over time.“Each month, 200,000 people are becoming new UC claimants. And the Office for Budget Responsibility expects over 800,000 people to become unemployed in the second quarter of 2020, after the Job Retention Scheme stops. “A one-off payment in April does nothing for those who start needing UC later.“At a minimum, government should extend the £1,000 UC uplift for another year. But obviously the real lesson of the last year is that the level of those benefits is just not adequate to do their job: insuring all of us against hard times.”Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “Britain is facing the worst economic crisis of any major economy. The chancellor’s decision to wind down support with his cut to universal credit will be devastating for families already struggling to get by and leave unemployment support at a 30-year low.
“Bringing in a one-off payment that doesn’t even equal half the amount the government is planning to cut from millions of families’ incomes will damage our recovery. With jobs being lost each day and the furlough cliff-edge looming, a lump sum rather than extended support will leave many to fall through the gaps.  “Instead of yet another inadequate sticking plaster, the government needs to do the right thing and cancel the cut to universal credit. If the chancellor refuses, we urge Conservative MPs to vote with Labour on Monday to give families the security and support they need.” More

What will travel be like post Brexit?Speaking on Saturday, days ahead of the inauguration of Mr Biden as US president, Sir Keir said he is “pro-American but anti-Trump” and wants to build a Britain that can act as “the bridge between the US and the rest of Europe”.The Labour leader said he is committed to a new US-UK relationship, consisting of “a strong future together, on everything from security, climate change, aid and trade”.Meanwhile, Boris Johnson’s “desperately poor” Brexit deal has left Scottish fishermen with losses mounting by the day and many businesses fearing for their survival, the industry’s trade body has said in a scathing letter to the prime minister.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
1610808323Thanks for following!This blog is no longer being updated.Thank you for following along, Cheerio.Emily Goddard16 January 2021 14:451610807824Scottish Labour to elect new leader by end of FebruaryScottish Labour will have a new leader by the end of next month, the party has confirmed.The leadership election was triggered by the resignation of Richard Leonard and the party’s executive has agreed a condensed timescale for any contest, with the Holyrood elections less than four months away.Candidates have until midnight on Sunday to declare their intention to run and will require support from at least four of the party’s MSPs or its sole Scottish MP by midday the following Tuesday to be formally nominated.Scottish Labour members and affiliated supporters will be able to cast their votes from 9 February until ballots close on 26 February.The new leader will be announced the following day.Emily Goddard16 January 2021 14:371610805949Plan to switch £20 weekly benefit for £500 lump sum branded ‘madness’Reported government plans to replace a £20 weekly benefit uplift with a £500 one-off payment have been described as “madness” after experts said they would bring unemployment support to its lowest level in almost 30 years.The proposal was denounced as an “inadequate sticking plaster” by Labour, which is campaigning to keep the weekly payment – worth £1,040 a year to 6 million of the UK’s neediest families and due to be scrapped in April.Andrew Woodcock has more on this:Emily Goddard16 January 2021 14:051610804749Home Office forcing people to travel 85 miles for video appointmentsPeople are being forced to travel as far as 85 miles to attend Home Office appointments during the lockdown, prompting critics to claim the government is prioritising “distrust” of migrants over public health.Ministers are being urged to act after it emerged vulnerable asylum seekers and visa applicants have had to take long journeys on public transport in recent weeks to comply with Home Office rules.Substantive asylum interviews – during which the Home Office gathers information to determine whether someone should be granted asylum in the UK – were paused in response to the pandemic last March.Biometric appointments, where UK visa applicants submit their fingerprints as part of the application process, were also suspended during the first lockdown as visa application centres closed.However, both have since resumed and are continuing to take place throughout the new lockdown, despite soaring rates of coronavirus infection.In the case of asylum interviews, individuals are currently being required to travel to Home Office buildings, only for the interview to then take place via video link – often with the interviewer joining from home.May Bulman, our social affairs correspondent, brings you the full exclusive story:Emily Goddard16 January 2021 13:451610801938Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has been warned that relaxing lockdown early would be ‘very unwise’.Professor John Edmunds said it would be a “disaster” to lift controls after the February completion of the first wave of vaccinations, covering over-seventies, health and care staff and people with significant medical conditions.But he said that a return to normal life around the anniversary of the first lockdown on 23 March would also have “enormous consequences” for the NHS as the virulent new strain of Covid-19 tore through those yet to receive the jab.The comments threaten to dash hopes of an early end to lockdown sparked by the success of the vaccination programme in reaching one in 20 of the population – almost 3.3 million people – by the end of this week.Andrew Woodcock has the full story:Emily Goddard16 January 2021 12:581610800983Sir Keir Starmer would back further coronavirus measuresSir Keir Starmer has suggested he would back further coronavirus measures, saying “the tougher the restrictions now the quicker we get the virus back under control”.The Labour leader, answering questions following his speech to the Fabian Society’s new year conference, said he was “still worried” by the number of infections despite signs they are falling.He said the “sense that we are through the worst” of the third wave is wrong, as he welcomed further restrictions on travel announced by the government on Friday.Sir Keir said: “Nobody likes restrictions but the tougher the restrictions now the quicker we get the virus back under control, the quicker we reduce the number of hospital admissions and the quicker we get that number of deaths, tragically, down.”He added: “[The NHS] is really under strain at the moment and we need to do whatever we can to reduce that strain, particularly in the next few weeks, which are going to be critical.”Emily Goddard16 January 2021 12:431610799954PM’s bike ride makes it harder for police to enforce rules, poll findsThe majority of the British public think Boris Johnson’s controversial bike ride seven miles from home during lockdown has undermined the police’s task of enforcing coronavirus restrictions, according to a poll.The prime minister was spotted exercising in east London’s Olympic Park last week despite rules announced by his government dictating that exercise should only be taken locally.Now a YouGov survey, commissioned by Crest Advisory, a crime and justice consultancy, found that 63 per cent of people thought the prime minister’s actions had made the police’s job harder. Three-quarters of Labour and Liberal-Democrat supporters took this position, as did 48 per of those who favour the Conservatives.Rory Sullivan has more on this:Emily Goddard16 January 2021 12:251610797819Brazilian Covid variant likely to be in the UK, scientist warnsIn pandemic news, the new Brazilian strain of coronavirus is likely to have already entered the UK before the government’s imposition of travel restrictions on the South American country, a leading epidemiologist has warned.Professor John Edmunds, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said he would find it “unusual” if the variant, which has raised concerns around the world because of its increased virulence, was not in the UK.Andrew Woodcock has the full story:Emily Goddard16 January 2021 11:501610796482Sir Keir Starmer: Labour will always be pro-EuropeanLabour will always be pro-European, Sir Keir Starmer said on Saturday.Speaking at the FEPS-Fabian Society online New Year Conference, the Labour leader said: “Yes we have left the EU, that issue is settled. But we will always be European. And pro-European. And the Labour Party will always be an internationalist party.”We’re expecting the video of the speech to be made available online soon.Emily Goddard16 January 2021 11:281610795092Armin Laschet confirmed as leader of Angela Merkel’s CDU partyGermany’s Christian Democrats elected Armin Laschet as chairman on Saturday, aiming to unify its divided party behind a new leader who they hope can succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor when she steps down after federal elections in September.Emily Goddard16 January 2021 11:04 More

The comments by Professor John Edmunds threaten to dash hopes of an early end to lockdown sparked by the success of the vaccination programme in reaching one in 20 of the population – almost 3.3 million people – by the end of this week.Prof Edmunds, a member of the prime minister’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said it would be a “disaster” to lift controls after the February completion of the first wave of vaccinations, covering over-70s, health and care staff and people with significant medical conditions.But he said that a return to normal life around the anniversary of the first lockdown on 23 March would also have “enormous consequences” for the NHS as the virulent new strain of Covid-19 tore through those yet to receive the jab.And Dr Susan Hopkins of Public Health England told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the relaxation of restrictions should be implemented carefully and gradually and the “Hands, Face, Space” guidance would remain in place “for some time”.“We will need to release very slowly and monitor the impact of each phase of the release to make sure that does not increase hospitalisations,” said Dr Hopkins.“Many hospitalisations are in the younger age groups, the 50-70-year-old age groups, and we need to ensure that we can deliver NHS care to both those people requiring Covid care and to everyone else. So we will be asking the government to watch all of the markers very carefully and release slowly as we come out of these national restrictions before returning to normal.”Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayMr Johnson has said life in the UK could be “very different” by Easter, voicing confidence that the first wave of 15 million vaccinations will be complete by mid-February, with hopes rising that the jab could reach all 32 million over-50s by March.Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Friday, the prime minister said that once the first wave of jabs is complete in February, “we will think about what steps we could take to lift the restrictions”.But he added: “What we can’t have is any false sense of security so that we, as it were, lift the restrictions altogether and then the disease really runs riot in the younger generations.”Prof Edmunds, a professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Today: “I think it would be a disaster if we removed restrictions at the end of February when we’ve gone through this first wave of vaccinations.“First of all, vaccines aren’t ever 100 per cent protective and so even those who have been vaccinated would still be at some risk.“Secondly, it’s only a small fraction of the population who would have been vaccinated, and if you look at the hospitalisations around half of them are under-70. So I think if we really relaxed our restrictions, we would immediately put the NHS under enormous pressure again.”
Asked if a return to normality by 23 March was possible if vaccinations went to plan, Prof Edmunds replied: “I think we need to be very, very careful about easing restrictions.“The vast majority of us are still susceptible to this virus and I think if we eased restrictions completely we would be facing a very major problem.“It would be very unwise.”Prof Edmunds said that the existence of the virulent strain of Covid-19 which emerged in Kent in the autumn meant that the virus would spread more quickly than in the first wave last spring if restrictions were lifted.“We’d be back to somewhere akin to where we were in March, with a very rapid increase in cases,” he said. “And that would have enormous consequences for the health service.” More

The accidental deletion of as many as 400,000 records from a police computer databases led to a number of “near misses” in identifying suspects in serious crimes, it has emerged.It emerged on Friday that at least 150,000 records relating to people arrested and released without further action were scrubbed from the Police National Computer after being incorrectly flagged for removal.But now a letter from the National Police Chiefs Council has revealed that the blunder may have affected as many as 213,000 offence records, 175,000 arrest records and 15,000 person records stored on the system which shares criminal records information across the UK.And deputy chief constable Naveed Malik, the NPCC’s lead for PNC, said: “We are aware of a couple of instances of ‘near misses’ for serious crimes where a biometric match to an offender was not generated as expected but the offender was identified through matches between scenes. “However, in these circumstances, without a direct match report to the subject, it may be more challenging for police to progress to an interview or arrest.”The PNC is accessed 600 million times a year by officers for information to support local, regional and national investigations. It holds records of arrests, prosecutions, fingerprints, DNA, vehicles and other data needed for real-time checks.Labour are calling for home secretary Priti Patel to come to the House of Commons on Monday to explain the incident to MPs.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 weekdayParty leader Sir Keir Starmer said that he knew from his experience as director of public prosecutions for five years that the loss of the records was “really serious”.“We heard that 150,000 had been deleted, we now hear that 400,000 records have been deleted,” Starmer told a Fabian Society conference in London.“That’s an increasing number, which is a huge concern, but equally of concern what we learn is that some of these now involve live cases, investigations that are going on now.“So this isn’t just a historic record, it’s a record that is relevant to ongoing investigations. At a time like this, we need the home secretary to take responsibility herself for this, and at the very least, she should be in parliament on Monday, making a statement about this, explaining it, giving the full facts and facing questions.”The mistaken deletion is understood to have started in November and been halted only last week.The NPCC letter revealed that it was caused by a “weeding system”, developed and deployed by a Home Office PNC team, erasing records wrongly. A coding error has been blamed for records that had been flagged for deletion being lost from the database before checks had been carried out to determine whether they could be lawfully held or not.In his letter to chief constables and police and crime commissioners, Mr Malik said that – on top of the 400,000 offence, arrest and person records – about 26,000 DNA records relating to 21,710 people had potentially been deleted in error, alongside 30,000 fingerprint records and 600 subject records.The total information loss is likely to be lower because there will be overlaps as an individual’s arrest could relate to multiple offences.His letter said that police were already aware of at least one instance where the DNA profile from a suspect in custody did not generate a match to a crime scene as expected, “potentially impeding the investigation of the individual’s involvement in the crime”.Earlier, Policing minister Kit Malthouse said the problem had been identified and the process corrected so “it cannot happen again”.He said the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council and other law enforcement partners were working “at pace” to recover the data.The Home Office said no records of criminal or dangerous persons had been deleted.An NPCC spokesperson said: “We are aware of an issue with the Police National Computer and are working closely with government to understand the potential operational impacts and resolve them at pace.” More