Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailAn official advisory body to the EU has urged leaders to let young people travel freely between the UK and EU, aiming to reignite opportunities for those under 30 post-Brexit. The European Economic and Social Committee, an official consultative body to the EU Commission, has today agreed to a proposal that urges the EU to reintegrate the UK into the Erasmus programme which allows students to study abroad.After Brexit the UK left the Erasmus scheme, which had enabled 200,000 UK nationals to study at the best universities across Europe at no extra cost. New Brexit rules have also made it much more difficult for people to move between the EU and UK for work, study, and travel due to new border rules. But today’s resolution is a significant step, as the European Commission is urged to approach the UK government about “the possibility of negotiating an ambitious reciprocal youth mobility partnership.”A British Youth Council ambassador has said Brexit caused a ‘devastating loss of exchange and educational opportunities for young people on both sides of the Channel’ More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Austria’s justice minister said Thursday that she plans to tighten the country’s rules on espionage, which currently is explicitly banned if directed against Austria itself but not if it targets other countries or international organizations.Justice Minister Alma Zadic’s push to tighten Austria’s laws comes as the arrest of a former Austrian intelligence officer on allegations of spying for Russia focuses attention on espionage activities in the country. Austria is a European Union member that has a policy of military neutrality. Its capital, Vienna, is host to several U.N. agencies and other international groups such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.Austria’s criminal code currently states that anyone who “sets up or operates a secret intelligence service to the detriment of the Republic of Austria or supports such an intelligence service in whatever way” faces a prison sentence of between six months and five years. It also bans setting up, operating or supporting a “military intelligence service” for “a foreign power or a supra- or international body,” which can carry a prison sentence of up to two years.Zadic said in a statement to the Austria Press Agency that the country has long been accused of being an “island of the blessed” for intelligence services from around the world and lamented that “gaps in the law so far have allowed foreign intelligence services to spy with impunity in Austria.”“We want to expand the espionage paragraphs so that, in the future, our law enforcement authorities can also act against foreign spies when they are not targeting Austria itself, but international organizations based here such as the U.N. or friendly states,” she said.Zadic is a member of the junior party in Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s governing coalition, the Greens. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, a member of Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party, told Oe1 radio he sees the need for tougher penalties for spying — but also renewed a call for authorities to be allowed to eavesdrop on calls via messenger services, something the Greens have balked at. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Britain’s main opposition parties demanded Wednesday that the Conservative government publish legal advice it has received on whether Israel has broken international humanitarian law during the war in Gaza. They say the U.K. should ban weapons sales to Israel if the law has been broken.Britain is a staunch ally of Israel, but relations have been tested by the mounting death toll of the almost six-month war. Calls for an end to arms exports have escalated since an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, three of them British.David Lammy, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition Labour Party, said “there are very serious accusations that Israel has breached international law.”He urged the government to “publish the legal advice now.”“If it says there is a clear risk that U.K. arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law, it’s time to suspend the sale of those arms,” Lammy told British broadcastersLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan, one of the country’s most senior Labour officials, said “I don’t understand any justification for not publishing the legal advice that they’ve got.”“It’s important they publish that legal advice so that we can have confidence that the British government is following international law as well,” Khan told reporters in London.Two smaller opposition parties, the centrist Liberal Democrats and secessionist Scottish National Party, called on the government to halt arms sales to Israel.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not commit to publishing the legal advice, but said the U.K. followed a strict “set of rules, regulations and procedures” over licensing arms exports.“I have been consistently clear with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu since the start of this conflict that while of course we defend Israel’s right to defend itself and its people against attacks from Hamas, they have to do that in accordance with international humanitarian law, protect civilian lives — and sadly too many civilians have already lost their lives,” Sunak told The Sun newspaper’s politics podcast. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPaula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, may have been told about a “covert operations team” that could remotely access the Horizon system and adjust branches’ accounts two years before she appeared in parliament.In newly surfaced allegations Ms Vennells was briefed by the Post Office’s general counsel that a unit in Bracknell’s Fujitsu headquarters could access subpostmaster’s accounts remotely.Tapes obtained by Channel 4 show the Post Office’s chief lawyer Susan Crichton confirming twice that Ms Vennells was aware of the allegations.In the audio recording – dating from 2013 – Ms Crichton can be heard saying:“[Paula] knows about the allegation. She knows we are working on it.”She added: “She’s got everything. The way that I’ve tried to brief Paula is, as soon as I have evidence that, you know, that there is a problem, she knows about it the next minute”. Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells has forfeited her CBE after public dissatisfaction with her role in the Horizon scandal The recording is from two years prior to the Post Office halting prosecutions against its own sub-postmasters, and two years before the former chief executive told MPs in 2015 that it was not possible for subpostmasters’ accounts to be accessed remotely.In written evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee Inquiry, the Post Office said: “There is no functionality in Horizon for either a branch, Post Office or Fujitsu to edit, manipulate or remove transaction data once it has been recorded in a branch’s accounts.”More than 700 branch managers around the UK were prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 when the faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as though money was missing from their shops.Evidence of possible remote access to the Horizon system by Fujitsu operatives has been central to the ongoing Post Office scandal.The newly uncovered tapes come from a call on which investigators from forensic accountancy firm Second Sight, along with several Post Office executives, were present.Michael Rudkin, a former Post Office union official, who was central to the discovery of Fujitsu’s covert operations unit was also referenced on the call.In the tape Ron Warmington, a representative from Second Sight, warns that Ms Vennells could be questioned by Lord Arbuthnot – who campaigned on behalf of sub-postmasters – on the Bracknell operation.“If James says something like, ‘And where are you on this assertion about the Bracknell covert operations team, as it was referred to by Rudkin?’,” Warmington asks.“Well look, that’s a specific case. We’ll come back to it when we finish the investigation,” Ms Crichton responds.“Yeah, well, as long as she doesn’t come back and say, ‘Look, so what’s this Bracknell issue, what is he talking about?’; ‘Oh, we’ve known about that for two months’,” Mr Warmington probes.“She knows about the allegation. She knows we are working on it,” Ms Crichton responds.Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of stealing after the Post Office’s Horizon accounting system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches (Yui Mok/PA)The tapes also reveal that lawyers were eager to shut down interest from MPs into the unfolding scandal. In the audio, the Post Office lawyer is heard saying: “The need to somehow have a plan to close down this process. I mean, even to the extent of stopping MPs sending cases in now. So how do we close down the MP side of the process. And what would work for MPs? And what can we sell to MPs? And how quickly can we do that?”She continues: “So is there any way, and I’m thinking out loud here, is there any way of shutting down the MP cases, and making James and his friends happy, so they’ll just go away basically?”Former union employee Mr Rudkin told Channel 4 that the tapes went some way to confirming what he had always known: “The minute I first heard it, it was one of elation saying ‘Rudkin you were right!’. The second one is one of sadness thinking ‘Why did my wife and kids have to be put through this”He continued: “It’s not just us that’s affected. It’s the whole family. The way that you are shunned within the local community – whispers, ‘No smoke without fire’. Susan’s reputation and mine for that matter, just dragged through the mire. “And I can’t understand for the life of me why it’s taking so long for the Metropolitan Police to get on top of this. Somebody’s got to be held to account”.Susan Crichton and Paula Vennells did not respond to Channel 4 News’ requests for comment.A Post Office spokesperson said: “We remain fully focused on getting to the truth of what happened and supporting the statutory Public Inquiry, which is chaired by a judge with the power to question witnesses under oath, and is therefore best placed to help achieve this.”Fujitsu has been contacted for comment. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailAlmost two million pensioners will be forced to pay income tax in the next four years due to the government’s stealth tax freeze, new research has revealed.The chancellor’s refusal to increase the £12,570 threshold when people start paying income tax – and extending it until 2028 – will see a record number of pensioners being hit with tax bills.Currently, 8.5 million pensioners pay income tax – up from roughly 4.9 million in 2010.However, analysis by the House of Commons for the Liberal Democrats has found an extra 1.6 million pensioners will be paying it within the next four years compared to if the threshold had risen with prices.Without the freeze, the allowance would have risen to £15,220 this year and up to £15,990 in 2027/28.The Lib Dems say the policy will see the Conservative party face a “reckoning at the ballot from older voters sick of being taken for granted”.Recent figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show there are currently 12.7 million people receiving the state pension. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, over 60 per cent of these pensioners now pay income tax, up from around 50 per cent in 2010.Further analysis by the Resolution Foundation has found that the freezing on income tax thresholds will leave the average taxpaying pensioner £1,000 worse off by 2027-28.The average taxpaying pensioner will be £1,000 worse off by 2028 Liberal Democrat treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said the figures were a result of Jeremy Hunt’s “pensioner punishing budget”: “These stark figures reveal the stealth tax bombshell facing pensioners under this Conservative government.“Older people who have worked hard and contributed all their lives are now being clobbered with years of unfair tax hikes.“Jeremy Hunt’s pensioner-punishing Budget will not be forgotten come the next election.”The revelations follow on from the spring Budget, which saw the government prioritise national insurance tax cuts for workers.After cutting 2 further percentage points off national insurance, Mr Hunt and Rishi Sunak indicated their goal was to abolish the tax entirely, leaving campaigners concerned that the cost of scrapping the tax would fall on the shoulders of pensioners.Both the Conservatives and Labour have now committed to keeping the state pension triple lock, meaning the state pension rises each year in line with the highest out of wage rises, inflation or 2.5 per cent. This means that the state pension is going up by 8.5 per cent this month.Baroness Altmann, a former Tory pensions minister, told the Telegraph the income tax freeze was “worrying”. “I do think it is worrying that so many more pensioners could be dragged into the tax net as the state pension may soon rise above the frozen threshold.She added: “Most of those tipped into tax will be poorer pensioners with little more than their state pension to live on. Most of them will be totally unaware of any liability and will never have filled in a tax return in their life. They are then at risk of being hit with fines and penalties for not paying a tiny amount of tax that they didn’t even know about.”A Treasury spokesperson defended the decision to freeze tax thresholds as a “difficult decision” that the government had to take, saying: “After providing hundreds of billions of pounds to protect lives and livelihoods throughout the pandemic and Putin’s energy shock, we had to take some difficult decisions to help pay it back.“Now the economy is turning a corner, we have cut National Insurance by a third, meaning that, coupled with above-inflation increases to personal tax thresholds since 2010, we have saved the average earner over £1,500 compared to what they otherwise would have paid.” More