Markus Andrews

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Ireland is poised to get its youngest-ever premier after Simon Harris secured the leadership of the Fine Gael party on Sunday, replacing Leo Varadkar who announced his surprise resignation last week. The 37-year-old Harris, who is the government’s further and higher education minister, was the only candidate to put his name forward to succeed Varadkar, who had been Ireland’s previous youngest prime minister, or what Ireland calls its taoiseach.Harris won a series of endorsements from within the Fine Gael parliamentary party and is expected to be formally elected premier in the Irish parliament in April after lawmakers return from their Easter break.“I think he’s done a really good job in securing the leadership in as comprehensive a way as he has,” Fine Gael deputy leader Simon Coveney said.Harris has said that he would remain fully committed to the program for government agreed upon with coalition partners Fianna Fail and the Green Party. He has stopped short of ruling out a general election this year, but insisted such a poll was not his priority.Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach — between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheál Martin, head of coalition partner Fianna Fáil.He was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected at age 38, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial taoiseach.He played a leading role in campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.He led Ireland during the years after Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union. Brexit had huge implications for Ireland, an EU member that shares a border with the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. U.K.-Ireland relations were strained while hardcore Brexit-backer Boris Johnson was U.K. leader, but have steadied since the arrival of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNeither the Conservatives nor Labour would commit to compensating Waspi women on Sunday morning – despite the publication of a damning report that called on the government to pay billions to those who were not told about the state pension rise.Both the chancellorJeremy Hunt and the Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds declined to say if they would compensate those who were found by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to have lost out financially after the Department for Work and Pensions failed to adequately communicate changes to the state pension age.The chancellor said the issue highlighted by the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign was “genuinely more complicated” than others in which compensation has been promised, such as the infected blood disaster and the Post Office Horizon scandal, and said: “There’s no secret vault of money.”Jeremy Hunt refused to commit to compensation for Waspi women when questioned on the BBCThe Labour Party chair also refused to commit to compensating the women impacted. Talking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Dodds said: “Those women deserve respect, that’s the most important [thing].”She added: “I think Laura, if I was to sit in your studio and I was to say, plucking out of the air, this is exactly how, for example, compensation should work or other elements of the response to the Waspi women … I don’t think they would believe me, frankly, and nor should they.”The comments are likely to enrage campaigners and MPs within their own parties who have called for compensation for the women involved. Campaigners have demanded action over the report, warning that Rishi Sunak will be on a “sticky wicket” seeking votes from Waspi women when he goes to the country later this year if he ignores the Ombudsman’s findings.Asked whether it was responsible for the government to leave “huge unpaid bills” to the next parliament, Mr Hunt said: “We had the ombudsman’s report on Thursday, but we’ve also had a report from the High Court and Court of Appeal in 2020 that says the Department for Work and Pensions behaved completely within the law and didn’t discriminate.“So it appears to say something different and we do need to get to the bottom of that apparent difference between the two.”Anneliese Dodds refused to commit to compensating the Waspi womenHe added: “We want to resolve it as quickly as we can, but there’s no secret vault of money. The money we would pay in compensation has to come from other taxpayers, so we do have to take time to get this fair.”The PHSO suggested compensation could cost between £3.5bn and £10.5bn, although campaigners are pushing for a higher figure. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe chancellor of the exchequer has stood by his comments that £100,000 is “not a huge salary” in his constituency, explaining that it “doesn’t go as far as you might think.”Jeremy Hunt came under fire after posting on social media earlier this week that he wanted to “sort out” government childcare eligibility for a parent who earns over £100,000. In a post, Mr Hunt said: “I spoke to a lady from Godalming about eligibility for the government’s childcare offer which is not available if one parent is earning over £100k. That is an issue I would really like to sort out after the next election as I am aware that it is not [a] huge salary in our area if you have a mortgage to pay.”The Godalming MP has now doubled down on his comments, explaining that the average cost of property in his constituency is over 670,000 and “if you’ve got a mortgage and you’ve got childcare costs, It doesn’t go as far as you think”.The average cost of a property in Jeremy Hunt’s constituency of Godalming is over £670,000 Mr Hunt’s comments drew criticism as £100,000 is almost three times the national average salary for someone in full-time work, which is £34,963 according to the Office for National Statistics.Speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Mr Hunt said: “That’s why I want to give help to families and that’s why the childcare measures are very important.“We weren’t able to afford to fund childcare for people on the highest salaries, but I was simply saying that’s something I’d love to be able to look at in the next parliament, but we can’t afford to do it now.”Mr Hunt was also forced to defend the Conservative’s economic record after it was put to him that the Conservatives had presided over a fall in living standards that is “very, very unusual in our lifetimes”. Last month the UK entered a technical recession after GDP fell every for four quarters in a row.Mr Hunt delivered national insurance tax cuts in his spring budget Real GDP per person has also fallen in every quarter since the start of 2022. The chancellor responded that the decline in living standards was due to “two things that haven’t happened for half a century of more” in the form of a “once in a century pandemic and a 1970s style energy shock caused by the invasion of Ukraine.”He also insisted that “living standards have actually gone up since 2010 in real terms by about £1,700 per household”.In a heated exchange between Mr Phillips and Mr Hunt, the chancellor insisted that although the government had had to take “difficult decisions” in the wake of the dual crises, the government was still committed to cutting taxes. Mr Hunt cut national insurance tax by a further 2 percentage points in his recent spring budget following another 2 per cent decrease in Autumn. But Mr Phillips pointed out that taxes are still going up, adding: “You’ve made a couple of cuts in national insurance, but the movements of the thresholds are a thing.”As the pair spoke over each other, Mr Hunt argued: “You can’t just mention things and then not let me respond … yes, taxes have gone up… the question in British politics is do you think they need to stay high, or do you want to start to bring them down”.Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves giving the Mais lecture Mr Hunt insisted that his party was still committed to bringing down the tax burden: “My budgets have actually reduced the tax burden by about 0.6 per cent of GDP. “But I’ve always been completely open about the fact that we have had to put taxes up to deal with that pandemic and it was right to support families through the pandemic and the energy crisis. But the question now is whether you want to bring them down.”The chancellor also attacked his opposition counterpart. He stated that shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves is “not confronting any of those difficult decisions” and “we didn’t hear a single thing about welfare reform or controlling migration in [the] Mais lecture”.Earlier in the week Ms Reeves delivered an hour-long lecture about Labour’s economy policies.Mr Hunt added: “In the Mais lecture, the shadow chancellor didn’t mention bringing down the tax burden once. I have now bought down taxes significantly in an autumn statement, and in the budget.”The chancellor’s assessment follows comments made by the deputy prime minister that Ms Reeves is “sheep in wolf’s clothing” after the shadow chancellor’s economic policies were compared to that of Margaret Thatcher. In her Mais lecture, Ms Reeves said: “As we did at the end of the 1970s, we stand at an inflection point, and as in earlier decades, the solution lies in wide-ranging supply-side reform to drive investment, remove the blockages constraining our productive capacity, and fashion a new economic settlement, drawing on evolutions in economic thought.”But Oliver Dowden has said he was not “not fooled” by Labour’s policies. Writing in the Sun on Sunday, he said: “I was amused this week to see Labour’s Rachel Reeves trying to portray herself as the next Margaret Thatcher.“Wasn’t it just a few years ago that she was knocking on doors, persuading people that the socialist Jeremy Corbyn should be in No10. But I’m not fooled, and I don’t think The Sun on Sunday readers will be. Ms Reeves’ self-portrait as Thatcher really is a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Conservative Party is almost five times more likely to be censured on social media for sharing false or misleading information online than Labour, new research has claimed. Top government accounts, including the prime minister, cabinet ministers and the official Conservative Twitter feed have accrued almost five times as many community notes as the opposition, a campaign group has said. A fact-checking feature was made available on Twitter / X in the UK from January last year and allows users to add context or clarifications below posts that contain false or misleading information. Contributors can leave notes on any post and if enough contributors from different points of view rate that note as helpful, the note will be publicly shown. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been flagged for using making misleading claims on social media 25 times Research commissioned by pro-European campaign group Best for Britain examined the number of community notes accrued by all members of the cabinet and shadow cabinet, as well as their official party accounts, on X.In total, 73 posts from government party accounts had community notes attached, compared to 15 from official opposition accounts.The worst offender was the official Conservative party account which was noted 26 times on posts which included allegedly manipulated videos, false claims about the opposition leader and misleading statements about the economy.One post that said the economy was “outperforming expectations” had a community note attached which said “UK GDP fell last quarter, compared to an estimate of 0 per cent, so it is not outperforming any expectations.”Another post claimed that Sir Keir Starmer “called for the monarchy to be abolished” in 2021, but the community note pointed out that Sir Keir said in 2005 that he “used to propose the abolition of the monarchy”.A close second was the prime minister himself who – despite promising “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” – was pulled up by social media users 25 times in just over a year.Rishi Sunak’s posts were flagged nine times since the start of 2024 and five in the first week of January alone, where he claimed that the government had cleared the asylum backlog, took credit for falls in inflation and claimed the government had cut taxes.Most recently, Mr Sunak said the spring budget would bring “lower taxes”, while the community note pointed out that the accompanying OBR forecast said that taxes are actually increasing to 37.1 per cent of GDP by 2028/29, 4 percentage points higher than they were before the pandemic.By contrast, Sir Keir’s account has received four community notes in the same period, the majority of which related to last year’s local elections, and the official Labour Party account received seven.Most recently, the Labour leader said it was “36 years since the first Black MPs were elected”, while the attached note pointed out that James Townsend was a black MP, first elected in 1772.The chancellor Jeremy Hunt, home secretary James Cleverly, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leader of the commons Penny Mordaunt also all received more community notes than their counterparts in the shadow cabinet. The only shadow cabinet minister who received more community notes than their Conservative counterpart was David Lammy, receiving two to Lord David Cameron’s zero. Lord Cameron has been in the Cabinet for four months.  Sir David Cameron is the only cabinet minister to have less community notes than his shadow counterpart David Lammy The results come in the wake of a damning Edelman Trust Barometer report that showed the UK has the steepest decline in public trust globally. Trust in the government has fallen to 30 per cent – a 15-point fall since 2021.Campaigners say the governing party’s habit of sharing misleading information on social media is further undermining public trust in politics.Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain warned that the findings “shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially in an election year where lack of trust can feed dangerous populism.”She added: “A government that the public can’t trust to act with integrity and transparency – both essential for liberal democracy – is a Government that shouldn’t be in power. We need a General Election and our polling shows that the public want it now.”Labour and the Conservatives have been approached for comment. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSlovaks headed to the ballots on Saturday to elect a successor to Zuzana Čaputová, the country’s first female president and a staunch backer of Slovakia’s neighbour Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s two-year invasion. She is not seeking a second term. Peter Pellegrini, a close ally of Slovakia’s  populist prime minister Robert Fico, is considered a favourite in the race for the largely ceremonial post of president. He leads a field of nine candidates in the first round of the presidential election to become the country’s sixth head of state since Slovakia gained independence in 1993 after Czechoslovakia split in two.Polls will close at 9pm GMT and results are expected Sunday.If no candidate gets a majority, which is expected, the top two finishers will go through to a runoff on 6 April.Pellegrini, 48, who favours a strong role for the state, heads the left-wing Hlas (Voice) party that finished third in the 30 September parliamentary election. His party joined a ruling coalition with Fico’s leftist Smer (Direction) party and the ultranationalist Slovak National Party. The new government immediately halted arms delivery to Ukraine. Former foreign minister Ivan Korčok, 59, a pro-Western career diplomat is his main rival.“From my point of view, I did all I could,” Korčok said Saturday after casting the ballot in the town of Senec near the capital Bratislava. “It’s up to the people to consider carefully what the future head of state will look like.”Korčok had also served as the ambassador to the United States and Germany and firmly supports Slovakia’s European Union and Nato memberships.Most public polls expect a narrow victory for Pellegrini in the first round.A former justice minister and judge, Štefan Harabin, 66, who has openly sided with Russia in its war against Ukraine is predicted to finish third. Another former foreign minister and career diplomat, Ján Kubiš, and far-right leader Marian Kotleba are among other notable candidates. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailHollywood has helped to fan flames about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) in the minds of a generation of “engineers, computer scientists and super-geeks”, ministers have heard.The House of Lords was told movie depictions of AI, such as The Terminator, have helped to cement “hopes and fears of what AI could do to us”, as it considered plans to regulate the emerging technology.The upper chamber of Parliament was urged to back proposals by Lord Holmes of Richmond which would create a new watchdog, known as the AI Authority.The Conservative peer’s Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill, which began its progression through Parliament on Friday, would require the authority to push forward AI regulation in the UK and assess and monitor potential risks to the economy.If like me, you are from a certain generation, these seeds of fear and fascination of the power of artificial intelligence have long been planted by numerous Hollywood movies picking on our hopes and fears of what AI could do to usLord RangerSome peers expressed concerns about generative AI, including the need to ensure artists whose work is used as a prompt are fairly paid, and that the technology should be prevented from drawing on images of child sexual abuse.But Conservative peer Lord Ranger of Northwood suggested the technology’s proponents currently needed room to innovate.He told the Lords: “If like me, you are from a certain generation, these seeds of fear and fascination of the power of artificial intelligence have long been planted by numerous Hollywood movies picking on our hopes and fears of what AI could do to us.”He cited “unnerving subservience” of HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and “the ultimate hellish future of machine intelligence taking over the world in the form of Skynet” from the Terminator movies.Lord Ranger added: “These and many other futuristic interpretations of AI helped fan the flames in the minds of engineers, computer scientists and super-geeks, many of who created the biggest tech firms in the world.”While he said he was supportive of the aims of the Bill and there may be a long-term need for regulatory guidance, Lord Ranger said he did not believe it was possible to regulate AI through a single authority.He was also critical of a labelling system it would introduce, which seeks to ensure any person involved in training AI would have to supply to the authority a record of all third-party data and intellectual property (IP) they used and offer assurances that informed consent was secured for its use.The Tory peer said: “This will not … help us work hand-in-hand with industry and trade bodies to build trust and confidence in the technology.”Other peers gave their backing to the Bill, with crossbench peer Lord Freyberg telling the upper chamber: “It stands to reason that if artists’ IP (intellectual property) is being used to train these models, it is only fair that they be compensated, credited and given the option to opt out.”Fellow crossbencher Baroness Kidron, meanwhile, said she wanted to see “more clarity that material that is an offence such as creating viruses, CSAM (child sexual abuse material), or inciting violence are offences whether they are created by AI or not.”The filmmaker and children’s rights campaigner cited a report by the Stanford Internet Observatory, which identified “hundreds of known images of children sexual abuse material in an open data set used to train popular AI text-to-text models”.She added: “The report illustrates that it is very possible to remove such images, but they did not bother. Now those images are proliferating at scale. We need to have some rules upon which AI is developed.”Lord Holmes, the Bill’s sponsor, compared the onset of AI to the advent of steam power during the industrial revolution as he urged peers to back his proposals.He said: “If AI is to human intellect what steam was to human strength, you get the picture. Steam literally changed time. It is our time to act and it is why I bring this Bill to your Lordships’ House today.”The Government believes a non-statutory approach to AI regulation provides “critical adaptability” but has pledged to keep it under review.A Government spokesman said: “As is standard process, the Government’s position on this Bill will be confirmed during the debate.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Police in northern England said Friday that they are investigating whether the largest donor to Britain’s Conservative government committed a crime when he reportedly said a Black member of Parliament made him “want to hate all Black women” and that she “should be shot.”Frank Hester, the chief executive of healthcare software firm The Phoenix Partnership, allegedly made the remarks in 2019 about Diane Abbott, the first Black woman to serve in the House of Commons. West Yorkshire Police said officers were “working to establish the facts and to ultimately ascertain whether a crime has been committed.”Hester has apologized for making “rude” remarks about Abbott but says he’s not racist. The Tory party has resisted pressure from opposition politicians to return the 10 million pounds ($12.6 million) Hester has given to the party. The comments reported March 11 by The Guardian swiftly embroiled the Conservatives in a controversy as they sought to criticize the remarks but refused for nearly 24 hours to label them as racist. The party, which has been in power for 14 years, faces an election later this year and polling shows them trailing far behind Labour. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak initially criticized Hester’s comments as “unacceptable,” but his spokesperson didn’t label the remarks racist until Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch, who is Black, broke ranks and accused Hester of racism.“The alleged comments were wrong, they were racist,” Sunak later told lawmakers. But he said Hester had “rightly apologized for them, and that remorse should be accepted.”Hester’s company has been paid more than 400 million pounds ($504 million) by the National Health Service and other government bodies since 2016, according to The Guardian.Hester allegedly made the comments during a company meeting in Leeds. “It’s like trying not to be racist but you see Diane Abbott on the TV, and you’re just like … you just want to hate all Black women because she’s there,” Hester is reported to have said. “And I don’t hate all Black women at all, but I think she should be shot.”Police asked anyone with information to come forward.“We recognize the strong reaction to these allegations and appreciate everyone who has contacted us since the article was published,” police said in a statement. “As we continue our inquiry, we are keen to hear from anyone who could directly assist our investigation.”Abbott, 70, who was elected to the House of Commons in 1987 representing a northeast London district, said the remarks were frightening, especially since two British lawmakers have been murdered since 2016. The government said last month it would step up politicians’ security because of rising tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.Abbott sits as an independent after being kicked out of the Labour Party caucus last year for comments that suggested Jewish and Irish people do not experience racism “all their lives.” More