Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe health tech company belonging to disgraced Conservative party donor Frank Hester has been dropped as a sponsor from Yorkshire’s largest LGBTQ+ celebration after the CEO was embroiled in a racism row.Mr Hester came under fire after it was revealed he had made racist comments about Labour MP Diane Abbott, having said she made him “want to hate all back women” and that “she should be shot”.Now the organisers of Leeds Pride have announced they are ending their sponsorship deal with Mr Hester’s company in a stance against discrimination.In a statement confirming it was cutting ties with TPP, Leeds Pride said: “This move comes after discussions with the board of directors and collaborative partners, reflecting a stand against discrimination and in support of creating an inclusive atmosphere.”Frank Hester allegedly made the comments in 2019 (Screengrab/PA) More

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

Rishi Sunak laughed as he was asked perhaps one of the most important political questions – Why are his trousers so short?A clip of the prime minister interviewing Gordan Ramsay went viral in 2021 as millions were drawn to the shortness of his trousers as he sat down. Mr Sunak’s bespoke tailor, Henry Herbert, defended his fashion style, telling The Independent it “was more professional”.This time the length of the prime minister’s trousers was brought up by The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole during an interview on Wednesday (3 April).Mr Sunak said: “Well I don’t think they are that short.” Pushed on whether he thought his style was trendy, he added: “I tend not to like lots of baggy, baggy stuff at the bottom of my ankle.” 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

Rishi Sunak has admitted he doesn’t know when the next general election will be.The prime minister was quizzed on an election date by Harry Cole on The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots podcast on Wednesday (3 April).Mr Sunak said: “I have been clear on that and said I am working on the assumption it is in the second half of the year and I will stick to that.“There is a long-standing tradition that it is the prime ministers who decide when they are going to call an election and I haven’t decided because I have been busy focusing on the things that matter to people.” 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

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsAll seven aid worker “heroes” with World Central Kitchen killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Monday have been identified. The humanitarian group, which delivers food aid to war and disaster zones, said the seven were returning from coordinating an aid shipment in central Gaza when they were killed. WCK said the following individuals died when the IDF struck their three-car convoy: Saifeddin Issam Ayab Abutaha, 25, of Palestine; Lalzawmi Frankcom, 43, of Australia; Damian Soból, 35, of Poland; Jacob Flickinger, 33, a US-Canadian dual citizen; along with UK citizens John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33, and James Kirby, 47.“These 7 beautiful souls were killed by the IDF in a strike as they were returning from a full day’s mission,” WCK CEO Erin Gore said Tuesday in a statement. “Their smiles, laughter, and voices are forever embedded in our memories. And we have countless memories of them giving their best selves to the world. We are reeling from our loss. The world’s loss.” The organisation noted that Abutaha, Frankcom, Soból, and Flickinger were part of WCK’s relief team, while Chapman, Henderson, and Kirby were part of the group’s security team. Monday’s killings have prompted international condemnation.UK prime minister Rishi Sunak demanded a “thorough and transparent investigation” from Israel.On Tuesday evening, Mr Sunak telephoned Benjamin Netanyahu to say that “far too many aid workers and ordinary civilians have lost their lives in Gaza” and that the situation there is “increasingly intolerable”.The White House said it was also “outraged” by the strike on workers with WCK, a charity that has been supplying food to starving Palestinians who are on the brink of famine amid Israel’s total war on the besieged strip. Zomi Frankcom (left) was killed in ther airstrike“Unfortunately over the last day there was a tragic incident of an unintended strike of our forces on innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, promising that Israeli officials were thoroughly “checking” into the incident and that the country’s armed forces “will do everything for this not to happen again”.The IDF attacked the convoy because officials believed an armed member of Hamas was traveling with the group, though no such person was traveling along with the aid workers, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. An Israeli army source told the outlet that the strike wasn’t a matter of poor coordination, but rather because “every commander sets the rules for himself.”The charity had just offloaded 100 tonnes of food aid from a barge which sailed from Cyprus when Israel attacked their vehicle convoy on Gaza’s coastal road in Deir al-Balah. WCK said on Tuesday it was pausing all work in the occupied Palestinian territory.WCK said its convoy of three vehicles was hit despite the charity coordinating on its movements with the Israeli military, and the fact that two of the cars hit were clearly marked as aid vehicles. Damian Sobol, 35, started volunteering with WCK in the border town of Przemysl at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of UkraineForeign secretary David Cameron called on Israel to “immediately investigate”, adding that the government wanted “a full, transparent explanation of what happened”.“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war,” said Ms Gore of WCK said in a previous statement. “This is unforgivable.”Mr Soból started volunteering with WCK in the border town of Przemysl at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine where he was helping feed refugees. He joined WCK’s response to the earthquakes in Turkey. More recently he started working for WCK in Gaza.Nate Mook, the former chief executive of WCK who first hired Ms Frankcom, described her as a “shining star” and “gift to the world” who had dedicated her life to helping people. “The news of her death, the killing of seven members of the World Central Kitchen is devastating for their families, friends and the world,” he told The Independent.“It is unfathomable that they are not with us any more. They were all truly dedicated to their work, trying to do what they could in the most desperate and dangerous of situations.”One of the destroyed vehicles from the World Central Kitchen convoy Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s top spokesperson, said officials were reviewing the incident at the highest level. He said an independent investigation would be launched that “will help us reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again”.WCK founder, celebrity chef Jose Andres, said the deaths were a “tragedy”. “I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family,” Andres wrote in a statement. “These are people – angels – I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia.“They are not faceless… they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.”It is not the first time Israel has been accused of bombing humanitarian aid convoys and distribution centres and of killing humanitarian aid workers. Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s aid coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, said this was “not an isolated incident” and that Gaza was one of the most dangerous places on earth for humanitarian workers. “As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians had been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since October 2023. This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year,” he said in a statement. “Since October 2023, the OPT has become one of the world’s most dangerous and difficult places to work.” The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency told The Independent that over 170 of their staffers had been killed in the bombardment and a tank shell hit one of its aid convoys in February along the same coastal road WCK had been on. The agency said that a supply distribution centre was also hit in March, and convoys had come under Israeli fire in December. Alicia Kearns, a Conservative MP and the chair of the foreign affairs committee, said that there was still no explanation for the January bombing of the Medical Aid for Palestine complex in a declared safe zone which had also been deconflicted directly with the Israeli military. Four British doctors who were there at the time only just survived. She called for a “thorough and swift investigation” into the latest incident. “And also [into] what impact it will have on the ability of the maritime corridor to function given it is World Central Kitchen who were receiving and distributing the desperately needed aid,” she tweeted. “Humanitarian agencies must be given the assurances they need that their people will be protected.”Francesca Albanese, a UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, called for sanctions on Israel. “On the day Israel bombed a foreign embassy in a third country [Syria], it also killed WCK humanitarian workers. Israel is crossing every possible red line, still with full impunity. Sanctions now. Indictments now.”It came hours after Israeli troops ended a devastating two-week raid on Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, leaving the facility a torched, gutted shell.Footage showed al-Shifa’s main buildings had been reduced to a charred mess, with what looked like flattened bodies and body parts smashed in the ground, which had been chewed up by bulldozers. Israel claimed it launched the raid on the north Gaza hospital because senior Hamas operatives had regrouped there and were planning attacks. After the troops withdrew, hundreds of Palestinians returned to search for lost loved ones or examine the damage – with Palestinian journalists reporting people had been killed by Israeli soldiers. Among the dead were Ahmed Maqadma and his mother – both doctors at al-Shifa and his cousin, said Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian-British doctor who volunteered at al-Shifa and other hospitals during the first months of the war before returning to Britain. The fate of the three had been unknown since they talked by phone with family as they tried to leave al-Shifa nearly a week ago and the line suddenly went dead. On Monday, relatives found their bodies with gunshot wounds about a block from the hospital, said Abu Sitta, who is in touch with the family.  More