Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailConfidence in Britain’s new online safety regime could be undermined by a lack of “tangible” improvement, MPs have warned.Communications regulator Ofcom has been given the job of implementing the regime introduced by last year’s Online Safety Act, which requires providers of online services to minimise the extent of illegal and harmful content.But in a report published on Wednesday, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said full implementation of the new rules had been delayed by a year, while the way Ofcom will handle complaints risks leaving the public “disappointed”.The report said: “As the regulatory regime will not be fully implemented until 2026, there is a risk that public confidence in the regime will be undermined if it does not quickly bring about tangible changes to people’s online experience.”(Ofcom) must now continue to be proactively frank with the public over what the Online Safety Act does and does not empower it to do, lest confidence in the new regime be swiftly underminedDame Meg Hillier, Public Accounts CommitteeUnder the new regime, Ofcom will be unable to act on individual complaints and can only step in when there are “systemic concerns” about a provider, nor does it have a mechanism for telling complainants whether their concerns have contributed to any action.Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier said: “Expectations are understandably high for firm guardrails in the hitherto largely unregulated online world.“We know that around two thirds of UK children and adults say they experienced at least one potential online harm in a month in 2022, according to Ofcom, which is to be commended for how swiftly it has moved to take on its new responsibilities.“It must now continue to be proactively frank with the public over what the Online Safety Act does and does not empower it to do, lest confidence in the new regime be swiftly undermined.”The committee said Ofcom was well prepared for its new role, and noted that it had already achieved some success in ensuring a website promoting suicide was blocked for UK users.But full implementation of the new rules has slipped from 2025 to 2026, while the April 2025 deadline for bringing in parts of the regulations relating to illegal harms and protecting children is considered the “bare minimum” required.MPs also called for more clarity on how fees levied on industry would work, suggesting Ofcom would not recover its set-up costs until 2033, and asked for more detail on how it would deal with internet providers who failed to engage with the regulator.With an estimated 100,000 companies subject to regulation, many of which may be small or based overseas, MPs said it may be difficult to contact some providers.No other country has introduced online safety regulation. Ofcom now needs to capitalise on its early progressDame Meg Hillier, Public Accounts CommitteeIf providers refuse to engage with Ofcom over systemic concerns, the regulator will have the power to levy fines of up to 10% of a company’s global revenue and carry out “business disruption measures”.Dame Meg added: “No other country has introduced online safety regulation. Ofcom now needs to capitalise on its early progress.“It must also accelerate its co-ordination with other regulators both at home and overseas, in the recognition that it is at the forefront of a truly global effort to strike the right balance between freedom and safety online.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMPs and Downing Street have demanded evidence to be disclosed in the row between Kemi Badenoch and the former Post Office chief Henry Staunton as the spat was branded as a “deeply embarrassing” political sideshow.Political figures called for the row to be put to one side for the sake of innocent postmasters as the explosive war of words between Mr Staunton and Ms Badenoch continued. Former Conservative peer Baroness Wheatcroft, who is now a cross-bench peer, said the focus should be on the people whose lives have been ruined by the saga. She added: “It really shouldn’t be happening. The issue here is the victims. This isn’t helping them at all… It’s a sideshow.”Labour MP Liam Byrne, chair of the Commons business and trade committee, which is investigating the Horizon scandal, added: “What we could do without right now is a war of words between the secretary of state and the former chairman. What we really need is ministers writing checks to the hundreds of subpostmasters who need redress, and they’ve been waiting for too long.”It came as:It was claimed that Lord David Cameron’s government knew the Post Office dropped a probe that may have helped wrongly-accused subpostmasters prove there were flaws in the Horizon accounting softwareMr Byrne and Number 10 urged Mr Staunton to provide the relevant papers to back up his claim that senior civil servants gave him a “go slow” order on issuing compensation for victims of the Horizon scandalAnother senior Labour MP, Chris Bryant, said the row “doesn’t quite add up”, adding: “I suspect this story isn’t over”Downing Street said “it was right” for Ms Badenoch to make a statement about the circumstances surrounding Mr Staunton’s departureThe war of words between the Business Secretary and Henry Staunton escalated on MondayThe row began when the former post office boss, who was sacked by Ms Badenoch last month, said he had been told to stall compensation payouts for postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal.But in a statement to the Commons, the business secretary said there was “no evidence whatsoever” of his account and branded it “a blatant attempt to seek revenge” for his sacking.She also claimed he was being investigated over bullying allegations before he was fired as chairman, and that concerns were raised about his “willingness to co-operate” with the probe.Hitting back later on Monday, a spokesperson for Mr Staunton said Ms Badenoch had made an “astonishing series of claims” about the saga and that Mr Staunton had no knowledge of the allegations.It was later reported that ministers in now foreign secretary Lord Cameron’s government were allegedly told that Post Office bosses had dropped a secret investigation that may have helped to prove postmasters’ innocence.The BBC revealed a 2016 internal investigation into how and why cash accounts on the Horizon IT system had been tampered with – which spanned 17 years of records – was suddenly dropped after postmasters began legal action.But despite the investigation, the organisation still argued in court that it was impossible for Fujitsu to remotely access accounts – raising questions about why the government did not intervene.Lord David Cameron’s government reportedly knew the Post Office dropped a probe that may have helped wrongly-accused subpostmasters prove there were flaws in the Horizon accounting software There is no evidence in the documents that then-prime minister Lord Cameron personally knew about the investigation or that it had been ditched.But the revelations suggest the Post Office knew that Fujitsu staff could remotely amend cash balances in branch accounts, even though it later repeatedly claimed this was impossible.And they raise questions over what ministers knew about the Post Office’s internal inquiry and why they allowed it to be junked.A spokesperson for Lord Cameron pointed to his previous comments saying he could not remember being briefed about the Horizon scandal while he was prime minister.The foreign secretary, who was in No 10 between 2010 and 2016 as hundreds of subpostmasters were being pursued, said in January: “I don’t recall in any detail being briefed or being aware of the scale of this issue.”He added that anyone who was involved in government over the last two decades had to be “extremely sorry” for the miscarriage of justice.The Horizon scandal saw more than 700 subpostmasters and subpostmistresses handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe boss of the Bank of England has said Britain’s “very small” recession may already be over in a boost for beleaguered Rishi Sunak.Andrew Bailey told MPs that officials at the central bank think the economy “is already showing distinct signs of an upturn”.And, just days after official figures confirmed Britain had fallen into a recession, Mr Bailey said it was the weakest downturn since the 1970s “by a long way”.Mr Sunak was slammed after the Office for National Statistics said the economy shrank by 0.3 per cent at the end of last year. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said it left his pledge to grow the economy “in tatters”.The prime minister has come under fire after the UK entered a technical recession last week But, speaking to parliament’s treasury committee on Tuesday, Mr Bailey said: “We have a very precise definition of a recession in this country as two successive quarters of negative GDP growth.”He pointed to the 0.5 per cent cumulative fall in growth last year, adding: “If you look at recessions going back to the 1970s, this is the weakest by a long way because the range, I think, for the numbers for those two quarters for all the previous recessions was something like 2.5 per cent to 22 per cent in terms of negative growth, so minus 0.5 per cent is a very weak recession.”The Bank of England boss also said: “I think there’s two ways that the UK grows, first of all by restoring price stability, that’s a condition for stable growth. I think we’re well on our way to doing that.“The second thing is – and this is part of the narrow path we’re having to walk here – that we’ve got weak supply side growth in this country and we have had for some time. So, clearly, to get faster growth, we do need to see stronger growth on the supply side.”While the recession was described as “technical” by some, because of the limited duration of the dip, Asda chairman Lord Rose said: “If it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck… it’s a duck. It’s a recession. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a technical recession or not.”Chancellor Jeremy Hunt blamed efforts to tackle high inflation and the recent run of interest rate rises, but maintained that the economy was turning a corner.Jeremy Hunt insisted there is “light at the ed of the tunnel” if the Government sticks to its economic plan. The revelation the UK is in recession led to increased pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates. The New Economics Foundation think tank said it was “no surprise” the UK had fallen into recession, “given this government’s mismanagement of the economy and the Bank of England’s panicked interest rate rises”.But now the governor of the Bank of England has hinted that it may cut interest rates sooner as inflation does not need to reach the 2 per cent before they do so. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has signalled that inflation does not need to reach 2 per cent before the Bank starts cutting interest rates Mr Bailey told the the treasury committee that although “the quantity side of the labour market remains tight”, the Bank of England will consider progress in pay, labour market and services before making the decision:“But it’s the progress of those three things.“We don’t need inflation to come back to target before we cut interest rates, I must be very clear on that, that’s not necessary.“We’ll be looking for sustained progress on those things to reach that judgment about how long this period of restrictive policy needs to be.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailParents who use phones excessively may struggle to set screen time rules for their children, the Children’s Commissioner for England has suggested.Dame Rachel de Souza has called on tech companies to fund “parental education” to help families understand what young people are seeing online.She told the Commons Education Select Committee that parents in the country need to have a conversation about their “own addictions”.Dame Rachel told MPs: “You see parents with kids using their phones at dinner time. We can’t say, ‘I’m going to ban you from having this’ – well we can –  but then act as adults in a totally uncontrolled way scrolling at night.”I think as parents we need to – and as adults – we need to wake up here and also watch our own behavioursDame Rachel de Souza, Children’s CommissionerHer comments come after schools in England have been given Government guidance intended to stop the use of mobile phones during the school day.Dame Rachel told MPs on Tuesday that young people are seeing “horrendous things” online and they want to be able to talk to their parents about it.Young people told the commissioner’s office that they want “boundaries around screen time” and they want their parents to take away their phones before bed, Dame Rachel suggested.The Children’s Commissioner for England said: “I think as parents we need to – and as adults – we need to wake up here and also watch our own behaviours.”She told MPs that no technology in the bedroom was a “good piece of advice”.Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, is campaigning for an age limit for smartphone usage and stricter controls on access to social media apps.When asked whether she would support age verification at the time a phone is sold to make sure that parents get access to parental control and advice, Dame Rachel said: “I think as long as that’s coupled with education – a proper campaign of parental education –  I think it could be incredibly helpful and we should be looking at every innovation possible to nail this down.”Dame Rachel said we need to “lean in” into a proper relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum.Addressing a rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in young people, she said: “That to me speaks of kids getting their sex education from TikTok and not being taught by the trusted adults at school in a proper way, and by their families. ”On Monday, the Department for Education (DfE) published guidance, which is non-statutory, which instructed headteachers on how to ban the use of phones, not only during lessons, but during break and lunch periods as well.Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said it would provide “clarity and consistency” for teachers and that there is currently “a large variation in how different schools are managing the use of mobile phones”.When asked about the guidance, Dame Rachel said: “I think it’s great at school to have a mobile-free zone. I think most headteachers do that.”She added that she would like to use her statutory powers to check every school in the country to see who is and is not banning mobile phones.“I don’t think we’ve got a clear picture. My gut feeling is that most do restrict mobile phone use,” Dame Rachel said. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak faces the prospect of yet another nightmare by-election after an MP caught up in a lobbying scandal lost an appeal against a 35-day suspension.Blackpool South MP Scott Benton had the Conservative whip suspended last year after he was caught offering to lobby ministers and leaking confidential information in return for payment, following a sting by The Times.The House of Commons committee on standards found the MP had given the impression he was “corrupt” and “for sale” after he was secretly filmed saying he could table parliamentary questions and provide “behind the scenes” information for up to £4,000 a month.The report recommended that Mr Benton have the whip removed and be suspended for 35 days, which would trigger a recall petition in his constituency.Scott Benton lost his appeal and faces a by-election after he was caught offering to lobby ministers on behalf of gambling investors Mr Benton had submitted an appeal to the committee’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP), but on Tuesday it announced that the decision has been upheld, meaning the MP faces a recall petition that would pave the way for a by-election.The IEP stated in its report that Mr Benton’s behaviour “falls within the class of conduct that would cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole and its members generally” and a “serious sanction is appropriate”. The finding means MPs will now vote on whether to implement the recommended suspension which, if supported, would trigger a recall petition and a potential by-election in Mr Benton’s seat if 10 per cent of his constituents sign the petition.The prospect presents yet another headache for Mr Sunak as the Tories would be almost certain to lose the seat. Mr Benton won the seat from Labour in 2019 with a 3,690-majority, but Labour’s recent by-election victories suggest this would be an easy win for the party.Rishi Sunak faced two recent by-election losses as Labour overturned Conservative majorities in Kingswood and Wellingborough Last week, Labour won the seat of Wellingborough from the Conservatives – overturning a majority of more than 18,000 in the largest swing from the Tories to Labour since 1994.The Conservatives have now lost 10 by-elections since 2019 – the highest number of Tory losses in one parliamentary term since the Second World War.Voters will take to the polls again next week in Rochdale as constituents vote for a new MP to replace the late Sir Tony Lloyd.Labour called on Mr Benton to resign immediately rather than wait for the outcome of any recall petition.Jonathan Ashworth, shadow paymaster general, responding to Mr Benton’s appeal, said: “Scott Benton should do the decent thing and resign, saving the people of Blackpool South a lengthy recall petition that would leave them without the representation they deserve.“This is yet another by-election caused by Tory scandal. Britain deserves better than this carousel of Conservative chaos. “Labour’s Chris Webb is Blackpool born and bred, and ready to deliver a fresh start for Blackpool South.”Mr Benton said he was “deeply disappointed” that his appeal had been rejected and renewed his criticism of the Commons committee on standards.He said: “I am deeply disappointed by the decision of the appeal panel to uphold the standards committee’s unjust findings against me.“The entire process has been prone to regular leaks at every stage, with journalists knowing the details throughout. This lack of integrity throughout the process has formed an inescapable appearance of bias.”Mr Benton claimed the independent panel had “ignored” evidence that the result of the investigation into him had been leaked to the press and other “obvious flaws” in the inquiry.He added: “It goes without saying that the standards process is designed to be open, fair, honest and transparent so the public and MPs can have trust in it.“These events clearly mean that this trust has been breached by members of the committee and/or its administrative staff, and create an inevitable perception of partiality.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour has called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, warning: “We need the fighting to stop now.”Ahead of a crunch vote in the Commons on Wednesday, Labour leader Keir Starmer met with his shadow cabinet to discuss whether to order MPs to vote for an SNP-led motion which will call for an “immediate ceasefire” in the conflict in the Middle East. A Labour spokesperon said: “Our amendment calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, in line with our allies. We need the hostages released and returned. We need the fighting to stop now. We need a massive humanitarian aid programme for Gaza. And any military action in Rafah cannot go ahead.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (Dan Kitwood/PA)“There needs to be an end to violence on all sides. Israelis have the right to the security that the horror of October 7th cannot happen again.“We want the fighting to stop now. We also have to be clear on how we prevent the violence starting up again. There will be no lasting peace without a diplomatic process that delivers a two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state.”Sir Keir had been warned ahead of Wednesday’s vote that he faced the biggest rebellion of his Labour leadership so far. It came just months after the Labour leader suffered a blow as 56 Labour MPs, including 10 frontbenchers, broke ranks to vote with the SNP for an immediate ceasefire. Labour’s amendment to the SNP motion streses that a threatened Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, where 1.5m Palestinians are taking shelter, “risks catastrophic humanitarian consequences and therefore must not take place”. It also notes the “intolerable loss of Palestinian life” and condemns “the terrorism of Hamas”, who continue to hold hostages. But the key difference between Labour’s amendment and the SNP motion is a caveat that states Israel “cannot be expected to cease fighting if Hamas continues with violence”. It adds: “Israelis have the right to the assurance that the horror of 7th October cannot happen again.” Jess Phillips, who quit over the ceasefire vote in November, has said she hopes Labour and the SNP can agree the wording of a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead of a debate in the Commons on Wednesday. Speaking at an event in London, the former shadow minister said: “This isn’t an issue of contention between the SNP and the Labour Party.“The Labour Party wants an immediate ceasefire, the SNP want an immediate ceasefire, why on Earth wouldn’t we work together today to show unity in the face of horror and crisis, and then all vote for the same motion together?“Hope springs eternal that that will happen, and by hope I mean I doubt there’s any chance, but that’s what I would be seeking to do.”She added: “It would be good if the Labour Party and the SNP came out today with an agreed set of words that we wished Parliament to be tested against, and not the MPs to be tested against, but Parliament, the British representatives and how we feel about this situation.”And Labour MP Clive Betts, who defied the leadership to vote in favour of the last SNP-led vote, welcomed the party’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.The Sheffield South East MP told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme he thinks Labour will now “unite” behind the amendment.He said: “It goes on to say, and it’s really important this, that we want to work for a two-state solution, which Netanyahu has rejected.”So, there’s a major challenge there. We say that the Palestinians have a right to statehood, an inalienable right of the Palestinian people. It’s not in anyone’s gift to allow them to have their own country.”That’s a really firm, strong statement, which I think the party will unite behind absolutely. I think many, many people … will see that as a really strong commitment from Labour.” More