UK Politics

Dominic Raab said the story of a mother skipping meals to feed her son “breaks your heart” – but rejected calls to expand free school meals ahead of the summer holidays.The deputy prime minister was grilled about the plight of Emma, forced to rejected her son’s request that she eat breakfast because he had not “seen you eat in days”.“I read that story – it just breaks your heart and melts your heart,” Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “And that’s why dealing with the cost of living challenge is so important.”Asked again about families struggling to get enough to eat, the deputy PM said: “Look, I’ve got kids – I can’t imagine my children being in a position to say that to their mum.”But the senior cabinet minister ruled out an expansion of the free school meals, following calls from teaching unions and charities to widen it out to all families on Universal Credit.“I think the question fairly is whether applying free school meals to everyone on UC [Universal Credit] actually will target the most vulnerable in our society,” said Mr Raab.The deputy PM added: “I’m not convinced it’s the most targeted way of dealing with the most vulnerable.” Mr Raab said the government’s approach to helping those in hardship had been to “increase the money” put in the Household Support Fund – which allow councils to give out crisis payments or provide more to local charities.Chancellor Rishi Sunak has committed an extra £500m to the fund. Mr Raab also pointed to the £200m put into the holiday activities and food programme.However, a group of 11 education groups said existing support was not enough, calling on ministers to make an “urgent” expansion so all children from families who receive universal credit are eligible.The Department for Education states that those on universal credit must have an annual income of less than £7,400 to be eligible for free school meals.Around 1.7 million children are currently eligible to receive free school meals, but the Food Foundation has estimated that 2.6 million children live in households that missed meals or struggled to access food.Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, also said the existing holiday food scheme only covered part of the holidays and required children to attend activities.Just 495,000 children on free school meals accessed food in the school holidays through the government-funded activity clubs last year, according to the recent independent National Food Strategy report.Cost of Living: How to Get HelpThe cost of living crisis has touched every corner of the UK, pushing families to the brink with rising food and fuel prices.The Independent has asked experts to explain small ways you can stretch your money, including managing debt and obtaining items for free.If you need to access a food bank, find your local council’s website using gov.uk and then use the local authority’s site to locate your nearest centre. The Trussell Trust, which runs many foodbanks, has a similar tool.Citizens Advice provides free help to people in need. The organisation can help you find grants or benefits, or advise on rent, debt and budgeting.If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy told The Independent: “It was so striking for me during the last few school holidays, when the government was refusing to keep free school meals going, how councils and businesses across the country stepped up and did it anyway.”She added: “That’s communities coming together to level themselves up. Imagine what they could do with a government that backed them.”Both Justine Greening, the former Tory education secretary, and Alan Johnson, ex-Labour education secretary, both backed the idea of expanding free school meals before the summer holiday.As well as expanding eligibility, Ms Greening said the government should “put in place proper summer holiday provision and revisit the school meals funding that schools get to make sure it’s not eroded by inflation”.Emma, a mum struggling to pay bills despite working three jobs, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she had told son to put one bowl away after he had prepared two bowls of breakfast cereal.“They’re not both for me, mum,” he said. “One of them’s for you because I haven’t seen you eat in days. At least I’ll know you’ve eaten today.” More

Dominic Raab has dismissed the idea that Boris Johnson could face a confidence vote as early as next week – dismissing the speculation as “Westminster froth”.The deputy prime minister said the mood at the top of government was “fine” despite a growing number of Conservative MPs calling on the PM to resign.There is a growing belief it is only a matter of time before the threshold of 54 no-confidence letters needed to trigger a vote is reached, with more than 40 MPs openly questioning his leadership.Asked if a leadership vote could come next week, Mr Raab told Sky News: “No … I think those in the Westminster bubble and village whips this stuff up. I’m not saying [Partygate] is not serious and significant – but we’ve dealt with all of those issues.”The senior cabinet minister also told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t think this ends in a leadership challenge.”Mr Raab said he “doubts” that as many as 40 MPs have submitted letters, said rebels were “pretty far off” triggering a vote, and played down criticism made by ex-minister and Johnson ally Dame Andrea Leadsom on Tuesday.“I think it’s clear that she’s expressing her frustration, she hasn’t put a letter in as far as I understand, she hasn’t said that,” the deputy PM told Times Radio.He added: “Votes of no-confidence, leadership contests, is yet more Westminster talking to itself, … and I think the vast majority of MPs recognise and agree with that.”The justice secretary also dismissed speculation that Mr Johnson could call an early general election this year as a chance to revive his premiership – saying it was “very unlikely”.Backbench critics of Mr Johnson told The Independent they were worried that the PM would narrowly win a confidence vote by securing the support of more than half of his MPs – then trigger an early general election in a bid to reassert control.“I think he might try to manufacture an election because it would be the only way he could reassert his authority,” said one Tory MP. Mr Raab did not deny reports that No 10 is preparing regular, Covid-style press conferences on the economy as part of plan to revive the PM’s fortunes. “That will be for No 10 and the comms team to decide,” he said.The deputy PM also said he was “not privy to the conversation” following reports that Lord Geidt is ready to resign as Mr Johnson’s ethics adviser. “I hope he continues to do [the job],” said Mr Raab.In an exchange of letters on Tuesday, Lord Geidt said Mr Johnson must explain why his fixed penalty notice (FPN) over his birthday party did not breach the ministerial code.He said a “legitimate question” had arisen as to whether the fine might have constituted a breach of the “overarching duty within the ministerial code of complying with the law”.Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on the code, also questioned the PM’s willingness to “take responsibility for his own conduct” in relation to the rules and delivered a withering assessment of exchanges with No 10 officials.Mr Johnson, in a letter released on Tuesday evening, responded by claiming the FPN “did not breach” the ministerial code as there was “no intent to break the law”.Meanwhile, the treasurer of the 1922 Committee has warned Tory MPs that ousting Mr Johnson would mean a leadership vacuum during a “really serious situation”.Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown claimed a leadership contest would take at least eight weeks because of the lack of an obvious successor. “I think at the moment for me, we should leave matters as they are,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. More

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s office has listed scrapping EU regulations on vacuum cleaners as one of the “most interesting” ideas it has received for how to capitalise on the UK’s newfound Brexit freedom.Following his appointment in February as minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency, Mr Rees-Mogg launched an appeal in the Daily Express for the paper’s readers to come forward with ideas for how he could fulfil his new brief.“Government is not the centre of all knowledge and wisdom. Actually there is a much greater wisdom with the British people as a whole,” Mr Rees-Mogg had said, pledging to push to get rid of “what it is in their daily life that the government does that makes their life harder”.The British public is claimed to have responded “with enthusiasm”, and the government has reportedly received some 2,000 ideas since the appeal was launched.As Boris Johnson battles with increasing calls for his resignation from Tory MPs over the Partygate scandal, the top nine “most interesting” of these proposals have now been published in the Daily Express.Second on the list of ideas handpicked by Mr Rees-Mogg’s office was to “abolish the EU regulations that restrict vacuum cleaner power to 1400W”.The bloc’s pro-environmental regulations on vacuum cleaners were actually extended in 2017 to include all machines using more than 900W and emitting more than 80 decibels – effectively those emitting more noise and heat than suction.While critics have suggested that people merely use their vacuum cleaners for longer, experts have previously said that premium low-power machines clean just as well as those of a high-wattage, with some manufacturers alleged to deliberately increase wattage to woo shoppers who equate it with better performance. Current analysis suggests that households using a 1,400W vacuum cleaner would spend 39.2p per hour, compared to 18.2p for someone using a 650W appliance.At the top of the list was a suggestion to “encourage fracking” – upon which the government reluctantly placed a moratorium in 2019, after scientific analysis found it was impossible to predict the likelihood and magnitude of associated earth tremors, which had occurred close to sites on multiple occasions.According to the post-Brexit suggestion cited by Mr Rees-Mogg’s office, the government could “shortcut rules on planning consultation” via emergency legislation. Documents uncovered shortly after the effective ban was imposed three years ago show this idea predates the UK’s exit from the EU, with Whitehall officials having been mulling ways in which planning and public consultation processes around fracking could be made faster and “more predictable”.Just last month, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng ordered a fresh review into the scientific evidence around fracking as the government considers “all possible domestic energy sources” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and soaring energy prices.While the UK was just one of many EU countries to introduce their own moratoriums on fracking, experts say the government’s decision to re-examine shale gas extraction marks a departure from European Union regulations.They point to the UK’s proposed divergence from the bloc’s interpretation of the “precautionary principle” – a legal approach which permits restriction of an activity carrying a potential environmental risk – towards one which prioritises “innovation” over risk management, similarly to the US.Third on Mr Rees-Mogg’s list was a suggestion to “remove precautionary principle restrictions (for instance) on early use of experimental treatments for seriously ill patients and GM crops”.Other suggestions included the abolition of rules around the size of vans requiring an operator’s licence, and of the limits on electrical power levels of electric bicycles, Express readers also suggested the government could allow medical professionals such as pharmacists and paramedics to qualify in three years, simplify the calculation of holiday pay, and reduce requirements for businesses to conduct fixed wire testing and portable application testing. More

The government has taken “no final decision” on its plan to house 1,500 asylum seekers at a former RAF base in a small North Yorkshire village, it has emerged.Announced by the Home Office last month, the idea prompted outrage from residents in Linton-on-Ouse, which is currently home to around 600 people.The local MP Kevin Hollinrake also said he disapproved of the proposal, as did Hambleton district council, which threatened to take legal action against the government.Although the first 60 asylum seekers were supposed to arrive at RAF Linton by Tuesday, ministers have seemingly decided to delay its conversion into a processing centre that has already dubbed Guantanamo-on-Ouse.In a leaked letter sent to the head of the district council, a senior civil servant wrote that the matter was still under consideration.“I can confirm that no final decision has been taken by ministers to accommodate asylum seekers at RAF Linton,” they wrote.“I can confirm that where obligations relating to consultation with the council, community and other stakeholders exist they will be fulfilled.”When asked by The Independent, the Home Office did not deny that the plan had been put on hold.“We maintain the site is urgently needed to provide essential asylum accommodation and will assist as we end the use of asylum seekers using hotels which are costing the taxpayer almost £5million a day,” it said in a statement.It added that it was “listening to community feedback” and maintained that the site would be “as self-sufficient as possible”.Mr Hollinrake, the MP whose constituency contains Linton-on-Ouse, previously told parliament that its villagers were “sacrificial lambs to a national policy”.The politician now hopes the idea will be shelved altogether. Speaking of the government’s delay in opening the centre, he said: “What it infers is that they’re still thinking whether this is the right place to go to, so I’m hopeful on that basis that they might be thinking again.”This comes a month after he told The Independent it was the wrong location for the asylum centre. “It’s not realistic. As the Home Office guidance stipulates, it should be a major conurbation, one that has access to towns and cities, where one can access public services.”At the same time, charities raised concerns about the suitability of using a disused RAF base as a processing centre, noting the bad conditions asylum seekers endured at Napier Barracks in Kent.“It is astonishing that, despite severe concerns raised around the neglect and horrendous conditions asylum seekers were forced to endure in Napier Barracks, the government intends to replicate these conditions in another isolated army barracks,” Sophie McCann, advocacy advisor for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) UK, said. More

Boris Johnson is at risk of placing the ministerial code in a place of “ridicule” over the Partygate scandal, according to his own ethics adviser.In a scathing public rebuke, Christopher Geidt said there were “legitimate” questions over whether Mr Johnson had breached ministerial standards and made a veiled threat to quit if the PM said there was no case to answer.Labour said the row showed that Mr Johnson’s “days are numbered” after he “tried to rig the rules and evade scrutiny”.But the prime minister insisted he had not breached the code, and blamed a “failure of communication” for what Lord Geidt said was a repeated oversight to heed his advice.The spat came as Mr Johnson rang potential rebels on the Conservative backbenches in a desperate bid to shore up his position ahead of a vote of no confidence in his leadership that many Tory MPs now expect to be called when parliament returns next week.Downing Street declined to confirm reports that the PM is planning a relaunch in the final weeks of the parliamentary year, featuring a joint speech with chancellor Rishi Sunak on reforms to insurance rules to release billions of pounds for infrastructure investment. But a source did not deny he was calling backbench waverers, saying: “Obviously he speaks to MPs all the time.”It comes as the Telegraph reported Downing Street is preparing to go on “economic war-footing” in the weeks after the Queen’s Jubilee in a bid to stabilise Mr Johnson’s premiership.Plans being considered are said to include a return to regular Covid-style press briefings, but which would instead focus on the economy. The briefings would seek to explain what is being done to help ease the cost of living crisis and provide the latest data, the newspaper reported. Former Conservative leader William Hague said the prime minister was in “real trouble” and the party was “moving faster” towards a leadership ballot, which will be triggered if the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, receives 54 letters from MPs.But culture secretary Nadine Dorries on Thursday evening insisted Mr Johnson would win should Tory MPs submit enough letters to trigger a confidence vote.She told Sky News: “180 MPs are what would be needed to secure a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, that is never going to happen.”Earlier, a former close ally of Mr Johnson, ex-cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom, went public with concerns over “unacceptable failures of leadership which cannot be tolerated”.A 17th Tory MP – Carlisle’s John Stevenson – also revealed he has submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM, declaring himself “deeply disappointed” at Mr Johnson’s response to revelations of lockdown parties at No 10.He brought the number of MPs who have publicly called for Mr Johnson to go to 28, with others arguing privately for his removal.Meanwhile, backbench critics of Mr Johnson told The Independent they were worried that the PM would narrowly win a confidence vote by securing the support of more than half of his MPs, and then trigger a potentially disastrous early general election in a bid to reassert control over his fractious party.“The parliamentary party is split with one-third against, him one-third loyal and one-third up for grabs,” said one. “If he gets less than the 63 per cent which Theresa May got in 2018 he will be in real trouble, but I’ve no doubt he will try to cling on.“I think he might try to manufacture an election because it would be the only way he could reassert his authority.“He has so much self-belief and he thinks he has the country on his side, but I think the country would say ‘no thanks’ and he would be throwing the red wall MPs under the bus.”Ms May’s former chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, said: “Right now, it feels like we are heading for a confidence vote at some point which he might narrowly win. If the PM seeks to carry on in those circumstances, as I suspect he would, that would be the worst outcome for the Conservative Party.”One supporter of Mr Johnson, business minister George Freeman, admitted the PM was “in the thick of it” and said he did not know if he would survive a confidence vote.In a letter to constituents, Ms Leadsom – who worked closely with Mr Johnson on his abortive bid to save disgraced MP Owen Paterson last year – said the Gray report had exposed “unacceptable failings of leadership that cannot be tolerated and are the responsibility of the prime minister”.While she did not call for Mr Johnson’s resignation, Ms Leadsom said every Conservative “must now decide individually on what is the right course of action that will restore confidence in our government”.Her intervention was regarded as significant and an indication of discontent spreading beyond Mr Johnson’s “One Nation” critics and MPs in marginal seats worried about his impact on their slim majorities.One MP told The Independent that he knew of several MPs who have written to Sir Graham without revealing it publicly, adding: “We must be close to 54 now. I think Sir Graham may just be waiting for the jubilee weekend to be over to announce it.”Mr Brady himself remained tight-lipped, telling reporters it was “not a regular pastime of mine” to add up letters.Lord Hague said that last week’s Gray report into lockdown-breaching parties at No 10 had lit the touch-paper on a “slow fuse explosion”.Mr Johnson was wrong to think he was safe just because the report did not trigger an immediate flood of letters,” he said.“That’s actually not the mood in the Conservative Party which is very, very troubled about the contents of that report,” Lord Hague told Times Radio.“I think they’re moving, either next week or around the end of June, they are moving towards having a ballot. It looks like that”.Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said Mr Johnson was “reduced to desperately phoning around his mutinous MPs offering baubles in a doomed attempt to save his own skin”.She also said that the rebuke from Lord Geidt was “the latest sign of the rampant sleaze engulfing Downing Street”.In a preface to his delayed annual report on ministerial standards, the ethics adviser said that Mr Johnson had failed to heed advice repeatedly conveyed to No 10 that he should make a public statement on whether he had breached the ministerial code of conduct.Failure to do so could put him in the position of having to advise the PM to launch an inquiry into himself and then resign when Mr Johnson refused to do so – which would put the code “in a place of ridicule”, said Lord Geidt.But Mr Johnson responded that Lord Geidt had not raised the issue directly with him and blamed the situation on a “failure of communication between our offices”.The PM insisted he had complied with the code’s requirements by correcting statements to parliament that were “made in good faith” but turned out not to be true. And he said he did not believe the £50 fixed penalty notice he received from the police amounted to a breach of the code.Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “This scathing criticism shows even Boris Johnson’s own ethics adviser no longer trusts him to tell the truth. He is not fit to hold public office.” More

Boris Johnson is under pressure to extend the free school meals programme before the summer holidays amid warnings more than a million children face going hungry because of the cost of living crisis.Former education secretaries from both Labour and the Conservatives, as well as the mayor of London, unions and charities have urged the government to act as it did during the Covid pandemic.As inflation surges the cost of some foods has already soared, while the governor of the Bank of England has warned of “apocalyptic” prices ahead.Justine Greening, the Conservative former education secretary, said: “The government has a chance to avoid the mess on free school meals that happened last year and get ahead of the next phase of the cost of living crisis for families.” Both she and Labour’s Alan Johnson called on ministers to expand the system to include all children whose families receive universal credit benefits.They also called for less patchy support for schoolchildren in the summer holidays.During the Covid pandemic, the prime minister was forced into a humiliating climbdown over the provision of food to some of the country’s poorest families, after a campaign led by England footballer Marcus Rashford. Teaching unions have now written to the government warning that the cost of living crisis is leaving many families struggling. They have called for free school meals to be provided for all children from families receiving universal credit in England as an immediate first step. The former children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said she supports the move. As well as expanding eligibility to all on universal credit, Ms Greening said the government should “put in place proper summer holiday provision and revisit the school meals funding that schools get to make sure it’s not eroded by inflation so children have the provision of healthy nutritious meals as intended.” Alan Johnson said that he and his sister both received free school meals and had “never forgotten how important those school dinners were”. He expressed his surprise that entitlement to universal credit was not already “a passport to free school meals”. He said there was a good case for all infant and primary school pupils to have free meals but extending it to all those on the benefit “would be a good start”.He also said the voucher system adopted during lockdown to ensure those on free school meals weren’t disadvantaged “provided a solution to the long-standing practical problem of how to continue through the holidays”. The Food Foundation charity estimates 2.6 million children live in households that missed meals or struggled to access healthy food in April.Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy told The Independent: “It was so striking for me during the last few school holidays, when the government was refusing to keep free school meals going, how councils and businesses across the country stepped up and did it anyway.“Here in the northwest, I don’t think there was a single Labour council that didn’t step forward and do that. Because these are our children and we won’t let them go starving hungry in school holidays just because of the government that they’ve got.“So, if the government won’t, then there’ll be a mobilisation effort led across the country to make sure that children don’t go hungry over those summer holidays. That’s levelling up in action, isn’t it? That’s communities coming together to level themselves up. Imagine what they could do with a government that backed them,” she added.The Department for Education state that those on universal credit must have an annual income of less than £7,400 to be eligible for free school meals.In response to previous criticism ministers set up a “Holiday activities and food programme” during the summer and other school closures.But Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it only covered part of the holidays and required children to attend activities.Around 1.7 million pupils in England receive free school meals, official figures show.But an independent report, the National Food Strategy, published last year, estimated that another million children in England would receive free school meals if every family on universal credit were eligible.And just 495,000 children on free school meals accessed food in the school holidays through government-funded activity clubs last year.Poverty campaigners also backed the latest call.Helen Barnard, associate director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “There’s been a disconnect for a long time between free school meal eligibility and who needs them.” In particular, the scheme tends to exclude families in working poverty, she said, while adding that cash support for families over the holidays “makes much more sense”.Kate Anstey, from Child Poverty Action Group, said the charity was hearing from more and more parents who could not afford school lunches on top of everything else, a situation that was “devastating for them and has serious consequences for their children”.“Expanding eligibility to all families on universal credit is the minimum change we should make to provide a basic layer of protection for children,” she said.A government spokesperson said ministers had “expanded access to free school meals more than any other government in recent decades”.“The holiday activities and food programme runs during major school holidays, and wider welfare support is available through the household support fund, which helps vulnerable families in need with essentials, such as food and utility bills.” More

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner have both received police questionnaires about the so-called “Beergate” event at a party office in Durham last year.The party confirmed that both senior figures had been asked by Durham Constabulary to explain their attendance at the 30 April gathering, at which beer and curry was consumed.The Durham force announced earlier this month that it would investigate potential breaches of Covid laws by Starmer and his staff, despite initially deciding against action when images of the meeting first appeared.The Labour leader then announced a high-stakes gamble – that he would resign as leader if he is issued with a fixed penalty notice by the force.“I believe in honour, integrity and the principle that those who make the rules must follow them,” said Sir Keir.Ms Rayner, who was also at the Labour constituency office in Durham last spring, said she too would “do the decent thing and step down” if issued with a fixed penalty notice (FPN).Both Sir Keir and Ms Rayner have continued to stress that they believe no Tier 2 rules in place at the time – which allowed for political campaigning – were broken.Starmer said his team had “got on with their work” as the ate takeaway curry. “I simply had something to eat while working late in the evening, as any politician would do days before an election,” said the Labour leader.Ms Rayner added: “Eating during a long day’s work was not against the rules.”Senior Labour MP Nick Brown – chief whip under six party leaders – suggested earlier this week that Starmer should stand for re-election if he is fined and forced to resign.“I don’t believe for one moment that the police will find against him. But let’s just for the sake of the argument, say they did,” the former Labour minister told the BBC’s Politics North.Mr Brown added: “If they did, Keir would do what he said he would do and would resign. And I would be the first person urging him to seek re-election and to lead us into the next general election.”It comes as Boris Johnson faces a steady flow of Tory MPs calling for his resignation following the damning report into Partygate by top civil servant Sue Gray.John Stevenson, MP for Carlisle, became the latest Tory to call on Mr Johnson to resign over the Partygate “revelations” – telling colleagues to “facilitate a vote of confidence” in his leadership.Under party rules Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, must call a vote of confidence if 54 Tory MPs submit a letter calling for one.Close to 30 Tory MPs have publicly called on the PM to stand down. But more than 40 MPs have openly questioned his future, although not all of them have said whether they have written to Sir Graham.Former Tory leader William Hague said Mr Johnson was now “in real trouble”, predicting that a vote on his leadership could come as early as next week. More