UK Politics

A Conservative peer who helped set up the universal credit system has called on the government to urgently increase benefits in line with inflation as the cost of living crisis bites.Baroness Stroud, a former adviser to Iain Duncan Smith, also told The Independent that she thought the £20-per-week uplift, which was removed last autumn, should be restored by the Treasury.“We’re sitting on a cost of living crisis; we have the opportunity to intervene; we have done so in the past under difficult situations when it affected everybody,” the Tory peer said. “But if governments have a responsibility to do anything, it is to act on behalf of vulnerable people. This is a moment to do that.”Lady Stroud’s comments come amid escalating pressure on Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to introduce further support for families struggling with surging energy bills and food prices.On Wednesday it was revealed that inflation had soared to 9 per cent in the 12 months to April, hitting a 40-year high, as the chancellor admitted: “The next few months will be tough.”Last month, however, Mr Sunak came under intense fire for rejecting calls to raise benefits by more than 3.1 per cent – a figure based on inflation rates in September 2021 – as prices surged. Without ministerial intervention, benefits will not be increased again until April 2023.Speaking to The Independent, Lady Stroud, who is CEO of the Legatum Institute think tank, said: “I just genuinely think the benefits should be uprated in line with the current inflation – they should be brought forward.“That would be entirely possibly to do. The defence has been made that it can’t be done immediately. I have spoken with DWP officials, who’ve said [an increase in] universal credit can be done immediately.“I know the legacy benefits are much harder to do,” she added. “You could do a one-off payment for the equivalent value for those on legacy.”Without action, Lady Stroud said households in which people receive out-of-work benefits, have disabilities, or are single parents with young children “will have to start making choices”.“We’re going to start seeing very, very difficult choices being made. We’ve already started seeing very difficult choices being made,” she said.Last year, the Conservative peer was among a chorus of voices urging the government not to remove the £20-per-week uplift to universal credit – a measure introduced at the onset of the Covid pandemic. More

UK scientists are being stripped of leadership roles for Europe-wide projects, in fresh evidence of how Brexit clashes are damaging vital research cooperation.The EU has told a Cambridge University astrophysicist studying the Milky Way that he cannot be in charge of a new project – because the UK is not part of the £80bn Horizon Europe programme.Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal was meant to rescue participation – to pool talent and ideas to achieve scientific breakthroughs – but his plans to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol continue to block that.It is “collateral damage” from what Brussels sees as a breach of an international agreement, the EU ambassador to the UK has warned.Now Nicholas Walton, a research fellow at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy, has revealed he has lost his leadership role in a new €2.8m European Space Agency project.Carsten Welsch, a physicist at Liverpool University, who has won €2.6m in funding for long-term research on a novel plasma generator, said he faced the same threat of having to hand over leadership to an EU institution.“As the UK’s association to Horizon Europe isn’t completed, we are now at real risk of losing our leadership in this consortium and to be marginalised,” he told The Guardian.“This is really heartbreaking, given the long and extremely successful track record in scientific collaboration between the UK and EU,” he said.The setback has emerged as UK scientists warn the government must decide in the next few months whether to abandon hopes of remaining in the Horizon scheme altogether.Some £6bn has been set aside for a three-year go-it-alone science fund, which scientists see as inferior to Horizon – but which must start to be spent soon, if that is the reality.Adrian Smith, president of The Royal Society, said: “The window for association is closing fast, and we need to ensure that political issues do not get in the way of a sensible solution.“We have always been very clear that association is the preferred outcome for protecting decades of collaborative research, and the benefits this has brought to people’s lives across the continent and beyond.”Over the last six-year period of the Horizon scheme, finishing in 2020, the UK received £1.5bn – more than any other country and a fifth of the total handed out by Brussels.Among the programme’s successes are everything from leukaemia treatments to hydrogen cells that fuel zero-emission buses.The Brexit deal committed the UK to pay £15bn over the six years to 2027 – even as it pulled out of other EU agencies and EU-wide programmes – but that has yet to be triggered, as the stalemate drags on.Mr Welsch said domestic funding is allowing the UK to contribute as “associated partners” to the Horizon scheme, without receiving EU cash.But he warned: “UK institutions can no longer lead projects, can no longer be in charge of project milestones and, overall, it feels as if the UK is losing important leadership.” More

Boris Johnson is under pressure to explain why he met with Sue Gray to discuss her report into the Partygate scandal, which is due within days.Labour warned the “secret meeting” could further damage confidence in the investigation of the scandal, while the Liberal Democrats raised fears of “a stitch up”.The prime minister is among around 30 people who have been told by Ms Gray, a senior civil servant, that her report is likely to name them – with a deadline of Sunday evening to lodge any objections.Publication is expected on Tuesday or Wednesday, after the Metropolitan Police announced the conclusion of its investigation with a total of 126 fines issued to 83 people.Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader said: “Boris Johnson must urgently explain why he held a secret meeting with Sue Gray to discuss her report despite claiming her investigation was completely independent.“Public confidence in the process is already depleted, and people deserve to know the truth. The Sue Gray report must be published in full and with all accompanying evidence.”Christine Jardine, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, said: “Any whiff of a stitch up would make an absolute mockery of the report. This meeting must be explained.”It has been suggested that the meeting – around one month ago – was to discuss whether up to 300 photos given to the Met probe should be included in Ms Gray’s report.A No 10 spokesperson said, on Friday: “The prime minister commissioned the investigation led by Sue Gray and has been clear throughout that it should be completely independent.“As he reiterated again today, the decision on what and when to publish rests entirely with the investigation team and he will respond in Parliament once it concludes.”Although Downing Street calls the inquiry “independent”, in reality it is an internal process, carried out by a person employed by the government.The pressure on Mr Johnson has eased, after he escaped further fines for the No 10 parties on top of the one handed down for his cabinet room birthday celebration, in June 2020.However, the full Gray report could still lift the lid further on what her interim report called the “failures of leadership and judgement”, by revealing the communications leading up to the lockdown-busting events.The prime minister then faces an inquiry by the Commons’ privileges committee to determine whether he lied to parliament when claimed that no laws had been broken in Downing Street.Under the ministerial code, any minister who knowingly misleads the House of Commons is expected to resign. More

Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova should be “equipped to Nato standard” to guard it against possible Russian aggression, the foreign secretary has said.Liz Truss said she wants to ensure that Ukraine is “permanently able to defend itself”, and this also applies to other “vulnerable states” such as Moldova, which is not a Nato member.She told The Telegraph: “What we’re working on at the moment is a joint commission with Ukraine and Poland on upgrading Ukrainian defences to Nato standard.”“So we will scope out what that looks like, what the Ukrainians need. The question then is how do you maintain that over time?“How do we ensure that there is deterrence by denial, that Ukraine is permanently able to defend itself and how do we guarantee that happens? That’s what we are working on at the moment.“And that also applies to other vulnerable states such as Moldova. Because again, the threat is broader from Russia, we also need to make sure that they are equipped to Nato standards.”Pressed on whether she wants to see Western weaponry and intelligence provided to Moldova, Ms Truss said: “I would want to see Moldova equipped to Nato standard. This is a discussion we’re having with our allies.”Asked if this is because Russia poses a security threat to Moldova, she said: “Absolutely. I mean, Putin has been clear about his ambitions to create a greater Russia.“And just because his attempts to take Kyiv weren’t successful doesn’t mean he’s abandoned those ambitions.”The Telegraph cited an aide as saying “Nato standard” would involve members of the alliance supplying modern equipment to replace gear from the Soviet era, and providing training in how to use it.It comes as Boris Johnson spoke to Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the global response to the conflict in Ukraine.The prime minister emphasised that Finland and Sweden would be valuable additions to the Nato alliance, No 10 said, after Mr Erdogan said he opposed their accession – accusing the pair of not taking a “clear stance” against groups his country perceives to be terrorists.A Downing Street spokesperson said Mr Johnson encouraged Turkey’s president to work with Swedish, Finnish and Nato counterparts to address any concerns ahead of the alliance’s summit in Madrid in June.The leaders shared their “deep concern” at ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine and its “far-reaching consequences for the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic region and wider world”, No 10 said.Additional reporting by PA More

Contingency plans have been put in a bid to prevent food and petrol shortaged after RMT warned that “potentially the biggest rail strike in modern history” could hit the network next month.The trade union has balloted its 40,000 members for strike action and the vote closes on Tuesday next week.The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association is also consulting staff on a strike and said it will co-ordinate with RMT.The looming potential strike action has caused rail bosses to start making contingency plans, such as prioritising freight trains over passenger services on the network to ensure petrol and food supplies do not run short.Transport minister Grant Shapps is understood to be meeting with Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak next week to discuss the situation, as reported by The Times.If the ballot is successful there has been no indication from RMT when strike action could begin, however it could not take place during the Queen’s jubilee long weekend as two weeks notice must be given before industrial action.RMT balloted members because it said that Network Rail is planning to cut at least 2,500 safety-critical maintenance jobs as part of a £2 billion reduction in spending, while workers at train operators have been subject to pay freezes and changes to their terms and conditions.In late April, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Railway workers have had to contend with pay freezes, the prospect of losing their jobs and repeated attacks on their terms and conditions.“Removing 2,500 safety critical jobs from Network Rail will spell disaster for the public, make accidents more likely and will increase the possibility of trains flying off the tracks.”He added: “The way for trade unions to effectively take on the cost-of-living crisis is to stand up for their members at work and take industrial action when employers are not moved by the force of reasoned argument.“A national rail strike will bring the country to a standstill, but our members livelihoods and passenger safety are our priorities.”The ballot covers RMT members on Network Rail and Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern Railway, South Western Railway, Island Line, GTR (including Gatwick Express), Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, and West Midlands Trains.Tim Shoveller, Network Rail’s regional director, said: “Our railway has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, and even as passenger numbers start to recover, we know travel habits and passenger demand have changed and the industry has to change too.“We cannot keep relying on Government handouts, and so we must work together with train operators and our trades unions to save millions of pounds and deliver a more efficient railway.“Our modernisation programme aims to build a sustainable future that delivers for passengers and creates better and safer jobs for our people.“We would not consider any changes that would make the railway less safe.” More

Liz Truss faces a showdown meeting with a close ally of US president Joe Biden on Saturday amid international efforts to prevent the British government from overriding the Northern Ireland protocol.The foreign secretary, and international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, are due to hold talks in London with Congressman Richard Neal who is urging UK ministers against any unilateral “breach” of the Brexit treaty.It follows a warning from house speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said the US Congress would not agree to any trade deal if Britain ploughs ahead with a plan to “discard” the protocol.Mr Neal, who arrived in Brussels on Friday as part of a nine-member congressional delegation, also said Boris Johnson should uphold all parts of the Brexit withdrawal deal he signed in 2020.“They haven’t breached it yet. They’re talking about breaching it, so part of my job is to convince them not to breach it,” the top Democrat told The Guardian.“The broader occurrence here is that the protocol was duly negotiated by the British prime minister,” he told Politico. “It’s an international agreement that should be adhered to.”“It’s not going to be the words of the UK – it’s going to be their actions,” he added. “I don’t think that Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement and the elections in the north [of Ireland] ought to be held hostage by a disagreement the UK has with the European Union.”It comes as a senior official at the US State Department said the Biden administration did not want to see any “unilateral acts” with the protocol – warning that the row risked undermining western unity during the Ukraine war.Secretary of state Antony Blinken’s adviser Derek Chollet told the BBC that a “big fight between the UK and the EU” was “the last thing” Washington wanted. “We want to see this issue resolved and we want to see the temperature lowered and no unilateral acts,” he said.Mr Neal and fellow members of US congress are also set to meet Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds on Saturday to discuss the Brexit row and the political impasse in Northern Ireland.The American delegation is also expected to go to Belfast to meet Sinn Fein and DUP leaders, as well as visiting Dublin for talks with the Irish government, in the coming days. Mr Johnson and Ms Truss have insisted they do not plan to tear up the protocol completely, but aim to unilaterally “fix” it through new legislation to override parts of the agreement with Brussels.The foreign secretary said earlier this week the legislation would create a “green channel” for goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Only goods destined for the Republic of Ireland would be subject to customs checks.Ms Pelosi said on Thursday that she had previously warned Mr Johnson and Ms Truss that if they chose to “undermine” the Good Friday Agreement, Congress “cannot and will not support a bilateral free trade agreement with the UK”.DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Ms Pelosi’s intervention over the protocol row was “unhelpful” – but Sinn Fein’s vice president Michelle O’Neill “very much welcomed” the senior US figure’s remarks. More

Boris Johnson is among dozens of Downing Street figures who have been warned they will be named in Sue Gray’s long-awaited report into the Partygate scandal. The individuals have been given a deadline of Sunday evening to challenge the Whitehall mandarin’s account of their involvement, with sources close to the inquiry team saying that any serious objection could delay publication beyond the planned date early next week. Staff in No 10 were said to be “devastated” at the prospect of public exposure and possible disciplinary action, which could affect individuals who escaped fines in the Metropolitan Police investigation into lockdown breaches which concluded on Thursday.Letters are understood to have been sent by Ms Gray’s team on Friday to around 30 people: mostly those who are set to be named in the report but others are also included, and are being asked to confirm that they accept the narrative of incidents in which they were involved.However, they are not being informed of the conclusions reached by Ms Gray in the crucial section of the document, in which she is expected to cast her verdict on failings of leadership and judgement, as well as the drinking culture inside Downing Street.The senior civil servant’s team are braced for the possibility of individuals bringing in lawyers to challenge the account presented in her report, which could potentially introduce a delay of weeks.“The idea that this will come out on Monday or Tuesday is based on everything falling into place at the right moment,” said a source close to the Gray team.One official who received a letter told The Independent that the message had heightened tension among staff in the days ahead of release of the report – which was initially slated for publication in January but delayed at the last minute by the launch of the police inquiry.No 10 insiders are fearful that a very detailed description of individual events could see junior staff “outed” by a jigsaw process of deduction and gossip, damaging their future careers.And there were concerns about the possibility of photos being included in the document. Ms Gray handed more than 300 images to police, some of which are understood to show individuals drinking and dancing or in party gear.One source told The Independent that, even if faces are pixelated, it would be easy to identify individuals, something which would be “grossly unfair to junior staff who believed they had their bosses’ blessing”.However, it remains unclear whether the report will include pictures, with suggestions that any images will be used to illustrate factual issues like the size and layout of rooms, rather than to display scenes of revelry.Ms Gray is expected to focus her most cutting analysis on senior staff, with cabinet secretary Simon Case thought likely to come in for criticism despite avoiding fines in the police probe.While the Met’s Operation Hillman focused on criminal breaches of lockdown rules, Ms Gray’s remit also covers appropriate workplace behaviour and the leadership shown by senior managers.It is understood that details from the police inquiry – including the names of those fined and the specific reason for each fixed penalty notice – have not been passed by police to the Gray team. Insiders said they had only the information made public by the Met, though this was not understood to have caused problems in completing the report.Some junior staff fear that they will face disciplinary action even if they are not named in the report.“This whole process has lasted for months and destroyed some people’s mental health,” one official told The Independent. “There’s a desperation for it to be over, but people are also terrified.” Photos shared via WhatsApp were, in the view of some fined officials, a key reason why younger female employees seemed disproportionately likely to be fined for attending the same events as senior male peers.Dave Penman, the head of the FDA civil service union, told The Independent that the “devastating” stress of recent months had played a part in a higher than usual turnover of No 10 staff.“Politicians operate in the public domain but civil servants are not used to the glare of publicity and some of them would be unable to do their jobs if they were identified,” said Mr Penman.“Some are afraid of being scapegoated. Being named in this report could be career-defining, even if they have moved out of the civil service. Given the public clamour about this, it could cause issues with employers.“Some civil servants will have decided to take their police fine and keep their heads down, whether they felt it was justified or not. But with the Sue Gray report, they may face being named or having disciplinary processes.“Being under this level of scrutiny and pressure had been devastating and that’s why a lot of people have moved on from Downing Street. They wanted out.”Ms Gray and her team will be working through the weekend to finalise the report in the hope of handing it over to Downing Street early next week. Mr Johnson has promised to publish it as soon as possible and then address MPs in the Commons.His spokesperson has said that No 10 intends to publish the report in the form it is presented by the senior civil servant, though data protection rules may force some redactions to protect individuals’ privacy.In his first public remarks on the Partygate scandal since the Met concluded its inquiry with a total of 126 fines, the prime minister said the contents of the report were “entirely” down to Ms Gray.Mr Johnson, who received only one fine for a birthday party in 2020, insisted that No 10 would put no pressure on her to remove names from the document, telling reporters: “That will be entirely up to Sue Gray and I’ll be looking forward very much to seeing what she has to say, and fingers’ crossed, that will be pretty soon next week.” More

Boris Johnson has said he wants to help struggling families “save on their food bills” by delaying a promised ban on buy-one-get-one-free promotions on junk foods until 2023.Despite the government’s U-turn, both Tesco and Sainsbury’s have now committed to the original October deadline for the ban, and vowed to offer more discounts on healthier products.Jamie Oliver has led protests outside Downing Street after a promise to axe multi-buy promotions on food high in fat, sugar or salt was pushed back to next October.The prime minister, speaking to broadcasters during a visit to in Wales, said: “There are some things at the moment where we think they make very little difference to obesity.”Mr Johnson added: “They can affect people’s weekly outgoings, people’s budgets, and at this particular time – if people can save on their food bills with some offers – then I think we’ve just got to be flexible while continuing to tackle obesity.”The prime minister insisted the government was sticking by its anti-obesity drive, saying: “We understand the vital importance of tackling obesity, it costs the NHS huge sums of money.”Tesco said it will remove multi-buy promotions food which are high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS products) by the end of October.Tesco chief customers officer Alessandra Bellini said: “Obesity levels are rising among adults and children, and the health of our nation must also be at the top of our agenda.”Sainsbury’s said it has already axed multi-buy offers after changing its promotion strategy six years ago. It stressed it will continue to push forward with curbs on unhealthy products despite changes to the government’s original proposals.“We know our customers in communities across the country are facing a cost-of-living crisis and want to continue to provide healthy, nutritious food for their families,” Mark Given, chief marketing officer at supermarket, said.Meanwhile, Mr Oliver presented an Eton Mess outside Downing Street as the celebrity chef protested the government U-turn. He hailed the actions of supermarkets to follow the originally planned policy.“They’ve set the tone and I’m sure others will follow,” Mr Oliver said. “We want to put child health first, the strategy was looking world-class and now it doesn’t.”He added: “It’s our job to put it all back together again and make sure that we can build a better future for our kids.”Mr Johnson said on Friday that he cannot “magic away” all the soaring food and energy expenses as he comes under increasing pressure to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.Yet he also promised to use the “firepower” of government to “put our arms around people” as it did during the Covid pandemic.One measure believed to be under serious consideration is a windfall tax on the soaring profits of oil and gas giants. But Jacob Rees-Mogg set out fresh opposition from within the cabinet as he argued it is wrong to raid the “honey pot”. More