UK Politics

Ken Clarke has attacked Rishi Sunak’s efforts to ease the cost of living crisis, warning they are failing to help the poor while rewarding the better-off. The former Conservative chancellor called the 5p fuel duty cut a “complete waste of time” and the £150 council tax rebate to help with soaring energy bills badly targeted.Instead, Mr Sunak should increase universal credit (UC) payments as the best route to helping “the poor and the lowest paid”, Lord Clarke said – instead of slashing it by £20 a week.“I would cut out all the tax cutting. I have already got all the tax breaks I need,” the Tory peer told LBC.“The people who you’ve got to protect from falling living standards if you can are, of course, the poorest of the poor and the lowest paid.Instead, Mr Sunak had cut UC, Lord Clarke said, adding: “And it’s there where people are genuinely choosing between feeding and other bills.”He said: “I get my cheque to save me from fuel poverty. I stopped playing national insurance when I was 65.”And he added: “I didn’t need the loan I apparently received through my council tax in order to pay my heating bills – although, of course, my heating bills are going up alarmingly.”In the interview, the peer also:* Attacked Boris Johnson’s plan to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol, which would provoke “a trade war with our biggest trading partner”.* Criticised weak cabinet ministers who parrot “slogans” from someone from a think-tank “now working in Downing Street”.* Came out against a windfall tax on excess profits of energy firms, arguing it would deter investment in new renewable energy sources.The criticism came after the cost of living crisis dominated Prime Minister’s Questions, as Keir Starmer taunted Mr Johnson over the government’s paralysis.Earlier, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation hit its highest rate since 1982 – with forecasts it will reach 10 per cent by the end of the year.The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said emergency help for people in hardship and vulnerable firms is “critical”, while the British Chambers of Commerce echoed Labour calls for an emergency Budget. Sir Keir accused Mr Johnson of having “his head in the sand in the middle of an economic crisis”, adding: “The prime minister keeps saying more help is coming, but we’ve heard it all before.“The working people across the country can’t afford to wait while he vacillates. It’s time to make his mind,” the Labour leader said. More

Priti Patel has rejected key recommendations to prevent a repeat of the Grenfell tragedy, sticking with “stay put” advice in tall buildings instead.The inquiry into the deadly fire called for new legal requirements on building owners to have evacuation plans, in particular of disabled residents – something the Home Office was expected to accept.Fifteen of the 72 people who died in the 2017 blaze had disabilities, which made escape more difficult and “many more lives” could have been saved with an evacuation plan, its report found.But a new strategy on “improving fire safety” has rejected both evacuation plans and so-called “personal emergency evacuation plans” (PEEPs) for the disabled, which are deemed to be too expensive and impractical.Instead, a new consultation will be staged on sharing the location of disabled residents with fire services – but only in buildings known to have serious fire safety risks.Grenfell United, which represents people affected by the 2017 tragedy, described the response as “a disgrace” for putting disabled people at risk.“We are enraged at the government, whose sole focus continues to be profit and not public safety,” the group said.“We’ve fought for years to create a legacy for our 72 loved ones, and to prevent another Grenfell. But, five years on, the government has reverted back to the same policy in place before Grenfell.”Requiring PEEPs would leave building owners with “no practical choice but to respond by ‘staffing up’ their building with a 24/7 presence”, the Home Office has argued.A single staff member would cost £8,800 to £21,900 for each building every month, with many more staff required – a cost that would fall on the residents.Unveiling the fire reform white paper at a London fire station, Ms Patel said the capital is still “scarred” by Grenfell, adding: “We have to be very respectful and reflective of that, we really do.“But what I would say is that it is vitally important that the service never stands still, and that the service learns constantly.”The rejection of the recommendation came as the boss of London Fire Brigade warned that more than 1,000 residential buildings in the capital still have serious fire safety failings.Last September, Rita Dexter, the former deputy assistant commissioner at the London Fire Brigade (LFB), said the “stay put” policy “can’t be trusted”, the website Inside Housing pointed out.“Both the Lakanal and Grenfell fires demonstrate that this assumption can be wrong and fatal in its outcomes,” she said.“The brigade cannot be expected to be certain that all of the buildings where they attend fires will be constructed or maintained in accordance with regulations and that it will ‘perform’ in any specified way if a fire occurs.”The UK has been seen as an outlier in placing reliance on “stay put” – with the 72 deaths at Grenfell the highest fatality rate by far in any facade fire globally. More

Rishi Sunak has said there is nothing the government can do to stop rising inflation impacting Britain’s families, as he resists clamour from Conservatives – including former chancellor Kenneth Clarke – for urgent help for those struggling with price hikes.Instead, Mr Sunak used a speech to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) to promise tax breaks for business in the autumn Budget, aimed at stimulating sluggish productivity.As inflation topped 9 per cent for the first time in 40 years, and experts warned that the true rise in living costs was closer to 11 per cent for the poorest families, the chancellor said he was powerless to stem global pressures such as the pandemic, war in Ukraine, and supply chain disruption.“There is no measure any government could take, no law we could pass, that can make these global forces disappear overnight. The next few months will be tough,” he said.Meanwhile, the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said he felt “helpless” to stop inflation.Former Tory chancellor Kenneth Clarke made a dramatic intervention, calling for welfare increases for the worst-off and dismissing Mr Sunak’s 5p cut in fuel tax and proposed 1p reduction in income tax as “a complete waste of time”.“I would have done it in the spring statement, raised universal credit,” he told LBC radio. “The people you’ve got to protect from any fall in living standards if you can are of course the poorest of the poor and the lowest paid.”Tory backbencher Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons’s Education Committee, said it was a “no-brainer” to put a windfall tax on energy companies to help the poorest households pay their bills. While he said he recognised government concerns that a levy on North Sea firms could deter investment, he added that “desperate times call for desperate measures and we must do this, and we must do it quickly”.Treasury Select Committee chair Mel Stride told The Independent it was “definitely” time for the chancellor to implement a windfall levy and “channel savings in government into transfer payments targeted on those most impacted” by soaring prices.And senior Conservative Sir Bernard Jenkin called for a £13.5bn “summer package” of support for the most vulnerable, including the reinstatement of the £20 uplift to universal credit scrapped by Mr Sunak in October and the abolition of VAT on domestic fuel.Without immediate action, he warned MPs, “we are creating possibly a worse recession than is already expected”.Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, added even more pressure when he told The Independent the Treasury should reconsider the effect of its cost of living policies.“They need to come up with more measures to support those who need it most, not those actions which are going to make their core supporters happier. Prices are rising at a faster rate than incomes. Consumer confidence is already at the second lowest level on record before we’ve even seen inflation peak,” he said. “You need interest rates to be higher to bring inflation back down.”Mr Dales added that the Bank of England’s key rate ought to rise as high as three per cent in the months ahead.Several leading economic think tanks, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Resolution Foundation, have warned inflation is now disproportionately hitting the country’s poorest families.The IFS found the bottom 10 per cent of UK households by income faced an inflation rate of 10.9 per cent in the 12 months to April. This was 3 percentage points higher than the inflation rate experienced by the richest 10 per cent.“Most of this difference comes from the fact that the poorest households spend 11 per cent of their total household budget on gas and electricity, compared to 4 per cent for the richest households,” the IFS said.“The living standards implications of this economic crisis are huge, but the government has the power to support those hardest hit by bringing forward benefits uprating – something which is needed to prevent this parliament being the worst on record for living standards,” said Jack Leslie, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation.Jake Berry, chair of the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs, backed the return of the uplift and “something radical on VAT” too. “It’s now or never; now is the time for government to act. Urgency is required, people can’t wait to the November budget to pay their bills,” he said.But Boris Johnson ordered his MPs to vote down Labour’s demands for an emergency budget to tackle the cost of living crisis, as well as Liberal Democrat proposals to slash VAT from 20 to 17.5 per cent to save the average family £600.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer taunted the prime minister in the Commons, saying he “can’t make his mind up” about a windfall tax to help alleviate the cost of energy bills, even though it was “inevitable” he would eventually cave in to pressure.Sir Keir said that every day that the government holds back on windfall tax on energy companies, it costs consumers £53m in additional energy costs, at a time when BP and Shell alone made £12.37bn profit in the first three months of 2022.Though Mr Sunak has said a windfall tax remains “on the table”, Treasury sources indicated that no decision on a package of help is likely until the next review of the energy price cap in August, when regulator Ofgem is expected to announce rises of up to £1,000 for the autumn.Mr Sunak promised the CBI annual dinner in London that “where we can act, we will” on the cost of living crisis, including splashing money in the Budget on tax breaks and allowances designed to reward businesses that invest in capital, innovation and training.“We need you to invest more, train more, and innovate more,” he told his business audience. “In the autumn Budget, we will cut your taxes to encourage you to do all those things.”James Smith, research director at the Resolution Foundation think tank, raised questions over the balance of priorities in Mr Sunak’s speech.“The chancellor is right to focus on restarting growth tomorrow and that more private sector investment is crucial to that,” Mr Smith told The Independent. “But he also needs to make sure he provides targeted support to low- and middle-income families today who are being hit hardest by the inflation surge.”Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds also critiqued the government’s strategy. “The government’s inability to deal with the cost of living crisis and tax rises at the worst possible time has seen business investment fall in the first quarter this year,” he said. “They should bring forward an emergency budget now with proper support for businesses, including a cut in business rates for small firms and support for energy-intensive industries.”And Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine said: “Rishi Sunak is promising tax cuts for businesses while hiking taxes for families. It shows he’s completely out of touch with those struggling with soaring bills and fuel prices.“Every day that goes without any extra support, more people are being plunged into debt and poverty. If the chancellor was serious about helping people cope, he’d announce an emergency tax cut now.”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 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. More

Flagship United Nations goals to fight extreme poverty and injustice in poor countries have been left out of a new UK overseas aid strategy, triggering fresh criticism of Liz Truss. The 2015 blueprint – committing countries to stamp out hunger, provide clean water and quality education and tackle gender inequality – is meant to be “fully embedded in planned activity of each government department”.But the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are mentioned only once in the foreign secretary’s new 30-page strategy, and only to state that the UK “support achieving” the ambitions. More

A union is calling for MPs accused of sexual offences to be banned from parliament during police investigations.It comes after a Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault offences spanning seven years was asked to stay away from parliament but did not have the whip suspended.Mike Clancy, the general secretary of Prospect, which represents a number of parliamentary workers, said the voluntary arrangement is “inadequate”.He told the BBC: “We think parliament should embody the highest standards and now all too regularly it’s being called into question.“We’ve been saying for some time that parliament needs to ensure it has standards because it is, after all, a workplace that conform with workplaces up and down the country.“And in particular it is inadequate that MPs are just asked to stay away if an issue of this importance, sensitivity and magnitude arises and that it should be capable of requiring them to stay away.“Employer policies that we deal with, unions are well versed in dealing with these issues with sophisticated employers, often embody precautionary suspension.“It doesn’t judge the merits of the case, but ensures that those involved in the complaints and in particular those who may be the victim, are properly protected. “This is a workplace parliament, and it needs to be safe for people to go to work.”Mr Clancy said his union had written to parliament’s procedure committee to ask them to look into the issue, but the proposal had been rejected.He later added: “Parliament needs to stop presenting itself as totally unique because it looks detached.“People know what’s right and wrong in the workplace and they know when these things come up they need to be dealt with in an appropriate way.”The unnamed Conservative politician was arrested on Tuesday after the Metropolitan Police received a report in January 2020 relating to alleged sexual offences committed in London between 2002 and 2009.He has been released on bail until a date in mid-June pending further enquiries.Tory chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris urged the MP to stay away from Parliament but has not suspended the whip, meaning the suspect remains a member of the parliamentary party.It is understood the Conservatives will not make a decision on whether the suspect has the whip suspended until after the police investigation is concluded.Shadow home office minister Jess Phillips said there is a “gap in the process” at Westminster which in her view favours those accused of wrongdoing over the safeguarding of others.She told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “There is just a gap in the process here that currently, in my view, favours … the individual who is accused, charged or convicted against the balance of the safeguarding and safety of the other 6,000 people who work here and in fact their constituents as well.“The reality is … the Speaker of the House of Commons can only ask this person not to come here. That’s it.“The system of honour in Parliament is at a sort of fault line, it seems, when at the moment so many of the things that we rely on, just relying on people’s good nature, it simply isn’t good enough, is it?”She said if she were a constituent, she may feel she had a “right to know” if such allegations concerned her MP, but warned against “trial by media”.Additional reporting by Press Association More

Cabinet minister Liz Truss once claimed that the impact of a no-deal Brexit on Ireland would only affect “a few farmers with turnips in their trucks”, a former UK diplomat has claimed.Alexandra Hall Hall resigned her diplomatic role in the US in 2019 – saying she no longer wished to “peddle half-truths” on behalf of leaders she did not “trust”.Responding to the foreign secretary’s plan to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Ms Hall Hall said she was “so pleased to see Liz Truss become a genuine expert on Irish matters”.The ex-official tweeted: “[Ms Truss] was, after all, the minister who told a US audience three years ago that Brexit would not have any serious impact in Ireland … it would merely “affect a few farmers with turnips in the back of their trucks”.”Ms Truss visited the US as international trade minister in August 2019, and spoke at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington DC.Having supported Boris Johnson’s successful campaign for the Tory leadership, she backed his threats to leave the EU without a deal rather than cancelling Brexit altogether.Ms Hall Hall spent more than 30 years at the Foreign Office before quitting her post at the British embassy in Washington in December 2019 – revealing that she was “dismayed” by the government’s reluctance to be honest about the “trade-offs” from Brexit.She accused Mr Johnson’s government of downplaying “the consequences of Brexit for the delicate peace process in Northern Ireland” in a 2021 article for the for the Texas National Security Review.Alluding then to remarks about Irish turnip farmers, the ex-diplomat wrote: “A low point for me was when I heard a senior British minister openly and offensively, in front of a US audience, dismiss the impact of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit on Irish businesses as just affecting ‘a few farmers with turnips in the back of their trucks’,” she wrote.Her tweet comes as Ms Truss defended the controversial plan to override parts of the protocol, insisting the action to address the “very severe” situation in the region cannot be delayed.She told Times Radio: “We haven’t seen the [Northern Ireland] Executive form since February. So we do need to make these changes. And these changes will … make it better for everyone.”The foreign secretary also promised that the government would publish its legal position on its plan “very shortly” as she insisted it would be “legal” under international law.The Republic of Ireland’s deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday that the move to disapply parts of the protocol without an agreement with the EU is “not very respectful” to the British people.Mr Varadkar pointed out that 59 of the Stormont Assembly’s 90 MLAs do not want to ditch the protocol, and the British public voted for the Brexit deal that is currently in operation.He told RTE: “If they keep trying to impose on Northern Ireland things that Northern Ireland doesn’t want, that drives more people towards nationalism and away from support for the Union … it just seems a bit puzzling.”When asked about potential EU retaliation and the possibility of a trade war, Mr Varadkar said the UK would have to “do something” before Brussels takes action.UK environment secretary George Eustice said speculation about a trade war was “deeply unhelpful” – blaming it on “media hype”.The cabinet minister claimed there was evidence of a “more measured tone” from Brussels, despite the EU Commission warning that it would use “all measures at its disposal” if the UK changed the protocol without agreement.The Independent has contacted the Foreign Office and Ms Truss’ office for comment. More

Liz Truss says ‘high-paid jobs’ answer to cost of living crisisShadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said that the government was willing to sit and watch people “financially drown” as the cost of living crisis continues. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer repeatedly asked Boris Johnson at PMQs to commit to a windfall tax on the massive profits of energy companies, the Labour leader added said ordinary families were being crippled by the cost of living crisisElsewhere, prime minister has “dithered” over a windfall tax and will end up supporting it in an “inevitable U-turn”, Sir Keir said. Mr Johnson accused Labour of being too keen to bring taxes on business.Meanwhile, a Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault over historic allegations was released on bail.The unnamed MP, who is in his fifties, was asked by his party’s whips not to attend parliament while a police investigation is ongoing. Liz Truss said she was “very, very concerned about the reports.”The arrest comes just weeks after Westminster was rocked by another round of “Pestminster” allegations against sitting MPs – which led Tory MP Neil Parish to resign for watching porn in parliament.Show latest update

1652884190Boris Johnson-Keir Starmer: Full exchange on cost of living crisisBoris Johnson-Keir Starmer: Full exchange on cost of living crisisEleanor Sly18 May 2022 15:291652883050The government is willing to watch people ‘financially drown’, says shadow chancellorMoving Labour’s amendment to the Queen’s Speech, the shadow chancellor said: “We meet today when inflation has hit its highest level for 40 years. Every pound that people had last year can only purchase 91 pence worth of goods today. That’s what inflation of 9 per cent means. Our country had a cost-of-living crisis and a growth crisis, prices rising, growth downgraded and no plan for the future.“None of this though, is inevitable. It is a consequence of Conservative decisions and the direction that they have taken our economy in over the last 12 years. This government is increasingly a rudderless ship heading to the rocks, while it is willing to watch people financially drown in the process.”She added: “Where is the urgency? Where is the action? Because the time to change course is now. We need an emergency budget to deal with the inadequacy of the Chancellor’s spring statement, with a windfall tax to help get bills down and help families and pensioners weather this storm.“On the day that inflation has reached a 40-year-high, the Chancellor is missing in action.”Eleanor Sly18 May 2022 15:101652881896Jamaican deportation flight takes off with just seven people aboardA deportation flight to Jamaica left the UK with seven people on board after dozens of others were granted a last-minute legal reprieve, it has been estimated.The charter flight, which was initially due to carry 112 people, is understood to have taken off in the early hours of Wednesday morning.Campaigners had been trying to halt the flight amid concerns over the legality of the government’s attempt to remove Jamaica nationals from the country, following claims that the majority of people came to the UK at a very young age and some may have a right to British citizenship.Read more here:Eleanor Sly18 May 2022 14:511652880764Women in hazmat suits surround Parliament to offer ‘Pestminster Control’ servicesFollowing the shocking news that an unnamed Conservative MP has been arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault, campaigners from the Women’s Equality Party, dressed as pest controllers, lined the entrance to Parliament to highlight the shocking number of MPs facing allegations of sexual misconduct.Launching the action just ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions, activists handed out leaflets which read: ‘WANTED – have you seen this MP? Last seen in Parliament. Beware, alleged rapist making laws.’ The picture on the leaflet was left blank to highlight the fact that the alleged rapist could be any number of MPs and that people are being put at risk.Eleanor Sly18 May 2022 14:321652879598The Prime Minister has said the civil service will be ‘more efficient’ if workers get back to their desks.At Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour MP Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall) said: “The Home Office… and others now regularly take six months to respond to letters to ministers. Immigration cases waiting years to hear anything at all.“But instead of putting resources into fixing this unacceptable problem, the Prime Minister is choosing to fire thousands of civil servants and his ministers wander around Whitehall putting post-it notes on desks he thinks looks too empty.“Will the Prime Minister personally look into this issue and instruct his ministers and civil servants to give our constituents the attention they deserve?”Boris Johnson replied: “I have to say that I must respectfully disagree with the implication that for the civil service that working from home is everywhere as productive as being in the office.“I simply don’t accept that. I do think that we will become more productive and more efficient if on the whole we find ways to get back to our desks.”Eleanor Sly18 May 2022 14:131652878458Young adults ‘fear they’ll never start a family’ due to cost-of-living crisisOne-quarter of young adults say the cost-of-living crisis is the leading cause of anxiety in their life, forcing them to reduce pension contributions and even to fear they may never start a family.A survey of 1,000 young UK adults aged between 18 and 25 found rising energy bills (46 per cent), petrol (44 per cent) and food prices (43 per cent) hit their finances the hardest.More than three-quarters (76 per cent) said they had been forced to change their spending habits to navigate the current financial landscape.Read more here:Eleanor Sly18 May 2022 13:541652878130Liz Truss claimed only Irish people to be hit by Brexit would be ‘a few farmers with turnips’, says ex-diplomatCabinet minister Liz Truss once claimed that the impact of a no-deal Brexit on Ireland would only affect “a few farmers with turnips in their trucks”, a former UK diplomat has claimed.Alexandra Hall Hall resigned her diplomatic role in the US in 2019 – saying she no longer wished to “peddle half-truths” on behalf of leaders she did not “trust”.Responding to the foreign secretary’s plan to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Ms Hall Hall said she was “so pleased to see Liz Truss become a genuine expert on Irish matters”.Read more:Eleanor Sly18 May 2022 13:481652877042Labour calls for suspension of Tory whip from MP facing rape investigationLabour have called on Boris Johnson to immediately suspend the Conservative whip from a Tory MP arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of offences including rape.Read more here:Eleanor Sly18 May 2022 13:301652876433Starmer taunts Boris Johnson that he ‘can’t make his mind up’ on windfall taxHere is a round-up of this afternoon’s PMQs from The Independent’s deputy political editor Rob Merrick:Liam James18 May 2022 13:201652875527Most people in Commons ‘not misbehaving’, says PMThe vast majority of people who work in the House of Commons are doing a “very good job” and “are not misbehaving”, Boris Johnson said when asked about MPs acting outside of the ministerial code.Westminster has been rocked by revelations of misconduct in recent months, from former speaker John Bercow being banned for bullying to Tory MP Neil Parish resigning for having watched porn in the Commons chamber.During PMQs, SNP MP Hannah Bardell asked: “The precious principles of public life enshrined in this document must must be honoured at all time. Those are the prime minister’s own words from the ministerial code.“So, can the prime minister tell me on a scale of one to 10, how is he doing with keeping to those principles?”Mr Johnson replied: “I think 10 out of 10. “We believe in this government in adhering to the principles of the ministerial code … And I think it is always worth stressing that the vast majority of people who work in the House of Commons and members of parliament are doing a very good job and working very hard and are not misbehaving.”Liam James18 May 2022 13:05 More