UK Politics

MPs and peers will scrap over controversial plans to “offshore” refugees, ban “noisy” protests and slap curbs on voting, in a critical four days at parliament.Boris Johnson faces a nail-biting deadline of Thursday to pass the hotly contested legislation, with battles also ahead over restrictions on judicial reviews and residents’ bills in danger flats, following the Grenfell disaster.The government has been accused of cruelty to asylum seekers and assaults on democracy and the right to protest, through the bills yet to pass as the parliamentary session nears its close.Any bills without royal assent when the curtain comes down fall automatically, which would be a major embarrassment.Ministers want to end the session on Thursday, ahead of a new Queen’s Speech on 10 May, but are still locked in disputes with the House of Lords over:* The Nationality and Borders Bill – where peers are demanding proper scrutiny of Rwanda-style deals to send refugees abroad, after Priti Patel refused to reveal the cost.MPs are also being urged to accept amendments to expand family reunions for child asylum seekers elsewhere in Europe and set an annual resettlement target.* The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill – where the Lords has repeatedly rejected an “anti-democratic” move to allow the police to ban protests deemed too noisy.The legislation will also allow police to stop and search protesters without suspicion and make a crime of “locking on” to structures, as part of a protest.* The Elections Bill – which has been condemned by the independent Electoral Commission as a government power-grab with “no precedent” in western democracies.The Lords is still arguing against requirements to show ID when voting – expected to hit the young and poor – arguing for more documents, such as birth certificates and council tax demands, to be accepted.* The Judicial Review and Courts Bill – which will strip immigrants and refugees of the right to challenge deportation orders in the High Court.Peers want the government to retain the so-called Cart reviews, in immigration cases, and to give bereaved families publicly funded legal representation at inquests, when public bodies do.* The Building Safety Bill – designed to give residents and homeowners more rights and ensure developers, rather than “innocent leaseholders”, pay for historic building defects.The Lords wants to go further, to reduce residents’ post-Grenfell liabilities to zero, and for the protections to be extended to blocks of flats of any size.Traditionally, peers give way to the Commons – as the elected chamber – in such parliamentary ping-pong, particularly if the measures were manifesto pledges.But they have dug in so far, the Borders Bill being perhaps the most bitter clash, after Lord Judge, a former lord chief justice, argued the legislation is unlawful.Five other bills – covering health, education, animal welfare, recognition of professional qualifications and post-Brexit subsidies – are also yet to receive royal assent.Mr Johnson said: “The 10 bills expected to pass into law this week will protect our borders, tackle the Covid backlogs, keep our streets safe and ease pressures on household budgets by equipping people with the skills to secure well-paid jobs.” More

A former top Rwanda diplomat forced into exile has attacked government claims that his country is safe to receive refugees from the UK – likening it to “a detention camp”.Boris Johnson and Priti Patel have insisted asylum seekers are to be given “a one-way ticket” to the east African nation, after crossing the Channel, will be treated humanely and given a new start in life.But Theogene Rudasingwa, Rwanda’s ambassador to the US in the 1990s, has warned “such trust is unfounded” under the iron rule of president Paul Kagame.“Notwithstanding Rwanda’s history, the world must be under no illusion as to the truth,” he has written in a letter to The Times newspaper.“Rwanda is hostage to the Kagame dictatorship and is more akin to a detention camp than a state where the people are sovereign.”Dr Rudasingwa, who has been in exile in America since 2004 after clashing with Mr Kagame, warned it will be “a case of out of the frying pan into the fire” for the asylum seekers.He added: “So egregious are human rights abuses in Rwanda that Britain last year joined international criticism of unlawful killings, torture and other violence.“Only months later it seems all this has been forgotten by Boris Johnson so that a transfer deal can be cut.“Writing now as a refugee, rootless yet constantly under threat of retaliation by a spiteful regime, I feel for outsiders who battle to reach Britain only to face rendition to the Kagame state.”The prime minister has argued legal powers already exist to allow asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda, but the policy faces an inevitable challenge in the courts.Although it was initially briefed that only single men would be flown out, Ms Patel, the home secretary, has since admitted that women and children could also be sent.She has also refused to reveal the likely colossal cost of the policy, beyond an initial £120m to be handed to Rwanda under the “partnership” deal.The plan has also embroiled the prime minister in a damaging row with the Church of England, after the Archbishop of Canterbury also attacked it.The Church accused Mr Johnson of a “disgraceful slur” on Justin Welby, after he told his MPs that the Archbishop had been more “vociferous” in his criticism of the policy than of the Ukraine invasion.The prime minister then told reporters: “All I was saying was that I think we have an excellent policy to try to stop people drowning at sea in the Channel.“I was surprised to find it criticised. I think it’s the morally right thing to do to stop criminal, cynical gangs from exploiting people and sending them to a watery grave.”Human rights group have dismissed the claim that sending refugees to Rwanda will do anything to curb trafficking across the Channel – and the Home Office’s top civil servant said there was no evidence to back it up. More

Jacob Rees-Mogg is under fire after leaving bizarre notes on empty desks in an apparent attack on civil servants working from home.The Cabinet Office minister has been branded “a bully and “patronising”, while other critics suggested his job overseeing “Brexit opportunities” was failing to give him enough to do.The notes read: “Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon,” and are signed “with every good wish”.But the on-the-surface politeness comes after Mr Rees-Mogg wrote to all cabinet ministers, demanding “a clear message to civil servants in your department to ensure a rapid return to the office”.The minister, who is also in charge of “government efficiency” has also published a league table showing how many officials were at their desks on an average day this month.Dave Penman, the head of the civil servants’ union the FDA, said he was “not sure this is real” when he first saw the notes, which were shared on Twitter.“Haven’t seen one of those pristine green felt boards since I was a civil servant 25 years ago. If it is, it’s the most crass, condescending act I’ve seen from a minister,” he said.Helen Morgan, a Liberal Democrat MP called it “a pointless nasty gesture”, while Labour’s Justin Madders said: “Someone introduce him to email and Zoom please.”Others pointed to the infamous incident when Mr Rees-Mogg was photographed lolling on the Commons front bench, in September 2019.That act was described as “the physical embodiment of arrogance, entitlement and contempt for parliament” – and the starkest example of a minister “lying in parliament”.Other ministers have stepped up criticisms of departments and quangos which have retained “hybrid working” policies brought in because of Covid, requiring staff to be on site two days a week.But they have been accused of ignorance in arguing that working from home means civil servants are less productive or efficient in their working.Some officials say they have been told they can go into the office on a limited number of days, because there are no free desks or their building has been sold. More

Boris Johnson will escape a fine for the “bring your own booze” party he attended in the No 10 garden, a legal expert is predicting – despite others being punished.Downing Street says the prime minister has not yet received a fixed penalty notice for the event, which would have been his second fine in the Partygate crisis threatening his future.Mr Johnson has admitted attending the event in May 2020, held during the first lockdown when his own Covid rules had banned both indoor and outdoor social gatherings.His principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, is believed to have invited up to 100 people to the “socially distanced” evening drinks, in warm weather.But Adam Wagner, a human rights barrister and expert on the many changes in coronavirus legislation, cautioned against believing that meant a fine will follow.“I have said throughout I doubt the PM will get a FPN for this event as he was in his own home/garden,” he tweeted.Mr Wagner added that “rules at the time (changed 31 May) only penalised if you were outside the home without a reasonable excuse”.The ‘BYOB’ party is thought by some to be an event of maximum danger for Mr Johnson, because of an alleged “killer email” seen by Sue Gray, the head of the Cabinet Office inquiry.The senior official who sent it was thought to have provided evidence that the prime minister – as alleged by Dominic Cummings – was warned not to go ahead with it.He was reported to have warned Mr Reynolds to cancel the party, after which Mr Johnson’s close aide “came to his office” and “asked him why the party should be cancelled”.Mr Cummings claimed Mr Reynolds also told him he would “check with the PM if he’s happy for it to go ahead”, arguing any claim Mr Johnson was not consulted is “not credible.”The prime minister provoked ridicule by telling the Commons he “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. There was no such permitted event under the Covid rules.Mr Johnson’s troubles have deepened after he failed to block a Commons inquiry into whether he lied to MPs when he wrongly told them no rules were broken.One senior Tory has warned the Conservatives will “reap the whirlwind” of public anger over the parties at the ballot box on 5 May.The former minister Steve Baker – who told the prime minister the “gig’s up” on his premiership – said his constituents are expressing “fury” over the lockdown breaches.Other top Conservatives are predicting that a post-local elections challenge to Mr Johnson’s leadership is now inevitable as MPs contemplate no end to the controversy. More

Nadine Dorries has blamed dyslexia after being mocked for muddling her words in a video explaining her work as the culture secretary.Boris Johnson’s key ally spoke of people being able to “downstream” – rather than download – films online and referred to tennis courts as “pitches”.Gary Lineker retweeted the TikTok video to his 8.4 million followers, adding the scornful words: “Our minister for sport.”Another Twitter user mocked Ms Dorries by posting: “There’s a lot of history about that Centre Pitch at Wimbledon and it can be found by downstreaming on the British Internet.”But the culture secretary hit back by arguing her dyslexia means she can find it “difficult” to find the correct expression when speaking.Dyslexia is described by the NHS as a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing and spelling.However, another symptom is said to be that a sufferer “misspeaks, misuses, or mispronounces words without realizing it”.Ms Dorries said: “I have dyslexia, which means that when I speak I often run my words together and say things that sound like the words I’m trying to say.“Dyslexia affects people differently. For me, it affects my speech more than my writing, which is why I find solace in writing“I’m OK with that. I’ve been in politics a long time and you grow a thick skin. It’s why I haven’t spoken publicly much about how it affects me.“But I’ve found it tough seeing commentators and media outlets mock me for something that is beyond my control.”The footage, posted online on Friday by Luke Evans, the Tory MP for Bosworth, sees Ms Dorries explaining the work of her Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.“We’re responsible for making sure you have superfast broadband in your home, that means you can downstream your movies,” she told Dr Evans.The culture secretary said she wanted to “make the internet in the UK the safest internet in the world”.And she said her department is also “responsible for everything to do with sport, making sure you’ve got football pitches and that you have tennis pitches in your communities where you can play and exercise your sport”. More

Sajid Javid is planning to make it harder for teenagers seeking to change their gender to receive hormone treatment, attacking the current rules as “ideological”.The health secretary has seized on a review by a leading paediatrician to argue that NHS clinics are being “overly affirmative” in giving life-altering puberty blockers to under 18s.Mr Javid is believed to want a fresh focus on the numbers who later regret receiving the treatment and has not ruled out changing the law.The Court of Appeal has upheld the right of the centres in London, Leeds and Bristol, run by the Tavistock and Portman trust, to give the treatment to under-16s deemed capable of consenting.However, the review by Hilary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, found that some staff felt “under pressure” to agree to the help with transitioning.Mr Javid said he agreed with a Conservative MP who protested that “the NHS insists on making a child’s expressed gender identity the start-point for treatment”.Referring to the Cass review, he told the Commons: “It is already clear to me from her interim findings, and the other evidence I have seen, that NHS services in this area are too narrow.” The health secretary added: “They are overly affirmative and in fact are bordering on ideological.”An ally of Mr Javid has now said he plans to launch his own inquiry, telling The Times: “This has been a growing issue for years and it’s clear we’re not taking this seriously enough.“If you look at Hilary Cass’s interim report, the findings are deeply concerning and it’s clear from that report that we’re failing children.”The source added: “That overly affirmative approach where people just accept what a child says, almost automatically, and then start talking about things like puberty blockers – that’s not in the interest of the child at all.”The Tavistock and Portman trust is believed to give hormone treatment to around 200 children a year, which would be only a fraction of the 2,500 it sees.Referrals have increased 50-fold in the past decade, with far more female-born children now coming forward in a reversal of what has happened in the past.Hormone treatment involves puberty blockers at first, to delay the development of adult sexual characteristics.Later, cross-sex hormones are given to encourage masculine or feminine characteristics, which can affect fertility.A spokesman for Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said: “Being respectful of someone’s identity does not preclude exploration.“We agree that support should be holistic, based on the best available evidence, and that no assumptions should be made about the right outcome for any given young person.” More

An EU plan to force phone manufacturers to use one common standard charger has moved a step closer after it was approved by the European Parliament this week. The European Union hopes that mandating USB-C ports on all smartphones will cut waste, make devices more interoperable, and promote consumer competition. MEPs on the parliament’s influential Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection adopted the position on Wednesday by 43 votes in favour and two against, with support from the parliament’s main political groups.They also voted to push the European Commission to adopt a common interoperability standard on wireless charging, which is increasingly common on new devices but has several competing technologies. If enforced, as now looks likely, the common charger regulation would see companies like Apple made to ditch its proprietary “lightning” cable and adopt the industry standard. The rule is also expected to apply to tablets, handheld games consoles, e-readers, digital cameras, and other portable devices like laptops.While the regulation would technically only apply inside the European Union, the bloc’s influential economic position means the change will likely have a global effect as companies reconfigure their products so they can be sold in the European market. The EU’s Council, which represents member states, already approved a similar plan for a standard charger in January this year, and the two institutions will now hash out exactly what the final regulation looks like and when it will come into force. The parliament’s 705 MEPs must also formally approve the committee’s plan at a full plenary session next month, though this is largely a formality as the committee vote indicates strong support from across the different political groups.The EU’s elected legislature has been pushing for a common charger to be adopted for around a decade, but the bloc’s long legislative process has been slow-going on the issue. Critics have argued that regulating the ports could stifle innovation.Alex Agius Saliba, a socialist MEP from Malta who is guiding the proposals through parliament as its rapporteur, said: “With half a billion chargers for portable devices shipped in Europe each year, generating 11,000 to 13,000 tonnes of e-waste, a single charger for mobile phones and other small and medium electronic devices would benefit everyone. “It will help the environment, further help the reuse of old electronics, save money, and reduce unnecessary costs and inconvenience for both businesses and consumers. “We are proposing a truly comprehensive policy intervention, building on the commission’s proposal by calling for the interoperability of wireless charging technologies by 2026 and improving information given to consumers with dedicated labels. “We are also expanding the proposal’s scope by adding more products, such as laptops, that will need to comply with the new rules.”Exemptions to the rule agreed by MEPs include some devices that are too small to have a USB-C port, such as smart watches, health trackers, and some sports equipment. More