UK Politics

Keir Starmer has criticised Joe Biden for saying Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, after the comment sparked an international row.Washington has been forced to deny that the US president was calling for regime change in Moscow, after the ad-libbed remark was attacked by the Kremlin and alarmed Nato leaders.The Labour leader agreed the comment was unwise, calling it “not helpful to say something, to row back”, adding it was a “big thing to say for obvious reasons”.The criticism came as Sir Keir, in a radio phone-in, also:* Attacked the government’s “DIY package” for Ukraine refugees as failing – while suggesting his family is unable to accept any “for practical reasons”.* Accused ministers of failing to act on Labour warnings that a rogue employer would be able to act as P&O ferries has done, in sacking 800 workers for cheaper staff.* Criticised the use of a 1950s Land Rover to drive Prince William in Jamaica as “a bit odd” because it “harked of the past”.* Declined to say whether “a woman can have a penis” as the wrong way to discuss trans rights – as the issue divides Labour supporters.* Said Will Smith was “wrong” to slap comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars – even if insults of family members “excites something quite emotional in all of us”.Mr Biden appeared to commit another gaffe and to play into Moscow’s hands when, on his visit to Poland, he called Putin a “butcher” who “cannot remain in power”.Emmanuel Macron issued a rebuke, warning against verbal “escalation” when the priority is “achieving first a ceasefire and then the total withdrawal of troops by diplomatic means”.A White House official was forced to row back on the president’s remarks, saying: “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”Speaking on LBC Radio, Sir Keir stepped up his attack over the government’s response to the refugee crisis, saying: “They’ve still got this DIY package really, which is all over the place.“We hear the refugees who were supposed to be on their way here still haven’t got visas and clearance.”Sir Keir, who has clashed with children’s author JK Rowling for saying “trans women are women”, said sporting bodies should “decide for themselves” whether they can compete alongside women.He said he is “an advocate of safe spaces for women”, but suggested he meant in refuges rather than changing roomsAsked if a woman could have a penis, the Labour leader said: “I don’t think that discussing this issue in this way helps anyone in the long run.”He called for a “discussion to find a way through this”, adding: “Too many people – in my view – retreat or hold a position which is intolerant of others.”On the royal trip to Jamaica, he said Prince William was right not to “apologise” for slavery, but suggested he “could have gone further” in his remarks. More

Rejecting a CV because of a typo is “out of date” and penalises neurodiverse job candidates, former health secretary Matt Hancock has said. Mr Hancock, who has dyslexia, is pushing for a new government strategy to change the way the learning difficulty is seen and dealt with in Britain. Speaking to an audience at the 2022 Dyslexia Show in Birmingham, he said that bosses should look at “someone’s real capability of doing a job, not a proxy for it”. Mr Hancock added: “People often use your straightline writing as a proxy for capability. Of course, there is a category of jobs for which that is critical, but there are other jobs where what you need is a creative brain and the computer can do the spell check.“It is out of date to throw a CV in the bin because of a typo.”The former government minister said that the failure to diagnose dyslexia was a “quiet social scandal” and caused a “massive, unaffordable waste of economic potential in the country”. The British Dyslexia Association estimated in 2019 that 80 per cent of dyslexic children leave school undiagnosed. This was the case for Matt Hancock, who was only diagnosed with dyslexia when he reached university. “I always knew there was a problem because I found reading difficult,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “The letters would jumble around, and still do, but I just thought that I wasn’t very good at language.”He said that his abilities in maths “got me to Oxford” and that it was a tutor at the university who spotted that his writing wasn’t up to standard. He was screened and “re-learnt how to read” with specialist help. More

Defenders of the prime minister claim he has shown leadership in responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine independently of the European Union, and that the British response has been all the stronger for our being outside the EU.Volodomyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, certainly seems to regard Boris Johnson as his closest ally, speaking to him nearly every day by phone, and addressing the House of Commons by video. On the other hand, the British government’s claim to be “leading the world” in its welcome for refugees appears to many to be unconvincing.More broadly, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s appointment as minister for Brexit opportunities has provoked debate about what the upsides of Brexit might be. The consensus among economists is that the costs of leaving the EU will exceed the possible benefits for a long time if not indefinitely. But are there intangible benefits of having the freedom to act on the world stage? Do the British people value the principle of being able to control immigration more than the economic costs of making trade with the EU more difficult?Join The Independent’s chief political commentator John Rentoul and a panel of experts, including Anand Menon (Director of UK in a Changing Europe), Naomi Smith (Chief executive of Best For Britain) and Jon Stone (Policy correspondent), to discuss these questions. This event will be shaped by not only the ever-changing news cycle but by you, the audience, so feel free to submit your questions ahead of time. You will also be able to ask questions via a Q&A box during the event.Our event will be hosted on Zoom on 6 April at 6.30pm BST. It is free to attend, all you need to do is sign up for a ticket. Click here to find out how. If you are interested in the fallout from Brexit and what could happen as a result of it in the coming years sign up to our free weekly Brexit newsletter by putting your email into the box at the top of this article. More

Rishi Sunak is “making things worse” when it comes to the UK economy, the senior Conservative MP David Davis has warned in a stinging attack on the chancellor.The former cabinet minister said Mr Sunak and his Treasury team had “no strategy” to deal with the mounting cost of living crisis, following the chancellor’s heavily-criticised Spring Statement.“What you’re seeing is a Spring Statement driven by headlines. My view of the Treasury’s economic strategy is that there isn’t one,” Mr Davis told LBC on Sunday.The senior backbencher added: “The chancellor said: ‘I can’t solve everything’. Actually, what the chancellor is doing is making things worse.”Mr Davis said “quite a lot” of his fellow Tory MPs felt the same way. “The truth is a lot of them will be getting problems pushing back from their own constituents [on the cost of living].”The senior Tory said that extra government borrowing taken on during the Covid pandemic should be treated as a “war loan” – arguing that the chancellor should look to balance the books over the longer-term.Amid a growing backlash over his Spring Statement, Mr Sunak is reportedly weighing up a further rebate on council tax bills in a new multi-billion-pound package after No 10 made clear its “panic” over the cost of living.“We’ve already looked at this and concluded that council tax is the best way to do it,” a Treasury source told the Sunday Times. “You’ve got an existing mechanism … It would make sense to do it like that again.”Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi hinted that Mr Sunak is planning further help with living costs in the months ahead. “I think he will continue to keep an eye on this, it’s only right,” he said on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday.He added: “It’s irresponsible for me to say ‘job done’ because energy prices are volatile, inflation remains high, so it would be absolutely irresponsible to say ‘job done’.”Meanwhile, opposition parties claimed that a “swindle” means around 1.3 million eligible families may miss out on Mr Sunak’s previously-announced £150 council tax rebate.They pointed to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) prediction that 20 per cent of those who do not pay their council tax by direct debit will not take up the rebate – potentially saving the government £195m.Local authorities warned they have not been given any extra resources to deliver the rebate to those who don’t pay via direct debit – leading to fears that some of the poorest and most vulnerable will not receive the tax cut.Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey said: “It is staggering that over one million families are set to miss out because of this Conservative government’s half-baked plans.”Rishi Sunak confronted by mother who can’t afford to heat her homeSir Ed added: “Rishi Sunak must confirm that anyone that misses out on the rebate will get their £150 cheque in the post. No-one should go without the help they need because of this Conservative government’s incompetence.”Boris Johnson and his team are said to be “panicking” about the impact of the rising food and energy bills ahead of May’s local elections.Downing Street special advisers have reportedly seen private polling showing that the cost of living is now the number-one public concern for the British public – surpassing the NHS and healthcare.Vicky Pryce, former head of the Government Economic Service, said there was “huge tension” between No 10 and the Treasury on how to handle the cost of living crisis.She told LBC on Sunday that despite calls to provide more help, the chancellor “would like to be seen as someone that brings the finances back to some sort of normality”.Labour branded the chancellor “Mr Tax” on Sunday, accusing him of “acting in his own interest” rather than those of the British people. Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth gave him the nickname while warning that pensioners have been “cutting back on hot meals” and “forgoing hot showers” as they cannot afford the cost.Labour analysis of the Office of Budget Responsibility figures found that average households would be hit with rises of £3,000 by 2026/27.Mr Ashworth told Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News: “Rishi Sunak absolutely had more room for manoeuvre in this Spring Statement and mini-budget, but rather than acting in the interests of the British people, he was playing games.“He was acting in his own interest because he thinks by offering an income tax cut in two years, that will help him politically with Conservative MPs if there’s a leadership contest, or that’ll fit the Tory election grid.”The government will uprate benefits by 3.1 per cent in April – though inflation is expected to average nearly 8 per cent over the year. Mr Ashworth said it amounted to a “very severe real-terms cut”.Labour also said analysis showed that hard-pressed pensioners face the biggest cut to the state pension in half a century with real-terms losses of up to £427 next year. More

School teachers will not be receiving a pay rise that will keep pace with soaring inflation levels, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi has indicated.The cabinet minister said public sector workers would have to accept pay “restraint”, despite growing calls for the government to provide more help with the mounting cost of living crisis.It comes as union leaders warned that both schools and hospitals would suffer a “mass exodus” of staff unless public sector employees receive pay rises matching inflation.Unison said that unless teachers, NHS workers and other public sector staff received “inflation-busting” pay rises, they would quit for better paid work in the private sector.Mr Zahawi confirmed the government was sticking with plans for a 3 per cent pay award in 2022-23, followed by another 2 per cent the following year – despite estimated inflation will hit 10 per cent this year.He told Times Radio: “For more senior staff, we’re looking at a 5 per cent increase over two years. So again, inflation is running ahead of that, of course. But nevertheless, to clarify those two years, well, that’s up to 2023.”Asked to clarify that teachers were not going to get an inflation-linked pay rise and would be forced to “suck up more austerity”, Mr Zahawi said: “Well, I think I hope I’ve described to you that we’re facing a global battle against inflation.”He added: “And the private sector employees, which is about 80 plus per cent of the workforce are having to deal with this as well. And I think it’s incumbent on us in the public sector to also exercise restraint.“I think it’s just worth remembering that, you know, we are going through difficult times with inflation globally,” the education secretary added. “So these are tough decisions.”The Department for Education (DfE) has already urged the national pay review body to stick with 5 per cent pay increases over two years for experienced teachers.However, the DfE has recommend starting salary for teachers hits £30,000 by 2023 – saying a “significant” pay rise is needed for recruitment.The Royal Nursing Union (RNU) recently called for a 5 per cent “above inflation” pay rise for NHS workers, amid warnings of a mass exodus in both hospitals and schools.TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady told The Observer: “If they don’t at least get a proper pay rise and help to reduce workloads, it will be the final straw.”She added: “A mass exodus would send shockwaves through every community, and it would damage our economy too. Ministers must be much more alive to this danger. They cannot let it happen.”Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: “If the government doesn’t deliver inflation-busting wage increases across the entire public sector, staff will exit for better-paid, less stressful jobs. That would leave services unable to cope.”Mr Zahawi denied reports of rifts in cabinet, with No 10 said to be “panicking” that chancellor Rishi Sunak has not done enough to ease the cost of living crisis ahead of the May local elections.“I wouldn’t describe it as fractious. I would say it’s every day, every such state has to make difficult decisions, because we’ve had a global pandemic and now of course a war in Europe,” Mr Zahawi told Times Radio.Meanwhile, the education secretary also revealed that 200,000 children are off school in England due to Covid-19 – as he promised more details on rapid testing this week when universal free provision is stopped.Mr Zahawi said more information about lateral flow tests will be set out on Friday, when mass free testing will end in England. He did not rule out more testing in schools when he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “We will say a bit more about testing on April 1”.The education secretary also confirmed that schools across England will be told to provide at least 32.5 hours of teaching a week under a new government plan.The Schools White Paper, published on Monday, will set out the new minimum requirement. Most primary and secondary schools already offer a 32.5-hour week, but the DfE says there are “discrepancies” which they want abolished by 2023.The cabinet minister told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “The average school day is 32-and-a-half hours. Some schools, thousands of schools are 30 minutes lower than that – so we want schools to be, sort of, 9am to 3.30pm.”Mr Zahawi added: “I’d like them all to do it by the end of this year, but I know some will have logistical problems. Which is why we’ve said by next year.”Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Simply adding five or ten minutes to a day is unlikely to bring much, if any, benefit. The government says it will be guided by evidence – they need to meet that undertaking.”Mr Zahawi also vowed to bring in “much tougher guidelines” in response to the “hugely distressing” strip-searching of the black schoolgirl referred to as Child Q.He said on Sunday he will set out a new policy “very soon” in response to the “appalling” incident after the 15-year-old was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at her east London school. “No child should have been exposed to that sort of trauma,” he said.On Tuesday, the long-awaited Special Educational Needs and Disability (Send) Review will also be published. More

Sanctions against Russian oligarchs, banks and businesses could be lifted if Vladimir Putin ends his invasion of Ukraine and commits to “no further aggression”, Liz Truss has said.The foreign secretary said in an interview published on Sunday that the threat of “snapback sanctions” would be retained if the Russian president did attack again.Ms Truss told the Sunday Telegraph that a “negotiations unit” had been established in the Foreign Office to aid possible peace talks.With the Kremlin’s troops struggling, her comments will be seen as a possible incentive for Mr Putin to cut his losses and broker a deal with Ukraine.Moscow has given indications after a month of war that it might scale back its ambitions to fight for control of the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine.But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned he would not give up territory in peace talks as he noted that his troops have delivered “powerful blows” to invading forces.Boris Johnson said that western allies are looking to “steadily ratchet up” the sanctions that have sought to punish Mr Putin and those who prop up his regime.Ms Truss said: “Those sanctions should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.“And also, there’s the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future. That is a real lever that I think can be used.”Her remarks fit with those of her US counterpart Antony Blinken, who has said the travel bans and asset freezes are “not designed to be permanent”.The secretary of state said the sanctions could “go away” in the event of an “in effect, irreversible” withdrawal of Russian troops.Fellow cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi backed foreign secretary Liz Truss’s position that sanctions cannot be lifted from Russia until there is a full withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “It has to be … Absolutely right, I think the Russian illegal invasion has to end and the Russian army has to leave the Ukraine, and it’s up to the Ukrainian people, they must be very much the ones who decide what that peace looks like.”Asked if Moscow was changing strategy to focus on the Donbas region, Mr Zahawi said that the Russian military is having “real problems” on the ground as the Ukrainians have “fought like lions”.Mr Zahawi also said regime change in Russia would be “up to the Russian people”, following the furore over US president Joe Biden’s apparent call for Putin’s removal.The White House has scrambled to row back the US president’s remarks, insisting that Biden was not calling for regime change when he said Putin “cannot remain in power”.Asked if the UK government agreed with Joe Biden that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power”, Mr Zahwi said: “I think that’s up to the Russian people.”Pressed again if Mr Biden was wrong to say what he did, Mr Zahawi said: “No, what I’m saying to you is the White House has been very clear on this … I think both the United States and the United Kingdom agree that it’s up to the Russian people to decide who should be governing them.”Meanwhile, former head of the civil service Lord Sedwill said that Britain’s defence spending should be increased, and the overseas aid budget, should return to its pre-cut level.The peer, cabinet secretary and national security adviser under Boris Johnson, made the call on Sunday as allies reconsider spending levels in response to the Russian threat.Lord Sedwill suggested national security spending should raise to 4 per cent of GDP to include defence spending increasing up to 2.75 per cent from 2 per cent where it stands now.He also called for aid spending to be brought back to 0.7 per cent of gross national income after the PM slashed it to 0.5 per cent during the Covid pandemic. More

Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday was claiming victory in his nation’s parliamentary election hours before official results were expected.If win is confirmed, that would mean the Labour Party will start its third consecutive term in office, beating out its traditional rival, the Nationalist Party. The election was held Saturday in the Mediterranean island nation of around 400,000 people that is a member of the European Union. “We have a clear indication that the Labour Party will have an absolute majority,” Abela told the Maltese state broadcaster. Labour had the lead in all public opinion polls before the balloting. About 85% of eligible voters cast ballots. Normal turnout usually tops 90%.Abela in January 2020 became prime minister after Joseph Muscat quit amid protests linked to the 2017 car bomb slaying of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who investigated corruption and ties between business interests and politicians in Malta.During the election campaign, the sale of Maltese citizenship to the wealthy came under fire in the campaign amid EU sanctions against Russian oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Nationalists called for the suspension of the sale of citizenship to Russian nationals. Earlier this month, Abela’s government did suspend the sale to both Russian and Belarussian nationals, saying that the existing due diligence checks can’t be carried out effectively in the current scenario of war.Muscat had been under pressure to step down after the arrest of a prominent local businessman, Yorgen Fenech. An independent inquiry, published in July 2021, into the bombing found that the Maltese state had to “bear responsibility” for the journalist’s assassination due to the culture of impunity that emanated from the highest levels of government at the time.As in much of southern Europe, high prices have been hurting energy consumers. The Maltese government is subsidizing energy costs to keep prices stable, and both parties in the campaign had pledges to continue the subsidies.Abela’s government was generally seen as having successfully managed the Covid-19 pandemic, with a number of measures to support businesses and workers, keeping unemployment low. But a move by the government to issue tax refund and stimulus checks to the public halfway through the campaign sparked controversy. More