UK Politics

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is said to be considering a new tax rebate as part of further support for families after his spring statement failed to ease growing fears about living costs.Mr Sunak is now “weighing up” a further rebate on council tax bills as part of a new multibillion-pound package after No 10 made clear its “panic” over the cost of living crisis, the Sunday Times reported.“We’ve already looked at this and concluded that council tax is the best way to do it,” a Treasury source told the newspaper. “You’ve got an existing mechanism … It would make sense to do it like that again.”The chancellor came in for heavy criticism for his failure to provide any extra help on energy bills and council tax, beyond the previously-announced £200 loan and a rebate of £150 to those living in properties in council tax bands A to D.Boris Johnson and his team are said to be “panicking” about the impact of the rising food and energy bills ahead of the May local elections.Downing Street special advisers have reportedly been shown private polling showing that the cost of living is now the number one public concern for the British public, surpassing the NHS and healthcare.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 told 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’.”Vicky Pryce, former head of the Government Economic Service, said there was “huge tension” between No 10 and the Treasury. She told LBC the chancellor “would like to be seen as someone that brings the finances back to some sort of normality”.Senior Tory MP Stephen Crabb said the chancellor would have to do “more” to help in the spring and summer – arguing it would not be “sustainable” to wait until the next budget in autumn.Mr Sunak has been branded “Mr Tax” by Labour as they attacked “very severe real-terms cuts to the pension and support like universal credit”.Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth gave the nickname to Mr Sunak while warning that pensioners have been “cutting back on hot meals” and “forgoing hot showers” as they cannot afford the cost.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.”New Labour analysis of the Office of Budget Responsibility figures found that the average households would be hit with rises of £3,000 by 2026/27.The Resolution Foundation think tank has warned that around 1.3 million Britons will be pushed into poverty by the cost-of-living squeeze this year – including some on “middle-incomes”.Senior Tory backbencher Stephen Crabb said the chancellor would have to do “more” to help in the spring and summer – arguing it would not be “sustainable” to wait until the budget in autumn.Food bank bosses have told The Independent that a growing number of middle-class Britons are already coming to them in “desperate” need of help.And there is growing concern about existing poverty in Britain becoming much more intense in the months ahead.Consumer expert Martin Lewis has said some people could “starve or freeze”, while food campaigner Jack Monroe also warned dire poverty could prove “fatal” in some cases.The former Assistant Chief to the Defence Staff has said the government must prepare the British public for a “long-term degradation” in living standards.General Jonathan Shaw told LBC: “We need to be psychologically preparing our people for a long-term degradation of standard of living and a long-term confrontation with Russia.” More

Rishi Sunak wrongly claimed his headline-grabbing move to axe VAT on home solar panels is only possible “thanks to Brexit”, experts say.The move, in the chancellor’s mini-budget – saving householders installing panels around £1,000 by removing the current 5 per cent rate – will also be allowed by the EU, they insist.The row follows the Brexit-supporting Mr Sunak arguing that a 2019 ruling by the European Court of Justice would have prevented him from acting within the bloc.“Thanks to Brexit, we’re no longer constrained by EU law,” he told cheering Tory MPs, adding: “We’ll abolish all the red tape imposed on us by the EU.”Jacob Rees-Mogg then backed up the claim, tweeting after Wednesday’s spring statement: “The EU would not allow us to do this, another benefit of Brexit.”But it has emerged that a directive, put forward by the European Council last December, is extending the current “exemption” from VAT for food, medicines and public transport.The new list includes the “supply and installation of solar panels on and adjacent to private dwellings, housing and public and other buildings used for activities in the public interest”, the document states.Steve Peers, a Brexit expert and law professor at the University of Essex, said of Mr Sunak’s comments: “This is untrue.“A recently agreed amendment to EU VAT law will give member states an option for a VAT exemption for the supply and installation of solar panels.”And the QC Jessica Simor, a specialist in EU law, said the directive will allow a VAT rate “as low as zero”, adding: “Parliament has agreed it. Council now has to rubber stamp it.”Ministers have repeatedly made questionable claims about changes being introduced in their search for the “Brexit dividend” that voters were promised.Mr Sunak has wrongly argued that tax-cutting freeports are only possible outside the EU, despite seven existing in the UK between the mid-1980s and 2012.And Boris Johnson claimed the UK was only able to steal a march with Covid vaccines outside the European Medicines Agency, although membership would not have prevented the UK acting alone.The Treasury has been asked to respond to the criticism that Mr Sunak misrepresented his new freedoms to act on green home energy improvements.In his speech, on Wednesday, the chancellor said: “If homeowners want to install energy saving materials, at the moment only some items qualify for a 5 per cent VAT relief – and there are complex rules about who is eligible.“The relief used to be more generous, but from 2019 the European Court of Justice required us to restrict its eligibility. But, thanks to Brexit, we’re no longer constrained by EU law.”Green campaigners welcomed the VAT removal, also making heat pumps and loft insulation cheaper, but there was no other help to cut insulation or green energy bills.Meanwhile, the mini-budget supported fossil fuels with a 5p cut in fuel duty and the chancellor failed even to mention the term “net zero” in his speech. More

More than half of UK voters think Boris Johnson’s government should ditch visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees to allow unlimited numbers to seek sanctuary here, a new poll for The Independent has found.Just one in five (21 per cent) said the government should stick to its requirement for visas for those fleeing Vladimir Putin’s invasion, compared to 54 per cent who said the policy should be dropped.Charities have warned that the visa process for the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which seeks to match refugees with British sponsors who have spare rooms, was proving much too “slow and bureaucratic”.Lawyers also said long delays getting visas under the family scheme meant some refugees were close to running out of money and becoming increasingly vulnerable to traffickers.The Savanta ComRes poll found that the government’s policy on refugees was souring public opinion on Mr Johnson’s response to the Ukraine war.Unlike EU nations which have opened their doors to Ukrainian refugees for up to three years, the UK is insisting on visas for all those taking part in schemes to come to Britain.The poll found strong support for Mr Johnson’s overall approach to the war, with 53 per cent of those asked saying he had done a good job, against 35 per cent who said he had not.But on the welcome the government has offered to Ukrainian refugees, the picture was reversed, with 47 per cent saying Mr Johnson had done a bad job; just 42 per cent said he had done well.Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said on Saturday that the government should be making it “far, far easier for those who are fleeing Ukraine to come here”.Speaking at a march in support of Ukraine, Mr Khan said: “You compare our government’s actions versus the actions of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, it’s embarrassing – we’ve got be doing much more.”A small number of successful “matchups” via the Homes for Ukraine scheme have emerged since Friday. But the levelling up department has yet to reveal how many refugees have been able to join sponsors in the UK. More

Boris Johnson’s government must prepare the British public for a “long-term degradation” in living standards, the former Assistant Chief to the Defence Staff has warned.General Jonathan Shaw said the UK still had the “wrong mentality” about the scale of the geopolitical shift sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“We need to be psychologically preparing our people for a long-term degradation of standard of living and a long-term confrontation with Russia,” he told LBC.The ex-Armed Forces chief said Britain’s standard of living would get “much worse” because of the new cold war with Russia. “I don’t think we’re preparing our populations for that sort of hardship.”General Shaw said he did not hear enough in chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spring statement about the “pain” ahead.“We have all these grand plans about transiting to be free on dependence on wheat and oil from Russia – but getting is going to be extraordinarily painful”.He said: “We are obsessed with humanitarian concerns and individual suffering and that makes good TV – but the reality is this is far more serious than that.“For years we’ve placed top priority on economics … we do deals with all sorts of people. Our quality of life back home absolutely depends on them – cheap fuel, cheap access, doing deals with Saudi Arabia and things like that.”The former military chief added: “We’ve now decided that as far as Russia’s concerned we’re going to play geopolitics ahead of economics and that will come at a price. We need to be clear about that.”The warning comes as Mr Sunak was urged to rethink his offer to families struggling with the mounting cost of living crisis, following his spring statement.The chancellor has come in for heavy criticism for his failure to provide any extra help with energy bills – beyond the previously-announced £200 loan coming in October – and his decision not to raise benefits in line with inflation.The Resolution Foundation think tank has warned that around 1.3 million Britons will be pushed into poverty by the cost-of-living squeeze this year – including some on “middle-incomes”.Senior Tory backbencher Stephen Crabb said the chancellor would have to do “more” to help in the spring and summer – arguing it would not be “sustainable” to wait until the budget in autumn.Food bank bosses have told The Independent that a growing number of middle-class Britons are already coming to them in “desperate” need of help.And there is growing concern about existing poverty in Britain becoming much more intense in the months ahead.Consumer expert Martin Lewis has said some people could “starve or freeze”, while food campaigner Jack Monroe also warned dire poverty could prove “fatal” in some cases.Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is facing the prospect of further setbacks in Ukraine. He appeared to be preparing Russians for a possible scaling back of his ambitions away from seizing Kyiv to fighting for control of the east.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hailed his troops as having delivered “powerful blows” to the invading forces as he urged Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.An adviser to the Ukrainian ministry of defence, Markian Lubkivskyi, told the BBC he was sceptical that the Russian’s aims had truly changed away from trying to take the whole nation. But he said it does appear “the enemy is focused on the eastern part of Ukraine”. More

Britain’s first female foreign secretary Margaret Beckett has announced her intention to retire at the next general election, some 48 years after first becoming an MP.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed Dame Margaret, who was also the first woman to lead the party, as a “trailblazer” after she said she plans to stand down from the Derby South constituency.First elected in Lincoln in 1974, she served as acting leader of the Labour Party in 1994 after the sudden death of John Smith.That year she ran for election to lead the party full time, but lost to Tony Blair, who would later make her foreign secretary.Derby Labour Party announced that the 79-year-old politician would not seek re-election at the next national vote in 2024.In an interview, Dame Margaret discussed the sexism she faced in the Foreign Office as a holder of one of the great offices of state in the 1990s.“I regarded that as their problem rather than mine,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There were people in the Foreign Office I understand who thought that.While she temporarily led the party, Labour members have never elected a woman as their leader, unlike the Tories who have done so twice.“There’s so much luck in politics,” Dame Margaret said. “It was just never the right person at the right time.”Two MPs have been killed within the last six years, and the perceived threat to them and the abuse they face is all too extreme.Asked if she would advise children today to go into politics, Dame Margaret said: “It wouldn’t put me off because what I felt when I was considering being an MP is equally true today.“If you think things should be changed, and you want to have a say in changing them, and you don’t have wealth and power, there’s a very limited number of routes you can use and this is the biggest of them.”She acknowledged the huge challenge Sir Keir has if he is to win the next election after Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat, but said the public can “move mountains” in the British electoral system if they wish.Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “So many years of dedication to public service and to better politics. What a woman and what an inspiration Margaret is to us all.”Sir Keir paid tribute to the “legend” of the Labour party. “As the UK’s first female foreign secretary, and Labour’s first female leader, she is a trailblazer,” he said.“Margaret, I thank you for everything you’ve given, and achieved.” More

YouTube has pulled video clips of hoax calls with senior cabinet ministers targeted by Russian imposters in stunt blamed on the Kremlin by the British government.Defence secretary Ben Wallace and home secretary Priti Patel both featured in videos that have been trickling out on the Vovan222prank channel since Monday.On Friday the tech giant blocked the account which published the clips as part of its investigation into “influence operations linked to Russia” after days of pressure to block the clips.The ministers thought they were talking to Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal – but were in fact speaking to an imposter in what officials believe is a Russian disinformation campaign.The Google-owned firm did not find that the videos breached its “community guidelines”, but removed it following an investigation into whether it was running an influence campaign.A YouTube spokesman said: “We have terminated the YouTube channel Vovan222prank as part of our ongoing investigation into coordinated influence operations linked to Russia.”The delay in removing the videos had enraged some in the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which published a letter to YouTube calling for it to delete the “Russian propaganda”.On Wednesday, a defence source went as far as saying: “YouTube is in danger of aiding and abetting the Russian state propaganda machine, putting people at risk.”Downing Street accused the Kremlin of being behind the phoney calls from self-styled pranksters “Vovan and Lexus”.Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “The Russian state was responsible for the hoax telephone calls made to UK ministers last week.”The No 10 official added: “This is standard practice for Russian information operations and disinformation and is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there.” It emerged earlier this week that a third attempt was made to get through to a cabinet minister, this time targeting the culture secretary Nadine Dorries.It was thought the campaign was designed to embarrass ministers and sow divisions between allies supporting Ukraine in its resistance.Mr Wallace expressed his anger with British officials over a hoax call from an imposter claiming to be the Ukrainian prime minister.Armed Forces minister James Heappey said Mr Wallace was “pretty cross” and “can issue a good b******ing” following the apparent breach of security.Ms Patel said on Twitter: “Pathetic attempt at such difficult times to divide us. We stand with Ukraine.” More

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has said his plan to replace Labour’s Human Rights Act will would ensure the principle of free speech became a legal “trump card”.The justice secretary said his proposals would free speech and democratic debate from being “whittled away” by “wokery and political correctness”.The government’s plan to replace the landmark Human Rights Act with a new UK Bill of Rights – currently out for consultation – will better protect media freedom, Mr Raab claimed.The senior minister said free speech had to be given “different status in the pecking order of rights”.Mr Raab told the Daily Mail: “Effectively, free speech will be given what will amount to ‘trump card’ status in a whole range of areas.”He said: “The thrust is going to be making sure that when we balance rights, whether it’s the right to free speech and the right to privacy or other rights, we make sure that the greatest overriding importance and weight is attached to free speech.”Despite the promised changes, Mr Raab said checks would remain on free speech to prevent the incitement of violence or promotion of terrorism.“We will still be clamping down on those who try and use either media or free speech to incite violence, to radicalise terrorists, or to threaten children. All of those safeguards will be in place,” he said.Mr Raab said: “But we’ve got to be able to strengthen free speech, the liberty that guards all of our other freedoms, and stop it being whittled away surreptitiously, sometimes without us really being conscious of it.“I feel very strongly that the parameters of free speech and democratic debate are being whittled away, whether by the privacy issue or whether it’s wokery and political correctness.”He added: “So it will have a different status in the pecking order of rights and I think that will go a long way to protecting this country’s freedom of speech and our history, which has always very strongly protected freedom of speech.”Mr Raab also told the paper the UK Bill of Rights would make deportation mandatory for all foreign criminals jailed for at least a year.Meanwhile, The Telegraph reports that, as part of a wider reform of parole proceedings, Mr Raab is set to take back powers to override the Parole Board when it comes to the release of dangerous criminals from jail.It follows public outcry at the decision to release double child killer and rapist Colin Pitchfork from jail. More