UK Politics

Priti Patel has been forced to apologise to Tory rebels opposing her new crackdown on asylum seekers after they were accused of being “on the side of criminals.”“Allies” of the home secretary sparked anger when they briefed a friendly newspaper that Conservative MPs who vote with Labour are failing to “defend our national interest”.Ahead of votes on the nationality and borders bill, one ally alleged: “Detractors of the Bill are taking the side of criminals in the fight against the vile people trafficking trade.”Damian Green, the former deputy prime minister, protested to Ms Patel about the briefing, given to The Sun, and obtained an apology, The Independent understands.The Bill will send asylum seekers abroad for processing – with the distant Ascension Island the likely destination – and criminalise those who arrive by unauthorised routes.It could also potentially lead to Ukrainian refugees who arrive in the UK without the correct visa jailed for four years.Mr Davis declined to comment on the apology he sought from the Home Office, but, speaking in the Commons, urged ministers to agree to resettle at least 10,000 refugees in the UK every year.The idea is among a string of amendments passed in the House of Lords, which Tory MPs will be whipped to overturn in votes in the Commons later on Tuesday.Mr Green said the Home Office’s own figures showed that 87 per cent of asylum seekers on small boats are coming from countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen – where there are no “legal and safe routes”.“The people coming across the Channel do not have these routes available to them,” he told ministers.The Tory rebels believe the outpouring of public sympathy that has seen 150,000 Britons sign up to host refugees from Ukraine shows the nation’s mood is shifting on asylum seekers.Their main target is the plan to “offshore” refugee applications by sending them to far-flung countries, although no country has yet agreed to accept them.Andrew Mitchell, a former Cabinet minister, has branded the policy “a moral, financial and practical failure”, arguing it would involve building a “British Guantanamo Bay” and cost £2m per asylum seeker.David Davis, a second cabinet veteran, has said: “I find it hard to imagine that in the current climate they are going to send Ukrainian asylum seekers offshore if they arrive here by boat.“If you can’t do it to a Ukrainian asylum seeker, how are you going to do it to anyone else?”However, Ms Patel is standing firm, insisting the Australian-style offshore processing centres will be a deterrent to stem record Channel crossings by asylum seekers. More

Families are facing a “fiscal punch in the face” on 1 April with the imminent rise in the price of energy, Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has told MPs.Speaking just 24 hours before Rishi Sunak unveils his spring statement, Mr Lewis stressed that current government measures — an attempt to take the “sting” out of rocketing bills — were inadequate.Last month the energy regulator said the maximum amount suppliers can charge 22 million retail customer will jump by more than 50 per cent, from £1,277 to £1,971.“On 1 April people are going to feel a fiscal punch in the face when that [energy price cap] goes up for someone on typical use to £1,971 — that’s a £700 rise,” Mr Lewis told MPs.With another review of the energy cap expected in October, Mr Lewis said the price crap then will be based on an assessment period of wholesale energy prices between February and the end of July.“We are seven weeks through that 26 week period,” he said.“Those seven weeks have included the highest ever wholesale rates in history — a completely unprecedented level — both because of the structural changes that have been going on in the market due to Covid and of course due to the dreadful situation in Ukraine.”Mr Lewis said the prediction for October was “still another rise” to £2,500, with many people seeing a more than two-fold increase in energy bills over the course of the year.On the chancellor’s £350 package for households — outlined last month — Mr Lewis added: “Even if you were to take both of those measures and pretend both were cash that is £350 to cover a typical £1,300 a year bill — that is clearly not enough.He said there were many people who would “not be able to afford” the rise, “especially with only £350 worth of help”.“For those on lower to middle incomes, £350 worth of help — of which £200 is questionable — to cover a £1,300 rise, well you don’t need to be the Money Saving Expert to work out no, that is not enough”.Asked what suggestions he had for the government to support vulnerable people, he replied: “Well it needs to give them more money. It really is as simply as that”. More

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday his Liberal Party has reached an agreement with the opposition New Democratic Party that would keep his party in power until 2025. “What this means is during this uncertain time the government can function with predictability and stability, present and implement budgets and get things done for Canadians,” Trudeau said. Trudeau’s Liberal Party won reelection in September but failed to win a majority of seats in Parliament and must rely on the opposition to pass legislation. The leftist NDP party will support Trudeau’s Liberals in exchange for deals on pharmaceutical and dental care plans, but it will not have a lawmaker in Trudeau’s Cabinet and Trudeau said the NDP won’t have a veto on any budget or any other legislation. “We’ve agreed to work together,” Trudeau said. “It’s about focusing on what we agree on instead of what we disagree on.”Anti-vaccine protesters and truckers who laid siege to parts of Ottawa, the capital, called for Trudeau’s government to be ousted earlier this year.“This is nothing more than a Justin Trudeau power grab,” interim Conservative Party leader Candice Bergen said. “This is a NDP-Liberal government and they have the majority.”Trudeau said he plans to run again when the next election is held, which must be by 2025.“As I’ve said a number of times I am planning on continuing to serve Canadians through and beyond the next election,” Trudeau said. But there are widespread doubts that he will do so, given that he would have been in power for 10 years, has seen a drop in his popularity and a rise in animosity toward him in much of western Canada.Trudeau is still remembered for evoking the prospect of “sunny ways” when he took office in 2015 at age 43, the second-youngest Canadian prime minister ever. There have been setbacks since then, but he has been reelected twice.Tall and trim, Trudeau channeled the star power — if not quite the political heft — of his father, Pierre Trudeau, who swept to power in 1968 on a wave of support dubbed “Trudeaumania.” Pierre Trudeau, who was prime minister until 1984 with a short interruption, remains one of the few Canadian politicians known in America, his charisma often drawing comparisons to John F. Kennedy. More

The government’s “vision” for Brexit is about rid of “gold-plated” EU regulations, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.Speaking at a parliamentary committee on Tuesday the Brexit Opportunities Minister said the EU had “imposed” regulations on the UK and that it was his job to get rid of them.It comes as the UK government considers diverging from EU rules on pesticides on imported food, as well as car safety regulations. “What is the vision in terms of Brexit opportunities, is that we should have an economy that is more efficient, that we should have the supply-side reforms, that we should get rid of the unnecessary, often gold-plated regulation that the European Union imposed upon us,” Mr Rees-Mogg told the public administration select committee. “Very often we were outvoted in the council of ministers, we have things that came through by qualified majority voting, or we abstained on things because we knew that we would lose at that stage. It’s about freeing up the economy.”Mr Rees-Mogg, an ardent supporter of Brexit, claimed that power would be transferred to the devolved nations as part of the change.”There’s a wonderful flow of power from Brussels not just to Westminster but also to Edinburgh and the Cardiff and to Belfast,” he said. Mr Rees-Mogg was appointed to his current role earlier this year but there was at the time little solid information provided from the government about what he role would involve. In February he issued a plea to readers of The Sun to flag possible Brexit benefits to him – potentially crowdsourcing regulations he could scrap. Mr Rees-Mogg has previously argued that the UK could go “a very long way” to rolling back high EU standards and said regulations that were “good enough for India” could be good enough for the UK.“We could, if we wanted, accept emissions standards from India, America, and Europe. There’d be no contradiction with that,” Mr Rees-Mogg told a parliamentary committee in 2016 a few months after the EU referendum.“We could say, if it’s good enough in India, it’s good enough for here. There’s nothing to stop that.But trade unions and opposition parties have said workers rights, environmental controls, product s standards, other protections should not be sacrificed as part of leaving the EU.Ditching rules could make it easier for the government to sign trade deals with other countries around the world because the standards currently make it difficult to import goods from countries with lower or different ones.But MPs warned last week that the benefits from such free trade agreements are uncertain and may not exist at all – a concern echoed by some trade economists who say the economic damage from leaving the single market massively outweighs any potential gains. More

It would be “nonsensical” for Boris Johnson to visit Ukraine during the Russian invasion of the country, a senior government official has told The Independent.The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) official said the prime minister’s time “would be better spent addressing Home Office dysfunction” over the Britain’s response to the refugee crisis.Mr Johnson is “desperate” to pay a trip to Ukraine to “experience what is happening there”, the Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden has confirmed.Requests had been made to the FCDO regarding the possibility of Mr Johnson visiting Ukraine in-person, The Independent understands.But the departmental official warned there were “huge risks associated with such an operation for both UK officials, special forces and Ukrainian security concerns”.They added that an in-person visit from the prime minister was not a top priority for the Ukrainian government.Two chief requests from Ukrainian counterparts remain – sending more arms and aid, and easing the flow of refugees to the UK, the official said.Both Labour and Tory MPs have attacked the Home Office’s slow response in allowing Ukrainian refugees to come to Britain, and campaigners have condemned home secretary Priti Patel’s insistence on visa requirements.The FCDO official also noted that US officials had been at pains to note that president Joe Biden would not visit Ukraine during his trip to neighbouring country Poland. This was important in order to not to inflame tensions with Russia yet further.A visit from a UK or US premier would require logistical support that could, if it met with Russian forces, risked igniting a live engagement between a Nato member and Russia, the official said.This is the same issue that Nato leaders said prevents them from securing Ukraine’s skies from Russian attack, as it could lead to a vast escalation of the conflict.The Tory party chairman defended Mr Johnson’s desire to go to Ukraine, arguing that the risky visit would be important to let the PM “see what’s going on, on the ground”.“It’s actually to experience what is happening there, to see what is happening to the people on the ground,” Mr Dowden told LBC – suggesting he wanted to meet president Volodymyr Zelensky in person.“It’s very different talking to somebody on the phone versus actually seeing it in practice,” the Tory chair said.The cabinet minister also clarified that no decisions have been taken yet, following reports that British security officials are “having kittens” about the prime minister’s requested visit.No 10 said on Tuesday that Mr Johnson would consider travelling to Kyiv if invited – though the prime minister’s spokesman said president Zelensky had not, at this time, requested that the PM visit Kyiv.A senior Ukrainian security official told The Independent that he had heard that Mr Johnson has expressed interest in showing his solidarity with Ukraine by travelling to meet president Zelensky.The official, who has been to London and is known to Western officials, stressed that no official approach has been made about a visit by the prime minister by British officials.But he pointed out that Ihor Zhovka, the Ukrainian president’s advisor on international relations had invited president Biden to visit Kyiv.He also pointed out that the prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic met Mr Zelensky in Kyiv after travelling by train from Poland.Britain’s standing in Ukraine is extremely high at present after supplies of arms to the country. Mr Johnson received a warm welcome during a visit to Kyiv in January in the run-up to the war.EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday along with US president Joe Biden, but Mr Johnson is not expected to join them. More

Leaders of more than 30 trade unions have written to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in the wake of the mass dismissal of 800 P&O seafarers, to demand a timetable for the introduction of legislation to protect workers first promised by the government more than two years ago.The unions, led by Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Frances O’Grady, said that P&O Ferries was able to treat its workers as “disposable” because of weaknesses in the UK employment law which permit fire-and-rehire tactics.They demanded the immediate reinstatement of the workers, who were told of their immediate redundancy by video message last Thursday, as well as the urgent passage of the Employment Bill promised by Boris Johnson in his Queen’s Speech following the December 2019 general election.The speech, setting out the government’s agenda for the coming year, said the bill would “protect and enhance workers’ rights as the UK leaves the EU, making Britain the best place in the world to work”.But today’s letter – seen by The Independent – said that all the government has in fact delivered is non-binding guidance offering “the flimsiest of defences against any employer who is determined to treat their workers with contempt”.Signed by general secretaries of maritime unions Nautilus and the RMT, as well as Unison, Unite, GMB and many others, the letter says the “long overdue” bill should include action on fire-and-rehire style practices, stronger collective consultation rights and remedies and better protection for workers against unfair dismissal.The “callous, illegal and pre-meditated” firing of P&O workers “marks a new low-point in UK industrial relations – and shows once again the weakness of our employment law framework in protecting working people”, they wrote.In addition to an employment bill to strengthen protections for workers, the unions called on government to demand the immediate reinstatement of all sacked P&O staff with no loss of pay. They said it was vital for the government to “take all steps without delay to ensure that these workers are reinstated and bring forward emergency legislation if that is required”. And they demanded the suspension of “any government support for the company or its parent, DP World” to secure this.Ms O’Grady said: “The prime minister promised to make Britain the best place to work in the world.“But one of the most shameful moments in the recent history of UK industrial relations has happened on his watch. “No more excuses. The government must name a date for an employment bill now. “This scandal has shown the need for strengthened protections for workers – rogue employers need to know they can’t get away with treating staff like disposable labour.”She added: “P&O has acted shamefully. The company must reinstate its sacked staff without delay, and with no loss of pay – or face serious consequences.”– The letter was signed by Ms O’Grady along with leaders of the unions RMT, Nautilus, Unison, Unite, GMB, Community, CWU, Aslef, NASUWT, FDA, NEU, NUJ, Accord, Prospect, EIS, Aegis, TSSA, Nationwide Group Staff Union, Equity, BALPA, UCU, POA, HCSA, NSEAD, Royal College of Podiatry, USDAW, PCS, NUM, Society of Radiographers, Musicians Union and RCM  More

Boris Johnson is “desperate” to visit Ukraine to “experience what is happening there” during the devastating invasion by Russian forces, a minister has said.Tory party chairman Oliver Dowden argued the risky visit would be important to enable the prime minister to “see what’s going on, on the ground”.Reports have suggested that UK security officials are nervous about Mr Johnson’s apparent desire to visit Kyiv for talks with president Volodymyr Zelensky.Mr Dowden told LBC: “Well, I think the prime minister is desperate to go to Ukraine and has throughout this conflict felt a real – as the British people have done – a real emotional connection with the suffering of the Ukrainian people.”Asked why the PM needed to travel to the nation under siege, rather than holding another call with Mr Zelensky, Mr Dowden said: “It’s very different talking to somebody on the phone versus actually seeing it in practice.”“But then secondly, it’s actually to experience what is happening there, to see what is happening to the people on the ground,” Mr Dowden said. “I think that is very different to just speaking remotely.”The Tory chair also clarified that “no decisions have been taken in relation to this”, following reports that security officials are “having kittens” about the prime minister’s desires visit.Mr Dowden also defended the prime minister after his comparison between Ukraine’s fight against Russia and the British people’s decision to vote for Brexit sparked outrage.The Tory chair said “they are exercising a freedom and the British people were able to exercise a freedom” in his LBC interview with Andrew Marr.“The point the prime minister was making, they are exercising a freedom and the British people were able to exercise a freedom – that is a precious thing that we have, and we should be robust in defending it,” he said.He added: “I would argue that goes back to the speech the prime minister was making it is about free nations being able to choose their own destiny.”Mr Dowden also said the prime minister was confident that he would be sanctioned at the end of the Metropolitan Police investigation in Covid lockdown gatherings, as Scotland Yard begins interviewing key witnesses.“The prime minister is actually, absolutely, resolutely clear that he is not going to be subject to a fixed penalty notice because he is confident that he’s not broken the law, so therefore I don’t think that situation will arise,” he said.The latest Ministry of Defence assessment says the Russian advance on the capital remains stalled in the face of determined Ukrainian resistance.The bulk of Moscow’s forces are believed to be still more than 15 miles from the centre.Analysts believe the capital is still the Kremlin’s main military objective, although it is thought the Russians will try to force it into submission through encirclement rather than attempting a direct assault.the UN’s refugee agency says around 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began, with millions more forced out their homes remaining in the country. More