UK Politics

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning editor of a liberal Russian newspaper known for its critical treatment of Vladimir Putin’s government has criticised the “unfair and inaccurate” coverage of the Lebedev family in the UK.Dmitry Muratov – praised for his work championing press freedom at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper – said accusations levelled against the family were “misjudged and dangerous”.Labour has raised questions about Boris Johnson’s relationship with Evgeny Lebedev – a shareholder of The Independent – and his elevation to the Lords, following claims the head of MI6 had raised security concerns over the appointment.Mr Muratov said the family had championed press freedom and democracy in Russia – pointing to the role Lord Lebedev’s father Alexander played in saving Novaya Gazeta from collapse.“The Lebedevs have supported the universal ideals of independent journalism, competitive politics and transparent corporate governance everywhere, including in Russia,” he wrote in The Times.The editor added: “If the people of Britain truly care about a free and independent press, about democracy and freedom of speech, then they should not hunt down those who have fought brave battles to uphold these values. The Lebedevs are not your enemy.”The Nobel laureate said Alexander Lebedev’s financial support for his newspaper had been vital in keeping Novaya Gazeta running after the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in 2006.“The paper was at risk of folding and, entirely disheartened, I considered letting it close. It was only after the intervention of Alexander, a great friend of Anna, and Gorbachev, that we decided to continue,” he wrote.“Between 2000 and 2021, six of our journalists were killed. One must only look at their tragic fates to understand the risk for anyone who associates themselves with the newspaper.”Mr Muratov also said that when he was a shareholder of Aeroflot, Alexander Lebedev placed Alexei Navalny, the outspoken critic of Putin, on the board of the company.The editor was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, alongside Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, for their fight to defend freedom of expression in the face of authoritarian governments. He was part of the founding team of Novaya Gazeta in 1993 and became its editor in 1995.Mr Muratov has been heavily critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and printed his paper in both Russian and Ukrainian following the start of the war.Lord Lebedev acknowledged last week that his father was “a long time ago” a KGB officer but has denied being a security risk to this country.He stated: “I may have a Russian name but that makes me no less a committed or proud British citizen than anyone else in this country of ours.“Being Russian does not automatically make one an enemy of the state, and it is crucial we do not descend into Russophobia, like any other phobia, bigotry or discrimination.”Sir Keir Starmer has said there are questions for Mr Johnson to answer over his relationship with Lord Lebedev, and has written to the House of Lords Appointment Commission over the decision to grant him a peerage.Earlier this week Mr Johnson denied intervening to override security concerns about the peerage granted to Lord Lebedev, telling reporters: “That is simply incorrect… It suits Putin’s agenda to try to characterise this as a struggle between the west and Russia.” More

Tory rebels will stage a fresh revolt over Priti Patel’s plans to send asylum seekers abroad for processing, believing the Ukraine tragedy has shifted the public mood.The Bill that would see refugees sent to far-flung countries to make applications – Rwanda and the island of St Helena have been mooted – returns to the Commons next week.A group of Conservative MPs plan to stage another fight over the policy, former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell branding it “a moral, financial and practical failure”.“We would have to build a British Guantanamo Bay”, he has told fellow Tories, arguing the bill will be £2m per asylum seeker – when even using The Ritz hotel would cost “only” £250,000.David Davis, a second cabinet veteran, says he hopes the outpouring of public sympathy that has seen 150,000 Britons sign up to host refugees from Ukraine shows the policy is a busted flush.“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,” he told The Guardian.“If you can’t do it to a Ukrainian asylum seeker, how are you going to do it to anyone else?”The Conservative rebels want to set up a global resettlement scheme to accept 10,000 people a year from war-torn regions, under another amendment being considered.However, the home secretary is standing firm on her plans, seeing the Australian-style offshore processing centres as a deterrent to stem record Channel crossings by asylum seekers.Ms Patel will seek to reinstate clause 28 of the Nationality and Borders Bill – to allow refugees to be sent to a third country – after it was removed by the House of Lords.She signalled her intent by recruiting former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer, the architect of its controversial hardline policy, as an adviser.But Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has attacked the plan as a violation of refugee rights.“The proposed offshore processing centres would expose asylum seekers to real risks of forced transfers, extended periods of isolation and deprivation of liberty, violating their human rights and dignity,” she said.An email sent by Mr Mitchell attacked the suggestion of using Ascension Island, a remote UK territory in the Atlantic Ocean, as a processing centre as “absurd” which risked exposing women and children to abuse.“If we were to place asylum seekers at the Ritz [hotel] it would only cost £250k a year,” he wrote.A Home Office spokesperson said: “Our nationality and borders bill will fix our broken asylum system so we prevent people from making dangerous journeys to the UK and protect the those in need through safe and legal routes.“The Lords votes are disappointing, but we will not be deterred from delivering what the people of this country voted for.” More

Equating Saudi Arabia to Putin is ‘ridiculously distasteful’, says James CleverlyRishi Sunak has hinted there may be help for families battling the cost of living crisis in next week’s mini-budget.Hard-pressed Brits are being squeezed by rising energy bills, sky-rocketing petrol prices and an increase in national insurance contributions. The chancellor told Tory activists at the Conservative conference in Blackpool today: “Where we can make a difference… I’m always going to do that.”It come as the government has ditched plans to limit MPs’ earnings from second jobs in a major rethink over the issue which sparked a sleaze scandal at Westminster, prompting Sir Keir Starmer to accuse the PM of “breaking his promise yet again”.Meanwhile, from Friday, Ukrainian refugees without family members in the UK will be able to apply for visas under the new “Homes for Ukraine” scheme.More than 150,000 Britons have registered their interest in taking in Ukrainians, and the government is currently working with a number of charities and NGOs to work out the best way to match people with host families. Show latest update

1647614541Tory rebels plot fresh revolt over Priti Patel’s plans to send asylum seekers abroad for processingTory rebels will stage a fresh revolt over Priti Patel’s plans to send asylum seekers abroad for processing, believing the Ukraine tragedy has shifted the public mood.The Bill that would see refugees sent to far-flung countries to make applications – Rwanda and the island of St Helena have been mooted – returns to the Commons next week.A group of Conservative MPs plan to stage another fight over the policy, former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell branding it “a moral, financial and practical failure”.Rob Merrick has more:Eleanor Sly18 March 2022 14:421647613101Ukraine crisis provides opportunity for Conservatives to roll back ‘wokery’, says Jacob Rees-MoggThe Ukraine crisis has given Conservatives an opportunity to roll back “wokery” and sweep away the “fluff” of Partygate, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.The Brexit minister told a meeting of Tory activists that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had created a “new seriousness” which made “woke” arguments about the use of language look like “nonsense”.And he said Conservatives should take advantage of the situation by taking a “robust” approach and refusing to accept the use of “socialist” vocabulary, like saying chair rather than chairman or Beijing rather than Peking.Andrew Woodcock has more:Eleanor Sly18 March 2022 14:181647612558Majority of Scots feel second referendum should be put on hold due to Ukraine situationA majority of Scots feel discussions over when a second independence referendum will take place should stop due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a poll has found.Some 59 per cent said talks on the timing of indyref2 should stop, with only 29 per cent saying discussions should continue.The same poll revealed that support for a No vote is at 52 per cent, while support for Yes is at 48 per cent. This is when the “don’t knows” are removed.Savanta ComRes polled 1,008 Scottish adults between 10 and 16 March.Eleanor Sly18 March 2022 14:091647611051Manchester mayor says government should think about nationalising P&OSpeaking at the protest at the Port of Liverpool, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said that the government should consider nationalising P&O.He said: “I say to the Prime Minister: you have to step in and you have to deliver on your commitment to strengthen employment law so this kind of gangster practice can’t be allowed to happen any more.”Eleanor Sly18 March 2022 13:441647609533Open door for Ukraine refugees could lead to ‘devastating’ terror attack on UK, Tory minister claimsDropping security checks on Ukrainian refugees could lead to a “devastating” terror attack on British soil, a cabinet minister has claimed.Conservative Suella Braverman on Thursday defended the government’s policy of making those fleeing the Russian invasion deal with Home Office bureaucracy.Britain stands isolated in Europe in not giving free entry to Ukrainians fleeing the invasion – an approach which has been accused of lacking humanity by other governments.Jon Stone has more:Eleanor Sly18 March 2022 13:181647608282Rishi Sunak hints at new help for families struggling to pay bills in cost-of-living crisisRishi Sunak has hinted at help at next week’s mini-budget for households struggling with the cost of living crisis, telling Tory activists: “Where we can make a difference… I’m always going to do that.”The chancellor is coming under intense pressure ahead of Wednesday’s spring statement to extend his earlier £9bn package of support for energy bills, which has been dwarfed by the scale of inflation in bills for heating, petrol and food facing consumers in the coming months.But speaking to the Conservative conference in Blackpool, he gave no pledge to deliver more help and no details of how he might help households with bills.Our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports.Joe Middleton18 March 2022 12:581647606938Government bows to pressure to investigate whether P&O broke law with mass sackingsThe government is investigating whether P&O broke the law by sacking 800 workers on the spot, after criticism that it was washing its hands of the controversy.Ministers had described the move as a “commercial decision” – but Downing Street said the insolvency service is now exploring whether the firm flouted redundancy rules.‘We are looking very closely at the actions this company has taken, to see whether they acted within the rules,” Boris Johnson’s spokesman said.Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has the details.Joe Middleton18 March 2022 12:351647604651Labour and Tory rhetoric on workers’ rights doesn’t match actionSome 800 P&O seafaring workers are waking up this morning with no jobs after the ferry operator announced, without warning and via a video call, that it is replacing its employees with cheaper agency staff. Not only has the move raised questions about whether or not the redundancies are legal, but it has also sparked outrage on all sides of the Commons and reignited the debate around “fire and rehire” employment practices. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, described the move as “disgusting” while Downing Street said the workers’ treatment was “wholly unacceptable”.Both the Tories and Labour will today try to make political hay out of the crisis, but the truth is neither party can claim that its hands are entirely clean when it comes to the subject of workers’ rights. Matt Mathers has the details.Joe Middleton18 March 2022 11:571647602556UK four-day week trial to cover 2,000 workersAt least 30 UK companies covering nearly 2,000 employees have signed up to trial a four-day working week from this summer.The pilot programme, which will start in June, is set to be the largest of its kind in the UK and will be partly overseen by researchers from Oxford and Cambridge universities.It will see workers at the companies involved given one extra paid day off a week, with no loss of earnings.Jon Stone reports:Eleanor Sly18 March 2022 11:221647601388P&O Ferries ‘undermining capitalism’, says Rees-MoggCabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said the way P&O have behaved was “very damaging, very foolish and very improper” and risked “undermining” capitalism.He told the Tory party’s spring conference: “I believe in a Labour market which is flexible but employers have duties to behave well and properly and considerately to their employees and P&O failed in that.”Mr Rees-Mogg added: “P&O ought to be very careful in behaving this way because it risks undermining the capitalism and free markets which are essential to our prosperity.”Eleanor Sly18 March 2022 11:03 More

The government is investigating whether P&O Ferries broke the law by sacking 800 workers on the spot, after criticism that it was washing its hands of the controversy.Ministers had described the move as a “commercial decision” – but Downing Street said the Insolvency Service is now exploring whether the firm flouted redundancy rules.‘We are looking very closely at the actions this company has taken, to see whether they acted within the rules,” Boris Johnson’s spokesman said.“Once we have concluded that, we will decide what the ramifications are. Obviously there are a lot of valid questions in relation to existing contracts etc.”The spokesman also acknowledged that senior officials in the Department of Transport were informed by the P&O chief executive on Wednesday evening of the company’s plans.“As is standard practice, the information was on a restricted circulation due to its commercial sensitivity and the potential for insolvency if this leaked,” he said.The ferry operator triggered widespread anger by suddenly sacking the 800 crew members over Zoom with immediate effect – to replace them with cheaper, possibly overseas, labour.P&O insisted it had no choice but to act – to stem £100m pandemic losses – yet is reportedly spending an identical amount to sponsor the 2022 European Golf Tour.Ministers had appeared to rebuff calls to investigate, or to penalise the firm by withdrawing contracts, including to operate controversial new freeports.But the Insolvency Service will now look into whether the body – or the staff themselves – were given the required 30 or 45-day notice period on planned redundancies, to allow negotiations to take place.The prime minister’s spokesman said: “We don’t believe this was the case for P&O staff”, before adding it is “too early to be definitive” about whether the law was broken.He declined to give any examples of the “ramifications” that will follow, if the law was flouted – but did not rule out targeting operation of freeports.“We are establishing the facts of exactly what action this company took,” the spokesman said, adding he was “not going to speculate” on what punishment might follow.He said Mr Johnson was not alerted to P&O’s plan in his meeting this week with the ruler of Dubai – whose government owns the firm’s parent company, DP World.The TUC has insisted the law has been broken, pointing to sections 188 and 193 of the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.“Employers are legally required to consult workers during a statutory notice period before making workers redundant,” the trade unions organisation said.“P&O did not do this, so trade unions believe that the actions by P&O are likely to be unlawful.“In addition, employers wishing to make more than 100 redundancies must notify the business secretary at least 45 days in advance of those dismissals (for 20 dismissals, it is 30 days).” More

The Ukraine crisis has given Conservatives an opportunity to roll back “wokery” and sweep away the “fluff” of Partygate, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.The Brexit minister told a meeting of Tory activists that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had created a “new seriousness” which made “woke” arguments about the use of language look like “nonsense”.And he said Conservatives should take advantage of the situation by taking a “robust” approach and refusing to accept the use of “socialist” vocabulary, like saying chair rather than chairman or Beijing rather than Peking.However, he immediately disobeyed his own instruction, saying he was willing to say “Ukraine” rather than “the Ukraine” in recognition of the bravery of its people – many of whom object to the use of the definite article, which they believe suggests it is part of Russia rather than a country in its own right.Speaking at an event hosted by the ConservativeHome website on the fringe of the Conservative Spring Conference in Blackpool, Mr Rees-Mogg said that the crisis had also exposed the scandal over pandemic parties at 10 Downing Street as a “trivial” distraction from issues of real importance.Mr Rees-Mogg said the Ukraine crisis was “a reminder that the world is serious, and that there are serious things to be discussed and serious and difficult decisions for politicians to take, whether this is about reopening and having new licences for oil wells in the North Sea, or whether it is about getting away from the wokery that has beset huge sections of society”.In the aftermath of Putin’s invasion, “nobody cares” about rows over words which may offend people, Mr Rees-Mogg said.“All that nonsense is shown up for the trivial nature of it, and that we are now looking at serious difficult decisions that have to be made,” he said. “I would say the same about Partygate. All of that is shown up for the disproportionate fluff of politics that it was, rather than something of fundamental seriousness about the safety of the world and about the established global order.”Mr Rees-Mogg said: “When we look back in 36 years at Partygate, people will think `What were they on about? They were moving from Covid to Russia and Ukraine, yet they were distracted by whether or not the PM spent five minutes in his own garden. It’s fundamentally trivial.”The Ukraine crisis meant that politics were “recalibrated with a new seriousness”, he said.And he said that this provided a “job” for conservatives to do.“As conservatives we’ve bought in over the last 20 years to socialist language,” said Mr Rees-Mogg. “And that is a terrible mistake. We shouldn’t do that.“We should definitely say chairman not chairperson, we shouldn’t allow the beginnings of woke language to feed in because then you begin to accept their argument. I’m not at all convinced that we should call Peking Beijing, because I think that is sucking up to a totalitarian regime“We should be robust about how we use language. If we just cede the ground, then wokery advances.“But when serious things happen and wokery is in retreat, we should make these arguments. Who wants to worry about this now? You would have thought Covid would have brought it to an end. I think Ukraine is even more serious than Covid. And I think that Covid has perhaps brought back the seriousness which Ukraine is now confirming.”Despite saying he had switched from “the Ukraine” to “Ukraine” in the light of the crisis, Mr Rees-Mogg said he had no view on supermarket Sainsbury’s decision to rename its chicken Kiev ready-meals chicken Kyiv.“It’s not a dish I would eat,” he said, putting his distaste for the meal down to “that dangerous stuff, garlic”.And he added: “As I’m not going to eat it, I don’t really mind what you call it.”Mr Rees-Mogg said that his own six children had avoided “indoctrination” with the woke terminology they heard at school.“They get taught the normal politesse of the chattering classes and they come home and say ‘This is all ridiculous’ and ‘This is what we’ve been told, and isn’t it all funny’,” he said.“It’s absolutely fascinating how children are not perhaps quite as susceptible to indoctrination as we may think.” More

Dropping security checks on Ukrainian refugees could lead to a “devastating” terror attack on British soil, a cabinet minister has claimed.Conservative Suella Braverman on Thursday defended the government’s policy of making those fleeing the Russian invasion deal with Home Office bureaucracy.Britain stands isolated in Europe in not giving free entry to Ukrainians fleeing the invasion – an approach which has been accused of lacking humanity by other governments.Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time programme on Friday night attorney general Ms Braverman said mirroring the EU’s approach and dropping controls was against security advice.”God forbid we drop the checks because there’s political pressure and because ambitious MPs are making political footballs out of this issue – and someone gets through illegally, and then they carry out an attack on British soil, something which is devastating,” Ms Braverman said.”Everybody here would be rightly outraged that we dropped checks and we allowed someone to slip through the net. “I’m not willing to take that chance on British people’s security. It’s right that we have checks is right that we offer a warm welcome to refugees, but we need to do it right.”She added that it was “really important” to carry out checks before Ukrainians arrived in the UK because “if they don’t pass the standard, it’s very hard to remove people”.The British government has launched two schemes to help Ukrainians come to the UK: one for those with existing family here, and other for named individuals who can find sponsors in Britain. It also says it has streamlined the application process to allow more people to apply online, and to collect biometric data from some people once they have arrived in the UK.Around three million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion, but as of 15 March just 5,500 visas have been issued by British authorities. In contrast, EU countries are allowing Ukrainians entry without a visa for up to three years. Poland, which borders Ukraine, has taken 1.1 million people, and the UK’s neighbour Ireland is already hosting nearly 7,000.Labour says the government has not gone far enough in making life easier for Ukraine refugees. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said last week that applications were still requiring up to 50 pages of forms and documentation, and that there were “long caseworker delays in the Home Office system”. More

Rishi Sunak has hinted at help at next week’s mini-budget for households struggling with the cost of living crisis, telling Tory activists: “Where we can make a difference… I’m always going to do that.”The chancellor is coming under intense pressure ahead of Wednesday’s spring statement to extend his earlier £9bn package of support for energy bills, which has been dwarfed by the scale of inflation in bills for heating, petrol and food facing consumers in the coming months.But speaking to the Consrervative conference in Blackpool, he gave no pledge to deliver more help and no details of how he might help households with bills.And he admitted that the global inflationary pressures – including the Ukraine war – which are driving up prices in the UK were “out of my control”.The chancellor said he had “enormous sympathy for what people are going through” as a result of rocketing prices, but added: “I can’t solve every problem. No government can solve every problem, particularly when you’re grappling with global inflationary forces. They are somewhat out of my control.“But – as we saw a month or so ago when we announced a significant intervention to help people meet some of the additional costs of energy bills -here we can make a difference, of course I can, I am always going to do that and we’ve done it over the last two years.”Despite raising taxes to their highest level since the 1960s, Mr Sunak insisted that he was a “low-tax Conservative” and insisted that his “priority going forward” is cutting taxes.He cited his hero Margaret Thatcher, who he said had delayed the introduction of tax cuts until after she had dealt with the deficit which she inherited in 1979.“I did not get into this job to put up people’s taxes,” said Mr Sunak. But I also take really seriously my responsibility to you, our kids and to the nation’s finances, and making sure that we fix the problems that coronavirus caused where our borrowing went up to levels that we haven’t seen since World War Two, and our debt was forecast to just grow and grow and grow.”Mrs Thatcher showed that “you have to tackle the deficit first and once you’ve done that, then you can start the work of cutting taxes, and you could do that only if you were being careful with public spending” he said.“That’s what I’ve had to do, and it was not easy, but I do believe it was the right thing to do“But I made this very clear at the Budget, that is done. We’ve made the difficult decisions. My priority going forward is to cut taxes.”Changes to the Universal Credit taper rate worth £1,000 a year to low-income households were “just the start”, he said.My plan over the course of this parliament is to keep cutting taxes, get the tax burden down. That’s what we believe.“We want people to keep more of their own money, we want to grow the economy. But I want to do that in a responsible and sustainable way. But I now believe we are on the road to doing that and I’m confident we will get there.” More