UK Politics

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and another British-Iranian national wrongly imprisoned in Iran have been freed and are returning to the UK today, foreign secretary Liz Truss has confirmed.A third dual-national citizen, London-born wildlife conservationist Morad Tahbaz, has been temporarily released from prison “on furlough”. A fourth detainee, British-Iranian Mehran Raoof, does not appear to form part of the deal.In a co-ordinated move, the UK has made a payment of £393.8m in settlement of a 40-year-old debt for Chieftain tanks bought by the former Shah of Iran but never delivered after the 1979 Islamic Revolution which removed him from power.Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe and fellow detainee Anousheh Ashoori are flying home from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport via Oman to the UK.They are expected to arrive at an unnamed UK airport late this evening, when Nazanin will be reunited with seven-year-old daughter Gabriella and husband Richard, who has conducted a long and very public campaign for her freedom.Ms Truss made the announcement in a tweet, saying: “I can confirm Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori will return to the UK today, and Morad Tahbaz has been released from prison on furlough. They will be reunited with their families later today. We will continue to work to secure Morad’s departure from Iran.”Prime minister Boris Johnson – who was accused of worsening Nazanin’s plight as foreign secretary when he wrongly told MPs she had been working as a journalist in Iran – welcomed the development.He said: “The UK has worked intensively to secure their release and I am delighted they will be reunited with their families and loved ones.”It comes almost six years after Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, was first detained in the country during a Nowruz (Persian new year) visit to family with her daughter, and five years since the arrest of Mr Ashouri, a retired civil engineer from London.The Ratcliffe’s lawyer Penny Madden said the family had been through “a roller-coaster of emotions” over recent days as her release appeared at last to be drawing near, and were now feeling “enormous relief”. Gabriella was “beyond excited at the prospect of being reunited with her mummy”, said Ms Madden.But she said it was a “big wrench” for Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe to leave her parents behind in Iran, knowing that it will be all but impossible for her to return to the countryIran sentenced Nazanin – a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the Reuters news agency – to five years in prison in September 2016 after accusing her of “plotting to topple the Iranian regime”, a charge she has always denied.Britain has always insisted that the dispute over the unpaid could not be linked to the unfair detentions.But it is clear that the settlement of the long-standing debt was central to securing agreement from Iran’s clerical government to the releases.UK officials are refusing to discuss the details of the payment, which were agreed on condition of confidentiality. But it is understood that it has not been made in cash and may be in the form of credit for purchases of humanitarian supplies such as vaccines.In a statement, Ms Truss said the release was “the result of tenacious and creative British diplomacy”.She said: “We have the deepest admiration for the resolve, courage and determination Nazanin, Anoosheh and Morad, and their families, have shown. They have faced hardship that no family should ever experience and this is a moment of great relief.”Ms Truss said that the historic debt had been settled “in parallel” with the negotiations over the detainees and “in full compliance with UK and international sanctions and all legal obligations”. She added: “These funds will be ring-fenced solely for the purchase of humanitarian goods.”Concluding the deal has required lengthy negotiations to find a way for the payment to be made without Britain breaching UK or international sanctions and remaining within its international obligations.Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said that it had been decided during his term of office in 2018 that the UK would repay the money, put “practical difficulties” relating to Iran’s sanctions had prevented progress.“Why did it take so long?” he said on Sky News. “Of course people want answers to those questions.“There were all sorts of factors, such as the reality that to pay this money we had to have a waiver from the United States, because any bank used to pay the money would get sanctioned by the US and be unable to do business in the US. Whether that was the route that was taken, I don’t know, but there was a lot of complexity in sorting this out.”Since the detentions began, a series of prime ministers and Foreign Office ministers have spoken directly to their Iranian counterparts on 35 occasions to press for their release and spoken 75 times to detainees’ families.Ms Truss said that she made it her “top priority” on arrival at the Foreign Office last September to resolve the two issues, and the intensity of talks has stepped up in recent months.Her meeting with Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in New York in September was the first face-to-face contact at this level for three years, and delivered an agreement to work towards finding a solution to the disputes “in parallel”.Ms Truss sent a team of experienced negotiators to Tehran in October and spoke again with the Iranian foreign minister that month.The offer of Oman being used as a transit point for the released detainees to join a plane to the UK was secured when she hosted the Gulf state’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi at her country retreat Chevening in December.A further meeting with Amir-Abdollahian in Muscat in February allowed the final agreement to secure the release of Nazanin and Anousheh.Over the year leading up to the release, UK officials had lobbied Tehran no less than 100 times. It is understood that the current crisis in Ukraine played no part in negotiations, though it is thought that Russia’s indication on Tuesday that it wants a swift resumption of Iran’s nuclear deal helped get agreement over the line. Amnesty International UK’s chief executive Sacha Deshmukh said: “Nazanin and Anoosheh have unquestionably been used as political pawns by the Iranian authorities – and the Iranian authorities have acted with calculated cruelty, seeking to wring the maximum diplomatic value out of their captivity.“The government needs to follow up on Nazanin and Anoosheh’s release by immediately renewing its calls for the release of the UK nationals Mehran Raoof and Morad Tahbaz, both of whom are still going through an ordeal all too similar to Nazanin and Anoosheh’s.“It’s been clear for years that the Iranian authorities are targeting foreign nationals with spurious national security-related charges to exert diplomatic pressure, and it’s more important than ever that Britain works multilaterally to combat this insidious practice.” More

Boris Johnson’s government has been urged to remove red tape preventing a Scottish charity from bringing a group of 48 Ukrainian orphans to safety in the UK.The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the Home Office was the main “obstacle” to getting the vulnerable children from Ukraine on a flight out of Poland.“There is a plane ready and waiting in Poland to bring these orphans to the UK on Friday,” the senior MP told deputy prime minister Dominic Raab. “But that flight will be leaving empty without the necessary paperwork from the Home Office.”Mr Blackford said Edinburgh charity Dnipro Kids, Edinburgh City Council and the Scottish government were all trying to get the matter resolved – but home secretary Priti Patel’s department was acting as a barrier.“The Home Office is still proving to be the only obstacle in the way, and it risks leaving thses children stranded,” the SNP chief told the Commons.He added “I’m pleading with the deputy prime minister – remove these obstructions before it’s too late. Will he work with me, and the Ukrainian authorities to guarantee, that those 48 orphans will get on this plane this Friday?”Mr Raab replied: “This is a heart-rendering situation, and we want to do everything we can.”The deputy PM and justice secretary said there were range of “safeguarding” issues in the case – including whether “necessary permissions have been sought from the Ukrainian and Polish governments”.Mr Raab added: “This isn’t actually about bureaucracy, it’s about genuine safeguarding issues. But I certainly want to work with him in the best interests of those children.”Dnipro Kids, set up by fans of Hibernian FC, managed to help the group of 48 Ukrainian orphans across border to immediate safety in Poland, but has struggled to clear the paperwork to welcome them to Edinburgh.Children between the ages of six and 17 came from orphanages around Dnipro were able to cross the border in a bus organised by the Scottish charity last Thursday.First minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said charity’s efforts were “amazing” and said the Scottish government was “pressing hard” for UK government to help the children come to UK“When they do, I’ve no doubt Scotland will surround them with love,” said Ms Sturgeon.Earlier on Wednesday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged government to “up its game” in supporting Ukrainian refugees, calling their approach “too narrow, too slow and too mean”.Ukrainians have described the government’s Ukraine family visa application process as “a shambles” after spending the past fortnight trying to get loved ones to the UK.On Tuesday new measures were brought in, meaning Ukrainians with passports will no longer have to go to a visa application centre to give their biometrics before they come to the UK.It came as refugee minister Lord Harrington told MPs he expects “thousands of people” to arrive next week under the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme – but warned it “may not be possible” for all accommodation being offered to be checked beforehand.Asked by the Commons Home Affairs Committee if he could give assurances that Ukrainian refugees will not be housed in hotels, Lord Harrington replied: “I honestly can’t give you that undertaking.The refugees minister added: “I’d like to but it’s not our intention. But if all else fails, it’s our duty to make sure they’ve got a roof over their head and they’re fed properly.” More

PM to ‘stick to principles’ amid claims he is going from ‘dictator to dictator’Boris Johnson is using “murderous dictators to keep lights on” because the Conservatives have failed to prepare an energy strategy during their years in power, the shadow deputy prime minister has claimed during noisy exchanges in the Commons.Angela Rayner, facing deputy prime minister Dominic Raab, said the PM was now “on a begging mission” as he visited the Gulf states to ask them to increase oil production.“The government benches have a choice – they can accept Labour’s plan to save working families hundreds of pounds on bills funded by a one-off levy on the soaring profits of energy companies,” she said.“So I ask the deputy prime minister – is their only plan to keep on begging?”Mr Raab said while Labour had been campaigning for Jeremy Corbyn to become leader, Mr Johnson had been “leading the response to the nerve agent attack on Salisbury”.The PM is visiting the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, even though MPs have urged him to scrap plans for a post-Brexit trade accord with the country after it executed 81 people over the weekend.In Abu Dhabi, Mr Johnson insisted he has raised the two countries’ poor human rights records “many, many times”, adding: “I’ll raise them all again today.”Show latest update

1647442235Ministers falling behind on levelling up and net zero, say government’s own advisersBoris Johnson’s ministers are at risk of failing to deliver on their levelling up agenda and net zero target unless they “picks up the pace”, the government’s own infrastructure advisory body has warned.The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) said the government was making only “slow progress” with plans to boost investment in deprived parts of the country and shift Britain’s energy use to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.Our politics reporter Adam Forrest has more details: Matt Mathers16 March 2022 14:501647441211ICYMI: Parents to be given £100 for PE kits by Welsh governmentParents in Wales who are struggling with bills will be given £100 by the government to cover the cost of PE kits.Education minister Jeremy Miles said the policy would help with the cost of living crisis and make household budgets “go a little bit further”.Any child who receives free school meals will be eligible for the one-off assistance from summer 2022.Our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports: Matt Mathers16 March 2022 14:331647439205Nonsense to suggest PM pressed security services over Lebedev peerage, Raab claimsDominic Raab insisted he has “never overruled” intelligence advice as he was forced to defend Russian-born businessman Evgeny Lebedev’s appointment to the House of Lords. More

The deputy prime minister has been told to stop bringing up ancient “history” to deflect from criticism of the governemnt.Dominic Raab received a stern telling off from Lindsay Hoyle in the Commons on Wednesday after he kept answering questions about the energy crisis by bringing up former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.The Speaker said Mr Raab should “stick to” the present and stop “talking about history” as a “defensive mechanism”.Standing in for Boris Johnson at prime minister’s questions Mr Raab was accused by his Labour counterpart Angela Rayner of “begging” dictators like the Saudi Arabian regime for oil.But Mr Raab replied: “Can I just gently say to the honourable lady, that when she was campaigning – as the rest of them were – to make the Honourable Member for Islington North prime minister [Jeremy Corbyn], this prime minister was foreign secretary, leading the response to the nerve agent attack…”He was however cut off by Sir Lindsay, the Commons Speaker, who told him: “I hate to say: he can’t keep going back … years as a defensive mechanism.”What I want you to do, deputy Prime Minister, is please if we could try and stick to the general … without talking about history.”Sir Lindsay said past events could be mentioned “in passing” but that there were many MPs who wanted to get in and ask questions.The deputy prime minister Mr Raab replied: “I wanted just to point out – I hope it’s not ancient history – that the Prime Minister was as Foreign Secretary galvanising the response to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury at the time where the honourable member, the former leader of the Labour Party, was siding with Putin.”But Ms Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, angrily retorted: “There is a war in Europe. There is a fuel energy crisis in Britain, democracy is at risk. We must support the courageous efforts of president Zelensky and the Ukrainian people. “These uncertain times require leadership with integrity. A leader that works with the security services can be trusted to say the right thing for British diplomacy and provide security for the British people. Instead Mr Speaker We have this sorry excuse of a government sat before us.”Sir Lindsay has repeatedly ticked off Boris Johnson and other ministers for not properly answering questions in the chamber, especially at Wednesday’s regular prime minister’s questions sessions.In November an irate speaker told the prime minister to stop asking the opposition questions and instead answer the ones put to him. More

Boris Johnson’s government has been accused of relying on “another murderous dictator to keep the lights on”, as he arrived in Saudi Arabia to wean the West off Russian energy supplies.In scathing remarks — days after the oil-rich kingdom announced the execution of 81 men in a single day — Angela Rayner accused the prime minister of going on a “begging mission”.Her comments came after Mr Johnson told reporters it was “good to be back” in Saudi Arabia after touching down at Riyadh airport, vowing to raise human rights issues earlier on Wednesday.As Vladimir Putin continues to wage war in Ukraine, the government is appealing to Saudi Arabia to soften the blow in its mission to reduce Western countries’ reliance on supplies of Russian oil and gas.But speaking on Wednesday, Ms Rayner blasted: “Last week the leader of the opposition [Keir Starmer] said that Britain should never again be at the mercy of a foreign dictatorship for our energy and fuel security.“This week, the prime minister has gone cap in hand from one dictator to another on a begging mission to the Saudi prince to bail him out.”She added: “The government have had 12 years to end their reliance on foreign oil and invest in homegrown energy to secure our supplies.“Their failure has left us all vulnerable, reliant on another murderous dictator to keep the lights on”.Earlier, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, attempted to defend the prime minister’s visit to the kingdom, saying the UK needed to be prepared to work with countries “we don’t necessarily agree with”.While insisting on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was “not condoning every action” by the Saudi government, the foreign secretary insisted Britain needed to find alternative sources of oil and gas to ensure the country is no longer dependent on Moscow.She later added: “We do not need to work with countries we don’t agree with — this a serious threat to the global order. More

Large-scale trials of medical cannabis in the UK will begin “as soon as possible”, the department of health and social care has said.The government’s National Institute for Health Research is to oversee the studies – which will look at the effects of the substance on epilepsy sufferers. The NHS currently only prescribes cannabis-based medicines as a last resort and says “very few people in England are likely to get a prescription” for it.But some people suffering from epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, or undergoing chemotherapy say the drug can help relieve pain and nausea and should be more easily available in a medical setting.The treatment is currently in limbo as the NHS commissioning body NICE says there is “insufficient evidence” to recommend full use of cannabis, but that the drug may still be considered by doctors if it is “clinically appropriate in an individual case”.As a result the government has backed the creation of two large-scale randomised controlled trials to provide evidence. It is understood that the details of the trails are still being finalised.Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine, who has previously tabled a Private Members Bill to legalise medicinal cannabis, told The Independent that people had been waiting too long to gain access to the medicine.”Families across the UK are waiting desperately for these medical cannabis trials to begin. We’ve seen the huge impact these treatments can have and the way they can give people their lives back,” she said. “The Government have dragged their feet for too long on this. It’s welcome that trials are planned, but they must begin immediately – so we can begin to roll out these treatments as soon as possible.”Health minister Maria Caulfield said: “The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reviewed the best available evidence when developing its guideline on prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products. “However, NICE found that current research is limited and of low quality. Observational studies with a small number of patients do not produce results which are sufficiently robust to inform routine clinical or commissioning decisions. “To develop evidence on medical cannabis, the Department, via the National Institute for Health Research, will be supporting two randomised controlled trials into epilepsy in adults and children. “The trials will commence as soon as possible and results will be published once the trials have completed and the findings have been peer reviewed.”Medical cannabis can either be smoked or vaporised, or taken as an oil or capsule as part of a more conventional preparation. The use of cannabis for medicinal purposes is widely legal in the United States, with 37 states currently permitting it as medicine. More

Boris Johnson’s government will stop Silicon Valley chiefs being the “supreme arbiters” of freedom of speech online, culture secretary Nadine Dorries has claimed.Lambasting the “unelected” leaders of US tech giants, Ms Dorries vowed that the online safety bill would help strip them of the power to decide who is “cancelled” and “silenced”.“Unelected Silicon Valley execs have become some of the most powerful people in the world,” the cabinet minister wrote on ConservativeHome ahead of publication of a revised version of the bill on Thursday.She added: “They decide who gets to speak online, and who is silenced or cancelled from public life. That prospect should concern anyone who truly cares about free speech.”“We would never pursue legislation that threatens freedom of expression. Similarly, nor can we maintain the current status quo, where a handful of West Coast execs are the supreme arbiters of online speech.”Ms Dorries said she did not agree with a “group of MPs and journalists” worried that the bill will give Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg and others greater power to censor online expression.She claimed the bill’s attempt to bring in tougher regulation and crackdown on harmful content would not allow Silicon Valley bosses “to decide what is and isn’t acceptable to say online”.Ms Dorries said the revised bill will have “considerably stronger protections for free speech” and journalism and content of “democratic importance” would be strongly protected.“We would never pursue legislation that threatens freedom of expression … nor can we maintain the current status quo, where a handful of west coast execs are the supreme arbiters of online speech,” the culture secretary wrote.It comes as Politico reported that Ms Dorries used a meeting with software giant Microsoft to asked when they were going to get rid of algorithms, citing an official given an account of the meeting.Another official close to the culture secretary told the website the request may have been “lost in translation”.She and others have expressed concern about the way algorithms are used by various tech platforms and can continue to feed dangerous biases.The online safety bill has been strengthened with the addition of several new criminal offences to force social media firms to act on illegal content more quickly.Ms Dorries confirmed last month that offences such as revenge porn, hate crime, fraud, the sale of illegal drugs or weapons, the promotion or facilitation of suicide, people smuggling and sexual exploitation have been added to the list of priority offences.Cyberflashing will become a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in jail, under new laws to be introduced in the online safety bill.Three new criminal offences, recommended by the Law Commission, are also to be added to the Bill in an effort to make criminal law fit for the internet age, the government said.The new offences cover communications that are sent to convey a threat of serious harm; those sent to cause harm without a reasonable excuse; and those sent which are known to be false with the intention to cause non-trivial emotional, psychological or physical harm.The government has also said the bill would also enables the proposed regulator Ofcom to take faster enforcement action against firms that fail to remove harmful content. More

Boris Johnson’s planned “Festival of Brexit” is a waste of public money and and set for failure, a committee of MPs has warned.In a scathing report the cross party-culture media and sport select committee criticised the government’s handling of the £120 million project – which is set to take place this year.The event is now officially known as “Unboxed: Creativity in the UK” but government figures including Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg have characterised it a “festival of Brexit”.MPs say they were told that the event’s final name could not be chosen before October 2021, less than a year before it was due to take place, because ministers “did not know what it was”.In a previous version of its branding the event was known as “Festival UK* 2022,” a name which notably featured an unpronounceable asterix. The committee took issue with the framing of the project, which officials at the culture department billed as including “something for everyone” – despite being advised that it should not “be all things to all people”.They were was also concerned that very few people knew that the event was happening or what it involves, with its purpose remaining “vague”.”Since the event’s inception in 2018, the aims for Festival UK* 2022/Unboxed: Creativity in the UK have been vague and ripe for misinterpretation by the press and public at large,” the cross party report, released on Wednesday said.”We see no evidence to refute such scepticism now. The desire for it to seemingly cater to everyone, everywhere, is a recipe for failure and investing £120 million in something when the government, by their own admission, ‘did not know what it was’ is an irresponsible use of public money.”The event’s organisers have explicitly rejected the “festival of Brexit” label and say it is in fact “a UK-wide groundbreaking celebration of creativity taking place in 2022”.It is expected to run from March to October 2022.The “about” section of the Unboxed claims: “We’re lifting the lid on 10 awe-inspiring new ideas, shaped across science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics by brilliant minds working in unexpected collaborations. “Unmissable events and unforgettable experiences are coming to places and spaces right across the UK: from coastal towns and city centres to breathtaking areas of natural beauty.”Julian Knight, the Conservative MP who chairs the culture select committee, said the festival’s “muddled approach” was a “sure-fire recipe for failure”.“Despite the UK having a strong reputation on the world stage as a leading host of sporting and cultural events, there is no golden thread linking them all together. Unless the government urgently addresses this lack of strategy and vision, it will continue to risk squandering the benefits such occasions can bring, while wasting the hard-earned money of taxpayers,” he said.”The Unboxed festival acts as a prime illustration of an event with aims that have been vague from the start. That it took three years to come up with a rather nebulous name, which will mean little to the few that are even aware of its existence, does not bode well for its chances of delivering a true lasting legacy. “How this questionable example of planning is playing out should act as wake-up call for the government. Such a muddled approach is a sure-fire recipe for failure and we have no confidence that it can meet its ambitious targets for engagement or deliver a return on the substantial investment from the public coffers.”Martin Green CBE, chief creative officer of Unboxed said: “Unboxed is an ambitious programme of ten free major multi-site and digital creative projects designed to bring people together in a UK-wide celebration of creativity, delivered in partnership with the four nations of the UK.”“Unboxed opened in Paisley on 1 March with an overwhelmingly positive public response, underpinning a commitment to bring large-scale cultural programming to places often underserved.”A DCMS spokesperson said: “We disagree with the committee’s findings.”The UK has a strong history of hosting incredible international events that deliver huge benefits for the nation, creating jobs and increasing investment in towns and cities across the country.”2022 will be no different with Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the Women’s Euros, the Rugby League World Cup and UNBOXED bringing people together and leaving a strong legacy that will benefit communities for years to come.” More