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      Government did not sufficiently consider if tree-planting targets are realistic, watchdog says

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      The government did not sufficiently consider whether targets for a tree-planting scheme were realistic, according to a public spending watchdog. It said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) looked set to miss its aim despite working quickly to set up schemes. The government has pledged to boost the number of trees planted in a bid to help the UK reach net zero emissions in the fight against the climate crisis. Defra has a target to plant at least 7,500 hectares every year in England by spring 2025.But the new report by the National Audit Office has cast doubt over how this goal was established. “Defra did not sufficiently consider whether its tree-planting target was achievable, particularly given the broad range of benefits it is trying to achieve,” the public spending watchdog said in its assessment on how the Nature for Climate Fund Treet Programme was set up. It said tree planting rates have not reached 7,500 hectares a year in the past half a century, and has only surpassed 6,000 in three years in this time period. The report said: “Defra told us that it determined the 7,500 hectare per year target is realistic based on available evidence about: historic woodland expansion statistics; potential sector capacity; land availability; and current policy drivers for woodland expansion. “But Defra did not undertake a detailed assessment of this evidence or consider whether historical planting rates could be exceeded when also trying to achieve the programme’s multiple environmental objectives by ensuring the right trees are planted in the right place, which adds to the complexity of increasing tree-planting rates quickly.”Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “Defra has done well to launch new schemes to support landowners to plant trees. Yet despite its efforts, it is not expecting to achieve the amount of new tree-planting in 2021-22 that it set out to, and should have done more to make sure its targets were realistic.”Trees, woodlands and forests play a key rome in removing greenhouse gases in the air, and can benefit communities by improving air quality and providing a flood barrier, according to the government’s own climate advisers. Figures last year showed the rate of tree planting was falling in England despite pledges to boost it. In November, the government said it had allocated funding to support the planting of 260,000 more trees in England.George Eustice, the environment secretary, said in response to the public spending watchdog’s assessment: “The challenge of climate change requires stretching targets and high ambition.“The NAO report acknowledges that we have worked at pace in difficult circumstances to rise to this challenge but we are under no illusion that there is more to do. That is why we will treble the number of trees planted rates by the end of this parliament, backed up by over £500m.” More

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      UK PM Johnson says Russia must ‘immediately’ cease attack on Ukraine nuclear plant

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      British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that Russian forces must immediately cease an attack on a Ukrainian nuclear power plant where a fire broke out.Mr Johnson said he spoke to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the country’s southeast.“Russia must immediately cease its attack on the power station and allow unfettered access for emergency services to the plant,” he added.In a press release Downing Street said: “The prime minister said the reckless actions of President Putin could now directly threaten the safety of all of Europe.”“He said the UK would do everything it could to ensure the situation did not deteriorate further. Both leaders agreed a ceasefire was crucial,” it added.Downing Street said that Mr Johnson will be seeking an emergency UN Security Council meeting, and that the UK would raise this issue immediately with Russia and close partners.Earlier US president Joe Biden had also spoken to Mr Zelensky after the Russian shelling at the power plant.The two leaders urged Russia to cease its military activities in the region.The flurry of calls between international leaders took place after officials in Ukraine announced early on Friday that Russian troops outside the city of Enerhodar were shelling the Zaporizhzhia power plant, Ukraine’s largest nuclear facility, causing a fire to break out.While the fire was doused in a few hours, officials in Ukraine warned that the shelling could cause a nuclear disaster.In a statement on Twitter, Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “Fire has already broke out,” he said. “If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!”Officials said later that while nuclear safety had been guaranteed with the fire being doused, parts of the plant had been affected by the blaze.In a statement Oleksandr Starukh, head of the military administration of the Zaporizhzhia region said on Facebook: “According to those responsible for the plant, a training building and a laboratory were affected by the fire.”The power plant is Europe’s largest nuclear facility and has six total reactors and powers more than a fifth of the total electricity generated in Ukraine.At least one reactor, which was under renovation and non-operational, was on fire and contained nuclear fuel, according to a plant spokesperson. In response to the fire, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has put its emergency centre in full 24/7 response mode.“IAEA puts its Incident and Emergency Centre in full 24/7 response mode due to serious situation at #Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement on Twitter.Mr Zelensky has accused Moscow of nuclear terror and repeating the Chernobyl disaster.“No country other than Russia has ever fired on nuclear power units. This is the first time in our history. In the history of mankind. The terrorist state now resorted to nuclear terror,” he said in a video statement.The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered.To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page More

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      Labour’s Paulette Hamilton wins Birmingham Erdington by-election

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      Paulette Hamilton overcame personal tragedy to become the country’s newest MP by winning the Birmingham Erdington by-election for Labour.The Labour candidate’s father died at the start of the campaign and she thanked party leader Sir Keir Starmer for his “endless support” during the emotional by-election contest.The victory saw her increase Labour’s vote share and become the first black MP to represent a Birmingham constituency.The contest was triggered by the death of Jack Dromey, who held the seat for Labour in 2019 with a majority of 3,601.In her victory speech, Ms Hamilton thanked her Labour colleagues for their support “through four storms” during the campaign and her bereavement.She said: “But I’d also like to say a special thank you to Keir Starmer for his endless support – even when my dad died, they were there, they wrapped me in cotton wool, and they supported me, and my dad isn’t even buried yet but they were there when I was crying.”Ms Hamilton won with a majority of 3,266 but the by-election failed to inspire voters, with a turnout of just 27%. More

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      Brexiteer Tory MP says it is ‘monstrous’ that British businesses now have to fill in forms to trade with EU

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      A Conservative MP who campaigned for Brexit has said it is “monstrous” that British businesses now have to fill in forms to trade with Europe.Sir Desmond Swayne, a supporter of the Leave Means Leave group, was mocked for complaining about the new bureaucracy Brexit had created.UK businesses wanting to trade on the continent now have to deal with significant extra paperwork since Britain left the European Union, its single market, and its customs union.Speaking in the Commons during a discussion about trade, Sir Desmond said: “UK aid promoted trade in Africa by making borders seamless through digitising all the administrative processes. “Is that on our agenda for trade with the EU at all? It’s monstrous that we’re filling in forms.”Mike Freer, a junior minister at the Department for International Trade, replied that the government planned to improve border systems by 2025.The government’s border strategy will however not remove customs and veterinary checks on goods, which are required by the UK’s new status.Naomi Smith, CEO of internationalist campaign group Best for Britain, said: “Brexit has created mountains of paperwork and costly red tape for businesses and for anyone to claim otherwise is betraying either their own duplicity or ignorance.“We had frictionless trade within the EU but now that Brexit has happened, the government must work to reduce barriers to trade they have created or we will continue to see jobs and businesses move overseas.”Goods leaving UK ports for the continent are now subject to full customs controls, meaning they requite full HMRC declarations, veterinary and market information, and sometimes physical checks.New trade figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday show UK exports to EU countries shrunk by a record £20bn in just 20 months.UK to EU exports fell 12 per cent between January and December of last year, compared to the previous year – with supply chain disruption, new trade barriers and additional red tape caused by Brexit cited as the main reasons.Sales to the EU dropped more sharply in 2021 than exports to any other country in the world, according to the data. Non-EU exports were also down by 6 per cent – suggesting the rest of the world is not stepping in to fill the gap.However, Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed the ONS figures and said evidence Brexit had hit trade was “few and far between”. More

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      ‘Worst is yet to come’ as Putin vows to bomb Ukraine ‘until the end’

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      Vladimir Putin is determined to continue bombing Ukraine “until the end” despite a plea last night from Volodymyr Zelensky for face to face talks to halt the military assault.In a series of phone and video calls on Thursday, the Russian president accused Kyiv of using human shields and behaving “like Nazis”, hailed his fallen soldiers as heroes and claimed the invasion was going “according to plan”. He told members of his Kremlin security council that Russia has only bombed military facilities and his troops haven’t targeted residential areas – despite another day of carnage in which the bodies of Ukrainian civilians were recovered from destroyed homes.Putin reaffirmed his claim that the Russian military was fighting “neo-Nazis”, adding that some Ukrainians were also “fooled by nationalist propaganda”. In a call with French president Emmanuel Macron, Putin was so undaunted by international condemnation that an Elysee official bleakly concluded: “We expect that the worst is yet to come.”The official said Putin initiated the one and half hour call but insisted there would be no let-up in the invasion, blamed the West for the conflict and also “denied having bombarded Kyiv”. More

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      Gavin Williamson knighted six months after losing cabinet job following exams fiasco

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      Former education secretary Gavin Williamson has been given a knighthood, Downing Street has announced.The honour comes six months after Williamson was sacked as education secretary by Boris Johnson in the wake of the fiasco surrounding school exams during the Covid pandemic and a series of U-turns over free school meal policy when he was shamed by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford. The MP had previously been sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May in 2019 after being blamed for a leak from the National Security Council (NSC).No 10 was not immediately able to provide details of the citation explaining the reason for the award to the South Staffordshire MP. It is understood that the honour was a political award.News of the knighthood was greeted with outrage by some at Westminster, with Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson saying it showed “utter contempt” for schoolchildren subjected to exam chaos and denied school meals during lockdown.Lib Dem education spokesperson Munira Wilson described it as “an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds”.Ms Phillipson said: “Gavin Williamson left children to go hungry, created two years of complete chaos over exams and failed to get laptops out to kids struggling to learn during lockdowns. His record is astonishing and disgraceful.“Boris Johnson is proving again it’s one rule for him and his mates and another for the rest of us.“This shows utter contempt for the challenges children and education staff have faced during the pandemic.”And Ms Wilson said: “The only award Gavin Williamson should be given is the one for worst education secretary in history.“He failed to get laptops to children who needed them, sleepwalked into the exam crisis and caused chaos for parents and teachers over getting children back to school.“People across the country will be outraged at this reward for his abysmal failures. It is an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds. It shows this government only cares about those at the top.”Labour shadow cabinet member Peter Kyle said: “The man who, as defence secretary, told Russia to ‘shut up and go away’ is given a knighthood by Boris Johnson seven days after Russia illegally invades a sovereign European country. “Our country is further humiliated with every day these people remain in power.” And Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi said: “Gavin Williamson getting a knighthood. Presumably it’s for services to failure in managing two sets of exam results?”Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said: “One does have to wonder…does Williamson know where all the horcuxes are hidden? “I can’t think of any other reason why he has been honoured for doing such an abominable job.”A former fireplace salesman, Sir Gavin, 45, was elected to parliament in 2010 and was a parliamentary aide to David Cameron before serving as Ms May’s chief whip from 2016-17, when he became known for keeping a pet tarantula in his office.As defence secretary, he incurred the prime minister’s wrath after information about Huawei’s potential involvement in the 5G phone network leaked from a top-secret NSC meeting, though he denied he was the source. He had already been the butt of ridicule in the wake of the Salisbury poisoning when he said Russia should “go away and shut up”.After supporting Mr Johnson’s campaign to succeed May as leader, he returned to the cabinet following a two-month absence, this time as education secretary.In the summer of 2020, he was forced into a last-minute U-turn on plans to use algorithms to determine the A-level results of pupils unable to take exams because of the pandemic.And in January 2021 he announced the closure of schools amid the Alpha wave of coronavirus, just days after insisting they must stay open.He was ditched by Johnson from his government in last September’s reshuffle. More

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      Home Office refuses to reveal Russians given golden visas for ‘data protection reasons’

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      The Home Office has refused to reveal the names of wealthy Russian investors given so-called “golden visas” to come to Britain.Kevin Foster, a minister at the department, has refused to release the data, citing “data protection reasons”.The so-called “investor scheme visa” was discontinued in February last month following criticism that it allowed people to buy their way into the country.Anyone who spent £2m could be given the golden visas, which were scrapped amid a “renewed crackdown on illicit finance and fraud”. It provided them with residency for them and their family within five years. Larger amounts could be “invested” to be given residency even more quickly – £5m secured the status within three years and £10m within two years.The government admits the scheme was open to abuse, and the issue has aroused extra interest following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some MPs fear that some wealthy individuals using the scheme may have had links to the Kremlin.Asked by Labour MP Ben Bradshaw to reveal who with Russian nationality had benefits from the scheme, the minister Mr Foster said:“The Home Office does not, for data protection reasons, publish personal details of those who make an application under the Immigration Rules.” Mr Bradshaw told The Independent: “I think they need to explain why data protection laws prevent them from publishing the names of Russians who’ve been fast-tracked for visas.“When the rest of the world is sanctioning scores of Putin’s crones, the UK government seems to be finding every possible reason not to do so.”Mr Bradshaw added: “These are people who’ve been privileged residence in the UK in return for paying millions of the Treasury.“I think the public have got a right to know how many people have come into the UK on these visas.”Home Secretary Priti Patel had previously suggested the visas might be subject to abuse. When closing down the scheme, she had said: “I have zero tolerance for abuse of our immigration system. “Under my new plan for immigration, I want to ensure the British people have confidence in the system, including stopping corrupt elites who threaten our national security and push dirty money around our cities.“Closing this route is just the start of our renewed crackdown on fraud and illicit finance.”The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here.  If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page. More

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      Council for ‘most polluted borough’ urges London mayor to scrap new road tunnel plans

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      A London council has urged the mayor to scrap plans for a new road tunnel running through its borough, which has been called “the most polluted” in the country.Newham Council voted unanimously for Sadiq Khan to stop building the Silvertown Tunnel, saying this project was incompatible with its climate action and goals. Campaigners have estimated the tunnel – which would connect run under the Thames – would attract tens of thousands of vehicles a day into the south London borough and have raised concerns over how it would impact air quality. But Transport for London claims it will benefit the environment by reducing congestion on polluting roads and by giving public transport networks a boost.All 60 councillors in Newham – all Labour expect for three Independents – voted against the project earlier this week and urged the mayor to cancel it amid concerns over how it could work alongside plans to tackle the climate emergency and air quality. “As walking and cycling would not be permitted in the tunnel, it could obviously make no contribution to active travel infrastructure,” the motion said. The tunnel will connect Greenwich in south London to Silvertown on the other side of the river and is expected to start being built in late spring, with a planned opening date of 2025. Rokhsana Fiaz, Newham’s mayor, said ahead of the vote: “Recent estimates show at least 115 people die prematurely each year in our borough because of life threatening vehicle fumes; and that we have the highest rate of child hospitalisation for asthma related conditions in the country.” She also said one in seven people in Newham are exposed to levels of air pollutant nitrogen dioxide “above the UK limit for human health.She added: “That’s why it is a moral and health imperative to do all that we can to oppose the Silvertown Tunnel.”Ms Fiaz later tweeted to say all councillors had voted in favour of the motion opposing the project. Last month, campaigners against the tunnel met with Seb Dance, the city’s deputy mayor for transport. The Independent understands Mr Dance told them any sudden cancellation of the project – as per their demands – would incur a substantial financial cost.Following the meeting, campaigner Victoria Rance said the tunnel would be “devestating” for Newham, which she called “the most polluted borough in UK with the most polluted schools”. It was reportedly named as the area with the worst pollution rates in British Heart Foundation research in 2019.A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The Silvertown Tunnel will transform the way people can travel in a part of London that currently has few options for getting across the river. In addition to providing new zero-emission cross-river bus services for an area in need of them, the tunnel will massively reduce the chronic congestion problems currently associated with the inadequate, Victorian-era Blackwall Tunnel.”They said this nearby tunnel is closed 700 times a year on average, which leads to a long line of vehicles “emitting toxic pollutants”. “Both tunnels will be tolled and, when combined with our overall policy of reducing car use across Greater London in favour of active and public transport options, the Silvertown tunnel can help reduce congestion and poor air quality around the Blackwall Tunnel area without increasing the volume of traffic crossing the river,” the spokesperson said. More