UK Politics

The Metropolitan Police has admitted it was “unacceptable” for one of its official accounts to tweet criticism of London mayor Sadiq Khan following a row over its outgoing commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.Mr Khan denied reports that he had issued an ultimatum to Dame Cressida demanding that she dismiss officers involved in the Charing Cross scandal or face suspension herself.The Met chief announced last week that she was stepping down after losing the “confidence” of the mayor in the wake of revelations about officers at Charing Cross sending racist and misogynistic messages.The Times had earlier reported that Dame Cressida told senior colleagues that Mr Khan had made the ultimatum to her to sack officers.Speaking to LBC, Mr Khan said: “Some of that is accurate. I was angered and disgusted by what a number of Metropolitan Police officers – serving officers – said. It is not the case that the commissioner was given an ultimatum to sack them or she would be sacked.”Mr Khan also criticised the Metropolitan Police after its Twitter account had shared information about him that was “misleading”.On Thursday, the verified Met Police Taskforce Twitter account retweeted a tweet which read: “If the Mayor of London doesn’t understand that the process for sacking officers is independent of chief constables … well that’s a bit of a problem.”The Met Police account quote-tweeted the original and added the words “Exactly this”. The tweet has since been deleted and was described as “unacceptable” by a spokesman for the force.Mr Khan told LBC: “When you have Met Police accounts amplifying information that is misleading, how is it possible for officers concerned about behaviour or other officers to come forward?”The mayor added: “Why are we surprised when whistleblowers don’t come forward if this is the attitude both the IOPC talked about and you’ve exemplified in relation to a blue-ticked account?”Mr Khan also suggested on LBC that there had been improvements at the Met Police since he was a child, saying: “There are so many decent dedicated, brave officers. But there has got to be an acknowledgement that there are deep cultural issues.“We are not talking about unconscious bias, we’re not talking about unwitting prejudice. We’re talking about overt racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, discrimination and the like.”Mr Khan said victims of serious crimes including rape, sexual abuse and knife crime “are not coming forward because they don’t trust the police”. He said witnesses are also not coming forward in some cases.Elsewhere, the mayor said he would not necessarily back the home secretary Priti Patel’s choice to replace Dame Cressida.“One of the things I have got to say to Londoners is I will not support the appointment of the next commissioner if I don’t have confidence that he or she understands the importance of addressing these deep cultural issues.”Ms Patel is ultimately responsible for appointing the most senior officer of the Metropolitan Police. “The legislation is quite clear that the home secretary appoints the commissioner,” Mr Khan said.“The good news is that legislation also says, ‘with due regard to the mayor of London’ … I have got no doubt the home secretary will be incredibly professional.”Commenting on the tweet by the Met Police Taskforce, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “This tweet was unacceptable and shouldn’t have been shared from a Metropolitan Police account.“Senior officers are addressing the matter and will be reminding officers that they are expected to be independent and impartial at all times, on and off duty, including on social media.” More

Afghan refugees in the UK will fall under the Home Office’s “hostile environment” regime within days after delays issuing new visas, worried lawyers are warning.The alarm has been raised over the failure to grant indefinite leave to remain before their immigration papers expire – despite ministers promising to act weeks ago.More than 15,000 refugees were evacuated to the UK when Kabul fell to the Taliban last August, on temporary six-month visas – which means they will run out within days or weeks.Under the hostile environment, which remains in place despite being renamed, they risk “homelessness and destitution” if they cannot prove their right to be in the country, the Law Society fears.“Refugees and asylum seekers in the UK need valid immigration status to rent a home, open a bank account or find work, and access NHS treatment free of charge,” said I. Stephanie Boyce, the organisation’s president.“When Afghan evacuees arrived, the Home Office promised to work with them to secure their long-term UK immigration status within six months, but many still do not have the new papers they need.”Calling the situation “deeply distressing”, Ms Boyce added: “Solicitors tell us they have been seeking clarity from the Home Office for months and are worried that, if their clients become ‘overstayers’, by omission they may face homelessness and destitution.”However, the Home Office described the warning as “needless scaremongering”, insisting it was “completely wrong” to claim rights are at risk.Most concern centres on the plight of around 4,000 refugees who have been moved into homes from temporary hotel rooms, who are most at risk from losing the right to rent and work.The Independent’s Refugees Welcome campaign is calling for the government to offer sanctuary to as many Afghans as possible, and for them to receive proper support.Last month, when the Home Office was alerted to the problem by MPs, it said it aimed to “conclude the process before individuals’ leave to remain expires”.But the Law Society said official advice has not been updated since September 2021, when most of the refugees arrived under Operation Pitting.It has been alerted to one individual whose visa expires next Thursday, who has received no response to raising their case in recent weeks.Ms Booth said some people in Home Office accommodation have been contacted, but added: “All the people who have not yet been contacted are increasingly anxious.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Afghan nationals resettled here already have the right to work, access to education, healthcare and can apply for public funds.“While we are in the process of granting all indefinite leave to remain, all have valid leave while this is ongoing, so to suggest they are at risk of losing their rights is completely wrong.”In answer to parliamentary questions in January, Kevin Foster, a Home Office minister, was unable to say how many refugees are still awaiting indefinite leave to remain.He said: “Communications have been issued advising individuals of next steps to progress permanent residence in the UK.”However, the Law Society said solicitors were reporting that clients outside Home Office accommodation have been given no information. More

The government has still not delivered the 7,000 air purifiers it promised to help make schools Covid-safe, ahead of pupils returning from their half term break. During the Christmas holidays ministers said the machines would be sent to schools to help improve ventilation in classrooms, but hundreds are still missing in action.Opposition MPs said government “penny pinching” was to blame and that the promised number of purifiers was too few to cover 30,000 classrooms to begin with. Government scientists have said since May 2020 that improvements to ventilation in indoor settings like schools are essential to stopping the spread of the disease.They said one way of achieving this – especially when weather is colder and opening windows is less practical – is to install air purifiers.Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, personally promised the air cleaning machines at New Year, and said they would help minimise disruption, but the latest stats show just 6,311 have been delivered half a term later. Attendance data from last year shows that a further 10 million school days were missed due to Covid last term alone – on top of the 115 days education the average child missed between March 2020 and July 2021. Schools have also been stretched further by teacher absences due to Covid, often spread in the classroom. The Department for Education has told schools that classes should be combined if too many teachers are missing.Despite falling down the political agenda new Covid cases are still running at around 52,000 a day across the UK.Responding to the broken government promise on purifiers Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine suggested that companies like Dyson could step in to help cover the shortfall.“It’s time this government prioritised our children by making sure that their classrooms are safe and the air they breathe is clean,” she said. “The technology to do this is available and major companies, who’ve benefited from the pandemic and government contracts, should be helping to keep the next generation safe in school.“The government’s penny pinching means that they haven’t even met their own target of 7,000 units, never mind the hundreds of thousand extra purifiers needed to cover all 300,000 classrooms. If ministers won’t act to protect schools, then it’s right that businesses step in and play their part.” Ms Jardine added that “industry giants like Dyson must do their bit by donating the air purifiers that our schools are desperate for”.The air purifiers cost around £400 each and last month it was reported that some parents have taken to buying them for schools themselves.To qualify for a government air purifier schools must show their classrooms have persistently high CO2 levels, a proxy for poor ventilation. But research by NASUWT, the teachers’ union, found that more than half of UK teachers did not have access to a carbon dioxide monitor in the their classrooms.The Department for Education (DfE) says air cleaning units are “not needed in the vast majority of classrooms” and “only where there is poor ventilation that cannot be easily improved”. Robin Walker, the schools minster, said: “Over 99.9 per cent of schools continue to be open with millions of children enjoying vital time with friends and teachers – thanks to the hard work of education staff up and down the country.“Enhanced ventilation continues to be important and we are making sure eligible settings that have applied for air cleaning units are receiving them.“The majority of rooms that require air cleaning units now have them, with over 6,000 already delivered and more deliveries taking place every day.” More

Boris Johnson has said an attack on a kindergarten in Ukraine was a “false flag operation” by Russia which has been designed to “discredit” the Ukrainians.The prime minister said the picture was “grim” and warned that Moscow could launch more such operations in the coming days as a pretext for an invasion into the UK’s eastern European ally.“We fear very much that that is a thing we will see more of over the next few days,” Mr Johnson told reporters.He said: “A kindergarten was shelled in what we are taking to be – well, we know – was a false flag operation designed to discredit the Ukrainians, designed to create a pretext, a spurious provocation for Russian action.”Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that pro-Russian forces had shelled a kindergarten in Donbass what he called a “big provocation”.The Ukrainian military said no children were harmed, but there are reports that up to three adults suffered concussions. Kiev has accused the Russia-backed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) rebels of being behind the attack.Pro-Russia separatists claimed there had been an increase in Ukrainian shelling, describing it as a “large-scale provocation” and that they had then returned fire.But the Kyiv government disputed the claim, saying separatists had shelled its forces but they did not fire back.For its part, the Kremlin said Moscow was “seriously concerned” about reports of an escalation after the pro-Russia separatists accused the Ukrainian government forces of opening fire on their territory four times.Mr Johnson said he was going to the European Security Conference in Munich this weekend to discuss ways to further “unify” western allies on how to deter a Russian invasion.The prime minister added: “What we are doing is making that we do everything to strengthen the package of sanctions that will follow immediately should there be a Russian invasion.”Mr Johnson was also grilled on action to tackle “dirty” money from Russia, and whether if his government was having to rush forward the ban on Tier 1 visas used by the super-rich because of an influx in applications.The PM replied: “We address all the issues we can, as fast as we can. We have already some very tough laws on money laundering, on people laundering ill-gotten gains here in the UK. But, clearly, it’s time to bring in some tough sanctions against the Russian regime.”He said the government wanted to “stop the raising of funds by Russian companies on London financial markets – that’s a very, very tough sanction that we’ll be bringing in”.Home secretary Priti Patel will scrap the existing Tier 1 investor visa scheme used by oligarchs and billionaires next week, The Independent understands.Mr Johnson again said that the west had to end its dependency on “Russian hydrocarbons”, and again warned president Vladimir Putin to step back from war.“If Russia were so mad as to invade, I don’t think people should imagine that this would be a brief business,” he said. “This would be a bloody and protracted conflict in which, I’m afraid, there will be many casualties and including many Russian casualties.”Earlier on Thursday foreign secretary Liz Truss warned of more “false flag” operations in the coming days.She said Russian reports of alleged abnormal military activity by Ukraine in Donbas were “blatant attempt by the Russian government to fabricate pretexts for invasion … This is straight out of the Kremlin playbook”.Ms Truss said she was “very concerned about reports today of increased Russian aggression: over 7,000 extra troops near the Ukraine border and an attack by pro-Russian troops on a kindergarten in Ukraine”. More

Boris Johnson receives legal questionnaire over partygate from policeMore Britons are feeling a cost of living squeeze, a survey has found, as the price of every day items continues to soar.According to a survey from the Office for National Statistic (ONS), which received thousands of responses, around 76 per cent of adults said their cost of living had increased over the last month.It represents a significant rise on the 69 per cent recorded in the final two weeks of January.The most frequently reported reasons continued to be:rising food shop prices (90 per cent)rising energy bills (77 per cent) increases to the price of fuel (69 per cent)It comes as the Lib Dems are leading the charge to put pressure on the government to publish the full, unredacted version of Sue Gray’s report into the No 10 Partygate scandal. A “humble address” motion has been backed by all 13 of the party’s MPs, who are calling for the support of others to ensure there are “no more cover-ups and no more lies”.Show latest update

1644941653Good nightThank you for following The Independent’s live politics coverage today. We’re pausing updates on this blog for the evening, join us again tomorrow for more news from Westminster and beyond.Tom Barnes15 February 2022 16:141644998477Good morningHello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of everything UK politics…Eleanor Sly16 February 2022 08:011644998589Tory MP claims she criticised Boris Johnson for damaging UK’s international reputation ‘by mistake’A Conservative MP has said she wrote a letter criticising Boris Johnson for damaging the UK’s international reputation “in error”.Joy Morrissey was appointed to be Mr Johnson’s parliamentary private secretary in last week’s reshuffle, a role which will see her work closely with him.But there were blushes in Whitehall over the weekend after it emerged that Ms Morrissey had strongly criticised the government for cutting international aid.Jon Stone reports:Eleanor Sly16 February 2022 08:031644999889Downing Street staff told conferring over party questionnaire could constitute ‘separate offence’Staff at Downing Street have been told by the Metropolitan Police that they should not confer with each other when answering a police questionnaire about a series of parties which potentially broke Covid rules. They have been warned that, should they do this, it could constitute a “separate offence”.The questionnaires started to be issued late last week and have also been sent to the prime minister, Boris Johnson. Meanwhile, fresh guidance issued by the Cabinet Office to those who may be contacted by Scotland Yard about the gatherings under investigation, said that they could still “seek legal advice” before responding.Eleanor Sly16 February 2022 08:241645001718Wales trials paying universal basic income of £19,200 a yearThe Welsh government’s trial of a universal basic income will pay around 500 people £1,600 a month, the devolved administration has announced.Under the pilot policy some vulnerable young people will be paid £19,200 a year for 24 months from their 18th birthday – the highest rate of any large-scale pilot.The scheme will be open to all young people leaving care, and extend to double the number of people that had previously been planned.Jon Stone has more:Eleanor Sly16 February 2022 08:551645003518Independent tv: Will Partygate be the end of Boris Johnson?Boris Johnson’s future looks poised on a knife-edge.Although we have seen an update into the Sue Gray inquiry, the full report is yet to come out, and Cressida Dick, Chief of the Metropolitan Police, has announced the Prime Minister is placed under a criminal investigation for breaching lockdown restrictions.But, how damaging is partygate to the Conservative party, How many parties took place, and will this be the end of Boris Johnson? The Independent’s political Commentator, John Rentoul, unravels the sordid tale of partygate.Watch on Independent tv here: More

Jacob Rees-Mogg has dismissed mounting evidence that Brexit has hit trade, arguing it has in fact been a “success”.The Tory MP, who was appointed Brexit Opportunities Minister last week, said evidence that trade had been damaged by Britain’s exit from the EU was “few and far between”.Yet the MP’s comments appear at odds with new figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday which 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, but less, by 6 per cent – suggesting the rest of the world is not stepping in to fill the gap.Mr Rees-Mogg told the BBC that it was in fact Covid which had caused “the most enormous disruptions to supply chains”.”We’ve had containers simply being stuck the wrong place, being stuck in Chinese ports, being stuck in the port of Los Angeles.”This has been a global trade issue – and we do have to recover from the problems of Covid.”Asked specifically whether Brexit had hit UK trade, he replied: “I think Brexit has been extremely beneficial for the country.”I think the evidence that Brexit has caused trade drops is few and far between.”Other evidence is mounting that Brexit is to blame, however. A survey of 1,000 UK exporters conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce found that seven out of 10 businesses polled believe the UK’s trade deal with the EU was not enabling their business to grow.And an analysis of government figures by the UK Trade Policy Observatory at the University of Sussex found last year that that losses from trade with the EU were expected to be 178 times bigger than expected gains from new free trade agreements.Liberal Democrat business spokesperson Sarah Olney said: “Claims from the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg about Brexit opportunities ring hollow for businesses being drowned in paperwork and delays at our borders.” More

Navy ships cannot be used for Priti Patel’s plans to intercept refugees crossing the Channel, a minister has admitted – which will require new boats at unknown cost.The home secretary’s hardline policy will criminalise anyone making the journey in small boats – instead of just those landing on the UK coast – using the military to bolster the Border Force.But James Heappey, the armed forces minister, has admitted Navy vessels are unsuitable for the task, because they sit “too high above the water” for migrants and refugees to board.“We’ll need additional platforms that are appropriate to the task, because you need a very low outboard height in order to be able to safely bring people from a dinghy into your vessel,” Mr Heappey said.The government would prefer to “intercept a higher number of people in the Channel” which, under the controversial Nationality and Borders Bill, will be the “point of arrest now”.But that will require leasing “a certain type of platform”, the minister said, adding: “I’m not going to give you the name of the platform here and now, not least, because it might find that the market price for those platforms goes up.”Mr Heappey went on to suggest the “platforms’ would be other vessels, rather than any physical structure, in an interview with LBC radio.The hunt is on for “ten of the kind of larger vessels that you would use to do the mid-Channel cross-decking”, he said.In addition, the government will need “a number of smaller vessels to shadow dinghies to the shore”, those which are so flimsy it would be “too dangerous” to make arrests at sea.The use of the Navy was signalled last month as part of Boris Johnson’s ‘Operation Red Meat’, designed to woo Conservative MPs threatening to topple him over the Partygate scandal.But The Independent understands there is now intense wrangling between the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence over how to implement the policy.The Navy is exploring how to lease boats that refugees can board, but an expected announcement had to be delayed because of a lack of agreement.There is already criticism about the vast cost of Mr Patel’s overhaul of the asylum system – forecast to reach £2.7bn, almost double the current bill for taxpayers.Refugee charities warn it will cost £1.4bn to send asylum seekers abroad while their applications are assessed, £717m for new reception centres and £432m to jail people making the crossings.Mr Heappey described the current operation to intercept boats as “pretty successful”, despite the huge increase in the numbers making the crossing.He argued that “9 per cent of the dinghies that go into the water are identified, observed and are tracked as they move towards the UK”.“Whether they are then intercepted at sea or whether the people, as they disembark, are arrested or taken away at that point, is the concern,” Mr Heappey said. More

The government’s Cobra emergencies committee is to meet today to discuss the response to Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice, Downing Street has announced.The meeting, chaired by Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay, will bring together ministers and senior civil servants from across Whitehall with emergency service chiefs.Thousands of homes have been left without power after Storm Dudley swept through parts of the UK, with winds of more than 80 mph experienced in north Wales and thousands of homes losting power in the north of England.It comes ahead of Storm Eunice, which is predicted to bring winds in excess of 95mph in coastal areas while inland areas could still see gusts to around 80mph.The Cobra committee – named for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A and officially termed Cobr by the government – can be convened at short notice to bring together ministers from affected departments with experts and military, intelligence and civil emergency leaders in response to emergencies ranging from terrorist attacks to natural disasters, military attacks or public health situations.But Liberal Democrats said the government should be prepared to step in more quickly when extreme weather strikes, and called on Cobra to agree an immediate support plan to provide food, accommodation and electricity generators for those affected.“Whenever a storm hits, the government is disgracefully unprepared to support the thousands of people affected,” said the party’s communities spokesperson Tim Farron. “They never learn from their mistakes.“People across the United Kingdom are fed up with being taken for granted and left without proper support when things go wrong. With extreme weather more frequent, the Conservatives cannot ignore the crisis sweeping the nation.”Northern Powergrid said 1,000 properties still had no lights on Thursday morning due to the weather.“Our teams have restored power to some 19,000 homes and businesses impacted by Storm Dudley, and we are working to get the lights back on for around 1,000 properties still affected,” a spokesperson said.National Rail said as of 7am on Thursday, dozens of train companies have been affected in the north of England, the Midlands, Wales and across most of Scotland, including LNER, Transport for Wales and ScotRail.Due to damaged overhead electric wires between Bedford and St Albans, some lines are currently blocked on the East Midlands Railway and Thameslink lines.The Met Office issued yellow weather warnings until 10am on Thursday for Scotland, with wintry showers overnight leading to a risk of ice.National Highways, with the Met Office, have issued a severe weather alert for strong winds covering the East of England, East Midlands, West Midlands, South East and South West, between the hours of 6am and 6pm on Friday.The agency added “there is a particularly high risk that high-sided vehicles and other ‘vulnerable’ vehicles such as caravans and motorbikes could be blown over” in areas including the East of England, Midlands, South East and South West.The Environment Agency had two flood warnings in place as of Thursday morning in northern areas of England.Flood duty manager Katharine Smith said: “Strong winds could bring coastal flooding to parts of the west, south-west and south coast of England, as well as the tidal River Severn, through the early hours of Friday morning and into the early afternoon.“This is due to Storm Eunice resulting in high waves and potential storm surge coinciding with the start of a period of spring tides.” More