UK Politics

Police have launched an investigation into a rash of online death threats made against Keir Starmer by right-wing extremists in the wake of Boris Johnson’s false claim that he “failed to prosecute” the paedophile Jimmy Savile.A dossier of messages from apparently identifiable users of the Telegram app was sent to Scotland Yard by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate on Friday.Among them were calls for the Labour leader and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy – who were accosted by a mob shouting “paedophile protector” and “Savile” as they walked through Westminster last week – to be “executed”.Mr Johnson’s smear has been widely condemned as an attempt to distract attention from his role in the Partygate scandal, which is currently being investigated by police.The prime minister was forced to clarify that he was aware Sir Keir played no part as director of public prosecutions in the decision not to prosecute Savile, as was found by a QC-led independent inquiry at the time. However, he has so far refused to apologise.Anglican bishop of Liverpool Paul Bayes said that Johnson should take “serious stock of his position, adding: “I do not believe that was an honest statement, and I think he should be ashamed of it.”The CCDH cache of material, shown to The Observer, includes responses to footage of last week’s incident posted by English Defence League founder Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – better known under his pseudonym Tommy Robinson – and conspiracy theory group Resistance GB.One commenter said Starmer and Lammy should be detained “until preparation can be made for their execution”, while another said the Labour should be “linched [sic] from the nearest lamppost”. Another said: “The sooner they’s all dead the better. Hang the f***ing lot of them.”CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed called for tighter controls on Telegram.”Two sitting MPs [Jo Cox and David Amess] have been murdered in the last six years,” he said. “Telegram has made a calculated business decision to allow users to egg each other on to violence against named politicians with zero consequences.” A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “On Friday 11 February police received a third-party report relating to allegations of malicious communications made against a serving Member of Parliament. An investigation is ongoing.”It is understood that no arrests have yet been made. A Labour source said: “Of course, extremists of all stripes don’t like Keir. He spent years helping to put them and their ilk in prison.”Sir Keir has said that he had never faced accusations of being a “paedophile protector” before Johnson’s comment.“If others want to argue that this is unconnected with precisely what the PM said one week before, then let them make that case,” he said in the wake of the incident. “But they’ll never persuade me that there is no link.”Scotland Yard was unable to confirm that an investigation had been launched into the alleged threats.Mr Lammy earlier this week told The Independent that the PM’s “worrying” comments echoed Donald Trump’s tactic of firing up supporters with unsubstantiated slurs sourced from the political extremes.“The only modern-day example of a leader pulling stuff from the fringe into the centre is Donald Trump,” said the shadow foreign secretary.“And we saw where that led. It led to the horrendous, horrific assault on the Capitol. And I’m afraid there were elements of that in some that were gathered on the Embankment last week.” More

Ukraine has pushed back against claims from the defence secretary Ben Wallace that diplomatic talks with Vladimir Putin have “a whiff of Munich” about them.Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko said it was wrong to “offend our partners” by drawing parallels with the policy of appeasement which saw Britain and France give the green light for Adolf Hitler to annex the Sudetenland in talks in the German city in 1938.The defence secretary today cut short a family holiday in order to fly back to the UK amid fears of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.In an apparent effort to avoid repeating the mistakes of Dominic Raab, who was widely criticised as foreign secretary for remaining on the beach as Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Mr Wallace announced he was returning to London after just one day because he was “concerned about the worsening situation in Ukraine”.Mr Wallace said in an interview with The Sunday Times that Moscow could “launch an offensive at any time”, with an estimated 130,000 Russian troops and heavy firepower amassed along Ukraine’s border.”It may be that he just switches off his tanks and we all go home, but there is a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West,” he added.Kyiv has repeatedly urged allies including Britain to tone down warlike rhetoric.And ambassador Prystaiko today warned that the panic being caused by the West sounding the alarm could be playing into president Putin’s hands.Responding to Mr Wallace’s Munich reference, the diplomat told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House: “It’s not the best time for us to offend our partners in the world, reminding them of this act which actually not bought peace but the opposite, it bought war.”There’s panic everywhere not just in people’s minds but in financial markets as well,” he added, warning it is “hurting the Ukrainian economy on sort of the same level as people leaving the embassy”.Mr Wallace’s cabinet colleague Brandon Lewis sought to clarify the comment, suggesting the defence secretary was referring not to appeasement, but to the way in which hopes that peace could be secured by diplomatic means were dashed by a dictator set on war.“It is very clear that what he was drawing on was the comparison between the diplomatic attempts in the run up to World War Two and the diplomatic attempts we are all putting in now,” Mr Lewis told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday.“We want a diplomatic outcome, we want a peaceful outcome to this but we do have to be cognisant of the fact that… there are 130,000 troops sitting right there on the border.“With that kind of accumulation, there is always the possibility and the ability for Russia to move very, very swiftly and very quickly should it decide to do so, which obviously we hope they won’t.”Mr Lewis said that an imminent incursion by Russia was “entirely possible”, and said the situation was currently in a “balancing act” between “what we hope will be a diplomatic outcome and the realistic possibility that something much more tragic could occur”.Foreign secretary Liz Truss, who spoke on Saturday with US secretary of state Anthony Blinken, said there were “acute concerns that Russia may launch further military aggression against Ukraine in coming days”. London and Washington were agreed that Moscow will face “massive consequences for any invasion, including severe sanctions”, she saidMeanwhile, US sources attempted to play down reports that intelligence indicated the feared invasion will begin on Wednesday.American ambassador to Nato Julianne Smith said: “We do not have information that Putin has definitively decided to go in.“But we did want to warn both our allies, American citizens and Ukraine that we now believe that this attack could happen within days.”Kyiv has insisted its airspace will remain open, after Dutch carrier KLM announced it is suspending flights to the Ukrainian capital.Mr Wallace arrived back in the UK from Moscow in the early hours of Saturday before heading abroad with his family, but it was understood he had already accepted he would be leaving the holiday alone early rather than having cancelled it on arrival in the light of new developments with Russia.British and US citizens have been told to leave Ukraine as soon as possible, and the small detachment of UK troops on training missions in the country are due to be withdrawn by the end of the weekend. More

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis shows support for Johnson in wake of partygateThe Northern Ireland secretary insists Boris Johnson will survive the ongoing Partygate scandal to fight and win the next general election as Conservative leader.Brandon Lewis’s comment came amid growing pressure on the PM – some from his own MPs – to quit if he is fined by police over alleged lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street, with ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith saying it would be “very tough” for him to stay on.“He has my absolute 100 per cent-plus loyalty,” the cabinet minister said of his boss, adding he had got all “the big decisions right”.Meanwhile, police have been asked to investigate death threats made against Sir Keir Starmer by right-wing extremists in the wake of the PM’s false claim that he “failed to prosecute” the paedophile Jimmy Savile. Messages from users of the Telegram app have been sent to police by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. Among them were calls for the Labour leader and shadow foreign secretary David Lammy to be “executed”.Show latest update

1644763301Watch: NHS chief ‘frustrated’ govt won’t sign up to recruitment planNHS chief ‘incredibly frustrated’ that govt won’t sign up to long-term NHS recruitment planSam Hancock13 February 2022 14:411644763201Labour: Reforms needed to deal with ‘perfect storm’ for policingFollowing my earlier post (1.45pm), here’s what Yvette Cooper said about Britain’s policing in full, as reported by our political editor Andrew Woodcock. The shadow home secretary warned an overhaul is needed to police training, misconduct proceedings, whistleblowing structures and social media use, writesIn the wake of the death of Sarah Everard and the exposure of misogynistic behaviour at Charing Cross police station in London, she called on home secretary Priti Patel to make tackling violence against women and girls a strategic policing requirement for all forces, as recommended in a report last year by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.Sam Hancock13 February 2022 14:401644760511Ministers voice security fears as PM seeks closer ties to ChinaA cabinet split over UK-China relations has deepened after it emerged Boris Johnson is seeking to boost trade with the Asian superpower.Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak are looking to form what sources close to them describe as a more pragmatic and balanced approach to ties with Beijing. The tone adopted by No 10 and 11 is at odds with what some cabinet figures view as a mounting threat to British security from the world’s second largest economy.Foreign and business secretaries Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are among those in cabinet who The Independent understands favour a more guarded approach which reduces the UK’s economic dependence on China, rather than reinforces it, writes our economics editor Anna Isaac.Sam Hancock13 February 2022 13:551644759947Watch: Policing in UK facing ‘perfect storm,’ says shadow home secYvette Cooper tells Sophy Ridge that policing in UK is facing ‘perfect storm’Sam Hancock13 February 2022 13:451644758867‘Stretching’ NHS targets not enough to stop waiting lists rising – health chiefAn update on the post-Covid NHS crisis. Waiting lists are likely to continue growing for longer than government ministers have suggested, even if trusts meet their “very stretching” targets to tackle the backlog of treatment which has built up during the Covid pandemic, a health service boss has warned.Launching a plan to speed up elective treatments last week, health secretary Sajid Javid acknowledged that queues will lengthen over the coming years as people who held back during the pandemic seek help, but said they were expected to be on a downward trend by March 2024.But the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, today said that waiting lists could continue to swell beyond that point, even if trusts meet the target of stepping up to 130 per cent of normal levels by 2024/25.Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full report:Sam Hancock13 February 2022 13:271644757487Sunday services still affected by pay rows Some transport news now. A rail operator was running a limited service on Sunday because of a strike by conductors in a dispute over pay.The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said its members on TransPennine Express (TPE) were solidly supporting a 24-hour walkout. More strikes will be held on the next three Sundays.RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Reports from the ground show that RMT members are solidly supporting the action on TPE this morning in what is a fight for basic pay justice.“Our members refuse to be treated unfairly and will be continuing with industrial action until the pay discrimination is dealt with. The company need to wake up to that fact and we hope today’s action will shake them out of their slumber.”The company announced an amended timetable for Sunday, with a “significant” reduction in available services. More

A cabinet split over UK-China relations has deepened after it emerged Boris Johnson is seeking to boost trade with the Asian superpower.Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak are looking to form what sources close to them describe as a more pragmatic and balanced approach to ties with Beijing.The tone adopted by No 10 and 11 is at odds with what some cabinet figures view as a mounting threat to British security from the world’s second largest economy.Foreign and business secretaries Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are among those in cabinet who The Independent understands favour a more guarded approach which reduces the UK’s economic dependence on China, rather than reinforces it.One minister said Mr Johnson’s appetite to attract more inward investment from China was “completely at odds” with broader efforts to strengthen links with Australia and other members of the so-called Five Eyes network of intelligence-sharing nations.They said reinvigorating trade talks “sends the wrong message” when Chinese economic coercion is a clear threat, as demonstrated by the experience of countries such as Lithuania.The minister also pointed to increasing evidence of closer collaboration between Russia and China on policy towards the US and Nato allies.Previously, the same minister claimed, several senior Tories had believed that the prime minister’s former chief of staff Dan Rosenfeld, had been behind Number 10’s desire to take a more open approach to China. Several senior Tories had linked the advisor to Mr Johnson’s warning not to “pitchfork away” Chinese investment.Mr Rosenfeld worked for George Osborne as his principle private secretary, and was associated with the former chancellor’s so-called Golden Age policy drive to attract Chinese investment. However, the instruction to revive informal trade talks had clearly come from the prime minister himself, according to the minister and, separately, a senior government official. No 10 did not deny that this was the case when approached for comment by The Independent.A source close to Mr Sunak said that they did not believe there had been a shift in the chancellor’s stance and referred to the “mature and balanced relationship” he laid out in a speech at Mansion House in July last year.Treasury officials, however, said there had been a concerted effort in recent months to revive discussions in areas such as a financial services. The move to reboot talks, first reported by Politico, met with criticism from senior Conservative MPs, including Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, and party’s former leader, Ian Duncan Smith, who pointed to evidence of China’s human rights abuses and brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters.Two people familiar with Mr Kwarteng’s thinking told The Independent he did not believe it was the right moment to seek fresh investment from China. This suggested a more hawkish approach than No 10 and 11, they said.A separate source close to the business secretary noted his tough stance on Chinese investment in critical national infrastructure and particularly nuclear power. They also noted interventions from the business department to block the Chinese purchase of British companies with sensitive intellectual property and technologies, including a graphene manufacturer last year.The business department is still in negotiations with French energy company EDF over how to handle its partnership with Chinese state owned-CGN Group, which has a 20 percent stake in £20 billion Sizewell C nuclear project in Suffolk. The Independent understands Sizewell C is unlikely to go ahead with Chinese involvement.The nuclear energy financing bill currently going through parliament is specifically designed to “to reduce our reliance on hostile states”, they added.The signs of deepening divides in cabinet over China come as Mr Johnson seeks to shore up support from his own backbenchers and convince them of a reset at No 10 amid the ongoing partygate scandal. On Friday, Downing Street confirmed Mr Johnson had received a questionnaire as part of the Metropolitan Police investigation into lockdown parties.A government spokesperson said: “As an open economy, we welcome foreign trade and investment, including from China, where it supports UK growth and jobs – but we will not accept investments which could compromise our national security.” More

NHS waiting lists are likely to continue growing for longer than government ministers have suggested, even if trusts meet their “very stretching” targets to tackle the backlog of treatment which has built up during the Covid pandemic, a health service boss has warned.Launching a plan to speed up elective treatments last week, health secretary Sajid Javid acknowledged that queues will lengthen over the coming years as people who held back during the pandemic seek help, but said they were expected to be on a downward trend by March 2024.But the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, today said that waiting lists could continue to swell beyond that point, even if trusts meet the target of stepping up to 130 per cent of normal levels by 2024/25.Mr Hopson told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday that he was “incredibly frustrated” that Mr Javid refused to sign up to a long-term plan for NHS recruitment, when it was “blindingly obvious” that it was needed to fill gaps in the workforce.He called on ministers to back an amendment tabled by Commons health committee chair Jeremy Hunt which would require a recruitment plan by law.Mr Javid last week launched an Electives Recovery Plan with NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard, designed to tackle the post-Covid backlog, including by building dozens of community diagnostic centres to accelerate treatment.Mr Javid told the House of Commons that waiting lists could rise from their current record-breaking level of 6m to as much as 14m but were expected to start shrinking by March 2024.But Mr Hopson, who represents NHS trusts, warned that numbers could still be going up beyond that point.The NHS Providers boss said: “Every trust leader is completely aware of the need to get through these backlogs as quickly as they possibly can.“We’ve worked very hard on this plan. It is stretching it is very stretching. The Institute for Fiscal Studies this week described the headline ambition of getting to around 130 per cent of the levels of activity in this area by 2024/25, compared to what we were doing pre-Covid… as ambitious.”But he cautioned: “We simply don’t know how many extra patients who didn’t come forward during Covid are going to come onto the waiting list.“So we could be actually delivering that 130 per cent headline target – which would be amazing, fantastic – and yet the waiting list would still be going up.“So we just need to be careful about saying we’re just going to judge NHS performance solely by how big the waiting list is. We know it is likely to grow because all of these people who didn’t come forward during Covid are going to come forward.”With 93,000 vacancies in the NHS across England, Mr Hopson said that staff shortages were hampering the service’s ability to make swift inroads into backlogs.“A whole bunch of us have been saying to the government, ‘You have to have a proper long-term workforce plan. And if it takes three years years to train a nurse and 13 years to train a consultant, you have a very significant lead time here,’” he said“There is good news down the track, in that we are now seeing higher levels of people entering training.“But, if I’m really honest, we’ve got this very difficult period over the next two or three years where we know we won’t have enough staff.“There will be a significant premium on recruiting people from overseas. But that’s not a comfortable place to be and it also isn’t particularly helpful for the nations from which we’re taking those staff.“We’ve got to have a proper workforce plan. I’m incredibly frustrated about the fact that the government will not sign up to the idea of a proper long-term workforce plan, which is what we have in every other sector of our economy, and what we have in every other national health system.“I can’t understand why the government won’t sign up to what seems to me to be blindingly obvious.” More

Labour has warned of a “perfect storm” in policing as it issued a call for wholesale reform in the wake of the resignation of Met Commissioner Cressida Dick.Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said an overhaul is needed to police training, misconduct proceedings, whistleblowing structures and social media use.In the wake of the death of Sarah Everard and the exposure of misogynistic behaviour at Charing Cross police station in London, she called on home secretary Priti Patel to make tackling violence against women and girls a strategic policing requirement for all forces, as recommended in a report last year by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.Ms Cooper said that Dame Cressida’s dramatic departure should not be allowed to create the impression that problems with police are limited to London.She said that a legacy of funding cuts and Conservative home secretaries “taking their eye off the ball” had led to rising crime, falling numbers of prosecutions and a collapse in public confidence in many parts of the country.Last year saw numbers of people trusting the police to deal with crime in their area fall behind the proportion who did not – by a margin of 44 to 48 per cent – for the first time since regular polling on the issue by YouGov began, she said.Ms Cooper told BBC1’s Sunday Morning: “There is a real perfect storm facing policing right now and it is a serious one. Crime is going up, prosecutions are going down, confidence is falling.“There’s a legacy of damaging cuts, and also these individual toxic cases around the culture. There needs to be a proper serious programme of reform for policing.”She added: “This is not about just one individual… or one police force. You’ve seen similar issues around… other forces as well… There needs to be a proper serious programme of reform.”Labour’s plan would see violence against women and girls (VAWG) included in the Home Office’s strategic policing requirement for all forces, formally focusing attention on the need to step up action in response to crime and to improve internal attitudes within the police.Misconduct proceedings would be overhauled to prevent long delays to hearings and to stop abusive language being dismissed as “banter”, as happened at Charing Cross.Specific packages of VAWG training would be introduced for new recruits, with updated training for serving officers.Whistleblowing procedures would be revamped to ensure officers and staff are confident in reporting misconduct.And officers’ use of social media and messaging platforms would be regularly reviewed to prevent a repeat of the sharing of images from the murders of sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.“I strongly believe in the British policing model of policing by consent,” said Ms Cooper. “That’s something we should be proud of.“But that means we also have to stand up for it and deliver reforms that achieve it. There have been none of those reforms from the home secretary.“Labour has set out a plan …including reforms to training, to misconduct and at their heart making sure that violence against women and girls is part of the Strategic Policing Requirement given to police forces by the Home Office so that you challenge internal cultural issues and [improve] policing in the country.”Ms Cooper said that confidence in the police in tackling violence against women and girls had become a particular problem after the murder of Ms Everard by a serving officer and the drop the rape charge rate to just 1.3 per cent.“Confidence in the police has dropped on this home secretary’s watch and her failure to act is letting both the police and our communities down,” she said.“Successive Conservative home secretaries have stood back and shrugged their shoulders over police standards, choosing only to cut or criticise the police instead.“That is not good enough – policing, and trust in policing, are far too important for the home secretary to ignore in this way. Priti Patel’s failure of leadership is undermining confidence in policing and the crucial British principle of policing by consent.“Standards matter – for the police, for victims of crime, and for our communities. It is in all our interests to finally get this right.” More

A cabinet minister has insisted that Boris Johnson will survive his Partygate crisis to fight and win the next general election as Conservative leader.Brandon Lewis’s comment came amid growing pressure on the prime minister from Tory MPs to quit if he is fined by police over parties in Downing Street, with ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith saying it would be “very tough” for him to stay on.Mr Johnson will this week attempt to give his premiership a fresh start with a tour of the UK designed to dispel the impression that he is leading a narrow clique obsessed with power struggles in Westminster.His new No 10 chief of staff, Stephen Barclay, today promised the government will “take a step back from people’s lives” as it seeks to “restore a smaller state” in the wake of the pandemic.Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Barclay said: “It’s time to return to a more enabling approach. To trust the people, return power to communities and free up business to deliver.”Speaking to Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Mr Lewis denied that the prime minister had been distracted by the police investigation into Downing Street parties from crucial issues like the cost-of-living crisis, Covid and Russian aggression in Ukraine.The Northern Ireland secretary insisted: “He is absolutely focused on the job in hand, on what he is doing for the British people.”Mr Johnson is understood to be consulting lawyers as he fills out a legal questionnaire from the Metropolitan Police asking him to give credible explanations for his presence at up to six gatherings or face a fine.A Savanta ComRes poll for The Independent found that 75 per cent of voters think that if the PM is fined he should resign, compared to just 16 per cent who said he should stay.And Mr Duncan Smith said: “I think it would be very tough for anyone to remain after that – if you’ve set the laws, and you break them and the police decide you have broken them.”Meanwhile, Tory MPs are eyeing Labour’s lead in the polls with increasing concern as they weigh up whether Mr Johnson will be an asset or a liability for them in upcoming local elections in May.But Mr Lewis said: “He has my absolute 100 per cent-plus loyalty. I think this is a prime minister who is doing the right thing for our country. He’s got the big decisions right.“I think he will fight and he will win the next general election.”Mr Johnson is understood to have ditched plans for an overseas visit during the coming week’s parliamentary recess, in order to be on hand to lead the UK response if Russia invades Ukraine.Instead, he will visit factory workers and scientific researchers in Scotland, and meet health staff at a North-West cancer centre tackling the backlog of treatment after the pandemic.Ahead of the trip, the prime minister said: “I’m getting out of London this week and taking a simple message with me – this government is getting on with the job of uniting and levelling up the country.“Access to good healthcare, a good education, skilled work, reliable transport – none of this should depend on where you live. We’re changing the rules of the game to put fairness back at the heart of the system and focusing on the priorities that really matter to people. This is our mission and we’re getting on with delivering it.” More

Michael Gove has picked a controversial professor who suggested non-white British-born people are not “indigenous” to advise him on levelling up plans, The Independent can reveal. The appointment of Paul Collier, who claimed immigration has made “the indigenous British” a “minority” in London – apparently excluding ethnic minorities – has been condemned as “divisive” by anti-racism campaigners.The development economist at Oxford University also argued, at a seminar, that people born in this country should count as indigenous only if they have integrated into British society.In one TV interview, he also argued immigrants have led to Britons leaving the capital, asking: “Is London such a great success for the indigenous population?“Something rather drastic has happened to the indigenous population in London … I can think of no other major city where the indigenous population has more than halved.”The claim is based on Professor Collier’s assertion that the 2011 census revealed “indigenous” Britons are a minority in London – when it showed 63 per cent of the capital’s population was born in this country.Oxford professor says ‘indigenous London population’ undergoing ‘drastic’ changeThe appointment has been attacked as “deplorable” by a former chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum and as “dangerous” by a former Tory MEP.Dr Halima Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust race equality think tank, said: “Referring to indigenous Britons, which is a proxy for white Britons, is the incredibly divisive language used by the British National Party in the 1980s.“What place does such divisive politics have in levelling up, where the purpose is giving everybody a decent job and access to good education?” Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, which explores issues of race and integration, had the “unfortunate experience” of Prof Collier questioning if he is indigenous, at a seminar.“Collier wouldn’t answer that,” he said. “It depended on how integrated I am, apparently, which is giving second-class status to British people from ethnic backgrounds.”Maurice McLeod, chief executive of the campaign group Race on the Agenda, said: “Marginalised communities looking to the government to level the playing field will be dismayed.” The appointment accompanied the publication of the long-delayed blueprint to level up the country – Boris Johnson’s “mission” for his government – which was widely-derided for lacking beef.It will be guided by an advisory council with members “such as Sir Paul Collier, renowned economist at Oxford’s Blavatnik’s School of Government, providing further support and constructive analysis”, Mr Gove said.The 72-year-old is a former director of the development research group at the World Bank and was once named by Foreign Policy magazine on its list of top global thinkers. But he has been criticised repeatedly for the statement, in his book Exodus: How Migration is Changing Our World’, that: “The 2011 census revealed that the indigenous British had become a minority in their own capital.”The 2013 book also attacked the “easy-access welfare system, which tempts migrants into remaining at the bottom of the social ladder” and hinders integration.It warned of the weakening of “social bonds within the indigenous population”, adding: “As their locality becomes more culturally fragmented, people tend to withdraw from taking part in group activities and retreat into isolation. They opt out and hunker down – so society as a whole loses some of its cohesion.”In a 2015 debate, Prof Collier was urged to admit his “glaring error” in claiming migrants are a majority in London, but replied: “No I did not get a glaring error – it’s a perfectly meaningful statement.”He then appeared to admit the calculation required the exclusion of people who are “second generation” – those born in Britain, but with at least one parent who was an immigrant.When the interviewer, journalist Mehdi Hasan, who is British-born, of Indian descent, asked: “I’m not indigenous now?”, a clip shows the academic replying: “Absolutely.” Mohammed Amin, chair of the Tory Muslim Forum until he quit the party in 2019, told The Independent: “A person who holds these views is not fit to be appointed to any government advisory position. It’s deplorable.“It seems Collier does not regard my sister, who was born in this country, as indigenous, or her children who were born in this country as indigenous.”Sajjad Karim, a Tory MEP until 2019, criticised the levelling up policy moving into “a completely new place away from development”, adding: “Identity politics playing out as part of levelling up is not just opportunistic, but dangerous.”It is unclear precisely what Prof Collier’s role on the advisory council will be up, but it is likely to include scrutinising progress on 12 “missions” for the strategy. They include to improve everything from pay, jobs, research and development spending, and transport connectivity in struggling areas, to “restoring local pride”.The department of levelling up, housing and communities has refused to respond to requests to comment on the criticism, or to discuss Prof Collier’s role. He has been approached for a response. More