UK Politics

Keir Starmer’s party faces the prospect of bankruptcy after Labour’s biggest donor threatened to pull support for the party.Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the “remaining financial support” her union gives the party is “now under review” amid an ongoing industrial dispute.The union chief, who replaced Len McCluskey last year, is angry about an industrial dispute with a Labour council – and says Sir Keir’s party needs to act like “the party for workers” again.”Let me be very clear – the remaining financial support of Labour Party is now under review,” she said in a message on Wednesday evening.”Your behaviour and mistreatment of our members will not be accepted. It’s time to act like labour, be the party for workers.”Labour has already passed a round of mass redundancies and asked staff to take a real-terms pay cut amid a funding crisis in the party.The opposition outfit has seen a vast exodus of members since Sir Keir took over and stripped the party of most of its radical policies – resulting in a dramatic cut in membership subscriptions and shortfall in revenue. More

Boris Johnson’s enemies are plotting to bring him down with a “constant” leak of Downing Street party photos, cabinet minister Ben Wallace has suggested.The PM is under more pressure after the Metropolitan Police said inquiries would be widened to cover a No 10 quiz night, after a photo emerged of Mr Johnson and colleagues near a bottle of bubbly.The defence secretary acknowledged that more pictures of alleged rule-breaking events in Downing Street could emerge at any time.“The constant leaking is clearly designed for a purpose,” Mr Wallace told Times Radio, suggesting some were conspiring against Mr Johnson by sharing photos.He said: “Yes, there could be a photograph tomorrow, the next day or the day after – that’s clearly what’s behind some of the people’s motives.”Mr Wallace added: “How accurate they are, how much they are put in the right context, that’s what the police will find out.”Mr Johnson’s former strategist-turned-nemesis said on Wednesday that there were “way worse” photos of gatherings, suggested that further pictures exist of an alleged “Abba party” held in Mr Johnson’s Downing Street flat.It will raise fears among the prime minister’s team over the possible “drip drip” of damaging evidence emerging as the Met police probe proceeds and Tory MPs considering submitting no-confidence letters.Before the end of the week, officers from Operation Hillman will begin contacting more than 50 people thought to have been involved in No 10 and Whitehall gatherings which are under investigation.Mr Wallace was not clear whether Mr Johnson will tell the public if and when he receives a police questionnaire over alleged Covid breaches.He told the Today programme: “The prime minister has said he will be full and transparent. He will notify if he is receiving either any form of fine etc, but he’s also said he will publish the Sue Gray report in full.”The defence secretary denied Labour’s claim that the Partygate scandal was weakening the prime minister’s standing on the international stage at a crucial time. He said it was “absolutely the case” that Britain is recognised as “a serious player”.Meanwhile, Mr Wallace said Britain is putting another 1,000 troops on stand-by to go to eastern Europe in order to prove to Russia that Nato is “not flaky”.He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What this is really about is saying to president Putin, ‘Nato is not flaky. Nato will stand by its members, big or small’.”Mr Wallace said the troops could end up in any Nato country where there are consequences of an invasion of Ukraine including the Baltic states, Poland, Romania and Nordic nations.He said the British troops would provide “resilience” and “reassurance” and not to fight a war with Russia. “We’re not going deploying them, first and foremost, to war fight,” he told BBC Breakfast. More

The government is using inflation as “cover” to take more money from graduates and students, a respected economic think-tank has said.The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned on Thursday that a freeze to the repayment threshold and large real-term cuts in maintenance loans could cause “genuine hardship”.Inflation has hit highs not seen since the early 1990s but the government has decided not to increase the size of student maintenance loans or increase the repayment threshold to match.As a result the real-terms value of the loans has fallen, and people earning lower salaries are being sucked into having to make more or higher repayments.”The government seems determined to use high inflation as a cover for reducing the taxpayer cost of student loans,” said Ben Waltmann, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.”Large real-terms cuts in maintenance loans could cause genuine hardship for students on tight budgets. “A freeze in the repayment threshold mostly hits middle-earning graduates, whose budgets are already being squeezed by the rise in the cost of living, the freeze in the personal allowance and the hike in National Insurance. “And the extension of the freeze in maximum fees will add further pressure on universities, while only benefiting the highest-earning graduates.’The freeze to the repayment threshold for fees is likely to cost graduates around £150 extra a year in money taken from their payroll.Announcing the change at the end of January, Michelle Donelan, the higher education minister, said it would make sure the university funding system was providing “value for money for all of society at a time of rising costs”.She added: “Maintaining the repayment threshold at its current level, alongside the ongoing freeze in fees, will help to ensure the sustainability of the student loan system, while keeping higher education open to everyone who has the ability and the ambition to benefit from it, including the most disadvantaged.” More

Sir Keir Starmer has blamed Boris Johnson for his harassment by a group of antivax protesters who shouted a smear about Jimmy Savile, saying the PM knowingly pedalled “a conspiracy theory of violent fascists”.The Labour leader said Mr Johnson had used a “deliberate slur” and said there was a “link” between the prime minister’s remarks and the abuse he suffered from an angry mob on Monday.Sir Keir told The Times: “The PM knew exactly what he was doing. It is a conspiracy theory of violent fascists that has been doing the rounds for some time.”Mr Johnson has been condemned by MPs of all parties after his discredited claim that his rival had “failed” to prosecute notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile while he was director of public prosecutions.On Monday evening, police escorted the Labour leader away from demonstrators outside parliament, some of whom accused him of “protecting paedophiles”.Sir Keir said: “I have never been called a paedophile protector before. That happened yesterday for the first time in my life.“If others want to argue that this is unconnected with precisely what the prime minister said one week before then let them make that case. But they’ll never persuade me that there is no link.”The Labour leader added: “It’s not about me, it’s the way we conduct our politics. I don’t want to see us go down the route that this potentially takes us.”Around a dozen Conservative have criticised Mr Johnson over his failure to withdraw or apologise for what was branded a “scurrilous accusation” against Sir Keir.Mr Johnson’s official spokesman acknowledged his original words last week in the Commons were “capable of being misconstrued” and said that was why he subsequently issued a “clarification”.“The prime minister clarified his remarks last week to make clear he was not suggesting Keir Starmer was individually responsible for the Savile decision,” the spokesman said.Meanwhile, police are considering whether to investigate the funding of the lavish refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s official Downing Street flat following a complaint by lawyers acting for the Labour Party.In a letter to Scotland Yard, the solicitors said there was a “reasonable suspicion” that the PM had broken anti-bribery laws which the force was “duty-bound” to investigate.The Metropolitan Police confirmed they had received the letter which was being “considered” by officers from its Central Specialist Crime Command. Downing Street denied the allegations.Labour’s complaint follows the release last month of an exchange of WhatsApp messages between the PM and Tory donor Lord Brownlow.They show that Mr Johnson discussed a proposal by the peer for a “Great Exhibition 2.0” at the same time as requesting his help with the £112,000 revamp of his official residence.It comes as Downing Street staff are braced for questions from police as detectives investigating lockdown parties in No 10 begin contacting those believed to have been involved.Scotland Yard said by the end of the week officers from Operation Hillman will have started sending out formal legal questionnaires to more than 50 individuals.The events under investigation include a number known to have been attended by Mr Johnson, raising the prospect that he will be among those receiving a demand for answers in their inboxes.The announcement came after the Metropolitan Police said they would be widening their inquiries to cover a quiz night in No 10 in December 2020 after a photograph emerged of Mrs Johnson and colleagues near an open bottle of sparkling wine.In a statement the force said the questionnaire would ask for “an account and explanation of the recipient’s participation” in an event which is the subject of police inquiries.Recipients will be advised that the questionnaire has “formal legal status” and that they were required to respond “truthfully” within seven days. More

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing new calls to delay his planned 2.5 per cent national insurance hike, as fresh research pointed to prices outstripping wages and companies warned of a “cost of doing business crisis”.Meanwhile, campaigners warned that much of the money raised for social care from the tax rise will go to wealthy pensioners in expensive homes.Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of companies questioned in new research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said they will hike prices in response to rising costs, including spiralling energy bills and the NI increase coming into effect in April.And a separate survey found that fewer than one in three workers expect their wages to keep pace with rising prices, in what the TUC described as “the worst pay squeeze in 200 years”.The BCC called on the chancellor to help firms keep costs down by introducing a temporary energy price cap for companies to match the protection offered to households.And the business organisation urged Mr Sunak to delay the introduction of the £12bn national insurance rise for a year to avoid fuelling the current cost-of-living crisis.The NI hike – split evenly between employees and employers – will initially fund action to reduce the backlog of NHS treatments due to Covid as well as rises to nurses’ pay, but will eventually be split with the care system under the banner Health and Social Care Levy.The BCC identified the levy as one of the key factors in what it termed a “cost of doing business crisis”, alongside rising prices for energy, raw materials and staff wages.Some 73 per cent out of more than 1,000 companies questioned by the organisation said they were experiencing pressure to put prices up, with fewer than one in 10 (9 per cent) saying they were not. Half (50 per cent) said they were trying to cut costs and 18 per cent were reducing investment in response to the crisis.BCC director general Shevaun Haviland warned: “Without help from the Treasury to weather this storm many businesses, especially smaller ones, will be faced with a nearly impossible situation that will leave them with little choice but to raise prices.“Unabated, the surging cost pressures produced by the cost of doing business crisis will continue to lead to increased prices and fuel the cost-of-living crisis currently being faced by people across the country.”The TUC warned that pay growth is weakening across the economy just as bills are set to skyrocket, with real wages falling by 1.4 per cent in the private sector and 2.4 per cent in the public sector in the year to November.After inflation is taken into account, the average worker’s pay will fall by £50 a month in 2022, said general secretary Frances O’Grady.The Britain Thinks survey of 2,200 workers for the TUC found that 63 per cent expect their wages to rise by less than inflation this year, while 18 per cent believe they will keep pace with rising prices and just 11 per cent outstrip them.Rejecting the recent call from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey for “moderation” in wage increases to rein in inflation, Ms O’Grady said: “Energy prices are pushing up inflation – not wage demands.“The last thing hard-pressed households need right now is for their pay to be held down.”She added: “Workers are suffering the worst squeeze on wages in more than 200 years. Britain needs a pay rise – not more pay restraint.”Meanwhile, campaigners at Age UK warned that the flagship social care reform being funded by the hike will do nothing for less well-off elderly people, with most of the benefits going to the wealthiest.“Patently unfair and regressive” changes introduced at the last minute will water down the planned cap on care costs so that poorer people are far less likely ever to reach the threshold for protection than their richer counterparts, said the charity’s director Caroline Abrahams.Ms Abrahams said that the decision not to include payments from benefits towards the cap on care costs meant that wealthier pensioners needing care will reach the £86,000 limit within a couple of years, while less well-off people could keep paying for a decade or more – many until the end of their lives. Some four out of five elderly people will not benefit at all, she said.Urging peers to amend the plans when they reach the House of Lords, Ms Abrahams said: This is patently unfair, regressive and counter to the government’s ‘levelling-up agenda’.“I am struggling to remember the last time a government of any complexion trumpeted a social and economic reform and then ripped the heart out of it, of its own accord, less than two months later.“The only possible reason for doing so is cost-cutting, but to expect those with the fewest assets to pay the price, while favouring the better-off, is completely the wrong choice, in our view.” More

Britain is moving closer to “flawed democracy” status, according to an international index that champions freedom, civil liberties and good governance.The UK dropped two places in the global democracy rankings, with experts citing a series of scandals that have undermined trust in Boris Johnson’s government.The Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) placed the nation in 18th place in its latest democracy rankings, behind Taiwan and Uruguay, and just ahead of Mauritius and Costa Rica.Britain was given an overall score of 8.10 out of 10, a decline from 8.54 the previous year. In a gloomy assessment, the EIU said the country was “edging closer to a flawed democracy classification”.The UK was downgraded following a volatile year that saw “controversies over party financing and a series of scandals that have undermined confidence in government”.Kate Parker, the EIU’s senior European analyst, said concerns about lack of transparency over party funding – as well as high-profile scandals involving ministers and officials failing to follow Covid rules – had seen trust decline.“There’s the question of trust [and] public frustration with politicians,” Ms Parker told The Independent. “Those scandals during the pandemic have probably fed into weaker scores in trust in government.”She continued: “We’ve seen political membership dip, an indication of weaker citizen engagement. There’s a feeling among people that they don’t matter and can’t change things.”She added: “The UK still scores well within western Europe. But it’s the direction of travel, the decline, which is the concern.”The EIU shared fears about the pressure faced by democracies around the world, with growing support for authoritarian regimes and elected leaders facing huge challenges brought to bear by the Covid pandemic.The average global score in the 2021 Democracy Index fell from 5.37 in 2020 to 5.28 – the biggest year-on-year decline since 2010, shortly after the global financial crash.Spain was downgraded from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy”, reflecting a deterioration in the independence of its judiciary, while much of Europe also saw scores fall.According to the EIU’s measure of democracy, less than half (45 per cent) of the world’s population now lives in a democracy of some sort – a significant decline from 2020, when it was 49 per cent.Even fewer people (6.4 per cent) now live in a “full democracy”. This is slightly down from 6.8 per cent in 2020, after both Chile and Spain were downgraded to “flawed democracies”.More than a third of the world’s people (37.1 per cent) live under authoritarian rule, a large share of which are in China, according to the EIU analysis.The EIU’s overall index of democracy scores, based on a scale of one to 10, gives ratings for dozens of indicators grouped into five categories, including electoral processes, functioning of government, political culture and civil liberties.Afghanistan was ranked in last place on the index. It was one of three countries – the others being Myanmar and Tunisia – judged by the experts to have seen a sharp decline in democratic culture. More

The police investigation into alleged lockdown-breaching parties at Downing Street could be extended to include a 13th event, after a picture emerged of Boris Johnson with an open bottle of bubbly, a colleague wearing tinsel and another in a Santa hat.The photograph – obtained by The Daily Mirror – is understood to show a virtual Christmas quiz staged in No 10 in December 2020, which had previously been ruled out of the Metropolitan Police inquiry because of a lack of evidence that rules had been broken.But within hours of its publication, Scotland Yard said that its assessment was under review, raising the possibility that it will join the 12 Downing Street and Whitehall events currently being probed.It then revealed that detectives will begin contacting more than 50 people “believed to have taken part in the events” within days, to “get their accounts”.“This document, which asks for an account and explanation of the recipient’s participation in an event, has formal legal status and must be answered truthfully,” the Met said.Policing sources told The Times that Mr Johnson is expected to be among the dozens contacted over his involvement in the events. The Met’s first statement raises doubts over Mr Johnson’s claim in the House of Commons that the picture of him at the quiz had “already been submitted” to civil servant Sue Gray’s inquiry into the Partygate scandal.It will raise fears among the prime minister’s supporters over the danger of a further “drip drip” of damaging evidence emerging as the Met investigation proceeds.Mr Johnson’s former top adviser Dominic Cummings suggested that further pictures exist of an alleged “Abba party” held in Mr Johnson’s 11 Downing Street flat on the evening of his resignation in November 2020. And he argued that even a clean bill of health for the PM from the Met inquiry will not be enough to win over voters who have seen photos of apparent revelry in No 10 while they were confined to their homes.”There’s waaaaay better pics than that floating around, incl[uding] in the flat,” tweeted the former Vote Leave supremo.”Doesn’t matter if Cabinet Office stitch up Met like they did [the PM’s ethics adviser Lord] Geidt, the pics will come out and the public will think ‘Met lying’, not ‘Oh PM innocent after all’. Penny dropping with MPs…”The new photograph shows the prime minister with three members of staff around a table with what appears to be an open bottle of champagne and crisps. One staff member has a garland of tinsel round his neck, while another is sporting a red and white Santa hat.Downing Street previously said the quiz, held on 15 December 2020, took place virtually but with some members of staff taking part in the office.It took place during a period when indoor social mixing was banned in London, which was under tier 2 Covid restrictions.Official guidance also stated: “You must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity and is not otherwise permitted by the rules in your tier.”Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, previously suggested no rules were broken because “no alcohol” was consumed.”He’s on a virtual call, no alcohol, thanking his staff for 10 minutes before he goes back to work, is that really a terrible crime?” the minister asked in a TV interview last December.And the prime minister himself said at the time: “I can tell you once again that I certainly broke no rules.”Confronted over the photo in the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Johnson was told it looked like “one of the Christmas parties” that he had denied took place – but insisted the claim was “completely in error”.The PM was urged to “refer the matter to the police”, but replied: “That’s precisely the point – it already has been submitted for investigation.” And his press secretary later insisted that Ms Gray had been given access to “all evidence that she needed”. However, just a few hours later, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “The Met previously assessed this event and determined that on the basis of the evidence available at that time, it did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation. That assessment is now being reviewed.”The statement suggests that the picture was not included in the dossier of more than 300 photos and 500-plus pages of written evidence passed by Ms Gray to the police.Her interim report, published last month, indicated that the Met had excluded Downing Street’s festive quiz from its criminal investigation into 12 Downing Street and Whitehall events. but was looking at a Cabinet Office Christmas quiz held two days later.Other gatherings under investigation include the prime minister’s birthday celebration on 19 June 2020, a “bring your own booze” event in Downing Street’s garden, an alleged Christmas party and several leaving dos for No 10 and Cabinet Office staff.The Metropolitan Police will be writing to people suspected for breaching Covid restrictions in writing and asking whether they had a “reasonable excuse” in law for the gathering. If they do not, it can issue fines of between £100 and £10,000, depending on the law that was in force at the time, and the size of the gathering and the person’s role. Downing Street said on Wednesday that Mr Johnson had not yet been contacted.Meanwhile, Mr Johnson pressed ahead with his shake-up of Downing Street, appointing a former private healthcare boss to be the first civil service head of the Office of the Prime Minister, which is being created in an effort to show restive backbenchers he has reasserted his grip on the centre of power.Samantha Jones, who takes the title of permanent secretary and chief operating officer on an interim basis for six months, was chief executive of Operose Health before being appointed Mr Johnson’s expert advisor on NHS Transformation and Social Care in 2021. Operose is the UK arm of US health insurance giant Centene, which has sparked controversy by buying up GP services. Prior to that post, Ms Jones was a director at NHS England and chief executive of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust.Announcing her appointment, Mr Johnson said: “I promised to make changes to my senior team so that we can get on with better delivering for the British people.“That is what we are now doing by bringing in the very best skills and management experience with a clear vision to unite and level up our country.” Earlier reports had suggested he favoured NHS vaccines boss Emily Lawson or Home Office permanent secretary Antonia Romeo for the role. More