UK Politics

A cabinet minister promoted by Boris Johnson despite allegations of Islamophobia has revealed that an investigation into him is being conducted by the prime minister’s personal ethics adviser.Mr Johnson initially said the probe into close ally Mark Spencer would be carried out by Cabinet Office civil servants. The involvement of Lord Geidt suggests it has been escalated.He today said he found it “rough” that he was unable to defend himself against the accusations from Tory MP Nus Ghani in public until the inquiry is over – even though it was Mr Spencer himself who first revealed he was the subject of her complaint.The news came as a union representing Westminster staff voiced “concern” at Mr Spencer’s appointment on Tuesday as Leader of the Commons while he remains under investigation.Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of Prospect, warned the appointment could hit staff confidence in the Leader’s office unless the probe is completed swiftly.”Prospect notes with concern that the new Leader of the House of Commons, who has responsibility for standards in the House, is himself under investigation,” said Mr Graham.“We trust that this investigation will be concluded thoroughly and promptly so that staff in the House can maintain confidence in the system and in the Leader of the House.”The inquiry into Mr Spencer stems from Ms Ghani’s claim last month that she was told in 2020 she was being moved from a government post because her “Muslimness” made others uncomfortable.Mr Spencer, who was then chief whip, outed himself as the other person in the conversation and referred himself for investigation. But he rejects Ms Ghani’s account of his comments and insists he said nothing Islamophobic. Ms Ghani was the first female Muslim minister at the time of her initial appointment.The Sherwood MP told BBC Radio Nottingham today: “That investigation is ongoing… we wait for the results of that.“That is a bit rough, when you’re accused of something of that nature. It’s a bit rough not being able to defend yourself until the results of that investigation come forward.“I’ve just got to keep my mouth shut, present the facts to Lord Geidt – who’s doing the investigation – and then once that’s concluded, I think we’ll be able to have a fairly open conversation about that.”Mr Johnson asked the Cabinet Office to “establish the facts” last month, but there has been no announcement of the probe being handed over to Lord Geidt. A spokesperson for the PM confirmed that Ms Ghani spoke to him about her concerns in 2020 and was encouraged to use the Conservative Party’s internal complaints process.Health minister Ed Argar today said Mark Spencer had been a “highly effective” chief whip, and that it would not be right to comment on the ongoing investigation.Asked about Mr Spencer’s move during Tuesday’s mini-reshuffle, Mr Argar told Times Radio: “Speaking on the basis of my working relationships, and as a colleague, I’ve always found Mark to be an incredibly decent, forthright and genuine person and I found him to be a highly effective chief whip.“And from my perspective as a minister taking legislation through the House of Commons… indeed at the moment, I rate Mark’s skills very highly and I look forward to working with him as Leader of the House in helping to get my legislation through, as well as every other piece of legislation.” More

Boris Johnson’s government has been accused of slashing aid spending “on the sly” by using Covid vaccine donations to developing countries in its planned budget.Analysis by the Centre for Global Development (CGD) claimed that by overestimating the cost of providing the vaccines to developing countries, the government could reduce the amount it spent on aid by around £171m.Ranil Dissanayake, a policy fellow at the CGD, said the move would be “immoral” and “illogical” and claimed it would cut real spending on aid by more than the government donated to Uganda and Tanzania combined last year.The Foreign Office said a final approach to spending had not been “finalised”, but a coalition of aid charities urged the government to scrap plans to count vaccine donations towards aid spending to be scrapped entirely.Dissanayake said: “The UK has made many bad calls with its aid budget, but this one is truly scandalous: they plan to make a fiscal ‘profit’ on donated vaccines by claiming a larger ODA [official development assistance] value than we paid for them.”The UK has promised to donate 100 million vaccine doses to developing countries by June 2022, including 80 million AstraZeneca vaccines and 20 million from Johnson and Johnson.Although the price paid for the vaccines has not been published, both the British Medical Journal and the CGD have estimated the cost to the UK at three dollars per dose for AstraZeneca and between 8.50 dollars and 10 dollars per dose for Johnson and Johnson.This would give an average of around 4.40 dollars per dose donated by the UK, but proposals being discussed by major donors would allow countries to claim they cost 6.72 dollars per dose when calculating their spending on international aid.Donors argue that this better reflects the global average price per vaccine, but it is well above the level the UK is likely to have paid and would allow the government to claim it has spent more on aid than it actually had.Mr Dissanayake said: “It’s immoral to cut aid because we’re giving away vaccines we bought for ourselves already.” He added: “Our global partners deserve better than these tricks to minimise our help to them.”CGD polled MPs on the subject, finding that 92 per cent thought the UK should only claim at most the price paid for the vaccines as aid spending, rather than claiming the higher, global price.A group of 32 international development organisations – including ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children – have gone further, calling for plans to count vaccine donations towards aid spending to be scrapped entirely.In a statement, organised by umbrella body Bond, the coalition said: “These vaccine doses were never purchased in the interest of development partners and should not be counted as such.”They added: “Tapping into existing ODA budgets to pay for doses never originally intended for developing countries risks, in some cases, diverting funds away from other vital humanitarian and development programmes.”A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “The UK has donated over 30 million doses to countries in need already and we are managing our vaccine supply so that all vaccines are either used as quickly as possible in our domestic programme or shared internationally.“The UK is actively engaging with the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee on proposals for valuing Covid-19 vaccines in Official Development Assistance in 2021. The final approach has not yet been finalised.” More

The “trickle-down economics” espoused by Margaret Thatcher has not worked out as planned and failed large parts of the country, Michael Gove has admitted.In a speech on Tuesday Michael Gove told an audience in Liverpool that the “traditional view” of the free market espoused by the Tories had turned out to be false.The former prime minister Ms Thatcher famously argued in the 1980s that a “rising tide lifts all boats” to justify her economic policies – which exacerbated regional imbalances and inequality. “There’s been a traditional economic view, not just on the right but generally on the right, which says that the market will find its own level,” Mr Gove said. He added that people had believed that if one part of the country, such as London was overheating, higher rental costs and congestion would send jobs to other regions.“But actually all our experience is that that is not the case,” the communities secretary conceded.“Unless government takes a lead then what we see is an agglomeration effect. What people have called the Matthew effect: ‘to them that have more shall be given’. And that is why government has to act.”Mr Gove conceded it might seem “odd” for a politician from the right wing of politics to admit “trickle down economics” had failed the country.But he said that “what government needs to do is make sure the economic soil is irrigated, it needs to make sure that the climate as far as possible is conditioned for growth”.His comments are likely to enrage other Tories, who are strongly in favour of a more purely laissez-faire approach to managing the economy with a much more limited role for the state.Some right-wingers, like former minister Steve Baker, have previously described some government policies as “socialist”.Mr Gove last week released a white paper spelling out his objectives for “levelling up” left-behind areas of the country. The plan lays out 12 missions to achieve by 2030 such as increased pay, improved public transport, and narrowing gaps in life expectancy. But critics pointed out that there was little in the way of cash or solid policy to match its ambitions. More

Boris Johnson is past “the point of no return” following the Partygate scandal and should step down, a major Conservative Party donor has said.Finance mogul John Armitage, who has given the Tories more than £3m, has said he found the political situation surrounding No 10 “tremendously upsetting”.After months of allegations of parties and a fresh controversy over his Jimmy Savile remarks, the prime minister opted to embark on a mini-reshuffle on Tuesday as he attempted to regain his grip on power.However, Mr Armitage told the BBC he thought political leaders should resign if they lose “moral authority”, adding: “I find the lack of honour inherent in modern politics incredibly distressing.”Asked by Laura Kuenssberg if Mr Johnson was “past the point of no return”, Mr Armitage said: “Well, personally yes.”The donor added: “Politicians should go into politics to do good for their country. That is the overwhelming reason to be in politics. I don’t think it’s about your own personal sense of getting to the top of a snakes-and-ladders game.”Mr Johnson will face MPs after tinkering with his top team as he looks to stave off a confidence vote and lay the foundations for the next election battle.Expected to join the PM on the frontbench for PMQs on Wednesday is new chip whip Chris Heaton-Harris. The long-time ally of Mr Johnson replaces Mark Spencer, who was moved to Commons leader.The prime minister has also announced a series a personnel changes at Downing Street in bid to win over wavering backbenchers considering sending no-confidence letters to the 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady.Asked about the shake-up at No 10, Mr Armitage said: “It’s about more than like, ‘If I’m failing, I’ve done a few things wrong, oh gosh, I’m going to change my advisers, God above!’.”“What about a sense of personal responsibility? You know, ‘I’m going to change my chief of staff and it will all be fine’. Oh, really?”Mr Johnson has chosen to make smaller changes now before a fuller ministerial overhaul in the summer, according to a report in The Times, as he prepares to make his team battle-ready for a general election.The next national poll is due to take place in 2024, but there have been suggestions that Mr Johnson could push for it to be held a year early.The same newspaper also reported allies of the PM had said he would not resign even if the police investigation into alleged lockdown-breaking parties in No 10 results in him being fined. More

Health minister Gillian Keegan has apologised for continuing with an in-person meeting with bereaved parents after she was told that she had tested positive for Covid.The Conservative MP said was informed that a lateral flow test had returned a positive result on Tuesday whilst speaking to a group in her role as minister for care and mental health.The minister said those at the meeting consented to carrying on with the discussion – but admitted to “an error of judgment” by failing to leave.“I told them the result and took further precautions but with their consent, I stayed for a short period to hear their stories,” Ms Keegan said in a Twitter thread.“I should have immediately ended the meeting and on reflection this was an error of judgment on my part.”The health minister added: “I fully recognise the importance of following the letter and spirit of the policies, so want to be upfront about what happened and to apologise for the mistake I made.”The meeting was with three men who had lost their daughters to suicide. Tim Owen, one of the fathers who met Ms Gillian Keegan said “she stayed massively well distanced and separated from us”.He told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme: “We were more than two metres away from her at all times in the meeting, so we are massively relaxed about it.”Health secretary Sajid Javid has accepted Ms Keegan’s apology after speaking to her about Tuesday’s events and “continues to support her in her role”.The minister said she was now isolating at home after the test on Tuesday and “fortunately feel fine”.The government’s current Covid rules say an individual must isolate from others “straight away” if the test positive from a lateral flow result.Follow health minister Ed Argar, doing the media round for the government, said Ms Keegan had “made an error of judgement” but had apologised.“She has clearly issued a fulsome apology there, that she did make an error of judgement. She was open about that and she accepted she made an error of judgement,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.Asked about the apparent breach of the rules, Labour’s shadow Treasury minister Pat McFadden said: “I think after two years people are a bit weary of this, but still, if you test positive, best thing to do is go home.”Lobby Akinnola, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved families for Justice, said: “This is completely morally irresponsible behaviour.”He added: “It’s deeply disturbing that this came from one of the country’s health ministers. Once again we are seeing those in government setting a poor example for the rest of the country to follow.” More

A former Conservative minister has said Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile smear attack against Sir Keir Starmer was “grim” and warned against the use of such tactics in the run-up to the general election.Mark Harper became the latest Tory MP to speak out against the prime minister’s discredited claim that the Labour leader had “failed” to prosecute the paedophile.One unnamed Conservative MP said they expected to “see some more of this sort of thing in the run-up to the next general election”, according to HuffPost UK.Responding, Mr Harper tweeted: “Grim. This is not the kind of country we want to be. The prospect of adopting this approach poses yet more serious questions for my Conservative MP colleagues and I to consider in the weeks and months ahead.”The ex-chief whip’s warning that Tory backbenchers were considering the Savile slur as they pondered the prime minister’s future was shared on Twitter by influential backbencher Steve Baker MP.At least 12 Tory MPs – including David Davis, Sir Roger Gale, Stephen Hammond, Tobias Ellwood and Julian Smith – have now tweeted criticism of the prime minister or spoken publicly condemning his remarks.Health minister Ed Argar defended Mr Johnson over the controversy on Wednesday – claiming it was nothing “personal” and suggesting that the PM would not be apologising at PMQs later today.Mr Argar told Sky News: “The prime minister has been very clear. He’s clarified what he was talking about. He’s clarified that he was talking about Sir Keir in the context of his leadership role at the CPS.”He added: “It wasn’t a personal point he was making … I accept that clarification, but we all need to be mindful of the language we use.”Mr Johnson was rebuked by the Commons speaker and warned that “words have consequences” after a mob surrounded Sir Keir and shouted abuse, repeating slurs about Savile.Sir Lindsay Hoyle said condemned his remarks in Commons last week were “inappropriate” and “only inflame opinions”.Meanwhile, former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major is expected to offer criticism of Mr Johnson and the loss of trust over the Partygate scandal this week.The ex-Tory leader will speak at Institute of Government on Thursday in a speech entitled “In democracy we trust?” Sir John will “call into question” No 10’s response to allegations of parties and lockdown rule breaches, according to The Telegraph.It follows major Tory donor John Armitage saying Boris Johnson is past “the point of no return” following the Partygate scandal and should step down. More

The list of companies given “VIP” treatment for Covid contracts is even larger than Boris Johnson’s government has admitted, a legal campaign group has claimed.In November, the government shared a list of 50 companies fast-tracked for contracts to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) through a “High Priority Lane”.The so-called “VIP lane” was set up at the start of the pandemic and allowed MPs, ministers and senior government officials to pass on offers of help to a special email inbox.The Good Law Project has said it had been leaked internal documents showing that another 18 companies – awarded almost £1bn in PPE contracts between them – were also referred to as “VIPs”.A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson denied that these companies had been referred to government officials through the High Priority Lane route.But Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said it was “abundantly clear” from both a DHSC document and internal emails that these companies were treated as VIPs in the process of handing out contracts.“None of the contracts were subject to competition,” Mr Maugham said – arguing that the government “misled” the National Audit Office about the size of the “VIP lane”.The list of 18 companies complied by the Good Law Project was taken from a DHSC spreadsheet entitled ‘Product_VIP_Atamis’, the campaign group revealed on Tuesday.The Good Law Project said the companies may not have been aware they were referred to as “VIPs”. There is no suggestion the companies were involved in any wrongdoing.The health department said the “VIP” designation was used for labelling purposes, but does not mean these offers were prioritised via the high-priority route.A DHSC spokesperson said: “It is inaccurate to claim that all of these companies were referred by the High Priority Lane route.”“The purpose of the High Priority Lane was to efficiently prioritise credible offers of PPE, and our efforts have helped deliver over 17.5 billion items of PPE to the frontline to protect healthcare workers during the pandemic.”The Independent understands one of companies on the list of 18 referred to as a “VIP” should have been included in the High Priority Lane list, and the health department is updating its list.It follows accusations that the government “wasted” billions on unusable PPE and buying kit at inflated prices, after a report revealed the huge scale of losses.The department of health’s annual accounts report revealed that £8.7bn spent on PPE last year had been written off – admitting to a “significant loss of value to the taxpayer”.Around £2.6bn was spent on PPE “not suitable for use in the NHS”. But the DHSC attributed the biggest losses to the value of its remaining stock being slashed by £4.7bn as the price of PPE dropped. More

The Foreign Office has been a “target of a serious cyber security incident”, according to a public tender document.The document, which did not outline what happened or who was behind it, said urgent support is required to “support remediation and investigation”.It added that BAE Systems Applied Intelligence was called in to deal with the incident and received more than £467,000 for its work.The document said the work required involved “business analyst and technical architect support to analyse an authority cyber security incident”.The firm’s contract was concluded on 12 January this year, although it has not been confirmed when the incident took place or the extend of the damage. It is understood that all parts of the Government implement cyber security defences to identify and prevent potential attempts by cyber criminals to gain access to networks.The tender document, which was published on Friday, said: “The Authority was the target of a serious cyber security incident, details of which cannot be disclosed.“In response to this incident, urgent support was required to support remediation and investigation.”A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said: “We do not comment on security but have systems in place to detect and defend against potential cyber incidents.”Additional reporting by Press Association. More