UK Politics

Anti-vaxxers have said they will continue targeting politicians after Keir Starmer was mobbed by a group of protesters.Activists could be heard branding the Labour leader a “traitor”, referring to Jimmy Savile and calling him a “paedo protector” and shouting that Covid vaccines “are killing people”, during the incident on Monday.Sir Keir was bundled into a police car to get away from the mob near parliament, sparking renewed pressure for Boris Johnson to withdraw claims that the former director of public prosecutions was responsible for failing to prosecute Savile.The Labour leader, alongside shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, appear to have accidentally walked into a “freedom convoy” protest organised by prominent conspiracy theorists including Piers Corbyn.One anti-vaxx activists attending filmed the aftermath and said Sir Keir had “got a message”.“He looked so scared, he looked petrified,” she said in a video posted to almost 12,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app. “All they were doing was shouting, the guy was protected by security, telling a few home truths.”The woman said protesters had asked the politician if he was working for the “New World Order” and was a “traitor of the people”.“This is being called ‘harassment’ and we expect more arrests in line with the alleged ‘harassment and common assault’ of Chris Whitty,” she wrote.“A message to all politicians, if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen; for one day, you will all be held to account.”Footage of the confrontation was shared on Mr Corbyn’s channel, where a post said the Labour leader had been “told by the people what they think of him”.In a separate video Mr Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said he would return to another “freedom convoy” demonstration the following day.He hailed Monday’s protest as a “brilliant day”, adding: “Well done to everybody involved.”The footage was widely shared and discussed in Telegram groups used by anti-vaxxers and anti-lockdown activists on Monday night.“They [politicians] are all SCUM,” one channel member wrote. “Going to need more than a few goons as personal protection if things get any worse. Not a threat. A prediction.”Others suggested the incident was a “set up”, involving “agents provacateur” to discredit the anti-lockdown movement. More

British leader Boris Johnson was refusing Tuesday to retract his false claim that a political opponent helped a sex abuser evade justice, as the opposition accused the prime minister of deploying dangerous Trump-style politics.Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party was harassed outside Parliament on Monday by protesters against coronavirus restrictions, who could be heard yelling accusations of “protecting pedophiles” — echoing a slur made by Johnson last week.Johnson accused Starmer in the House of Commons of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile for sexual abuse when Starmer was the U.K.’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. Savile was a long-time presenter of youth television shows who was exposed after his death in 2011 as a sexual predator who had abused hundreds of children. A 2013 report found that Starmer hadn’t been involved in decisions about whether Savile should be prosecuted.Labour lawmaker Rosena Allin-Khan said Johnson was prepared to “smear any person or group who stands in his way and benefit only himself.” “This is straight out of the Trumpian playbook,” she said.Johnson called the harassment of Starmer “absolutely disgraceful,” but didn’t accept any responsibility.Technology Minister Chris Philp argued that Johnson wasn’t responsible for the behavior of the protesters, who, he said, “did mention Jimmy Savile. They also mentioned Julian Assange repeatedly, they mentioned COVID, they also mentioned the opposition more generally.”“I don’t think you can point to what the prime minister said as the cause of that,” Philp said.Monday’s incident, which saw Starmer driven away in a police car and two arrests, heightened concerns that the atmosphere of British politics has become more toxic.Two members of Parliament have been killed in recent years. Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death as he met with constituents in October, in what police have called an act of terrorism. In 2016, Labour legislator Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a man with far-right views.Cox’s sister Kim Leadbeater — now a Labour lawmaker herself — said that while the protesters were responsible for their actions, “we also have to be clear that things don’t happen in a vacuum.”“And while ever we have a culture of toxicity and aggression and lies in politics, we have to think about the consequences of that,” she told the BBC.The Starmer altercation added to discontent among Conservatives with Johnson, whose grip on power has been shaken by public anger over revelations that his staff held office parties in 2020 and 2021 while millions in Britain were barred from meeting with friends and family because of his government’s COVID-19 restrictions.Conservative lawmakers are mulling whether to seek a no-confidence vote in the leader who won them a big parliamentary majority just over two years ago. Under party rules, a no-confidence vote is triggered if 15% of party lawmakers — currently 54 people — write letters calling for one. If Johnson lost such a vote, he would be replaced as party leader and prime minister. More

Portugal’s incoming Socialist government is freezing out a right-wing populist party that surprisingly placed third in a recent general election.Portugal witnessed a surge in support for populists in the Jan. 30 election of a new parliament, more than a decade after a similar development in other European Union countries.The office of incoming prime minister António Costa said that before taking office later this month he would meet with all other political parties, as well as trade unions, employers, national charities and others, to discuss future policies.But the statement late Monday made no mention of meeting with representatives of Chega (Enough), which snared 12 seats in the 230-seat parliament. That was up from just one seat in the previous election, in 2019.The center-left Socialist party won in a landslide, collecting a majority of 117 seats, ahead of the center-right Social Democrats with 71.Chega, which describes itself as nationalist and conservative, was founded just three years ago. It says the U.N.-sponsored Global Compact for Migration is “suicidal” and claims that some retired police officers receive pensions of just 290 euros ($330) while some people earning a poverty allowance of a couple of hundred euros (dollars) a month own a Mercedes car.The statement from the prime minister’s office gave no reason for excluding Chega. But the party was the target of fierce Socialist attacks during the election campaign.Portugal adopted a fully democratic system of government only after a 1974 army coup toppled a right-wing dictatorship. More

Boris Johnson’s slurs about Jimmy Savile against Keir Starmer did not “incite” or “provoke” a mob who surrounded and hurled abuse at the Labour leader last night, a government minister has attempted to claim.Despite calls from Tory MPs for the prime minister to apologise over his remarks, minister Chris Philp said he he did not believe the incident at Westminster on Monday evening was a result of the prime minister’s comments.It comes after Sir Keir was bundled into a police car for his own safety after being targeted outside Parliament by angry protestors, heckling “traitor”, “Jimmy Savile” and accusing him of “protecting paedophiles”.David Davis, a former Tory cabinet minister, said Mr Johnson should “shoulder responsibility” and “apologise unreservedly” for falsely accusing the Labour leader of failing to prosecute Savile while working as director of public prosecutions.A second former minister, Julian Smith, said the scenes in Westminster were “appalling” and said it was “really important for democracy” and Sir Keir’s security that the prime minister must withdraw his “false Savile smears”.Speaking on Sky News, Mr Philp argued “all of us across the political spectrum should unreservedly condemn” the action of the protestors who surrounded Sir Keir and the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy.But the minister went on: “They did mention Jimmy Savile, they also mention Julian Assange repeatedly, they mentioned Covid, they mentioned the opposition more generally — so I don’t think you can point to the what the prime minister said as the cause of that.“You certainly can’t blame him for the fact that mob were clearly behaving in a totally unacceptable way”.Mr Philp, who also argued that Mr Johnson had already “clarified” his remarks, went on: “You certainly can say that what he said in any way prompted, provoked, or justified the harassment and intimidation we saw last night.“I don’t think in any way justified, provoked, or incited the terrible and totally unacceptable and harassment and intimidation of the leader the opposition we saw last night.”Pressed further, he added: “I don’t think you can make a link, reasonably, between what the prime minister said and the harassment and intimidation. This group of people were talking about a number of things, as well as Jimmy Savile.”After Monday evening’s incident, the prime minister made no reference to his previous comments in the House of Commons, but said: “The behaviour directed at the leader of the opposition tonight is absolutely disgraceful.“All forms of harassment of our elected representatives are completely unacceptable. I thank the police for responding swiftly.”Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, said the harassment of Sir Keir, however, could have been an “unintended consequence” of the prime minister’s choice to “inject poison into politics“ with his Savile comment.“If it was a one-off, I think we could be more sanguine about it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “But I think what we’ve seen over the last few years really has been an increase in that level of intimidation online, absolutely, but also face to face.”He added: “I think that it’s very hard to draw a direct link and to say that in some ways, the prime minister is directly responsible for what happened. I think the people that are directly responsible for what happened yesterday were the people that did it.“However, it’s also true that if you inject poison into politics, that has a whole set of unintended consequences that people will react to in different ways and at times that can lead over into intimidation, it can lead over to violence, it can lead over into extremism.” More

Tory MPs have broken ranks and accused the prime minister of deploying “Trumpian” politics for smearing opposition leader Keir Starmer.Government ministers took to the radio on Tuesday morning to defend Boris Johnson, who had made a discredited linking the Labour leader to Jimmy Savile. But disquiet on the Tory backbenches over the episode mounted on Monday night after Sir Keir was accosted by protesters in Westminster shouting about his supposed role in not prosecuting the notorious sex offender – a claim spread by the PM.Tobias Ellwood, chair of parliament’s defence select committee urged Mr Johnson to “apologise please”, adding:”We claim to be the Mother of all parliaments. Let’s stop this drift towards a Trumpian style of politics from becoming the norm. We are better than this.”Another Tory MP, Anthony Manganall, also appeared to compare the prime minister to former US president Donald Trump.”Debate and discourse in this country are essential,” he said, adding: “We are not America.”Mr Manganall, MP for Totness, added: “What happened to Keir Starmer and David Lammy [was] unacceptable. We must do better, which means leading by example in Westminster.”Boris Johnson on Monday night condemned the protesters, who repeated his claims from the House of Commons while surrounding Sir Keir.”The behaviour directed at the Leader of the Opposition tonight is absolutely disgraceful. All forms of harassment of our elected representatives are completely unacceptable,” he said.But representing the government in interviews with broadcasters on Tuesday Tory minister Chris Philp told the BBC: “The first comments in the House on the previous Monday were capable of being misconstrued and that is why it is important and right that a couple of days later that Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, did clarify that he was not suggesting at any time that Keir Starmer had personal responsibility for the case. But he obviously did have responsibility for the conduct of the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service).”I don’t think there is any way you can reasonably suggest that the comments on Keir Starmer’s overall responsibility for the CPS in any way provoked the very unseemly and totally unacceptable harassment we saw last night.”The PM had originally claimed that Sir Keir “spent more time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can make out” while he was director of public prosecutions. More

Websites that publish pornography will be legally required to verify the age of their users under new online safety rules, the Government has announced.Marking Safer Internet Day, digital minister Chris Philp confirmed the draft Online Safety Bill is to be strengthened to require all sites which publish pornographic content to put “robust checks” in place to ensure users are 18 or over.Sites could use secure age verification technology to confirm a user possesses a credit card and is therefore at least 18, or use a third-party service to confirm someone’s age against government data.Ministers said that if sites fail to act, Ofcom, as the sector’s regulator, will be able to fine them up to 10% of their annual global turnover or block their site in the UK, while bosses of such sites could be held criminally liable if they fail to co-operate with Ofcom.“It is too easy for children to access pornography online. Parents deserve peace of mind that their children are protected online from seeing things no child should see,” Mr Philp said.“We are now strengthening the Online Safety Bill so it applies to all porn sites to ensure we achieve our aim of making the internet a safer place for children.”Prior to this announcement, only commercial porn sites that allow user-generated content were in the scope of the Bill – the update means all commercial porn sites are now within the scope of the proposed new rules.The Government said the onus will be on the companies and sites themselves to decide on how best to comply with the new rules, adding that Ofcom may recommend the use of certain age verification technology, but said that the measures put in place should not process or store data that is irrelevant to the purpose of checking someone’s age.Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said: “It’s right the Government has listened to calls to fix one of the gaps in the Online Safety Bill and protect children from pornography wherever it’s hosted.“Crucially, they have also acted on our concerns and closed the ‘Only Fans loophole’ that would have let some of the riskiest sites off the hook despite allowing children access to extremely damaging material.“But the legislation still falls short of giving children comprehensive protection from preventable abuse and harmful content and needs significant strengthening to match the Government’s rhetoric and focus minds at the very top of tech companies on child safety.”Alex Davies-Jones, Labour’s shadow minister for tech, gambling and the digital economy, said: “Labour has long called on the Government to offer security for young people online, and we’re glad it has accepted our call for all pornography sites to stop children accessing them by using age-verification technology.“We need strict age protection rules, while tightly regulating age-verification tech to ensure they are not being used to collect unnecessary personal data and to protect people’s privacy online.“Ultimately the Tories’ persistent delays on online safety legislation means that another generation have grown up with access to harmful content online – they can and must do better.”Press Association More

Boris Johnson was tonight accused of running an administration like TV’s The Thick of It, as his new communications chief used an interview on his first day in the job to say that the prime minister was “not a complete clown”.Meanwhile, Mr Johnson was forced to deny a rift with his chancellor after the pair used a joint photo-opportunity to unveil only part of the NHS recovery plan, which had been expected on Monday but was reportedly delayed as a result of Treasury concerns over value for money.And the newly appointed head of the Downing Street policy unit declared that the Conservative Party was an “insurgent” force fighting a battle of ideas against a better-armed left-wing establishment.The PM continued his shake-up of No 10 in the wake of Sue Gray’s interim report into the Partygate scandal, moving adviser Henry Newman – a close ally of his wife, Carrie – into Michael Gove’s levelling up department.But he came under fire in the House of Commons after his new chief of staff, Stephen Barclay, failed to turn up to answer MPs’ questions about how he would combine his new role with his current job as Cabinet Office minister.And there were warnings that the creation of a new Office of the Prime Minister, bringing together elements of the current 10 Downing Street and Cabinet Office operations, could cost the taxpayer as much as £15m.Calling on Mr Johnson to reveal the cost, Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “This will use up vital cash that could be spent on helping households cope with a cost-of-living crisis.”Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said Mr Barclay was “too busy rearranging the deckchairs” to attend, while shadow health secretary Wes Streeting compared the PM and chancellor’s joint appearance to the chaotic scenes in Armando Ianucci’s political satire.The NHS was waiting for the government’s plan to deal with a backlog of 6 million people awaiting treatment following the pandemic, Mr Streeting told the Commons.And he asked: “Where is it? It was due to be published today but was pulled last night.“It’s like something from The Thick Of It, but the reality is worse than fiction. A photo-opp without a plan, their own NHS recovery plan just another cancelled operation.”Downing Street insisted that the full plan would be published by the end of this week, and would include new targets for cancer treatment, unveiled today. The new goals require a two-month maximum wait for cancer treatment by March 2023, and 75 per cent of cancer cases to be diagnosed before reaching stage 3 by 2028.Mr Johnson said he was “absolutely not” doubtful of the loyalty of his chancellor, who has been accused of being “on manoeuvres” as speculation swirls in Westminster about an imminent leadership contest.“Everybody in No 10 and the Treasury is working together in harmony to deal with the big problems that the country faces and clearing the Covid backlogs,” said the PM.But the head of the NHS Confederation, representing health service bosses, said it appeared Mr Sunak was withdrawing support from Downing Street initiatives as Mr Johnson’s influence waned.Matthew Taylor, who served in No 10 under Tony Blair, said the scenario was reminiscent of the final days before the handover to Gordon Brown: “HMT [the Treasury] is loath to agree to any No 10 plans involving money as the ChX [chancellor] sees these as opportunistic and wasted on a dying administration.”Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson dismissed the claim as “inaccurate”. But Treasury sources have briefed that Mr Sunak was unwilling to sign off on the multibillion-pound NHS recovery plan because he thought its targets were ill-conceived.The chancellor appears to fear that the plan will prioritise targeting very long waits – which attract the worst headlines – over patients who have waited less time but need treatment more urgently.Health secretary Sajid Javid denied the Treasury had put the brakes on his plan, insisting: “There has been no argument – there has been a very active discussion … The plan has been delayed, but it’s been delayed by Omicron.”Meanwhile, Downing Street’s new director of communications, Guto Harri, used an interview with a Welsh-language website to paint a colourful picture of a meeting he had had with the PM on the day before his appointment.When he asked the prime minister whether he could survive threats of a no-confidence vote from his own MPs, Mr Harri said, Mr Johnson began to sing Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit “I Will Survive”. And he said the PM had offered to “take the knee” in a joking reference to the gesture that had cost him his previous job on GB News.“He’s not a complete clown, but he’s a very likeable character,” Mr Harri told Golwg 360. “Ninety per cent of our discussion was very serious, but it shows that he is a character and has fun. He is not a vicious man, as some misrepresent him.”Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, responded: “So many people still struggling with the impacts and trauma of Covid, or worrying about the spiralling costs of living … but for Boris & Co it’s all just a bit of a laugh.“This isn’t funny – in the current circumstances, it is offensive.”There was unease among some MPs about Mr Harri’s previous work as a lobbyist for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, which has been banned from involvement in the UK’s 5G network over security concerns.Downing Street insisted that there was no conflict of interest, and that the work Mr Harri had undertaken for his previous employer, Hawthorn Advisers, had been “entirely legitimate”.But Labour demanded “full transparency” about his contacts with the government on Huawei’s behalf.And one Tory backbencher told The Independent: “We need to do something about this revolving door between big corporations and government, particularly when those big corporations are controlled by foreign communist parties.”Downing Street policy chief Andrew Griffith, also starting a new job after his predecessor, Munira Mirza, walked out last week in protest at Mr Johnson’s smear linking Sir Keir Starmer with Jimmy Savile, said that he wanted the Tories “rapidly” to return to priorities such as cutting taxes.Writing on the ConservativeHome website, Mr Griffith said he wanted Tory MPs to act as “a ‘hive mind’ of centre-right policy development”.“It is important that we do so,” he wrote. “In the battle of ideas, we remain an insurgent force: outgunned by the hegemony of left-wing orthodoxy that often lurks without challenge within swathes of the cultural and education establishment and in the state-supported media.” More