UK Politics

The Scottish government plans to fight Covid by cutting the bottom off classroom doors in schools, as a means of improving ventilation.Education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said an estimated 2,000 doors classrooms could benefit from being “undercut to increase air flow”.The proposal is part of a £4.3 million package to make schools safe for Covid-19.As scientists’ understanding of how Covid transmits has improved policymakers have increasingly focused on improving ventilation in indoor spaces.Across the UK businesses have been told to conduct ventilation audits to make sure their indoor spaces have adequate airflow – key to reducing transmission.In a letter to the Scottish Parlament’s education committee, the education secretary said the undercutting measure would cost an estimated £200,000.The measure is a relatively inexpensive part of the retrofitting programmes, and compare to £1.6 million set to be spent on air filters and £2.4 million for mechanical fans.”Based on informal local authority feedback, we expect that relatively only a very small number of learning, teaching or play spaces will have persistently high CO2 levels,” she said.”Scottish Government guidance, based on the current weight of expert advice, is that the primary focus of mitigating activity should be on regular CO2 monitoring and associated remedial actions to improve ventilation (i.e. the introduction of fresh air into spaces).”Where this cannot be readily achieved, and CO2 readings remain high, air cleaning/filtration devices may exceptionally be used as a temporary mitigation to reduce risks in problematic spaces while more sustainable, ventilation-based solutions are implemented.”The informal local authority feedback indicated that around 2-4% of spaces have so far fallen into that problematic category, equalling around 2,000 spaces out of 50,000 learning, teaching and play spaces across all local authority school and ELC settings.”The UK government’s building regulations on ventilation have long stipulated a minimum undercut in new houses in order to “ensure good transfer of air throughout the dwelling”.But the Scottish Tories seized on the unusual nature of the policy and branded the measure “crackpot”, with Meghan Gallacher, the party’s shadow children’s minister, asking: “Is sawing off the bottom of classroom doors seriously Scottish Government policy to tackle the ventilation problem in classrooms?” More

Michael Gove’s ‘levelling-up’ plan is facing mockery after it emerged that parts of it appeared to have been copied from Wikipedia.The white paper, released on Wednesday, also contains glaring publishing errors – with entire paragraphs repeated wholesale.Opposition parties said the document looked like it had been “cobbled together in a rush” and “recycled” from the internet and other government announcements.The white paper includes large sections of padding, with three pages devoted to the history of Jericho, Rome, and renaissance Europe. But bits of this section appear to have been lifted directly from the popular internet encyclopaedia.One off-beat part of the report reads: “Constantinople was the capital of the Roman/Byzantine Empire (330-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261) and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922)”.The text is identical to the first line of the Wikipedia page for Constantinople, right down to formatting and punctuation. Another section of the report includes a full-page timeline of the largest cities in the world since 7,000 BC which is identical to a table on Wikipedia’s “List of largest cities throughout history” page.Elsewhere, a paragraph about the history of the ancient city of Jerico is repeated twice on the same page – apparently not caught by proof-readers.The content of the report was blasted by opposition parties for lacking substance, with Labour suggesting most of it had been “repackaged, rehashed and recycled”.In terms of policy substance, eight of the document’s 12 “missions” are also the same as those included in Theresa May’s industrial strategy, which was released four years ago and then scrapped by the government.The government says the plan will help improve left-behind parts of the country – though it has provided little detail on how this would be achieved in practice, and no new cash to replace the deep cuts made by the government since it came to office in 2010.Liberal Democrat communities spokesperson Tim Farron, told The Independent: “The Levelling Up White Paper read like something which had been cobbled together in a rush, with no mention of the rural communities which have been long forgotten by this Government. So it’s not at all surprising to see entire sections lifted from Wikipedia.”The Conservatives can’t even muster up the effort to properly invest in some of our most deprived regions, so anything beyond a copy and paste job would have been surpassing expectations.”But as ever, this Government can’t even meet the low bar they have set of themselves. Their hollow promises to families facing a cost of living crisis aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.” More

Rishi Sunak says the No 10 parties have damaged public faith in Boris Johnson, but has insisted he still supports the beleaguered prime minister.The favourite to take over as Tory leader – if Mr Johnson is deposed – pointed to the need to “restore people’s trust” after the scandal and the ongoing police probe into breaches of Covid rules.Asked if Mr Johnson “always told the truth, the chancellor replied: “Yes, of course he does. He’s the prime minister of the United Kingdom.”But, asked if trust had been hit, he said: “Yes, I think it has. I can appreciate people’s frustration. And I think it’s now the job of all of us in government, all politicians, to restore people’s trust.”Asked if he will be a contender if there is a leadership race, Mr Sunak said: “No, that’s not what I’m focused on.”The chancellor has mounted an ill-disguised campaign to raise his profile and is the public’s favourite to succeed Mr Johnson, if Partygate forces him out.In a BBC interview he was asked if he had attended the cabinet room birthday celebrations for the prime minister in June 2020 – one of the gatherings now being investigated.He replied that he could not remember details, saying: “You’re asking me about something that happened almost two years ago.”Arguing he had been in the cabinet room “100, 200, God knows how many times”, Mr Sunak added: “I walked into a meeting with a group of people as I do all of the time.”The growing list of Tory MPs demanding a no-confidence vote in Mr Johnson’s leadership has prompted speculation that Mr Sunak could quit No 11 to force a contest.But, asked about colleagues making him a frontrunner, Mr Sunak said: “That’s very kind of them to suggest that. But what I think people want from me is to focus on my job.“I know a few of my colleagues have said that, and they’ll have their reasons for doing that, but I don’t think that’s the situation we’re in. The prime minister has my full support.”more follows More

Rishi Sunak has announced a help package for households worth £350 in an attempt to remove the “sting” out of rocketing energy bills, with the average customer facing an almost £700 increase.The chancellor said the vast majority will receive support through council tax rebates — worth £150 — in bands A to D, and an upfront one-off discount on bills worth £200 in October.However, he rejected calls to cut VAT on energy bills, an idea floated by Boris Johnson during the 2016 Brexit referendum, arguing it would “disproportionately benefit wealthier households”.The chancellor’s intervention came moments after the energy regulator, Ofgem, announced a record-breaking increase to its price cap, meaning millions of households face a huge hike in energy bills.The regulator said the maximum amount suppliers can charge 22 million retail customer will jump by more than 50 per cent — from £1,277 to £1,971 . It means a £693 per year increase for the average customer.Updating MPs, Mr Sunak said it was “not sustainable” to keep energy bills “artificially low” amid global price increases, but said: “What we can do is take the sting out of a significant price shock for millions of families by making sure the increase in prices is smaller initially and spread over a longer period”.Setting out his plans, Mr Sunak told the Commons: “We are going to give people a £150 council tax rebate to help with the cost of energy in April and this discount won’t need to be repaid.“We have decided to provide the council tax rebate to households in bands A to D. This means around 80 per cent of all homes in England will benefit.”The chancellor also vowed that all households would get a £200 one-off discount on energy bills from October, but would have to repay the amount in £40 instalments over the next five years.He added: “And the third part of our plan will provide local authorities with a discretionary fund of nearly £150 million to help those lower income households who happen to live in higher council tax properties, and households in bands A to D who are exempt from council tax at all.”Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, however, said that Mr Sunak was offering consumers a “buy now, pay later scheme that loads up costs for tomorrow”.Energy consumers were being required to load up on future debt while oil and gas producers were offered loans and the chancellor “gambles that prices will fall”, she told the House of Commons.Ms Reeves said the result of Mr Sunak’s proposals was “high prices as far as the eye can see – this year, next year and the year after that – giving with one hand and taking it all back later.”Blaming a decade of Tory-led governments failing to invest in renewables or regulate energy markets, Ms Reeves said: “The Conservatives aren’t solving the cost-of-living crisis because the Conservatives are the cost-of-living crisis.”The Conservative MP Stephen McPartland also echoed criticism, accusing the Treasury of lacking “ambition” and said it was a “huge missed opportunity by Rishi Sunak to support families courageously”.With the imminent increase in tax through national insurance, the senior Tory MP Tom Tugendhat also said: “April showers won’t be cheap. “The sudden surge in the cost of heating will hit families across the country just as the new NI tax kicks in. People need control of their lives by having control of their wallets – that’s why lower taxes matter for every home.”Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), argued the chancellor’s measure were “hopelessly inadequate”.She added: “For most families it’s just £7 a week and more than half must be paid back. It’s too little, it’s poorly targeted, and it’s stop gap measures instead of fixing the big problems.“Britain needs a pay rise. The best way to help families is to get wages growing again. But this government has no plan to end pay misery.“Ministers should be getting urgent help to families that need it most through raising universal credit. And we need a windfall tax on the excessive profits from North Sea gas to cut bills and boost investment in affordable energy.” More

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of contaminating politics and causing damage to Britain’s reputation “around the world” by “devaluing” standards.As the prime minister faces calls to resign and threats of a no confidence vote from his own MPs over the fallout of rule-busting parties in No 10, the Labour leader hit out at a government in “paralysis”.In a personal attack, Sir Keir also claimed Mr Johnson’s tactic was to “drag everyone into the gutter with him” amid outrage over separate comments on the disgraced paedophile Jimmy Savile.Sir Keir’s intervention came during a speech on trust in politics and other institutions on Tuesday, suggesting Mr Johnson believed the “normal rules of politics” did not apply to him.“His strategy is to devalue the rules so they don’t matter anymore, so that politics becomes contaminated,” he said. “Cynicism and alienation replace confidence and trust. I simply refuse to accept that Britain can’t be governed better than this.He added: “I will always fight to defend those essential British values of honest, decency and integrity.“We don’t have to accept the repeated lies from the despatch box. Or the casual devaluing of the office that does so much damage around the world”.His comments follow those of former defence chief, general Richard Dannatt, who cast doubt on the “flawed” prime minister’s ability to influence events at the weekend.Ahead of Mr Johnson’s visit to Ukraine and his call with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, he warned that leaders know he has a “time bomb under him” due to his domestic political problems.Speaking at the launch of the 2022 Edelman trust barometer, which examines how the public feel about business, governments and the media, Sir Keir also told an online audience that he was “not surprised” that trust had fallen in politics and politicians “given recent events”.He said: “Two-thirds of the public think that the way politicians act undermines democracy. Six out of 10 people think politicians are likely to lie to them — six out of 10 — sadly that doesn’t surprise me, given recent events, but it does disappoint me, it frustrates me.”“It’s inevitable when we have a government that is misleading the public and covering up their own wrongdoing to save the prime minister’s job,” he claimed.“This is a government in paralysis — instead of representing the people who elected them and addressing the challenges the country faces, they’re intent on saving themselves, not the country.” More

Ireland has launched a “once-in-a-generation” amnesty for undocumented migrants that will grant many people in the country legal residency for the first time.People who have been living in Ireland illegally for at least four years, including those with an existing deportation order, will be allowed to apply for the scheme and become regularised residents, with full access to jobs and a pathway to becoming Irish citizens.And it will be easier for families with children under 18 and asylum seekers to take advantage of the amnesty – with lower requirements for them to have lived in the country of three years and two years respectively. Up to 17,000 people are expected to benefit from the programme, which the Immigrant Council of Ireland said would be “profoundly transformative to the lives of thousands of individuals and families, including children born here in Ireland who have never known any other home”.Announcing the opening of the amnesty, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said: “I firmly believe this scheme will improve the lives of thousands of people across the country who contribute to our society, enrich our culture and work in our economy but unfortunately still live in the legal shadows.”She added: “People come to Ireland to make a better life for themselves and their families, and they can find themselves undocumented for many reasons.“This scheme will provide an opportunity for those who meet its criteria to remain and reside in the State and to become part of mainstream Irish society rather than living on its margins.”The scheme has been broadly welcomed by migrants’ rights organisations, which have long campaigned for an amnesty – but there has been some criticism of the relatively high application fees of €700 (£582) for a family and €550 (£458) for an individual. Immigrant Council of Ireland chief executive Brian Killoran said that “many of the potential applicants of the scheme may struggle with the cost of the fees given the shadow nature of their employment conditions”. The amnesty will be in effect for six months.Tjanasi Potso, chairperson of Justice for Undocumented group said: “This scheme will allow us to live securely in our homes, no longer in fear that the next knock at the door will be someone to take us away. “We can stand up for our rights at work, our children can grow up safely, and we can visit our families for the first time in many years. We are grateful to all the supporters and allies who have campaigned with us.”The approach is in contrast to that taken across the Irish Sea in the UK, where the government has launched strict crackdowns on undocumented people, in the name of fighting “illegal immigration”. Priti Patel’s new immigration and borders bill has been accused by lawyers of breaching international and domestic rights in 10 different ways.Boris Johnson said in March last year that he might be open to an amnesty for some people who have been in the UK illegally for more than 15 years, though the policy has yet to surface. More

An EU Commissioner has condemned a halt to Brexit port checks in Northern Ireland as a breach of international law.Cross-channel relations were plunged back into the freezer, after the Democratic Unionist Party called a stop to food inspections in an apparent flouting of the Northern Ireland Protocol.The UK government has attempted to distance itself from the decision – raising eyebrows by existing it is a matter for the Stormont Executive.But Mairead McGuinness, the EU Commissioner for financial stability, who is from Ireland, described the shelving of the checks as a flouting of an international agreement.“I’m not sure what the purpose of this move is. It’s an absolute breach of international law,” Ms McGuinness told RTE radio.A European Commission statement also “recalls the responsibility of the UK Government for the respect of the international obligations it has entered into”.The decision, made unilaterally by Edwin Poots, Stormont’s agriculture minister – but condemned by other parties – was also attacked by the Tory chair of the Commons Northern Ireland Committee.“I’m a Conservative. I believe in the Rule of Law and adhering to obligations we voluntarily entered,” Simon Hoare tweeted.“There’s no ifs and buts on this. The reputation of the UK on these matters is important. Anyone who cares about the UK should feel the same.”The Northern Ireland Retail Consortium called for “a negotiated solution”, saying: “What business needs is stability, certainty, simplicity and affordability.”It was unclear on Thursday morning whether port checks have stopped, following the order issued by Mr Poots, admit legal uncertainty over his move.The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician said he had received legal advice, revealing: “The advice concluded that I can direct the checks to cease in the absence of Executive approval.”Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, claimed: “This is a decision that the minister in Northern Ireland has taken,” – denying it was a “stitch-up” between the government and the DUP.The claim that the devolved government has sovereignty on the issue made some question the basis on which the government took Remain-voting Northern Ireland out of the EU in the first place.The suspension is being seen by many as an attempt by the DUP to boost its fading popularity ahead of crucial elections to Stormont, in May.There were rumours in Northern Ireland that the DUP could pull its first minister Paul Givan out of the power-sharing executive, with a statement expected later on Thursday.The port checks were introduced as part of the creation of a trade barrier in the Irish Sea, agreed by Boris Johnson to pass his Brexit deal.In its statement, the Commission said the decision “creates further uncertainly and unpredictability for businesses and citizens in Northern Ireland”.“The European Commission will closely monitor developments in Northern Ireland pursuant to this announcement,” it said.“The Protocol is the one and only solution we have found with the UK to protect the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement.” More

Council tax bills are expected to be cut for poorer households to ease the pain of the energy price cap soaring to around £2,000 a year.Rishi Sunak has drawn up plans for rebates for lower-value properties, amid criticism that state-backed loans to energy suppliers – providing £200-plus discounts to all homes – will fall short of what is needed.The regulator Ofgem will reveal the new price cap at 11am, with bills tipped to rise by around £600, or 50 per cent, on 1 April, because of surging wholesale gas prices.The chancellor has ruled out a windfall tax on the energy giants and appears to have rejected Tory MPs’ pleas to remove green levies from household bills.Instead, taxpayers are expected to underwrite loans to suppliers, who will in turn give households a rebate on bills, limiting the immediate impact of bill hikes in April.But the help would not be permanent – because the firms would recoup the money from customers in future years to pay back the loans as energy prices fall, if they do.Torsten Bell, head of the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said the pain would only be deferred, warning: “Higher bills tomorrow for not quite such a big bill rise today is a massive political gamble.“People will be paying for 2022’s energy bills when they go to vote in 2024 (the only benefit of this approach is it keeps it largely off government books).”Some experts have warned gas prices could remain high until 2025, and supplies could be threatened if Russia invades Ukraine.And the cap, the maximum amount suppliers can charge customers for each unit of energy, could rise again by as much as £400 in six months’ time, for next winter.Under the new plan drawn up by the Treasury, people in lower council tax bands would receive further rebates funded by government grants.Mr Sunak is under pressure to go further, after Labour unveiled plans to save households £200, with targeted support of up to £400 for the poorest, partly funded by a windfall tax on energy firms.However, council tax rebates will be criticised as a less effective way of reaching the poorest households than Labour’s plan to dramatically expand the warm homes discount.Bands are based on property prices in 1991 – after successive governments ducked out of an unpopular revaluation – which means many wealthy people, particularly in London and the south east, live in lower band homes.Ed Miliband, Labour’s climate spokesman, insisted a one-off windfall tax was justified to ease the cost-of-living crisis.“With oil and gas profits booming in recent months because of the spike in energy prices, it is clearer than ever that the North Sea oil and gas producers who have made a fortune recently should be asked to contribute,” he said. More