UK Politics

Promises made at the Cop26 summit to prevent the climate emergency are at risk without urgent action, its president Alok Sharma is warning.Just three months after the landmark summit, there is a danger that the vital pledges made will “wither on the vine”, the cabinet minister will say in a major speech.Cop26 saw the world’s wealthiest countries fail to make commitments to keep global heating to 1.5°C – above which scientists warn runaway climate change is inevitable.The level of CO2-cutting pledges made will result in the planet warming by up to 2.4°C, even if they are followed up with practical policies and legislation.The Glasgow summit ended with Mr Sharma in tears – and critics warned the crisis was simply “kicked down the road”, to Cop27 in Egypt at the end of this year.In a speech at Chatham House, the Cop26 president, will say: “There is no doubt that the commitments we secured at Cop26 were historic. Yet at the moment they are just words on a page.“And unless we honour the promises made, to turn the commitments in the Glasgow Climate Pact into action, they will wither on the vine.“We will have mitigated no risks. Seized no opportunities. We will have fractured the trust built between nations. And 1.5 degrees will slip from our grasp.”The Glasgow pact, at the end of Cop26, committed countries to “phase down coal”, but the language was watered down after China and India objected to “phasing out” the dirtiest fossil fuel.Mr Sharma, who remains president until the next summit, must also ensure that developed countries meet their promise to deliver $100bn a year to help poor countries adapt to the planet heating.But Boris Johnson’s government has also faced criticism that it has made climate promises without the policies to deliver the carbon cuts necessary.The advisers on the Climate Change Committee warned the UK is lagging behind on its key goal of 78 per cent cuts to greenhouse gases by 2035.Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, said Britain must commit itself to greater action this year.“Although the UK already has one of the strongest pledges for 2030, it will be difficult to persuade other countries to go further without offering to do more itself,” he said.“The UK Presidency of Cop26 needs to put pressure on all countries, particularly laggards like Australia, to increase their planned emissions cuts.”The Glasgow Climate Pact was praised for requiring that countries bring forward new CO2 targets one year from now, rather than waiting five years.The change is designed to put pressure on all nations to move further before they gather again in Egypt towards the end of 2022. More

Boris Johnson’s future hangs in the balance as Tory MPs await the findings of a inquiry by Sue Gray into Downing Street parties during Covid restrictions.The investigation into the gatherings reportedly obtained an email last week showing that an aide to the PM was warned that the now infamous garden bash of 20 May 2020 was against the rules.The email, and reports of at least 12 other alleged rule-breaking parties, are being investigated internally by a senior civil servant Ms Gray, who has been tasked with establishing the facts of what happened at each.The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that police officers guarding Downing Street had given “extremely damaging” statements to Ms Gray’s inquiry, raising fresh questions about why the Met did not investigate alleged lockdown breaches at the time.Over the weekend, The Sunday Times said the scope of the probe had been widened to include alleged parties in the flat the PM shares with wife Carrie and their two children above No 11 Downing Street.The Independent, meanwhile, revealed claims by officials working in No 10 that they held back information from Ms Gray’s investigation into the partygate scandal due to a “culture of fear” surrounding the probe.On 8 December last year, the prime minister, who is facing calls to resign over the matter, appointed Ms Gray to look into the reports after Simon Case, the cabinet secretary and the UK’s most senior mandarin, recused himself from the investigation as it emerged a gathering had taken place in his office.Ms Gray, the second permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – who previously worked in Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team – has a fearsome reputation for pulling no punches when it comes to wrongdoing.Her probe does not have the same powers as a judge-led or public inquiry. Some believe the conclusions in the former pub landlord’s report could be written in such a way as to suggest to Mr Johnson, who is fighting for his political life over the ‘partygate’ scandal, that it is last orders and he should resign.According to the Institute for Government thinktank, it is unlikely she will explicitly call for Mr Johnson to quit or rule on whether or not he breached the ministerial code in his responses to the party reports in the House of Commons.When the terms of reference for the investigation were set (by the PM) there was no concrete date for its publication and it has apparently been delayed on at least one occasion after fresh allegations emerged and the scope of the investigation widened.Several news outlets, including The Daily Telegraph, reported that Ms Gray had been planning to publish the findings of her investigation last week.Subsequent reports said it could be released this week, although there are now creeping doubts about this. The Cabinet Office would not be drawn on questions about the date of publication when approached for comment by The Independent.Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, refused to confirm to the BBC’s Sunday Morning Show that the report would be published in full.“It…will be for the prime minister to decide. But … there will be full transparency,” he said. “He has said he will come back to the Commons and make a statement, so there will be full scrutiny.”Labour is demanding that the probe be released in full “with all accompanying evidence.”Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader, said the PM cannot be allowed to “cover up or obscure any of the truth” of what happened at the drinks gatherings.”He [Mr Johnson] has insisted on a hugely protracted internal probe to tell him which parties he attended and what happened in his own home,” she said.”The Sue Gray report must be published in its entirety with all accompanying evidence.”Allies of the PM, including Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, have repeatedly called for patience from colleagues calling for the PM to resign over the affair, saying MPs should give the PM space until Ms Gray’s report is published.Mr Johnson has himself repeatedly referred to the investigation when being asked to answer further questions on partygate.Government whips were last week engaged in frantic efforts to delay a potential no confidence vote in Mr Johnson as back bench Tory MPs became increasingly restless over his handling of the affair.The PM appeared on Sky News last Tuesday to defend himself against claims by Dominic Cummings, his former chief aide, that he was in fact made aware that the 20 May 2020 party broke the rules. Mr Cummings also accused the PM of lying to parliament, which would be a breach of the ministerial code and therefore usually a resigning matter, which he denies.”I’m saying categorically that nobody told me, nobody said this was something that was against the rules, doing something that wasn’t a work event because frankly, I can’t imagine why it would have gone ahead, or it would have been allowed to go ahead if it was against the rules,” Mr Johnson said in his response.But the PM was then criticised for refusing to accept responsibility for the rules he had himself set and the response reportedly triggered a fresh wave of no confidence letters going in to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 Committee.Mr Cummings is expected to give evidence to the inquiry this week.Some rebel MPs claimed that the no confidence vote threshold of 54 letters would be reached by the end of Wednesday, but this never transpired. Allies of the PM subsequently briefed news outlets that the defection of Christian Wakeford to the Labour party earlier in the day had “calmed” the party and made rebels “think twice” about submitting letters.Infighting over Mr Johnson’s future broke out into the open in the Commons on Thursday as MPs plotting to topple the PM accused whips of “blackmailing” them to vote with the government.William Wragg, a senior Tory MP, chair of the public administration committee — and one of those calling for Johnson to resign over the partygate scandal — was first out of the blocks to make the incendiary claims, saying that some of his colleagues had been threatened with funding cuts if they didn’t vote in a specific way. Just a few hours later Christian Wakeford, who defected to the Labour Party on Wednesday and is also calling for the PM to go, stepped forward to tell the BBC that whips had threatened to axe funding for a school in his constituency if he did not support the government on voting against free school meals.Mr Wragg is expected to bring these allegations to the Metropolitan Police this week. More

Boris Johnson has bowed to pressure by launching an investigation into Nusrat Ghani’s allegation that she was sacked as a minister because of her “Muslimness”.“The prime minister has now asked officials to establish the facts about what happened,” a No 10 spokesperson said.Mr Johnson was under fierce pressure to act after telling Ms Ghani – nearly two years ago – to start a formal complaint with the party about the way she was treated.The former junior transport minister said she had told him this was “very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on government business”.On Sunday, Dominic Raab said there would be no inquiry, but senior cabinet ministers Sajid Javid and Nadhim Zahawi had made it clear an investigation was essential.Ms Ghani alleged that, when she was sacked in 2020, Tory whips told her that her “Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable”.She told The Sunday Times: “It was like being punched in the stomach. I felt humiliated and powerless.”The Tory chief whip, Mark Spencer, has identified himself as the person accused of making the remarks, but said: “These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory. I have never used those words attributed to me.”After 24 hours of delay, A No10 spokesperson said: “The prime minister has asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by Nusrat Ghani MP.“At the time these allegations were first made, the prime minister recommended to her that she make a formal complain to CCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters]. She did not take up this offer.“The prime minister has now asked officials to establish the facts about what happened. As he said at the time, the prime minister takes these claims very seriously.”Ms Ghani welcomed the announcement, but said she needed to see the terms of reference for it.“The terms of reference of the inquiry must include all that was said in Downing Street and by the whip,” the Conservative backbencher argued.It is understood that Mr Johnson spoke with Ms Ghani on Sunday evening to inform her that that he had ordered the inquiry.The move comes eight months after the Conservatives apologised to victims of Islamophobia and racism in the party, after an inquiry.It promised to act after Professor Swaran Singh’s report branded the Tories’ complaint-handling unfit for purpose and warned “anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem”.An action plan followed, but some critics branded the inquiry “a whitewash” and called for the equalities watchdog to launch its own investigation.Sayeeda Warsi, a former Conservative chair, said the Singh report had exposed “a system that failed to protect victims of racism”, who were “painted as troublemakers for speaking out”.She welcomed the new inquiry, but condemned the “pattern in these cases” that her party fails to take Islamophobia “ as seriously as other forms of bigotry”.“That creates a fear in others not to raise this issue. There is never a proactive response. Action is rarely taken until the media is involved,” she said. More

A former Australian prime minister has branded Liz Truss “demented” after she claimed China could exploit a Russian invasion of Ukraine to launch its own attacks in the Pacific.Paul Keating made the extraordinary attack on the foreign secretary – and Tory leadership contender – as he also tore into the UK’s “delusions of grandeur” as a global big-hitter.The spat came after Ms Truss, while on a visit to Australia, argued no-one should rule out Beijing aggression if Vladimir Putin sends his troops into Ukraine.“Russia is working more closely with China than it ever has. Aggressors are working in concert and I think it’s incumbent on countries like ours to work together,” she claimed.The comments came shortly after the Foreign Office raised eyebrows by claiming British intelligence had unmasked a plot to install a Russian puppet government in Kiev.Downing Street is portraying Boris Johnson as being at the helm of an anti-Russian alliance – in what some see as an attempt to distract attention from Tory attempts to force him out of No 10.Mr Keating, writing in an Australian newspaper, said his country’s ministers were “giving respectability to Britain’s lunge for old-time glory”, by giving credence to Ms Truss’s claims.“Remarks by the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that China could engage in military aggression in the Pacific, encouraged by Russia’s contingent moves against Ukraine, are nothing short of demented. Not simply irrational, demented,” he has written.He added: “The reality is Britain does not add up to a row of beans when it comes to East Asia. Britain took its main battle fleet out of East Asia in 1904 and finally packed it in with its ‘East of Suez’ policy in the 1970s. And it has never been back.“Truss would do us all a favour by hightailing it back to her collapsing, disreputable government, leaving Australia to find its own way in Asia.”Some British embassy staff and their dependants are now being pulled out of Kiev in response to the mounting Russian threat to Ukraine.The Foreign Office announced it is following the lead of the United States, while insisting: “The British Embassy remains open and will continue to carry out essential work.”Russian forces have massed at the border with Ukraine and direct talks with Washington have failed to ease tensions.Peter Ricketts, the UK’s national security adviser under David Cameron, criticised Ms Truss for “spending the week visiting Australia”, while the crisis raged.“At a moment of crisis in Europe, Truss was in the wrong hemisphere. It would have sent a powerful message if she had cut short her visit,” the peer said.“Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, enmeshed in a tawdry struggle with his own backbenchers to save his job, has had nothing of substance to contribute. As a result, Britain has been absent from top-level diplomacy on Ukraine.” More

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday ordered an investigation into a Conservative lawmaker’s claim that she was fired from a government job in part because of her Muslim faith.Former Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani says that when she was demoted in 2020, a government whip said her “Muslimness” was “making colleagues uncomfortable.” She told the Sunday Times that she was told “there were concerns ‘that I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations.’” Chief Whip Mark Spencer identified himself as the person who spoke to Ghani in 2020, but called her allegation “completely false.”Johnson’s office said Monday that the prime minister had asked government officials “to establish the facts about what happened.” It said Johnson “takes these claims very seriously.” Ghani was elected to Parliament in 2015, and was made a junior minister in 2018. At the time her boss, then-Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said it was proof the Conservatives “were a party of opportunity.” But some have accused the party of failing to stamp out anti-Muslim prejudice under Johnson, who in 2018 compared women who wear face-covering veils to “letter boxes.”Two senior Cabinet ministers, Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi spoke in support of Ghani and said her claims must be investigated.“It takes a lot of bravery for someone to stand up and say: ‘My religion was taken into consideration when I was being assessed for what I do as a job,’” Zahawi said. “That should never happen and there is no room for it.”Ghani’s claim has deepened the rifts roiling Johnson’s governing party, which is being wracked by allegations about lockdown-breaching parties in the prime minister’s office while Britain was under coronavirus restrictions.The “partygate” allegations are being investigated by a senior civil servant, Sue Gray, who is expected to report this week.Ghani’s allegation comes after another Conservative legislator, William Wragg, accused party whips of intimidating and blackmailing members of Parliament to ensure they supported the government. Wragg says he is meeting with police this week to discuss his claims. More

Boris Johnson’s political future hangs in the balance as MPs await the findings of a critical investigation into multiple allegations of rule-busting parties held at No 10 during Covid restrictions.Sue Gray, the senior civil servant tasked with investigating events at Downing Street and other government departments, is widely expected to deliver her report to the prime minister later this week.According to reports, Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser to Mr Johnson at No 10, who has claimed his former boss “lied” to parliament over the events, will also be interviewed by Ms Gray on Monday as part of her inquiries.Police officers guarding No 10 at the time of alleged rule-breaking parties have reportedly already been spoken to for the probe.Asked how significant their information was, a source told The Telegraph: “Put it this way, if Boris Johnson is still prime minister by the end of the week, I’d be very surprised.” Some Conservative MPs have already called on the prime minister to resign over the scandal, including former ministers Caroline Nokes and David Davis, and others have sent no confidence letters to the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady.Aaron Bell, the Tory MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, became the latest backbencher to submit a letter at the weekend, according to The Sunday Times. A total of 54 MPs are required to do so if a no confidence vote is to be triggered.But many are reserving judgement on the prime minister’s future at No 10 until Ms Gray’s findings on multiple events held during Covid restrictions, including the “bring your own booze” gathering on 20 May 2020, are published.Asked whether Mr Johnson’s political future hung in the balance over the report, the senior Tory MP Steve Baker told The Independent on Friday: “I don’t see how anyone can objectively say otherwise.”Speaking on Sunday, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, claimed there had been a “rallying” around Mr Johnson after the dramatic defection of the Bury South MP Christian Wakeford to Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.However, he dodged questions over whether the report would be published in full, telling the BBC that the “process will be for the prime minister to decide”, and claimed he was “not quite sure the shape and form it would come”.“The substance of the findings will be – there will be full transparency,” he added. “Indeed, he [Mr Johnson] has said he’ll come back to the House of Commons and make a statement, so there’ll be full scrutiny.”However, on Saturday, Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, stressed: “The Sue Gray report must be published in its entirety with all accompanying evidence”.She added that the prime minister “cannot be allowed to cover up or obscure any of the truth when he has insisted on a hugely protracted internal probe to tell him which parties he attended and what happened in his own home”.Ms Gray’s inquiry has also reportedly been widened to examine socialising at the prime minister’s flat above No 11 Downing Street, involving government advisers and close friends of the prime minister’s wife, Carrie.The Cabinet Office declined to comment at the weekend, but Mr Cummings has previously claimed there was a “party” at the flat on 13 November 2020 – the same day he left his government post – while England faced its second lockdown. More

Police officers who guard No 10 have reportedly been interviewed as part of Sue Gray’s inquiry into parties held at Downing Street during Covid restrictions. A source told The Telegraph their statements to the civil servant in charge of the probe were “extremely damning”. Ms Gray is looking into allegations of a number of parties held at Downing Street while the country was under Covid restrictions. She is expected to publish her findings in the next week. Officers who were on duty outside No 10 at the time of alleged rule-breaking parties have now reportedly been spoken to for the inquiry. Access to Downing Street is controlled by the Metropolitan Police’s parliamentary and diplomatic protection command. According to The Telegraph, members of this branch have given detailed testimonies about what they saw to Ms Gray. Asked how significant their information was, a source told the newspaper: “Put it this way, if Boris Johnson is still prime minister by the end of the week, I’d be very surprised.” Downing Street refused to comment on the ongoing investigation. On Sunday, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said Tory MPs were rallying behind the prime minister ahead of the Partygate inquiry’s expected publication this week.The Met has previously faced questions over how officers could have been unaware of a “bring your own booze” garden gathering as they stood guard outside Downing Street. Ms Gray is also looking into reports of other gatherings alleged to have happened at No 10 – including two events on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral. Officials working in No 10 claim they have held back information from the investigation into the partygate scandal due to “culture of fear” surrounding the probe. Three sources told The Independent they had not divulged messages and pictures on their phones after a senior member of staff told them to remove anything that could fuel speculation in the wake of the first party revelations.The Met has been approached for comment. More

Officials working in No 10 claim they have held back information from Sue Gray’s investigation into the partygate scandal due to a “culture of fear” surrounding the probe.Three sources told The Independent they have not divulged messages and pictures on their phones after a senior member of staff told them to remove anything that could fuel speculation in the wake of the first party revelations.Messages in a WhatsApp group were said to contain photographs of people drinking and dancing, as well as references to how hungover people were the next day.The messages are from the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, when there were two parties, one to mark the departure of a No 10 photographer and another to mark the departure of James Slack, Downing Street’s director of communications. Mr Slack has since made a public apology.One source claimed that after being asked to remove information, they subsequently deleted evidence of that party.They said they were also fearful that, having removed material, they could face censure: “I did the wrong thing and actually deleted stuff.”“Everyone’s terrified. It’s a witch hunt,” another source told The Independent. “There’s been a culture of fear [in the office] every day since the first party story broke.”Another source added: “I’ve held back from sharing evidence, it’s too risky. And I’d have to explain why I’d deleted some stuff, which would mean saying I’d felt intimidated.”Ms Gray is expected to report back to the prime minister at the beginning of next week and he will then decide when to make the findings public.One source said going to Ms Gray with such information was tantamount to being asked to “snitch on the PM in an internal investigation”.“That’s why I’ve asked to be anonymous,” one source told The Independent. “I need to keep my job.”When asked about the pressure to withhold information, one source said they felt they had been “frightened into silence”.Asked if they had shared their claims with Ms Gray, as part of her investigation, all three sources told The Independent they did not consider the Cabinet Office as truly separate from Downing Street or political interests.They added that while they respected Ms Gray’s integrity, leaks of plans for her investigation had already reached some newspapers.Sources believe there is therefore considerable risk to their careers from sharing allegations with her team.Sources said that when staff were called for interviews with Ms Gray to offer their accounts of any gatherings in Downing Street or the Cabinet Office, it seemed staff in Number 10 had pieced together who was contacted and when to offer testimony or share information.A Number 10 spokesperson said allegations about pressure on individuals were “categorically untrue” and staff have been instructed to comply fully with the inquiry.Three sources have told The Independent they were approached by a senior staffer after the first reports of parties at Downing Street last month, and advised to remove WhatsApps, diary invites and other digital communications.Senior appointees in Number 10 have been under considerable pressure to stem the tide of reports on parties throughout recent weeks.Sources claim a set of senior figures in Downing Street were loudly told by the prime minister to stop the flow of party news last week.The Information Commissioner’s Office issued a warning after allegations of pressure to delete material were first reported. “Relevant information that exists in the private correspondence channels of public authorities should be available and included in responses to information requests received,” a spokesperson added.“Erasing, destroying or concealing information within scope of a Freedom of Information request, with the intention of preventing its disclosure is a criminal offence under section 77 of the Freedom of Information Act.”Last week, Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, wrote to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case asking him to probe allegations of staff coming under pressure to remove material.A spokesperson for No 10 said: “Staff were given clear guidance to retain any relevant information. As set out in the terms of reference, all staff are expected to fully co-operate with the investigation.“Any suggestion otherwise is entirely false.” More