UK Politics

As Novak Djokovic awaits a final decision on whether his visa will be revoked, all eyes have turned to Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke. He has to decide whether he will overturn the decision of a federal judge, who ruled Djokovic’s visa should be reinstated because he was unfairly treated by officials at the border. Hawke has discretion to revoke Djokovic’s visa but has taken longer than expected to reach a decision which has legal, political, sporting and diplomatic consequences.____WHAT HAPPENS NOW?Whatever Hawke decides, it’s unlikely to be the last word. Djokovic’s lawyers are expected immediately to seek an injunction if the decision that goes against the top ranked Serb tennis player. That would send the matter back to the Federal Court and if the court can’t sit Friday, it won’t be heard until next week when the Australian Open already is underway.Despite the cloud hanging over Djokovic’s ability to compete, Australian Open organizers included the top seed in the draw. He is slated to play fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic, who is ranked world No. 78., in the opening round next week.If Djokovic’s visa is revoked, Djokovic might have to return to a detention facility while legal proceedings play out. If Djokovic is allowed to remain, he will attempt to win a 10th Australian Open singles title and a record 21st Grand Slam title. But if his visa is revoked and his legal challenge fails, he will deported and might not be able to reapply for an Australian visa for three years. Djokovic is 34 and a three-year hiatus might mean he won’t have another chance to win the Australian title.WHAT MUST THE MINISTER CONSIDER?The immigration minister has considerable discretion under Australia’s Migration Act to revoke visas. He can do so on public health grounds, character grounds and for a variety of other reasons.While deliberating on the Djokovic case, Hawke is said to have separated his office from other parts of the government to avoid any impression of political interference.Hawke’s office will consider the original decision to grant Djokovic a visa and an exemption on medical grounds from the rule that all travelers arriving in Australia must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.It will also likely consider whether Djokovic made misstatements on his incoming passenger card when he indicated he hadn’t traveled in 14 days prior to his arrival in Australia. It is now known he traveled to Spain.Djokovic also attended public events and gave an interview to a French newspaper after his positive test. The Serbian and Spanish governments are reported to be investigating those issues.WHAT DOES DJOKOVIC SAY?Recent revelations of his travels and giving an interview after testing positive led to calls for Djokovic to be more forthcoming. British former World No. 1 Andy Murray welcomed Djokovic’s win in court but agreed he had questions to resolve.”There are still a few questions that need to be answered about the isolation and … I’m sure we’ll hear from him in the next few days,” Murray said.Djokovic addressed those questions in a lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday, where he blamed “human error” by his support team for failing to declare that he had traveled in the two-week period before entering Australia. He said he went ahead with the interview “as I did not want to let the journalist down” but conceded he might have made an error of judgement.WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?No definitive polls have been conducted to determine how Australians feel about Djokovic and his treatment by the government. But vox pops and self-selecting polls on some news websites suggest public support for Djokovic has ebbed and flowed since his visa was first canceled.The initial decision to grant the unvaccinated tennis star a medical exemption to play at the Australian Open was polarizing. Australians have faced almost two years of strict border controls during the pandemic, which have limited their ability to travel overseas and prevented those overseas from returning.The decision to allow a prominent vaccine skeptic an exemption to pass through the border was not warmly welcomed in a country in which 91.3% of the eligible population is vaccinated.Former top ranked player Martina Navratilova put in succinctly.“The bottom line is sometimes your personal beliefs have to be trumped by what’s good for the greater good,” Navratilova said Thursday. “Quite frankly, you have two choices: get vaccinated or don’t go play.”Public sympathy turned a little in Djokovic’s favor when he was held for four days in an immigration detention hotel. And when the Federal Circuit Court found in his favor, there was concern mishandling of the visa cancellation painted Australia in a bad light.More recent revelations of Djokovic’s behavior after he tested positive might again have turned public opinion against him.WHAT DO POLITICIANS SAY?When news broke last week that Djokovic had been detained at the border and his visa canceled, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was quick to embrace the decision.Morrison’s government had been under pressure as the omicron variant swept across Australia, and he sensed a political win in a decision that made him look tough on immigration. He has had less to say since the court overturned the cancellation of Djokovic’s visa, allowing the legal process to play out.But Anthony Albanese, leader of the opposition Labour Party, has been scathing in his criticism of the government. “This has been diabolical for Australia’s reputation, just in terms of our competence here and it is extraordinary that as we are speaking we still don’t know what the decision will be,” Albanese said. “The decision should have been made before he was granted a visa. Either he was eligible or he wasn’t.”Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was equally blunt.“The vast majority of Australians … didn’t like the idea that another individual, whether they’re a tennis player or … the king of Spain or the Queen of England, can come up here and have a different set of rules to what everybody else has to deal with,” he said. Djokovic “is still a child of God like the rest of us, isn’t he? So he has to abide by the laws.” More

Jacob Rees-Mogg has branded the Scottish Conservative leader “a lightweight” after he told Boris Johnson to resign. Douglas Ross called for Mr Johnson to step down following the prime minister’s admission that he attended a Downing Street party during lockdown in May 2020.Just hours after the prime minister’s apology to MPs, Mr Ross said the prime minister’s position was “no longer tenable”.But Mr Rees-Mogg told BBC’s Newsnight: “Douglas Ross has always been quite a lightweight figure.”He said the Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, who is supportive of the prime minister, was “much more substantial and important”.The Commons leader made the remark after brushing aside presenter Kirsty Wark’s statement that Newsnight had been told all 31 Scottish Conservative MSPs believe Boris Johnson should quit. Earlier, Mr Rees-Mogg told LBC he did not think the Scottish Conservative leader was “a big figure”.He added: “I don’t think it’s a surprise Douglas Ross takes this view.“He’s never been a supporter of the prime minister. He has constantly made disobliging comments about the PM.”Mr Rees-Mogg’s defence came amid a bruising day for Boris Johnson.The prime minister is facing intense pressure after a leaked email showed around 100 No 10 staff were invited to a drinks gathering in Downing Street’s rose garden on 20 May 2020, while the country was still subject to strict Covid lockdown restrictions.At PMQs, Mr Johnson apologised for attending the party – but insisted he thought it was a “work event”.Mr Rees-Mogg also dismissed opinion polls suggesting Boris Johnson should resign yesterday, and said Tory MPs who have called for the PM to go were “people who are always unhappy”.He told Times Radio: “They are people who have never really supported the prime minister, two of the ones you mentioned have always been quite strongly opposed to him, and therefore you would expect them to be relatively grumpy, and so that’s not surprising.”He said: “I think they are fundamentally mistaken and they are misjudging where we are and what the Prime Minister has succeeded in doing.” More

Labour has posted a ten-point lead against the Tories, according to the latest YouGov poll.The Tories saw arguably their most tumultuous day of Boris Johnson’s leadership on Wednesday as the prime minister admitted to having attended a party in the Downing Street garden when the UK was still in lockdown.A poll conducted by YouGov for The Times put the Tories on 28 per cent, with Labour ahead on 38 per cent.Labour were up one point, while the Tories were down five points.In the same poll, Sir Keir Starmer was far ahead on who would make the best prime minister. Just 23 per cent said Mr Johnson would, while Sir Keir was on 35 per cent.Just 6 per cent of people said they thought Mr Johnson had been honest in responding to questions about Downing Street parties.And 60 per cent said they thought he should resign, including 38 per cent of people who voted Conservative in 2019. A separate poll taken on Tuesday by Savanta ComRes found that two-thirds thought he should resign, including 42 per cent of Tory voters.It has been bad news in the polls for the Tories since the first allegations of parties in government during lockdown emerged.Meanwhile, Labour has been able to take advantage of the government’s poor standing with the public. Sir Keir Starmer took several jabs at Mr Johnson’s “ridiculous denials” and said the British public thought he was “lying through his teeth”.The Liberal Democrats have also seen a slight boost amid the recent furore, gaining 3 points in the YouGov poll to put them on 13 per cent. More

Rishi Sunak has said Boris Johnson was “right to apologise” for attending a Downing Street lockdown party as he offered a lukewarm endorsement for the embattled prime minister.The chancellor, who chose to skip Mr Johnson’s grilling over the partygate scandal at PMQs on Wednesday, instead travelling to Devon to discuss a jobs announcement, added in a tweet several hours after the event that he supported the PM’s “request for patience” as Sue Gray conducts her investigation.Rather than offer support to the beleaguered prime minister in the House of Commons, Mr Sunak – a favourite to replace Mr Johnson at No 10 according to some pollsters – visited a company purifying pharmaceutical drugs.Following speculation over why he had not publicly supported Mr Johnson earlier in the day, the chancellor said on Twitter: “I’ve been on a visit all day today continuing work on our £PlanForJobs as well as meeting MPs to discuss the energy situation.”MPs including Labour’s Karl Turner noted it was “hardly a ringing endorsement”.The chancellor took until after 8pm to share the message. Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC’s Newsnight programme the delay was because the chancellor had had a “busy day”.Other senior Tories have expressed more full-throated support for the PM.Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who is also seen as a potential leadership contender, tweeted: “The Prime Minister is delivering for Britain – from Brexit to the booster programme to economic growth.“I stand behind the Prime Minister 100% as he takes our country forward.”It comes after a bruising day for Boris Johnson. Earlier this week, a leaked email showed around 100 No 10 staff were invited to a drinks gathering in Downing Street’s rose garden while the country was still subject to strict Covid lockdown restrictions.At PMQs, Mr Johnson apologised for attending the 20 May 2020 party – but insisted he thought it was a “work event”.After days of stonewalling questions, the prime minister told MPs he acknowledged the “rage” of the public “with me and with the government I lead when they think in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules”.Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab told ITV it was a “daft question” when asked whether he would run again for the Tory leadership.“I’m fully supportive of this Prime Minister and I’m sure he will continue for many years to come,” he said.Home Secretary Priti Patel and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng are reported to have expressed their support in a Whatsapp group for Tory MPs.Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “I completely understand why people feel let down. The PM did the right thing by apologising.“Now we need to let the investigation complete its work. We have so much to get on with including rolling out boosters, testing and antivirals – so we can live with Covid.”Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Times Radio: “I think the prime minister was very contrite today, he apologised and he took full responsibility.” More

Boris Johnson’s international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has flown out to Delhi to launch negotiations on a potential post-Brexit trade deal with India.The cabinet minister is hoping to land an “ambitious” free trade agreement with the country – despite the government’s failure to get the Indian government interested in a full-fledged deal.Efforts to get a speedy, comprehensive post-Brexit agreement with India were thwarted last year when the country agreed to only an “enhanced partnership” on health, technology and vaccine development.Ms Trevelyan said the talks beginning on Thursday were “a golden opportunity to put UK businesses at the front of the queue as the Indian economy continues to grow rapidly”.The trade secretary claimed a free trade agreement with India would “show how the deals we negotiate will boost the economies across all nations and help level up all regions of the UK”.But the Best for Britain campaign group has said claims of prospective deal should be “taken with a large pinch of salt” – given that “historically India starts rather more trade talks than it finishes”.In May 2021 India agreed to restart talks with the EU on a comprehensive free trade agreement, but progress in entering formal negotiations is said to have slowed since then.The Department for International Trade (DIT) said the UK wants an agreement that slashes barriers to trading with India’s economy – including cutting tariffs on exports of UK-made cars and Scotch whisky.Scotch whisky and British cars currently face huge duties of 150 per cent and 125 per cent respectively in India. A deal has the potential to almost double UK exports to the country, the DIT claimed.Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is believed to have made easier immigration to the UK a key condition for any new trade agreements.But Mr Johnson said last week that he had ruled out relaxing immigration rules to tempt India into signing a trade deal after a Conservative MP protested at the idea of the country being held “to ransom”.The prime minister denied there was any plan to ease visa requirements, telling Brexiteer MP Sir Edward Leigh in the Commons: “We don’t do free trade deals on that basis.”Mr Johnson’s government remains under pressure to achieve new, post-Brexit trade deal with major nations following a series of roll-over deals – copying the terms the UK already had when it was inside the EU – before and after leaving the bloc.The US has shelved talks, despite a recent visit to Washington by Ms Trevelyan, while farming bodies and environmentalists have attacked the deal struck with Australia for damaging British agricultural exports and lowering standards. More

Boris Johnson was today facing open revolt from within his own party, after his apology for attending a Downing Street party during lockdown failed to quell backbench anger.The prime minister’s claim that he thought the garden drinks in May 2020 was a work event was greeted with derision from the opposition benches in the House of Commons, with Sir Keir Starmer branding it “ridiculous” and calling on Johnson to resign. The chair of the Commons Standards Committee, Chris Bryant, accused the PM of treating voters as “stupid”.The Labour leader’s demand was echoed by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who led a phalanx of at least 14 Holyrood Tories calling on Johnson to go.And there were calls for his resignation from senior Tory backbencher William Wragg as well as vocal Johnson critic Sir Roger Gale, who described the PM as a “dead man walking” politically.One former minister told The Independent that MPs “in double figures” had submitted letters of no confidence in the prime minister to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady – with some letters going in after the PM’s dramatic apology in the House of Commons.But with 54 letters needed to trigger a confidence vote, many Tories said Johnson had succeeded in “buying time” until the release of a report by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray into the string of alleged parties at No 10.Several said that a negative verdict in the Gray report, expected as early as next week, could spell the end for Johnson.Former minister Dan Poulter told The Independent: “Should the PM be found to have actively misled parliament or if he faces criminal sanction – or both – then his position would be untenable.”But Mr Ross said Mr Johnson should not wait for Ms Gray’s verdict.After meeting the PM following his public apology, the Scottish Tory leader said: “He is the prime minister, it is his government that put these rules in place, and he has to be held to account for his actions.“I don’t think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives.”Mr Wragg, who chairs the Commons’ Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said the prime minister’s position was now “untenable”.“A series of unforced errors are deeply damaging to the perception of the party,” he told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme.“I don’t think it should be left to the findings of a civil servant to determine the future of the prime minister and indeed who governs this country.”Mr Johnson faced one of the most high-stakes moments of his political career at prime minister’s questions in the Commons, following the publication of an email from his principal private secretary Martin Reynolds inviting up to 100 Downing Street staff to “socially distanced drinks” at a time when strictly-enforced Covid restrictions allowed meetings of only two people outside the home.He told MPs he had spent 25 minutes thanking staff in the sun-drenched rose garden, but insisted: “I believed implicitly that this was a work event.”Mr Johnson acknowledged the “rage” felt by voters who believe that Covid rules were not being followed by those who were imposing them on the rest of the country.And he said that “with hindsight” he now accepted he should have ordered staffers back inside and “found some other way to thank them”.But he added: “I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there are millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way, people who have suffered terribly, people who were forbidden from meeting loved ones at all inside or outside, and to them and to this house I offer my heartfelt apologies.”Sir Keir dismissed the PM’s apology as “worthless” and his explanation as “so ridiculous that it’s actually offensive to the British public”.Branding Mr Johnson “a man without shame”, Sir Keir told the Commons: “The party is over, prime minister. The only question is: will the British public kick him out, will his party kick him out, or will he do the decent thing and resign?”In response to a hail of demands for his removal from the opposition benches, Mr Johnson pleaded for MPs to await the outcome of the Gray report.While there were some cheers from Conservative MPs as Mr Johnson entered the chamber, a pall of gloom settled over the Tory benches as the PM delivered his apology.While a handful of MPs earned guffaws of derision from the opposition benches by pitching soft questions about dishwashers or bus services to the prime minister, the majority sat through the 40-minute grilling in stony silence.Afterwards, Tory MPs welcomed Mr Johnson’s apology but said he had not drawn a line under the affair.One former minister said Mr Johnson would be in the clear if Ms Gray concluded attending the party was “an error of judgement” – but added: “If she decides he has broken the ministerial code, by misleading the house, then he will be in a very, very difficult position indeed.”Another MP with an apparently safe southern seat said that – in the wake of the North Shropshire and Chesham and Amersham by-election defeats – “no seat is safe” while Mr Johnson remains in office.“It’s s***,” the MP said, “my constituents don’t want him to apologise – they want him to be honest and hard-working, but he can’t ever do that of course”.One senior MP told The Independent: “There is immense concern, and frankly the excuse doesn’t get anywhere near washing. There are a lot of meetings going on discussing what to do about this and when.”Sir Roger Gale was one of few MPs to speak publicly, saying: “I’m sorry, you don’t have ‘bring a bottle’ work events in Downing Street, so far as I’m aware. And you don’t have ‘bring a bottle’ work events that are advertised or invited by the prime minister’s private secretary.“I think the time has come for either the prime minister to go with dignity as his choice, or for the 1922 Committee to intervene.”Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey wrote to Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to urge her to interview Mr Johnson under caution as part of a full police investigation into the 20 May event.“The police must reassure the public that justice will be done and there isn’t one rule for them and another for Boris Johnson and his colleagues in Downing Street,” said Sir Ed.Downing Street insisted that Mr Johnson had not received the email invitation from Mr Reynolds and had not instructed him to send it out. But the PM’s press secretary gave no other explanation of how he became aware the event was taking place.Johnson’s former top aide Dominic Cummings dismissed his claim that he thought the gathering was a work event as “bulls***”.With around 40 staff believed to have drunk wine, beer and gin and eaten party food from a long table in the No 10 garden, the event was “obviously totally social not work (unlike all the meetings in the garden) – no way ‘technically within the rules’”, tweeted the PM’s former right-hand man – who previously said he warned against the party while in Downing Street. More