UK Politics

The cost of Russia invading Ukraine would be “catastrophically high” with consequences including severe economic sanctions, a Foreign Office minister has warned as she told Vladimir Putin to “de-escalate now”.The remarks come ahead of a key meeting between the US president Joe Biden and the Russian president amid rising tensions over a Russian troop build-up on the Ukrainian border — prompting concerns over a potential incursion.During a meeting on Monday evening, Boris Johnson also spoke with Mr Biden alongside the leaders of Italy, France and Germany, to “reaffirm their staunch support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity”, a No 10 spokesperson said.Addressing MPs, the Foreign Office minister Vicky Ford said: “Any military incursion by Russia into Ukraine would be a strategic mistake.“The Russian government should expect significant strategic consequences. The costs of an incursion would be catastrophically high.”After a warning from the Conservative MP Bob Seely that “we may be weeks away from a major war in Eastern Europe”, the minister insisted: “Let us be very clear, we stand by Ukraine and we are considering an extension of purely defensive support to Ukraine to help Ukraine defend itself.”In a message to the Russian president, she went on: “Putin needs to de-escalate now and return to diplomatic channels”.David Lammy, the newly appointed shadow foreign secretary, said the UK continued to “a soft touch for corrupt elites and dirty money that helps sustain the Putin regime” and criticised the government for failing to implement the recommendations of the intelligence and security committee’s report on Russia.He also called on the government to speak to the new German government about cancelling the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to “ensure Russia is not able to increase Europe’s energy dependency or weaken our unity”.In response, Ms Ford said: “To demonstrate Ukraine’s resilience we need a co-ordinated, increased approach, not just defensively but also economically and especially on the energy front, support for Ukraine.”The Foreign Office minister did not respond directly to Mr Lammy’s calls to implement the Russia Report, but said the Government always “stands ready” to carry out sanctions.She did say that the government had “repeatedly aired our concerns about the construction of Nord Stream 2 and its implications for European security and we will continue to do so”. More

Dominic Raab responds to claim he sent back information on Afghanistan evacuationBoris Johnson is urging Vladimir Putin to deescalate tensions with Ukraine amid fears that Russia is planning to invade its neighbour.The prime minister was among several Western leaders – including US President Joe Biden – who last night backed Kyiv against Moscow as Russia builds up troops on the border.The UK, US, France, Germany and Italy all agreed to use “all the tools at their disposal” to tackle aggression by the Kremlin.Elsewhere Dominic Raab, the former foreign secretary, rejected claims by a whistleblower that the UK’s chaotic evacuation of Afghanistan earlier this year led to a failure to allocate resources and critical delays that ultimately resulted in death. Show latest update

1638868842Good morningGood morning and welcome to The Independent’s live politics coverage.We’ll be bringing you live updates from Westminster and elsewhere as the day progresses.Matt Mathers7 December 2021 09:201638868981Whistleblower left to process thousands of pleas for help sheds light on chaos of UK’s Afghan evacuationFormer foreign secretary Dominic Raab has been out on the broadcast round this morning defending claims by a whisteblower about the chaotic nature of the UK’s evacuation of Afghanistan.Kim Sengupta, our diplomatic editor, has the full report on what has been alleged here: Matt Mathers7 December 2021 09:231638869538Dominic Raab rejects claims of chaotic Afghan evacuation from ‘junior desk officer’ and insists it was successDominic Raab has dismissed a whistleblower’s revelations about the chaotic Afghan evacuation as coming from a “junior desk officer” and insisted it was a success.Our deputy politics editor Rob Merrick reports: Matt Mathers7 December 2021 09:321638869889Johnson joins Western leaders in calling for Russia to cool Russia tensionsA Whitehouse readout of last night’s call said: “The leaders discussed their shared concern about the Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders and Russia’s increasingly harsh rhetoric … They called on Russia to de-escalate tensions and agreed that diplomacy, especially through the Normandy Format, is the only way forward to resolve the conflict in Donbas through the implementation of the Minsk Agreements … They agreed that their teams will stay in close touch, including in consultation with NATO allies and EU partners, on a coordinated and comprehensive approach.”Matt Mathers7 December 2021 09:381638870043‘Very unwise for No 10 to lie’ about lockdown Christmas party, says Dominic CummingsDominic Cummings has implied that Downing Street is covering up Christmas parties during lockdown last year, saying it is “very unwise for No 10 to lie” after the prime minister’s spokesperson explicitly told reporters “there was not a party”.My colleague Celine Wadhera has more details below: Matt Mathers7 December 2021 09:401638871460Government’s plan to cut crime with prisons drugs crackdown branded ‘simplistic and short-sighted’The government has announced a £100m crackdown on drugs in prisons which it says will “tackle the scourge of reoffending and cut crime” – but the plan has been branded “simplistic and short-sighted”.Our social affairs correspondent May Bulman reports: Matt Mathers7 December 2021 10:041638872140Veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman to stand down at next electionLabour MP and former minister Harriet Harman has announced that she will stand down at the next general election.She confirmed the news on Tuesday morning by publishing her email to Camberwell and Peckham Labour Party members on social media. In it, she wrote that it had been an “overwhelming honour” to be an MP “representing and working for the people of Camberwell and Peckham for nearly 40 years”.My colleague Holly Bancroft has more details below: Matt Mathers7 December 2021 10:151638873304Misogyny should not be made a hate crime, official review findsAn official review has stopped short of calling for misogyny to be made a hate crime, despite mounting calls for change following the murder of Sarah Everard.Our home affairs and security correspondent Lizzie Dearden has the story: Matt Mathers7 December 2021 10:351638873940‘We’ve got a prime minister who thinks he’s Julius Caesar’Members of Boris Johnson’s government believe the rules don’t apply to them, Emily Thornberry has claimed.The Labour MP and shadow attorney general was responding to a move by Downing Street to give ministers more power to ignore court decisions.Appearing on LBC radio, Mr Thornberry said “we’ve got a prime minister who thinks he’s Julius Caesar and can do whatever he wants!”More comments below: Matt Mathers7 December 2021 10:451638874840Ofsted to lead inspection of all child protection services in Solihull in wake of Arthur murderEducation watchdog Ofsted has been asked to lead an inspection into all child protection services in Solihull, Birmingham after the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.Amanda Spielman, Ofsted chief inspector, said the probe would take in everything from education and health to police and probation services.Ms Spielman said the investigation will not specifically address the case of Arthur but will be “looking at how these services deal jointly with child protection”.Matt Mathers7 December 2021 11:00 More

The Liberal Democrat candidate for the upcoming by-election in North Shropshire has apologised after comparing tactics used by home secretary Priti Patel to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.Helen Morgan has said sorry after it emerged that she had attacked Ms Patel over her immigration policy and attacks on lawyers – urging the minister to tear up her copy of “Goebbels’ manual”.The now-deleted tweet came last September after the home secretary said the government had removed some of those who had come to the UK via small boats. Ms Patel also complained: “Removals continue to be frustrated by activist lawyers.”Ms Morgan responded: “I think we would all appreciate an explanation of the difference between a lawyer and an activist lawyer.”The Lib Dem added: “In the meantime, please tear up your copy of Goebbels’ manual; it is most unbecoming of one of The Great Offices of State.”The North Shropshire candidate expressed her regret over the comparison. “I apologise for this insensitive tweet which I have taken down,” she said.“I am focused on standing up for the people of North Shropshire who are being taken for granted by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.”Ms Morgan has previously apologised over historic social media posts which cited the experience of Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz when discussing migrants coming across the English Channel.The Lib Dems believe they can cause an upset in next Thursday’s contest in North Shropshire, caused by the resignation of former Tory MP Owen Paterson after he was found to have broken parliamentary lobbying rules.Sir Ed Davey’s party is hoping that local anger over sleaze and underperforming ambulance services may give them an opportunity to take the seat – despite the fact that Mr Paterson held a majority of almost 23,000 for the Tory Party.Labour officials are also talking up the chances of victory – claiming that internal polling from the local party shows candidate Ben Wood has a better chance than Ms Morgan of defeating the Tories.But the Lib Dems claim that their own internal canvassing data shows they have a better chance than Labour of causing an upset in North Shropshire.As figures from the two opposition parties squabbled over the data on Twitter on Monday, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron claimed Labour “will very likely lose their deposit … talking them up now is a dream for the Tories”.Oddschecker, the odds comparison site, has the Conservatives at 11/21, the Lib Dems at 16/9 and Labour further out at 66/1. More

Labour MP and former minister Harriet Harman has announced that she will stand down at the next general election. She confirmed the news on Tuesday morning by publishing her email to Camberwell and Peckham Labour Party members on social media. In it, she wrote that it had been an “overwhelming honour” to be an MP “representing and working for the people of Camberwell and Peckham for nearly 40 years”. She said that she could leave the Commons “now confident that Labour is gaining strength under the leadership of Keir Starmer and the new team he has appointed.”As the longest-ever continuously serving female MP in the House of Commons, Harriet Harman was given the nickname “Mother of the House” by prime minister Theresa May in 2017. She has worked with eight different Labour leaders and under seven different prime ministers. She has also won her London seat eleven times since she first took it in a 1982 by-election. Under Tony Blair, she was secretary of state for social security and the first minister for women. In the statement announcing her intention to stand down, she wrote: “I entered the Commons as one of only 11 Labour women MPs in a parliament that was 97 per cent men. Now there are 104 Labour women and across all parties women MPs are a “critical mass”. But there remains much more to de done till women genuinely share political power with men on equal terms and until women in this country are equal.”She continued: “I will leave the House of Commons with my feminism, my belief in Labour and my enthusiasm for politics undimmed.”Harriet Harman, 71, has held a raft of posts within the Labour party, including two brief stints as leader after Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband stepped down. In her email she said she remained proud of the achievements of the Labour government; referencing the introduction of the national minimum wage, the right to civil partnership, Sure Start children’s centres and the Equality act. Two other long-serving Labour MPs, Barry Sheerman and Dame Margaret Hodge, have also announced their plans to step down at the next general election. More

Dominic Cummings has implied that Downing Street is covering up Christmas parties during lockdown last year, saying it is “very unwise for No 10 to lie” after the prime minister’s spokesperson explicitly told reporters “there was not a party”.Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser also alleged some political journalists attended gatherings at the PM’s flat.Last week the Daily Mirror reported two events took place at Downing Street last year in the run up to the festive season. Boris Johnson allegedly gave a speech at a farewell gathering for former aide Cleo Watson last November, during the second national lockdown.The other event is said to have been a staff Christmas party in December, where games were played, food and drink were served and guests stayed past midnight.At this time, under Tier 3 Covid rules, Christmas parties and lunches were explicitly banned in London as social mixing indoors was prohibited.On Monday, the prime minister’s spokesperson explicitly denied that such a party took place last December.He said: “There was not a party, and Covid rules have been followed at all times,” but declined to say whether an internal investigation had been carried out.He added: “As press secretary set out on a number of occasions when questioned about this originally, there was not a party and Covid rules have been followed at all times.”When asked how he could be certain that no regulations were broken at the event last December, he said: “I don’t need to get into the positions we’ve taken. It is simply just a statement of fact”.The spokesperson added that there was an intention to have a Christmas party at Downing Street this year, although a date for such an event has not yet been confirmed.Following these statements, Mr Cummings took to Twitter to chastise the prime minister.He said: “V unwise for No10 to lie about this but PM set the course of lying on covid in spring when he decided to start rewriting history, deny herd immunity plan, etc”.The prime minister’s former chief adviser also accused political journalists who may have attended the Downing Street parties of “trying to bury” the story.“NB some lobby hacks were also at parties in No10 flat so trying to bury this story…” he said on Twitter.Mr Cummings himself infamously broke coronavirus rules during the first nationwide lockdown by driving to Durham.He stopped working at Downing Street in November 2020 after losing a power struggle and reportedly being told to “never return” by the prime minister.Since then, he has taken to criticising the government, taking aim at the prime minister over Brexit and Covid response policies. More

Government plans to ban the judicial review of asylum cases are likely to lead to people being wrongly deported to dangerous countries, parliament’s human rights committee has warned.In a scathing report the cross-party joint committee said government plans put people at “risk of grave human rights violations”.Dominic Raab’s courts bill going through parliament would make the rulings of upper immigration tribunals final – overturning an earlier Supreme Court ruling that says judges can look at them again.The bill is part of a wider crackdown on the judiciary planned by the government, which wants to stop the courts blocking government policies. It comes after years of court defeats for the Conservative government when its policies were found unlawful – on issues ranging from benefits to Brexit.Other provisions in the bill will also make it harder for judges to “quash” government policies and declare them retrospectively unlawful. The committee says these plans should be dropped, describing them as an “unfair and unreasonable” change that could leave people “suffering from the consequences of an unlawful decision”.Committee chair Harriet Harman said human rights would be rendered “meaningless” unless the they could be enforced and ministers who broke them held to account.In the report the cross-party committee of MPs and peers argue that the government should instead introduce reforms such as time-limits on judicial reviews for asylum cases.This approach would avoid the “nuclear option” that would see people facing “heinous” violations to their rights because of legal errors.The report says: “Given that ‘Cart’ judicial reviews predominantly concern immigration and asylum claims, the Joint Committee finds that their removal could result in people being wrongfully removed from the UK, putting them at risk of grave human rights violations in their country of origin.”Judicial supervision of the Upper Tribunal protects against legal error. While only a small proportion of Cart judicial review applications are successful, those applications may prevent individuals being wrongly removed from the UK to face the most heinous human rights violations. “The government should introduce procedural reforms, such as changes to the time-limits for bringing Cart judicial review, and assess their impact, before pursuing the ‘nuclear option’ of ousting judicial review from Cart cases.”Committee chair Ms Harman said: “Human rights are meaningless unless people can enforce them and those who breach rights are held to account. Judicial review is of fundamental importance in allowing someone who claims their rights have been breached by Government action to take the Government to court. “Governments should welcome that accountability not seek to dilute it. This bill dilutes the power of the courts to order redress and should be amended. The plan to carve out further areas from judicial review scrutiny should be resisted.”A Minister of Justice spokesperson said: “Our changes will give judges the flexibility and powers they need to ensure the Government is held to account, while tackling those who seek to frustrate the court process. “We note the JCHR’s report and will respond in due course.” More

Labour’s Ed Miliband has accused the business secretary of “running away” from questions in the House of Commons as hundreds of people brace for an 11th night without power following Storm Arwen. MPs tore into the government’s response to the power outages in the Commons on Monday with about 1,600 households still without electricity 10 days on.Shadow climate minister Mr Miliband claimed people in Scotland and the North of England have been treated like “second class citizens”. He said Kwasi Kwarteng, who was not present in the Commons, had “run away from questions in this House”.Mr Miliband said: “There are very serious issues here and the minister has had to come up with a hastily arranged dog-ate-my-homework excuse where he claims the Secretary of State is on the phone to Northern Power Grid at the moment, where he could have been on the phone before this statement or after this statement.“It is an insult to people in the North of England and an insult to people in this House.”The government’s own energy minister Greg Hands said it was “completely unacceptable” that many homes were still without power – as a fresh storm threatens to cause more chaos on Tuesday.Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now promised to restore power “by tomorrow at the latest” – after failing to deliver on a pledge to fix the problem by the end of last week.Labour has accused the Government of neglecting the North. Quoting a Conservative councillor from northern England, Mr Miliband said: “‘If this happened in London or in the South East everything would have got thrown at it’. They are his words. Aren’t people in the North entitled to think he is right? They have been treated as second-class citizens.”Labour’s Kevan Jones said: “There is something seriously wrong with Northern Power Grid, not with the engineers and individuals who are out restoring power but with the management and senior management of that company.”Mr Hands, who is also the Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham, said: “I’m glad to say that 99.8 per cent of those affected by the storm have had their power supply restored so far.”But this is not good enough, it is completely unacceptable that around 1,600 were still in this position as of this morning, but the situation is improving each hour.”He added: “I have been assured by the network operators that all efforts are focused on having power restored to those households (still without power) in the next day.”Residents in the North East have spoken of losing hope and feeling “fed up and angry” as they face an 11th night without power.Stewart Sexton, 57, who lives in Alnwick, Northumberland, with his partner, said Northern Power Grid has promised their power will be restored within 24 hours every day since it was cut on 26 November.He said: “It’s exhausting, it’s wearing us down, and it’s a constant worry. Every day seems to bring a new problem.”On day nine there was torrential rain and our village started to flood. That was mainly because of the storm debris.”What happened was that then flooded our village water works – it flooded our sewage system. Our neighbour couldn’t use his toilet without it flooding.”I had to clear standing water from the road, which got my clothes wet, and then return to a house without heating.”From my window I can see a snapped telegraph pole and cables lying on the ground.”The weather forecast is dreadful. We have not got any hope at all. It’s awful, it’s the futility of it.”Another Alnwick resident, Anna Elson, 49, said she is also travelling to a family member’s house with her 13-year-old son for a hot meal and a shower. She and her son suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, a condition worsened by the cold.Ms Elson said: “The village was left to cope on its own for too long, there are a few medically vulnerable residents here, including me.”No phone signal doesn’t help and makes us feel more vulnerable. Help has started to come but people feel it should have been a lot sooner.”Friends have offered help and the village has come together,” she added.”But we are fed up and angry at the lack of response we have had.”The Energy Networks Association said it had reconnected 99 per cent of homes that lost power following damage caused byStorm Arwen. But there are fears that Storm Barra, set to bring gale force winds of 80mph on Tuesday, could cause further disruption. Kwasi Kwarteng visited a Northern Powergrid call centre in Penshaw near Sunderland this weekend. He said he believed the power grid system could be made “a lot more resilient”.”We will have a review, we will see if the distributor companies have enough infrastructure, we may even have enforcement action if necessary,” he added.The long delays have prompted energy regulator Ofgem to warn it will take action against network companies who failed to restore power to customers quickly enough.It has also agreed with firms to lift the £700 cap on compensation which could be offered to those stuck without power.The change will allow those affected to claim £70 for each 12-hour period they have no electricity, after an initial £70 for the first 48 hours of any cut. More