UK Politics

Dominic Raab has said he wants to “correct” the drift towards the principle of free speech being outweighed by protection of privacy.The justice secretary’s intervention comes just days after Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, won an appeal court battle over a newspaper’s publication of extracts of a letter to her father.Court of appeal judges ruled that the duchess had a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the contents of the letter which were “personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest”.But critics have accused the courts of creating extensive privacy rights which were never legislated for in parliament, by their far-reaching interpretation of the right to private and family life enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights and translated into UK law through the Human Rights Act.Speaking to Times Radio on Sunday, Mr Raab did not directly reference the duchess’s case, but made clear he believes the balance has slipped too far in favour of the ability of rich individuals to protect their secrets.He indicated that his planned overhaul of the Human Rights Act could shift Britain away from “continental-style privacy laws” developed by judges rather than parliament.“We do in this country have a tradition which emphasises and prioritises free speech and open debate,” said the deputy prime minister. “I think that’s something which is pro freedom that we’ll look at.”Citing British philosophers John Locke, John Stuart Mill and Isaiah Berlin, Mr Raab said: “In the politics of this country, we’ve had a heavier emphasis on free speech, transparency, accountability for politicians, for people in positions of influence. We don’t have the continental-style privacy law protections.“If we were going to go down that route, it should have been decided by elected politicians.” He added: “I think that’s a good example of the kind of balance that we can strike with our own home-grown approach to this, rather than the over-reliance on a continental model, which is effectively what the Human Rights Act has left us with.“What I want to see is stronger respect for the democratic prerogatives of parliament to legislate in those areas.“So it’s about getting the balance right. But certainly, I think the drift towards continental-style privacy laws, innovated in the courtroom not by elected lawmakers in the House of Commons, is something that we can and should correct.” More

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said he will call in police over “deeply concerning” allegations of drug use in the Palace of Westminster.And in a warning to anyone bringing cocaine or other illegal substances into parliament, the Speaker said he was treating the matter as a priority and wanted to see “full and effective enforcement of the law” with serious sanctions for those flouting the rules.Sir Lindsay’s move comes after the Sunday Times reported that an investigation found evidence of cocaine in 11 out of 12 locations tested in the building.One senior MP said it was time to consider bringing in sniffer dogs to detect illicit substances.The Speaker said: “The accounts of drug misuse in Parliament given to the Sunday Times are deeply concerning – and I will be raising them as a priority with the Metropolitan Police next week. “I expect to see full and effective enforcement of the law.”Sir Lindsay added: “While parliament provides extensive support services for any staff or members who may need help with drug misuse – and I would encourage anyone struggling with such issues to take up such help – for those who choose to flout the law and bring the institution into disrepute the sanctions are serious.”The Sunday Times reported that Commons officials had received reports last month that cannabis could be smelt in an open space – often used by staff for cigarette breaks – between two parliamentary buildings housing MPs’ offices and committee rooms.Cocaine detection wipe tests carried out in a single evening on 12 locations in parliament found evidence of the class A substance in lavatories near the offices of prime minster Boris Johnson and home secretary Priti Patel, as well other washrooms, the paper said.And the newspaper quoted anonymous Westminster sources as claiming that drug use was rife among some staff and MPs.One was quoted as saying: “I have seen an MP openly snorting cocaine at a party. There were journalists present and I warned them that what they were doing was extremely dangerous and they could be exposed but they seemed to get off on the power trip.”And another said: “MPs tend to be more careful than staff and will go back to their office to do it rather than doing it in any of the public spaces, but I have heard of one staffer who walked in on their MP doing a late-night line at their desk.”One Westminster veteran told the paper: “There is a cocaine culture in parliament. Some people are at it all the time and are totally blasé. Others dabble. Some are household names, some are ambitious young MPs and officials, but all of them risk throwing away their careers. They think they are untouchable, protected by their friends in the bubble. It’s shocking but also sad. Lots of them need help.”Sir Lindsay raised concerns about the scale of drug use at Westminster during his campaign to succeed John Bercow as Speaker in 2019, telling MPs: “It’s not just drink we’ve got to catch out, there is a drug problem.”Since then, figures released by the Metropolitan Police under freedom of information laws have shown that there were 17 drug crimes detected in or near the parliamentary buildings in the past year. Police investigated 38 drug offences on the estate between 2015 and 2018.Conservative MP Charles Walker, who chairs the administration committee, said that the issue would be discussed by the House of Commons Commission next week and sniffer dogs could be brought in.“The House of Commons has a long history of using sniffer dogs to detect explosives,” he said. “It may be that we now need to broaden the range of sniffer dogs … to include those which can detect drugs.”The issue has blown up as Mr Johnson steps up action against drugs, warning middle-class cocaine users they could have their passports or driving licences confiscated if fines prove no deterrent.He is also expected in the coming week to announce a new clampdown on county lines drug operations moving crack and heroin from England and Wales’s cities into every area of the country.Jenny Symmons, who chairs the GMB union branch for parliamentary staff, said: “Parliament is a microcosm of the country so of course drugs will be a problem, but the working culture of late nights and short deadlines can create a pressure that feels unmanageable. Support must be available for those who have turned to drugs and we must continue to improve working conditions for staff.”Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons leader, said: “The palace of Westminster ought to be the bastion of lawfulness. There are a lot of police on the parliamentary estate who should enforce the law using all the tools at their disposal to stop drug dealing and drug abuse within the palace.” More

Christmas party reports ‘unsubstantiated’, Raab saysCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said he will call in police over “deeply concerning” allegations of drug use in the Palace of Westminster.The Speaker said he was treating the matter as a priority and wanted to see “full and effective enforcement of the law” with serious sanctions for those flouting the rules. Sir Lindsay’s move comes after the Sunday Times reported that an investigation found evidence of cocaine in 11 out of 12 locations tested in the building.The intervention from the speaker also comes as the Prime Minister will this week launch a 10-year plan to tackle illegal drug-related crime which will include removing passports and driving licences from offenders, it has been reported.The crackdown will also include football-style travel bans, harsher sentences for drug dealers and measures to break up county lines gangs.The Sun reported Boris Johnson will outline “record” funding for addiction treatment and recovery services, with more money promised for the 50 local authorities with the worst drug issues including Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Liverpool.Follow updates below.Show latest update

1638715879Justice secretary wants to ‘correct’ drift towards privacy rightsDominic Raab has said he wants to “correct” the drift towards the principle of free speech being outweighed by protection of privacy.The justice secretary’s intervention comes just days after Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, won an appeal court battle over a newspaper’s publication of extracts of a letter to her father.Court of appeal judges ruled that the duchess had a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the contents of the letter which were “personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest”.Our political editor, Andrew Woodcock, has the full story below: Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 14:511638713948Commons Speaker goes to police over claims of cocaine use at Westminster – further updates The Speaker said: “The accounts of drug misuse in Parliament given to the Sunday Times are deeply concerning – and I will be raising them as a priority with the Metropolitan Police next week.“I expect to see full and effective enforcement of the law.”Sir Lindsay added: “While parliament provides extensive support services for any staff or members who may need help with drug misuse – and I would encourage anyone struggling with such issues to take up such help – for those who choose to flout the law and bring the institution into disrepute the sanctions are serious.”Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full story below: Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 14:191638711739BREAKING: Commons Speaker goes to police over claims of cocaine use at WestminsterCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said he will raise “deeply concerning” allegations of drug use in the Palace of Westminster with police.More to follow on this developing story. Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 13:421638711166‘Too late’ to effectively halt the spread of the omicron variant in the UK, warns government science adviserOn Saturday, it was announced all travellers arriving in England will be required to take a covid-19 pre-departure test from Tuesday – while Nigeria is being added to the government’s travel red list.Ministers said the extra test was intended to be a temporary measure following new data showing an increase in the number of cases of the new strain linked to foreign travel.But Professor Mark Woolhouse, who is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) which advises the government, said the measures would not make a “material difference” as the variant is already “spreading pretty rapidly”.He told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: “I think that may be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.”If omicron is here in the UK, and it certainly is, if there’s community transmission in the UK, and it certainly looks that way, then it’s that community transmission that will drive a next wave.Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 13:321638709246Government legacy plans ‘morally, constitutionally and legally offensive,’ says prominent lawyerThe UK Government’s proposals for an end to legal cases relating to Northern Ireland’s Troubles are offensive “morally, constitutionally and legally”, a prominent lawyer has said.Kevin Winters, whose legal firm deals with a large number of legacy cases, said that he believed the Government was trying to shut down court examinations of allegations of state collusion with both loyalist and republican paramilitaries.In July, the Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis announced plans for a statute of limitations which would end all prosecutions for Troubles incidents up to April 1998 and would apply to military veterans as well as ex-paramilitaries.The proposals, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson said would allow Northern Ireland to “draw a line under the Troubles”, would also end all legacy inquests and civil actions.The package of measures also included a new truth recovery body and an oral history initiative.But the move has been condemned by all the main political parties in Northern Ireland as well as the Irish Government and a range of victims’ and survivors’ groups.Additional reporting by PAThomas Kingsley5 December 2021 13:001638707446Billionaire Tory donor’s firm claimed millions in furlough cash – after making £75m profitA billionaire Tory donor’s firm continued to claim millions of pounds’ worth of taxpayer-funded furlough money after recording a £75.3m profit, The Independent can reveal.Malcolm Healey’s company, Wren Kitchens, used public funds to help bankroll its staff costs during the Covid pandemic even though it banked tens of millions of pounds’ worth of pre-tax profits in its 2020 accounts.It came as Healey personally donated £500,000 to Boris Johnson’s party in December 2020, meaning he has given the Tories over £2.3m since 2017, according to Electoral Commission records.Our chief reporter, Simon Murphy, has the full story below: Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 12:301638705709Revealed: Royal Mint dropped National Trust coin after charity judged ‘troubled and political’A plan to issue a commemorative coin marking the 125th anniversary of the National Trust was dropped by the Royal Mint after the conservation charity was judged to be a “troubled and political organisation”, it can be revealed.Official papers obtained by The Independent using Freedom of Information laws disclose that the Royal Mint ditched the idea in early 2018 following rows over volunteers at the Trust being asked to wear gay pride badges and the word “Easter” being removed from its annual egg hunt.Our chief reporter Simon Murphy has the full story below: Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 12:011638702742Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Government confirms review into six-year-old’s murderThe government has announced a major review into the circumstances which led to the murder of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.It aims to determine what improvements are needed by the agencies that came into contact with Arthur in the months before he was murdered by stepmother Emma Tustin at their home in Solihull.The National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel will lead the review and will provide additional support to Solihull Children’s Safeguarding Partnership to “upgrade” the already existing local review which was launched shortly after Arthur’s death in June 2020.The action comes after it emerged in court the boy had been seen by social workers just two months before his death, but they concluded there were “no safeguarding concerns”.Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “Arthur’s murder has shocked and appalled the nation.“I am deeply distressed by this awful case and the senseless pain inflicted on this poor boy, who has been robbed of the chance to live his life.“I have taken immediate action and asked for a joint inspection to consider where improvements are needed by all the agencies tasked with protecting children in Solihull, so that we can be assured that we are doing everything in our power to protect other children and prevent such evil crimes.”Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 11:121638701087Dominic Raab scales back Christmas party plans because of omicronDeputy prime minister Dominic Raab has revealed he has cancelled the Ministry of Justice Christmas party, and will instead be holding “appropriate drinks at a smaller scale” because of the threat of the omicron variant of coronavirus.Mr Raab is the latest government minister to suggest that party plans for the festive season should be scaled back, after cabinet colleague Therese Coffey said people should avoid kissing under the mistletoe this year.And UK Health Security Agency chief Jenny Harries, a senior adviser to the prime minister, has said people should not socialise “when we don’t particularly need to”.Our political editor, Andrew Woodcock has the full story below:Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 10:441638700432Boris Johnson faces backbench revolt over military rape trialsBoris Johnson is facing a backbench revolt against the government’s rejection of calls for cases of rape in the armed forces to be taken out of the military courts system, where defendants are five or six times less likely to be found guilty.Prominent Tory MPs Johnny Mercer – a former Army officer who was in charge of legislation on the issue before resigning as a defence minister earlier this year – and Commons defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood are among those expected to break party ranks in a crunch vote on Monday.Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full report below: Thomas Kingsley5 December 2021 10:33 More

The government has launched a national review of lessons to be learnt from the tragic death of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.Led by the chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, Annie Hudson, the inquiry will seek to identify what went wrong in Arthur’s case in order to ensure that any necessary changes to practices are disseminated to social services and criminal justice agencies around England.The national review replaces an earlier local child safeguarding practice review – previously known as a serious case review – which was put on hold during the trial of Arthur’s father and stepmother. Separately, a joint targeted area inspection, led jointly by Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and HM Inspectorate of Probation, will consider what improvements are needed in agencies tasked with protecting vulnerable children in the murdered boy’s home area of Solihull, in the West Midlands.Arthur’s stepmother, Emma Tustin, 32, was jailed for life at Coventry Crown Court on Friday, with a minimum term of 29 years, after being found guilty of his murder, while his father, Thomas Hughes, 29, was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter. Attorney general Suella Braverman has ordered a review of whether the sentences were too lenient.Arthur died in June 2020 from head injuries after months of being starved and mistreated by the couple. Social workers who saw the family two months before his death found there were “no safeguarding concerns”.Announcing the new reviews, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “Arthur’s murder has shocked and appalled the nation. I am deeply distressed by this awful case and the senseless pain inflicted on this poor boy, who has been robbed of the chance to live his life.“I have taken immediate action and asked for a joint inspection to consider where improvements are needed by all the agencies tasked with protecting children in Solihull, so that we can be assured that we are doing everything in our power to protect other children and prevent such evil crimes.“Given the enormity of this case, the range of agencies involved and the potential for its implications to be felt nationally, I have also asked Annie Hudson, chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, to work with leaders in Solihull to deliver a single, national review of Arthur’s death to identify where we must learn from this terrible case.We are determined to protect children from harm and where concerns are raised we will not hesitate to take urgent and robust action.“We will not rest until we have the answers we need.”Prime minister Boris Johnson last week promised that he would “leave absolutely no stone unturned to find out exactly what went wrong in that appalling case”.And his deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said he believed that agencies should take “a more precautionary approach” in responding to signs that a vulnerable child may be being abused.Speaking on Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday show, Mr Raab said vulnerable children need “the maximum protection” but said there was no “silver bullet” solution to the problem.He rejected suggestions that increased funding for social services was the only answer.“This is often reduced to the question of resources,” he said. “During the pandemic, we’ve put in £4.8bn – close to £5bn.“But they do an incredibly difficult job. It’s very finely balanced.“On the one hand, they need to make sure they’ve got the engagement and relationship with those families and talk to them. On the other hand, of course, the top priority has got to be looking for those risks, reading the signs, which may only be subtle and with the benefit of hindsight be more obvious.“I do think we’ve got to make sure there is, if you like, a more precautionary approach which looks at the risk to those particularly vulnerable young children and see what more we can do to read those signs earlier and better.” More

Travel bans and pre-departure tests will do nothing to stop the spread of omicron to the UK, according to a leading scientist from South Africa, where the new variant of coronavirus was first detected.And a member of the government’s Sage scientific advisory board said that measures announced on Saturday by Sajid Javid and being imposed at 4am on Tuesday were “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted”.Community transmission is already under way in the UK and can be expected to “drive the next wave” and see cases rise from hundreds to thousands, regardless of travel restrictions, said epidemiologist Prof Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh.The director of the Africa Health Research Institute, Prof Willem Hanekom, told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show that he was “completely aligned” with the view of many South Africans that the rest of the world was panicking unnecessarily about the emergence of the omicron variant, which is believed to be more contagious that previous strains of Covid-19.And he said: “The travel bans are doing are going to do very, very little to stop the spread of omicron. In fact, our experience is exactly the opposite. They’re not going to do anything to stop the spread of omicron.“But in a country like South Africa, which is a middle-income country, the amount that we are losing economically from travel bans is just astronomical and we really cannot afford that.”Prof Hanekom said that controls on travel should not be the priority for UK authorities in dealing with the new variant.“This is not really where the focus should be to ultimately control the epidemic within the UK,” he said. “I don’t want to speak for the UK, but I think that other measures may have to be put into place if you want to control omicron in your country.”Asked whether the health secretary was right to require all travellers aged 12 or over to take a PCR or lateral flow test before coming to the UK from any country in the world, Prof Woolhouse told Marr: “I think that may be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.“If omicron is here in the UK – and it certainly is – and if there’s community transmission in the UK – and it certainly looks that way – then it’s that community transmission that will drive the next wave.“The cases that are being imported are important. We want to detect those and isolate any positive cases that we find, as we would for any case anywhere.“But I think it’s too late to make a material difference to the course of the omicron wave, if we’re going to have one.”Prof Woolhouse said although the numbers of people with the omicron variant in the UK are “still quite small” and probably remain in the hundreds rather than the thousands, they are “growing quite fast”.However, he insisted that vaccinations will still be “very, very good” at protecting against the new variant.Statistician Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme: “It’s a very difficult situation because we haven’t got a lot of data yet at all, almost nothing from this country about what the risks are.“In South Africa there’s data coming out showing pretty strong evidence that the increased risk of transmission and some evidence about people going to hospital, but it may actually be milder but we haven’t got enough data yet to be able to say.”“It doesn’t look as if it’s really severe if you get it, I think that’s about all we can say at the moment.”Asked if measures to combat the spread of omicron have gone far enough, Prof Spiegelhalter added: “It’s best to be precautionary, when there’s so much we don’t know… and when we don’t know it’s better to be safe than sorry.”The travel industry has reacted with fury to the travel bans on 11 African countries – including Nigeria from Monday morning – despite ministers insisting they were only “temporary”.Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab told Sky: “I know that is a burden for the travel industry but we have made huge, huge strides in this country.“We have got to take the measures targeted forensically to stop the new variant seeding in this country to create a bigger problem.“We have taken a balanced approach but we are always alert to extra risk that takes us back not forward.” More

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab will not be hosting a big Christmas party for Ministry of Justice staff this year, but will instead be holding “appropriate drinks at a smaller scale” because of concerns over coronavirus.But he insisted that the public should feel free to go out and enjoy festive events this year, and said ministers trust them to rely on their own “common sense” in deciding what precautions to take.Mr Raab is the latest government minister to discuss festive plans in a time of omicron, after cabinet colleague Therese Coffey said people should avoid kissing under the mistletoe this year and health secretary Sajid Javid said they can kiss whoever they like.UK Health Security Agency chief Jenny Harries, a senior adviser to the prime minister, was accused of prompting the cancellation of parties when she said that people should not socialise “when we don’t particularly need to” in order to stem the spread of the omicron variant.But the DPM insisted that it remained a matter of personal responsibility for individuals to decide what precautions they want to take.“I’m not going start telling people who they can’t kiss,” he told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show. “The parties are fine. Enjoy being amongst loved ones this Christmas. It is not the job of the government to micromanage all of these different common-sense judgments.“We set the framework, we give advice, but we also trust people to enjoy things and do things in a responsible way. And we understand that whatever the rules say, there is still a little bit of nervousness out there.”He added: “Our message is this – enjoy Christmas this year. The vaccine rollout means we’re in a position to do so… People need to see that social interaction, whether it’s at work or amongst family and friends.”So far, domestic restrictions announced by government in response to omicron have amounted only to mandatory mask-wearing in shops and public transport and self-isolation for those coming into contact with people infected with the new variant.The approach stands in stark contrast to the tougher controls in some other European countries, such as Ireland where nightclubs have been closed and social gatherings at home limited to three households.Aides to the justice secretary said that the MOJ had never scheduled a department-wide Christmas party for 2021, but Mr Raab made clear that he was not advising the public to cancel their plans.He told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday that the government was always subjected to the “Goldilocks criticism”, with some people saying it was doing too much while others say it is not doing enough.“The rule is very clear,” he said. “People can go on and have Christmas parties. “Of course employers will want to think common-sense about how they do that. We don’t want to substitute for that discretion and that common sense “We won’t be having a Ministry of Justice-wide Christmas party this year. But we will be having, I think, appropriate drinks at a smaller scale.”Labour’s shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon told Sky: “We have been very clear that we do not believe that Christmas parties should be cancelled.“We believe that hospitality has through a very difficult period and it is very important for hospitality that we continue in the way that we want to.“But that can only happen if we are not undermined by new variants coming into this country that completely take apart the vaccination rollout.”Asked whether proof of vaccination should be required from people attending large events, Mr McMahon said: “We don’t want to have unnecessary rules in place that really undermine confidence in hospitality, confidence in going out over Christmas.“But equally we do want people to be cautious.  “We are not on the other side of this yet, there are still many cases that are being identified, there are still many people who are in hospital through Covid and we don’t know yet the extent of the new variant so a cautious, common-sense approach is what’s needed.” More

Levels of trust in UK politicians have plummeted to historic lows, according to a new survey which found almost two thirds of voters believe they are merely “out for themselves”.The poll found that 63 per cent share this view, with just 5 per cent saying that they are motivated primarily by the good of the country.In 2014, when David Cameron was prime minister, after the financial crash and MPs’ expenses scandal and several years into the period of austerity,  just 48 per cent of voters believed politicians were “out merely for themselves” as opposed to their country or party. But within two years of Boris Johnson taking office this had risen to 57 per cent in May this year, and now stands at 63 per cent in the wake of the Owen Paterson affair.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank said that the “disturbing” findings suggest that the recent rash of sleaze scandals has taken a toll on political class has “squandered” the boost in public confidence recorded amid massive state interventions during the Covid crisis.And the group’s director of research Harry Quilter-Pinner said the actions of the Johnson administration were “making things worse”.He warned that the collapse in trust threatens the effective functioning of the democratic system, particularly on issues like climate change where voters must be persuaded that costly action now will deliver results many years in the future.In a report, the IPPR suggested that changes to selection processes to deliver candidates from a wider set of backgrounds – including those who have not been to university – would be a good first step to rebuilding trust.The YouGov poll repeated a question first asked in 1944, when just one in three British people (35 per cent) thought that politicians were only out for themselves, while slightly more said they were motivated to serve their country.That high level of trust in politicians’ selflessness came at a time when huge sacrifices were being demanded from ordinary people as the government undertook an unprecedented mobilisation of society to fight the Second World War.A follow-up poll in 1972 found eroded levels of trust, but the proportion seeing politicians as primarily in it for themselves was still below 40 per cent.Today’s survey found that trust in MPs falls the further away you travel from Westminster within England, with Burnley recording the lowest levels of confidence and London suburbs Hampstead and Kilburn the highest.And there was evidence that the aftermath of Brexit has altered the make-up of the groups who express distrust in the country’s leaders.Before the 2016 referendum, Leave backers and people with lower academic qualifications were more likely to be distrustful of politicians, but following the divisive vote, university-educated voters and supporters of EU membership are now most likely to think MPs are motivated by their own self-interest.In a report, the IPPR proposed four changes to enhance levels of trust by narrowing the gap between voters’ hopes and their real-life experiences: • Better public services, jobs and opportunities.• Action to tackle the biggest issues in modern life.• A bold programme of constitutional and democratic reform.• Increased diversity of election candidates and greater direct involvement for citizens in democratic processes and decision making.Mr Quilter-Pinner said: “Our research shows a significant and disturbing decline in public trust in politicians and democracy in the UK. More people than ever are convinced that MPs are primarily looking out for themselves, rather than their country.“Rather than taking bold action now to reverse this long-term trend, the government seem to be making things worse.“These trends are deeply concerning. In a political system where voters allow and rely on others to make decisions on their behalf, trust is the most valuable commodity. Without it, our democratic systems stop functioning effectively.“Our politicians must act now to set the UK on a new course, away from democratic dissatisfaction, towards a system which delivers on the priorities of citizens and where everyone has a say in how society is governed.” More

Boris Johnson is facing a backbench revolt against the government’s rejection of calls for cases of rape in the armed forces to be taken out of the military courts system, where defendants are five or six times less likely to be found guilty.Prominent Tory MPs Johnny Mercer – a former Army officer who was in charge of legislation on the issue before resigning as a defence minister earlier this year – and Commons defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood are among those expected to break party ranks in a crunch vote on Monday.The move was a key recommendation of last year’s review of the service justice system (SJS) by judge Shaun Lyons, and was backed in July by a parliamentary inquiry into the protection of women in the armed forces, amid concerns over victim-blaming, fears that a complaint will damage careers and perceptions that military requirements are prioritised over the needs of rape complainants.But defence secretary Ben Wallace this week rejected the recommendation of the defence sub-committee which conducted the inquiry, whose Conservative chair Sarah Atherton said it was “disappointing” that the minister had failed to act on “clear evidence that the current system is failing to deliver justice”.Mr Mercer told The Independent that Mr Wallace’s personal intervention ensured that the Lyons recommendation was not included in the Armed Forces Bill, against his own advice and that of senior Ministry of Defence officials.He said he will vote on Monday to support a House of Lords amendment, opposed by the government, which would create a presumption that the most serious charges against serving personnel will be heard in civilian courts and not courts martial.After a string of backbench rebellions in recent weeks, it is thought that Tory MPs in double figures may be ready to back the peers’ proposal, while others may put Mr Johnson’s majority in peril by abstaining. “It was clear to me at the time that all of the officials and myself – as the original bill minister – were of the view that the evidence clearly indicated we should remove serious and sexual offences from the military justice system in order to reassure victims and try to get better outcomes for them,” said Mr Mercer.“The defence secretary had a different view. He retains that view, as is his prerogative, but he was certainly the only individual in the building who held that view when I left, and I am yet to see clear evidence to back up his position.”Mr Ellwood said he expected to abstain in Monday’s vote, but urged ministers to accept the changes proposed by the Lords.“Our sub-committee looked at this very carefully and felt that these matters were best moved to the civilian courts, which have much better experience of dealing with complex cases,” he told The Independent.“As chair of the defence committee, I strongly urge the government to reconsider this. It is clearly the right thing to do and it is what members of the armed forces would want us to do.”In law, serious crimes in the armed forces are under the “concurrent jurisdiction” of the military and civilian justice systems and since the Deepcut scandal murder and manslaughter cases have been dealt with in civilian courts.But the vast bulk of allegations of rape and sexual assault made by female troops are investigated by military police and prosecuted through courts martial, where the “boards” of officers who take the place of the jury in a civilian case are disproportionately male.According to Ministry of Defence figures, a total of 129 rape cases were heard at military courts in the five years to 2019, only 13 of which resulted in a conviction, a success rate of just 10 per cent, compared to 50 per cent or more in the criminal courts – though campaigners acknowledge this figure is inflated by the Crown Prosecution Service’s practice of pursuing only the most solid cases.Victim’s Commissioner Dame Vera Baird said that the chances of a raped servicewoman seeing justice in the military system are “shockingly low”.One Royal Navy servicewoman said she “went through hell” after alleging sexual assault in a case which ended in an acquittal. Alicia – not her real name – mounted a legal challenge to the MOD’s approach and received an apology over incorrect legal advice, delays in submitting crucial documents and a failure to tell her she could give evidence via video link.She hailed the Lords amendment as “incredibly important” and urged MPs to back it on Monday, saying: “It will encourage more service personnel to come forward and report (and) it will afford us some protection from the appalling consequences we suffer inside our units after we report rape.”Emma Norton, the director of the Centre for Military Justice, said that “huge numbers” of women have come forward with concerns over poor-quality victim care, cases investigated by military police with little experience of complex sexual assault allegations and inferior advocacy by prosecutors at courts martial which led them to believe they would have more chance of a successful outcome in the civilian courts.Large numbers of women experiencing sexual harassment in the military do not report it “because they do not have any faith that they’ll be dealt with appropriately and they are worried about the impact on their career”, Ms Norton told The Independent.Flaws in the system reflected “deeply problematic” cultural attitudes towards women in the military and progress towards fixing them was “glacial”, she said. She urged MPs to “have the courage of their convictions and vote the right way on this” on Monday.Dame Vera said that one rationale for resisting change offered by the MoD – and referenced in the Lyons report – had been that the responsibility of military courts to deal with rape charges against troops abroad made it essential for them to have experience of doing so in the UK.But she told The Independent that this was “the weakest imaginable reason for appalling injustice”.She said: “This is yet another manifestation of the kind of sexism that prevails throughout the British military, I’m afraid.“There must be an imbalance in approach because the justice system within the military always put the good functioning of the military first. That is what it’s for. “If you have someone who is a fantastic pilot or whatever, under this approach that is more important than whether he’s guilty of raping someone. You can keep the guy away from women and that will do, because he is very precious to us and we’re not going to risk the tens of thousands of pounds worth of training he’s received.“Rape is rape, whether it’s done by a soldier against a solider or by a civilian against a civilian. Why should the outcomes be different? It’s obviously the way it’s tried and the way it’s investigated that is deficient.”An MoD spokesperson said: “The government will not be supporting amendments to the Armed Forces Bill.“We remain convinced that concurrent jurisdiction is the right approach. The Service Justice System is an integral part of the armed forces and reflects the unique nature of the role of our armed forces, operating all over the globe, often in countries with legal systems less rigorous and fair than our own. “If certain crimes were removed from the Service Justice System it would undermine its legitimacy, whilst eroding the confidence of those that use this system.“We support the right of victims in the UK to be able to report offences in whichever jurisdiction they choose and we are strengthening the prosecutor protocols to provide some much-needed clarity and transparency on how decisions on jurisdiction are made.” More