UK Politics

Senior Tories have demanded a radical overhaul of the asylum system to allow migrants to claim refuge at UK embassies anywhere in the world – rather than having to travel to the UK – in a bid to cut the numbers attempting dangerous Channel crossings. Ex-cabinet members David Davis and Andrew Mitchell are among those calling for the change, which marks a stark challenge to the punitive approach taken by Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, who are demanding tighter controls on French beaches and are threatening to “push back” small boats at sea.Mr Davis, the former shadow home secretary and Brexit secretary, and Mr Mitchell, the former international development secretary, also poured scorn on the home secretary’s plan to take on powers through her Nationality and Borders Bill to send migrants arriving in the UK to camps in third countries overseas for processing – something that has already been ruled out by Albania after it was named as a potential destination.Writing for The Independent, Pauline Latham, a Conservative member of the Commons International Development Committee, said that allowing migrants to claim asylum at embassies abroad was “the only viable alternative to the tragedy of deaths in the Channel and the chaos of our current approach”. Twenty-seven migrants, including three children and a pregnant woman, drowned off the coast of France in November when their boat sank, marking the single biggest loss of life of the crisis so far.The Home Office is opposing an opposition amendment to the borders bill, due for debate in the House of Commons this week, which would allow migrants to seek “humanitarian visas” in France, allowing them to be transported safely across the Channel to claim asylum.But Ms Latham’s proposal goes a step further, removing the need for asylum seekers to pay thousands of pounds to criminal gangs to smuggle them into Europe and then risk their lives in order to reach Britain to make their claim.The Mid Derbyshire MP said: “This feels to me like a genuine win-win. The customer base of the people smugglers would vanish, ending deaths in the Channel and ensuring that people seeking safety here can travel in a humane fashion. “The UK would be better able to control who arrives here, and anyone arriving without a visa or pre-approved asylum claim would face non-negotiable deportation.”Current government policy has “got it the wrong way round” and should be reshaped as a “global resettlement programme” similar to those set up in Syria and being established for Afghanistan, said Ms Latham.With the vast majority of those arriving in the UK by small boat having a legitimate claim for asylum, the question Ms Patel must answer is why the UK’s current policy requires them to put themselves in the hands of lawless gangs and then risk their lives in order to be able to submit their paperwork, she said.“Desperate people will continue to seek safety in the UK for as long as there is conflict and persecution elsewhere,” said Ms Latham. “But nobody puts their child in an overcrowded, flimsy dinghy on a cold November morning if they think a better alternative is available. So, when we talk about deterrence we have to talk about alternatives.”And Mr Davis said: “Instead of a policy which is built solely on keeping people out, the government should consider creating a legitimate route in for genuine refugees. Migrants fleeing repression in Iran or famine in war-torn Yemen are not able to apply at British embassies. The only options available to them are either illegal, or dangerous, or both.”The bill being debated in the Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday aims to deter small-boat crossings by restricting the rights of those who enter the UK by “irregular” routes, allowing “offshore” processing of claims in third countries, and speeding up the removal of failed asylum seekers. It would also give border and immigration staff powers to redirect boats out of UK territorial waters in a way that MPs and unions have warned could increase the risk of capsize and deaths.Mr Davis said that offshoring would represent a “moral, economic and practical failure”, inflicting a terrible ordeal on those fleeing terror and persecution.And Mr Mitchell said: “So far, Norway, Rwanda and Albania have all distanced themselves from suggestions that they would host a UK offshore processing centre. The bill seeks a power for a policy which the government is yet to define.“Even in Australia, 75 per cent of those sent to remote islands for processing eventually had their claims upheld. Indeed, most of the people crossing the Channel are also having their asylum claims upheld. Offshore processing looks like a policy which delays the inevitable. But at far greater cost to the taxpayer.”The Labour MP behind the humanitarian visa amendment, Neil Coyle, said Ms Patel’s proposals “will cause more dangerous routes and more risk to people seeking to reach the UK”. He told The Independent it was “garbage” for her to claim they would reduce the so-called “pull factors” attracting those fleeing war, civil conflict or persecution to Britain. More

All international travellers to the UK will have to take a Covid test before their departure in a bid to curb the spread of the omicron variant, the government has announced.The move comes amid growing concern about the newly-detected strain of coronavirus, which is believed to be more contagious that previous variants like delta.From 4am on Tuesday, any traveller aged 12 or over, regardless of their vaccination status, will have to show proof of a negative PCR or lateral flow test taken within 48 hours before departure for the UK.Airlines will be required to check for pre-departure tests alongside completed passenger locator forms.From Monday, Nigeria will be added to the red list of high-risk countries from which travellers must undergo hotel quarantine for 10 days after entering Britain.Health secretary Sajid Javid said the government’s strategy since the discover of the Omnicron variant had been to “buy time” to assess and to “put in place protective measures”, adding “we’ve always said that we would act swiftly should new data require it”.With 134 cases now detected in the UK, he said that further action to slow the incursion of the omicron variant was being taken “in light of the most recent data”.It is understood that the move to pre-departure testing was prompted in part by evidence that the time delay between infection with the omicron variant and becoming infectious to other people is shorter than with other strains. This increases the efficacy of pre-departure testing, as it is more likely to identify positive cases.Mr Javid added: “Over the recent days we have learnt of a significant number of growing cases linked to travel with Nigeria. Nigeria now is second only to South Africa in terms of linked cases to omicron.”The announcement comes after pressure on the government to tighten travel rules, with Labour calling for the reintroduction of pre-departure tests and the government’s scientific advisory body Sage saying they would be valuable.Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the move but said the government had been “too slow” to act.“Finally!” she said. “But why on earth is this still only being brought in nearly two weeks after Omicron was identified?“(Shadow health secretary) Wes Streeting and I called for this, Sage recommended this and I am relieved the government is finally acting.“Ministers repeatedly said pre-travel tests were not needed when we pressed them on this. I’m very glad they’ve U-turned now, but I wish they’d done so faster. “Lessons for omicron from the first wave and delta wave are that if lots of separate new cases seed in the UK it accelerates the pandemic.”It was greeted with horror by the travel industry, which has already been hit by the addition of South Africa and nine other southern African countries to the red list, barring inbound travel for anyone other than UK and Irish citizens.British Airways’ Chairman and CEO Sean Doyle said: “The blanket re-introduction of testing to enter the UK, on top of the current regime of isolation and PCR testing on arrival is completely out of step with the rest of the world, with every other country taking a measured approach based on the science. “Our customers will now be faced with uncertainty and chaos and yet again this a devasting blow for everyone who works in the travel industry.”And the CEO of industry body Airlines UK, Tim Alderslade, added:“It is premature to hit millions of passengers and industry before we see the full data. We don’t have the clinical evidence. “The red list extension made complete sense – that’s what it’s there for – but we know from experience that blanket restrictions do not stop the importation of variants. It’s already here. “They’ve now changed their travel advice twice within a week and it’s just impossible for anyone to plan. These measures must be removed as quickly as possible in line with the speed of the booster programme.”The chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, Karen Dee, said that pre-departure tests will act as a “major deterrent” to travel.“This is a devastating blow for aviation and tourism,” she said.“Pre-departure tests act as a major deterrent to travel and most of the limited remaining demand following the reintroduction of self-isolation will now fall away, just as airports were hoping for a small uplift over the Christmas holiday.”Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “As the scientists work to understand the new omicron variant, we need to apply additional caution until the picture is clearer.“We appreciate this will be difficult for the travel sector as we prioritise public health and protect the progress of our world-leading vax and booster programme.”He added: “As we learn more about the omicron variant, we will review these temporary measures to ensure they continue to be proportionate and necessary to protect public health.” More

London faces drastic cuts to its public transport network, including the possible loss of more than 100 bus routes and the closure of an entire Tube line, unless ministers deliver additional funding within the next six days, the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan has warned.Transport for London’s (TfL) current funding deal – including emergency grants totalling £4bn to help it through the Covid pandemic and the recovery from lockdown – runs out on 11 December. Without new arrangements in place, the mayor is warning he will have to implement a budget for “managed decline”.But the Department for Transport has said it will not open discussions on future support until Mr Khan identifies alternative sources for funding, giving him a deadline of Wednesday to do so.The “managed decline” plan envisages a 9 per cent reduction in Tube and overground rail services and bus services scaled back by 18 per cent, along with the potential unplanned closure of key road connections such as the Rotherhithe tunnel under the Thames, the Gallows Corner flyover in Romford and the Westway elevated dual carriageway which brings the A40 into the heart of London.TfL would be forced to consider reductions in the frequency of trains on every line above and below ground, and the creation of new cycleways and step-free access schemes would have to be halted, in a retrenchment similar to that seen in the 1970s and 1980s when the capital’s public transport network went into decline.Unlike other major world cities such as Paris and New York, where payments for tickets make up just 38 per cent of funding, London’s public transport network is forced to rely on fares rather than government grants for the bulk of its income.Prior to the Covid outbreak, some 72 per cent of TfL’s operating income – £4.9bn in 2019/20 – was raised from fares, but the 95 per cent collapse in passenger numbers due to the pandemic has had a devastating effect on its finances.With Tube ridership at just 60-65 per cent and bus use at 70-75 per cent of pre-Covid levels, TfL is appealing for a settlement from government totalling £1.7bn for the period to the end of the financial year 2022/23, along with support towards the forecast £1.3bn shortfall in 2023/24.And Mr Khan is calling for a longer-term model shifting the burden of funding away from the fares paid by passengers.The mayor’s office is accusing transport secretary Grant Shapps of failing to engage seriously in talks and warned that government inaction risks “levelling down” the capital.A spokesperson warned that the “managed decline” would damage the capital’s economy, with a knock-on impact on the financial imbalance which sees London pay £36bn more in taxes to the Treasury each year than it receives in government support.“Time is running out for the government to step up and prevent TfL falling into decline reminiscent of the 1970s and 80s, with huge cuts to services,” said the spokesperson.“Levelling up cannot mean levelling down our capital city.“If London’s public transport decays it will have a huge knock-on impact on London’s economy and put our city’s yearly contribution to the Treasury of more than £36bn at risk.“With just six days to go, the government must protect the national economic recovery by giving TfL the long-term sustainable funding deal it desperately needs.”A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We have written to TfL to outline the next steps in the emergency funding settlement process, which has already seen more than £4bn of emergency funding provided to Transport for London.“Under the current settlement, the mayor agreed to identify new or increased income sources by 19 November that he proposes to consult upon which would move TfL towards a financially sustainable future, in a way that is fair to the national taxpayer.“These have not been identified. We are therefore extending that deadline to 8 December and, once received, government stands ready to begin discussions on further support for TfL to recover from the pandemic” More

Pestering women in the street with lewd comments could become a crime under plans to outlaw “public sexual harassment” to be announced next week.The move is one of a series of law and order measures to be unveiled in a series of government announcements, which will also see Boris Johnson pledge to dismantle 2,000 “county lines” drug gangs and introduce drug-testing on arrest for all offences.Anyone testing positive will be given a choice of rehabilitation support or tougher treatment by the criminal justice system.A separate white paper on prisons will crack down on drugs by forcing staff and visitors to walk through airport-style scanners and be checked by sniffer dogs.Meanwhile, police will be encouraged to identify drug-users from phone numbers recorded on dealers’ phones and target them with messages urging them to seek support to get off illegal substances. And an advertising campaign on university campuses will warn students off getting involved with drugs.Neither Downing Street nor the Home Office would today discuss what is expected to be a series of announcements over the coming week.But a Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph that a new offence of public sexual harassment could cover behaviour like intentionally pressing against someone on public transport, persistent sexual propositioning or leering at a person and cat-calling.Dr Charlotte Proudman, a barrister who helped draft the proposed bill, told the paper: “It could be someone shouting degrading, humiliating comments with lewd language to a woman walking down the street that makes them feel unsafe.“If someone came up to you in a pub, didn’t leave you alone, made foul comments about your body, and was persistently following you around, maybe that would be captured.”The proposal is set to be included in a review of hate crimes by the Law Commission, which is not however expected to back calls for a crime of misogyny.Mr Johnson is expected to announce on Monday that he will give an extra £145m to police towards meeting a new 2024 target of tripling the number of county line networks distributing drugs like heroin and crack from cities to areas around England and Wales, according to The Times. More

The Metropolitan Police are considering complaints that Boris Johnson and his staff may have broken coronavirus rules with parties at Downing Street last Christmas.The force confirmed that it was “aware of widespread reporting and has received correspondence” relating to alleged breaches of health regulations on two dates in November and December last year.“It is our policy not to routinely investigate retrospective breaches of the Covid-19 regulations; we will however consider the correspondence received,” Scotland Yard said in a statement on Saturday.The prime minister has not denied the events took place but said no rules were broken – although he has repeatedly refused to explain how that could be the case.Labour backbenchers Neil Coyle and Barry Gardiner had each written to Scotland Yard asking police to investigate reports in the Daily Mirror that two parties were held in the run-up to last Christmas – at a time when such gatherings were banned.In the first instance, Mr Johnson is alleged to have given a speech at a packed leaving-do for a senior aide last November, during England’s second lockdown.Members of his team then held their own festive party in the days before Christmas, while London was under Tier 3 restrictions, according to the paper.Both occasions allegedly saw 40 or 50 people crammed “cheek by jowl” into a medium-sized room in No 10.The two letters to Scotland Yard came after Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said on Friday morning that her force was not investigating the allegations as it had not received any correspondence relating to them.Asked during a phone-in on LBC what would happen if she received a letter, Dame Cressida said: “If I get a letter, I’ll read a letter.”Pressed further, she added: “This is the Met. We are professional. We are impartial. We act without fear or favour. We follow evidence. That’s what we do.”In a letter sent to the police hours later, Mr Coyle said: “The sense of outrage from constituents is palpable that they followed the rules while those responsible for devising and enforcing them were breaching them at the top of government.”The prime minister has been questioned on this and has replied that ‘no Covid rules were broken’ but from reading the guidance I believe even holding these events was a breach of the rules at the time.”In another letter sent separately on Friday, Mr Gardiner expressed surprise at Dame Cressida’s comments that the Met had not been investigating the allegations, saying:“If these events did take place, it implies that there is one rule for the government and another for everyone else. “I believe your officers should investigate the matter further to establish the facts and to see if any laws might have been broken.”Separately, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has written to the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to ask whether he had considered referring the matter to the Met.At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of “taking the British public for fools for following the rules”.“The prime minister doesn’t deny there was a Downing Street Christmas party last year,” he said. “He says no rules were broken. Both of those things can’t be true.”Additional reporting by PA More

A pre-election income tax cut reportedly being planned by chancellor Rishi Sunak would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, experts have said.In an apparent bid to shake off his reputation as a high-tax high-spend chancellor who has raised the burden to its highest sustained level since the 1950s, Mr Sunak has ordered Treasury officials to draw up options for cutting levies including income tax, VAT and inheritance tax ahead of the election expected in 2024.Treasury sources today insisted that work was at an “exploratory” stage and no preferred options had yet been selected, playing down reports in The Times that the Chancellor is considering reducing the 20p basic rate of income tax by 2p and scrapping the 45p upper rate altogether.One option being examined is understood to be a 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax in both 2023 and 2024 as a sweetener to 31m voters liable for the tax in the run-up to the general election.A leading economic thinktank said it would be “indefensible” for Mr Sunak to target income tax for cuts so soon after hiking national insurance on employees and employers by a total of 2.5 per cent to raise £12bn for the NHS and social care.National insurance contributions (NICs) are paid by workers earning little more than £9,500 a year but a lower rate is paid on earnings over £50,000 and income from shares or rent is exempt, meaning the rise – taking effect from next year – falls most heavily on lower-income groups.But a 2p cut in the basic rate of income tax delivers the greatest benefit, of around £754 a year, to those on salaries of £50,000 or more, compared to £176 for those earning around £30,000. And removing the upper 45p band would help only those earning £150,000 a year or above, to the tune of £2,500 for salaries of £200,000 or £17,500 for an income of £500,000.Meanwhile, any increase in the threshold for inheritance tax would benefit those inheriting estates with a value of £325,000 or more, or higher if it involves property left to children.Describing a focus on cutting income tax as “indefensible” the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, said: “To introduce the health and social care levy, which essentially only affects workers, then to cut income tax, which also benefits people who receive their income from rent, occupational pensions and other holdings, discriminates in favour of the wealthy.”Mr Sunak’s NICs rise is forecast to bring the level of taxation as a proportion of national income to around 35 per cent in 2023/24, its highest level since 1950 except for a brief period in 1969/70.But in his October Budget, the chancellor declared that it was his “mission” to reduce the burden, telling MPs: “By the end of this parliament, I want taxes to be going down not up.”He has set aside a massive £14.7bn cushion which could be splashed out on tax cuts if it is not swallowed up by the cost of dealing with future upsurges in the coronavirus pandemic.A Treasury spokesperson said: “We keep the tax system under constant review. And as the chancellor made clear at the Budget, by the end of this parliament we want taxes to be going down not up.“We do not comment on speculation about specific tax changes.”But a Labour spokesperson said: “The chancellor is about to impose the highest tax burden on working people in 70 years, but has no plan to grow the economy and improve living standards.“Labour will get the economy firing on all cylinders through our plan to buy, make and sell more in Britain, creating jobs and growth in all parts of the country.” More

In a new dividing line with prime minster Boris Johnson, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has revealed that he went to Peppa Pig World and thought it was “dreadful”.Mr Johnson famously extolled the Hampshire theme park as “my kind of place” in a bizarre speech to the CBI, hailing its safe streets and mass transit system.Starmer went on the attack over the speech today, saying that the prime minister had failed to show the “respectful, grown-up relationship with business” which Labour was now offering.His comments came in an interview with The Times in which he revealed he has written to each member of his new shadow cabinet, telling them they must show a “higher level of performance and delivery” in the 18 months ahead of a possible 2023 general election, focusing on support for British business, a new deal for working people, modern public services and claiming for Labour the mantle of “the party of patriotism and progress”.Sir Keir said that to win the general election, Labour must become the party of middle England, building the trust of voters not only in the Red Wall seats lost to Tories in the Midlands and north in 2019, but also in Blue Wall Conservative strongholds in the south and across the UK.Mr Johnson perplexed many in the audience for his keynote speech to the annual conference of UK’s premier business organisation last month when, moments after being left speechless after losing his place in his notes, he asked them to put their hands up if they had been to Peppa Pig World, the theme park based on the hugely popular TV cartoon for pre-school children.As few of the CBI bigwigs lifted their hands, the PM told them: “Not enough. It’s fantastic. I loved it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place.“It has very safe streets, discipline in schools, heavy emphasis on mass transit systems, I notice, even if they are a bit stereotypical about Daddy Pig.”But the Labour leader revealed that in the Starmer household, enthusiasm for Peppa was strictly limited to the younger generation. More

Boris Johnson’s government should consider bringing back “work from home” guidance in bid to tackle the spread of the Covid omicron variant, top scientific advisers have recommended.The full official notes from the latest Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) meeting – published on Friday – show that the experts believe remote working is a “highly relevant” way to reduce transmission of the new variant.The Sage committee also warned ministers that they may not be able wait for data on omicron before deciding whether to bring in more restrictions.“Even if measures are introduced immediately, there may not be time to fully ascertain whether they are sufficient before decisions are needed on further action,” the document states.It comes as Prof Adam Finn, a member of the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), recommended that people return to working from home.“The more people can work from home now the better, until we are more definite about what’s going to happen,” Prof Finn told The Guardian.The University of Bristol expert added: “We need to buy time. If in three weeks it’s died out, then fine, we can all relax, but right now is the time when you could prevent there being a big wave.”The warning came before a further 75 cases of the omicron variant were confirmed in England, doubling the UK’s total. The UK Health Security Agency said on Friday night that cases had now been detected in the East Midlands, East of England, London, North East, North West, South East, South West and West Midlands. A total of 104 cases have now been identifed in England, with a further 45 in Scotland and one in Wales.Earlier this week Prof Susan Michie, a member of the Sage committee, said working from home should be reintroduced to combat omicron transmission.“If you wait until we’ve got certainty you’ve lost it,” she told i. “You need to act quickly, you need to act hard and you need to act before you actually need to act.Minutes from the latest Sage leaked earlier this week warned that the variant could see a “very large wave” of Covid infections in the UK and may need “stringent” rules to protect the NHS.The full document published on Friday afternoon warned that both the introduction of vaccine passports and work-from-home guidance remain potential ways to response to omicron in the days ahead.“Past Sage advice on measures to reduce transmission remains highly relevant, including but not limited to advice around ventilation, face coverings, hand hygiene, reducing contacts (e.g. by working from home), vaccination certification, and the importance of effective testing, contact tracing and isolation,” the document states.The Liberal Democrats urged the government to bring in guidance recommending the return of remote working – saying ministers would be “crazy” to ignore the advice of scientists.The party’s health spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: “How many times does Sage need to recommend ‘working from home’ before the government actually listens?”The MP added: “Working from home is a cheap and simple way to reduce contacts and Covid transmission, and the government is crazy to ignore it.”The government is set to review its most recent restrictions – the re-introduction of mandatory mask-wearing in shops and public – in three weeks’ time.But ministers have made clear they do not wish to see the return of working from home guidance – one of its so-called ‘plan B’ measures.Health secretary Sajid Javid has suggested the government may bring forward its review and lift existing curbs earlier than planned. “We may not even need to wait three weeks,” he said earlier this week.It comes as NHS England said the ramped-up rollout of Covid booster jabs will be in place “no later than” 13 December, after the government decided the time between a second dose and booster should be cut from six months to three months.Meanwhile, it has emerged that the majority of all known omicron Covid cases in England have been detected in people that have had at least two vaccines.Of the first 22 omicron cases analysed, 12 of them were linked to people who found out they were infected more than 14 days after receiving their last jab, according to the UK Health Security Agency.In a worrying development, South African scientists reported that omicron appears more likely than earlier variants to cause reinfections among people who have already had Covid.In more encouraging news, a UK report suggests receiving a third Covid jab leads to good levels of protection from the virus. The CovBoost study published in The Lancet found that the body’s T cell immune response from boosters provides strong protection from serious illness and death. More