UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWet wipes containing plastic are finally set to be banned across the UK as ministers warn a ‘step change’ is needed to protect the country’s rivers. The long-awaited announcement comes after a campaign against the products which have been blamed for hundreds of thousands of blockages in the UK sewer system costing millions of pounds a year. Manufacturers have also come under fire discarded wipes increasingly littering Britain’s beaches.Under plans to be set out by the environment secretary Steve Barclay it will become illegal to sell or supply wet wipes which contain plastic.But Labour said the move did not go far enough and called for there also to be a full ban on the manufacture of plastic wet wipes.Mr Barclay said the move would be a “step change… to protect our waterways from pollution.” But shadow environment secretary Steve Reed accused ministers of breaking their pledge. He said: “Plastic wet wipes clog up our sewers, kill wildlife and lead to sewage backing up into people’s homes.”The Conservatives have broken their promises to act and are too weak to ban them outright.”Labour also accused the Tories of a lengthy delay after the party first promised to ban wet wipes in 2018, as part of a wider crackdown on plastics.The ban follows a consultation late last year, which showed overwhelming public support for the move.A previous consultation, in 2021, also found more than 90% of people were in favour of a ban.Some businesses such as Boots, Aldi and Tesco have already moved to ban wet wipes containing plastics from their stores.Steve Ager, from Boots, said: “We are pleased to see the government now taking action as a ban on all wet wipes containing plastic will have a much bigger impact than retailers taking action alone.”We all have a collective responsibility to protect the environment and support a healthy planet.”Campaigners urged ministers to go further than bans on single items.Jane Martin, chief executive of environmental organisation City To Sea, said: “It’s a positive step forward to see the government take definitive action on banning this pollutant, but action must not end there.”The Government should now look to tackle all single-use plastic products through further bans and mandated reuse and refill targets.”Legislation is expected before MPs break up for their summer break in July. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMayor of London Sadiq Khan has pledged to make the River Thames “swimmable” within a decade as he plans to transform the capital’s waterways.The former Labour cabinet minister branded the river a “national embarrassment” as his own analysis published this year revealed a nearly five-fold rise in the duration of sewage spills in London in 2023.Acknowledging the huge challenge facing the capital yet undeterred from his “moonshot plan”, Mr Khan told The Sunday Times: “We won’t do this overnight. It will take us a few years to do – but the great thing is there’s an appetite from Londoners and campaigners.”His announcement echoes a proposal by the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo to reopen the Seine to swimmers to create an Olympic legacy for the city. The river is currently being cleaned so swimming events for the 2024 games later this year will be able to happen in its waters.The opening of London’s new £5 billion 16-mile “super sewer” this summer is bringing environmentalists hope the state of the Thames is set to improve. The Tideway Tunnel will join 34 storm overflow drains as well as divert sewage to an east London treatment works, consequently reducing the amount of waste being pumped into the river, according to engineers.Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has pledged to make the River Thames ‘swimmable’ within a decade as he plans to transform the capital’s waterways More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email A British lawmaker who allegedly used campaign funds to pay off people who were holding him hostage said Sunday that he wouldn’t seek reelection after the governing Conservative Party found his behavior fell below the standard expected of members of Parliament.Mark Menzies’ downfall is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the Conservatives, undermining support for a party that has been in power for the past 14 years as it prepares for a general election later this year.The Times of London recently reported that Menzies called a 78-year-old aide at 3 a.m. in December asking for funds to pay off “bad people” who had locked him in an apartment and were demanding money for his release. Menzies’ office manager ultimately paid 6,500 pounds ($8,100) from her personal bank account, which was reimbursed from funds donated by political backers, the newspaper said.Menzies, who denies the allegations, has represented the seat of Fylde in northwest England since 2010.“Due to the pressures on myself and my elderly mother, I have decided to resign from the Conservative Party and will not stand at the forthcoming general election,” he said. “This has been a very difficult week for me, and I request that my family’s privacy is respected.”Menzies’ announcement came after the Conservatives announced the findings of an internal investigation into the matter.The inquiry concluded that the payment had been authorized by two members of a local donors group that sits outside the Conservative Party, and therefore Menzies hadn’t misused party funds. “However, we do believe that there has been a pattern of behavior that falls below the standards expected of MPs and individuals looking after donations to local campaign funds which lie outside the direct jurisdiction of the Conservative Party,” the party said.The opposition Labour Party has called for a police investigation into the matter. The Conservatives said they would share information with police if they decide to investigate.The Conservatives have been in power since 2010, but they are trailing in opinion polls amid crumbling public services, high prices that are squeezing consumers and the corrosive effect of ethics scandals.Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who led the party to a landslide victory in 2019, resigned from the House of Commons after an investigation found that he deliberately misled Parliament about parties held at his Downing Street offices during lockdowns imposed to control the spread of COVID-19.Other scandals include a lawmaker who was caught looking at porn in the House of Commons, another who reportedly offered to lobby on behalf of gambling firms and another alleged to have drunkenly groped strangers at a private club in London.But ethical questions are also being asked of opposition politicians as the country prepares for an election that must be called by the end of this year.Conservatives accuse Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, of dodging taxes on the sale of a house sale years ago by falsely claiming it was her primary residence. Police say they are investigating. Rayner denies wrongdoing and hasn’t been suspended by her party. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailAn MP alleged to have made a call to a 78-year-old aide asking for help because he had been locked up by “bad people” demanding money has announced he will stand down as an MP at the next election.Mark Menzies, 52 , reportedly also spent thousands of pounds given by donors on medical expenses. The Conservatives had already suspended Mr Menzies over allegations he misused campaign funds.The party also announced that it had completed its investigation and “cannot conclude” there has been a misuse of Conservative Party funds. However, this appeared to be because the money was in a fund that “sits outside the remit” of the party and its local association. In a statement, Mr Menzies said: “It has been an enormous privilege representing the people of Fylde since 2010, but due to the pressures on myself and my elderly mother, I have decided to resign from the Conservative Party and will not stand at the forthcoming general election.“This has been a very difficult week for me and I request that my family’s privacy is respected.”The Ayrshire-born Tory MP for Fylde, Lancashire will continue to be a sitting MP on full salary until the next election.Mr Menzies won his seat at the 2010 general election after unsuccessfully standing for two seats in Glasgow and Yorkshire. He was considered to be on David Cameron’s so-called “A-List” of top tier parliamentary candidates.In 2014 Mr Menzies resigned as a ministerial aide to then international development minister Alan Duncan after a report he had paid a Brazilian male escort for sex.In December the MP, who is one of Rishi Sunak’s trade envoys, rang his former campaign manager claiming he was locked in a flat and needed £5,000 as a matter of “life and death”.The sum, which rose to £6,500, was eventually paid by his office manager from her personal bank account and subsequently reimbursed from funds raised from donors in an account named Fylde Westminster Group, it is alleged.In an earlier statement to The Times, Mr Menzies said: “I strongly dispute the allegations put to me. I have fully complied with all the rules for declarations. As there is an investigation ongoing I will not be commenting further.”This is a breaking news story… More to follow… More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailTony Blair has warned politics risks becoming a branch of celebrity populated by the “weird and the wealthy” as he called for a reset of Britain’s relationship with Europe. The former prime minister also suggested record net migration was a sign that the UK is still an attractive place to live and denounced identity politics as a “cul de sac”, in a wide-ranging interview. More than a decade and a half after he left frontline politics, he also joked he might “sit around and drink all day” if he did not keep working. Sir Tony and his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, with its more than 800 staff, are widely expected to be influential if, as expected, Labour wins its first general election since he was prime minister later this year. In a significant change of tack from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer has openly praised the legacy of the last Labour government. But in an interview with The Sunday Times, Sir Tony expressed concern about a “loss of mission” within Western democracy. Despite a “really exciting world”, he said when he talked to people in politics “they’re a little depressed about the future”. He warned too many people think governments are limited in what they can achieve at the same time as a technological revolution is accelerating. “Politicians often look at me a bit curiously and think, ‘Well, maybe he’s been too long out of the front line of politics.’ But I say to them, no — [technology] is going to change everything!”, he said. However, while he argued that democracy “can deliver” he warned that the “left is struggling” as “one part of it has gone for identity politics, which is another cul-de-sac”. He also compared it to right-wing nationalism, describing both as “victim ideologies. You never build anything from victimhood”.On Europe, he called for a new approach to the UK’s relationship. He said: “It would be wise to reset it… There are too many things that affect us that are going on in Europe. That doesn’t mean to say [Starmer] will start trying to frame this as rejoining [the EU] or even the single market. In any event, we’ve got a trade negotiation coming up in 2025. But at the moment we’re outside the big political union on our own continent and we’ve got a disrupted trading relationship with our biggest trading partner, so you’ve got to fix this stuff.”Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair speaks at a panel session during the World Government Summit in Dubai in February More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBritain should install an Israeli-style “iron dome” missile defence system, Penny Mordaunt has suggested, in an unusual intervention highlighting concerns within the government about the increasingly unstable geopolitical landscape.Ms Mordaunt, the House of Commons leader and a former Royal Navy reservist, again called for an increase in defence spending, saying the government has a “duty to our citizens” to keep them protected as the world becomes less safe.The former defence secretary’s comments follow another precarious week in relations between Israel and Iran. On Friday, Israel launched strikes on Iran that hit close to military and nuclear targets deep inside the country, in retaliation for Tehran’s missile and drone attacks days earlier.With war still raging in Ukraine and no end in sight to the conflict in Gaza, defence figures have been increasing their calls for the UK to bolster its defences, with one senior Conservative MP describing Iran’s strikes as a “wake-up call” for the West.The UK currently spends just over 2 per cent of GDP on defence, but there are growing calls for this to be increased to at least 2.5 per cent, with some figures pushing for as much as 3 per cent.Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, in a piece that could be interpreted as a pitch for the future leadership of her party, Ms Mordaunt said the UK must be more ambitious about the amount of resources it puts into defence.Penny Mordaunt has again called for more money to be spent on defence More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Polish voters are casting ballots Sunday to chose mayors in hundreds of cities and towns where no candidate won outright in the first round of local election voting two weeks ago.Mayors will be chosen in a total of 748 places, including in the cities of Krakow, Poznan, Rzeszow and Wroclaw. Those are places where no single candidate won at least 50% of the vote during the first round on April 7.The local and regional elections are being viewed as a test for the pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk four months after it took power at the national level.Tusk’s party did well in big cities including Warsaw, where his party’s candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski, easily won reelection as mayor two weeks ago.However, Tusk failed to win a decisive victory overall. The main opposition party, Law and Justice, which held power at the national level from 2015-23, won a greater percentage of votes in the provincial assemblies.Tusk’s socially liberal Civic Coalition has strong support in cities while Law and Justice has a stronger base in conservative rural areas, particularly in eastern Poland.In the election of the provincial assemblies, Law and Justice obtained 34.3% of the votes nationwide and Tusks’ Civic Coalition got 30.6%. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak is “appalled” at the Metropolitan Police’s handling of a pro-Palestinian march at which officers threatened a man with arrest and told him he was “openly Jewish”. Downing Street said the prime minister expects the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, to “account” for the events, which have led to calls for the Met boss to step down. Sir Mark has been summoned to a meeting with the policing minister Chris Philp this week after the incident prompted anger within the government. But No 10 stopped short of echoing former home secretary Suella Braverman’s call for the commissioner to resign. The row erupted after it emerged that the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), Gideon Falter, was threatened with arrest near a pro-Palestine protest on 13 April, with one police officer describing him as “openly Jewish”.Another officer told Mr Falter he would be arrested if he did not leave the area, because he was “causing a breach of peace with all these other people” and his presence was “antagonising”.The CAA has since called on Sir Mark to resign or be removed from his post.A government source said: “The PM has seen the footage and is as appalled as everyone else by the officer calling Mr Falter ‘openly Jewish’. “He expects the Met commissioner to account for how it happened, and what he will do to ensure officers do more to make Jewish communities in London feel safe.”Gideon Falter speaks with a police officer during the march More