UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMichael Gove has revealed plans to “make marchers pay” for the massive weekly pro-Palestinian protests dominating the centre of London at weekends.In a hard hitting speech this morning Mr Gove warned of a huge rise in antisemitism in the UK, pointing out that the number of incidents were up 147 percent last year.He pointed to evidence from the Community Security Trust (CST) stating that two-thirds of the 4,103 antisemitic incidents occurred on or after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza last yearThe communities secretary announced a number of measures to tackle extremism from Islamists, the far right and the extreme left.His speech came ahead of the publication of the Lord Walney review into political violence. The review recommended that government tighten laws to ban Gaza protests taking place on certain days as well as calling for powers to help businesses claim damages from protest organisers. Michael Gove speaks on antisemitism after Jewish hate crimes triple in London More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailCalls are growing for the former health secretary Ken Clarke to be stripped of his peerage after he was condemned for “indefensible” actions during the infected blood scandal. Demands for Lord Clarke to be kicked out of the House of Lords are “totally understandable”, a cabinet minister said.Mel Stride also said the Tory grandee still had questions to answer over the biggest healthcare failure in UK history. The final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry accused Lord Clarke of “misleading” the public and attacked his “combative style” when he gave evidence. Former health secretary Ken ClarkeHe was criticised by the inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff for suggesting there was “no conclusive proof” that Aids could be spread through blood. His claims that “campaigners attributed everything to me because I later became a well-known figure” and that they were trying to “find some celebrity whose fault it was”, were also condemned.Clive Smith, the chair of the Haemophilia Society, said Lord Clarke’s engagement with the official inquiry had been “appalling”.Asked if Lord Clarke should remain in the Lords, he told LBC: “We wrote to the Upper House when it was suggested that he was going to get a peerage, saying ‘Please don’t do that yet, wait until the Infected Blood Inquiry has reported’.”Now we have the conclusions of the Infected Blood Inquiry report, I think our letter was well-timed and entirely accurate.”The way in which he gave his evidence (to the inquiry) was appalling.”The government is expected to announce £10bn in compensation More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Austria’s leader praised Britain Tuesday as a “pioneer” in outsourcing asylum proceedings to places outside Europe, citing a U.K. bill to send migrants to Rwanda as he hosted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Vienna.Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative party has long taken a hard line on migration and faces a strong challenge from the far-right Freedom Party in an election expected this fall. Nehammer said Austria and the United Kingdom, which left the European Union in 2020, are “strategic partners when it comes to being able to conduct asylum proceedings in safe third countries.”“The United Kingdom is a pioneer for this path, which will also be important for the European Union,” he said at a joint news conference with Sunak. “With the Rwanda model, it is a pioneer for us being able to put asylum proceedings in safe third countries on the European Union’s agenda too.”Austria is one of 15 countries in the 27-nation EU that called last week for more agreements with countries where migrants depart from or travel through to get to Europe. That call came after EU nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system.In late April, the British Parliament passed legislation to send some migrants to Rwanda, clearing the way for flights this summer under Sunak’s controversial plan aimed at deterring risky English Channel crossings by people desperate to reach the U.K. Human rights activists and migrants’ groups have vowed to continue fighting the policy, which they say is unethical and inhumane.Sunak said that “we have to pursue new ideas, solutions, and deterrents — removals to safe third countries — like the U.K.’s pioneering Rwanda scheme.”“It’s increasingly clear that many other countries now agree that that is the approach that is required: bold, novel, looking at safe country partnerships,” Sunak said.___Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration. More

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride has been grilled on where the compensation money for victims of the infected blood scandal will come from.The Tory minister was quizzed about how the government plans to pay millions of pounds of compensation to those impacted when he appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday (21 May).Host Susanna Reid asked him: “We are talking ten billion pounds, how will we pay for it?“Does it mean borrowing money or do people get taxed for it?”Richard Madeley asked: “Will you go after the pharmaceutical companies?”Mr Stride replied: “It doesn’t need to be about that.” More

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insightDavid Cameron has admitted that British tourists could soon be turned away by EU Frontex border guards policing the entry into Gibraltar, under a deal to allow “a fluid border” between the Rock and Spain.The foreign secretary was giving evidence to the European Scrutiny Committee which has raised serious concerns over the impact on UK sovereignty with the proposed treaty.The row has broken out because of a need for Gibraltar to come to a longer border solution with the EU as a result of Brexit.Had the UK voted to remain in the EU, the free travel provisions would not have been a problem but with 15,000 crossings a day, the Gibraltan and UK governments are seeking a solution. Gibraltar opposed Brexit with 96 per cent voting Remain.Lord David Cameron discussed Gibraltar More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBoris Johnson’s chief of staff Dominic Cummings has claimed “nothing will change” in the wake of the devastating tainted blood report – as he accused Rishi Sunak of a “bullshit” apology. The prime minister said Monday was “a day of shame” for Britain after the findings exposed a massive cover-up of the biggest healthcare failure in UK history. The Infected Blood Inquiry pointed the finger at politicians, doctors and civil servants over a scandal that left 30,000 patients infected with HIV and hepatitis. But Mr Cummings, who was also Mr Johnson’s chief adviser in No 10, claimed that in the wake of the report “nothing will change about how Whitehall works, there’ll be no accountability for senior people”. Families affected by the tainted blood scandal protest More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailKen Clarke served as health secretary at pivotal moments in the infected blood scandal, which saw 30,000 patients infected with HIV and hepatitis and more than 3,000 deaths to date.The Tory grandee, who was a key figure in Margaret Thatcher’s government, was handed a peerage by Boris Johnson in 2020. Campaigners including the Haemophilia Society at the time called for the honour to be put on hold until the public inquiry had reported its findings.Now, after the official inquiry concluded he had misled the public in an “indefensible” way, Lord Clarke is facing calls to be kicked out of the House of Lords.Lord Ken Clarke gave evidence during the Infected Blood Inquiry (Infected Blood Inquiry/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA “precedent for global standards on AI safety” has been established after 16 AI tech companies committed to a set of safety outcomes at a major summit, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.The development comes on the opening day of the AI Seoul Summit, with companies from the US, China, Europe and the Middle East agreeing to each publish safety frameworks on how they will measure risks of their frontier AI models, such as examining the risk of misuse of the technology by bad actors.The frameworks will also outline when severe risks, unless adequately mitigated, would be “deemed intolerable” and what companies will do to ensure thresholds are not surpassed.In the most extreme circumstances, the companies have also committed to “not develop or deploy a model or system at all” if mitigations cannot keep risks below the thresholds.Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Open AI are among the companies which have signed up to the Frontier AI Safety Commitments.Mr Sunak said: “It’s a world first to have so many leading AI companies from so many different parts of the globe all agreeing to the same commitments on AI safety.“These commitments ensure the world’s leading AI companies will provide transparency and accountability on their plans to develop safe AI.“It sets a precedent for global standards on AI safety that will unlock the benefits of this transformative technology.”The two-day summit follows the first such gathering at Bletchley Park, the home of the UK’s Second World War codebreakers, in November.Mr Sunak added: “The UK’s Bletchley summit was a great success and together with the Republic of Korea we are continuing that success by delivering concrete progress at the AI Seoul Summit.”Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan, who is in Seoul for the summit focused on AI safety, sustainability and resilience, said: “The true potential of AI will only be unleashed if we’re able to grip the risks.“It is on all of us to make sure AI is developed safely and today’s agreement means we now have bolstered commitments from AI companies and better representation across the globe.” More