UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA furious row has erupted over small boat channel crossings as the figures this year are set to hit the second highest on record.Despite Rishi Sunak’s January pledge to “stop the boats”, 28,453 migrants have crossed the channel in small boats this year, compared with a total of 28,526 in 2021.And after a busy weekend in the channel, when the Home Office figures are updated the total number of crossings this year is set to top 2021’s total.It will mean small boat crossings are at the second highest level on record, after they surged to 45,755 in 2022.The Independent understands it has been a particularly busy day in the channel, with all four Border Force catamarans out on escort and collection duties at the same time.Labour slammed what they described as the “Tory asylum chaos”, accusing Mr Sunak of “breaking a promise to the British people”.Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Rishi Sunak claimed he would stop the small boats this year but instead this weekend’s figures are set to make it the second highest year of crossings on record, the Tory asylum chaos is continuing and he has broken another promise he made to the British people.”But a source close to home secretary James Cleverly hit back, saying Labour would fail to tackle small boat crossings because “deep down they find the whole subject distasteful”.The source added: “Labour’s problem on small boats is their big idea is to claim they’ll do  things we’ve already been doing for some time and we’re doing more of it. Small boat crossings are down by a third and people smuggling gangs are already being successfully targeted by security and intelligence arrangements between the UK and a range of European countries.“None of which Labour had a hand in. Meanwhile, what Labour  are shy about saying is they would willingly hand over control of immigration to the EU because deep down they find the whole subject distasteful.”A Downing Street source pointed to figures showing small boat crossings are down compared with last year, while other European countries struggle with soaring numbers. Labour has promised to strike a deal with Europol to tackle the smuggling gangs behind small boat crossings.Ms Cooper said: “It’s time [The Conservatives] stopped wasting time and taxpayers money on the failing Rwanda scheme and instead adopted Labour’s plan to stop the criminal smuggler gangs with a new elite cross-border police force unit to work with Europol in a new security and intelligence sharing arrangement.”Mr Sunak’s flagship Rwanda deportation policy is on the rocks after the Supreme Court ruled it unlawful last month. He is preparing to unveil a new treaty with the African nation to address judges’ concerns about the plan, while passing a law to deem Rwanda “safe” in British law.But, having promised to unveil the bill “within days” after his original plan was struck down, it has now been more than two weeks and the bill has not been published. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailForeigner inmates could serve shorter sentences than British prisoners under a scheme to ease the crisis of overcrowded prisons, it has been claimed. Non-UK citizens will reportedly be eligible for removal from prisons in the UK and deportation to their home countries up to a year and a half earlier than a British prisoner on the same sentence would be.The changes, reported by The Daily Telegraph, would mean that if a British man and a Polish man are both sentenced for the same crime, the Polish man could be released and sent back to Poland up to 18 months earlier than the British man.He would not then have to serve prison time in Poland, but would be banned from coming back to the UK.The apparent plans have been criticised by a leading committee in the House of Lords and one of Britain’s top judges who said they risk “reducing the deterrents” for foreign criminals to offend in the UK. .Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the former Lord Chief Justice and a member of the committee, told The Telegraph: “The policy could be seen as reducing the punishment of overseas criminals in order to ensure that UK citizens can continue to be sent to prison.“In addition, the policy risks reducing the deterrents for overseas citizens to commit crime, potentially undermining confidence in the criminal justice system.”The committee also criticised the government’s failure to estimate how many foreign nationals would be released early and how many prison spaces would be freed up.Prisoners were previously eligible for early release for up to a year, and the Ministry of Justice believes extending this to 18 months will affect an additional 300 prisoners.Among those identified for return is Koci Selamaj, the murderer of schoolteacher Sabina Nessa, who was jailed for a minimum of 36 yearsThe Independent has repeatedly highlighted the overcrowding crisis facing Britain’s prisons, with inmates crammed into cells for up to 23 hours a day.In a recent report, this paper revealed that criminals may be freed from jail early or spared prison sentences as the system reaches breaking point.Justice secretary Alex Chalk also pledged at the Tory conference in October to send criminals overseas in a desperate bid to ease the overcrowding crisis.But the government’s own assessment of the idea showed it will cost at least £200million and won’t happen until 2026.Commenting on his deportation plans, Mr Chalk told said: “It’s right that foreign criminals are punished, but it cannot be right that some are sat in prison costing taxpayers £47,000 a year when they could be deported.“Instead of letting foreign nationals take up space in our prisons at vast expense to the law-abiding public, we will take action to get them out of the country and stop them from ever returning.”Other plans being considered include sentences under 12-months being carried out in the community instead of prison and an 18-day early release scheme. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer has promised not to lecture to people about how to cut their carbon carbon footprints as individual action “will not in itself solve this problem”.The Labour leader said he is “not in the business of telling people what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their individual lives”.And he said instead that Britain under Labour will “make a massive transition” away from fossil fuels and invest in wind, solar and nuclear power.“Of course, we can all do individual things in our lives, but I don’t think it’s right to say that that in itself will solve this problem,” Sir Keir told BBC News.Pressed on what he does to cut his own carbon footprint, the Labour leader said he does not eat meat.Speaking from the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Sir Keir said: “I’m not trying to enforce on other people what they should or should not do. This is not about a government saying to individuals ‘you can do this, you can’t do that’.“It’s about the government saying it’s our responsibility to take the big decisions about this transition.”Sir Keir was also pressed on Labour’s promised £28billion Green Prosperity Plan after reports suggested the party was “unlikely” to meet the pledge.The BBC last week said the plan could be scaled back again as Labour instead focuses on meeting the party’s fiscal rules.Labour had originally promised in 2021 to invest £28 billion-a-year until 2030 in green projects if it came to power. But in June shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the figure would instead be a target to work towards in the second half of a first parliament.The BBC said that a senior source in Sir Keir Starmer’s office suggested the £28 billion figure may not be reached at all due to the current state of the public finances.A Labour party spokesman denied the reports and on Saturday Sir Keir said he is “absolutely determined” to fulfil the promise.Sir Keir insisted that one of his missions in government will be for Britain to use one hundred percent clean power by 2030, “which will require investment”.He added: “That £28billion will be ramped up, probably in the second half of the parliament.“I say ramped up because there’ll be money coming from the start, but the money is towards a purpose and outcome.“And the outcome that we’re driving at here is the transition so that for years and years to come, millions of people up and down the country will have cheaper bills, because we can’t go on like this.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak is considering taking a hard-line approach on Rwanda to secure deportation flights before the next election, it has been reported.The prime minister is reportedly leaning towards ensuring his new treaty with the African nation is exempt from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) without withdrawing from the convention altogether.The approach is favoured by immigration minister Robert Jenrick, a flag-bearer for the Tory right now that Suella Braverman has been sacked as home secretary.Mr Jenrick met the PM on Wednesday to finalise a solution which will get planes to Rwanda in the air after the deportation scheme was struck down in the Supreme Court.Disapplying the ECHR has been dubbed the “full-fat” option, backed by Ms Braverman and the New Conservative group of more than 30 right-wing Tory MPs.Mr Sunak is “leaning towards” the option, according to the Daily Telegraph, but is some way from agreeing to it.He is also considering a so-called semi-skimmed option which would only disapply the UK’s Human Rights Act for asylum seekers. A No10 source said: “Nothing is decided, everything is still on the table.”Mr Sunak has said the Government is “finalising” legislation to push through the “vital” Rwanda asylum plan and that his “patience is worn thin” by delays.The prime minister met Rwandan president Paul Kagame on the sidelines of the Cop28 climate talks in Dubai, although Downing Street said it was a “brush-by” that lasted no more than 10 minutes.Mr Sunak declined to say how much more money he would spend to get the scheme off the ground, but stressed he is eager to “finish the job” after the plan to send some asylum seekers on a one-way trip to the African nation was ruled unlawful.His plan to save the policy involves signing a new treaty with Kigali and the introduction of emergency legislation allowing Parliament to deem the scheme safe, but this has been delayed.But senior British diplomats are said to have privately told the Foreign Office that the Rwandan government’s commitment to the scheme cannot be taken for granted.The Independent understands that the Rwandan government believes its own laws are robust enough to make the treaty work – and are uneasy about the idea of any infringement upon their sovereignty.A Rwandan government source said the country was still “committed” to the agreement and were working with the UK to formalise elements of the memorandum of understanding signed in 2022 within a new treaty.No 10 had said in the hours after the 15 November Supreme Court defeat of its Rwanda scheme that the treaty would be laid before Parliament in the “coming days” so deportation flights could take off “as soon as possible”.It has since been more than two weeks, with a bill expected before Christmas and potentially as early as next week. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBoris Johnson is expected to apologise for “unquestionably” making mistakes in his handling of the pandemic during his appearance before the Covid Inquiry.But the former prime minister will argue that his controversial decisions ended up saving “tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives”.Mr Johnson will be grilled next Wednesday and Thursday over the government’s decision-making during the pandemic in two marathon evidence sessions.He faces a mammoth task to salvage his reputation, however, with the inquiry over the last two months having heard:The former PM, who has since quit as an MP, will argue that without restrictions in place a considerable number of individuals would have experienced “miserable and unnecessary deaths”, some of them occurring in hospital car parks and corridors, with the healthcare system overwhelmed by the virus.And he will tout his vaccine programme and argue that the country emerged from the final lockdown before other economies.The probe so far has painted a damning picture of Mr Johnson’s Downing Street team, with clandestine WhatsApp messages exposing the internal turmoil and discord behind the scenes.His senior aide Dominic Cummings has emerged as a vocal adversary of Mr Johnson following their contentious parting. Mr Cummings described the former prime minister as the “trolley”, referring to his habit of changing his mind more often.The former prime minister is expected to counter accusations of him constantly changing his mind by underscoring the substantial volume of briefings he received, the rapid evolution of advice, and the enormity of the decisions he was compelled to make, those who helped prepare him for his appearance told the BBC.But it is understood that his statement barely mentions Mr Cummings.Mr Johnson will also argue that Britain’s obesity problem made tackling coronavirus more difficult, The Daily Telegraph reported. “ As a nation, we are fatter, less fit, there’s lots of factors in our public health that are just facts which made the UK very different from other comparable democracies,” a source close to the former PM said. And Mr Johnson will extraordinarily clash with Sir Patrick Vallance and Sir Chris Whitty, claiming the controversial Eat Out to Help Out scheme was “properly discussed” with the scientists, The Times reported. Both the former chief scientific adviser and Prof Whitty, who is the chief medical officer, have said they were blind-sided by the scheme. The paper added that the ex-PM will claim it is misleading to take his WhatsApp messages out of context, where “dark humour is lost or morphs into mockery”.He will also defend the use of his colourful language during his tenure and taking more provocative positions in private. He will argue that the strategy helped him get the best work out of his advisors and it would not have been correct for a prime minister to sit in silence when being briefed by experts.“Ministers can argue for their briefs, as they should. So a health secretary will argue for public health. A chancellor will argue for the economy,” a source said.“But there is only one person in the British system of government that has to arbitrate between the competing arguments and ultimately come to a decision, having made a call on the trade-offs.”The person said: “There is only one guy in this country who can tell you what it is like to be prime minister in a pandemic. And one day there will be another one.”Mr Johnson is poised to support the embattled former health secretary, Matt Hancock, despite criticisms from numerous inquiry witnesses who singled him out, crediting him for doing a “good job in very difficult circumstances”.Mr Hancock has said in his written statement to the inquiry that “the then prime minister has apologised to me for appointing his chief adviser and for the damage he did to the response to Covid-19”.Mr Johnson’s statement to the inquiry, which is said to be 200 pages long, has been already submitted.Mr Johnson will be the only figure at the inquiry next week and is scheduled to sit from 10am to 4.30pm on Wednesday and Thursday. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailKing Charles has worn a Greek tie to Cop28, just days after Rishi Sunak’s spat with Athens over the Elgin Marbles.The PM has denied throwing a “hissy fit” after he scrapped a planned meeting with the Greek PM, accusing Kyriakos Mitsotakis of “grandstanding” about the return of the sculptures.It seems Charles may have decided to enter the political controversy by sporting the blue and white tie and handkerchief on Friday.The pattern in the monarch’s tie showed both the colours of the Greek flag and its distinctive cross, symbolising Eastern Orthodox Christianity.But Buckingham Palace suggested the Greek flag-coloured tie was a random choice by the King. Royal sources pointed out that Charles also wore the tie when he met South Korean leaders last week.Charles’s father Prince Philip was born in Greece into the Greek royal family, and the King has spoken about his enduring affection for the country.The gesture in Dubai, which some have perceived as a snub to the PM, recalls the controversy over the Queen’s blue and yellow outfit at the 2017 state opening of parliament – seen as a gesture of goodwill to the EU after the Brexit referendum.However, the Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly later insisted that the colours were merely a coincidence and had been overinterpretated in the heated days after the divisive vote.The Greek media saw the choice of tie as Charles offering backing for their country in the antiquities row. “The diplomacy of the tie has spoken,” said Lifo magazine. Proto Therma said the move “could well be interpreted as a show of support for our country”.King Charles III speaks with Rishi Sunak at the opening ceremony of the World Climate Action Summit at Cop28 in DubaiCharles’s choice of tie comes after Mr Sunak parked a diplomatic row by controversially snubbing Mr Mitsotakis during his visit to London. The Greek leader compared the artefacts’ removal and presence in the British Museum to cutting the Mona Lisa in half.No 10 claimed Mr Mitsotakis had reneged on a promise not to discuss the centuries-old dispute over what are now known as the Parthenon Sculptures, with the Tory leader using PMQs to accuse the Greek PM of “grandstanding”.Former Tory chancellor George Osborne – who is the chair of the British Museum – said Mr Sunak may have thrown a “hissy fit” because the Greek PM  chose to meet Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer first.Mr Osborne has been talking with the Greek government about a potential arrangement which would allow the sculptures to be displayed in Greece.“Is it just petulance? Is it just having a bit of a hissy fit?” said Mr Osborne on his Political Currency podcast. “And, I think, if that’s the reason, it’s not because Mitsotakis was going to raise the Elgin Marbles. It’s because he had met Keir Starmer the day before,” he said.Asked whether the former chancellor was right about a “hissy fit”, Mr Sunak told journalists at Cop28: “No, no. I think I’ve said everything I’ve got to say on this in parliament the other day.”The royal tie, worn at Cop28 summit on FridayThe Tory leader also hinted that a loan arrangement could be impossible due to Greece’s current stance. “Our position is very clear – as a matter of law, the marbles can’t be returned and we’ve been unequivocal about that,” he said.“And I think the British Museum’s website itself says that in order for the loans to happen the recipient needs to acknowledge the lawful ownership of the country that’s lending the things.”Mr Sunak added: “And I think the Greeks have not suggested that they are in any way shape or form willing to do that. Our view and our position on that is crystal clear: the marbles were acquired legally at the time.”Greece has long demanded the return of the historic works, which were removed by Lord Elgin from occupied Athens in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman empire.The 1963 British Museum Act prohibits the removal of objects from the institution’s collection, a position in law that Mr Osborne said would ensure Greece would have to return the sculptures following any exchange.But the Tory grandee said on Thursday that it was clear from events this week that Mr Sunak’s government would not support an exchange.Some Tory MPs have criticised Mr Sunak’s apparent own goal – which saw him plastered across Greek front pages this week, including one carrying the words “F*** you b******”. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak’s threw a “hissy fit” with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis over the Elgin Marbles because he chose to met Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer first, George Osborne has suggested.The PM created an unexpected diplomatic firestorm this week after abruptly cancelling a meeting in London with his “baffled” Greek counterpart, with No 10 claiming Mr Mitsotakis had reneged on a promise not to discuss the centuries-old dispute over the Parthenon Sculptures.Mr Sunak then deepened the row by accusing Mr Mitsotakis of “grandstanding”, with Sir Keir suggesting the PM had “lost his marbles” and was playing “small politics” in a bruising Commons session on Wednesday.On Friday Mr Sunak was forced to deny throwing a “hissy fit”, and suggested that any loan deal sought by Mr Osborne – the British museum chairman – was impossible.The ex-Tory chancellor said on his Political Currency podcast that he had heard “various theories” of why Mr Sunak cancelled the meeting.“Is it just petulance? Is it just having a bit of a hissy fit?” said Mr Osborne. “And, I think if that’s the reason, it’s not because Mitsotakis was going to raise the Elgin Marbles. It’s because he had met Keir Starmer the day before,” he said.Regardless of his reasoning, Mr Osborne said Mr Sunak had opened the door to a “pretty devastating line of attack” from Sir Keir.The museum chair and Tory grandee said: “He should be doubling down on being the serious person who of course meets another European leader when they’re in town to discuss things like Ukraine or the energy crisis or migration, all of which Greece is relevant to.”Sir Keir Starmer met with the Greek PM in London on Monday Mr Osborne added: “It just shows again that they’re not focused on delivering a coherent strategy week after week after week, which is the Conservatives’ only chance of getting back into this political fight.”Asked whether the former chancellor was right about a “hissy fit”, Mr Sunak told journalists with him at Cop28: “No, no. I think I’ve said everything I’ve got to say on this in parliament the other day.”The Tory leader also hinted that a loan arrangement could be impossible due to Greece’s current stance. “Our position is very clear – as a matter of law the marbles can’t be returned and we’ve been unequivocal about that,” he said.“And I think the British Museum’s website itself says that in order for the loans to happen the recipient needs to acknowledge the lawful ownership of the country that’s lending the things.”Mr Sunak added: “And I think the Greeks have not suggested that they are in any way shape or form willing to do that. Our view and our position on that is crystal clear: the marbles were acquired legally at the time.”The Parthenon Sculptures are on display in the British Museum Greece has long demanded the return of the historic works, which were removed by Lord Elgin from occupied Athens in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.As British Museum chair, Mr Osborne has been talking with the Greek government about a potential arrangement which would allow the sculptures to be displayed in Greece.The 1963 British Museum Act prohibits the removal of objects from the institution’s collection, a position in law that Mr Osborne said would ensure Greece would have to return the sculptures following any exchange.But he said on Thursday that it was clear from events this week that Mr Sunak’s government would not support an exchange.The Labour leader sought to position himself as PM-in-waiting as he used his own meeting with Mr Mitsotakis to taunt Mr Sunak, saying: “I discussed with the Greek prime minister the economy, security, immigration. I also told him we wouldn’t change the law regarding the marbles. It’s not that difficult.”As Tory MPs cringed at Mr Sunak’s apparent own goal, which saw him plastered across Greek front pages this week, including one carrying the words “f*** you b******”, an alternative explanation was floated by Mr Osborne on Thursday.Mr Sunak sough to brush off suggestions the Labour leader’s meeting with the Greek premier could make him appear more statesmanlike, pointing to his own “fantastic track record” of global diplomacy over the last year. More