UK Politics

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailInfected blood victims have welcomed the idea of a Post Office scandal-style drama about their own experience of injustice, a lawyer said.Des Collins, senior partner of Collins Solicitors, which represents 1,500 victims and their families, said most of his clients would welcome a TV drama as it would attract more attention than news coverage.He said since ITV programme Mr Bates Vs The Post Office began, families had come forward asking why they had not had the same coverage.“They phone up and say ‘have you seen it, why aren’t we getting this coverage’ and they do feel marginalised,” Mr Collins said.“But it is not a question of – we’re entitled to it, they’re not – it’s the question of everyone who is wronged in these circumstances as a result of whatever went wrong.Infected blood victims would welcome a Post Office scandal-style TV drama about their experience“Whether it’s the Post Office scandal or the contaminated blood crisis, it requires the Government to react properly, objectively and fully,” he added.In the 1970s and 1980s, thousands died in what is widely recognised as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS after being given blood products contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C.It comes as Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt said it would not take an ITV drama for compensation to victims of the scandal to be resolved.Ms Mordaunt was speaking in the Commons as she faced calls to speed up justice for the victims of other scandals after recent Government announcements on compensating wrongly convicted subpostmasters following the airing of the ITV drama on the issue.While the Commons Leader defended the Government’s actions in trying to resolve “some very difficult and long-running issues”, she said she would speak to the Cabinet Office to ensure lessons are learned “particularly” from the last few weeks.Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt said it would not take an ITV drama for compensation to victims of the scandal to be resolvedBut Mr Collins said his clients would like to see “less words and more action”. He said: “Penny Mordaunt says, well this is very serious, and it is, and that we can rely on the Government to do the right thing, they regard it as important but so far that has not been the evidence which has presented itself to the victims.“Similarly, with the Post Office victims, there was a lot of talk over the last two or three years insofar as the postmasters were concerned that it was being looked at very seriously and they were going to do the right thing, but they didn’t until someone basically, took a stick to them, the world’s press took a stick to them.“It’s good that that happened, and it wasn’t before time, but clearly my clients are concerned that that will never happen to them and they are concerned that the response of the Government to the compensation framework, which should have been set up six months ago, at least six months ago, is now pushed forward at the earliest opportunity.“All very well for Penny to say something in the House this afternoon but I think my clients would like to see less words and more action.”Mr Collins added that the Infected Blood Inquiry does not seem to have “cut through the impasse” but his clients feel that the ITV drama has.He said: “They think that would be something which would assist them or their cause and I can’t disagree with them.”Mr Collins said he believes if the Infected Blood Inquiry and the interim report had been given the same coverage as the Post Office scandal, then the Government “would have reacted”.He said the families have the “utmost sympathy” for the victims of the Post Office scandal but that the Government will “only react in a certain way at a certain time” and the reaction to the Infected Blood Inquiry has been “woefully inadequate”.A Government spokesperson said: “This was an appalling tragedy, and our thoughts remain with all those affected.“We are clear that justice needs to be delivered for the victims and have already accepted the moral case for compensation.“The report covers a set of extremely complex issues – and the Government intends to respond in full to Sir Brian’s (Langstaff) recommendations for wider compensation following the publication of the Inquiry’s final report in March 2024.” 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 insightBrexit is set to leave Britain’s economy £311bn worse off by the middle of the next decade, a damning new report by top economists has found.The scathing study by Cambridge Econometrics found that the decision to leave the EU had already cost the UK £140bn.The shock findings put the scale of the damage far higher than previous warnings by independent economists that Brexit caused a £33bn loss to the economy.The new report warned that Britain will continue to have lower investment, weaker trade and fewer jobs in the decade ahead as a consequence of being outside the bloc.The Cambridge study – commissioned by London mayor Sadiq Khan – said the country will have three million fewer jobs by 2035 than if it had stayed inside the EU.And the economists estimated that Brexit will be responsible for a mammoth 10 per cent hit to Britain’s gross value added (GVA) – the overall value of goods and services – by the same date.Using data Office for Budget of Responsibility data and forecasts based on the organisation’s data, the report predicts that the UK’s GVA will hit £2,771bn by 2035.But this is £311bn lower than the £3,082bn GVA figure the nation would have reached without deciding to leave the EU.Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said report showed ‘Brexit isn’t working’ The economists worked to isolate the “Brexit effect” from other factors such as Covid and the Ukraine war in its modelling.They found Britain will have 32 per cent lower investment, 16 per cent lower imports and 5 per cent lower exports by the middle of the next decade than without Brexit.The study also found that Brexit would further widen the productivity gap between the capital and the rest of the country.Shyamoli Patel, principal economist at Cambridge Econometrics, said: “Our study reveals that London’s economy would have grown faster if Brexit hadn’t taken place.“Looking ahead, we project that Brexit will continue to have an impact on the UK and London economies in the medium term.”A majority of voters believe Brexit has damaged the economy The Labour mayor of London said the findings showed it was “now obvious that Brexit isn’t working”.In speech at Mansion House on Thursday evening, he said: “The cost of Brexit crisis can only be solved if we take a mature approach and if we are open to improving our trading arrangements with our European neighbours.”Mr Khan – who has called for a debate on re-joining the EU single market – added: “I agree with the shadow foreign secretary [David Lammy], who has said we urgently need to build a closer relationship with the EU.”However, Labour has insisted it will keep Britain out of the single market and customs union if it wins power at the 2024 general election.Leader Sir Keir Starmer has offered a vague promise to seek a new veterinary agreement to ease current trade friction, and examine Boris Johnson’s trade deal when it comes up for review in 2025.The most recent Opinium poll showed that more than 60 per cent of voters feel Brexit had been bad for prices in the shops, and 53 per cent said it had hampered the UK’s ability to control immigration. More

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsBritain’s economy grew by more than expected in November, boosting hopes that the country can avoid recession in 2024.Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.3 per cent in November, after declining by 0.3 per cent in October, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).Economists had been expecting GDP to rise by 0.2 per cent, as the prospect of the country entering a recession at the end of the year hangs in the balance.Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hailed the “welcome news” and insisted that the country was in “a strong position for growth into the future”.But opposition parties and union leaders attacked the “dismal” growth figures, and said talk by Rishi Sunak’s claim the economy had turned a corner had “not survived contact with economic reality”.The uplift to growth was driven by the wide-reaching services sector, which rose by 0.4 per cent during the month, and was the biggest contributor to economic growth. It follows the economy shrinking in October, when manufacturing and construction sectors were hit by poor weather conditions.It means that the UK is teetering on the brink of falling into a technical recession at the end of the year, which can be defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.Chancellor Jeremy Hunt described the growth in November as ‘welcome’ The economy declined between July and September, according to revised estimates from the ONS. Therefore, monthly GDP would need to be fractionally below zero in December, 0.02 per cent or more, in order for the economy to have shrunk between October and December as well.The ONS’s chief executive Grant Fitzner said falls across manufacturing industries were “partially offset by increases in public services, which saw less impact from strike action”.He added: “GDP bounced back in the month of November, however, led by services with retail, car leasing and computer games companies all having a buoyant month. The longer-term picture remains one of an economy that has shown little growth over the last year.”Mr Hunt said: “While growth in November is welcome news, it will be slower as we bring inflation back to its 2 per cent target.“But we have seen that advanced economies with lower taxes have grown more rapidly, so our tax cuts for businesses and workers put the UK in a strong position for growth into the future.”Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the weak growth showed Mr Sunak’s “legacy of failure”. She added: “He failed to beat Liz Truss, he failed to cut waiting lists, he failed to stop the boats, and now he has failed to grow the economy.”Labour’s Rachel Reeves said the government had failed to grow the economy as promised And the Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesperson, Sarah Olney MP said Mr Sunak’s “talk of turning a corner has not survived contact with economic reality”. She added: “”This no growth. The prime minister has no plan and no idea how to get the economy moving again.”The TUC’s general secretary Paul Nowak said the year had begun with “another set of dismal growth figures”, saying Tory economic failures were “starving our crumbling public services of much-needed funding”. The Sunak government now fears the British economy could shrink in the face of ongoing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.On Thursday night, the US and the UK launched scores of airstrikes against targets linked to the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen, which has targeted dozens of international cargo ships in the Red Sea, a major artery of world commerce, since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.The Treasury has modelled scenarios, such as crude oil prices increasing by more than $10 a barrel and a 25 per cent rise in natural gas, amid concerns another energy shock is possible if the disruption to cargo traffic spreads to tanker traffic, according to the BBC.The price of Brent crude, which is the international benchmark for oil prices, shot up by two per cent to $78.94 per barrel on Friday, while the cost of US West Texas crude rose by 2.1 per cent to $73.55. More

The Royal Navy is “hollowed out and underfunded,” the shadow defence secretary has suggested.Speaking on Friday morning (12 January), after the UK and US launched targeted strikes against military facilities used by Houthi rebels in Yemen, John Healey shared his worries over the resources available to the armed forces.“The former defence secretary told me in the House of Commons, he admitted that over the last 13 years, the government has hollowed out and underfunded the forces,” he said.“It is important that we are able [to] – as we have in recent weeks in the Red Sea and wider region – act alongside allies.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailScotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, is expected to urge Scotland to vote for the Scottish National Party in order to “kick the Tories out”, as his party prepares to launch its 2024 general election campaign.In a speech on Friday, Mr Yousaf will say that Rishi Sunak is “finished” and will implore voters across Scotland to “take the opportunity to kick them out of Scotland completely” as “the damage they have caused to Scotland is unforgiveable”.He will call upon the Scottish electorate to vote for the SNP, explaining that his party is “best placed” to remove the Conservatives as the SNP is currently second in every Tory-held seat across Scotland.Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said that voting Labour offers the best chance of a Conservative wipeout Mr Yousaf’s speech comes just days after a rival speech from the leader of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar, who opted for a similar message and urged supporters of Scottish independence to defect from the SNP and lend their vote to Labour in order to vote the Conservatives out, exhorting them to “unite to change the country”.The last time Scotland saw a Conservative wipeout was during the 1997 election, when all of the Scottish Conservative MPs lost their seats to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP.In 2005, the Conservatives managed to claw back one Scottish constituency when David Mundell won the seat of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale and was made shadow secretary of state for Scotland by the then Conservative leader, David Cameron.So low was the number of Scottish Conservatives in the early 2000s that in 2010, Mr Mundell became the butt of the infamous joke that there are “more pandas in Scotland than Scottish MPs” after Edinburgh Zoo gained two giant pandas.Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross will leave Westminster at the next election Now, some are predicting that the Conservatives could suffer a similar defeat in Scotland, following their poor performance in opinion polls and the resignation of both the leader of the Scottish Tories, Douglas Ross, and the current Scottish secretary Alister Jack, both of whom are set to stand down at the end of the current parliament.Mr Sunak has, however, strongly rebuffed the suggestion that his party will see enormous losses in Scotland, and told journalists in December that he was “very confident” about his party’s prospects north of the Scottish border.Meanwhile, the Labour Party may be quietly confident about its chances in Scotland, following the Labour gain of an SNP seat at the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election in October last year.Labour saw a seismic 20 per cent swing in its vote share, which led polling guru Michael Thrasher to suggest that if the result were replicated in a 2024 general election, it could equate to a 42-seat gain by Labour in Scotland.Scotland is expected to be a key battleground at the next election, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer having remarked that “the route to a Labour election win at the next general election runs through Scotland”. More

Fiona Bruce and Andrea Leadsom had a tense exchange as they discussed inaction over the Post Office scandal during Thursday’s (11 January) Question Time.The programme’s host clashed with the Conservative junior minister and Northamptonshire South MP after she claimed politicians were campaigning for justice for subpostmasters “for a very long time.”“But it didn’t happen, that’s the point,” Bruce responded.It comes after lawyers told The Independent that hundreds of subpostmasters who have not made claims may be too “traumatised” to come forward because of mistrust in the government and Post Office. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak is holding a full Cabinet call on Thursday evening amid mounting speculation that UK and Western allies could take action against Houthi rebels following attacks in the Red Sea.The meeting was set to begin at around 7.45pm after defence secretary Grant Shapps had warned the Iranian-backed group to “watch this space” if disruption continues in the key global shipping route. Foreignsecretary Lord David Cameron was seen entering No 10 shortly before 8pm.Sir Keir Starmer and shadow defence secretary John Healey will be briefed after the call, it is understood, while Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was seen arriving at the Cabinet Office.The prime minister used a conversation with the Egyptian president earlier on Thursday to discuss the disruption and emphasise that Britain would continue to “take action to defend freedom of navigation and protect lives at sea”, No 10 said.It comes after UK and US naval forces destroyed “multiple attack drones” deployed by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea on Wednesday, believed to be the largest attack yet from the Yemen-based militants.Rishi Sunak will reportedly hold a full Cabinet call on Thursday evening (Jordan Pettitt/PA)Mr Shapps has warned further action would be taken if attacks persist, amid growing global concern about the disruption in the key global shipping route.He also said he believed the Houthis, a Shia group which has held Yemen’s capital since 2014, were acting with the support of Iran.“Be in no doubt at all, Iran is guiding what is happening there in the Red Sea, providing them not just with equipment to carry out those attacks but also often with the eyes and ears to allow those attacks to happen,” Mr Shapps told Sky News.“We must be clear with the Houthis that this has to stop and that is my simple message to them today, and watch this space.”The Royal Navy air defence destroyer HMS Diamond was involved in the response to the latest in a series of attacks, which the Houthis have claimed are a response to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.Mr Shapps also posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Overnight, HMS Diamond, along with US warships, successfully repelled the largest attack from the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea to date.“Deploying Sea Viper missiles and guns, Diamond destroyed multiple attack drones heading for her and commercial shipping in the area, with no injuries or damage sustained to Diamond or her crew.“The UK alongside allies have previously made clear that these illegal attacks are completely unacceptable and if continued the Houthis will bear the consequences.“We will take the action needed to protect innocent lives and the global economy.”The Royal Navy air defence destroyer HMS Diamond has destroyed “multiple attack drones” deployed by Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red SeaIt remains to be seen what form any further action might take from the US, the UK and other allies.There has been speculation that a response could involve strikes on the Houthi command centres.The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters on Wednesday: “I am not going to speculate about how we will or will not respond to continued attacks.“We do reserve the right to take further steps to protect commercial shipping and avoid the risk of further destabilising the region. That is something we will keep under review.”US secretary of state Antony Blinken, speaking in Bahrain, renewed warnings of a response.He said: “I’m not going to telegraph or preview anything that might happen.“All I can tell you again, we’ve made clear – we’ve been clear with more than 20 other countries – that if this continues, as it did yesterday, there will be consequences. And I’m going to leave it at that.”Houthi supporters shout slogans as they attend a ceremony at the end of the training of newly recruited fighters in SanaaSome major shipping lines and oil giant BP have already diverted vessels around southern Africa, adding time and costs to journeys, rather than risk the Red Sea.If the crisis continues, the increased costs could be passed on to consumers, hampering efforts to curb inflation and reduce interest rates.Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said he was monitoring the situation closely when he appeared before MPs.US Central Command said the Houthis had launched a “complex attack” and a total of 18 attack drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles and an anti-ship ballistic missile were shot down in the operation which involved Diamond, US warships and F/A-18 fighter jets.It said the attack was the 26th Houthi attack on the Red Sea shipping lanes since November 19.Lord Cameron told MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that Houthi attacks in the Red Sea which had come in the wake of the Gaza conflict were “unacceptable” in one of the “most important sea lanes”. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe government used 1,433 bottles of wine and spirits from its wine cellar during the Covid pandemic, the Foreign Office has admitted. The stated purpose of the government wine cellar is to “provide guests of the government, from home and overseas, with wines of appropriate quality at reasonable cost”. Between 2020 and 2022, 20 bottles of Champagne, 27 bottles of gin, and 1,376 bottles of red and white wine were used. That was despite Covid restrictions limiting in-person contact being in place for much of that time.The government’s net spend on additions to the wine cellar over this period has also been revealed as more than £100,000, with nearly £27,000 of taxpayers’ money blown. The figures are included in the delayed bi-annual report on the government’s wine cellar for 2020 -2022, published by the Foreign Office on Thursday. The government has already faced considerable criticism for its consumption of alcohol during the pandemic, due to illegal social gatherings exposed during the partygate scandal. Boris Johnson was forced to resign as prime minister following his role in the scandal and his subsequent denials in parliament. Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell has said all events during this period were Covid-19 compliant The newly-released figures revealed that in 2020/21, at the height of the Covid crisis, £14,621 was splashed out on 516 bottles of red Bordeaux wines, costing around £28 each. In 2021/22, a thirst for English and Welsh sparkling wines saw the government spend £12,356 on topping up its cellar with 636 bottles, including 180 magnums, at an average cost of £19. It also bought 18 bottles of gin, and four bottles each of whisky and liqueurs.The report did show the government’s consumption of wine dropped by some 96% in 2020/21, compared to before the pandemic. It rose the following year, but still remained nearly 61% lower than pre-pandemic levels.Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said in a written statement: “All events organised by Government Hospitality during this period were done so in strict accordance with Covid-19 restrictions.”Labour has critcised the government for the latest figures, as Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, said:“For months, we have asked why the government was suppressing the publication of this report, and now we know the answer. “While the rest of the country was facing Covid restrictions and a cost of living crisis, the government was getting through 1,433 bottles from its wine cellar, and replenishing the stocks with a net spend of more than £100,000 over the three years from 2019-22. “They lived the high life at taxpayers’ expense while the rest of the country struggled, and it will never be forgotten.” More