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Cleaners delivered a stinging rebuke to Boris Johnson’s government at a Downing Street protest on Friday evening, accusing the cabinet of looking “down on us like we’re the dirt that we clean”.The protest was called after Sue Gray’s report into illegal parties at Downing Street found that No 10 staff had treated cleaning and security staff “unacceptably” on several occasions.Workers told The Independent that the problems with respect went beyond No 10 and raised issues relating to insecure, outsourced contracts and low pay. More

A former Labour minister has appeared to suggest that voters in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election should consider going Liberal Democrat in a bid to oust the Conservatives.Ben Bradshaw – who was culture secretary between 2009 and 2010 – said his party should fight for every vote in the seat. But, in what some will regard as a coded message, he added: “What some Labour members and activists don’t always appreciate is that a lot of Conservative voters, if they want to give the government a kicking will vote Liberal Democrat but they wouldn’t vote Labour…“So if we have a joint purpose of wanting to send the prime minister a message and ultimately defeat this government in a general election then I think there are very good prospects of a Lib Dem victory there.”The race for Tiverton and Honiton – a sprawling, largely rural Devon constituency – prompted by the resignation of Neil Parish who admitted watching porn in the House of Commons, is being widely touted as a two-horse race. The Tories currently enjoy a 24,239 majority and have held the seat since it was created in 1997 but the Lib Dems believe they could steal it on the back of anger about Partygate and rising living costs.Suggestions have been made that Labour will fight only a bare minimum campaign here to allow yellow candidate Richard Foord a clear run, with the Lib Dems returning the favour in Wakefield where another by-election is being held the same day.Both parties have denied such a pact.But Mr Bradshaw’s comments – initially made on Radio 4’s The Week In Westminster – will be seen as a tacit endorsement of voting tactically. More

The Conservative candidate for the upcoming Tiverton and Honiton by-election has been ordered not to speak to the media by senior party officials because they fear she will be asked about partygate, insiders say.Parish councillor Helen Hurford has been selected to fight the seat after former Tory MP Neil Parish resigned following revelations that he had twice watched pornography in parliament.But the former headteacher is said to have been told not to speak to press – because CCHQ think she will struggle to deal with questions about Boris Johnson’s lockdown lawbreaking.One local Tory says that anger about Downing Street shindogs is now so widespread in the rural Devon constituency that it has been decided Ms Hurford’s best chance of victory is to remain largely silent and hope the party’s current 24,000 majority carries her to victory.Strategists are said to have spent time workshopping a response to difficult questions but even the favoured option – to suggest the prime minister got things wrong but it is time to move on – is considered likely to antagonise voters in an area where integrity is expected to come as standard.The result is that Ms Hurford has been all but invisible since being selected as the Tories’ candidate on Monday. Requests to speak to her by The Independent went firstly unanswered and were then declined with no reason given.The order for silence is said to have even been extended to local Conservative councillors who have been informally told not to discuss the by-election with media.Asked in a WhatsApp message if such an instruction had been given, one councillor Colin Slade replied: “I couldn’t possibly comment!”Another, who asked not to be named, added that members had been told they should “button up”.Responding to the revelations, a source with the Lib Dems, who are considered the main challengers here, said: “It’s sad that Tory bosses have now effectively gagged their candidate. How can voters trust her to speak up for them if she isn’t even allowed to speak?”It all comes after Sir Roger Gale, the MP for North Thanet, said Ms Hurford had been chosen as a “electoral sacrifice” amid growing fears the Tories could lose the contest.“I asked in the tea room this morning if we had actually selected an electoral sacrifice to fight…and I’m told that we have,” he told BBC News on Wednesday.Yet how well the tactic of eschewing scrutiny will work is yet to be seen.A similar playbook was used in the Hartlepool, Batley and Spen and North Shropshire by-elections last year when Conservative candidates were labelled invisible for their lack of media engagement.While it worked in Hartlepool, it proved a disaster in Batley and Spen and North Shropshire where the Tories lost despite being favourites.The Conservatives have been approached for comment. More

ITV News journalist Paul Brand has hit out at the “grim” homophobic abuse he and his husband have received over his reporting on the Partygate scandal.Mr Brand, ITV’s UK editor, has been at the centre of reporting on Covid law-breaking in Downing Street and Whitehall.He has broken several agenda-setting exclusive stories on the affair, including a picture of Boris Johnson raising a glass at the leaving do of his former spin doctor, Lee Cain, published earlier this week.This has led some people online to speculate about who his sources are. A Tory MP also suggested that the image was linked to Mr Brand’s husband, Joe Cuddeford, a civil servant.Mr Cuddeford works for the Geospatial Commission, a government body, which is part of the Cabinet Office and uses location data to investigate economic and social opportunities.Writing to Twitter on Tuesday morning, Mr Brand said that he wanted to refute claims that his source is a family member.”So…there’s some pretty wild stuff being said about my family on here,” he wrote. “I haven’t tweeted so far as it’s never great to engage with conspiracy theories etc.”He added: “But it’s all got a bit OTT [over the top] lately, so to be clear nobody in my family is my ‘source’, attended any parties or was fined.”A number of homophobic tweets directed at Mr Brand and his husband were posted to Twitter on Tuesday. Some of the tweets, posted by anonymous accounts, remain online.Mark Jenkinson, a Tory MP, replied to a Twitter user with a blank avatar who had questioned if it was a “coincidence” that Mr Brand “keeps landing exclusive leaks”, given that his husband works for the civil service.The MP for Workington wrote: “It must be a coincidence, because he’s a deputy director in the Cabinet Office and the investigation was carried out by the…oh.”Mr Brand added in his post: “It’s been an education in how disinformation spreads. Inevitably it became pretty homophobic and grim so in order to protect the people I love I felt I had to tweet this.”Mr Jenksinson said he had never been “involved in any conspiracy theories about Paul Brand”. He said he was not implying that Mr Brand’s husband was involved in the leaks. More

Dame Joanna Lumley is calling on ministers to launch a parliamentary inquiry into medical research methods in the UK, warning that animal tests are “failing patients”.The actor, often dubbed a national treasure, is set to tell MPs that investment in “human-relevant” techniques would support economic growth and help the UK become a “science superpower”.In an address to MPs in the House of Commons on Monday, Dame Joanna will also urge the government to appoint a minister to lead a transition to medical experiments without animals.By law, all new drugs must be tested on a mouse or rat as well as a larger non-rodent mammal, usually a dog, pig or monkey, before they are given to people – but animals may not be used if there is an alternative.Around 2.88 million experiments were carried out in 2020 in Britain on living animals, including breeding genetically modified creatures, latest Home Office statistics show. Cats, dogs, horses and primates were used in one per cent of those.The most common tests were for the immune system, the nervous system and cancer. Some 4 per cent of experiments were classed as severe.Demonstrations outside a Cambridgeshire centre that breeds beagle puppies for experiments have been continuing daily since last summer.Advocates of animal testing for medical and veterinary research say it has led to life-changing discoveries, from new medicines and vaccines, including the Covid jab, to transplants, anaesthetics and blood transfusions.But Dame Joanna is set to tell a cross-party gathering of MPs that government policy on animal-based medical research is “failing patients”, with 92 per cent of new medicines tested on animals never reaching the market to benefit humans.She will tell policymakers: “Using animals in medical research is not only unethical, costly and unjustifiable, but it is being increasingly accepted among the scientific community that this practice fails patients.“New medicines which appear safe and effective in tests on animals often fail to be approved for market because they pose significant safety and efficacy concerns during human trials.”The award-winning actor and former Bond girl will present to parliament a report by Animal Free Research UK called Eight Steps to Accelerate Human Relevant Innovation which asks ministers, among other things, to promise laws to ultimately replace animal experiments with “human-relevant” methods and produce an action plan for encouraging widespread adoption of non-animal research.

Animal protection is an issue of vital importance which is rightfully climbing up the political agendaLuke PollardNew techniques promoted by the organisation include using organs on chips, cell cultures and stem cells. The Absolutely Fabulous star will add: “This government wants Britain to be a global leader. It certainly has the creative and innovative capacity to be so.“Now it truly has the opportunity to become a science powerhouse to lead the world to a more effective, kinder science which will benefit humans and animals.”Former shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard said: “Animal protection is an issue of vital importance which is rightfully climbing up the political agenda.“Of course, we cannot leave behind animal testing overnight, but we would like to see the UK position itself as a world leader when it comes to advancing medical science and animal welfare.”Government sources say banning animal research or phasing it out could lead to an increase in animal experiments abroad, where standards are lower.However, a report last year by the Centre for Economics and Business Research for Animal Free Research UK forecast that ramping up cutting-edge non-animal research would contribute £2.5bn to the UK’s GDP in 2026.The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) is funding work to replace dogs with computers in experiments, among other projects.The Understanding Animal Research organisation said the 92 per cent failure rate of drugs included experiments without animals.Spokesman Chris Magee said: “Replacing animals in the biosciences is already a national priority, which is why the UK is home to the world’s leading centre for looking for animal alternatives, the NC3Rs.“Using animals in research is banned unless researchers have gained an exemption to the ban on ethical grounds, ie that it would be more ethical to do the experiment than not. “Most human and animal medicines are discovered using animals, including vaccines for Covid, cancer drugs and insulin, but key areas of work like conservation and product testing prevent more widespread suffering before it can occur.“Animals predict human safety on average 8 per cent of the time, although there are many reasons that most drugs will fail to make it to market. These include commercial reasons and trying drugs for diseases like cancer that didn’t show much promise in preclinical tests but might be worth a shot.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “The use of animals in science supports the development of new medicines and the safety of our environment, for the benefit of humans and animals.“The government is committed to the protection and welfare of animals and ensuring that animals are only ever used in science where there are no alternatives.” More

An ex-Labour MP must pay £434,435 to a parliamentary worker he sexually assaulted and harassed.Mike Hill, who was the MP for Hartlepool in north east England, was found to have infringed the Equality Act by sexually harassing and then sacking one of his former workers.A panel at the Central London Employment Tribunal discovered the 58-year-old “victimised” the woman as well as subjecting her to “unwanted conduct of a sexual nature”.A judgment published on Wednesday said Mr Hill was accused of sexually harassing and bullying the claimant, referred to as Ms A, over a 16-month period when he was in office.Mr Hill, who was an MP from 2017 until he resigned last year, has denied the allegations.In her witness statement included in the judgment, Ms A said Mr Hill sexually assaulted her on a number of occasions.The claimant said he got into bed with her in December 2017 and rubbed his genitals “against my bottom and had his arms wrapped around me and was feeling my breasts”.She said: “I managed to get out of the bed and went to the living room. I was crying and shaking because of the experience.”She said Mr Hill told her she was “overreacting”, must be “frigid or something” and there must be “something wrong” with her.The judgment said Mr Hill was also accused of coming into the woman’s bedroom on several occasions from December 2017 to February 2018.Mr Hill is also said to have sexually assaulted Ms A on a number of occasions in his Westminster office.Ms A said in her witness statement: “He often put his arms around the front of my body and brushed his hands against my breasts.“If I were standing up, he would always approach me from behind and he would hold me by my waist. I would always resist and would try to get him off me but did not always succeed.”She added: “Mr Hill would touch my bottom. When he first did this, I asked him not to do it again but, as he did then (and afterwards), he always played it down as if it was my problem and I was making more of it than I should.”The judgment also said Mr Hill terminated the claimant’s employment.The panel also found that he failed to give the claimant a promised pay rise, made her work through the summer recess despite a previous promise she would not have to, and refused to let her travel to work by car unless she submitted an occupational health assessment. The politician was also found to have not replied to emails and texts which the claimant sent about work.The judgment said the panel also heard that Ms A told Tory MP Andrew Bridgen of her allegations of sexual impropriety against Mr Hill.Mr Bridgen then accused Kate Hollern, a Labour MP, of warning him not to get involved in the harassment case.Ms Hollern quit as shadow minister in May 2021 after an employment tribunal heard that she tried to intimidate Mr Bridgen as a witness.In a previous statement, she said: “I am absolutely clear that any complaint of sexual harassment should be treated extremely seriously and had this been raised with me I would have taken the necessary action.“It was never my intention to undermine the support the complainant was receiving, which I was unaware of at the time. If that is what Mr Bridgen was led to believe, I apologise for my error in judgment in having the conversation.”Mr Hill was suspended from the Labour Party in September 2019 over the allegations were made but was reinstated in October of that year to fight the general election.He resigned from his seat in March 2021, prompting the by-election that saw the former red wall seat of Hartlepool swing dramatically to the Conservatives.Additional reporting by Press Association More

The cost-of-living crisis will “invariably” fuel a rise in crime and police should use “discretion” when deciding whether to prosecute people desperate to eat, the new HM chief inspector of constabulary has said.As inflation hit a 40-year high on Wednesday, which experts warned was unevenly impacting poorer households, Andy Cooke said that he expected a corresponding rise in petty crime will “be a challenge for policing to deal with”.“I think whenever you see an increase in the cost of living or whenever you see more people dropping into poverty, I think you’ll invariably see a rise in crime,” said Mr Cooke, a former chief constable of Merseyside Police who has worked in policing since 1985.His prediction will come as a political blow to Boris Johnson, whose desire to appear tough and effective on crime has seen him accused by the statistics watchdog of making “misleading” claims that levels of criminality have fallen under his leadership – when in fact the opposite was true.Asked how police could avoid being viewed as an extension of an uncaring state, Mr Cooke told The Guardian: “What they’ve got to bear in mind is what is the best thing for the community, and that individual, in the way they deal with those issue.“I certainly fully support police officers using their discretion – and they need to use discretion more often.”Mr Cooke said that he was not “giving a carte blanche for people to go out shoplifting”, but wanted officers to ensure cases were “dealt with in the best way possible”.Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Cooke – who took over as chief inspector of the constabulary last month – said that he hoped to pull the current charge rate of 6 per cent for recorded offences up to 20 per cent, and to ensure that every burglarly victim is visited by the police.He also reportedly lamented that policing was still recovering from Conservative-led cuts, and warned that surges in inflation and fuel prices were likely to impact police budgets.His comments came as Rishi Sunak resisted increasing pressure from his own benches to do more to help households struggling with soaring prices, including calls from Tory MPs for a windfall tax on energy firms’ profits, the immediate reinstatement of the £20 Universal Credit uplift and a trebling of the Winter Fuel Payment.But Conservative MPs nevertheless obeyed orders to vote down Labour’s demands for an emergency budget to tackle the crisis, as well as Liberal Democrat proposals to slash VAT from 20 to 17.5 per cent to save the average family £600.At PMQs, Sir Keir Starmer urged Mr Johnson to stop dithering and make an “inevitable U-turn” on a windfall tax on energy firms, highlighting differing views within Cabinet and describing their position as “clear as mud”. The prime minister said that “all sensible measures” will be looked at.Moving Labour’s amendment to the Queen’s Speech shortly afterwards, which included the call for an emergency budget, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed the crisis was a “consequence of Conservative decisions and the direction that they have taken our economy in over the last 12 years”.Ms Reeves accused the government of being “increasingly a rudderless ship heading to the rocks, while it is willing to watch people financially drown in the process”.Speaking at the CBI’s annual dinner hours later, the chancellor spoke of a “perfect storm” of supply shocks rocking Britain and warned that “the next few months will be tough”.Mr Sunak told businesses “we are on your side” as he urged them to “invest, train and innovate more”, promising to “cut your taxes to encourage you to do all those things” in the autumn budget.He added: “Our role in government is to cut costs for families. I cannot pretend this will be easy. The next few months will be tough, but where we can act, we will.”Additional reporting by PA More

Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has said the hardest part of being married to someone with dementia is “the knowledge that the change is going to continue and they are ceasing, very gradually, to be the person that they have been”.Baroness Kinnock, 77, herself a former minister, was diagnosed in 2017 with Alzheimer’s disease, it was revealed earlier this year.Talking of his wife’s condition, he said: “Glenys is a highly articulate, immensely lively, funny woman, a brilliant cook, wonderful mother and grandmother – and in all of those areas she has lost capability.“She would meet every challenge, whether it was border guards in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or a new recipe, she would take it on.He told TalkTV: “She’d get away with immensely challenging sometimes very dangerous situations with this hint of mischief – a special magic.“For that to be ebbing, gradually being erased by this disease, makes it difficult for her, sometimes makes her extremely frustrated and is a challenge to me. But I deal with it out of love.”The ex-Labour Party leader, 80, said he and his wife were lucky enough to have family support and to be able to afford carers for up to five hours each day.But, he added, for millions of others without resources the disease “can be quite devastating”.The couple learnt of her condition after a holiday when she had got her words confused. Lord Kinnock said: “She has supported me for 50 years and I’ve been helping her out for five so I’ve got a way to go to catch her up. But it doesn’t work like that as people who deal with the reality of dementia will tell you. You cope with it in a way that’s as near to normality as achievable.” More