Home News

The controversial Nationality and Borders Bill will make Black and Asian Britons second-class citizens as they face the possibility of having their UK citizenship revoked without notice, a peer has warned.Lord Woolley, an equalities activist, said he would also face being stripped of citizenship under Clause 9 of the bill in this way as his mother was born in the Caribbean.Under the proposed legislation, which is being debated in the House of Lords on Wednesday, those who are eligible for citizenship of another country could be quietly stripped of UK status if it were deemed to be in the “national interest”.“This will further exacerbate the reality that millions of British people, many of African, Caribbean and Asian descent, are second class citizens,” Lord Woolley told The Independent.“I’m a lord of this realm and yet I’d be rendered as such because my mother was born in Barbados.“For those of us born here to foreign parents, our citizenship is precarious; the government has called it a ‘privilege and not a right’ that can be stripped away and in some cases without appeal.”The amendments to the bill that the House of Lords will vote on are yet to be decided, but The Independent understands Labour peers would be minded to back a move to remove the controversial clause.Lord Woolley, who set up the Operation Black Vote organisation, also pointed to similarities with the Windrush scandal. The Home Office has recently come under fire for human rights breaches by numerous Black claimants.“Surely the Windrush scandal has taught us that when you have a tiered citizenship system, you’re not only viewed as less than, but at times of political stress, you can shockingly be treated as such,” he said.“The Lords must show leadership in its response to this bill.” More

Government departments have spent more than £14.2 million on hire cars for staff this year despite a public sector pay freeze, an investigation has revealed.In particular, the Ministry of Defence has come under fire for “wasting” taxpayers money after it was revealed it spent almost £13 million on hire cars for staff in 2021.The next highest figure was from the Department of Transport, which spent more than £1.1 million on hire cars for staff. Other government departments spent up to tens of thousands of pounds.The figures, revealed by a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the PA news agency, showed the MoD spent £12,960,612 on hire cars through the Phoenix II vehicle contract in the current calendar year up to November 30. The figure includes VAT but excludes fuel and other costs, it said.The Phoenix II contract covers all the so-called Top Level Budget areas of the MoD, including Land Forces, Air Command, Defence Equipment and Support, Joint Forces Command, Navy Command, Head Offices and Corporate Services and Defence Infrastructure Organisation.The MoD fleet covered by the Phoenix II contract provides a mixture of leased and rental vehicles including cars, minibuses, coaches, vans and freight transport, as well as specialist vehicles ranging from dog vans to horse ambulances to mountain rescue vehicles.Reacting to the revelation, Unite’s acting national officer for defence staff, Caren Evans, called the figure “excessive” and was representative of how “inefficient the MoD is”.She said: “This is an entirely excessive figure, it demonstrates how hugely inefficient the MoD is and is exceptionally poor value for money for taxpayers.”This revelation of grandiose spending on hired vehicles by the MoD is a kick in teeth for civilian MoD staff who have experienced a pay freeze this year and are now struggling to make ends meet due to the cost of living crisis in the UK.”The money spent on hiring cars could and should have been better spent on giving MoD workers a much-needed pay rise.”In his 2020 spending review, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that firefighters, teachers, police, members of the armed forces, civil servants, and council and government agency staff would have pay rises “paused” to reduce expenditure.Shadow defence secretary John Healey added: “The Defence Department has blown millions of pounds on taxis at the same time as cutting Army numbers and freezing forces’ pay.”There’s so much waste in MoD budgets and ministers have got no grip on the problems. This Tory waste is letting down frontline forces and taxpayers.”The MoD justified its spend on hired vehicles as its staff “have to travel to locations that are not always accessible with public transport,” and said it is “committed to delivering value for money.”A spokesperson for the MoD said: “As a large organisation with out-of-town sites across the UK and bases all over the world, our staff have to travel to locations that are not always accessible with public transport and often a lease/hire car or taxi is the most efficient and cost-effective way to travel.”We are committed to delivering value for money. Our current contract for non-operational vehicles aims to deliver savings of around £152 million over six years.”It added that all travel by MoD civil servants and military personnel must be confirmed as essential and authorised by a manager to ensure the request is valid and represents value for money.The Department for Transport and its Executive Agencies, which include Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), spent more than £1.1 million on hire vehicles between January and October.It spent a total of £1,105,126 in the UK and overseas in this period, with the majority of spend incurred by the DVSA, for driving examiners who may need to switch locations as to where they are carrying out tests at short notice.It said: “Although DVSA is aware of booking patterns and volumes and aims to provide an appropriate number of staff in each location to meet forecasted volumes, there are always going to be cases (on a daily basis) where DVSA needs to move staff from their ‘home’ test centre to an alternative centre to meet increased customer demand and to cover short notice absences.”The Departmental travel policy states that hire cars can be used rather than personal cars if this is more cost effective.”Other departments spent tens of thousands of pounds on hire cars for staff, including the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education, which spent £48,645.80 (excluding VAT) and £22,840 between April and October respectively.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spent £76,262 from April to October. The department said hire cars were needed by Defra for accessing rural locations for fieldwork.Between January and October, the Department for International Trade spent £36,339 both in the UK and overseas, and the Treasury spent £16,392.42, saying it included additional costs such as petrol, parking, charges for Congestion, Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) and Dartford Bridge.Meanwhile, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it had not spent any money on private hire cars for its staff this year while the Attorney General’s office spent just £65.50.Additional reporting by Press Association More

Overuse of antibiotics on farm animals could lead to a pandemic “much bigger than Covid,” campaigners have warned.Health experts are calling for a ban on the use of low doses of antibiotics on healthy farm animals, saying the practice was breeding untreatable “superbugs” which could spread to humans.Farmers often give animals a preventative low dose of antibiotics as an insurance policy against disease. But from 28 January, new EU legislation will prohibit all forms of routine antibiotic use in farming, including preventative treatments.The government’s veterinary medicines directorate has begun a consultation about whether the UK should follow suit.Use of antibiotics on farmed animals has decreased significantly over the past few years – a 52 per cent reduction since 2014 – but campaigners say this does not go far enough.They are calling on the government to follow the EU and ban the practice of giving the drugs to healthy farm animals.The UK’s Health Security Agency warned last month that antimicrobial resistance was a “hidden pandemic”, while the World Health Organisation has estimated drug-resistant diseases could killed 10 million people globally each year by 2050 if no action is taken. Doctors are now trying to tackle patients’ overdependence on antibiotics by decreasing their prescription. Although 66 per cent of antibiotics are used by humans, a sizeable percentage – 26 per cent – are used on farm animals.Suzi Shingler, campaign manager for the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, said: “If you imagine a big herd of pigs or chickens that are stressed and overcrowded, the immune suppression they get from this environment is really asking for disease and illness to spread. Instead of making changes to these conditions, it has been for decades cheaper and easier to give them all low levels of antibiotics in their feed and water.”Ms Shingler warned low doses could significantly increase the risk of breeding untreatable bacteria. “Mass dosing creates the perfect breeding ground for the strongest type of bacteria to survive,” she said. “The worst elements will survive the long-term low dosing of antibiotics and it’s like supercharging the normal natural selection process of superbugs.”These bacteria can make their way to humans through waterways, such as during wild swimming, as well as through undercooked meat products and effluent spread on fields.Daniel Zeichner MP, the shadow food, farming and fisheries minister, said that while there has been “some progress to reduce antibiotics in farm animals, we need more ambition and urgency from this government”.He added: “Farmers and the food industry should follow the voluntary code by stopping routinely using antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals, as the World Health Organisation has long advised.” He also called on the government to ensure that trade deals require “at least the same standards for imported animal products” as British farmers adhere to. SNP MP Lisa Cameron, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Health, said that she was “deeply concerned about the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture” and warned of the “ease with which antimicrobial resistance can develop in humans”. She concluded that recommendations from the Health Select Committee on the issue should be “taken forward urgently”.A 2018 inquiry by the committee warned of “serious concerns” about the use of antibiotics on healthy animals. They warned “attention must be paid to this following the UK’s departure from the EU” and recommended any future trade deals commit to the same standards in antibiotic use as the EU.But Chris Lloyd, secretary general of the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (Ruma), said the UK has “got a positive story in terms of antibiotic use”. He said that there was a debate to be had about whether the UK followed Europe “because we’ve already done a lot of what the EU is trying to achieve”.Ruma has been working with each of the UK farm animal sectors to raise awareness about the dangers of antimicrobial resistance.Referring to the prospect of a ban, he said: “You can always do more and we continue to work on responsible use but our recent track record is a positive one.“I’m not convinced that a black and white decision is the right one when the realities are often much more complex. Do we need more restrictions in the way antibiotics are used when we’ve done so well in reducing their use already?”Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, said Britain was making “important reductions” in antibiotic use on farm animals. She promised to continue working closely with the industry and added: “It is encouraging to see farmers and vets continuing to work together to tackle antibiotic resistance.” The National Farmers’ Union said its members had cut voluntarily cut antibiotic use by 52 per cent since 2014. Catherine McLaughlin, the NFU’s chief animal health and welfare adviser, added: “We will consult with our members and respond accordingly when the detail of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate consultation comes out.”Research carried out by World Animal Protection (WAP) last year found dangerous antibiotic resistant superbugs in rivers and lakes near factory farms in Spain, the USA, Canada and Thailand.The group collected surface soil and dust particles from waterways upstream and downstream from pig farms in North Carolina, US. Eighty-three out of 90 samples came back positive for antimicrobial resistant genes, a “widespread contamination” that researchers concluded “strongly suggests factory farms are discharging resistance genes into public waterways”.The group will be carrying out similar research in the UK next year.Lindsay Duncan, UK campaign manager at WAP, said the coronavirus pandemic had shown how the issues emerging in one country were not confined there. She said: “If there are one or two bad players that’s still going to cause a problem for the rest of the world.“It’s not just the case of the EU doing the right thing. We all need to be doing this and putting in this legislation. This is going to be the next major pandemic and it’s going to have a really big effect on people.”Ms Duncan said antimicrobial resistance was “actually going to be much bigger than Covid” because the problem could not be solved with vaccines. “We can’t just produce vaccines for bacterial infections. These medicines have allowed us to live the way we do; having amazing life expectancies, heart transplants, major surgeries and recover well from them.”She warned: “If antimicrobial resistance continues growing in the way that it is right now we are going to lose one of our most powerful medications. There is no fix for that, so it has to be addressed now.” More

Britain’s long-awaited ban on ivory sales – already delayed by three years – has been postponed by another two months.Conservationists say they are “extremely disappointed” because with every day that passes more elephants are slaughtered to meet consumer demand for trinkets made from tusks.Ministers say they need more time to fix technical details but critics argue that background work should have been done before now.Thousands of elephants are killed every year, and it’s calculated that one is killed on average every 15-25 minutes, leaving the animal at risk of extinction.The UK is the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.Research has found hundreds of ivory items are still changing hands in the UK, with ivory from newly killed animals being passed off as antique, which may be legally sold, keeping the killings going.The Ivory Act, described by ministers as “world-leading” and which bans imports, exports and sales, received royal assent three years ago last Monday.But its implementation was delayed first by a legal challenge, which was defeated, and then by a government consultation on how to enact the law, more than two years after it had been passed.Last week the European Commission announced new restrictions on the ivory trade, bringing an EU ban closer.Now, when the ban had been expected around the three-year anniversary of the Act, another delay has emerged.This time it’s down to “technical issues in developing a digital registration and certification system for dealing in exempted ivory”, according to animal welfare minister Lord Goldsmith. In a letter, seen by The Independent, he wrote: “In the Action Plan for Animal Welfare, I committed to implementing the Act by the end of this year and have said I will bring the ban into force in spring 2022.“For us to achieve this, officials have been developing a digital registration and certification system for dealing in exempted ivory.“Although significant progress has been made, there have been some technical issues in its development, and to proceed under the current timeline would risk introducing a system that does not work or is potentially not as close to the law as it needs to be to deliver one of the toughest ivory bans in the world.”Lord Goldsmith writes: “Given these risks, I have made the decision to delay implementation of the Ivory Act by two months, with the opening of the registration and certification service to deal in exempted ivory to February 2022.“This extra time will ensure that the digital service for exempted ivory is robust and meets the requirements of the Act.”He said he still planned for the ban to take effect in spring.But the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) said it was extremely disappointed and feared a watering-down of the legislation.James Sawyer, UK head of the charity, said responses to recent parliamentary questions have suggested people will be allowed to “gift, donate or bequeath items” to others.“We are concerned this will enable unscrupulous traders to take advantage and continue to buy and sell ivory,” Mr Sawyer told Lord Goldsmith.And he warned the government: “There is also continued refusal to implement a destruction or donation system for people who no longer wish to own their items of ivory and want to ensure they will not reappear on the market.”He said many people who own ivory had asked the charity to destroy their items to ensure nobody profited from them in future.This year, a 12-day research project by Ifaw discovered 913 ivory items on sale in the UK, acting as “a smokescreen” for new ivory passed off as antique.Ifaw says it has repeatedly pressed for a process for the public to donate ivory for destruction.The Independent has asked the government to respond. More

People who are medically allowed to get a Covid vaccine but refuse to do so are “idiots”, Tony Blair has said as he backed Boris Johnson’s “gamble” to continue with plan B restrictions in the run-up to Christmas Day amid the spread of the Omicron variant.”If you’re not vaccinated and you’re eligible, you’re not just irresponsible, you’re an idiot,” the former prime minister said in an interview about Covid broadcast on Wednesday morning.Mr Blair has made repeated interventions during the pandemic and his Institue for Global Change thinktank has been credited with devising policy proposals later adopted by government.When asked what he would do if he was still prime minister, Mr Blair, 68, said he was in favour of not bringing in fresh curbs before 25 December.He told Times Radio: “I think we’ve got to be very clear with people as to why not. I don’t think it’s really that there’s some great piece of data we’re waiting on. “It’s really because the pain of going into a full lockdown – and with this variant [Omicron] that’s the only thing that would work. And the fact that you’re dealing with people in different categories.”He added: “The people who are boosted, double vaccinated…or people who are completely unvaccinated. I think it’s incredibly difficult and so, right now, it is a gamble what the government’s doing..but the public has already been through too much”.Mr Blair’s comments came as the current prime minister was urged to outline his post-Christmas Covid strategy, as a health minister warned there is “uncertainty” around people making new year’s eve plans.Mr Johnson on Tuesday confirmed no further restrictions will be introduced before 25 December given there is not enough evidence on the severity of the Omicron variant and hospital admission to justify stricter measures.But with the situation being reviewed by the “hour”, Conservative frontbencher Gillian Keegan urged caution over the days ahead.Asked on LBC about going ahead with a gathering or party on New Year’s Eve, the health minister said: “There is uncertainty. We can’t predict what the data is going to tell us before we’ve got the data.”We are trying to take a balanced and proportionate approach so that people can see their families over Christmas to try and plan some stuff. But of course it is difficult to anticipate.”She said the uncertainty in the data is “particularly” around severity.But Labour pressed for decisions to be made as soon as possible. Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth told Sky News: “People are anticipating that some form of restrictions will come in post-Christmas, and I think we just need to give people certainty.” More

PM Boris Johnson will miss his target to offer all adults a Covid booster jab by the end of this month, according to government officials.As the tide of Omicron cases becomes larger, millions of people will be unable to get jabbed over the coming weeks if they fall ill with the virus, a source of the i newspaper has said.Those who contract Covid will not be able to get their booster until at least the end of January, due to a compulsory 28-day wait after testing positive to ensure that they are no longer infected.Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency, has said: “Anyone who catches Covid-19 must wait 28 days before getting their next vaccination, including the booster, to ensure they have fully recovered from the virus. This is extended to 12 weeks for healthy under-18s.”Despite warnings that the target will not be met, a record 861,306 boosters and third doses were administered in the UK on Thursday. In total, more than 26 million people have had more than two vaccine jabs.According to the most recent government data, there have been 14,909 cases of Omicron recorded in the UK – including 65 hospitalisations and one death specific to the variant.Researchers at Imperial College London have found in their analysis that a Covid-19 booster jab will provide about 85 per cent protection against serious illness if exposed to the Omicron variant, which has been found to be more contagious than the previous variant Delta.Scientists have said that there is still a lot of real-life information about Omicron that needs to be discovered and confirmed.Due to its high transmissibility, more than two million people could contract Covid-19 if the current rate of growth in the variant continues and no further restrictions beyond the government’s ‘plan B’ measures that came into force earlier this week, the i reported.On Friday, the UK recorded its highest number – 93,045 – of new daily Covid cases since the pandemic began, and 111 deaths linked to the virus.Meanwhile, officials are reportedly drawing up plans for a two-week circuit breaker lockdown after Christmas.Draft regulations were being prepared which would ban meeting others indoors except for work purposes, and that pubs and restaurants would be limited to outdoor service only, according to The Times.Mr Johnson has been presented with a number of options under a so-called ‘plan C’, ranging from “mild guidance to nudge people, right through to lockdown,” the Financial Times reported.The newspaper quoted the PM’s allies who claimed Mr Johnson still wanted to go down the guidance route, but that he also had to be realistic about the threat of Omicron.Leaked minutes from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), seen by the BBC, reportedly said scientists had told ministers that tougher measures need to be brought in “very soon”.A government spokesperson said: “The Government will continue to look closely at all the emerging data and we’ll keep our measures under review as we learn more about this variant.”Meanwhile, the UK’s devolved administrations have ramped up their demands for more cash support amid rising cases of the Omicron variant.A Cobra meeting is set to be held over the weekend with the leaders of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.Mr Johnson has warned that Omicron is “a very serious threat to us now”.On a visit to a vaccination centre in Hillingdon, west London, on Friday, he said: “We are seeing a considerable wave coming through and people have got to be prepared and they have got to understand what it entails.” More

The first legal action against Priti Patel’s plans to force migrant boats back to France has been launched. Campaigners said they wanted judges to declare the operations unlawful and “force the government to recognise the sanctity of life”.A claim lodged at the Administrative Court by the Freedom from Torture group says there is “no legal basis” for the policy and that it would increase the risk of drownings in the English Channel.Documents seen by The Independent argue for a full judicial review of the plans, after the Home Office allegedly “refused to provide a substantive response to the grounds of the legal challenge”.The Home Office has previously refused to say whether any pushbacks have taken place, or to make public the details of the assessments behind ministers’ repeated assertions that the procedure is “safe and legal”.Sonya Sceats, the chief executive of Freedom from Torture, said: “This cruel pushback policy is Boris Johnson’s latest attempt to rip up the rule book that keeps all of us safe. We should not need to launch a legal challenge to force this government to recognise the sanctity of life.“We know from our work with torture survivors that people seeking safety usually have no choice but to travel without obtaining prior permission, whether it’s because they come from a country where they cannot apply for a passport or because the UK will not grant visas for people claiming asylum.”Tessa Gregory, a partner at Leigh Day, said there was “no basis in domestic law” for pushbacks.“The policy places the UK in breach of its obligations under the Refugee Convention and Human Rights Act,” she added. “In light of the risk to life arising from any use of the policy – and given that more than 25,000 people crossed the Channel to the UK so far this year – we have filed judicial review proceedings against the home secretary, which ask the court to declare the pushback policy unlawful.”Freedom from Torture alleges that pushbacks amount to the government authorising unlawful conduct by Border Force officers and contravene the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.Tragedy emphasises dangers of Channel crossings, says immigration ministerThe group says that existing enforcement powers, under the 1971 Immigration Act, do not allow boats to be forced out of British waters, and that there is no basis for pushbacks in domestic law.The legal challenge is one of several being mounted by charities and campaign groups.Care4Calais, Channel Rescue, and the PCS Union, which represents Border Force staff, have also announced action but not yet lodged claims in court.PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said the policy was “unlawful, unworkable and above all morally reprehensible”.“Our Border Force members are aghast at the thought they will be forced to implement such a cruel and inhumane policy,” he added. “If the government does not abandon this appalling approach, we will pursue all legal avenues including a judicial review.”The legal challenge comes after a House of Lords committee wrote to the home secretary saying it was “not convinced” that the plans were safe or lawful.“We are not aware that the government have published any arguments to substantiate the claim that a legal basis currently exists,” said a letter published on Wednesday.The previous day, MPs voted against an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill that would have prevented the powers from being “used in a manner or in circumstances that could endanger life at sea”.The proposal, brought by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) chair Harriet Harman, was defeated by 313 votes to 235, while a series of other amendments to strengthen protections around pushbacks did not go to a vote.In a report on the borders bill, the JCHR found that planning to push migrant boats back to France was unlawful and would put lives at risk.It said that the new laws, which would grant Border Force staff partial immunity from prosecution if migrants drowned during pushbacks, contained several unlawful clauses. It also raised questions over how effective the laws were likely to be.The committee said the proposals must be scrapped or changed, but the bill passed through the House of Commons with the most controversial provisions unchanged on Wednesday.The Independent understands that complex rules imposed by the Home Office to prevent the operations violating international law mean that pushbacks can only happen in a certain area of the Channel, and if numerous conditions are met.A Home Office spokesperson said: “As part of our ongoing operational response and to prevent further loss of life at sea, we continue to evaluate and test a range of safe and legal options to find ways of stopping small boats making this dangerous and unnecessary journey. These all comply and are delivered in accordance with both domestic and international law.” More

MPs and conservationists are pressuring the government to fast-track a ban on imports from trophy-hunting of endangered species, fearing a backlog of legislation caused by Covid-19 could delay the move for years.Backing a private member’s bill introducing the ban would save hundreds of animals from being shot by UK hunters, the campaigners say.They worry that although the government has drafted a new law on imports, which they welcome, it could end up like the “world-leading” 2018 Ivory Act, which still has not been implemented nearly four years on, despite passing through parliament.The hold-up allows elephant parts to still be bought and sold in the UK, “fuelling” the trade.The government is proposing to outlaw trophy-hunt imports, but no time has been allocated for legislation to go to MPs, saying only that it will happen “as soon as parliamentary time allows”.Boris Johnson told MPs at prime minister’s questions two weeks ago that the government would introduce legislation to ban trophies.MPs from both main parties who are co-sponsoring a bill by John Spellar have written to the prime minister asking the government to adopt it, sparing the government from having to find time in a crowded parliamentary schedule.The Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting says that despite the Covid pandemic, British trophy-hunters last year killed some of the world’s most threatened animals, including lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, leopards, bears and zebras.They have also shot polar bears, rhinos, wolves and wild cats.Many travel with British trophy-hunting companies that promote “holidays” taking travellers abroad to shoot lions bred in captivity, elephants, cheetahs and monkeys.Data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species shows that British hunters shoot on average 200 endangered animals a year.Conservationists say the practice has contributed to a drop in species numbers of 68 per cent in the past 50 years.Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said: “It has been two years since the ban was promised in the 2019 Queen’s Speech. Another 300 animals at risk of extinction have been killed by British trophy-hunters since then.“The government should be moving as swiftly as possible to stop this terrible trade.“The government recently adopted Liam Fox MP’s bill on providing lifelong care for people with Down’s syndrome, to bring the law into effect. It should do the same with John Spellar’s bill.”In a 2019 government consultation on a ban, 86 per cent of the 44,000 responses backed a crackdown on trophy-hunting.Sir Roger Gale MP, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on banning trophy hunting and patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, said: “The promise to ban trophies was in our election manifesto and in those of all the main parties. The ban has been promised by the prime minister himself at the despatch box.“Every week that goes by without this ban means more animals are needlessly and often cruelly killed just for entertainment.”A campaign billboard will tour the UK drawing attention to the delay.Labour backbencher John Spellar said: “Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the house, has told MPs that legislation is likely to come forward ‘in the fullness of time’. The ‘fullness of time’ is government-speak for ‘This year, next year, sometime, never’. The public will be rightly outraged by dither and delay.”The letter to Mr Johnson said: “The government would rightly be given the credit for not only having shown leadership in putting this issue on the political map, but also ensuring that the ban became a reality and potentially saving the lives of a great many animals.“We invite the government to seize this historic opportunity and show its leadership in helping to bring this barbaric trade to a long-overdue end.”The government says progress on implementation of the Ivory Act was delayed because of a prolonged but ultimately unsuccessful legal challenge but that the ban should come into force in spring. Have you got a story you would like us to report on? Contact us by clicking here. More