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Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has called for “calm heads to prevail” as Britain has urged de-escalation following Israel’s retaliatory attack on Iran – with explosions heard near a major military airbase.While foreign secretary David Cameron met with his G7 counterparts in Italy to discuss easing tensions in the Middle East on Friday, Tehran was forced to activate its air defence system above the city of Isfahan, which is also home to sites associated with Iran’s nuclear programme. Asked about the emerging reports on Sky News, a government minister said the UK accepts Israel’s “absolute right to defend itself” – but insisted Britain was “very firmly engaged in counselling de-escalation and moderation at this particular moment”.Smoke billows in the air as Israel strikes Iran on Friday More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailBritain is moving to prohibit tobacco sales to those born after 2009 in a bid to create a smoke-free generation – but do you think Rishi Sunak’s controversial smoking ban is a good idea?The Tobacco and Vapes Bill passed its first Commons vote with a majority of 316 this week. Labour support helped the bill overcome opposition led by Liz Truss. But notable figures in the Tory party, such as Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, and Suella Braverman voted against it. Ms Truss denounced her successor’s plan as a “virtue-signalling piece of legislation about protecting adults from themselves in the future”.Health Secretary Victoria Atkins acknowledged these concerns, but countered: “Nicotine robs people of their freedom to choose. The vast majority of smokers start when they are young, and three-quarters say that if they could turn back the clock they would not have started,” she added.Former health secretary Lord Clarke, however, warned the move risked being difficult to enforce.“You will get to a stage where if you are 42 years of age, you will be able to buy them but someone aged 41 will not be allowed to,” he told The Telegraph. “Does that mean you will have to produce your birth certificate? It may prove very difficult to enforce. Future generations will have to see whether it works or not.”In the end, 57 Tory MPs defied Rishi Sunak’s call. Support for the bill came from various parties, with 178 Conservatives, 160 Labour MPs, and others voting in favor. We want to know what you think. Are Sunak’s plans to create a smoke-free generation the best way to stamp out smoking? Or should people be free to choose to smoke if they want to?Share your thoughts by adding them in the comments – we’ll highlight the most insightful ones as they come in.All you have to do is sign up and register your details – then you can then take part in the discussion. You can also sign up by clicking ‘log in’ on the top right-hand corner of the screen.Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment click here.Join the conversation with other Independent readers below. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMinisters will be recommended to use live AI facial recognition to screen migrants arriving in the UK for threats, the Government’s anti-terror law adviser has said.Jonathan Hall KC, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has said he will recommend the Government introduces the technology at migrant processing facilities in Kent when he presents his annual report this year.The move would allow border officers to screen those crossing in small boats against a database of terror suspects.In an interview with LBC, Mr Hall also warned that Manston, the migrant processing centre where those on small boat are detained after arrival in the UK, had at one point become “so overwhelmed that people had to be released before all the checks had been done”.The reviewer told the broadcaster he visited Western Jet Foil in Dover last year, the initial processing site for migrants, as well as the Manston camp.In my report, I’m going to say that, use live facial recognition at Western Jet Foil, so when people get off the boat, they can be screenedJonathan Hall KC“At the time I was there, it was lots of sort of tents and more permanent structures,” he said.“The tricky thing with that is that a lot of people can suddenly arrive on one day, and if lots arrive on one day, how are counterterrorism police going to have the opportunity to screen them? And this is the really difficult bit.“They can’t be kept, quite rightly, in inhumane conditions, which means that if you’re jamming everyone into a tent, they can stay only there for a day.”But with migrants being moved out, this meant there was not the opportunity to screen them, Mr Hall said.He added: “It’s going to be published in a few weeks, but in my report, I’m going to say that, use live facial recognition at Western Jet Foil, so when people get off the boat, they can be screened, and if they’ve got a watch list of people coming in, they will know there and then that they’re dealing with someone who is on a watch list.”Mr Hall said this would allow migrants to be checked against a “database of images of people who are suspicious, who are potential terrorists”.The situation off the Dover coast was “really complex” and evolving, he said, with border staff unable to anticipate the surges of people crossing the Channel.“At one stage, they were so overwhelmed that people had to be released before all the checks had been done,” he said.This meant they were released “without the full amount of checks”, Mr Hall told LBC, adding border officers had to strike a balance between screening and ensuring arrivals were not kept in “potentially inhumane conditions”.More than 6,200 people have crossed the English Channel since the start of the year, higher than in the same period in both 2023 and 2022.Rishi Sunak has made “stopping the boats” one of his key leadership pledges as Prime Minister.The Government hopes to deter people from making the journey with its plan to deport some arrivals to Rwanda but the Bill underpinning this is currently stuck in parliamentary deadlock between the House of Commons and House of Lords. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLiz Truss has been accused of using a “fabricated” quote from Mayer Amschel Rothschild in her bombshell new memoir.The Board of Deputies of British Jews said a “fabricated” quote, attributed to the German-Jewish banker and founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, had been used by the former prime minister in her recently published book Ten Years to Save the West.The body said it had written to her publisher Biteback Publishing, which it said has consequently been forced to apologise and promised to remove the quote for the e-book and any future print editions.The former prime minister’s memoir ‘Ten Years to Save the West’ was released on Tuesday More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email The husband of former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon was charged Thursday with embezzlement in a probe into the finances of Scotland’s pro-independence governing party, a shocking setback for the country’s most powerful political couple.Police in Scotland said a 59-year-old man was charged Thursday evening after being arrested and taken into custody earlier in the day for questioning by “detectives investigating the funding and finances of the party.”He was released after being charged, the force said. While police did not name the suspect, the details provided matched up with Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive who was arrested just over a year ago. Scottish police have been investigating how 600,000 pounds ($750,000) earmarked for a Scottish independence campaign were spent. Murrell, Sturgeon and Colin Beattie, the Scottish National Party’s former treasurer, were arrested and questioned last year in the probe but released without being charged with a crime. Murrell’s first arrest came shortly after Sturgeon’s surprise announcement in February 2023 that she was resigning her post after eight years as party leader and first minister of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government.Murrell stepped down the following month amid controversy about the party’s declining membership and a bitter fight to replace Sturgeon. He held the position for more than 20 years.At the time of Murrell’s first arrest, police searched the couple’s Glasgow home over two days.It is highly unusual for a leader or former leader of a U.K. political party to be arrested. Sturgeon said after being released from custody in June that her arrest had been “both a shock and deeply distressing.” She insisted she had done nothing wrong.“I do wish to say this, and to do so in the strongest possible terms,” she said in a statement on social media at the time. ”Innocence is not just a presumption I am entitled to in law. I know beyond doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing.”In announcing her resignation, Sturgeon said she knew “in my head and in my heart” that it was the right time for her, her party and her country to make way for someone else.Sturgeon and Murrell have been married since 2010 and helped steer the SNP to a dominant position in Scottish politics. It heads the semi-autonomous Scottish government in Edinburgh and holds a large majority of Scotland’s seats in the U.K. Parliament in London.But Sturgeon resigned with her biggest political goal — taking Scotland out of the United Kingdom to become an independent country — unrealized.She had led the party and led Scotland since 2014, when Scots rejected independence in a referendum. While the referendum was billed as a once-in-a-generation decision on independence, Sturgeon and her party had pushed for a new vote, arguing that Britain’s departure from the European Union had changed the ground rules.Those efforts reached a stalemate when the U.K. government refused to authorize a new referendum.Sturgeon’s departure unleashed a tussle for the future of the SNP amid recriminations over the party’s declining membership and divisions over the best path towards independence. Opinion polls suggest support for the party has sagged. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell is understood to have been rearrested in connection with Police Scotland’s investigation into the SNP’s finances.The 59-year-old, who was taken into custody on Thursday morning, was previously arrested on 5 April last year as part of the same probe. Police Scotland said in a statement: “A 59-year-old man has today been rearrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party.“The man, who was previously arrested as a suspect on April 5 2023, was taken into custody at 9.13am and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives.“The matter remains active for the purposes of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 and the public are therefore advised to exercise caution if discussing it on social media.“As the investigation is ongoing we are unable to comment further at this time.”Murrell has allegedly been rearrested in connection with an investigation into the SNP’s finances More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSupport for the Conservatives has fallen to its lowest level in 45 years, according to the latest Ipsos poll.The Tories’ vote share has fallen to just 19 per cent – a record low for the second consecutive month – with Labour leading by 25 points on 44 per cent. And in a further blow for Rishi Sunak, his personal approval ratings are now at the worst level in the history of Ipsos polling – equivalent only to John Major in 1994 and Jeremy Corbyn in 2019.They have divebombed to -59, an all-time record low, as three quarters of voters say they are dissatisfied with the Conservative leader. Meanwhile, the right-wing challenger party Reform UK are snapping at the Tory’s heels with 13 per cent of the vote share. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been forced to back down on plans to get flights to Rwanda off the ground this spring More