UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has created a new position – and given David Cameron a deputy – after suffering his third ministerial resignation is as many weeks. Energy minister Graham Stuart quit saying he would “fully support” Mr Sunak from the backbenches but wanted to focus on issues in his constituency. He is the latest senior minister to stand down as the Tories face the prospect of a disastrous defeat at the general election. Last month former armed forces minister James Heappey and education minister Robert Halfon both resigned and announced they would not stand again. Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the drumbeat of Conservative resignations was becoming “deafening” as ministers find “any excuse they can to get away from this deeply unpopular Conservative government”. In a mini-reshuffle replacing Mr Stuart the PM appointed Andrew Mitchell to the new position of Deputy Foreign Secretary. Downing Street said Foreign Office minister Mr Mitchell has been given the “honorific title” on Friday.The move comes just a day after current Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron was described as acting like a prime minister on world stage by his friend, and former chancellor, George Osborne.He also raised eyebrows this week with a surprise meeting with Donald Trump in Florida in which they discussed Ukraine and other issues. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPolice have launched an investigation into Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner amid a row over the sale of her council house. Greater Manchester Police is looking into claims she gave false information about where she was living a decade ago, which she denies.Ms Rayner insists that controversy over whether she should have paid capital gains tax on the sale has been “manufactured” and has accused the Conservative party of attempting to “smear” her. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he welcomed the investigation and said that it would allow a “line to be drawn” on the issue.But he refused three times to say whether or not she should should quit if she is found to have broken the law during an interview with ITV. “I am fully confident that Angela Rayner has not broken the rules. She will cooperate with the investigation as you would expect,” he said. Under electoral law voters have to register at their pemanent home and can face penalties for false information. Police originally said that Ms Rayner would not face an investigation. However, they agreed to “review the circumstances” last month after the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, James Daly, made the force aware of neighbours who have contradicted Ms Rayner’s statement that the property, which was separate from her husband’s, was her main home. In a new statement a GMP spokesperson said it was “investigating whether any offences have been committed”. The row erupted after a former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft suggested that Ms Rayner had failed to properly declare her main residence in his book Red Queen? The Unauthorised Biography of Angela Rayner. This led to claims Ms Rayner may owe capital gains tax on the 2015 sale of her Stockport home, something she has denied.The Labour MP turned a £48,500 profit on the house, which she bought in 2007 with a 25 per cent discount.Government guidance says that a tenant can apply to buy their council home through the right-to-buy scheme if it is their “only or main home”.Her husband was listed at another address around a mile away. Ms Rayner is also said to have re-registered the births of her two youngest children to the address where her husband resided.Ms Rayner has insisted that her Vicarage Road home was her “principal property” despite her husband living elsewhere at the time. At the weekend it was reported that in old tweets Ms Rayner had described his house as “home”. She has accused Lord Ashcroft of an “unhealthy interest” in her family life and of wanting to “kick down at people like me who graft hard in tough circumstances to get on in life”.Earlier this week Sir Keir said it would be “inappropriate” for him to see the legal advice Ms Rayner has received on the issue. “I don’t need to see the legal advice: my team has seen it,” he told ITV. Sir Keir said the investigation would allow a “line to be drawn” on the issue. He said: “We welcome this investigation because it will allow a line to be drawn in relation to this matter.“I am fully confident that Angela Rayner has not broken the rules. She will cooperate with the investigation as you would expect and it is really a matter for the police.” A Labour spokesperson said: “Angela welcomes the chance to set out the facts with the police. We remain completely confident that Angela has complied with the rules at all times and it’s now appropriate to let the police do its work.”Defence Secretary Grant Shapps accused Ms Rayner, who called for Boris Johnson to quit as prime minister after police launched an investigation into whether he had breached lockdown rules, of “double standards”. He said: “I think the double standards have been extraordinary, Angela Rayner herself has spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing she seems to be doing now.”It’s not acceptable to ignore it and it’s not acceptable for Keir Starmer to say he won’t even read reports into it.”This is something which is a serious matter, it’s important that it’s looked into properly and I welcome the idea that the police are doing that.”In January 2022 Ms Rayner posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Boris Johnson’s Downing Street is under police investigation, how on earth can he think he can stay on as Prime Minister?” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe UK should consider sending troops to Ukraine a former defence minister has said days after President Zelensky warned his country was at risk of losing its war with Russia. British forces could give support and training to Ukrainians in their battle against Putin’s invasion, James Heappey suggested. But personnel would have to be kept away from the frontline, to prevent sparking a conflict between Russia and Nato. He also warned the UK’s armed forces were running “incredibly hot” and that the UK had to be better prepared for a potential war, amid growing threats around the world. One way of achieving this could be through a large “strategic reserve” force of thousands of veterans, who could be called up at a time of national crisis, he said in an interview with Sky News.Asked about the possibility of western troops on the ground in Ukraine, he said: “I think you’ve got to be careful about how you do it. I think definitely nowhere near a combat zone. I think you’ve got to be very, very careful not to make it into a Russo-NATO war.”But I do think it is worth exploring what in the sort of deeper – in the depth of Ukraine – the donor community could do.”Former armed forces minister James Heappey (Victoria Jones/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch live as Adam Crozier, the former CEO of Royal Mail and Alan Cook, the former managing director of the Post Office give evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry on Friday 12 April.They will be taking to the witness box a day after fellow former managing director David Smith acknowledged the “substantial distress” he had caused after appearing to celebrate the conviction of a pregnant subpostmistress who was eventually jailed.Mr Smith told the Horizon IT inquiry he understands the “anger and upset caused” after telling Post Office staff the result of Seema Misra’s trial was “brilliant news”.Ms Misra was handed a 15-month prison sentence in November 2010.Speaking in the witness box at the inquiry on Thursday, Mr Smith said that “looking through the 2024 lens” he could see his email was “poorly thought through”.Ms Misra began running a Post Office in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005, but was suspended in 2008 after being accused of stealing £74,000.She was handed a 15-month prison sentence on her son’s 10th birthday in November 2010 and was eight weeks pregnant when jailed.Ms Misra’s conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2021. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Government needs a TikTok strategy to help combat misinformation directed at young people, MPs have said.Members of the cross-party Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the Government needed to adapt to new apps and platforms that appeal to young people who are increasingly turning away from traditional sources of news.The recommendation is part of a wider report published on Friday that calls for more use of “trusted voices” such as scientists and doctors to communicate important information and combat conspiracy theories and other misinformation spreading on social media.Data from Ofcom said one in 10 people aged between 12 and 15 cited TikTok as their main source of news, while 71% of 16-24-year-olds use social media instead of or in addition to news websites.A spokesperson from TikTok said they welcomed the recommendation that the Government should engage with the public on whatever social media platform they choose to use.The committee said: “The recent growth of TikTok and decisions to disengage from or potentially ban the platform demonstrates how swiftly sources of information change.“New apps and platforms rapidly become major players, shifting audience habits but also fragmenting the sources the public use for information.“The Government must have a clear strategy for communicating with young people and adapting to the development of new apps and platforms which appeal to this audience.”During the course of its inquiry, the committee heard from BBC disinformation editor Rebecca Skippage, who said broadcasters needed to be “in those (social media) spaces” and learn from “the disinformation merchants because they are extremely good at getting people’s attention”.MPs also heard from consumer champion Martin Lewis, who said he had started using TikTok in response to “balderdash” produced by other users of the platform.TikTok has become a cause for concern for the Government over recent years, with security concerns leading to the app being banned from official electronic devices and the UK Parliament’s network.Some Whitehall departments continue to use TikTok, with Defence Secretary Grant Shapps being a noted enthusiast for the platform, although his spokeswoman said he does not use it on official devices.Following the decision to ban TikTok from Government devices, Mr Shapps’ spokeswoman said: “He is concerned that representatives of the people who deliberately choose not to engage with the public on the platforms that they actually use are unlikely to continue to represent these voters for long.”Along with developing a strategy for engaging young people on the platforms they use, the committee urged the Government to make more use of “the vast number of experts it employs”, building on the role played by Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance during the Covid-19 pandemic.They also called for the Government to be more transparent in publishing the evidence it used in making policy, especially in areas that are frequently subject to misinformation, in an effort to boost trust.Committee chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage said: “With the spread of misinformation on social media remaining a very real problem, it’s more important than ever that communities across the country have access to accurate and authoritative information that is communicated in an open and relatable way.“There are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic where scientists played a critical role in communications.“The Government is missing a trick in not giving them a larger public role in the battle to counter misinformation.”A Government spokesperson said: “We use a range of channels to reach people directly on the platforms they spend the most time on.“This includes through marketing on digital and social media platforms, including those which attract younger audiences.“Once implemented the Online Safety Act will also help tackle the root cause of disinformation by requiring social media platforms to swiftly remove illegal misinformation and disinformation as soon as they become aware of it.”A spokesperson from TikTok said: “Millions of people come to TikTok to be entertained and informed, so we take down harmful misinformation, provide authoritative content through initiatives like election centres and our new Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths feed and also run media literacy campaigns to help our community tell fact from fiction.“More and more politicians and public bodies are joining TikTok so that they can provide users with reliable information about their campaigns, causes and policies, so we welcome this report’s recommendation that the Government should engage with the public on whatever platform they choose to use.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA cabinet minister has accused Labour of spending a decade trying to “shut women up”, as the Conservatives reignited a political culture war over transgender issues.Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, also claimed that the opposition had created an “atmosphere of intimidation” around the topic, after a landmark report on NHS gender services was published earlier this week.Her comments came after the shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said his former employer Stonewall had been wrong to argue that “trans women are women, get over it”.His shadow-cabinet colleague Louise Haigh rejected the claim that Labour had tried to shut down debate, saying there had been “bad faith” actors on all sides.Rishi Sunak was heavily criticised last month for refusing to apologise to the family of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey after making a joke about transgender people while her mother was visiting parliament.As the political row was rekindled, JK Rowling told Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson to “save their apologies” after the debate on trans issues was blown open again with the publication of the Cass report. Health secretary Victoria Atkins has claimed that Labour created an ‘atmosphere of intimidation’ around the trans debate More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA former Post Office boss has apologised for saying that a pregnant subpostmistress being wrongly jailed for 15 months was “brilliant news”.David Smith, a former managing director at the government-owned firm, emailed colleagues to congratulate them on successfully prosecuting Seema Misra, who was accused of stealing £74,000 from her branch in West Byfleet.He told the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal that “with a 2024 lens” the email about her case was “poorly thought through”.Ms Misra, whose conviction was quashed in 2021 but has not yet received compensation, told Sky News she did not accept his apology and said he was only saying sorry because he was at a public inquiry.David Smith giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch as Sir Michael Hodgkinson – former chair of Post Office Ltd and former senior non-executive director of Royal Mail Holdings plc – gives evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry on Thursday 11 April.He will be speaking after the inquiry was shown yesterday letters from former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells defending the Horizon system.Ms Vennells suggested “temptation” for subpostmasters to borrow money from tills was a problem and not the Horizon system.The probe into the scandal was told how she made a “false statement” in a letter to former Conservative MP Oliver Letwin by saying that courts found in favour of the Post Office “in every instance” when prosecuting subpostmasters for theft or false accounting.The inquiry was shown minutes of a meeting between Ms Vennells, former chair Alice Perkins and MPs such as Lord Arbuthnot – who testified yesterday – in which she claimed a small number of subpostmasters had been “borrowing” money from the tills.Lord Arbuthnot also said he was not satisfied with the “brush-off” response he received from Ms Vennells after he raised concerns over subpostmaster complaints about the Horizon system. More