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      Post Office inquiry: Labour government dodged concerns over Horizon scandal 15 years ago, says Tory peer

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      Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA Tory peer and long-standing advocate for victims of the Post Office scandal has said he raised the issue with the Labour government 15 years ago but received a response that made clear “the government wanted nothing to do with them”. Lord Arbuthnot said he was left frustrated at the reply to his 2009 letter to then-business secretary Lord Mandelson, which asked for subpostmasters’ complaints over the faulty Horizon IT system to be investigated. He said the former Labour government avoided responsibility over the scandal, after receiving a letter from junior minister Pat McFadden which suggested the concerns were instead a matter for the Post Office. Lord Arbuthnot told the inquiry on Wednesday: “It was clear that the government was saying it was nothing to do with them.”Lord Arbuthnot said he was not satisifed with the ‘brush off’ he received from former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells More

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      Rwandan state airline ditches Sunak’s asylum seeker plan over ‘reputational harm’

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      Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the worldSign up to our free Morning Headlines emailRwanda’s state-owned airline has turned down a proposal to transport asylum seekers to Kigali as part of Rishi Sunak’s controversial flagship scheme to cut immigration.RwandAir, which is owned by the Rwandan government, was approached last year about being part of Mr Sunak’s plan but turned down the opportunity due to fears about reputational harm.A Home Office insider told the Financial Times: “RwandAir said ‘No’ because of the potential damage to their brand.”Mr Sunak has made stopping small boats crossing the Channel one of his core promises to voters but it has been mired in legal difficulties, leading to severe delays in implementing the policy.The Supreme Court ruled against it last year and nobody has yet been sent to Rwanda. Mr Sunak hosted Rwandan president Paul Kagame in Downing Street on Tuesday. A spokesman said: “Both leaders looked forward to flights departing to Rwanda in the spring.”Last week, Mr Sunak said he would be willing to defy orders from the European Court of Human Rights if necessary to implement his Rwanda plan.The meeting took place as Freedom from Torture launched a campaign to pressure carrier AirTanker – which the charity says is in talks to be part of the scheme – to rule themselves out of Mr Sunak’s plan.AirTanker operates the UK’s fleet of aerial refuelling craft, which are also used as passenger aeroplanes. In a post on its website, the charity said: “Right now, it’s being reported that the airline AirTanker are in talks with the government to fly refugees to Rwanda as part of their cruel cash for humans scheme.“This government’s Rwanda scheme flies in the face of international law, the UK Supreme Court and common human decency. It’s cruel, and it’s wrong. We see the terror it’s inflicting on survivors of torture every day in our therapy rooms.“In 2022, AirTanker ruled themselves out of being part of this scheme. It’s time for them to do the right thing again.”The revelation comes just days after reports that properties earmarked for migrants deported from the UK have instead been sold to local buyers in Rwanda.Of the 163 affordable homes on the Bwiza Riverside estate, 70 per cent have been sold, meaning there is only space for a few dozen migrants, the Times reported.The prices of the properties funded as part of a public-private partnership between the Kigali government and ADHI Corporate Group range between £14,000 and £27,000.A manager at the estate said the homes had been sold to “private people who want to live in them”.Labour demanded “urgent clarity” on the Rwanda scheme “farce” following the Times report, calling on the Prime Minister to address it directly while the Commons is away on Easter recess.“Now it seems there will be even less capacity to house those that are removed. The Tories’ so-called plan is unravelling by the day and taxpayers are footing the bill. It’s time for change,” shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said.According to the latest Home Office figures, 82 migrants were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats on Monday, taking the total so far this year to 5,517.AirTanker has been contacted for comment. More

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      Gaza conflict ‘increasingly intolerable’ says Rishi Sunak as he backs Joe Biden’s ceasefire calls

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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 backed Joe Biden’s calls for a 6-8 week ceasefire in Gaza to allow food and medicine to go into the country, following a significant intervention from the US president overnight where he called Israel’s approach to the conflict “a mistake”.The prime minister said Mr Biden and he were “very aligned on this” and that he had consistently called for an “immediate humanitarian pause so that we can get the hostages out.”Mr Sunak added: “We want to get aid in to help alleviate the suffering and then use that as a platform to build a sustainable ceasefire.”His comments come on the back of building domestic and international pressure on Israel to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza mounts following the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Palestine that has seen the death of over 30,000 people and the killing of seven aid workers – including three British citizens – by Israeli airstrikes.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More

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      William Wragg resigns Tory whip after Westminster sexting scandal

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      Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the worldSign up to our free Morning Headlines emailSenior MP William Wragg has resigned the Conservative whip after he admitted giving politicians’ phone numbers to a suspected scammer.The party’s whips office said he was “voluntarily relinquishing the Conservative whip” after he had already stepped back from his roles as vice-chair of the backbench 1922 Committee and chair of the commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee.The Hazel Grove MP had previously announced his intention to leave parliament at the next election and will now sit as an independent.Mr Wragg admitted last week that he had given colleagues’ phone numbers to someone on a dating app amid fears that intimate images of himself would be leaked after he was targeted in a parliamentary sexting scam.Scotland Yard has said it is investigating reports of the so-called “honey trap” scam after it was suggested that at least 12 men in political circles received unsolicited messages, raising security concerns.The investigation is not thought to involve the security services.The unknown scammer is said to have used the aliases “Charlie” and “Abi” while sending flirtatious messages to coax MPs into sending explicit pictures.Mr Wragg said he was sorry for his “weakness” in responding, an apology which was praised as “courageous and fulsome” by chancellor Jeremy Hunt.But pressure has mounted in recent days amid concerns over parliamentary security, with critics from across the political divide questioning Mr Wragg’s behaviour. More

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      Sunak U-turns over decision to make assaulting shopworkers a separate criminal offence

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      Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailAssaulting a shopworker is to be made a separate criminal offence after the Government U-turned in the face of a long-running campaign.Ministers had previously ruled out legislating to create a new offence, saying in response to a parliamentary petition in October they did not think it was “required or will be most effective”.on Wednesday Rishi Sunak announced that his Government would be amending its Criminal JusticeBill to bring in the new offence.He said: “I am sending a message to those criminals – whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves – who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shopworkers, enough is enough.“Our local shops are the lifeblood of our communities, and they must be free to trade without the threat of crime or abuse.”The new offence will carry a maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment or an unlimited fine, the same sentence for the existing offence of common assault.Repeat offenders could also be forced to wear an electronic tag, as could consistent shoplifters, under amendments to the Bill currently making its way through Parliament.The Government also plans to pilot community sentencing measures with an as-yet unnamed police force to tackle high levels of shoplifting, along with greater use of facial recognition technology to identify people wanted by the police in crowded areas.Judges already have the power to ban repeat offenders from certain shops under criminal behaviour orders, with breaches bringing a maximum sentence of five years.Retail crime has hit the Co-Op More

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      Cameron: I have looked at legal advice and arms exports to Israel will continue

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      Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe UK will not suspend arms exports to Israel despite “grave concerns” about humanitarian access in Gaza, David Cameron has said. The foreign secretary said he had reviewed the latest legal advice to ministers on whether Israel is breaking humanitarian law in its war on Hamas. The “ultimate judgement” was that the export licences “will continue” following the killing of seven aid workers in an air strike last week. Rishi Sunak has been under mounting pressure, including from within his own party, to immediately suspend the sale of arms amid a growing chorus of opposition to the number of civilians killed. Tory grandees, hundreds of lawyers, dozens of MPs and peers from across the political spectrum, as well as top military commanders, have all called for a halt in recent days. Lord Cameron said continuing to allow arms exports puts the UK in line with other “like-minded countries” and reiterated the UK had a “robust legal process” for assessing those licences.He added the government would not publish or comment on legal advice, but would “act in a way that is consistent with it”.He also rejected calls to publish the advice, saying it was an “important principle” that it was not made public. But, he added, the UK continued to have “grave concerns” about humanitarian access to Gaza, saying Israeli promises to “flood Gaza with aid … now need to be turned into reality”. He also warned the UK and US may need to start looking at a “plan B” for the Israel-Hamas conflict if the current strategy does not work and there is an attack on Rafah. Lord Cameron said the UK would not be suspending arms exports to Israel More

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      Post Office was run by ‘thugs in suits’ former subpostmaster Alan Bates says in damning testimony

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      Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Post Office is an “atrocious organisation” which was run by “thugs in suits” and was willing to do “anything and everything” to hide Horizon IT failures, former subpostmaster and campaigner Alan Bates has said.In damning testimony to an official inquiry, Mr Bates also said the Post Office had spent more than two decades trying to silence him and terminated his contract because he stood up to it.He said this led to him being branded “unmanageable” and later dismissed. He renewed his call for the company to be taken over by a bigger firm with the resources to mend it, suggesting Amazon could pick up the business for £1.Rishi Sunak described the scandal as “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history”.Hundreds of subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office for theft and false accounting because of the faulty Horizon computer system made by Fujitsu.Earlier this year the prime minister announced he would bring forward legislation to exonerate the wrong Post Office workers after an ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, highlighted their plight. Mr Bates said the Post Office was seemingly willing to do “anything and everything to try and keep the failures of Horizon hidden“ regardless of who it has to “trample” in the process.He also accused the government of allowing the “once great institution” to be stripped by “little more than thugs in suits” who have been acting with “impunity regardless of the human misery and suffering they inflict”.He told the inquiry he thought the Post Office was “definitely trying to outspend” campaigners as part of its “aggressive” tactics at the High Court. He said the mediation scheme set up to address the scandal was part of a “cover-up” and a “fishing expedition” to discover what evidence subpostmasters had.And he called for the government to be held responsible for its part, after “pumping huge amounts of money” into the Post Office.He added: “I have spent the last 23 years campaigning to expose the truth, and justice, not just for myself, but for the entire group of wrongly treated/wrongly convicted subpostmasters.“I have dedicated this period of my life to this cause which, sadly, has been necessary since Post Office Limited has spent this entire period denying, lying, defending, and attempting to discredit and silence me and the group of SPMs [subpostmasters] that the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) represents.”Former subpostmaster and lead campaigner Alan Bates arrives at the inquiry on Tuesday More

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      Watch live as Cameron and Blinken hold joint press conference in Washington DC

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      Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch live as David Cameron holds a joint press conference with US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Washington DC on Tuesday 9 April.The foreign secretary has already held talks with Donald Trump in Florida amid his push to shore up US support for Ukraine.Lord Cameron met with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate on Monday ahead of his trip to DC to appeal to Congress over a stalled package of aid.On his visit to the US capital, he will warn that success for Kyiv in defeating Russia is “vital for American and European security” as he urges lawmakers across the Atlantic to approve “urgent” further assistance for the country.Lord Cameron will push for Ukraine to be given the resources needed to “hold the line” and “go on the offensive” in 2025, the Foreign Office said.He will meet with Mr Blinken as well as Congressional leaders, who he will urge to “change the narrative” on support for Ukraine while a multibillion-dollar aid package remains held up on Capitol Hill. More