UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch live as Grant Shapps and Oliver Dowden address the alleged China cybersecurity threat in Parliament on Monday, 25 March.It comes after Rishi Sunak said Britain is taking measures to protect itself from an “increasingly assertive” China after it was accused of a “malign” cyberattack on the UK.The prime minister described China as “also the greatest state-based threat to our economic security”, and the UK is preparing to sanction those believed to be involved in the state-backed interference.The government is expected to say Beijing-linked hackers were behind a cyber attack on the Electoral Commission which exposed the personal data of 40 million voters, as well as 43 individuals including MPs and peers.Registers held at the time of the cyber attack include the name and address of anyone in the UK who was registered to vote between 2014 and 2022, as well as the names of those registered as overseas voters. More

Related video: Xi Jinping’s minister says ‘decoupling from China’ will only backfire on US and urges Antony Blinken to lift sanctionsSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak has said China presents an “epoch-defining challenge” after Beijing was accused of cyberattacks in the UK.The prime minister reiterated the government’s position on China while visiting an engineering firm in Barrow where he unveiled a £200m package of investment to secure the future of the UK’s nuclear industry and boost jobs.“We’ve been very clear that the situation now is that China is behaving in an increasingly assertive way abroad, authoritarian at home and it represents an epoch-defining challenge, and also the greatest state-based threat to our economic security,” he said.“So, it’s right that we take measures to protect ourselves, which is what we are doing.”Oliver Dowden is expected to announce sanctions on individuals linked to China after Beijing was accused of carrying out “malign” cyberattacks on UK democracy.The deputy prime minister will tell parliament that China is behind a wave of cyberattacks on the Electoral Commission as well as against 43 MPs and peers, in a major hack that is reported to have begun in August 2021 but was not identified until October 2022.Show latest update 1711378231Watch: Grant Shapps and Oliver Dowden address alleged China cybersecurity threatMatt Mathers25 March 2024 14:501711377333Half of 2019 Tory voters won’t back party in next election – pollMore than half of 2019 Conservative voters won’t back the party again at the next general election, according to a poll.The Helm/Detapoll Monitor survey found 49 per cent of the cohort plan to stick with the party at the next national vote, which must take place by January 2025.It is a 5 per cent drop since the Budget and the lowest level of support ever recorded by the firm.Matt Mathers25 March 2024 14:351711376443No 10: UK worked ‘closely’ with allies to identify Electoral Commission attackThe UK has worked “closely” with its allies to identify the state behind a 2021 cyber attack on the Electoral Commission, Downing Street has said.Asked about the length of time between the attack, which came to light in 2022, and the announcement expected later today, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The investigation) was obviously complex and sensitive and we have been working closely with international partners over a period of time to identify those responsible and hold them to account.”Matt Mathers25 March 2024 14:201711375843IDS: China must be classified as a ‘threat’ not ‘challenge’Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith urged the government to take tougher action against China.He said: “We must now enter a new era of relations with China, dealing with the contemporary Chinese Communist Party as it really is, not as we would wish it to be.“Today’s announcement should mark a watershed moment where the UK takes a stand for values of human rights and the international rules-based system on which we all depend.”He called for China to be labelled as a “threat” by the government, rather than an “epoch-defining systemic challenge”.China should also be in the “enhanced” tier under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, sanctions should be imposed on those responsible for human rights abuses in China, and support should be given to MPs and others targeted by Beijing in the UK, Sir Iain added.Matt Mathers25 March 2024 14:101711375309 Sir Iain Duncan Smith: We won’t be bullied into silence by BeijingFormer Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a prominent critic of the Chinese government, said MPs would not be “bullied into silence by Beijing”.He told a press conference in Westminster: “We have been subjected to harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking from China for some time.”While that was “extremely unwelcome”, Sir Iain said “our discomfort pales in comparison to Chinese dissidents who risk their lives to oppose the Chinese Communist Party”.Matt Mathers25 March 2024 14:011711374119UK’s eyes ‘wide open’ to China threat – No 10The UK has its “eyes wide open when it comes to China”, Downing Street has said as the government is expected to blame Beijing for cyber attacks on the Electoral Commission and parliamentarians.The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We have our eyes wide open when it comes to China.“The Integrated Review Refresh set out that the UK regards China under the Chinese Communist Party as an epoch-defining challenge and as the biggest state-based threat to our economic security.”He added: “In relation to specific examples, we’ve used our new national security investment powers to block investment from China into sensitive technology sectors like semiconductors.“Our National Security Act and others means we can take any steps that we need to, for example removing Huawei from our telecoms network.”Matt Mathers25 March 2024 13:411711373443Foreign affairs committee MP says UK/China relationship is ‘still too one-sided’Conservative MP Bob Seely has criticised the government’s policy on China and called for a “more robust and consistent” approach, Zoe Grunewald reports.Posting on social media site X, Mr Seely said the Electoral Commission hack is “more evidence today, on top of all the wealth of evidence, that we need a robust and consistent approach to China”.He added: “China’s community leaders seek to dominate the West, not live on harmony with it.  They make no secret of it. Freedom anywhere is a threat to dictators everywhere.”We need to engage with #China, but let’s do so whilst doing more to protect our interests. The relationship is still too one-sided.”Matt Mathers25 March 2024 13:301711372843ICYMI: Labour and Conservatives both refuse to commit to compensating Waspi womenFull report: Matt Mathers25 March 2024 13:201711371643ICYMI: Kate Middleton conspiracy theories ‘fuelled by China, Russia and Iran’ after cancer diagnosisThe government is reportedly concerned that Britain’s adversaries are deliberately fuelling disinformation about the Princess of Wales to “destabilise the nation”.Full report: Matt Mathers25 March 2024 13:001711370443Senior Tory MP: ‘We cannot be naive on China’Senior Conservative MP Henry Smith, a member of the Inter Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), told The Independent the government should not be “naive” and should recognise China is a “threat”, Archie Mitchell reports.Responding to the news of China’s hacks targeting British MPs and the electoral system, he said it was “no surprise, sadly”.Mr Smith added: “I think we need to get a lot more serious when it comes to China. We have this dichotomy of them being a huge part of global markets, and they can’t be ignored, but at the same time, the way they don’t play by the international rules based system is something we need to get real about and take defensive measures against quite frankly.“Whether it’s hacking MPs in the UK, whether it’s abusing the Uyghurs or democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, or threatening Taiwan, we need a much more robust response.”Mr Smith said: “Clearly they are a threat by their actions, what more do they need to be doing before people acknowledge that?“Now, it’s difficult because  they’re a key part of the global economy, but I take the view of Anthony Blinken and the US administration on that, of not being naive in terms of our relationship with China, both in terms of being a trading partner but also the threat that they pose to the international world order and democratic values.”Matt Mathers25 March 2024 12:40 More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email A major European Union plan to fight climate change and better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc has been indefinitely postponed Monday, underscoring how farmers’ protests sweeping the continent influence politics ahead of the June EU parliamentary elections.The member states were supposed to give final approval to the bill on Monday following months of proceedings through the EU’s institutional maze. But what was supposed to be a mere rubber stamp has now been possibly shelved forever. “(The plan) is in a very difficult position at the moment and with the upcoming European elections, it won’t be easy to get out of this position,” said Dutch climate minister Rob Jetten. The Nature Restoration plan is a key part of the EU’s European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world’s most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets and make the bloc the global point of reference on all climate issues.The bill aims for Europe to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, demanding short-term changes and sacrifices from all parts of society to reap the benefits in a generation. “If you want to reach climate neutrality, you also have to look in the broader perspective of protecting biodiversity, strengthening the nature in Europe,” Jetten said, stressing that such initiatives were necessary. Even if the plan had a rough ride through the EU’s complicated approval process, the watered-down version was supposed to sail through the final vote.Under the EU’s voting rules, whereby a qualified majority representing 15 of the 27 member states and 65 per cent of the population was needed, it was long thought that threshold was safe, until Monday. “It seems that we don’t have a qualified majority any more because … Hungary has changed its vote. We have to understand why they do that,” said Alain Maron, a Belgian regional climate minister, who chaired the meeting of the EU environment ministers.The change of heart follows weeks of relentless protests from farmers across the bloc who have argued that reams of environmental laws governing the way they work are driving them toward bankruptcy at a time when food security and self-sufficiency are becoming essential again as the Russian war on Ukraine war rages on.“It is very important to keep flexibility for member states,” said Aniko Raisz, Hungary’s environmental minister, on Monday. When asked if her country could change its position again, Raisz said she “can’t promise anything,” while stressing the importance of the agricultural sector across Europe. “We have to be realistic and we have to keep in mind all these sectors,” she said. Monday’s postponement was the EU’s latest concession in reaction to protests that have affected the daily lives of tens of millions of EU citizens and cost businesses tens of millions of euros due to transportation delays. Others have included shelving legislation on tighter pesticide rules, loosening checks and controls on farms, and requirements to let some land lie fallow.Under the plan, member states would have to meet restoration targets for specific habitats and species, to cover at least 20% of the region’s land and sea areas by 2030. But quarrels over exemptions and flexibility clauses allowing members to skirt the rules plagued negotiations.Last month, the bill was adopted in Parliament by a 329-275 vote with 24 abstentions after the center-right Christian Democratic European People’s Party decided to vote against it. Environmentalists and the Greens group were in rapture, thinking it was the last stumbling block.Despite the droughts, floods and heat waves that have swept through many areas in Europe, the postponement of any vote signals a possible pause on such environmental actions to protect economic competitiveness. ___Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak will declare a “critical national endeavour” as he unveils a £200m package of investment aimed at securing the future of the UK’s nuclear industry and boosting jobs. The prime minister will introduce a new fund backed by £20m a year in public money for the next decade to support growth in Barrow-in-Furness, the Cumbrian town that is home to Britain’s Astute class submarines and forthcoming Dreadnought programme.Downing Street says the money will provide grants to local organisations and improvements to transport and health projects in the area.The nuclear industry is expected to require 50 per cent more skilled workers in the next decade as it becomes more central to UK energy and national security.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced the nuclear investment amid concerns about the government’s defence spending The move comes amid concerns about the UK’s level of defence spending as two serving ministers have urged Mr Sunak to increase defence spending to at least 2.5 per cent of GDP in the face of escalating Russian aggression and concerns about stability in the Middle East.There was no uplift for defence spending in the spring budget as chancellor Jeremy Hunt told MPs, “Our spending will rise to 2.5 per cent [of GDP] as soon as economic conditions allow,” without detailing how that would happen.Defence secretary Grant Shapps has also conceded that he’d like to see a “bigger budget” from the current level of just over 2 per cent, and called for military spending to be increased to 3 per cent of GDP.Mr Sunak has said the government has already announced the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War and “recently topped up with billions of pounds to strengthen our nuclear enterprise and rebuild stockpiles.”Today’s announcement also includes a significant injection of cash from industry leaders including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, EDF and Babcock, who will be investing £763m between them in skills, jobs and education.Ahead of a visit to Barrow-in-Furness on Monday, the prime minister said: “Safeguarding the future of our nuclear deterrent and nuclear energy industry is a critical national endeavour.“In a more dangerous and contested world, the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent is more vital than ever. And nuclear delivers cheaper, cleaner homegrown energy for consumers.Barrow-in-Furness is home to Britain’s Astute class submarines and Dreadnought programmeHe added: “That’s why we are investing in Barrow, the home of UK submarines, and in the jobs and skills of the future in the thriving British nuclear industry.“Today we usher in the next generation of our nuclear enterprise, which will keep us safe, keep our energy secure, and keep our bills down for good.”Industry leaders have warmly welcomed the plans. Charles Woodburn, BAE Systems chief executive, said: “Barrow is at the heart of the UK’s submarine enterprise and as the custodian of our submarine design and build capability, we’re incredibly proud of the role we play in the Astute, Dreadnought and now SSN-AUKUS programmes.”David Lockwood, CEO of Babcock International, said the measures were a “fantastic opportunity for the UK to deliver a stronger nuclear industry that will contribute to the resilience of the UK’s independent deterrent and will support the UK’s energy security ambitions and net zero targets.” More

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UKSign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Ireland is poised to get its youngest-ever premier after Simon Harris secured the leadership of the Fine Gael party on Sunday, replacing Leo Varadkar who announced his surprise resignation last week. The 37-year-old Harris, who is the government’s further and higher education minister, was the only candidate to put his name forward to succeed Varadkar, who had been Ireland’s previous youngest prime minister, or what Ireland calls its taoiseach.Harris won a series of endorsements from within the Fine Gael parliamentary party and is expected to be formally elected premier in the Irish parliament in April after lawmakers return from their Easter break.“I think he’s done a really good job in securing the leadership in as comprehensive a way as he has,” Fine Gael deputy leader Simon Coveney said.Harris has said that he would remain fully committed to the program for government agreed upon with coalition partners Fianna Fail and the Green Party. He has stopped short of ruling out a general election this year, but insisted such a poll was not his priority.Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach — between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheál Martin, head of coalition partner Fianna Fáil.He was the country’s youngest-ever leader when first elected at age 38, as well as Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial taoiseach.He played a leading role in campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.He led Ireland during the years after Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union. Brexit had huge implications for Ireland, an EU member that shares a border with the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. U.K.-Ireland relations were strained while hardcore Brexit-backer Boris Johnson was U.K. leader, but have steadied since the arrival of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailNeither the Conservatives nor Labour would commit to compensating Waspi women on Sunday morning – despite the publication of a damning report that called on the government to pay billions to those who were not told about the state pension rise.Both the chancellorJeremy Hunt and the Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds declined to say if they would compensate those who were found by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to have lost out financially after the Department for Work and Pensions failed to adequately communicate changes to the state pension age.The chancellor said the issue highlighted by the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign was “genuinely more complicated” than others in which compensation has been promised, such as the infected blood disaster and the Post Office Horizon scandal, and said: “There’s no secret vault of money.”Jeremy Hunt refused to commit to compensation for Waspi women when questioned on the BBCThe Labour Party chair also refused to commit to compensating the women impacted. Talking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Dodds said: “Those women deserve respect, that’s the most important [thing].”She added: “I think Laura, if I was to sit in your studio and I was to say, plucking out of the air, this is exactly how, for example, compensation should work or other elements of the response to the Waspi women … I don’t think they would believe me, frankly, and nor should they.”The comments are likely to enrage campaigners and MPs within their own parties who have called for compensation for the women involved. Campaigners have demanded action over the report, warning that Rishi Sunak will be on a “sticky wicket” seeking votes from Waspi women when he goes to the country later this year if he ignores the Ombudsman’s findings.Asked whether it was responsible for the government to leave “huge unpaid bills” to the next parliament, Mr Hunt said: “We had the ombudsman’s report on Thursday, but we’ve also had a report from the High Court and Court of Appeal in 2020 that says the Department for Work and Pensions behaved completely within the law and didn’t discriminate.“So it appears to say something different and we do need to get to the bottom of that apparent difference between the two.”Anneliese Dodds refused to commit to compensating the Waspi womenHe added: “We want to resolve it as quickly as we can, but there’s no secret vault of money. The money we would pay in compensation has to come from other taxpayers, so we do have to take time to get this fair.”The PHSO suggested compensation could cost between £3.5bn and £10.5bn, although campaigners are pushing for a higher figure. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe chancellor of the exchequer has stood by his comments that £100,000 is “not a huge salary” in his constituency, explaining that it “doesn’t go as far as you might think.”Jeremy Hunt came under fire after posting on social media earlier this week that he wanted to “sort out” government childcare eligibility for a parent who earns over £100,000. In a post, Mr Hunt said: “I spoke to a lady from Godalming about eligibility for the government’s childcare offer which is not available if one parent is earning over £100k. That is an issue I would really like to sort out after the next election as I am aware that it is not [a] huge salary in our area if you have a mortgage to pay.”The Godalming MP has now doubled down on his comments, explaining that the average cost of property in his constituency is over 670,000 and “if you’ve got a mortgage and you’ve got childcare costs, It doesn’t go as far as you think”.The average cost of a property in Jeremy Hunt’s constituency of Godalming is over £670,000 Mr Hunt’s comments drew criticism as £100,000 is almost three times the national average salary for someone in full-time work, which is £34,963 according to the Office for National Statistics.Speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Mr Hunt said: “That’s why I want to give help to families and that’s why the childcare measures are very important.“We weren’t able to afford to fund childcare for people on the highest salaries, but I was simply saying that’s something I’d love to be able to look at in the next parliament, but we can’t afford to do it now.”Mr Hunt was also forced to defend the Conservative’s economic record after it was put to him that the Conservatives had presided over a fall in living standards that is “very, very unusual in our lifetimes”. Last month the UK entered a technical recession after GDP fell every for four quarters in a row.Mr Hunt delivered national insurance tax cuts in his spring budget Real GDP per person has also fallen in every quarter since the start of 2022. The chancellor responded that the decline in living standards was due to “two things that haven’t happened for half a century of more” in the form of a “once in a century pandemic and a 1970s style energy shock caused by the invasion of Ukraine.”He also insisted that “living standards have actually gone up since 2010 in real terms by about £1,700 per household”.In a heated exchange between Mr Phillips and Mr Hunt, the chancellor insisted that although the government had had to take “difficult decisions” in the wake of the dual crises, the government was still committed to cutting taxes. Mr Hunt cut national insurance tax by a further 2 percentage points in his recent spring budget following another 2 per cent decrease in Autumn. But Mr Phillips pointed out that taxes are still going up, adding: “You’ve made a couple of cuts in national insurance, but the movements of the thresholds are a thing.”As the pair spoke over each other, Mr Hunt argued: “You can’t just mention things and then not let me respond … yes, taxes have gone up… the question in British politics is do you think they need to stay high, or do you want to start to bring them down”.Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves giving the Mais lecture Mr Hunt insisted that his party was still committed to bringing down the tax burden: “My budgets have actually reduced the tax burden by about 0.6 per cent of GDP. “But I’ve always been completely open about the fact that we have had to put taxes up to deal with that pandemic and it was right to support families through the pandemic and the energy crisis. But the question now is whether you want to bring them down.”The chancellor also attacked his opposition counterpart. He stated that shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves is “not confronting any of those difficult decisions” and “we didn’t hear a single thing about welfare reform or controlling migration in [the] Mais lecture”.Earlier in the week Ms Reeves delivered an hour-long lecture about Labour’s economy policies.Mr Hunt added: “In the Mais lecture, the shadow chancellor didn’t mention bringing down the tax burden once. I have now bought down taxes significantly in an autumn statement, and in the budget.”The chancellor’s assessment follows comments made by the deputy prime minister that Ms Reeves is “sheep in wolf’s clothing” after the shadow chancellor’s economic policies were compared to that of Margaret Thatcher. In her Mais lecture, Ms Reeves said: “As we did at the end of the 1970s, we stand at an inflection point, and as in earlier decades, the solution lies in wide-ranging supply-side reform to drive investment, remove the blockages constraining our productive capacity, and fashion a new economic settlement, drawing on evolutions in economic thought.”But Oliver Dowden has said he was not “not fooled” by Labour’s policies. Writing in the Sun on Sunday, he said: “I was amused this week to see Labour’s Rachel Reeves trying to portray herself as the next Margaret Thatcher.“Wasn’t it just a few years ago that she was knocking on doors, persuading people that the socialist Jeremy Corbyn should be in No10. But I’m not fooled, and I don’t think The Sun on Sunday readers will be. Ms Reeves’ self-portrait as Thatcher really is a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Conservative Party is almost five times more likely to be censured on social media for sharing false or misleading information online than Labour, new research has claimed. Top government accounts, including the prime minister, cabinet ministers and the official Conservative Twitter feed have accrued almost five times as many community notes as the opposition, a campaign group has said. A fact-checking feature was made available on Twitter / X in the UK from January last year and allows users to add context or clarifications below posts that contain false or misleading information. Contributors can leave notes on any post and if enough contributors from different points of view rate that note as helpful, the note will be publicly shown. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been flagged for using making misleading claims on social media 25 times Research commissioned by pro-European campaign group Best for Britain examined the number of community notes accrued by all members of the cabinet and shadow cabinet, as well as their official party accounts, on X.In total, 73 posts from government party accounts had community notes attached, compared to 15 from official opposition accounts.The worst offender was the official Conservative party account which was noted 26 times on posts which included allegedly manipulated videos, false claims about the opposition leader and misleading statements about the economy.One post that said the economy was “outperforming expectations” had a community note attached which said “UK GDP fell last quarter, compared to an estimate of 0 per cent, so it is not outperforming any expectations.”Another post claimed that Sir Keir Starmer “called for the monarchy to be abolished” in 2021, but the community note pointed out that Sir Keir said in 2005 that he “used to propose the abolition of the monarchy”.A close second was the prime minister himself who – despite promising “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” – was pulled up by social media users 25 times in just over a year.Rishi Sunak’s posts were flagged nine times since the start of 2024 and five in the first week of January alone, where he claimed that the government had cleared the asylum backlog, took credit for falls in inflation and claimed the government had cut taxes.Most recently, Mr Sunak said the spring budget would bring “lower taxes”, while the community note pointed out that the accompanying OBR forecast said that taxes are actually increasing to 37.1 per cent of GDP by 2028/29, 4 percentage points higher than they were before the pandemic.By contrast, Sir Keir’s account has received four community notes in the same period, the majority of which related to last year’s local elections, and the official Labour Party account received seven.Most recently, the Labour leader said it was “36 years since the first Black MPs were elected”, while the attached note pointed out that James Townsend was a black MP, first elected in 1772.The chancellor Jeremy Hunt, home secretary James Cleverly, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leader of the commons Penny Mordaunt also all received more community notes than their counterparts in the shadow cabinet. The only shadow cabinet minister who received more community notes than their Conservative counterpart was David Lammy, receiving two to Lord David Cameron’s zero. Lord Cameron has been in the Cabinet for four months.  Sir David Cameron is the only cabinet minister to have less community notes than his shadow counterpart David Lammy The results come in the wake of a damning Edelman Trust Barometer report that showed the UK has the steepest decline in public trust globally. Trust in the government has fallen to 30 per cent – a 15-point fall since 2021.Campaigners say the governing party’s habit of sharing misleading information on social media is further undermining public trust in politics.Naomi Smith, CEO of Best for Britain warned that the findings “shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially in an election year where lack of trust can feed dangerous populism.”She added: “A government that the public can’t trust to act with integrity and transparency – both essential for liberal democracy – is a Government that shouldn’t be in power. We need a General Election and our polling shows that the public want it now.”Labour and the Conservatives have been approached for comment. More