UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMost parents believe the Government should ban smartphones for under-16s, a poll has suggested.More than four in five (83%) parents said they felt smartphones were “harmful” to children and young people, according to a survey.Charity Parentkind is calling on all political parties to put a ban on smartphones for children in their manifestos ahead of the general election.It comes as Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, is campaigning for an age limit for smartphone usage and stricter controls on access to social media apps.A poll commissioned by Parentkind, of 2,496 parents of school-aged children in England, suggests that 58% of parents believe the Government should introduce a ban on smartphones for under-16s.A huge majority of parents of primary school children back a ban because they are terrified of their children becoming ensnared by a smartphone as they get olderJason Elsom, chief executive of ParentkindThe figure is even higher among parents of primary school children, where more than three in four (77%) would back a smartphone ban for under-16s.The online survey, conducted by WeThink between February 19 and March 4, found only 16% of parents of secondary school children support a smartphone ban for under-16s.Nearly nine in 10 (89%) parents said they were concerned their children could face online bullying and abuse through using a smartphone, while 87% were worried they might access harmful content online.Last week, schools minister Damian Hinds told MPs on the education select committee that getting a mobile phone between primary and secondary school had become a “rite of passage” for nearly all children.More than half (53%) of parents surveyed said they have felt pressure to give their child a smartphone at a younger age than they would prefer.More than two in three (69%) parents believe that limiting children’s access to smartphones would make life easier for them as a parent, the poll found.Jason Elsom, chief executive of Parentkind, said: “Society has sleepwalked into a position where children are addicted to harmful ‘electronic drugs’ and have no escape from their digital dealers.“We are starting to understand the harms of social media and the unrestricted gateway smartphones provide to vile online content but it seems parents already get it.“Most parents want the Government to help them overcome the peer pressure that leads to their children needing mobile phones by banning these devices and a huge majority of parents of primary school children back a ban because they are terrified of their children becoming ensnared by a smartphone as they get older.”He added: “The pressure is starting to mount on the Government to act and political parties to come together on this issue to protect children. This should be as uncontroversial as banning vaping for children.“Every party should put a ban on smartphones in their manifesto, something we will be calling for along with parent groups across the country.”Esther Ghey said: “It is amazing to see the wave of support for the campaigns we are promoting around mindfulness in schools and mobile phone safety.“The message has obviously resonated with parents who, through the poll, are saying that they share my concerns about safety for our young people when it comes to mobile phone use.”She added: “Although we are not working with Parentkind, we fully support any charities and campaigns that share our concerns and also want to help create a safer more empathetic and resilient world for our young people.”In February, schools in England were given non-statutory Government guidance intended to stop the use of mobile phones during school hours.A Government spokesperson said: “The educational and social benefits of technology are immense, but this should not come at the expense of children’s safety. That is why we issued guidance on banning smartphones in schools last month to support teachers and keep schools as a place of learning.“The majority of social media sites say they do not allow under-13s. Once implemented the Online Safety Act will require platforms to enforce their age limits and protect children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailLabour MP Emily Thornberry has admitted she fell for a telephone scam when someone contacted her saying she missed a parcel. Speaking at the “How can government tackle fraud?” event at the Institute for Government on Tuesday night, the Shadow Attorney General said she gave her bank details to the fraudsters before realising it was a scam. Fraud is one of the most common crimes in the UK with 3.3 million offences recorded in the year ending June 2023. “I wonder how many people in this room have not had an attempt of fraud against them,” the Labour MP said: “How many people have not had a telephone call, an email or an attempt to try and bring them in and try defraud them. “I suspect there will be hardly anyone in this room who hasn’t been. I particularly fell for one when I had a text pretending to be the post office saying ‘we’re going to deliver your parcel but we need £2.30 to redeliver it’,” Ms Thornberry continued. “I gave them my bank details before I realised what I had just done. I posted the ordeal on Twitter and admitted that I’m an idiot.” In February, the government launched a new anti-fraud campaign to help people protect themselves against crime has been launched, but critics said it is “too little, too late”.The Government’s Stop! Think Fraud campaign includes a new website with fraud safety advice and adverts on billboards, broadcast and social media.Fraud accounts for about 40% of all crime in England and Wales, costing society £6.8 billion, the Home Office said.Labour said there has been an almost eightfold increase in the amount of fraud under Conservative rule, rising from about 440,000 offences in 2012.At the time of the announcement, Ms Thornberry said: “Under this Tory Government there has been an almost eightfold increase in the amount of fraud, from around 400,000 offences per year to 3.2 million, and the losses to the UK as a whole have grown from £38.4 billion per year to £219 billion.“After 14 years spent sleepwalking through the escalation of the crisis, launching an ad campaign in response is the definition of too little, too late.“And most importantly, the Government’s response also remains far too narrow.“This new campaign ignores the £158 billion lost to fraud each year by UK businesses, and does not even mention the two biggest components of those losses, procurement and payroll fraud.“Only Labour will deliver the comprehensive new plan we need to protect everyone targeted by this parasitic crime, from small firms to pensioners.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailRishi Sunak will urge his fractured party colleagues to “pull together” as he prepares to appear before them at a meeting of backbench MPs.Mr Sunak is preparing to call on Tory MPs to unite behind him as rumours swirl of a plot to depose him ahead of the local elections.He is likely to use the financial trouble of Labour-run Birmingham council as a rallying cry for the May 2 elections, where residents in 107 local authorities across England go to the polls.Asked what the prime minister’s message would be to backbench Tories, the Prime Minister’s press secretary told reporters: “He will be talking about the local elections and [will say] we have got to pull together to make sure Labour don’t do what they have done to Britain, what they have done to Birmingham.”Birmingham City Council declared effective bankruptcy last year and faces an outstanding bill of £1bn as well as the requirement to find £300m of savings over the next two years.The Labour council have been forced to raise taxes by 21 per cent, and residents will see cuts to their bin collections and dimmed streetlights.Mr Sunak’s spokesperson said the prime minister plans to use Birmingham as a means of rallying the troops, calling on them to unite to keep Labour out: “As the PM said, (there have been) eye-watering tax rises, bins uncollected, massive cuts to the arts in Birmingham — it is truly… worse than in the 1970s under Labour leadership there.“So he will be talking about that” at the meeting of the 1922 Committee, which is a meeting point for all Tory MPs who are not ministers.Asked whether Mr Sunak was concerned that the Tories had not been working well together, his spokeswoman replied: “He wants everyone going into these local elections taking about the Labour Party’s poor record in Birmingham, Wales and London, and that will be the focus of the Conservatives as we go into these important local elections.”Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt has been rumoured as a potential Conservative leadership contender Downing Street refused to say whether Mr Sunak had held talks with Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt following reports she is being lined up by Tory rebels as his potential successor if he faces a no-confidence vote.Sources close to her have denied the suggestion that the Commons leader is plotting a takeover, but Ms Mordaunt has yet to issue a public denial.Rishi Sunak’s press secretary refused to “get into private discussions between colleagues” when asked whether Mr Sunak had spoken to Ms Mordaunt or those calling for him to be deposed.Asked whether the prime minister was disappointed that Ms Mordaunt had not firmly denied being part of a plot to replace him, his political spokeswoman said: “What the prime minister wants is all of his cabinet ministers and the wider conservative team to focus on delivering for the country.”Despite Mr Sunak’s supposed optimism, his spokesperson would not say whether the party expected to make gains at the local elections as the party continues to trail Labour in the polls.The Labour-run council declared itself effectively bankrupt in September last year When reporters asked if Sir Keir Starmer had had any response to Rishi Sunak’s proposed attack line, the Labour leader’s spokesperson said:“I could equally give you a list of conservative councils where they’ve had to introduce double-digit council tax rises, whether it’s Thurrock, whether it’s Woking.“We saw the failure a few years ago at Northampton County Council. We saw double-digit rises in Croydon when it was under control of the Tories. He added: “I think the idea that this is unique to one party is clearly not the case.“What we are seeing is the result of the government having massively underfunded local government as a whole and the responsibilities that local authorities have been left with to try and make the best of a very difficult situation”. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch live as Vaughan Gething is expected to be officially nominated as the next first minister of Wales on Wednesday, 20 March.It comes after Welsh Labour members chose the current minister for the economy, 49, to be their next party leader succeeding Mark Drakeford, who had held the position since 2018.Mr Gething is expected to be declared the country’s fifth leader since the National Assembly for Wales, now the Senedd, was established in 1999.He has been a Member of the Senedd (MS) since 2011, and has sat in the cabinet since 2016.Mr Gething rose to prominence as health minister from 2016 to 2021, holding the position throughout the Covid pandemic.On Wednesday, the Senedd will meet to choose a nominee; if only Mr Gething’s name is put forward he will be declared the nominee, but if more than one nomination is made then every member except for the Llywydd, or Presiding Officer, and the Deputy Presiding Officer, will vote for their preferred candidate by roll call. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch as Rishi Sunak faced Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, 20 March, ahead of his expected appearance before the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs.The prime minister will address Conservative MPs as he looks to face down reported attempts to depose him.Mr Sunak’s appearance before the committee will honour the tradition that a Conservative Party leader appears before it at the end of the parliamentary term.Rebels have reportedly talked up the prospect of House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt replacing Mr Sunak in Downing Street if he were to face a no-confidence vote before the general election.Ms Mordaunt, who has campaigned in previous leadership contests, has said she is “getting on with her job”.It comes as the Conservatives trail heavily in polls; according to Ipsos’ February 2024 UK Voting Intention, Labour are at 47 per cent (-2 pts) while the Tories sit at 20 per cent. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailJeremy Hunt has been involved in a furious row with billionaire inventor James Dyson in a tense meeting about research and development, it has been reported.Mr Hunt is understood to have told Sir James Dyson – inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner – “If you think you could do a better job, why don’t you just stand for election?” in what has been described as a “fiery” exchange by insiders. Sir James met Mr Hunt to discuss tax relief after the business mogul made a series of public remarks about the government’s approach to entrepreneurship, according to the Financial Times.Sir James Dyson has been a vocal critic of the government’s approach to business One person familiar with the meeting between the chancellor and the entrepreneur told the FT it was “fiery”, while another said: “It was an awful meeting.” However, a Treasury insider is alleged to have disputed the description of the encounter, describing it as a “good, robust discussion”. The outspoken Brexiteer has been highly critical of Rishi Sunak’s approach to government as the prime minister has attempted to reconfigure the UK as a leading power in science and innovation and pitch London as the new “Silicon Valley”. Though the Conservatives had once been seen as the definitive party of business, Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been courting business by meeting corporate leaders across the country.According to one Whitehall insider, Sir James has been forthright with the government about views on their economic policies. The source said: “He keeps sending quite aggressive letters. He’s quite forthright in his views, both publicly and privately”. Writing in the Times last year, Sir James said that ministers “talk hubristically” about making Britain a science and tech “superpower”, while overseeing “woeful policies”. The billionaire inventor – who relocated to Singapore before returning to the UK in 2019 – warned he is investing in “forward-looking economies” that encourage “growth and innovation” and hit out at “rocketing corporation tax” and “damaging legislation on working from home.” Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had a tense exchange with the billionaire Brexiteer He has also praised the tax-cutting policies of former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss, telling the Telegraph: “I thought they were doing the right thing – I’m the only one who did”. Mr Kwarteng’s 2022 mini-Budget triggered turmoil in the UK economic markets by promising unfunded tax cuts while former prime minister Liz Truss was forced from office not long after.A Treasury spokesperson refused to comment on the meeting while a Dyson spokesperson said: “We never comment about private meetings.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA Post Office manager who helped to wrongfully convict a sub-postmistress during the Horizon scandal is handling victims’ compensation claims.Caroline Richards – who has worked for the Post Office for over 30 years – is reported to have played a key role in the wrongful prosecution of former sub-postmistress Jacqueline McDonald, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison after she was convicted of stealing almost £100,000 from her branch in Lancashire.Her conviction was overturned in 2021.Ms Richards now works as a “senior dispute resolution manager” on the Horizon Shortfall Scheme since 2021, assisting with reviewing cases against the Post Office, according to the i newspaper. The job description for the role states that all cases will be “investigated or reviewed fairly and impartially”.Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake has introduced legislation to overturn the wrongful conviction of hundreds of sub-postmasters According to a court report in the Lancashire Evening Post and Ms McDonald’s witness statement handed over to the Horizon IT inquiry, Ms Richards initiated an investigation into Ms McDonald after discovering a mismatch between the amount of cash declared and the amount of cash being held in her safe.Campaigners and MPs told the i that the revelations are “outrageous”. Kevan Jones MP, who has campaigned on behalf of Horizon victims, said it shows the Post Office “just don’t get the sensitivity of these cases” and called for the compensation process to be made completely independent.In January, the inquiry was told that a former assistant at Ms McDonald’s branch wrote a letter of complaint to the Post Office about Ms Richards and investigator Stephen Bradshaw.Katie Noblet complained about “the unprofessional, disgusting behaviour and actions” of the pair and said that they came to her place of work in 2009 and that Mr Bradshaw was “very confrontational” and said she couldn’t have legal advice which was a “complete lie”. There is no suggestion Ms Richards knew the Horizon IT system was faulty at the time of the investigations.An online public petition with over 50,000 signatures has called on the Post Office to axe Ms Richards from the compensation scheme.Petitioner David Innes called her appointment an “insult to all of the 550 Post Office staff who were wrongfully prosecuted, including all those still awaiting compensation.” Former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton said postmasters felt there was a ‘complete lack of respect’ Labour MP Mr Jones told i  that the appointment of Ms Richards to a job in the compensation scheme is “outrageous”.“You couldn’t make it up. It shows the Post Office just don’t get it, especially the sensitivity of these cases” he added.Earlier this year, former Post Office chairman Henry Staunton wrote in an email that two former postmasters who sat on the board as non-executive directors, Saf Ismail and Elliot Jacobs, felt there was a “complete lack of respect for [postmasters]” and that the culture was “toxic”.Chief executive Nick Read has admitted the Post Office is investigating more than 40 cases of alleged inappropriate behaviour by existing employees relating to the Horizon scandal.A Post Office spokesperson said: “Claims in the Horizon Shortfall Scheme are assessed by an independent advisory panel of external experts. There is a full governance process for each and every claim. Our sole aim is that every Postmaster affected by the scandal receives full and fair redress as swiftly as possible.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Warnings about deepfakes and disinformation fueled by artificial intelligence. Concerns about campaigns and candidates using social media to spread lies about elections. Fears that tech companies will fail to address these issues as their platforms are used to undermine democracy ahead of pivotal elections.Those are the worries facing elections in the U.S., where most voters speak English. But for languages like Spanish, or in dozens of nations where English isn’t the dominant language, there are even fewer safeguards in place to protect voters and democracy against the corrosive effects of election misinformation. It’s a problem getting renewed attention in an election year in which more people than ever will go to the polls.Tech companies have faced intense political pressure in countries like the U.S. and places like the European Union to show they’re serious about tackling the baseless claims, hate speech and authoritarian propaganda that pollutes their sites. But critics say they’ve been less responsive to similar concerns from smaller countries or from voters who speak other languages, reflecting a longtime bias toward English, the U.S. and other western democracies.Recent changes at tech firms — content moderator layoffs and decisions to rollback some misinformation policies — have only compounded the situation, even as new technologies like artificial intelligence make it easier than ever to craft lifelike audio and video that can fool voters. These gaps have opened up opportunities for candidates, political parties or foreign adversaries looking to create electoral chaos by targeting non-English speakers — whether they are Latinos in the U.S., or one of the millions of voters in India, for instance, who speak a non-English language.“If there’s a significant population that speaks another language, you can bet there’s going to be disinformation targeting them,” said Randy Abreu, an attorney at the U.S.-based National Hispanic Media Council, which created the Spanish Language Disinformation Coalition to track and identify disinformation targeting Latino voters in the U.S. “The power of artificial intelligence is now making this an even more frightening reality.”Many of the big tech companies regularly tout their efforts to safeguard elections, and not just in the U.S. and E.U. This month Meta is launching a service on WhatsApp that will allow users to flag possible AI deepfakes for action by fact-checkers. The service will work in four languages — English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.Meta says it has teams monitoring for misinformation in dozens of languages, and the company has announced other election-year policies for AI that will apply globally, including required labels for deepfakes as well as labels for political ads created using AI. But those rules have not taken effect and the company hasn’t said when they will begin enforcement.The laws governing social media platforms vary by nation, and critics of tech companies say they have been faster to address concerns about misinformation in the U.S. and the E.U., which has recently enacted new lawsdesigned to address the problem. Other nations all-too often get a “cookie cutter” response from tech companies that falls short, according to an analysis published this month by the Mozilla Foundation.The study looked at 200 different policy announcements from Meta, TikTok, X and Google (the owner of YouTube) and found that nearly two-thirds were focused on the U.S. or E.U. Actions in those jurisdictions were also more likely to involve meaningful investments of staff and resources, the foundation found, while new policies in other nations were more likely to rely on partnerships with fact-checking organizations and media literacy campaigns.Odanga Madung, a Nairobi, Kenya-based researcher who conducted Mozilla’s study, said it became clear that the platforms’ focus on the U.S. and E.U. comes at the expense of the rest of the world.“It’s a glaring travesty that platforms blatantly favor the U.S. and Europe with excessive policy coddling and protections, while systematically neglecting” other regions, Madung said.This lack of focus on other regions and languages will increase the risk that election misinformation could mislead voters and impact the results of elections. Around the globe, the claims are already circulating.Within the U.S., voters whose primary language is something other than English are already facing a wave of misleading and baseless claims, Abreau said. Claims targeting Spanish speakers, for instance, include posts that overstate the extent of voter fraud or contain false information about casting a ballot or registering to vote.Disinformation about elections has surged in Africa ahead of recent elections, according to a study this month from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies which identified dozens of recent disinformation campaigns — a four-fold increase from 2022. The false claims included baseless allegations about candidates, false information about voting and narratives that seem designed to undermine support for the United States and United Nations.The center determined that some of the campaigns were mounted by groups allied with the Kremlin, while others were spearheaded by domestic political groups.India, the world’s largest democracy, boasts more than a dozen languages each with more than 10 million native speakers. It also has more than 300 million Facebook users and nearly half a billion WhatsApp users, the most of any nation.Fact-checking organizations have emerged as the front line of defense against viral misinformation about elections. The country will hold elections later this spring and already voters going online to find out about the candidates and issues are awash in false and misleading claims.Among the latest: video of a politician’s speech that was carefully edited to remove key lines; years-old photos of political rallies passed off as new; and a fake election calendar that provided the wrong dates for voting. A lack of significant steps by tech companies has forced groups that advocate for voters and free elections to band together, said Ritu Kapur, co-founder and managing director of The Quint, an online publication that recently joined with several other outlets and Google to create a new fact-checking effort known as Shakti.“Mis- and disinformation is proliferating at an alarming pace, aided by technology and fueled and funded by those who stand to gain by it,” Kapur said. “The only way to combat the malaise is to join forces.” More