UK

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email A minister in Britain’s Conservative government said Wednesday that the party does not plan to give back 10 million pounds ($12.8 million) it received in the past year from a donor who made comments about a Black lawmaker that have been condemned as racist.The government is under pressure from some of its own lawmakers to return the donation from business executive Frank Hester. He reportedly said in a 2019 company meeting that Diane Abbott, Britain’s longest-serving Black legislator, made him “want to hate all Black women” and that she “should be shot.”Hester, chief executive of healthcare software firm The Phoenix Partnership, is the Conservative Party’s biggest donor. His company has been paid more than 400 million pounds ($510 million) by the National Health Service and other government bodies since 2016.After the comments were published by The Guardian newspaper, Hester acknowledged that he’d been “rude about Diane Abbott” but denied being racist. In a statement on social media, he said racism “is a poison that has no place in public life.”Prime Minister Rishi Sunak initially criticized Hester’s comments as “unacceptable,” but it took almost 24 hours for him to call the remarks racist. His spokesman said Tuesday evening that “the comments allegedly made by Frank Hester were racist and wrong.”Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake told broadcasters on Wednesday that the party would not give back the money Hester had given to the party. He told Sky News that “clearly” the comments were racist, but that it was right to keep the donation because Hester “is not a racist, and he has apologized for what he said.”Asked by the BBC whether the party would take more money from Hester, Hollinrake said: “As I now understand the situation, yes.”But Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of England’s West Midlands region, told BBC radio that if it were up to him, “I would think about the company I kept and I would give that money back.”Nus Ghani, a senior Conservative lawmaker and junior business minister, said on social media: “Zero tolerance on racism is just a slogan in today’s politics.”Britain’s political parties are trying to build up funds for election campaigns later this year. Figures from the Electoral Commission show the Conservatives received 9.8 million pounds ($12.5 million) from individual donors in the final three months of 2023, and the main opposition Labour Party 6 million pounds ($7.7 million).The Guardian published further alleged remarks by Hester on Wednesday. It said he’d told a crowded staff meeting that Indian employees could sit on the roof of a nearby train if there wasn’t enough room.Abbott, 70, was elected to the House of Commons in 1987 representing an area of east London, becoming Britain’s first Black woman member of Parliament. She sits as an independent after being kicked out of the Labour Party caucus last year for comments that suggested Jewish and Irish people do not experience racism “all their lives.”She called Hester’s comments “frightening,” especially since two British lawmakers have been murdered since 2016. The government said last month it would step up politicians’ security because of rising tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.Police in London said they were assessing the matter after their parliamentary liaison and investigation team was contacted about the Guardian’s initial report. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailGoogle has started the rollout of restrictions on what kind of election-related questions its AI chatbot Gemini will answer as it tries to prevent the spread of fake news during a year when billions of people will vote worldwide.The technology giant said that users in India will be restricted as to what they can ask Gemini, or at least what types of questions it will provide responses to.It is part of the company’s efforts to ensure that misinformation and disinformation is limited in a year when according to the Centre for American Progress more than two billion people in 50 countries will head to the polls.Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responsesGoogle India team Some of these elections will be contested freely and fairly, while others will not.The countries where votes are being held this year include the US, Mexico, Russia and probably the UK as well.But by far the biggest is India, where around 900 million people are registered to vote according to Chatham House.“With millions of eligible voters in India heading to the polls for the general election in the coming months, Google is committed to supporting the election process by surfacing high-quality information to voters, safeguarding our platforms from abuse and helping people navigate AI-generated content,” Google said in a blog post.The tech giant laid out a series of non-AI measures it was taking to try to reduce the harm for which its platforms might be used to spread.These include efforts to provide information directly from the Electoral Commission of India on Google Search and YouTube.But it will also include restrictions on how Gemini can be used.“Out of an abundance of caution on such an important topic, we have begun to roll out restrictions on the types of election-related queries for which Gemini will return responses,” the Google India team said.“We take our responsibility for providing high-quality information for these types of queries seriously, and are continuously working to improve our protections.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailSir Keir Starmer has pledged that parliament will debate and vote on changing assisted dying laws if Labour wins the next general election.In a phone call to TV presenter and assisted dying campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, the Labour leader said he was “personally in favour of changing the law” around assisted dying. In footage shown by ITV News, Sir Keir told the Childline founder: “I think we need to make time. We will make the commitment. Esther, I can give you that commitment right now.”Dame Esther has been a persistent advocate for a vote on assisted dying since her terminal cancer diagnosis in 2023. She revealed that she joined the Swiss assisted dying society Dignitas to ensure that her family’s “last memories of me” are not “painful” because “if you watch someone you love having a bad death, that memory obliterates all the happy times”.Dame Esther Rantzen has said people should no longer be able to claim allowing assisted dying is detrimental to a country’s palliative care system, after a parliamentary report found no indications this is the caseShe added that if her family accompanied her to Switzerland the police “might prosecute them”. At present, assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.In Scotland, it is not a specific criminal offence but assisting the death of someone can leave a person open to potential murder charges.A bill to make assisted dying legal in Scotland being put forward by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur is expected to come before Holyrood in the coming weeks.The Health and Social Care committee has also warned that the government must consider what to do if the law is changed in part of the UK, Isle of Man or Jersey.It said legalisation in at least one jurisdiction was looking “increasingly likely” and suggested the government must be “actively involved” in discussions about how to approach differences in the law.Sir Keir’s pledge marks a historic juncture after years of campaigning by pro-assisted dying groups. In his previous role as director of public prosecutions, the Labour leader recommended that families who assist terminally ill loved ones to die should not be subject to prosecution.The man who wants to be the next prime minister has said he would offer MPs a “free vote” meaning members would not be compelled by party line to vote for or against the proposal. But Sir Keir’s personal position means that this would be the first time the law would be debated under a prime minister who was supportive of the plans. The last time MPs voted on legalising assisted suicide was back in 2015, when the bill was defeated by 330 votes to 118.The bold new stance catapults the UK into alignment with its European neighbour after French president Emmanuel Macron announced that a bill on assisted dying would go before the French parliament in May.Under the proposed legislation, doctors would be able to prescribe a lethal substance to those suffering from incurable illnesses and pain, but who were still in control of their faculties.Mr Macron said the bill showed people were “facing up to death” and that it would “reconcile the autonomy of the individual and the solidarity of the nation”.Emmanuel Macron has said a bill on assisted dying will be presented to France’s Council of Ministers in AprilA poll by Opinium on behalf of pro-assisted dying group Dignity in Dying showed an overwhelming majority of support for a change in the law across England, Scotland and Wales.Of 10,000 people polled, 75 per cent said they supported a change in the law, versus 14 per cent who were opposed.The poll found a majority of support across all age groups, with most Christians, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs favouring a change in the law. Those of the Muslim faith are the only demographic to broadly oppose assisted suicide, reducing support in some constituencies with large Muslim populations.Sir Keir said the new law would address concerns about pressurising vulnerable people into assisted deaths and include the introduction of safeguards. He said: “When I consulted on this for the prosecutor’s guidelines, the churches and faith groups and others were very, very powerful in the arguments they made. We have to respect that and find the right balance in the end. “I do think most people coalesce around the idea that there is a case [for assisted dying] where it is obviously compassionate, it is the settled intent of the individual, and there are safeguards with teeth to protect the vulnerable.”Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying said that Sir Keir’s intervention shows that “parliamentarians are listening”: “Assisted dying has emerged as a vital issue among voters of all political persuasions…Crucially, Parliamentarians are listening. Both the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition have committed to give this historic matter the time it needs in Parliament, should they be our next Prime Minister.”She added: “Only a free vote early in the next parliament can deliver what our terminally ill citizens need – a safe and compassionate law providing choice at the end of life. “Voters are rightly demanding to know which political parties and candidates will give assisted dying the time and attention it deserves, and which will cling to a status quo that is unsafe, unfair, unequal and more than six decades out of date. As Sir Keir has recognised – dying people simply do not have time to wait.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA law aimed at quashing the wrongful convictions of subpostmasters caught up in the Horizon IT scandal is being introduced by the government on Wednesday.The proposed Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill “marks an important step forward in finally clearing” the names of hundreds of wronged branch managers who have had their lives “callously torn apart”, prime minister Rishi Sunak said.The legislation will exonerate those convicted in England and Wales on the basis of the faulty Horizon accounting software in what has been branded the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.The new law Downing Street said that under the law, convictions will be automatically quashed if they meet the following criteria:– Were prosecuted by the Post Office or Crown Prosecution Service;– Were for offences carried out in connection with Post Office business between 1996 and 2018;– Were for relevant offences such as theft, fraud and false accounting;– Were against subpostmasters, their employees, officers, family members or direct employees of the Post Office working in a Post Office that used the Horizon system software.Those with overturned convictions will receive an interim payment with the option of immediately taking a fixed and final offer of £600,000, according to No 10.Mr Sunak said: “I want to pay tribute to all the postmasters who have shown such courage and perseverance in their fierce campaign for justice, and to those who tragically won’t see the justice they deserve.“While I know that nothing can make up for what they’ve been through, today’s legislation marks an important step forward in finally clearing their names.“We owe it to the victims of this scandal who have had their lives and livelihoods callously torn apart, to deliver the justice they’ve fought so long and hard for, and to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.The long-running saga was put in a fresh spotlight by ITV’s acclaimed drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.The government will also bring forward “enhanced” financial redress for postmasters who, while not convicted or part of legal action against the Post Office, made good the apparent losses caused by the Horizon system from their own pockets.They will be entitled to a fixed sum award of £75,000 through the Horizon Shortfall Scheme, Downing Street said.Those who have already settled for less money will have their compensation topped up to this level, while people can instead choose to have their claims assessed as part of the usual scheme process, in which there is no limit to compensation.The new Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme, to be run by the Department for Business and Trade, is to open for applications to those who have had their convictions quashed “as soon as possible” once the legislation has passed.The government hopes the bill will receive royal assent and become law ahead of MPs’ summer holiday.Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “Postmasters have been fighting for justice for years, and I hope the introduction of today’s legislation is the light at the end of the tunnel they have been waiting for.”Business secretary Kemi Badenoch says ministers ‘won’t rest until every victim receives the compensation they are entitled to’ Business secretary Kemi Badenoch said ministers “won’t rest until every victim receives the compensation they are entitled to”.“It is absolutely right that we sweep away the convictions wrongly given to postmasters on the basis of bad evidence, and it is a disgrace that they were ever pursued by the Post Office,” she said.Ministers have decided the scale of the scandal is so great that the usual process of individuals going through the courts would take too long.Justice secretary Alex Chalk said: “These are exceptional circumstances which require an exceptional response to ensure those who were wrongly convicted can not only clear their names but be fairly and swiftly compensated.”Ministers acknowledge there is a risk the legislation could quash convictions of some people who were genuinely guilty of a crime. To counter this, subpostmasters will have to sign a legal statement that they did not commit the offence, leaving them liable to prosecution if they were subsequently found to have lied.The Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, said the “devil will be in the detail” of such a complex proposal and warned against treating the scheme as a precedent for government intervention in the independent judiciary. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPeople whose asylum claims have been rejected in Britain are being offered thousands of pounds to move to Rwanda, under a new scheme drawn up by Rishi Sunak’s government.With MPs yet to approve the prime minister’s flagship scheme to forcibly send asylum-seekers whose claims are still pending to Rwanda, The Independent understands that a new deal has been struck with Kigali in recent weeks.The new plans will see Rwanda use the same framework established for the forcible removals scheme to also host people who choose to move there voluntarily after their asylum claims in the UK have been unsuccessful.Those deemed to have no right to live or work in the UK will instead be offered up to £3,000 to relocate to Rwanda, where it is claimed they will be provided with a package of support lasting up to five years to help them obtain housing, study, undertake training, and work.The Home Office is understood to have already started approaching people it believes could wish to volunteer for removal under the scheme, who otherwise will remain unable to work, secure accommodation or claim benefits in the UK.The plan mirrors existing voluntary removals schemes which, according to the Home Office saw 19,000 people given financial assistance to return to their “country of origin” last year, down from more than 31,000 in 2010.But it is unprecedented in the fact that people would be paid to move to Rwanda, a third country, as opposed to their country of origin. While Mr Sunak’s government insists Rwanda is a safe third country, this was disputed in the Supreme Court, whose damning ruling the prime minister is now seeking to override with new legislation, which will return to the House of Commons on Monday.Home secretary James Cleverly and Rwanda’s foreign minister Vincent Biruta shake hands after signing a new treaty in Kigali in December According to The Times, which first reported the plans, ministers believe the new scheme is lawful because it will be on a voluntary basis, and it will not be dependent upon the controversial new legislation gaining parliamentary approval. “We hope there will be failed asylum seekers out there who have no right to benefits or work in the UK, might be in hotels for prolonged periods of time and may want to take up the opportunity,” a government source told the paper.The Home Office rejected 30,967 asylum claims in 2023. Just over 4,000 of the 19,253 people who accepted voluntary resettlement were those whose claims had been rejected. Of the remainder, 15,243 people had committed crimes or overstayed their visas, with a further 6,393 enforced returns, according to The Times.A Home Office spokesman said: “In the last year, 19,000 people were removed voluntarily from the UK and this is an important part of our efforts to tackle illegal migration.“We are exploring voluntary relocations for those who have no right to be here to Rwanda, who stand ready to accept people who wish to rebuild their lives and cannot stay in the UK.“This is in addition to our Safety of Rwanda Bill and Treaty which, when passed, will ensure people who come to the UK illegally are removed to Rwanda.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWatch as David Cameron takes questions in the House of Lords on Tuesday 12 March.The foreign secretary is likely to be questioned on increasing the amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza as he speaks to peers in the chamber.Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell, meanwhile, has said the British government will be pressing for a full investigation into reports Gazan medical staff were beaten and humiliated by Israeli troops.The BBC reported that staff at Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, were blindfolded, forced to strip, and were repeatedly beaten by soldiers from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).The IDF has not responded directly to accounts the BBC has put to it, but denies medical staff were harmed in its operation.Mr Mitchell said the government would be pressing for a full explanation and an investigation into the reports, after being asked about them in the House of Commons.The minister, who acts as a deputy for Lord Cameron in the Commons, told MPs: “We have seen these reports. I think that a full explanation and investigation is required and that is what the British government is pressing for.” More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email A court in Belgium sentenced prominent far-right activist Dries Van Langenhove to a year in prison on Tuesday for running an organization that a judge said spread “racist, hateful, Nazi and negationist speech,” in a major ruling on how the nation deals with extremism. Five members of the extremist group that Van Langenhove led received suspended sentences, including two who work for the far-right Flemish Interest party, which is slated to make big gains in June elections. Tom Van Grieken, the leader of the Flemish Interest party, said the ruling was proof that “Belgian justice is rotten to the core” and called the proceedings “a political trial from day one.”They were accused of using a chat group to exchange racist, antisemitic and other extremist comments. Van Langenhove, a former Belgian parliamentarian, also had some of his civil rights suspended for a decade, making him ineligible for office.Investigative journalists from the VRT public broadcaster were at the heart of the case as their 2018 documentary on Van Langenhove’s Shield and Friends group highlighted its public and private militaristic and extremist activities. “The defendant raved about Nazi ideology, which has caused and continues to cause untold suffering to countless people. The file showed that he wants to undermine democratic society and replace it with a social model of white supremacy,” said Judge Jan Van den Berghe. The chats on the Shield and Friends site included the most macabre jokes and memes on anything from famine in Africa to Holocaust concentration camps. Van Langenhove, 30, said he did not commit any crimes. “A years-long investigation, on which the Justice Department wasted millions of euros of taxpayers’ money, shows that the … activists cannot be charged with anything other than some memes. Humor. Memes that I didn’t even post myself,” he said in a reaction.Some of the parties in the case lodged complaints following the VRT documentary. “The ridiculing of gas chambers, of incinerators, that was so over the top for me that I spontaneously lodged a complaint,” said Henri Heimans, a former magistrate whose parents survived the Nazi death camps. “Then, of course, I unwittingly ended up in a procedural battle that lasted for years.” Van Langenhove was not at the court in Ghent, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Brussels, but his lawyer said he would appeal the ruling, which automatically suspends his imprisonment. He was also fined 16,000 euros ($17,470). Right-wing extremism, racism and antisemitism has been on the rise through much of Europe, and far-right political parties have made big inroads in many European Union nations over the past few years. They’re set to be a key issue at the June 6-9 EU elections. More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailMichelle Donelan has apologised for publicly posting a letter on social media falsely suggesting an academic had expressed sympathy for Hamas.The Science Secretary later retracted her comments about Professor Kate Sang and agreed to pay her £15,000 in taxpayer money.She accepted there was “no evidence” the academic, who had recently been appointed to the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) advisory group on equality, diversity and inclusion, was a Hamas supporter.Speaking at the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on Tuesday, Ms Donelan said she should have privately written to UKRI raising her alleged concerns, instead of posting the letter on X, formerly known as Twitter.She also said that civil servants were aware that she was going to publish her letter on the platform.Ms Donelan told the committee: “While I always err on the side of transparency, I am now clear that in this case, I could have sent the letter in confidence to the UKRI in order for them to undertake the investigations privately.“And I do apologise for not having done so, and for any distraction that this decision has caused from this Government’s positive agenda.”She added: “I highlighted it on the platform that the original tweet was done on – Twitter, or X – and that was something I have apologised for.“With hindsight, I could have just sent it privately and if I had the ability to do it again, I would certainly just send it privately.“So I’ve said that publicly as well as retracting the original comments, which I do think is important.“In terms of advice, of course, with long-time precedent, we don’t get into the actual nature of the advice.“But what I can tell you here today, is that both policy and legal were not only cited but also cleared the approach taken.”The letter written by Ms Donelan expressed “disgust and outrage” that Prof Sang and another academic, Dr Kamna Patel, had “shared extremist views” and, in Prof Sang’s case, expressed sympathy for the terrorist group after the October 7 attacks in Israel.This followed a tweet by Prof Sang saying: “This is disturbing. Suella Braverman urges police to crack down on Hamas support in UK” with a link to an article by the Guardian describing the response to the Hamas attacks in the UK.Ms Donelan has since accepted that Prof Sang’s comments referred to the story as a whole, and not just the headline.The Science Secretary told the committee she is a champion of academic freedom of speech and that the incident had to be viewed in the context of the recent Hamas attack at the time.My actions were never motivated by any political desireScience Secretary Michelle DonelanMs Donelan continued: “And we have seen a great deal of hatred across online social media platforms – something that I had addressed directly with the platforms themselves – and we were very worried about potential violence on our own streets.”She also told the peers: “My actions were never motivated by any political desire.“They were motivated by a concern around whether proper process and due diligence had been followed.“And as I outlined at the very beginning, in my initial statement, the specific tweet, or X, that I saw I felt was concerning especially given the context at the time, and that is why I highlighted it for an investigation by UKRI.”Ms Donelan also explained that there is “no surveillance at all” of academics and she had been alerted to the initial tweet by an official within the department.Asked how the damage caused by the incident can be repaired, the Science Secretary said there would be an “internal review of processes to ensure that we learnt the lessons of this and that we don’t ever repeat those”. More