Category Archives: Politics

UK to start evacuating British nationals from Sudan

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RAF transport planes fly into country, as UK government takes advantage of ceasefire

The British government is taking advantage of a 72-hour ceasefire agreed by the warring factions in Sudan to evacuate UK nationals from the country, following intense criticism that it had missed a window of opportunity to evacuate more than British diplomats and their families on Sunday.

RAF transport planes have been flying into the Wadi Seidna airfield, north of Khartoum, from where UK nationals are due to be flown to Cyprus, which is being used as a staging post by the British military.

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UK secretly deported 100 Nepali guards who protected staff in Kabul

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Exclusive: People who risked their lives and were evacuated to Britain were forcibly removed to Nepal days later

More than 100 Nepali guards who risked their lives to protect British embassy staff in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized back control were secretly returned to Nepal against their wishes shortly after being airlifted to safety in the UK, the Guardian can reveal.

Hundreds of Nepali nationals and a smaller number of Indian nationals who protected key institutions in Kabul were brought to the UK on an RAF flight during the chaotic evacuation of the Afghan capital by western countries in August 2021, as victorious Taliban forces closed in.

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Sunak eyes deal to allow UK passport holders to use e-gates at EU airports

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PM may discuss idea with European Commission chief in June, reports say, after diplomats raised it informally

Rishi Sunak is seeking to capitalise on his improved relations with the EU with hopes of an agreement to allow British passport holders to use e-gates when travelling in the bloc.

Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that British diplomats had raised the issue informally. A potential discussion was foreseen on the sidelines of a meeting in Japan the prime minister and the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, will attend in June.

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Tory MP criticised for Kazakhstan-funded £5k trip to observe elections

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Human rights groups raise concerns after UK trade envoy Daniel Kawczynski praised the country’s ‘functioning democracy’

The Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski is facing criticism after the Kazakh government funded a £5,100 trip for him to observe elections and quoted him praising the country’s “functioning democracy”.

Kawczynski, a trade envoy for the prime minster, Rishi Sunak, travelled to watch parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan in March amid concerns among human rights groups about the treatment of Zhanbolat Mamai, the leader of the unregistered Democratic party. Mamai was this month banned from political activism and journalism for six years.

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Major tech firms face hefty fines under new digital consumer bill

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Global companies like Google, Apple and Amazon could have to pay penalties of up to 10% of their global turnover as government gives competition watchdog more power

Major tech firms face the threat of multibillion-pound fines for breaching consumer protection rules under new legislation that will tackle issues including fake online reviews and subscriptions that are difficult to cancel.

The digital markets, competition and consumers bill will empower the UK’s competition watchdog to tackle the “excessive dominance” that a small number of tech firms hold over consumers and businesses.

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UK expected to stop funding Chinese state-linked Mandarin teaching schools

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Secretive visa scheme has been used to fast-track Chinese staff to promote Communist party values at Confucius Institutes

UK government funding for Mandarin teaching at branches of the Chinese state-linked Confucius Institute is to be axed, but they will not be closed, as Rishi Sunak promised last year.

The step is expected to be announced by James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, on Tuesday and comes as research shows that a secretive visa scheme has been used to fast-track Chinese government-vetted staff to come to the UK to promote Chinese Communist party (CCP) values at the institutes.

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RAF plane lands in Sudan as UK assesses options for further evacuations

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Armed forces minister says ‘job isn’t done’ in evacuating as many as 4,000 Britons and dual nationals trapped in war zone

The British military is assessing a highly fraught operation to rescue some of the thousands of British nationals stranded in Sudan after the Foreign Office was deluged by cross-party criticism for missing a window of opportunity on Sunday to evacuate more than just British diplomats and their families.

An RAF plane has landed at Port Sudan in the north-east of the country with some troops to look at the option of taking nationals who have attempted to drive – some in UN-protected convoys – from Khartoum and elsewhere. The landing ship RFA Cardigan Bay and the frigate HMS Lancaster are also being lined up as options to help people out of the war-torn country as the UK desperately considers its restricted options.

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UK medical bodies ‘gravely concerned’ over Rwanda deportation scheme

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Hundreds of healthcare professionals fear plan will cause ‘catastrophic mental and physical harm’ to refugees

More than 830 UK health professionals and representatives from leading medical bodies have signed a letter to the prime minister expressing “grave concerns” that the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cause “catastrophic mental and physical harm” to people seeking safety, in advance of a court of appeal hearing on the policy on Monday.

Signatories to the letter include the BMA and the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists.

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Defence spending in western and central Europe tops last year of cold war

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Stockholm International Peace Institute’s annual report finds UK was region’s biggest spender in 2022 at $68.5bn

Defence spending in western and central Europe has surpassed that of the last year of the cold war, an annual report has found, as military expenditure across the world hit an all-time high of $2.24tn (£1.8tn) last year.

The outbreak of war in Ukraine has triggered the steepest increase in military expenditure in Europe in three decades, according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute (Sipri).

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UK armed forces evacuate British diplomats from Sudan after threats

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Rishi Sunak says ‘complex and rapid’ operation carried out, amid fears for remaining UK nationals

The UK has evacuated its diplomatic staff and their dependants from Khartoum, the British prime minister and foreign secretary said on Sunday, but UK nationals still living in Sudan remained in the country.

Announcing the evacuation, Rishi Sunak said British armed forces had carried out “a complex and rapid” military operation. The evacuation involved members of UK special forces and the Parachute Regiment.

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UK evacuates British embassy staff and families from Sudan in wake of ‘significant threats’ – as it happened

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Foreign secretary says efforts to support British nationals trapped in Sudan currently ‘severely limited’

Oliver Dowden is often viewed as one of the safest pairs of Conservative party hands in media performances, but he’s had a tricky couple of minutes here where Sophy Ridge has first challenged him over concerns about appointments to the BBC raised with him when he was at the DCMS, and is struggling to answer on whether he thinks it would be embarrassing if Boris Johnson appointed his own father to the House of Lords.

Sophy Ridge has pointed out to Oliver Dowden that there have been nine justice ministers in the last few years, and that the backlog in crown court cases is not diminishing. He tried to pin the backlog on Covid, to which she said: “That’s not true, the backlog started before the pandemic.”

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Infected blood victims and families urge UK government to drop defence

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Exclusive: Claimants say government can no longer defend treatment disaster in light of inquiry’s damning interim report

More than 500 people taking the government to court over the contaminated blood scandal are urging it to concede the case in light of evidence heard by a public inquiry and an interim report produced by its chair.

The claim, which began in 2017 but was stayed pending the inquiry into what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, alleges the Department of Health – now the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – breached a duty to take reasonable care to prevent personal injury or loss, amounting to misfeasance in public office.

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Labour suspends Diane Abbott in attempt to stifle fresh antisemitism row

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MP loses party whip after writing letter suggesting Jewish, Irish, and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people had not experienced racism

Labour has sought to head off a fresh antisemitism storm by suspending the party whip from Diane Abbott, after the former shadow home secretary played down suggestions of racism against Jewish people.

In comments that were swiftly condemned by senior Conservatives and faith groups, the MP argued that minority groups – such as Jewish people, as well as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people – faced similar levels of prejudice to people with red hair.

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Baltic states condemn China envoy’s remarks over sovereignty of ex-Soviet nations

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Lu Shaye’s comments raise fresh questions over China’s role in brokering peace in Ukraine

France, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have expressed dismay after China’s ambassador in Paris questioned the sovereignty not only of Ukraine, but all the former Soviet Republics including the Baltic states.

Lu Shaye’s remarks in a TV interview late on Friday raise fresh questions about the faith the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has placed in China to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

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Nurses’ leader blasts Steve Barclay over ‘disgraceful’ use of legal action to stop strike

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Pat Cullen attacks health secretary’s attempt to prevent 48-hour action in England as ‘frightening for democracy’

The leader of the Royal College of Nursing has said a legal attempt by the health secretary to block next weekend’s strike in England is “frightening for democracy and very frightening for trade unionism”.

Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said it was “disgraceful” that Steve Barclay was attempting to thwart the strike via the courts, and said nurses would “not be bullied into silence”.

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Tories consider controversial plan to politicise civil service after Raab scandal

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No 10 adviser urges political appointments in a radical plan following crisis over bullying

Radical plans to bring in more “politicisation” of Whitehall by allowing ministers greater powers to appoint their own civil servants – including some with overt political affiliations – are being considered by the government’s own adviser on the civil service.

Writing in today’s Observer, the Conservative peer and former Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who is expected to report shortly to Rishi Sunak, says that in order for ministers to get the best advice possible, we need “to be more robust and less mealy mouthed about ‘politicisation’”.

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‘I am the führer. I’m the king’: new book lifts lid on life inside Boris Johnson’s chaotic No 10

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PM blamed both Dominic Cummings and his wife to disguise his own reluctance to take difficult decisions, author claims

Boris Johnson fell out with his former chief adviser Dominic Cummings after growing tired of being treated like a “young and inexperienced king” who needed to be kept in order, Michael Gove has revealed.

The levelling up secretary, who is close to Cummings and was a figurehead of the Vote Leave campaign beside Johnson, said the pair fell out soon after the 2019 election because Johnson no longer wanted to be treated “as a tempestuous thoroughbred, with a strong whip and bridle to keep him in order”.

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Grazie, Londra: why Milan can thank Brexit for a new lease of life

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Finance sector workers are deserting the UK for the Italian city, lured by the weather, the way of life and tax breaks

It wasn’t so long ago that Milan was cast aside as a grey, uninspiring industrial city, with the only sprinkle of colour coming from its fashion sector. But the northern Italian powerhouse now has a newfound energy and confidence – and it’s partly driven by Brexit.

As the consequences of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU have kicked in, a significant number of bankers, fund managers and other financial services workers have shifted from London to Milan – an option that would never have been considered a decade ago.

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Dominic Raab dismissed warnings about his behaviour, says ex-Foreign Office colleague – as it happened

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Hugo Swire, a Tory peer, said he thought Dominic Raab was “too big a talent” not to be back “in some capacity” following his resignation over bullying accusations.

Lord Swire told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

I think to lose somebody who has been a justice secretary, a lord chancellor, deputy prime minister and foreign secretary at this stage is very unwise.

I think this is a career which has been brought prematurely to a temporary halt because I fundamentally believe that a talent such as Dominic will reappear in some place at some time.

It is the government’s loss. I think he will be back in some capacity.

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RCN head accuses Barclay of issuing ‘blatant threat’ with legal action over strikes

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Pat Cullen said health secretary’s attempt to block 48-hour nurses’ strike was ‘cruel’ and ‘unacceptable’

The health secretary’s legal challenge against the Royal College of Nursing’s forthcoming strike is a “blatant threat”, the union’s leader has said.

Steve Barclay’s decision to refer to the courts, revealed on Friday, is the latest twist in the long-running saga over pay between nurses and the government.

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