UK public warned of ‘significant disruption’ from strikes involving teachers, civil servants, Border Force staff and train drivers
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, speaking from a teachers’ picket line in Warwick, said:
I think Gillian Keegan [the education secretary] is hoping our strike is ineffective and people won’t do it again.
Continue reading...PM not aware of formal complaints at time of appointment, says spokesperson, as Starmer attacks ‘addiction to sleaze and scandal’
Downing Street has repeatedly refused to say whether Rishi Sunak knew of any informal complaints about Dominic Raab’s behaviour before making him a minister, after Keir Starmer attacked the government’s “addiction to sleaze and scandal”.
Speaking after a session of prime minister’s questions in which the Labour leader tackled Sunak over a series of ethical and conduct issues, the prime minister’s press secretary refused to be drawn on possible complaints about Raab before he was made justice secretary and deputy prime minister.
Continue reading...Environment secretary sets lower 10-year objective for cleaner air but researchers say their goal is reachable with stronger action
The government cannot achieve the air quality improvements advised by medical experts, so has set its targets lower for the next 10 years, the environment secretary has admitted as she unveiled a new environmental plan.
Thérèse Coffey said on Tuesday: “We have cleaner air. I want it to be even cleaner. Now, I would have loved to have made our target to achieve 10 micrograms [of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre of air] by 2030, not 2040. Many parts of the country already enjoy this, but the evidence shows us that with the best will in the world we cannot achieve that everywhere by the end of the decade, particularly in London.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rami Ranger criticised over comments about Pakistani journalists
A Conservative peer has apologised and withdrawn comments that were criticised for being “racially charged”, as a second referral about his conduct was made to the House of Lords standards watchdog.
Rami Ranger, a major Conservative party donor, admitted that remarks unearthed by the Guardian that he made in a letter regarding Pakistani journalists and a later TV interview about grooming and drug dealing had “caused offence”.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed, you can read more on this story here
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, was not exactly on message in his Sky News interview with Kay Burley this morning. As well as implying that he thought the bullying inquiry into Dominic Raab was a mistake (see 10.37am), he made at least three other comments that suggest Rishi Sunak does not have the enthusiastic support of all his backbenchers.
Rees-Mogg said that Sunak was performing “perfectly competently” as PM. Asked how he was doing, Rees-Mogg replied: “I think he’s doing perfectly competently.” When Burley put it to him that that was not much of an endorsement, Rees-Mogg went on: “I made no bones about the fact I thought Boris Johnson was a better prime minister and I wanted him to remain.”
Rees-Mogg criticised the government for stalling the Northern Ireland protocol bill. The bill, which is popular with hardline Brexiters but widely seen as contrary to international law, because it would allow the UK to unilaterally ignore some of the provisions in the protocol treaty, passed through the Commons when Boris Johnson was PM. But it is stuck in the Lords, where it has not been debated since October and where a date has not been set for its report stage. Sunak has shelved it because he wants to negotiate a compromise on the protocol with the EU, and passing the bill would make agreement much harder. But Rees-Mogg said the government should pass it. He said:
The government has just got to get on with it. There’s a bill that has been through the House of Commons that is waiting its report stage in the House of Lords and I don’t understand why the government hasn’t brought it forward.
He renewed his criticism of the strikes (minimum service levels) bill. When MPs debated it last night, Rees-Mogg said he agreed with Labour criticisms of the Henry VIII powers in the bill.
The government doesn’t know what changes it will have to make once this bill is passed. Under clause 3, the secretary of state would be able to make regulations that “amend, repeal or revoke provision made by or under primary legislation passed before this act or later in the same session of parliament as this act”. This is a supercharged Henry VIII clause. Why should MPs or peers pay any attention to any related legislation that may be brought before them later in this session when they know that, unless they object, a secretary of state may simply amend, repeal or revoke it?
Continue reading...Lawyers will argue the then trade secretary ignored Saudi air force’s bombing of civilians in Yemen
Anti-arms trade campaigners will seek to overturn a decision made by Liz Truss to resume UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, arguing she ignored a pattern of bombing civilians by the country’s air force in Yemen.
A judicial review brought by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) starts in the high court on Tuesday, the latest step in a long-running battle over the legality of a lucrative trade worth more than £23bn since the war in Yemen began.
Continue reading...House of Lords votes against flagship public order bill on day when Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted proceedings in chamber
A government bill aimed at cracking down on protest has suffered a number of setbacks in the House of Lords, setting the stage for a tense showdown between parliament’s two chambers.
Peers inflicted a number of defeats on the wide-ranging public order bill, which is aimed at curbing guerrilla tactics used by protest groups.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rami Ranger faces criticism over ‘deplorable’ comments about Pakistani journalists at the corporation
A Conservative peer has been accused of using “deplorable” and “racially charged language” in a scathing attack on the BBC’s recent documentary about the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.
Rami Ranger, who is already under investigation by the standards commissioners in the Lords, was criticised for comments made about Pakistani journalists at the corporation.
Continue reading...Former prime minister’s comments about call to Russian president just before invasion come in new BBC documentary
Boris Johnson has said that Vladimir Putin claimed he could have sent a missile to hit Britain “within a minute”, in a call just before the invasion of Ukraine.
The former prime minister’s comments came in a three-part documentary for BBC Two looking at the conflict in Ukraine and the lead up to Russia’s invasion in February last year.
Continue reading...Experts warn plan does not address staff vacancies and £1bn fund pledged is not new money
Rishi Sunak will vow to rapidly slash long waiting times for urgent NHS care with a promise of thousands more beds, 800 new ambulances and an expansion of community care backed by a dedicated fund of £1bn.
The health service is engulfed in its worst-ever crisis, with urgent and emergency care in particular under unprecedented pressure in recent months. The prime minister will describe his blueprint for resolving the problems as “ambitious and credible”.
Continue reading...PM’s judgment in question as Zahawi fails to apologise after inquiry finds breaches of ministerial code
Rishi Sunak has sacked the Conservative party chair, Nadhim Zahawi, for serious breaches of the ministerial code over his tax affairs, after weeks of damaging headlines undermined the prime minister’s attempts to restore government integrity.
An investigation by Sunak’s new ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, concluded that Zahawi had broken the rules by repeatedly failing to declare an HMRC investigation into his tax affairs, which concluded with a £5m settlement including a penalty.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Letter to home secretary says bill echoes ‘dangerously broad laws’ that result in jailing of protesters
Hongkongers in Britain have called on Suella Braverman to reconsider controversial measures in her public order bill, which they likened to the repressive measures used to crack down on democratic opposition in their home city.
In a letter to the UK home secretary, aspects of the bill were described as “repressive measures that threaten to paralyse entire social movement” and posed a threat to their right to protest in Britain, including against Chinese communist repression in Hong Kong.
Continue reading...Minister says he wants to abolish ‘outdated, feudal’ system of home ownership by end of this parliament
Michael Gove has admitted that “faulty and ambiguous” government guidance was partly responsible for the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The UK housing secretary said lax regulation allowed cladding firms to “put people in danger in order to make a profit”.
Gove’s remarks come more than five years after the tower block fire that killed 72 people.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak fires Zahawi after he was found to have committed ‘serious breach’ of ministerial code
Rishi Sunak has sacked the Conservative party chair, Nadhim Zahawi, after he was found to have breached the ministerial code by failing to declare the HMRC investigation into his tax affairs.
An investigation by the prime minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, concluded that Zahawi had made a “serious breach” of the code by not telling officials he was under investigation by the tax body when he was appointed chancellor by Boris Johnson.
Continue reading...Timeline: the occasions when Rishi Sunak’s ethics adviser says Zahawi failed to be open about his tax affairs
The prime minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, identifies seven occasions on which Nadhim Zahawi breached the ministerial code by failing to be open about his tax affairs.
April 2021 HMRC commenced its investigation of Zahawi’s tax affairs, which included a meeting with him and his tax advisers in June 2021. Zahawi, who was a business minister at the time, told Magnus he was under the impression he was “merely being asked certain queries”. Magnus says he should have understood it was a “serious matter”, informed his permanent secretary, and disclosed it in his ministerial declaration of interests.
Continue reading...A government agreement with developers was meant to solve the fire safety crisis in affected buildings – but the wrangling goes on
In June 2021, Charlotte Meehan received a safety inspection report for her block of flats as part of the nationwide checks after the Grenfell Tower fire. It made for grim reading, warning that the block had been built with combustible cladding and insulation.
Last April, the government announced a “wide-ranging” agreement with developers to fix the crisis of unsafe tall buildings, but Meehan, 34, and her fellow residents in the four-storey block in east London, are among tens of thousands still waiting for their homes to be made safe.
Continue reading...Solicitors accused of using lawsuits to stifle criticism of prominent figures include those acting for Nadhim Zahawi
Ministers are under pressure to speed up action against the use of legal tactics by powerful figures to silence legitimate criticism. This comes after a surge in investigations into their use.
The Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) warned the profession against employing such tactics at the end of last year, but says their use has increased since then, and it is now examining 40 cases.
Continue reading...He may yearn for a period of calm, but the prime minister faces some daunting challenges in the stormy months ahead
Having taken on the party leadership after months of economic turmoil, Rishi Sunak always faced a tough task in turning around his party’s fortunes. With the future of cabinet ministers already in doubt and Boris Johnson courting MPs, a series of new hurdles in the months ahead will make life even harder for the prime minister.
Continue reading...Whistleblower tells of threats and illegal detention in fresh revelations about failures that drove children into hands of criminals
Children seeking asylum in the UK were threatened and subjected to racist abuse by staff at a Home Office-run hotel, a whistleblower has claimed as pressure grows on the government to act over the growing crisis in the system.
The source, who worked in the Brighton hotel for more than a year, said that in such an environment of “emotional abuse”, scores of children, who had arrived in the UK without parents or a carer, were driven on to the streets and into the hands of criminals.
Continue reading...Lord Young suggests ministers should feel able to step aside for the duration of any investigation
Nadhim Zahawi should step away from his Conservative party role while the inquiry into his tax affairs continues, a senior Tory peer and former Commons standards chair has appeared to suggest.
Lord Young, who served in several Conservative administrations from Margaret Thatcher’s to Theresa May’s, suggested that ministers under pressure should feel able to step aside for the duration of any investigation.
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