Category Archives: Politics

Ukraine crisis puts Sunak under new pressure to axe national insurance rise

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Tory MPs and business groups urge chancellor to scrap increase intended to fund NHS and social care amid fears of stagflation

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is under renewed pressure from MPs and business groups to rethink plans to increase national insurance next month, as fears grow that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will dramatically worsen the cost of living crisis and plunge the economy into “stagflation”.

Both Tory and Labour MPs believe Sunak can still be persuaded to ditch the 1.25 percentage point rise – announced last September to fund the NHS and social care – and want him to use the potentially devastating effects of events in Ukraine on prices as justification for what they say is an urgently needed U-turn.

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‘Fascist fitness’: how the far right is recruiting with online gym groups

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Anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate says extremists present self-improvement as part of wider political struggle

The far right is increasingly recruiting via online fitness groups, whose popularity soared during the pandemic, prompting fears that new members are being radicalised to commit acts of violence, new analysis shows.

Researchers have detected a network of online “fascist fitness” chat groups on the messaging app Telegram with a large number directly linked to the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative, Britain’s biggest extreme right group.

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MPs seeking ‘fast-track’ freeze on oligarchs’ assets before formal sanctions

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Amendment to the economic crime bill comes after criticism that UK has been slower to act than US or EU

Russian oligarchs suspected of having links to Vladimir Putin could have their UK assets seized even before the British authorities have completed formal steps to impose sanctions, under far-reaching plans tabled for debate in parliament on Monday.

The move – put forward in an amendment to the economic crime bill by former Tory cabinet minister David Davis and backed by a cross-party group of MPs – would, if passed, amount to the toughest action yet to clamp down on illicit Russian cash in the UK.

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Downing St was repeatedly warned over Boris Johnson’s misleading jobs claims

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Statistics watchdog wrote to the PM about ‘selective use of data’ after statement about number of people in work

Government officials were warned repeatedly about making misleading claims about job figures before the official statistics watchdog reprimanded Boris Johnson over the matter.

Ed Humpherson, the director general of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), said there had been “a series of informal discussions” before the regulator took the “unusual” step of issuing public rebukes to No 10 over the same issue twice last month.

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Revealed: scandal of NHS charges putting pregnant migrant women at risk

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Vulnerable women face huge bills before giving birth, campaigners say

The health of pregnant migrant women and their unborn babies is being put at risk due to fears around NHS charging, with some trusts demanding upfront fees for maternity care or wrongly charging those who are exempt, it has been claimed.

Vulnerable migrant and asylum-seeking women with no recourse to public funds are frequently being issued huge bills ahead of giving birth or aggressively pursued for payments during their pregnancy against current guidance, maternity rights groups have warned.

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UK universities brace for impact of sanctions against Russia

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Most academics back research boycott but ‘there is a case for maintaining ties’, says Oxford professor

Researchers at UK universities are bracing themselves for sanctions affecting science partnerships with Russia, including in climate science and space research, as the government seeks to isolate Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.

Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Oxford, said most academics would support a research boycott with heavy hearts and concerns for Russian colleagues.

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Property of Russian elites could be handed to Ukrainian refugees, says Raab

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Deputy PM defends response to invasion after criticism the government has acted too slowly over sanctions

Russian elites could have their property seized and handed over to Ukrainian refugees, the deputy prime minister has suggested.

Dominic Raab made the remarks as he defended the UK’s response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, called for an emergency UN summit after a Russian attack on a nuclear power station in Ukraine.

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UK not prepared for climate impacts, warns IPCC expert

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Sewage works, airports and seaports among key infrastructure at risk, says intergovernmental report

The UK “is very much not adapted to climate change and not prepared”, according to a lead author of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The study, published this week and approved by 195 countries, says the worldwide impacts of the climate crisis are more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance of securing “a liveable future for all”.

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Gavin Williamson awarded knighthood by Boris Johnson

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MP presided over exams debacle after being sacked as defence secretary for alleged leak

Boris Johnson has awarded a knighthood to Gavin Williamson, despite a ministerial record that includes the Covid exams debacle as education secretary and being sacked as defence secretary for allegedly leaking secure information.

The news prompted anger from opposition parties, with Labour calling Williamson’s record “disgraceful”. The Liberal Democrats called the knighthood “an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds”.

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UK politics live: we must ensure Putin fails, UK foreign secretary says

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Latest updates: Liz Truss says Putin must lose in Ukraine as she praises courage of Baltic states

The UK health secretary Sajid Javid has said the NHS must stop using energy supplied by the Russian-owned firm Gazprom, the PA news agency reports.

A senior government source told PA that Javid has been in talks with NHS England over ending the contracts, which are reported by Politico to have been worth 16 million in 2021.

Sajid has spoken with NHSE and been clear that trusts need to stop using Gazprom as a supplier. He has also requested a wider review of any Russian role in supply chains across the health service.

It’s clearly unsustainable for a humanitarian organisation like the NHS to have any commercial links whatsoever with Putin’s murderous regime.

It is time to sanction them all - and freeze their assets, including any property they own in the UK.

These properties should then be used to house any Ukrainian refugees, on a temporary basis, while they await permanent resettlement. Rather than languishing in hotel rooms - or worse, unsuitable barracks, we should be putting Putin’s cronies’ assets to good use.

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What more could the west do about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

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Analysis: From a no-fly zone to sanctions, the options that are on and off the table

Russia’s invading forces have bombed civilians in Kyiv, Kharkiv and elsewhere in Ukraine in the past 48 hours, prompting fears of rising casualties and growing questions as to whether the west could step up military, economic or other efforts to help. Here are some of the options – and the risks.

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Starmer questions why Roman Abramovich is not facing UK sanctions

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Labour calls for tougher action against Russian oligarchs at PMQs as Ukrainian ambassador watches from gallery

Keir Starmer has questioned why Roman Abramovich has not faced UK sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Boris Johnson appeared to accept a Labour offer to strengthen a new bill cracking down on illicit assets.

At a prime minister’s questions that began with the rare sight of MPs standing in unison to applaud the Ukrainian ambassador, Vadym Prystaiko, who was watching from the public gallery, Starmer repeatedly called for tougher action against Russian oligarchs.

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Roman Abramovich hastily selling UK properties, MP claims

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Chris Bryant says UK moving too slowly to impose sanctions on people allegedly linked to Vladimir Putin

An MP has claimed that the Russian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich, is hastily selling UK properties to avoid potential financial sanctions.

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and head of the parliamentary standards committee, said the government was moving too slowly on imposing sanctions on those with alleged links to Vladimir Putin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Ukrainians want to stay near home, claims Raab, amid UK visa criticism

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Deputy prime minister says those that leave ‘want to be as close to their home country as possible’

• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news

The UK’s deputy prime minister has suggested Ukrainians would prefer to flee to countries nearer to home amid criticism that the Britain’s support for refugees is “heartless” and pressure to offer more help from Conservative MPs.

Under plans set out on Sunday evening, Ukrainian nationals settled in the UK will be able to bring their “immediate family members” to join them, which applies only to spouses, unmarried partners of at least two years, parents or their children if one is under 18, or adult relatives who are also carers.

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To end FGM, the UK must protect girls everywhere, not just in Britain | Charlotte Proudman

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British women and girls are still being cut abroad and foreigners who are vulnerable are denied asylum by the UK

‘But why should we care about a practice that is being performed overseas?” It was a blunt question put to me by an audience member at a conference on female genital mutilation. Should we care because of a commitment to human rights? Our collective duty to prevent suffering? We have a moral obligation to end the practice in Britain and also to focus efforts on eliminating it globally.

After spending many years researching FGM, I have spoken to women who vehemently support it and those that actively resist it. If we are going to end FGM, it is important that we hear all women’s voices, however uncomfortable that may make us.

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‘It’s about bloody time’: UK finally moves to block Russia’s ‘dirty money’

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Analysis: against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine, Kwasi Kwarteng announces clean-up measures

Britain has long been a haven for people of negotiable integrity to stash their cash, often via property deals made with the help of an army of lawyers, PR advisers and bankers.

Not only are super-mansions in London and the home counties a safe bet from an investment point of view, but the ability to disguise ownership via a labyrinthine network of shell companies offers a degree of anonymity to those who prefer their financial dealings to remain secret.

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UK politics live: Truss warns of ‘some economic hardship’ as she gives more detail of Russian sanctions

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Truss says officials ‘working through the night’ to draw up sanctions against oligarchs; Kwasi Kwarteng in Commons on economic crime bill

In a thread on Twitter, Rob Ford, the politics professor and co-author of Brexitland, a book explaining the attitudinal shifts (including on immigration) that led to Brexit, says that the public may be much more supportive of opening the borders to Ukrainian refugees than people (like Priti Patel?) assume. It starts here.

And here is one of Ford’s conclusions.

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Ukrainians denied entry to UK despite being eligible for visa

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British citizens trying to bring their families to the UK are grappling bureaucracy in Paris despite new visa rules

A Ukrainian woman and her 15-year-old diabetic daughter say they are feeling increasingly distraught after escaping the conflict in Ukraine only to be blocked from a visa the UK government announced on Sunday evening for which they are eligible.

Yakiv Voloshchuk, 60, a British citizen, rescued his wife, Oksana Voloshchuk, 41, and their daughter, Veronika, from Poland on 26 February.

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Boris Johnson urged by Tory MPs to do more for Ukraine refugees

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PM receives letter from 37 of his MPs calling on him to share responsibility with other European countries

Boris Johnson is facing demands from 37 Tory MPs that Britain must go further in welcoming Ukrainians fleeing war after a backlash against the government’s refugee policy.

The prime minister has received a letter from members of the One Nation Conservatives group led by the former Home Office minister Damian Green calling for his government to “act decisively”and “share responsibility” with other European countries.

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