Category Archives: Politics

David Frost says EU close to breaching Brexit deal over science programme

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Minister ‘quite concerned’ about delay to finalising UK’s participation in €80bn Horizon Europe scheme

A fresh Brexit row has been blown open with Brussels after David Frost accused the EU of being close to breaching the trade deal struck last Christmas.

He said the UK was “getting quite concerned” about Brussels delaying ratification of the UK’s participation in the €80bn (£67bn) Horizon Europe research programme, costing British scientists their place in pan-European research programmes.

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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen calls for urgent external regulation

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Ex-employee tells UK MPs Mark Zuckerberg ‘has unilateral control over 3bn people’ due to his position

Mark Zuckerberg “has unilateral control over 3 billion people” due to his unassailable position at the top of Facebook, the whistleblower Frances Haugen told MPs as she called for urgent external regulation to rein in the tech company’s management and reduce the harm being done to society.

Haugen, a former Facebook employee who released tens of thousands of damaging documents about its inner workings, travelled to London from the US for a parliamentary hearing and gave qualified backing to UK government proposals to regulate social media platforms and make them take some responsibility for content on their sites.

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Frances Haugen to testify to MPs about Facebook and online harm

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Whistleblower and critic of Mark Zuckerberg will give evidence to MPs scrutinising online safety bill

The Facebook whistleblower is to give evidence to MPs and peers scrutinising the online safety bill, amid calls for a toughening up of the landmark legislation.

Frances Haugen has triggered a deep crisis at Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire after she released tens of thousands of internal documents detailing the company’s failure to keep its users safe from harmful content. On Monday Haugen, 37, will testify in person at the joint committee scrutinising the draft online safety bill, a piece of legislation that places a duty of care on social media companies to protect users – with the threat of substantial fines if they fail to do so.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

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Labour accuses Sunak of ‘smoke and mirrors’ budget due to lack of new money

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Chancellor concedes only 20% of transport funding boost is new and other commitments in £26bn spending plans are recycled

Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of presiding over a “smoke and mirrors” budget after he conceded that just 20% of his biggest single spending commitment unveiled before the speech is made up of new money.

The Treasury has committed to almost £26bn of spending in a rush of announcements before Wednesday’s budget and spending review. It is expected to contain no tax cuts and the chancellor has sought to reassure anxious Tory MPs that he is a fiscal Thatcherite at heart.

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Poorest countries to gain from new climate funding plan to break Cop26 impasse

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Climate finance plan needed to gain backing of developing nations for any deal at Glasgow talks

The world’s poorest countries are set to benefit from a new climate funding plan to help them cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, in an effort to break the impasse between developed and developing countries at the UN Cop26 climate summit

The UK government, as Cop26 host, will unveil the proposals on Monday along with ministers from Germany and Canada, who have been charged with drawing up a plan for climate finance, needed to gain the backing of scores of developing countries for any deal at the talks, which open in Glasgow next Sunday.

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband on second hunger strike in effort to free her

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Richard Ratcliffe seeks to persuade Foreign Office to do more to secure wife’s release from prison in Iran

The husband of the jailed British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has gone on hunger strike for a second time in an attempt to persuade the UK foreign secretary to do more to bring his wife back from detention in Iran. His hunger strike is to take place outside the Foreign Office in London.

Richard Ratcliffe took the radical step in desperation after the Iranian authorities said earlier this month that Nazanin had lost her appeal against a second prison sentence. She will return to jail for another year, and then subject to a travel ban for a further year after that.

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UK defence minister faces call for inquiry into 2012 killing of Kenyan woman

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Inquest in Kenya in 2019 concluded that Agnes Wanjiru, 21, ‘was murdered by British soldiers’

The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is facing calls to launch an investigation into a possible cover-up after no one was held responsible for the alleged killing of a 21-year old Kenyan woman by one or more off-duty British soldiers.

John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, described the 2012 killing of Agnes Wanjiru, a sex worker, as “dreadful” and called for Wallace to “take this more seriously”.

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Michael Gove ‘open’ to keeping Grenfell Tower as a memorial

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Housing secretary’s intervention follows speculation that the building would be demolished because of structural fears

Michael Gove has signalled he will explore “retention” options to preserve Grenfell Tower as a memorial to the 72 people killed in the 2017 fire, a move that has been welcomed by relatives of the dead.

The new housing secretary’s intervention, weeks into his latest post, follows speculation that Grenfell would be demolished because of safety concerns. It is understood his predecessor, Robert Jenrick, had been briefed that the tower posed a risk to the local west London community with government-appointed structural engineers indicating it should be razed.

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UK ‘will not cave in over role of European court in NI protocol’

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Government sources say talks with EU ‘constructive’ but ‘we are still far apart on big issues’

The UK government has described talks with the EU over the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol as “constructive” but insisted it was not about to cave in on its demands that the role of the European court of justice be scrapped.

Government sources dampened hopes of a breakthrough, saying the two sides were still “far apart on the big issues”.

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Cop26 climate deal will be harder than Paris accord, admits Sharma

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Summit president says 2015 global emissions agreement a ‘framework’ but rules were left for future talks

Achieving a global climate deal in Glasgow in the next three weeks will be harder than signing the Paris agreement of 2015, the UK president-designate of the Cop26 talks has said.

Alok Sharma, the cabinet minister in charge of the UK-hosted talks, just over a week away, said the task would be to get nearly 200 countries to implement stringent cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions, in line with holding global temperature increases to within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels – a goal fast receding as global carbon output continues to climb.

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English schools struggle to cope as Covid wreaks havoc

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Despite government narrative of a return to normality, schools in areas with high Covid rates lack support

Schools in England hit by high numbers of Covid-19 cases among staff and pupils have been forced to reinstate mask wearing, send whole year groups home to study online and in some cases close early for half-term as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc in education.

Despite the government narrative of a return to normality in classrooms, schools in areas with high coronavirus rates say they have struggled to function, with many staff off sick and problems securing supply teachers because of high demand.

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UK strikes trade deal with New Zealand – but it may add nothing to GDP

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‘Groundbreaking’ agreement criticised by UK farmers is part of 10-year plan to pivot to Indo-Pacific

Britain has struck a trade deal with New Zealand, a key ally, as ministers hope to stem the country’s reliance on China – but the agreement is expected to add no value to the UK’s gross domestic product.

Despite the Department for International Trade heralding the deal as a “groundbreaking” achievement that was a “vital part” of Boris Johnson’s commitment to levelling up, the prime minister has been accused of selling out British farmers.

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MPs should set example with masks in battle against Covid, says Javid

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Health secretary rejects calls for ‘plan B’ measures despite predicting infections could hit 100,000 a day

Politicians have a responsibility to set an example in the battle against Covid, including wearing masks in crowded spaces, Sajid Javid has suggested as he predicted new infections could hit a record 100,000 a day.

With the government under mounting pressure to impose measures to control the virus, Javid warned “this pandemic is not over” and insisted he would do “what it takes” to protect the health service. But he said: “We don’t believe that the pressures currently faced by the NHS are unsustainable.”

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Why is it business as usual in England while Covid infections rise?

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Analysis: a winter plan has been set out but implementing it could be hampered by political squeamishness

More than 20 months into the Covid pandemic and with a tough winter looming, the public could be excused for having a distinct sense of deja vu.

Infection rates are rising sharply, scientists and senior NHS figures are sounding the alarm – but the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, was touring the broadcast studios on Wednesday morning ruling out a lockdown in England and telling people “absolutely” to book their Christmas parties.

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Brexit and UK immigration policy ‘increasing risks to trafficking victims’

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Damning report highlights greater risk of EU worker exploitation and vulnerability of undocumented migrants

A damning new report on trafficking in the UK has warned that Brexit and the Home Office’s new plan for immigration are increasing the risks to trafficking victims.

The report has also found links between terrorism and trafficking in cases involving families from the UK ending up with Islamic State in Syria and an increase in the recruitment of trafficking victims via social media.

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‘Smoking kills’ could be printed on every cigarette under new proposals

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MPs propose raft of tough new measures aimed at getting more people to stop smoking

Individual cigarettes could have “smoking kills” printed on them under a raft of tough measures proposed by MPs to encourage more people to quit the deadly habit.

MPs have submitted an amendment to the health and care bill going through parliament which would allow the health secretary to make graphic health warnings mandatory.

Raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21.

Stop e-cigarette makers using tactics that might entice children to try them, such as sweet flavourings and cartoon characters.

Make it illegal to give e-cigarettes away free as sampler products, as some manufacturers have done.

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Minister defends Johnsons’ Christmas ‘childcare bubble’ with Nimco Ali

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Anne-Marie Trevelyan says she has no doubt PM and his wife followed the rules during ‘really tough time’

Carrie Johnson needed her friend in her “childcare bubble” with Boris Johnson for extra support over Christmas because of the challenges of running the country and experiencing difficult pregnancies, a cabinet minister has claimed.

It has been revealed that the Johnsons’ friend Nimco Ali, godmother to their son Wilfred, spent Christmas with the family at a time when lockdown restrictions in London prevented almost all household mixing.

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US urges UK to rebuild relations with Paris after submarine contract row

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Exclusive: diplomatic effort by US following Australia cancelling $66bn deal with France not matched by London

The US has urged Britain to follow its example and try to repair its relations with Paris in the wake of the row over France’s loss of its submarine contract with Australia.

Australia pulled out of the $66bn (£48bn) contract for 12 diesel electric-powered submarines, signed in 2016, to opt instead for nuclear-powered submarines to be developed with America and the UK. The secretive and sudden cancellation of the contract has created a crisis of trust between Paris on the one hand and London, Canberra and Washington on the other.

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Sir David Amess obituary

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Dedicated Conservative politician who served as Southend West’s MP for nearly 25 years

Sir David Amess, who has died aged 69 after being stabbed while holding a constituents’ surgery at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, was the Conservative MP for Southend West in Essex. Though he spent more than half his life in the Commons without ever attaining ministerial office, the likelihood is that he would not have wanted it any other way.

He devoted his career to the promotion of his constituencies – first Basildon, then from 1997 Southend West – and to dealing with their voters’ concerns. He had a high local profile and was always willing to meet constituents, advertising his regular weekly surgeries in advance.

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David Amess killing latest: MPs discuss security arrangements following death

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Latest updates on the aftermath of the killing of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess on Friday

The shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, a close friend of Jo Cox, told BBC One’s Andrew Marr show:

We can’t believe it’s happened. I think a lot of MPs are in a state of shock.

It’s heartbreaking, it does make you anxious but none of us are going to stop doing our jobs.

Prevent is going through an independent review right now. It’s timely to do that, we have to learn, we obviously constantly have to learn, not just from incidences that have taken place but how we can strengthen our programmes...

We want to ensure that it is fit for purpose, robust, doing the right thing. But importantly learning lessons, always building upon what is working and addressing any gaps or issues where the system needs strengthening.

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