Category Archives: Politics

Boris Johnson threatens to use ‘legislative bomb’ to stop European Super League

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Prime minister will offer ‘unwavering support’, he tells FA, Premier League and fans

Boris Johnson has promised football groups that the government will consider using what he called “a legislative bomb” to stop English clubs joining a breakaway European Super League, as official efforts to thwart the plan were stepped up.

The prime minister and Oliver Dowden, the sports and culture secretary, held a meeting with the heads of the Football Association and Premier League, as well as representatives of fans’ groups from Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, three of the clubs involved.

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Tens of thousands in UK avoided universal credit during Covid over stigma

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Fear of being seen as a “scrounger” meant those entitled didn’t sign on during early stage of pandemic

Tens of thousands of people did not claim universal credit during the early part of the pandemic because they felt too ashamed to sign on benefits, often despite struggling to pay rent and bills, a study has found.

The perceived stigma around benefits – with some people feeling, for example, that they were for “dole scroungers” and “freeloaders” – meant many refused state help, or put off making a claim until they ran into serious difficulty.

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Boris Johnson cancels India trip due to Covid situation

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Downing Street says next week’s visit won’t go ahead ‘in light of the current coronavirus situation’

Boris Johnson’s planned visit to India next week has been cancelled because of the country’s escalating coronavirus crisis, a joint statement by the UK and India has announced.

“In the light of the current coronavirus situation, prime minister Boris Johnson will not be able to travel to India next week,” said the statement, released by Downing Street.

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Dominic Raab: UK fully supports Czech hunt for Skripal suspects

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Foreign secretary hints he believes same Russian cell behind Salisbury poisoning and Czech explosion

The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said the UK stood in “full support” of the Czech Republic after the country’s police announced they were hunting two Russians, suspected of carrying out the Salisbury poisonings, in relation to an explosion at an arms depot.

The Czech authorities said on Saturday they were seeking Alexander Petrov, 41, and Ruslan Boshirov, 43, in connection with a previously unexplained 2014 explosion at a munitions dump in Vrbětice, which left two dead.

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UK church leaders warn against ‘dangerous’ vaccine passport plans

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Hundreds of Christian clergy say proposal could ‘bring about the end of liberal democracy’

Hundreds of UK church leaders have told the prime minister that plans to use vaccine passports for entry into venues is “one of the most dangerous policy proposals ever to be made in the history of British politics” with the “potential to bring about the end of liberal democracy as we know it”.

An open letter to Boris Johnson signed by more than 1,250 clergy from different Christian denominations across the UK says the “introduction of vaccine passports would constitute an unethical form of coercion and violation of the principle of informed consent”.

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EU and UK hold ‘productive’ talks on Northern Ireland crisis

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Brexit minister David Frost says momentum has been established in efforts to ease tensions

Talks between the EU and UK to ease tensions in Northern Ireland have been described as “productive” and “constructive” with momentum now established to achieve a solution to the crisis, the Brexit minister, David Frost, has said.

But the EU used the first face-to-face meeting since lockdown between Lord Frost and the European commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, to warn that the outcome needed to be jointly agreed.

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Rapid Covid testing in England may be scaled back over false positives

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Exclusive: In leaked emails, Matt Hancock’s adviser says there is ‘urgent need for decisions’ on asymptomatic testing

Senior government officials have raised “urgent” concerns about the mass expansion of rapid coronavirus testing, estimating that as few as 2% to 10% of positive results may be accurate in places with low Covid rates, such as London.

Boris Johnson last week urged everyone in England to take two rapid-turnaround tests a week in the biggest expansion of the multibillion-pound testing programme to date.

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DRC aid agencies appeal to UK Foreign Office to suspend ‘disastrous’ cuts

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Fears of 60% reduction in budget for country where 27.3m said to be experiencing acute food insecurity

A consortium of 19 aid agencies operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo has issued a last-minute appeal to the UK Foreign Office to suspend planned aid cuts to the country, where a third of the population faces acute food insecurity.

The Foreign Office, the second largest provider of aid to the war-torn country, has told aid agencies that cuts are very likely. Although the size of them is not yet agreed, one report has suggested a 60% reduction in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office budget for the country. The FCDO’s aid programme for Congo was worth £180m in 2019.

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Saudi crown prince asked Boris Johnson to intervene in Newcastle United bid

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Mohammed bin Salman warned of damage to Saudi-UK relations if Premier League refusal not ‘corrected’

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, warned Boris Johnson in a text message that UK-Saudi Arabian relations would be damaged if the British government failed to intervene to “correct” the Premier League’s “wrong” decision not to allow a £300m takeover of Newcastle United last year.

Johnson asked Edward Lister, his special envoy for the Gulf, to take up the issue, and Lord Lister reportedly told the prime minister: “I’m on the case. I will investigate.”

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Covid-status certificate scheme could be unlawful discrimination, says EHRC

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Exclusive: Equalities watchdog tells government documents could create ‘two-tier society’

Covid-status certificates being considered by ministers to help open up society could amount to unlawful indirect discrimination, the government’s independent equalities watchdog has advised.

As ministers decide whether the documents should be introduced as passports to certain events later this year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has told the Cabinet Office they risk creating a “two-tier society”.

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Greensill: Keir Starmer says there is ‘open door’ between Boris Johnson’s government and lobbyists – live

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Prime minister questioned on controversy over Greensill’s influence within government with links to David Cameron and a senior civil servant

Hi there, this is Rhi Storer taking over from Yohannes Lowe this afternoon. Please feel free to send me any contributions to rhi.storer@guardian.co.uk or alternatively you can contact me on Twitter.

Here is video of Vicky Foxcroft’s (Lab) question about sign language at PMQs (see earlier post):

Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft asks a question in sign language

"If the prime minister doesn't understand, why does he still not have sign language at his press briefings?"

Boris Johnson replies “I’m grateful… and will revert to her as soon as I can”#PMQs https://t.co/cNTSzLDCHF pic.twitter.com/zh2nFXn8Yd

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Ousted Myanmar ambassador says his relatives ‘forced into hiding’

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Exclusive: Kyaw Zwar Minn says he feels unsafe at London residence and family at home fear reprisals

Myanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has said that friends and relatives at home have been forced into hiding after the country’s military regime removed him from office for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In his first major interview after he was unceremoniously locked out of the embassy by his deputy last week, Kyaw Zwar Minn said he no longer felt safe at his north London residence and had contacted the police after members of his former staff delivered a letter ordering him to move out by Thursday.

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Rockin’ in the free world? Inside the rightwing takeover of protest music

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It’s easy to laugh at hardcore patriots misunderstanding Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA, but such appropriation is increasingly widespread – and dangerously twisting the truth

“Did you know that Born in the USA is actually an anti-Vietnam war anthem?” Since Donald Trump embraced the 1984 Bruce Springsteen song during rallies, the lyrics have prompted so much explanation it now borders on cliche. Yet it’s no less unsettling for it, becoming a prime example of a startlingly widespread trend for the right wing to co-opt music about struggle and progress.

President Ronald Reagan made the first attempt to gloss over the context of the song’s ironically upbeat chorus after the release of the Born in the USA album. Reagan name-checked Springsteen during a New Jersey rally in an attempt to connect the musician to a “message of hope” for America. Springsteen’s opposition to its use didn’t affect the fervour for the song from Trump and his supporters. As Barack Obama noted in an episode of his podcast series with Springsteen this month: “It ended up being appropriated as this iconic, patriotic song. Even though that was not necessarily your intention.”

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Scotland to lift Covid restrictions ahead of schedule

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Nicola Sturgeon says ‘Covid is in retreat in Scotland’ as travel and outdoor rules eased

Nicola Sturgeon has accelerated the relaxation of restrictions on travel and outdoor meetings as she said Covid was “in retreat” in Scotland.

Announcing the changes, which will allow Scots to meet up with family and friends across the country outside in larger groups, the first minister said that from this Friday:

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David Cameron faces unprecedented formal inquiry into Greensill scandal

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Boris Johnson orders independent investigation into former prime minister’s lobbying on behalf of collapsed finance firm

David Cameron is at the centre of an unprecedented formal inquiry after Boris Johnson ordered a probe into lobbying by the former prime minister on behalf of the collapsed company Greensill Capital.

The independent investigation will examine the firm’s role in government, supply chain financing and communications by employees, including Cameron, who joined Greensill as an adviser in 2018, two years after resigning as prime minister, and who stood to make millions of pounds from his role.

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Greensill scandal: government orders inquiry into Cameron lobbying

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Independent investigation launched into former PM’s lobbying for now-collapsed firm

The government is to a launch an independent investigation into former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying for the now-collapsed Greensill and the role of the scandal-hit financier Lex Greensill in government.

The independent review, commissioned by Boris Johnson, will be led by the legal expert Nigel Boardman, a non-executive board member of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

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‘My son could die’: the disabled Syrian refugees on the sharp end of UK aid cuts – photo essay

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Two centres in Lebanon are among the casualties of cuts to British aid, with devastating consequences for thousands of patients and families

In January, the British government told its diplomats to start finding 50–70% cuts in aid funding. In March, it was revealed it was slashing aid funding to Syrian refugee projects by a third. Among the many casualties of those cuts is a project in Lebanon.

Two centres – in Zahlé and in Beirut – offer specialised services, such as speech and physiotherapy, for disabled Syrian refugees who can’t afford to pay for them.

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Union in peril as PM ‘speaks for England alone’, former civil servant warns

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Philip Rycroft says PM’s ‘muscular brand of unionism’ has deepened divisions between four nations

The pandemic has seeded the idea of a prime minister “who speaks for England alone” as relations between the four nations of the UK deteriorate amid “deep-rooted complacency”, a senior former civil servant has warned.

There is widespread ignorance towards the union, meaning ministers can be kept in the dark about major reforms with little consideration for the four nations, Philip Rycroft, the permanent secretary to the Brexit department until 2019, says in a report.

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‘Out of Trump playbook’: UK accused of ‘abandoning’ women with cuts to aid

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Charity warns of 22,000 additional deaths in poorest countries if Wish reproductive health programme ends

The director of a leading sexual and reproductive health charity has accused the government of “abandoning” women and girls it promised to help, as aid cuts derail a leading Tory programme to reduce maternal deaths and prevent unsafe abortions in poor countries.

The threat to the women’s integrated sexual health (Wish) programme could mean 7.5m additional unintended pregnancies, 2.7m unsafe abortions and 22,000 maternal deaths over the next year, said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, director general of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

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Gordon Brown calls for G7 to act on Covid vaccine ‘apartheid’

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Former prime minister says group should commit to global vaccine drive and slams UK’s foreign aid cut

Preventing poor countries suffering from vaccine “apartheid” will require the G7 group of rich nations to commit $30bn (£22bn) a year to a global immunisation drive, Gordon Brown has said.

The former Labour prime minister said the UK should use June’s G7 summit in Cornwall to rekindle the moral purpose of the Make Poverty History campaign of 2005, paying for its share of the new fund by reversing the government’s “misguided” cut to the foreign aid budget.

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