Shadow minister defying Labour leadership to stand on picket line says lives are at stake
Grant Shapps has escalated the government’s confrontation with the rail unions by ruling out meeting with them, as a shadow minister said “lives could be lost” if wages did not improve.
Labour’s Sam Tarry defied his party leadership to stand on the picket line at Euston on Wednesday morning while rail strikes disrupted travel for millions.
Continue reading...Falling passenger numbers, rising costs and the forthcoming end of emergency government funding blamed for services being reduced or terminated
At least 135 bus routes across England have been lined up for cutbacks or closures this summer as councils and bus operators grapple with falling passenger numbers, staff shortages and funding constraints.
Changes to services include reduced frequency, fewer stops and some routes being cancelled. Among the proposed cuts, some of which have already been implemented, are 16 routes in London, 25 in Liverpool and about 40 across the north-east.
Continue reading...Prime minister signals he will not give in to RMT demands and says rail reforms must be pushed through to cut costs for commuters
In interviews this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, reaffirmed the government’s intention to change the legislation to allow firms to use agency workers to fill in for staff who are on strike. (See 11.14am.) As we report in our overnight lead on the strike, Whitehall sources say No 10 and the Cabinet Office are pushing for this, rather than the business department.
Yesterday the TUC and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) put out a joint statement opposing the idea “in the strongest possible terms”. They said it was unworkable.
I don’t know how bringing in untrained, non-safety critical, inexperienced workers into a dangerous environment like the railway - with high speed trains, there are high voltage distribution systems, there are rules and regulations that have the power of statute - how that will help anyone, whether they are a passenger or a worker or manager or whatever?
I don’t see how the use, the deployment of students or people who have got no work experience that are working for an agency will help anyone to resolve this situation, so as usual [Grant Shapps is] just spouting nonsense given to him from some policy unit which doesn’t help to resolve the situations which are in front of us.
Continue reading...Lawyers for bereaved relatives say ‘serious failings’ in rescue operation may have contributed to deaths
The government has agreed to launch a full investigation into the drowning of at least 27 people trying to cross the Channel in a small boat last November.
The decision by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, to agree to what is known as an article 2 inquiry – an independent investigation – is revealed in correspondence between his lawyers and eight relatives of 11 of the victims.
Continue reading...Charity’s report says nearly all targets set since 2000 have been missed, revised or quietly ignored
The international aviation industry has failed to meet all but one of 50 of its own climate targets in the past two decades, environment campaigners say.
A report commissioned by the climate charity Possible assessed every target set by the industry since 2000 and found that nearly all had been missed, revised or quietly ignored. The charity says the findings undermine a UK government plan to leave airlines to reduce their emissions through self-regulation.
Continue reading...John Lansdown seeking up to £76m, which he will use to set up trust to help fellow seafarers
A former P&O Ferries chef is suing the company for £76m over its decision to sack almost 800 staff without notice last month.
John Lansdown, the only seafarer to launch a legal action, has filed a tribunal claim against the company and its chief executive for unfair dismissal, racial discrimination and harassment.
Continue reading...The transport secretary is expected to close loopholes to ensure ferry companies pay the UK minimum wage
Grant Shapps is writing to the chief executive of P&O Ferries urging him to announce a U-turn on the decision to sack 800 workers without notice, as unions pledged to “ratchet up the fight” after a weekend of protests.
The transport secretary is expected to present a package of legislation on Wednesday to close loopholes and ensure ferry companies running regular services to and from the British Isles pay their crew the UK minimum wage.
Continue reading...New target comes after criticism of infrastructure rollout for failing to match surging vehicle sales
The UK government has set a new target to increase the number of electric car chargers more than ten times to 300,000 by 2030 after heavy criticism that the rollout of public infrastructure is too slow to match rapid growth in sales.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would invest an extra £450m to do so, alongside hefty sums of private capital. Sales of new cars and vans with petrol and diesel engines will be banned from 2030.
Continue reading...Business secretary suggests company appears not to have followed processes for large-scale redundancies
The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has warned P&O Ferries it could face an unlimited fine if its summary sacking of 800 British staff is found to have breached the law, as protests against the company’s actions took place at ports across the country.
Writing to the company on Friday, Kwarteng said he wanted to express, “in the strongest possible terms, the UK government’s anger and disappointment”.
Continue reading...Activists say bill being presented to parliament sanctions irreversible destruction of environment
A nationwide day of action against HS2 – involving banner drops, solidarity protests and a Twitter storm – is planned for Monday as the bill to expand the line beyond Crewe is presented to parliament.
Environmental activists say the bill will “sanction immense and irreversible destruction to the environment” and want to raise awareness of HS2’s “continuing ecocide, corruption and financial mis-management”.
Continue reading...Analysis: the UK government has bowed to the inevitable and shelved the expanded rollout
Pausing the rollout of smart motorways suggests the government has finally bowed to the inevitable, faced with the collective outrage of motoring groups, bereaved families, newspapers, MPs – and indeed a former minister who signed off the schemes.
Not, though, that the small print guarantees drivers have in any way seen the end of the hard shoulderless highways: ongoing major works will be completed, and even design work will go ahead for more stretches, in case the mood changes by 2025.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Macron slams Boris Johnson for trying to negotiate with him via Twitter as it cancels talks with UK officials over Channel crossings
The French government has accused Boris Johnson of “double speak”. In a briefing, the French government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, said that the proposal in Johnson’s letter to Emmanuel Macron for France to take back people who successfully cross the Channel on small boats was “clearly not what we need to solve this problem”.
According to PA Media, Attal also said that the letter doesn’t correspond at all” with the discussions Johnson and Macron had when they spoke on Wednesday. Atta went on: “We are sick of double speak.”
What would be completely unacceptable, a stain on our country and a scandal would be to see in future those whose parents have died being placed in inappropriate institutions, in elderly care homes or mental health institutions.
That would be something that I think would bring shame to our country as well as an utterly inappropriate lifestyle for those to whom we should be giving the best possible care.
This is not a bill about a condition, it is not about dealing with Down’s syndrome, it is about people who deserve the same ability to demand the best health, education and care as the rest of our society.
It is not on our part an act of charity, it is an act of empowerment and the recognition that all members of our society must have a right to respect, independence and dignity. That is why I brought this bill forward.
Continue reading...Project or alternative of a £209bn tunnel would be vastly expensive and fraught with complexities, study says
Boris Johnson’s proposal for a bridge or tunnel linking Scotland to Northern Ireland has been rejected by a feasibility study as vastly expensive – £335bn for the bridge or £209bn for the tunnel – and fraught with potential difficulties.
Released alongside a wider so-called union connectivity review, which called for investment in road, rail and domestic aviation to better connect the four UK nations, the fixed link report found either a bridge or tunnel would be at the very edge of what could be achieved with current technology.
Continue reading...Threat of Christmas being ruined by driver shortages forces ministers to expand range and duration of visas
Boris Johnson’s government has made a dramatic U-turn in an attempt to save Christmas – with a raft of extended emergency visas to help abate labour shortages that have led to empty shelves and petrol station queues.
New immigration measures will allow 300 fuel drivers to arrive immediately and stay until the end of March, while 100 army drivers will take to the roads from Monday, the government announced late on Friday.
Continue reading...Ministers to discuss emergency plan Operation Escalin after BP reveals a third of its forecourts have shortages
Hundreds of soldiers could be scrambled to deliver fuel to petrol stations running dry across the country due to panic buying and a shortage of drivers under an emergency plan expected to be considered by Boris Johnson on Monday.
The prime minister will gather senior members of the cabinet to scrutinise “Operation Escalin” after BP admitted that a third of its petrol stations had run out of the main two grades of fuel, while the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents almost 5,500 independent outlets, said 50% to 90% of its members had reported running out. It predicted that the rest would soon follow.
Continue reading...Emergency visa plan will not resolve Britain’s road transport crisis, says industry as majority blame Brexit in poll
The government’s emergency programme to issue temporary visas to thousands of lorry drivers is far too little to resolve Britain’s supply-chain crisis and is unlikely to attract them to the UK, haulage chiefs have warned.
Downing Street on Saturday night confirmed hastily compiled plans to add 5,000 HGV drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to a visa scheme until Christmas, to help the food and fuel industries with shortages.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ministers to make traffic provisions indefinite in expectation of further cross-Channel disruption
Emergency powers to handle post-Brexit queues of lorries heading for France are being made permanent, signalling the government expects further cross-Channel disruption.
Operation Brock, a traffic management system designed to cope with queues of up to 13,000 lorries heading for mainland Europe across Kent, was meant to end by October 2021, after being extended once when the Brexit transition period ended in December 2020.
Continue reading...Jim Steer responds to an article by Simon Jenkins that said the high-speed rail link was of little use to the north, and Mark Sullivan hopes the West Midlands gets the transport hub it rejected a decade ago
Simon Jenkins’ latest piece on HS2 (Depleted and unwanted, HS2 hurtles on as Johnson’s £100bn vanity project, 30 July) repeatedly mischaracterises both the case for, and the benefits of, a rail project that will transform connectivity in the UK.
He talks as if services will only go from London to Birmingham, stating confidently that “Britain’s new high-speed railway will not – repeat: not – get to the north of England”. But this is simply untrue. Construction work on the Birmingham-Crewe section is now under way, and detailed planning and consultation prior to a parliamentary bill submission is under way for Crewe-Manchester. HS2 services will reach Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds and more than a dozen other cities across the country.
Continue reading...Fully vaccinated Britons will not have to quarantine on return from France and Spain for the next three weeks, bringing much needed business to the struggling tourism sector, according to the transport secretary.
But Britons will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 'for evermore' in order to travel between countries, Grant Shapps has predicted, suggesting that quarantine restrictions for some arrivals in England will remain in place into the autumn.
Shapps said it was vital to 'protect the domestic unlocking' after the latest changes were announced to the traffic light system that grades destinations according to their case, vaccine and variant numbers
Continue reading...Home deliveries are soaring and cargo bikes cut congestion and pollution in cities, researchers say
Electric cargo bikes deliver about 60% faster than vans in city centres, according to a study. It found that bikes had a higher average speed and dropped off 10 parcels an hour, compared with six for vans.
The bikes also cut carbon emissions by 90% compared with diesel vans, and by a third compared with electric vans, the report said. Air pollution, which is still at illegal levels in many urban areas, was also significantly reduced.
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