Category Archives: Theresa May

UK coronavirus live: Matt Hancock ‘speechless’ at Neil Ferguson breaking lockdown; Rory Stewart ends London mayoral campaign

Posted on by

Health secretary says Professor Neil Ferguson was right to step down after breaking lockdown rules; Boris Johnson to face Keir Starmer for the first time at PMQs

Rory Stewart has abandoned his bid to become London mayor, saying that campaigning has become impossible after the election was delayed due to the coronavirus crisis. The former Tory cabinet minister said it had been an “agonising decision” but it was unfair on the unpaid volunteers working on his campaign.

I have decided that I will not be standing again for Mayor in the now delayed 2021 election. It has been a great privilege to work with so many amazing people with such passion and vision for London. Thank you very much again from the bottom of my heart. https://t.co/pDve6kTcjq

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has just started taking part in a Q&A on Sky News. And he started by escalating the criticism of Prof Neil Ferguson, suggesting there could be a case for the police getting involved.

Asked by the presenter Kay Burley if Ferguson should be prosecuted for breaking the lockdown rules, Hancock replied:

You can imagine what my views are.

It’s a matter for the police. As a government minister, I’m not allowed to get involved in the operational decisions of police matters. But I think that the social distancing rules are very important and people should be followed.

Absolutely I back the police. I back the Scottish police, I would back the police here. They will take their decisions independently from ministers, that’s quite right. It’s always been like that.

And that’s why, even though I’ve got a view as to what I think, as a minister the way we run the police is that they make their decisions like this. So I give them their space to make that decision. But I think he took the right decision to resign.

Continue reading...

Windrush report: Demand for inquiry into ‘Home Office racism’

Posted on by

Alliance of 16 anti-racism groups says report on scandal proves ‘institutional failures to understand racism’

An investigation into the extent of institutional racism within the Home Office must be launched in response to a damning report on the Windrush scandal, an alliance of anti-racism groups has urged.

The call came after the long-awaited publication of the independent inquiry into the government’s handling of the scandal, which saw British citizens wrongly deported, dismissed from their jobs and deprived of services such as NHS care.

Continue reading...

Windrush review to call for reform of ‘reckless’ Home Office

Posted on by

Critics fear hard-hitting report on scandal will be buried amid coronavirus crisis

Wholesale reform of a “reckless” and “defensive” Home Office is expected to be recommended in a hard-hitting review into the causes of the Windrush scandal when it is released by the home secretary on Thursday.

The Windrush Lessons Learned review is expected to criticise Home Office staff and government ministers for their continued failure to admit the magnitude of their mistakes and the scale of damage inflicted on thousands of legal UK residents who were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants, with catastrophic results.

Continue reading...

Criminal records scandal: police chiefs blame Theresa May

Posted on by

Former home secretary accused of botched reforms that led to failures over foreign criminals

Theresa May has been blamed by chief constables for botched police reforms that led to tens of thousands of alerts on foreign criminals being kept from their home countries.

The former home secretary is accused of “starving” the crucial police national computer (PNC) of money against advice from forces and instead pushing ahead with an ambitious and costly super-database to replace it that is now years behind schedule and millions of pounds over budget.

Continue reading...

Revealed: Cameron and May lobbied Bahrain royals for Tory donor’s oil firm

Posted on by

Former PMs asked princes to support bid for $5bn contract by Ayman Asfari’s firm Petrofac

Two former Conservative prime ministers lobbied a Middle Eastern royal family to award a multi-billion dollar oil contract to a company headed by a major Tory donor, the Guardian has established.

In March 2017, while in Downing Street, Theresa May wrote to the Bahraini prime minister to support the oil firm Petrofac while it was bidding to win the contract from the Gulf state.

Continue reading...

Trump told Theresa May he doubted Russia was behind Skripal poisoning

Posted on by

The US president reportedly disputed UK’s ‘overwhelming evidence’ of Russian involvement in Salisbury attack

Donald Trump disputed that Russia was behind the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in a tense call with Theresa May, it has emerged.

Despite the widespread conclusion that Vladimir Putin’s regime was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last year, the US president is said to have spent 10 minutes expressing his doubts about Russian involvement.

Continue reading...

Theresa May: I would rather write Alpine whodunnit than memoir

Posted on by

Ex-PM says she would like to write novel based on ill-fated 19th century ascent of Matterhorn

He was the British mountaineer who led the first ascent of one of the most formidable mountains in the Alps. She was the prime minister who is likely to go down in history for ultimately failing to reach the summit of her own personal Matterhorn.

Yet in her first public interview since leaving Downing Street – at a book festival in where she was asked about what book she might now find the time to write – Theresa May revealed that it was the dark rumours surrounding how four of Edward Whymper’s climbing party fell to their doom that most appealed to her.

Continue reading...

Calls for Boris Johnson to withdraw Geoffrey Boycott’s knighthood

Posted on by

Charities and opposition parties highlight ex-cricketer’s conviction for domestic abuse

Boris Johnson is being urged to withdraw Geoffrey Boycott’s knighthood over his conviction for domestic violence and the former England cricketer’s response to criticism.

Women’s charities and opposition parties made the call after Boycott said he did not “give a toss” about condemnation of his knighthood from a leading domestic violence charity.

Continue reading...

Theresa May accused of cronyism over resignation honours

Posted on by

Decision to give CBEs to her two controversial former advisers and party donors is condemned

Theresa May has been accused of “rotten” cronyism after handing out peerages, knighthoods and other honours to her closest aides, including her controversial former advisers Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, who left office amid accusations of bullying behaviour.

May’s resignation honours list heaps rewards on those who worked in Downing Street during her three-year tenure, despite her having previously poured scorn on cronyism under David Cameron.

Continue reading...

Lack of intelligence in passport checks | Letter

Posted on by
Professor Peter Dawson shares his personal experience of being stopped at airports and the justification given

I was intrigued to read about Professor David Baker’s problems at airports and his failure to get an explanation from the Home Office (Border farce: 100 stops in seven years for scientist, 7 August).

For three or more years I was routinely rejected at the electronic entry gates at Heathrow airport and would always have to present myself and passport to an officer who would very carefully check some database. None of them would engage with me or even tell me if it was a passport chip problem that I could get fixed until, finally, one did.

Continue reading...

Problems investigating historical child sex abuse | Letters

Posted on by
This crime needs specialist units to investigate, says Sara Newman, and a group of mental health professionals say there are lessons to be learned from Carl Beech’s trial

Carl Beech and the Metropolitan police’s investigation have done a great disservice to all victims of this terrible crime (Report, 27 July). There are many problems concerning the investigation of historical child sex abuse. The gathering of facts can be almost impossible as the passage of time may have erased any evidence, and what does survive needs properly resourced and trained officers to bring it to court. I wonder if the taboo and heinousness of this subject conspire to for ever hold it in an investigative system lacking in rigour, ingenuity and the will to make change.

I also see that Beech claimed criminal injury compensation to the tune of £22,000. How was this possible? There is something seriously wrong when conviction rates are this low and innocent people have their lives shattered. Is it not time we admitted that this crime needs specialist units who are well trained and resourced, so that when a child or adult makes the brave decision to report, they can be supported by a system they can trust, and see justice done.
Sara Newman
Groombridge, East Sussex

Continue reading...

My daughter has returned to the US and Theresa May is off. I feel bereft

Posted on by

Life is a series of ever more frequent losses; part of me will even miss the Maybot and her red lines

I had always naively imagined that parenting would get easier the older the children got. And in many mundane ways it has. I no longer have to worry so much about keeping them alive, about making sure they have done their homework or whether they are happy at university. They are now their own people, making their own decisions and sometimes even telling us what they are. Parenting has moved from practical problems to existential ones. Our daughter, who was over from Minneapolis for the first time in six months to direct a play at the Latchmere theatre in London, has gone back home. Her home. I find that hard to imagine because part of me still thinks of our home as her home. But it isn’t. She has moved on, even if I haven’t. My wife and I are no longer such key figures in her life. Not that she doesn’t love us, but we are no longer as important as we once were. Which is as it should be. If she was still living with us at 27, we’d all be driving one another mad. And for the most part, I have got used to the 4,000-mile distance between us, but having had her back for three weeks I feel bereft once more – despite the towels no longer being left on the floor. This is my new reality of getting older. A series of ever more frequent losses, each one diminishing me a little more. Until the rest is silence.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson claims his remarks were ‘misrepresented’ to Kim Darroch

Posted on by

Tory frontrunner says former US envoy confirmed TV debate was a factor in his resignation

Boris Johnson has robustly defended his role in the resignation of Kim Darroch, claiming his remarks in a televised debate had been “misrepresented” to the former ambassador to Washington.

Darroch quit his post on Wednesday, after Donald Trump publicly expressed his fury about a series of highly critical reports that had been leaked to the Mail on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Judge blocks justice department from changing lawyers in US census case – as it happened

Posted on by

In what experts called a troubling move, the agency had announced over the weekend that it was appointing a new team of lawyers

Wrapping up tonight’s live politics coverage. Here’s an updated summary of the day’s key developments from today’s bloggers, Lois Beckett and Sabrina Siddiqui.

Early today, billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer formally launched his campaign for president.

The reaction from some progressives has not been positive.

if i were a liberal billionaire with a $100 millions to burn i'd spend it on a nationwide voter registration drive instead of a vanity presidential campaign

hiring and training thousands of people to identify and register nonvoters and bring them to the polls is probably the single most effective thing you could do ahead of 2020 but then i'm not a billionaire hedge fund manager

Continue reading...

Trump lashes out at ‘foolish’ May as crisis over ambassador grows

Posted on by

US commerce secretary pulls out of trade talks as president calls envoy ‘very stupid’

Transatlantic tensions over the British ambassador’s leaked criticisms of Donald Trump have grown into a diplomatic crisis after the US president attacked Sir Kim Darroch as “a pompous fool” and his commerce secretary postponed planned trade talks with Liam Fox.

A day after Trump said he would no longer deal with Darroch following the release of UK diplomatic memos calling him “incompetent”, “inept” and “insecure”, he used his Twitter feed to attack the diplomat, who he described as “wacky” and “very stupid”.

Continue reading...

Ambassador row: Donald Trump not in a mood to let this pass

Posted on by

Danger for Boris Johnson, if he becomes PM, is being portrayed as governor of 51st state

In normal times, the breakdown in relations between Donald Trump and the British ambassador to the US could be readily finessed. Trump would vent his anger, and gain private British assurances that Sir Kim Darroch will be replaced by someone more palatable by the end of the year.

It would create an awkward interlude in the special relationship but every family has bust-ups.

Continue reading...

Pelosi: Trump wants to ‘make America white again’ with census question – live

Posted on by

Pelosi attacks Trump’s 2020 citizenship question as ‘disgraceful’, while Trump says US will no longer deal with UK ambassador Kim Darroch

As House Democrats began issuing subpoenas for President Trump’s financial records, the Justice Department fought a federal judge’s decision to allow the lawsuit accusing Trump of profiting off the presidency to go forward, the Associated Press is reporting:

Justice Department lawyers want an appeals court to take the case instead.

They filed papers Monday seeking to move the case from federal court in D.C. to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. They also want to stop subpoena requests seeking Trump’s business tax returns, and documents from Trump’s D.C. and New York hotels, Mar-a-Lago Club and Trump Tower.

Our climate and environment reporter, Susie Cagle, listened in on President Trump’s speech about “maintaining a healthy environment.” Here are some choice quotes from the speech:

Related: What Trump gets wrong about wildfires, by a fire scientist

Continue reading...

Donald Trump: we will no longer deal with the British ambassador

Posted on by

In latest tweets, US president also attacks Theresa May for making a mess of Brexit

Donald Trump has launched a scathing attack on Theresa May and said the US would no longer deal with the British ambassador to Washington after the diplomat’s frank assessments of the president as “inept” and “dysfunctional” were leaked to the Mail on Sunday.

In a sign of the damage to the US-UK relationship, Trump hit out at Sir Kim Darroch for a second day in a row, threatening to cut ties over the memos that described him as “radiating insecurity”.

Continue reading...

Theresa May makes veiled attack on Boris Johnson’s Brexit policy

Posted on by

PM says Britain must leave EU with ‘a good deal’ in apparent rebuke to ‘do or die’ comment

Theresa May has made a thinly veiled attack on Boris Johnson’s “do or die” approach to leaving the EU on 31 October, insisting that the right approach for Britain was to leave with a deal.

Attending her last EU summit in Brussels as prime minister on Sunday, May took aim at the approach of the Tory leadership frontrunner, who has taken an increasingly hardline approach in recent days.

Continue reading...