Survey comes as government rhetoric on immigrants gets increasingly toxic, adopting far-right slogans
Britons have among the most positive attitudes towards refugees in the world, a new global poll has found, despite increased hostility from the UK government to asylum seekers.
An international survey of almost 22,000 adults across 29 countries found British people had the third-most enthusiastic outlook towards refugees, just behind Spain and New Zealand.
Continue reading...Long-awaited privileges committee report finds former PM was ‘deliberately disingenuous’
Continue reading...Cross-party committee says ex-PM would have faced 90-day suspension had he not quit in rage at findings last week
Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over Partygate and was part of a campaign to abuse and intimidate MPs investigating him, a long-awaited report by the privileges committee has found.
In an unprecedented move, the cross-party group said he would have faced a 90-day suspension from the Commons had he not quit in rage at its findings last week.
Continue reading...No 10 says constituents in Mid Bedfordshire deserve certainty as it piles pressure on ex-minister to stand down
Downing Street is heaping pressure on Nadine Dorries to stand down as soon as possible, saying her constituents in Mid Bedfordshire deserve certainty.
The former culture secretary said last Friday she would “immediately” step down, after she was denied a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours.
Continue reading...PM’s office says Mid Bedfordshire deserves ‘proper representation’ and delay to resignation ‘obviously unusual’
Fell put it to Braverman that customers were not learning to protect themselves from online fraud because, if they are cheated, they tend to get their money back from banks. He suggested that people were being “coddled”. It was as if they were leaving their front door open, leaving themselves vulnerable to burglary, he said.
Braverman said Fell had a point. She told him:
I think that’s a really important point and I’m passionate about increasing awareness - much like practice changed when it came to wearing a seatbelt …
I think we need a step change when it comes to online activity. We are far more vulnerable than we appreciate and I think people’s lives are lived so politically online that they forget that there are fraudsters operating in that online world.
Continue reading...PM has clashed publicly with predecessor over failed attempts to elevate several close allies to Lords
Rishi Sunak would block Boris Johnson from standing again as a Conservative MP before the next election, sources have told the Guardian, as the two men engaged in an extraordinary war of words.
The prime minister clashed publicly with Johnson over his failed attempts to elevate several close allies to the House of Lords, accusing him of having lobbied to overturn due process to appoint the three Tory MPs. Johnson dismissed his claims as “rubbish”.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson accepts post of crown steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds after accusing PM of talking ‘rubbish’. This live blog is now closed
Full story: Boris Johnson formally steps down as MP
The EU has dashed UK hopes of an early review of the Brexit trade deal saying is unlikely to re-open talks until 2026.
European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, who leads for the EU on Brexit matters, said the deal was only in force for two years and it would be pointless re-opening it until its full potential was realised.
If the decision is just to simply go for more divergence … some of the fundamentals of the withdrawal agreement and the TCA would be thrown into the shredder.
Rishi secretly blocked the peerages for Nadine and others. He refused to ask for them to undergo basic checks that could have taken only a few weeks or even days. That is how he kept them off the list – without telling Boris Johnson.
Continue reading...Danone boss urges ministers to help people make healthy choices
One of the country’s biggest food firms has said ministers should consider taxing products high in fat, sugar or salt to combat the obesity crisis.
Danone UK & Ireland, which sells the Actimel yogurt drink brand, says government intervention is required to ensure consumers are offered healthier products. It says some food firms in the UK have not shown “enough appetite to change”.
Continue reading...As ever with the former PM there was plenty of barely hidden subtext as he took aim at perceived enemies
Boris Johnson’s statement announcing he will quit the Commons is not brief – more than 1,000 words – and, as ever with the former prime minister’s pronouncements, there is a lot of often barely hidden subtext:
I have received a letter from the privileges committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of parliament.
They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.
They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister.
They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current prime minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together.
Most members of the committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence. They should have recused themselves.
In retrospect it was naive and trusting of me to think that these proceedings could be remotely useful or fair. But I was determined to believe in the system, and in justice, and to vindicate what I knew to be the truth.
It was the same faith in the impartiality of our systems that led me to commission Sue Gray. It is clear that my faith has been misplaced. Of course, it suits the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP to do whatever they can to remove me from parliament.
Sadly, as we saw in July last year, there are currently some Tory MPs who share that view. I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.
My removal is the necessary first step, and I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about. I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence that Sue Gray – who investigated gatherings in No 10 – is now the chief of staff designate of the Labour leader.
Nor do I believe that it is any coincidence that her supposedly impartial chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a strong Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted personal attacks on me and the government.
When I left office last year the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened.
Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk.
Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do.
We need to deliver on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million people. We should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit.
I am now being forced out of parliament by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions, and without the approval even of Conservative party members let alone the wider electorate.
The Conservative party has the time to recover its mojo and its ambition and to win the next election.
I had looked forward to providing enthusiastic support as a backbench MP. Harriet Harman’s committee has set out to make that objective completely untenable.
The committee’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice but under their absurd and unjust process I have no formal ability to challenge anything they say.
The privileges committee is there to protect the privileges of parliament. That is a very important job. They should not be using their powers – which have only been very recently designed – to mount what is plainly a political hit-job on someone they oppose.
I am very sorry to leave my wonderful constituency. It has been a huge honour to serve them, both as mayor and MP.
But I am proud that after what is cumulatively a 15-year stint I have helped to deliver among other things a vast new railway in the Elizabeth line and full funding for a wonderful new state of the art hospital for Hillingdon, where enabling works have already begun.
Continue reading...Former prime minister to be suspended for 10 days and will not stand again in Uxbridge and South Ruislip
Responding to Rachel Reeves’s comments about Labour’s green investment on the Today programme (see also 9.24am and 9.45am) Rebecca Newsom, Greenpeace UK’s head of politics, said:
Any U-turn would be a huge mistake. Without the necessary immediate investment, we will lose out on the creation of thousands of jobs needed as we phase out fossil fuels, and we will lose out on the opportunity to put green tech industries at the centre of our economy.
Rachel Reeves rightly cites the opportunities of green growth, but this prevarication on confirming the scale of investment needed from the start of a new Labour government risks throwing in the towel on the global race in green tech, with the US, China and the EU already far ahead.
Should this letter be ignored, and negotiations are not in place by the 17 June the NEU national executive will be discussing our next steps. This will include the consideration of NEU teacher members in England taking further strike action in the week beginning 3 July.
There are six school term weeks until the summer holiday. Up and down the country, head teachers are trying to plan their school budgets for next year and trying to cope with the rapidly growing problem of recruiting enough teachers to fill their classrooms.
By not publishing the STRB report, your department is withholding vital information about what proposals that body has made on teacher pay, which may or may not help with the recruitment difficulties. It is also withholding vital information about the funding of pay rises.
Continue reading...PM gives green light to list that also includes knighthood for Jacob Rees-Mogg and damehood for Priti Patel
Rishi Sunak has been accused of allowing Boris Johnson to hand out rewards to those involved in the Partygate scandal, including more than 40 honours and peerages for his closest allies at the time.
The prime minister faced criticism for approving the list despite police looking at fresh potential evidence of rule-breaking in Downing Street and Chequers during lockdown, as well as an ongoing parliamentary inquiry into whether Johnson misled the Commons.
Continue reading...Lord Butler says there is ‘strong public interest in the inquiry being carried out constructively’
The North Sea oil and gas industry is in decline, the shadow business minister Seema Malhotra said, as she defended plans to block new drilling licences, a move criticised by trade unions. Aubrey Allegretti has the story here.
MPs will hold a debate on Monday on proposals to ban members from the parliamentary estate if they are being investigated for a criminal offence and are deemed to pose a risk to other people.
Last night the government was debating whether to hold a vote on Monday on proposals to ban MPs accused of violent or sexual offences from the estate — after backlash from some Tory backbenchers. One senior Tory MP told Playbook they opposed the plan because it would overturn “common practice that you are innocent until proven guilty”.
Continue reading...Lawyer for Covid inquiry announces ‘regrettable’ delays in handing over of information by government
Q: What would the minimum wage for workers be under your fair pay agreement for care workers? (See 10.47am.)
Starmer says his sister is a care worker. He knows how hard the job is.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak confirms two more barges will house 1,000 people, as sources say discussions about other areas are taking place
Thousands of asylum seekers could be housed in vessels moored near Newcastle, Harwich, Felixstowe and the Royal London docks, the Guardian has learned.
Rishi Sunak confirmed on Monday that the government had acquired two more giant barges to house about 1,000 people seeking refuge in the UK.
Continue reading...Leading scientist attacks prime minister as criticism mounts of government approach to science during the crisis
Rishi Sunak is facing a barrage of criticism in the run-up to the official Covid-19 inquiry as a leading scientist attacks his “spectacularly stupid” Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which is believed to have caused a sudden rise in cases of the virus.
The prime minister’s role as chancellor during the pandemic is under increasing scrutiny – as is that of his predecessor at No 10, Boris Johnson – in an escalating Covid blame game at Westminster as Lady Hallett prepares to open her investigation into the government’s pandemic response later this month.
Continue reading...Former PM says he will provide unredacted messages directly to the inquiry in letter to Lady Hallett
Earlier we reported on Boris Johnson’s willingness to provide unredacted WhatsApps to the Covid 19 inquiry directly.
In a letter to the chair on Friday, Johnson said: “I am not willing to let my material become a test case for others when I am perfectly content for the inquiry to see it.”
Continue reading...Former PM bypasses government’s attempts to keep unredacted communications secret
Boris Johnson has bypassed the government’s attempt to keep his unredacted WhatsApp messages secret by handing them over directly to the Covid inquiry.
In a move that will further frustrate Downing Street, the former prime minister circumvented the Cabinet Office, which is seeking to hold up the process by launching legal action.
Continue reading...Cabinet Office serves notice on inquiry chair at 4pm, the deadline she had set for it to hand over files
Ministers have launched an unprecedented high court attempt to avoid handing over Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries to the government-commissioned public inquiry into the handling of Covid.
In a move immediately condemned by bereaved families and opposition MPs, the Cabinet Office told the inquiry, headed by the retired judge Heather Hallett, that there were “important issues of principle” over passing on information that might not be relevant.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president speaks of the importance of overturning Russia’s air supremacy with Patriot missiles and F-16s
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had received “powerful support” from allies attending a summit in Moldova as it emerged F-16 fighter jets could be made available to Ukraine within six months.
Closing the conference of 46 European leaders held at a castle 12 miles (19km) from the border with Ukraine, the country’s president spoke of the importance of overturning Russian’s supremacy in the air with a “sky shield” involving a combination of Patriot missiles and F-16s.
Continue reading...Amazon UK Services received tax credit of £7.7m for investment in infrastructure under Rishi Sunak’s super-deduction scheme
Amazon’s main UK division has paid no corporation tax for the second year in a row after benefiting from tax credits on a chunk of its £1.6bn of investment in infrastructure, including robotic equipment at its warehouses.
Amazon UK Services, which employs more than half of the group’s UK workers, received a tax credit of £7.7m in the year to the end of December, according to accounts filed at Companies House, advance details of which were shared by Amazon with the Guardian.
Continue reading...