“Downing Street scrambled to defend Boris Johnson last night after pictures emerged of him raising a glass at a lockdown leaving do as sources claim he suggested Sue Gray should drop plans to publish her Partygate probe. Leaked images show the Prime Minister apparently toasting his outgoing communications chief Lee Cain on November 13, 2020 – a time when social gatherings were banned. One Tory source pointed the finger at Dominic Cummings, who has repeatedly called for ‘regime change’ in No 10. They said: ‘This has got Dom’s fingerprints all over it.’ The pictures were leaked to ITV News hours after the PM’s former aide said more photos of events in No 10 would emerge to coincide with the publication – possibly as soon as today – of Miss Gray’s Partygate report. A Government source last night said the ‘brief’ gathering did not amount to a party.” – The Daily Mail
“Chancellor Rishi Sunak has ordered officials to draw up plans for a possible windfall tax on more than £10bn of excess profits by electricity generators, including wind farm operators, on top of a hit on North Sea oil and gas producers. Treasury officials are working on a scheme that would go well beyond Labour’s original windfall tax plan, as Sunak looks to raise billions of pounds of financial support for households struggling with soaring energy bills. “North Sea oil and gas producers are only half the picture,” said one government insider. “The other half is that high gas prices have led to some pretty substantial windfall profits for all electricity generation.” By pulling big power generators such as SSE, ScottishPower, EDF Energy and RWE into the scope of any windfall tax Sunak would sharply increase the revenue it brings in.” – The Financial Times
“Britain is in discussion with allies about sending warships to the Black Sea to protect freighters carrying Ukrainian grain. A “coalition of the willing” would aim to break Russia’s blockade in weeks by providing a “protective corridor” from Odesa through the Bosphorus. There are fears that time is running out to avert a world food crisis and the US also said that it was sending long-range missiles to take out Russian ships. Gabrielius Landsbergis, the Lithuanian foreign minister, who discussed the corridor with Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the coalition could include some Nato countries and other countries reliant on the grain. It is thought that Egypt, which has been hit hard by the wheat shortage, might be willing to take part.” – The Times
“The turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underlined the need for a free Indo-Pacific region, Joe Biden has said, at the start of a meeting with regional partners that Beijing has slammed as part of a US-led attempt to contain China. Biden, and the leaders of a loose alliance known as the Quad – India, Japan and Australia – reaffirmed their commitment to a “free and open” Indo-Pacific during talks in Tokyo on Tuesday. The comments came one day after the US president said Washington would be ready to intervene militarily to defend Taiwan, prompting China to accuse him of “playing with fire”. Biden later appeared to attempt to play down his remarks, saying the US policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan remained unchanged, according to media reports.” – The Guardian
“Dominic Raab was condemned yesterday for his lack of leadership when Kabul fell to Taliban forces. In a damning report, MPs said a fundamental lack of planning and preparation by Mr Raab and senior officials meant the withdrawal from Afghanistan was ‘a disaster and a betrayal of our allies’. They said the incompetence may have cost lives. The MPs are demanding the resignation of the Foreign Office’s top mandarin and raised the suggestion that senior figures may not be ‘telling the truth’ about the airlift of animals from a shelter run by former Royal Marine Paul ‘Pen’ Farthing. The Commons foreign affairs committee said there had been an ‘appalling mismanagement’ of the situation in Afghanistan last summer with ‘systemic failures of intelligence, diplomacy, planning and preparation’.” – The Daily Mail
“Defence chiefs have “wasted” almost £2 billion of taxpayers’ money in the last year on failed equipment programmes or cancelled contracts, according to an audit. Figures compiled by Labour found 73 officially confirmed cases of waste — amounting to £15 billion since 2010, £6 billion of which has been incurred since Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, took office in 2019. The latest projects to feature in the audit included £19 million spent on the withdrawal of the minehunter HMS Atherstone, which was not reported until last year, and a £14 million write-off on the Falcon communications system, reported in the same year. Huge sums were also “wasted” on the earlier retirement of assets and cancellation of equipment programmes associated with the “integrated review” of defence and foreign policy last year. “ – The Times
“Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash has been spent on teaching civil servants to juggle and how to build a ‘mini Mexican railway’ at team ‘away days’, it has emerged. In official data on its spending, the Department for Transport revealed nearly £19,000 was spent on ‘away days’ between November and January. The events included ‘group juggling’ as part of an ‘ice-breaking and team-building’ day… The revelation about the ‘away day’ spending has seen the Government accused of ‘wasting taxpayers’ cash on absurd days out’ as the British public faces the cost-of-living crisis. DfT’s transparency data revealed a series of sums was spent on ‘away day’ events between 5th November last year and 20th January this year.” – The Daily Mail
“Former IRA terrorists will no longer be protected from prosecution by controversial letters handed to them by Tony Blair’s Government if they do not take part in a truth and reconciliation process, the Northern Ireland Secretary has confirmed. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Express, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has also pledged the cycle of prosecutions and civil cases against former soldiers during the Troubles will be brought to an end. Mr Lewis will today introduce the second reading in the Commons of the historic Northern Ireland Legacy Bill which is aimed at providing a last chance for the truth to be told about the Troubles before the Good Friday Agreement stated the peace process. From 2000, the Blair Government issued letters to former IRA terrorists that they were no longer being pursued for alleged crimes.” – Daily Express
“ The problem is that although age is, at the moment, a good predictor of how someone will vote, the generational divide in most democracies is an illusion. Look closely and such “new divides” look a lot like the old ones — in which asset ownership and wealth are still key in explaining electoral behaviour. The latest study to underline that truth, by Jane Green of Nuffield College, Oxford, and the University of Reading’s Roosmarijn de Geus, in many ways simply deepens our understanding of what happened in the UK’s 2019 general election. They explain that the Conservative party’s success came in expanding their reach further into the ranks of the economically secure: winning not only the votes of middle-class workers with secure jobs and stable incomes, but also the support of people in working-class occupations who enjoyed the same.” – The Financial Times
“The governor of the Bank of England denied it was to blame for soaring inflation after price rises hit a 40-year high last month. Speaking at a conference in Vienna, Andrew Bailey hit back at claims the central bank’s decision to print billions of pounds during the pandemic and slash interest rates to record lows had served to fuel the rapid rise in inflation. Last week Lord King, who was governor in 2008 when financial markets crashed, said the BoE’s actions during the pandemic helped to push up inflation. But yesterday Bailey said: ‘What I reject is the argument that in our response to Covid, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee let demand get out of hand and thus stoked inflation. The facts simply do not support this.’ Instead, Bailey attributed the rise in prices to the ‘very tight’ labour market.” – The Daily Mail
“A former Tory MP was jailed yesterday for molesting a 15-year-old boy after a judge condemned him for showing no remorse despite his claims that he is now teetotal and celibate. Imran Ahmad Khan, former MP for Wakefield, was sentenced to 18 months after his victim told Southwark crown court that he had suicidal thoughts, disliked being touched and suffered problems in relationships. Khan, 48, tried to force the schoolboy to drink gin and watch pornography before dragging him upstairs and throwing him on to a bed where the victim’s parents had said their visitor could sleep at their Staffordshire home in January 2008. After the boy fled to his own bed, Khan repeatedly groped him as his 11-year-old brother was in the bunk below.” – The Times