Tag Archives: uk politics

What’s The Tory? Can The Next Conservative Leader Capitalise On Labour’s Woes?

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Maybe the Conservatives don’t really need a new leader, after all.

Remarkably, the party has actually gained seven local council seats in the past five weeks after suffering a landslide general election defeat less than three months ago.

That is despite the fact that, for all intents and purposes, the Tories are effectively leaderless at the moment.

Rishi Sunak is still nominally in charge. But even those close to him concede that he mentally checked out of the job on the morning of July 5.

Indeed, the former PM will hardly be seen at the Conservatives’ annual conference in Birmingham, which kicks off on Sunday. He will address a members-only reception that evening, and is expected to play no further part in the proceedings.

Instead, the conference will be a political beauty contest, as James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick fight for the right to succeed Sunak as Tory boss.

The Conservatives’ poll ratings have recently ticked up slightly, although this has more to do with the Labour government’s ongoing woes than a sudden wave of affection for the Tories.

Polling by Savanta, seen by HuffPost UK, confirms that the general public have stopped paying attention to the party.

Given a choice of who would make the best opposition leader, Sunak, Nigel Farage or Ed Davey, the most popular answer was “don’t know”.

Emma Levin, associate director at Savanta, said: “There is clearly a big gap in British politics for an opposition politician to properly take Keir Starmer to task. But that hasn’t happened yet.”

One former Tory cabinet member, who is yet to decide who to back in the leadership race, told HuffPost UK that the conference is an opportunity to show the public that the party still exists.

“Labour being so shit has just overwhelmed everything,” he said. “I’m genuinely surprised that they’re making a lot of very basic mistakes.

“People have forgotten all about Rishi Sunak. It has all been about Labour and how bad they’ve been.”

The MP said he hoped that one of the four remaining candidates may emulate David Cameron, who used the party conference in 2005 to destroy his more-favoured rival, David Davis.

“This year’s conference is about bringing the leadership contest back to centre stage, and highlighting what the differences are between the contenders.

“We’ll be looking to see how they perform, whether they commit any gaffes and whether any of them can do a Cameron-esque performance that blows everyone else away.”

Under the rules of the contest, the remaining four will be whittled down to three and then two by a couple of ballots of Tory MPs when Westminster returns the week after next. It will then be up to the party’s members to decide the winner, who will be announced on November 2.

The contenders: clockwise from top left, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly
The contenders: clockwise from top left, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly

Former immigration minister Jenrick is now the bookies’ favourite, overtaking the previous frontrunner Badenoch.

One of his supporters said: “There is a lot of momentum behind Robert’s campaign, but he’s not taking anything for granted, he’s going to keep working hard to persuade MPs to support his positive case for change.

“He’s the only candidate who can win back voters on the left and right with his focus on the big issues and his serious, credible answers on the key challenges of the day, such as immigration, NHS reform and growing our economy.”

But a Badenoch campaign source insisted she was very much still in the race.

He said: “Kemi has been touring the country solidly for the past few months, going from Conservative association to Conservative association and getting an amazing reception from the members.

“All the independent polling puts her way out ahead with our membership. This conference is a chance to show MPs she is the members’ choice – the one with the star quality to cut through as a leader of the opposition and take the fight to Labour.”

Cleverly, a former party chairman, foreign secretary and home secretary, is seen by many as the dark horse of the contest, with even a senior figure in a rival campaign admitting he is “under-priced” by the bookies.

A source on his campaign described the conference as “a home fixture”, given his popularity with the party’s rank-and-file.

“He is a party man who loves campaigning and engaging with the activists and members – and he gets a consistently good reception from them wherever he goes, mainly because he knows half of them,” the source said.

“His approach is to engage as much as possible with the members, to set out his pitch as the unity candidate and the most experienced candidate who is ready to hit the ground running from day one as leader.”

It is barely 12 weeks since the Tories were reduced to just 121 MPs in the House of Commons, a statistical irrelevance when compared to Labour’s 411 and fewer than 50 seats ahead of the Lib Dems.

Whoever wins the leadership race faces a monumental task in trying to return the party to power at the next election.

Nevertheless, there remains a flicker of optimism among the party that the new Labour government’s struggles are not just a blip, but a sign that their seemingly-impregnable Commons majority could be wiped out at the first attempt.

They believe there is some light at the end of a very long tunnel. Whether it turns out to be an oncoming train remains to be seen.

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Tories Urged To Expel Election Candidate Who ‘Endorsed’ Far-Right Leader

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TOLGA AKMEN via Getty Images

Founder and former leader of the anti-Islam English Defence League (EDL), Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, arrives at the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court, in central London on July 5, 2019

The Conservatives have been urged to expel a local election candidate who “endorsed” far-right leader Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, on social media.

The Tories were also asked to explain whether it was “incompetence or malice” that led to the candidate being readmitted to the party after reportedly resigning in 2018 when the post was first flagged with the party’s central office.

In the Facebook post first reported by the Lancashire Telegraph, Andrew Walker, a Tory candidate for Blackburn with Darwen Council, appeared to share a “meme” featuring a photo of Robinson which was headlined: “Tommy Robinson has done nothing but expose the truth behind radical Islam.”

Above the post, Walker wrote: “Cant be easy preaching what we all think !!!” [sic]

The Lancashire Telegraph also published screenshots showing Walker had once said on Facebook that “stabbing [Jeremy] Corbyn would get you knighted in my book”.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner urged the Conservatives to “reassure the public” that far-right supporters are not standing for the party in local elections.

“The Conservatives must explain whether it was incompetence or malice that led them to not only readmit this person into the party but then to select him as a candidate,” she told HuffPost UK.

“They must also set out what steps they are taking to reassure the public that no other far right […] supporters are standing for them in the local elections.”

Rayner said the Tories were facing “serious questions” over a “failure to tackle racism in their party”, pointing out that its inquiry into Islamophobia has still not published a report and in any case was “watered down before it even began”. 

Anti-racism campaigners Hope Not Hate also raised concerns over the Islamophobia report and said there was no doubt that “endorsing” a convicted criminal like Yaxley-Lennon was “utterly unacceptable”.

The English Defence League (EDL) founder is currently being sued for libel by a Syrian teenager Jamal Hijazi, 17, over comments he made when the boy was attacked at his Huddersfield school in October 2018.

In 2019, Robinson was jailed for contempt of court after live-streaming on Facebook a video that featured defendants in a sexual exploitation trial and put the case at risk of collapse.

In the past, he has been convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, mortgage fraud and travelling on another man’s passport to the United States, among other offences.

A Hope Not Hate spokesperson said: “During the Conservative Party leadership contest, Boris Johnson and all other candidates committed to holding a specific inquiry into Islamophobia affecting the party. Many months later and that commitment has been watered down, we’re still waiting for the results of the resulting Singh inquiry, and we still have Conservative Party candidates sharing far-right memes and hatred against Muslims.

“In this day and age, no one can be in any doubt about the far-right rabble rouser ‘Tommy Robinson’, a multiply convicted violent criminal and fraudster, and it’s utterly unacceptable for any member of a political party – yet alone the party of government – to be enthusiastically endorsing his extremism.

“The Conservative Party must remove this candidate immediately, and expedite publishing the results of the inquiry into prejudice in the party.”

Walker’s election agent for the Darwen South seat said they could not comment as the matter is under investigation by Tory central office.

HuffPost UK has contacted Tory central office for comment.

The local elections take place on May 6.

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‘Pervasive Racism’ Meant Black And Asian WWI Troops Were Not Commemorated

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“Pervasive racism” underpinned a failure to properly commemorate potentially hundreds of thousands of predominantly Black and Asian service personnel who died fighting for the British Empire, an investigation has found.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) apologised after its investigation found those individuals were not formally remembered in the same way as their white comrades.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace on Thursday morning told the Commons: “The number of casualties commemorated unequally, the number commemorated without names and the number otherwise entirely unaccounted for is not excusable.” He accepted that “prejudice” had played a part.

The investigation discovered at least 116,000 predominantly African and Middle Eastern First World War casualties “were not commemorated by name or possibly not commemorated at all”.

Martin Keene/PA

Graves of British soldiers who fought at the Somme in the First World War, who are buried at the Connaught Cemetery near the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in northern France

The figure could be as high as 350,000, according to the report obtained by the PA news agency after it was first reported by the Guardian.

Most of the men were commemorated by memorials that did not carry their names.

When war broke out in 1914, King George V called for “men of every class, creed and colour” to join the fight. What was then the British West Indies is thought to have sent 16,000 soldiers to join the English forces, plus some 4,500 volunteers, who arrived in special contingents. 

In 1915, the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR) was formed, comprising two thirds of its men from Jamaica and the rest hailing from the Bahamas to then British Guiana. 

But Caribbean soldiers were not permitted to fight as equals against their white compatriots, with most serving for lower pay in the Labour Corps, according to the BBC. 

One who was commemorated however was Walter Tull, who was a footballer and the first Black Army officer to command troops in a regular unit. 

He died aged 29 while leading an attack on the Western Front during the second Battle of the Somme on March 25, 1918.

Tull served as a second lieutenant, leading men into battle at a time when the Army forbade a person of non-European descent becoming an officer.

As well as being one of the most celebrated Black British soldiers of the Great War, Tull was also one of the first Black professional football players in England, playing for Tottenham Hotspur while overcoming racial discrimination.

The investigation also estimated that between 45,000 and 54,000 Asian and African casualties were “commemorated unequally”.

Some were commemorated collectively on memorials, unlike those in Europe, and others, who were missing, were only recorded in registers rather than in stone.

In 2018 a war memorial featuring a Sikh soldier to honour the many from the Indian subcontinent who fought in both world wars was unveiled in Smethwick, Birmingham. 

The special committee behind the investigation was established by the CWGC in 2019 after a critical documentary on the issue, titled Unremembered and presented by Labour MP David Lammy.

Originally named the Imperial War Graves Commission, it was founded in 1917 to commemorate those who died in the war.

IWM via Imperial War Museums via Getty I

Soldiers of the British West Indies Regiment in camp on the Albert to Amiens Road, France, World War I, September 1916

The investigation found that the failure to properly commemorate the individuals was “influenced by a scarcity of information, errors inherited from other organisations and the opinions of colonial administrators”.

“Underpinning all these decisions, however, were the entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism of contemporary imperial attitudes,” it added.

One example given is based on communications in 1923 between F.G. Guggisberg, the governor of the Gold Coast colony, now Ghana, and Arthur Browne, from the commission.

At a meeting in London, it was said that the governor said “the average native of the Gold Coast would not understand or appreciate a headstone” as he argued for collective memorials.

A response from Arthur Browne showed “what he may have considered foresight, but one that was explicitly framed by contemporary racial prejudice”, according to the report.

“In perhaps two or three hundred years’ time, when the native population had reached a higher stage of civilisation, they might then be glad to see that headstones had been erected on the native graves and that the native soldiers had received precisely the same treatment as their white comrades,” he said.

In its response to the report, the CWGC says it “acknowledges that the Commission failed to fully carry out its responsibilities at the time and accepts the findings and failings identified in this report and we apologise unreservedly for them”.

In a statement CWGC director general Claire Horton said: “The events of a century ago were wrong then and are wrong now.

“We recognise the wrongs of the past and are deeply sorry and will be acting immediately to correct them.”

Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, said: “No apology can ever make up for the indignity suffered by the unremembered.

“However, this apology does offer the opportunity for us as a nation to work through this ugly part of our history – and properly pay our respects to every soldier who has sacrificed their life for us.”

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India Added To UK’s Covid Travel ‘Red List’, Announces Matt Hancock

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India will be added to the UK’s “red list” for travel, Matt Hancock has announced.

It means from 4am on Friday April 23, only British, Irish and third-country nationals with residency rights travelling from India can enter England.

Anyone arriving in the country will be required to self-isolate in a government-approved hotel for ten days.

Hancock told the Commons on Monday: “We’ve recently seen a new variant first identified in India.

“We’ve now detected 103 cases of this variant, of which again the vast majority have links to international travel and have been picked up by our testing at the border.”

The health secretary said the samples have been analysed to see if the new variant has any “concerning characteristics” such as greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines.

He added: “After studying the data, and on a precautionary basis, we’ve made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list.”

Boris Johnson cancelled his visit to India next week, as the coronavirus crisis deepened in India and concerns grew over the new variant.

The already-curtailed trip was postponed indefinitely on Monday, but the prime minister said he planned to hold a call with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi ahead of a rescheduling “as and when circumstances allow”.

Johnson had until that point resisted demands to hold the talks, aimed at fostering closer ties with the nation, on a virtual basis amid calls to impose greater restrictions on travel to and from India.

The cancellation came as New Delhi entered a week-long lockdown to tackle a surge in cases and prevent a collapse of the capital’s health system, as India reported 273,810 new infections – the highest daily rise since pandemic began.

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Rishi Sunak’s Role In Greensill Lobbying Scandal To Be Probed By MPs

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Rishi Sunak’s role in the Greensill lobbying scandal will be investigated by MPs.

The cross-party Commons Treasury committee will examine the response by the chancellor and his team to lobbying from David Cameron, who tried to secure Covid rescue funding for Greensill Capital.

The former prime minister, who was working as an adviser to the firm, last year repeatedly sent text messages to Sunak to try to secure support through the government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF).

It came as Commons public administration committee chair William Wraggg said Cameron’s activities were “tasteless, slapdash and unbecoming”, and said his group of MPs would also be “giving these matters proper consideration”, suggesting a separate inquiry could be launched.

Text messages released last week following a Freedom of Information request revealed Sunak eventually rebuffed Cameron’s demands, but only after he “pushed” officials to explore an alternative plan that could have helped Greensill.

Greensill has now collapsed into insolvency, rendering Cameron’s reported millions of share options worthless.

The Treasury committee said its inquiry would “focus on the regulatory lessons from the failure of Greensill Capital and the appropriateness of [the] Treasury’s response to lobbying in relation to Greensill Capital”.

Conservative MP Mel Stride, who chairs the committee, said: “The Treasury committee had previously decided to carefully consider these issues as part of its regular and upcoming evidence sessions with HM Treasury and its associated bodies, including the Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England.

“In addition to this, we have now decided to take a closer look by launching an inquiry to investigate the issues that fall within our remit. We will publish further details when we launch the inquiry officially next week.”

Earlier, Tory MPs voted down Labour plans to set up a wider-ranging new committee to investigate the Greensill scandal, and the wider lobbying rules.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves argued a bigger probe was needed and that Boris Johnson’s proposed review was “wholly inadequate” as it was being led by a “good friend” of the Tory government in City lawyer Nigel Boardman.

It came after Keir Starmer said the row over Cameron’s lobbying marked the “return of Tory sleaze”.

The Labour leader said financier Lex Greensill was brought into the government as an adviser by Cameron, before then hiring the former prime minister to act as a lobbyist contacting Cabinet ministers including Sunak and health secretary Matt Hancock.

The row has intensified this week after it emerged that the former head of civil service procurement, Bill Crothers, became an adviser to Greensill Capital while still working as a civil servant, in a move approved by the Cabinet Office.

Responding at PMQs, Johnson said he shared the “widespread concern about some of the stuff that we’re reading at the moment”.

“I do think it is a good idea in principle that top civil servants should be able to engage with business and should have experience of the private sector,” Johnson said.

“When I look at the accounts I’m reading to date, it’s not clear that those boundaries had been properly understood and I’ve asked for a proper independent review of the arrangements that we have to be conducted by Nigel Boardman, and he will be reporting in June.”

Downing Street meanwhile defended Boardman, describing him as a “distinguished legal expert”.

“He was asked to lead this review independently. He has been asked to do it thoroughly and promptly and we trust him to do that,” Johnson’s official spokesperson told reporters.

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Shirley Williams, Lib Dem Peer And Former Cabinet Minister, Dies Aged 90

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The former cabinet minister and Lib Dem peer Baroness Shirley Williams has died aged 90.

In an announcement on Monday, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said it was “heartbreaking for me and for our whole Liberal Democrat family”.

Williams was one of the disenchanted ex-Labour cabinet ministers who became the gang of four founders of the breakaway and short-lived Social Democratic Party (SDP).

As a Labour minister, Lady Williams, served in the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1970s rising to become education secretary.

Throughout her political career, both in the Labour Party and subsequently the SDP and then the Lib Dems, Williams was a passionate pro-European.

Davey said: “Shirley has been an inspiration to millions, a Liberal lion and a true trailblazer. I feel privileged to have known her, listened to her and worked with her. Like so many others, I will miss her terribly.

“Political life will be poorer without her intellect, her wisdom and her generosity. Shirley had a limitless empathy only too rare in politics today; she connected with people, cared about their lives and saw politics as a crucial tool to change lives for the better.

“As a young Liberal, Shirley Williams had a profound impact on me, as she did on countless others across the political spectrum. Her vision and bravery, not least in founding the SDP, continues to inspire Liberal Democrats today.

“Rest in peace, Shirley. My thoughts and prayers are with your family and your friends.”

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Boris Johnson Orders Independent Probe Into Cameron Lobbying Row

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Boris Johnson has ordered an independent review of David Cameron’s lobbying of the government on behalf of finance firm Greensill Capital.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson announced that City lawyer Nigel Boardman will lead a probe into links between the company and ministers, including personal approaches made by Cameron.

MPs have demanded answers after it emerged that the former premier had personally emailed and texted Chancellor Rishi Sunak and others to help Greensill win Whitehall contracts and financial roles.

Sunak is under huge political pressure for his admission that he sent a text to Cameron in which he said he had “pushed” Treasury officials to look at helping the firm with access to multi-million pound Covid support schemes.

In a new move, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle granted shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds an urgent question to be answered on Tuesday into the row.

Dodds’ question calls on Sunak to deliver “a statement on the process by which Greensill Capital was approved as a lender for the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loans Scheme”.

Cameron broke his silence on the row on Sunday, saying he should have acted “through only the most formal of channels” rather than personally texting Sunak. 

Johnson wants the new probe to be completed “promptly”, the spokesperson said.

“The Cabinet Office is commissioning an independent review on behalf of the prime minister to establish the development and use of Supply Chain Finance and associated activities in government, and the role Greensill played in those,” he said.

“This independent review will also look at how contracts were secured and how business representatives engaged with government.

“The PM has called for the review to ensure government is completely transparent about such activities, and that the public can see for themselves if good value was secured for taxpayers money.”

Greensill collapsed into administration in March, which in turn put at risk one of its biggest clients, steelmaker Liberty Steel.

The Financial Times and Sunday Times have revealed how the firm’s founder Lex Greensill had unprecedented access within Whitehall as he sought to get the government to use his finance firm to offer loans for public services.

And Cameron, who was hired by Greensill after he left office, piled pressure onto ministers in the Treasury to grants access to Covid support funds for the firm over the past year.

The ex-PM also lobbied health secretary Matt Hancock. He brought Lex Greensill and director Bill Crothers to private drinks with Hancock in 2019, when they lobbied for the adoption of a payment scheme for doctors and nurses that was later rolled out within the NHS.

After weeks of refusing to comment, Cameron issued a statement on Sunday to the PA news agency, in which he said that having “reflected on this at length” he accepts there are “important lessons to be learnt”.

On Monday morning, former PM Gordon Brown called for tougher rules to prevent ex ministers lobbying within government, claiming it “brings public service into disrepute”.

Cameron insists that he broke no codes of conduct on former ministers’ links to government, but several MPs from all parties have called for tighter rules.

Labour insists that Sunak has questions to answer over whether he broke the ministerial code in “pushing” officials to help Greensill on Cameron’s behalf.

The chancellor last week voluntarily published his texts to the ex-PM under the Freedom of Information Act, although Cameron’s texts have not yet been published. Treasury sources insist that officials rebuffed Cameron’s main request in the proper way.

Boardman, who has spent years as a partner at the City law firm Slaughter and May, is a non-executive board member of the Department for Business and chair of the government’s Audit, Risk and Assurance committee.

He conducted a review of the Cabinet Office’s procurement processes which was published in December, 2020.  “He seems like he is an experienced person to lead this independent review,” the PM’s spokesperson said.

But shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said: “This has all the hallmarks of another cover-up by the Conservatives.

“Just as with the inquiry into Priti Patel’s alleged bullying, this is another Conservative Government attempt to push bad behaviour into the long grass and hope the British public forgets.

“The Conservatives can’t be trusted to yet again mark their own homework. We need answers on Greensill now – that means key players in this cronyism scandal like David Cameron, Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock appearing openly in front of Parliament as soon as possible to answer questions.”

Boardman’s former firm Slaughter and May, which is part of the so-called “Magic Circle” of corporate law companies, came under fire in 2018 during collapse of public-private sector construction giant Carillion.

Labour had accused such corporate law firms of “circling Carillion like vultures, squeezing every last penny of fee income as the company was going down”.

Boardman, whose late father was Tory cabinet minister Tom Boardman, would “access to the documents that he needs”, No.10 said.

Asked whether Johnson believed lobbying rules needed to be changed, the prime minister’s official spokesperson replied: “As you have seen from what we have announced today, the prime minister understands the significant public interest in this and wants to look at the issues raised and get more details.

“But I think you can judge from his actions.”

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Black Lives Matter May Have Reduced Spread Of Covid, Says Sage

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JUSTIN TALLIS via AFP via Getty Images

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement may have helped reduce the spread of Covid, scientists advising the government have said.

Experts on the ethnicity subgroup of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) said the anti-racist movement “fostered greater empowerment within the Black African and Black Caribbean community and enabled these groups to express their frustrations of many years”.

“This new empowerment may have created a sense of optimism and facilitated open dialogue which increased knowledge and contributed to greater use of cultural, religious and collaborative approaches to reducing risk and transmission of Covid-19 in Black communities in the UK,” the scientists said.

“Strategies include sharing videos of elders having the vaccine and hosting a Covid-19 vaccine event to address misinformation stemming from historic issues of unethical scientific research and religious beliefs.”

Ethnic minorities have been disproportionately impacted by Covid, suffering higher death rates than the white population. 

In the paper prepared on March 26 and made public on Friday, the scientists warned Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups “have not reported similar feelings of empowerment”.

“Establishing and/or rebuilding trust may take longer, particularly for Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups in the absence of a national movement such as BLM,” it states.

The experts also said the failures in public health messaging during the first wave of Covid due to “inaccessible language, modes of delivery and mistrust towards formal organisations” meant Bangladeshi and Pakistani groups “feel more wary or sceptical” of current government communication.

The BLM movement, which began in the US in 2013, had a global resurgence in 2020 following the killing George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Senior UK government ministers have criticised the BLM movement in the UK, including foreign secretary Dominic Raab who revealed he incorrectly thought the gesture of taking a knee was inspired by Game of Thrones.

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Labour MP Stephen Timms Condemned For Praising ‘Anti-LGBTQ’ Church

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A Labour MP has been condemned for his “upsetting” decision to praise a church with a history of anti-LGBTQ campaigning – just hours after Keir Starmer was forced to apologise for visiting it.

Stephen Timms said he applauded the “extraordinary work” of Jesus House For All The Nations church in Brent, north London.

The East Ham MP’s tweet came the same day the Labour leader said he was sorry for visiting the church over Easter and endorsing its work despite well publicised anti-LGBTQ statements made by one of its senior leaders.

The Labour Campaign for LGBT+ Rights had branded Starmer’s visit and subsequent praise for the church’s work in a video as “unacceptable”.

Starmer eventually accepted it had been a “mistake” to visit the church, which is serving as a vaccination centre. He said he was “not aware” of its views on LGBTQ rights – despite Theresa May having been called out for the same reason after she visited it in 2017.

Timms opposed same-sex marriage ahead of its introduction in 2014 because he said marriage was “ordained for the procreation of children”.

He told HuffPost UK on Wednesday he had “checked” with Jesus House, which told him it regarded “homophobia as anti-Christian”.

But the church’s senior pastor, Agu Irukwu, has previously spoken against same-sex marriage and equality legislation.

In 2006 he signed a letter to The Daily Telegraph condemning the then Labour government for its position that “homosexuality is equal to heterosexuality”, something Irukwu said he did not “believe”.

“The latest discrimination against Christians is the new law called the Sexual Orientation Regulations, said to combat the problem of homophobia in Britain,” the letter said.

“It alarms us that the government’s only evidence for a problem actually existing is ‘accounts in national newspapers’.”

A separate letter in The Daily Telegraph, signed by Irukwu in 2013, said “marriage is and always will be distinctively a union between a man and a woman” and argued same-sex marriage would be “devaluing” the institution.

A survey run by the church in 2015, uncovered by Yahoo News, grouped homosexuality, being bisexual or transgender in with beastiality. 

Eloise Stonborough, associate director of policy and research at Stonewall, told HuffPost UK: “It’s disappointing to see politicians praising organisations which speak out against LGBT+ equality.

“This kind of acknowledgement is even more upsetting when so many faith groups welcome and support LGBT+ people of faith, and are doing crucial work to support their communities.

“Last December, over a hundred faith leaders came together from across the major religious traditions specifically to support a ban on conversion therapy.

“At a time when many LGBT+ people face huge challenges, we should all be focused on tackling prejudice and creating a world where everyone can thrive no matter who they are.”

Responding to Timms’ tweet, Labour MP Kate Osborne said: “Another day of disappointment.

“I also applaud the work of churches and faith groups who support their communities but, I do not applaud those who hide their bigotry behind their so-called religious beliefs.”

Timms told HuffPost UK: “Churches and mosques in Newham – including one of the Jesus House affiliates in East Ham – have done a superb job during the pandemic in distributing food to people who would otherwise not have had any. 

“The hardship of the pandemic would have been even worse without their efforts.

“They have been especially important for those with no recourse to public funds. 

“Given concerns expressed yesterday, I checked with Jesus House who told me that they don’t do anything like conversion therapy, and regard homophobia as anti-Christian.”

In an interview on Wednesday with Premier Christian News, Irukwu said the church does “not engage in any form of conversion therapy”.

Downing Street has also defended Boris Johnson’s own recent visit to the church.

The prime minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton said “one of the main jobs inside government over the last few weeks and months has been driving up vaccine take-up in communities that are hesitant about taking it, most notably the black community”.

“It was an incredibly important visit. Making sure every aspect of the population feels confident in and takes the vaccine is a top priority for this government.”

She added: “This is a government that is fully committed to advancing LGBT rights and championing equality.”

Jesus House and the Labour Party has been approached for comment.

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Boris Johnson Accused Of Breaking Ministerial Code With ‘Political’ Attack On Sadiq Khan

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Stefan RousseauPA

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus (Covid-19). Picture date: Monday April 5, 2021.

Boris Johnson broke ministerial rules and misled the public when he launched on “unprompted political attack” on Sadiq Khan using the government’s new £2.6m Downing Street press room, Labour has said. 

The prime minister was reaching the end of a televised briefing on the Covid pandemic when he made false claims about the London mayor and Transport for London (TfL) budget. 

Johnson, Khan’s predecessor at City Hall, claimed he left TfL’s finances in “robust, good order”, and the current mayor had blown a “black hole” in the budget with a fares freeze. 

The complete collapse in passenger numbers since Covid hit, however, has seen government agree a £1.6bn bailout in May, followed by a £1.8bn deal in November.

A TfL report published a month before Johnson left office in 2016 also showed TfL had a nominal debt of £9.1bn.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has now written to cabinet secretary Simon Case calling for him to investigate and for the PM to apologise. 

She alleges Johnson broke the ministerial code by using government resources – the Downing Street press room – for political campaigning during an election period. 

It comes ahead of local elections in May, including at City Hall. 

The code, which governs ministers’ conduct, states: “Official facilities and resources may not be used for the dissemination of party political material”.

Rayner writes: “The attack was political in nature, unprompted, and entirely unrelated to either the topic of the press conference or the question the prime minister was asked.” 

The deputy leader also hit out at Johnson’s decision not to sack home secretary Priti Patel after a formal investigation found evidence that she bullied civil servants. 

Ethics adviser Alex Allan quit after Johnson ruled Patel should stay in post. 

Rayner said: “The ministerial code, by which government ministers are bound, clearly states that official facilities and resources may not be used for the dissemination of party political material.

“This includes the prime minister’s new media briefing room, which cost the British taxpayer £2.6 million.

“The prime minister has a lot of experience with the ministerial code – his home secretary was found to have breached it after bullying staff, prompting his independent advisor on ethics and ministerial standards to resign.

“The British people would rightly not expect a prime minister who has spent so much first-hand experience of dealing with matters relating to the Code to be so blatant in flouting it during a pre-election period.”  

Rayner states that in the four years Sadiq Khan was mayor before Covid hit, he reduced the operating deficit of TfL, left by the previous mayor, by 71%. 

But Johnson said during the press briefing on Monday: “As for the finances of TfL I must respectfully remind you that I left them in robust, good order. It is not through any fault of my own the current Labour mayor decided to blow them all on an irresponsible fares policy. 

“We are doing our best to help them out and we will continue to do so. But I’m afraid you have to look at some of the decisions that were taken by the current Labour mayor as well.

“I hesitate to make a point like that but since you rightly draw attention to the fact I’m a proud former mayor of London I do think we could look at the way TfL is being run.” 

The Cabinet Office confirmed the letter had been received.

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