Tag Archives: Politics

Dominic Cummings Has Accused Matt Hancock Of ‘Flat Out Lying’ To The Covid Inquiry

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Dominic Cummings has accused Matt Hancock of “flat out lying” to the Covid Inquiry by claiming he was the first to push for the UK to go into lockdown.

The former health secretary Hancock claimed he urged then prime minister Boris Johnson to enforce a lockdown on March 13, 2020.

But in a scathing post on X (formerly Twitter) as Hancock was still giving evidence to the inquiry, Cummings said that was untrue.

He said: “Hancock flat out lying to Inquiry claiming he privately pushed for lockdown on 13th with PM – but admits there’s no evidence for it .”

Cummings also claimed that he “physically stopped” the then-health secretary coming to a meeting the following day because he “was bull****ting everybody about herd immunity”.

But an ally of Hancock said: “Cummings is not a reliable witness and this tweet is wrong.

“Matt called Boris on 13th, argued for lockdown on 14th and then Boris invited Matt into the smaller meeting after Cummings had tried to exclude him.”

Giving evidence today, Hancock told the inquiry that Cummings was a “malign influence” who created a toxic “culture of fear” in government.

Cummings is not the first witness to accuse the former health secretary of dishonesty.

In an earlier evidence session, former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance told the inquiry that Hancock had a habit of saying things that “were not true”.

And Helen MacNamara claimed he “regularly” told colleagues things “they later discovered weren’t true”.

Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara also said Hancock would say things “which surprise people because they knew the evidence base wasn’t there”.
Hancock refuted these claims during his evidence session.

Covid inquiry counsel Hugo Keith also seemed skeptical at the legitimacy of Hancock’s lockdown assertions. He asked why there was no mention of it in his book, Pandemic Diaries.

“There is a whole page on how you woke up from the dawn flight to Belfast … you then went to Cardiff and so on.

“Telling the prime minister of this country, for the first time, that he had to call an immediate lockdown, is surely worthy of some recollection, is it not?”

Hancock replied: “I didn’t have full access to my papers for the writing of that, and this came to light in researching the papers ahead of this inquiry.”

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Dominic Raab Had ‘Five Minutes Notice’ He Was Taking Over Running The Country

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Dominic Raab has said he was given “five minutes notice” that he was taking over the running of the country from Boris Johnson during the pandemic.

The former foreign secretary told the Covid inquiry on Wednesday he believed the government “did a reasonable job” during his time in charge.

He stepped up as de facto prime minister in April 2020 when Johnson was incapacitated due to being serious ill with Covid.

At the time, Raab was also first secretary of state, with Johnson having told him “you’ve got my back” if he ever became unable to do his job.

Raab revealed he was told by officials he would need to take charge moments after wrapping up one of the Downing Street daily press conferences on April 6.

“I was effectively told on five minutes’ notice,” he told the inquiry.

The chance Johnson could die triggered a crisis at the top of government and Raab said he needed to “steady the ship”.

“We actually did a reasonable job during that four, five weeks”, Raab said, thanks to “British pragmatism”.

Raab also said he was wary of imposing too much of his own will on the government while serving as interim-PM.

“I didn’t want anyone saying Dom Raab is enjoying this just a bit too much,” he said. “I wasn’t. I was there to do a job.”

“I was mindful of not looking like I was camping out in No.10 while my prime minister was ill-disposed.”

The Covid inquiry is still due to hear from Rishi Sunak, Johnson and Matt Hancock.

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‘We Need Them’: Tory MP Sums Up Why Politicians Have Gone Too Far With Immigration Crackdown

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A Tory MP has called on politicians to be “honest with the public” about why the UK needs immigrants.

Former health minister Steve Brine said there wouldn’t be enough social care workers to “look after your ailing parents” without an influx of foreign labour.

Official figures last week revealed how net migration hit 672,000 in the year to June – three times higher than the government’s target.

Right-wing Conservatives have warned that the party could cease to exist if it fails to bring the number down before the next election.

Rishi Sunak has vowed to “clamp down” on immigration with new measures to reduce the numbers coming to the UK.

But on Times Radio today, Brine said “we need these workers” to do the jobs British people won’t.

And he took aim at former home secretary Suella Braverman, who said the immigration numbers were “a slap in the face to the British public”.

Brine, who is chair of the health and social care select committee, said: “Would that be a slap in the face to the care workers from outside the UK who look after your ailing parents?

“Would it be the Ukrainians that are living among us and contributing to our society, are they the slap in the face? Or would it be the people coming here from British Hong Kong?

“I hear this talk all the time and Labour has fallen into this trap as well. Oh, you know, ‘we need to get to the numbers down’, but which of the groups?”

The Winchester MP added: “We need these workers. We need them, particularly in social care.

“We’ve got around 152,000 vacancies in adult social care. And I just say it again, they are the people who look after your ailing parents and grandparents when families can’t because they’re working. They’re the people that pick up the slack.

“And we need to have a very serious look at ourselves as a society as to what do we actually want to be? Do we do we want to be honest with the public, because we need migration into this country.

“And if we’re just going to slash migration so that we can, you know, meet a political priority, and please the former home secretary then I don’t think we’re serving the society and the economy as we should be.”

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Union Boss Accuses Reform UK Leader Of ‘Harking Back To The 1940s’ Over Immigration Comments

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The leader of the right-wing Reform UK party has been accused of “harking back to the 1940s” after he said high levels of immigration were “changing the nature of our country”.

Richard Tice clashed with Christine McAnea, general secretary of the Unison trade union, on BBC 1′s ‘Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg’.

The row came after official figures showed net migration – the difference between the numbers entering and leaving the UK – hit 672,000 in the year to June.

Tice said that was “changing the nature of our country, making us poorer financially and it’s making us poorer culturally”.

But McAnea said: “When I hear people saying things like ‘it will affect our country culturally’ – and I’ve heard you say it before – I don’t even know what that means because we are a country where people come from all over the world.

″I’m the grandchild of migrants from Ireland and my culture of probably very different from yours. It’s an appalling way to turn things into a culture war in this country.”

Asked what he meant, Tice replied: “That sense of Britishness, who we are, our heritage, our history, our Christian values and ethos. That is the base of our single British culture and that’s what we want people to unify under.

“We welcome sensible levels of immigration, but mass immigration – people living in silos, different cultures, is not good for our country.”

McAnea hit back: “This is like harking back to the 1940s or 1950s.”

But Tice said that was “absolute nonsense”.

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‘Just Be Straight With People’: Laura Kuennsberg Roasts Tory Minister Over Tax Claims

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A Tory minister was urged to “just be straight with people” after she claimed the government was cutting the overall tax burden.

Laura Trott was grilled on BBC 1′s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg this morning.

The chief secretary to the Treasury repeated Conservative claims that her party is reducing the amount people are being taxed – despite clear evidence to the contrary.

At last week’s Autumn Statement, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he was bringing in “the biggest package of tax cuts since the 1980s” as he reduced National Insurance and business taxes.

But it later emerged that the overall tax burden is still set to hit a post-war high by the end of the 2020s.

Kuenssberg told Trott: “It’s very important that you are clear about the overall picture here.

″The overall picture for our viewers is that the tax burden is going up and up and up and up.”

But the minister said: “That’s actually not true. For people on average wages, their taxes would have been cut by about £1,000 on average since 2010.

“For some of the highest earners, we have asked them to take on more of the burden.”

Kuenssberg replied: “You know, and our viewers will have seen and heard on many occasions, taxes are going to reach a post-war high.

“The overall tax burden is going up. Shouldn’t you just be straight with people?”

Trott said: “I am being straight. If you are on an average income, because of the tax changes that we’ve made, your tax burden will have gone down quite significantly.”

Kuenssberg hit back: “You are going to bring some taxes down, but the overall tax burden is going up – I want people to understand that clearly.”

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Tory MPs Have Warned The Party Could Cease To Exist If It Breaks This Manifesto Pledge

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Tory MPs have warned the party could cease to exist if it breaks its pledge to cut immigration before the next election.

Members of the New Conservatives group said the party faced a “do or die” moment after new figures showed net migration had trebled since 2019.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 672,000 more people entered the UK than left it in the 12 months to June.

The Tories’ 2019 general election manifesto pledged to bring it down to less than 229,000.

In a statement published on X (formerly Twitter), the New Conservatives said the party could not afford to break that “solemn promise”.

“The word existential has been used a lot in recent days, but this really is ‘do or die’ for our party,” they said.

“Each of us made a promise to the electorate. We don’t believe that such promises can be ignored.”

The group, which is largely made up of MPs in the Red Wall seats the Tories won from Labour at the last election, called on the government to produce “a comprehensive package of measures to meet the manifesto promise by the time of the next election”.

They added: “The prime minister, chancellor and new home secretary must show that they stand by the promises on which we were elected to parliament. We must act now.”

Miriam Cates, on of the members of the group, said: “Today’s UK migration figures are astounding: a million new people from abroad were added to our population last year. There is simply no democratic consent for this.

“Attempts to reduce NHS waiting times or solve the housing crisis are futile unless we drastically reduce numbers.”

The Times reported that the PM is looking to announce new plans to curb migration over the next week because of fury on the Tory backbenches over the issue.

Sky News reported that home secretary James Cleverly had promised the government was still “completely committed to reducing levels of legal migration, while also focusing relentlessly” on illegal migration.

From July 2019 to June 2023, the total estimated UK net migration stood at over 1.6 million.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has also estimated that an extra 150,000 migrants would arrive in the next five years – adding around 1.5 million people to the population by 2028-29.

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‘The Hunt Hoax’: Chancellor Accused Of Autumn Statement Con As Taxes To Hit Post-War High

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Jeremy Hunt has been accused of trying to “hoodwink” voters as his Autumn Statement unravelled within minutes of him delivering it.

The chancellor boasted that he had announced “the biggest package of tax cuts since the 1980s”.

He reduced the National Insurance rate paid by workers from 12% to 10%, while also unveiling cuts to business taxes.

But the independent Office for Budget Responsibility’s own assessment of the chancellor’s plans revealed that while the overall tax burden will initially come down, it is soon set to soar.

That is because of income tax thresholds remain frozen, meaning millions of workers end up in a higher tax bracket as their wages rise – a process known as “fiscal drag”.

The OBR said: “Tax changes in this autumn statement reduce the tax burden by 0.7% of GDP, but it still rises in every year to a post-war high of 37.3% of GDP by 2028-29.

“Income tax increases explain most of the increase in this forecast … driven by threshold freezes and strong nominal earnings.”

As a result, the Treasury will rake in an extra £201 billion in tax over the next six years – four times more than the cost of Hunt’s cuts to National Insurance payments.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “This Autumn Statement was a Hunt hoax.

“Buried in the small print is a massive stealth tax raid that will drag millions into paying a higher rate in the coming years.

“The British people will rightly be furious at this deception, as they are forced to pay the price for Conservative chaos through years of unfair tax hikes.

“It is high time that this Conservative government came clean about just how much money they are taking out of hard-working families’ pockets.”

The OBR also downgraded its forecasts for economic growth over the next few years.

It also said that inflation will fall to 2.8% next year, well up on the 0.9% they forecast in March.

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “After 13 years of the Conservatives, the economy simply isn’t working. And, despite all the promises today, working people are still worse off.”

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Putin Appears To Forget He Started The ‘Tragedy’ Of War In Ukraine In Bizarre G20 Appearance

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Vladimir Putin seemed to forget he initiated the war in Ukraine during his surprise appearance at a virtual G20 summit on Wednesday.

In his first address to the leaders of the world’s largest economies since the Ukraine-Russia conflict began in 2022, the Russian president called for leaders to “stop the tragedy” occurring in the neighbouring country.

After some leaders said they were shocked by the Russian “aggression” in Ukraine, Putin replied: “Yes, of course, military actions are always a tragedy.

“And of course, we should think about how to stop this tragedy. By the way, Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine.”

Why was this comment so surprising?

Putin’s remarks omit his own role in starting the conflict.

Back in February 2022, after weeks of growing aggression and building up troops near the Ukrainian border, the Russian president ordered his forces into Ukraine.

He claimed it was important to “demilitarise” the country, and made baseless neo-Nazi allegations about the Ukrainian government to justify the invasion.

It was part of what he dubbed the “special military operation” – he has only referred to the 21-month long fight as a “war” sparingly.

So it was also pretty surprising when Putin used the word “war” to describe the conflict in Ukraine during his G20 meeting.

He said: “I understand that this war, and the death of people, cannot but shock.”

Who did Putin blame for the war, then?

Putin pivoted the G20′s attention to pre-war tensions, by claiming Ukraine had been persecuting people in the east of its country.

This is a reference to the separatist movement which started to gain traction in eastern Ukraine after Ukraine’s 2013 Maidan Revolution and Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.

According to the UN, approximately 14,000 people were killed in the subsequent conflict as Russian-backed separatists fought Ukrainian forces.

Putin also pivoted the conversation towards the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, saying: “And the extermination of the civilian population in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip today, is not shocking?”

The Russian president has positioned himself as a potential mediator in the Middle East conflict since it broke out last month.

This pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik shows Russia's President Vladimir Putin taking part in a virtual G20 leaders' summit in Moscow on November 22, 2023.
This pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik shows Russia’s President Vladimir Putin taking part in a virtual G20 leaders’ summit in Moscow on November 22, 2023.

MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV via Getty Images

What else did Putin’s comments reveal?

Putin’s remarks were correct in that there really is a tragedy still unfolding in Ukraine – it’s Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War 2.

The UN Human Rights Office said on Tuesday that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded, although the real toll is expected to be “significantly higher”.

According to Reuters, Danielle Bell from the head of the UN monitoring mission, said the “severe human cost” in Ukraine right now is “painful to fathom.”

Russia has been accused of targeting civilian structures in Ukraine too, although Moscow has denied this.

Ukraine has also only agreed to peace negotiations if Russia agrees to hand back all of the Ukrainian land (one fifth of its total land mass) it has illegally annexed since 2014 – which includes the peninsula of Crimea.

But Putin claims this area now belongs to Russia.

He also broke international law by illegally annexing four other regions in eastern Ukraine in September 2022.

Putin’s words also come after a senior Russian official said Moscow could not co-exist with the current government in Ukraine.

Why was Putin’s appearance at the virtual summit a surprise?

The Russian leader has barely left Russia since the the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.

He did visit Iran back in July and ventured to Belarus last December, but has steered clear of any NATO country since February 2022 – so his virtual appearance at the summit was a big deal.

He sent his foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to the last two G20 meetings in India and Indonesia, and has not attended a summit meeting in person since 2019.

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Rishi Sunak Accused Of Saying ‘Just Let People Die’ During Covid

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Rishi Sunak has been accused at the Covid inquiry of saying the government should “just let people die” during the pandemic.

The allegation against the prime minister is made in the diary of ex-chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance.

Vallance made private notes every evening during the pandemic and these have been handed to the official inquiry.

In one entry dated October 25, 2020, Vallance recalls a meeting as arguments raged inside government over whether to impose second lockdown in England.

According to Vallance, Dominic Cummings told Boris Johnson in the meeting: “Rishi says just let people die and that’s okay.”

Vallance does not claim to have himself heard Sunak – who was then chancellor – make that comment.

Downing Street said it would not comment on the accusation. “The prime minister is due to give evidence before the inquiry at the time of their choosing. That’s when he’ll set out his position,” No. 10 said.

In his evidence on Monday, Vallance also said Sunak’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme “obviously” increased transmission of the virus.

The programme, which began in August 2020, cut the cost of food in order to encourage people to visit restaurants and other hospitality venues.

Asked if it had increased the number of deaths from Covid, Vallance said: “It is highly likely to have done so.”

He said: “I think it would have been very obvious to anyone that this inevitably would cause an increase in transmission risk, and I think that would have been known by ministers.”

Vallance said he had not been informed about the scheme before it was announced to the public.

The inquiry was shown a section of Sunak’s written evidence to the inquiry in which he denied government scientists warned against the programme.

“I do not. recall any concerns about the scheme being expressed during ministerial discussions, including those attended bye the CMO [chief medical officer Chris Whitty] and the CSA [chief scientific adviser Vallance]

Vallance also told the inquiry that Johnson was often “bamboozled” by Covid science and that Matt Hancock often said things that were not true.

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Jeremy Hunt Challenged To Justify Any Inheritance Tax Cut

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Jeremy Hunt was asked on Sunday to justify cutting inheritance tax for the rich at the same time as many people are struggling to pay bills.

On Wednesday the chancellor will unveil his Autumn Statement, setting out his tax and spending plans ahead of next year’s general election.

It has been reported he could cut the headline rate of inheritance tax – the tax on the estate (property, money and possessions) of someone who’s died – from 40% to 20%.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), less than 4% of estates paid inheritance tax in 2020–21 as it only applies to wealth over a certain amount.

In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Hunt was shown a question from a viewer who asked: “Why change inheritance tax when you have the lower paid struggling to pay their bills?”

Kuenssberg asked the chancellor: “What would it say about modern Conservative Party if you cut inheritance tax, at the same time as so many people are struggling?

“Why would you do that when people are having such a hard time?”

Hunt refused to rule in or rule out the cut, saying he was “not going to be drawn on any individual taxes”.

“I think you can read the papers this morning and you can see that I am going to abolish every single tax, there is – in fact, if you read the papers, there wouldn’t be any taxes left after Wednesday,” he said.

“I’m very sorry to say, I can confirm that won’t be the case. I would dearly love to bring down all different types of taxes.”

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, told the same programme cutting inheritance tax “in the middle of a massive cost of living crisis, and when public services are on their knees” was “not the right priority”.

“I understand people’s desire to pass on to their children what they’ve worked hard for but right now that is not the right thing to do and we would not support it,” she said.

However Reeves did not commit to reversing any inheritance tax cut implemented by the current government should Labour win the next election.

If inheritance tax was abolished completely, the IFS calculated it would cost the government £7 billion.

Around half of the benefit would go to those with estates of £2.1 million or more at death, who make up the top 1% of estates and would benefit from an average tax cut of around £1.1 million.

The IFS said the 90% or so of estates not paying inheritance tax would not be directly affected.

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