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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

UK politics: P&O Ferries facing criminal and civil investigations after mass sackings of seafarers – as it happened

Boris Johnson United Kingdom Paul Brand Peter Tatchell
Two P&O ferries remain in the Port of Dover, Kent, as some ferry services remain suspended after the sacking of 800 seafarers.
Two P&O ferries remain in the Port of Dover, Kent, as some ferry services remain suspended after the sacking of 800 seafarers. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Afternoon summary

P&O must not be allowed to get away with its scandalous and unlawful treatment of staff.

This criminal and civil investigation by the Insolvency Service must get to the bottom of what happened – and not shy away from serious sanctions and big financial penalties.

Firms who behave like corporate gangsters deserve far more than a slap on the wrist.

  • Campaigners have urged Boris Johnson to recommit the government to a full ban on conversion practices after a chaotic night of U-turns left the government now planning to ban them for gay people, but not trans people. Last night ITV revealed that the government was planning to drop its commitment to legislate for a full ban. But hours after news of that U-turn provoked outrage, including amongst some Tory MPs, the government let it be known that it would go ahead with a partial ban. (See 9.31am.) Activists say it should go further. This is from Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ campaign group.

This is from the Equality Network, a Scottish LGBTQ+ group.

And in an article for the Guardian, Jayne Ozanne, the founder of the Ban Conversion Therapy coalition, says excluding trans people from the ban would be “utterly unforgiveable”.

  • Coronavirus infection levels have hit an all-time high in England with one in 13 thought to have had Covid in the most recent week, data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed.

Updated

Ed Miliband calls for planning laws to be changed to allow more onshore windfarms

Ed Miliband, the shadow secretary of state for climate and net zero, told Radio 4’s World at One that he was in favouring of offering discounts on energy bills to people living near windfarms. Asked about the option, he said:

That’s definitely something that should be looked at, and communities being able to be responsible for or own these wind turbines.

There is now and there has been consistently significant majorities of public support for onshore windfarms.

The reason why these things have been blocked is because the government introduced a planning system that said there needed to be unanimous consent in local areas, so if one person objected, it couldn’t go forward.

Now that doesn’t sound like a very democratic way to go forward. So sure, incentives, but we have to unblock the system.

Ministers are reportedly looking at the case for offering discounts to people living near new windfarms. But in his evidence to the Commons liaison committee on Wednesday, Boris Johnson sounded distinctly lukewarm about onshore wind. In his Times column today, James Forsyth says political opposition to windfarms in the Conservative party was just too strong. He writes:

Two quick options [to increase energy supply] are onshore wind farms and fracking; the former has the potential to dent electricity bills before the next election. But I understand the official strategy, while not ruling these out, won’t push for them either. The problem is ‘politics, MPs and planning’, according to one of those close to the decision. Both onshore wind and fracking have vocal opponents in the Tory parliamentary party, so won’t happen.

Onshore wind’s fate was perhaps sealed when Chris Heaton-Harris, who led the charge against wind farms under David Cameron, was made chief whip. One Johnson ally tells me the problem with onshore wind is ‘the party hate it’ and that the PM has had ‘people screaming in his ear’ about what trouble would be stirred up if ministers changed planning laws to push them through.

Updated

A demonstration in Portsmouth today urging people to boycott P&O Ferries.
A demonstration in Portsmouth today urging people to boycott P&O Ferries. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

And this is from Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, on the news from the Insolvency Service that P&O Ferries is facing a formal criminal investigation over the way it sacked its 800 workers.

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT transport union, has welcomed the news that P&O Ferries is now subject to a formal criminal investigation. He said:

This is long overdue but now gives clear grounds to detain P&O’s ship whilst the criminal and civil investigations are completed, and justice is delivered for our members in face of this corporate hostility.

Updated

Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has published on his Twitter account the letter he received from the Insolvency Service confirming that a criminal investigation into P&O Ferries was under way.

This decision will come as a relief to ministers. Boris Johnson was seen to have jumped the gun last week when he told MPs at PMQs last week that he believed the company had definitely broken the law (that was before the company’s chief executive admitted this at a select committee) and that the company would be taken to court. Earlier this week Labour suggested he was making it up.

Updated

ScotRail nationalised, as Sturgeon says task is now to show value of public ownership

ScotRail, the Scottish rail company, has been taken back into public ownership from today. At an event to mark this at Glasgow Queen Street station, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said it was now up to the Scottish government to show that nationalisation was a good idea. She said:

We have a duty now that the railways are in public ownership to demonstrate to people that it brings advantages - not just in the principle of public ownership, but in the practical experience of that as well.

On fares, Sturgeon stressed that they were 20% lower in Scotland than in England. But she added:

For many people it is still a serious issue of affordability. This is one of the key issues that we need to take forward. Obviously, we need to marry that up with the issues around service provision, reliability and accessibility of services, and also the consideration around the change to travel patterns that have come from the pandemic.

Sturgeon said that there would be a review of fares with the result published before the end of the year.

To celebrate ScotRail being welcomed into public ownership, up to four children will be able to travel with an adult for free on Scottish trains this weekend.

Dutch firm Abellio had run the trains since 2015 before being stripped of the contract.

Nicola Sturgeon unveils a specially branded train at Glasgow Queen Street Station as ScotRail transfers from Dutch firm Abellio into public ownership.
Nicola Sturgeon unveils a specially branded train at Glasgow Queen Street Station as ScotRail transfers from Dutch firm Abellio into public ownership. Photograph: Robert Perry/PA

Updated

P&O Ferries facing formal criminal investigation into how it sacked 800 workers, Insolvency Service says

The Insolvency Service has announced that it has launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding P&O Ferries decision to sack, without notice, 800 of its workers. In a statement it said:

Following its enquiries, the Insolvency Service has commenced formal criminal and civil investigations into the circumstances surrounding the recent redundancies made by P&O Ferries.

As these are ongoing investigations, no further comment or information can be provided at this time.

P&O Ferries has admitted that it broke the law by not consulting unions about the redundancies. It also appears to have broken the law by not giving advance notice to the authorities of the redundancies in the countries where its ships are registered.

Keir Starmer has said that the government should go ahead with the full ban on conversion practices. But he has also claimed that the government is using the story as a means to distract attention from the cost of living crisis. Speaking on a visit to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, he said:

The government should just keep to its promises on this [the proposed full ban on conversion practices].

But look, let’s be honest and clear about what’s happening today: the government is trying to get us all to talk about conversion therapy because they don’t want us focusing on the cost of living crisis, on the increase in energy bills, where they’ve got such a pathetic response.

So it’s wrong, the government should keep to its promises.

But, you know, this is classic Conservative, trying to sort of distract people over here, when really the issue is the cost of living and energy prices.

On social media is it common to see people claiming that the only reason story X is in the news is because the government wants to distract attention from story Y. Normally these comments include a reference to a dead cat. And more often than not they are wrong, too, because news is a lot more chaotic than that, and government spin doctors have less power to shape the agenda than some people assume.

It is surprising that Starmer is using the “distraction” line because Paul Brand, the ITV journalist who broke the story, is confident that the leak was not deliberate.

Also, if the government really did want people to be talking about conversion practices this morning, it would actually be saying something about the story itself, and putting up a minister to publicise it. But that has not happened, and the only confirmation of last night’s partial U-turn has come via briefings from unattributable sources.

Keir Starmer at a meeting with residents in Dewsbury today.
Keir Starmer at a meeting with residents in Dewsbury today. Photograph: Nigel Roddis/PA

Updated

Almost 5m people in UK infected with coronavirus last week, latest ONS figures show

Coronavirus infection levels have hit an all-time high in England with one in 13 thought to have had Covid in the most recent week, data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed. And last week almost 5 million people in the UK are estimated to have been infected. My colleague Nicola Davis has the story here.

Updated

Labour understands Northern Ireland better than 'English nationalist' Tories, says DUP's Ian Paisley

Labour understands Northern Ireland better than the Conservative party, one of the staunchest unionists in the country, the DUP MP Ian Paisley, has claimed.

In an interview with GB News, Paisley, whose father the Rev Ian Paisley was for decades the most prominent and hardline figure in unionism, he said:

The Conservative party today is becoming more and more an English nationalist party that doesn’t really understand what’s going on in Scotland, certainly in Northern Ireland, and in other regions.

We’ve always had a better deal from Labour.

Any time we’ve had a Labour prime minister or a Labour secretary of state, they’ve understood Northern Ireland, usually better.

Their bark has been worse than their bite you might say. We’ve always kind of had the fear, will Labour take us in a particular direction closer to a united Ireland? But their bark about that and their actual bite has been very, very different.

Ian Paisley Jr speaking in the Commons.
Ian Paisley Jr speaking in the Commons. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/Reuters

Updated

Here is some more reaction to last night’s partial U-turn by the government over its proposed ban on conversion practices.

This is from Paul Farmer, the chief executive of Mind, the mental health charity.

While last night’s U-turn on the reprehensible decision to drop the conversion ‘therapy’ ban is welcome, we are deeply disappointed to see that the UK government has chosen to exclude trans people from the ban on these harmful practices. The government’s own research suggests that trans people are much more likely to have undergone, or been offered, conversion therapy, so this exclusion simply makes no sense.

We recognise there are complexities around this area of the ban, as it is essential that any action does not inadvertently restrict access to therapy which seeks to help people questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation, without the aim of ‘converting’ them. But the government cannot simply give up on trans people because protecting them is legislatively complex. Bans that include trans people have been implemented in other countries. Trans people deserve better. We need a complete ban, without loopholes, which protects everybody.

And this is from Leni Morris, the chief executive of Galop, the LGBT+ anti-abuse charity.

We are deeply concerned by the leaked documents shared by ITV News last night which suggested that the government is reconsidering the ban on conversion therapy for LGBT+ people in the UK.

Despite the supposed subsequent U-turn on this, there are indications that the ban might go ahead only for lesbian, gay and bi people, leaving trans people unprotected. Let us be clear – a ban without our trans siblings is not a ban.

So-called conversion therapy is psychological and physical abuse, and LGBT+ people in this country are being put through it simply because of who they are. We need this ban. We need it for the whole community.

Galop has today published research showing that nearly one in three LGBTQ+ people have experienced abuse – ranging from verbal harassment to threats of homelessness and physical violence – by a relative, most often their own parents. My colleague Libby Brooks has covered it here.

Updated

One of the Tories who has been most critical of the government’s plan for a bill banning conversion practices is Nikki da Costa, who worked in Downing Street as director of legislative affiars under Theresa May and Boris Johnson. In a Twitter thread last night, she explained why she opposed the planned legislation. It starts here.

Starmer says Sunak should 'come clean' on whether his family benefits from company investing in Russia

In his Sky News interview this morning Keir Starmer defended his call for the public to be told if Carrie Johnson, the prime minister’s wife, receives a fine over Partygate. He said that in general he supported the argument the relatives of politicians should not be dragged into the political debate. But this was different, he suggested. When asked if he should have to reveal if his wife gets a parking ticket, he replied:

There’s a huge difference between the situation of the wife of the prime minister breaking the rules made by the prime minister and any other situation.

Starmer also said it was legitimate to ask questions about an investment held by the chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy. He said:

So far as the chancellor’s wife is concerned, there’s just a fundamental question of principle here which is, is their household benefiting from money made in Russia when the government has put in place sanctions? That is in the public interest for us to have an answer to.

I’m not attacking their family - I don’t agree with that way of doing politics - but I do want to know, is the chancellor’s household benefiting from money from a company that’s investing in Russia when the government is saying, quite rightly, that nobody should be doing that?

I would have thought the chancellor would actually want to come clean on this and say, ‘Actually, I can be very, very clear that my household doesn’t benefit from any money that’s come in anyway from Russia during this invasion of Ukraine’. It’s a simple question. I think he should just answer. It would actually help his wife if he just answered that question.

Yesterday Rishi Sunak said in an interview that he found criticism of his wife “very upsetting”. He has also said that he personally has nothing to do with Infosys, the firm set up by his father in law that has an office in Russia, and his office has said that his wife is just one of many minority shareholders in the company, and that she is not involved in running it. Infosys has said that it only has a small team working in Russia, and that it does not have “active business relationships with local Russian enterprises”.

According to ITV’s Paul Brand, Liz Truss, who combines being equalities minister with being foreign secretary, is meeting Boris Johnson today to discuss the partial U-turn on the ban on conversion practices.

Brand’s leak was particularly embrassing for Truss because it revealed that she had not been told about Boris Johnson’s decision to drop the bill. It said:

While Liz is not ideologically committed to the legislation she is likely to be concerned about owning the new position, having personally committed to delivering the bill.

Several Tories publicly criticised the government last night after ITV reported that Boris Johnson was shelving plans for a bill banning conversion practices.

Some of those MPs who spoke out, such as Caroline Nokes, the chair of the Commons women and equalities committee, have welcomed the partial U-turn.

But another, Alicia Kearns, has said that the U-turn does not go far enough, and that trans conversion practices should be included in the bill.

Kearns wrote this article for ConservativeHome in December explaining why she was backing the bill.

Updated

First Met 'Partygate' fines issued to officials who attended leaving do, now told to pay £50, ITV reports

According to ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, officials who attended a leaving party on 18 June 2020 for Hannah Young, a No 10 civil servant moving to take up a diplomatic post in New York, have been told they are being fined £50.

This is the first report we have had identifying an actual event deemed by the police to have broken lockdown rules. On Tuesday the Met said 20 fines were being issued, but it said it would not be revealing which of the 12 events being investigated as potential parties that broke lockdown rules those fines applied to, because that might lead to individuals being identified.

The Telegraph reported earlier this year that around 20 people attended the Young leaving party, and so it is possible that all this week’s fines apply to just this one event.

Peston’s scoop suggests that commentators were right in thinking the first fines were focused on the “low-hanging fruit” (the cases where fines would be easiest to justify, and least controversial.) The Young leaving do was not one of the parties that has attracted most attention, and Boris Johnson is not thought to have attended.

Updated

Starmer insists Labour's plan to cut energy bills mainstream, saying 'people don't want a revolution'

Keir Starmer has put the cost of living crisis at the centre of Labour’s campaign for the local elections and this morning he has been giving interviews timed to coincide with today being the day when energy bills will rise by 54% because a new, higher price cap takes effect. Starmer has been criticising the government over this repeatedly, and perhaps the most original thing he said came when he sought to dismiss suggestions that Labour’s plans are in any way radical or extreme. Here are the main points.

  • Starmer presented Labour’s plans to deal with the energy crisis as mainstream, not radical. He told Sky News:

People don’t want a revolution. They do want to know ‘how am I going to pay my energy bill which has just gone up today by hundreds of pounds’.

I was in Stevenage last week talking to pensioners. They weren’t saying ‘Keir, we want the revolution’. They were saying ‘Keir, we’re really worried about our bills’.

For people to make a choice between heating and eating - in 21st century Britain what people want to know is is the Labour party, does it understand those worries? The answer is yes, we do.

Starmer’s language was curious because no one is accusing him of being revolutionary. The Tories have criticised his plan for a windfall tax on energy companies as bad for investment, but they have not described it as extreme or impossible (perhaps because George Osborne introduced something described as a windfall tax on energy companies). In part it sounded like another attempt to differentiate himself from Jeremy Corbyn, who would have been less likely to say people don’t want revolutions.

What we say as the Labour party is, look, oil and gas companies in the North Sea have made more profit than they have expected because global prices have been high. Therefore, we should have a windfall tax on that and use it to reduce those bills by up to £600 for those that need it most. So, there’s a very practical plan on the table – the only plan on the table, quite frankly.

  • He said that the government’s response to the cost of living crisis was “pathetic” and he said they did not understand how much people were suffering. He said:

Energy bills are going up far more than we’ve ever seen on record. People are really struggling and I just don’t think the government gets it.

Keir Stamer
Keir Stamer Photograph: Sky News

Updated

New Home Office figures show 4,700 visas had been issued under the Homes for Ukraine sponsorship scheme by yesterday, and 32,200 applications had been submitted. There have also been 24,400 visas granted under the Ukraine family scheme out of 32,800 applications received.

The Peter Tatchell Foundation, a human rights group set up by Tatchell, who is best known for his gay rights campaigning, has issued a more detailed response to the PM’s partial U-turn on conversation practices. It says:

The Peter Tatchell Foundation will never accept a conversion therapy ban that does not protect our trans siblings. We will support their struggle for reinstatement. United we stand.

The government promised a comprehensive ban nearly four years ago and reiterated this commitment in the Queen’s Speech last year. We feel conned and tricked.

The prime minister has taken a decision to appease transphobes who oppose protection for trans people and who support attempts to turn them cisgender. He’s throwing trans people under the bus. It looks like a bid to stoke trans culture wars for political gain in the run-up to the next election.

Updated

Boris Johnson’s partial U-turn on conversion practices does not go far enough, activists say

Good morning. It is well known that Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser turned arch enemy, calls Johnson the “trolley” because he can’t keep going in the same direction for long. What is less well known is that the insult came from Johnson himself, who when trying to make up his mind about Brexit said he was “veering all over the place like a shopping trolley”. It is one of his more perceptive self-observations, and last night we witnessed a classic example, worthy of any trolley Olympics.

On the eve of the last election Boris Johnson agreed that a Conservative government would ban conversion practices, which involve trying to change someone’s sexuality or identity, mostly in certain religious settings. Since then the government has consulted on the ban, but campaigners, and some news organisations, have flagged up claims that a ban could unintentionally criminalise clinicians and therapists helping people – particularly teenagers – dealing with gender dsysphoria.

Last night ITV’s Paul Brand revealed that the government had dropped plans for a ban. He published extracts from a leaked document saying that Boris Johnson had agreed to shelve the legislation. The document focused on the options for how the U-turn might be announced, and it said that one option might be go public at the time of the Queen’s speech and claim “there was an urgent need to rationalise our legislative programme” because of the Ukraine war and the cost of living crisis. (ITV has not published the whole document, but their report suggests this is not the real reason for the decision to drop the bill.)

The report triggered a huge backlash among all those concerned with LGBTQ+ rights, for whom the conversion practices ban was landmark legislation and a test of the government’s entire credibility with this community. Within hours the trolley was again heading in another direction, and Brand said he had been told by a senior government source that there had been a partial U-turn.

There are more details in ITV’s update. Our story is here.

This morning this is being widely reported as a U-turn and the Tory MPs who were particularly incensed by the original story last night have had their anger assuaged. But there is no detail at all about what will be in the bill, and prominent campaigners are furious that trans conversion practices are being excluded from the legislation.

These are from Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ rights group.

And this is from veteran campaigner Peter Tatchell.

It is a relatively quiet day, diary-wise. The Commons is not sitting.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.

Updated

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