Evening summary
Kemi Badenoch has accused the Post Office chair she sacked of a “blatant attempt to seek revenge” after he made explosive allegations about the government’s handling of the Horizon scandal. The business secretary launched an extended attack on Henry Staunton in the Commons on Monday, and claimed that he was under investigation for bullying when she fired him.
The extraordinary war of words began over the weekend after Staunton gave an interview to the Sunday Times accusing the government of wanting to stall compensation payments to victims of the Horizon scandal until after the general election. Badenoch dismissed Staunton from his role last month. In his interview Staunton said that Badenoch told him when she fired him: “Well, someone’s got to take the rap for this.” He also claimed that soon after starting his role in December 2022, he was instructed by a senior civil servant to delay compensation payouts so the Conservatives could “limp into” the general election.
Henry Staunton issued a stinging riposte to Kemi Badenoch on Monday night, saying he had kept a record of the alleged comment from a senior civil servant asking him to stall compensation payments to Horizon victims. A spokesperson for Staunton said he “recorded [it] at the time in a file note, which he emailed to himself and to colleagues and which is therefore traceable on the Post Office server”. The spokesperson said Staunton had never been made aware of any bullying allegations against him and that they were “certainly not raised by the secretary of state at any stage and certainly not during the conversation which led to Mr Staunton’s dismissal. Such behaviour would in any case be totally out of character.”
A Foreign Office minister has ruled out a prisoner swap for the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British citizen, who MPs have expressed concern about after the death of Alexei Navalny. Kara-Murza’s wife was now adamant that she wanted everything to be done to get her her husband out of Russia, said the Conservative backbencher Bob Seely, who urged the government to countenance swapping imprisoned spies for the pro-democracy activist who was now the most high-profile Russian political prisoner. Seely, who is in contact with the Kara-Murza and Navalny families, said when he had discussed prisoners swaps with the Foreign Office it had been made clear to him that such moves only encouraged state hostage taking.
Keir Starmer risks triggering the biggest rebellion of his leadership if he tries to stop his MPs voting on Wednesday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, backbenchers have warned. Labour MPs are urging their leader not to whip them against voting for a Scottish National party motion this week calling for a ceasefire, three months after a similar vote saw 56 members rebel, including eight frontbenchers. Party whips have not yet decided how to approach Wednesday’s vote, but several MPs have told the Guardian they risk another damaging internal row if they try to oppose it.
Humza Yousaf has accused Labour of behaving like Margaret Thatcher by throwing oil and gas workers “on the scrapheap”, as he announced the Scottish National party would not back proposals for extending the fossil fuel windfall tax. In a campaign speech delivered in Aberdeen, the UK’s oil capital, Scotland’s first minister accused Labour of risking 100,000 jobs after Keir Starmer promised a “proper” windfall tax on oil and gas firms this month when he scaled back his party’s £28bn green investment pledge.
A scheme allowing Ukrainians to join family members taking sanctuary in the UK has been unexpectedly closed, in what opposition politicians described as a cruel and “below the radar” move days before the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full invasion. The Ukraine family scheme is being shut but government officials said a separate Homes for Ukraine scheme would continue to fulfil people’s needs as a way of “simplifying” the process.
Children’s services leaders have called for a national “plan for childhood” to transform the health, emotional wellbeing and life chances of a generation of youngsters scarred by austerity and the pandemic. In a withering assessment of the government’s record over the past few years, they said ministers had presided over deepening child poverty, crumbling schools and an exploding health and wellbeing crisis in young people, with low-income families worst affected.
Israel has gone “beyond reasonable self-defence” in its attack on Gaza, a Labour frontbencher has said, as the party prepares for a potentially difficult Commons vote on the crisis later this week. Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said it was possible that Israel had broken international law in its military campaign, which has killed more than 28,000 people in Gaza since the 7 October massacre of Israelis by Hamas.
Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether a GB News programme where Rishi Sunak took questions from the public breached impartiality rules by failing to include other political views. The broadcast watchdog said it had received 500 complaints about People’s Forum: The Prime Minister, held in County Durham on 12 February on Monday last week.
The UK’s chief inspector of borders and immigration has said it is “scandalous” that his watchdog role could be left vacant while the Rwanda scheme is introduced. In a break with the treatment of his predecessors, David Neal has been told he will not serve a second term as chief inspector of borders and immigration. The Times reported that a successor was unlikely to be appointed for at least six months, covering the period when the prime minister has said he hopes the first flights carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda will take off.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and the UK politics live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
If you want to carry on following all the latest news from Westminster and beyond, see here.
Henry Staunton issued a stinging riposte to Kemi Badenoch on Monday night, saying he had kept a record of the alleged comment from a senior civil servant asking him to stall compensation payments to Horizon victims.
A spokesperson for Staunton said he “recorded [it] at the time in a file note, which he emailed to himself and to colleagues and which is therefore traceable on the Post Office server”.
The spokesperson said Staunton had never been made aware of any bullying allegations against him and that they were “certainly not raised by the secretary of state at any stage and certainly not during the conversation which led to Mr Staunton’s dismissal. Such behaviour would in any case be totally out of character.”
They added: “It was in the interests of the business as well as being fair for the postmasters that there was faster progress on exoneration and that compensation for wrongly convicted postmasters was more generous, but we didn’t see any real movement until after the Mr Bates programme. We will leave it to others to come to the conclusion as to why that was the case.”
Earlier this evening, the Conservative MP Lee Anderson accused Labour MPs of supporting “the disgraced Post Office management team” during questions to business secretary Kemi Badenoch over the dismissal of Henry Staunton.
The MP for Ashfield told the Commons:
I am absolutely staggered that the Labour Party now seem to be coming out in support of the disgraced Post Office management team. This by the way is the same management team that oversaw the wrongful imprisonment of postmasters across the country, hundreds of convictions.
So does (Badenoch) agree with me that when push comes to shove that that lot over there would take the side of the grifters not the grafters?
Badenoch responded:
This is one of the reasons as he said where the Post Office leadership had overseen the wrongful convictions, we have had multiple changes and this is just the latest to ensure that we get the right leadership in place.
But as we can see, I know that some of the members opposite are dealing with this properly, but from the heckling we can see that for a lot of them they came here thinking that they could get political points scored and I am not allowing that to happen.
In a low-key visit away from the cameras, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron paid his respects at the Argentine military cemetery, PA Media reported.
The cemetery holds the remains of more than 230 of the 649 Argentinians killed in the conflict.
Labour MP Chris Bryant asked business secretary Kemi Badenoch if she leaked information on the dismissal of Henry Staunton to the media prior to Staunton being himself informed.
“Can I just clarify something about the process of (Staunton’s) dismissal, as I understand it he found out about it from Sky News, I think the Secretary of State just added a piece of information which is that she then rang Sky News, before ringing him I think, to try and get them to stop running it. So she knew that this had already been leaked to Sky News from somebody in her department presumably,” he said.
“What investigation did she go through to find out who that was, that leaked it, is that person still in post, because otherwise one might just worry that it might have been she herself who leaked it.”
Badenoch said: “I knew that someone would ask that question.
“I have in fact evidence to show that I asked Sky News not to run the story. Of course I didn’t leak it because if I had it would have created legal risk if he (Staunton) found out on the news before I had had a chance to speak to him.
“We have no idea how Sky News found out the information, there are several thousand people who work in the Department for Business and Trade, there are many more who work at the Post Office, at UKGI.
“Bryant) is heckling but the point I am making is that leaks are incredibly damaging and harmful, they create legal risks for the department, I did not do so, I made multiple efforts with at least two media outlets to make sure that they did not create problems for Mr Staunton and it is one of the reasons why it is very disappointing to see what he did in the Sunday Times at the weekend.”
Rishi Sunak told his cabinet “we cannot be complacent” about Russia - and the UK together with allies must “intensify” support for Ukraine, in a meeting on Monday.
A Number 10 readout said:
The prime minister led a cabinet discussion, ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He made clear that Putin’s actions remain an existential threat to the very foundations of Euro-Atlantic security and that today, just as much as two years ago, he must not be allowed to succeed.
The prime minister added that two years in, Putin is not winning. Ukraine has re-opened the Black Sea to exports, and Russia has lost over half the territory it originally captured thanks to Ukraine’s combat power.
However, he added we cannot be complacent. He said the UK would remain at the forefront of the international response - building on our leadership as the first to deliver lethal aid, to commit to provide western battle tanks and fighter pilot training, and to sign the historic UK-Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation in January. And backed by our commitment of £2.5 billion in military aid this year, our largest package yet, and our 100-year partnership with Ukraine.
It is right to describe Alexei Navalny’s death as murder, a Foreign Office minister has said.
Leo Docherty agreed with the description of the Russian opposition leader’s death after Alicia Kearns, the Conservative chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee said:
Alexei Navalny was murdered and it is important that we in this House call it out for what it was, because that is what he deserves.
Following his murder, I was also in Munich, where I heard his wife, Yulia, (Navalnaya) ask us to stand by her. That is what we must now do.
She urged the USA to follow through on warnings it would act if Navalny were to die, adding:
Biden must now deliver on that threat or we will see more lives taken such as that of Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Docherty replied:
She is right to use the word murder. We do seek to hold the state and the Russian leadership to account.
Of course I can’t comment on the American position but with regard to our policy with regard to Russian state assets, we will continue to look at the appropriate legal path to ensuring that which is frozen might be utilised to bring benefit to those affected by this outrageous and illegal war in Ukraine.
Updated
David Cameron visits Falkland Islands
David Cameron has become the first foreign secretary to visit the Falkland Islands in 30 years, in a high-profile demonstration the contested territory is a “part of the British family”, PA Media reports. PA says:
Cameron said that the archipelago’s sovereignty is “not… up for discussion” while the islanders wish to be British, despite fresh calls from Argentina for talks on the future of the islands.
The foreign secretary arrived at Mount Pleasant airbase and will visit some of the key battle sites of the 1982 Falklands War to pay his respects to those who lost their lives in the conflict.
Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, who met Cameron last month, has called for the South Atlantic islands to be handed over to Buenos Aires.
But ahead of his arrival in the UK overseas territory, Cameron said: “The Falkland Islands are a valued part of the British family, and we are clear that as long as they want to remain part of the family, the issue of sovereignty will not be up for discussion.”
That is all from me for today. Tom Ambrose is now taking over.
The war of words on the SNP’s Gaza vote continued today, with Labour’s Scottish secretary Ian Murray telling BBC Radio Scotland this evening that no decision has been taken on whether his party will support Wednesday’s motion.
The UK party is desperate to avoid another rebellion on the issue, as happened last November over a similar SNP vote, and led to the resignation of eight frontbenchers.
Murray said the actual motion had not yet been laid, and added that the SNP should be spending it’s time trying to persuade the government to support them.
Murray also insisted there was “a cigarette paper between” the motion Scottish Labour conference voted for on Saturday, calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Starmer’s call at the same conference on Sunday for the fighting to “stop now”.
But the SNP is continuing to ramp up the pressure on Labour, with Westminster leader Stephen Flynn continuing to offer a meeting to Labour leader Keir Starmer to discuss the vote, but stressing the aim of an immediate ceasefire must not be watered down.
In the Commons the Labour MP Diana Johnson said that what was happening with compensation to victims of the infected blood scandal made it easy to believe that the government was also delaying the payment of compensation to victims of the Post Office scandal. She said:
The allegations of limping towards the general election in terms of delaying compensation payments to postmasters does actually mirror the behaviour of government towards the infected blood scandal.
It seems to me that there is a pattern of behaviour. The government only seem to act when forced to or shamed … into taking any action.
In response, Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, replied:
No, no and no.
I think it’s a shame that [Johnson] would stand up there and say that the government only acted when it was forced to, when she knows that we brought legislation to this House well before the ITV drama.
During her statement to MPs Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, claimed that she had done all she could to stop the news about Henry Staunton being sacked being reported before he found out himself. She said it was “disappointing” that Sky News and the Daily Mail found out what was happening. She said:
It was also disappointing because I had done everything I could to try and keep this out of the news and do it behind closed doors properly.
I made sure, when I gave public statements, that I said I wouldn’t do HR in public. I even, when I found out that it had been leaked to Sky News, called Sky News and asked them, one of my assistants did, to ask them not to put that out in the public domain before I had a chance to speak to Henry Staunton – did the same with the Daily Mail who thankfully did listen.
We also need the media to help us in this and not publish false allegations.
Foreign Office minister says government 'working at pace' on sanction options for those involved in death of Alexei Navalny
In the Commons Leo Docherty, a Foreign Office minister, is now making a statement about the death of Alexei Navalny.
He told MPs the government was appalled at the news of Navalny’s death and that he was speaking for the whole house in sending his deepest condolences to Navalny’s family. He went on:
Mr Navalny dedicated his life with great bravery to exposing corruption. He called for free and fair politics and held the Kremlin to account. He was an inspiration to millions and many Russians felt that gave them a voice.
The Russian authorities saw him as a threat. President Putin fear to even speak his name Putin’s Russia imprisoned him on fabricated charges, poisoned him, and sent him to an Arctic penal colony.
Mr Navalny was a man of huge courage and iron will. Even from his remote prison so he persisted in advocating for the rights of the Russian people.
No one should doubt the dreadful nature of the Russian system. Years of mistreatment at the hands of the state at a serious effect on Mr Navalny’s health. His death must be investigated fully and transparently.
Docherty said the Russian authorities should tell Navalny’s family where his body is.
The UK government held the Russian authorities “wholly responsible”, he said.
And, in a reference to possible sanctions, he said that the people to blame should be held to account and that the government was “working at pace” on options to enable this to happen.
Updated
'A blatant attempt to seek revenge' – how Badenoch hit back at claims made by ex-Post Office chair
In her opening statement Kemi Badenoch said that Henry Staunton’s claims in his Sunday Times article were “completely false”. In particular, she addressed three of his specific claims, relating to briefings the media, why he was sacked, and claims compensation was delayed.
Badenoch rejected claims that the media had been pre-briefed about his sacking. She said:
Mr Staunton alleges that I refused to apologise to him after he learned of his dismissal from Sky News. That was not the case.
In the call he referenced I made it abundantly clear that I disapproved of the media briefing any aspect of this story and out of respect for Henry Staunton’s reputation I went to great pains to make my concerns about his conduct private.
In fact in my interviews with the press I repeatedly said that I refused to carry out HR in public. That is why it is so disappointing that he’s chosen to spread a series of falsehoods, provide made up anecdotes to journalists and leak discussions held in confidence.
All of this merely confirms in my mind that I made the correct decision in dismissing him.
She said Staunton was not sacked because, as he claimed she told him, someone had to take the rap for the Horizon scandal. She said:
Mr Staunton claimed I told him that someone’s got to take the rap for the Horizon scandal, and that was the reason for his dismissal. That was not the reason at all.
I dismissed him because there were serious concerns about his behaviour as chair, including those raised from other directors on the board. My department found significant governance issues, for example, with the recruitment of a new senior independent director to the Post Office board. A public appointment process was under way, but Mr Staunton apparently wanted to bypass it, appointing someone from within the existing board without due process.
He failed to properly consult the Post Office board on the proposal. He failed to hold the required nominations committee. Most importantly, he failed to consult the government as a shareholder which the company was required to do.
I know that honourable members will agree with me is such a cavalier approach to governance was the last thing we needed in the Post Office given its historic failings.
In his Sunday Times interview Staunton addressed this claim, arguing that he was backing the candidate favoured by the board, when the government wanted its own candidate to get the job. (See 4.07pm.)
She said that Staunton was failing to cooperate with an investigation into allegations of bullying against him. She said:
I should also inform the house that, while he was post, a formal investigation was launched into allegations made regarding Mr Staunton’s conduct. This included serious matters such as bullying.
Concerns were brought to my department’s attention about Mr Staunton’s willingness to cooperate with that investigation.
So it is right that the British public knew the facts behind this case, and what was said in the phone call where I dismissed Mr Staunton.
She said she was publishing a readout of her conversation with Staunton. She said:
Today I am depositing a copy of that readout in both libraries of the house so the honourable members and the public can see the truth. Personal information relating to other post office employees in those minutes have been redacted.
She said there was “no evidence whatsoever” to support Staunton’s claim that an official told him to stall compensation payments. She said:
Mr Staunton claimed that when he was first appointed as chair of the Post Office he was told by senior civil servants to stall on paying compensation. There is no evidence whatsoever that this is true.
In fact, on becoming Post Office chair, Mr Staunton received a letter from the BEIS [Deparment of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy] permanent secretary, Sarah Munby, on 9 December 2022. It welcomed him to his role, making it crystal clear that successfully reaching settlements with victims of the Post Office scandal should be one of his highest priorities …
The reality is that my department has done everything it can to speed up compensation payments for victims. We’ve already made payments totaling £160m across all three compensation schemes. That includes our announcement last autumn of the optional £600,000 pound fixed-sum award for those who’ve been wrongfully convicted. It is the strongest refutation of those who would claim that we only acted after the ITV drama.
She said that all 2,417 post office operators who claimed through the original Horizon shortfall scheme have now had offers of compensation. In total, around £1bn has been committed to ensure wronged post office operators can be compensated, she said.
She said Staunton’s claims were a disgrace. She said:
In short we are putting our money where our mouth is and our shoulders to the wheel and ensuring that justice is done. It is not fair on the victims of this scandal, which has already ruined so many lives and livelihoods, to claim, as Mr Staunton has done, that this has been dragged out a second longer than it ought to be.
For Henry Staunton to suggest otherwise, for whatever personal motives, is a disgrace and it risks damaging confidence in the compensation schemes which ministers and civil servants are working so hard to deliver.
I would hope the most people reading the interview in yesterday, Sunday, Sunday Times, we’ll see it for what it was a blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal.
And she defended her decision to hit back at him so robustly. She said:
I must say I regret the way in which these events have unfolded. We did everything we could to manage this dismissal in a dignified way for Mr Staunton and others. However, I will not hesitate to defend myself, and more importantly, my officials, who cannot respond directly to these baseless attacks.
Updated
Badenoch says, until the day he was fired, Henry Staunton never complained to her about interference by UKGI (UK Government Investments) in the work of his board.
Badenoch says UKGI and the Post Office have both denied the claim that UKGI was behind the move by the Post Office’s board to send a letter to the justice deparment suggesting that some of the post office operators who claim to be innocent may in fact be guilty. (See 4.27pm.)
Paul Scully, a former postal services minister, says he found it hard to believe that an official would want to delay compensation payments. When he was in the department, officials wanted compensation to be paid quickly, he says.
Badenoch agrees. She says that Henry Staunton did not mention this to her when they spoke. She suggests he has made it up.
Badenoch is responding to Reynolds.
She says she can deny that the government asked the Post Office to stall compensation payments. There is no evidence to show this was said, she says. She says it is hard to prove a negative. But she says there would have been no reason to do this anyway. It would not have affected revenues.
She says the department publishes information regularly on what compensation payments have been made.
She says she will not publish all her department’s correspondence with the Post Office. She says the inquiry has been set up to investigate this.
But she suggests correspondence might be published relating to the claims made by Staunton.
UPDATE: Badenoch said:
There would be no benefit whatsoever of us delaying compensation. This does not have any significant impact on revenues whatsoever. It would be a mad thing to even suggest, and the compensation scheme which Mr Staunton oversaw has actually been completed, and my understanding is 100% of payments have been made, so clearly no instruction was given.
Updated
Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, says there are now two completely conflicting accounts of how Henry Staunton was sacked. He says parliament is the correct place for the truth to be established.
There should be no cover up, he says. And he says if what Badenoch is saying is true, she should welcome that.
Badenoch says Post Office chair was sacked after bullying allegations and his Horizon claims 'completely false'
Kemi Badenoch is making her statement about the Henry Staunton claims.
She says they are “completely false”.
She says that he was dismissed after serious allegations were made against him, including bullying, and because concerns were brought to her about his willingness to cooperate with the investigation into those claims.
And she says she is publishing a transcript of the readout of the conversation she had in which she sacked him.
She says his interview was “a blatant attempt to seek revenge following dismissal”.
She says she sought to handle this in a dignified way. But she will not hesitate to defend herself, and her officials who cannot speak up for themselves, she says.
Updated
Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, has urged Kemi Badenoch to publish all correspondence between her department and the Post Office, and all correspondence between her department and the Treasury on this topic, in order to establish the truth behind the allegations made by Henry Staunton. (See 4.07pm.)
The accusations this weekend that elements in Government sought to obfuscate justice for the subpostmasters have rightly caused major concern.
— Jonathan Reynolds (@jreynoldsMP) February 19, 2024
The Government must do everything in their power to prove to subpostmasters that this was not the case pic.twitter.com/QtypiP3yfx
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote on the SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Momentum, the leftwing Labour group, has launched an online tool enabling people to email Labour MPs about the issue. “With the government continuing to give cover to Israel, it’s vital that every Labour MP votes for an immediate end to the bloodshed when given a choice on Wednesday,” Hilary Schan, Momentum’s co-chair, said.
What Henry Staunton told Sunday Times about Post Office, government and Horizon scandal
Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, will deliver a statement shortly about the claims made by Henry Staunton, the former Post Office chair, in an interview with the Sunday Times published yesterday. The main claim has been covered extensively here already, but Staunton made a series of specific claims. Here is the full list.
Staunton claimed that a senior official from the business departments asked him to stall compensation payments to victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal until after the general election. He told the Sunday Times:
Early on, I was told by a fairly senior person to stall on spending on compensation and on the replacement of Horizon, and to limp, in quotation marks – I did a file note on it – limp into the election.
It was not an anti-postmaster thing, it was just straight financials. I didn’t ask, because I said, ‘I’m having no part of it – I’m not here to limp into the election, it’s not the right thing to do by postmasters.’ The word ‘limp’ gives you a snapshot of where they were.
He claimed that, when she called to sack him, Badenoch told him: “Well, someone’s got to take the rap for this [the Horizon scandal].”
He claimed that the UK government’s representative on the Post Office’s board was behind a move to suggest some post office operators caught up in the scandal should not be exonerated because they were probably guilty. This is how the Sunday Times wrote this up.
Staunton said UK Government Investments (UKGI), the body staffed by former investment bankers that manages taxpayers’ stakes in assets such as the Post Office, appeared to oppose blanket exoneration. Last month — after [the ITV’s drama about the scandal was aired] – Nick Read, chief executive of the Post Office, wrote to the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, with a legal opinion from the Post Office’s solicitors at Peters & Peters attached. The message said that in more than 300 cases, non-Horizon evidence supported sub-postmasters’ convictions. “Basically, it was trying to undermine the exoneration argument,” Staunton said. “It was, ‘Most people haven’t come forward because they are guilty as charged’ – ie think very carefully about exoneration. I said to Nick [Read], ‘This is not right – this goes to the heart of how we as an organisation feel. You’ve sent that letter as if that’s our view, and that is not my view, and it is not the view of at least half of the board … If this got out, we’d be crucified, and rightly so’.”
According to Staunton, Read said he sent the letter at UKGI’s behest …
“It was terrible, terrible governance,” [Staunton said.] “I picked it up with the UKGI director, who didn’t deny it but didn’t really want to talk about it. And I thought it was not my job to work out what the politics is behind all this.”
He said that he expected Read to leave his post as chief executive soon because he is finding interference by UKGI “desperately frustrating”.
Staunton said that ‘a big part” of the reason why he was sacked was because he opposed a bid by the government to put a Whitehall insider on the board. Staunton wanted the vacancy to be filled by Andrew Darfoor, who was the choice of the Post Office board.
He said that Read often described the Post Office investigators, who prosecuted the post office operatives, as “the untouchables” because the organisation felt it could not get rid of them.
Staunton said there was a “toxic” culture at the Post Office where many senior figures thought many of the post officer operators claiming to be victims of a miscarriage of justice were in fact guilty.
Labour claims Jeremy Hunt's failure to answer urgent question about state of economy an 'insult' to voters
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, told MPs that Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, should be responding to the urgent question, not Bim Afolami. His failure to turn up was “an insult to all those people who go to work every day and experience the reality of 14 years of conservative economic failure”, she said.
She went on:
Will the minister explain why the economy is now smaller than when the current prime minister entered 10 Downing Street? Does the minister accept the misery that this government has caused homeowners with their kamikaze budget, leaving a typical family renewing their mortgage paying an additional £240 pounds every single month?
She also pointed out that the UK Statistics Authority has reprimanded Laura Trott, the chief secretary to the Treasury, for making misleading claims about tax cuts.
Updated
Bim Afolami, a junior Treasury minister, is responding to the Labour urgent question about the economy.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, tabled the question in response to the news last week that the UK has entered a recession.
But Afolami isn’t letting that deter him. He says just over a year ago the Bank of England was forecasting the longest recession in 100 years. But now the IMF is saying the UK will grow faster than countries like Japan, Germany and France over the next few years, he says.
He says the biggest threat to the economy is Labour because their energy policy would require investment costing £28bn a year.
Government closes scheme allowing family members to join Ukrainians offered refuge in UK
A scheme under which Ukrainians could join family members taking sanctuary in the UK has been unexpectedly closed in what opposition politicians described as a “cruel” and “below the radar” move days before the two year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
The Ukraine family scheme is being shut against the backdrop of a relatively high number of rejections while a separate Homes for Ukraine Scheme would continue to serve needs, according to government officials.
However, the SNP said the government was forcing Ukrainian refugees to “jump through hoops” to remain safely in the UK.
Alison Thewliss, the SNP’s home affairs spokesperson, said:
Beyond the lack of notice of the scheme ending, the UK government has also reduced the length of sanctuary from 36 months to 18 months within the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and grounds for refusing visas, which were rightly waived after the invasion of Ukraine, will now start being applied.
Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s shadow immigration minister, said ministers needed to urgently explain the justification for the changes and how they will ensure vulnerable Ukrainians are not put at risk by these changes. He said:
The numbers arriving on visa schemes have already dropped but many that are coming are often in very desperate personal situations. Restricting family rights at a time when Ukrainian troops are under heavy fire in Donetsk sends the wrong message to the people of Ukraine about our willingness to stand with them.
Keir Starmer has welcomed new Labour MPs Gen Kitchen and Damien Egan to parliament after their byelection victories in Wellingborough and Kingswood last week. At a photocall in Westminster Hall, he told Labour MPs:
They both overturned incredible majorities, the like of which we wouldn’t normally be able to overturn, making history before they’d even been sworn in as members of parliament, a fantastic achievement. And if we carry on like this with byelections, we’re going to need a bigger hall …
But, and there’s always a but from me, particularly as a football fan, one good result in February doesn’t win you the league. We need to stay focused, stay disciplined, celebrate these fantastic new members of parliament and go on and win that general election.
Postal services minister says he does not 'recognise' Staunton's claim about compensation payments being delayed
Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, told Sky News that he did not “recognise” what Henry Staunton was saying about the government privately wanting the Post Office to “stall” the payment of compensation to victims of the Horizon scandal. He said:
We’ve been very focused on getting that compensation out the door as quickly as possible.
We’ve done much to try and accelerate those payments over the time Henry Staunton was in office so I don’t recognise what he’s saying and I’m bit confused why he’s saying it.
Kemi Badenoch, Hollinrake’s boss, has accused Staunton of telling outright lies. Hollinrake’s tone is quite different. Saying that you do not “recognise” something as true is quite a long way off saying that it’s incorrect and, in Whitehall terminology, this is normally understood as a form of “non-denial denial” – something that sounds like a denial without actually being one.
Updated
Ex-Post Office chair Henry Staunton defends claim about government wanting to delay compensation payments
Henry Staunton, the former Post Office chair, has said that it was “pretty obvious” that until very recently the government was dragging its feet on paying compensation to the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
He made the comment in a statement issued to Sky News in which he defended his statement about being told, when he was at the Post Office, that the government wanted to “stall” the payment of compensation until the general election. (See 9.21am.)
Staunton says he was told this by a senior official from the business department whom he has not named. The government has said that it is wrong to say that delaying compensation payments was ever government policy.
In his statement, Staunton said:
It was in the interests of the business, as well as being fair for the postmasters, that there was faster progress on exoneration and that compensation was more generous, but we didn’t see any real movement until after the Mr Bates programme.
I think it is pretty obvious to everyone what was really going on.
Updated
Cutting corporation tax in Northern Ireland would harm public services, economy minister tells Stormont
There are no current plans to cut corporation tax in Northern Ireland, the Stormont economy minister has said. As PA Media reports, Conor Murphy was speaking as he outlined his economic vision for the region in the remaining three years of the assembly term.
There had previously been calls to cut the corporation tax rate in Northern Ireland in the hope of becoming more competitive as a place to invest. As part of the government’s recent Safeguarding the Union command paper, there is a commitment to work urgently to devolve corporation tax powers to Stormont.
But Murphy told MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) today that it is “not something we’re rushing into”. He said:
The difficulty for us is that the Treasury’s approach to the devolution of taxation and particularly corporation tax is that they want the money upfront that they think it would yield – that comes directly from our public services.
Our public services are so underfunded, and we are so underfunded in terms of our level of need, that I don’t think it’d be conscionable to try and denude them any more of finance in order to hope for the benefit back that a lower corporation tax might mean … and you don’t have any guarantees in relation to what it would bring back.
So I do think we have economic levers in terms of our approach to the policies we can set and we have to use them as best we can in the time ahead to try and grow the economy. I don’t see corporation tax playing any part in that any time soon.
Labour confirms it would ban drag hunting
Labour has confirmed that it would ban drag hunting, a form of hunting where dogs follow an artificial scent laid down intentionally. It is meant to a humane form of hunting, and it was allowed to continue when the last Labour government banned conventional hunting, but campaigners say that drag hunts often result (intentionally or otherwise) in real foxes being chased and killed by the hounds.
In an interview with the Times, Steve Reed, the shadow environment secretary, said:
People have seen the images of packs of hounds getting into private back gardens, killing cats, ripping flocks apart. There’s not a majority in any part of the country that wants to see that continue.
The hunting ban was passed under the last Labour government and it has been maintained under this Conservative government. So that seems fairly settled to me. But there are loopholes in it, drag hunting for instance, that allow hunting to continue, and foxes – and indeed domestic cats and other mammals – are still getting killed as a result of those loopholes and we will close those loopholes.
Reed said the ban would be introduced during the first term of a Labour government.
Experts welcome news Labour wants to use citizens' assemblies to push through policy in difficult areas
Labour intends to use citizens’ assemblies to push through proposals in controversial policy areas, Sue Gray has revealed.
Gray, the former senior civil servant who is now Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, made the comment in an interview with Tom Baldwin for his new biography of the Labour leader.
Citizens assemblies involve getting a random selection of people, like those chosen for a jury, to listen to evidence from experts about a tricky policy area and to agree on a consensus solution.
They are seen as an effective means of coming up with proposals broadly acceptable to the public as a whole when the political process is deadlocked, or resistant to reform. In Ireland citizens’ assemblies endorsed plans to legalise same-sex marriage and to lift the country’s ban on abortion, both of which subsequently became law after being endorsed in referendums.
In her interview, Gray said Labour might use citizens’ assemblies to produce plans for Lords reform, for devolution of powers to elected mayor and for planning reforms to allow more house building. As the Times reports, she said:
This is one way we can help resolve these questions by involving communities at an early stage … Whitehall will not like this because they have no control.
Polly Curtis, chief executive of the thinktank Demos, welcomed the news saying:
Citizens’ assemblies have been proven around the world to help governments settle difficult policy questions and overcome some of the polarisation in politics today. Creating fair and trusted ways for citizens to participate in policy-making can improve policy outcomes, strengthen citizenry and start to address the crisis in trust in politics.
Demos is currently working with the charity Involve, which runs citizens’ assemblies for councils, on a white paper setting out how Westminster could use them. Curtis said:
It’s not about undermining our current democracy or removing accountability from parliament but emboldening politicians to know how to navigate the difficult trade offs that so many policies are going to require. We need to partner with the public and create a more collaborative democracy than we have now.
And Willie Sullivan, director of campaigns for the Electoral Reform Society, also welcomed the news that Labour is keen on citizens’ assemblies. He said:
Trust is a two-way street, if politicians are to restore our trust in politics, they have to also trust the people.
Citizens’ assemblies have been shown to help other countries, such as Ireland, navigate divisive issues and political impasses, and should play a vital role in the UK.
The best way to rejuvenate our democracy, restore trust and make politics work better for the country is to have the public more directly involved in the big policy decisions that impact them.
UPDATE: As the BBC’s Henry Zeffman reports, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has said Labour could also use a citizens’ assembly to come up with a proposal to allow assisted dying.
NEW: More details on Labour's plans for citizens' assemblies, revealed by Sue Gray in an interview with @TomBaldwin66
— Henry Zeffman (@hzeffman) February 19, 2024
Wes Streeting tells me assemblies could be used to settle "thorny issues" such as assisted dying https://t.co/yJZwcgvo2v
Updated
Badenoch to defend her claims about ex-Post Office chair in statement to MPs
There will be one urgent question in the Commons today, followed by three statements. Here is the running order, with rough timings.
3.30pm: A Treasury minister responds to an urgent question from Rachel Reeves on the state of the economy, and the news it has gone into recession.
Around 4.15pm: Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, makes a statement on the Post Office. (Earlier there were suggestions that Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, would do this instead. But Badenoch apparently was keen to defend her actions herself.)
Around 5.15pm: Leo Docherty, the Foreign Office minister, makes a statement on the death of Alexei Navalny.
Around 6.15pm: Chris Philp, the policing minister, makes a statement on antisemitism.
Foreign Office minister Leo Docherty will make a statement in the Commons following the death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, No 10 has said. As PA Media reports, Rishi Sunak is also expected to hold a cabinet meeting this afternoon, bringing it forward from its usual Tuesday morning slot.
At the morning lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson told reporters:
It is very clear that the Russian authorities saw him as a threat and that is why they imprisoned him on fabricated charges.
The fact that the FSB [the Russian federal security service] poisoned him with a banned nerve agent and then sent him to an Arctic penal colony … His death must be investigated fully, and all of those in the Russian regime must be held to account.
The spokesperson would not comment on possible future sanctions but said the UK had agreed the “most comprehensive package of sanctions ever brought to bear on a major economy” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
No 10 defends Badenoch in row with ex-Post Office chief but declines to back her claim he lied about their conversation
No 10 has declined to repeat Kemi Badenoch’s claim that the former chair of the Post Office gave an interview “full of lies” about the conversation she had when she sacked him.
At the morning lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson would not adopt the language used by Badenoch in a post on X yesterday and instead claimed that Badenoch believes that the account of what she said given by Henry Staunton is a “misrepresentation”.
It also emerged that Badenoch herself is not expected to be in the Commons herself this afternoon defending her conduct in this matter. Instead Kevin Hollinrake, the postal services minister, is expected to address MPs.
Yesterday Badenoch said that Staunton’s interview with the Sunday Times about the conversation they had when she sacked him recently was “full of lies”. Asked if No 10 agreed that Staunton was a liar, the spokesperson said:
Obviously this referred to a conversation that she had with Henry Staunton, and you’ll have seen her words on this; she’s very clear that the interview that he gave was a misrepresentation of her conversation with him and the reasons for his dismissal.
And the government has being clear, and will refute the allegations [that it wanted to slow down compensation to victims]. The government has taken action to speed up the compensation to victims, and we’ve consistently encouraged postmasters to come forward with their claims. Any suggestions otherwise [are] not correct.
The spokesperson also refused to say whether No 10 has seen the record kept by officials of the call between Badenoch and Staunton, or whether those notes will be published.
The spokesperson said the letter sent to Staunton by the business department showed that the government did not want the Post Office to slow down the payment of compensation to post office operators. When it was put to him that the letter also showed Staunton was expected to control costs (see 9.21am), the spokesperson did not accept that this meant the government was not committed to paying compensation promptly.
Asked if he could categorically say that no one from government asked Staunton to stall compensation payments, the spokesperson said the government had sped up compensation to victims and any suggestions otherwise were not correct.
Updated
The Guardian has produced an opinion poll tracker that we will be updating daily between now and the general election. You can find it here.
And here are the most recent figures.
Ofcom launches investigation into whether Rishi Sunak's People's Forum Q&A on GB News broke impartiality rules
Ofcom has announced that it has launched an investigation into whether the GB News People’s Forum event with Rishi Sunak last week broke impartiality rules. It says:
We have received around 500 complaints about the programme which aired on GB News on 12 February 2024.
We are investigating under Rules 5.11 and 5.12 of the Broadcasting Code which provide additional due impartiality requirements for programmes dealing with matters of major political controversy and major matters relating to current public policy. Specifically, Rules 5.11 and 5.12 require that an appropriately wide range of significant views must be included and given due weight in such programmes, or in clearly linked and timely programmes.
The show has been criticised because Sunak was not subject to the sort of comeback and challenge during the Q&A that he would get from a similar event staged by an established broadcaster like the BBC or Sky News. In his sketch, John Crace wrote: “Nearly every Conservative MP has their own show on GB News, so it was only a matter of time before it was Rishi Sunak’s turn.”
GB News has been found to have broken Ofcom rules at least five times, and other complaints are outstanding, but that has not stopped commentators arguing that the regulator should be doing a lot more to ensure it maintains conventional impartiality standards. Jane Martinson made this case last week.
Badenoch criticises Michael Sheen over comment about Port Talbot steel plant in interview promoting new drama
Never one to turn down the chance for a good political fight, Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, hasn’t just gone to war this week with the former chair of the Post Office. (See 9.21am.) She has also used an article in the Daily Mail to condemn the actor Michael Sheen over a comment he made about the steel plant in Port Talbot. She said:
Promoting his new drama The Way, Michael Sheen has said that ‘the people of Port Talbot have been let down’ regarding redundancies at its steel plant.
But he is wrong. Port Talbot is iconic to British industry and that’s why the government is investing so much to ensure we keep its steelworks for the next century at a time when the market says we should abandon it.
The first episode of The Way goes out on BBC One tonight and it’s a drama about a workers’ uprising in response to the closure of a steel plant in south Wales. The BBC insists its fictional, and not about the Tata factory in Port Talbot. Sheen is a supporter of leftwing causes, but the quote Badenoch refers to is from a Times interview about the drama in which Sheen was not even directly criticising the government.
The Mail has run the article alongside a news story quoting the Tory MP Lee Anderson, and another unnamed Conservative, claiming the drama is evidence of the BBC being biased against the government.
Xan Brooks wrote a piece about the thriller, written by James Graham, for the Guardian earlier this month.
Updated
Gove announces plan to give councils new power to restrict spread of Airbnb-type short-term lets
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has announced plans intended to give councils in England new powers to restrict the spread of Airbnb-type short-term lets.
In a news release explaining the moves, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities says:
Under the reforms councils will be given greater power to control short-term lets by making them subject to the planning process. This will support local people in areas where high numbers of short-term lets are preventing them from finding housing they can afford to buy or to rent.
These changes are part of a long-term plan to prevent a “hollowing out” of communities, address anti-social behaviour and ensure local people can continue to live in the place they call home.
Meanwhile, a new mandatory national register will give local authorities the information they need about short-term lets in their area. This will help councils understand the extent of short-term lets in their area, the effects on their communities, and underpin compliance with key health and safety regulations …
The proposed planning changes would see a new planning ‘use class’ created for short-term lets not used as a sole or main home. Existing dedicated short-term lets will automatically be reclassified into the new use class and will not require a planning application.
Streeting says he would probably spoil his ballot paper if he had to vote in Rochdale byelection
In another interview this morning Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, described the situation for Labour voters in the Rochdale byelection as “appalling”. The constituency will elect a new MP next week, but now that Labour has withdrawn support from its candidate, Azhar Ali, voters can’t choose someone who will be able to take the whip as a Labour MP. Streeting said:
I’m not going to pretend that this has been Labour’s finest hour. We’ve got people going to the polls in Rochdale who don’t have a good Labour candidate to vote for. I’m really sorry that’s the case – I think it’s an appalling position to be in.
But what I wouldn’t want is for Labour to stand by someone who’s peddled antisemitic conspiracy theories, and that’s why Keir’s taken this unprecedented action.
UPDATE: Streeting also said, if he lived in Rochdale, he would probably refuse to vote for any candidate and spoil his ballot paper.
“I'd probably go along and spoil my ballot”
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) February 19, 2024
With Labour withdrawing support for their candidate in Rochdale, we ask @wesstreeting what voters should do at the upcoming by-election. #KayBurley EB pic.twitter.com/KbUVFLJeLk
Updated
‘Scandalous’ if UK watchdog role left empty when Rwanda plan starts, says inspector
David Neal, the UK’s chief inspector of borders and immigration, has said it is “scandalous” that his watchdog role could be left vacant while the Rwanda scheme is introduced, Kevin Rawlinson reports.
Labour won't be 'pushed around by SNP' on Gaza, says Streeting
In an interview with the Today programme, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, also said that Labour would not be “pushed around the by the SNP” in setting out its policy on Gaza.
Asked if Labour would be voting for the SNP motion on Wednesday, Streeting at first said the party would wait until the final wording was out. When it was pointed out to him that the SNP has already published the text of its motion, Streeting said he did not think it had been tabled in the Commons yet.
He implied Labour might table an amendment to the motion, saying: “We will put our own position out.” And he went on:
We were not going to be pushed around by the SNP. Where I think we would like to get to is a position where the United Kingdom and the international community speak with one voice.
The SNP is calling for an immediate ceasefire, while Labour is still arguing that a ceasefire should be sustainable too. Setting out the party’s position at the Scottish Labour conference yesterday, Keir Starmer said:
I have just returned from the Munich security conference, where every conversation I had came back to the situation in Israel and Gaza and the question of what we can do practically to deliver what we all want to see – a return of all the hostages taken on 7 October, an end to the killing of innocent Palestinians, a huge scaling-up of humanitarian relief and an end to the fighting.
Not just for now, not just for a pause, but permanently. A ceasefire that lasts. That is what must happen now. The fighting must stop now.
Here is the text of the SNP motion for debate on Wednesday.
That this house calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel; notes with shock and distress that the death toll has now risen beyond 28,000, the vast majority of whom were women and children; further notes that there are currently 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah, 610,000 of whom are children; also notes that they have nowhere else to go; condemns any military assault on what is now the largest refugee camp in the world; further calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken by Hamas and an end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people; and recognises that the only way to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians is to press for a ceasefire now.
Streeting says Israel has 'gone too far' in Gaza and its actions go 'beyond reasonable self-defence'
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has said that Israel has “gone too far” in Gaza and that its military offensive goes “beyond reasonable self-defence”.
In an interview with Sky News this morning, ahead of a Commons debate on Wednesday where Labour must decide whether or not to vote for an SNP motion calling for “an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, Streeting said:
We want to see a ceasefire, of course we do. And we have been increasingly concerned, as the wider international community has been, with the disproportionate loss of civilian life in Gaza.
Israel has a responsibility to get its hostages back, every country in the world has a right to defend itself.
But I think what we have seen are actions that go beyond reasonable self-defence and also call into question whether Israel has broken international law.
The ICJ [International Court of Justice] are now investigating and we take all of that seriously.
Asked whether he thought Israel had “gone too fast”, Streeting replied:
I think, objectively, yes, Israel has gone too far. And we have seen that with a disproportionate loss of innocent civilian life.
Updated
Minister suggests Kemi Badenoch should publish evidence to confirm her claim about ex-Post Office chair lying about call
Good morning. Yesterday Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, accused the former Post Office chair, Henry Staunton, of giving an interview “full of lies” about the conversation they had when she sacked him recently. Josh Halliday has the story here, and here is one of the tweets from a thread that Badenoch posted on Twitter.
My call with Staunton was with officials. They took a complete record. He has given an interview full of lies about our conversation during his dismissal. The details will emerge soon enough as I won’t let the matter rest here, but will be discussing with govt lawyers. (3/5)
My call with Staunton was with officials. They took a complete record.
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) February 18, 2024
He has given an interview full of lies about our conversation during his dismissal.
The details will emerge soon enough as I won’t let the matter rest here, but will be discussing with govt lawyers. (3/5)
Badenoch said she would be making a further statement today.
The row is partly, but not entirely, about what was said in that Badenoch/Staunton conversation where he was sacked. Staunton told the Sunday Times that he had not even met Badenoch, that he learned he was going to lose his job from a Sky News journalist shortly before she called, and that in the conversation she referred to the Post Office Horizon scandal, telling him: “Well, someone’s got to take the rap for this.” Badenoch said yesterday that officials were listening in on the call and that they took a complete record.
The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, was doing the morning interview round for the government and she suggested that Badenoch should release the record of the conversation to prove her claims about Staunton telling lies. Asked on the Today programme if Badenoch would releasing those notes, she replied:
I’m sure they will make a statement or release something. My understanding is that the government made clear in the appointment letter that focusing on and prioritising the compensation for sub-postmasters was a key aspect of the job.
The presenter, Mishal Husain, asked again if notes of the call would be released. Keegan said she had not spoken to Badenoch directly about this, but she said that she was sure officials did keep a record of what was said. Asked again if Badenoch would provide evidence to back up her claims, Keegan said:
I haven’t spoken to her, but I’m sure she will back it up.
The most serious claim made by Staunton in his Sunday Times interview was not about what Badenoch said when she sacked him, but what he said about another conversation, with an unnamed senior official in the business department. Staunton said he was told “to stall on spend on compensation [for victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal] and on the replacement of Horizon, and to limp, in quotation marks – I did a file note on it – limp into the election”.
In her Today interview, Keegan said this claim was “at odds” with what Staunton was told in his appointment letter, released by the department last night.
🚨 Fact Check 🚨
— Department for Business and Trade (@biztradegovuk) February 18, 2024
The Government made clear to the Chair of the Post Office that reaching payment settlements with victims of the Horizon scandal was a priority when he took the role. Claims to the contrary are simply not true.
Read the full letter below
👇 pic.twitter.com/QzPjDUURf2
Keegan said the letter “basically says you’re to prioritise the sub-postmasters and their fair compensation”.
But in fact the letter, sent by Sarah Munby, who at the time was permanent secretary at the department, does not quite say that. It says “resolving historical litigation issues” should be a priority. But it also implies an even more important priority is effective financial management, including “effective management of legal costs”.
The letter does not disprove Staunton’s claim about being told to “stall” on compensation payments. Staunton told the Sunday Times this was just a money issue, and arguably his claim is consistent with what the letter says about the need to control costs.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on Scotland’s green future.
10.30am: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, holds a press conference on how the Welsh government is looking to strengthen international relationships.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: A Foreign Office minister is expected to give a statement on the death of Alexei Navalny, and Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, is expected to give a statement on claims made by the former Post Office chair.
Afternoon: Peers resume the committee stage debate for the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill.
4pm: Tim Davie, the BBC director general, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee.
Afternoon: David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is expected to arrive in the Falkland Islands.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a laptop or a desktop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting, too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line; privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate); or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
Updated
