DUP ‘in position’ to return to Stormont – if government sticks to its word

Published

3 months ago

January 30, 2024

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The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) are “in a position” to restart the executive in Northern Ireland after a near two-year absence – if ministers keep to the “agreed timeline” over a fresh deal on post-Brexit trade, their leader has said.

The power-sharing agreement between the main parties at Stormont collapsed in 2022, with the unionist party refusing to return over its opposition to the government’s deal with the EU – which left a trade border down the Irish Sea and additional checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein also won the election for the first time, meaning the return of executive would see Northern Ireland’s first nationalist first minister installed – Michelle O’Neill – with the DUP taking the deputy first minister role.

Politics live: Stormont set for historic first minister as post-Brexit deal struck

The DUP and UK government have been at loggerheads over trade arrangements and the impact of the direct border with the EU on the island of Ireland.

But in the early hours of Tuesday morning, it was revealed an agreement had now been reached, paving the way for the assembly to get up and running again.

Leader of the DUP, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the deal offered “further legal change that will be of real benefit to businesses in Northern Ireland [and] ensures that Northern Ireland benefits in full from UK free trade deals”.

He added: “These were key elements in our requirements in our negotiations from the government.”

The president of Sinn Fein, Mary Lou McDonald, told Sky News’ Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that it was a day of “very great hope” and “some relief”, saying: “Of course there are some final matters to be concluded before the assembly is recalled, but it’s very positive here today in Belfast and right across Ireland.”

Ms McDonald also pledged that her colleague, Ms O’Neill, held a “deeply sincere commitment to act as a first minister for all”.

She added: “We will look to find the common ground, the high ground… and so I would say to the unionists in particular to take heart from the fact that we now have the chance for change and a platform to advance everybody’s standard of living, everybody’s life experience.”

The full details of the deal have yet to be released, with Sir Jeffrey saying they were set to come tomorrow.

But he did reveal the so-called “green lane” for goods being sent across the Irish Sea would be replaced by the UK internal market system that “reflects the reality that the UK is part of the United Kingdom”.

The DUP leader continued: “Goods flowing within the UK will flow freely – that was our core, key objective, and I believe what we have secured is real change and everybody will be able to see it for themselves.”

EU throws Sunak a bone over NI

Sam Coates

Deputy political editor

@SamCoatesSky

So the government has produced a rabbit out of the hat, just as we teeter on the edge of a deal to restore Stormont.

Suddenly they’ve revealed the fruits of months of secret negotiation with the EU, to change the legal text governing the way trade operates in Northern Ireland.

After some speculation that the UK was prepared to rewrite the rules unilaterally, it’s emerged that the EU not only knew, but were prepared to throw the UK government a bone in order to assist Rishi Sunak getting the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running.

Hard-line unionists will no doubt say it does not deal with the fundamental, quite existential questions raised by the Windsor Framework likely to play out over the next 20 years.

Nevertheless, the EU has been prepared to extend the range of goods it is content to see going into Northern Ireland without checks.

The change means the EU has agreed to expand the “not at risk” category of stuff that can use the goods Green Lane, which doesn’t require checks.

Supporters are claiming this means Northern Ireland can properly take advantage of free trade agreements struck by post-Brexit Britain.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris says that it means a cut to food tariffs to goods like New Zealand lamb and Australian beef. We shall see.

Critically, politically, it has allowed Jeffrey Donaldson to strike a note of vindication against critics who say the “deal” the DUP has agreed to is meaningless.

“This demonstrates that the naysayers are wrong. There will be legal changes,” he trumpeted on social media.

This is further than many expected, and takes us even closer to a restoration of Stormont that feels closer than it has ever been so far.

The deal also has sign off from the EU, with a document being published from a joint committee with the UK showing the bloc was happy for more goods to head to Northern Ireland without being checked.

“We believe this represents a significant change,” said Sir Jeffrey. But he did appear to issue a thinly veiled warning to UK ministers.

“On the basis that the government continues to deliver the strength of the agreed timeline that we reached with them, then we will be in a position to convene a meeting of the assembly and proceed with the restoration of the political institutions,” he said.

Sir Jeffrey also confirmed that along with the civil service, Northern Ireland parties from all sides had already been meeting to discuss the issues at hand, including an ongoing dispute over public sector pay.

Earlier, the UK government’s Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, welcomed the agreement, telling reporters: “I believe that all the conditions are now in place for the Assembly to return, and I look forward very much to the restoration of the institutions at Stormont as soon as possible.”

He also did not reveal specifics of the deal – saying other parties needed to be briefed first – but confirmed a financial package of £3.3bn will be available to the incoming executive.

However, Ms McDonald said: “The north of Ireland has been underfunded for a very, very long time.

“Although the headline figure of £3bn sounds like a lot, the reality is that it is still going to be a huge, huge challenge to fund this place correctly.”

Meanwhile, in her interview with Sky News, the Sinn Fein president also said “the days of partition are numbered”.

Ms McDonald’s party wants to see Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland united as one country – unlike the unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK.

She told Sophy Ridge: “The reality is that so long as Ireland is partitioned, we will face very, very significant economic challenges and disadvantages here in the North and all along the border.”

Politics

UK to get at least 25 new warships due to defence spending rise – Shapps

Published

2 hours ago

May 14, 2024

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UK to get at least 25 new warships due to defence spending rise - Shapps

The Royal Navy will get 25 new warships – and could get three more – as the government indicates where its planned rise in defence spending will go.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News there are 28 new ships and submarines in the design or construction stage at the moment for the UK’s armed forces.

He said 22 ships are “already in the system” – but there is less clarity over six new warships he announced for the Royal Marines today.

The defence secretary said that the government is committing to three of the new “versatile” ships for the Marines, “and then possibly another three as well”. He later said the final three are “in the design phase”.

He also announced two of the ships being built – type 26 and 31 frigates – will be equipped with land-attack missiles so they will be capable of attacking targets on shore.

Mr Shapps said this is a “very, very large shipbuilding programme, a lot of warships, the golden era of shipbuilding here”.

He added: “It’s all possible because just last month we agreed as a government to spend 2.5% of our GDP on our defence sector because we think it’s very, very important to make sure that those who would seek to do us harm are put off, that they are dissuaded because they can see that we’re serious about our defence.”

Labour has pledged to reach 2.5% of GDP on defence spending when economic conditions allow it, while the Conservatives have said they would reach that number by 2030.

But defence spending fell in the early years of the Conservative government, which has been in power for 14 years, and spending was not boosted when Ukraine was invaded in 2014 or 2022.

Mr Shapps said the Tory pledge is different to Labour’s because the Conservatives have “set out a timeline”.

“We’ve also said how we would go about largely funding this, and that’s by reducing the size of the civil service, which is much bigger than it was before COVID,” he said.

“We want to get it back down to the size it was before and use that money to spend on defence.

“I have to say, as defence secretary, with everything that I know in this role, that I think that the Labour position presents a danger to this country because it will send a signal to our adversaries that we’re not serious about our defence if we won’t set out that timetable.”

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Labour’s shadow work and pensions minister Alison McGovern said she is “sceptical” about the Conservatives’ claim about how they will fund the spending rise.

She said Labour has had to pledge the rise for when the economy allows “because of what the Conservative Party have done to our economy” – as she accused Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak of implementing “big unfunded tax cuts”.

Ms McGovern added: “I think everybody would expect Rachel Reeves as the shadow chancellor to say, well, we will make our plans when we’ve got access to all of the books, all of the details of Ministry of Defence spending.”

Mr Shapps said the government did not spend as much on defence previously because countries such as China, North Korea, Iran and Russia were not such a threat.

The defence secretary added: “We were living in very, very different times.”

He said the government has also added £24bn to the defence budget over the past couple of years and the UK is “by a country mile the largest spender on defence in Europe, with the second largest in NATO after only the US”.

Discussing the UK’s current fleet, Mr Shapps said sister ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark are due to come out of service in 2033-2034 but the defence secretary said they will not be scrapped before that.

Albion and Bulwark are currently used as the Royal Navy’s landing platform docks to transport the Royal Marines.

Mr Shapps also announced HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster, two frigates with a combined service of 63 years, are to be retired, with HMS Argyll sold to BAE Systems to be used to support apprentice shipbuilder training.

The new ships being built include Type 26 and Type 31 frigates in Scotland, Astute and Dreadnought submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, and Fleet Solid Support ships in Belfast and Devon.

Politics

Graduate visa route should remain, report finds, after home secretary raised immigration concerns

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2 hours ago

May 14, 2024

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Graduate visa route should remain, report finds, after home secretary raised immigration concerns

The graduate visa route should remain as it is key to funding British universities and is “not undermining the quality and integrity” of higher education, a new report has said.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) looked at whether the visa was being abused and if it was not being “driven more by a desire for immigration” after Home Secretary James Cleverly requested an emergency review in March.

A graduate visa permits overseas students to stay in the UK for up to three years after completing a university course in the UK. Partners and children can also apply as dependents.

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick published a report last week calling for the graduate visa to be abolished, claiming it “allowed people to come and work in the gig economy and on very low wages”.

University and industry leaders had voiced fears that the route, introduced in 2021, could be axed or curtailed if the report had been negative, with universities reporting a steep drop in international students applying over fears of restrictions being introduced.

But the committee, made up of five university professors and a Home Office representative, said they found “no evidence of widespread abuse” of the graduate route.

“The risks of abuse are relatively low due to the limited number of conditions the route imposes,” the report said.

It also found the visa route is helping universities to expand the range of courses offered while making up for financial losses from domestic students and research, and is “supporting the government’s international educational strategy”.

The report said 114,000 graduate route visas were granted for applicants in 2023, with a further 30,000 for dependents.

It said students from India, Nigeria, China and Pakistan account for 70% of all graduate visas, with India accounting for more than 40%.

MAC chair and leading labour economist Professor Brian Bell, the head of economics at King’s College London, said: “Our review recommends the graduate route should remain as it is, and is not undermining the quality and integrity of the UK’s higher education system.

“The graduate route is a key part of the offer that we make to international students to come and study in the UK.

“The fees that these students pay help universities to cover the losses they make in teaching British students and doing research.

“Without those students, many universities would need to shrink and less research would be done.

“This highlights the complex interaction between immigration policy and higher education policy.”

A government spokesman said: “We are committed to attracting the best and brightest to study at our world-class universities, whilst preventing abuse of our immigration system, which is why the home secretary commissioned an independent review of the graduate route.

“We have already taken decisive action to address unsustainable levels of migration and our plans are working, with a 24% drop in visa applications across key routes in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year.

“We are considering the review’s findings very closely and we will respond fully in due course.”

Reacting to the report, Mr Jenrick said the graduate route “should be scrapped” and the UK needs to “urgently unwind the sector’s growing dependency on foreign students” as he called the route a “backdoor for foreign students to do low-wage work…that isn’t attracting top talent”.

He said the review’s conclusions were “constrained by the narrow terms of reference deliberately set by the government” to back up their International Education Strategy that includes the “arbitrary target” of attracting 600,000 foreign students a year.

“If you order white paint, you get a whitewash,” he said.

The report found most people on the graduate route had completed postgraduate courses, with the highest growth in the visa from non-Russell Group universities’ postgraduate courses – accounting for 66% of all graduate visas.

Since 2021, the proportion of main applicants aged over 25 has increased by 15 percentage points to 54% in 2023.

It also found graduate visa holders are initially overrepresented in lower-paid work but their job prospects and wages improve over time.

Among the first cohort of graduate visa holders, about half moved to skilled worker visas, primarily into skilled roles.

Politics

Commons approves plans to exclude from parliament MPs arrested on suspicion of serious offence

Published

2 hours ago

May 14, 2024

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Commons approves plans to exclude from parliament MPs arrested on suspicion of serious offence

MPs arrested on suspicion of a serious offence face being barred from parliament under new plans approved in a vote on Monday night.

It comes despite the government putting forward a motion that recommended MPs only face a ban if they are charged with a violent or sexual offence – a higher bar.

On Monday night, MPs voted to reverse government moves to water down the measures on “risk-based exclusions” to ensure members can be excluded from parliament at the point of arrest for serious sexual or violent offences, in line with the original recommendation from the House of Commons Commission.

The commission’s initial proposal was later revised by the government to raise the threshold for a potential ban to the point of charge.

But in a surprise move, MPs voted 170 to 169, a majority of one, in favour of an amendment by Lib Dem MP Wendy Chamberlain and Labour MP Jess Phillips to reinstate the original intention of the policy.

MPs were given a free vote on the matter, meaning they were not forced to vote along party lines.

Politics latest: Court ruling ‘blows PM’s claims about Rwanda plan out of the water’

The division list showed eight Conservative MPs voted in favour of the opposition amendment, including safeguarding minister Laura Farris, former prime minister Theresa May and backbench MP Theresa Villiers.

Ms Villiers was herself recommended for a suspension from the Commons for one day in 2021 after she and several other Conservative MPs breached the code of conduct by trying to influence a judge in the trial of former MP Charlie Elphicke, who was convicted in 2020 of sexually assaulting two women and jailed for two years.

The result means those who have been arrested on suspicion of a violent or sexual offence will be banned from parliament, pending the approval of an independent panel.

Mike Clancy, the general secretary of the Prospect trade union, said the outcome was an “important and overdue victory for common-sense and those working on the parliamentary estate”, while FDA general secretary Dave Penman added: “Parliament is a workplace for thousands and these new formal procedures give staff the safe working environment they deserve and would expect in any other workplace.”

Ms Phillips, who advocated for the case for exclusion at the point of arrest, wrote on X: “Shit! We won the vote by one.”

In the debate preceding the vote, she told the Commons: “Today, just on this one day, I have spoken to two women who were raped by members of this parliament; that’s a fairly standard day for me.

“Exclusion at the point of charge sends a clear message to victims that not only will we not investigate unless a victim goes to the police but we won’t act unless they’re charged, which happens in less than 1% of cases. ‘So what’s the point?’ was essentially what this victim said to me.”

No hiding place for suspected Commons sex pests

Jon Craig

Chief political correspondent

@joncraig

In a dramatic knife-edge vote, MPs have voted that there should be no hiding place for suspected Commons sex pests.

Former prime minister Theresa May led a small group of eight Conservatives voting with Opposition MPs to defy the Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt.

To the fury of many Opposition MPs, Ms Mordaunt wanted MPs accused of serious sex or violent offences to be barred from parliament only when they’re charged.

It was officially a free vote. But the vast bulk of MPs voting to delay a ban until a charge were Conservatives, including several Cabinet ministers.

That was brave, so close to a general election. Surely those MPs who voted against a ban upon arrest will be attacked by their political opponents at the election for being soft on suspected sex pests?

The timing of the vote was perhaps unfortunate, coming amid renewed controversy earlier this week over sex pest Charlie Elphicke, the former Conservative MP who was jailed for sex offences.

At the weekend his ex-wife Natalie, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour last week, was accused of lobbying a former justice secretary, Sir Robert Buckland, on his behalf, an allegation she dismissed as “nonsense”.

And despite missing the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party earlier, Ms Elphicke duly voted with her new colleagues for a ban which would have almost certainly penalised her ex-husband had it been in force.

After the vote, leading supporters of the arrest ban were jubilant and stunned by the closeness of the vote. “Incredible!” Labour’s Stella Creasy told Sky News. Mr Rees-Mogg, however, condemned the proposal as a “power grab”.

It’s a historic vote. It doesn’t matter how close it was. Accusers will argue they’re now better protected. And MPs who supported the tougher ban argue that it brings the Commons into line with other workplaces.

Well, up to a point. MPs still have many perks and privileges that other employers and employees don’t. And Parliament still has a long way to go before its working practices and grievance procedures are brought fully up to date.

The exclusion policy was put forward following a number of incidents involving MPs in recent years and concerns about the safety of those working in parliament.

Currently, party whips decide if and when an MP accused of an offence should be prevented from attending the parliamentary estate.

Under the new plans, a risk assessment will take place when the Clerk of the House is informed by the police that an MP has been arrested on suspicion of committing a violent or sexual offence.

The risk assessment will be carried out by a risk assessment panel, appointed by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

Commons leader Penny Mordaunt cited the “large” number of “vexatious” claims lodged against colleagues as a reason to require a member to be charged before exclusion.

Former minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg used the debate to describe the exclusion plans as an “extraordinary power grab by standing orders to undermine a fundamental of our constitution”, while Sir Michael Ellis, a former attorney general, said: “A person must not suffer imposition before guilt has been proven.”