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The Guardian
6 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
It's a love-in at the home affairs committee as Yvette Cooper runs down the clock
What goes around doesn't always come around. When Yvette Cooper was chair of the home affairs select committee between 2016 and 2021, she was a force of nature. Tireless. Persistent. Forensic. A one-woman opposition party that the government took seriously. Yvette pretty much did for Amber Rudd – or rather, helped Rudd to do with herself – as home secretary. Sajid Javid was lucky to escape with a score draw in his appearances before her. Priti Patel merely had confirmed what we all knew: that she was one of the worst home secretaries in living memory. So you would have imagined that the current home affairs select committee would have wanted to live up to the reputation of its predecessor. To put Yvette through the same level of scrutiny. To make an appearance before them something the home secretary would come to fear. Two hours of her life in which her work at the department would be gone through in fine detail. And found wanting. After all, the Home Office is pretty much guaranteed to break every secretary of state in the end. Only Cooper appears to be having a charmed life. It's almost as if she had handpicked the committee itself. Mostly Labour MPs from the 2024 intake who appear reluctant to ask the tough questions. As if it might somehow be thought rude to do so. Or it might get back to the party whips that they had been a bit harsh. It's all a bit of a love-in. New MP Jake Richards's sister is an adviser to Yvette. He may as well have phoned in his questions over a drink or two. Nor are the two 2024 Lib Dems any different. There again, the current Lib Dems are even more enthusiastically Labour than Labour itself. This was the epitome of politesse. Courtly love. As a committee it was almost entirely pointless. Dumb, dumber, dumbest. The tone was set by Karen Bradley, the committee chair. A kind and gentle woman who appears to have unwittingly made a career as a politician. How this has happened, not even she really knows. She was, briefly, under the previous Tory government, the Northern Ireland secretary. Once in post, she declared that she had had the stunning insight that the Protestants and the Catholics really didn't get on that well. You can't buy that level of intelligence. To be fair, it's possible that Karen is merely biding her time. Trying to sit out life as quietly as possible, not rocking the boat, while her party indulges its current lunacy. Let Honest Bob and Kemi fight it out among themselves. Sooner or later some kind of sanity must return. Or maybe not. Either way, she's decided she's taking it easy. Time to make friends, not enemies. We began with something vaguely topical. The arrest of Paul Doyle for allegedly driving into the crowd at the Liverpool parade. But no one had much to say about that. Nigel Farage and Richard Tice might have been bitterly disappointed that he hadn't turned out to be a Muslim or an illegal immigrant, but everyone in the committee seemed quite relieved he had proved to be white and English. Then we moved on to policing. Which consisted of several MPs trying to name-check their own police forces. You feel that they haven't quite got the hang of this yet. They aren't in the committee room to generate a few soundbites for their constituency newsletters. They are there to interrogate the home secretary on the work of her department. But Yvette was more than happy to indulge the committee in its saccharine agenda. Why stop when you're winning? This was Cooper in her happy place. It was as if she had dosed up on amphetamines especially for the afternoon. The words rattled out of her mouth at a frightening speed. Not necessarily in the right order. The sentences more or less made sense on their own but were completely unintelligible when collected into a paragraph. The overall effect was hypnotic. Words for words' sake that battered you into morphine dream submission. In many ways, this was a bravura performance from Yvette. One designed to waste as much time as possible while saying little of interest. In among all the white noise she did commit news once, when she let slip that more children had been referred to Prevent, but that was a rare misstep. She wouldn't let it happen again. This was all about running down the clock. Ten minutes from the end, Bradley finally noticed that no one had got round to talking about the small boats. Had anyone got anything they wanted to ask about this, she inquired. No one had really. It may be a hot topic elsewhere in Westminster but not here. Eventually, someone said something about hotels. We didn't even get to discuss the warm-weather excuse that Chris Philp had described as nonsense, even though he had used himself. Was that the time? It was. It was over. Permanent Home Office secretary Antonia Romeo punched the air. She had lasted the entire two hours without saying a word. Civil servants dream of that sort of thing. Elsewhere, it was another day of Honest Bob out and about on manoeuvres. He is fighting the longest guerrilla leadership campaign in Tory party history. Another pointless TikTok stunt, then off to justice questions, where he once again defended the right of Tory women to encourage people to burn down hotels with migrants in them. No compassionate conservatism for him. But for outright stupidity, we must ask for the shadow Defra secretary, Victoria Atkins, to take a bow. Vicky had won an urgent question from the Commons speaker to ask Steve Reed about Thames Water. A scenario that even she couldn't screw up. Except she could. Vicky wondered if the reason KKR had pulled out of the deal was because Reed had said a few mean things about them at the weekend. This is what passes for scrutiny from the opposition these days.
Sky News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
The Wargame: New Sky News and Tortoise Media podcast series simulates a Russian attack on UK
A top team of former government ministers and military and security chiefs have taken part in a wargame that simulates a Russian attack on the UK for a new podcast series announced on Wednesday by Sky News and Tortoise Media. Among the line-up, Sir Ben Wallace, a former Conservative defence secretary, plays the prime minister; Jack Straw, a former senior Labour politician, resumes his old job as foreign secretary; Amber Rudd steps back into her former role as home secretary and Jim Murphy, a secretary of state for Scotland under Gordon Brown, takes the position of chancellor. The defence secretary is played by James Heappey, a former armed forces minister. Lord Mark Sedwill is the national security adviser - a position he held for real under both Theresa May and Boris Johnson, while General Sir Richard Barrons, one of the leaders of a major defence review that is due to be published in the coming weeks, plays the role of chief of the defence staff, the UK's top military officer. Baroness Helena Kennedy, a barrister and expert on human rights law, appears as attorney general, while Lieutenant General Sir David Capewell resumes his former role as chief of joint operations, the UK's warfighting commander. Russia. It also explores the reliability - or otherwise - of key allies like the United States in a crisis. Asked why he wanted to take part in the project, Sir Ben said: "I think it's really important that we demonstrate to the public how government makes decisions in real crises and emergencies and let them understand and hopefully be reassured that actually there is a process and it's at that moment in time that no matter what people's party politics are, people pull together for the right reasons." Launching on 10 June, the five-part podcast series will give listeners the chance to experience the kind of wargame that is genuinely tested inside government. The only difference with this version is that nothing discussed is classified. The tagline for the series is: "Russia knows our weaknesses - but do you?" Written and presented by me, The Wargame pitches a fictional British government, led by Sir Ben, against an imagined Kremlin in a high-stakes contest that draws on the real-life knowledge and experience of the cast. The series begins a few months in the future, with the prime minister and his top team assembling for a COBRA emergency meeting as tensions escalate with Moscow. Keir Giles, a Russia expert, author and senior consulting fellow at the Chatham House think tank, is playing the part of the Russian president. He leads the Russia team, made up of fellow experts. The British side has little idea about what is about to unfold, but they are about to find out. "Ordinarily when this red team gets together, and we have done this before, we run rings around the opposition, partly because Russia has the initiative, partly because Russia has the tools, partly because Russia has the will and the determination to cause damage sometimes in ways that the opposition - whether it's the UK, NATO, another victim - doesn't imagine before the game actually starts," Mr Giles said. The scenario was devised and overseen by Rob Johnson, director of the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University and a former director of net assessment and challenge at the Ministry of Defence. "We are trying to raise awareness through this war game to say, look, let's have a look at what might happen," he said. "Unlikely and low probability though it is, so that we can start to put some measures in place and remind ourselves about how we used to do it - use history as our weapon, if you like, in that regard." He describes the events in his game as very low likelihood but high impact. That means a low chance of it happening but catastrophic consequences if it did. The Wargame is an exclusive collaboration between Sky News and Tortoise Media, now the new owners of The Observer. The first two episodes will premiere at 00.01 on 10 June across all Sky News platforms. Episodes three and four will follow on Tuesday 17 June, with the final episode airing Tuesday 24 June. The release comes as the UK government prepares to publish its Strategic Defence Review and as Britain and its allies prepare to meet for a major NATO summit next month.
Sky News
07-02-2025
- Sky News
Apple ordered by UK government to let it access users' encrypted data
Apple has reportedly been ordered by the UK government to allow it access to encrypted data stored by the company's users worldwide in its cloud service. At the moment, only the Apple account holder can access such data - not even the US technology giant can see it. Apple, which makes iPhones, iPads and iMacs, has been issued with a Technical Capability Notice (TCN), the Washington Post and BBC are reporting. This order, which does not get published, is said to require a blanket ability for the government to view people's encrypted data - both in the UK and abroad. The Home Office will not confirm or deny the existence of the order. Apple has been approached for comment. Getting technology companies to break encryption has long been a contentious issue in the UK government. Ministers have argued they want to use it for purposes like protecting children, identifying criminals and keeping the public safe. What are the concerns? Opponents say it is a breach of privacy. They also highlight the risk to whistleblowers and journalists, and point out that any tool the government has to break into people's information has a danger of being hijacked by bad actors. There are also concerns that, if implemented, the UK's order could lead nations like China to force Western companies to break their users' privacy. The debate stretches as far back as 2017, when then home secretary Amber Rudd stated that "I don't need to understand how encryption works" to want it broken. Much of the debate around encryption has been around "end-to-end" encryption, which means that messages and data sent between two devices can only be read by the person they are sent to - and are scrambled if anyone else tries to intercept or access them. 'Advanced Data Protection' On Apple products, users have the option to use "Advanced Data Protection", which means certain data can only be decrypted by the user. Apple promises that even a cloud data breach would not make the information readable. Users are also told that Apple cannot see the data due to the end-to-end encryption used to share the information. The order from the UK government was made under the UK Investigatory Powers Act 2016, according to The Washington Post. The act says the orders can be applied to companies outside the UK. There are avenues for Apple to appeal against the TCN, but this process would not be made public. The Labour government has been outspoken in its desire to target social media and technology companies while in power. This includes recently trumpeting its plans to be the first country in the world to create a new AI sexual abuse offence to punish those generating and facilitating the creation of AI child sexual abuse images. And Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has criticised social media companies for not being fast enough to take down videos previously viewed by Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. Last year, Apple provided written evidence to MPs on its many oppositions to the Investigatory Powers Act and TCNs. It noted that the law gives the UK government the power to "act as the world's regulator" of security technology - something which could put it at odds with authorities like the European Union and the United States. Order would 'undermine human rights' The American company also said that an order to force decryption would "undermine fundamentally human rights" and potentially put the UK at odds with the European Court of Human Rights. "There is no reason why the [UK government] should have the authority to decide for citizens of the world whether they can avail themselves of the proven security benefits that flow from end-to-end encryption," Apple said. It added: "Moreover, any attempt by the [secretary of state] to use its extraterritorial powers to compel technology companies to weaken encryption technology will only strengthen the hands of malicious actors who seek to steal and exploit personal data for nefarious purposes." A spokesperson for privacy and civil liberty campaign group Big Brother Watch said: "We urge the UK government to immediately rescind this draconian order and cease attempts to employ mass surveillance in lieu of the targeted powers already at their disposal."
Sky News
07-02-2025
- Sky News
Apple ordered by UK government to let it access users' encrypted files
Apple has reportedly been ordered by the UK government to allow it access to encrypted data stored by the company's users worldwide in its cloud service. At the moment, only the Apple account holder can access such data - not even the US technology giant can see it. Apple, which makes iPhones, iPads and iMacs, has been issued with a Technical Capability Notice (TCN), the Washington Post and BBC are reporting. This order, which does not get published, is said to require a blanket ability for the government to view people's encrypted data - both in the UK and abroad. The Home Office will not confirm or deny the existence of the order. Apple has been approached for comment. Getting technology companies to break encryption has long been a contentious issue in the UK government. Ministers have argued they want to use it for purposes like protecting children, identifying criminals and keeping the public safe. What are the concerns? Opponents say it is a breach of privacy, they highlight the risk to whistleblowers and journalists, and point out that any tool the government has to break into people's information has a danger of being hijacked by bad actors. There are also concerns that, if implemented, the UK's order could lead nations like China to force Western companies to break their users' privacy. The debate stretches as far back as 2017, when then home secretary Amber Rudd stated that "I don't need to understand how encryption works" to want it broken. Much of the debate around encryption has been around "end-to-end" encryption, which means that messages and data sent between two devices can only be read by the person they are sent to - and are scrambled if anyone else tries to intercept or access them. 'Advanced Data Protection' On Apple products, users have the option to use "Advanced Data Protection", which means certain data can only be decrypted by the user. Apple promises that even a cloud data breach would not make the information readable. Users are also told that Apple cannot see the data due to the end-to-end encryption used to share the information. The order from the UK government was made under the UK Investigatory Powers Act 2016, according to The Washington Post. The act says the orders can be applied to companies outside the UK. There are avenues for Apple to appeal against the TCN, but this process would not be made public. The Labour government has been outspoken in its desire to target social media and technology companies while in power. This includes recently trumpeting its plans to be the first country in the world to create a new AI sexual abuse offence to punish those generating and facilitating the creation of AI child sexual abuse images. And Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has criticised social media companies for not being fast enough to take down videos previously viewed by Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. Last year, Apple provided written evidence to MPs on its many oppositions to the Investigatory Powers Act and TCNs. It noted that the law gives the UK government the power to "act as the world's regulator" of security technology - something which could put it at odds with authorities like the EU and the United States. Order would 'undermine fundamentally human rights' The American company also said that an order to force decryption would "undermine fundamentally human rights" and potentially put the UK at odds with the European Court of Human Rights. "There is no reason why the [UK government] should have the authority to decide for citizens of the world whether they can avail themselves of the proven security benefits that flow from end-to-end encryption," Apple said. It added: "Moreover, any attempt by the [secretary of state] to use its extraterritorial powers to compel technology companies to weaken encryption technology will only strengthen the hands of malicious actors who seek to steal and exploit personal data for nefarious purposes." A spokesperson for privacy and civil liberty campaign group Big Brother Watch said: "We urge the UK government to immediately rescind this draconian order and cease attempts to employ mass surveillance in lieu of the targeted powers already at their disposal."
