Latest news with #Boris Johnson
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ex-PM ‘sad' Brits losing interest in Ukraine
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he is 'quite sad' about what he describes as waning interest in the UK in supporting Ukraine. Speaking to The Telegraph at the Ukrainian embassy in London on Saturday, he lamented that support for Ukraine in the UK is declining. 'The interest in Ukraine and the appetite is so low nowadays. I find it quite sad,' Johnson said. When asked to evaluate how well current Prime Minister Keir Starmer's administration has handled the Ukraine conflict, he responded: 'There are a lot of domestic issues that are very difficult right now, and you can see why they're distracted.' Support among the British public for aid to Ukraine has fallen in recent years, polls suggest. A YouGov poll from February 2023 showed that nearly three-quarters of respondents believed the UK was not providing Kiev with enough aid, whereas only 3% thought it was giving too much. However, an Ipsos survey from this past February indicated that just over half of Britons supported the current level of aid, whereas nearly one in five said too much support was being provided. The UK has committed £18.3 billion ($24.5 billion) in total aid to Ukraine, including £13 billion ($17.4 billion) in military assistance. London has increasingly lobbied to deploy 'peacekeeping' troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire as part of a so-called 'coalition of the willing.' Last week, Starmer's government announced that the coalition would set up permanent headquarters in Paris to coordinate with Kiev to 'regenerate land forces' for Ukraine and 'secure' its skies with fighter jets if there is a cessation in the hostilities. Moscow has stressed that it views the initiative as preparation for a military intervention and warned that it views any NATO troops – under the guise of peacekeepers or not – in Ukraine as hostile. Johnson resigned as UK prime minister in 2022, a few months after the escalation of the conflict. He torpedoed the first peace talks between Moscow and Kiev in Istanbul that year by convincing the latter to withdraw from the negotiations, according to the Ukrainian head negotiator at the time, David Arakhamia.
Sky News
6 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Starmer says former Tory ministers have 'serious questions to answer' over Afghan data breach
Sir Keir Starmer has said former Tory ministers have "serious questions to answer" about how the names of Afghans who worked with UK forces were exposed. Nearly 7,000 Afghan nationals are being relocated to the UK after their names were accidentally sent in an email in February 2022, when Boris Johnson was prime minister, but the leak was only discovered by the British military in August 2023, when Rishi Sunak was PM. A super-injunction, preventing the reporting of the mistake, was imposed that year in an attempt to prevent the Taliban from finding out about the leak. The Conservative government at the time then started transporting thousands of Afghans to the UK in secret as they were in danger. On Tuesday, the injunction was lifted. 3:56 Kicking off Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said: "Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen. "The chair of the defence committee has indicated that he intends to hold further inquiries. "I welcome that and hope that those who are in office at the time will welcome that scrutiny." The data breach saw a defence official accidentally release details of almost 19,000 people seeking to flee Afghanistan after the return of the Taliban. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch avoided mentioning the data breach, but Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said it was "shocking" how it had been kept secret for three years. Sir Ed said the prime minister will have the Lib Dems' support if he decides to pursue a public inquiry. Mr Healey's Tory predecessor, Sir Ben Wallace, said he makes "no apology" for applying for the initial four-month injunction and insisted it was "not a cover-up". The scheme, which had been kept under wraps until yesterday, has so far cost hundreds of millions of pounds. However, the total cost to the taxpayer of existing schemes to assist Afghans who are deemed eligible for British support, as well as the additional cost from the breach, will come to at least £6bn. 1:59 Earlier, Defence Secretary John Healey told Sky News he is "deeply uncomfortable" with the government using a super-injunction to keep the massive data breach hidden. He said: "I'm really deeply uncomfortable with the idea that a government applies for a super-injunction. "If there are any [other] super-injunctions in place, I just have to tell you - I don't know about them. I haven't been read into them. "The important thing here now is that we've closed the scheme." Mr Healey was informed of the breach while in opposition, and earlier this year he commissioned a review that led to the injunction being lifted. He said "accountability starts now" and added Labour had to deal with the risks, court papers, intelligence assessments and different schemes when they came to power last summer before they could lift the injunction.
