Latest news with #Commons
The Independent
31 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Diane Abbott says she has no regrets over comments that saw Labour suspend her
Labour MP Diane Abbott said she has no regrets about comments on racism which led to her being suspended by the party. The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP was suspended by the Labour Party in 2023 after a writing a letter to the Observer comparing racism experienced by people of colour with that seen by other groups. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Reflections programme, she said she did not look back on the incident with regret. Ms Abbott, who was readmitted to the party before the 2024 general election, said: 'Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don't know. 'I just think that it's silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism. 'I don't know why people would say that.' She apologised for any anguished caused by the remarks which drew criticism from Jewish and Travellers groups. The longest-serving female MP in the Commons, who entered Parliament in 1987, said she got a 'bit weary' about people labelling her antisemetic and said she had 'spent a lifetime fighting racism of all kinds'. She said she was 'grateful' to be a Labour MP but was sure the party leadership had been 'trying to get me out'.
Rhyl Journal
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Rhyl Journal
Tory ex-ministers defend record after PM demands ‘answers' over Afghan data leak
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he first learned of the data breach, which saw a defence official release details of almost 19,000 people seeking to flee Afghanistan, after a legal gagging order had been imposed. Ex-veterans minister Johnny Mercer claimed he had 'receipts' regarding the former Conservative administration's actions in relation to Kabul but said it was 'absurd' to accuse him of failing grasp the scale of crisis. 'I know who is covering their tracks, and who has the courage to be honest,' he said. 'I would caution those who might attempt to rewrite history.' Thousands of people are being relocated to the UK as part of an £850 million scheme set up after the leak, which was kept secret as the result of a superinjunction imposed in 2023 which was only lifted on Tuesday. At Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir insisted there would be scrutiny, which the Conservatives should welcome. 'Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen,' he told MPs. Former prime minister Liz Truss, who was foreign secretary at the time of the breach in February 2022, but a backbencher when the superinjunction was sought, said she was 'shocked' by the 'cover-up'. She said the revelations pointed to a 'huge betrayal of public trust' and 'those responsible in both governments and the bureaucracy need to be held to account'. Mr Mercer said: 'I've spilt my own blood fighting for a better Afghanistan, lost friends, fought to get operators out of the country and away from the Taliban, and visited hundreds of resettled families and hotels in the UK under direct commission from the previous prime minister after the schemes were dangerously failing. 'Others were with me in this process and we have all the receipts.' Shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick said he had 'strongly opposed the plans to bring over 24,000 Afghan nationals' during 'internal government discussions in the short period before my resignation' in December 2023. 'I first learned of the data leak and plan to resettle people after the superinjunction was in place,' he said. 'Parliamentary privilege is not unlimited; I was bound by the Official Secrets Act.' Mr Jenrick said the secret scheme had been 'a complete disaster' and that the previous government 'made serious mistakes' but that 'thousands more (Afghan people) have come since Labour came to power.' 'Contrary to what some have suggested, the Afghan individuals I helped came on the Arap (Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy) scheme and had nothing to do with the subsequent ARR scheme caused by the data leak,' he added. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said the 'episode' raises 'significant constitutional issues'. Earlier on Wednesday, Downing Street declined to say what questions former ministers should face but said Sir Keir was 'angry' about the breach. Sir Keir's press secretary said: 'The Prime Minister is angry at such a terrible breach that had such grave consequences being allowed to happen. 'Which is why it's clear that there are questions that need to be answered by Conservative ministers who, in their own words, have talked about the ineptitude of the Conservative government at the time.' She also pointed to comments from Mr Mercer, who described the handling of the breach as 'farcical' and 'the most hapless display of incompetence by successive ministers and officials that I saw in my time in government'. The Commons Defence Committee will be setting out plans for an inquiry straight after the parliamentary recess in September. Chair, @TanDhesi has responded to the Secretary of State's statement on Afghanistan. — Defence Committee (@CommonsDefence) July 16, 2025 Committee chairman Tan Dhesi said: 'These shocking events now deserve proper, thorough parliamentary scrutiny to ensure that lessons are learned. 'I have consulted my cross-party colleagues on the Defence Committee and we all agree that this is work we intend to lead.' Tory former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace said he makes 'no apology' for applying for the initial injunction and insisted it was 'not a cover-up' but was motivated by the need to protect people in Afghanistan whose safety was at risk. A dataset of 18,714 who applied for Arap was released in February 2022 by a defence official who emailed a file outside authorised government systems. The Ministry of Defence only became aware of the blunder when excerpts from the dataset were posted anonymously on a Facebook group in August 2023, and a superinjunction was granted at the High Court in an attempt to prevent the Taliban from finding out about the leak. Then defence secretary Sir Ben said he had applied for a four-month standard injunction shortly before leaving office but, on September 1 2023, when Grant Shapps took the role, the government was given a superinjunction. Sir Ben said he did now know why the superinjunction was granted 'but nevertheless, I think the point here is I took a decision that the most important priority was to protect those people who could have been or were exposed by this data leak in Afghanistan, living amongst the Taliban who had no regard for their safety, or indeed potentially could torture them or murder them', he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He also defended his actions in an article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. 'I make no apology for applying to the court for an injunction at the time. It was not, as some are childishly trying to claim, a cover-up,' he said. The leak led to the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – in April 2024. The scheme is understood to have cost about £400 million so far, with a projected final cost of about £850 million. A total of about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the end of the scheme. The key facts on the Afghan Resettlement data incident that took place in 2022, and the action we are taking to support those impacted. Defence Minister @LukePollard explains 👇 — Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) July 16, 2025 The official responsible for the email error was moved to a new role but not sacked. Defence Secretary John Healey said he was not going to 'lead a witch hunt after a defence official'. 'This is much bigger than the mistake of an individual,' he told the BBC. The superinjunction was in place for almost two years, covering Labour and Conservative governments. Kemi Badenoch has apologised on behalf of the Conservatives for the leak. 'On behalf of the government and on behalf of the British people, yes, because somebody made a terrible mistake and names were put out there … and we are sorry for that,' she told LBC. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people, including the estimated number of family members of the Arap applicants, were affected by the breach and could be at risk of harassment, torture or death if the Taliban obtained their data, judges said in June 2024. However, an independent review, commissioned by the Government in January 2025, concluded last month that the dataset is 'unlikely to significantly shift Taliban understanding of individuals who may be of interest to them'.
Spectator
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The wit and beauty of bank notes
William Shakespeare was the first to feature, in 1970. Alan Turing was most recent, in 2021. But the Bank of England is now asking whether anyone else should appear, ever. The Bank's redesigning our bank notes and wants the public's thoughts on replacing the famous people who currently grace them with buildings, animals, films, historical events or even food. However the redesign ends up, let's hope the notes continue to display the wit and beauty they've traditionally had. The Churchill fiver, for instance. Look closely and you'll see that Big Ben stands at 3 p.m., the hour that Winston made his first speech to the Commons as Prime Minister. One of the security measures on Jane Austen's tenner (she's the latest person to replace Shakespeare on that note) is a quill that changes from purple to orange as you tilt it. The clear window on J.M.W. Turner's £20 is the shape of the fountains in Trafalgar Square, referencing 'The Fighting Temeraire'. And Alan Turing's birthday on the £50 is shown in binary, that being the way that his (indeed all) computers count. As it happens, every member of the quartet either died at 41 (Austen, Turing) or has been played on screen by Timothy Spall (Churchill, Turner). The same wit is shown by the public who use the notes. The £10 note is sometimes known as an Ayrton (Senna), while the smallest denomination's nickname of Lady Godiva led to City boys calling £15 a Commodore, as it was three times a lady. The Rainbow vegetarian café in Cambridge was less amused, however, when the plastic fiver was introduced in 2016. They refused to take it, as it contains traces of tallow. Blind people tell which note they're holding by raised dots in the top left corner (the fiver has none, the £10 two, the £20 three and the £50 four). Another clue is that the notes get bigger as you go through the values, unlike in the US where they're all the same size. The young Ray Charles insisted on being paid entirely in single dollar bills, to prevent cheating. Eric Clapton used to snort his drugs through rolled-up £20 notes, which he would then throw away. His gardener Arthur Eggby would retrieve them, dust them off and spend them on his holidays on the Isle of Wight. Meanwhile when Elton John played in the Soviet Union in 1979, he was paid £4,000 in notes so old that they had to be taken to the Bank of England to be changed for new ones. This is a service the Bank provides for anyone, and there's no time limit. Old notes used to be burned at the Essex factory that prints new ones, supplementing the site's heating. Until 1853 each note was personally signed by one of the Bank's cashiers. The monarch, who you might have thought had always been on them, has only appeared since 1960, meaning Elizabeth II was the first to see her own likeness. As if to celebrate the fact, she always carried a fiver (very occasionally a tenner) in her handbag, ready for next week's church collection. The note was ironed by a butler into a little square, folded so that you could only see the Queen's face.
Spectator
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
A bland, reverential portrait of a socialist martyr: Nye at the Olivier Theatre reviewed
The memory of Nye Bevan is being honoured at the National Theatre. Having made his name as a Marxist firebrand, Nye was quick to take advantage of the privileges enjoyed by the governing classes whom he affected to despise. He entered parliament in 1929 and began to hang around the Commons bar plying female MPs with double gins. His future wife, Jennie Lee, referred to him as a 'rutting stag'. Was he a serial bed-hopper as well as a problem drinker? It's hard to tell from this bland, reverential portrait of a socialist martyr. The director, Rufus Norris, adds song and dance routines, requiring the services of two choreographers, as if to suggest that Nye was a gifted crooner with a great pair of pins as well. Is that true? Or just part of the packaging? Michael Sheen enacts the phases of Nye's life without stretching himself too much. The stammering schoolboy turns into the angry teenage rebel ranting about injustice and exploitation. Later he challenges the medical establishment and forces private doctors to join the NHS by 'stuffing their mouths with gold'. This line is airbrushed from the script perhaps because it reveals that Nye was a worldly, corruptible character who understood the power of money. Sheen is compelled to play the role in a suit of stripy pink pyjamas with double cuffs and three beautifully tailored pockets. He looks like a streak of toothpaste. And this daft costume erases Nye as a political heavy-weight. He bumbles around the stage with the disorientated air of a lunatic looking for his padded cell. In the closing scenes, he succumbs to ill health but instead of having to wait for treatment he's allocated a huge bed in what looks like a private room. No queues for Nye. Hospital staff fight for the honour of giving him a spoonful of medicine. A flirtatious nurse reveals that she once saw him deliver an emotional speech in Nottingham which prompted several audience members to renounce their office jobs and enter the medical profession. Nye beams munificently at the wonder of his creation. The play's supportive message comes across loud and clear. The NHS works like a dream if you happen to have founded it. Otherwise, join the queue. Noughts & Crosses is a dystopian melodrama set in a futuristic Britain with an all-black government. The new rulers create civil strife by imposing racial segregation and restoring the custom of public hangings. The writer, Malorie Blackman, and her director, Tinuke Craig, evidently take a dim view of black politicians and consider them far more dangerous and despotic than their white counterparts. Some will condemn the play's bigotry. Others may be tempted to applaud it. The script, perhaps predictably, seems to regard most human beings as aggressive and intellectually limited. Nearly every character is an angry, foul-mouthed, violent halfwit. The show opens with Ryan, a pointlessly irascible father, welcoming the news that his brainy son, Callum, has won a place at a decent school. Ryan encourages Callum to work hard and to pass his exams. Then, a puzzling twist. Ryan joins a terrorist network and plants a rucksack full of fireworks in a busy shopping centre. His plan is to scare people rather than cause injury. Bang. The rucksack explodes. Seven shoppers lie dead. Ryan is understandably disappointed that his prank went wrong but he accepts the court's sentence of death with a stoical shrug. Callum is forced into hiding which throws his romance with Persephone, the daughter of a cabinet minister, into turmoil. Persephone is the only likeable character here, but she rambles brainlessly like a beauty-pageant winner. She wants everyone be nice to everyone else, and she dreams of a world in which love is more important than buying stuff from shops. This coarse, reductive and demoralising play is designed by Colin Richmond, whose set resembles a burned-out steelworks. A perfect choice for the themes of abuse and criminal violence. Every scene seems to involve a bunch of ghastly characters bawling insults at each other while explaining the plot. School bullies torment their victims in the cafeteria. Family rows descend into punches and slaps. A random suicide is thrown in for good measure. In the nastiest moment, Persephone is kidnapped by a gang of men who stab her for fun. If a recording of this scene were discovered on the phone of a teenage boy, he'd be accused of 'toxic masculinity' and transferred to the authorities for re-education. The show ends with a public hanging which offers a strange lesson to the audience: if a principled terrorist dies for a noble cause he deserves to be worshipped as a hero. The only purpose of this show is to spread division and hate. Luckily, the propaganda won't get through. It's too boring.
News18
9 hours ago
- Politics
- News18
Keir Starmer Blasts Former Tory Ministers For Afghan Data Breach At PMQs Afghan Data
At PMQs today, prime minister Keir Starmer said that former Tory ministers had 'serious questions to answer' over a secret scheme to resettle Afghan nationals who were named in a data breach, which occurred in February 2022, saw a British official mistakenly leak personal details of Afghans who had applied to move to the UK following the Taliban's takeover. Starmer said he supports a planned inquiry into what happened led by the Commons defence committee, adding that he hoped 'those who were in office at the time will welcome that scrutiny'. News18 Mobile App -
