Latest news with #OliverDowden
Daily Mirror
30-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Full list of what every home needs in 72-hour survival kit
The UK government has issued new advice to Brits, encouraging them to have an emergency kit packed with at least three days' worth of supplies - but what should be in it? Guidance from UK authorities has urged residents to assemble 72-hour emergency kits within their homes, leaving some perplexed over what should be included and where to store their items. Governments in both the UK and Europe have begun to encourage people to put together essential supplies that could sustain them for at least three days in times of crisis. In the UK, this message has been reinforced by the unveiling of the Prepare website by Oliver Dowden. This portal provides practical advice for ensuring households are better equipped to deal with various emergencies such as floods, power outages or pandemics. According to the website, emergency kits should ideally contain: The UK government has acknowledged that buying all these items at once may prove challenging for some. Instead, the advice is to build up supplies gradually as and when possible, avoiding panic buying, reports the Daily Record. The European Commission is also pushing for greater disaster preparedness among EU citizens. They are asking individuals to stock at least 72 hours' worth of food, water, and vital necessities in anticipation of various crisis situations, including natural disasters, health emergencies, or armed conflicts. This initiative is part of a wider strategy to improve community resilience and standardise disaster response mechanisms across Europe. For those with limited space, experts have offered advice on how and where to store these emergency supplies. Creating and stocking an emergency pantry Not all homes have the luxury of a full-sized pantry, but even the smallest kitchens can make room for 72 hours' worth of supplies. Allocate one kitchen cupboard for long-lasting food such as canned meals (like ravioli or baked beans with sausages), tinned fruit, dry pasta, UHT milk, and high-calorie snacks like energy bars. Building up a pantry all at once can be pricey, so spread out the cost by adding a few extra items to your weekly shop, and rotate them regularly to ensure they're within their use-by dates. A mini pantry can prove invaluable during power cuts or if the household falls ill and can't get to the shops. Use stackable clear boxes for essential items Emergency supplies are useless if you can't find them when needed, so consider investing in some stackable, clear storage boxes. These can be used to store essentials such as spare power banks, batteries, torches, tools, first aid supplies, hygiene products, baby necessities, and additional blankets or foil blankets. Once you've packed each box by category, store them in a central yet out-of-the-way spot, such as under the stairs or in a low kitchen cupboard. These should be easily accessible to everyone and kept indoors, not hidden away in the loft or garage. This is also a perfect place to keep bottled water and extra loo rolls. Create a Grab-and-Go bag In the US, professional preppers might refer to this as a 'bug-out bag', but essentially it's a small bag packed with essentials you'd need if you had to leave home in a hurry. This could prove invaluable in situations like evacuations due to flooding or other local emergencies. Choose a compact yet sturdy bag, about the size of a school backpack, and ensure it includes: a torch, charging packs (don't forget the cables), a plastic pouch for medications and important documents, snacks like cereal or energy bars, a few small bottles of water, and any essential medication. Ideally, this should be stored somewhere easily accessible to all, near the front door – perhaps in a hallway cupboard. To ensure it's instantly recognisable as the emergency grab bag, consider tying a colourful ribbon around a strap so everyone knows which bag it is. Don't forget the car boot After securing a 72-hour survival kit for your home, it's wise to equip your car as well. The boot is the perfect spot for an emergency stash, invaluable during breakdowns or when stuck in traffic due to severe weather. Key items to have on hand include blankets, lightweight yet warm clothing such as fleeces, a high-visibility jacket, snacks rich in energy, and bottled water. Sarah Day, a storage expert from Pay Less for Storage, said: "While this news might understandably be worrying for some, remember it's not intended to scare you, just to ensure that everyone is well prepared in the event of an emergency. And remember, preparedness doesn't mean panic buying or anxiously hoarding - it means planning for the worst and sensibly storing what you need. "A pre-packed emergency kit can make a big difference in stressful situations, whether it's a blackout caused by cyber interference or flooding caused by mother nature. The key to this is accessibility and suitable storage, think boxes you can find in the dark, home insurance documents carefully placed to grab and go, food you'll actually eat if the lights go out, and storage systems that fit your space. "Many of us already have most of the items we need, but they're lost in cluttered cupboards or overstuffed drawers. With a few small tweaks, you can repurpose those spaces to make your home not just tidier, but more resilient too."
The National
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
It's time to take the UAE-UK relationship to the next level
Oliver Dowden is the MP for Hertsmere and former deputy prime minister of the UK
Daily Mirror
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Badenoch denies ignoring security advice over taxpayer funded private driver
Tory leader's comments follows reports she refused a vehicle from the official government car service (GCS) and instead given access to a private driver Kemi Badenoch has denied ignoring security advice over a taxpayer-funded private driver she used to ferry her around as a Cabinet minister. It follows reports the Tory leader refused a vehicle from the official government car service (GCS), which offers a fleet of cars to senior ministers. Instead during her time at the top of government she was given access to a Jaguar and driver from a private firm based in her constituency. It was reported she entered into the arrangement days after being appointed Trade Secretary in September 2022 and after rowing with a GCS worker. The Sunday Times alleged she blamed the driver for being 21 minutes late to her first Cabinet meeting and also argued it was not "fair" for her driver, who lived in Kent, to make a two-hour journey from her house in London. It was also said she was repeatedly advised to stop using the Jaguar over security fears including the risk of the car being bugged. It was also reported Oliver Dowden, the Deputy PM, circulated a memo to the Cabinet at the start of 2025, saying: 'Private hire cars do not provide a secure working environment to conduct sensitive conversations." He added: 'Where it is possible to use the GCS service, this is advisable.' Asked why she ignored security advice, Ms Badenoch dismissed the report as a "nonsense story", telling the BBC on Sunday: "I never ignored security advice. The driver was security cleared, actually recommended by GCS [Government Car Service]. It was a contract that had been in place for about five years and I renewed that contract. "A memo was sent by someone who was unfamiliar with the contract asking about security concerns, and other civil servants said there were no security concerns. That's the end of the matter." She added: "What is destructive is that someone leaks a memo without seeing the full picture." But a Labour Party spokesman said: ' Kemi Badenoch must explain why she hired a private chauffeur at taxpayers' expense rather than relying on the government car service like other ministers. The Tory leader cannot just dismiss the security concerns that were raised at the time and hard working families deserve to know how much this extravagant arrangement cost." The Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Tory Brexiters contradict Badenoch criticism of UK-India trade deal
A series of senior Conservatives have contradicted Kemi Badenoch after she criticised a landmark UK-India trade deal because it temporarily exempts seconded Indian workers from national insurance payments in the UK. Tories including Oliver Dowden, who was deputy prime minister under Rishi Sunak, said the deal should be hailed as a dividend of Brexit that would bring economic growth and cheaper goods from India. The deal was announced on Tuesday after more than three years of negotiations. It cuts tariffs on a series of goods and will add an estimated £4.8bn a year to the UK economy by 2040. In an initial response, the shadow trade secretary, Andrew Griffith, praised it, saying it showed the government recognised 'that reducing cost and burdens on businesses in international trade is a good thing, and that thanks to Brexit, we can do'. But later on Tuesday the tone changed, with Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary – who regularly roams beyond his brief – tweeting that the national insurance exemption, which applies mutually to seconded UK workers in India, showed that 'British workers come last in Starmer's Britain'. Badenoch, the party leader, soon followed suit, saying in a tweet that this was 'two-tier taxes from two-tier Keir'. But several influential Tories and figures from the pro-Brexit camp pointedly disagreed, noting that such opt-outs for seconded workers, which prevent double taxation, were routine in trade deals and had featured in some negotiated under the Conservatives. Dowden, who is still an MP, welcomed the deal, writing on X that it 'builds on significant progress made by [the] previous Conservative government'. Steve Baker, who dealt with trade as a Brexit minister under Theresa May, wrote: 'This deal is great news. It further cements the path which I and others worked so hard to secure … The tax issue will likely turn out to be a red herring. We should be celebrating that a Labour government has furthered free trade in the national interest outside the EU.' Another leading Tory Brexiter, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was business secretary under Liz Truss, tweeted: 'Cheaper food and drink including rice and tea, footwear and clothing thanks to a welcome trade deal with India. Exactly what Brexit promised.' Praise for the deal – and scepticism about Badenoch's view – also came from some influential Brexit campaigners. In an opinion piece for the Telegraph, Daniel Hannan, a Tory former MEP who is now a peer, wrote that the UK had 'pulled off something that no other country has, at least not on anything like the same scale'. Noting that some people had criticised the deal based on the tax issue, as well because of worries about its impact on migration and apparently uneven tariff reduction, he wrote: 'All three are nonsense.' Shanker Singham, a pro-Brexit trade economist who advised Liam Fox when he was international trade secretary, wrote on X: 'This is a significant achievement for UK trade policy. If the UK can lock in a deal with the US, it will be one of the few countries with deals with the key trade players.' He approvingly retweeted a post from another trade expert who pointed out that in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, a UK-Chile trade deal exempted seconded Chilean workers from UK national insurance contributions for five years – compared with three years in the India deal. Defending the deal on Wednesday, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said he expected that the deal overall would bring a net contribution to tax revenues, not a deficit. 'This is not a tangible issue,' he told Sky News. 'This is the Conservatives – and Reform – unable to accept that this Labour government has done what they couldn't do and get this deal across the line.'
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Business secretary says critics of UK-India trade deal ‘confused' and ‘British workers are not being undercut'
Good morning. Yesterday the government was able to announce some good news – a major trade deal with India. There is cross-party consensus that trade deals are a good thing, the last Conservative government was working on a trade deal with India too, and at least some Tories were happy to welcome the deal. Oliver Dowden, the former deputy PM, posted this on social media. Welcome progress with conclusion of UK-India FTA. I remember firsthand Jonathan Reynolds's commitment to the relationship from our cross-party delegation to India! Builds on significant progress made by previous Conservative government. Free trade is a win-win for both nations And Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary who is on the opposite wing of the party to Dowden, posted this. Cheaper food and drink including rice and tea, footwear and clothing thanks to a welcome trade deal with India. Exactly what Brexit promised. But Dowden and Rees-Mogg did not get the memo about the official opposition line. As reported on the blog yesterday afternoon, Kemi Badenoch decided to attack the deal on the grounds that it includes a double contribution convention, which means that Indian workers temporarily living in the UK will not have to pay national insurance contributions for three years – with British workers in India benefiting in the same way. Crucially, Badenoch found an effective means of putting a negative spin on this relatively niche feature of the deal – she described it as 'two-tier' taxation, involving 'tax refunds for Indians not available to us'. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, was quickly making the same argument too, claiming the government was making it 20% cheaper to employ an Indian worker than a British worker. In a video he said the deal was 'appalling', and claimed it showed Labour had 'in a big, big way betrayed working Britain'. Badenoch has certainly been successful at landing her message with the rightwing papers. Here are some of today's front pages. Telegraph splash Photograph: Telegraph Mail splash Photograph: Daily Mail Times splash Photograph: The Times Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has been giving interviews this morning. His main task was to counter the Tory/Reform UK claims and he insisted that this was a routine feature of trade deals, applying to just a sub-category of workers (employees from firms with operations in both the UK and India, seconded temporarily from one country to another), and the British workers were not being undercut. The Tories and Reform UK were 'confused', he said. He told the Today programme: There is no situation where I would ever tolerate British workers being undercut through any trade agreement we would sign. That is not part of this deal. What the Conservatives are confused about, and Reform as well, is a situation where a business in India seconds someone for a short period of time to the UK, or a UK business seconds a worker to India for a short period of time, where you don't pay in simultaneously now to both social security systems … This is exactly the sort of deal we have with 50 countries already, with the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand. The Conservatives recently, well a few years ago when they were in government, signed one with Chile for five years. So no, British workers are not being undercut. Asked whether the agreement meant Indian workers paying less tax than British counterparts doing the same job, Reynolds told the programme: 'No.' In an interview with Sky News, Reynolds said that the trade deal would generate more than £1bn in extra tax revenues for the Treasury. He said the double contribution convention would cost 'less than a tenth of that'. Here is the agenda for the day. 8.30am: Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, gives a speech in Cardiff marking one year to go until the next Senedd elections. 9.45am: Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, gives a speech to the CyberUK conference in Manchester. 10.30am: John Swinney, Scotland's first minister, gives a speech in Edinburgh on SNP strategy running into next year's Holyrood elections. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is also giving a speech this morning, at 10.45am, as is the Scottish Consevative leader, Russel Findley, at 12.30pm. 10.55am: Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, attends a 'Turning of the Page Ceremony' in the Commons, with the book of remembrance naming MPs killed in both world wars, as part of the VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations. Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs. Lunchtime: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor is visiting a Scotch whisky distillery near Edinburgh to promote the UK-India trade deal (which cuts tariffs on whisky exports to India). 2.30pm: Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister, gives evidence to an infected blood inquiry hearing about compensation payment arrangements. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can't read all the messages BTL, but if you put 'Andrew' in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @ The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And 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 BTL or sometimes in the blog. Share
