Boris Johnson has been accused of “failing so spectacularly to measure up to the scale of the climate crisis” by Jeremy Corbyn amid confusion over the UK’s preparations for the crucial COP26 climate summit.
Former PM David Cameron turned down an offer to head up the summit after Claire Perry O’Neill was sacked last week, leaving no-one in charge of the gathering in Glasgow. Mr Corbyn suggested ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband would be “suitable”.
Elsewhere, culture secretary Baroness Morgan has denied a review into licence fee evasion was an “attack on the BBC”. And Labour’s Diane Abbott has been criticised for claiming former speaker John Bercow’s alleged bullying of an ex-military officer was “unlikely”.
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Cameron spurns Johnson’s offer to lead climate summit
Former prime minister David Cameron has turned down an offer from Boris Johnson head the UK’s preparations for a crucial international climate summit.
The current PM asked his predecessor to be the president of the UN Climate Change Conference after sacking ex-Tory energy minister Claire Perry O’Neill.
But Cameron confirmed this morning he didn’t want to do it. “It was an honour to be asked to do that job, and I was very grateful to be asked, but I think it’s best in these situations if you have a government minister doing the job,” he said in remarks reported by the BBC.
Former Tory leader William Hague is also thought to have rejected the role.
Cameron ‘turned down Johnson offer to head UN climate summit’
William Hague also reportedly sounded out for presidency roleLabour brands government proposal to suspend European human rights law ‘Trumpian’
Boris Johnson is reportedly willing to suspend the European Convention on Human Rights to bring in legislation to keep terror offenders in jail longer.
The government wants to introduce emergency legislation to stop people convicted of terrorist crimes being automatically released after serving half their sentences, and said to be considering going further by bringing in indefinite sentences.
A Downing Street spokesman did not rule out suspending obligations to the internationally-recognised human rights law.
According to The Times, the government could apply for a “derogation” from the convention and wants to push through emergency legislation in the Commons next week.
Labour’s shadow attorney general, Shami Chakrabarti, said: “So what are we to believe in this new Trumpian politics? And what is their motive? This is red meat to their right wing.”
Tories urged to punish MP who shared platform with far-right populists
The Conservative party is under pressure to remove the whip from MP Daniel Kawczynski after he spoke at a conference alongside notorious far-right politicians who have been previously accused of Islamophobia, antisemitism and homophobia.
Opposition MP Andrew Gwynn said it was “disgraceful” for the MP to have attended a speaking event alongside the likes of far-right Hungarian leader Viktor Orban and Italy’s Matteo Salvini at a conference in Rome.
The Board of British Deputies and Jewish Labour Movement also called on the Tory party to discipline him – but Kawczynski has dismissed the reaction as “hysterical”.
Jewish leaders call on Tories to discipline MP who shared stage with notorious far-right figures
'If the Conservative Party fails to discipline Mr Kawczynski, it runs the serious risk of the public assuming that they share his views on association with such people', Board of Deputies chief saysGovernment steps up assault on BBC by launching licence fee decriminalisation review
Culture secretary Nicky Morgan the launch of a new consultation on whether failure to pay the BBC licence fee should be a criminal offence.
Baroness Morgan will question how to ensure the £154.50 annual charge which funds the public broadcaster “remains relevant in this changing media landscape” in a review into sanctions for non-payment of the licence fee.
People who refuse to pay face fines of up to £1,000, criminal convictions and even imprisonment – although only five people went to prison for failing to pay in 2018.
Boris Johnson steps up assault on BBC by launching review into licence fee decriminalisation
New review into how the annual charge 'remains relevant in this changing media landscape'Bercow bullying ‘unlikely’, claims Diane Abbott – who cites alleged victim’s service record
Labour MP Diane Abbott has be criticised for a tweet about the bullying allegations made against former speaker John Bercow.
Former Commons official David Leakey repeated his claims that Bercow “brutalised” staff after the former MP dismissed them as “total and utter rubbish”.
But the shadow home secretary said she found the claims Leakey has been bullied “unlikely” because he had been a “Lieutenant General who served in Germany, Northern Ireland and Bosnia”.
Tory councillor Oliver Cooper said the idea “ex-servicemen can’t be bullied and can’t suffer pain is at the heart of a lot of terrible treatment of our veterans”.
BuzzFeed’s Matthew Champion was among the pundits making the same point. “Being a victim of bullying has *absolutely nothing* to do with whether you’re perceived as “tough””.
Foreign Office staff told not to use ‘no-deal Brexit’ phrase
Civil service employees at the Foreign Office have been banned from using the term “no-deal Brexit” – the latest move in Boris Johnson attempts to convince the public all the important stuff “got done” at the end of January.
A directive reads: “On 31 December 2020 we will either leave the transition period with a Canada-style free trade agreement or the ‘2019 deal’ which will give us a trading relationship with the EU like Australia’s”.
Staff were then told: “Do not use phrases such as ‘deal/no deal’.”
Talk of an Australia-style trading arrangement has been criticised as a euphemism for a no-deal crash out scenario at the end of 2020. Australia has no free trade deal with the EU.
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has the details:
Foreign Office staff banned from saying 'no-deal Brexit' despite threat of UK leaving EU with no trade agreement
Diplomats told to say 'trading relationship with the EU like Australia' - although Canberra lacks a trade deal with BrusselsCameron’s bodyguard suspended after ‘leaving loaded gun in plane toilet’
More headlines involving the former Tory PM this morning. Scotland Yard is investigating after David Cameron’s bodyguard reportedly left his gun in an aeroplane toilet.
The gun, believed to be a 9mm Glock 17 pistol, is said to have been left by a close-protection officer who took off his holster while using the toilet.
The weapon was found by a passenger, who handed it to flight attendants on a transatlantic flight, according to reports.
All the details here:
David Cameron bodyguard suspended after ‘leaving loaded gun in plane toilet’
Passport belonging to Mr Cameron reportedly found alongside firearm by passenger on British Airways flightEuropean police will be barred from cooperating with UK if PM waters down human rights law
Police and courts across the bloc will be barred from cooperating with their British counterparts if Boris Johnson through on his threat to water down human rights law, Brussels has said.
The European Commission has made human rights a red line in negotiations with the UK, and said any security agreement would include an “automatic termination” clause tied to the UK keeping the Human Rights Act.
The PM is reportedly planning to rewrite the 1998 Act – and potentially even suspend the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Under the European Convention on Human Rights, citizens of signatory countries can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if they feel their rights have been breached. The only country in Europe not a signatory is Belarus, an authoritarian dictatorship.
Our Europe correspondent Jon Stone has more details:
European police will be barred from cooperating with UK if Boris Johnson waters down Human Rights Act
The PM is considering tearing up the Human Rights Act and suspending the European Convention on Human Rights‘I’m sure there will be a government minister’ for COP26, says Cameron
David Cameron has explained why he turned down the offer to lead the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow – citing his role as the president of Alzheimer’s Research UK.
“It was an honour to be asked to do that job and I'm very grateful to have been asked,” he told the BBC. “But I think it’s best in these situations if you have a government minister doing the job; you then have one line of command rather than, perhaps, two people doing the same thing.”
He said there are “a lot of things I have already agreed to do this year, not least the work I do for Alzheimer’s Research UK, so I thought it was important that I carried on with that work”.
“But I wish the Government well, I wish this climate change conference well, because it’s absolutely vital. I’m sure that there will be a government minister, or someone, who will be able to do the job and do it very well. The government has my backing as they go forward.”
Cabinet minister Michael Gove is said to be interested in taking the role.
Asked about his relationship with Johnson, Cameron declined to answer.
BBC ‘could end up like Blockbuster’, says culture secretary
Nicky Morgan has begun her speech on the BBC license fee at the Policy Exchange think tank with a warning.
She said she did not want the public broadcaster “ending up like Blockbuster” – an irrelevance in the 21st century.
The culture secretary the licence fee will remain in place until the end of the charter period in 2027 – but suggested the BBC could be funded some other way thereafter.
Baroness Morgan said the government was “open-minded” about the potential funding arrangement.
Culture secretary clashes with former BBC director-general, as she denies ‘attack’ on the broadcaster
Nicky Morgan has denied that a government consultation on evasion of the licence fee should be seen as “any kind of attack on the BBC” as she answered questions at the Policy Exchange event.
Lord Birt, the broadcaster’s former director general, stood up at and said the idea of mid-charter review would be “seen an attack on the BBC” since it was “pretty much unprecedented” to do it any more than once a decade.
Baroness Morgan explained the consultation means the public be asked for their views on whether criminal sanctions for the non-payment of the licence fee should be replaced by an alternative enforcement scheme.
Parts of health service ‘financially unstable’, says NAO
Parts of the NHS have been made “seriously financially unstable” by short-term fixes, watchdogs have stated.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said extra money brought in by government to stabilise the finances of individual NHS bodies has not been fully effective.
The study found the health service was treating more patients, but has failed to achieve “the fundamental transformation in services and finance regime needed to meet rising demand”.
It added: “Short-term fixes have made some parts of the NHS seriously financially unstable.”
The financial watchdog said that NHS provider trusts reported a combined deficit of £827m.
More details here:
Short-term fixes for critical services leaving parts of NHS 'financially unstable', watchdog warns
Alarm over health service's ability to meet rising demand amid funding pressuresPMQs begins
Boris Johnson accused of 'lack of leadership' over climate change
Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn pay tribute to the bravery of police, security services and emergency services after the Streatham terror attack on Sunday.
Britain's place in the world is at a crossroads after Brexit, Corbyn says, and nothing is more crucial than climate change. He quotes sacked minister Claire O'Neill, who accused the PM of a 'lack of leadership' on the upcoming COP26 climate conference.
Johnson says his accusations are 'nothing but hot air'.
Corbyn says both David Cameron and William Hague turned down the job of heading up COP26. Does other Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith want a chance, he jokes. Why is the PM failing to measure up to spectacularly to the challenge of climate change?
Johnson dismisses the accusations as 'beyond satire' and says the UK has ambitious targets for meeting net zero.
Corbyn says Johnson cut the number of climate attachés in embassies when he was foreign secretary. He says until 2015 Johnson denied climate science.
PM says Corbyn wants to prevent people having foreign holidays.
Anger from Labour over climate change
Boris Johnson claims 'I'm a journalist, I love journalists' despite row with political correspondents
Jeremy Corbyn accuses the PM of shutting newspapers out of No 10. The prime minister hit back, saying: "I'm a journalist, I love journalism".
It comes after a row between No10 and the parliamentary lobby over attempts to bar selected publications from briefings.
PM accused of impersonating Donald Trump
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford says the PM has "sacked an official [Claire O’Neill from COP26], taken an isolationist approach to trade and banned the press from No10 briefing. Is he intentionally trying to impersonate Donald Trump?"
Johnson says his speech on Monday was internationalist. There is only one party here with nationalist in its name - the SNP.
Blackford says Johnson does not even know the name of his party (which is the Scottish National party, not Scottish Nationalist party.)
He then turns to the NHS and asks if Johnson will support the SNP’s NHS protection bill.
But the PM accuses the SNP of wanting to rejoin the EU, put up a border at Berwick, and give up control of fishing waters.
Labour MP raises deportations of Caribbean nationals
Nadia Whittome, the youngest MP in the Commons, raised the case of dozens of Caribbean nationals, who are set to be deported on the first charter flight to Jamaica since the Windrush scandal erupted.
First revealed by The Independent, around 50 people are set to be removed to the island in the coming days, in what campaigners say is a “slap in the face” for Britain’s Caribbean community following the revelation last April that many among them had been wrongly detained and deported.
A number of men currently detained in Harmondsworth immigration centre told The Independent they had been told by staff that they will be placed on a flight to Jamaica on 6 February. A Home Office spokesperson confirmed that a charter flight would be departing in the “coming weeks”.
Tory MPs continue to criticise Huawei decision
Ex-Tory cabinet ministers Damian Green and David Davis both raise the decision to allow Chinese firm Huawei to build part of the 5G network. While the PM gave the move the green light, the opposition on his own benches is clearly not going away.
