Boris Johnson news - live: PM misses Rishi Sunak’s jobs announcement as No 10 denies rift with chancellor
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a new Job Support Scheme to replace the furlough system which will see the government “directly support” the wages of people working at least a third of their normal hours.
Mr Sunak’s statement followed intense pressure from business leaders, MPs and unions to announce measures to protect millions of jobs in sectors hit by new coronavirus restrictions.
It came as Downing Street denied any rift between Boris Johnson and Mr Sunak after the prime minister chose not to attend the statement.
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of UK politics today.
Sunak to unveil furlough scheme replacement amid warnings of winter jobs crisis
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will unveil new measures today in the House of Commons to replace the furlough scheme after cancelling this year’s budget due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Sunak’s intervention comes following intense pressure from business groups, MPs and unions to extend the scheme to prevent a wave of job losses in the coming months.
It also follows the introduction of new restrictions to slow the spread of Covid-19 which Boris Johnson has warned could be in place for six months.
Our political editor, Andrew Woodcock, has the full story below:
Budget cancelled as Sunak prepares to unveil more Covid support for business
Chancellor facing demands for extension of furlough scheme
Starmer calls for ‘plan B’ for economy to protect jobs
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged the government to bring forward a “plan B” for the economy to prevent job losses from the coronavirus pandemic this winter.
In a televised address, Sir Keir said it made “no sense” to bring in new restrictions at the same time as phasing out the furlough scheme as he warned the UK’s second wave of Covid-19 was a “failure of government".
“There was nothing in the prime minister’s statement last night to protect people’s jobs, businesses or our town centres and high streets,” the Labour leader said.
“No clarity about what happens when the furlough scheme ends.
“That’s a huge gap. It’s a huge mistake. And it could lead to a wave of job losses this winter.”
You can watch his full speech below:
Johnson to unveil legal protections for intelligence agents committing crimes while undercover
Boris Johnson’s government is set to unveil a proposal for new legal protections for UK intelligence and law enforcement agents who commit crimes while working undercover.
Ministers have said the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Bill will enable operatives to tackle terrorism and serious crime with an “express legal basis”.
However, human rights organisations have raised concerns over the proposed legislation, calling on the government to rule out authorising crimes such as torture, murder and sexual violence.
Our political correspondent, Ashley Cowburn, has the full story below:
Johnson to unveil legal protections for intelligence agents committing crimes while undercover
Human rights organisations raise alarm over the proposed legislation, calling for explicit prohibition on authorisation of crimes such as torture, murder and sexual violence
Reform needed for ‘wild west’ of online political ads, campaigners say
Urgent reform is needed to fix the “wild west” of online political advertising and protect democracy, experts have said.
Digital spending by parties is likely to have increased by more than 50 per cent in 2019 compared to the previous general election in 2017, according to analysis by political researchers.
Kate Dommett, a digital campaigning researcher at Sheffield University, and Sam Power, a corruption lecturer at Sussex University, said it remained unclear how much was being spent, what voters were seeing and how their data was used.
They undertook research to estimate around £6m was spent on Facebook and nearly £3m on Google by the three main UK parties in last year’s general election.
The Conservatives “invested dramatically more” in Google than other parties in the election, which saw the Tories win an 80-strong majority, according to the researchers’ report.
Their inspection of advertising archives suggested the Conservatives spent more than £1.7m on Google, "dwarfing" the £873,300 spent by Labour and the Lib Dems.
“We argue that the new 'wild west' of political campaigning presents an urgent challenge for democracy, but also an opportunity to boost public confidence in the integrity of elections,” the researchers wrote.
“The changing political landscape creates exciting opportunities for different ways of doing politics and enhanced avenues for citizen engagement.
“Initial reforms, however, need to consider the many ways in which this world remains shrouded in secrecy.”
Chloe Smith, the constitution and devolution minister, said the UK government was already making political campaigning “more transparent”, with measures to require online campaign content to explicitly state who has produced it.
Hancock says economic support plan has been in works since summer
Health secretary Matt Hancock has said the economic support plan to replace the furlough scheme, due to be announced later today, has been in the works since the summer.
“The chancellor [Rishi Sunak] is going to set out the details in the House of Commons later and I'll let him do that,” Mr Hancock told Sky News this morning.
“What you've seen over the past nine months since this crisis started, you've seen an unprecedented amount of economic support to keep jobs going, to support businesses that have been terribly hit by this, and we're determined that that should continue.”
When asked why Mr Sunak had waited until late September to announce the measures, the health secretary added: “We've said throughout that sadly we're not able to protect every job and every business.
“But I think in terms of the timing of this, we've been working on the winter plan for the economy and options in case cases started to go up again since the summer and with the prime minister having set out the next steps in terms of the health side on Tuesday, now the chancellor is coming to the House today - two days later - to set out the economic package for the winter plan that goes with that.”
Plans for permits to enter Kent post-Brexit ‘pointless and counterproductive’
Requiring heavy goods vehicles to obtain special permits to enter Kent from neighbouring counties post-Brexit will be “pointless”, an industry body has claimed.
Duncan Buchanan, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) policy director, said the measure, which hopes to avoid gridlock at the end of the year, was simply a “tick box exercise”.
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, told the Commons on Wednesday that the permits could help to avoid queues for up to 7,000 trucks seeking to cross the English Channel in 2021.
“It's an honesty box system. It's not an effective system to actually guarantee or ensure that someone is ready to cross the border,” Mr Buchanan told the PA news agency.
“It doesn't do that. It is just a logging system for someone to say 'I am going to the port and I promise I'm ready'.
“It doesn't really do much more than that.”
He added: “It's not asking for reference numbers or anything like that. It is super basic. Thankfully the bureaucracy involved is negligible, but the function is also negligible.
“The entire system is pointless and probably counterproductive.”
The Kent Access Permit (KAP) system could be enforced by police or the use of cameras monitoring the number plates of vehicles entering the county at points such as the Dartford Crossing bringing freight from Essex.
Damian Green welcomes Kent permit proposal for Brexit
Senior Tory MP Damian Green has welcomed proposals for the Kent Access Permit (KAP) for lorries heading to the Port of Dover after Brexit
Mr Green, the former de facto deputy prime minister to Theresa May, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he supported the measures to “avoid chaos on Kent’s roads”.
“Occasionally there are problems across the Channel and it is possible, I'll put it politely, this could happen again on 1 January when the transition period ends,” he said.
“What we have done in the past is get as many lorries as possible as close to Dover and the Channel Tunnel as possible and then stop them there so you have to close the motorways and you get chaos on Kent's roads."
He added: “If you can say to these lorries there are problems, or in this case you don't have the right paperwork so you are going to cause problems at the border, it is much more sensible to sort them out before thousands of lorries descend on Kent.
“So actually spreading the problem around the country means it is not a problem for everyone.”
Global action on climate change must not become ‘another victim of coronavirus’, Johnson to say
Boris Johnson is expected to tell a UN summit today that global action on climate change must not become another victim of the coronavirus pandemic.
The prime minister is set to use a remote address to a meeting to stress that nations need to make “ambitious commitments” to deal with the climate crisis.
“As the world continues to deal with coronavirus we must look ahead to how we will rebuild, and how we can seize the opportunity to build back better,” Mr Johnson is expected to say.
“The UK will lead by example, keeping the environment on the global agenda and serving as a launch pad for a global green industrial revolution.
“But no one country can turn the tide - it would be akin to bailing out a liner with a single bucket.
“We cannot let climate action become another victim of coronavirus.”
Mr Johnson will also announce that the UK is to co-host an event with the UN on 12 December to mark the five-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Downing Street said the gathering would be “an opportunity for world leaders to announce new and enhanced nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and net zero targets.
“As part of the Paris Agreement, all countries are due to submit ambitious new NDCs by the end of this year.”
No 10 added that Mr Johnson would call on world leaders to announce “genuinely transformational” net zero targets to help limit global warming at the December event.
Sunak has ‘failed to listen’ to warnings over job losses, shadow chancellor says
Labour’s shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has accused Rishi Sunak of “failing to listen” to warnings over job losses and the dangers of a “one-size-fits-all” withdrawal of the furlough scheme.
Ms Dodds said she had called for a u-turn on the withdrawal of support 40 times and told the chancellor to look to countries such as Germany for potential replacement schemes.
“I have been warning for months and months that the chancellor’s one-size-fits-all withdrawal of furlough support was a recipe for a jobs disaster this autumn,” she said in a statement.
“I gave the chancellor 40 chances to u-turn on this, and 20 times his government ruled out any change.”
She added: “I gave the chancellor solutions too. In May I said we should be considering a flexible, short hours scheme. In August I told the chancellor to look to countries like Germany which already have such schemes up and running. And just this week I put forward Labour’s plan for a Job Recovery Scheme that would allow businesses to bring back staff on reduced hours.
“Time and time again the chancellor failed to listen, and now tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs.”
Ms Dodds also appeared on Sky News this morning, where she discussed what support measures she wanted to see from the government:
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