Inside Politics: Putin’s advisers ‘afraid’ to tell him the truth about faltering invasion, spy chief says

Sir Jeremy Fleming says Moscow has ‘massively misjudged’ situation on the ground, writes Matt Mathers

(PA)

The head of Britain’s GCHQ spy agency has said Putin’s advisers are “too afraid” to tell him the truth about what is really happening on the ground in Ukraine as the Kremlin’s invasion continues to falter and face setbacks. Away from the war, an inquiry into the biggest scandal in NHS history has concluded that Telford Hospital NHS Trust presided over catastrophic failings for 20 years. Boris Johnson faced two grillings by MPs in the Commons yesterday, during one of which he came down against onshore windfarms. Elsewhere, Labour is calling for the UK to agree a security pact with the EU in the wake of Putin’s war with Ukraine. Keir Starmer launches the party’s local election campaign today by telling voters to “send the Tories a message they cannot ignore” on the cost of living crisis.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway with Cabinet Office questions at 9.30am. After that comes any urgent questions, followed by the weekly business statement and any other ministerial statements. Later, the main business will be two backbench-led debates: The first on the impact of long Covid on the UK workforce and the second on matters to be raised before the forthcoming adjournment. After an adjournment debate from new Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan on ambulance response times in her North Shropshire constituency, MPs will rise for recess until 19 April.

Coming up:

– Trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan on ITV GMB at 8.10am

– Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves on Times Radio Breakfast at 8.35am

Daily Briefing

• PUTIN AIDES SCARED: Vladimir Putin’s advisers are too “afraid to tell him the truth” about his faltering invasion of Ukraine, the head of UK’s GCHQ spy agency has said. In a rare public address during a visit to Australia, Sir Jeremy Fleming said Putin had “massively misjudged the situation” on the ground. He also warned China not to become “too closely aligned” with the Kremlin. “It’s clear he misjudged the resistance of the Ukrainian people,” he said. “He underestimated the strength of the coalition his actions would galvanise. He under-played the economic consequences of the sanctions regime. He over-estimated the abilities of his military to secure a rapid victory.” Sir Jeremy’s comments came as Ukraine said it is seeing a build up of Russian troops in the country’s eastern Donbas region as they fail to make major breakthroughs and face setbacks in the north. The governor of Chernihiv region says attacks have not stopped despite a Russian pledge to scale back its operations there. A Kremlin spokesman said there were no significant developments in peace talks between the two sides yesterday. We’ll have all today’s latest updates on our liveblog.

• CATASTROPHIC FAILINGS: The shocking findings of an inquiry into the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust maternity scandal were revealed yesterday and dominate today’s papers and news websites. The trust presided over catastrophic failings for 20 years, the inquiry led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden concluded. Rebecca Thomas, our health correspondent, has all the key findings from the report here. Feryal Clark, the MP for Enfield North and a shadow health minister who is leading Labour’s response to the review, says in a piece for The Independent that “we must have independent accountability and oversight of maternity services and trusts, to ensure no mothers or families ever have to go through this again.”

• TOUGH DAY AT THE OFFICE: It was a tough day at the office for Boris Johnson on Wednesday as he faced Labour leader Keir Starmer at PMQs before being grilled by MPs on the Commons liaison committee. John Rentoul, our chief politics commentator, writes in his column (below) that the PMQs session was a difficult one for Johnson, who was put on the defensive by Starmer who “had some fun at the expense of the prime minister’s claim to lead a tax-cutting party”. Things didn’t get any easier for the PM as he took questions from MPs at the influential liaison committee, where he was inevitably asked about the Partygate scandal, following the news that the Met Police issued 20 fines to staff who had broken Covid laws during lockdown. The PM clashed with his deputy prime minister Dominic Raab over the affair, by refusing to endorse the justice secretary’s admission that laws were broken in No 10. But Johnson stuck to the official line when grilled on on the matter, insisting he would not comment on Partygate until the Met inquiry is completed and Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray’s report published.The prime minister faced calls to resign over what Labour said was clear evidence of “criminality” under his watch at Downing Street – with one MP telling him to his face he’s “toast” if he is fined by the police.

• ‘BIZARRE’: The PM has come down against onshore wind farms in the cabinet row which has delayed the publication of his energy security strategy. His comments dismayed environmentalists who believe that the development of onshore wind power is a vital part of the UK’s move towards net zero carbon emissions by the 2050 target. Environment think tank Green Alliance said it was “absolutely bizarre” to seemingly exclude one of the UK’s cheapest energy sources from the nation’s future power mix.

• SECURITY PACT: Labour is calling for the UK to agree a security pact with the EU following the wake-up call of the Ukraine invasion, as part of its drive to “make Brexit work”. Johnson must end his “petty diplomatic spats with our neighbours” and rebuild relationships, the party says – arguing last year’s Integrated Review of Foreign Policy is out of date.That review rejected formal cooperation with Brussels, arguing the Indo-Pacific region and, in particular, China will be more important in the post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’ era. In other Labour news, Starmer launches the party’s local election campaign today by telling voters to “send the Tories a message they cannot ignore” on the cost of living crisis. Labour reveals new research which claims the Tories are leaving families £2,620 worse off, even after the spring statement. Labour’s slogan will be “on your side.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On the record

“I’m not going to excuse anything that happened and shouldn’t have done. We’ve been very clear about that. The punishments have already been meted out. Some of them - I accept that.”

Deputy PM Dominic Raab appears to admit laws were broken in Partygate scandal.

From the Twitterati

“A week ago, the PM said ‘it looks to me that P&O Ferries has broken the law, and we will be taking action’. Today the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, confirmed the government will not take be taking P&O to court because it is ‘not in the position to’. So what happened?”

ITV News business and economics editor Joel Hills on P&O scandal.

Essential reading

• Layla Moran, The Independent: Jamie Wallis MP coming out as trans is a historic moment
• John Rentoul, The Independent: Boris Johnson on the defensive – Labour MPs have regained their voice and their confidence
• Max Hastings, The Times: Monsters are best beaten by their own people
• Kendra Pierre-Louis, The Atlantic: A recipe for climate disaster

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