Civil servant Josie Stewart spoke to media after government presented ‘dishonest account’, tribunal told A Foreign Office civil servant felt “morally compelled” to speak to the media about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after the government presented a “dishonest account” of what happened, an employment tribunal has heard. Josie Stewart was sacked by the Foreign Office (FCDO) after blowing the whistle on the failures of the withdrawal from Kabul and disclosing emails indicating Boris Johnson’s involvement in an “outrageous” decision to prioritise the evacuation of staff from the anima ..read more

Decision appears to be based on official assessment of Israel’s compliance with humanitarian law that did not cover recent events David Cameron personally recommended that the UK should continue to sell arms to Israel two days after three British aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike. James Kirby, 47, from Somerset, James Henderson, 33, from Cornwall and John Chapman, 57, from Dorset, members of World Central Kitchen, were killed on 1 April ..read more

Despite the huffing of ideologues, the world has moved on. Voters and businesses are calling for more effective protections As the sewage-filled waters start to close over the heads of Torydom, their Tufton Street thinktankers carry on like the orchestra on the Titanic. In three grand Westminster houses dwell the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Institute of Economic Affairs, the anti-migration Migration Watch UK, the climate crisis-denying Global Warming Policy Foundation, the anti-EU European Foundation, the Margaret Thatcher-founded Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and others, all very opaque about ..read more

Businesses say fees for Dover inspections are much higher than first thought and will push up shop prices Importers of food from the EU into Britain have said newly introduced post-Brexit checks could increase their costs by up to 60%, pushing up prices for customers and driving some shops out of business. After five previous delays, the UK government on Tuesday introduced the physical checks on animal and plant products entering from the EU, having revealed at the start of this month that it would be implementing a common user charge (CUC) of up to £145 per consignment ..read more

Minister says ‘officers are used to this’, as figures suggest Home Office is in contact with only 38% of people it wants to remove The Home Office is “used to” losing contact with asylum seekers, a UK government minister has said, after official figures suggested thousands of people it hoped to deport to Rwanda had stopped reporting. The impact assessment on the Home Office’s website on Monday suggests the department is in contact with 38% of those it intends to remove to Rwanda. Only 2,145 “continue to report to the Home Office and can be located for detention”, the impact assessment says, of ..read more

Foreign secretary also calls on Arab states to accept that Hamas leaders responsible for 7 October attack must leave the territory David Cameron has urged Hamas to agree to a deal for a sustained 40-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of potentially thousands of hostages and prisoners. The foreign secretary also challenged Arab states to accept that the Hamas military leadership responsible for the attack on 7 October must leave Gaza ..read more

Second phase of physical checks could result in price increases in shops, as businesses pass on costs to consumers After more than three years of delays, Tuesday finally sees the introduction of physical checks on animal and plant imports coming into Britain from the EU. Importers and trade associations have warned that the new bureaucracy could heap significant costs on to importers, resulting in increases to prices on shop shelves ..read more

If defence spending has to rise, hard choices will have to be made I’m not certain who minted the phrase, but it is an excellent one to describe the decade or so that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent implosion of the Soviet Union. The affluent liberal democracies were treated to “a holiday from history”. The west started turning its Cold War swords into ploughshares once its principal ideological and military adversary had departed the scene. The collapse of the Soviet Union was followed by a dramatic decline in military spending. The UK, which was consuming 4-5% of its ..read more

Starmer wants to make Tory policy on the economy a central theme of its election campaign … without mentioning Brexit Now, let me get this straight. We have a fissiparous, Brexit-supporting government, many of whose MPs are stepping down, convinced that their party is heading for its wilderness years. Correspondingly, we have a Labour opposition that is riding high in the polls, led by Keir Starmer, who – unlike his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn – played a noble part in the remain campaign and argued passionately for a second referendum. Proponents of a second referendum hoped that the country wou ..read more

Hundreds voice dismay at Sunak and Starmer, accusing them of misreading UK attitudes towards Europe UK politics – latest updates Elena, 35, was “flabbergasted” when she heard that both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer had dismissed a proposal by the European Commission to reintroduce freedom of movement for young people between the EU and the UK. Last Friday, the prime minister rejected the post-Brexit youth mobility deal, which would have allowed Britons aged between 18 and 30 to live, study or work in the EU for up to four years, after Labour declined the offer the previous day ..read more