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Category: UK News

King and Queen arrive in Samoa to red carpet welcome

Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa greeted the King and Queen Camilla at Faleolo International Airport …reports Asian Lite News

King Charles has arrived in Samoa for a four-day state visit where he will preside for the first time over a gathering of Commonwealth presidents and prime ministers.

Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa greeted the King and Queen Camilla at Faleolo International Airport where a red carpet had been rolled out amid high winds and last-minute vacuum cleaning.

The Royal Samoan Police Band began playing as the couple alighted and met local officials.

The King and Queen, who ended their six-day tour of Australia on Tuesday, posted a message on social media saying they “couldn’t wait” to arrive in Samoa and experience the “warmth” of the country’s ancient traditions.

The tweet included a few words in Samoan which loosely translated as “looking forward to meeting the Samoan people”.

Samoa, a small country in the central South Pacific Ocean made up of an archipelago of nine islands, is hosting a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which has the theme “One Resilient Common Future”.

The King, as head of the Commonwealth, will formally open the event that will also be attended by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Charles deputised for Queen Elizabeth II during the last CHOGM staged by Rwanda in 2022, and in Samoa will be joined by Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

The route from the airport to Apia – Samoa’s capital – had been spruced up for the royal visit on Wednesday. Each village along the road had adopted a country, with residents decorating their houses and adorning their lawns with the corresponding flags.

Flashing lights were put in trees, bushes and on roof tops, while car tyres were repurposed as flower pots and painted bright colours. Climate change, a subject close to the King’s heart, is expected to top the agenda at the meeting held in a part of the world very vulnerable to rising sea levels.

While reparations are not officially on the table, the subject is likely to come up as this group of countries was brought together by British colonisation. The UK government has said there will no official apology or reparations.

The King and Queen wrapped up the Australian leg of their tour on Tuesday after completing a long list of engagements. Between them, on Tuesday alone the royal couple visited the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, a food bank, a social housing project, a literacy initiative and a community barbecue.

They met two leading cancer researchers and celebrated the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary. An Australian arm of the King’s Foundation was officially launched, expanding a charity which promotes sustainability and provides training in traditional craft skills.

But it was not an entirely straightforward trip. On Monday, an Australian senator defended heckling the King and accusing him of genocide after he addressed Parliament House, telling the BBC “he’s not of this land”. Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal Australian woman, interrupted the ceremony in the capital Canberra by shouting for about a minute before she was escorted away by security.

After making claims of genocide against “our people”, she could be heard yelling: “This is not your land, you are not my King.” But Aboriginal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan, who had earlier welcomed the King and Queen, said Thorpe’s protest was “disrespectful”, adding: “She does not speak for me.”

The ceremony concluded without any reference to the incident, and the royal couple proceeded to meet hundreds of people who had waited outside to greet them.

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24 October 2024
UK Govt gives asylum to son of Singapore founder

The government denies these claims and says he is free to return. Both men are sons of the revered leader Lee Kuan Yew who died in 2015….reports Asian Lite News

The son of modern Singapore’s founder has gained asylum in the UK following claims of persecution amid a high-profile family feud. Lee Hsien Yang has long alleged he faces oppression back home from the Singapore government that was led for 20 years by his brother, Lee Hsien Loong.

The government denies these claims and says he is free to return. Both men are sons of the revered leader Lee Kuan Yew who died in 2015. Since then the brothers have been locked in a years-long dispute over their father’s house, which has spiralled into a vicious public family battle.

Lee Hsien Yang showed some documents including a letter stating his claim for asylum was successful. The letter also stated the UK government had given him “refugee status” for five years as it accepted he had the “well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country Singapore”. Lee, who lives in London, said his wife had also been granted asylum.

A Home Office spokesman said it is “longstanding government policy that we do not comment on individual cases”. “Everything the Singapore government has said is fully public and must surely have been taken into account when the refugee status was granted,” Lee said.

“I sought asylum protection as a last resort. I remain a Singapore citizen and hope that some day it will become safe to return home.”

As a member of what has been seen as Singapore’s “first family”, and the former chief of Singapore’s largest telecommunications company, Mr Lee was very much a part of the country’s establishment until he fell out with his brother.

Since then he has joined an opposition political party and become a vocal critic of the Singapore government, roles which he has “every intention” of continuing while based in the UK, he said.

Lee Hsien Yang and his wife, as well as one of their sons, have lived abroad for several years in self-imposed exile. They have been subject to investigations and legal action brought on by the government which they say is part of a pattern of persecution.

Along with his late sister Lee Wei Ling, Lee has long accused their brother Lee Hsien Loong of capitalising on their father’s legacy to build a political dynasty. They have also alleged their brother abused his power during his time as prime minister, and said they feared he was using the “organs of the state” against them.

Lee Hsien Loong stepped down as PM earlier this year and remains in cabinet as a senior minister. He and the Singapore government have strenuously denied such claims. On Tuesday the government released a statement saying allegations that Lee Hsien Yang and his family are victims of persecution were “without basis” and that they face “no legal restraints”. “They are and have always been free to return to Singapore,” the statement added.

Lee Hsien Loong’s press secretary said he had no comment. he Lees’ years-long dispute over their family home began with the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s first prime minister and widely considered the architect of modern Singapore.

It centres on 38 Oxley Road, a small and nondescript house sitting on a quiet street in Singapore’s downtown that is estimated to be worth tens of millions of Singapore dollars.

The statesman, who was famously averse to the idea of a cult of personality built around him, had stated in his will that he wanted his house to be demolished either after his death or after his daughter moved out of the home.

Lee Hsien Loong, who was prime minister at the time, said the house would be preserved for the time being, while his siblings insisted it should be knocked down immediately in accordance to their father’s wishes.

Following his sister’s death earlier this month from a brain disease, Lee Hsien Yang has now applied for the demolition of the house and, in its place, the construction of a “small private dwelling” that would be owned by the Lee family.

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24 October 2024
Govt commits additional £3 mn to bolster aid to Syria

The UK funding will help trusted aid organisations to deliver immediate healthcare at border crossings, including trauma and injury support…reports Asian Lite News

The most vulnerable civilians fleeing the Lebanon conflict into Syria will be provided with life-saving emergency assistance and healthcare, as the UK boosts its humanitarian support with a £3 million package.

Taking refuge from the escalating conflict, more than 400,000 people – over half of whom are women and children – are estimated by the UN to have been displaced from Lebanon into Syria since September. The majority of those who have been displaced are Syrians, who initially fled to Lebanon after the Syrian civil war which began in 2014.

The UK funding will help trusted aid organisations to deliver immediate healthcare at border crossings, including trauma and injury support, as well as targeted protection assistance for women and girls.

Minister for Development Anneliese Dodds said, “The humanitarian situation in Lebanon and the wider Middle East is extremely concerning. It is critical that vulnerable civilians fleeing the conflict in Lebanon are given safe passage, and for their lives to be protected. Today’s package of emergency assistance will provide support to those most in need as they continue to risk their lives to make this dangerous journey.”

Of the £3 million in funding, £2 million has been allocated to the UN OCHA led Syria Humanitarian Fund, with £500,000 given to both the International Medical Corps UK and UNFPA.

International Medical Corps UK Country Director Wafaa Sadek said, “This new contribution builds on the generous support from the FCDO, helping the International Medical Corps to deliver essential healthcare and humanitarian aid to people crossing from Lebanon into Syria. Thanks to FCDO funding, International Medical Corps has already deployed three Mobile Medical Teams to address the growing needs—one serving Damascus and Rural Damascus, another covering Latakia and Tartous, and a third focusing on Hama and Homs governorates.”

This announcement follows more than £4 billion of funding that the UK has contributed since 2011 in lifesaving and life-sustaining assistance for the victims of the crisis in Syria – its largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis.

In Lebanon, we have already announced £10 million of aid to respond to a widespread lack of shelter, and reduced access to clean water, hygiene and healthcare. This is in addition to £5 million already provided to UNICEF. The government is also supporting the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal, with the government aid matching up to £10 million raised by the public.

The UK is clear that a wider regional conflict must be avoided at all costs and is committed to working with partners to secure a ceasefire on all sides.

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24 October 2024
Blair’s thinktank seeks return of pay-per-mile road pricing

Tony Blair Institute has suggested that instead of restoring fuel duty rates as planned, Reeves should introduce a simple road pricing system…reports Asian Lite News

A pay-per-mile road pricing system must be brought in now, according to Tony Blair’s thinktank, which is urging the chancellor to overhaul motoring taxes. Rachel Reeves is widely expected to confirm the end of a temporary 5p cut in fuel duty, and possibly announce an inflationary rise in the tax paid on petrol and diesel at the pumps, in her budget next Wednesday.

However, the Tony Blair Institute has suggested that instead of restoring fuel duty rates as planned, Reeves should introduce a simple road pricing system of 1p a mile for cars and vans, and 2.5p to 4p for lorries and heavy goods vehicles.

A new report from the institute argues that the change would generate the same revenue from motorists as the Treasury expects to raise from an end to the 2022 temporary cut in fuel duty – and thus acting now could be less politically toxic than later.

Attempts by the Blair government in 2007 to introduce widespread road tolling were met with an enormous public backlash and a record number of people signed a parliamentary petition objecting. However, the expected switch to electric cars and the subsequent decline in fuel duty, which brings in about £25bn a year to the exchequer, has reinvigorated calls for reform.

The institute said bringing in a low-level road pricing scheme would be “a crucial step in reforming the UK’s system of motoring taxation for the electric-vehicle era [and] help prevent a growth-stifling rise in road congestion”. It envisages the early level of charging to cost the average motorist about £70 a year, which would be payable based on mileage readings taken from cars’ odometers at their annual MOT check.

Fuel duty would not be abolished but frozen and eventually become redundant as vehicles become zero-emission, with the price per mile rising to about 10-12p a mile by 2050, the report suggests.

There have been weeks of speculation about reforms, intensified after the head of the National Infrastructure Commission, Sir John Armitt, said road pricing was “inevitable”. Groups including the Campaign for Better Transport have also urged reform to bring in pay-per-mile charges for electric vehicles.

Reeves has warned that the country faces a £22bn “black hole” in its finances. The Tony Blair Institute also urged her to change fiscal rules to allow for investment, and to overhaul stamp duty while raising council tax on more expensive houses.

A government spokesperson said: “We have no plans to introduce road pricing. We are committed to supporting our automotive sector as we transition to electric vehicles in order to meet our legally binding climate targets.”

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24 October 2024
‘No Labour wrongdoing in Harris campaign row’

Trump’s campaign filed a legal complaint alleging that apparent efforts by Labour’s head of operations to organise volunteers amounted to “illegal foreign national contributions…reports Asian Lite News

Labour did nothing wrong when party officials campaigned for Kamala Harris in the US election, a former Conservative minister has argued, after Downing Street faced fury from Donald Trump about the move.

Robert Buckland, who has also campaigned for Harris due to his distaste for Trump, said it appeared that Labour activists who knocked on doors had volunteered and covered their own expenses, which would not be a breach of US laws on overseas involvement in elections.

Trump’s campaign filed a legal complaint alleging that apparent efforts by Labour’s head of operations to organise volunteers amounted to “illegal foreign national contributions”, and hit out at what it called Keir Starmer’s “far-left” party.

Voters wait to cast their ballots during early voting in Black Mountain, North Carolina, on Monday.

After Starmer said he believed the row would not affect his relationship with Trump, Labour officials insisted that the party had no role in organising or funding staff who joined US campaigning efforts, and that such volunteering was by no means unusual.

The Trump legal letter, sent to the US Federal Election Commission in Washington, also complained about what it called “strategic meetings” at August’s Democratic national convention in Chicago between Harris’s team and Morgan McSweeney, now the prime minister’s chief of staff, and Matthew Doyle, Starmer’s communications director.

Labour officials said that the pair were at the event only as observers. The party paid for McSweeney to attend, and Doyle’s costs were covered by the Progressive Policy Institute thinktank.

Buckland, a former justice secretary, who stepped down as an MP at the general election, said a since deleted LinkedIn post by Labour’s head of operations offering to arrange housing for 100 current and former party officials campaigning for the Democrats in swing states was “unfortunate”.

However, he told the Guardian he did not see any sign of wrongdoing. “It doesn’t look like it to me,” he said. “If these individuals are going under their own steam, paying for their own flights and doing their own thing, and their accommodation is either they’re staying with friends or they’re paying for it, there’s not a problem. But they’ve played into the Trump-Vance campaign hands, and that press release was the sort of politicking that you’re going to see this close to an election.”

Starmer, speaking to reporters travelling with him to the Commonwealth summit in Samoa, said such volunteering had happened at “pretty much every [US] election”. He said: “They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying I think with other volunteers over there.”

Asked if it risked jeopardising his relationship with Trump if he becomes president again, Starmer said: “No. I spent time in New York with President Trump, had dinner with him, and my purpose in doing that was to make sure that between the two of us we established a good relationship, which we did.”

There was some muted criticism of the government from the Conservatives, although Oliver Dowden, the party’s deputy leader, did not raise it with Angela Rayner when she filled in for the absent Starmer at prime minister’s questions.

John Lamont, the shadow Scotland secretary, told BBC Radio 4 that Labour had created a “diplomatic car crash” that risked undermining relations with Trump.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, told GB News that the LinkedIn post seemed to show a “very clear breach of American electoral law” and he did not believe the Labour staffers had covered their own costs.

Farage attended the Republican national convention in Milwaukee in July. His entry in the MPs’ register of interests says the near £33,000 costs for him and a staffer were paid for by a Thai-based British businessman, Christopher Harborne. Farage listed the purpose of the trip as “to support a friend who was almost killed and to represent Clacton [his constituency] on the world stage”.

The former prime minister Liz Truss also attended the event, although by then she was no longer an MP.

One Labour MP, Ruth Cadbury, used a holiday in September to campaign for Harris in New Hampshire, while no sitting Conservatives are known to have volunteered in the same way. Almost none have publicly endorsed Trump.

Buckland said this did not surprise him, calling Trump “not a Republican”. He said: “I think most Conservatives would identify themselves with Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower and George HW Bush, and even George W Bush, not this character.”’

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24 October 2024
Birmingham airport reopens after evacuation

The airport later said passengers could return to the airport, advising them to check the latest flight information before travelling…..reports Asian Lite News

Birmingham airport is “returning to normal” after flights were grounded and the site evacuated while police responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle.

In a statement, the airport said: “Following a police investigation, operations are now returning to normal. Whilst we apologise for any inconvenience and disruption, the safety and security of everyone at the airport was our No 1 priority as we worked through this incident with police partners.”

West Midlands police said the airport was “partially evacuated” so a vehicle could be searched and assessed. “Following a search by the explosive ordnance disposal team the vehicle was deemed to be safe. The vehicle is no longer being treated as suspicious. The safety of all was our primary concern and there is no wider risk to the public,” the force said.

“The airport has resumed normal business with minimal disruption. We would like to thank the public for their patience and support while we dealt with this incident.”

Earlier on Wednesday the airport had said its operations were affected and advised all passengers to stay away. Passengers reported being escorted outside the airport building to the nearby National Exhibition Centre (NEC).

Crowds of people, many with suitcases, found themselves behind police tape as they were moved away from the scene.

West Midlands fire service said it had crews on standby at the airport, while teams from West Midlands ambulance service were also in attendance “as a precautionary measure as police deal with reports of a suspicious vehicle”.

The airport later said passengers could return to the airport, advising them to check the latest flight information before travelling.

The departures board showed a number of flights scheduled to take off on Wednesday were delayed by more than two hours while the airport was evacuated. Other passengers reported being stuck on planes on the airport runway after landing.

After the latest announcement, passengers said they were being slowly allowed back into the airport building, but further disruption was expected for a number of hours.

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24 October 2024
‘Labour donor Lord Alli breached parliamentary rules’

The first breach said Lord Alli should have registered himself as an unremunerated director of The Charlie Parsons Foundation, as well as a trustee….reports Asian Lite News

Labour donor Lord Alli breached four parliamentary rules over his registration of interests, a standards watchdog has found.

Starmer’s largest donor was found to have failed to include all his roles at a charity, did not register he had a controlling interest in a media company and did not register he was a director of a British Virgin Islands-based firm in time.

Lord Alli, a TV executive who has given more than £700,000 to Labour over the past 20 years, was recommended to write a letter of apology to the chair of the Lords’ conduct committee, Baroness Manningham-Buller.

In his letter, he wrote: “I am writing to you today to offer my apology for my breach of conduct by not registering my interests correctly. I will endeavour to keep to the Code of Conduct at all times to avoid such circumstances again.”

The first breach said Lord Alli should have registered himself as an unremunerated director of The Charlie Parsons Foundation, as well as a trustee.

He helped set up the charity in 2011 with Charlie Parsons, who created the Survivor reality TV series, to invest in “new talent, new projects and new business ideas”, mainly in the TV and entertainment industry.

The second breach found Lord Alli removed himself prematurely as a “person with significant control” of Silvergate BP Bidco Limited, the production company that produces the Peter Rabbit television programme. He also prematurely removed his entry saying he had a “shareholding amounting to a controlling interest” in the company.

The fourth breach was the late registration as an unremunerated director of MAC (BVI) Limited, an offshore British Virgin Islands subsidiary of 450 PLC, an investment firm based in tax haven Jersey Lord Alli had declared he was a chairman for.

Lord Alli previously said the omission was an “unintentional error” and he “had not realised” until he was asked by journalists in September.

The peer came under scrutiny in September over the tens of thousands of pounds he has given to Labour MPs to cover clothes, holidays and work events. According to data unveiled by Sky News’ Westminster Accounts project, he gave Sir Keir more than £39,000 in gifts and hospitality over the course of the last parliament.

This year alone, the prime minister has received nearly £19,000 worth of work clothes and several pairs of glasses from Lord Alli as well as £20,000 worth of accommodation. Starmer said this was to allow his son to study for his GCSEs in peace at the former TV executive’s central London flat while the family home was surrounded by media during the general election.

The PM, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and deputy PM Angela Rayner have said they will no longer accept donations to pay for clothes following the backlash.

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24 October 2024
Budget deals struck with all departments, says Reeves

The revelation comes after a tricky period for cabinet relations during which multiple ministers went over the chancellor’s head to write directly to Prime Minister Keir Starmer to protest cuts to their areas….reports Asian Lite News

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she’s reached agreement with all of her UK cabinet colleagues on their spending allocations for next week’s budget, following tensions with some senior ministers over cuts planned for their departments.

In a BBC interview, Reeves referred to a Treasury tradition whereby balloons representing each government department were inflated and stuck to the wall of the office of her deputy, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, ahead of budget talks, before being popped when settlements were reached. “All you need to know,” Reeves told BBC Radio 5 Live, “is there are no balloons left in the chief secretary’s office.”

The revelation comes after a tricky period for cabinet relations during which multiple ministers went over the chancellor’s head to write directly to Prime Minister Keir Starmer to protest cuts to their areas.

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, did not reach agreement with the Treasury on spending for her department until late on Friday night, two days past the allotted deadline.

“I’m very sympathetic towards the mess that my colleagues have inherited”, Reeves said, referring to the £22 billion (S$37.7 billion) fiscal black hole she says the previous Conservative administration left behind. “But any additional money, in the end, it has to be paid for either by taking money from other departments or raising taxes.”

Addressing reports of cabinet dissent, Reeves said it was “perfectly reasonable that cabinet colleagues set out their case – both to me as chancellor and to the prime minister, about the scale of the challenges that they find in their departments.” She described the past week as “a really constructive process.”

As she prepares to deliver Labour’s first budget in 14 years, Reeves is planning a mix of tax rises and short-term spending restraint as part of a push to raise as much as £40 billion to plug the budgetary void and fund her party’s priorities – including the National Health service and longer-term infrastructure projects.

Reeves said she remained committed to election promises not to raise income tax, national insurance and value added tax for working people, but added “we do need to look at other taxes to make sure that the sums add up.”

“We do need to find additional money,” Reeves said. “There will be more difficult decisions to come on spending on welfare and taxation, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.”

Reeves to announce major change to fiscal rules

Reeves will announce at the International Monetary Fund a plan to change Britain’s debt rules that will open the door for the government to spend up to £50bn extra on infrastructure projects.

After weeks of speculation, the chancellor will confirm at the fund’s annual meetings in Washington on Thursday that next week’s budget will include a new method for assessing the UK’s debt position – a move that will permit the Treasury to borrow more for long-term capital investment.

The change to the debt rule will be welcomed by the IMF, which says spending on UK infrastructure projects should be ringfenced as the government seeks to repair the damage to the public finances caused by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.

Reeves will not specify while in Washington which of the various debt measures under consideration has been chosen, but the Guardian has been told by a senior government source that she will target public sector net financial liabilities (PSNFL).

This yardstick – which will replace public sector net debt – will take into account all the government’s financial assets and liabilities, including student loans and equity stakes in private companies, as well as funded pension schemes.

This would give the chancellor room to increase borrowing for investment in long-term infrastructure. Reeves said before leaving for the IMF on Wednesday: “A Britain built on the rock of economic stability is a Britain that is a strong and credible international partner.

“I’ll be in Washington to tell the world that our upcoming budget will be a reset for our economy as we invest in the foundations of future growth. It’s from this solid base that we will be able to best represent British interests and show leadership on the major issues like the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.”

Labour inherited a set of fiscal rules from Reeves’s predecessor, Jeremy Hunt, dictating that day-to-day spending be met by revenues and that debt as a share of the economy must be falling in the fifth year of forecasts produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Hunt was only narrowly on course to meet his debt rule, by £8.9bn, after announcing large tax cuts despite spending pressures linked to Britain’s high debt servicing costs, ballooning demand on public services and weak economic growth.

Had Hunt adopted a PSNFL target in March, it would have added about £53bn to his borrowing headroom.

The Treasury has hinted that it would not initially take advantage of all the extra scope that a change to the debt rule would provide and would put “guard rails” in place to ensure investment projects deliver value for money. Sources said energy and transport projects would be a particular focus of capital spending in the budget on 30 October.

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24 October 2024
Starmer rejects calls for slavery reparations

The prime minister is under pressure to discuss reparatory justice with Commonwealth countries, most of which are former UK colonies, in Samoa this week…reports Asian Lite News

Keir Starmer has insisted he wants to “look forward” rather than have “very long endless discussions about reparations on the past” in his first comments on the issue before the Commonwealth summit.

The prime minister is under pressure to discuss reparatory justice with Commonwealth countries, most of which are former UK colonies, in Samoa this week.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him for the summit, Starmer said Commonwealth countries were “facing real challenges on things like climate in the here and now”.

“That’s where I’m going to put my focus, rather than what will end up being very, very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past,” he said. “This is about stance, really, looking forward rather than looking backwards.

“Slavery is abhorrent … there’s no question about that. But I think from my point of view and taking the approach I’ve just taken, I’d rather roll up my sleeves and work with them on the current future-facing challenges than spend a lot of time on the past.”

Caricom, a group of 15 Caribbean countries, has indicated it will push Starmer and the foreign secretary, David Lammy, on the issue at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Samoa.

In 2018 Lammy, then a backbench Labour MP, called for reparations to be paid to Caribbean nations. But in government Labour has ruled out apologising over Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery. Starmer said the focus of the summit should be “growth and trade” between Commonwealth countries.

The government also announced a new UK trade centre of expertise based in the Foreign Office, which will advise developing countries on competing in global markets and connect them with UK businesses.

The trade centre is intended to boost economic ties with the Commonwealth. Six members – Bangladesh, Guyana, India, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda – are projected to be among the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world by 2027. The combined GDP of the Commonwealth is expected to exceed $19.5tn in the next three years.

Starmer’s comments on reparations prompted criticism from historians and campaigners who said they showed a lack of leadership and a fundamental misunderstanding about what leaders in the global south had been calling for.

Eric Phillips, the chair of the Guyana Reparations Committee, said: “I just don’t understand the relevance of the Commonwealth if PM Starmer takes this cruel approach.”

He argued it had been slavery that underpinned, nurtured and rewarded “the rampant capitalism that has today created the climate change crisis”, adding: “Britain … wants to trade with Commonwealth countries now that Brexit has hurt its economy. The trading principles are purely capitalistic and against the interest of former colonies. No reparations, no trade should be the new motto of countries that seek reparations.”

Liliane Umubyeyi, the director of African Futures Lab, said: “Heads of states like the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, have been saying that the demands for reparations don’t concern only what happened in the past, they concern contemporary conditions of inequality.”

Prof Verene A Shepherd, of the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination and director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies, described Starmer’s remarks as dismissive.

She said they “will not make the campaign go away, and I hope that those who continue to be affected by the legacies of British colonialism will tell him so when they see him at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting”.

The veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott said: “It is disappointing that the PM has been so dismissive of the opportunity to debate reparations … the descendants of slaves live with the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade in the here and now.”

The UN judge Patrick Robinson concluded last year that the UK owed more than £18tn in reparations for its historical involvement in slavery in 14 countries. But Downing Street has said the issue is “not on the agenda” at Chogm, and Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that he wants to be “facing forward” rather than have “very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past”.

Campaigners argue that in a number of Commonwealth nations, the generational impacts of crimes against humanity have been compounded not only by a modern-day system of debt that has favoured western interests, but also by extreme weather events, caused or made worse by the carbon emissions of wealthy nations.

The demands extend beyond the Commonwealth. The African Union, which also includes former French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, has joined forces with the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to put pressure on former slave-owning European nations to engage with the reparations movement. Caricom has drawn up a 10-point plan for reparatory justice.

In Britain in recent years, organisations including the Guardian, the Church of England and the Bank of England have apologised for their links to slavery. The UK is yet to make an apology.

King Charles, in a speech to Commonwealth nations in 2022, said ways must be found to “acknowledge our past”, including slavery, which he had previously described as an “appalling atrocity”. But he has stopped short of saying sorry.

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24 October 2024
Badenoch claims blocking India-UK FTA pact

Former business and trade secretary indicates that India’s stand on concessions overmigration was one of the reasons the FTA could not be signed off …reports Asian Lite News

Former business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch, who is the frontrunner to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party chief and Opposition Leader, has claimed that she blocked the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) over demands for more visas, according to UK media reports.

The Nigerian heritage shadow minister, who is going head-to-head in an ongoing Tory membership vote with former Cabinet colleague Robert Jenrick, has indicated that one of the reasons the FTA could not be signed off by the Sunak-led Tory government was due to the Indian side expecting more concessions over the issue of migration.

“As business secretary, even as I was trying to do things to limit immigration, we had an India FTA where they kept trying to bring in migration and I said no. It’s one of the reasons why we didn’t sign it,” said Badenoch.

But some of her former Tory ministerial colleagues countered in ‘The Times’ that the claims are unlikely because Badenoch was pushing for a deal as she oversaw several rounds of negotiations towards an FTA expected to significantly enhance the GBP 38 billion a year bilateral trading partnership.

“Kemi just wanted to get a deal at all costs and didn’t really think that the objections that were being put forward were serious. She said they were ideologically driven, that they were impractical and weren’t conducive to good relations with the Indians,” a former Cabinet minister was quoted as saying. Kemi wanted a trophy to show post-Brexit benefits and there was a zeal to achieve it,” the former minister said.

“The reality was, all the bargaining power was with the Indians and they had more leverage in negotiations than we did. There was a lot more pressure on us to do all the running, and they were quite nonchalant about doing a deal. That was where the balance of power lay and we were always starting from a weaker position,” the ex-minister said.

A source close to Badenoch, however, denied claims that she was prepared to sign a deal at any cost and said that the Indian government had decided not to sign a deal with the Conservative government in the hope that it might be able to negotiate better terms under Labour.

“Kemi didn’t want to do a deal that would have changed any UK immigration rules. It’s categorically untrue, she would have never done that. India held out because they knew that under a Labour government, they would get a better deal on students and social security,” the source was quoted as saying by ‘The Times’.

“She did not put visas on the table, she did not sanction her officials to offer up access to the labour market at any point,” the source added.

Meanwhile, while reports from India indicate the FTA negotiations under the Prime Minister Keir Starmer-led Labour Party government are set to commence next month, officials in the UK are not setting any timeline for picking up after 14 rounds of negotiations.

“We remain committed to securing a trade deal with India and intend to resume talks as soon as possible,” Starmer’s foreign affairs spokesperson at 10 Downing Street said.

Badenoch and Jenrick are trading blows on various policy areas, with immigration emerging as a key focal point as they continue on the campaign trail to win votes from an estimated 140,000 Conservative members.

Sunak’s successor is scheduled to be declared on November 2, following the British Indian leader’s resignation in the wake of the party’s bruising general election defeat in July under his leadership.

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22 October 2024