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The prime minister has been warned millions of families will be £1,000 a year worse off if the government scraps the increase
(AFP via Getty Images)
The prime minister has been warned millions of families will be £1,000 a year worse off if the government scraps the increase.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said families deserved certainty during the pandemic that their incomes would be protected but Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, dismissed the vote as a “political stunt”.
Elsewhere, the first stage of Jeremy Corbyn’s legal battle with Labour over his suspension from the parliamentary party will be heard by the High Court.
Forcing employees to be vaccinated discriminatory, says minister
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said it would be “discriminatory” to refuse to take on new employees who will not be vaccinated.
Asked about Pimlico Plumbers’ efforts to pressure staff to be jabbed, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that is discriminatory.
“We’re not that sort of country and I think it’s important we do it by persuasion.”
Tom Batchelor18 January 2021 08:41
Raab calls for immediate release of Kremlin critic Navalny
The foreign secretary has told Russia to immediately release Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he was detained in Moscow on Sunday.
Mr Navalny was detained at an airport in the Russian capital after spending five months in Germany recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blames on Moscow.
Tom Batchelor18 January 2021 08:37
Corbyn’s legal battle with Labour reaches High Court
The first stage of Jeremy Corbyn’s legal battle with Labour over his suspension from the parliamentary party will be heard by the High Court today.
Lawyers for the former opposition leader are applying for the disclosure of documents ahead of a possible legal challenge over his suspension.
It has previously been reported that Mr Corbyn will seek evidence proving there was a deal with Sir Keir Starmer’s office to readmit him to the party.
Mr Corbyn was suspended from Labour in October for claiming that the scale of antisemitism in the party was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.
Tom Batchelor18 January 2021 08:25
Vote to oppose cut to Universal Credit a ‘political stunt’, claims minister
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said Labour’s vote to oppose the planned cut to Universal Credit is a “political stunt”.
The Tory MP for Stratford-on-Avon told Sky News: “It’s unfortunate that Labour has chosen a political stunt.
“This debate today has no real impact on the outcome on those families, other than a political little stunt for Labour.”
Tom Batchelor18 January 2021 08:21
Benefit cut vote scheduled for Monday afternoon
The PM has ordered Conservatives to abstain in a pair of votes tabled for later today calling on the government to scrap a planned £20-a-week cut in universal credit and working tax credit and extend food vouchers or free school meals through the February half-term.
The votes are not binding on the government, but abstention is seen as a tactic to avoid the embarrassment of potential defeat for the prime minister, after the 50-strong Northern Research Group of Tory backbenchers called for the £20 coronavirus uplift to be kept.
The Opposition Day Debate will be after 3.30pm.
The motion states: “This House believes that the government should stop the planned cut in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit in April and give certainty today to the six million families for whom it is worth an extra £1,000 a year.”
Tom Batchelor18 January 2021 08:19
Boris Johnson will be ‘pushing up poverty’ if he cuts universal credit top-up, report warns
Boris Johnson will be pushing Britain’s poorest households further into poverty if he proceeds with a planned cut in universal credit for 6 million families, an influential think thank has warned.
Millions of people face the sharpest drop in living standards in a generation in 2021, the Resolution Foundation said.
Tom Batchelor18 January 2021 08:09
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of developments in Westminster and beyond.
Tom Batchelor18 January 2021 08:02
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