Navy will protect UK waters from European fishing vessels, says Tory minister

The government’s environment secretary has warned the EU that the UK has taken “sufficient” steps to protect its waters after Brexit, as fears grow of a French blockade.

The Royal Navy boasts three extra vessels, the Home Office will provide a further four and the government can call in help from the private sector, George Eustice said.

A new control centre has been launched, 50 extra fishery protection officers have been recruited and there will be “aerial surveillance”, Eustice, responsible for fisheries, told a House of Lords inquiry.

“We have significantly increased our enforcement capability … We think that is sufficient.”

All the details here:

Foreign secretary urged to push Saudis on human rights

As Dominic Raab begins his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, campaigners have called on him to push for meaningful human rights reforms – and to end arms sales with the country.

The Foreign Office has said Raab will raise the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as the conflict there rages on. A Saudi-led coalition is backing the Yemeni government as it battles the rebel Houthi movement.

In June 2019, the Court of Appeal ruled that the government acted unlawfully when it licensed the sale of UK-made arms to Saudi forces for use in Yemen. Ministers were ordered not to approve any new licences and review existing licences in a lawful manner.

In the aftermath of last year’s ruling, the government admitted multiple breaches of the ban of new licences.

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: “Dominic Raab has said he will raise the crisis in Yemen, but talk is not enough. It is a crisis that has been fuelled and exacerbated by UK arms sales … These arms sales are immoral, and, as the Court of Appeal confirmed last year, they are also illegal.”

Raab said: “Saudi Arabia is one of our closest trade partners and plays an important role in keeping Britain safe. As a valued partner, we have to work closely together to tackle the crisis in Yemen, terrorism and climate change as well as pursuing reform and engaging on human rights issues.”

New era of greener petrol ahead?

The government has announced it is consulting on introducing a more environmentally-friendly petrol at garages across the UK from 2021.

Making E10 – which contains less carbon than petrol currently sold at the pumps – the new standard grade could cut CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes per year, according to the Department for Transport.

“The next 15 years will be absolutely crucial for slashing emissions from our roads, as we all start to feel the benefits of the transition to a zero-emission future,” said transport secretary Grant Shapps.

“But before electric cars become the norm, we want to take advantage of reduced CO2 emissions today. This small switch to petrol containing bioethanol at 10% will help drivers across country reduce the environmental impact of every journey.”

Most people think deportations wrong if offender living in the UK since childhood, poll finds

Following the recent controversy over the deportation flight to Jamaica, YouGov has asked people about the circumstances under which they think foreign-born offenders of serious crimes should be deported.

Some 78 per cent said people who came to the UK as adults should be deport if they were found to have committed a serious or violent crime.

But less than 50 per cent thought deportation was fair if the offender had a long-term partner in UK, had been in UK since a teenager, or had no ties to the deported country.

The survey also found 58 per cent did not think someone should be deported if they had been living in the UK since they were a child.

Hancock reinforces hand-washing message, as ad campaign launched

The government is launching a renewed public information campaign urging people to wash their hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

New adverts – to be rolled out across print, radio, online and billboards – will seek to drive home the message that regular hand-washing is the single most important action individuals can take in the fight against Covid-19.

The public health messages will reinforce the message that people should be washing their hands more often, and should be washing for 20 seconds, using soap and water or hand sanitiser.

It includes when they come in from home or work, after they blow their nose, cough or sneeze, and before they eat or handle food.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said: “We all have a role to play in stopping this disease and that’s what this expanded campaign is all about – making sure the public knows exactly what they should be doing to keep themselves and others safe.

Labour MP promises cross-party inquiry into subpostmasters scandal

Rachel Reeves has announced that the Business Select Committee which she chairs will launch an inquiry into the subpostmasters scandal.

A faulty IT system led to hundreds of former Post Office workers being prosecuted, while others went bankrupt due to cash shortfalls.

Vincated by a High Court ruling in their favour in December 2019, a senior judge concluded a number of “bugs, errors and defects” in the Horizon system had caused “discrepancies” in subpostmasters’ branch accounts.

The Labour MP told BBC Breakfast the committee would “try to get some answers and try to get some justice”.

Reeves added: “I think crucially we want to stop this sort of thing from happening again. How did we ever get to a situation where the Post Office took its own subpostmasters to court?”

Ministers risk ‘wasting’ £10bn on infrastructure, say experts

The government risks wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money unless it improves the way infrastructure projects are delivered, a think tank has warned.

The Resolution Foundation welcomed plans – to be set out in next week’s budget – to invest £100bn over the next five years.

But it estimated that that UK loses 10 per cent of the potential value of its investment relative to the most efficient advanced economies.

It said reducing this gap is essential if the government is to avoid wasting up to £10bn on “poorly chosen, designed, or executed” infrastructure projects over the coming years.

The Resolution Foundation said government departments should have to publish the cost-benefit analysis for projects before they are approved, with greater decentralisation of investment decisions – including to metro mayors.

It also said investment decisions should prioritise social housing, medical equipment in hospitals, and meeting the government’s share of reaching the net zero carbon emissions target by 2050.

Report co-author Cara Pacitti said: “The UK’s retreat from public investment in previous decades has left significant gaps in our public asset base, from poor transport links outside London and the South East, to long waits for diagnostic tests in the NHS, and too little new social housing.”

Starmer accused of ‘undemocratic’ behaviour over donations

Sir Keir Starmer remains the strong favourite to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, but Rebecca Long-Bailey’s allies continue to kick up a fuss about the frontrunner’s donations.

Shadow cabinet office secretary Jon Trickett – who sits on the NEC – claimed it was “entirely undemocratic” of Starmer to delay publishing a full list of his financial backers until after the race (as he is entitled to do).

“We need to put an end to the secrecy surrounding political donations, which means political donations being declared in real time.

“Whether it’s in general elections or internal party elections, delaying publishing donations until the vast majority of people have voted is entirely undemocratic. Voters deserve to know what lies behind the candidates they are being asked to vote for, before they cast their vote, not afterwards.”

Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy have both released a list of all donations they have received above £1,500.

Soon after Trickett’s comments, the register of members’ interests was updated to include a cash donation of £100,000 from barrister Robert Latham, according to Politics Home.

Is Sir Keir getting rattled?

PM’s friend’s firm handed £1.4m of government money to help super-rich ‘network’ with officials

Labour has called for an investigation after it emerged run by Boris Johnson’s tennis partner has been paid £1.4m of government cash to help civil servants “network” with the super rich.

The money is being paid to Quintessentially, a “luxury lifestyle” company – co-founded by Ben Elliot, an Etonian friend of the PM – which charges clients thousands of pounds to meet powerful people.

The Department of International Trade has paid Quintessentially £1.4m to enable civil servants and the super-rich to “network at the highest levels”, under a contract that began in 2016.

Labour has condemned the contract as “a blindingly obvious conflict of interest and a shocking waste of money” and demanded an inquiry.

Home Secretary’s career on brink after new bullying claims emerge from third department

A senior official at the Department for International Development (DfID) reported a “tsunami” of allegations of abuse by officials in Prit Patel’s private office when she was secretary of state, BBC2’s Newsnight reported.

Following her dismissal as international development secretary in 2017, a senior figure in DfID was said to have approached staff in her private offices about allegations that they had heard of bullying.

The senior figure was said to have been told of multiple claims of staff being humiliated and coming under heavy pressure in emails – similar to the allegations made about Patel’s conduct at the Home Office.

The senior figure then went to see another senior figure in DfID and urged them to contact the then cabinet secretary – the late Sir Jeremy Heywood – so that her conduct recorded was “in the system”.

Although the person making the claims has not been named, they were said to be prepared to give evidence to the Cabinet Office inquiry currently under way into allegations she broke the ministerial code.

A Tory source, quoted by Newsnight, hit back, saying: “What we are seeing is a concerted effort by certain sections of the Civil Service to undermine a home secretary … It is deeply disturbing that dark forces are trying to influence the findings of a Cabinet Office inquiry.”

A spokesman for Patel said: “The home secretary categorically denies all of these allegations.”

Most Tory members don’t accept established climate science, survey finds

A startling new poll shows fewer than half of Conservative party member accept human activity is responsible for climate change. Around one in three (32.9 per cent) think that “global warming is happening but human activity isn’t driving it”, and nearly a tenth (9.7 per cent) said they didn’t believe global warming was happening at all.

Only 48.5 per cent of those taking part in the survey for the ConservativeHome actually agreed with the scientific consensus.

ConservativeHome editor, former Tory MP Paul Goodman, said: “Our sense is that Conservative MPs will be very roughly where our panel is – although we have to admit that we’ve no evidence for that.”

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of events at Westminster and beyond.