Independent – Extend free school meals for the rest of summer, Johnson told
The Independent’s front page leads of calls to extend free school meals for the rest of the summer. But Dominic Raab has ruled it out despite calls from teaching unions and charities to widen it out to all families on universal credit.
Today's Headlines - Summarised
The Independent – Rwanda flight farce: Tories hunt for 3,500 missing migrants
Front page summary The Independent – Rwanda flight farce: Tories hunt for 3,500 missing migrants The Independent says Rishi Sunak is facing accusations his flagship Rwanda policy has become a “farce” after ministers promised to find thousands of missing asylum seekers earmarked for deportation. Police raids could be among a range of measures used to locate them, health secretary Victoria Atkins suggested. Elsewhere, a still image from a doorbell camera shows the moment the East
The Independent – SNP leader jumps before he’s pushed
Front page summary The Independent – SNP leader jumps before he’s pushed The Independent says Humza Yousaf had been facing no-confidence votes at Holyrood – but on Monday announced instead that he would be stepping down as First Minister. The SNP is beginning the search for a new leader after a day of drama in Scottish politics saw Humza Yousaf announce his resignation as the country’s First Minister. Facing two votes of no confidence at
The Independent – Why are women still forced to sleep next to men in hospitals?
Front page summary The Independent – Why are women still forced to sleep next to men in hospitals? The Independent leads on its own investigation. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said patients were left feeling humiliated and at risk, adding: ‘The use of mixed sex wards has gone through the roof under the Tories’ The use of mixed-sex wards has gone “through the roof” after the number of men and women being put in beds
The Independent – Macron savages Sunak’s cynical Rwanda policy
Front page summary The Independent – Macron savages Sunak’s cynical Rwanda policy The Independent says Home secretary James Cleverly hit out at ‘distasteful’ and ‘lazy’ criticism of policy, but insisted he was not talking about French leader’s remarks. French President Emmanuel Macron has denounced Rishi Sunak’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as the politics of “cynicism” and a betrayal of European values. Macron also warned it would be “ineffective”, just days after the
The Independent – Sabre-rattling Sunak: EU must spend more on Nato to fight Putin
Front page summary The Independent – Sabre-rattling Sunak: EU must spend more on Nato to fight Putin The Independent says Rishi Sunak has challenged Britain’s European allies to meet his £75bn pledge to increase defence spending as US President Joe Biden signed a $61bn package of aid for Ukraine. The prime minister warned the world is “more dangerous now than at any moment since the Cold War” and faces “an axis of authoritarian states”. Elsewhere
The Independent – Rwanda bill: Think again Prime Minister
Front page summary The Independent – Rwanda bill: Think again Prime Minister The Independent headline reads: “Think again, PM: Sunak urged to U-turn on Rwanda plan as five die in Channel tragedy.” The tragic deaths prompted senior figures in the United Nations to urge the prime minister to reconsider his controversial plan to send asylum seekers who arrive on small boats on a one-way flight to Rwanda. Elsewhere the front page notes the PM’s announcement
Lack of leadership in London
"When the Taliban took Kabul, the Prime Minister, the then-Foreign Secretary, the Minister responsible for Afghanistan, and the FCDO’s top civil servant, Sir Philip Barton, were all on leave."
"As the Government mounted its response to the crisis, many officials, military personnel and others worked extremely hard under conditions of intense pressure, some also facing significant personal risk. Unfortunately, their work was undermined by systemic failures."
What’s the report actually about?
Planning for withdrawal of UK troops
It was known in February 2020 that the US planned to withdraw from Afghanistan, however, the government and civil servants suffered from an “optimism bias” that the US would change its mind about withdrawing, meaning the government was not prepared.
“The UK government failed adequately to shape or respond to Washington’s decision to withdraw, to predict the speed of the Taliban’s takeover, or to plan and prepare for the evacuation of our Afghan partners,” the report said.
“Most damning for the Foreign Office is the total absence of a plan for evacuating Afghans who supported the UK mission, without being directly employed by the UK government, despite knowing 18 months before the collapse of Afghanistan that an evacuation might be necessary.”
The FCDO “failed to make the necessary preparations for withdrawal” by laying the groundwork for an evacuation with third countries.
On the evacuation
The report said the “mismanagement” of the evacuation in a crucial period “likely cost hundreds of people their chance to leave the country, and as a result likely cost lives.”
The report heavily criticised the FCDO’s top civil servant Sir Philip Barton who did not return from leave until the civilian evacuation was over. The report concluded he ‘should consider his position,’ saying his decision to not return whilst Kabul fell was “difficult to understand and impossible to excuse.”
The probe said the absence of leadership – both ministerial and official, when Kabul fell was ‘inexcusable and a grace indictment on those supposedly in charge.’
Along with Sir Philip, the then-Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and PM Boris Johnson were also on leave when the Taliban took control of Kabul which “marks a fundamental lack of seriousness, grip or leadership at a time of national emergency”.
Cats and dogs – did the PM lie over the animal evacuation?
The report said there was a lack of a line of command within the government and highlighted “untraceable and unaccountable political interventions.”
The controversy around Nowzad started when a British ex-soldier who was running an animal charity in Afghanistan – Nowzad, wanted to evacuate his charity’s cats and dogs. Accusations of prioritising animals over people swirled around. The ex-soldier Pen Farthing and around 150 of his charity’s animals were eventually evacuated via a privately chartered plane. The charity’s Afghan staff were turned away at the airport due to not having the right visas.
At the time, the government denied any help in evacuating Pen Farthings animals. In the report, the committee says: “We make no criticism of the organisation, its staff, or those who campaigned on its behalf: they were open about their case and objectives, which were in keeping with their stated priorities. The same cannot be said for the Government.”
The report found Pen Farthing was the only passenger on the 230-seat private jet and that Boris Johnson probably intervened to demand the evacuation.
The Foreign Office was further condemned for being “intentionally evasive, and often deliberately misleading” about what had happened.
“Senior officials believed that the prime minister played a greater role in some decisions than has been admitted,” the report said.