Britain plans diplomatic expansion as it eyes post-Brexit influence

Political reporter(wp/Reuters):
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will set out on Wednesday plans to “reinvigorate and expand” British diplomacy after years of budget cuts as the country looks to boost its influence around the world after Brexit.

With just five months until Britain leaves the European Union, its biggest foreign policy shift in more than 40 years, Hunt will say Britain plans to hire nearly 1,000 more diplomatic staff, open new embassies and boost language training.

“Our democratic values are arguably under greater threat than at any time since the fall of the Berlin Wall... We can use our influence, reach and power to defend our values by becoming an invisible chain that links the world’s democracies,” Hunt will say in a speech, according to advance extracts.

Since Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU, the government has repeatedly flagged its ambition for a ‘Global Britain’, but lawmakers and foreign policy experts have accused it of lacking a strategy or resources to deliver on that goal.

The Foreign Office has faced budget cuts under successive governments which have seen it reduce embassy jobs and sell off exotic properties overseas. At the same time its remit has shrunk, with key policy areas including foreign aid, trade and the relationship with the EU moved to other departments.

The Foreign Office’s operating expenditure fell by 21.6 percent between 2010 and 2015 and was then frozen in real terms, spending watchdog the National Audit Office said last year.

“There is a mismatch between the rhetoric and ambition around a Global Britain and actually what we invest in the diplomatic service itself,” said Tom Raines, head of the Europe Programme at global affairs think-tank Chatham House.

The mismatch, he added, was “quite obvious to others”.

In his speech, entitled “Britain’s role in the world after Brexit”, Hunt will say the new jobs will include 335 diplomatic positions overseas, 328 in London and 329 new local staff around the world.

According to the National Audit Office, the Foreign Office employed 12,865 staff globally in 2016-17.

The government also plans to create 12 new embassies or missions, many of them in Commonwealth countries as it looks to revitalise links with former colonies.

“There is a perception in many places that Brexit is an isolationist or backwards step for the UK, which has generally been seen as internationalist and open... so there is a big job for the UK to correct that narrative,” said Raines.

The Foreign Office will also boost language training, increasing the number of languages taught at the department to 70 from 50, including the addition of Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Gujarati.

Drugs firm ITH Pharma charged over contaminated food that 'killed newborn' at London hospital

Health reporter(wp/es):

Police investigating the death of a premature baby given contaminated food in a London hospital today charged a drugs company with a series of offences.

Yousef Al-Kharboush died from septicaemia at St Thomas’ hospital on June 1, 2014, nine days after being born two months premature with twin brother Abdulilah.

He was one of two babies to die within 10 days at St Thomas’. A third died at the Rosie hospital in Cambridge.

A total of 23 babies at nine  British hospitals developed a bacterial infection after receiving the intravenous food, known as Total Parental Nutrition (TPN) and made by ITH Pharma, in Harlesden. The others recovered after being given antibiotics.

A four-year investigation by the Met and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency established that only Yousef’s death was potentially linked to the contaminated batch of TPN.

Today the Met announced that ITH Pharma had been charged with seven counts of supplying a medicinal product not of the nature or quality specified in the prescription.

The firm was also charged with failing to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure patients were not infected by contaminants, in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act. Its representatives will appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on December 17.

Yousef’s parents Raaid Sakkijha and Ghada Al-Kharboush today said the length of the investigation had exacerbated their grief.

Mr Sakkijha said: “It has been like living with an open wound that will not close... we never celebrate events such as Yousef’s brother’s birthday because it is too painful a reminder.”

Arti Shah of Fieldfisher law firm, representing the family in an ongoing civil case, said they “suffered the worst grief imaginable”. 

The twins were born by emergency section at 32 weeks gestation and drip-fed the liquid food, a batch of which had been contaminated with the lethal bug Bacillus cereus, in intensive care. 

At the time, ITH Pharma reportedly said the contamination was in an unspecified raw ingredient from a supplier.

ITH Pharma said today it has “every sympathy for all the families affected” but “will vigorously defend this case”.

Scale of student anxiety and distress is worry for us all, says universities chief

University reporter(wp/es):

The head of the universities regulator today said it is “impossible not to be concerned” at the scale of anxiety and depression among students. 

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the Office for Students, said improving mental health and wellbeing is a priority for her organisation and universities must make sure they give support.

She said that every time she meets groups of students they bring up the problem of mental health, and the issue has been raised as a priority by her own organisation’s student panel.

In a blog published today, Ms Dandridge said: “It is impossible not to be concerned at the scale and seriousness of distress, anxiety and depression among students. 

"As the Office for Students we take very seriously an issue that students are telling us is one of the highest priorities for them, and where we have the regulatory levers, operating at a sector level, to contribute to possible solutions.” 

Her blog came as she spoke today to MPs at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Students.

She pointed to research that indicates student suicide numbers are rising and the demand and cost of student support services is increasing. 

Figures from the Office for National Statistics, highlighted in a report by Universities UK, show the number of student suicides rose from 108 to 134 between 2001 and 2015. 

She wrote: “Going to university is a huge transition for many and one that brings both social and psychological challenge ... For our international students this is an even bigger transition.”

She said it is not her role to instruct universities how to give support, or tell students what to do, but that her organisation will “directly challenge” universities and colleges to support students’ mental health and wellbeing in the “access and participation plans” they must write if they want to charge higher fees. 

The Office for Students has launched a £6 million challenge to universities to come up with new ways of improving mental health, and has funded a guide for colleges on preventing student suicides.

Ms Dandridge wrote: “Mental health and wellbeing are complex issues and there is no simple solution. But higher education providers are full of people who excel at working with complexity.”

She said universities should be leading the way in research and innovation on the issue because they employ experts in health and wellbeing.

She added: “This is not about trying to protect students from the brutality and complexities of life. Nor is it about undermining the fundamental role of universities to educate and research. 

“It is about acknowledging that there is a significant problem of mental health in our society, that we all need to look after our mental health in the same way as we do our physical health, and that higher education providers have a responsibility to address these issues so as to enable their students to flourish and unlock their potential.”

For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a  local Samaritans branch or see samaritans.org

Next should shut stores as High Street sales slump, says City

Business reporter(wp/es):

Fashion chain Next faced calls to shut more stores quickly on Wednesday as it admitted its High Street arm was dragging the business back.

The retailer admitted that traditional sales on the High Street fell by 8% in the third-quarter to October 31, giving a shock to investors. Next shares were down 200p, or almost 4%, to 5106p despite holding its profit guidance.

“This has been the trend for some time now and as ever raises the question about when management seeks to rationalise its store estate in recognition of the shift in where revenues and profits are being generated,” added Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com.

Next has seen rivals including Marks & Spencer and Debenhams shutter scores of shops as they face tough online competition and weak consumer spending. 

Chief executive Simon, Lord Wolfson said in September he was in talks with landlords to renew many of the leases expiring over the next few years and the new terms were “attractive enough to keep stores open”. He has previously argued that online and stores can be complementary, as shoppers can use stores to collect and return shopping. 

Next, which has more than 500 stores in Britain, has closed at least 22 this year and others are earmarked for closure. 

“A weak outturn might increase pressure on management to consider more radical solutions to the structural challenges facing its physical shops,” said AJ Bell’s Russ Mould. 

However, though stores accounted for two-thirds of Next’s business a decade ago, they now make up less than half of its total revenues. 

The online business has continued to offset the High Street gloom, growing by 12.7%, albeit at a slower pace when compared with 14.8% for the year. 

The City had also expected a 3% growth in full-price own-brand sales, but the outcome was “a disappointing” 1.3%, said retail analyst Nick Bubb. 

Its finance arm, which allows customers to pay for their shopping on credit, is expected to contribute 17% of Next’s profit this year. But analysts fear this further exposes Next to a potential consumer downturn.

Marks & Spencer revealed in May that it would close more than 100 stores by 2022, as part of a shake-up of the business to try to make it more profitable, and Debenhams said last week that it will shut up to 50 stores over the next five years, after it previously said it planned to close only 10.

Conman whose £82k fraud on his ex-girfriend was exposed when he used her disabled parking badge jailed

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A love-rat conman whose £82,000 fraud on his ex-girlfriend was exposed when he was caught dodging a parking offence has been jailed for four-and-a-half years. 

Alan Bohrer, 64, began helping himself to Susan Franks’s fortune while they were dating in 2012, offering to manage her finances and then secretly writing out cheques to himself. 

A part-time film extra and gambling addict, Bohrer forged Mrs Franks’s signature on 42 cheques over four years, continuing the fraud after breaking up with her in 2014 when he started seeing a younger woman. 

Mrs Franks, 59, a property entrepreneur, model and actress, eventually discovered the fraud in 2016 when Bohrer asked her to lie to the police after he had been caught using her disabled blue badge for parking. 

She lost faith in his honesty and took back control of her finances, then found Bohrer had sliced cheques out of her chequebook with a knife and paid himself £82,500. 

Bohrer denied the fraud but was convicted by a jury at Harrow crown court. 

Speaking after the case, Mrs Franks said: “I am very, very sad it has come to this.

He is an ex-boyfriend and we had some really, really good times together. 

“My sadness has turned to anger. I didn’t think he would steal off me. He still had the keys to my house even when we finished.”

She said she had paid for them to go on cruises together, but Bohrer would spend most of his time in the ship’s casino instead of with her. 

“I paid because I did not want to go on my own but he would be in the casino morning, noon and night. He loved the casino and I would have to go to the shows on my own.”

She said her “heart sank” when she discovered his fraud and added: “It is unbelievable that someone I trusted has done that to me.”

She said she tended Bohrer after he had been ill, but he started going to private card clubs up to five days a week and then began dating another woman. 

The court heard Bohrer and Mrs Franks had first dated when they were young but he married her best friend instead. They got together again in 1999 as his divorce was about to be finalised. 

Bohrer offered to manage her finances, which included a large inheritance from her father and an extensive property portfolio. 

“She placed complete trust in him. He knew all her finances and assets and had the key to her house and the alarm code,” prosecutor Nicholas Alexander told the court. 

He said the arrangement ended in June 2016 when Bohrer “asked her to lie to the police that she had been with him when he used her blue badge without her permission”. 

Bohrer, of Colindale, denied fraud but was convicted of two counts of fraud and one of forgery and was jailed on Friday. 

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab says deal 'expected' by mid-November

Political reporter(wp/es):

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has revealed that he expects a deal on Britain's EU withdrawal to be finalised by November 21.

Downing Street has so far said only that it is working to conclude a deal "as soon as possible", and hopes to do so during the autumn.

But Mr Raab told a cross-party committee of MPs that the end of negotiations, which have stretched on for 19 months, was now "firmly in sight".

The October summit of the European Council - long-billed as the "moment of truth" for Brexit negotiations - passed without a deal, and leaders of the remaining 27 EU countries decided not to schedule a special summit in November unless chief negotiator Michel Barnier told them there had been "decisive" progress in talks.

But Mr Raab appeared to suggest that he expected a deal within the next three weeks, as he set a date for himself and negotiator Olly Robbins to appear before the House of Commons Exiting the EU Committee.

"I would be happy to give evidence to the committee when a deal is finished and currently expect November 21 to be suitable," wrote Mr Raab.

The letter, released by the committee on Wednesday, was dated October 24 and therefore does not reflect any breakthrough in the past few days.

Negotiations are deadlocked on the question of a "backstop" arrangement to guarantee that there will be no hard border in Ireland.

Prime Minister Theresa May insists she will not accept an EU proposal which would establish a customs border between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, while Brussels is resisting her plan to keep the whole UK temporarily in a customs union.

Mr Raab wrote: "Despite our differences, we are not far from an agreement on this issue. We agree on the principle of a UK-wide customs backstop. An agreement on the details of that backstop should be possible.

"Both sides agree that this backstop cannot provide for a permanent UK/EU relationship and are committed to a future relationship that works for the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland.

"We are open to talking about ways to achieve this and committed to continuing discussions in order to reach an agreement.

"The end is now firmly in sight and, while obstacles remain, it cannot be beyond us to navigate them. We have resolved most of the issues and we are building up together what the future relationship should look like and making real progress.

"We now need to acknowledge the progress that has been made and now work rapidly through the remaining issues and come to an agreement that works for both sides."

Mr Raab had been due to give evidence to the committee on October 24, but pulled out shortly before the crunch October 17-18 European Council summit, with his office saying that he was committed to appear only once a deal was finalised.

In a letter accepting his proposal of a November 21 evidence session, committee chair Hilary Benn said he was "disappointed" with the new Brexit Secretary's failure to follow the pattern of regular updates established by his predecessor David Davis.

And he rejected as "not sufficient or effective" Mr Raab's proposal that he could update the committee by letter until the deal was agreed.

"Having been a member of this committee, you will know that this is not how committees undertake inquiries and is not conducive to scrutiny," said Mr Benn.

With Mr Barnier meeting "almost daily" with European Parliament representatives, the Government was failing to live up to Mr Davis's promise to match the EU negotiator for openness, Mr Benn said.