The prospective new chair of the Environment Agency is refusing to divest his shareholding in a hydrogen and carbon capture company chosen for a major government project.

The Nolan principles again – Owl

Sandra Laville www.theguardian.com 

Alan Lovell stood down as a director of Progressive Energy last month, according to Companies House records, two days after being announced as the preferred candidate for the role running England’s environmental watchdog.

The company leads the North West Hynet project, which has been chosen by ministers to drive decarbonisation in the north-west and north Wales as part of a £1bn push for carbon capture and hydrogen in the UK net zero strategy.

The committee on climate change said in a 2019 progress report that in order to develop hydrogen options, significant volumes of the gas must be produced to low-carbon standards at multiple industrial clusters.

MPs were told this week that Lovell had put his role as chair of a “renewable energy” company into his declaration of interests. They were told he had stepped down and had proposed that his financial interest in the firm could be managed by him recusing himself from decisions relating to the company.

But Sir Robert Goodwill, the chair of the environment food and rural affairs (Efra) committee, asked: “Would it not be more effective or less of a risk to divest?”

Lovell replied: “I don’t feel that I need to do that.”

The accountant and businessman, who has made a name stepping in to rescue failing companies, including a failed attempt to shore up the construction firm Carillion, said he felt MPs should be pleased he had been engaged in investment in important sectors.

“I regard the CCS [carbon capture and storage] and hydrogen sector as an extremely important one. I have been investing in it since 2009,” he said. The company, he added, had been selected as the coordinator of one of the two clusters that the government was backing.

Lovell defended his decision to keep hold of his shares. “For a start this project is going to go ahead. It has good enough backing for the government that it is going to go ahead. I don’t believe there is any issue on that score,” he told MPs.

He said the project would be coming to the Environment Agency (EA) for planning and permitting consents. But he did not see a conflict of interests, telling the committee: “These would be round the edges, I would say, of the value of the company. Further I shall not be on the environment and business committee of the agency, which will consider permitting and planning issues.”

Lovell said he had been reassured by the chief executive of the agency, Sir James Bevan, who was “quite adamant” about him not being involved in any decisions that came to the EA board.

“I take confidence in the fact that he himself is confident about that and I feel it is OK to retain the investment,” Lovell said.

His candidature to succeed Emma Howard Boyd as chair comes at a time when the agency is under attack over its failure to improve water quality in rivers and hold water companies accountable for pollution. There is also concern within the agency over its failure to take tough action against polluters.

Lovell’s selection, the government said, followed a rigorous process conducted in accordance with the ministerial governance code on public appointments. Its announcement last month made no mention of his role at Progressive Energy but cited other companies where he held directorships.

Lovell told MPs on the environmental audit committee and the Efra committee that he was not an “activist” on the environment. His environmental credentials, he said, included the fact that he came from a family of farmers, his interest in renewable energy and his ownership of a wood in Wiltshire.

MPs will produce a report on Friday about the appointment before Lovell’s position is confirmed.

“Some changes have been made. Higher rates of stamp duty on additional properties, closing tax loopholes and plans to let councils double council tax on vacant second homes. It’s a good start, but more action is needed.” Simon Jupp

(Amazing what a by-election can do to focus minds on local issues – Owl)

Simon Jupp www.sidmouthherald.co.uk

Short-term holiday lets are an important part of the economy of popular tourist destinations.

Many jobs in our communities depend upon visitors enjoying the variety and availability of accommodation options, who in turn spend money locally year after year.

Homeowners benefit from the flexibility offered by short-term lets, too. Listing a spare room or property takes only a matter of minutes.

It is an increasingly irresistible attraction. 

A recent survey of landlords by Capital Economics found 10% of UK landlords were ‘very likely’ or ‘fairly likely’ to offer short-term lets in the future in properties that are currently used for long-term tenancies.

But it is time to get a grip on what is going on. That survey data reveals up to 470,000 more properties could be unavailable for residents looking to rent.

My fellow Conservative Devon MPs and I met the PM earlier this week to discuss this growing problem. Homes to buy and for long-term rent are out of reach for many people who grew up in Devon, work locally, or need the support of family to look after a loved one.

Some changes have been made. Higher rates of stamp duty on additional properties, closing tax loopholes and plans to let councils double council tax on vacant second homes. It’s a good start, but more action is needed.

I welcome a new review into short-term tourist accommodation which will explore the impact and options for communities like ours.

Measures being considered include a registration kitemark scheme with spot checks for compliance with rules such as gas safety, and physical checks of premises to ensure regulations in areas including health and safety, noise, and anti-social behaviour are obeyed.

Short-term holiday lets bring visitors to the places we love. 

Landlords and second-home owners who see property as an investment opportunity also make it harder for local people to have a home of their own. 

We clearly need a better balance for communities in East Devon and the South West.

 In a statement he said:

It is good news for the country that Boris Johnson has resigned as Prime Minister.

But it should have happened long ago.

He was always unfit for office.

He has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale.

And all those who have been complicit should be utterly ashamed.

The Tory Party have inflicted chaos upon the country during the worst cost of living crisis in decades.

And they cannot now pretend they are the ones to sort it out …

We don’t need to change the Tory at the top – we need a proper change of government.

We need a fresh start for Britain.

There are various suggestions:

That Johnson stays until a new PM is selected in autumn (so we could be treated to more buffoonery).

What looks like the emerging line:

Though the Daily Mail considers Theresa May as ideally placed to lead an interim government.

When the men in grey suits fail….

…and “only the ever deluded Nadine Dorries still believed in the Thousand Year Reich”.  John Crace

Watch video on twitter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-62072419

..as cabinet resignations continue this morning (currently four of maybe five)…

…and the Conservative Party tears itself apart. – Owl

Headlines

“He has lost it and gone full ‘Hulk.’ 

He will be absolutely furious — because it has to be someone else’s fault,” a former government official who had also worked alongside the prime minister said. “It’s despotic.”

Annabelle Dickson www.politico.eu 

LONDON — The party’s over but Boris Johnson refuses to leave.

Despite more than 40 resignations from his government, an attempted coup by his top team and numerous calls to quit from his own Conservative backbenchers, the British prime minister was locked in No. 10 Downing Street with his closest aides on Wednesday night, trying to map out a way for him to retain power.

For him to do so would be unprecedented. Johnson’s government has been in crisis mode for months, first fending off criticism about coronavirus lockdown-busting parties and later over Johnson’s handling of allegations of abusive behavior by Conservative MPs.

But a defiant prime minister, who spent much of his day in public obliviously answering questions from MPs, insisted his general election mandate — which gave him a huge parliamentary majority just two and half years ago — took precedent over the concerns of colleagues. 

Early signs of a fightback were brutal, with Johnson firing one of his most senior ministers, his Brexit-supporting frenemy Michael Gove. It was Gove, who has held multiple senior roles in Johnson’s government, who went into No. 10 earlier in the day with the metaphorical bottle of whiskey and revolver, Tory MP Tim Loughton told Sky News: “Clearly Boris has downed the whiskey and turned the revolver on Michael Gove.”

Unless Johnson bows to the immense political pressure he is under, there is no immediate mechanism to remove him. Under the British political system — which relies largely on unwritten rules — convention dictates that a prime minister do the honorable thing and bow out voluntarily once they lose the confidence of their party.

“He’ll be dragged out on his chair with his heels dug in,” according to one official who has worked closely with the prime minister in recent months. 

“He has lost it and gone full ‘Hulk.’ He will be absolutely furious — because it has to be someone else’s fault,” a former government official who had also worked alongside the prime minister said. “It’s despotic.”

To survive, Johnson must first fill the many vacancies in his administration and rebuild his team even as more, including Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, announced they were quitting. Johnson could then eye an election as a way to reclaim a mandate to govern, something that is in the prime minister’s gift to initiate but a scenario he insisted he wouldn’t pursue. With the Tories trailing Labour in the polls, many in Johnson’s party are very keen to avoid a public vote.

Faced with the prime minister’s refusal to take a hint, the rest of his party must also calculate their next move.

Johnson narrowly survived a vote of confidence in his leadership by Tory MPs in June and under current Conservative Party rules, he is immune from another challenge for a year. But MPs are planning to change those rules and may mount another challenge next week.

Another mechanism to oust him would be for the opposition to call a confidence vote in the House of Commons. If enough Tory MPs sided with opposition parties to vote him down, Johnson would be required by parliamentary convention to resign — not that he has shown the least interest in following conventions.

Hanging on

Two of Johnson’s most senior Cabinet ministers, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, set off a domino effect Tuesday by resigning within 10 minutes of each other.

On Tuesday night, Johnson promptly replaced them, appointing Nadhim Zahawi as chancellor and Steve Barclay as health secretary. 

In a baptism of fire for Zahawi, he started his first day on the job with a 7 a.m. round speaking to the media. He insisted ministers were getting on with the job. Two members of Johnson’s government announced their resignations as he was speaking.

By the time Johnson entered the House of Commons at noon for his weekly prime minister’s questions session — his first public appearance since his government began falling apart — several more ministers including John Glen, the fourth in command at the Treasury, and Victoria Atkins, the prisons minister, had departed. Javid walked in just afterward and was met with a small cheer.

“Today is a big day,” Johnson began, drawing dark laughter from the chamber. But for the rest of the session, Tory MPs sat silent and stony-faced. Johnson faced hostile questions from MP Loughton — who asked sarcastically whether there were any circumstances in which he would resign — and David Davis, who repeated his call for the PM to quit. Most significantly, Gary Sambrook launched an emotional and excoriating attack on Johnson, accusing him of suggesting that victims of sexual assault had been drinking too much.

In response to a Labour MP who asked about a constituency issue, Johnson said he was already looking into it and urged him: “Hang on in there — that’s what I’m going to do.”

At a highly-charged briefing with journalists immediately afterward, Johnson’s press secretary insisted three times that he has the support of his parliamentary party and said he would contest a second confidence vote if one were held.

All the while, Javid was delivering a resignation speech — doubling up as a thinly veiled leadership pitch — in the Commons.

In the rest of the parliamentary estate, MPs, advisers and journalists were working up to a state of frenzy. In Portcullis House — the atrium at the heart of the parliamentary estate where all of Westminster congregates — Johnson’s Deputy Chief of Staff David Canzini sat in quiet congress with Conor Burns, one of the prime minister’s most long-standing allies. A book titled “Conundrum” lay on the table atop a pile of papers before them. 

By 2:30 p.m., Johnson had endured a record-making number of ministerial exits in 24 hours. As the resignations piled up, Johnson was grilled by the cross-party liaison committee of senior MPs, who worked their way through a succession of unrelated, administrative topics as dictated by their agenda.

Asked by one MP how his week was going, Johnson replied: “Terrific.” 

Darren Jones, a Labour MP, read out a quote that said when a regime has been in power for too long you can “rely on the leaders of that regime to act solely in the interests of self-preservation, and not in the interests of the electorate.” Asked if he could guess where this was from, Johnson asked sarcastically: “Cicero?” It was from one of Johnson’s own prior newspaper columns. 

As the conversation turned to the sustainability of the government’s fertilizer supply and delays with processing passports, a delegation of Cabinet ministers headed to No. 10 with the intention of telling Johnson that the game was up and it was time for him to resign. They included Zahawi, who had only been appointed chancellor the previous evening and who had defended the prime minister on the morning media round. 

When the committee broke the news of the imminent Cabinet coup to Johnson, he looked irritated. “You’re asking me to comment … I’m not going to give a running commentary on political events,” he responded — but insisted he was happy to discuss the cost of living or environmental issues. 

Bernard Jenkin, the senior Conservative backbencher chairing the committee, concluded by reflecting: “In the end, we’re all dispensable.”

“That is certainly true,” Johnson replied. “But my job is to get on and deliver the government’s aims, which is what I was elected to do … The welfare of the British people and the security of the nation are indispensable.”

Meanwhile just a few doors down the corridor, the 18-strong executive of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers — which oversees the rules by which the party can oust Johnson — was also meeting. 

Some rebels had pushed for the committee to agree to an immediate change to its rules, in order to enable a fresh confidence vote in the prime minister immediately. They declined and instead agreed to hold their annual executive elections on Monday afternoon. And if the MPs elected to the committee support a rule change, a confidence vote could be triggered as soon as Tuesday. 

By 5 p.m., both meetings had ended and the prime minister dashed down the escalators to exit parliament and back to Downing Street, batting away questions from reporters on his way. 

Meanwhile, his deputy Dominic Raab headed to address another meeting of backbench Tory MPs.

One Conservative MP told POLITICO that in a room of 160 MPs, the “lone voice of support” came from Daniel Kawczynski, a staunch Brexiteer who last year was forced to apologize to the Commons for bullying parliamentary staff. 

Meanwhile, a former parliamentary staffer said, Conservative MPs were messaging their whips — responsible for party discipline and junior appointments — to say: “Don’t bother phoning me, I don’t want to serve [in Johnson’s government].”

Over in No. 10, a group of Cabinet ministers — Zahawi, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, Education Secretary Michelle Donelan and Welsh Secretary Hart — had arrived to speak to Johnson. Within hours, Hart had quit and it emerged that Gove had been sacked.

The Times meanwhile reported that Home Secretary Priti Patel, previously a staunch defender of Johnson and one of his most senior ministers, had spoken to the Tory leader and sided with those urging him to go.

Not quite everyone had deserted Johnson by the end of Wednesday. Ultra-loyalist Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries insisted: “The PM’s priority is to stabilize the government, set a clear direction for the country and continue to deliver on the promises he made and the British public voted for.”

James Duddridge, another Johnson loyalist, told TV interviewers the prime minister was “buoyant” and “up for a fight.”  

The only certainty is that it is going to be a big one.