Want to know what’s wrong with Britain? – Owl

The boss of South West Water’s owner has received a pay increase of £300,000, weeks after an outbreak of diarrhoea caused by a parasite in Devon’s water supply.

Jasper Jolly www.theguardian.com

Susan Davy, the chief executive of Pennon Group, was awarded £860,000 in total pay for the latest financial year, up from £543,000 the year before, according to accounts published on Monday.

The increase came despite Pennon executives agreeing to forgo bonuses for this year in recognition of the widespread outrage over sewage dumping.

Britain’s water companies have been under intense scrutiny in recent years over their environmental performance, amid disgust over the amount of raw sewage flowing into the UK’s rivers and seas.

Those concerns have been particularly relevant for customers of South West Water in Devon, after the outbreak last month of the parasite cryptosporidium, which causes cryptosporidiosis, often in the form of diarrhoea and vomiting. The parasite spreads from faeces.

South West Water customers near the seaside town of Brixham were advised to boil their tap water before drinking it. About 17,000 households were affected by the warning, with compensation of up to £265 for those still affected as of 7 June.

News of Davy’s pay increase comes amid a general election campaign in which water quality has played a prominent role.

Anthony Mangnall, who was the Conservative MP for Totnes and South Devon until the dissolution of parliament, said Davy should resign after refusing to change course on a £127m dividend. The dividend was decided last month despite the company making a £9.1m loss for the year.

“Once again South West Water have put themselves before the people,” he said. “From paying out dividends to increasing their own pay, this only goes to show that they are a company deeply out of touch with the needs and wants of the people.”

Davy’s pay rise came as she received £298,000 under a long-term incentive plan awarded in 2021, before the company had brought in changes to lower share awards if water quality was not up to scratch. That came on top of fixed pay worth £562,000.

Pennon executives did give up part of their variable pay for the year, meaning Davy’s pay was £237,000 lower than it otherwise might have been.

In a foreword to the annual report, Davy wrote: “As CEO, it’s also my job to lead from the front and champion living our values. With executive remuneration continuing to be in the media and regulatory spotlight, I recommended to the remuneration committee that the annual bonus was forgone. It’s the right thing to do.”

Gary Carter, a national officer at the GMB union, said: “Does South West Water have no shame? This scandalous behaviour has to end. It’s time Ofwat stopped water companies paying big bonuses and paying out huge dividends for such poor performances. Bosses must put their hands in their own pockets to stop pollution and sewage leaks. Customers should not have to pay for years of management failure.”

Luke Hildyard, a director at the High Pay Centre, a campaign group, said executive pay often had “little to do with performance, ability or the value to society of their work”.

He said: “Preventing intestinal parasites from flooding the tap water of your customers feels like quite a fundamental part of the job for the chief executive of a water company. It is surprising that failure to surpass this fairly minimal expectation not only nets a half-a-million-pound salary, but also a six-figure performance-related payout.”

Pennon also announced that its chair, Gill Rider, would retire after the company’s general meeting next month. She will be replaced by David Sproul, a global deputy chief executive of the accountants Deloitte from 2019 to 2021 and the current chair of Starling Bank. Sproul will receive pay of £250,000.

A spokesperson for Pennon said: “We understand the strength of feeling from our customers and the public around the issues facing the water sector. For the second year running, our chief executive, alongside other members of our executive leadership team, have therefore made the personal decision to decline annual bonus for the previous financial year.”

The BBC has learned that the appointment of Britain’s next ambassador to the United States has formally been put on hold because of pre-election Whitehall rules.

James Landale www.bbc.co.uk

There have been widespread reports – not denied by Downing Street – that Rishi Sunak has nominated Sir Tim Barrow, his national security adviser, for the role.

This prompted anger among some in Labour who accused the prime minister of trying to rush through the appointment before the election.

Labour shadow ministers are understood to have voiced their concerns about Sir Tim’s appointment during pre-election conversations with officials at the Foreign Office.

The row has discomfited US diplomats who do not want to get caught in a dispute between the two largest political parties of one of their closest allies.

The State Department has to give its consent to any ambassadorial appointments in Washington – known as formally as “agrément” – and it risked having to endorse Sir Tim while question marks remained over his nomination.

The appointment has now been formally frozen under civil service rules laid down to stop big decisions being taken during the pre-election period known as “purdah”.

Section “H” of the General Election Guidance for Civil Servants says “all appointments requiring approval by the Prime Minister, and other Civil Service and public appointments likely to prove sensitive… should be frozen until after the election, except in exceptional circumstances”.

It adds: “This includes appointments where a candidate has already accepted a written offer… but where the individual is not due to take up post until after the election”.

The Foreign Office said: “All Government Departments must adhere to the central pre-election guidance. Future ambassadorial appointments will be confirmed by the FCDO in the usual way.”

The row began in late April when Downing Street announced General Gwyn Jenkins, vice chief of the Defence Staff, would replace Sir Tim as national security adviser. It did not say what new role Sir Tim would take up but Mr Sunak did not deny reports he would become Britain’s top envoy in the US.

When asked by political reporters on a plane to Warsaw, Mr Sunak said “ambassadorial or diplomatic appointments are always made in the usual way” and added: “It’s entirely normal for those to be made in advance… entirely in keeping with precedent because ambassadors’ designate often go and acclimatise themselves and build relationships before they formally start”.

The current ambassador Dame Karen Pierce is expected to leave next year after her appointment was extended for another 12 months to make up for Covid-related disruption at the beginning of her term.

“I think the next ambassador will arrive in early 2025, and I will stay till then,” she reportedly told a recent diplomatic gathering at the Washington embassy.

Sources say the Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, had assured his Labour shadow, David Lammy, that such a significant official appointment would not be made in the run-up to the election.

But it is understood Downing Street ignored Lord Cameron’s concerns and decided to press ahead with the appointment. Whitehall sources said No 10 wanted to announce General Jenkins’ appointment as the first NSA from a military background to reinforce their commitment to security, a key Tory election theme.

It is understood that if Labour won the election, Sir Keir Starmer would revisit Sir Tim’s appointment and might instead choose another candidate. At the very least it is expected that he would begin a new recruitment process.

The extension of Dame Karen’s term until next year would give Labour the chance to choose her successor after the outcome of the US election in November is known.

There has been speculation about potential Labour nominees for the role including David Miliband, former Foreign Secretary; Baroness Ashton, former vice-president of the European Commission and Lord Mandelson, former Northern Ireland Secretary. Other names suggested have been Tom Fletcher, principal of Hertford College, Oxford and former ambassador to Lebanon, and Lord Sedwill, former Cabinet Secretary and former national security adviser.

Labour’s concern was not about Sir Tim as an individual; he is a distinguished diplomat who has served as Britain’s ambassador to Russia and the EU. The anger was prompted more by the loss of Labour’s right to make its own appointment, the belief that Downing Street was behaving inappropriately, and Sir Tim’s background as a longstanding official adviser to senior Conservative figures including Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Mr Sunak.

The muddle over Sir Tim’s appointment could lead to some awkward musical chairs in Whitehall. General Jenkins is expected to take up his new role as NSA soon and his successor as vice chief of the Defence Staff has already been named as General Dame Sharon Nesmith.

The Liberal Democrats are to announce plans to overhaul capital gains tax to raise £5bn for the NHS, making them the first party to announce a big tax change as part of their spending plans.

Jessica Elgot www.theguardian.com 

The party’s leader, Ed Davey, said the change was “making tax fairer” and the party said it would hit only the wealthiest. The party will unveil its manifesto on Monday.

The estimated £5bn raised by the tax rise would be directed into plans to recruit 8,000 more GPs in order to meet a target of a guaranteed appointment in seven days. The revenue raised would also be put into cancer treatment, speeding up waiting times for treatment to guarantee care within 62 days.

The party will say that those on lower incomes would be protected by an increase in the annual tax-free CGT allowance to £5,000, up from £3,000 in the current tax year. The proposed new system would be adjusted for inflation and there would be a targeted relief system devised for small businesses.

The policy puts health and social care at the centre of the Lib Dems’ offer at the election – where Davey has put his experience as a carer for his disabled son at the heart of his message to the public.

The Lib Dems have already announced a plan for free personal care including washing and medication for disabled and older people, funded by reversals of tax breaks for banks estimated at £2.7bn – though independent thinktanks have said the cost is likely to be higher.

Labour’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said her party will not make changes to CGT, though some in the party believe there is a case for an overhaul that would be a significant revenue raiser.

Several thinktanks have said that the two main parties are not being honest with the public about the state of the public finances, as Labour and the Tories have ruled out any big tax rises.

Last month the Institute for Fiscal Studies said there was a “conspiracy of silence” over necessary tax and spending choices, with the next government likely to inherit the toughest outlook for the public finances in 80 years.

The Lib Dem proposal would create three bands to be applied to taxable gains at different rates: gains between £5,000 and £50,000 taxed 20%; those between £50,000 and £100,000 taxed at 40% and those over £100,000 at 45%.

Davey said the NHS was in desperate need of a rescue package. “We are putting fixing health and social care at the heart of our party’s plans for the country,” he said. “Under this Conservative government, local health services have been decimated while hospitals crumble.

“After years of devastating tax hikes from Rishi Sunak, it would be grossly unfair to force hard-working families and pensioners to pick up the tab for Conservative failings on the NHS. That is why the Liberal Democrats will rescue health and social care services by making tax fairer, with billionaires and big banks asked to pay their fair share.”

Other big offers in the Lib Dem manifesto would be a pledge for an EU-wide scheme to allow under-35s to live and work in Europe, new paternity leave rights and a crackdown on sewage pollution.

The party is heavily targeting seats in the south-west and London commuter belt, the so-called “blue wall”, where it hopes to take votes from liberal voters disillusions with the Conservatives. Almost all the party’s target seats were held by the Conservatives, including some by senior cabinet ministers such as the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in Godalming and Ash, and the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, in Chichester.

“We have a plan and it’s working”

‘Members aren’t happy’: Sunak holds crunch talks with advisers over D-Day blunder

Rishi Sunak staged a full media blackout over the weekend as the Conservative Party sought to limit the fallout from his decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early.

Richard Vaughan, Chloe Chaplain, Arj Singh, Eleanor Langford inews.co.uk 

The Prime Minister avoided taking part in any media questions while visiting a village fete in Great Ayton on Saturday, cancelled an arranged briefing on the same day and chose to campaign near his own constituency on Sunday morning as the party sought to limit the fallout.

The Prime Minister is understood to have spent much of the weekend locked in meetings with his closest advisers, including chief campaign strategist Isaac Levido, in a bid to work up plans to bounce back from the setback with a series of tax and economy announcements in the coming weeks.

One source close to Mr Sunak said: “We’ve still got more to come, and that’s in contrast to Labour’s empty manifesto.”

A fresh tax giveaway is believed to be among the rabbits to be pulled from the hat as the party prepares to announce its manifesto on Tuesday.

Mr Sunak is expected to be back on the road campaigning in the South East on Monday, but will only be taking a small pool of broadcast journalists, rather than allowing access to the wider media as the party aims to regain control over the election narrative.

With the row over Mr Sunak’s damaging D-Day gaffe still raging over the weekend, one of his closest political allies was forced to deny that the Tory leader would have to quit over.

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride insisted that Mr Sunak would not quit the Tory leadership midway through the campaign.

But the fact Mr Stride was facing questions over whether his party leader can see the general election campaign through to polling day has left several Tories deeply concerned about the party’s prospects on 4 July.

Mr Stride dismissed the notion of the party losing its leader during the campaign, insisting Mr Sunak would “absolutely” lead the party into the election. “There should be no question of anything other than that,” he told Sky News.

Tory candidates have largely closed ranks in the wake of the D-Day bungle, claiming that the issue had barely been brought up on the doorstep with voters.

One Conservative candidate lamented Mr Sunak’s actions last week, describing it as “not the most appropriate decision”, with Tory adding: “I think the apology was the problem, everybody understood he needed to return to work but that made it a matter of judgement.”

A “Red Wall” Tory candidate conceded, “Members aren’t happy,” but played down the effect of the D-Day row on voter doorsteps.

And a minister admitted to being personally “very cross about it” but expressed surprised by how little it had been raised by voters.

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage twice refused to disown comments that suggested Mr Sunak ducked out of the D-Day commemorations early due to his Indian heritage, sparking accusations from Labour that he was engaging in “dog-whistle politics”.

In contrast to the Prime Minister’s decision to lay low, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer chose to campaign in the Tory heartland of Essex where he was asked about the his counterpart’s choice to leave the commemorations early.

Sir Keir said: “Clearly he’s got questions he needs to answer in relation to what happened on D-Day and at the moment he doesn’t seem to want to answer them.”

And he added: “I know what I stand for, I know why I was there on Thursday, paid my respects and saying thank you.

“And I was humbled actually, when I was there.”

“I have always said that Cameron was popped into the Lords and into a senior ministerial post for a reason. 

I thought maybe it was to replace Sunak at an earlier stage.

Rumours around tonight that Sunak’s about to fall on his sword. 

There are no MPs – only Ministers. 

If Sunak does resign, any replacement would have to come from within Ministerial ranks…”

[Owl thinks that might be the case as a “pro tem” Prime Minister until the election but not necessarily the case for a replacement leader of the party.]

Nadine Dorries on “X”

Duty Minister refutes:

Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, said Sunak would not resign over the move in the middle of an election campaign. “There should be no question of anything other than [Sunak continuing to lead the party],” he told Sky News…..

…..“And I think he will be feeling this personally, very deeply, because he’s a deeply patriotic person. He will be deeply uncomfortable with what has happened.”

Labour: he needs to come out of hiding

As Sunak failed to appear in the media on Saturday or Sunday, Labour sources said the prime minister needed to “come out of hiding soon and explain how families can afford five more years of this madness”.