Month: May 2022

Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) figures suggested sales dipped slightly from a more buoyant March, while remaining close to pre-pandemic levels.

SRC said household finances were under strain from inflation, tax rises and other bills.

It warned that the retail recovery was “still very much in its infancy”.

The figures showed that total food sales last month rose year-on-year by 2.9% and by 3.5% on the same period three years ago, before the pandemic struck.

The non-food category increased by 25.7% in April, compared with the same month last year, but were 3.9% down on April 2019.

The retail consortium said the latest figures were “flattered somewhat” by rising shop price inflation.

In April, clothing and accessories, footwear and beauty products were lifted by the return to office working, more social occasions such as weddings, and holidaying.

However, SRC added that sales of bigger ticket items such as electricals, household appliances and furniture were “lacklustre” as a result of recent spikes in inflation and taxes.Retailers said sales of bigger ticket items such as household appliances were “lacklustre”

Director David Lonsdale said that while the figures had “lost a little of their lustre” from March, retail sales were still at their second-highest level for two years.

He added: “The retail recovery is still very much in its infancy and the outlook has to be tempered in light of the pressures on consumer spending.

“Household finances are under strain as inflation, tax rises and other bills take a bite out of shoppers’ purses and wallets.

“Disposable incomes simply do not stretch as far as they used to, presenting Scotland’s retailers with a more challenging marketplace.”

KPMG UK head of retail Paul Martin said: “The cost-of-living crisis came home to roost for Scottish retailers in April, with sales growth stalling after a relatively promising start to the year.

“Pressure on consumers tightened considerably with the increase in energy tariffs and the higher cost of food and other commodities.

“Easter holiday spending helped food sales grow, and while they are ahead of pre-pandemic levels, are unremarkable when inflation is taken into consideration.”

He added: “Many retailers may benefit from pent-up demand in the short term although in the mid term will have no choice but to raise prices to protect margins.

“But the longer we see high inflation and real household incomes falling, the more likely it is that consumers will change their spending behaviour, prompting a decline in the health of the retail sector and possibly more casualties on the high street.”

The foreign secretary insisted the bill would be legal under international law.

Boris Johnson’s government agreed the trade deal – which governs how goods enter Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK – with the European Union in 2019 after the Brexit vote.

But a row over its impact on trade has created a block on forming a devolved government in Northern Ireland.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has refused to join the power-sharing administration until reforms are made to the deal, which it says treats Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the UK.

In Parliament, Ms Truss said the proposed law would not scrap the deal but make limited changes, such as freeing the movement of UK-made goods from “unnecessary bureaucracy” and regulatory barriers.

But in response to Ms Truss’s statement, the EU said it would “need to respond with all measures at its disposal” if the UK went ahead with the legislation.

Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, said the unilateral action from the UK was “damaging to trust”.

And Labour said the government should abide by the deal it signed, and work with the EU “to find practical solutions to these problems” rather than altering the deal unilaterally.

The deal – known as the protocol – is a special arrangement that keeps Northern Ireland aligned with the EU single market for goods, avoiding a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.

The arrangement ensured free trade could continue across the Irish land border, which is a sensitive issue because of the history of conflict in Northern Ireland.

But the protocol brought in some new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has been criticised by unionist politicians since its introduction in 2021.

The DUP’s leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, welcomed the UK government’s proposed legislation and said his party would take “cautious” steps to re-engage with power sharing in Northern Ireland as it progresses.

Ms Truss told MPs in response to “the grave situation in Northern Ireland”, there was a “necessity to act to ensure institutions can be restored as soon as possible”.

She said the UK’s preference remained a negotiated solution with the EU in consultation with its negotiator Maros Sefcovic, who has been invited to London for more talks.

If a resolution cannot be reached, the UK would take steps to “cement provisions” that are working in the protocol, while “fixing those elements that aren’t”.

“The government is clear that proceeding with our legislation is consistent with our obligations under international law,” she said.

She said the bill would:

Elections to Northern Ireland’s Assembly on 5 May resulted in a majority for politicians who accept the protocol, including the new largest party, Sinn Féin.

The party said the UK government was letting the DUP “hold society to ransom” after Mr Johnson met all political parties in Northern Ireland on Monday.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Sefcovic said the European Commission “stands ready to continue discussions with the UK government to identify joint solutions within the framework of the protocol”.

“Should the UK decide to move ahead with a bill disapplying constitutive elements of the Protocol as announced today by the UK government, the EU will need to respond with all measures at its disposal,” Mr Sefcovic added.

“Our overarching objective is to find joint solutions within the framework of the Protocol.”

What the foreign secretary is proposing would be a big change.

It would mean Northern Ireland operating under a dual system for trade in goods rather than following EU rules.

That’s certainly more than a few tweaks.

The government argues that an “ambitious” plan is now needed to safeguard peace and democracy.

But it’s not as if it inherited this problem; it negotiated the deal.

It’s pretty clear that many MPs are deeply unhappy with the idea of the UK now making one-sided changes and going back on an international agreement.

The government insists it’s acting within the law; it has promised to set out its legal position, although it’s very unlikely we’ll ever see the detailed legal advice behind it.

Despite all of this, nothing will actually change immediately.

Legislation would take time to pass through Parliament and hasn’t even been published yet.

Significantly, neither the EU nor the UK has walked away from negotiations and both say that’s really how they want to settle this.

Following Ms Truss’s statement, some MPs – including Conservative Simon Hoare, who is chair of the Northern Ireland select committee – suggested the legislation would violate the protocol and breach international law.

But Ms Truss assured MPs the legislation would not and said “we will set out the legal position in due course”.

Meanwhile, the prime minister defended the government’s plans to change the protocol if they can not reach an agreement with the EU.

He said changes were a “necessity” to “fix the problems with the Northern Ireland political situation” but insisted they amounted to “getting rid of some relatively minor barriers to trade”.

Asked if the UK could afford a trade war with the EU, he said: “I don’t think that is likely.”

Earlier, Marks and Spencer chairman and former Tory MP Archie Norman said the protocol is “very, very onerous” and costs the business about £30m.

“At the moment, wagons arriving in the Republic of Ireland have to carry 700 pages of documentation,” he told the BBC. “It takes about eight hours to prepare the documentation. Some of the descriptors, particularly of animal products, have to be in Latin.”

Any legislation to alter the protocol would have to be approved by Parliament in a process that could take months.

There are fears that, if the UK did use such legislation, the move would trigger a trade war with the EU. A trade war, which involves putting up barriers to the exchange of goods, could increase costs for consumers at a time of pressure on household budgets.

The EU has acknowledged the protocol has caused difficulties for Northern Ireland businesses. In October, it put forward proposals which, it said, would cut paperwork and checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

However, the UK rejected these plans last week saying they would make things worse.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed a man was in custody over allegations dating back to between 2002 and 2009.

The Conservative Party said he had been asked by the chief whip not to attend Parliament while an investigation is ongoing.

The man also faces allegations of an abuse of position of trust and misconduct in a public office.

A Met Police spokesman would not confirm the identity of the man or if he was an MP, but published a statement, saying: “In January 2020, the Met received a report relating to alleged sexual offences having been committed between 2002 and 2009.

“The offences are alleged to have occurred in London.”

He added: “A man… was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office.”

The Conservative Whips office, which is responsible for party discipline, confirmed they had asked the MP to stay away from Parliament amid the investigation.

The office’s spokesperson said: “The Chief Whip has asked that the MP concerned does not attend the Parliamentary Estate while an investigation is ongoing. Until the conclusion of the investigation we will not be commenting further.”

The Met said the investigation was ongoing and being led by officers from the Central Specialist Crime unit.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said 53 badly wounded soldiers were taken to the town of Novoazovsk, held by Russian-backed rebels.

She said another 211 were evacuated using a humanitarian corridor to Olenivka – another rebel-held town.

Russia earlier said a deal had been reached to evacuate the injured troops.

About a dozen buses carrying Ukrainian fighters who were holed up beneath the besieged plant were seen leaving the huge industrial site in the southern port city on Monday evening, Reuters news agency reported.

Russian state-run media outlets also posted footage of what they say were injured Ukrainian soldiers being evacuated from Azovstal.

Ms Maliar said the troops would be exchanged for captured Russian soldiers.

In his video address after midnight local time on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian military, intelligence and negotiating teams, as well as the Red Cross and the UN were involved in the evacuation operation.

“Ukraine needs its heroes alive,” he said.

However, he cautioned that the Ukrainian troops may not be freed immediately and warned that negotiations over their release will require “delicacy and time”.

Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers – the Azov regiment, the National Guard, police and territorial defence units – as well as a number of civilians have been holed up at the site since advancing Russian troops encircled the southern city in early March.

The sprawling four-square mile complex is a maze of tunnels designed to survive a nuclear war.

Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin called off a planned assault on the site, citing fears of high Russian casualties.

It was not immediately clear how many people still remain in underground bunkers.

Ms Maliar said Ukraine’s military, intelligence, National Guard and Border Service were “carrying out joint efforts to save” those left behind.

She also hailed the actions of the plant’s defenders, who she said had “fully accomplished all missions assigned by the command”. But she noted that their position had become untenable after it became “impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means”.

In a message posted to Facebook on Monday night, Ukraine’s General Staff called the troops “heroes of our time” and said their efforts had helped Kyiv organise the defence of its southern flank.

“Maintaining their positions at Azovstal, they did not allow the opponent to shift the grouping of up to 17 battalion tactical groups (about 20,000 personnel) to other directions. Thereby hindered the implementation of the plan for the rapid capture of Zaporizhzhia,” military chiefs said in the post.

Meanwhile, the Azov regiment, a National Guard unit which once had strong links to the far right, appeared to confirm that its fighters had agreed in a social media post to lay down their arms.

The group’s commander, Lt Col Denis Prokopenko said his priority was saving “as many lives of personnel as possible”.

Under new measures approved by the Biden administration, restrictions on family remittances and travel to the island will be eased.

The processing of US visas for Cubans will also be speeded up.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the move would allow Cuban citizens to pursue a life free from “government oppression”.

The loosening of sanctions will see a cap on family remittances – funds sent by migrants in the US to family members in Cuba – removed. Previously migrants were prevented from sending more than $1,000 (£811) every three months.

Donations to non-family members will also be permitted under the new plans.

But US officials emphasised that they will seek to ensure such payments don’t reach “those who perpetrate human rights abuses” by using civilian “electronic payment processors”.

They also said that no bodies will be removed from the Cuba Restricted List, a State Department register of companies linked to the communist government in Havana with whom US citizens are barred from doing business.

A Biden administration official told CBS News that more charter and commercial flights will be made available to Havana, US consular services on the island will be expanded and family reunification programmes will be relaunched.

After an easing of tensions under former President Barack Obama, Mr Trump announced a range of sanctions on the Cuban government in 2017.

His administration slashed visa processing, restricted remittances and increased hurdles for US citizens seeking to travel to Cuba for any reason other than family visits.

At the time, Mr Trump cited human rights concerns as the reason for rolling back agreements made by the Obama administration and condemned his predecessor for doing a deal with the country’s “brutal” government.

Cuba’s foreign minister welcomed the announcement and said the easing of restrictions marked “a small step in the right direction”.

But Bruno Rodriguez added that the policy does “not modify the embargo” in place since 1962 and argued that “neither the objectives nor the main instruments of the United States’ policy against Cuba, which is a failure, are changing”.

Meanwhile, a senior member of Mr Biden’s Democratic party has condemned the move.

Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, denounced the lifting of restrictions, saying that the Cuban regime has continued “its ruthless persecution of countless Cubans from all walks of life”.

In a statement issued on Monday night, Mr Menendez said the easing of travel restrictions “risks sending the wrong message to the wrong people, at the wrong time and for all the wrong reasons”.

“Those who still believe that increasing travel will breed democracy in Cuba are simply in a state of denial. For decades, the world has been travelling to Cuba and nothing has changed,” he added.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio also criticised the policy and said it represented “the first steps back to the failed Obama policies on Cuba”.

The news will come as relief for thousands of Cubans who are desperate to see their families in Florida and elsewhere in the US.

The island is experiencing perhaps its most acute exodus since the Cold War, with many travelling to Nicaragua and then up via Central America to the US border with Mexico.

After 2016, the Trump Administration implemented a whole raft of new economic sanctions on the communist-run island, following the easing of the same rules by President Obama.

Combined with the economic downturn from the coronavirus pandemic and economic mismanagement by the state, the economy in Cuba has been in dire straits in recent years.

These changes amount to the White House’s first step towards some form of re-normalisation of relations with Cuba.