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Patrick Wintour
political journalist
Patrick Wintour is a prominent figure in political journalism, known for his role as the Chairman of the Political Lobby Correspondents at Westminster.
With a deep understanding of the political landscape, Patrick Wintour has made significant contributions to the field of journalism through his work as a political correspondent and editor.
His position as the chairman of the political lobby correspondents highlights his expertise and leadership in shaping the coverage and discourse around political matters at Westminster.
Highlights
Gurpreet Singh Johal met Foreign Secretary David Lammy today to discuss his brother Jagtar’s seven years detention in India and what the UK Government can do to secure his release and return to Britain. It is the 5th FS he has met to discuss his brother's case and the 7th FS to handle the file. Gurpreet a Labour councillor described the meeting to me as “more encouraging than he expected ” and said the FS “is obviously taking this seriously”. In the end it about deciding if his release is a priority, and if it is agreeing a joint family-FCDO strategy to jolt the Indian judicial decision.
Treasury states the fiscal tests required to be met for aid to reach 0.7% of GNI will not be achieved in this parliament. Treasury ominously opaque about future composition of aid spending, even if Official Development Assistance (ODA) is maintained at 0.5 % of gross national income (GNI) throughout the forecast.
Re the Home Office raid on aid via asylum seekers costs, Treasury states.
"Over the last spending review period the government spent an increasing proportion of the ODA budget on the costs of refugees and asylum seekers here in the UK. This is in line with international guidance" [ not true] "but has had significant implications for ODA spending overseas. The government is committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall, has taken measures to reduce the asylum backlog and is ending the use of expensive hotel accommodation. These plans should create more space in the ODA budget to spend on our international development priorities overseas".
OBR point out reduced Home Office spending depends on "reducing the asylum backlog by restarting case-working of asylum claims and increasing the capacity of the courts to process appeals".
