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889The country’s most unproductive areas
receive the least investment to boost
output, according to new analysis pub-
lished before next week’s budget.
London and the South East get more
per head in taxpayer cash for transport,
housing, innovation and culture, says
Onward, a Conservative-leaning think
tank, in a report that paves the way for
changes to Treasury rules.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is ex-
pected to change rules on public spend-
ing that critics say reinforce regional in-
equality in Wednesday’s budget.
Boris Johnson has made “levelling-
up” opportunity around the country
the overarching theme of his govern-
ment. Today’s analysis shows the scale
of the task ahead.
London has received nearly twice the
UK average in research and develop-
ment spending since 2001 and nearly
three times as much capital spending
on transport as the rest of England
since 2007, according to Onward’s ana-
lysis. This equates to about £6,600 per
head in the capital compared with
£1,800 in the East Midlands and £1,
in the South West.London taking lion’s share
of public cash for transport
Francis Elliott The analysis also found that between
2016 and 2021, London will get five
times as much financial support for
affordable housing as the rest of En-
gland. It also enjoyed nearly five times
as much spending on culture over a
seven-year period from 2010.
The think tank is urging the prime
minister and chancellor to “take a ba-
zooka” to the Treasury “green book”
that lays out the rules and devolve
transport policy. It is also urging the
chancellor to “use every tool at his dis-
posal” to level up regional growth.
The author of the report, Neil O’Bri-
en, a former Treasury and No 10 adviser
and now an MP, said: “It is no wonder
some parts of the country feel short-
changed. For decades we have piled fer-
tiliser on the parts of our economy that
are already flourishing while refusing
to water the seeds of growth elsewhere.
The PM’s mission to level up poorer
parts of the country is vital.
“To change trends that have gone in
the wrong direction for decades will
need not a few tweaks, but taking a ba-
zooka to the problem. We have to use
every tool, starting by rebalancing the
types of spending that do most for
growth towards poorer areas.”Bridge across
Irish Sea may
be a tunnel
The Scottish secretary has said that he
favours the building of a tunnel
between Scotland and Northern Ire-
land and that Boris Johnson is “on the
same page”.
Alister Jack’s claim that Mr Johnson
is considering an alternative to his ini-
tial proposal of a bridge from Portpat-
rick to Larne was not ruled out by No 10.
Mr Jack told an evidence session in
the Scottish parliament that a tunnel
would not face the same problems as a
bridge. He said: “It deals with the prob-
lem of Beaufort’s Dyke and the World
War Two munitions [in the Irish Sea].”
He added that engineers had said it
would cost less than a bridge. Describ-
ing the plans as being in the “discussion
phase”, he said it would be for No 10 to
move forward with a feasibility study.
Mr Jack refused to reveal any costings
he had been quoted but did say it would
be “quite achievable” to have the tunnel
built by 2030.
The prime minister’s official spokes-
man was asked whether Mr Johnson
favoured a tunnel. “His aim throughout
has been to improve connectivity,” the
spokesman said.Boris Johnson will face his first Com-
mons rebellion next week as Tory MPs
demand that he bans Huawei from Brit-
ain’s 5G network in two years’ time.
The prime minister’s decision to
approve the controversial Chinese
firm’s role has angered many of his own
MPs in addition to allies, such as the
United States and Australia.
Mr Johnson sought to dispel opposi-
tion with a promise to limit Huawei’s
involvement to 35 per cent of the net-
work’s “non-core” elements, a propor-
tion that he said would later reduce.
However, Iain Duncan Smith, the
former Tory leader, is leading calls for
Mr Johnson to make binding commit-
ments to eliminate the firm completely.
He has tabled an amendment to the
Telecoms Infrastructure (Leasehold
Property) Bill before a Commons vote
on Tuesday. If passed, it would stop
mobile phone operators from installing
equipment from suppliers deemed
“high risk vendors”, such Huawei,
after December 31, 2022.Johnson faces Tory rebellion
in Commons over Huawei deal
Francis Elliott Political Editor Opponents to Mr Johnson’s Huawei
policy come from both main wings of
the Conservative parliamentary party.
Signatories to the amendment include
leading figures in the European Re-
search Group faction but also Damian
Green, chairman of the One Nation
Group, and Tom Tugendhat, chairman
of the foreign affairs committee.
Mr Johnson has a Commons major-
ity of 80 but will want to minimise the
scale of any rebellion. One senior MP
suggested that the government was
seeking a way to head off the vote with
a pledge to commit to a timetable.
During a Commons debate on
Wednesday, Sir Iain, the former work
and pensions secretary, compared
using Huawei kit as akin to letting
“Nazi companies in Germany” supply
the UK’s radar technology in 1939.
Matt Warman, a culture minister,
said that the aim was to reduce Britain’s
reliance on “high-risk vendors” but did
not commit to an end date. He told
MPs: “I want to reassure members that
we share the ambition that our long-
term goal is that our reliance on high-risk vendors should reduce, and a time-
table must be contingent on diversifica-
tion in the market.
“Successive Western governments
have failed to ensure that there is effec-
tive competition in the market.”
It is not clear whether opposition
parties would support the Tory rebel
amendment which may not, in any
case, be selected by the Speaker during
Tuesday’s report stage of the Bill.
Labour and the SNP expressed con-
cerns over the Huawei decision during
Wednesday’s debate. Chi Onwurah, the
shadow business minister, said that
Labour agreed with Sir Iain’s concerns,
adding that Labour shares a “deep com-
mitment to British security”.
A cross-party group of 20 US sena-
tors called on Mr Johnson to reverse his
decision, claiming it carried “significant
security, privacy and economic
threats”. Among the signatories were
Richard Burr, the Republican chair-
man of the intelligence committee,
Mark Warner, the committee’s Demo-
cratic vice-chairman, and Chuck Schu-
mer, the Senate’s Democratic leader.abducted on her father’s orders after
running away in 2002 and then was
seized from a yacht in the Indian Ocean
while fleeing Dubai in 2018, the court
was told. After the first kidnapping she
claimed that she had been tortured
repeatedly. Princess Shamsa was 19
when she was snatched from a street in
Cambridge in August 2000 after she
fled her father’s Surrey estate.
Robin Cook, the foreign secretary at
the time of Shamsa’s disappearance,
asked to be kept informed of progress in
the police investigation before the
detective in charge was blocked from
continuing the case, the court was told.
Charles Geekie, QC, representing
Princess Haya, told the court that there
was evidence of “interference” in the
police inquiry. “The Foreign & Com-
monwealth Office [FCO] was fully en-NEWS
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LEADING ARTICLES 29WORLD 30
BUSINESS 37
REGISTER 53SPORT 62
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PHIL COLLINS, PAGE 25Errors let rapist
attack again
Probation staff missed
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deny the release from
jail of Joseph McCann,
the serial rapist, before
he went on a rampage
and attacked 11 women
and children, an
internal inquiry has
found. Page 17
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The International
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with the Trump
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The John Lewis
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1953, after profits fell
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could take three to five
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PA G E 7RUNNING INTO FORM
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gaged with interest from the foreign
secretary [before] permission to pursue
the investigation was refused,” he said.
The FCO refused to release details to
the court about its knowledge of Sham-
sa’s kidnapping because it would
“reduce the UK government’s ability to
protect and promote UK interests
through its relations with UAE, which
would not be in the public interest.”
Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of
the family division of the High Court,
said in his ruling: “The allegations that
the father ordered and orchestrated the
kidnap and rendition to Dubai of his
daughters Shamsa and Latifa are of a
very high order of seriousness. They
may well involve findings, albeit on the
civil standard, of behaviour which is
contrary to the criminal law of England
and Wales, international law, inter-
national maritime law and internation-
ally accepted human rights norms.” Sir
Andrew found the allegations that thesheikh had “orchestrated” the princes-
ses’ abduction were proved. He said
that Sheikh Mohammed had conduct-
ed a “campaign of fear and intimida-
tion” against his former wife.
The civil standard requires the evi-
dence to be proved on the balance of
probabilities rather than “beyond
reasonable doubt” which is needed for
a guilty verdict in UK criminal prosecu-
tions. The judgment will be used to de-
cide the future welfare of the children.
Sheikh Mohammed said the loss of
his appeal against the judgment being
published meant his children were not
protected from media attention in the
same way as others involved in family
court hearings. “As a head of govern-
ment I was not able to participate in the
court’s fact-finding process. This has
resulted in the release of a ‘fact-finding’
judgment which inevitably tells only
one side of the story,” he said.
Storm of abuse, pages 4-continued from page 1
Sheikh kidnapped daughters