<div class="editor-cover-image" data-dimensions="780:300" data-pmr-editor-image="" style="background-image: url(&quot;https://leaders-council-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/store/c3e15daa25917d28505f35bee09f8e9a.jpg&quot;);"></div>

 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61961675">UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has called for an increase to the defence budget,</a> in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Speaking at a Royal United Services Institute conference, Wallace warned that Russia posed a “direct” threat to European security and the defence budget needed to respond to it.NATO currently sets targets for each member state to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. While the UK has matched this, Wallace has stressed that now is the time for more investment into the Armed Forces before it is “too late”.Wallace said: “I am serious when I say there is a very real danger that Russia will lash out against wider Europe.”The defence secretary also suggested that it was becoming “increasingly clear” that Russia would not be deterred by the “threat of punishment” or “costs imposed” upon Russia’s people, such as through economic sanctions.While prime minister Boris Johnson would not comment on future defence spending during the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps, he did say that the two per cent of GDP currently allocated to defence was a “floor, not a ceiling.”Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, has also stated that he wants the two per cent of GDP investment figure to work as a baseline amount.The UK government had been cutting defence spending each year from 2010, before Boris Johnson’s ministry announced a spending increase of £16.5 billion over four years in 2020.However, the real-terms value of that investment will be hampered by ongoing inflation, and the defence secretary believes that funding must now go up to reflect those changes in response to Russian aggression.<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61961675">The BBC reports that in a leaked letter to the PM,</a> Wallace asked for Johnson to call on NATO members to raise defence expenditure to 2.5 per cent of GDP.However, the PM responded that the UK was already a “massive” spender on defensive measures and was leading the way on spending among allied nations. Johnson added that the UK had already pledged the “biggest increase” in defence investment “since the end of the Cold War”.<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61482305">The UK government has separately said that £1.3 billion worth of military support is being provided to Ukrainian forces for defensive measures</a>, including anti-tank weaponry, short-range missiles, drones and air defence systems, and armoured vehicles.Speaking earlier at the same conference as the defence secretary, new Armed Forces chief General Sir Patrick Sanders referred to Russia’s movements as being akin to those of Nazi Germany in the build-up to the Second World War.General Sir Patrick said: “We're living through a period of history as profound as the one our forebears did 80 years ago.”The Armed Forces head said that UK forces ought to be mobilised now in order to prevent war becoming more widespread, rather than inciting further hostility.He also recently <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61858476">warned in a message to all Armed Forces ranks and civil servants that British troops needed to be ready to fight Russia if required</a>, with the invasion of Ukraine showing an urgent need to be ready to “protect the UK and be ready to fight and win wars on land.”NATO leaders are due to meet in Madrid this week for a summit, where allied nations are expected to discuss defence spending and readiness to respond to aggression.Image by <a href="By Chris McAndrew - https://api20170418155059.azure-api.net/photo/GdDC6CBI.jpeg?crop=MCU_3:2&amp;amp;quality=80&amp;amp;download=trueGallery: https://beta.parliament.uk/media/GdDC6CBI, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61332420">Chris McAndrew</a> on Wikimedia Commons</div>

UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has called for an increase to the defence budget, in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Defence secretary calls for further spending to answer Russian aggression

<div class="editor-cover-image" data-dimensions="780:300" data-pmr-editor-image="" style="background-image: url(&quot;https://leaders-council-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/store/f1b1834fd4eb1a6e6aa9b01cf6e2968c.jpg&quot;);"></div>

 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-61968607">Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has set a target date of October 19, 2023,</a> to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence.<a href="https://www.gov.scot/publications/letter-from-the-first-minister-to-the-prime-minister-on-independence-referendum/">Sturgeon has written to UK prime minister, Boris Johnson,</a> saying that she “stands ready to negotiate the terms of a section 30 order” which would grant formal consent from Westminster for a legal independence vote.However, the UK government has previously suggested that consent will not be forthcoming, and the PM said ahead of Sturgeon’s statement on Tuesday that it is “not the time” for another independence vote and that the UK was “stronger working together.”Speaking in Holyrood, Sturgeon said that if consent was not granted by Westminster, then she would continue her push for a referendum anyway.The first minister believes that she has a “cast-iron mandate” for a second independence referendum, with her pro-independent Scottish National Party [SNP] and the Scottish Greens holding a majority at Holyrood after the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.Together, the power-sharing partnership of the SNP and Scottish Greens hold 72 of the 129 seats in Scotland’s Parliament.Sturgeon has already asked the Lord Advocate of Scotland to refer the consent case over a second referendum to the Supreme Court, which will rule on the legalities of holding an independence vote without Westminster’s consent.If the Supreme Court were to rule that the Scottish government could hold a referendum, Sturgeon said that Holyrood could mobilise rapidly to pass through a Referendum Bill.The proposed referendum would put the same question to the Scottish people as was in the first referendum in 2014: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”The first minister indicated that if the Supreme Court’s conclusion did not uphold the right for the Scottish Parliament to hold a referendum, then she would fight the next general election solely on Scottish independence to make the vote a “de facto referendum”.Sturgeon said: “What I am not willing to do, what I will never do, is allow Scottish democracy to be a prisoner of Boris Johnson or any prime minister.“My determination is to secure a process that allows the people of Scotland, whether yes, no or yet to be decided, to express their views in a legal, constitutional referendum so the majority view can be established fairly and democratically. The steps I am setting out today seek to achieve that.”Sturgeon’s plan to pave the way for indyref2 has been criticised by opposition parties in Scotland, who raised concerns that the independence issue was taking precedence over more pressing matters such as the cost-of-living crisis and education.Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said that his party would not “take part in a pretend poll” and accused Sturgeon of having a “selfish obsession” with independence which was the “wrong priority”.Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton referred to the push as an “appalling waste of energy and focus”, while Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, suggested that two-thirds of Scots did not want a second referendum.Sarwar said: “Covid hasn’t gone away, and our recovery hasn’t even started.“Isn't it the case that the ‘Pandemic Nicola’ that said she wanted to pull us through is gone and the ‘Partisan Nicola Sturgeon’ that wants to divide our country is back pursuing a referendum that two thirds of Scots don't want right now?“Frankly, Scotland deserves better.”&nbsp; Image by <a href="https://admin.leaderscouncil.co.uk/admin/articles/By%20Scottish%20Parliament%20-%20https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/committee-on-the-scottish-government-handling-of-harassment-complaints-march-3-2021,%20OSPL,%20https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106958995">Scottish Parliament on Wikimedia Commons</a></div>

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has set a target date of October 19, 2023, to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence.

Indyref2: Sturgeon wants October 2023 referendum

<div class="editor-cover-image" data-dimensions="780:300" data-pmr-editor-image="" style="background-image: url(&quot;https://leaders-council-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/store/2a0663b10d81cbfc89ab83440991c5d6.jpg&quot;);"></div>

 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin">On Monday, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61959526">MPs gave initial support to the government’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill,</a> which will enable the government to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol within the Brexit deal with the EU.The Bill was backed by 295 MPs and opposed by 221 [majority of 74], as its critics warned that the legislation would be in breach of international law.The EU has already started legal action, but the UK government believes that it is acting within the bounds of international law and foreign secretary Liz Truss insists it is the only means of being able to right the wrongs within the Protocol and was justified by a “worsening” state of affairs in Northern Ireland.Truss also accused the EU of not showing enough “flexibility” during negotiations around the Protocol’s workings and said that solutions the bloc had put forward would not have been sufficient.Legally, Truss argued that the Protocol was directly leading to unrest in Northern Ireland and changes had to be made to the agreement to preserve the Good Friday Agreement and peace in Northern Ireland. While Labour opposed the legislation, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy did concede that the EU had been “too rigid” in negotiations and called for both sides to return to the table for talks.What the government is seeking to do is override how the Protocol enforces checks on goods moving into Northern Ireland from Great Britain.To avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland following Brexit, Northern Ireland effectively remained inside the EU single market and customs union under the Protocol, but checks on some goods entering the country from elsewhere in the UK have now been introduced.Unionists argue that this undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the UK, is damaging to the local economy, and has effectively created an Irish Sea trade border which has led to disruption and shipping delays.MPs from Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party [DUP], which has refused to enter a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland following the recent assembly elections as an act of protest against the Protocol, have backed the Bill.Speaking during the debate for the Bill’s first reading, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that the Protocol’s impact on Northern Ireland had been “devastating”. The passing of the draft legislation following its first reading means it can now progress through Parliament to be scrutinised further, and the UK government expects the DUP to return to the Northern Ireland Executive if the Bill continues to make its way through Parliament unhindered.According to parliamentary voting lists, no Conservative MPs voted against the Bill, but former prime minister Theresa May strongly warned of her concerns that the legislation could breach international law and appeared to abstain from the vote.May argued that the Bill was not introduced as emergency legislation, which undermined the legal argument that it was a “necessity” to resolve the situation in Northern Ireland.May said: “There is nothing urgent about this Bill. It has not been introduced as emergency legislation. It's likely to take not weeks but months to get through Parliament.”May added that in her eyes the legislation was “not legal” and would “diminish the standing” of the UK internationally.Despite May's suggestion that the Bill could take some time to pass through Parliament, the government is hoping to get the Bill through the Commons before the summer recess in mid-July, but it is likely to face resistance in the House of Lords.Tory MP Simon Hoare, another who was concerned that the Bill did break the UK’s international law obligations, also suggested it could take until the Spring of 2023 to fully pass through both Houses and reach Royal Assent.&nbsp;Meanwhile, prime minister Boris Johnson insisted that the government could get the legislation through "fairly rapidly".Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@rhox">Rocco Dipoppa</a> on Unsplash</div>

On Monday, MPs gave initial support to the government’s Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which will enable the government to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol within the Brexit deal with the EU.

Northern Ireland Protocol Bill clears first parliamentary hurdle

<div class="editor-cover-image" data-dimensions="780:300" data-pmr-editor-image="" style="background-image: url(&quot;https://leaders-council-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/store/a5124b096c10fbfb7937c21ce0d43b17.jpg&quot;);"></div>

 <div data-pmr-editable="" class="medium-editor-insert-plugin"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinrozario/2020/09/14/international-tourists-to-uk-set-to-lose-tax-free-shopping-rebates/?sh=409547e415a9">On December 31, 2020, the UK government took the decision to withdraw the VAT retail export scheme,</a> abolishing tax-free shopping for non-EU tourists, a move which the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors say has proven counterproductive.The Treasury’s call made the UK the only European country not to offer VAT refunds to non-EU tourists and, while the government may have sought to recoup funds through further tax revenue following the pandemic, the UK tourism, hospitality and retail sectors believe that ministers have shot themselves and their industries in the foot by putting tourists off coming to the UK altogether.Luxury trade association Walpole, which represents brands such as Burberry, Harrods, Claridge’s and Wedgwood, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinrozario/2022/05/24/burberry-harrods-and-other-luxury-players-call-for-return-of-tax-free-shopping-as-uk-loses-out-to-europe/?sh=51913608208e">has commissioned a report</a> which suggests that the UK has lost out on vital revenue in the post-Covid recovery and argues that bringing the tax-free shopping scheme back could attract a further 600,000 tourists to Great Britain, generating £1.2 billion more in sales.Within Walpole’s report, entitled ‘What It’s Worth: Enabling the Return of the £30 billion High-end Tourism Sector’, there are comparisons to spending by visitors from the US pre-pandemic and post-pandemic in Great Britain and the EU.Comparing the fourth quarter of 2019 with the same period in 2021, US shopping in the EU had returned to 91 per cent while the UK stood at just 49 per cent.The figures relating to visitors from the Gulf states in the Middle East, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were even more concerning. Over the same quarters, their retail expenditure had increased by 153 per cent in the EU, but in Britain it was only at 60 per cent. With visitors from Gulf Co-Operation Council countries previously having made up 26 per cent of the UK’s tax-free spend according to the report, these statistics are of particular concern to industry.One tourism industry leader, <a href="http://www.leaderscouncil.co.uk/members/chirag-golwala">Chirag Golwala</a> of <a href="https://www.tripcenter.net/">TripCenter.net</a> – a firm which handles chauffeured car, minibus and chartered bus hire – has called on Westminster in the wake of the report to heed the warnings of industry and reconsider the status of the VAT retail export scheme.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytTJRinffrM">Golwala told The Leaders Council:</a> “Getting rid of the tax-free scheme did not make much sense to us in the UK tourism industry. I believe the reasons behind it were the perceived costs of expanding it to cover EU tourists after Brexit as well as those not in the EU, and the fact that comparisons were being made to the US who were also looking at getting rid of their tax-free shopping scheme.“Our competition is directly with close European neighbours like France and Italy when it comes to shopping, so the US situation isn’t comparable to ours. One of the major attractions for any international tourists when you look at the Middle East and Far East Asian market of tourists was the tax-free shopping. And in 2019, about 20,000 such travellers coming to the UK collectively spent about half a billion pounds in the UK.“Obviously during Covid, all of this stopped, but during the pandemic the government abolished tax-free shopping. Now, we’re seeing the moments of international travel picking back up again and the UK will be losing out significantly because these tourists are more inclined to travel to other countries where tax-free shopping is in place.”Golwala fears that if the UK government does not revisit the scheme, then the industry will significantly lose out on some much-needed revenue as it seeks to recover in earnest from the effects of the pandemic.“If this is not revisited by the government, the UK tourism sector will lose out on a lot of momentum. Tax-free shopping is a big reason behind why these tourists travel long distances to come to the UK and Europe. However, it is clear to me that there is a lack of vision, strategy and mindset by the government to help rebound UK Inbound tourism and rather, they let it continue to suffer by taking it for granted.”Suggesting how the government could revisit its strategy to entice tourists back to the UK, Golwala called on ministers to look at the experience of visiting Great Britain from a foreign traveller’s perspective.As well as the status of tax-free shopping, the tourism boss also singled out the new post-Brexit visa regime and lengthy queues at passport control as being further damaging to the tourism industry’s prospects.He said: “Unless the government thinks more from the traveller’s perspective, there is only more difficulty to come with losses from the slump in tourism from the Middle East and North America already visible in the post-Brexit and post-Covid UK.“The government must realise that those who can afford to travel here can very easily afford to go elsewhere, where they will not need to suffer the agony of two-to-three months waiting time to get a visa and pay expensive fees before landing here to find long immigration queues. On top of that, they are having to pay more out when they go and buy in the UK, when they can avoid all this hardship anywhere else.“It is too late to salvage 2022, but the government can review this and relaunch the scheme to bring benefit to our sector in time for the year 2023 to be saved.”Listen to Chirag Golwala expand upon these issues on The Leaders Council Podcast below.<div class="medium-insert-embeds">
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</div>Photo by&nbsp;<a href="https://unsplash.com/@photomasala">Kristina Gadeikyte</a> on Unsplash</div>

On December 31, 2020, the UK government took the decision to withdraw the VAT retail export scheme, abolishing tax-free shopping for non-EU tourists, a move which the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors say has proven counterproductive.

“Look again at tax-free shopping scheme”, tourism and retail sectors urge government

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Defence secretary calls for further spending to answer Russian aggression

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“Look again at tax-free shopping scheme”, tourism and retail sectors urge government

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