Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 29 August 2022

1. Johnson ‘wants a populist return’

Boris Johnson hopes “to do a Berlusconi” and make a “populist return” to Downing Street after being ousted by his own MPs, according to a former Tory minister. Speaking to The Guardian, Rory Stewart, who ran against Johnson in the Tory 2019 leadership election, described the PM as “dangerous” and said “there are people who want him back”. Stewart added: “He’s trying to do an Imran Khan or a Berlusconi. He’s going to be hovering around, hoping for a populist return.”

2. Tories press Truss to extend support

Conservative MPs have warned Liz Truss she must extend her financial support to help deal with soaring winter energy bills. It is feared that the favourite to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister will limit her help to only benefit claimants and pensioners. A senior backbencher told The i: “It cannot just be people on benefits who are in line for support. I have people who are having to work seven days a week just to try and make ends meet in my constituency.” Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has also insisted that middle earners must be included.

3. Starmer told to ‘get a spine’

Sir Keir Starmer has been told to “get a spine” after the Labour leader banned shadow ministers from appearing on picket lines in support of strikes. Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, said that Labour would suffer at the polls if Starmer did not support striking workers. Last month, Starmer sacked a shadow transport minister who appeared on a picket line with striking RMT workers. Unite, which has 1.4m members, is one of a number of unions threatening walk-outs in the coming months.

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4. Ministers must go further on cyberflashing

Campaigners say men should be prosecuted for sending nude images to women unless consent has been given. Female academics and women’s groups said ministerial plans to prosecute men for cyberflashing are insufficient because they will require proof that men sent the images for their own sexual gratification or to cause distress. “Cyberflashing is alarmingly common,” said Clare McGlynn, professor of law at Durham University. “Many studies show that around half of young women are being sent sexually explicit images without their consent and the figures are even higher for those aged under 18.”

5. Chain closure rate slows

There has been a significant fall in the number of chain stores shutting across Britain, said accountancy firm PwC. Closures in the first six months of the year dropped by a third compared with the first half of last year and closures are now at their lowest level for seven years. Betting shops and banks are in decline but the restaurant sector is growing. However, although PwC said the shock of the pandemic had “eased” it warned that high inflation will hit the retail sector.

6. Pakistan floods could get worse

Experts have warned that widespread floods in Pakistan that have killed more than 1,000 people since June may not have reached their peak yet. Over 30 million people have been affected as all four of the country’s provinces were hit by the unusually heavy rains. Nearly 300,000 homes have been destroyed, roads are impassable, and there have been widespread electricity outages. People around the globe are experiencing “dramatic heatwaves, deadly floods and wildfire” as a result of climate change, said the BBC.

7. Racial disparity in cancer diagnosis

Black and Asian people have to wait longer for a cancer diagnosis than white people, with some forced to wait an extra six weeks, according to analysis for The Guardian. A review of the world’s largest primary care database by the University of Exeter discovered minority ethnic patients wait longer than white patients in six of seven cancers studied. Race and health leaders have described the findings as “deeply concerning” because delays in diagnosis reduce the odds of survival.

8. Growing Tory support for nationalisation

Nearly half of Tory voters support the renationalisation of Britain’s energy industry, according to a poll in The Times. Some 47% of Conservative voters favour returning the energy companies to public ownership, with 28% opposed to such a move and 25% unsure. Among those who voted for the Conservatives in 2019, the figure rises to 53% in favour of renationalisation. Maggie Thatcher privatised the energy industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

9. Air France pilots fight in cockpit

Two pilots have been suspended after physically fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight in June. The pilot and co-pilot had a dispute shortly after the Air France flight took off and grabbed each other by their collars after one apparently hit the other, reported Switzerland’s La Tribune. A spokesperson for the carrier said the flight continued and landed safely, and the dispute didn’t affect the rest of the flight.

10. Gibraltar declared a city

Gibraltar has officially been declared a city, 180 years after it was first granted the status by Queen Victoria. When the British overseas territory bid to become a city earlier this year as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, officials examining the National Archives found it had already been recognised as a city in 1842. After the Rock had its status confirmed, Boris Johnson declared it an “excellent” development, describing it as a “huge accolade” to its “rich history and dynamism”.