Alicia Kearns: the one-nation Tory taking on the Foreign Office
Alicia Kearns, as a former Foreign Office official and an outspoken voice on foreign affairs, is an MP who understands how the department ticks.She is also someone who does not give up easily, and with some freedom to operate since she is neither on Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative frontbench nor the Labour dominated foreign affairs select committee, a body she chaired until this summer.That makes her a rarity in the Commons: knowledgable about foreign policy but free to express her often strongly held views.Kearns’ record heading up the committee was generally admired – but she has one unfinished piece of business to attend to.With a small group of MPs and campaigners, she has set up an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on arbitrary detention and hostage affairs.
The aim is to pursue the recommendations of a report she helped publish called Stolen years, which made the case for the UK appointing a special envoy for hostage affairs.The recommendation was rejected.This weekend, the Guardian reported calls from relatives of prominent detained Britons for the foreign secretary, David Lammy, to deliver on promises to help secure their freedom amid signs of resistance from diplomats.Kearns is furious about the situation.“I have never come across a part of the Foreign Office that is more belligerent or unwilling to be reformed, or to accept reform in some way,” she says in an interview.
“The Foreign Office is always defensive, but I have never seen a level of defensiveness as I have on this.When we published our report it was quite incredible how unwilling they were to accept change.”She insists the problem of British citizens being arbitrarily detained abroad is not a backwater issue.“I have always felt that the number one duty of governments is to keep people safe, and that is more true for the Foreign Office than many departments, and yet I felt that that was one of our biggest failings … It just felt like every family felt let down.”She met Roger Carstens, the US special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, on whose role the UK special envoy idea is loosely based, and said she realised that American families “felt listened to, engaged with, supported, and that singular focus within government helped families”.
She added: “[They] took the geopolitics out of it and just focused on getting people home,That same singular focus of mission was missing for us,“With the ambassadors, there is always the risk they will focus on the geopolitics and not getting people home,You need one person who knows what the trades are, knows what is likely to get someone out of a country, and knows why this country is worried about this person,”Kearns said this required some flexibility around potential solutions such as prisoner swaps.
“People should not be targeted because of their passports, and have their passport weaponised against them, so that a country can achieve its geopolitical aims.And that is what’s currently happening.Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotion“However, there are also realities that there are limited ways to get people home, and so therefore you have to identify how you are going to do that, and that unfortunately requires you to have the broadest possible toolbox available to you.”Through badgering, Kearns had persuaded the last foreign secretary, David Cameron, to re-examine the issue, and he started to talk about a hybrid model.But the UK general election this summer put an end to that.
So far she has not been over-impressed with the new Labour government’s willingness to take up cases or bring in reforms.“Labour committed to this multiple times at the despatch box … [But] I know this civil service is saying ‘absolutely bloody not.We are absolutely not doing this.’”But Kearns has the bit between her teeth, carrying out hearings with Jimmy Lai’s son and lawyers, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was incarcerated in Iran until her release in 2022.The MP plans to make fresh recommendations to improve the Foreign Office, and an annual review of its progress.
She also wants to work with other countries whose citizens experience similar hurdles.“The medium-term goal is early next year to hold an inter-parliamentary conference so we can bring in other parliaments, and say you need to have a similar focus so that you can support people from your country that are being arbitrarily detained.”
Walmart to phase out DEI initiatives amid escalated attacks from conservatives
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, will phase out several diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in its workplaces, as far-right conservatives continue take aim at such programs.Among several sweeping changes, the company will no longer consider race and gender as a means to improve diversity when making offers to suppliers, several outlets reported.“Our purpose, to help people save money and live better, has been at our core since our founding 62 years ago and continues to guide us today. We can deliver on it because we are willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America. We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement to the Guardian
Female executive directors in FTSE 250 down 11% since 2022
The glass ceiling for women in top roles at FTSE 250 companies is still “stubbornly in place” according to the latest research, which found the number of women in executive director roles fell more than 10% in the past two years.While gender diversity overall is improving in boardrooms, as more women are appointed to nonexecutive director (NED) roles, progress in the appointments of women at the top, executive-board level is in reverse, according to the research from Cranfield University and EY.The academics behind the Female FTSE Board Report identified maternity bias, childcare policies and the male-dominated nature of the executive environment as factors that prevent women from securing the top jobs at listed companies.The number of women holding executive positions at FTSE 250 firms fell from 47 in 2022 to 42 in 2024, the report found, a decline of 11%.Women hold 42% of overall directorships on FTSE 250 boards, an increase of 3% from 2022
FCA fines Macquarie Bank £13m for fictitious trades amid ‘serious failings’
Macquarie Bank’s London branch has been fined £13m by the UK’s financial watchdog for “serious failings” that allowed one of its junior traders to record more than 400 fictitious trades over a period of 20 months.The Financial Conduct Authority said that Travis Klein, a trader based on the Australian investment bank’s London metals and bulks trading desk from August 2017, had concealed the fictitious trades in a bid to hide his trading losses between June 2020 and February 2022.The fictitious trades were not spotted earlier because of “significant weaknesses” in Macquarie Bank’s systems and controls, some of which the company had been previously made aware, the financial watchdog said. Despite knowing of these weaknesses, the bank failed to put effective and timely plans in place to fix them, according to the FCA.As a result, Klein, a relatively junior trader, was able to bypass three key internal controls for more than 20 months
UK prices for car repairs and electrical goods expected to rise due to budget
British consumers face paying more for car repairs and new kitchen kit after retailers Halfords and AO.com warned on Tuesday that the autumn budget had increased their costs.Halfords, the cycling and motoring retailer, which has more than 12,000 employees, reported that the budget measures would add £23m of direct labour costs, of which £9m was already included in its planning assumptions.Meanwhile, John Roberts, the chief executive of the online electrical goods specialist AO World, said his direct labour costs would rise by £4m because of changes to national insurance contributions and the minimum wage, and there would be a further £4m from indirect labour costs such as payments to self-employed delivery drivers and agency workers.“I’m no economist, I’m a washer flogger from Bolton, but if you dramatically increase all the costs then prices will go up, as night follows day
Philadelphia workers at Amazon’s Whole Foods file for first union election
Workers at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have filed to hold a union election, the first union filing at the supermarket chain since Amazon acquired it in 2017.The union drive comes as Amazon has aggressively opposed unionization efforts and is challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal labor watchdog that has ruled against the company’s anti-union actions.“This company makes billions of dollars in profits every year,” said Ben Lovett, a Whole Foods store employee in Philadelphia who along with 300 colleagues is hoping to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). “And my coworkers and I are not paid anywhere near a living wage for living in Philadelphia. I’ve worked two jobs
Trump’s talk of tariffs raises fears of hit to economies worldwide
European companies were wondering whether they had dodged a harmful blow to their US sales after Donald Trump promised to slap trade tariffs on Mexican, Canadian and Chinese goods in social media posts late on Monday.They could congratulate themselves for avoiding the incoming president’s gaze – so far – and watch as he turned his anger on Beijing and Washington’s nearest trading partners.Trump was in belligerent mood, just as he was in 2016 when he first used tariffs as a tactic to extract concessions on a string of foreign policy objectives. Then, the tariffs were justified as elements f US national security policy aimed at limiting immigration and stymieing Chinese attempts to access American government databases. This time, Trump’s tirade against Mexico, Canada and China went a step further, accusing them of being the source of chemicals used by drug traffickers
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