UK navy foiled Russian submarines surveying undersea cables, John Healey says
While Zack Polanski was speaking at the Green party’s launch, John Healey, the defence secretary, was holding a press conference. He announced that a British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines attempting to survey vital undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, ensuring they abandoned their mission.
Peter Walker has the story here.
Key events
Wales will give up ‘bending to Westminster’s will’ with Plaid Cymru in power, its leader Rhuan ap Iorwerth says at campaign launch
A Plaid Cymru government will not bend to Westminster’s will, the party leader has promised. As the Press Association reports, speaking at the launch of Plaid’s Senedd election manifesto this morning, Rhun ap Iorwerth said there will be “no more saying no to Wales” if his party forms a government after 7 May. PA says:
Plaid Cymru and Reform have topped recent opinion polls in Wales, while Labour, which has led the country for more than two decades, looks set to lose its grip on the Senedd.
Ap Iorwerth said: “Plaid Cymru offers a different path – our pledge is to govern with hope, to govern with humility, to govern with a kind of urgency and impatience which gets things done.
“No more bending to Westminster’s will, no more toeing the London party line, no more defending the status quo and no more saying no to Wales.
“Together, and for the first time, we can give our nation the leadership it deserves, leadership that takes its cue from the people of Wales and nobody else.
“Leadership focused on delivery, leadership that knows our best days lie ahead of us, not behind us.
“Leadership that believes when we choose hope over division, and seriousness over chaos, Wales can, Wales will prosper.”
Ap Iorwerth has criticised the relationship between Labour first minister of Wales, Eluned Morgan, andKeir Starmer, saying it is a dynamic he hopes to “reset”.
Priorities for Plaid Cymru include cutting NHS waiting times, supporting families with the cost of childcare and raising standards in education.
The party manifesto also sets out steps it would take on the “journey to independence”.
It reads: “We fundamentally believe that the decision on Wales’s political and constitutional future belongs to the people of Wales.
“We will therefore formally request that the right to decide on the timeline, question and process for an independence referendum be devolved.”
Ap Iorwerth said: “Labour’s promise is of a new chapter for Wales, but their epilogue is already written.
“It speaks of complacency, it speaks of managerialism and missed opportunities.
“The first minister pledges to turn the page, incidentally, exactly what Keir Starmer promised to do two years ago – and how’s that going?
“But the people of Wales won’t be fooled by Labour’s plagiarised platitudes.
“And what of Reform? A proxy vote for the politics of Trump, a party whose plans are unserious, uncosted and unkind.”
Healey suggests that if Putin needs to send warship to escort shadow fleet oil tankers in Channel, UK policy is ‘having an impact’
In his Q&A with journalists today, John Healey, the defence secretary, was asked about Russia sending a warship through the Channel escorting Russian ships subject to sanctions.
In its report on this story, the Telegraph describes this as Vladimir Putin mocking Keir Starmer.
The Telegraph says that, even though Starmer announced that the military have authorisation to board Russian shadow fleet oil tankers in UK waters, this has not happened – and does not seem to be happening in this case.
But Healey implied that the fact that Russia feels the need to send a warship to escort its shadow fleet vessels has shown the new UK policy is “having an impact” because it is making it much more difficult for Putin to sell oil using these tankers.
Healey said:
On the question of the shadow ships, we’ve got a strong history as a country for sanctioning ships, individuals – and with allies.
We’ve seen two things in the last year; we’ve seen over 200 of the Russian sanctioned shadow fleet put out of action and forced to anchor, putting more pressure on Putin’s ability to fund his illegal war with Ukraine; and we’ve seen the oil revenues that Russia takes from the illegal trade drop by a quarter. But there’s more we can do.
As the prime minister has announced, we are ready. We have the military options, and we’re ready to take action, not just in support of, but action with allies to interdict shadow fleet vessels.
I’ll just suggest you, if the action we’ve already taken, the action that the prime minister has indicated we’re ready to take in addition, is making Russia re-route its shadow ships as it has, or escort its shadow ships with its own warships, then the stance, the military posture, the determined work that we’ve done, particularly with allied nations, is having an impact and making it harder for Putin to pursue his illegal oil revenues coordinate around his shadow fleet and fund his illegal war in Ukraine.
Healey also said there would be further action on this in the coming weeks and months.
(In theory, the presence of a Russian warship nearby would not affect authorisation for a British raid on a vessel breaking sanctions. But it is not surprising that the risk of military confrontation with the Russians would make this an unattractive proposition for the Ministry of Defence.)
Details from MoD of how Royal Navy exposes Russian operation aimed at undersea cables
Here is a longer quote from John Healey, the defence secretary, about the Russian submarine operation foiled by the Royal Navy.
On the operation I’m setting out today, this was over a month where we and allies tracked every mile of the Russian subs.
We recognised the Akula attack submarine as a likely decoy to distract us from the Gugi submarines. We watched the Gugi submarines as they spent time over critical infrastructure relevant to us and our allies in the North Atlantic.
We watched them. We were able to track them.
And because we were watching them, we wanted to ensure that we could warn them that their covert operation had been exposed and reduce the risk that they may attempt any action that could damage our pipelines or our cables.
And I’m confident, we have no evidence that there has been any damage, but with allies, were sure that this is now verifiable.
And here is an extract from the Ministry of Defence briefing about the operation, which does not seem to be available online. The MoD says the Russian vessels were engaged in “nefarious activity near critical underwater infrastructure”. It says:
Subsea fibre optic cables are essential for all digital communications, with over 99% of international data traffic, including voice calls and internet data, travelling through subsea cables. This underpins global banking, trade, and communications.
Conducted under the cover of events in the Middle East, the Russian attack submarine and multiple vessels from the Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research (known as GUGI) entered international waters in the High North.
The Royal Navy deployed a Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans, RFA Tidespring and Merlin helicopters to track the attack submarine as it operated near British territorial waters.
Working alongside RAF P8 aircraft, the submarine was tracked 24/7 in an operation carried out with allies.
As part of the operation, which saw British ships cover thousands of miles, the RAF and Navy deployed sonobuoys to track the Russian vessels.
While the Russian attack submarine has now headed back towards Russia, the UK has kept both naval vessels and aircraft ready to respond should Russian vessels return.
GUGI is Russia’s long-running military programme to develop capabilities to be deployed from specialist surface vessels and submarines, that are intended to survey underwater infrastructure during peacetime, but then damage or destroy infrastructure during a conflict.
British defences were previously tested by GUGI when the Russian spy ship Yantar sailed near UK waters last year. The ship was tracked by a Royal Navy frigate and RAF P8s, with lasers being directed at British pilots.
The Yantar is one the key vessels used by Russia to threaten the UK and our allies. Over the last two years, the UK has seen a 30% increase in Russian vessels threatening UK waters.
The MoD has also released these images of the GUGI base.
UK navy foiled Russian submarines surveying undersea cables, John Healey says
While Zack Polanski was speaking at the Green party’s launch, John Healey, the defence secretary, was holding a press conference. He announced that a British warship and aircraft tracked and monitored Russian submarines attempting to survey vital undersea infrastructure in the North Atlantic, ensuring they abandoned their mission.
Peter Walker has the story here.
Polanski accepts vetting candidates has been ‘real challenge’ because party has grown so quickly
Q: Are you finding it difficult vetting candidates because you have grown so quickly?
Polanski says this is a “real challenge” because the party has expanded so much.
He says he would not be surprised if “the odd candidate’” gets through who does not align with the party’s values, “where we have to distance ourselves from them”.
But the party is doing “due diligence”, he says.
Q: Would you include arms in your call for tougher sanctions on Israel?
Polanski says all options should be on the table. Israel is behaving “in a completely uncontrolled way”, he says. It is acting like “a rogue state”.
Q: Will you keep the triple lock?
Polanski says the party will say more about this in its manifesto.
He does accept that the younger generation is being “screwed over”. But he does not agree with the idea that younger people need to be pitted against older people.
Q: [From the Daily Mail] Will you drop your plan to cut motorway speed limits to 55mph in the light of polling showing 60% of your supporters are not in favour?
Polanski says the Mail and the Telegraph are always going through past Green party policy documents, and ignoring qualifing comments saying the policy is under development.
He says, in a fuel crisis, reducing speed limits can make sense. But he says he wants more focus on public transport.
Polanski says government should be building more social housing, not spending £70bn on welfare going straight to private landlords
Q: How can you push for rent controls when that is not something councils cannot deliver?
Polanski says people talk about rent controls as a “wild” idea. But in the UK the experiment has been not having rent controls, he says.
He goes on:
I think what’s wild is that we’ve spent over £70bn in the last five years on welfare, which has been money going straight from the government into the pockets of private landlords, as opposed to building social homes or council homes that could be rent capped or rent controlled straight away, whether controlled under local authorities.
Q: Do you accept that tougher sanctions on Israel might harm the UK economically?
Polanski says he does not want to be adding to the cost of living for people in the UK.
But he also says you cannot put a price on protecting human life.
He goes on:
I think we need to look at what does economic sovereignty look like and where we’re relying on countries that have bad human rights records, or countries that are committing human rights abuses or terror acts – as we’re seeing this rogue state, Israel, doing at the moment – it’s clearly important that we disentangle from that.
That means tougher sanctions, he says.
But that also means having an industrial revolution in this country, he says.
Q: The Labour party is accusing the Greens of hypocrisy, because in some areas the Greens have blocked housebuilding.
Polanski says he does not accept that the Green party is blocking any more homes than any other party.
And he says, if a development is just going to build homes too expensive for more people, it should be blocked.
Polanski says he has been ‘vindicated’ because Trump’s recent comments show he was right to say US not reliable ally
Polanski is now taking questions.
Q: Do you want the Greens to review their policy on Nato, and for the UK to leave the alliance?
Polanski says Donald Trump is increasingly unreliable.
The UK should be working more with its European allies, he says.
Brexit was a catastrophic decision, he says.
He says Labour used to attack him for what he said about Nato and Donald Trump. But now he feels “vindicated” because Labour ministers are now agreeing with his assessment of Trump.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to look at this man and say, this is not someone we can rely on for the security of this country.
Ultimately, I also think we need to be looking at a proper strategic defence review to look at other threats to this nation, both in terms of pandemic resilience, cyber security and food resilience.
Polanski says the Greens have made a difference in local government. He cites Lewes as an example.
Lewes Greens have built hundreds of council homes over the last four years, and there are still hundreds more in the pipeline. And the key here is it’s not just about quantity, the quality of the homes. They have set up a future home standard to make sure that every home that is built is affordable, accessible.
And in Bristol Greens have build more affordable homes too, he says.
Polanski claims Labour government has just offered ‘toxic combination of chaos and cowardice’
Polanski says the national Labour government has let people down.
What we have seen is a toxic combination of chaos and cowardice. A government that has no plans, no vision and no real change. A government that is not just been complicit in genocid; a government that has watered down its promises on workers rights, and a government that brought Peter Mandelson into the very heart of its administration.
And the reason why I talk about all of this now is because the hypocrisy, the cynicism we see in government – that’s filtered down to Labour-run councils.
Polanski cites housing as an example.
Let’s start with the fact that we had a government that promised to ban section 21 evictions – no fault evictions.
But while they dithered and delayed for ages about doing it, Labour councils were still using loopholes to evict their own tenants around section 21, including in Lambeth, next door, where they were still proclaiming themselves to be the party of renters – yet they were investigated for maladministration, essential repairs weren’t being carried out, there were people living with no heating, no hot water, while [Labour] were still claiming to be the party of renters.
Polanski claims the situation is similar in Hackney.
Polanski calls for ‘much more robust’ sanctions against Israel
Polanski moves on to the Iran war, and the ongoing Israeli attacks against Lebanon. He says:
It is outrageous that Israel are still enjoying diplomatic and trade privileges from the international community. As a Green party, we are calling on this government to make much more robust sanctions, to withdraw the UK-Israel trade agreement and to end the genocide.
And we know it’s not just Lebanon. We also see this going on in Iran. And the prime minister is not being entirely truthful with us all, with the country. He keeps saying that we are not involved with this war, but we still have UK soil and UK bases where US bombers are flying over to Iran. And what we need to do is disentangle the UK military and the US military, ban the US from using our air spaces, and do exactly what other European allies like Pedro Sánchez in Spain have done and say, this war is not in our name and we want nothing to do with it.
Zack Polanski says Greens heading for record results in this year’s English local elections
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, is speaking now.
He says people ask him what a good result for the Greens would be.
In 2023, we had record breaking results as a Green party. We got over 241 new councillors.
Now, 2023 was an election where double the number of seats were in play than there are at this election.
Nevertheless, I am confident but not complacent in this election.
We are going to beat 241 councillors and we are heading for a new record breaking result for the Green party.
Zoë Garbett, the Green candidate for Hackney mayor, spoke next.
She said the Greens were getting “thousands and thousands of new members going out, knocking on doors across the city and campaigning in so many wards”.
Zack Polanski speaks at launch of Green party’s campaign for local elections
Zack Polanski will soon be speaking at the Green party’s local elections campaign launch.
But the first speaker is Lewisham Green councillor Liam Shrivastava, a Lewisham councillor. He starts by complaining about Labour having a stranglehold on London politics. At the last election every single councillor elected in Lewisham was Labour – “including me”, he adds, to laughter.
