Category Archives: UK news

Covid live: Israel extends travel ban over Omicron; German parliament debates healthcare vaccine mandate

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Ten day extension to restrictions announced as Israel detects 21 cases; lawmakers debate first of two German vaccine mandate laws

Fury over the release of a video showing Downing Street staffers joking about alleged lockdown breaches in the UK are only the latest scandal to rock British prime minister Boris Johnson’s premiership.

For days, a succession of government ministers batted away questions about whether an illegal party had been held in Downing Street last December during Covid restrictions that banned gatherings of more than 30 people. But on Tuesday night that all changed: a video emerged of Downing Street staffers appearing to joke about a party alleged to have been held inside No 10 just days earlier.

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Julian Assange can be extradited to US to face espionage charges, court rules

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Decision overturns previous ruling that Wikileaks co-founder could not be extradited due to mental health concerns

Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, the high court has ruled as it overturned a judgment earlier this year.

The decision today deals a major blow to the Wikileaks co-founder’s efforts to prevent his extradition to the US to face espionage charges, although options to appeal remain open to his legal team.

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Wales asks people to ‘flow before you go’ to stop Omicron spread

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Mark Drakeford also urges mask-wearing in pubs as Covid cases likely to rise ‘quickly and sharply’

People should take a lateral flow test before going out Christmas shopping or to a festive party, the Welsh government has said.

The first minister, Mark Drakeford, is also asking people to wear face coverings in pubs and restaurants except when they are eating or drinking.

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Government faces Tory backbench revolt over plan B Covid measures

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Dozens of Conservative MPs threaten to rebel or abstain next week as Johnson struggles with fallout from No 10 party scandal

Downing Street is facing a damaging revolt over planned Covid restrictions after dozens of Tory backbenchers threatened to rebel or abstain in fury over the proposed new rules and Boris Johnson’s handling of the Christmas party scandal.

With at least 30 Conservative MPs already expected to vote against regulations on masks, home working and vaccine passports, and many more now vowing to stay away from Tuesday’s vote, the prime minister could be left relying on Labour support to win.

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Macron accuses UK of not keeping its word on Brexit and fishing

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France willing to re-engage on Channel crossings, but UK economy relies on illegal labour, says president

Relations between France and Britain are strained because the current UK government does not honour its word, president Emmanuel Macron has said.

Macron accused London of failing to keep its word on Brexit and fishing licences, but said France was willing to re-engage in good faith, and called for “British re-engagement” over the “humanitarian question” of dangerous Channel crossings, after at least 27 migrants drowned trying to reach the British coast.

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Stricter measures than plan B may be needed to rein in UK’s Omicron growth

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Analysis: scientists say home working makes sense but voice fears over advice to go ahead with parties amid steep trajectory in cases

Work from home, but keep going to Christmas parties: Boris Johnson’s advice has prompted questions about the logic behind plan B and left a lingering sense of confusion about the scale of the threat posed by the Omicron variant. So does the plan stand up to scrutiny?

Scientists say that making working from home a first line of defence, ahead of social gatherings, is not necessarily a frivolous choice. In the hierarchy of measures that can be deployed, working from home is an effective way to bring down people’s daily contacts and is relatively painless economically. However, many fear that the threat posed by Omicron will require more than the first line of defence and that plan B does not go far enough.

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UK proposes US-style waivers for EU citizens crossing Irish border

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Plans for foreign citizens to need pre-clearance to enter Northern Ireland denounced as ‘hardening of border’

EU citizens and other non-Irish or non-British nationals who cross the border from the republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland will have to get pre-clearance under new rules being proposed by the UK government.

They will require a US-style waiver known as an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to cross the border as part of the new post-Brexit immigration nationality and borders bill.

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Covid live: people in Scotland urged to cancel Christmas parties; UK reports another 50,867 cases and 148 deaths

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People and businesses in Scotland been urged not to go ahead with parties; UK daily case tally remains above 50,000

Cuba has detected its first case of the Omicron Covid variant, according to Cuban state media agency ACN.

The case was identified in a person who had travelled from Mozambique.

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China says Australia, UK and US will ‘pay price’ for Winter Olympics action

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Beijing accuses nations of using Games ‘for political manipulation’ amid diplomatic boycotts

Australia, Britain and the US will pay a price for their “mistaken acts” after deciding not to send government delegations to February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, China’s foreign ministry has said.

The US was the first to announce a boycott, saying on Monday its government officials would not attend the February Games because of China’s human rights “atrocities”, weeks after talks aimed at easing tension between the world’s two largest economies.

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Nearly 100 former British Council staff remain in hiding in Afghanistan

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Staff employed to teach British values and the English language refused the right to come to the UK

Nearly 100 former British Council staff employed to teach British values and the English language remain in hiding in Afghanistan after having so far been refused the right to come to the UK by officials.

Their plight has been taken up by Joseph Seaton, the former British Council Afghanistan English manager, and its deputy director, who has written to the most relevant cabinet members in a bid to gain their support.

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Debacle over No 10 Christmas party ‘threatens efforts to control pandemic’

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Scientists say rule-breaking ‘could damage public compliance behaviours when they are more important than ever’

The debacle over the No 10 Christmas party threatens to undermine efforts to control the Covid pandemic at a time when the Omicron variant is fuelling fears of an imminent and major wave of disease, say scientists.

A so-called Cummings effect last year led to “negative and lasting consequences” on public trust following the lockdown-busting trips made by Boris Johnson’s aide, Dominic Cummings, researchers found.

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Home Office urged to stop housing asylum seekers in barracks

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Housing survivors of torture or other serious forms of violence in barracks ‘harmful’, all-party report says

A cross-party group of parliamentarians is calling on the government to end its use of controversial barracks accommodation for people seeking asylum, in a new report published on Thursday.

The report also recommends the scrapping of government plans to expand barracks-style accommodation for up to 8,000 asylum seekers. It refers to accommodation, including Napier barracks in Kent, which is currently being used to house hundreds of asylum seekers, as “quasi-detention” due to visible security measures, surveillance, shared living quarters and isolation from the wider community.

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Sienna Miller says Sun used ‘illegal means’ to find out pregnancy

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Actor tells high court about her view of how details were discovered, which the publisher denies

Sienna Miller believes details of her 2005 pregnancy were obtained by the then editor of the Sun, Rebekah Brooks, using “blatantly unlawful means”, a court has heard. Miller also believes phone hacking was practised by journalists at Rupert Murdoch’s daily tabloid newspaper.

“I was told at the end of July 2005, by my friend and publicist, that Rebekah Brooks had found out that I was pregnant,” said Miller, in an excerpt from a draft statement read out by her lawyer at the high court.

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UK Covid live: Met police will not investigate No 10 Christmas party allegations

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Latest updates: Scotland Yard cites ‘absence of evidence’, as PM triggers plan B Covid restrictions

Downing Street sources are saying this morning that “no decisions have been made” on a move to plan B. But, frankly, an FT story carries more credibility in the Westminster media village.

Ben Riley-Smith, the Telegraph political editor, thinks the timing of such a move would be suspicious.

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Met police say they will not investigate Downing Street Christmas party

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Force cites policy of not investigating past alleged breaches of Covid rules and lack of evidence

The Metropolitan police has said it will not investigate the Downing Street Christmas party widely reported to have been held last year.

In a much awaited statement, the force said it had a policy of not retrospectively investigating alleged breaches of coronavirus laws.

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Allegra Stratton resigns after No 10 Christmas party video

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Boris Johnson ‘sorry to lose’ spokesperson for climate summit who was seen in footage joking about party during lockdown

Allegra Stratton has stepped down as the government’s spokesperson for the Cop26 climate summit after footage emerged of her joking about a party at Downing Street during the peak of lockdown rules in December last year.

Boris Johnson told a coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday that Stratton had been an “outstanding spokeswoman … I am very sorry to lose her”. But he added: “I take responsibility for everything that happens in this government and I have throughout the pandemic.”

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Cornish town with 1,440 residents seeks to become UK’s smallest city

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Marazion, opposite St Michael’s Mount, faces stiff opposition from larger areas in contest for city status

It may not boast a cathedral, a university or a major sports team – the sort of features often associated with a typical British metropolis. But the town of Marazion (population 1,440), perched prettily on the south coast of Cornwall, has nevertheless launched a bold campaign for city status.

Marazion, which does have a couple of churches, a primary school and rowing and sailing clubs, would become the smallest and most southerly city if its proposal is accepted.

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Poll shows Anglo-French antipathy on rise amid post-Brexit bickering

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Exclusive: political tensions prompt increase in numbers of French with negative view of Brits and vice versa

A year of post-Brexit bickering has left the French and the British feeling significantly less well disposed towards each other, a poll shows.

After ill-tempered exchanges over everything from fishing to submarines and Covid travel rules to the Northern Ireland protocol, the YouGov poll found that favourable opinions of the British had slid in France and other EU countries.

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Why is there a row in the UK about Boris Johnson and Christmas parties?

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Controversy centres on alleged get-togethers at Downing Street last year when London was under strict lockdown

On Tuesday last week, the British tabloid newspaper, the Mirror, published a story that claimed parties had been held at Johnson’s Downing Street residence in the run-up to Christmas last year.

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‘It’s hypocrisy, pure and simple’: growing public anger over No 10 party

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A grieving daughter and a publican prosecuted for breaching rules are among those furious at apparent flouting of rules

On 23 December last year, the day after Downing Street aides were recorded laughing about how they could pretend that a party at No 10 was a “cheese and wine” gathering, a large contingent of police officers arrived at the London Tavern pub in Hackney, east London. James Kearns, the owner, was hosting Christmas drinks for workers at a scaffolding company he also runs.

“There were 15 of us,” he said on Wednesday. “About 20 of the police showed up, absolutely hammering on the doors. We all hid in the toilets, but they found us.” This week, the case went before a magistrate. “And we’ve all been fined £100 each.”

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