Category Archives: Politics

How worrying is the India coronavirus variant for UK plans to unlock this summer?

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Monday’s change in the rules was supposed to be a moment of celebration – but the new variant spreading in the UK meant it came with a cautionary note. Can the next stage of the government’s ‘irreversible’ plan go ahead?

This time last week, most of us were feeling optimistic about the next step in the government’s “irreversible” plan to end lockdown. Then scientists started to warn that the accelerating spread of the India variant of coronavirus meant that we should proceed carefully – and even consider slowing down.

While the plans went ahead on Monday, they came with a heavy dose of caution and warnings that the last stage of the relaxation set for 21 June could be delayed. The Guardian’s science correspondent Nicola Davis tells Anushka Asthana about the latest setback in the fight against Covid – and what it means for what happens next.

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India variant will be dominant UK Covid strain ‘in next few days’

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Scientists’ warning comes as government comes under pressure to explain border policy

The Covid variant first detected in India is set to be the dominant strain in the UK within days, experts have said, with the government and health teams struggling to contain cases, which have risen by more than 75% since Thursday.

With the rapid spread of the more transmissible B.1.617.2 variant threatening to reverse moves to ease lockdown, the government faced intense pressure to more fully explain the delay in adding India to the so-called red list of countries.

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UK ‘faces labour shortage’ as Covid and Brexit fuel exodus of overseas workers

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Experts say recovery at risk amid sharp fall in EU workers and dwindling interest in UK jobs from abroad

Britain’s employers are struggling to hire staff as lockdown lifts amid an exodus of overseas workers caused by the Covid pandemic and Brexit, industry figures reveal.

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the recruitment firm Adecco, employers plan to hire at the fastest rate in eight years, led by the reopening of the hospitality and retail sectors as pandemic restrictions are relaxed in England and Wales on Monday.

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17 May reopening: how Covid measures across Britain are changing

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Coronavirus restrictions are set to be eased in England, Wales and most of Scotland from Monday

Coronavirus restrictions will be eased further on Monday in England, Wales and most of Scotland. Northern Ireland will review its measures on Thursday, with a view to lifting more restrictions on 24 May.

The next phase of relaxation comes despite the spread of the coronavirus variant first detected in India, though Boris Johnson warned on Friday that the variant could make it “more difficult” to achieve the final step in England’s roadmap in June.

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Keir Starmer vows all-new Labour manifesto and economic offer

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Party leader says new blueprint for power will not draw on those of either Jeremy Corbyn or Tony Blair

Keir Starmer has said Labour will have a completely new blueprint for power not based on previous manifestos, as he told activists he would spend the summer making extended visits to places the party must win.

The Labour leader told a conference hosted by the centre-left thinktank Progressive Britain on Sunday that the party’s policy review would not take previous manifestos as its starting point, despite the close attachment of many members to the radical manifestos drawn up under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

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Thirteen arrested in London protest against violence in Gaza

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The Met said nine of its officers were injured while dispersing crowds outside the Israeli embassy

Thirteen people have been arrested after a day of largely peaceful protest in solidarity with the people of Palestine outside the Israel embassy on Saturday.

The Metropolitan police said nine of its officers were injured while dispersing crowds outside the embassy in west London. The force said missiles were thrown at officers during “small pockets of disorder”.

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Johnson ‘must think again on plans to relax Covid rules’

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Top adviser warns of India variant impact as scientists urge delay in lockdown changes

Boris Johnson was under mounting pressure on Saturday to reconsider Monday’s relaxation of Covid rules in England because of the threat posed by the India variant. His own advisers and independent health experts raised fears that it could lead to a surge in hospital admissions, especially among young adults.

From Monday people will be able to meet in groups of up to 30 outdoors, while six people or two households will be permitted to meet indoors. Pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants will be allowed to serve customers indoors. Indoor entertainment such as museums, cinemas and children’s play areas can also open along with theatres, concert halls, conference centres and sports stadiums.

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We are responding calmly to India Covid variant, insists UK health minister

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As scientists issue warnings, Edward Argar says the variant could be more – or less – transmissible

The government is acting “coolly” and “calmly” to tackle the coronavirus variant first found in India as social distancing measures are further eased on Monday, the health minister Edward Argar has said.

At a press conference on Friday, Boris Johnson said he would press ahead with allowing indoor gatherings of six people or two households in England from next week, though the final stage of lifting restrictions in June could face “serious disruption”.

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UK must reverse aid cuts ‘as soon as possible’ to help educate girls – Julia Gillard

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Former Australian PM wants Boris Johnson to make ‘ambitious pledge’ to support girls at Kenyan summit

The former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has called for Britain to return its aid budget to pre-cuts levels “as soon as possible”.

Gillard, who now campaigns for education in lower-income countries as chair of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), said she wanted the British government to step up with an “ambitious pledge” for global education when it co-hosts the G7 summit next month.

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India variant could seriously disrupt lifting of lockdown, says Boris Johnson

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PM announces acceleration of Covid vaccine programme, saying race could become a ‘great deal tighter’

The final stage of the lifting of coronavirus lockdown restrictions across England could face “serious disruption” due to the India variant, the prime minister has warned, as he announced plans to accelerate the vaccine programme to curb its spread.

Boris Johnson said the gap between the first and second Covid jab would be cut from 12 weeks to eight for all over-50s and the clinically vulnerable, admitting: “The race between our vaccine programme and the virus may be about to become a great deal tighter.”

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UK Covid live: second vaccine doses for over-50s and vulnerable accelerated as Indian variant threatens June easing

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Latest updates: prime minister announces acceleration of programme to give second vaccine doses to over-50s and clinically vulnerable as Indian variant threatens June lockdown easing

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has accused Boris Johnson of a “reckless failure to protect our borders” as the Indian variant threatened to derail progress to ending coronavirus restrictions in June.

The Labour MP said: “People across the country will be deeply concerned and tonight’s news brings into sharp focus Boris Johnson’s reckless failure to protect our borders in this crisis.

There is a “realistic possibility” that the Indian coronavirus variant could be as much as “50% more transmissible” than the Kent strain, the Scientific Advisory Group for emergencies (Sage) has said.

The minutes of the meeting between the government’s scientific advisers on Thursday said that it is “highly likely that this variant is more transmissible than B.1.1.7 (high confidence), and it is a realistic possibility that it is as much as 50% more transmissible”, PA reports.

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India variant could lead to serious third wave of Covid in UK

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Analysis: If B.1.617.2 proves highly transmissible, hospitalisations could peak again, models show

It was all looking so good. After a brutal second wave in the winter, the lockdown combined with the swift rollout of vaccines forced infections, hospitalisations and deaths down to levels not seen since last summer. The vaccines performed better than expected, not only in preventing deaths, but in hampering the spread of the virus. Scientific advisers were confident about England’s cautious roadmap back to a life more normal: the worst, it seemed, was over.

Now, those same advisers are deeply worried that the new variant of concern from India, B.1.617.2, could undermine the hard-won achievement. The government strategy has been to ease restrictions as vaccines reach more people, aiming for a delicate balance that opens up society while preventing another wave that overwhelms the NHS.

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Edwin Poots elected DUP leader to succeed Arlene Foster

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Northern Ireland agriculture minister and young Earth creationist says someone else will be first minister

Edwin Poots has been elected leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) on the promise of remoulding Northern Ireland’s biggest party and ratcheting up opposition to the Irish Sea border.

The Stormont agriculture minister on Friday beat Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, a DUP Westminster MP, in a two-horse race to succeed Arlene Foster, who announced she was quitting as party leader and first minister after an internal revolt last month.

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‘A special day’: how a Glasgow community halted immigration raid

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Activists and local people tell how they forced the release of two men detained in an enforcement van

It was just after 9am on Thursday and he was finishing breakfast when the callout came. Kenmure Street’s “Van Man” – the activist who spent nearly eight hours squeezed underneath an immigration enforcement van to prevent the detention of two men on Glasgow’s southside – was on his bike in minutes.

“It’s not often you can catch raids in the act like this, but the southside has a lot of folks pulling together,” he said. “The only way that day could have ended was with our neighbours’ release; there were simply too many local people standing in the street for the police to have taken the van away. The strategy does work – and we want the world to understand that it was the people on the streets who won that victory, not the politicians.”

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How Angela Rayner came out on top after spat with Starmer over reshuffle

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Labour deputy leader has shown she has a significant power base and is not shy of using it

Joe Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, have a standing weekly date for a private one-to-one lunch, just as Biden did with Barack Obama.

Breaking bread is one way of keeping a political relationship on track. No wonder, perhaps, that Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner have decided to give it a go as they attempt to rebuild their relationship.

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Hostile UK border regime traumatises visitors from EU

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Italian woman visiting family was locked up in detention centre as they waited at the airport, Guardian told

Britain’s hostile regime for potential EU migrants is traumatising visitors caught in its web and provoking further worries for European families receiving visits from relatives, according to accounts provided to the Guardian.

The slightest suspicion that someone may be entering Britain to work is often enough for them to be locked up, held at detention centres for up to a week and then expelled to wherever they have travelled from, some of those caught up by the policy have said. Complaints from relatives and host families in the UK have either gone unanswered or been ignored by the Home Office and some local MPs, they say.

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Labour suspends Unite leadership nominee over ‘Patel should be deported’ tweet

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Howard Beckett, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee, later apologised and deleted the tweet

Labour has suspended a leadership candidate for the Unite trade union from the party after he called for the home secretary, Priti Patel, to be deported on Twitter.

Howard Beckett, the union’s assistant general secretary and a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), has since apologised and deleted the message following criticism.

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Glasgow protesters rejoice as men freed after immigration van standoff

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Hundreds of people surrounded vehicle men were held in and chanted ‘these are our neighbours, let them go’

Campaigners have hailed a victory for Glaswegian solidarity and told the Home Office “you messed with the wrong city” as two men detained by UK Immigration Enforcement were released back into their community after a day of protest.

Police Scotland intervened to free the men after a tense day-long standoff between immigration officials and hundreds of local residents, who surrounded their van in a residential street on the southside of Glasgow to stop the detention of the men during Eid al-Fitr.

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Greensill lobbying leaves your reputation in tatters, Cameron told

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MPs grill former prime minister for four hours about his text message and WhatsApp campaign

David Cameron was on Thursday told that his persistent lobbying of ministers, begging for favours on behalf of the controversial bank he worked for, had “demeaned” the position of the prime minister and left his “reputation in tatters”.

The former PM was forced to deny that his text message and WhatsApp lobbying campaign on behalf of Greensill Capital was driven by fears that an “opportunity to make a large amount of money was at risk”.

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EU citizens arriving in UK being locked up and expelled

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Europeans with job interviews tell of detentions and expulsions despite rules allowing non-visa holders to attend interviews

EU citizens are being sent to immigration removal centres and held in airport detention rooms as the UK government’s “hostile environment” policy falls on them after Brexit, according to campaigners and travellers interviewed by the Guardian.

Europeans with job interviews are among those being denied entry and locked up. They have spoken of being subjected to the traumatic and humiliating experience of expulsion, despite Home Office rules that explicitly allow non-visa holders to attend interviews.

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