PM must decide whether to listen to Tory MPs or his scientific advisers on relaxing restrictions
When Boris Johnson ordered the phased reopening of England’s shops and schools in July after a gruelling three-month lockdown, he gave the public permission to hope for a “more significant return to normality” in time for Christmas.
Four months on, and as so often in this crisis, the prime minister’s optimism appears at best premature.
Continue reading...Most key issues largely agreed, but there is still a danger of no deal by accident, envoys hear
A trade and security agreement with Britain is close to being finalised but the risk remains of an accidental no-deal Brexit in six weeks, with gaps on the contentious issues “slowly shrinking”, EU ambassadors have been told.
With Michel Barnier in self-isolation after an EU negotiator tested positive for coronavirus, the talks will be conducted almost entirely online over the next few days.
Continue reading...A look inside the Guardian's three-month investigation into Chinese factories exporting PPE to countries including the US, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Myanmar
Continue reading...Nearly 200 charities and NGOs call on PM to keep spending at 0.7% rather than 0.5% of GDP
Nearly 200 charities and aid organisations have called on Boris Johnson to reconsider plans to cut billions from the international development budget by reducing it to 0.5% of GDP.
Save the Children, Greenpeace UK, Christian Aid, VSO International and others urged the prime minister not to cut Britain’s aid spending while the world was in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Lord Goldsmith says Britain, the second biggest per capita producer of plastic waste, could play leading role in tackling crisis
Britain has thrown its weight behind a new global agreement to tackle the plastic pollution crisis, which Lord Goldsmith said would go “far beyond” existing international agreements.
This week, the Guardian revealed there is growing support for such a treaty internationally, but that neither the UK nor the US, the world’s biggest per capita producers of plastic waste, had yet pledged their support.
Continue reading...Internal divisions deepen as former MP quits party over treatment of former leader
The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, has blamed a “politicised” disciplinary process for Jeremy Corbyn’s readmittance to the Labour party, as a former MP quit the party and its internal rift deepened.
Dodds’ comments came after a backlash against Keir Starmer’s decision not to restore the Labour whip to Corbyn following his suspension. A panel from Labour’s governing body had let him back into the party with a written warning.
Continue reading...MPs are told region ‘simply will not be ready’ for mandatory border checks on 1 January
Northern Ireland businesses have called for an extension of the Brexit transition period in the region, warning they “simply will not be ready” for the mandatory border checks on 1 January.
They say they are the “rope in a tug of war” between the UK and the EU and warned of a “huge black hole” in information and a “disconnect” with Westminster and Brussels over the reality of Brexit checks kicking in 43 days’ time.
Continue reading...Decision means former leader will not sit as Labour MP and is likely to reignite party row
Keir Starmer has sparked a furious backlash from Labour leftwingers by refusing to readmit Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour MP, arguing that his predecessor has undermined efforts to restore the party’s reputation in the Jewish community.
A disciplinary panel of the party’s nationl executive committee (NEC) lifted the suspension of Corbyn’s party membership on Tuesday after he issued a conciliatory statement “clarifying” controversial remarks he made when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published a damning report on Labour antisemitism.
Continue reading...The 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials puts the fantasy of resistance to tyrannical Brussels into proper perspective
“I would rather not shake hands with a German of my age,” says Colette Marin-Catherine. “But I give all possible credit to the generations that came after.” There is steel in the elderly voice, but no anger.
When Colette was 16, her older brother, Jean-Pierre, was deported to a German concentration camp. He was put to work as a slave labourer in underground tunnels assembling V2 rocket-propelled bombs. He died weeks before the camp was liberated by US soldiers. Brother and sister had both been active in the French resistance, but Colette escaped capture. She refused to set foot in Germany for another 74 years.
Continue reading...Accountancy firm warns of stalled economic recovery without EU trade agreement
Failure to strike a post-Brexit trade deal would cut the UK’s economic growth rate by more than half next year, delaying a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report.
The accountancy firm KPMG said the economy would suffer heavily should the UK fail to secure a trade deal with the EU before the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of December, just as the country attempts to escape the deepest recession since records began.
Continue reading...Eleven local authorities to enter level 4 – highest of Scotland’s five-tier system of virus controls
More than 2.7 million Scots will face near-lockdown restrictions for three weeks after Nicola Sturgeon imposed the country’s highest level of Covid restrictions across the west of Scotland.
Following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, Scotland’s first minister told MSPs that 11 local authority areas would enter level 4 – the highest of Scotland’s five-tier system of virus controls – from 6pm this Friday for a limited period.
Continue reading...Treasury seeking to slash target for aid spending from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%
The Treasury is planning to slash billions from the overseas aid budget despite the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, praising the government’s 0.7% aid target on Monday as representing UK values in front of aides to Joe Biden.
The Treasury wants to cut the aid budget from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5% next year and plans to make the announcement as part of next Monday’s one-year spending review.
Continue reading...Latest updates: health secretary says tests for relatives should make visits safe; Boris Johnson self-isolating after contact with Covid-19 case
The four other Conservative MPs present at the meeting last week with Boris Johnson and Lee Anderson, the Tory who has subsequently tested positive, are also self-isolating.
According to the BBC, they are: Katherine Fletcher, Andy Carter, Lia Nici and Brendan Clarke-Smith.
I have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace following a work meeting last week with Lee Anderson MP and the Prime Minister.
As a result I will be self-isolating in line with the rules.
I currently have no symptoms and will be working from home
Yes, I had a call from test and trace yesterday following a work meeting at 10 Downing Street last Thursday. In line with the rules I am self isolating. https://t.co/IZLWwqBytO
In the words of Patrick Swayze... “Ditto” https://t.co/kxR3vEI6Vj
Residents in a dozen Scottish council areas, including Glasgow, Stirling and Inverclyde, face a two-week lockdown from later this week after the failure of Scottish government efforts to suppress Covid-19 across the country.
Business leaders were warned on Friday the 12 highly-populated areas were likely to be put at the highest level, tier 4 of the Scottish government’s Covid restrictions, from 6am on Friday morning.
Glasgow has 90 out of the top 100 Covid infection hot spots. So in schools in those catchment areas, we think you have to look seriously at closing them as part of the community mitigation to drive down infection levels.
Our default position is we should be looking at remote learning at level 4, but given the Scottish parliament has voted against that, we want at the very least to look at individual schools to see what action should be taken.
Continue reading...PM says he is in good health and has no coronavirus symptoms ahead of crucial week
A string of Conservative MPs are self-isolating following a meeting inside Downing Street that has forced Boris Johnson to spend a potentially crucial political week holed up inside No 10.
The prime minister, who was seriously ill with coronavirus in April, has insisted he is fine and that his body “is bursting with antibodies” after being ordered to self-isolate following a meeting with northern Tory MPs on Thursday.
Continue reading...Simon Coveney warns talks may collapse amid fishing rights impasse
Brexit negotiations on a trade deal resume in a crucial week, as it emerged talks on the issue of EU access to British fishing waters have not progressed since the summer.
As the two sides re-engaged in the troubled discussions, with less than seven weeks to go before the end of the transition period, Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, said the negotiations were “not in a good place” on fishing rights.
Continue reading...MEPs might not be able to seal any agreement until three days before transition period ends
A European parliament vote to seal a Brexit trade deal could be delayed until 28 December, three days before the end of the transition period, under an emergency EU plan.
With less than seven weeks to go before the UK leaves the single market and customs union, the negotiations remain troubled, with the talks on fishing rights in UK waters not progressing significantly since the summer.
Continue reading...George Eustice says departure of PM’s top aide will have no particular impact on negotiations
The UK environment secretary, George Eustice, has denied that the departure of Dominic Cummings – one of the architects of Vote Leave – will have any impact on Brexit negotiations.
As the Brexit deal deadline approaches, Eustice sought to downplay Cummings’ exit from No 10 by arguing it would not alter discussions with Brussels as UK negotiations are led by David Frost.
Continue reading...Child mortality crisis is looming as nations struggle to make payments to west and China, says former prime minister
It is being called the “great reversal”. After decades of progress, the international goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 is in jeopardy, Gordon Brown has warned, as developing countries battling the coronavirus sacrifice their health and education systems to pay western and Chinese creditors.
“We need a comprehensive new plan that recognises the need for some countries to restructure and reduce debt,” Brown told the Observer. Ahead of a key G20 meeting next weekend, the former prime minister is calling for a global solution if an imminent child mortality crisis is to be averted.
Continue reading...Prof John Edmunds calls for consistent UK government strategy and warns against relaxing measures
Encouraging the public to visit bars and restaurants and then closing down such venues when Covid-19 cases spike is not a “sensible way to run the epidemic”, a government scientific adviser has said.
Prof John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), urged a long-term strategy when it comes to balancing the economy and the pandemic.
Continue reading...Allegra Stratton breaks cover to contradict ‘false’ briefings over her appointment
The woman appointed by Boris Johnson to lead his daily press operations was left in tears on Saturday after she claimed to have been the subject of negative briefings by a former No 10 official who resigned last week and made a dramatic exit from Downing Street.
In an extraordinary escalation of feuding involving new and departing aides to Johnson, friends of Allegra Stratton, the new press secretary to the prime minister, said she had been “in tears all morning” as a result of what she believed were critical briefings by Johnson’s former director of communications, Lee Cain.
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