The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, declined to apologise for PPE contracts given to companies with links to MPs and ministers during the first wave of coronavirus.
Appearing on BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show, Sunak was questioned on the government's purchase of 50 million face masks from Ayanda Capital that were later deemed unusable for NHS workers.
'It was right to try to do everything we can, and I'm not going to apologise for us reacting in that way,' Sunak said.
Continue reading...Former teacher Ken Morgan’s passport was confiscated as he travelled back from funeral in Jamaica in 1994
A former English teacher who was blocked for 25 years from returning to his home in Britain after his passport was wrongly confiscated has been ruled ineligible for British citizenship due to the length of his absence from the UK.
Ken Morgan, 70, described the decision as a “ridiculous catch-22”, and said the sole reason he was absent for such a protracted period was because he was barred by British officials from travelling to the UK. He has requested a review.
Continue reading...PM set to announce end to lockdown before trying to broker national agreement on family gatherings
Boris Johnson will meet his cabinet remotely on Sunday to decide how people will be able to gather with loved ones at Christmas, before the announcement of a new Covid winter plan.
The prime minister, who is self-isolating, will then confirm by video to parliament on Monday that national restrictions will end on 2 December and be replaced by the three-tier regional system, with even tighter controls in some areas.
Continue reading...Legal action targets appointments of Dido Harding, Kate Bingham and Mike Coupe
Boris Johnson and his health secretary, Matt Hancock, acted “unlawfully” when appointing three key figures – including the head of NHS Test and Trace, Dido Harding – to posts in the fight against Covid-19, according to a legal challenge submitted by campaigners to the high court.
The Observer has seen details of documents from those pursuing the case – and initial responses from government lawyers – relating to the call for a judicial review into the appointment of Baroness Harding, who is a Tory peer, and into those of Kate Bingham to the post of head of the UK’s vaccine taskforce and Mike Coupe to the role of director of testing at NHS Test and Trace.
Continue reading...Observer/Opinium poll also finds switch in support for political leadership
Most of the public would rather have a locked-down Christmas than have a new lockdown imposed in January, a new poll suggests.
With the government considering the extent to which restrictions should be lifted to limit the impact on Christmas family gatherings, the latest Opinium poll for the Observer found that the public opted for a locked-down Christmas over new January restrictions by a margin of 54% to 33%.
Continue reading...Conservative government says agreement paves the way for new bespoke deal with Canada
The UK and Canada have agreed to continue trading under the same terms as the current EU agreement after the Brexit transition period ends.
The Conservative government said the agreement paved the way for negotiations to begin next year on a new comprehensive deal with Canada, which has long been trumpeted as one of the benefits of the UK leaving the EU.
Continue reading...Former prime ministers say widely expected move to cut budget is ‘strategic mistake’
Former prime ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair have warned against plans to cut the overseas aid budget, calling the idea a “strategic mistake”.
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is widely expected to pare back the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid to 0.5% in next week’s spending review.
Continue reading...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.
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