Transport secretary causes confusion on Thursday night when he gives the wrong date for the start of Covid-19 quarantine measures for arrivals from France. During a TV interview Shapps initially, and correctly, says people will have to self-isolate for 14 days from 4am on Saturday, then later incorrectly says the restrictions come in from Sunday
Category Archives: Politics
DfID scheme accused of ‘putting UK aid in pockets of wealthy companies’
£6.85m programme places emphasis on benefit to businesses rather than protecting workers in the developing world, say critics
A newly announced aid programme that promises to help workers in the developing world supplying goods to British high street chains like Marks & Spencer, Primark and Morrisons has been condemned for using taxpayers’ money to “pick up the bill” for improving workforce conditions.
The £6.85m scheme, announced on Thursday by international development secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, is being promoted explicitly as benefitting British consumers to ensure they “can continue to buy affordable, high quality goods from around the world”.
Continue reading...Government quietly drops 1.3m Covid tests from England tally
Exclusive: Double counting raises fresh questions about accuracy of testing figures
The government has quietly removed 1.3m coronavirus tests from its data because of double counting, raising fresh questions about the accuracy of the testing figures.
In the government’s daily coronavirus update on Wednesday, it announced it had lowered the figure for “tests made available” by about 10% and discontinued the metric.
Continue reading...Migrant children face hunger over free school meal restrictions
Children’s groups call for meal provision to extend to families barred from UK state support
Thousands of children from migrant families are at risk of hunger when schools reopen in the UK unless the free meal provision is extended, according to a group of 60 organisations.
The Children’s Society, Action for Children, Project 17 and Unison are among the organisations that have written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, calling on him to extend free school meals to pupils from low-income migrant families classed as having “no recourse to public funds”.
Continue reading...If Britain looked anew, it could learn so much about the arts from Africa | Afua Hirsch
The UK cultural sector, so obsessed with being ‘world leading’, is standing on the brink. It needs to broaden its gaze
It’s a painful time to tell stories about the arts. This week, hundreds of venues across the UK were lit up in red – not in an inspired display of creativity, but as a cry for help as arts venues find themselves on the brink of collapse.
The protest culminated in the iconic chimney at London’s Tate Modern art gallery being made bright red, and illuminated with the words “Throw Us a Line” – a reference to the 1m jobs at risk in the live events sector following the Covid-19 pandemic and shutdown. A report from the digital, culture, media and sport select committee warned last month that the UK now faces the prospect of becoming a “cultural wasteland”.
Continue reading...Covid-19: UK economy plunges into deepest recession since records began
GDP falls 20.4% – the worst of any G7 nation in the three months to June
- UK falls into recession – live business update
- Analysis: a full recovery from the Covid slump will be slow
- How does UK’s Covid recession compare with previous ones?
Britain has entered the deepest recession since records began as official figures on Wednesday showed the economy shrank by more than any other major nation during the coronavirus outbreak in the three months to June.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell in the second quarter by 20.4% compared with the previous three months – the biggest quarterly decline since comparable records began in 1955.
Continue reading...BBC and Sky accused of ‘voyeurism’ in coverage of migrant boats
Live footage of people crossing Channel to UK is like ‘grotesque reality TV’, says MP
Britain’s television news broadcasters have been criticised by opposition MPs and campaigners over their coverage of migrants crossing the Channel, with claims that some of their reports dehumanise those taking the risk to make the journey.
Footage of Sky News and BBC Breakfast teams approaching and filming small boats trying to navigate the busy waters of the Dover strait was widely condemned on social media. The Labour MP Zarah Sultana said: “We should ensure people don’t drown crossing the Channel, not film them as if it were some grotesque reality TV show.”
Continue reading...UK and France working ‘at pace’ on plan to halt migrant Channel crossings
Home Office minister says measures being considered to make route ‘unviable’
The UK and France are working “at pace” on a new plan to put an end to people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats, a Home Office minister has said, as tensions rise over the British government’s approach to the unfolding crisis.
Following talks with officials in Paris, Chris Philp, minister for immigration compliance, conceded the French were doing a “great deal of work” and had intercepted more than 1,000 people attempting to reach England this year after days of loaded statements from the two nations.
Continue reading...Love of Stilton drives wedge between UK and Japan in post-Brexit trade talks
Consensus crumbles after Liz Truss reportedly sought to make the cheese a part of negotiations
Having promised to rush through a post-Brexit trade deal, Japan and Britain made significant progress only to discover that the fate of Stilton has driven a wedge between them.
During recent talks in London, international trade secretary Liz Truss and the Japanese foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, reached a “substantial” preliminary agreement on trade, promising to conclude a preliminary deal by the end of this month.
Continue reading...UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson says he ‘will not hesitate’ to impose new quarantines if needed
PM says government will keep looking at data in all countries Britons are travelling to
- Little evidence Covid spreads in schools, says Gavin Williamson
- Coronavirus UK map: the latest deaths and confirmed Covid cases
- Lockdown reduces cases of flu, colds and bronchitis in England
- Global coronavirus live: latest updates
One senior local health official, who did not want to speak on the record, said he interpreted the move as “the government saying we can’t do this only from London”.
Whether or not you interpret it as shifting the blame and responsibility [to local teams], I wouldn’t go that far but it’s a reflection that it can’t be either/or - it has to be both [local and national].
If you look on a map, it’s really clear: there’s probably one case a week in Surrey. It’s not quite like that in Blackburn with Darwen, for instance.
We’ve shifted from a single, universal pandemic across the whole country to a series of localised flare-ups. That’s why the nimbleness and ability to get on top of things at a local level really does matter.
People who have been in contact with confirmed coronavirus cases may get a knock on their door if tracers are unable to reach them over the phone under plans to strengthen regional test and trace powers in England announced by health officials.
In pilot schemes, this has meant that local authorities have been able to visit people at homes where national contact tracers have been unable to reach them. It comes after criticism that the national system was not tapping into local knowledge.
NHS Test and Trace is one of the largest contact tracing and testing systems anywhere in the world, and was built rapidly, drawing on the UK’s existing health protection networks, to stop the spread of coronavirus.
At the height of the pandemic, we ensured the system had extra capacity in place to cope with potential peaks in the virus.
Continue reading...Sturgeon promises urgent review of 124,000 downgraded exam results
First minister apologises after predicted awards downgraded more heavily in poorer areas
Nicola Sturgeon has apologised to tens of thousands of Scottish teenagers whose exam results were downgraded last week and promised urgent changes to their awards.
The first minister attempted to defuse a growing crisis for her government by confirming that her deputy, John Swinney, would lay out proposals to regrade results in the Scottish parliament on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson says crossing Channel in small boats ‘dangerous and criminal’
PM hints at law change to make it easier to deport people who make dangerous voyage
Boris Johnson has branded attempts by people to cross the Channel in small boats as a “very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do” and hinted at changing the law to make it easier to deport such arrivals.
Meanwhile, a French politician has warned that the UK’s decision to send in the Royal Navy “won’t change anything”, and a former Home Office official has said he was sceptical of the plans.
Continue reading...Labour MP Dawn Butler stopped by police in London
Car driven by a friend pulled over by officers who later admitted they made a mistake
Dawn Butler, the Labour MP and former shadow equalities minister, has accused the police of being institutionally racist after she was stopped while driving to Sunday lunch with a friend.
Butler, a strong critic of police stop-and-search tactics, said the car was being driven by her male friend, who like Butler is black, when two police cars pulled it over in Hackney, east London. Officers said the vehicle was registered in North Yorkshire.
Continue reading...UK to plunge into deepest slump on record with worst GDP drop of G7
Official measure to be declared this week as coronavirus lockdown shrinks GDP by 21% in second quarter
Britain’s economy will be officially declared in recession this week for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, as the coronavirus outbreak plunges the country into the deepest slump on record.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday are expected to show that gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell in the three months to June by 21%.
Continue reading...Former Labour donors returning to party under Keir Starmer
Several former financial backers report rejoining, with some ‘ready to give again’ in wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s departure
Former Labour donors who had abandoned the party are already considering renewing their support under Keir Starmer’s leadership, it has emerged.
Figures who have given the party large sums in the past said they had rejoined Labour, with one major donor saying they were already prepared to give again. Another former supporter said there was “a long road” ahead after allegations of antisemitism in the party, but that they had been impressed with Starmer’s start.
Continue reading...MoD considering request to deploy navy to stop Channel migrants
Home Office asked for patrols after saying migrants should face ‘real consequences’
Alarm is growing over UK proposals to introduce hardline measures to discourage refugees and illegal migrants from seeking sanctuary after the Ministry of Defence confirmed it was considering a Home Office request to deploy navy vessels in the Dover Straits.
It comes after the immigration minister, Chris Philp, called for migrants caught crossing the Channel to be fingerprinted and face “real consequences”, before a meeting next week with his French counterparts.
Continue reading...Brexit backers Tate & Lyle set to gain £73m from end of EU trade tariffs
Greenpeace investigators say the firm, which also donated to the Conservatives, will be sole beneficiary of rule changes on importing raw cane sugar
A company that backed Brexit and has donated to the Conservatives is in line to save £73m as the only direct beneficiary of a post-Brexit trade reform.
Under plans that will come into force at the end of the year, the government has confirmed that companies will be able to import 260,000 tonnes of raw sugar cane from anywhere in the world, tariff-free.
Continue reading...Jeremy Corbyn accuses Labour officials of sabotaging election campaign
Exclusive: Former leader and allies say alleged diversion of funds in 2017 could be fraud
Jeremy Corbyn and his former leadership team have openly accused disgruntled Labour officials of potentially costing the party the chance of victory by sabotaging the 2017 election campaign in a factional dispute.
In a joint statement that shines a light on the scale of continued Labour splits, Corbyn, the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and seven other former shadow ministers and aides have for the first time formally endorsed claims made in a party report leaked in April.
Continue reading...Two stories, different witnesses. So where was Dominic Cummings on 19 April?
Witness accounts pile on pressure for PM’s aide to show proof he did not visit Durham a second time in lockdown
The official version is Cummings’s own, and places him squarely in London. While the prime minister’s chief aide notoriously acknowledged a trip to Durham in late March, his denial of a second visit days after he returned was unequivocal.
On a sunny afternoon in the Downing Street rose garden, he insisted the witness who said they had seen him admiring bluebells in Houghall woods was wrong, and he had the evidence.
Continue reading...Why a Biden presidency might not mean a return to pre-Trump foreign relations
There could be a renewed focus on international cooperation – but Biden would not be great news for Boris Johnson’s Britain
European leaders, desperate for an end to the Trump presidency, are being warned that four years of Joe Biden may present them with new challenges and not a simple restoration of the benign status quo in transatlantic relations prior to 2016.
An evolving Biden doctrine about ending “forever wars” and protecting American workers from Chinese competition would require collective military and economic commitments from the EU that it is still ill-equipped to meet, foreign policy specialists have suggested.
Continue reading...