Category Archives: Politics

UK missed coronavirus contact tracing opportunity, experts say

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Thousands of council workers could have been deployed by the government but were not asked

The government has been accused of missing an opportunity after it failed to deploy 5,000 contact tracing experts employed by councils to help limit the spread of coronavirus.

Environmental health workers in local government have wide experience in contact tracing, a process used to prevent infections spreading and routinely carried out in outbreaks such as of norovirus, salmonella or legionnaires’ disease. But a spokesperson for Public Health England (PHE), which leads on significant outbreaks, said the organisation did not call upon environmental health workers to carry out contact tracing for coronavirus, instead using its own local health protection teams.

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Who runs the country if Boris Johnson is out of action?

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With the PM in hospital for his coronavirus symptoms, we look at who will fill the void at the head of the UK government

In his role as first secretary of state, the prime minister’s de facto deputy, Dominic Raab will be expected to stand in for Boris Johnson if he is unable to work because of coronavirus.

While other ministers, including the health secretary Matt Hancock and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, have been more visible during the Covid-19 outbreak, that position means he takes up the prime minister’s responsibilities if Johnson were unable to perform them himself.

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Scotland’s chief medical officer steps back from public briefings

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Catherine Calderwood apologises after visiting second home despite issuing advice to stay in

Scotland’s chief medical officer has been forced to step back from public briefings after a furious reaction to news she broke her own rules to twice visit her second home during the coronavirus outbreak.

But despite mounting calls for Catherine Calderwood to resign from her position, Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday insisted that she would continue to play a key role in guiding the Scottish government’s response to the crisis.

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Keir Starmer gives Lisa Nandy foreign brief on new Labour frontbench

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New leader brings in one former rival for key post but no role yet for Rebecca Long-Bailey

Keir Starmer has made Lisa Nandy, one of the candidates he defeated to become Labour leader, his shadow foreign secretary, and Anneliese Dodds, who became an MP only in 2017, his shadow chancellor.

Speaking before the first tranche of top appointments, the new Labour leader promised he would create a shadow cabinet balanced between the various wings of the party.

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Matt Hancock tells sunbathers: ‘You are putting lives at risk’ – video

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The health secretary has said people should not go outside to sunbathe, even if they practise social distancing. 

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sky News, Matt Hancock said: 'We are absolutely clear that you should not leave your home unless it is for one of four reasons: for medical reasons, to buy food, to go to work if you can't work at home, or for exercise. We're crystal in the guidance on what people should do – that guidance is backed up by law. It is not a request, it is a requirement in law'

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Five-year-old child among latest UK coronavirus deaths

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Death toll increases by 708 in one day, largest amount since outbreak began

A five-year old child is among 708 people whose deaths with coronavirus were announced on Saturday in the UK, as Britain’s death toll rose to 4,313, the biggest increase since the outbreak began.

The latest figures show the recorded death toll from the virus in the UK has risen by 20%, and above 4,000 for the first time.

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Alex Salmond’s lawyer quits as head of Scottish legal body

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Gordon Jackson was filmed on train talking about Salmond and sexual assault trial

The lawyer who helped secure Alex Salmond’s acquittal over allegations of sexual assault has quit as the head of Scotland’s advocates body after a furore over remarks he made about Salmond and his accusers.

Gordon Jackson QC announced on Friday he was standing down as the dean of the Faculty of Advocates, one of the most powerful posts in Scotland’s legal profession, because he is under investigation for professional misconduct.

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Jeremy Corbyn’s wife Laura Alvarez hits out at critics on his last day

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As Corbyn prepares to step down as leader, Alvarez says Labour failed to ‘pull together’

Laura Alvarez, the wife of Jeremy Corbyn, has said she regrets Labour failed to “pull together” to win elections, condemning the media and his opponents in the party on his last day as leader of the party.

In a rare public statement, Alvarez said it had been “incredibly hard” for her to watch her husband vilified by the media and even harder to watch him be attacked by his own party.

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Words I thought I’d never write: thank God for Matt Hancock | John Crace

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The health secretary wrote off £13bn of NHS debt, promised 100,000 tests and acted like a grownup

For much of the week, it’s been as if the government has gone out of its way to appear wilfully clueless. First, the psychotically unstable Dominic Raab, then the pathologically untrustworthy Michael Gove, culminating with the shambolically underprepared Alok Sharma. History repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce. It was as if the only real contingency plans the government had made were for the postponement of this year’s climate change conference. Sometimes, doing absolutely nothing proves to be entirely the right option.

But cometh the hour … There are some words I thought I’d never write. Like “Thank God for Matt Hancock”. But thank God for Matt Hancock. It seemed a high-risk strategy to send out the health secretary for the daily Downing Street press conference as it was only six days since he announced that he had contracted coronavirus. And the official NHS guidance is for anyone with symptoms to self-isolate for a week.

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NHS call on PM to ensure test centres are conveniently located

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Concern that centres were too far from both work or home for those working in London

NHS staff have called on Boris Johnson to ensure the new coronavirus testing centres are located conveniently for health workers and not in out of town sites such as Ikea car parks.

Drive-in test centres for nurses and doctors were opened this week in converted car parks at the Scandinavian superstore in Wembley in London and Chessington theme park near the M25.

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Financial help for airlines ‘should come with strict climate conditions’

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Former EU climate chief Miguel Arias Cañete fears end of Covid-19 will bring higher carbon emissions

Financial help from taxpayers to airlines hit by the coronavirus crisis must come with strict conditions on their future climate impact, the former EU climate commissioner and a group of green campaigners have said.

“It must be conditional, otherwise when we recover we will see the same or higher levels of carbon dioxide [from flying],” said Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU climate commissioner who led the bloc to the Paris agreement, in an interview with the Guardian. “We know the level of emissions we have to commit to [under Paris]. They [airlines] are worried about survival and will need lots of support, lots of liquidity – that gives them a big responsibility.”

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Coronavirus embarrassed Trump and Bolsonaro. But the global right will fight back | Paulo Gerbaudo

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Science and welfare are at the heart of this crisis – which is bad for right-wing populists. But they won’t be wrongfooted for long

The populist right has built their electoral strength on boisterousness and arrogant self-confidence. Yet, amid the coronavirus pandemic, figures such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Jair Bolsonaro seem to be confounded. They are either desperately clinging to a narrative of normality (it’s just a flu), or have already been forced to make embarrassing U-turns acknowledging the gravity of the crisis.

Boris Johnson had to abandon the government’s “herd immunity” strategy when new scientific evidence made apparent its horrific human cost. He recently tested positive for the virus and is now accused of complacency and lack of leadership. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party and former deputy prime minister, appears downbeat, unable to wear the robes of the responsible statesman this emergency calls for; his unabashed criticism of government has even earned him the label “unpatriotic”. In France, Marine Le Pen seems to have vanished altogether from the media, while Bolsonaro’s persistence in denying the crisis is leaving him increasingly isolated.

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Outrage over denial of amnesty for Turkish political prisoners

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Government’s critics not among 90,000 inmates eligible for early release due to coronavirus

Anger is growing in Turkey that while the government is preparing to grant amnesties to up to one third of the country’s prison population in order to combat the coronavirus pandemic, jailed human rights activists, journalists and opposition politicians will not be among those considered for early release.

The Turkish parliament discussed a legal amendment on Tuesday which should make 90,000 of the country’s approximately 300,000 prisoners eligible for either house arrest or parole by halving sentences for offences including non pre-mediatated murder and organised crime. Early drafts of the bill, which would also have covered sex offenders and those convicted of gender-based violence, were dropped after being met with outrage from women’s rights groups.

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How will the UK’s £75m coronavirus repatriation work?

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Key questions around the government’s plan to rescue 300,000 stranded Britons

The government has announced a £75m rescue mission to repatriate an estimated 300,000 British stranded abroad because of the coronavirus outbreak. How will this work and who will be selected for a flight home?

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Authoritarian leaders may use Covid-19 crisis to tighten their grip

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Hungary’s PM insists extreme measures are only to fight the pandemic, others are not so sure

The coronavirus has already overwhelmed medical services, grounded flights and halted economic growth, but one of its most enduring effects could be to usher in a political age in which soft authoritarians have turned harder, and the surveillance state becomes a way of life even in some democracies.

In Hungary, after a set of measures introduced on Monday, it is now a criminal offence to spread misinformation about coronavirus, and the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, can rule by decree for an indefinite period. In neighbouring Serbia, soldiers patrol the streets as part of the coronavirus response plan. In Moscow, authorities are reportedly mulling measures that would require everyone who wants to go outside to submit the reasons online, and then be tracked via their smartphones.

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UK police warned against ‘overreach’ in use of virus lockdown powers

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Exclusive: policing chiefs seek to set out legal powers forces have in coronavirus lockdown

Police chiefs are drawing up new guidance warning forces not to overreach their lockdown enforcement powers after withering criticism of controversial tactics to stop the spread of coronavirus, the Guardian has learned.

The intervention comes amid growing concern that some forces are going beyond their legal powers to stop the spread of Covid-19, with one issuing a summons to a household for shopping for non-essential items and another telling locals that exercise was “limited to an hour a day”.

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Extend Brexit transition by years over coronavirus, UK told

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European People’s party says it hopes ‘common sense will prevail over ideology’

The largest group in the European parliament has urged the UK government to do the “responsible thing” and extend the Brexit transition period, as coronavirus plays havoc with the timetable for an EU-UK deal.

The centre-right European People’s party (EPP), which unites the parties of 11 EU leaders, including Angela Merkel and Leo Varadkar, issued a statement on Monday calling on the government to extend the Brexit transition beyond the end of the year.

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EU citizens in UK at risk of becoming illegal as coronavirus response prioritised

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Campaigners urge government to replace settled status process with guaranteed ‘right to stay’

Campaigners fear that EU citizens who have made their homes in the UK are at risk of becoming illegal as the government diverts resources to fight coronavirus.

Under current rules, all EU citizens have until June 2021 to apply for settled status. However, there are concerns that the pandemic will mean that the government support available to help EU citizens will reduce, and public awareness campaigns, designed to reach the most vulnerable people and those without an online presence, will be delayed.

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Up to six months to see if UK measures have ‘squashed’ coronavirus, says top health official – video

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The deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Jenny Harries, has said restrictions could remain in place for up to six months, and that lifting them too soon would risk a second wave of infection. She said the current measures would be reviewed three weeks after implementation. ‘We actually anticipate our numbers will get worse over the next week, possibly two, and then we are looking to see whether we have managed to push that curve down and we start to see a decline,’ she said

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UK’s coronavirus lockdown will be in place for significant period, says Gove – video

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The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, has said the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain will depend on people’s actions. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show and that the lockdown would remain in place for a significant period

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