Category Archives: Boris Johnson

UK coronavirus live: R number rises to between 1.2 and 1.5; new restrictions for Cardiff, Swansea and Llanelli

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New infections in UK growing by 4% to 8% every day; measures to come into force in three areas in Wales this weekend; London placed on watchlist

A further 33 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 29,871, NHS England said on Friday.

The patients were aged between 56 and 93 and all except two, aged 84 and 88, had known underlying health conditions.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has called for financial support from the government for areas under extra restrictions.

At his weekly press conference, he told reporters:

These restrictions in our case have been in place for a number of weeks, getting on for seven to eight now, and they are having an impact on people’s lives but also on people’s jobs and people’s businesses.

There was not any compensatory support for many of those people announced yesterday and I think this is an unacceptable situation.

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‘Mr Brexit to Mr U-turn’: German commentators befuddled by Johnson’s zig-zagging

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Media criticise PM’s Covid strategy, as UK adopts job support scheme similar to Germany’s own

The UK followed in the footsteps of the German government by adopting a jobs support scheme on Thursday. The announcement came as German commentators spoke of their confusion at the zig-zag approach to tackling the coronavirus, describing a nation caught up in feelings of panic, disbelief and disillusionment.

“Military intervention to control coronavirus rules a possibility,” ran one banner headline in the business daily Handelsblatt this week, while an editorial in the Süddeutsche Zeitung was titled: “Johnson’s skittishness endangers his country.”

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Italian president rebuts Johnson’s ‘freedom’ remarks over restrictions

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Pushback comes after PM’s suggestion UK’s Covid-19 infection rate was worse than Italy because Britons loved their freedom more

Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, said its citizens “also love freedom, but we also care about seriousness”, responding to Boris Johnson’s suggestion that the UK’s rate of coronavirus infection was worse than both Italy and Germany’s because Britons loved their freedom more.

Mattarella’s comments came at the end of a ceremony in Sardinia, in memory of the former Italian president Francesco Cossiga.

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Public not to blame for second wave of Covid-19, says Keir Starmer

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Labour leader points to government mismanagement of virus in televised address

The public are not to blame for a resurgence of coronavirus and have been let down by the government, Keir Starmer has said in a televised address following the prime minister’s broadcast on Tuesday night.

The Labour leader’s remarks pointing the finger at government incompetence come in stark contrast to Boris Johnson’s address, where he appeared to suggest that “freedom-loving” Britons would be to blame if more draconian restrictions were applied.

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UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQs after new restrictions unveiled

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English rules don’t go ‘anywhere near far enough’, says leading government Covid adviser

Starmer says Johnson said the opposite yesterday. Everyone can read it in Hansard. He says a week ago the PM acknowledged that there was a problem. Is the PM saying capacity is the problem, as Dido Harding says? Or he is saying that too many healthy people are requesting tests, as Matt Hancock says?

Johnson says the attacks on Harding from Labour are unseeming. He says the government is going to get testing up to 500,000 per day. He says he wants to hear “more of the spirit of togetherness” that was on display yesterday.

So why did Johnson says yesterday it had “very little” to do with the spread of the disease, Starmer asks.

Johnson says it is an “epidemiological fact” that transmission takes place human to human. And capacity today is at a record high, he says.

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Shortages threaten Johnson’s pledge of 500,000 UK Covid tests a day

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Exclusive: chemicals and machines needed to hit target by end of October are ‘a few weeks behind’

A pledge to hit 500,000 coronavirus tests a day in the UK by the end of next month could be missed as vital chemicals and analysing machines needed to hit the target are “a few weeks” behind schedule, the body representing their manufacturers has said.

Boris Johnson has insisted the UK will hit the target by the end of October, up from about 260,000 capacity now, despite a number of problems including people told to travel hundreds of miles and delays in getting results back.

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Boris Johnson outlines tighter Covid rules for England – video

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The UK is at a 'perilous turning point' and must act, Boris Johnson has told MPs, announcing new restrictions for England including reducing the size of wedding gatherings and bans on indoor team sports, as well as a return to home working

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Coronavirus: Boris Johnson sets out new restrictions to last ‘perhaps six months’

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PM announces 10pm closing for pubs, a ban on indoor team sports and new weddings curbs

The UK is at a “perilous turning point” and must act, Boris Johnson has told MPs, announcing new restrictions for England including slashing the size of wedding celebrations and bans on indoor team sports, as well as a return to home working.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Johnson announced a ban on indoor team sports, such as five-a-side football, and said plans for a partial return of sports fans to stadiums from 1 October had been “paused”. Wedding celebrations will be limited to just 15 guests, half of what was previously permitted, though funerals will be allowed to go ahead with up to 30 mourners.

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Italian airport quashes claims of secret Boris Johnson trip

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President of Perugia airport contradicts press reports that PM visited on 11 September

An Italian airport has quashed reports the prime minister landed there to make a secretive trip to the country less than a fortnight ago, a claim described by Downing Street as “completely untrue”.

Related: From scandal to PR cock-up: how the Boris Johnson Perugia mystery unravelled

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UK coronavirus live: R number increases to between 1.1 and 1.4 as 4,322 new cases recorded

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New infections grow by up to 7% daily; UK cases surge; Welsh leader slams ‘vacancy at heart of UK’; Scotland given ‘advance notice of hard decisions’

Coronavirus cases in England almost doubled in the space of a week, with infections becoming more widespread across all ages, leading one expert to say a second wave had begun.

Almost 60,000 people are thought to have had the virus from 4 to 10 September 2020 – one in every 900 people – with about 6,000 new cases per day, according to the ONS survey of randomly selected people in the community.

Related: England Covid cases almost doubled within a week, according to ONS

A further 4,322 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, an increase of nearly 1,000 cases from the following day.

Overall, 385,936 people have tested positive for coronavirus since the pandemic began.

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Brexit: consortium of companies led by Fujitsu wins £200m Irish Sea contract

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Deal is the first concrete implementation of the special arrangements for Northern Ireland

A £200m contract to implement Brexit checks on goods in the Irish Sea has been won by a consortium of companies led by Japanese company Fujistu.

HMRC announced on Friday that a two-year contract for the new trader support service (TSS) had been awarded to a consortium led by the tech company and its partners, the Customs Clearance Consortium, an organisation run by customs expert Robert Hardy and the Institute of Export and International Trade.

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Boris Johnson not considering second national lockdown, says health minister – video

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Edward Argar denied the government is considering a two-week national lockdown, after a London-based former World Health Organization expert said the coronavirus infection rate could be nearing 38,000 a day. Argar said there was 'speculation in the press' that a new lockdown would be necessary to contain a rapid rise in infections, but said the prime minister did not want such tough measures to be reimposed nationally

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UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson admits there is not enough testing capacity; 3,991 new cases recorded

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PM says testing capacity will be 500,000 per day by end of October; close to 4,000 lab-confirmed new cases reported in UK

Scotland’s children’s commissioner has called for “clear and direct communication to children and families” from the Scottish government, amidst growing concerns that the rule of six impacts disproportionately on poorer children.

Parents have asked why it is that both grouse shooting and fox hunting can continue under the new restrictions, while it is against the law for children from more than two families to play together indoors or out, resulting in an effective ban on home-organised birthday parties and limits on free play in parks, as well as excluding those who can’t afford paid-for group activities.

Public health is the first priority, and we need the public to have confidence that the rules are fair ... The fact is, current regulations mean children can only invite all their friends to celebrate their birthday if their parents can afford to pay someone else to organise it.

A children’s rights impact assessment is essential in demonstrating the legitimacy of decision-making and should be a part of any significant policy changes, along with clear and direct communication to children and families so the legitimate reasons for the restrictions are widely understood.

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MPs passed the Brexit bill – but what happens now?

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The internal market bill will face opposition in the Lords and amendments from Tory backbenchers

The internal market bill, described by the government as a key element of Brexit legislation, has cleared its first Commons hurdle, with two Tory MPs voting against it and nearly 30 more abstaining. But why is the bill so significant?

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Brexit: Ed Miliband accuses Boris Johnson of ‘failure of governance’ in internal market debate – live

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Former chancellor Sajid Javid becomes most senior Tory MP to say he cannot back bill in its current form

The politics live blog will be paused for now, thank you all for reading along so far. We may be back later as the debate continues.

Heald also expressed his unhappiness at the UK government claiming precedent for breaking international law.

He said:

Can I just also say that I was surprised to see this justified by the precedent, allegedly, of the Finance Act 2013 General Anti-Abuse Rule by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

I was a law officer at the time, Dominic Grieve was attorney general. And one thing I can say about Dominic Grieve is that he was very correct and made sure that Government legislation did not offend the rule of law - he was extremely painstaking.

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Tory rebellion widens over Boris Johnson’s bill to override Brexit deal

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Criticism grows of plan to break international law as EU calls for bill to be dropped

Downing Street is facing a showdown with Conservative backbench rebels as criticism over its plans to break international law with a new controversial bill that could override parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement grew louder on Sunday.

It is understood that opposition among the party is growing, with dozens of Tory MPs expected to support a key amendment to the internal market bill that would give parliament a crucial veto of any changes to the agreement.

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Brussels could ‘carve up’ UK if Tories reject Brexit bill, says Johnson

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PM claims internal market bill is needed to counter EU ‘threats’ to put a blockade in Irish Sea

Boris Johnson has said his controversial legislation to override parts of his Brexit deal is needed to end EU threats to install a “blockade” in the Irish Sea.

The prime minister said Brussels could “carve up our country” and “seriously endanger peace and stability” in Northern Ireland if Conservative MPs rebel to block the internal market bill.

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‘It’s world-leadingly bad, is what it is’: the week Covid surged again in UK

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Queues for tests are growing, Tory MPs are agitated and doctors are sceptical about the ‘moonshot’

For Alex, an NHS call centre worker, the signs that coronavirus was back in earnest came when his phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

Over the summer, Alex would log on at home to see 70 or 80 people in the queue for advice on booking an appointment for a Covid test. “You’d get answered in a few minutes,” he said. “Last week, that went up to about 100. By this week it was 1,500.”

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Brexit: UK negotiators ‘believe brinkmanship will reboot trade talks’

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Plan has enraged EU and many Tories but sources say No 10 thinks it will move talks along

Britain’s Brexit negotiators believe Downing Street’s plan to break international law, pushing the trade and security negotiations to the brink, may have helped reboot the talks by offering Brussels a reality check about the looming danger of a no-deal outcome.

The publication of the internal market bill on Wednesday, under which key parts of the withdrawal agreement agreed last year would be negated, has enraged the EU and prompted an internal rebellion within the Conservative party.

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