Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Priti Patel tells MPs she had 'extensive' talks with Met chief about policing of Sarah Everard vigil – as it happened

Early evening summary

  • Priti Patel, the home secretary, has suggested that some of the people present at the Clapham Common vigil for Sarah Everard on Saturday night were to blame for it turning “ugly”. She told MPs that she had “extensive discussions” with the Metropolitan police ahead of the vigil and that she made her views about what should happen “very clear”. On Saturday, after the police broke up the vigil and arrested four women, Patel posted a message on Twitter saying some of the footage of what happened was “upsetting”. (See 3.22pm.) But responding to questions from MPs during a Commons statement, she was much more supportive of the police, hinting that some firmness was appropriate. Asked by Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, what she had said to Dame Cressida Dick, the Met commissioner, ahead of the vigil, Patel said that the police had operational independence. But she went on:

I had been in touch with the Metropolitan police commissioner on Friday and throughout the weekend and we have had extensive discussions in terms of planning, preparation for the vigil at the weekend.

I should, however, emphasise that on Friday there was legal action under way so until that legal action has been determined - and the commissioner and the Metropolitan Police themselves were engaging with the organisers with the vigil - there were various plans the police were working on.

I will be very clear though: on Friday my views were known. And they were based on the fact that people who wanted to pay tribute within the locality - bear in mind we’re in a pandemic, we cannot forget that - that people who live locally, clearly who were either out on a daily basis, passing through - laying flowers is absolutely the right thing to do and we saw many people doing that.

Patel did not tell Davey what she had advised the police to do about people arriving specifically for the early evening vigil (by then officially cancelled) who were not just locals passing through and laying flowers. She said the scenes on Saturday evening were upsetting and that she had ordered a review. But later she gave a further hint to her views in response to the Conservative MP Fay Jones. Jones said:

I’m shocked at the way in which Saturday night’s vigil was policed, the situation demanded sensitivity and compassion, something which was evidently lacking.

But I’m also shocked that what started as a peaceful and important vigil turned into a protest with photographs showing ‘ACAB’ signs, which stands for ‘All Cops Are Bastards’.

I’m concerned that a young woman’s murder could be hijacked by those who would seek to defund the police and destabilise our society, making it even harder for women to come forward and report assaults.

Patel said Jones had made a “a very, very important point that a peaceful vigil on Saturday turned into some pretty ugly scenes”.

  • Patel hinted that the government would back a Labou plan for repeat perpetrators of abuse and stalking to be placed on a register. In the Commons Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, said that when she propose this last year, ministers said it was not needed. Patel replied:

There is something about perpetrators and their serial offending that has to be addressed. There is no question about that at all. This does link, predominantly, to many of the criminal justice outcomes and the wider debate that this house will be having - not just later on today but over future weeks as well. I will be very candid: we will look at all measures and rightly so.

In the Lords peers are due to vote on a Labour amendment for this proposal later tonight.

Priti Patel in the Commons earlier
Priti Patel in the Commons earlier Photograph: Parliament/Jessica Taylor

That’s all from me for tonight. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.

Updated

The UK has recorded 64 further Covid deaths and 5,089 new cases, the government’s dashboard says.

Dashboard
Dashboard Photograph: Gov.UK

Gove opens public consultation on Covid-status certificates

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has opened a public consultation on “Covid-status certification” - using documentation about someone’s vaccine or testing status to help them access venues or services or possibly even jobs. There are details of the call for evidence, including the questions being asked and how to respond here.

As the terms of reference for the Gove review explain, the conclusions of this review will be linked with the conclusions of a separate one looking at the use of vaccine or negative test “passports” for international travel.

Launching the review Gove said:

This review into Covid-status certification is an important part of our plan to help reopen the country and return to normal. However, we recognise that there are complex issues of ethics, privacy and inclusion that need to be fully considered. That is why I want to get as many views as possible on Covid-status certification and its potential implications to help inform the review.

ITV has obtained pictures of the new Downing Street briefing room, where televised lobby briefings are meant to be taking place once Covid restrictions ease.

As ITV’s Erron Gordon points out, there may have to be a rethink over the branding on the lectern.

Public Health England has issued a fresh statement, from Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, saying the AstraZeneca vaccine is not leading to more people getting blood clots.

The JCVI has issued this statement in response to the news that Germany, France and Italy have now all suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. My colleague Jon Henley has the story.

There is another protest in Parliament Square this afternoon, with some campaigners focusing on the police bill and others focusing on violence against women.

There is a live feed here.

And here are some photographs.

Women at the protest in Parliament Square.
Women at the protest in Parliament Square. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters
Protesters in Parliament Square.
Protesters in Parliament Square. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images
A woman at the protest.
A woman at the protest. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
Protesters in Parliament Square
Protesters in Parliament Square Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images
A man at the protest.
A man at the protest. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Joanna Cherry (SNP) asks if the government supports upholding single-sex spaces in places like refuges.

Patel says safeguarding women is exactly what the government has been doing.

The statement is now over.

These are from the BBC’s former home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw.

Stella Creasy (Lab) says a quarter of all forces are recording, or trial recording, where crimes are linked to misogyny. Will the government support the amendment in the Lords requiring all forces to do this, as a step towards making misogyny a hate crime.

Patel says Creasy will have to follow the Lords debate on this. There is extensive debate on this issue, she says.

Rupa Huq (Lab) says, “as one small Asian women to another”, she would like to ask that women’s safety is always built into estate design, so that natural surveillance is built in

Patel says the government will look at this. It is an important point, she says.

In response to a question from Maria Miller (Con), Patel says she agrees she would like to look into the role that pornography plays in encouraging harmful sexual behaviour towards women and girls.

Caroline Nokes, the Conservative chair of the Commons committee for women and equalities, says the crime and justice taskforce (being chaired by the PM this afternoon) looks like an all-male affair.

Patel says it isn’t. She says she is on it, along with the safeguarding minister, Victoria Atkins, and the Met police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick. It is not the case that all government decisions are taken by men, she says.

Heather Wheeler (Con) says it is absurd for Labour to call for tougher sentences against rapists while opposing this bill.

Patel says Wheeler has expressed it perfectly.

Alison Thewliss (SNP) asks what Patel will do to change the toxic culture that tolerates violence against women.

Patel says this is about what we do collectively. We all have a role to play, she says.

Sir Charles Walker, one of the Tory MPs most opposed to lockdown, says it was MPs, not the Met police, who “criminalised freedom of protest”. He urges the government to abandon those laws now.

Patel suggests some protesters played role in Clapham vigil turning 'ugly'

Fay Jones (Con) says some protesters were carrying ACAB signs - meaning “All cops are bastards”.

Patel says Jones has made an important point. A peaceful vigil turned into “some pretty ugly scenes”, she says.

Updated

Harriet Harman, the Labour chair of the joint committee on human rights, says it was just wrong of the Met commissioner not to allow a vigil to go ahead. She says the law on protest during lockdown needs to be clarified. Will Patel accept her committee’s recommendations on this?

Patel says she will look at the report when it is published.

The pandemic has been difficult for the police, she says. She says she is the first to acknowledge that.

Updated

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, says the government should protect the right to peaceful protest.

Patel says she agrees with Brady on this.

Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, says Patel herself has made it clear the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill is designed to crack down on groups like Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter. Isn’t it bound to lead to more scenes like the ones we saw at Clapham Common?

Patel says she looks forward to debating the bill with Abbott. Abbott has mis-characterised it, she says. She says in recent years the tactics used by protesters have changed. That has led to more violence, she says. She says the bill will address this.

Ian Paisley (DUP) says, if one of his adult daughters was treated in the way that Patsy Stevenson was treated at Clapham Common, he would find it impossible to contain his anger.

Patel says that for eight hours people were able peacefully to pay tribute at Clapham Common. She urges MPs to await the findings of the review into what happened.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has issued a statement, following a meeting with Reclaim These Streets, saying he is committed to reclaiming public spaces where women feel unsafe.

Updated

Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, says she also proposed a domestic abuse register last year. But she was told it was not necessary.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, says he has been contacted by a female police officer on duty in Clapham that night. She told him she had been threatened and manhandled, and that one of the protesters told her she should be dead, not Sarah Everard, he says.

Patel admits she had 'extensive' talks with Met chief about policing of vigil

Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says Dame Cressida Dick should resign. But to what extent is Patel responsible? Did she speak to Dick beforehand?

Patel says she was in touch with Dick on Friday and throughout the weekend. They had “extensive discussions”, she says.

But on Friday legal action was under way, she says.

She says on Friday her views were well known. She thought local people who wanted to pay tribute, who were out and passing through, might want to lay flowers.

But what happened on Saturday night was distressing. That is why she has asked for a report, she says.

(Patel does not say what her view was of people who were not local going to Clapham Common to join the vigil, although her words imply that she was opposed to that.)

Updated

Patel suggests government may back Labour plan for register of repeat stalking offenders

Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the home affairs committee, says she proposed measures eight months ago for repeat stalking offenders to be registered. At the time the government said those measures were not needed. Will the government consider them now?

Priti Patel says Cooper is “absolutely right” about this issue. There is a need to address issues about perpetrators, she says. She says the government will “look at all measures”. And she says, with the consultation that is under way, she will continue to engage.

This suggests that the government is minded to support an amendment to the domestic abuse bill that has been tabled by Lady Royall. It is being debated this afternoon. In a HuffPost article at the end of last week about her plan, Royall said:

Stalking is murder in slow motion, and we must treat it as seriously as other crimes. No woman should have to live in fear of their life. That is why I have tabled an amendment to proactively identify, assess and manage serial and repeat high-risk and high-harm domestic abusers and stalkers. Formally backed by a cross-party alliance of other peers, it would also ensure a more coordinated approach to data collection on perpetrators.

Updated

Priti Patel in the Commons this afternoon
Priti Patel in the Commons this afternoon Photograph: Parliament TV

Angela Crawley, the SNP attorney general spokesperson, says the policing at Clapham Common seemed heavy-handed and disproportionate.

Theresa May, the former PM and former home secretary, says women should feel and be safe in their homes. Will the government redouble efforts to get the domestic abuse bill on the statute book next month? But will the government address attitudes too? That means teaching boys and young men about what is and isn’t acceptable in a relationship.

Patel says the domestic abuse bill is a landmark piece of legislation.

She says respect and tolerance are vital. “Legislation can only go so far,” she says.

She says she hopes the opposition will contribute to the review. She would like to see a one-voice approach to this problem.

In her response to Thomas-Symonds, Priti Patel praises Theresa May for her record as home secretary in legislating to tackle violence against women.

On rape, she says the government is conducting a review on what can be done to improve convictions. She says that will be published soon.

She rejects the Labour charge that the bill will not help women. It will end automatic half-way release for people convicted of offences like rape, she says.

But she says it is a general criminal justice bill. That is why it does not specifically mention women, she says. She says it applies to everyone.

She says it is not just the law that needs to change; culture needs to change too, she says.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, is responding now. He says the reaction to Sarah Everard’s death has been powerful and moving.

Women are rightly demanding change, he says. The testimony shared highlights the unacceptable level of misogyny and abuse, he says.

It is not women who need to change their behaviour, but men, and wider society, he says.

He says the Home Office should publish the minutes of the meeting held with the Met ahead of the vigil on Saturday.

He says holding a meeting is not enough, he says. And he says the minister for women and equalities has not even been invited.

He says between 2014 and 2018 recorded rape doubled.

The 296-page crime bill mentions the word memorial eight times, but the word women not once, he says.

He says ministers have been trying to argue the bill will help women. But it needs to address street harassment and stalking, he says.

78,000 responses to gendered crime consultation since Friday

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, starts by reminding MPs that proceedings are active in the Sarah Everard case, which means they should not comment on details of the case, or the accused.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, starts by confirming that she has asked HM Inspectorate of Constabulary to conduct a review of the policing of the vigil at Clapham Common.

She says what happened to Sarah reminded women of the precautions they take every day to protect themselves. Patel says she includes herself in this.

She says the domestic abuse bill is on track to get royal assent by the end of April. This will transform the approach to this crime, she says.

The government has accepted amendments to the bill from opposition parliamentarians, she says.

She says the bill now includes a new offence of non-fatal strangulation, and covers threatening to post intimate images online.

On Friday she re-opened the consultation on gendered crime. Since then, the Home Office has received 78,000 responses, she says. She says that is unprecedented.

Updated

Here is the call list of MPs down to ask a question after Priti Patel delivers her statement. Forty-five MPs are on the list, including Theresa May, the former prime minister and former home secretary.

For a guide to what May might say, it is worth reading today’s Telegraph column (paywall) by Nick Timothy, her co-chief of staff at the Home Office and then, for a year, at No 10. Timothy says:

And what is done to monitor men we know pose a threat to women? Under existing laws, a woman can check if their partner has a history of violence under the domestic violence disclosure scheme. But they are not guaranteed a right to the information, and there is no single register of men found guilty of violence towards women, as there is for sex offenders. We should do far more to monitor and where necessary restrict the freedoms of men who are a danger to women, and give the authorities, and women themselves, information that might protect them from violence.

Many other things need to be done besides. We need to change cultural attitudes within the police to violence against women and improve police accountability. We need to improve the way prosecutors approach cases of violence against women. We need to make sure that everybody across relevant public services understands the connection between violence and coercive control, which often involves financial control, psychological manipulation, and – after relationships have ended – parental alienation and the abuse of parental rights in the family courts. We need to help more women to escape violent and controlling relationships. We need to crack down on stalking and harassment, online and in person. And we need to do something about extreme and violent pornography.

Timothy and May were, of course, at the Home Office for six years, and so they are open to the charge that they should have addressed these points themselves (although, in truth, most ministers leave office wishing they had achieved more).

Updated

Priti Patel's statement to MPs about policing and violence against women

Priti Patel, the home secretary, will make a statement to MPs just after 3.30pm about policing and violence against women.

This is the message she posted on Twitter on Saturday night after the police broke up the vigil on Clapham Common in memory of Sarah Everard.

After Brexit Boris Johnson said that he wanted to bring the country together. In one sense he has achieved his aim today because a prominent leave campaigner has united with a prominent remain campaigner in signing an open letter criticising the provisions on demonstrations in the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill.

Richard Tice, a founder of Leave Means Leave and leader of what is now the Reform party (formerly the Brexit party) and Naomi Smith, head of Best for Britain (which opposed Brexit), have both signed the letter that says:

As long as laws are made in parliament, then British people must have a legal right to protest them in Parliament Square. Democracy is not an ‘inconvenience’. Public opposition and dissent are among the hard-won rights that make our democratic and like-minded groups.

This bill seeks to silence British people when avenues to express dissatisfaction and opposition by members of the public are already limited. In a democracy, the role of government and the police should be to facilitate the organisation of demonstrations such that people are able to participate safely and legally whilst making their voices heard. This bill does precisely the opposite, and provides no route of appeal or challenge either in law or otherwise.

Seeking to limit noise levels so people cannot be heard, and preventing people from assembling outside parliament so they cannot be seen - these are the words and actions of authoritarians.

Our organisations may have different political views, but we stand shoulder to shoulder to defend our right to express these views be it by peaceful political protest or other peaceful means.

The letter has also been signed by Tom Brufatto, former organiser of the People’s Vote demonstrations, and Anna Bird, head of the European Movement UK.

Updated

Ipsos Mori has published its latest monthly political monitor polling (pdf), and its findings look good for the Conservatives.

On voting intention, the Tories are up three points, giving them a seven-point lead over Labour.

Approval of the government’s handling of coronavirus is going up.

Polling on government’s handling of coronavirus
Polling on government’s handling of coronavirus. Photograph: Ipsos MORI

Boris Johnson’s net satisfaction rating has gone up, marginally, over the last month, while Sir Keir Starmer’s has fallen significantly - with the result that, overall, Johnson is now outperforming Starmer on this measure.

Satisfaction ratings for Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer
Satisfaction ratings for Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer. Photograph: Ipsos MORI

And economic optimism is soaring (although, given that economic optimism is defined as thinking the economic condition of the country will be better in the next 12 months than in the last 12 months, that is hardly surprising).

Polling on economic optimism
Polling on economic optimism. Photograph: Ipsos MORI

Updated

Kirsty Williams, the Welsh government’s education minister, has said there are “no immediate plans” to change school holiday dates in Wales for this academic year. Speaking at a Welsh government Covid briefing, she said £78m had been made available to schools and colleges to ensure they had the staff and resources to support pupils. She went on:

There are no immediate plans to change holiday school dates for this academic year.

As to what schools will look like in September, I have learned over this last year not to make predictions.

Clearly, we will want schools to be as back to normal - the old normal - as possible but it’s impossible at this point to say where we will be with some of the Covid security measures that we’ve had to put in place.

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has said every vote for the Tories will “cut the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon down to size”. As PA Media reports, speaking during a visit to Glasgow following the announcement of 500 jobs being created in the city through a Cabinet Office expansion, Gove said:

It’s up to the Scottish people to decide who the next first minister is, I hope it will be Douglas Ross [the Scottish Conservative leader].

The Scottish Conservatives are the only party fighting an unapologetically pro-UK campaign focused on jobs and economic recovery.

We know that every vote for the Scottish Conservatives is a vote to cut the SNP and cut Nicola Sturgeon down to size and that seems to me to be the wisest thing to do.

Michael Gove
Michael Gove. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Updated

School reopening in Scotland may have contributed to small rise in Covid cases, says Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon has said the return of pupils to school in Scotland may have contributed to a small rise in the number of Covid cases. Speaking at her daily briefing, she said:

It is important to note that over the past seven days we have actually seen a slight increase in cases and we will be monitoring that carefully and it does provide us with a reminder that there is still no room for complacency and that our room for manoeuvre is limited.

As PA Media reports, children in P1-P3 returned to Scotland’s schools on 22 February. Today hey were joined by classmates in P4-P7, with secondary school pupils returning to in-class learning part time.

Sturgeon said:

Can we rule out a link between schools partially reopening and a bit of an uptick in cases? No, I don’t think we can.

And that will not be because particularly of transmission within schools but we know that when schools open there is just a little bit more movement generally as parents take children to school for example.

At the same briefing Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith, said that he was “not overly concerned” by the rise in cases which he said was not as large as he thought it might have been. He said:

We knew that as schools went back it a always going to be the possibility that, as people could go about their lives more, there would be more contact of one sort or another and that could lead to more transmission and I think that is exactly what we are seeing being played through in the figures just now.

Updated

Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, professor of the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, has backed AstraZeneca’s claim there is no evidence that the Oxford jab leads to an increased risk of a blood clot. (See 11.30am.) Speaking on the World at One, he said:

I’ve looked at the AstraZeneca reports and they’ve said that 17m jabs across the EU and the UK [had been administered] and they’ve had about 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis and 22 cases of pulmonary embolism reported.

Doing some some sums, deep vein thrombosis happens to one in 1,000 people per year of all ages.

So, out of those 17m jabs, we would expect at least 17,000 of those people to get a deep vein thrombosis some time in the year.

So that means that there will have been - and you can pretty well guarantee it - 350 people who have had an AstraZeneca jab then had a deep vein thrombosis in the week following that.

I think what’s surprising is that only 15 have been reported as a possible adverse effect.

No 10 rejects claim from police chief that Covid protest rules should be clearer

The Downing Street lobby briefing is over. Here are the key points.

  • No 10 said it would reply to the letters from the EU about legal action over the the Northern Ireland protocol “in due course”. The prime minister’s spokesman said the measures being taken by the UK were “temporary operational steps intended to minimise disruption in Northern Ireland”. When it was put to him that the the government’s decision to ignore the protocol rules saying plant products containing soil should not be exported from Britain to Northern Ireland was permanent, not temporary (see 10.16am), the spokesman just claimed this had been covered in Michael Gove’s letter (pdf) to the EU earlier this year about the protocol.
  • Downing Street rejected a suggestion from a senior police chief that the laws about what protests are allowed under lockdown are unclear. On the Today programme this morning Martin Hewitt, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said:

You are balancing different rights, you are balancing legal regulations, you are balancing health and safety. They are very difficult decisions for commanders on the ground to make in any set of circumstances. Where we are at the moment, where we are under Covid regulations, we have got the public health threat of the pandemic, those decisions have been made even harder for commanders.

These are complex. We want clarity so commanders on the ground can make those decisions in what are always very challenging circumstances.

But asked if Boris Johnson agreed the rules were unclear, the PM’s spokesman said:

We’ve worked closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing to make sure the right guidance is in place and that police officers know what the rules are and how to enforce them. Police have engaged members of the public throughout, they’ve explained the rules, encouraged them to follow the rules and enforced them if needed.

  • Downing Street said the Duchess of Cambridge did not break the law when she visited the bandstand at Clapham Common on Saturday to lay flowers in memory of Sarah Everard. Speculation that she might have done was prompted by Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, saying that, if it had been lawful, she would have been there herself. But, asked if the duchess had broken the law, the PM’s spokesman said:

We understand the strength of feeling and the PM shares in the sadness and shock at Sarah’s death. As the Met said themselves on Saturday, for over six hours hundreds of people came to lay flowers and pay their respects to Sarah in Clapham Common in a safe and lawful way.

The duchess visited the common before the time originally scheduled for the vigil to start.

EU says UK's second breach of international law in six months undermines trust

The European commission has confirmed that it has launched legal action against the UK for breaching the Northern Ireland protocol. In a news release about its move, it says this is “the second time in the space of six months that the UK government is set to breach international law”.

Maroš Šefčovič, the commission vice president, said that by acting unilaterally and violating international law, the UK was undermining trust. In a statement he said:

The protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland is the only way to protect the Good Friday (Belfast) agreement and to preserve peace and stability, while avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland and maintaining the integrity of the EU single market.

The EU and the UK agreed the protocol together. We are also bound to implement it together. Unilateral decisions and international law violations by the UK defeat its very purpose and undermine trust between us. The UK must properly implement it if we are to achieve our objectives. That is why we are launching legal action today.

I do hope that through the collaborative, pragmatic and constructive spirit that has prevailed in our work so far on implementing the withdrawal agreement, we can solve these issues in the joint committee without recourse to further legal means.

Maros Sefkovic
Maroš Šefčovič Photograph: Aris Oikonomou/AFP via Getty Images

Updated

Women’s fears about their safety must be 'properly heard', says Johnson

Sky News has just broadcast an interview that Boris Johnson gave this morning on a visit to the West Midlands, where he was promoting his £3bn bus investment strategy. (See 12.18pm.) Here are the main points.

  • Johnson said he wanted to ensure that women’s fears about their safety are “properly heard”. He said that what happened to Sarah Everard has “unleashed a wave of feeling, from women above all, who do worry about their safety at night”. The government would respond, he said. He said:

The fundamental issue that we have to address, as a country and as a society, as a government, is that women must feel that when they make serious complaints about violence, about assault, that they are properly heard and properly addressed. And we’re going to make sure that that happens ...

Women have got to feel that, when they make a complaint, when they go to the police with an account or an allegation of violence, they will be taken seriously. So our teams are meeting tonight to discuss what more we can do.

  • He claimed that the government was already acting to protect women. Labour has said the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill being debated in parliament this afternoon does not specifically protect women. But Johnson said it would toughen sentences for rapists and end early release for sexual and violent offenders. He also said the government was introducing measures to tackle domestic violence.
  • He said he had full confidence in Cressida Dick. Asked if he had “full confidence” in her, he replied: “Yes, I do.”
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson. Photograph: Sky news/Sky News

Updated

A man at Lazarou in Cardiff city centre getting a haircut as barbers and hairdressers in Wales are allowed to reopen for the first time since lockdown.
A man at Lazarou in Cardiff city centre getting a haircut as barbers and hairdressers in Wales are allowed to reopen for the first time since lockdown. Photograph: Gareth Everett/Huw Evans/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Sir Peter Fahy, the former Greater Manchester police chief constable, told Times Radio this morning that he was concerned about the provisions in the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill that will give the police new powers to restrict demonstrations. He said:

If we’ve learned one thing this weekend, it’s the right to protest, the right to gather, the right to have a voice is fundamental to our democracy, and particularly British democracy.

And bringing in legislation on the back of the Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion demonstrations, rushing that legislation through, putting in some really dodgy definitions which the police are supposed to make sense of ...

Again, if we’ve learned one thing from the coronavirus legislation, [it] is that rushed legislation and unclear definitions cause huge confusion for the public and for the police having to enforce it.

The House of Commons library has produced a series of briefing on the bill, which covers a wide range of policing and criminal justice matters. You can find them all here. And here is the briefing (pdf) on the plans in the bill relating to the policing of protests.

Updated

Court of appeal rejects legal challenge to CPS rape policy

A legal challenge against the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over an alleged change in policy on prosecuting alleged rapes and other serious sexual offences has been dismissed by the court of appeal, PA Media reports. PA says:

The End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) argued the CPS moved away from a “merits-based approach” to deciding which cases of alleged rape and other serious sexual assault should be prosecuted, which it said has given rise to “systemic illegality”.

The group claimed that, between 2016 and 2018, prosecutors became more risk-averse and shifted towards an “unlawful predictive approach when deciding whether to charge” alleged sexual offences.

Their lawyers said this unlawful approach has led to a “shocking and unprecedented decline in both the rate and volume of rape offences charged by the CPS”.

The CPS, however, said there has been no change in policy and argued at a hearing in January that the removal of dedicated “merits-based approach” guidance “did not result in any substantial change” in charging decisions.

In a judgment on Monday, the court of appeal dismissed the EVAW’s case, ruling that the CPS did not change its policy in relation to the prosecution of sexual offences.

The lord chief justice, Lord Burnett, said in the ruling that the removal of references to the “merits-based approach” in guidance for prosecutors “was not a change of legal substance”.

The judge, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing, said: “We do not consider that it was unlawful to decide to remove references to the merits-based approach from the Director of Public Prosecution’s legal guidance.

“Stripped of references to the merits-based approach, the remaining guidance is not unlawful.”

Lord Burnett added: “We reject the submission that the decision created any risk of systemic illegality.”

Labour has announced a “survivors’ support plan for victims of rape”. It coincided with the opening of the second reading debate for the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which the party says fails to protect women. The plan involves various measures intended to fast-track rape and serious sexual assault through the criminal justice system, including the appointment of a minister for survivors of rape and sexual violence.

Announcing the plan, Ellie Reeves, the shadow solicitor general, said:

A decade of failure has weakened the foundations of our criminal justice system, leading to a near total collapse in rape prosecutions and delays of years getting to trial.

Many survivors feel the system is working against them, not for them, and that is completely the wrong way round.

When Boris Johnson had his first telephone call with President Biden, journalists were told that they bonded over their shared love of trains. This came as something of a surprise to those of us who have followed his career as a journalist or a politicians because, over 30 years, if he does have a secret passion for locomotives, he’s managed to keep it hidden quite successfully. But he is genuinely enthusiastic about buses, and today he’s announcing a £3bn bus investment strategy.

Updated

Government has failed to provide evidence to justify roadmap plans for hospitality and entertainment, say MPs

As my colleague Sarah Boseley reports, the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee – a cross-party body with a Conservative majority – has published a highly-critical report today about the government’s failure to provide enough data to justify some of the lockdown decisions taken during the pandemic. The committee’s summary is here, and Sarah’s story is here.

With Boris Johnson reportedly facing a rebellion from Tory MPs when the Commons votes on extending the current restrictions, one of the committee’s findings may be particularly problematic. It says the government has not provided enough evidence to justify the proposal in its roadmap to stop pubs and restaurants in England serving customers indoors, and indoor entertainment opening, until 17 May at the earliest. It says:

The hospitality and entertainment sectors have not seen sufficient data to underpin decisions relating to their industry. The evidence the committee received was inconclusive over whether restrictions on hospitality and entertainment sectors were sensible and indeed it is not the purpose of this report to come to a judgement on that. However, building trust with these sectors is absolutely essential and the level of transparency has not been sufficient.

Updated

No evidence to back claims AstraZeneca jab linked to blood clots, says vaccine expert

Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford vaccine group, told the Today programme that there was no evidence to back suggestions that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine may give people blood clots.

Yesterday the Netherlands became the latest of several European countries to suspend use of the vaccine following reports that patients who have received it have developed blood clots.

But Pollard said that more than 11m doses of the vaccine had now been given in the UK, and that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had said “very clearly that they’re not seeing any increase in the number of cases of blood clots” over what they would see normally. He explained:

A lot of stuff happens to people all the time in normal times and, in the case of blood clots here in the UK, we see about 3,000 cases of blood clots happening every month.

So, when you then put a vaccination campaign on top of that, clearly those blood clots still happen and you’ve got to then try and separate out whether, when they occur, they are at all related to the vaccine or not.

Pollard said Finland has also done a “very careful study” and not found an increased risk.

And he also said that, without a vaccination programme, there would be “tens of thousands of more deaths” later this year. He went on:

A number of countries around Europe are now seeing an increase in cases again. Italy and France and Germany and Poland - all have the start of a new surge in cases.

It’s absolutely critical that we don’t have a problem of not vaccinating people and have the balance of a huge risk - a known risk of Covid - against what appears so far from the data that we’ve got from the regulators - no signal of a problem.

Updated

Dania Al-Obeid, one of the women arrested at the vigil on Clapham Common on Saturday, told the Today programme this morning that she felt she was being silenced. She said:

When I did get arrested and spoke to them, and when I was handcuffed in the van, they understood our position. They were just following orders.

I think that’s where the frustration was, the bigger picture here was lost. We felt we were silenced and this could have been avoided if there was some understanding and compassion to the trauma that women feel every single day.

Portugal set to be removed from England's travel 'red list', ending need for hotel quarantine

Portugal is set to be removed from England’s travel “red list”, in the first major change to rules for international arrivals in months.

It means people will be allowed to travel from Portugal to England again, and non-British residents and nationals who were allowed to do so before will no longer have to quarantine in a hotel but can do so at home instead.

The change is expected to be announced later today and come into force later this week, to give airlines and passengers time to prepare, sources told the Guardian.

It will trigger a sense of deja vu for readers who remember the updates to travel corridors last year that were announced in a bid to restrict journeys from countries with higher coronavirus infection rates than the UK’s.

National lockdown rules are still in place in England, meaning travel out of the country is only allowed for a few essential reasons. Political leaders in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland decide what coronavirus restrictions to place on travellers arriving in their respective nations.

Portugal was the only European country added to the red list when it came into force on 15 January, in a bid to prevent passengers carrying the Covid variants originally found in Brazil and South Africa into the UK.

Updated

Anna Birley from Reclaim These Streets, one of the organisers of a vigil for Sarah Everard, has said Cressida Dick should not resign, my colleague Haroon Siddique reports.

According to a snap YouGov poll, by a margin of two to one people do not think Dame Cressida Dick should resign from her post as commissioner of the Metropolitan police.

The poll also suggests people are much more divided over whether the Sarah Everard vigil in London should have been allowed to go ahead on Saturday in the first place. By a narrow margin, the public as a whole thinks it should not have been allowed. But a plurality of women think it should have been allowed, while a plurality of men think it should have been banned.

EU to launch legal action against UK over non-implementation of Northern Irish protocol

These are from RTE’s Europe editor, Tony Connelly. The EU is taking the UK to court following the government’s decision (announced on budget day, when attention was understandably elsewhere) to unilaterally delay the implementation of certain aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol. (Colleagues have confirmed that Connelly is right – as he normally is.)

The budget day decision was announced in a written ministerial statement from Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary. David Frost, the Brexit minister, also discussed them in a call with his EU counterpart, the commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič. According to the Cabinet Office read-out of the call, Frost said the measures were “well precedented in other international trade arrangements” and “entirely consistent with [the UK’s] intention to discharge [its] obligations under the protocol in good faith”.

But, in an interview published in the News Letter in Belfast at the weekend, Lewis said that government was not just delaying implementing aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol. The ban under the protocol on British soil being imported into Northern Ireland was being abandoned for good, Lewis said.

Updated

There are two comments statements today. This means the second reading debate for the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill will probably not start until around 6pm.

Met chief Cressida Dick is 'officer of superlative achievement', says minister

Good morning. As commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Dame Cressida Dick must be very aware that two of her three most recent predecessors, Sir Ian Blair and Sir Paul Stephenson, were forced to quit against their wishes after their conduct meant they lost the support of their political masters and yesterday, in the light of the controversy about the Met’s handling of the Sarah Everard vigil on Clapham Common, it looked as though she might be on course for an early exit too. In a statement issued last night Boris Johnson (who despatched Ian Blair when he was London mayor) said:

Like everyone who saw it I was deeply concerned about the footage from Clapham Common on Saturday night.

But Johnson also said in his statement that he had spoken to Dick, and that two reviews of the incident were underway, and this morning it is clear that support for the commissioner is firming up. Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, has been giving interviews this morning and he has backed her enthusiastically. He told BBC Breakfast:

Cressida Dick is an officer of superlative achievement in her life and she has been close to some incredibly successful investigations. I know that she is very dedicated and committed to this issue of dealing with violence against women and girls in as assertive a way as we possibly can.

And he told the Today programme:

Cressida Dick is a fount of knowledge, skill and expertise in us confronting violence against women and girls, and so when we sit down and meet later today to talk about this issue, I’ve no doubt she will have a huge amount to contribute.

In other words, the commissioner’s job is safe.

But that won’t end the narrow controversy about what happened on Clapham Common at the weekend, and the wider debates about why women still feel that the police and the criminal justice system don’t protect them properly, and how protests should be policed, both during Covid and later. These would be big issues anyway, but they have landed at the top of the news agenda on the day MPs start debating a mammoth piece of legislation addressing them.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: The ONS publishes a report on a year of coronavirus.

10.30am: Anas Sarwar gives his first major speech as the new Scottish Labour leader.

12pm: Downing Street is due to hold its lobby briefing.

12.15pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is expected to hold a Covid briefing.

12.15pm: Kirsty Williams, the Welsh government’s education minister, holds a briefing.

After 2.30pm: Peers resume their debate on the domestic abuse bill. They are due to consider an amendment that would make misogyny a hate crime.

3.30pm: Priti Patel, the home secretary, is likely to make a Commons statement about the policing of the Sarah Everard vigil in Clapham on Saturday.

Afternoon: Patel is due to open the second reading debate on the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill. The debate will last two days, so MPs will vote tomorrow.

Late afternoon: Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the government’s crime and justice taskforce to discuss further steps to protect women.

Recently Politics Live has mostly been focusing on Covid, but today I expect we will be mostly covering the fallout from the Sarah Everard vigil, and the debates provoked by that. For wider Covid coverage, here is our global coronavirus live blog.

I’m afraid we are going to have to keep comments turned off today. We have not taken that decision lightly - the comments are a highly valued feature of this blog - but the Sarah Everard case is subject to contempt of court proceedings, the media is being closely scrutinised and, given the large number of comments this blog normally attracts, we have judged that the risk of illegal comments getting posted and being seen is too high. I’m sorry about that.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
The Hidden Threat in Your Pantry Why the FDA Is Recalling Ground Cinnamon
Baking a batch of cookies or sprinkling spice on your morning oatmeal feels entirely safe. You assume the dry powders sitting in your pantry are immune to the contamination issues that plague fresh meat and produce. Recent announcements from the Food and Drug Administration completely shatter that comforting illusion. A…
Grocery Coupon Guide
Grocery Coupon Guide
The Guide #237: Fab 5 Freddy, the street artist at the heart of New York’s creative zenith
A new memoir by Fred Brathwaite offers an insight into the city’s emerging underground scene in the 70s and 80s – and shows us the power of subcultures in difficult times
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
The two lives of Chuck Norris
“Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups. He simply pushes the world down.”
The Conversation
The Conversation
The Zendaya Romance The Drama Is Weirder and More Uncomfortable Than You Expect
A movie about marriage, memory, and the difficulty of knowing another person.
Reason
Reason
Simply the best: A connoisseurs guide to the finest Belgian chocolate this Easter
Eggs have been a long-standing symbol for Easter, but when did chocolate enter the holiday scene? Rebecca Spezzano has been on the streets of Brussels to discover the secrets of luxury handmade Belgian chocolate.
Euronews
Euronews
Nearly a century of wondering: The American UFO saga, in reality and in fiction
UFOs have intrigued people for decades, with sightings and investigations dating back to the first widely reported one in 1947
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play