Top story: ‘Public want to know government has got a grip’
Hello and welcome to this, the penultimate Guardian morning briefing of 2021. After tomorrow’s final edition, the plan is to come back on Monday 4 January 2022. It’s Warren Murray taking you through today’s news.
Boris Johnson has been pictured with wine and cheese alongside his wife and up to 17 staff in the Downing Street garden during lockdown, raising questions over No 10’s insistence a “work meeting” was taking place. It follows the denial last week that there was a social event on Friday 15 May 2020 including wine, spirits and pizza inside and outside the building. The picture shows bottles of wine, a lack of social distancing and 19 people gathered in groups across the Downing Street terrace and lawn.
Even in light of the new picture, it is understood No 10 maintains that it was not against regulations. A spokesperson said on Sunday: “Work meetings often take place in the Downing Street garden in the summer months. On this occasion there were staff meetings after a No 10 press conference. Downing Street is the prime minister’s home as well as his workplace. The prime minister’s wife lives in No 10 and therefore also legitimately uses the garden.”
It comes as Sajid Javid says fresh Covid restrictions may be imposed before Christmas. They could include a cap on the number of families that can meet, or even hospitality closures. Government advisers have warned that without tougher measures, hospitalisations across England could be set to peak at between 3,000 and 10,000 a day, and deaths at between 600 and 6,000 a day. Javid hailed the fact that a record 906,656 booster jabs were delivered in England alone on Saturday. A No 10 source played down the chances of an imminent announcement, arguing that “plan B was only implemented a week ago, and we’re getting huge numbers coming forward for their boosters”. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said the public needed to hear “practical steps … The public want to know the government has got a grip but, tragically, Boris Johnson is so distracted by his own internal party pressures that he’s unable to provide the leadership this country needs.”
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New Brexit big cheese – The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, is to take over responsibility for Brexit after the government’s chief negotiator with the EU resigned. David Frost’s departure dealt a body blow to an already weakened Boris Johnson, reeling from scandals and the loss of the byelection in North Shropshire. Frost said plan-B coronavirus measures prompted his decision, as well as tax rises and the cost of net zero policies. Truss will have to try to sort out problems with the Northern Ireland protocol. It comes as City of London firms are predicted to revive plans to shift staff to the EU once travel restrictions ease in 2022. Of the 222 largest UK financial services firms monitored by accountancy EY since the 2016 referendum, 44% have confirmed they are relocating staff or operations to the continent – up from 41% in January 2020, in the latest sign of the impact of Brexit on the UK economy.
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Boric roars to power in Chile – A leftist former student leader has stormed to a resounding victory to become Chile’s president-elect. With nearly 97% of the vote counted, Gabriel Boric claimed 55.8% to take a 12 percentage point lead over his far-right opponent, José Antonio Kast, an ultra-conservative. Boric declared to a vast crowd packed into a Santiago boulevard: “The times ahead will not be easy.”
Boric, 35, will be sworn in next March as Chile’s youngest-ever president, having amassed more votes than any presidential candidate in history. He comes from a radical generation of student leaders determined to bury dictator Augusto Pinochet’s bitter legacy once and for all. “Chile was the birthplace of neoliberalism, and it shall also be its grave!” he once declared.
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Fast to free Nazanin – Women around the world will take turns to fast for 24 hours each in an attempt to put pressure on the UK government to secure the freedom of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from detention in Iran. The campaign follows the 21-day hunger strike by Nazanin’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe, outside the Foreign Office in London. Lisa-Marie Taylor, the chief executive of campaign group FiLiA, said women from the UK, India, Morocco and Iran had already signed up to take part.
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Space telescope tinselled up – Final preparations are under way for the launch of the James Webb space telescope, built to peer back through space and time to the first stars and galaxies that lit up the universe. Regarded as the successor to Nasa’s Hubble space telescope, the mission is scheduled to blast off on Christmas Eve from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. More than 30 years in the making, Webb will orbit the sun, unlike Hubble, which circles the Earth. Its destination is the second Lagrange point, or L2, where the balance of gravitational forces will hold it in place between the Earth and sun.
Today in Focus podcast: The big red button
World affairs editor Julian Borger tries out a VR simulation designed to model a real-life nuclear exchange, and reports on the terrifying outcome.
Lunchtime read: His biggest role yet
In 2019, the actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy rode a protest vote and was elected president of Ukraine, telling his supporters he would jail corrupt politicians and negotiate directly with Vladimir Putin to end Russia’s war in east Ukraine. Nearly three years later, Zelenskiy is staring down the threat of a Russian invasion, while he rallies western powers to his side and calls for aid.
Sport
Pyrrhic victories and pointless triumphs were all England had to hold on to on a sometimes comical day four of the second Ashes Test, leaving Joe Root’s team with it all to do if they are to stave off defeat on the final day in Adelaide. Emma Raducanu is the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year for 2021, capping a year of unprecedented sporting success for the tennis star who told the show she was simply “a 19-year-old from Bromley … that’s who she is, nothing else to it”. Jürgen Klopp said Harry Kane should have been dismissed for a foul that could have broken Andy Robertson’s leg and Liverpool should later have been awarded a penalty as he seethed at referee Paul Tierney’s handling of a thrilling 2-2 draw at Tottenham. Chelsea were held to a goalless draw against Wolves after they were denied a postponement of the game at Molineux and deprived of their first-choice forwards because of Covid.
Leicester City players and supporters can breathe a sign of relief going into the winter break after securing their first points in the Women’s Super League against Birmingham. Kyogo Furuhashi’s brilliance secured the Scottish League Cup for Celtic and a first piece of silverware for manager Ange Postecoglou after a 2-1 win over Hibernian. Fallon Sherrock’s dreams of repeating her PDC world championship heroics were dashed by veteran Steve Beaton at Alexandra Palace. The Women’s Tennis Association said an appearance on Sunday by Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai did not address its concerns about her wellbeing. Steve Borthwick’s Leicester kept up that winning feeling against Connacht as they made it a baker’s dozen of victories to head into the Christmas campaign and put a stamp on Europe to add to the mark they have made in the Premiership. And the NBA has postponed a total of five games involving nine teams in response to rising coronavirus numbers, raising the number of contests that have been pushed back this season to seven.
Business
The UK technology sector drew a record £29.4bn in investment this year, according to research, with Cambridge declared the country’s leading regional tech city. The injection of funding from venture capitalists is more than double last year’s total of £11.5bn. This increase in $1bn companies brings the total number of unicorns in the UK to 116, according to figures published by the government’s Digital Economy Council, an advisory committee. This compares with 31 in France and 56 in Germany, according to the council.
Markets in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney have retreated at the start of a trading week that will be shortened by the Christmas holiday. This morning the FTSE looks like opening more than 1% off while the pound is worth $1.322 and €1.175 at time of writing.
The papers
Our Guardian print edition leads with “Johnson and staff seen at No 10 event in lockdown”. The Daily Mail amplifies Tory Covid curb resisters: “Don’t ruin our Christmas again, Boris”, while the Daily Express has Sajid Javid’s warning: “‘No guarantees’ of escape from tougher Xmas rules”. The chancellor doesn’t like the country to lose money and the Times says of that: “Sunak resists new Covid restrictions before Christmas”.
“D-day for Christmas” – the Mirror says Boris Johnson will hold meetings with his top team today amid the “Covid crisis”. The Telegraph has “PM looks at plea to limit mixing at Christmas” – it’s good advice, beer or wine but not both. “It’s all looking a bit ominous” – the Metro puts “Omi” in red to make sure we see what it’s done. “Travel restrictions extend across Europe as Omicron cases soar” is the lead story in the Financial Times, which gives its front-page picture slot to Liz Truss, who has been lumped with making Brexit work after David Frost quit in frustration.
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