Early evening summary
- Boris Johnson has used a press conference in Downing Street to warn that rising Covid cases on continental Europe are like “storm clouds” posing a threat to the UK. (See 3.48pm.)
- Johnson has urged people to get their booster vaccines, saying that it would be an “utter tragedy” for anyone to die because the protection provided by two doses had waned. At his press conference he said:
Many more people who are eligible [for a booster] have not yet come forward. And so, if you are one of those people, please go and get that third jab because it would be an utter tragedy if, after everything we’ve been through, people who had done the right thing by getting double vaccinated ended up becoming seriously ill or even losing their lives because they allowed their immunity to wane by not getting their booster.
He spoke as the government extended the booster programme to cover people aged 40 to 49.
- Johnson said the concept of what constituted “full vaccination” would need to be adjusted to take booster jabs into account. He said:
On boosters, it’s very clear that getting three jabs - getting your booster - will become an important fact and it will make life easier for you in all sorts of ways, and we will have to adjust our concept of what constitutes a full vaccination to take account of that. And I think that is increasingly obvious.
- Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, said it was particularly important for pregnant women to get vaccinated. (See 3.12pm.)
- Keir Starmer has claimed Johnson’s “guileless boosterism” undermined Cop26. (See 4.42pm.) In a statement to MPs Johnson accused the opposition of being unwilling to accept that the summit had been a success, and he said it has succeeded “by uniting the world in calling time on coal”. (See 5.04pm.)
Updated
Kwarteng apologises to parliamentary commissioner for standards for suggesting she should resign
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has apologised to Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, for suggesting in an interview she should resign.
He also suggests his comment may have broken the ministerial code.
BEIS Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng apologizes to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for his media comments about her, and says he 'should have chosen ... words more carefully' as he 'did not mean to express doubt about your ability to discharge your role'.
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) November 15, 2021
Letter on gov uk pic.twitter.com/giarWaIdOA
Updated
In the Commons Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, asked Boris Johnson earlier what he would do to convince China, Russia and Australia to end their coal production. Corbyn said:
New Delhi is now getting into a pollution lockdown because of the emissions that have affected the people there. The poorest people in the poorest places all around the world suffer the worst from pollution. Can he tell us what he is going to seriously do to bring China, Russia and Australia and others on board to get rid of their coal production?
As PA Media reports, Johnson said the UK would help the Indian government in “any way that we can” to move beyond coal. He added:
Of course it was disappointing to see the language changed from phase out to phase down, but we never had any commitments on coal at Cop before.
What will now happen, the global peer pressure on countries to move away from coal will intensify very rapidly and the change will happen much faster than people think.
Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, has told MPs that he’s “very uneasy” about the UK’s inflation situation. My colleague Graeme Wearden has the details on his business live blog here.
Back in the Commons, Boris Johnson is still taking questions on Cop26. He claims, despite what opposition MPs are saying, even they can see that Cop26 was a “considerable success”.
Stormont’s health minister has called for the phased introduction of mandatory vaccine passports in Northern Ireland, PA Media reports. PA says:
Robin Swann’s proposal comes after escalating pressures on the region’s beleaguered health system saw ambulances diverted away from a main hospital on Sunday night.
The powersharing administration currently recommends that nightclubs and other entertainment venues use Covid status checks on entry, but it has stopped short of making it a legal requirement.
The issue has sharply divided the five-party coalition in Belfast, with the SDLP and Alliance having called for a mandatory certification system as a way to make venues safer and drive up vaccination uptake rates.
The two main parties in the executive - the DUP and Sinn Fein - have resisted calls for compulsory passports, instead expressing a preference for a “partnership approach” with the hospitality industry.
Swann is a Ulster Unionist party minister.
Boris Johnson has pledged to “stand behind” Jersey if the French return to threats to impede British and Channel Island fishers in the wake of the wider row between the EU and the UK over Brexit.
The prime minister met the Jersey chief minister John Le Fondré and the island’s external affairs minister Ian Gorst earlier today.
In a statement a government spokesperson said the PM was told Jersey’s approach to fishing licences, which is the subject of ongoing negotiations, was “reasonable and fully in the line” with last December’s trade deal. The spokesperson went on:
The prime minister said that France’s recent threats were unjustified and would have breached the TCA. He reiterated that the UK would continue to stand behind Jersey in the event that they were carried through, although he welcomed their deferral and said he hoped that they would be taken off the table permanently.
Both sides agreed that they would continue to assess new evidence in support of the remaining license applications and that technical discussions with the EU Commission and France would continue.
What Starmer told MPs about why he thought PM's 'boosterism' undermined Cop26
And this is what Keir Starmer told MPs about why he thought the PM’s “boosterism” had undermined Cop26.
The task of Glasgow was to set out credible plans for delivering that and whilst the summit has made modest progress, we cannot kid ourselves. Plans to cut emissions still fall way short. The pledges made at Glasgow for 2030 - even if fully implemented - represent less than 25% of the ambition required.
Rather than the manageable 1.5 degrees, they put us on track for a devastating 2.4 degrees.
That’s why - according to the UN secretary ggeneral - the goal of 1.5 degrees is now left on “life support.”
So now we need to deliver intensive care. That starts by being honest about what has gone wrong. The summit was held back by guileless boosterism which only served to embolden the big emitters.
The prime minister praised inadequate net zero plans. Australia was called heroic, even though their plan was so slow that it was in line with 4 degrees of global warming.
By providing this cover we had little chance of exerting influence on other big emitters and we saw many more disappointing national plans.
The prime minister dressed up modest sectoral commitments as transformational. Earlier in Cop, the Government claimed that “190 countries and organisations” had agreed to end coal.
On closer inspection: only 46 of them were countries, of that only 23 were new signatories, of those 23, 10 do not even use coal!
And the 13 that remained did not include the biggest coal users – China, the US, India, and Australia.
With no public pressure, the big emitters were emboldened and they clubbed together to gut the main deal’s wording on coal. Only someone who thinks words are meaningless could now argue that an agreement to phase down coal is the same as an agreement to phase it out.
And there was the long-overdue $100 billion in climate finance. It has still not been delivered even though this money was promised to developing countries over a decade ago.
Failure to deliver has damaged trust and created a huge obstacle to building the coalition that can drive climate action between the most vulnerable developing countries and ambitious developed countries.
What Johnson told MPs in his opening statement about what he thought Cop26 achieved
This is what Boris Johnson said in his opening statement to MPs summing up what he thought Cop26 achieved.
It was a summit that many people predicted would fail. A summit that I fear some quietly wanted to fail. Yet it was a summit that proved the doubters and the cynics wrong. Because Cop26 did not just succeed in keeping 1.5 alive. It succeeded in doing something no UN climate conference has ever done before by uniting the world in calling time on coal. In 25 previous Cops, all the way back to Berlin in 1995, not one delivered a mandate to remove so much as a single lump of coal from one power station boiler.
For decades, tackling the single biggest cause of carbon emissions proved as challenging as eating the proverbial elephant. It was just so big that no one knew quite where to start. But in Glasgow we took the first bite. Because we have secured a global commitment to phasing down coal – and as John Kerry has pointed out, you can’t phase out coal without first phasing it down as we transition to other, cleaner energy sources – and we have, for the first time, a worldwide recognition that we’ll not get climate change under control as long as our power stations are consuming vast quantities of the sedimentary super-polluter that is coal.
That alone is a great achievement, but we haven’t just signalled the beginning of the end for coal. We’ve ticked our boxes on cars, cash and trees as well. The companies that build a quarter of the world’s automobiles have agreed to stop building carbon emission vehicles by 2035 – and cities from Sao Paulo to Seattle have pledged to ban them from their streets.
We’ve pioneered a whole new model, an intellectual breakthrough, that sees billions in climate finance, development bank investment and so forth,being used to trigger trillions from the private sector to drive the big decarbonisation programmes in countries like South Africa.
And we’ve done something that absolutely none of the commentators saw coming by building a coalition of more than 130 countries to protect up to 90 per cent of our forests, those great natural soakers of carbon.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says he is glad Johnson today remembered Cop26 was in Glasgow. Last night he said it was Edinburgh, Blackford says.
He says the Scottish government led on climate justice at Cop26.
The UK should contribute to a loss and damage facility, he says.
In response to the point about where Cop26 took place, Johnson says it would never have been in Scotland at all if Scotland had not been part of the UK.
Theresa May, the former PM, says there were “significant achievements” at Cop26.
Johnson welcomes her comment. He says Alok Sharma remains as Cop26 president for a year, and he will use that time to hold countries to the commitments they made.
Johnson is responding to Starmer. He says Starmer’s response was “pathetic”, and he accuses the Labour leader of “trying to suck and blow at the same time” - to criticise it, whilst also commending what it achieved.
Starmer says Cop26 was held back by Johnson's 'guileless boosterism'
Keir Starmer starts by paying tribute to Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, saying “his diligence, his integrity and his commitment to the climate” have been clear for all to see.
He says the world is on track for global warming of 2.4c. The 1.5C target is “on life support”, he says.
The summit was held back by the PM’s “guileless boosterism”, he says.
As an example, he cites the PM describing the Australian plan as “heroic”, when it was inadequate.
He says the agreement announced on coal was misleading, because only half of the countries featured were new names.
Only someone who thinks that promises are meaningless could now argue that an agreement to phase down coal is the same as the agreement to phase it out. [See 12.09pm.]
Johnson says world is closer than before to 'relative safety' of restricting global warming to 1.5C
Johnson says the UK has slashed its use of coal so much that the last two coal-fired power stations will go offline for good in 2024.
He says the UK has also doubled its climate finance and made a legally binding commitment to net zero.
He pays tribute to Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, saying he was “absolutely tireless”.
And he thanks others involved in the summit too, including the people of Glasgow. He thanks them for putting up with so much disruption, and for welcoming people from around the world.
He says this does not mean they can close the book on the climate job. They are not saying the job is done. It is not enough to set out on the road to net zero; they must arrive, he says.
He says Cop26 has filled him with optimism they will get to net zero.
But he is not certain they will get there. He says some countries appear to be dragging their feet.
He says the predicted rise in global temperatures is now around 2C. That is still excessive, he says, but he says they are closer than ever to the relative safety of 1.5C.
That means 1.5C is still alive. He says that is something the UK should take pride in.
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Johnson says Cop26 did something never achieved before - 'by calling time on coal'
Boris Johnson, who seems to be losing his voice, says Cop26 was the biggest political gathering in the UK.
He says some people thought it would fail, or even wanted it to fail.
But it achieved something no other Cop has done - “by calling time on coal”.
No previous Cop gave a mandate to remove as much as a single lump of coal.
But this one did, he says. With reference to how the agreement was watered down at the last moment, he quotes John Kerry, the US climate envoy, as saying you cannot phase out coal without phasing it down first.
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Boris Johnson's Commons statement on Cop26
In the blog he published last week Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, recalled a conversation with the PM in January 2020 in which the PM complained the job was “like getting up every morning pulling a 747 down the runway”. According to Cummings’s account, Johnson wanted to know what people would think if he devoted more time to finishing his book on Shakespeare. Cummings claims he told Johnson people would be expecting him to be focusing on his day job.
Today it’s as if Johnson is making a point about how fully engaged he really is. After holding a press conference earlier, on Covid, he is just about to address MPs on Cop26. Later he will be giving a speech at the Guildhall in London on foreign policy.
Johnson's statement about how Covid 'storm clouds' on continent could threaten UK
This is what Boris Johnson said in his opening statement about the risk that rising Covid cases on the continent could “wash up on our shores”.
Turning to Covid, I want to update you on our progress,and, in particular, on these storm clouds that are gathering over the continent.
A new wave of Covid has steadily swept through central Europe and is now affecting our nearest neighbours in western Europe.
Our friends on the continent have been forced to respond with various degrees of new restrictions, from full lockdowns, to lockdowns for the unvaccinated, to restrictions on business opening hours and restrictions on social gatherings.
We don’t yet know the extent to which this new wave will wash up on our shores, but history shows we cannot afford to be complacent.
Indeed in recent days cases there have been rising here in the UK, so we must remain vigilant.
Because there is one lesson we can draw from the current situation in Europe.
Those countries with lower vaccination rates have tended to see bigger surges in infection, and in turn been forced to respond with harsher measures.
While those countries with higher vaccination rates have, so far, fared better.
This shows us once again that if we want to control the epidemic here in the UK,and if we want to avoid new restrictions on our daily lives, we must all get vaccinated as soon as we are eligible.
To what extent Johnson is genuinely alarmed about rising cases in Europe, and to what extent he is talking this up intentionally so as to persuade more people to get vaccinated, was not clear. As Robin McKie reported in the Observer at the weekend, leading scientists are doubtful whether the UK will end up following Europe, and toughening restrictions in response to rising cases, because this time they believe the UK is ahead of continental Europe, not behind.
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Q: How resilient is the NHS?
Whitty says it is resilient. But he says we have not yet got to the point where the flu season normally starts, the end of December.
And the ambulance system is under particular pressure at the moment, he says.
He urges people to get all their vaccines.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
I’ll post a summary shortly.
Q: Do you accept you should wear masks more often?
Johnson says he wears a mask wherever the rules say he has to. And he says he has been wearing one more often in recent weeks, as cases have been ticking up.
I wear a mask wherever the rules say I should and I urge everyone else to do the same.
People have actually seen me wearing face coverings quite a bit more regularly as we have seen the numbers (of infections) ticking up in the UK.
I think that is the responsible thing to do and I am going to continue to do it.
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Q: Are you letting down voters in the north over rail?
Johnson says his integrated rail plan is going to be “absolutely fantastic”. He urges people to wait until it is out.
Q: Are you going to vaccinate children aged five to 11?
Whitty says vaccines have not even been licensed in the UK for that yet, and so, he says, “let’s not rush our fences on this”.
We haven’t yet even got a licence with MHRA so let’s not rush our fences on this. It will depend entirely on the data that are presented to the independent regulator and the independent scientific advisory committee.
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Q: Do you agree with the head of the armed forces that we must be ready for conflict with Russia?
Johnson says the UK stands in solidarity with its friends in Poland. He says he would encourage everyone to work for peace and stability.
We are showing solidarity with our friends in Poland as you would expect.
We would encourage everyone to work for peace and stability in the European region. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our friends across the whole region - Estonia, Poland. We are there.
Updated
Johnson says the problem with boosters, in so far as there has been one, has been with demand, not supply.
He says the mood in GPs’ surgeries is optimistic and committed.
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Q: Will uptake in the over-40s be any higher than uptake in the over-50s?
Johnson says the numbers are climbing. People are coming forward at greater speed.
Whitty says he sees no evidencee that demand for booster jabs is levelling off. This is something people want, he says.
Q: Can you rule out a lockdown at Christmas?
Johnson says he cannot see any reason why the government would need to move to plan B (which does not amount to a lockdown anyway). But he says he “cannot rule anything out”.
Johnson says boosters will be included in NHS Covid travel pass data
Q: Will the booster dose be added to the NHS Covid travel pass, and when?
Johnson says this will happen.
He says, getting fully vaccinated with a booster, will make travel easier. This is yet another reason to get this done.
Updated
Whitty ends with a slide comparing case rates in the UK with case rates in other European countries.
He stresses the need to be cautious with these figures, saying countries compile their data in different ways.
But he says there have been a “very significant increase” in eastern Europe.
Updated
Whitty is now showing a slide about vaccination rates.
He urges people to get vaccinated if they have not done so already.
This is particularly important for pregnant women, he says. He says of the 1,714 pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid between February and September, 98% of them had not been vaccinated.
Whitty says more people are getting booster vaccines.
UPDATE: PA Media has filed this, with the quotes from Whitty on Covid and pregnant women.
Whitty told a Downing Street press conference: “I would just like to give you some fairly stark facts about this because this is a major concern.”
He explained that, based on academic data from February 1 to September 30, some 1,714 pregnant women were admitted to hospital with Covid.
He added: “Of those, 1,681, which is to say 98%, had not been vaccinated.
“And if you go to those who are very severely ill in intensive care, of 235 women admitted to ICU, 232 of them - over 98% - had not been vaccinated.
“These are preventable admissions to ICU and there have been deaths.
“All the medical opinion is really clear that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks in every area. This is a universal view among doctors and among the midwife advisory groups and among the scientific advisory groups.
“So can I please encourage all women who are pregnant or wishing to become pregnant to get their vaccination.”
Updated
Prof Chris Whitty is showing the slides.
He says cases have been broadly flat at a relatively high level for some weeks now.
Hospital numbers are also broadly flat, but “significant”, he says.
And deaths are currently averaging 156 per day, he says.
Updated
Johnson sums up the measures announced today.
And he quotes figures he quoted earlier about the effectiveness of boosters. (See 11.29am.)
Johnson says UK 'cannot afford to be complacent' about rising Covid cases on continent
Boris Johnson is speaking at the press conference now.
After opening remarks about Liverpool, he turns to Covid, and says he wants to update people on the “storm clouds gathering over parts of the continent”.
Some European countries are introducing new restrictions, he says.
He says we do not know the extent to which this new wave will wash up on our shores. But we “cannot afford to be complacent”, he says. Cases are rising in the UK and we “must remain vigilant”, he says.
He says countries with lower vaccination rates have seen higher surges, and have had to respond with harsher measures.
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Boris Johnson's press conference
Boris Johnson will be starting his press conference shortly. He will be appearing with Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser.
They will be talking primarily about the decission to extend Covid booster vaccines to those aged between 40 and 49. My colleague Peter Walker has the details in a story here.
Johnson may also talk about the UK threat level and the explosion in Liverpool, but I won’t be covering those aspects here because we will be covering them on our separate live blog. Due to the nature of that story, we cannot allow discussion on it below the line, and any comments on the incident will be removed.
Updated
Some of the reporting this morning suggested MPs will get a chance later to debate the motion saying the standards committee report that found that Owen Paterson broke lobbying rules should be approved. But they won’t. That is because the government is seeking to pass the motion using what Commons officials call the “nod or nothing” procedure. It is a mechanism they use for passing relatively minor motions after 10pm without a debate. If all MPs approve (“nod”), the motion goes through. But if an MP shouts an objection, it falls (“nothing”), but it can be brought back again. If the government is determined to pass the motion, and MPs keep objecting verbally, it will eventually timetable a debate.
The UK terrorism threat level has increased to severe. There is full coverage on our separate live blog covering the aftermath of the explosion in Liverpool.
Due to the nature of the incident in Liverpool, we cannot allow discussion on it below the line, and any comments on the incident will be removed.
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No 10 says it is not setting time limit for when talks with EU on NI protocol must end
And here are some more lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- Downing Street refused to deny reports that the planned HS2 link to Leeds will be shelved when the government publishes its integrated rail plan on Thursday. The prime minister’s spokesman said he could not comment ahead of the announcement. He also refused to say whether Boris Johnson still stood by the commitment he gave three days after be became PM when he backed Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), a new trans-Pennine railway line from Liverpool to Leeds via Bradford. Asked if the PM was still committed to this, the spokesman said he could not comment ahead of the announcement. But he said the rail being being unveiled would involve “a significant investment”.
- The spokesman said the government would not be setting a time limit for when the talks with the EU over reforms to the Northern Ireland protocol should end. “Intensified” talks were continuing, he said. He told journalists:
There are significant gaps between our positions and as we set out in the July command paper, we believe the conditions for article 16 have been met.
But again, we are going to be continuing talks, intensified talks, between the two teams to try and find a consensual solution ... I wouldn’t seek to put a time limit on it. I think the most important thing is to not place a time limit on it which could hinder potential progress.
This is significant because, at the Conservative party conference in early October, Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, set a three-week deadline for talks. Last week Frost effectively admitted he has abandoned that deadline.
- The spokesman played down the prospect of the UK triggering article 16. He said the Northern Ireland protocol was creating “significant challenges”, but he went on: “I want to emphasise that our approach remains that we want to find a consensual solution.” He said this in response to a question about whether the PM agreed with Dominic Cummings, his former chief adviser who is now one of his most trenchant critics, who published a blog last week saying that if Johnson did trigger article 16, “it’s bound to be a debacle that damages the economy and relations with allies”.
- The spokesman condemned what he described as the “abhorrent attempts” by Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, “to engineer a migrant crisis to undermine Poland and others in the region”.
- The spokesman said there were “no plans” for Johnson to set up new government department, to be headed by the Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, to take charge of implementing net zero plans. It was reported yesterday that this has been considered an option for Sharma, who remains Cop26 president until next year but who in practice may be looking for a new challenge now the conference is over.
- The spokesman said the Home Office will today table amendments to the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill to help the authorities deal with Insulate Britain-type motorway protests. “These include a new offence of interfering with the operation of key infrastructure, such as motorways, and tougher sentences for obstructing highways,” No 10 said
- The spokesman said that Priti Patel, the home secretary, would be holding talks with her French counterpart to discuss what more could be done to stop migrants crossing the Channel. The spokesman said:
It is clear that we need to keep working with our French counterparts to do more to prevent these crossings, which are putting lives at risk. That is why the home secretary is looking to speak to her counterpart to make those points and address this unexpected rise in illegal migrants arriving from France which we are seeing playing out in front of us.
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No 10 declines to back Labour's call for ban on MPs having paid consultancies or directorships
At the Downing Street lobby briefing No 10 refused to back the Labour proposal for MPs to be banned from having paid consultancies or directorships. Asked about the proposal for a vote on this plan on Wednesday (see 9.37am and 10.32am), the spokesman said this was a matter for the House of Commons, and that it would be for the government whips to decide what the whipping arrangements would be for government MPs. But asked if the PM personally backed the Labour proposed, his spokesman implied that he didn’t. He replied:
The PM was asked about this just last week, about second jobs ... That’s been a long-standing position which can bring benefits to constituents. Obviously there are rules in place which guide those and anyone that’s found to have broken them should face the requisite punishment.
Asked if the PM thought the current rules governing MPs’ second jobs were adequate, the spokesman said: “The rules are clear, and there are clear punishments for those that break them. The rules are set by the house, and it’s for them to consider.”
Updated
Boris Johnson to hold Covid press conference at 3pm
The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and we’ve been told that Boris Johnson is chairing a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee at 12.45pm, and that he will be holding a press conference at 3pm, with Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser, on Covid and vaccines.
Those engagements are on top of the statement to MPs, starting around 4.15pm, on Cop26, and the foreign policy speech this evening at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in London, that we already knew about.
I will post a full summary from the briefing shortly.
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Covid rates in parliament four times London average in October, when many Tories were shunning masks, memo reveals
Fresh concerns have been raised about the spread of Covid in parliament, after it was revealed the number of infections detected on the estate was four times the London average.
A memo sent by parliamentary authorities and seen by the Guardian also says some people are still coming into work despite displaying coronavirus symptoms.
Tory MPs and ministers have come under fire in recent months for refusing to wear face coverings in the Commons chamber when they sat packed together on the government green benches.
Although Boris Johnson and many other frontbenchers began donning a mask again from 27 October, it has now been revealed that Covid transmission was already high by that point. The memo said:
In late October, case rates on the estate were four times the London rate; while our rates have come down since then, they are still double the London rate, so the need to stay vigilant has not gone away.
Parliamentary workers had to be reminded that they “must not in any circumstances come on to the estate” if they had any Covid symptoms and had not yet taken and received a negative result from a PCR test.
The memo said there had been a “small number” of people who “continued to attend the estate despite displaying Covid-related symptoms”.
Photograph: House of Commons/PA
Updated
Starmer accuses Johnson of over-selling what was achieved at Cop26
In his LBC phone-in this morning Keir Starmer criticised the way Boris Johnson offered a particularly positive spin on the outcome of the Cop26 summit.
Despite the wording in the agreement relating to the phasing out of coal being watered down at the last minute, Johnson implied at a press conference yesterday that this did not matter much. He said: “Whether the language is phase down or phase out doesn’t seem to me as a speaker of English to make that much of a difference. The direction of travel is pretty much the same.”
Starmer said this morning he disagreed. He told LBC:
The prime minister’s seeming to be saying, yesterday, that phasing down coal and phasing out coal are basically the same thing. I don’t agree.
I think if you phase down you are reducing, but you are not eliminating. If you phase out you are eliminating.
I don’t think the prime minister helps either the global effort or himself to sort of pretend or to over-pretend that this is all fine and on track, because it isn’t.
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UK 'exceptionally long way' from being corrupt, Dowden says
In his Today interview this morning Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party co-chair, also said Britain was an “exceptionally long way” from being a “corrupt country”. Asked about the claim from Lord Evans, chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, that the UK will be in danger of becoming a corrupt country if standards are not maintained, Dowden said:
I think we are an exceptionally long way from that. Of course we have to learn lessons and of course we have to uphold the high standards in public life.
But the fact that you are subjecting me at a little after 8 o’clock in the morning to a forensic going over in terms of what the government has done - in a corrupt country you don’t find this kind of level of free press scrutiny and accountability.
We introduced as a government the register of lobbyists in 2014. We are constantly improving standards.
Back to Oliver Dowden, and here is some comment from journalists on his claim the government is not rigging the Ofcom chair selection process in favour of Paul Dacre. (See 9.19am.)
From Raymond Snoddy, the former FT media editor
Extraordinary comment from Oliver Dowden re the continuing attempt to make Paul Dacre chairman of Ofcom. Trying to fix the process doesn't count it would only be corrupt if there was no process at all. That's clear then https://t.co/v4bzmxDYbS
— Raymond Snoddy (@RaymondSnoddy) November 15, 2021
From Rory Cellan-Jones, the former BBC technology correspondent
It’s just been made clear on @bbcr4today by @OliverDowden that the reason for rerunning the appointment process for Ofcom chairman was to get more candidates. So if you’ve a deep knowledge of telecoms, spectrum, media etc you have until Nov 29th… https://t.co/UKErDMot4Q
— Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) November 15, 2021
From Tom Peck, the Independent’s sketch writer
The gloriously execrable @OliverDowden on the news rounds this morning explaining that no, the government isn’t corrupt, because if it was corrupt, it would have just gone ahead and appointed Paul Dacre chair of Ofcom. One to bear in mind when the new chair of Ofcom is announced.
— Tom Peck (@tompeck) November 15, 2021
From Piers Morgan, the former Good Morning Britain presenter
Amusing to hear @OliverDowden tell Nick Robinson on Radio 4 that Britain is not corrupt because ministers are subjected to tough broadcast interviews.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 15, 2021
Mr Dowden boycotted @GMB for 8 months along with Boris & the entire cabinet - to avoid tough broadcast interviews.
From my colleague Jim Waterson, the Guardian’s media editor
Oliver Dowden going full Galaxy Brain on why Paul Dacre was not appointed chair of Ofcom on the first attempt.
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) November 15, 2021
(Only nine people applied first time around and it’s a tighter labour market now, so very good odds for a £140k p/t job, anyone can apply here: https://t.co/6LxgL40wZX) pic.twitter.com/5mNAqncqcz
Johnson indicates he has gone as far as he will in admitting Paterson vote mishandled
Boris Johnson has been on a visit to a vaccination centre in east London this morning. He was there to talk about the booster vaccines, but he recorded a pooled clip and took questions on a series of topics. Here are the main points.
- Johnson again refused to apologise for his handling of the original Owen Paterson vote. Asked about this, he replied:
I just want to salute you and the media for keeping going on this. I’m here to talk about boosters and urge people to come forward and get their boosters.
When asked a second time if he would apologise, Johnson said he “something about that last night”. That was a reference to what he said at his press conference last night, when he went further than he has before in terms of expressing a measure of contribution. Yesterday his words were: “Of course, I think things could certainly have been handled better, let me put it that way, by me.”
- Johnson said he had “nothing to add” to the story about Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, letting his department fund a group lobbying against government plans to build housing on airfields. Labour has demanded an investigation, claiming this is an inappropriate use of public money (not least because Shapps has a light aircraft himself, and has used some of the airfields in question). Asked about the story, Johnson said: “I’ve got nothing to add on that. If there are things to be investigated, then of course, that should take place.
- He urged people to get booster vaccines. He said:
I think it’s very good news that the JCVI has today authorised the booster programme to be rolled out to everybody 40-plus, and when you look at what’s happening in the pandemic at the moment, just hearing in Newham sadly there are people in ITU, in intensive care, who are suffering badly from Covid, but they’re all the unvaccinated.
And what’s happening is if you can get your booster then your immunity goes right back up to 95%. So far we’ve got 75% of everybody over 70 getting a booster, there’s a huge number of people, but it’s that further 25% that will make all the difference to winter, to Christmas, to our plans going forward, because it’s that extra level of protection that we really need.
So the message is, anybody over 70 come forward, get your booster, anybody over 50 comparable and get your booster now, in the next week or so anybody over 40 as well, come forward and get your booster.
And we’re also doing a second dose for the 16-and 17-year-olds.
- He said that, although there was “a storm of infection” in parts of Europe, he saw no reason why the UK would have to move to its Covid plan B. He said:
We don’t see anything in the data at the moment to suggest that we need to go to plan B, we’re sticking with plan A.
But what we certainly have got to recognise is there is a storm of infection out there in parts of Europe, you can see those numbers ticking up very sharply in some of our continental friends.
And we’ve just got to recognise that there is always a risk that a blizzard could come from the east again, as the months get colder.
The best protection for our country is for everybody to go forward and get that booster.
Updated
Polling suggests that, if Conservative MPs vote against the Labour motion banning them from having paid directorships and consultancies on Wednesday (see 9.37am and 10.32am), they will be defying public opinion.
A YouGov poll earlier this month suggests that, by a factor of three to one (63% to 20%), people are more likely to think that MPs should not be allowed a paid extra job than that they should.
A recent poll for Savanta ComRes also found only around one in five (21%) of people saying they favoured MPs being allowed paid second jobs. In this poll 46% of people were opposed, and the rest had no view. And an Opinium poll published in the Observer at the weekend produced very similar figures. It found 45% of respondents in favour of a ban on MPs having paid second jobs, and 25% of people in favour.
Updated
PM faces choice between appeasing voters or his MPs in vote to ban paid directorships - analysis
A Labour source tells me that, if MPs do vote in favour of the motion the party is tabling for Wednesday to ban MPs having paid directorships and consultancies, its understanding is that this would be binding.
This places Boris Johnson in an exquisite dilemma. The government has the numbers to vote down the motion banning MPs from having paid directorships and consultancies, but this would look like a vote to defend sleaze (even though both parties happily accepted the current rules as appropriate for much of the past quarter century).
Alternatively, the government could give its MPs a free vote, or advise them to abstain - both options that would probably led to the motion being passed. This would neutralise the issue as PR problem, but instead it would become a party management nightmare. As LabourList reported last week, 50 Tory MPs have between them earned more than £1.7m in consultancy fees since the beginning of 2021 alone. Another analysis for the Times (paywall) found that almost one in four Tory MPs spend at least 100 hours a year on second jobs (many of which would not be covered by the Labour ban). There are Labour MPs too with paid directorships and consultancies, but this is predominantly an issue for the Conservative party.
We don’t know the terms of the motion yet - the party is due to publish it later today, or tomorrow - and so it is not yet clear when the proposed ban would take effect. Depending on what Labour proposes, the government could try to amend the motion to delay the ban until after the election. According to a report last week, Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, was telling Tory MPs that the government wanted a period of “sober reflection” before it changed any rules relating to the MPs’ code of conduct. Critics would see this evidence that ministers just want to delay reform for as long as possible - a tactic Downing Street has deployed repeatedly in response to calls for tougher standards rules. But even the proposed ban were deferred until the next parliament, some Tories would probably still be infuriated because of the likely hit to their future income.
Johnson will face a similar dilemma over the vote on releasing the Randox papers, although telling Tory MPs to vote down this would not look as awful as voting down the ban on paid directorships and consultancies because ministers could argue there is precedent for papers of this kind not being disclosed.
Updated
Booster jabs to be extended to those between 40 and 49 years old
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has announced that booster vaccines will be offered to people aged between 40 and 49. My colleague Martin Belam has the details on our coronavirus live blog.
Starmer’s LBC interview is now over. I will post a summary shortly.
Labour to use Commons vote to call for publication of government papers relating to Paterson's advocacy for Randox
Labour has announced that, as well as scheduling a vote on Wednesday saying MPs should be banned from having paid directorships and consultancies, it will also have a vote on a motion calling for “the publication of the papers relating to Owen Paterson’s advocacy for Randox and all government contracts they received”.
This second motion could turn out to be more problematic for the government than the first. The government routinely ignores Commons votes in favour of opposition day motions, and Labour has not been able to clarify yet whether a vote in favour would change Commons rules. But the opposition can use humble address motions when it has an opposition day debate to pass a binding motion forcing the government to release documents.
In a press statement announcing the two votes, Starmer said:
While the prime minister has failed to act, Labour is taking the lead by giving MPs the chance to end the sort of dodgy lobbying that Owen Paterson was guilty of. It should be a point of consensus that paid directorships and commercial lobbying are not jobs for MPs. The only people MPs should be lobbying for is their constituents.
The prime minister has admitted the Paterson motion ‘could have been handled better’; Wednesday is a chance to show he means it. Boris Johnson should call on his MPs to do the right thing and vote to publish the Randox papers, end dodgy lobbying and show that standards in public life still matter.
It was the prime minister’s decisions which has led to this scandal, he has repeatedly failed in his leadership over this issue, and Boris Johnson now has a choice: support Labour’s plan to fix this or whip his MPs to vote against a ban on dodgy second jobs for MPs and a cover-up on the Owen Paterson scandal.
Starmer says he thinks Claudia Webbe should stand down as MP in Leicester East following her conviction for harassment.
He says many people have gone to jail for offences like this.
Q: Should Webbe have been sent to jail? (Webbe was given a 10-week jail term, suspended for two years, plus 200 hours’ community service.)
Starmer says he did not hear all the evidence, and he suggests he does not approve of politicians’ telling judges what sentences should have been. But it was a serious offence, he says. He says Webbe has been expelled from Labour.
Q: What about Lord Falconer doing legal work as well as being shadow attorney general?
Starmer says Falconer is not an MP. He is in the Lords, where they get a daily allowance. And he says Falconer has assured him he has never lobbied government.
Q: And what about the legal work you have done?
Starmer says he gave up legal work almost two years ago. Before then, he did do some legal work as an MP. He says client confidentiality means he cannot disclose who he was working for. That principle is important, he says.
Labour to schedule vote on banning MPs from having paid directorships and consultancies on Wednesday, Starmer says
Q: It has been claimed you broke Commons rules by using your office for a “Call Keir” event.
Starmer says this is “complete nonsense”. He did a Zoom call during lockdown, when he could not travel around the country. As leader of the opposition, he has to talk to the public. The idea that he shouldn’t is “ridiculous”.
Q: What is your view on MPs having second jobs?
Starmer says paid consultancies and directorships should be banned.
And he says there is a “strong case” for banning second jobs generally, with some exceptions.
For example, he says the Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan does shifts as a hospital doctor. That should be allowed. And if MPs serve as army or police reservists, that should be allowed, because it is public service. But generally second jobs should go, he says.
He says on Wednesday Labour is going to use its opposition day debate to schedule a vote on stopping MPs having paid directorships and consultancies.
He says he is not proposing that the rules are changed retrospectively.
Keir Starmer's LBC phone-in
Keir Starmer is starting his LBC phone-in now. Nick Ferrari is interviewing him.
Starmer says he got his positive Covid test 20 minutes before PMQs.
Q: How was Covid for you?
Starmer says it was “tougher than I thought it was going to be”. He is double vaccinated, he says.
He says it was “not pleasant”.
Oliver Dowden denies Ofcom chair application process rigged in favour of Paul Dacre
Good morning. Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party co-chair, has been touring the studios for the government today. He has had various exchanges on sleaze/corruption issues, but perhaps the most interesting came on the Today programme, where Nick Robinson asked Dowden about a process that Dowden initiated in his previous job, as culture secretary.
Boris Johnson wants Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor, to be the next chairman of Ofcom. This has been widely reported (and not denied), but Dacre was rejected by the interview board. At that point Dowden, rather than appoint someone else, took the highly unusual step of reopening the process and re-writing the job requirements to allow Dacre to apply again. Robinson cited this as one of several examples of how the government appears not to take standards seriously, and asked how this could be right.
In his response, Dowden argued that this was actually proof of how proper the process was. He said:
Well ... you’re actually proving the point that it is a proper, independent process. Because had it not been a proper, independent process, if it was the case that Paul Dacre was our preferred candidate, he would currently be chair of Ofcom.
From the tone of his voice, Dowden seemed to be saying this with what you might call a wry smile - although without being able to see his face it was hard, to be sure.
Robinson said the government was just changing the rules for its own convenience. Dowden replied:
There were various issues with that process which led me to re-running, not least we had a very, very small field of people that were were found eligible, a small number of people that applied for it. So I thought it was appropriate to run the process again.
But if this had been this this corrupt process, you would be looking at this individual, that you allege was preferred by the government currently in that role.
The fact that we have an independent process, the fact that ministers - in this case and indeed in all public appointments - appoint people independently to assess the validity of applicants, and then from those who are deemed appointable can choose who is appointed, is in practice an open process.
In fact, one reason why so few people applied was that government briefings saying Dacre was going to get the job made people feel there was no point. (Peter Riddell, the former public appointments commissioner, has been highly critical of the government over this.) Dowden also omitted to say that the appointments panel is perhaps not quite as independent as he implied.
I will post more from his interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Keir Starmer holds his regular LBC phone-in.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee.
After 3.30pm: Boris Johnson makes a statement to MPs about Cop26.
Later MPs will get the chance to approve the motion approving the standards committee report saying Owen Paterson broke the rules on lobbying. But it is scheduled for after 10pm, and there will be no debate.
And, according to the Times’ Steven Swinford, the government is today due to announce that the vaccine booster programme will be extended to the under-50s.
Exclusive:
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) November 14, 2021
The coronavirus booster programme is expected to be extended to under 50s in bid to increase immunity this Winter, govt expected to announce tomorrow
Scientists believe move could help drive down transmission and keep middle-aged people out of hospital https://t.co/ChVKMtBOFO
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
Updated
