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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Lucy Campbell (now); Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Brexit: Lords inflict huge defeats on government in votes on internal market bill — as it happened

UK and EU flags.
Peers voted to remove measures that seek to ‘disapply’ parts of the Northern Ireland protocol. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA

Following the defeat of key parts of proposed Brexit legislation in the Lords, a government spokesperson said:

We are disappointed that the House of Lords has voted to remove clauses from the UK internal market bill, which was backed in the House of Commons by 340 votes to 256 and delivers on a clear Conservative manifesto commitment.

We will retable these clauses when the bill returns to the Commons.

We’ve been consistently clear that the clauses represent a legal safety net to protect the integrity of the UK’s internal market and the huge gains of the peace process.

We expect the House of Lords to recognise that we have an obligation to the people of Northern Ireland to make sure they continue to have unfettered access to the UK under all circumstances.

The comments come after the government suffered a major defeat on controversial Brexit legislation as peers rejected a bid to give ministers power to break international law.

Thanks for following along this evening - that’s all for today. Take care.

Updated

This is from the BBC’s Nick Eardley

Updated

Earlier tonight, the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, told BBC’s Newsnight he thought a Brexit deal was still possible but said the internal market bill had damaged trust with the EU and Britain’s reputation internationally.

Anybody who is suggesting that this has been a successful or a good tactic ... doesn’t understand the conversations that are happening across the EU right now. This is a tactic that has backfired I think in a significant way.

Updated

This is from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh

Peers have inflicted another defeat on the government, voting 407 to 148 to strip out Clause 44 (and by extension 45-47).

Updated

The Lords are now voting on removing Clause 44 and inserting a new clause seeking to establish that goods from Northern Ireland would not be discriminated against in the operation of the UK market. The result is expected shortly.

Reacting to the result of the vote, Labour’s leader in the Lords, Baroness Smith, said:

I am sure some in government will initially react with bravado and try to dismiss tonight’s historic votes in the Lords. To do so, however, would underestimate the genuine and serious concerns across the UK and beyond about ministers putting themselves above and beyond the rule of law.

The government should see sense, accept the removal of these offending clauses, and start to rebuild our international reputation.

Updated

Government suffers huge defeat as Lords vote through amendment to IMB

As was anticipated, peers have inflicted a heavy defeat on the prime minister’s plan to breach international law, voting 433 to 165 to pass an amendment to the internal market bill removing measures that seek to “disapply” parts of the Northern Ireland protocol.

Now that peers have voted to remove the clause, Boris Johnson will have to decide whether to reinsert the clause before the bill’s return to the Commons in the coming weeks, despite its potential to jeopardise a trade deal with the US. The president-elect Joe Biden has made it clear that he believes the proposals threaten the Good Friday agreement.

The government has admitted the legislation breaches part of the Northern Ireland protocol as set out in the withdrawal agreement signed with the EU, and has acknowledged that the clauses would break international law in a “specific and limited way”.

The clauses would grant sweeping unilateral powers to ministers in two key areas yet to be agreed with the EU, breaching the terms of the treaty agreed in January. It would give ministers the power to change or disapply export rules for goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland, and also give them power over whether to notify Brussels of any state aid decisions.

This morning, the environment secretary, George Eustice, reiterated Downing Street’s insistence that that the clauses were necessary to give domestic power over the EU if it threatened the Good Friday agreement, and that the government would reinstate the clauses that enable ministers to break international laws if they were rejected by the Lords tonight.

Updated

The division is happening now. The result is expected shortly.

Updated

Just before the vote, Ireland’s foreign minister reiterated the EU’s warning that if Brexit clauses became law there would be no Brexit deal either.

Lord Ken Clarke told the House of Lords that there was no evidence for the supposed EU threat to the Good Friday agreement, and described the Brexit clauses as a “Donald Trump-like gesture” born of “panic” by a government acting like a dictatorship.

Britain could start distributing a coronavirus vaccine by Christmas, the deputy chief medical officer has said as he and Boris Johnson hailed “a significant scientific breakthrough” – but cautioned the public of hurdles to come.

Here is the Guardian’s deputy political editor Jessica Elgot’s report:

We now expect the vote to take place at 10pm. I’ll be back then with the latest updates.

Boris Johnson has put himself on a collision course with the Joe Biden administration in the US after Downing Street said it would press ahead with legislation designed to override the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Lisa O’Carroll report.

Peers are expected to pass an amendment to the internal market bill removing measures that seek to “disapply” parts of the Northern Ireland protocol – measures that the president-elect has said would put the Good Friday agreement at risk.

Should peers vote to remove the clauses, Johnson would be placed in the awkward position of having to proactively reinsert them before the bill’s return to the Commons in the coming weeks, in the knowledge that it could jeopardise a trade deal with the US.

Here is the full report:

Internal market bill has 'damaged our reputation around the world' - Sir John Major

Britain’s global reputation has been damaged and lawyers have been left “incredulous” by the UK government’s plan to override key elements of the Brexit deal, Sir John Major has said.

The Conservative former prime minister lambasted the controversial move by Boris Johnson, describing it as “unprecedented in all our history - and for good reason”.

Major said the internal market bill, which ministers have admitted will breach international law, had “damaged our reputation around the world” and warned of the “corrosive” impact of placing ministers above the law.

In a pre-recorded lecture to Middle Temple on Monday evening, he urged parliament to resist aspects of the bill which he said threatened fundamental liberties and allowed ministers to break the law, saying this was “a slippery slope down which no democratic government should ever travel”.

Here is an extract from his speech:

This action is unprecedented in all our history - and for good reason. It has damaged our reputation around the world.

Lawyers everywhere are incredulous that the UK - often seen as the very cradle of the Rule of Law - could give themselves the power to break the law.

Moreover, at a moment when we need to maximise our commercial activities, this Bill has had a corrosive impact on the reputation of English and Welsh jurisdiction.

This may have a practical cost. International dispute resolution can be conducted anywhere overseas and the Bill could erode the present pre-eminent position of the UK and, perhaps, especially London.

Was this considered when the Bill was drafted? Was there consultation with the legal profession? If not, why not? And if there was consultation, why was it ignored?

The Lords will vote on the Bill later tonight, with the government facing a potential defeat at the hands of peers outraged by its powers. Major and all living former prime ministers have previously criticised the legislation.

He also warned in his speech that Britain is “no longer a great power” and “will never be so again”.

The former prime minister, who was a vocal supporter of the Remain campaign in the 2016 referendum and an outspoken critic of the UK’s leaving the bloc earlier this year, said:

In a world of nearly eight billion people, well under 1% are British. We are a top second-rank power but, over the next half century, however well we perform, our small size and population makes it likely we will be passed by the growth of other, far larger countries.

In recent decades, we have consoled ourselves that we ‘punch above our weight’ in international affairs. I think that was true - but that was then and this is now.

Our hefty international influence rested on our history and reputation, buttressed by our membership of the European Union and our close alliance with the United States.

Suddenly, we are no longer an irreplaceable bridge between Europe and America. We are now less relevant to them both.

Here is a helpful thread on Major’s speech:

Hi, I’m Lucy Campbell, here for the next couple of hours to update you as the Lords vote on the controversial UK internal market bill.

Since about 4pm, peers have been debating amendments to contentious parts of the bill, removing provisions authorising breaches of the UK’s international law obligations under the Northern Ireland protocol.

The proposed legislation, which ministers have admitted will breach international law, is set to suffer a heavy defeat in the Lords tonight. A list of the proposed changes can be viewed here.

The bill, which has been widely condemned both at home and abroad, including by every living former prime minister, seeks to allow ministers to override key elements of the withdrawal agreement and ignore the Northern Ireland protocol.

The vote is expected around 8.30pm.

Updated

Johnson's press conference with Prof Van-Tam - Summary

Here are the main point from the press conference.

  • Boris Johnson welcomed results suggesting Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine may be 90% effective but insisted that it was too early to declare this a solution. Adopting an uncharacteristic note of caution (in the past he has often been accused of over-promoting the potential of scientific advances), he said that these were “very, very early days” and that “we absolutely cannot rely on this as a solution”. (See 5.27pm.) He also stressed that it was vital to continue with the current measures to suppress the virus. Johnson said:

I remain buoyantly optimistic about the prospects of this country next year. I just don’t want to let people run away with the idea that this development is a home run, a slam dunk, a shot to the back of the net, yet. There is a long way before we have got this thing beat.

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, also urged people to keep today’s news in perspective. He said:

This is like ... getting to the end of the playoff final, it’s gone to penalties, the first player goes up and scores goal. You haven’t won the cup yet, but what it does is it tells you that the goalkeeper can be beaten.

  • Johnson said the UK had already ordered enough of the Pfizer vaccine to vaccinate a third of the population. (See 5.27pm.)
  • Van-Tam explained that there were various reasons for caution. He said the safety data from the latest trial was not available yet, and the Pfizer vaccine still had to be authorised by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency). He said there were often problems with vaccine production, and that even when supplies were available, a vaccination programme would require “enormous planning”.
  • Van-Tam said he did not think the vaccine would help during the second Covid wave. (See 5.23pm.)
  • Van-Tam said he was “hopeful” that some vaccine could be available before Christmas. But he said all but one of the vaccines likely to be ready in the next 12 months would require two doses. The interval between the two doses would be between 21 and 28 days, he said. He said that meant people would not be fully protected until 14 days after the second dose.
  • Van-Tam said at this stage it was not clear if the Pfizer vaccine would prevent asymptomatic transmission. He went on:

And therefore we do not know if these vaccines will prevent virus shedding, and therefore have an effect on community transmission.

That is something it is not possible to know at this point in time. When we understand more about whether these vaccines simply modify disease, or whether they also reduce transmission, then I think we can give you [a clear view of their impact].

  • But he also said the vaccine was likely to lead to a “very dramatic decline” in the number of older people going to hospital. He said:

The vast majority of the burden of hospitalisation and death is being driven by the elderly, and that hospitalisation rates rise very dramatically after the age of 50.

And knowing that gives us hope that if we can deploy, in due course when authorised, a safe and effective vaccine in the elderly populations we should - I’m hopeful, the proof will be in the pudding, but I’m hopeful that we will - actually see a very dramatic decline in the burden in hospitals.

  • Johnson and Van-Tam said advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation would determine who got the vaccine first. (See 6.18pm.)
  • Johnson said guidance for the safe return home of university students will be issued soon - possibly as quickly as tomorrow.
  • Johnson and Van-Tam both accepted the lockdown had had a big impact on mental health. Johnson said:

It’s the loneliness, I think. The sense of not being able to see other people that’s been caused by some of the lockdown measures, alas, all sorts of anxieties that people are prone to and have been prone to.

Van-Tam said there had been an “enormous mental health burden”. He also said, as well as mental health problems, there was a wider issue of people feeling “really rubbish about where we are now”.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Lucy Campbell is taking over now. She will be covering the debate and votes in the House of Lords on the internal market bill.

Boris Johnson (centre) at the press conference flanked Brigadier Joe Fossey (right) and Prof Jonathan Van-Tam.
Boris Johnson (centre) at the press conference flanked Brigadier Joe Fossey (right) and Prof Jonathan Van-Tam. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/PA

Updated

Preliminary list of groups getting priority for Covid vaccine, in order

In their press conference Boris Johnson and Prof Jonathan Van-Tam both mentioned the interim advice from the the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on who should get priority for vaccination.

Here is the list prepared by the JCVI in September. It’s from this document (pdf).

1) older adults’ resident in a care home and care home workers

2) all those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers

3) all those 75 years of age and over

4) all those 70 years of age and over

5) all those 65 years of age and over

6) high-risk adults under 65 years of age

7) moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age

8) all those 60 years of age and over

9) all those 55 years of age and over

10) all those 50 years of age and over

11) rest of the population (priority to be determined)


Q: How long would the vaccine take to take effect? If a person were injected on 1 December, could they hug a relative by Christmas day?

Van-Tam says all but one of the key vaccines likely to be ready early require two doses.

And people would have to wait between 21 and 28 days for the second dose.

And he says, to be protected, people will have to wait until 14 days after the second dose.

  • Van-Tam says it could take a month and a half from the first dose before people get protection from the vaccine.

Q: Is there any chance of London coming out of lockdown before 2 December?

Johnson says what is driving the virus down is people following the guidance. That has to continue, he says.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Q: What will “normal” look like next year?

Van-Tam says he would love to be able to give a simple answer to that. But he cannot at this stage.

But, with time, and subject to authorisation by the regulatory authorities, then over a period of time they will make “a significant difference” to disease levels in the UK.

But we don’t know yet if they will reduce transmission, he says.

He says in the meantime, the public need to hold the R number below 1, and to follow the measures so the UK can get into that space.

Johnson says the more people comply with the rules now, the better the chance there is of having a normal Christmas.

Updated

Q: Are you worried about people not getting the vaccination?

Johnson says the anti-vaxxers arguments hold no water.

Van-Tam says he thinks there will be a “very significant demand” for the vaccine.

If you look at the staggering likelihood of hospitalisation or death with increasing age and in the elderly, I predict very strongly that there will be a very significant demand in the elderly, in particular, for this vaccine and ones that follow.

Q: Should President Trump throw in the towel now?

Johnson says he wants to congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

This country has had a good relationship with the White House for many years, and will do in future, he says.

He says it is exciting that the new administration will support the UK’s stance on climate change. The UK has been a leader in calling for economies to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, he claims.

Q: So should Trump concede?

Johnson says it is not for him to offer commentary on the election, although clearly he wants to congratulate Joe Biden.

  • Johnson refuses to say Trump should concede he lost presidential election.

Updated

Q: Why are teachers not on the priority list? Will cabinet minsters get priority?

Johnson says he will follow expert advice on this.

Q: How confident are you about lifting the lockdown on 2 December?

Johnson says these measures expire on 2 December.

He says we should not be mentally sidetracked by “a sudden surge of optimism”.

Johnson again stresses that he does not want people to see this as a “slam dunk” or a “home run”.

Van-Tam says making vaccines is really difficult. Every single batch has to be quality assured. Things can and do and will go wrong, he says.

He says it is like a train journey. It is wet and windy and horrible. Two miles off you can see the lights of the train. That is the efficacy data. Then the train needs to approach. That’s the safety data. Then, when it stops, the doors need to open. That is the MHRA [Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency]. And, when the doors open, there will be a scramble for seats. They have to go to the right people first.

Q: How many people will have to be vaccinated before life can return to normal?

Van-Tam says we do not know yet if the vaccines will prevent asymptomatic transmission. And that means we do know know yet whether they will stop the spread of the disease.

It might be that they just change the nature of the disease, he says.

But he says that the over-50s are most at risk.

And so, if the vaccine can be deployed amongst the elderly, we should see a “very dramatic decline” in the number of elderly people in hospital.

He stresses that the vaccine will not come all at once. And it won’t be distributed all at once.

It will be released in stages. People in care homes will come first, he says. Then the over-80s and NHS staff. Then the over-75s, followed by the over-70s and the over-65s etc.

Q: How big a breakthrough is this?

Johnson says he has always been cautious about getting people’s hopes up. There is still no vaccine for Sars, he says.

He says he is also encouraged by the way this vaccine offers a ray of hope for other vaccines too.

But it is crucial that we do not let our enthusiasm run away, he says.

Updated

UK has already ordered enough Pfizer vaccine for third of population, says Johnson

Here are extract from Boris Johnson’s opening statement.

  • Johnson said the UK has already ordered enough of the Pfizer vaccine to vaccinate a third of the population.

What I can say is that if and when this vaccine is approved, we, in this country, will be ready to start using it.

Earlier this year the UK government ordered 40m doses of the Pfizer vaccine – enough for about a third of the population, since you need two doses each.

That puts us towards the front of the international pack on a per capita basis – and I should add we’ve ordered over 300m doses from 5 other vaccine candidates as well.

If the Pfizer vaccine passes all the rigorous safety checks and is proved to be effective then we will begin a UK-wide NHS led programme of vaccine distribution.

We will decide the order in which people are offered the vaccination taking account of recommendations from a group of scientific experts, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

  • But he stressed the need for caution.

I must stress, these are very, very early days.

We have talked for a long time, or I have, about the distant bugle of the scientific cavalry coming over the brow of the hill.

And tonight that toot of the bugle is louder. But it is still some way off.

And we absolutely cannot rely on this as a solution.

The biggest mistake we could make now would be to slacken our resolve at such a critical moment.

Updated

Van-Tam says vaccine won't help during second Covid wave

Van-Tam says we know the vaccine prevents disease.

But we don’t yet know that this means for getting life back to normal.

He says he does not think the vaccine will make any difference to the second wave.

It might make a different to future ones, he says.

“Please do not relax,” he says.

He says people still need to follow the rules.

It would be a colossal mistake on the part of any one of us to relax at this point.

He says by the end of spring a “much better horizon” may be apparent.

Van-Tam says he is 'hopeful' some people might be vaccinated by Christmas

Van-Tam says the safety data from this stage of the trial should be available in the next few days.

Safety data is even more important than efficacy data, he says.

He says a preliminary priority list has already been drawn up for who should get the vaccine.

(He is referring to this document.)

But he stresses that it is preliminary. Different vaccines have different qualities, making them suitable for different people.

But age is the most important factor, he says.

He says he is “hopeful” that some people could get vaccinated by Christmas.

Updated

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, is speaking now.

He says he is certain that this is a “really important scientific breakthrough”.

He thanks people who have volunteered for clinical trials.

But he says it is also important to “stand fast”, and to not get too excited about the breakthrough.

Fossey says soldiers have been excited to be helping the people of Liverpool. He mentions a soldier returning to his home community, another using his sign language skills, and a sapper using his expertise to create testing centres.

The armed forces have always answered the call in a crisis, he says.

Updated

Fossey holds up a small packet.

It is a lateral flow test, he says.

He says people know what a swab test is. You swipe it in your mouth. He says the plastic item he is holding is what is used to read the result of the test. It can do that within an hour, he says.

Brigadier Joe Fossey is speaking now.

He says he is coordinating the military support for the roll-out of mass testing in Liverpool.

Over 2,000 members of the armed forces are involved. They are using the logistical and organisational expertise, he says.

He stresses that they are working with the council.

Johnson says it is still vital to drive the R number down.

If people live in Liverpool, he urges them to get tested.

He says hundreds of thousands of rapid lateral flow tests are being sent out across England.

And the government is working with universities on similar mass testing for students.

Johnson says despite vaccine breakthrough these are still 'very, very early days'

Boris Johnson is speaking now.

People will be asking themselves if the progress with the Pfizer vaccine means we are near the beginning of the end of the fight against the virus, he says.

But he says these findings have not yet been peer reviewed. And it has not cleared all its safety hurdles.

But, once it is cleared, the UK is near the front of the pack for using it, he says.

If it passes all its test, the government will begin a vaccination programme.

He says it will follow expert advice when deciding who gets the vaccine first.

But he has to stress that “these are very, very early days”, he says.

He says he has talked about the cavalry riding to the rescue. The toot of their bugle is louder today. But it is still a long way off, he says.

Updated

Nearly 200 gyms and other fitness industry figures from across the UK have backed calls to provide an exemption for those looking to use such facilities to keep fit during the coronavirus lockdowns.

They have written an open letter to the chief executive of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens, claiming they provide an essential service and saying people will struggle to get enough exercise as winter draws in. They wrote:

As we enter the dark winter months, people’s routines have been disrupted, with many having lost their jobs. Depression will become a serious consideration. The links between exercise and depression are very well documented.

The signatories, which include the major sports brand Grenade, asked Stevens to back their call for the government to review lockdown rules and allow gyms to reopen where they have been ordered to close.

It comes after several in England decided to defy orders to shut down last week and the former England rugby player James Haskell rode on a self-propelled gun to parliament in a protest organised by Grenade.

While they wrote to the head of the NHS in England, the businesses are based across the UK. The specific rules governing what can and cannot open under lockdown conditions is devolved.

Updated

Boris Johnson's press conference

Boris Johnson is about to hold a press conference.

He is due to appear with Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, and Brigadier Joe Fossey, who has been helping to organise the mass testing trial in Liverpool.

The government has also announced the creation of an “Office for Investment”. In its news release, it says the new body will “support the landing of high value investment opportunities into the UK which align with key government priorities, such as reaching net zero, investment in infrastructure and advancing research and development”.

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has used a statement in the Commons to say he wants to “renew the UK’s position as the world’s pre-eminent financial centre” following Brexit.

He said financial services would be “essential to our economic recovery from coronavirus, creating jobs and growth right across our country”. He went on:

As we leave the EU and start a new chapter in the history of financial services in this country, we want to renew the UK’s position as the world’s preeminent financial centre.

He said this would involve making Britain more open, more technologically advanced and “a world leader in the use of green finance”.

Soldiers from the Royal Artillery regiment operating a Covid testing centre at Liverpool Football Club’s Anfield stadium in Liverpool today.
Soldiers from the Royal Artillery regiment operating a Covid testing centre at Liverpool’s Anfield stadium today. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Updated

And this is from Norman Fowler, the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords.

Lord Kilclooney’s tweet has not, as of now, been deleted.

This is from Jon Wolfsthal, who worked as an adviser to Joe Biden when he was vice-president, responding to a tweet by the former Ulster Unionist MP Lord Kilclooney that has been called racist. (See 3.20pm.)

Updated

UK set to cut Covid self-isolation to 10 days after Cummings and Whitty row

The Covid self-isolation period is expected to be cut from two weeks to 10 days after a row involving Prof Chris Whitty and Dominic Cummings, who had been pushing for a more drastic change, my colleagues Severin Carrell, Sarah Boseley and Jessica Elgot report.

In Northern Ireland a further 471 coronavirus cases have been recorded. That is broadly similar to the total for last Monday (493), but 35% down on the total for the previous Monday (727).

And there have been 10 further deaths. That is two more than last Monday (8), and double the total for the Monday before (5).

Updated

Shoppers in Cardiff, where the Welsh lockdown was lifted today.
Shoppers in Cardiff. Wales’s lockdown was lifted today. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Updated

Public Health Wales has recorded 931 further coronavirus cases. That’s a 44% fall from last Monday’s total (1,646).

But there have been eight further deaths. The total for last Monday was three.

Updated

Stormont ministers have requested additional scientific evidence before deciding whether to ease coronavirus restrictions in Northern Ireland.

As PA Media reports, ministers in the power-sharing executive adjourned a meeting on Monday morning to seek further data on the likely impact of certain relaxations, including the reopening of restaurants without alcohol being sold. A four-week circuit break lockdown that has forced the closure of much of the hospitality sector in Northern Ireland is due to end on Thursday.

Updated

NHS England has recorded a further 167 coronavirus hospital deaths. There were 47 in the north-east and Yorkshire, 45 in the Midlands, 36 in the north-west, 15 in the south-east, 12 in the east of England, eight in London and four in the south-west. The details are here.

That is a 42% increase on the total for last Monday (118) and an 84% increase on the total for the previous Monday (91).

Kate Bingham, the head of the government’s vaccines taskforce, is expected to leave her post at the end of the year, PA Media reports. Whitehall insiders say her contract ran until the end of the year and she had always intended to leave at that point. She has come under pressure over a reported £670,000 contract for public relations support and has been forced to deny claims she shared commercially-sensitive information with investors.

Kate Bingham.
Kate Bingham. Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Michel Barnier in his EU face mask this morning, photographed as he arrived for trade talks in London.
Michel Barnier in his EU face mask this morning, photographed as he arrived for trade talks in London. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

And here is Angela Smith, the Labour leader in the Lords, on the Lord Kilclooney tweet. (See 3.20pm.)

Lord Kilclooney, who is better known as the former Ulster Unionist MP John Taylor, has been accused of racism after describing the US vice-president-elect, Kamala Harris, as “the Indian”.

As PA Media reports, there were calls for action against the crossbench peer over his tweet about Harris, who is the first black and Asian-American person to be elected to the role.

Kilclooney posted this on Twitter.

Kilclooney once deleted a tweet describing the then Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, as a “typical Indian” after condemnation.

Labour MPs condemned his action. This is from the shadow Treasury minister Wes Streeting.

And this is from David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary.

Kilclooney told PA Media that he did not think his tweet was racist. He said:

I’m very fond of India myself, I’m a member of the British India all-party group, I have two Indians (tenants) in my flats here in London and there’s nothing racist in it whatsoever.

According to the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar, Kilclooney hasn’t gone unnoticed in the Joe Biden camp.

Updated

This is from Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine announcement.

Updated

Downing Street lobby briefing - Summary

Here are some more lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing. What was said about Joe Biden has already been posted at 1.45pm.

  • Boris Johnson is expected to be joined at his press conference at 5pm by the deputy chief medical officer for England, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam and Brigadier Joe Fossey, who has been helping to organise the mass testing trial in Liverpool.
  • Downing Street has said there is no evidence to suggest that a novel strain of coronavirus associated with Denmark’s mink farms is in the UK. The prime minister’s spokesman said:

There are no fur farms in the UK so we’re not at risk in that regard. There’s no evidence to suggest that this new strain is currently in the UK.

  • The spokesman said the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine announcement was “promising”. He said:

The results are promising and while we are optimistic of a breakthrough, we must remember there are no guarantees.

We will know whether the vaccine is both safe and effective once the safety data has been published and only then can licensing authorities consider making it available to the public.

In the meantime, the NHS stands ready to begin a vaccination programme for those most at risk once a Covid-19 vaccine is available before being rolled out more widely.

In total, we’ve procured 40 million doses of the Pfizer candidate vaccine, with 10 million of those doses being manufactured and available to the UK by the end of the year if the vaccine is approved by the regulators.

  • The spokesman said “significant gaps” remain between the UK and the EU in the trade deal negotiations.
  • He said the government viewed the controversial clauses in the internal market bill allowing it to over-rule the withdrawal agreement as a “vital safety net”. He said:

MPs backed the internal market bill by 340 votes to 263 in September and our position remains that the clauses are a vital safety net.

We have been clear that as a responsible government we cannot allow the peace process or the UK’s internal markets to inadvertently be compromised by unintended consequences of the protocol.

Any Lords amendments will be considered when they return to the House of Commons but we do consider these clauses to be a vital safety net.

Updated

My colleague Josh Halliday is reporting reaction to Pfizer/BioNTech anouncement that their vaccine has been proven to be more than 90% effective in preliminary trials on our global coronavirus live blog. He reports that Sir John Bell, regis professor of medicine at Oxford University, who sits on the UK’s vaccine taskforce, told the World at One that he believes “with some confidence” life should return to normal by spring next year in the light of the news.

You can read the blog here.

Updated

Johnson not concerned if other world leaders speak to Biden first, No 10 claims

Boris Johnson has not yet spoken to Joe Biden, the US president-elect who once described him as a “physical and emotional clone” of Donald Trump, Downing Street said at the lobby briefing.

The prime minister’s spokesman was also unable to say when the two leaders would talk by phone.

Following the election of a new US president British prime ministers are normally keen to at or near the top of the list of foreign leaders first on the phone to offer their congratulations. Within government, and by the media, this is seen an in indicator of influence and status. (The same is true in other capitals too, but it is a particular preoccupation in London because of the obsession with the “special relationship”.)

But the spokesman told reporters that Johnson was not bothered about being near the top of Biden’s telephone diplomacy list. Asked if it mattered whether Johnson was first in line for a call with the president-elect, or fifth or even 50th, the spokesman said:

No. That’s not something that we are concerned about.

You heard the PM speaking yesterday. He was saying that Britain and the US have been, and will remain, close partners cooperating across security, defence, trade and diplomacy.

As the PM set out, the UK and the US have much more in common than divides us, and our countries will stand together to protect our shared values.

The spokesman also played down concerns that Johnson’s support for Donald Trump, or previous criticism of Barack Obama, would hinder relations with the Biden regime. Asked about the widely quoted tweet from Tommy Vietor, a national security council spokesman under Obama, describing Johnson as a “shapeshifting creep”, the PM’s spokesman said:

I think you heard from the PM yesterday that he’s looking forward to working with the president-elect in the weeks and months ahead on tackling issues such as climate change, boosting free trade and standing up for human rights and the rules-based international system.

And I think you will have heard Joe Biden’s adviser, Senator Chris Coons, saying yesterday that the focus will be on how we can work together.

Joe Biden.
Joe Biden.
 Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Updated

The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, gave a cautious welcome to the disclosure from Pfizer/BioNTech that their Covid-19 candidate vaccine is more than 90% effective but he said:

I’m not going to be tempted to suggested that this somehow means there is a magic bullet on the horizon and coronavirus is about to disappear.

He also revealed that a “common approach to Christmas” would be discussed by the devolved nations and the UK government at a meeting this week.

Drakeford said an announcement about next year’s exams and other qualifications would be made tomorrow.

Mark Drakeford says signs Covid rate falling in Wales offer 'hope' as lockdown ends

The Welsh first minister has said there are signs that Covid-19 rates are starting to fall in Wales as his country enjoys a first day of more freedoms following a 17-day firebreak.

While still emphasising that there will be no clear picture of the impact of the firebreak for a few weeks, Mark Drakeford said: “There are some tentative, early positive signs. Those give us hope.”

He said the incidence rate for the whole of Wales was down from 250 per 100,000 to just under 220. Drakeford said the rate for one of the worst hit spots, Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales, had been as high as 700 per 100,000 and was now at 520.

However, he also pointed out that the “grim milestone” of 2,000 deaths for Wales had been passed and there were 1,400 Covid-related cases in Welsh hospitals – more than in April.

A new set of Welsh national measures comes into force today, which will be reviewed in a fortnight, but the first minister said the government had not ruled out imposing more local restrictions if needed.

Drakeford said he was not surprised by images of busy shopping streets this morning but he believed stores were managing people well. He said:

Our exit from the firebreak needs to be careful and cautious so we can maximise its impact. Our success or failure rests in the hands of every one of us.

Shoppers queuing at Matalan on Queen Street, Cardiff, this morning following the lifting of the Welsh lockdown.
Shoppers queuing at Matalan on Queen Street, Cardiff, this morning following the lifting of the Welsh lockdown. Photograph: Gareth Everett/Huw Evans/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

The Brexit customs software system being developed by HMRC is “not ready”, is “not reliable” and “has not been tested”, the House of Lords has heard.

Steve Bartlett, the chair of the Association of Freight Software Suppliers, told the EU goods subcommittee that they will not get sight of the functionality of the customs declaration service until late November or December.

With just 52 days to go before Brexit is implemented, that was “unacceptable” he said.

The delays in rolling out the system, which is due to replace HMRC’s existing customs system, were “catastrophic”, peers were told by Des Hiscock, director general of the UK Association for International Trade. He said that no realistic contingencies were in place and he called on HMRC to stop its “cloak and dagger” approach, admit its failures and work urgently on alternatives.

The committee also heard that, in the event of no deal, the customs declarations problem would be “irrelevant” as 80% of truckers would not be able to export because the UK had only been allocated 2,088 driver permits out of the 11,500 needed.

Updated

Airport bosses have welcomed a suggestion from the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, that the rapid swab tests for Covid-19 launched in Liverpool could lead to an end to quarantine for travellers. (See 11.08am.)

The lateral flow tests trialled in Liverpool gave “hope for optimism”, Shapps said. “Ultimately, it could open the way for non-quarantined air travel.”

Industry leaders said pre-departure testing remained the best option to allow widespread international travel to resume.

The Heathrow chief executive, John Holland-Kaye ,welcomed Shapps’ suggestion that a new testing regime that could cut the 14-day quarantine period. He went on:

While the message is very welcome, and I really hope that means five days [of self-isolation, instead of the current 14], we really need pre-departure testing to become the international standard if we are to get people flying again.

And Gatwick’s CEO, Stewart Wingate, said:

Our number one priority is for the UK government to use the coming days and weeks wisely to work with international partners to eliminate the need for quarantine, by the implementation of pre-departure antigen tests.

Updated

At her news conference Nicola Sturgeon also announced the latest coronavirus figures for Scotland.

She said Scotland had recorded 912 further cases. That is down from 1,115 yesterday, down from 951 last Monday and down from 1,122 the previous Monday.

She said there were 1,226 coronavirus patients in hospital. That is 19 down on yesterday’s total (1,245), she said. It is almost identical to the figure for last Monday (1,225) but 174 up on the figure for the Monday two weeks ago (1,052).

Sturgeon also said that there had been one extra death, but she reminded reporters that weekend death figures always tend to be misleadingly low because registration offices are closed.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon has cautiously welcomed the disclosure from Pfizer/BioNTech their Covid-19 candidate vaccine is more than 90% effective, but described the initial findings as “tentative”.

Speaking at her daily coronavirus press briefing, the first minister said:

That’s positive news. There’s a good way to go of course but this is news which should give us all some tentative hope today, and let’s be honest, all of us could do with that.

In Cardiff Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, has started his coronavirus briefing. He said that were some “tentative, early positive signs” that the Welsh firebreak lockdown, which has just ended, had been successful.

But he also stressed that Wales would have to adopt a cautious approach to lifting restrictions.

In advance of this afternoon’s House of Lords debate on the internal market bill, Prospect has published an article by Sir Richard Aikens, a former lord justice of appeal (appeal court judge), condemning it in withering terms. He says:

The terms of the bill subvert a principle that the UK has been at pains to promote over the centuries: that its institutions, its ministers and those in authority abide by the rule of law, both domestic and international. The principle of ‘pacta sunt servanda’ – agreements are to be kept and operated in good faith – is the oldest principle of international law. It is enshrined in article 26 of the Vienna convention on the law of treaties 1969. The UKIMB signals that the UK is prepared to flout it; not in a ‘limited’ or ‘specific’ way, but generally. The lord chancellor of Great Britain (but not of Northern Ireland) swears an oath on taking office to ‘respect the rule of law’; how is that squared with the UKIMB?

Perhaps the real surprise is that Prospect has found a member of the judiciary in favour of Brexit. In his article Aikens describes himself as “a self-confessed Brexiteer”. Brexiters generally assume that judges are overwhelmingly pro-remain.

Updated

Boris Johnson is holding a press conference at 5pm this afternoon, Downing Street has announced.

Here is my colleague Sarah Boseley’s story about the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trial results. (See 12.02pm.)

Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine found to be 90% effective in early trial

Pfizer and BioNTech have announced that their vaccine has been proven to be more than 90% effective in preventing Covid in its first interim efficacy analysis.

Here is their news release. And here is an extract.

After discussion with the FDA [the US Food and Drink Administration], the companies recently elected to drop the 32-case interim analysis and conduct the first interim analysis at a minimum of 62 cases. Upon the conclusion of those discussions, the evaluable case count reached 94 and the DMC performed its first analysis on all cases. The case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo indicates a vaccine efficacy rate above 90%, at 7 days after the second dose. This means that protection is achieved 28 days after the initiation of the vaccination, which consists of a 2-dose schedule.

Dr Albert Bourla, the Pfizer chairman and CEO, said:

Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent Covid-19.

We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development programme at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen. With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis. We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated from thousands of participants in the coming weeks.

This is one of the vaccines that the UK has been buying up in advance. In July the government announced that it was buying 30m doses. Last week Kate Bingham, head of the UK’s vaccine taskforce, told MPs that 10m doses of this vaccine could be available by the end of the year.

Nearly 10% of Scottish pupils missing from school last week because of Covid, figures show

The number of school pupil absences linked to Covid-19 in Scotland has risen sharply to over 23,000, with more than 2,000 members of staff off school, the latest official data shows.

The number of pupils off school last week was the highest figure since more than 25,000 children were kept at home in late August, when schools reopened amid initial confusion and over-caution amongst parents and teachers about the rules for self-quarantining.

After that initial confusion absences subsided but the figures, compiled by the Scottish government’s education department, began rising again during September as Covid cases rose across the country.

The absence total hit an earlier peak of 18,062 in early October before the October school holidays saw that figure plunge, because most schools were closed, to 2,086.

Last week’s absence rate was equal to nearly 10% of total pupil numbers. However only 678 pupils - or 2.95% of the 23,034 children being kept off school - were absent because they were themselves ill with Covid-19 on Tuesday 3 November (the latest date where figures are available).

The number of school staff absent, which includes teachers and non-teaching staff, has climbed steadily since mid-September, from a low of 1,563 to a high last week of 2,206, with more than a thousand teachers off school due to self-isolation or illness.

Despite these rates of self-isolation and illness, only three local authority schools were closed last week: Cunard primary in West Dunbartonshire, Cardinal Winning secondary in Glasgow and Poolewe primary in Highland.

Updated

Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, has said he expects Joe Biden to visit the UK in the first six months of his presidency, if the coronavirus situation allows it. Speaking on the Today programme he said:

Joe Biden has always been a great friend of Great Britain.

I think he wants to be a friend of Britain. I think he plans, from what I know, to come to Britain within the first six months of becoming president, probably to the G7.

He would prefer us to be in the European Union, I know that. He is also worried about the Good Friday agreement - he is not going to allow a trade deal with Britain to happen if we in some way breach the Good Friday agreement.

Brown also said he saw Biden as “the great conciliator”.

If Ronald Reagan was the great communicator, he is the great conciliator and he is capable of bringing people together.

Updated

The civil servant in charge of contact tracing at the government’s widely-criticised £12bn test-and-trace programme is leaving her post, it emerged today.

Haroona Franklin is being replaced by the boss of a major NHS hospital trust and is joining the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Health Service Journal disclosed.

Test and trace is under heavy fire for its consistent under-performance, especially in its ability to get hold of, and advise to isolate, contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19. It has been reaching little more than 60% of such contacts, even though the government says it needs to be reaching at least 80% for the system to be effective.

Franklin’s exit was confirmed by the DHSC, which thanked her for her “tireless work and determination in helping to build this service”. She worked at HM Revenue and Customs before joining the beleaguered testing and contact tracing programme.

She is being replaced by Steve McManus, the chief executive of the Royal Berkshire NHS trust in Reading, who is already on secondment to Test and Trace.

The move follows the departure of Sarah-Jane Marsh as the programme’s director of testing. She has returned to her job as chief executive of the Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS trust.

Updated

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has used Twitter to set out what he describes as the three keys needed to unlock a UK-EU trade deal.

On the third point, “stable” access to fishing opportunities in UK waters, George Eustice, the environment secretary, offered a hint earlier that the British government is shifting its position on this. (See 10.40am.)

Shapps says government making 'very good progress' towards testing regime that could cut need for 14-day quarantine

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has said the government is making “very good progress” on a new testing regime that could cut the 14-day quarantine period imposed on many international arrivals.

Addressing the Airport Operators Association annual conference, Shapps said:

This will consist of a single test for arrivals into the UK provided by the private sector at a cost to the passenger, allowing us a much-reduced period of self-isolation.

Beyond the lockdown, this should encourage more people to be able to book flights with confidence, knowing there is an option which allows them to shorten self-isolation if they’re going somewhere which isn’t in - or does become outside - a travel corridor.

We’ve been working extensively with health experts and the private testing sector on the practicalities of this new regime.

For example, making sure that it doesn’t have any impact on NHS capacity. We will report to the prime minister, as promised, with recommendations on how we can support the recovery of international tourism and travel, and of course increase consumer confidence.

Shapps also said the UK was working with other countries on developing standard international rules relating to quarantine. “We’re leading international work to help develop a framework for international travel to provide global consistency, an accepted standard, an international standard,” he said.

And he said the rapid lateral flow test being trialled in Liverpool could eventually open the way for non-quarantine air travel. “Of course, that is what we absolutely would love to achieve,” he said.

Grant Shapps.
Grant Shapps. Photograph: Barcroft Media/Getty Images

Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, has said that the election of Joe Biden as the next US president could prompt “pause for thought” in Downing Street in the Brexit talks.

Asked if Biden’s election would make a difference in the negotiations, Coveney told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

I think perhaps it does. Joe Biden is a real friend of Ireland. He describes his life as being shaped entirely by his roots in Ireland.

He’s somebody who, in the middle of this presidential campaign, has taken the time to make a very clear statement in relation to Ireland, the need to protect the Good Friday Agreement and the need to prevent a hard border at any point in the future linked to to Brexit policy and Brexit negotiations.

He’s been very clear that Ireland and peace on this island, north and south, is very important to him.

I think now that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States, I certainly think that will be pause for thought in Number 10, to ensure that that the Irish issues are prioritised as we try to close out this phase of the Brexit negotiation.

Coveney also said he thought this week would be crucial for the UK-EU trade talks. He said:

I think that this is arguably the most important week that we’ve had in the Brexit negotiations since this time last year when we were trying to close out a withdrawal agreement, which was tense and difficult and this is too.

Concluding a negotiation as complex as a Brexit negotiation while trying to put a future relationship agreement in place between the EU and the UK, particularly on trade agreements, but also lots of other things as well, was never going to be easy.

But we really are in the end game now, and I think you’ll see a big effort this week to try to find a way of closing this out in a way that both sides can live with.

Coveney also said both sides would need to show “realism” if there was going to be a deal.

He was speaking as Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, started a new round of talks in London with his UK counterpart, David Frost.

Michel Barnier arriving this morning for the latest round of UK-EU trade talks in London.
Michel Barnier arriving this morning for the latest round of UK-EU trade talks in London. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Updated

Eustice says Biden's election could hold up UK-US trade deal

George Eustice, the environment secretary, was doing the morning broadcast round on behalf of the government this morning. Here are the main points from his interviews.

  • Eustice said that, if peers voted down the clauses in the internal market bill this afternoon allowing the government to ignore some parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, the government would reinstate them when the bill returned to the Commons. And he rejected claims the contentious clauses would undermine the Good Friday agreement. He said:

The UK internal market bill is not about undermining the Belfast Agreement, it’s about standing behind it, making sure that it works and looking after the interests of Northern Ireland, making sure the peace and stability that’s been hard won there can carry on.

The government argues any post-Brexit trade arrangements that obstructed trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland would undermine the Good Friday agreement, because they would unsettle the unionist community. It argues that the contentious clauses in the internal market bill are needed to keep that border fully frictionless in the event of their being no UK-EU trade deal.

But the government’s critics, including the EU, the Democratic establishment in the US, the opposition and a majority of peers in the House of Lords, say these provisions would undermine the Good Friday agreement because they would require the establishment of border controls between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

The UK says, even in the event of no deal, it would not impose controls at the Northern Ireland/Ireland border. Ireland would not want to impose controls either. But this would still be an external border for the EU’s single market, and so the EU would want to see controls on goods. Quite what would happen in this scenario is not clear. But there is general agreement that anything that hardened this border would undermine the Good Friday agreement - not least because customs officials might be a target for dissident republican terrorists.

  • Eustice said Biden’s election could hold up the negotiation of a UK-US trade agreement. Asked if election result meant the US would want to restart the negotiations from scratch, he replied:

It doesn’t if the new administration is happy to pick up where the previous one did. That is possible and something that we will be exploring, but it’s just too early to tell really.

It may be that obviously the time that it takes for a new administration to take root means there’s some slippage in time, but we’ll see once they’re properly in place.

  • He said he thought Boris Johnson and Joe Biden would be able to form a close relationship, despite their political differences. He said:

People say all sorts of things on a presidential campaign trail but there’s a very close relationship always between the UK and the US, on defence and security in particular.

That endures irrespectively of who the occupants of No 10 and the White House are, and I suspect that now Joe Biden is president he and the prime minister will want to cement a very important relationship.

  • He said the UK would be willing to agree three-year deals with the EU on fisheries. He said:

On fisheries, we’ve always been open to doing a sensible approach looking particularly at agreements that might span a couple, three years for instance.

We’re going to be sensible in how we approach this but making sure that we have control of our own waters again and controlled access to our waters has always been a red line for us in these negotiations.

Earlier this year the UK was saying it was opposed to a long-term deal with the EU on fisheries, and that EU access to UK waters would have to be renegotiated annually.

George Eustice.
George Eustice. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Welsh heath chief says some early signs suggest 'firebreak' lockdown has been working

The 17-day “firebreak” lockdown in Wales has now ended. Before it started the Welsh government said it would not be immediately clear, once it was over, whether it had worked, but this morning Dr Frank Atherton, the chief medical officer for Wales, said that there already were some signs that it had worked. He told the Today programme:

We are coming out of the firebreak arrangements today. We always recognised that there would be a lag in terms of the indicators we look at as to how successful we have been.

But we are seeing some early signs of stability and we are seeing that in mobility data, so we recognise that the people of Wales have been travelling significantly less during the firebreak, and we are starting to see that in some of the testing rates.

But Atherton also said Wales could not just go back to what was in force before. He said:

As we come out of this firebreak we can’t simply go back to the behaviour we had before. We still need to work differently.

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, will hold a briefing later. This article sets out the new rules coming into force in Wales today.

Updated

UK has now had 65,024 deaths involving coronavirus, latest figures show

Just over 65,000 deaths involving Covid-19 have now occurred in the UK, the latest figures show, PA Media reports.

A total of 61,498 deaths have so far been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, according to reports published last week by the Office for National Statistics, the National Records of Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

But since those figures were compiled, a further 3,191 deaths are known to have occurred in England, plus 77 in Scotland, 209 in Wales and 49 in Northern Ireland, according to additional data published on the government’s coronavirus dashboard.

Together, these totals mean that, so far, 65,024 deaths involving Covid-19 have taken place in the UK.

Starmer says he has a “grown-up relationship” with Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary. They speak directly. He says he prefers to operate that way. But that does not always mean they agree.

Q: And what do you think about Shami Chakrabarti planning legal action against Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension?

Starmer says he does not think Labour needs any more legal challenges.

And that’s it. The phone-in is over.

Starmer says he thinks stress levels are going up again, after a dip in the summer.

Q: What do you think of Kate Bingham, head of the government’s vaccine taskforce, running up a £670,000 PR bill.

Starmer says that cannot be justified.

Q: I’m a photographer, and like other self-employed people have been devastated. What can you do to help?

Starmer says he will raise this with the government. For photographers and other self-employed people, this has been devastating.

Q: What do you make of Marcus Rashford’s campaign?

Starmer says this government U-turn is “astonishing”.

He says it was humbling for the government to see charities providing services that it was not doing itself.

He says he thinks this is the 15th government U-turn we’ve seen.

Q: Will Labour vote for further firebreak lockdowns?

Starmer says he hopes that won’t be necessary.

But I don’t think I can, hand on heart say ‘definitely not’.

Q: The case rate in Wales is higher than in London. Why does that show Labour in power in Wales has been doing a good job.

Starmer says there will be a lag before the firebreak in Wales leads to case numbers falling.

Q: Are you not worried about the bluntness of these measures?

Starmer says numbers have been doubling every few weeks.

People who do not support the lockdown have to say what number of deaths they would find acceptable.

Q: But you are now supporting measures that mean you can sleep with your partner, but not play tennis with them?

Starmer laughs. He says he heard Nick Ferrari, the presenter, raise this earlier. There are always anomalies, he says. He says “these inconsistencies need to be ironed out”.

Q: Why do you support a lockdown that is so damaging to business. I have had to shut my hairdressing business, even though it is Covid-secure.

Starmer says the R number has been above one. Cases have been doubling.

He says he proposed a circuit break lockdown that would have involved a shorter lockdown.

Q: How does it make sense to close a hair salon in Woking to protect people in Nottingham?

Starmer says the R number was going up everywhere.

Q: If you were in power, how would you be handling the migrant crisis?

Starmer says he would be working internationally in a different way, especially with France.

These are desperate cases. We need to handle them in a humane way.

Q: But Priti Patel or Boris Johnson would say the same thing?

Q: We see people being put in hotels, while we have our own homeless?

Starmer says he has visited the camps in France. He says claims should be processed there.

The government has been in power for 10 years. “If there are failings, they have to take responsibility for them.”

Q: I run a small group of restaurants dedicated to live music. The 10pm curfew has been very damaging. It does not make sense getting everyone to crowd on public transport at the same time. Do you think this should be scrapped after the lockdown?

Starmer says the 10pm compulsory closing time should be reconsidered. It would be better to stagger closing times, he says. He says Tory MPs agree with this too.

The government needs to use the lockdown time to consider how to improve the rules.

In Wales they staggered closing times, he says, and forced off-licences to close at the same time. That was more sensible, he says.

Q: How quickly could this happen? We need time to plan.

Starmer says the government should be thinking about the regime for post lockdown now.

It also needs to fix test and trace, he says. (He calls it test, trace and isolate.)

Q: I voted for you as Labour leader, but hoped you would continue Jeremy Corbyn’s approach. Suspending Corbyn was a political decision.

Starmer says when he stood for the leadership, he said he wanted to unite the party.

But he also said he would tackle antisemitism. That means tackling people who pretend it has been exaggerated.

He says it was not a political decision to suspend Corbyn. It was a decision taken by the general secretary. But he says he supports it.

Q: Why do you back keeping schools open, putting thousands of lives of teachers at risk?

Starmer says the long term harm to children from missing school is considerable.

Schools have already been closed for months.

If they were closed for longer, children would be at home even longer, not learning. And the attainment gap would get bigger.

Starmer's LBC phone-in

Sir Keir Starmer is on LBC now.

He says he thinks it will be easy for Britain to “stand with” Joe Biden, as the headline on his Guardian article proposes.

He says he “really hopes” the UK can get a trade deal with the EU. Some clarity on the Good Friday agreement would help, he says.

Q: What lessons are there for Labour from the election?

Starmer says there are lessons to be learnt about coalition building.

When people do not vote for you, you should not tell them they are wrong, he says.

Starmer says Biden's victory strengthens need for PM to honour Brexit withdrawal agreement

Good morning. For once, coronavirus is not dominating the domestic political headlines, because Westminster is still assessing the impact of Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential elections. In an article for the Guardian Sir Keir Starmer urges Labour to learn from Joe Biden’s “broad coalition” which won back voters who turned away from the Democrats four years ago, pointing to the president-elect’s emphasis on “family, community and security”. My colleague Jessica Elgot has the story here.

In his article Starmer also says the defeat of Donald Trump makes it even more important for Boris Johnson to abandon the provisions in the internal market bill allowing it to over-rule parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, thereby breaking international law. Starmer says:

I want us to be striking the best possible trade deals for Britain, which help to create jobs, grow our industries and protect our standards. That must start with us getting a trade agreement with the European Union by the end of the year, as was promised. It also means being a country that abides by the rule of the law.

We will soon have a president in the Oval Office who has been a passionate advocate for the preservation of the Good Friday agreement. He, like governments across the world, will take a dim view if our prime minister ploughs ahead with proposals to undermine that agreement. If the government is serious about a reset in its relationship with the US, then it should take an early first step and drop these proposals.

Peers are due to vote on the bill in the Lords this afternoon. They are expected to vote down the provisions in the bill that would allow the government to ignore parts of the withdrawal agreement, but at the moment the government is saying that, if it loses, it will reinstate them when the bill returns to the Commons where it has a majority (unlike in the Lords).

You can read Starmer’s article in full here.

We will hear more from him in a moment, because he is about to hold his regular LBC phone-in.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Sir Keir Starmer holds his regular ‘Call Keir’ LBC phone-in.

9.30am: Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, gives a speech at an aviation conference.

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

12.15pm: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, holds a briefing as the Welsh lockdown ends.

12.15pm: Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, holds a coronavirus briefing.

After 2pm: Peers begin their debate on the internal market bill. They are expected to vote down provisions in the bill allowing the government to break international law by over-ruling the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

4pm: Penny Mordaunt, a Cabinet Office minister, gives evidence to the joint committee on national security on biosecurity.

Politics Live is now doubling up as the UK coronavirus live blog and, given the way the Covid crisis eclipses everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But we will be covering non-Covid political stories too, like Brexit, and when they seem more important or more interesting, they will take precedence.

Here is our global coronavirus live blog.

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.

Updated

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The Mary Sue
Forget birdwatching, I’m into moth-watching: they’re fascinating and misunderstood insects
According to new research, distinguishing between the UK’s 2,500 species could halt cognitive decline – so my brain could not be happier, or healthier, says science writer Helen Pilcher
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
I tried HigherDose’s $1,400 PEMF mat to help me relax. I got weird dreams and disappointment
This pricey infrared therapy mat claims to help mood, sleep and muscle recovery. It felt more like a glorified heating pad
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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