Afternoon summary
- Boris Johnson has been accused of tastelessly exploiting the coronavirus crisis to boost support for the union on his first visit to Scotland since the general election. At a news conference Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said: “I don’t think any of us should be championing or celebrating a pandemic that has taken thousands of lives as some example of the pre-existing political case we want to make.” (See 2.19pm.) She was responding to Johnson’s claim that an independent Scotland would not have had the financial muscle to stop coronavirus causing an economic “disaster”. (See 10.40am.) Sturgeon said the UK government was only able to help in the way that it did because it could borrow billions and that, under independence, Scotland would also have borrowing powers. Johnson’s visit coincides with opinion polls in Scotland showing support for independence consistently ahead of opposition to it for the first time since devolution. (See 11.28am.) But Johnson said, even if the SNP secured a majority in next year’s Scottish parliamentary elections, that would not justify a second referendum. (See 12.02pm.)
That’s all from me for today.
Our coronavirus coverage continues on our coronavirus live blog. It’s here.
Updated
Swimming pools, spas and community centres to open in Northern Ireland from tomorrow
Swimming pools, spas and community centres are to be reopened from tomorrow in Northern Ireland, Stormont’s ministers announced this evening.
In the latest moves to ease lockdown in the region, fans will also be allowed to attend sports venues so long as those running contests “can control access and ensure adherence to social distancing”.
One such event could be the Irish Cup final next Friday, when it is understood the football authorities will allow up to 2,000 fans into Windsor Park, which has a capacity to hold up 18,000 spectators.
The supporters allowed into the international stadium will be subject to strict social distancing at the final.
The Northern Ireland executive has also ruled that the number of people allowed to gather in a private house can rise to 10.
Saunas and steam rooms are also permitted to open, while funfairs can also resume operating from tomorrow.
Updated
Here is Boris Johnson inspecting a Spitfire at RAF Lossiemouth.
And here is a protester outside.
Ian Jones from the Press Association has more on the government’s failure to reach Boris Johnson’s 24-hour target for test results. (See 4.58pm.)
Boris Johnson told the Commons last month that the results of all in-person Covid-19 tests would be "turned around within 24 hours by the end of June".
— Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) July 23, 2020
Instead the proportion turned round in 24 hours has been falling. pic.twitter.com/w9C2kubBJ9
Liz Truss has ruled out signposting when she expects the UK government to secure a trade deal with the US, fuelling fears that hopes of reaching an agreement ahead of the presidential election in November have been abandoned.
The international trade secretary said it was “dangerous to make a prediction” on when an agreement with Washington might be achieved, stressing that Downing Street would not “sacrifice a good deal for speed”. Reports suggested earlier this week that Downing Street had given up on agreeing a trade deal with the US before the country goes to the polls in November.
Appearing before a Lords committee this afternoon, Truss said:
We are commencing round three of the talks next week and we are making good progress. But we are very clear that we are not going to sacrifice a good deal for speed. We have expert negotiators who are tabling UK-specific texts across the whole agreement to ensure that it reflects our interests.
We are not just going to accept photocopies of the US-Mexico-Canada agreement. We are also not going to budge on our red lines: the NHS remains off the table, our food standards must not be undermined and British farming must benefit from a deal.
Updated
Wearing face masks in shops to be made compulsory in Northern Ireland from 20 August
Stormont executive ministers have provisionally agreed to make the wearing of face masks in shops in Northern Ireland mandatory from 20 August, PA Media reports. They will initiate a public awareness campaign in the intervening weeks in the hope of securing voluntary compliance.
Updated
Boris Johnson has has arrived at an RAF base in Moray after spending time in Orkney on his one-day visit to Scotland. As PA Media reports, his visit to RAF Lossiemouth coincides with a £100m home for submarine hunter planes at the base being handed over from Boeing to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The hangar bay can hold up to three of the nine submarine-hunting Poseidon Maritime Patrol aircraft the air force will have in its fleet. The facility, jointly funded by Boeing and the MoD, also provides accommodation for two squadrons, as well as training and mission support facilities.
Updated
Boris Johnson's 24-hour test result target still being missed, DHSC figures show
As my colleague Sarah Boseley reported earlier (see 3.41pm), the government’s test-and-trace system is still failing to meet the target of reaching 80% of the people testing positive for coronavirus to ensure that their contacts can be told to self-isolate. It is very, very close (79.7%). But when it comes to identifying the people who have been in contact with those people testing positive, the success rate is only 61.5% if you exclude so-called “complex cases” – outbreaks in hospitals or care homes etc, where it is easier to identify all relevant contacts.
But today’s figures (pdf) also show the government is failing to meet another target. At the start of June Boris Johnson told MPs at PMQs that he wanted to get “all tests turned around in 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that”. But today’s figures show that only 87.4% of tests being conducted under pillar 1 (in NHS and PHE laboratories) are being completed within 24 hours, and only 46.8% of tests being conducted under pillar 2 (at drive-through centres and mobile centres, and with home testing kits) are hitting that target. Excluding home testing kits (where the post affects the timing), the pillar 2 figure is 57.5%.
Justin Madders, the shadow health minister, said these figures were getting worse. He said:
The prime minister promised we would have a 24-hour turnaround for test results by the end of last month but we are a long way off, with the numbers heading in the wrong direction again this week. How can ministers think it’s acceptable that testing is getting slower rather than faster as promised?
Updated
Here are two of the people protesting about Boris Johnson’s visit to Orkney. If you are wondering why one of them is holding up a mug, it’s because he thinks the name of a small Orkney village is appropriate. A reader has been in touch to say that the line “we’ve already got a Twatt in Orkney” is going down well with some locals.
Updated
This is from Ian Murray, the shadow Scottish secretary, on Boris Johnson’s visit to Scotland.
Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon are bickering about the constitution in the middle of the worst health and economic crisis of our lifetimes.
The prime minister should be using his visit to announce a sectorial extension to the furlough scheme to protect jobs in hard hit industries like tourism.
What Scotland needs is two governments working together, with the autonomy of devolution and security of the United Kingdom.
The Department for Business has announced a £100m investment in vaccine production, that involves upgrading a plant in Essex to turn it into a fully licensed vaccine factory. The details are in a news release here. And here is an excerpt.
The investment will fund a state-of-the-art cell and gene therapy catapult manufacturing innovation centre to accelerate the mass production of a successful Covid-19 vaccine in the UK. Due to open in December 2021, the centre will have the capacity to produce millions of doses each month, ensuring the UK has the capabilities to manufacture vaccines and advanced medicines, including for emerging diseases, far into the future.
Located in Braintree, Essex, the government initiative will upgrade an existing facility to create a fully licensed manufacturing centre.
Updated
Test-and-trace system still not meeting 80% target, figures show
The numbers of people testing positive for coronavirus reached by contact tracers and asked for details of those they have recently met are edging upwards, but are still short of the 80% the scientists recommend to keep the epidemic in England under control.
The NHS Confederation said it was concerned that the target was not being hit, risking a second wave in the winter as more virus circulates indoors. Dr Layla McCay, a director at the confederation, said:
I’m glad to see improvements in the proportion of people with coronavirus whose close contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate, but we cannot ignore the fact that the benchmark for effectiveness, as recommended by the government’s independent scientific advisers, is still not being met.
The Guardian on Wednesday revealed that the numbers reached in more socio-economically deprived communities were lagging a long way below the national figure. In partially locked-down Leicester, 65% of people testing positive were reached and asked to provide their contacts. In Luton, with the sixth highest infection rate in England, the rate was only 47%.
“We are hearing that people in the hardest hit areas are not being reached,” said McCay.
This is too important not to get right. Without a test and trace system that is consistently robust across the whole country and effective at reaching people where the disease is particularly prevalent in a timely manner, we risk a second peak that could seriously endanger public health and put the NHS in the path of a wave of infections that could overwhelm it.
The latest statistics out today (pdf), for the week from 9 to 15 July, show that 79.7% of people testing positive were reached by the contact tracers, slightly up on the previous week. The numbers of the close contacts of “non-complex cases”, which means individuals not in outbreak settings, hospitals or care homes, who were reached were lower, however, at just over 60%. In complex cases, the tracing teams do much better – 98.5%.
Updated
And these are from Yes Orkney, an Orkney-based Scottish independence campaign, showing pictures of some of the protests that greeted Boris Johnson on when he visited the islands this morning.
Getting set up now #stromness#orkney pic.twitter.com/iJ4BMbjBru
— Yes Orkney (@AyeOrkney) July 23, 2020
#kirkwall now bj xpected there at 12 pic.twitter.com/xzrU3O0S58
— Yes Orkney (@AyeOrkney) July 23, 2020
Waiting for the imperial masters exit at Garson Stromness @ScotNational @LesleyRiddoch pic.twitter.com/uWFLv56wlN
— Yes Orkney (@AyeOrkney) July 23, 2020
Nothing like a bit of creativity in the morning pic.twitter.com/FyytLjYRMu
— Yes Orkney (@AyeOrkney) July 23, 2020
Here is the full text of Michel Barnier’s opening statement when he gave his press briefing earlier after the end of the latest round of UK-EU trade talks.
The global poultry production giant Moy Park has confirmed that a “very small number of employees” have tested positive for coronavirus at a plant in Northern Ireland.
The company said the workers at its Ballymena factory were self-isolating on full pay.
Moy Park’s operation in the Country Antrim town employs 1,400 workers including agency staff. Northern Ireland’s health minister, Robin Swann, said that the region’s Public Health Agency was cooperating with Moy Park over the outbreak.
Swann stressed that an outbreak of Covid-19 was defined as two or more people being infected.
“We have always said we will expect outbreaks and clusters as we start to ease restrictions, but what we really need is for people to interact with test, track and tracing so we can manage them,” Swann added.
Updated
Face coverings will be compulsory in takeaways, banks and post offices as well as shops, supermarkets and stations in England from tomorrow, new government guidelines have confirmed. My colleague Sarah Butler has the details.
Secondary school children from the most advantaged families will take six months to catch up following the Covid-19 closure of schools while those from disadvantaged backgrounds could take up to a year, according to a study. As PA Media reports, researchers from the University of Southampton also found that primary age children from advantaged families would be approximately a year behind while those from disadvantaged backgrounds would be even further behind.
Dr Nic Pensiero, who led the study, said:
Parents who work in professional and management occupations, which are suitable for home working, are better able to assist their children’s home learning.
When you also consider that such parents are better able to provide children with their own computers and other learning resources as well as a suitable learning space, this puts their children in a significantly better situation than those from non-professional, non-managerial families.
Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story about the stalemate at the end of the latest round of UK-EU trade talks.
But my colleagues Daniel Boffey and Lisa O’Carroll argue that “a deal still remains the most likely option.” They explain why in an analysis here.
Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, argued something similar in a long and interesting Twitter thread last night. It starts here.
The EU is getting fed up with the Brexit negotiations, saying the UK has wasted all the talks in July by not offering any real compromises. They wonder if UK wants a deal. But I still think deal more likely than not (this year). A thread on why I'm slightly optimistic. @CER_EU /1
— Charles Grant (@CER_Grant) July 22, 2020
And here are some of his conclusions.
If there's a deal, it will lead to a much harder Brexit than many Britons expect. Many sectors of the economy will take a hit, eg from border friction, lack of access to the single market or the difficulty of hiring. But it is wrong to argue that no deal wd be not much worse. /14
— Charles Grant (@CER_Grant) July 22, 2020
The difference is not just that 'WTO terms' tariffs would cripple industries like cars and farming. The politics would be v different. An acrimonious no deal would hit economic confidence and make it v hard to improve co-op on trade and security, for a long time. /15
— Charles Grant (@CER_Grant) July 22, 2020
On the other hand even a thin deal of the sort BJ wants would be a base that could be build upon. In future years, when Brexiteers relax about Remainers 'sabotaging' their Brexit, and the French realise that the UK on its own is not going to out-perform the EU.../16
— Charles Grant (@CER_Grant) July 22, 2020
....rational actors in the UK and the EU can start to build a more constructive and business-friendly set of institutional links. This could benefit the economy and security of the UK (and the EU). If at some point there is a Labour government this process could speed up /ENDS
— Charles Grant (@CER_Grant) July 22, 2020
All four nations of the UK have now reported their daily coronavirus figures.
NHS England has recorded a further 19 hospital deaths. The full details are here.
But there have been no further deaths in Scotland, no further deaths in Wales, and no further deaths in Northern Ireland.
Summary
Sturgeon accuses Johnson of exploiting Covid crisis as 'political weapon' by 'crowing' about union
Here are the main points from Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish government coronavirus briefing.
- Sturgeon criticised Boris Johnson for using the coronavirus crisis to make a political point about the importance of the union. “Celebrating” the pandemic to make a political argument was wrong, she said. Asked about the arguments made by Johnson about the union ahead of this visit to Scotland, she said:
I don’t think any of us, and I include myself in this, should be trying to use Covid and the pandemic and the crisis situation we continue to face as some kind of political campaigning tool. This is a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 50,000 people across the UK. We have all tried to do our best, but I don’t think any of us have got any grounds to crow or to feel satisfied about this ... Every leader has a real duty to focus on doing everything we can to tackle this, and not use it as some kind of political weapon.
Sturgeon made the same point in slightly stronger terms when asked again about Johnson. She said:
I don’t think any of us should be championing or celebrating a pandemic that has taken thousands of lives as some example of the pre-existing political case we want to make. This has been a heart-breaking crisis that we’re not out of yet. Too many people died. And all of us have a really, really solemn responsibility to focus on [it] and to get our countries through.
None of us should be crowing about this pandemic in a political sense.
- Sturgeon rejected Johnson’s claim that an independent Scotland would not have had the financial muscle to stop coronavirus causing an economic “disaster”. (See 10.40am.) She said that her briefing was focused on coronavirus and that she did not want to get into a full argument about independence. But, when asked about Johnson’s comments, she did agree to respond to his argument in so far as it related to Covid-19. She said:
[Financial support from the UK government] has been very welcome. But let’s be clear. This is borrowed money. And the reason it is coming from to the Scottish government from the UK government is the UK government has the borrowing powers that Scotland’s doesn’t. Scottish taxpayers will pay the cost of that borrowing just in the same way as taxpayers across the UK will. So it’s not some kind of favour that’s being done for Scotland.
And if the Scottish government had those borrowing powers, we would be able to provide that support correctly, and perhaps we would be able to have greater flexibility in how we design these schemes, just as where we do have autonomous decision making - for example in the decisions we are making to come out of lockdown - we are designing those decisions in a way that best meets Scotland’s need.
She also said some of what Johnson had been saying about the might of the UK Treasury was really “just a feature of where power lies”. She went: “If Scotland was an independent country, like Ireland, we would be doing these thing ourselves.”
- Sturgeon said people in Scotland who are shielding due to being classed as at higher risk from coronavirus will no longer need to from 1 August. The details are here.
Updated
Campaigners threaten PM with judicial review if he does not set up Covid-19 inquiry now
A large group of families whose relatives have died due to Covid-19 have sent Boris Johnson an ultimatum to hold an immediate public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic, promising to take legal action to force him to do so if he refuses. The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which now represents 1,400 people, is crowdfunding to support an expected application for judicial review, after the prime minister and the health secretary, Matt Hancock, declined a request to hold an inquiry or to meet families.
The detailed letter, sent by the group’s solicitors, Broudie Jackson Canter, argues that the government has a legal duty to hold a public inquiry under article two of the European convention on human rights, which requires a state to protect life. That duty, which applies in UK law, includes an obligation to carry out an effective investigation into people’s deaths where the state itself may have failed to protect them.
Detailing the deaths of 24 people whose relatives are members of the group, including nurses, care and other key workers and several elderly residents of care homes, the legal letter sets out 22 issues for a public inquiry to examine, including whether the UK was inadequately prepared for a pandemic.
In a reply to the families’ lawyers on 16 July, Lee McDonough, director general of NHS acute care and workforce, said the government is not yet planning to hold an inquiry. He said:
As the government has made clear, at some point in the future there will be an opportunity for it to look back, to reflect and to learn lessons. However at the moment the important thing is to focus on responding to the current pandemic.
The families’ letter asks Johnson and Hancock to reconsider their position within 14 days, or they will “issue judicial review proceedings without further notice”.
Updated
At her Edinburgh briefing a journalist ask Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, if she expects economic growth in Scotland to be lower than in the rest of the UK because the Scottish government is not advising people to go back to the office, whereas Boris Johnson is advising people to do that in England.
Sturgeon says she wants to see economic growth in Scotland. But her priority is to tackle coronavirus, she says.
Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish government’s cabinet secretary for economy, fair work and culture, who is attending the briefing alongside Sturgeon, says that differences between growth in Scotland and in the rest of the UK are mainly explained by sectoral differences (like the size of Scotland’s oil industry), not by differences in the timing of the easing of lockdown.
The briefing is now over. I will post the key points shortly.
Here is the Scottish government’s guide to the new advice it has issued for people who are shielding.
Updated
At her briefing in Edinburgh a journalist asks Sturgeon about her comment about how an independent Scotland would be able to borrow, and asks what would happen if it did not have its own currency. Sturgeon says she is not willing to get into the details of an independent Scotland’s currency policy now. This is a coronavirus briefing, she says. She says she would be happy to address those questions on another occasion.
Sturgeon says she would have been willing to meet with Boris Johnson if he had asked for a meeting.
She says she thinks she last spoke to him on the day of the knife attack in Glasgow (on 26 June).
She says in some ways she will look forward being able to get back to political sparring. She enjoys that, she says. But she says she does not think it is appropriate at this time.
Q: The PM says the coronavirus crisis has shown what can be achieved by the might of the UK. Is he right?
No, says Sturgeon. She says she thinks he has just been making a point about where power lies.
And she says that it is wrong to be using the coronavirus crisis for campaign purposes. No one should be celebrating or crowing about this, she says.
At her briefing Sturgeon says she does not have the power to convene a meeting of Cobra, the UK government’s emergency committee. She says she thinks it has not met since early May. It would be better if devolved administrations could call Cobra meetings, she says.
Sturgeon rejects Johnson's claim that an independent Scotland would not be able to fund Covid rescue plan
At her briefing, in response to a question about Boris Johnson’s comments about an independent Scotland not being able to cope with a Covid-style economic crisis (see 10.40am), Nicola Sturgeon says that this is a Covid briefing, not a party political one. So she wants to limit what she says, she says.
But she says she has always been clear that, in dealing with coronavirus, the Scottish government needs to do what is best for Scotland.
She says the UK government support for Scotland has been very welcome.
But she says it is “borrowed money”. She says the UK government can borrow those sums because it has the power to do so. (Scotland can’t.)
She also says it will have to be repaid. Scottish taxpayers will contribute to paying it back, she says.
She says, if Scotland were independent, it would be able to borrow too. And it might have “greater flexibility”, she says.
Barnier says UK position on competition and fishing makes trade deal with EU 'unlikely'
Here is more from the Michel Barnier briefing on the UK-EU trade talks.
These are from the FT’s Peter Foster, Sky’s Adam Parsons, the Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin, and the Independent’s Jon Stone.
Now. Barnier reminds UK that EU has agreed a 5 billion euro contingency fund to off-set costs/impacts of #Brexit
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
Clear muscle flexing here: we can live with 'no deal' and we will support EU MS through short-term pain and disruption to avoid signing up to a bad deal long term/10
Barnier: “By its current refusal to commit to open and free competition and to a balanced agreement on fishery, the UK makes a trade agreement - at this point - unlikely”
— Adam Parsons (@adamparsons) July 23, 2020
Barnier repeats the October deadline. "We must come to an agreement by October at the latest… we only have a few weeks left and we should not waste them."
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) July 23, 2020
"We only have a few weeks left to properly implement the withdrawal agreement."
Barnier says believes 🇬🇧 government *does* want a deal because it is in common interests. "Our resolve remains unchanged"
— Adam Parsons (@adamparsons) July 23, 2020
Barnier: there is an objective risk of no-deal, [adds] we are ready to negotiate until the last day until the very end.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) July 23, 2020
Barnier: "You don't [make progress] that with ultimatums or threat, I've never seen negotiations being carried forward in that sort of way. I don't think we've got time for these games."
— Jon Stone (@joncstone) July 23, 2020
Turning back to Brexit, here is the full text of David Frost’s statement issued after the end of this week’s UK-EU trade talks. (See 12.12pm.)
Here is my statement at the end of the latest round of negotiations with the EU. https://t.co/IXDiuhucsB
— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) July 23, 2020
Sturgeon confirms Scottish government plans to end shielding from end of next week
At her briefing Sturgeon says the Scottish government is updating its advice for people who have been shielding. She says they hope to be able to pause shielding from the end of next week.
Shielding is the stay-at-home rule for people who are deemed extremely clinically vulnerable. In England shielding is also ending from 1 August.
NS: "When shielding started, more than 20% of Covid tests were proving positive, and 150 new cases a day were being reported. Less than a week after shielding started, we were reporting more than 300 new cases a day."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
NS: "Today, of course, I've reported 16 new cases. That is 0.4% of people testing newly positive."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
NS: "As today’s figures showed, we are now in a very different position to the one we faced back in March. As a result - and as we have previously indicated - some further key changes to our advice will take effect from tomorrow for people who are shielding."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
In Edinburgh Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, has just started her regular coronavirus briefing.
There is a live feed here.
NS: "An additional 16 positive cases were confirmed yesterday. That represents 0.4% of people who were newly tested yesterday, and it takes the total number of cases in Scotland to 18,500."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
NS: "It is worth highlighting that we have changed the reporting of figures on the Scottish Government’s website so that the figures for new cases - including the percentage of positive tests - are now shown more prominently on the main Covid page."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
NS: "And, more specifically in relation to the outbreak at the Sitel call centre in Lanarkshire, I can confirm that as of this morning, there are a total of 24 positive cases associated with that, an increase of 4 since yesterday."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
NS: "And as of last night, there were just 2 people with confirmed COVID in intensive care in Scotland. That is 1 fewer than yesterday."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
NS: "Finally, I am very glad to say that once again, during the past 24 hours, no deaths were registered of patients confirmed through a test as having Covid-19. The total number of deaths, under this measure, therefore remains 2,491."
— The SNP (@theSNP) July 23, 2020
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, is giving his own briefing now on this week’s UK-EU talks on a trade deal. The FT’s Peter Foster has been tweeting some of the highlights.
Barnier starts by noting that @BorisJohnson asked for intensified talks to deliver a 'quick' agreement....and 3 UK red lines
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
- no ECJ
- no constraint on UK law making
- fisheries deal that makes a 'read difference'
So.../2
Barnier says that UK "has not shown the same level of engagement" as the EU to find solutions that respect red lines on both sides.
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
Some good talks on goods and services, but we need progess across all areas. And we are still "far away" from progress. /3
Barnier complements @DavidGHFrost for his professional approach - good discussion on social security co-open and justice and home affairs. Intense and useful on energy/transport but UK still wants "single market type access" /4
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
BUT (you guessed it) still huge gaps on level playing field and fisheries...
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
He adds that this "should not come as a surprise"...noting EU positions on this been consistent over last three years.../5
Barnier #Brexit the UK "did not show a willingness to break the deadlock".
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
No progress at all on State Aid and "no visibility" on UK future domestic subsidy control system/regime.
Barnier: "The time for answers is quickly running out" /6
Barnier says EU wants to trade with UK free from tariffs and quotas...but also free from unfair competition.
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
The UK "cannot accept to foot the bill for UK's political choices" /7
REITERATES: even if the UK goes for a basic FTA (been lot of talk recently about 'hardest of hard canadas') Barnier says EU wont drop its Level Playing field demands. KEY POINT. And maybe where this thing crunches,. /8
— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) July 23, 2020
UK and EU will fail to meet PM's July deadline for outline trade deal, No 10 admits
No 10 has admitted that the UK and the EU will fail to meet the July deadline floated by Boris Johnson for an outline agreement on a trade deal. This will not come as a surprise to anyone, but it is worth noting nonetheless. David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, has just released this statement following the end of this week’s talks. He said:
It is unfortunately clear that we will not reach in July the ‘early understanding on the principles underlying any agreement’ that was set as an aim at the high-level meeting on 15 June. At that meeting, the prime minister set out once again the fundamental principles which we have repeatedly made clear would need to underpin any future agreement and which are intrinsic to the UK’s future as an economically and politically independent country. Any agreement needs to honour these principles in full. The EU’s proposals so far, while a welcome response to the prime minister’s statement, do not do so, and therefore substantial areas of disagreement remain.
Specifically, the EU has listened to the UK on some of the issues most important to us, notably on the role of the court of justice, and we welcome this more pragmatic approach. Similarly, we have heard the EU’s concerns about a complex Switzerland-style set of agreements and we are ready to consider simpler structures, provided satisfactory terms can be found for dispute settlement and governance ...
But considerable gaps remain in the most difficult areas, that is, the so-called level playing field and on fisheries. We have always been clear that our principles in these areas are not simple negotiating positions but expressions of the reality that we will be a fully independent country at the end of the transition period.
The “high-level meeting” was the video conference that Johnson had with Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the presidents of the European commission and the European council respectively. After it was over Johnson said: “There is no reason why we shouldn’t get this done in July.”
Updated
Johnson insists Scottish independence issue settled for a generation in 2014
And this is what Boris Johnson said in his TV interview in Orkney when it was put to him that it would be undemocratic to refuse Scotland a second independence referendum if the SNP were to win a majority in the Scottish elections next year. He said:
Well, we had a referendum in 2014. It was decisive, it was - I think by common consent - a once in a generation event, and what we have seen throughout this crisis is the importance and the strength of the union in dealing with certain crucial, crucial things, supporting people through the furlough scheme, the work of the army and the armed services in testing, in moving people around ....
We had a referendum on breaking up the union only six years ago. That is not a generation, by any computation, and I think what people really want to do is see our whole country coming back strongly together.
Johnson did not explicitly say he would never allow a second referendum (to be lawful, a referendum would have to be approved by Westminster), although in a very short interview he was not pressed on this. In the past he has ruled out allowing one, although some of his comments rejecting the idea have contained a slither of wriggle room. (For example, asked during the election if he would approve a second referendum, he said: “No, I don’t, I don’t want to have one.”)
Johnson was also asked if he was arguing that an independent Scotland would not be able to handling a coronavirus pandemic. He replied:
What’s I’m saying is that the union is a fantastically strong institution, it’s helped our country through thick and thin, it is very, very valuable in terms of the support that we have been able to give to everybody through all corners of the UK.
In his TV interview in Orkney Boris Johnson said that the UK government wanted to support the expansion of wind energy around the island. He said:
This place, around Orkney, they could supply 25% of the UK’s energy needs if they had the infrastructure to go with it. So we are looking at ways to support the council here, to support the local leaders in their ambitions.
Sky News are broadcasting an interview with Boris Johnson in Orkney now. Asked if an SNP majority in the elections next year would mean he would have to allow a second independence referendum (see 11.28am), Johnson said that there had already been a referendum that was meant to settle the matter for a generation.
I will post his comments in full shortly.
This is from what is described as the official account for UK government Scotland.
The UK and Scottish governments are working together to deliver an #IslandsGrowthDeal – each investing £50 million. #Orkney #Shetland #OuterHebrides pic.twitter.com/BsVcEI4ED3
— UK Government Scotland (@UKGovScotland) July 23, 2020
A report in Orkney’s newspaper, the Orcadian, has more details of the Islands growth deal.
For the first time polls in Scotland have been showing support for independence consistently ahead of opposition to independence, Prof Sir John Curtice, the leading psephologist, told BBC News this morning. You can explore the polling figures in detail here, on the What Scotland Thinks website.
Curtice said that, even though Scotland voted against Brexit but the UK as a whole voted in favour, until last year this did not have an impact on support for independence. But that changed in 2019, he said, when remain voters started to swing more towards independence. He said:
It is now clear that a clear majority of people who voted remain in the referendum now think that Scotland should become independent.
Curtice said this year there had been a further swing in favour of independence, driven by the perception that Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP government in Scotland had handled the coronavirus crisis better than Boris Johnson and the Conservative UK government.
It happens to be the case, despite the fact that in many respects the statistical record [for England and Scotland] looks rather similar so far as deaths and prevalence is concerned, at least until recently, that the Scottish government’s handling of coronavirus is rated much more highly than is Boris Johnson’s. That is true south of the border as well.
Curtice also said the polls suggest the SNP are on course to achieve an outright majority in next year’s Scottish parliament election. (At the moment Sturgeon leads a minority government.) Curtice said that, after the SNP won an outright majority in 2011, David Cameron found it hard to justify not granting Scotland an independence referendum (which is why the poll was held in 2014). Johnson has ruled out allowing a second independence referendum, but Curtice argued that an SNP majority in 2021 might make this position hard to sustain.
NHS staff should be given at least weekly coronavirus tests from September, Jeremy Hunt has said. Hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the Commons health committee, made the proposal in an open letter to Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and to Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS England chief executive. Hunt said:
NHS staff want to know they will get the weekly testing that has now been offered to care home staff so they can be confident they won’t pass on infections to patients.
The chief medical officer for England [Professor Chris Whitty] says he supports this in principle so there should be no further delays given the complicated logistics necessary to set it up ahead of winter.
Johnson arrives in Orkney
Boris Johnson has arrived in Orkney for the first of the various visits he is carrying out today in Scotland, PA Media reports. He flew into Kirkwall airport before heading to the first in a series of engagements.
Executive ministers are set to discuss how to significantly increase the wearing of face coverings inside shops in Northern Ireland, PA Media reports.
It is understood some ministers are reluctant to make face coverings mandatory inside retail outlets and would rather focus on persuading people to take the infection control measure.
Face coverings are already mandatory in shops in Scotland while they will become compulsory in England on Friday.
The issue is expected to be raised when Stormont ministers convene at Parliament Buildings at 2pm for the meeting of the devolved executive.
Johnson claims coronavirus would have been economic 'disaster' for Scotland if it had been independent
Boris Johnson wants to use his visit to Scotland today to strengthen the case for the union and he has set out his arguments in comments released overnight in a Number 10 press release and in an article for the Times in Scotland (paywall). Here are the main points.
- Johnson says the coronavirus crisis would have been an economic “disaster” for Scotland if it had not been able to rely on the UK Treasury to help. In the Times he says:
Four months ago, millions of Scottish families awoke to an unfamiliar nation of shuttered shops, silent offices and sealed-off factories. The lockdown forced on us all by coronavirus could have spelled disaster for the country, an economic tsunami that washed away hundreds of thousands of Scottish jobs and saw countless businesses lost for ever below the waves.
But it didn’t happen. Instead the Scotland I’m visiting today is a nation where a third of workers have had their jobs protected rather than being made redundant. Where shops, factories, pubs and more have still been there to return to as the lockdown eases. And where much-needed wages were paid in communities across the country even as the doors of workplaces remained firmly bolted.
Johnson argues that, as part of the UK, Scotland effectively benefits from economies of scale. He claims that the “sheer heft of the UK national economy” meant that it could afford generous support for business (which is funded by borrowing) and he says:
It was the UK’s massive purchasing power that saw us secure millions of additional pieces of PPE for Scottish hospitals and millions of doses of promising vaccines.
The UK government’s record on PPE procurement has not always been presented in this way as a great success. Earlier Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said that it was a mistake to think a small country could not deal with the Covid crisis. (See 8.37am.)
- Johnson links his support for the union with the “level up” agenda he has made a priority. In the Times he says:
When I stood on the steps of Downing Street one year ago, I pledged to be a prime minister for every corner of the United Kingdom. Whether you are from East Kilbride or Dumfries, Motherwell or Paisley, I promised to level up across Britain and close the opportunity gap.
This seems to conflate two separate issues, and it might reflect a 1980s view of Scotland as a poor backwater. By one mainstream measure of wealth, GDP per head, Scotland is only marginally below the UK average, and better off than some English regions, in some cases by a wide margin.
- He argues that the UK is more than the sum of its parts. At least, that is what he is trying to say in this paragraph in the Times.
There have always been and will always be those who, for their own reasons, devote their time and energy to driving us apart. But the simple truth is that whether it’s a Scottish scientist discovering penicillin in a London lab, an English-born author churning out chapters of Harry Potter in an Edinburgh café, or Westminster and Holyrood working together to secure tens of millions of pounds for the Islands Growth Deal, the people of the UK have always achieved more as four than as one.
The final clause seems to be a drafting error, because what he seems to be arguing is that the people of the UK have always achieved more as one nation than as four separate ones.
Updated
Jon Lansman, the Momentum founder and key Jeremy Corbyn supporter, has used Twitter to issue his own apology to the former Labour party whistleblowers who spoke to Panorama about the party’s handling of antisemitism. He says he is apologising because he criticised them at the time, as the Labour party did. Yesterday Labour issued its own apology in court, as part of its settlement of a libel action brought by the whistleblowers.
This is a link to the Labour Party’s court statement apologising to former party staffers who appeared in the Panorama programme on antisemitism. I tweeted something similar based on the Party’s advice & assurances & also apologise to the former staffers https://t.co/nIumcdpLZE
— Jon Lansman (@jonlansman) July 23, 2020
Sturgeon tells Johnson his visit to Scotland highlights case for independence
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has posted these messages on Twitter ahead of Boris Johnson’s visit to Scotland today.
I welcome the PM to Scotland today. One of the key arguments for independence is the ability of Scotland to take our own decisions, rather than having our future decided by politicians we didn’t vote for, taking us down a path we haven’t chosen. His presence highlights that.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) July 23, 2020
The sentiment of my last tweet neatly illustrated in today’s @thetimes cartoon 😉 pic.twitter.com/8rC84Ga6As
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) July 23, 2020
Agenda for the day
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Caroline Davies.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes figures on the economic impact of coronavirus.
Morning: The Department of Health and Social Care is due to publish its latest test and trace figures.
12.30pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.
12.15pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is giving her regular coronavirus briefing.
And, of course, Boris Johnson is visiting Scotland today. We don’t know much about the timings of his trip, but he is expected to visit an RAF base in the north of Scotland.
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That’s all from me, Caroline Davies . I am handing over to my colleague Andrew Sparrow. Thank you for your time.
Rishi Sunak urged to plug furlough scheme gaps for 1m workers
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has been criticised by MPs for “drawing a line” under concerns that over a million people have missed out on the government’s emergency coronavirus support schemes.
The influential Treasury committee issued its rebuke as it published the government’s response (pdf) to recommendations put forward by MPs to help make up for a gap in support. The original report (pdf), released last month, found that more than a million people who had recently switched jobs, were newly self-employed, directors of limited companies, or freelancing were effectively locked out of financial aid programmes.
The cross-party committee’s recommendations included giving short-term contractors and freelancers access to financial support, making an extra effort to calculate the income of people who pay themselves via company dividends, and extending the cut-off date by which staff had to be employed to qualify for the furlough scheme.
You can read the Guardian’s report here
Photograph: Simon Dawson/AFP/Getty Images
Updated
More than 40,000 calls have been made to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline since the start of the lockdown, and demand is rising as restrictions ease, according to the charity that runs it.
Refuge’s telephone helpline, which ordinarily logs around 270 calls and contacts from women, friends and family members needing support every day, recorded an increase of 77% during June.
In the first week in July there was a 54% rise in women needing emergency accommodation compared with the last week in June - the highest number of women needing emergency accommodation during the lockdown period, PA Media reports.
During June, 73% of calls to the helpline were from survivors of domestic abuse, and 40% of these callers were provided with information on issues such as child contact and housing rights.
Refuge said 17% of callers were supported to make safety plans and 15% were looking for emergency accommodation indicating they needed to leave their homes urgently.
During the same month, Refuge’s National Domestic Abuse Helpline website, where women experiencing domestic abuse can access support if they are unable to call, saw an increase of more than 800% compared with pre-lockdown statistics.
Updated
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said he did not think Boris Johnson’s message about Scotland’s dependence on the union during coronavirus would be well received during his visit. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said:
I think he’s going to find that this message is going to go down particularly badly in Scotland.
Is he really saying that any other small nation in Europe and any other part of the world doesn’t have the capability to deal with the Covid crisis?
I think the days of telling Scotland that we are either too wee, too poor or too stupid really is over.
I think what we’ve demonstrated over the past two months in the areas of devolved responsibility and of public health is that the leadership that has been shown by our first minister (Nicola Sturgeon) is in sharp contrast with the bluster we have seen from Boris Johnson.
Updated
The response to the coronavirus pandemic has shown the “sheer might” of the UK union, Boris Johnson has said ahead of his visit to Scotland today.
The visit is ahead of the one year anniversary of his first day in Downing Street on Friday.
He will say that being part of the UK saved 900,000 Scottish jobs during the pandemic, according to the BBC, which reported Inverness MP Drew Hendry of the SNP as saying Scotland could flourish as an independent country.
Downing Street said that during his visit - his first to Scotland since the general election in December - the prime minister will meet with businesses hit by the pandemic, those working in green energy, and military personnel to thank them for their efforts in the response to coronavirus.
There are no plans to meet the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
Writing in the Times (paywall), Johnson said the lockdown could have “spelled disaster” for Scotland, “an economic tsunami that washed away hundreds of thousands of Scottish jobs and saw countless businesses lost forever below the waves”.
But the story was very different to what it might have been, he added.
And it’s happened because, for all the uncertainty and doubt and horror that has accompanied coronavirus, there has always been one thing of which we could be sure: that Scotland would not be forced to face this crisis alone. Because Scotland is an integral part of the UK.
He continued:
The past six months have shown exactly why the historic and heartfelt bond that ties the four nations of our country together is so important and the sheer might of our Union has been proven once again.
Updated
Confusion over whether customers will have to wear face coverings in takeaways and sandwich shops in England must be cleared up, opposition MPs have told PA Media.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced on 14 July that wearing a face covering in shops and supermarkets will be compulsory from Friday 24 July, with anyone failing to comply facing a fine of up to £100.
But the new regulations will only be published today, less than 24 hours before they come into effect, and ministers were accused of not providing enough clarity.
The criticism came after days of mixed messages with Hancock and Boris Johnson’s official spokesman contradicting each other on the matter. Clarity was needed on, for example, mask-wearing in takeaways such as sandwich shops that also have table service.
Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Munira Wilson said that with just a day to go to the new rules being enforced, the government was in a mess.
She told PA Media:
People need a government that can offer genuine reassurances and steer the country to safety.
After all, clear communication is critical in a public health crisis. Instead, this confusion on guidance shows ministers simply could not organise a bun fight in a bakery.
All this stinks of ministers making it up as they go along instead of listening to the experts.
The government must urgently provide the clarity businesses need to operate and people need to feel safe.
Updated
Here are some of the front pages from today’s papers
Thursday’s GUARDIAN: “Revealed: ‘world-beating’ tracing system failing to alert thousands” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/UVSQcmTh2w
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 22, 2020
Thursday’s TIMES: “Ministers bankrolled by donors linked to Russia” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/E3ZPOJi19d
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 22, 2020
Thursday’s Daily MAIL: “Revealed: UK Hands £71m Aid To China” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/iG8GLqR4yV
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 22, 2020
Thursday’s INDEPENDENT Digital: “MPs warn UK could turn into ‘cultural wasteland’ “ #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/rKVwyjTbKY
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 22, 2020
Thursday’s Daily EXPRESS: “Boris Battles To Keep Britain United” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/LtbKOmgOqI
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 22, 2020
Thursday’s Daily MIRROR: “We Won’t Shop You” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/PvghGhAdrD
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 22, 2020
Thursday’s Daily TELEGRAPH: “Customers must wear masks in takeaways” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/jj9KjGNPkM
— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) July 22, 2020
'Astonishing' failure by government meant economic plans drawn up 'on the hoof', say MPs
There was an “astonishing” failure by government to plan for the economic impact of a possible flu-like pandemic, parliament’s financial watchdog has said.
MPs on the cross-party public accounts committee concluded that government schemes were drawn up “on the hoof” in mid-March by Rishi Sunak’s Treasury, weeks after the first case of coronavirus was detected in the UK. The delay risked leaving sectors of the UK economy behind, according to a report published on Thursday.
MPs questioned why there was no economic equivalent to Exercise Cygnus, the 2016 simulation of an international flu outbreak that involved 950 emergency planning officials.
Key government ministries such as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [BEIS] were not made aware that Cygnus had taken place and so had little idea of the possible impact of a major outbreak, the report said.
Meg Hillier, the chair of the committee, said members were shocked to discover from senior civil servants that pandemic planning had been treated solely as a health issue, with no planning for the economic impact.
“The economic strategy was of necessity rushed and reactive, initially a one-size-fits-all response that’s leaving people – and whole sectors of the economy – behind,” she said. “A competent government does not run a country on the hoof, and it will not steer us through this global health and economic crisis that way.
You can read the Guardian’s report here
Updated
Good morning. This is Caroline Davies and I will be running the live blog for the next few hours.
Some of the main stories so far today.
The government’s flagship test-and-trace system is failing to contact thousands of people in areas with the highest infection rates in England, raising further questions about the £10bn programme described by Boris Johnson as “world-beating” . Local leaders and directors of public health are demanding more control over the tracing operation amid concerns that their ability to contain the virus is being put at risk.
Julian Lewis, the new chair of parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), has demanded that ministers prevent Dominic Cummings and other special advisers from politicising its future inquiries. The independent MP told a Commons debate on the Russia report on Wednesday that he had been warned by a journalist that “some people within government” had tried to sack the committee’s civil service secretariat and “make political appointments” instead.
Britain’s universities rely too heavily on tuition fees from Chinese students, according to a Conservative-backed thinktank that wants the government to replace them with increased funding for domestic students taking “high value” degrees. The report by Onward, a thinktank supported by Tory MPs and donors, claims there are “well-founded fears” that China’s Communist party and its satellites have sought to undermine academic freedom and research on UK campuses, at the same time as lucrative international student fees have distorted the priorities of universities.
Labour’s decision to pay a six-figure libel settlement to ex-staffers who claimed the party was failing to deal with antisemitism has plunged the party back into civil war, with Jeremy Corbyn publicly condemning his successor’s decision to settle the case. Corbyn’s statement caused astonishment among the litigants in the libel action, with the Panorama journalist John Ware confirming to the Guardian that he was “consulting his lawyers” and raising the prospect of another costly court battle over Labour and antisemitism.
Downing Street sources have denied Brexit negotiations between the UK and European Union have broken down, but admit they are at an impasse. After two full days of talks in London, No 10 officials described the current state of play as neither a “breakthrough nor a breakdown”. The latest round is expected to end on Thursday without advancing on a deal.
You can contact me on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
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