Afternoon summary
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Figures released today have confirmed that more than 150,000 people have died from coronavirus in the UK. (See 11.21am.)
- Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said that the ‘stay at home’ rule in Scotland will be replaced with a ‘stay local’ one from Friday. (See 12.34pm.)
- Northern Ireland’s chief police officer, Simon Byrne, has rejected a call to resign from the first minister, Arlene Foster. (See 4.49pm.) He also said he did not accept Foster’s suggestion (see 2.52pm) that the Police Service of Northern Ireland should have intervened to stop hundreds of republicans attending an IRA funeral, at a time when only 30 people were supposed to attend such events because of Covid. The row erupted after the the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland said that 24 people, including Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister, would not be prosecuted in relation to what happened. (See 1.50pm.)
That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.
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Simon Byrne, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has said that he will ignore Arlene Foster’s call for his resignation. (See 2.52pm.) He said:
I stand behind the actions of the senior officers in the planning of this operation. It’s entirely consistent with our training and good practice and indeed were I to go, it would undermine our future planning at any event like this because we are trained to engage and to encourage people’s behaviour.
Byrne said that the decision of hundreds of republicans to attend Bobby Storey’s funeral when Covid restrictions were in place was “unnecessary, irresponsible and insensitive”.
But he rejected the suggestion from Foster, the first minister, that the police should have prevented large numbers of people attending the funeral. He explained:
The policing of a large funeral in a Covid pandemic was always going to be a challenge.
Using force to prevent the funeral was never going to work, nor indeed would it be justified or proportionate.
The PPS [Public Prosecution Service] did say we engaged with organisers, but despite public furore, no deals were done.
We did not turn a blind eye.
It is also clear that overall, the prosecution outcome would not have been different even if our approach had been, given the complexities in the regulations at the time.
Former SNP MP George Kerevan joins Salmond's new party, Alba
Former SNP MP George Kerevan has become the latest high profile figure to defect to Alex Salmond’s new party, PA Media reports. PA says:
Kerevan left the party with other members of a group modelled on the think tank, Common Weal.
He is now the third current or former MP to move across from the SNP to Alba, which was launched on Friday.
The former East Lothian MP joins Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill, who both still sit at Westminster.
Kerevan posted this on Twitter.
Have joined new Alba Party, indy’s social democratic alternative. Next step: for Alba to embrace a republican future for an independent Scotland. pic.twitter.com/uBTWvrGdCM
— George Kerevan (@GeorgeKerevan) March 30, 2021
The UK has recorded 56 further deaths and 4,040 new cases, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard.
Week on week, deaths are falling at the rate of 35%. And new cases are falling by 7.9% week on week.
Daily new cases in Wales fall below 100 for first time in more than six months
Public Health Wales has recorded 94 new coronavirus cases and no further deaths.
This is the first time in more than six months the daily number of new cases in Wales has been below 100.
The rapid COVID-19 surveillance dashboard has been updated
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) March 30, 2021
💻 https://t.co/zpWRYSUbfh
📱 https://t.co/HSclxpZjBh
Read our daily statement here: https://t.co/u6SKHz0zsG pic.twitter.com/G6gjRnhiDO
Starmer says Labour 'more than pro-business' and in favour of partnership with sector
Sir Keir Starmer has described Labour has “more than pro-business” and revealed that a shadow minister who implied the opposite has issued an apology.
On a campaign visit to Hartlepool, Starmer was asked about a Sun report quoting Alex Sobel, the shadow tourism minister, describing business as “the enemy”.
Starmer said:
Under my leadership, I’ve been very, very clear that the Labour party is pro-business. We’re more than pro-business, we want a partnership with business.
Alex Sobel knows what he said was wrong. He has apologised.
He’s apologised to me. The Labour party, under my leadership, is very clearly pro-business. We want a partnership with business. And Alex Sobel understands that.
The Sun report was based on on comments Sobel made on a podcast. He said that when he became an MP in 2017, he refused to hold meetings with corporates because he regarded them as “the enemy” and thought they would oppose his mission as a socialist to transform society.
But Sobel also told the podcast that he now does hold meetings with these businesses because he accepts that politicians need to work with them on the climate crisis. And the recording, which has been posted on the Sun’s website, also reveals Sobel said that Britain is now almost at the point where the private sector is ahead of the government on the climate issues. He also said that he knew four or five big corporates, “household names”, that had been “on a journey” on this issue in recent and that were now pushing for change.
Northern Ireland has recorded five further coronavirus deaths and 151 new cases.
A week ago today two deaths and 174 new cases were recorded.
The Department of Health #COVID19 dashboard has been updated.
— Department of Health (@healthdpt) March 30, 2021
151 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Sadly, 5 deaths have been reported.https://t.co/atGbNzvOT1 pic.twitter.com/t6SsnHLzF9
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Khan says 'jobs, jobs, jobs' will be priority if he's re-elected London mayor
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has said his focus will be on “jobs, jobs, jobs” if re-elected on 6 May. At a campaign event he said:
My concern as somebody who lived through the 1980s is we could have another period of mass unemployment where a generation is written off.
Should I be re-elected on May 6, our focus in the second term will be jobs, jobs jobs.
That means protecting the jobs we have, supporting job creation but also helping those who have lost their jobs get back in work.
Khan also said that he would set up a £32m “good work” fund if re-elected, to establish four new skills academies to train Londoners in the creative, digital, low-carbon and health and social care sectors.
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Job creation and supporting the development of emerging industries is the government’s “central economic focus” amid the pandemic, according to the chancellor and business secretary.
As PA Media reports, in an open letter to business, Rishi Sunak and Kwasi Kwarteng said investment in infrastructure, skills and innovation through the government’s Plan for Growth would form the foundation of the country’s economic recovery. The letter was released before the second meeting of the Build Back Better Business Council today.
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Northern Ireland's first minister says chief constable should resign over policing of IRA funeral
Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s DUP first minister, has called on the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Simon Byrne, to resign following the announcement that no one will be prosecuted over breaches of Covid rules at the Bobby Storey funeral.
As the report (pdf) from the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland explains, one factor in the decision not to prosecute was the fact that the organisers liaised with police in advance.
In a lengthy statement Foster said:
The engagement between the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the funeral organisers is a factor in no prosecution being made. This is inexplicable. That the police assisted in breaking the law is fundamental and requires further examination. If any senior officer is identified as having approved of or contributed to that decision-making process, then all those senior officers’ positions are untenable.
The position of the chief constable is now untenable and I am calling on him to resign. Sadly, it is now clear confidence cannot be rebuilt with him in post.
Foster was also strongly critical of Sinn Féin – and, by implication, the deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill. Foster said:
Over the last 12 months many have sacrificed the basic right of attending our loved one’s wake or funeral. It was the law but also because it was the responsible step to take at a time when we were trying to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Sinn Féin have acted as though they were above the law. To claim ignorance of the law is no defence when you helped legislate those very same regulations. Hundreds lined the streets dressed in white shirts and black ties and attended a political rally in Milltown cemetery when the limit on public gatherings was 30. There was a complete lapse of leadership and a public display of arrogance by Sinn Féin’s elected representatives. Public health rules were undermined and irreparably damaged.
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More than quarter of children in north-east now qualify for free school meals, latest figures show
More than one in four children in the north-east of England are now eligible for free school meals, after new figures published by the government showed that the numbers have been rising across England since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the 10 months between January and October last year, the proportion of children on free school meals shot up from 17% to nearly 20% nationally, meaning that 1.63 million of England’s state school pupils are now in receipt of free lunches. In January 2020 the total was 1.44 million.
The highest rates were seen in the north-east, where more than 26% are now eligible, and 23% in the West Midlands. In contrast, only 15% of pupils in the south-east of England are eligible.
Children in state-funded schools are entitled to free school meals if their household’s parent or carer is on benefits including income support, or receiving universal credit with household income less than £7,400 a year.
Over 300,000 pupils now eligible for free school meals had their eligibility start after 23 March 2020, when the first national lockdown was announced. The total is expected to grow when the results for the January 2021 school census are published.
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NHS England has recorded a further 40 coronavirus hospital deaths. The details are here.
A week ago today the equivalent figure was 98 deaths, and two weeks ago today it was 101 deaths.
Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Sinn Féin deputy first minister, has issued a fresh apology over her attendance at the former IRA leader Bobby Storey’s funeral last year following the news that she and other attendees will not be prosecuted. O’Neill was one of hundreds of republicans who attended, even though at the time only 30 people were meant to be allowed at a funeral under Covid regulations.
O’Neill said:
Nine months ago I laid my dear friend Bobby Storey to rest. I accept and understand that many people, particularly those who had lost loved ones during the last year, felt that by my actions, I gave the impression that the rules did not apply to us all equally. Let me say clearly they do.
No funeral is more important than any other. No family or community is any more important than any other. All grief is devastating.
I wish to say again today that I am sorry for the hurt that has been caused to so many, including to Bobby Storey’s own family who have been thrust into the headlines at a time of immense grief. We wanted only to support Bobby’s family as he was laid to rest.
Over the past nine months, I have worked tirelessly to rebuild trust with the public and I continue to work every day to navigate us all through this unprecedented crisis.
We are now beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel in relation to this dreadful pandemic. I will continue to focus on leading us to better days ahead.
The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland has issued a nine-page statement (pdf) explaining why it decided not to prosecute O’Neill or any of the other attendees. It said there was “no reasonable prospect of conviction” because of the “lack of clarity and coherence within the regulations” and because the funeral organisers liaised with the police in advance.
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Novavax vaccine could be approved for use in UK within weeks, trial head claims
The Novavax vaccine could be approved for use by the UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, by as early as the end of April, according to one of the scientists helping to develop it. Prof Paul Heath, the chief investigator of the UK trial of the drug, told the Evening Standard:
The regulator will do a very detailed and thorough review and will decide in good time. I would hope it would be in the spring, possibly end of April.
Heath was speaking after the government yesterday announced details of a contract with GlaxoSmithKline to complete the “fill and finish” part of the manufacturing process at a factory at Barnard Castle. The vaccine itself is being produced at a Fujifilm facility in Stockton-on-Tees.
The UK has ordered 60m doses of the Novavax vaccine, which had an efficacy rate of nearly 90% in trials but which has not yet been approved by the MHRA.
Roger Connor, head of GSK’s vaccine division, told Sky News this morning that finishing the product at the Barnard Castle plant would start from May.
The MHRA has already approved three vaccines for use in the UK: the Pfizer and AstraZeneca ones, which are already in use, and the Moderna one, which is due to start being used in April.
Updated
The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland has decided not to prosecute any of the republicans who attended the funeral of the former IRA leader Bobby Storey in breach of Covid regulations, Sky’s David Blevins reports.
BREAK: 24 people, including deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, will not face prosecution for alleged breaches of coronavirus regulations at funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey in west Belfast - PPS.
— David Blevins (@skydavidblevins) March 30, 2021
Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images
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Scotland to replace 'stay at home' rule with 'stay local' from Friday, Sturgeon says
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has been holding a Covid briefing in Edinburgh. Here are the main points she made in her opening statement.
- Sturgeon said the Scottish government was going ahead with what she called “fairly cautious” changes to the rules planned for 2 and 5 April. She said that from Friday (2 April) the ‘stay at home’ rule would be lifted. But for at least three weeks it would be replaced by a ‘stay local’ rule, she said.
- She said that from Monday next week (5 April) more students would return to college, contact sports would resume for 12 to 17-year-olds, click and collect services would be allowed, and car showrooms, garden centres, homeware stores and hairdressers and barbers would reopen.
- She said that she hoped that from 26 April the whole of mainland Scotland would move from level 4 to level 3.
- She said that by 26 April she hoped to have been able to offer everyone in the top nine JCVI priority groups - the over-50s, health and social care workers, and people with serious health conditions - the first dose of a vaccine.
- She said that 411 coronavirus cases were reported in Scotland yesterday, with 2.8% of tests coming back positive. She said that 250 people were in hospital, nine fewer than yesterday, and that 12 people had died.
- She said that new cases were down by three-quarters from early January and that deaths were down by more than 80% over the last two months.
- She said that almost everybody over the age of 65 in Scotland had been vaccinated, as well as 98% of 60 to 64-year-olds, 81% of 55 to 59-year-olds, and 57% of 50 to 54-year-olds.
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In an interview with the Daily Record, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said that her predecessor Alex Salmond is only standing for election to the Scottish parliament because he “loves the limelight and can’t bear not to be on stage”.
On Friday last week Salmond announced that he was launching a new Alba party that would compete with the SNP, which he used to lead. He claimed this would help to create a super-majority for independence in the Scottish parliament.
But Sturgeon told the Record that she thought the presence of the Alba party on the ballot might hinder the independence cause. She explained:
One, people don’t like the idea that you are trying to game an electoral system but, secondly, once you start doing that you are effectively gambling with the outcome of the election and it could quite easily backfire and undermine the ability to get that majority that then provides the foundation for an independence referendum.
She also said Salmond would have to apologise for his treatment of women before she would consider cooperating with him politically.
Boris Johnson has opened up a 10-point lead over Sir Keir Starmer on who would make the best prime minister, according to new polling from YouGov. Starmer was ahead on this measure for most of the second half of 2020, but Johnson has been recovering as the vaccine programme has been rolled out - although his lead is nowhere near as large as it was in the early days of the pandemic.
The poll also suggests the Conservatives now have a 10-point lead over Labour on voting intention.
Boris Johnson now leads Keir Starmer by 10 points on who the public think would make the best Prime Minister (25-26 Mar)
— YouGov (@YouGov) March 30, 2021
Boris Johnson - 37%
Keir Starmer - 27%
Don't know - 34%https://t.co/S0PeUEx9Ey pic.twitter.com/1qfXrxSvF0
These are from my colleague Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s environment editor, on the joint call from world leaders today for a global pandemic preparedness treaty. (See 9.13am.)
We need a new pandemic preparedness treaty, say 25 world leaders.
— Damian Carrington (@dpcarrington) March 30, 2021
Their call is long on preparation to treat the symptoms, but short on tackling the root cause - the destruction of naturehttps://t.co/touKR6yttL
cf - Inaction leaves world playing ‘Russian roulette’ with pandemics, say expertshttps://t.co/GYby1sDuYJ
— Damian Carrington (@dpcarrington) March 30, 2021
UK Covid deaths have passed 150,000, ONS confirms
New figures released today confirm that more than 150,000 people have died from coronavirus in the UK.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics, which are based on mentions of Covid-19 on death certificates, show there were 150,116 deaths by 19 March. However, this measure is less up-to-date than the government count of fatalities within 28 days of a positive test.
Figures from statistical agencies such as the ONS take some time to process, meaning this figure is higher than the government’s official count. The government’s 28-day death figure currently shows there have been 126,615 Covid deaths as of 29 March.
The Guardian reported on Saturday that the 150,000 milestone had been passed, based on a different methodology. The analysis combined data on deaths from statistical agencies including the ONS, and the government’s daily deaths figures, which are more up-to-date but fail to count all the deaths that occurred early in the pandemic.
The ONS figures for England and Wales also showed Covid-19 deaths were at their lowest level since early October, with 653 deaths reported in the week to 19 March. This was a 39% drop on the previous week.
Scotland has lowest proportion of people with Covid antibodies of UK four nations, ONS says
Around half of people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were likely to have tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in the week to 14 March, suggesting they had the infection in the past or had been vaccinated, PA Media reports. Summarising a report from the ONS, PA says:
England had the highest estimate (54.7%), followed by Wales (50.5%) and Northern Ireland (49.3%).
The figures are for people in private households and do not include settings such as hospitals and care homes.
The ONS estimates around two in five people in private households in Scotland (42.6%) would have tested positive for antibodies in the week to 14 March.
The ONS figures do not include children under the age of 16.
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In his Sky News interview this morning, Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, also suggested there was no need for an inquiry into the role played by the former PM David Cameron in lobbying for Greensill Capital. Labour is calling for an inquiry. But Kwarteng said:
I think there’s been a lot of transparency actually, there’s been a lot of information about what David Cameron... what he said, who he contacted within the Treasury. I think they’ve been very open about what’s happened and I think that lack of transparency I don’t think is a problem in this case.
Kwarteng also claimed that Cameron’s lobbying activities had already been investigated and that he had been “largely exonerated”.
The minister was referring to the narrow ruling that, because Cameron worked for Greensill, his work counted as in-house lobbying, which meant that it was not covered by the tightly-focused transparency legislation passed when Cameron was PM.
Kwarteng says there has been 'huge improvement' in vaccine take-up amongst BAME groups
In an interview with Sky News this morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, said there had been a “huge improvement” in vaccine take-up amongst BAME communities. (He used the term, even though No 10 said yesterday it it found it too general to be helpful.) Kwarteng told Sky News:
At the beginning of the vaccine process there was a lot more scepticism amongst certain communities here in the UK than there is today, I think we’ve made great strides actually.
And there’s still a way to go, but I think there’s been a huge improvement and a huge increase in uptake amongst vulnerable communities and amongst BAME communities as well.
This claim may sound odd in the light of the ONS research published yesterday showing that people aged 70 and over of black African heritage in England are 7.4 times more likely not to have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine compared with their white British counterparts.
But in fact there does seem to have been a shift. According to a report (pdf) for the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) published in January, a survey carried out in November last year found that 72% of black British people said they were unlikely or very unlikely to get vaccinated. But the ONS report out yesterday found that, amongst over-70s, by early March 59% of people of black African heritage and 69% of people of black Caribbean heritage had had the jab.
Covid involved in fewer than 10% of deaths in England and Wales by mid-March, ONS says
By mid-March fewer than 10% of deaths in England and Wales involved coronavirus, according to the latest weekly death figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Last week the ONS revealed that, for the first time in six months, England and Wales were no longer recording excess deaths. That trend is continuing and in the week ending on Friday 19 March, the period covered by the ONS report out today, registered deaths were 8% below the five-year average for this time of year. The week before they were 4.4% below the five-year average.
Of the 10,311 deaths registered in the week ending 19 March, 963 (9.3%) involved coronavirus being mentioned on the death certificate. The week before Covid was involved in 13.7% of all deaths.
Sexual violence is endemic in schools and the government must launch an inquiry to establish how widespread it is, Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic violence, has said. My colleague Sarah Marsh has the story here.
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UK to focus on vaccinating all adults before jabs sent abroad, says Kwarteng
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has played down suggestions that the UK might make vaccines available to other countries soon. At the weekend the Sunday Times said the government was planning to offer 3.7m vaccine doses to Ireland. No 10 would not confirm the plan yesterday and, in interviews this morning, Kwarteng said vaccinating Britons would come first. He said:
I think our main focus at the moment is to try and vaccinate the whole adult population and we’re still a way to go on that.
Asked if the UK would share supplies with Ireland, Kwarteng said:
I think our focus has to be to try and keep Britons safe. We want to work co-operatively as well with other countries. But the main priority is to get the vaccine rollout. Let’s just work through our vaccine programme, it’s been quite successful. This isn’t the time to let up on it.
And then we can go through the roadmap and then if there are surplus vaccine doses, then we can share them, but there are no surpluses at the moment, we’ve still got a huge number to vaccinate.
Yesterday Micheál Martin, the Irish taoiseach (PM), also dismissed the Sunday Times report. He said:
I spoke to Boris Johnson six weeks ago. At that stage he was very clear that you have to vaccinate his people first, prior to vaccinating anybody else, and they’re some distance off that. So I think that’s where that is.
There’s been no contact since then or no indication from any officials at the British government level in terms of offering any vaccines.
Of course any vaccines that are available, if we require them, of course we will accept them. But there has been no offer at this particular point.
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Johnson and world leaders say next pandemic is matter of 'not if, but when'
Good morning. In its integrated review of security, defence and foreign policy (pdf) published earlier this month, the government said it wanted to “move from defending the status quo within the post-cold war international system to dynamically shaping the post-Covid order”. It was not clear exactly what that meant, but we get a better idea this morning with the publication of a joint article signed by Boris Johnson, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and 21 other world leaders, as well as Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, calling for a global treaty on on pandemic preparedness.
Here is my colleague Lucy Campbell’s overnight story about the initiative.
Here is the original article, published in the UK in the Daily Telegraph, and in other newspapers around the world. And here is an extract. One point that’s notable is that the leaders say the next pandemic is a matter of “not if, but when”.
There will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies. No single government or multilateral agency can address this threat alone. The question is not if, but when. Together, we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a stark and painful reminder that nobody is safe until everyone is safe ....
To that end, we believe that nations should work together towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response. Such a renewed collective commitment would be a milestone in stepping up pandemic preparedness at the highest political level. It would be rooted in the constitution of the World Health Organization, drawing in other relevant organisations key to this endeavour, in support of the principle of health for all.
Quite how likely this is to happen is not clear. Two prominent names are missing from the article, and they represent the two most powerful countries in the world: Joe Biden, the US president, and Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.
Parliament is in recess, and so the political diary is lighter than usual today. Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes its weekly death figures for England and Wales, as well as its latest antibody survey.
1pm: The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland announces whether anyone will be prosecuted for Covid law breaches at the funeral of the former IRA figure Bobby Storey, which was attended by many Sinn Féin figures including the deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill.
Also today Sir Keir Starmer is campaigning in Hartlepool before the byelection there.
Politics Live has been mostly about Covid for the last year and I will be covering UK coronavirus developments today, as well as non-coronavirus Westminster politics. For global coronavirus news, do read our global 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.
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