Afternoon summary
- Surge testing is to take place in Battersea and Putney in south-west London following the discovery of the South African variant in the area, the government has said. (See 4.59pm.)
- Andy Burnham has criticised the focus of the government’s levelling up strategy, accusing it of adopting a politicised agenda, rather than “needs-led”. As my colleague Maya Wolfe-Robinson reports, the mayor of Greater Manchester warned that the “levelling up” promise was “beginning to lose its way” and could lose support from the public. Describing himself as a “willing partner” to level up Greater Manchester, he told a Lords committee he was willing to work cross-party but feared the government were retreating from the “levelling up” agenda, despite stating it was their defining mission. He said that the prioritisation from the chancellor in his budget last week showed that many towns with high levels of deprivation had been overlooked.
That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.
Updated
At PMQs Boris Johnson said: “We’ve delivered a 12.8 per cent increase in the starting salary of nurses.” Patrick Worrall from Channel 4 News’ FactCheck has had a look at this claim, and he has concluded:
You can technically say that some nurses have had a pay rise in recent years – but only if you ignore inflation and only if you choose the time-frame carefully to leave out years of real-terms reductions that came before.
It’s equally true to say that most NHS workers have faced significant real-terms pay cuts over the last 10 years, as their wages did not keep up with the rising cost of living.
Updated
Scientists have identified a protein in the blood of people with severe Covid that could play a part in the overreaction of the immune system to the virus in the later stages of the disease. The discovery may pave the way for new drugs to help save lives.
Some people clear the virus after a week or more. Others progress to severe disease in which their own immune system - instead of fighting off the virus - attacks the lungs and other organs of the body.
A team of researchers, led by Imperial College London, Edinburgh and Liverpool Universities, have found that the protein, called GM-CSF, is found in higher levels in people with severe disease. The protein is likely now to be a new target for drugs to dampen down this dangerous immune response.
Drugs are already being used to prevent the immune system overreacting. The Recovery trial led by Oxford University in the UK found that a cheap steroid, dexamethasone, saves lives in the sickest patients. It also showed that a drug called tocilizumab inhibits another protein that is found at higher levels in those with severe disease, called Interleukin-6 (IL-6).
Over 30% of patients admitted to hospital critical care with Covid were dying in the beginning, which has dropped to just over 12% now, but it needs to come down further, the researchers say.
Updated
The speed at which vaccines were produced and not historic medical racism is the reason behind vaccine hesitancy, equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said this afternoon.
Speaking at the Commons equalities committee on disparities in vaccine take-up, Badenoch dismissed the explanation that historic medical racism was the reason behind uptake in black and minority ethnic communities. She said:
The ONS carried out a survey and what it found is the reason for hesitancy are to do with people not trusting the speed at which vaccine has been produced. So that’s across the board. The reasons are not specific to any particular ethnic group.
Badenoch told the committee that vaccine uptake among ethnic minority groups is higher in the UK than in other countries.
On reasons for vaccine hesitancy, she added:
I am also very, very conscious about propagating a line that the NHS is racist, which is fundamentally what this is about. The medical racism that they are talking about is often to do with people interpreting the way they’ve been treated as not being culturally sensitive and having more culturally appropriate guidance. Explaining to people how to deal with people from different backgrounds is something the government is very much funding and very much aligned to.
Updated
Surge testing ordered for Putney and Battersea in south-west London after South African variant found
Surge testing is to take place in Battersea and Putney in south-west London, the Department of Health and Social Care has announced. The SW11 and SW15 postcode areas will be covered. This follows the discovery of the South African variant in the area.
Enhanced contact tracing will be used for individuals testing positive with a variant of concern. This is where contact tracers look back over an extended period in order to determine the route of transmission.
People living within the targeted areas are strongly encouraged to take a Covid-19 test when offered, whether they are showing symptoms or not.
Updated
UK records 190 further Covid deaths and 5,926 new cases
The latest UK Covid figures have been posted on the government’s dashboard. Here are the key ones.
- The UK has recorded 190 further deaths. A week ago today there were 315 deaths. The total number of deaths over the last seven days is down 35.4% on the total for the previous week. Yesterday week-on-week deaths were down 33.2%, suggesting the rate of decline is accelerating.
- The UK has recorded 5,926 further cases. A week ago today 6,385 new cases were recorded. The total number of cases over the last seven days is down 20.1% on the total for the previous week. Yesterday week-on-week cases were down 24.5%, suggesting the rate of decline is slowing.
- Hospital admissions are down 27.8% week on week (although these figures only cover the period until last Saturday, the last date for which UK figures are available).
- 217,301 people in the UK had their first dose of a vaccine yesterday. That was only a small increase in the total having their first dose on Monday (215,273).
-
But 72,922 people had their second dose of a vaccine yesterday. That is almost double the total for the previous day (38,788), and the highest daily UK total for second doses so far.
Updated
UK may have highest level of support for getting vaccinated in world, says Zahawi
In evidence to the Commons women and equalities committee Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, said the UK may have the highest rate of rate of vaccine positivity (support for getting vaccinated) in the world. He said:
When I took this job on back in mid-November, I think if you look at the ONS data or other published polls, vaccine positivity was in the high 70s, touching 80%.
It’s now at 94% of the UK adult population saying that they are likely or very likely to take the vaccine.
I think that is, for your committee, the best measure that the strategy is working, watching that number continue to climb - the highest probably in the world, I think, if I’m not mistaken, in terms of vaccine positivity.
Updated
Lateral flow tests produce fewer than one false positive per 1,000 tests, DHSC research says
The Department of Health and Social Care has published research today that it says shows that lateral flow tests produce fewer than one false positive per 1,000 tests carried out. The accuracy of these tests has become a particular concern for parents because pupils who test positive in a lateral flow test conducted on school premises have to isolate, even if a subsequent PCR test is negative.
The research is here (pdf), and the DHSC’s summary is here. Explaining the findings, DHSC said:
New analysis published today shows lateral flow tests (LFD) to have a specificity of at least 99.9% when used to test in the community and could be as high as 99.97%.
Following the roll-out of millions of LFD tests in the community which has provided real-world data, NHS Test and Trace has been able to conduct further analysis of rapid testing using LFDs. New findings on their specificity, which is a measure of how good the test is at detecting true negative cases, show that for every 1,000 lateral flow tests carried out, there is less than one false positive result.
Updated
NHS England has recorded 145 further coronavirus hospital deaths. The details are here.
A week ago today 204 hospital deaths were recorded.
Britain has no ban on Covid vaccine exports, EU concedes
The EU has conceded that the UK did not ban vaccine exports, as Boris Johnson waded into a row with Brussels by publicly “correcting” the European council president over his claims about British policy, my colleague Daniel Boffey reports.
'PM is concerned about the truth' – how No 10 repeatedly dodged calls to admit Johnson misled MPs
No 10 still says it intends to hold regular televised lobby briefings once it’s safe for dozens of journalists to gather in the same briefing room, although many of us suspect that, like other ideas from the Dominic Cummings era, this one will also be quietly ditched. But in the meantime, just so people know what they are missing, here is a transcript of the exchanges at today’s lobby about Boris Johnson’s false claim at PMQs. (See 2.15pm.)
AS is Allegra Stratton, the PM’s press secretary, and MH is Macer Hall, political editor of the Daily Express and lobby chairman. Lobby briefings are currently conducted by conference call. Journalists submit questions in advance to the chair, who puts the questions as colleagues listen in. If reporters want to submit further questions as the briefing is going on, they can do so via WhatsApp.
I’ve edited this lightly to take out bits where it got very, very repetitive, but nothing of substance has been omitted.
MH: Will the PM apologise [for misleading MPs] and correct the record on this?
AS: The Speaker addressed it in the house immediately after the shadow health secretary, and the Speaker said that it was a point of clarification, and he regarded it as having been dealt with.
MH: Shouldn’t the prime minister clarify it? It’s not really up to the shadow health minister to clarify, is it?
AS: The Speaker addressed this, so it’s not about the shadow health secretary. He accepted it as a point of clarification and he regarded it as having been addressed.
MH: So [the PM] does accept he was wrong in this case, he did say the wrong thing to the house?
AS: The Speaker regards the point of clarification as having been made, and that’s appropriate.
MH: This is the third occasion in several weeks that the prime minister has got points of fact wrong in the House of Commons. Does he have a problem with getting the facts right?
AS: No, he doesn’t. The Speaker addressed this [etc etc] ...
MH: Don’t MPs have a responsibility to clarify their own mistakes? It’s not something that should be left to the Speaker.
AS: The key thing is that this was dealt with swiftly and the Speaker, who has enormous respect and authority in parliament, regards it as a point of clarification that has now been dealt with.
MH: Does the prime minister think it’s the Speaker’s job to correct the prime minister’s mistakes, and not the prime minister’s job to do that?
AS: It’s not a conversation I’ve been able to have with him, because he was in the chamber and we were coming over here. But the Speaker, who has enormous authority in the House of Commons, regarded the point of clarification as having been made ...
MH: Isn’t this part of a pattern of behaviour? Doesn’t the prime minister have a slightly casual relationship with the truth?
AS: On the specifics of today, the Speaker addressed it, and it was dealt with extremely quickly ...
MH: The prime minister walked out and didn’t listen to it, did he?
AS: Because prime minister’s questions was finished, and the prime minister left the chamber. There’s nothing unusual in that. The Speaker has already addressed this issue [etc etc] ...
MH: Will the prime minister correct the record?
AS: On the record is the Speaker saying it’s a point of clarification and it’s been dealt with.
MH: Does No 10 accept the prime minister was wrong? Yes or no?
AS: The Speaker has dealt with this [etc etc] ...
MH: If it’s just an honest mistake, or he was badly briefed, why doesn’t he just say this and apologise?
AS: The key thing here is that an authority in parliament, the Speaker, has dealt with this issue ...
MH: Shouldn’t the prime minister actually correct the record?
AS: The record will show the Speaker has listened to what the shadow health secretary had to say and regards it as a point of clarification that has now been dealt with ...
MH: The prime minister doesn’t seem to be concerned about the truth of these matters.
AS: The prime minister is concerned about the truth of these matters. He comes to prime minister’s questions, he comes to the chamber frequently, and answers a great number of questions from all sides of the house ...
MH: Does the prime minister agree with the ministerial code (pdf) which says “it is of paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity”. Does he agree with that?
AS: He absolutely agrees with that in the ministerial code. In this instance, the system worked. Jonathan Ashworth made his point and the Speaker responded ...
MH: Do you feel that the prime minister has a problem, that his obfuscation [with issues] does not help him in the public eye ... In the past he said in a public debate “the truth matters” and the public laughed out loud ...
AS: No, he doesn’t have a problem at all. The prime minister said what he said in that debate and you saw in the last general election that he was returned to parliament with a huge majority, which reflects the widespread admiration and affection with which he is held by the British people ...
Although Stratton argued that the Speaker said after the point of order that he regarded the matter as dealt with, Sir Lindsay Hoyle never said there was no need for Johnson to correct the record.
Hoyle just said, after Jonathan Ashworth made his point of order, that it was actually “a point of clarification” and that “that part has been achieved”. By that, Hoyle meant the intervention was over. He did not mean that he thought there was no need for any further clarification or apology from No 10.
Last month, after Sir Keir Starmer realised he had been wrong at PMQs when he described Boris Johnson’s claim Starmer had called for the UK to stay in the European Medicines Agency as “nonsense”, Starmer put out a statement admitting his mistake.
Updated
The Daily Mirror’s Dan Bloom thinks Paul Waugh is being over-generous to Downing Street (see 2.26pm); he thinks No 10 failed 19 times to correct Boris Johnson’s false claim about Labour’s NHS voting record.
Story by me and @mikeysmith - No10 fails 19 times to correct Boris Johnson's false claim that Labour opposed NHS pay risehttps://t.co/gpt3rafBEb
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) March 10, 2021
Updated
Here is some more comment from journalists on today’s lobby briefing.
From my colleague Peter Walker
Strange scenes at the No 10 lobby briefing as PM's press secretary, Allegra Stratton, refuses to formally accept Johnson misled Commons at PMQs when he – wrongly – said Labour voted against last NS budget. She says as Labour raised a clarification, matter closed. Not sure it is.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) March 10, 2021
Asked if Johnson was perceived to have a problem with honesty, Stratton argued that his various election wins demonstrate the “widespread admiration and affection" the UK public feel for the prime minister.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) March 10, 2021
From Alain Tolhurst from Politics Home
When Starmer made a mistake at PMQs a few weeks ago his spokesperson immediately apologised. But when Boris Johnson did it today his spokesperson refuses to accept he got it wrong, refuses to correct the record, and refuses to apologise. Make of that what you will.
— Alain Tolhurst (@Alain_Tolhurst) March 10, 2021
From Politico’s Emilio Casalicchio
No.10 briefing: PM's press sec Allegra Stratton refuses to admit the PM got his facts wrong on how Labour MPs voted on NHS pay. Says the Speaker dealt with the issue and corrected the record. Clear Downing St thinks the PM got it wrong but refusal to own up and correct himself.
— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) March 10, 2021
HuffPost’s Paul Waugh has done a count and says Allegra Stratton refused 12 times at the lobby briefing to accept that Boris Johnson was wrong when he told MPs Labour had voted against an NHS pay rise. (See 2.15pm.)
NEW: PM's press secretary Allegra Stratton refuses at least TWELVE times to answer this Q: does @BorisJohnson accept he was wrong to say Labour voted against an NHS pay rise?
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March 10, 2021
Instead, she repeatedly says the Speaker has accepted @JonAshworth's "clarification" [ie saying the PM lied] and the matter is now closed.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March 10, 2021
A reminder that during the 2019 GenElxn live tv debate, when @BorisJohnson was asked "Does the truth matter in this election?”, and he responded “I think it does", the audience burst into derisive laughter.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March 10, 2021
One of the few memorably uncomfortable moments for him in that campaign
No 10 refuses to admit that Johnson misled MPs about Labour's voting record on NHS pay
The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished and, to the surprise of reporters, No 10 refused to openly admit that Boris Johnson was wrong when he told MPs during PMQs that Labour had voted against the NHS funding bill (the legislation for a long-term funding package that implied staff would be getting a 2.1% pay increase this year).
Allegra Stratton, the PM’s press secretary, said that this had been raised in the Commons on a point of order after PMQs, and that the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, saw that as a point of clarification and regarded the matter as dealt with. (See 12.41pm.)
Despite being pressed repeatedly, she refused to say in her own words that what Johnson said was wrong. She also refused to apologise for the mistake, and did not accept that the Johnson should correct the record personally.
Updated
Covid-19 case rates have fallen below the symbolic level of 50 cases per 100,000 people in half of all local areas in the UK, PA Media reports. It says:
It is a major turnaround from one month ago, when only six of the 380 local areas were reporting rates under 50 per 100,000.
A handful of areas are even recording rates that are now in single figures.
The steep fall suggests the various lockdowns in place across the country are continuing to play a key role in reducing the number of new reported cases of coronavirus.
The analysis, which has been compiled by the PA news agency, shows that for the seven days to 5 March a total of 190 out of 380 local authority areas in the UK recorded Covid-19 case rates below 50 per 100,000 people.
In England, these ranged from 49.7 in Dartford in Kent to 5.7 in South Hams in Devon.
UPDATE: From Ian Jones from PA Media
In the week to Jan 5, 346 of the 380 local areas in the UK had case rates of 250 per 100,000 or higher.
— Ian Jones (@ian_a_jones) March 10, 2021
Two months on, all local areas are below 150 per 100,000, with half below 50. pic.twitter.com/Up8PmaOd1C
Updated
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, which represents senior civil servants, told the committee on standards in public life this morning that the ministerial code is “not fit for purpose”. He said:
I think that is the real big challenge around the ministerial code, we are really using something that is not fit for purpose.
The Foreign Office has released its readout of the meeting this morning with the EU diplomat summoned for a reprimand over Charles Michel’s claim about the UK supposedly blocking vaccine exports. It suggests it was a “meeting without coffee” affair (Westminster-speak for a bollocking). A Foreign Office spokesperson said:
This morning a senior representative of the EU’s delegation to the UK was summoned to a meeting with the permanent undersecretary of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office [Sir Philip Barton] to discuss the issue of incorrect assertions in recent EU communications.
Updated
PMQs - Snap verdict
Nurses are almost certain to get more than 1%. Boris Johnson did not say that, but it is the most obvious takeaway from his most uncomfortable PMQs in recent weeks. Johnson may be contemptuous of mainstream liberal opinion - and he has written enough ropey newspaper columns to know that Fleet Street outrage can sometimes safely been ignored - but, like most people who succeed in politics, he has acute antennae what is defensible in the court of public opinion, and what isn’t, and today’s exchanges will have convinced him that, on 1%, he’s got to budge.
The NHS is always safe ground for a Labour leader, but today Starmer prosecuted the case particularly effectively. It helped that he started with a particularly pithy question, and he leveraged his family story into his script quite powerfully:
My mum was a nurse, my sister was a nurse, my wife works in the NHS, I know what it means to work for the NHS. When I clapped for carers I meant it. He clapped for carers then he shut the door in their face at the first opportunity.
More spurious was the juxtaposition with Dominic Cummings, because all governments give pay increases to favoured individuals and Cummings’ extra £40,000 is zilch compared to the £300m cost (according to this estimate) of a further 1% for nurses. But an argument doesn’t have to be fair to be effective, and Starmer won the encounter quite easily.
Johnson’s best defence was to argue that Labour had voted against the NHS financial plans cited by Starmer as evidence that Johnson has gone back on a promise to pay staff more. Starmer seemed surprised by this, as if unsure of how Labour had in fact voted on the NHS funding bill, but he hid it well, saying that even if the Tories had voted for these plans, now they were ripping them up. Later it emerged that Johnson’s claim was wholly false anyway. (See 12.41pm.) Once upon a time that such a blatant untruth would have caused scandal, but given this is now commonplace, when Jonathan Ashworth raised it with the Speaker, no one seemed that surprised.
Updated
Labour says Johnson misled MPs when he claimed it voted against pay rise for nurses
PMQs is over, but Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, asks a point of order. He says Boris Johnson twice at PMQs claimed that Labour voted against the NHS funding bill, and opposed the 2.1% increase in nurses’ pay it proposed. That is not true, Ashworth says. He says in the debate on the bill he made it clear that Labour was not voting against.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says Ashworth has made his point.
There is no response from Johnson, who has already left the chamber.
Dan Jarvis (Lab) asks why the chancellor’s Richmondshire constituency is being favoured ahead of Barnsley for levelling up funding.
Johnson says the government wants to level up everywhere.
Alyn Smith (SNP) asks the PM to apologise to students missing out because Erasmus has gone.
Johnson claims the Turing scheme will be better.
James Grundy (Con) asks if the government will deliver a rail station for Leigh.
Johnson says the world’s first railway junction was in Grundy’s constituency.
Alison McGovern (Lab) asks why 375,000 care workers are on zero-hours contracts.
Johnson says there have been record increases in the national living wage. And care home workers have been vaccinated quickly.
Updated
Karin Smyth (Lab) asks the PM to apologise for failing young people.
Johnson says he is proud of his record of getting young people into jobs.
Updated
Theo Clarke (Con) asks if the PM accepts Covid has been bad for mental health. Will provision increase in Stafford?
Johnson says he will take this up with ministers. The government has increased funding for mental health, he says.
Dan Carden (Lab) asks about alcohol addiction. Will the PM investigate why deaths from this are increasing, and fund better treatment?
Johnson says record sums are being invested in mental health. This includes treatment for alcoholism.
Chris Loder (Con) asks for a levelling up transport plan that will help west Dorset.
Johnson says the government wants to upgrade services in the West Country and in Dorset. Loder is “knocking on an open door”, he says.
Updated
Johnson says he wants beauty salons to open up. That is why he is pursuing his cautious but irreversible roadmap.
Sheryll Murray (Con) asks the PM to promote British-caught fish for recipes.
Johnson says he is not the greatest cook but he can make a fish pie.
Claire Hanna (SDLP) asks why the government is not imposing a windfall tax on businesses that have benefited during the pandemic.
Johnson says the chancellor is trying to address the discrepancy between tax paid by online retailers and high street retailers.
Updated
Lia Nici (Con) asks about the lifetime skills guarantee.
Johnson says it will offer adults £3,000 for the equivalent of an A level qualification. It is the first time this has been done, he says.
David Linden (SNP) says the need for the £20 universal credit uplift was an admission social security is inadequate. So why wasn’t this offered to people on legacy benefits?
Johnson says he is proud of what universal credit has achieved. He says Lindon should talk to his “friends” in Labour, who want to abolish it.
Colum Eastwood, the SDLP leader, says the “fantasy bridge” to Northern Ireland could cost £33bn. What mandate does the PM have to pursue this idea?
Johnson says the plans in the Hendy review will benefit Northern Ireland. It is a “fantastic union connectivity review”, he says. (See 11.34am.)
(Interestingly, Johnson does not try to defend the bridge/tunnel plan directly.)
Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, asks about the Erasmus scheme. The replacement plan was published yesterday without consultation with the devolved governments. It is less generous, she says.
Less support, fewer opportunities for young students through the new Turing scheme...
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) March 9, 2021
You don’t need to be “Turing“ smart to see who suffers from Brexit here... pic.twitter.com/0sCfGFVckj
Johnson says he does not accept this. He says the Turing scheme, unlike Erasmus, will help low-income students.
Oswald says even Scottish Tories are saying young people won’t benefit from Brexit.
Johnson says the SNP should stop going on about constitutional issues.
Updated
Starmer says a 1% rise, when inflation is 1.7%, is a real-terms cut. They could afford a pay rise for Cummings, but not for nurses. The PM has had the chance to change course, but has refused. Will the PM put this to a vote?
Johnson says the last time there was a vote, Starmer voted against it. He says Starmer “weaves and wobbles”. One week he wants more testing; the next week he says the government is spending too much on this. He returns to the claim that Starmer wanted to stay in the European Medicines Agency. And he reverts to a slogan he has used before: “He vacillates, we vaccinate.”
Starmer says Johnson may have voted for those NHS financial plans, but he has now ripped them up. He quotes unnamed Tory MPs criticising the decision.
Johnson says he will be listen to what the pay body says.
Updated
Starmer says his mum was a nurse, his sister was a nurse, his wife works for the NHS. When he clapped for the NHS, he meant it. He says this is also a broken promise. The government planned to spend more on pay.
Johnson says Starmer voted against those financial plans. He says the government is building more hospitals and recruiting more nurses.
Starmer says a pay cut won’t encourage more people to apply. He says the government can find money for a new TV studio. Does he accept nurses will be worse off as a result of the budget?
Johnson says he does not accept that. Some 49,000 more people are working in the NHS. That helps patients and nurses, he says.
Starmer says nurses’ pay has fallen. And the PM did not answer the question. He could afford a pay rise for Cummings. So why not nurses?
Johnson says we all owe a big debt to nurses. He says when he visits wards, they tell him, in addition to pay, they want more nurses. Applications are up 34%. And the government is finding 50,000 more nurses.
Updated
Sir Keir Starmer asks who deserves a pay rise more, an NHS nurse or Dominic Cummings?
Johnson says we owe a massive debt to NHS nurses. That is why the pay review body has been asked to look at their pay.
(That’s not right. The pay review body reviews their pay every year anyway.)
Updated
Johnson says European council president wrong to accuse UK of blocking vaccine exports
Boris Johnson starts by saying MPs can be proud of the UK’s vaccination programme.
He says the UK has given £548m to Covax.
He says he wants to correct the claim from Charles Michel, the European council president, that the UK has blocked vaccine exports. The government opposes vaccine nationalism, he says. (See 10.32am.)
(The government has said this already, but it is unusual for the PM to devote the opening of PMQs to a rebuttal of one of the EU’s main leaders.)
UPDATE: Here is the full quote:
The whole house can be proud of the UK’s vaccination programme, with over 22.5 million people now having received their first dose across the UK.
We can also be proud of the support the UK has given to the international Covid response, including the £548m we have donated to Covax.
I therefore wish to correct the suggestion from the European council president that the UK has blocked vaccine exports.
Let me be clear: we have not blocked the export of a single Covid-19 vaccine or vaccine components.
This pandemic has put us all on the same side in the battle for global health, we oppose vaccine nationalism in all its forms.
Updated
This is from the Daily Record’s Torcuil Crichton. He says Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, won’t be taking part today because of a power cut. Kirsten Oswald, the deputy SNP leader at Westminster, will take his place.
New - @kirstenoswald is stepping in for @Ianblackford_MP today at PMQs as a massive powercut across Skye and the Uists, affecting thousands of homes, means SNP Westminster leader cannot dial in remotely to Commons chamber from Isle of Skye
— Torcuil Crichton (@Torcuil) March 10, 2021
Homeless people in Wales to be prioritised for vaccination, Welsh government announces
Homeless people in Wales are going to get priority for the vaccine, the Welsh government has announced. It says that people who are, or who have recently been homeless, will be in priority group six for vaccination. That means they will be treated the same as people with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of serious disease or death.
According to the list drawn up by the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation, people in group six should get vaccinated after the over-65s, but before over-60s.
Announcing the move, Vaughan Gething, the Welsh government’s health minister, said:
It is as shocking as it is saddening that those who are homeless are much more likely to have a physical or mental health conditions which put them at a higher risk from the harms of Covid-19.
A fundamental principle of our vaccination programme is that no one will be left behind and as part of this commitment, we are already working to ensure it is as easy as possible for every eligible adult in Wales to have a coronavirus vaccine if they want one.
Today’s guidance provides further information on how we are going to do this across organisations and government to ensure homeless people are supported to get protected and have their vaccine too.
In a comment to the media on today’s PAC report on test and trace (see 9.14am), Peter Drobac, director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford Saïd Business School, says this has been a huge wasted opportunity. Drobac, a doctor and public health specialist, says:
This is a damning indictment of the UK’s Covid-19 response. Past outbreaks have taught us that a well-functioning test and trace system would slow the spread of the virus, save lives, and avert costly lockdowns.
What went wrong? Compare the failure of test and trace with the extraordinary success of the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign. The vaccination rollout has been entrusted to the NHS, relying on extraordinary health professionals and existing infrastructure in communities across the country. In contrast, test and trace is an opaque centralised service built from scratch by consultants with little or no public health expertise. Imagine what the NHS and Public Health England could have done with £22bn!
Updated
Back at the Holyrood committee Nicola Sturgeon contrasts the way Scotland’s test and protect service was set up with how it was done for England’s NHS test and trace. She says, instead of setting up a new service operating outside the NHS, like England’s, Scotland opted to build its capacity “from the bottom up”, based on existing local public health services.
Updated
Review going ahead to consider case for tunnel or bridge linking Scotland to Northern Ireland
A major transport connectivity review is assessing the feasibility of a bridge or tunnel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, PA Media reports. PA says:
The research is being carried out as part of Boris Johnson’s bid to improve UK transport links.
Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy, who is carrying out a review of union connectivity, said further work is required on the possibility of a “fixed link” across the Irish Sea.
Following publication of his interim report (pdf), the government announced that air passenger duty - a tax on passenger flights from UK airports - could be cut for domestic journeys.
Some £20m has also been committed to develop plans for upgraded rail, road, sea and air links - and explore new requirements to offset emissions and decarbonise aviation.
Hendy has commissioned two engineering professors to lead a study into the feasibility of a bridge or tunnel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, outlining its cost, timescale and the work involved.
They are ex-HS2 and Crossrail chairman Douglas Oakervee and former vice-president of Jacobs Engineering Gordon Masterton.
It is hard to know whether the “fixed link” review is intended to find a way of ensuring that a tunnel or bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland can go ahead, or whether its job will be to quietly euthanise the idea. Boris Johnson is known to be enthusiastic about it, but many other people in government reportedly think its bonkers. In his Commons written statement about Hendy’s interim report Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, does not even mention the “fixed link” proposal. And in his report Hendy himself sounds like someone anxious to offload responsibility. In his foreword he writes:
I have also been asked specifically about a fixed link between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. To do this I have asked two experts, Professor Douglas Oakervee, CBE, and Professor Gordon Masterton, OBE, to lead a discrete piece of work, using engineering consultants, to assess the feasibility of such a link, and an outline cost and timescale for the link and the associated works needed.
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Sturgeon says the Scottish government is hoping to get back to carrying out around 400,000 vaccinations per week by mid-April. That depends on supply, she says.
And she says she wants every adult in Scotland to have had their first dose of vaccine by the end of July. She is “reasonably confident” she can meet that, she says.
Dr Gregor Smith, the chief medical officer for Scotland, tells the committee it is important to remember the new variant of the virus (B117), which is dominant in the whole of Britain, is between 30% and 70% more transmissible than the original one.
Sturgeon tells MSPs she wants lockdown easing to be 'steady and one-directional'
Donald Cameron, a Conservative and the convenor of the committee, starts by asking why the government cannot speed up the easing of lockdown restrictions.
Sturgeon says it is important to be cautious. The last thing we want to do is go faster, and then find measures have to be reversed.
She says she wants the process to be “steady and one-directional”.
Sturgeon gives evidence to MSPs on Covid-19 committee
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is giving evidence to Holyrood’s Covid-19 committee. She is appearing with Dr Gregor Smith, the chief medical officer for Scotland.
Sturgeon starts by saying she has some of today’s figures.
She says there have been 691 new cases, and 3.1% of all tests carried out have been positive.
She says there have been 20 further deaths.
And she says 19,781 more people were vaccinated yesterday, taking the total number of people in Scotland to have had a dose of vaccine to 1,809,158.
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Savanta ComRes has new polling out today suggesting the Conservatives are maintaining a comfortable lead over Labour.
🆕Westminster Voting Intention🆕
— Savanta ComRes (@SavantaComRes) March 10, 2021
Con 42% (-1)
Lab 36% (=)
LD 8% (+1)
Green 4% (+1)
SNP 4% (=)
Other 8% (+1)
5-7 March
(Changes from 26-28 Feb) pic.twitter.com/HOARZKahxu
Quarter of students feel lonely often or always, says ONS
The ONS has also published a report on the impact of the pandemic on students this morning and, although young people have been at very little risk of death from Covid, the figures show that in other respects they have been suffering.
- More than a quarter of students (26%) in England report feeling lonely often or always, the ONS says. Its figures are based on a survey carried out in the second half of February. The figure for the adult population as a whole is 8%, and the figure for all 16 to 29-year-olds is 12%.
- Almost two-thirds of students (63%) say their wellbeing and mental health has got worse since the autumn term 2020.
- Students are less happy than average adults, the figures suggest. They report a life satisfaction score of 5.1. That is higher than it was in January (4.8), but lower than the figure for the adult population as a whole (6.4).
Tim Gibbs, a public services analyst at the ONS, said:
Students have continued to have a tough time into the new year, with Covid restrictions curtailing the things they can do, with many reporting dissatisfaction with their academic and social experiences at university.
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EU diplomat attends meeting at Foreign Office as vaccine row continues
A senior European Union diplomat was summoned to the Foreign Office this morning in the row over vaccine supply, PA Media reports.
As my colleague Jessica Elgot reports, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, ordered the meeting in response to claims by the president of the European council, Charles Michel, that the UK has banned exports of vaccines, which the government says are entirely false. Her story is here.
Last night Michel posted a message on Twitter in apparent defence of his earlier claim that “the United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory”. Michel did not repeat the claim in the same terms, but he claimed what would effectively be a ban could take various forms.
Glad if the UK reaction leads to more transparency & increased exports, to EU and third countries.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) March 9, 2021
Different ways of imposing bans or restrictions on vaccines/medicines.
EU is providing vaccines for its citizens and rest of the world.
No one is safe until everyone is safe.
This morning a spokesman for the EU delegation said:
This morning Nicole Mannion, deputy ambassador of the EU to the UK and charge d’affaires at the EU delegation to the UK attended a meeting at the request of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. We have no further comment at this stage.
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At the committee Allan says it would be helpful if it were clear that a breach of the ministerial code does not automatically have to lead to a resignation. It would be useful it a clear range of sanctions were available, he says.
He says, because this is not clear at the moment, a PM may be under pressure to decide the ministerial code has not been breached, even if it has, because he does not want to have to sack the minister involved.
Allan is speaking in general terms, but this may well be a reference to what he thinks may have happened in the Priti Patel case.
UPDATE: Here is the quote.
If the prime minister feels the circumstances don’t warrant a ministerial resignation he may nonetheless feel under pressure to say what happened wasn’t a breach of the code because he doesn’t think the minister needs to resign.
I think it would help if there were a clear range of actions that could be taken following a breach.
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Former ministerial standards adviser expresses concern about allegations being 'dismissed' without inquiry
Back at the committee on standards in public life, Sir Alex Allan said he would like to see the independent adviser on ministerial standards having more freedom to initiate an investigation. At the moment, he or she can only launch an inquiry at the request of the PM. Allan said that the way some allegations recently have been “dismissed” without an investigation may have affected public confidence in the system. But he did not cite specific examples.
UPDATE: Here is Allan’s quote.
I think actually there is a case now for giving the independent adviser the role of initiating investigations.
I think the issue really now is whether the process is actually damaging to the perception of whether ministers do or don’t adhere to the code.
There have been incidents which prima facie appear to involve a breach of the code but which haven’t been referred to the independent adviser.
It is perfectly possible that the allegations weren’t supported by the facts. But the way the allegations have been dismissed I think has raised questions about the operation of the system and about the confidence that the public can have in the impact and effectiveness of the code.
To that extent, I do see a case for introducing a greater element of independence. It would also clear up the anomaly where there were allegations against the prime minister him or herself which is something we have just seen in Scotland.
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Women have suffered more harm to their well-being during pandemic than men, says ONS
The Office for National Statistics has this morning published a report on the differential impact of the coronavirus pandemic on men and women. And it says that, although men have been more likely to die, overall women have suffered more harm to their well-being.
It says:
While more men died from Covid-19, women’s well-being was more negatively affected than men’s during the first year of the pandemic.
In general, men and women’s experiences of life in lockdown tended to differ.
Women were more likely to be furloughed, and to spend significantly less time working from home, and more time on unpaid household work and childcare.
However, when looking at mortality from the coronavirus, more men died from Covid-19 than women, even though pre-pandemic annual mortality rates were higher for men than women in England and Wales.
The ONS has also posted the key graphs from the document on Twitter.
#COVID19-related death occurrences between March 2020 and February 2021 were higher among men (63,700) than among women (53,300) https://t.co/qpWENNs6p4 pic.twitter.com/dzbeLmGJU4
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) March 10, 2021
Women were more likely to be furloughed as a result of #COVID19 than men between 1 July and 31 December 2020 https://t.co/tSkMRRTakW pic.twitter.com/RoDUOLlyTD
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) March 10, 2021
Women spent more time on unpaid childcare and unpaid household work on average than men throughout the #COVID19 pandemic between March 2020 and February 2021 https://t.co/TLRXfkIlWf pic.twitter.com/2pkScXorXt
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) March 10, 2021
Women reported significantly higher anxiety than men at almost every point between 20 March 2020 and 7 February 2021, continuing the pre-pandemic trend https://t.co/NEhmBwZ508 pic.twitter.com/ZNVMlCSvEP
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) March 10, 2021
During the first #COVID19 lockdown, a greater proportion of women reported that homeschooling was affecting their well-being (34%) than men (20%).
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) March 10, 2021
By late Jan and early Feb 2021, homeschooling was taking a greater toll on both women (53%) and men (45%) https://t.co/hCMH1mwDA7
Allan says the ministerial code is more than “well-intentioned guidance”, but he accepts that its status is not clear.
He says members of the public take the view that it is something ministers should follow.
At the committee Sir Alex Allan has started giving evidence. He says he “does recognise” concerns expressed recently that standards have been slipping.
He says the chairman, Lord Evans, summed up the situation well in a recent lecture.
Non-story alert. The committee chair, Lord Evans of Weardale (better known as Jonathan Evans - the former head of MI5) starts by saying today’s session will not cover the outcome of recent cases.
Alex Allan gives evidence to committee on standards in public life
The committee on standards in public life is taking evidence today on the ministerial code, and its first witness is Sir Alex Allan, who served as Boris Johnson’s independent adviser on ministerial standards until last November, when he resigned after the PM effectively ignored the conclusions of his inquiry into Priti Patel.
Our story on his resignation is here.
Potentially his evidence this morning could turn out to be highly embarrassing to Johnson. In practice, committee sessions with civil servants rarely live up to expectations because they are excessively prone to discretion. But we’ll see. The session is just starting now.
There is a live feed here.
This is from Nick Macpherson, a former permanent secretary at the Treasury, on NHS test and trace.
The wins the prize for the most wasteful and inept public spending programme of all time. The extraordinary thing is that nobody in the government seems surprised or shocked. No matter: the BoE will just print more money. #soundmoneyhttps://t.co/m0Hc7ch0kd
— Nick Macpherson (@nickmacpherson2) March 10, 2021
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Shapps rejects MPs' claim that test and trace not worth £22bn already spent on it
Good morning. The Commons public accounts committee has published a report on the government’s NHS test and trace (which, of course, is not run by the NHS) that says there is no proof that it is worth the £37bn that has been allocated for it (£22bn in this financial year, and £15bn in 2021-22). Here is my colleague Rajeev Syal’s story.
Here is the report itself (pdf). And here is a comment on the report’s findings from Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the committee.
The £23 billion test and trace has cost us so far is about the annual budget of the Department for Transport. Test and trace still continues to pay for consultants at £1,000 a day.
Yet despite the unimaginable resources thrown at this project test and trace cannot point to a measurable difference to the progress of the pandemic, and the promise on which this huge expense was justified - avoiding another lockdown – has been broken, twice.
DHSC and NHST&T must rapidly turn around these fortunes and begin to demonstrate the worth and value of this staggering investment of taxpayers’ money. Not only is it essential it delivers an effective system as pupils return to school and more people return to their workplace, but for the billions spent we need to see a top class legacy system. British taxpayers cannot be treated by government like an ATM machine. We need to see a clear plan and costs better controlled.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, was speaking for the government on the morning broadcast interview round. Mostly he was talking about a government plan to improve transport connectivity between the whole of the UK, but he was asked about the PAC report, and he defended test and trace. He told Sky News:
9.1 million people have been contacted by test and trace. These are people who otherwise would be wandering round often unaware that they had coronavirus and spreading it around further.
Whatever the coronavirus experience we have had as a nation, good or bad, it would have been one heck of a lot worse if we didn’t have a test and trace system which has contacted so many people and prevented the disease spreading further.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Sir Alex Allan, who resigned as the PM’s independent adviser on ministerial standards after his conclusions on Priti Patel were ignored, gives evidence to the committee on standards in public life.
9.30am: The ONS publishes reports on the impact of coronavirus on men and women, and on Covid and students.
11am: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, gives ev evidence to the Scottish parliament’s Covid-19 committee.
11.30am: Peter Weir, the education minister in the Northern Ireland executive, gives evidence to a Stormont scrutiny committee about schools reopening.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.
12.15pm: The Welsh government is expected to hold a coronavirus briefing.
12.30pm: Labour asks a Commons urgent question about the government’s unilateral action on Northern Ireland protocol.
1.30pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Kemi Badenoch, the minister for equalities, and Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, give evidence to the Commons women and equalities committee about vaccine take-up in BAME communities.
4pm: Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, gives evidence on levelling up to the Lords public services committee.
5pm: Downing Street may hold a press conference.
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, 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.
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