Early evening summary
- Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has told MPs that there are now 336 confirmed Omicron cases in the UK and that there is there is “community transmission across multiple regions of England”. (See 5.34pm and 5.35pm.)
- Theresa May, the former prime minister, has joined the ranks of Conservative MPs expressing concern about the prospect of further Covid restrictions being introduced. (See 6.01pm.)
- Downing Street has denied that a party took place in Downing Street last December and said it was a “statement of fact” that no Covid rules were broken. (See 2pm.)
For further coronavirus coverage, do read our global live blog.
Updated
The Javid statement is now over. The Independent’s John Rentoul argued on Twitter earlier that MPs were missing an obvious line of attack.
Nobody has yet asked Sajid Javid what is the point of border controls now he accepts community transmission here pic.twitter.com/OlPd0PVDsa
— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) December 6, 2021
Asked by Labour’s Angela Eagle how much more he would be able to tell MPs in the update next week about the threat posed by Omicron, Javid said there would still be “many unanswered questions” at that point. He said:
As each day goes by we are getting a little bit more information, but I do think by next week with the samples that have arrived at Porton Down and other labs across the world we will have more information.
I will just caveat that by saying I can’t make any guarantee about how much information that we will have. I am sure there will still be many unanswered questions at that point.
Andrew Bridgen (Con) said that he was glad to hear that no Omicron cases are in hospital (see 6.13pm) and that he thought Theresa May was right to say virus variants become more transmissible but less harmful. He said he hoped this meant all restrictions would be lifted next week.
Javid replied: “Let’s wait and see what next week brings.”
Dominic Cummings, the PM’s former chief adviser, who is now one of his fiercest critics, says that No 10 is now lying about the December party last year.
V unwise for No10 to lie about this but PM set the course of lying on covid in spring when he decided to start rewriting history, deny herd immunity plan etc. NB some lobby hacks were also at parties in No10 flat so trying to bury this story... https://t.co/pYMRiOgULV
— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) December 6, 2021
He also suggests the government is being complacent about Omicron.
Highly recommended, much more useful/reliable than info from UK government minsters & their tame hacks https://t.co/wbBQxL04KN
— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) December 6, 2021
"There is going to be a period early in 2022 when ... it will be difficult to remain uninfected and it will likely be *difficult to get any kind of medical treatment at a hospital*." If true of US prob true here too, NHS already creaking...
— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) December 6, 2021
Kate Osamor (Lab) says the Nigerial high commissioner has described his country’s inclusion on the red list as “travel apartheid”. She says Delta seems to lead to more serious illness, but European countries with high numbers of Delta cases are not on the red list. She urges the government to adopt an international approach, not a “discriminatory approach”.
Javid says southern Africa is the epicentre of Omicron. He says at least 21 Omicron cases in the UK are linked to Nigeria. (See 5.43pm.)
Updated
Javid says he is not aware of any confirmed UK Omicron cases so far leading to hospitalisation
Sir Desmond Swayne (Con) asks how many of the infected cases are ill.
Javid say, of the the 336 cases, some may be asymptomatic, some are ill, but none are in hospital, as far as he knows.
Sir Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, says the travel industry has been “devastated” by uncertainty and constantly changing Covid rules. He asks what criteria will be used by ministers to decide when the latest rules should be lifted.
Javid says next week’s update will be an important moment.
Mark Harper (Con) asks for an assurance that MPs will be recalled during the Christmas recess if the government needs to implement further measures during the holiday period.
Javid says people would expect the government to take action over the recess if it has to. He says he will take back to colleagues the point Harper makes about parliament being recalled.
Former PM Theresa May warns against further Covid restrictions
In the Commons Theresa May, the former prime minister, said it would be a mistake for the government to respond to every new variant by closing down the economy.
The early indications of Omicron are that it is more transmissible but potentially leads to less serious illness than other variants. I understand that would be the normal progress of a virus. Variants will continue to appear year after year.
When is the government going to accept that learning to live with Covid, which we will all have to do, means we will almost certainly have an annual vaccine and that we cannot respond to new variants by stopping and starting sectors of our economy which leads to businesses going under and jobs being lost?
Javid replied:
In terms of the severity of this, I think we shouldn’t jump to any conclusion, we just don’t have enough data.
It is not going away ... for many, many years and perhaps it will lead to annual vaccinations, but we have to find ways to continue with life as normal.
Updated
In response to Streeting’s point about the No 10 party, Javid said the rules of course apply to everyone.
Streeting backs prosecution of people for breaking lockdown rules and says No 10 should come clean about its party
Wes Streeting, the new shadow health secretary, is responding for Labour.
He says, like his predecessor, Jonathan Ashworth, he wants to adopt a constructive approach.
He says he is glad the government has implemented the pre-flight tests that Labour was calling for.
He asks what is being done to tackle vaccine hesitancy.
He says sick pay should be more generous for people who have to isolate.
And he ends with a reference to the No 10 party last December. People need to have confidence in people setting the rules. He says two residents in Ilford (Streeting is MP for Ilford North) were punished for holding an indoor gathering against lockdown rules on 18 December last year. “And rightly so,” Streeting says. So will the government come clean about what happened, or is it one rule for them, and one rule for everyone else?
Updated
Javid says new analysis suggests that the gap between being infected and being infectious may be shorted for Omicron than it is for the Delta variant.
We are learning more about this new variant all the time.
Recent analysis from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that the window between infection and infectiousness may be shorter for the Omicron variant than for the Delta variant, but we don’t yet have a complete picture of whether Omicron causes more severe disease or indeed how it interacts with the vaccines.
We can’t say for certain at this point whether Omicron has the potential to knock us off our road to recovery.
We are leaving nothing to chance. Our strategy is to buy ourselves times and to strengthen our defences while our world-leading scientists assess this new variant and what it means for our fight against Covid-19.
He is now summing up the measures announced over the weekend.
He says Nigeria has been added to the red list. He says at least 21 of the Omicron cases in England are linked to Nigeria. And he says there are strong travel links between Nigeria and South Africa.
Analysis from UKHSA [Health Security Agency] shows that at least 21 Omicron cases in England alone are linked to travel from Nigeria, and there’s a strong indication that Omicron is present there. Nigeria also has very strong travel links with South Africa.
He says more hotel rooms are being set aside for arrivals how have to go through hotel quarantine.
I know that there has been a spike in demand for these facilities due to the rapid expansion of the red list and that some people have experienced issues returning home.
However, we are ramping up this capacity as quickly as possible. We’ve already brought several new hotels on board in the past few days and we expect to double the number of rooms that are available this week.
And because the gap between infection and infectiousness may be shorter with Omicron, pre-flight testing is being introduced for arrivals.
He says these measures will be kept under review and MPs will get an update next week.
And he confirms that the vaccination programme is being beefed up.
Updated
Javid says there is community transmission of Omicron 'across multiple regions of England'
Javid says the new figures mean there is “community transmission across multiple regions of England”.
The Omicron variant is continuing to spread here and around the world. According to the latest data there are now 261 confirmed cases in England, 71 in Scotland and four in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases across the UK to 336. This includes cases with no links to international travel. So, we can conclude that there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England.
Updated
Javid tells MPs there are now 336 confirmed Omicron cases in UK
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is making a Commons statement on Covid.
He says there are now 261 confirmed Omicron cases in England, 71 in Scotland, and four in Wales. That makes 336 in the UK in total, he says.
The UK has recorded 51,459 new coronavirus cases, the goverment has disclosed on its dashboard. The total number of new cases over the past seven days is up 9.1% on the previous seven days. But hospital admissions and deaths are still, only just, on a downward trend week on week, by 0.8% and 0.2% respectively.
Zahawi confirms review into child protection failures in case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes
Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, has confirmed that a review will be set up to investigate how child protection failures contributed to the death of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
In a statement to MPs, he said the “whole nation is distraught” at the “tragic and horrific” death of Arthur. He went on: “We across this house and across this country find it impossible to imagine how any adult could commit such evil acts against a child.”
Zahawi said that the national child safeguarding practice review panel was set up in 2017 to investigate cases like this and that Annie Hudson, its chair, will “work with leaders in Solihull to deliver a single, national, independent review of Arthur’s death to identify what we must learn from this terrible case”. He went on:
I look forward to the review’s recommendations in due course, because in any complex system it is important - imperative in my view - to investigate thoroughly to learn and improve the system.
My mantra continues to be that sunlight is the best possible disinfectant – because if we are to improve services where they need improving, we must share data and evidence ...
As the court heard, Arthur’s tragic death is a result of the cruelty of his father and his father’s partner. No government anywhere in the world can legislate for evil. But we will take action wherever we can to stop this happening again, because we must do more, and to do more I would like to end my statement with a plea to everyone in our country.
Zahawi also said that, because so many agencies were involved in Arthur’s case, he had asked Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue services and HM Inspectorate of Probation to carry out a joint targeted area inspection, looking at how they cooperate in the Solihull area.
Government announces £780m funding for drug treatment
At the weekend the governmen briefed the punitive aspects of the 10-year drugs strategy. Boris Johnson gave an interview to the Sun on Sunday, which led to a story about how he was planning to unleash “an all-out war on drugs”, and it was announced that class A drug users could lose their passports or driving licences under the proposals.
But the Department for Health and Social Care and the Home Office have now published a joint news release about the strategy and it implies that drug treament is getting more priority than the crackdown on drugs gangs, at least if spending is used as a yardstick.
It says £300m is being spent on action against criminal gangs, but that £780m is being invested in drug treatment. These sums are part of a total spend of £3bn on drug enforcement and treatment over the next three years.
The government says the money will fund various measures including better drug treatment generally, more offender drug treatment services, more housing support for those at risk of sleeping rough and employment support for people with a drug or alcohol addiction.
It also says the role of healh and justice partnership coordinators will be extended. It explains:
The role of dedicated health and justice partnership co-ordinators, who liaise between prisons, probation and treatment providers, will be expanded to cover every region in England and Wales. This will mean services in prison and the community are better joined up and offenders’ treatment plans remain consistent, helping them to stay on track and break the cycle of reoffending once and for all.
A pilot will trial a new approach to how the courts deal with offenders with a history of drug abuse, where they will be seen regularly by the same judge, who has the power to order a number of sanctions and incentives, such as mandatory drug testing. Currently only offenders who agree to undergo treatment programmes can be subjected to regular testing.
The announcement has been welcomed by Dame Carol Black, who led the independent review of drugs policy. (See 3.18pm.) In a statement quoted in the government’s news release, she said she was delighted by this “very significant investment in drug treatment and recovery services”.
Reform UK has announced a defection to it ahead of the North Shropshire byelection on Thursday week. It says Mark Whittle, a town councillor in Market Drayton and a member of the local Conservative association’s executive, has joined the party. In a statement, Whittle suggests he is switching because the Tory byelection candidate, Neil Shastri-Hurst, is not sufficiently local.
Reform UK, the new name for what was the Brexit party, has made very little impact since the 2019 general election. But the Tories cannot ignore it completely. It is trying to outflank the party on the libertarian right, and at the Old Bexley and Sidcup byelection last week it picked up 6.6% of the vote.
Updated
The Welsh government has strongly criticised the UK government’s nationality and borders bill, claiming it will “exacerbate inequity and harm communities”.
In a written statement, the social justice minister Jane Hutt and counsel general Mick Antoniw said:
We believe many of the provisions in the bill will breach international conventions, violate basic principles of justice and will place ultimately extreme and insurmountable conditions on people who seek our protection.
The pair said the bill proposes a new two-tier system to create “group one” and “group two” refugees. They said:
Group two refugees may be prohibited from accessing public funds; prevented from being reunited with their family in the UK, and restricted to just 30 months refuge in the UK pending further reviews of their circumstances.
This will cause unforeseen and unequal impacts on the people arriving ... It will exacerbate destitution and increase exploitation of migrants and illegal working in our communities – increasing vulnerability among an already vulnerable population.
Updated
Drugs expert urges ministers to focus on treatment, not just law enforcement
Dame Carol Black, who conducted a two-part review of drugs policy for the government that reported in the summer, told Radio 4’s World at One that the government’s drugs strategy should focus more on treatment than on law enforcement.
Asked which approach would make the bigger difference, she replied:
I’m going to say treatment and recovery because as long as there’s demand, you will have supply.
Drug dealers are very, very good at just moving their operation, of doing different things, they’re good businessmen. So I think if you really want to get to grips with drugs and crime, you’ve got to be able to offer people high quality treatment and recovery.
We know from research that that stops criminal activity. We know that if it’s high-quality treatment, people stay in it and do better. And we have at the moment a broken service ...
I also want there to be, obviously, activity by the Home Office. Of course I want that. But we’ve been doing that for years. And we’ve been doing rather inadequate treatment and recovery now for many years, and in some places, extremely poor. At least they deserve 50-50.
Updated
Swinney urges Scots to take lateral flow test every day they leave home as confirmed Omicron cases double
The number of Omicron cases detected in Scotland has more than doubled over the weekend to 71, with a new cluster reported in the Highlands town of Nairn, west of Inverness.
NHS Highland said the “significant” outbreak had emerged after an event at a Royal British Legion hall in the town last week. It refused to say how many cases were involved but five new cases were reported for the Highland area on Monday, taking its total to eight.
The latest provisional figures for Scotland showed the outbreak in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, with many linked to a Steps concert at the Hydro venue in Glasgow, had affected 27 people by 5pm yesterday, up from the 11 identified by Friday evening. The figures for NHS Lanarkshire had also jumped, from nine identified by Friday evening to 22 by late on Sunday.
The data identifies Omicron cases confirmed by genomic sequencing, as health authorities in Scotland race to identity and track new cases, using advanced contact tracing where fresh clusters emerge.
So far, confirmed Omicron cases are largely restricted to these NHS areas, with single cases also detected in Ayrshire and Arran, Fife, Lothian and Tayside. Two have been found in Grampian, and eight found in Forth Valley over the last four days.
John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, urged people to take a lateral flow test every day if they planned to leave the house, as new rules allowing negative tests to be used to enter venues came into force.
Until now, the official advice in Scotland was to take a LFT twice a week, but Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland he used one every day he expected to leave home. He said:
We want people to increase the frequency of the use of lateral flow tests, away from the two times per week to much more frequently when they are socialising and interacting with others.
He said ministers in Edinburgh were considering adding proof of a booster jab to be added to the vaccination passports, which could be reinstated as necessary to enter large venues in future. Booster jabs will be added to vaccination passports for international travel from 9 December, he said.
Updated
According to PA Media, Boris Johnson joined police in Liverpool for morning raids in the Kirkdale and Anfield areas of the city as part of an investigation into county lines dealing. Two people - a 34-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man - were arrested and taken to police stations in Merseyside for questioning following the execution of two warrants, police confirmed.
No 10 confirms levelling up white paper delayed until next year
And here is a full summary of the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- The PM’s spokesman confirmed a report by the Times’s Henry Zeffman at the weekend saying the levelling up white paper has been delayed until next year. It has been due before Christmas. Alain Tolhurst from Politics Homes says he thinks that the document is ready, but that the “pitch rolling” process is not yet complete.
As I understand it Neil O’Brien had finished writing the document last month, but the delay is in rolling the pitch with MPs and squaring off stakeholders so it lands properly - and given how busy things are, No10 think there’s no space to launch it properly before Christmas https://t.co/VAWMoyVhUP
— Alain Tolhurst (@Alain_Tolhurst) December 6, 2021
- The spokesman played down claims that the government wants to give itself powers to easily overturn judicial review decisions by the courts. (See 11.58am.) Asked about the claim, made in the Times splash today, the spokesman said he was “not aware of any plans” to do this. He also said the report was “not an accurate characterisation of the action we are taking” - although the story is specifically about what Boris Johnson reportedly wants to do, because he apparently thinks the action that is being taken (in a bill going through parliament) leaves too much power with the courts.
- The spokesman denied that a party took place in Downing Street last December and said it was a “statement of fact” that no Covid rules were broken. (See 1.03pm.)
- The spokesman welcomed the high court ruling this morning rejecting a challenge to Johnson’s decision not to sack Priti Patel over bullying allegations. The spokesman said:
The judgment affirms that appointment and dismissal of ministers is not judiciable and that questions of interpretation of the code, which are inextricably linked with that, may not be judiciable either. The judgment accepts that most of the code would not be judiciable.
- The spokesman said it was “unacceptable” for testing firms to exploit customers who need to pay for Covid tests. Asked about reports that firms have misleading consumers online about their prices, the spokesman said:
It’s clearly unacceptable for any private testing company to take advantage of holidaymakers.
He also said that, on average, a two-day PCR test costs less than £45.
- The spokesman defended what was being done to reconnect homes that lost power as a result of Storm Arwen. Energy companies were taking “every step possible”, he claimed. He said:
It is worth remembering that 99.8% of households have power [restored]. As of 8am today, there were 1,600 homes currently without power in the north-east - that’s a reduction of 2,425 since yesterday. So there have been significant improvements but we recognise that for those homes still left without power, they will expect, rightly, more to be done.
We continue to check in incredibly regularly with the power companies to make sure they have all the support needed, and we are assured they are taking every step possible.
Obviously there are significant challenges following the storm, which was unusually strong and caused damage in particularly remote areas.
Updated
Government plans to toughen procurement rules for underperforming suppliers
The government is planning to block suppliers from winning public contracts if they have a record of poor delivery, fraud or corruption, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Cabinet Office said the proposals were part of “wide ranging changes” taking advantage of “new powers” facilitated by Brexit.
It said that under current rules, suppliers can only be excluded if there has been a “significant breach of contract”.
But it said a set of “simpler, clearer and more flexible” rules, to be introduced now the country has left the EU, would give the government “more discretion” to block those that have under-performed.
It would also be possible to ban suppliers which have undertaken unethical practices, such as a lax approach to safety, or where there are national security or environmental concerns, the Cabinet Office said.
Meanwhile, the government is planning to introduce competition into emergency buying, meaning it “doesn’t need to wholly rely on direct awards in times of crisis”.
New measures on transparency would also be implemented, with procurement data published in a “standard, open format” which would be “accessible to anyone”, the Cabinet Office said.
It added that a “simplified bidding process” would make it easier for small and medium-size businesses to win Government contracts.
And it said “more weight” would be given to bids with “social value”, to help level up the country.
The plans are outlined in the government’s consultation response to its Transforming Public Procurement green paper.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
No 10 claims there was no party in Downing Street last Christmas and it's 'statement of fact' no Covid rules were broken
The Downing Street lobby briefing has finished. It lasted longer than usual, partly because of another fruitless quest for clarification as to what did or did not happen at No 10 last December when staff had a boozy get-together. Here are the key points on topic.
- The PM’s spokesman denied that a party took place in Downing Street last December. He said:
As press secretary set out on a number of occasions when questioned about this originally, there was not a party and Covid rules have been followed at all times.
This is a slightly firmer line than we have had before. Downing Street has not denied reports, that first appeared in the Daily Mirror, that an event that would meet any conventional definition of a party (a large number of people drinking booze in the same room, until late in the evening, with games too, just before a holiday) took place just before Christmas in No 10 last year. (There was also a separate one in November.) At PMQs last week Johnson did not deny that a Christmas party took place, and in subsequent interviews he has never said there was no party. Initially No 10 did not deny that there had been a party either, but at one briefing last week the PM’s press secretary (the party political spokesperson) said that what happened was not a party, and today the official spokesman (the civil service one) adopted that.
- The spokesman said it was a “statement of fact” that no Covid rules were broken. Asked how he could be sure that no regulations were broken at the December event, and what had been done to establish that, the spokesman said:
I don’t need to get into the positions we’ve taken. It is simply just a statement of fact.
Asked how it could be a statement of fact when this had not been investigate, the spokesman said he would not get into internal matters, but that guidance had been followed at all times.
- The spokesman said Downing Street will be having a staff party this Christmas. Other government departments have cut back or cancelled big gatherings.
I will post more from the lobby briefing shortly.
There are three ministerial statements and one urgent question in the Commons this afternoon. Here is the running order, with approximate timings.
3.30pm: Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, responds to an urgent question about Storm Arwen.
After 4pm: Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, makes a statement about child safeguarding and the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
After 5pm: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, makes a statement about Covid.
After 6pm: Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, makes a statement about the 10-year drugs strategy.
Amanda Pritchard, the NHS England chief executive, had her booster jab this morning. Afterwards she issued a statement saying:
The booster jab was quick, easy and I now have extra protection against the virus ... When it’s your turn, please come forward - the vaccine will give you and your loved ones the protection I have received today.
These are from Danny Shaw, the former BBC home affairs correspondent, on the 10-year drugs strategy announced by the government today.
There is a lot of tough talk in the Drugs Strategy but strip away the packaging & the content is broadly the same as the 2010 & 2017 - a mix of enforcement and treatment. Fundamental legal changes were never on the agenda.
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawNews) December 6, 2021
Today’s Drugs Strategy is 6th drugs strategy in 23 years (1998, 2002, 2008, 2010 & 2017 the others). The approach has hardly changed, but problems still just as serious. In 1998 Govt said there were up to 200,000 problematic users. By 2002 it was 250,000. In 2008, it was 332,000.
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawNews) December 6, 2021
Now Govt says there are 300,000. That figure might be an underestimate. Interesting also on 2002 Govt promised to “double” number of drug treatment & testing orders by 2005. We’re hearing similar promises again today. More thoughts here: https://t.co/fPA520yu3l
— Danny Shaw (@DannyShawNews) December 6, 2021
Labour accuses PM of wanting to 'ignore courts altogether' following reports new curbs on judicial review planned
This morning the Times has splashed on a story (paywall) by Tom Newton Dunn and Jonathan Ames saying that Boris Johnson favours radical legislation to curtail the use of judicial review. They report:
The prime minister has ordered Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, to toughen plans to reform judges’ powers to rule on the legality of ministerial decisions. An option drawn up by Raab and Suella Braverman, the attorney-general, that is liked by No 10 is for MPs to pass an annual “interpretation bill” to strike out findings from judicial reviews with which the government does not agree.
Whitehall sources argue that the bills would reinforce the constitutional principle that parliament is sovereign over the unelected judiciary. The move has provoked uproar within the legal establishment, and Johnson was accused of trying to use his Commons majority to halt legitimate challenges. One senior QC said that the prime minister was secretly seeking “a more compliant judiciary”.
TIMES: PM plans to let ministers throw out legal rulings. #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/UiGhpufOmf
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) December 5, 2021
The government has already introduced a judicial review and courts bill, which is close to completing its passage through the Commons. This was intended to implement a manifesto pledge to reform the judicial review so that “it is not used well into its passsage”. But Johnson reportedly believes this bill, which was drawn up by Robert Buckland, who was sacked as justice secretary in September, does not go far enough.
Labour says the report shows minsters want the power “to ignore the courts altogether”. In a joint statement Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, and Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, said:
After a week when No 10 has behaved as though they are above the law when it comes to Covid regulations, we are now told they want to grant themselves the right to ignore the courts altogether.
From the bedroom tax to the bombing of Yemen, the judicial review process exists so the public can challenge the government and other public bodies when it suspects they have broken the law.
Incredibly, the government plans to subvert that process by taking on even more arbitrary powers, and in future change the law to comply with their decisions, rather than change their decisions to comply with the law.
This is nothing to do with the sovereignty of parliament, but all about the Henry VIII fantasies of a prime minister who thinks none of the rules the rest of us have to live by should ever be applied to him.
The mention of Henry VIII refers to so-called Henry VIII powers, clauses in bills allowing ministers to use secondary legislation (easy to pass, and subject to little scrutiny) to rewrite primary legislation (bills that only become law after extensive votes and debates in parliament).
Speaking to reporters this morning as he received his booster jab (see 9.47am and 11.11am), Keir Starmer blamed government cuts for contributing to the drug problem that ministers are trying to address with their strategy announced today. Asked about the plan, he said:
We need to look at the plans in detail when we see them in detail. But there’s no doubt that the drug problem has got a lot worse in the last 10 years, particularly issues like drug-related deaths and the county lines, which are destroying lives.
The question for the government is not just over the plans today but the money that they have taken out of the system – millions and millions of pounds have been taken out of the system over the years and that has caused a lot of the problems.
So I want to see the plans, I want to see the strategy, I want the prime minister to take responsibility for the money that’s been taken out of criminal justice in the last 10 years that’s caused many of these problems.
However, as Boris Johnson made it clear in his own clip for broadcasters this morning (see 10.52am), taking responsibility for all government cuts since 2010 is one thing he is definitely not prepared to do. His argument is that the government only took power in 2019.
Updated
Starmer urges government to stop people being 'hammered' by cost of Covid travel tests
Keir Starmer has urged the government to do more to cut the price of the Covid tests that people arriving in the UK need to pay for.
In an interview this morning, he welcomed the government’s decision to make pre-departure tests (PCR or lateral flow) compulsory, as Labour had been calling for. He said:
I would have liked to see the government act more quickly. As ever, they are behind the curve. As soon as we saw the scientific evidence saying that (there) should be pre-departure tests, we called on the government to do this last week. The government delayed, as they always do.
They’ve done it now, that’s a good thing. But the government needs to get ahead instead of being behind.
On the costs of tests, Starmer said:
I also want to see the government doing whatever it can to bring the price of these tests down because lots of people ... [are] getting really hammered by prices that can’t be justified.
Johnson fights off legal challenge over Priti Patel bullying claims
Boris Johnson has successfully fought off a high court challenge over his decision to back the home secretary after accusations she had bullied civil servants, my colleague Rajeev Syal reports.
Updated
Tristan Kirk, the Evening Standards’ court correspondent, has posted an interesting thread on Twitter on the lockdown breaches from last winter that are being prosecuted in London.
The Met Police happens to be, this week, prosecuting an alleged illegal gathering on December 18 last year.
— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) December 6, 2021
Not in Downing Street, but a house in Ilford. pic.twitter.com/fO1E9KnPDP
Being around a year ago isn't the issue - I'd imagine this prosecution was launched last month.
— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) December 6, 2021
However the basis of it is overwhelmingly likely to be a police officer's statement, giving evidence of what they saw on Dec 18.
The Downing St 'party' case faces two obstacles:
— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) December 6, 2021
- police policy not to investigate Covid breaches its officers didn't personally witness
- a lack of actual evidence
Nothing insurmountable, but you'd imagine a whistleblower speaking to police is essential.
As it happens, there are 14 prosecutions in London for alleged breaches in Dec last year.
— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) December 6, 2021
Perhaps government ministers could say what the point of these prosecutions is, given there's no deterrent effect on the public and they are a drain on police and court resources.
Johnson claims his government first 'for long time' to take class A drugs use seriously
And here are the main points Boris Johnson made in his morning TV interview about the 10-year drugs plan
- Johnson claimed that his was the first government for a long time to take class A drugs use seriously. Asked about new evidence of cocaine use at the Houses of Parliament, Johnson said:
This government is absolutely determined to fight drugs. I take the view that it’s a long time really since you’ve heard a government say that drugs, class A drugs, are bad, bad for society, bad for opportunity, bad kids growing up in this country. That’s my view.
That sounded like a dig at Johnson’s old rival, David Cameron, whose campaign for the Tory leadership in 2005 was undermined by claims - which he did not deny - that he had used cocaine before becoming an MP. Johnson has admitted taking cocaine himself when he was a student, but he implied it happened just once, and his student use of cannabis seems to have been limited too. Recreational drug use is one vice that he has never seriously been accused of.
- Johnson would not accept responsibility for cuts to police and drugs programmes since 2010. When it was put to him that Labour was saying that police and drug treatment programmes had been cut by the government over many years, he claimed that was not right. He went on:
Since this government came in, we’ve not only put 11,000 more police on the streets, as part of our commitment to put another 20,000 more, but we’re announcing another £300m to tackle county lines gangs.
This answer was interesting because it illustrates Johnson’s unwillingness to defend the record of the Cameron and May governments. At the next election Labour will be attacking what has happened under the Tories since 2010, but Johnson will be adopting a ‘Year zero’ approach, arguing the clock only started in 2019. To be fair, he never served in Cameron’s government, and was out of parliament for most of the time it was in office, but he was foreign secretary in May’s government for two years.
- He said the strategy being announced today combined tougher action against county lines drugs gangs with more emphasis on rehabilitation. He said:
We want everybody to be able to grow up in safer streets, everybody to have the right to have a safe community to grow up in and too many people have their lives blighted by these county lines gangs, so you’ve got to do two things at once.
You’ve got to be tougher on the county lines gangs, you’ve got to be tougher on the criminals who are doing it, but you’ve also got to make sure that you find those 300,000 people and you help them.
You can’t simply arrest them time after time and put them back into prison again and again - you’ve got to do rehab as well.
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Johnson rejects claims UK toughening its travel rules too late in response to Omicron
Yesterday Prof Mark Woolhouse, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), told The Andrew Marr Show that the government’s announcement of pre-departure testing for people arriving in the UK had come too late. “I think that may be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,” he said.
This morning Boris Johnson, in an interview on a visit with police in Merseyside, primarily to promote the 10-year drugs strategy, was asked about specifically about this comment. Johnson said he did not accept it. He went on:
I think what we’re doing is responding to the pandemic. We were the first country in the world to take decisive measures to tackle Omicron. We put about 10 countries automatically, immediately, on to the red list and we said that anybody coming from any country in the world would have to quarantine for a couple of days.
We’re now going further and toughening those measures up as we see the spread of Omicron around the world.
I don’t think we need to change the overall guidance and advice we’re giving about Omicron in this country. We’re still waiting to see exactly how dangerous it is, what sort of effect it has in terms of deaths and hospitalisations.
Asked whether he was certain there would be no new social restrictions before Christmas, Johnson said, as he has said before, that “this Christmas will be considerably better than last Christmas, with the possibly exception for the country lines drug gangs that we intend to roll up”.
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Keir Starmer had his booster jab this morning, Sky News reports.
Minister prompts fresh calls for police inquiry after failing to explain how No 10 party did not break lockdown rules
Good morning. Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, was on the airwaves for the government today, primarily to talk about the government’s new 10-year drugs strategy. But he also became the latest minister to face the interview challenge from hell - defending Downing Street’s threadbare and incoherent line on the No 10 Christmas parties last year that appeared to break lockdown rules.
On BBC News Malthouse said that he was not sure whether there was a party. But that did not stop him saying, if it did happen, it did not break the rules.
🎄 On No10 Christmas party claims last year, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse tells @BBCBreakfast: "I don't even know if an event took place but if it did no rules were broken" ...
— Lizzy Buchan (@LizzyBuchan) December 6, 2021
On Sky News Malthouse said he took the reassurance he had had from Downing Street “at face value” (an unusual formula - he could have just said he believed them).
Did a Covid rule-breaking Christmas party take place at No.10 last December? 🎄
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) December 6, 2021
Why isn't the police investigating? 🚨
We put Policing Minister @kitmalthouse on the spot #KayBurley UF pic.twitter.com/UbP0t30ZwJ
And then, on the Today programme, Malthouse said that factors like social distancing, and the size of the room, might have been factors in whether or not the party was legal - even though these were not exemptions allowed in the guidance.
Kit Malthouse later muddied the waters further by telling @BBCr4today that it would have depended on things like “How far apart were people... What size was the room?” if a No10 Xmas drinks would have broken the rules.
— Lizzy Buchan (@LizzyBuchan) December 6, 2021
Except that's not what the rules said at the time...
.@kitmalthouse, asked by @MishalHusain if he had asked No10 *how* the Xmas drinks party games on Dec 18 2020 was within the Covid rules:
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) December 6, 2021
"I'm not an investigator, my job to seek reassurance. ..I have to take that at face value."
Kit Malthouse now adding the interesting interpretation that perhaps a hypothetical Christmas party would have been within the rules last year if you consider things like…
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) December 6, 2021
“How far apart were people?”
“What size was the room?”
…The guidance clearly banned Christmas parties.
Malthouse also said that it was right for the police to investigate allegations about offences committed in the past - at the end of last week the Met said it did not routinely “retrospectively” investigate breaches of Covid rules - but he said it was for the police to decide what they did in this case. The Met is under pressure to investigate.
The Green MP Caroline Lucas suggests Malhouse’s failure to offer a proper defence of Downing Street strengthens the case for an investigation.
Docile acceptance of No.10 ‘reassurances' by @kitmalthouse leaves him unable to answer straightforward question on #r4today about No.10 Xmas party.
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) December 6, 2021
Met police must urgently investigate this question of PM ignoring his own rules as others forced to cancel their Xmas gatherings
The SNP MP John Nicolson has also described Malthouse’s Today interview as “excruciating”.
Excruciating interview with Tory minister Kit Malthouse on #bbcr4Today He wasn’t at the Downing St party - the party which didn’t happen. But he believes Boris Johnson that no rules were broken at the party. Even though parties were illegal at the time.
— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. (@MrJohnNicolson) December 6, 2021
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: The high court gives its ruling in a case brought by the FDA, the senior civil servants’ union, challenging Boris Johnson’s decision to ignore the ruling that Priti Patel, the home secretary, broke the ministerial code by bullying civil servants.
11.30am: Downing Street holds its lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, takes questions in the Commons. He is also due to make a statement on an inquiry into the Arthur Labinjo-Hughes case.
3pm: Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Scottish affairs committee.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com
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