Early evening summary
- Boris Johnson has appealed to two million people in the top four priority groups for vaccination to volunteer for the jab this week. It was particularly important for social care workers, he said, in a hint that ministers are concerned that some of them are intentionally refusing the vaccine. The government is committed to offering 15 million people in the four groups - care home residents, frontline health and social care workers and all over-70s - a first dose of the vaccine before Monday 15 February. Speaking at a press conference at No 10, Johnson said 13 million people had already been vaccinated. But he went on:
But that still leaves nearly 2 million people – a population roughly twice the size of Birmingham – that we still hope to reach. And there are people across the country who for one reason or another haven’t yet taken up their offer.
So now is the moment to do it, wherever you are – you won’t be more than about 10 miles away from a vaccination centre.
So, go online, or get someone to help you or simply pick up the phone and call 119.
And let me appeal to the fantastic social care workers we all rely on to look after our relatives, our parents and grandparents. If you have not received a letter, please contact your employer and fix it up.
- Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, and Johnson both stressed the importance of adopting a cautious approach to lifting lockdown. Speaking at the news conference, Vallance said:
It’s worth remembering that even with very high vaccine uptake, and it’s great to see so many people have come forward and been vaccinated, there’s still a large number of people who aren’t vaccinated. And there will be a significant number of people in high risk groups who aren’t yet vaccinated, because they either haven’t had an opportunity to, they can’t take it for some other reason or they haven’t come forward. And those people remain at risk.
And so it’s important that we go cautiously in opening up in order to be able to measure the effects.
And one of the things that’s really crucial in this is to get enough information to know the trajectory we’re on and not jump ahead of it, because we’ve very high levels and that could take off very quickly. So I think caution is important as we go into opening things up, and measuring is important, and data is what’s going to be important. The virus isn’t going to be particularly interested in dates.
Johnson, who last year was frequently criticised for being over-optimistic about the prospects of containing Covid, also backed a cautious approach. He said that although he would like to be able to say there was evidence that the vaccination programme is already starting to have an impact, he had not seen that data yet.
- Johnson said people should be “a little bit more patient” with regard to planning a summer holiday. But he refused to go as far as Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, who said this morning it was wrong for people to be booking holidays now for the summer, either abroad or in the UK. Asked if he agreed with Shapps, Johnson told the press conference.
I’m afraid it is just too early for people to be certain about what we will be able to do this summer. We hope to be able to say more in the week of the 22nd.
I understand why people want to make plans now but we’re just going to have to be a little bit more patient.
- No 10 has revealed that MPs will not get a vote on the plan to threaten people with up to 10 years in jail if they lie about visiting a “red list” country with a high Covid risk, because the penalties will apply under an act that is already law. (See 2.31pm.) Two former Conservative attorneys general and backbench MPs have branded proposed sentences as disproportionate and an abuse of power. And Sir Jonathan Jones, a former head of the government legal department, said this about the plan on Twitter.
If anyone is EVER sentenced to 10 years for lying on the form, I will eat a face mask. (A clean one, I’m not mad.) https://t.co/dRi2AFqkJ5
— Jonathan Jones (@SirJJQC) February 10, 2021
- The head of the civil service has been urged to investigate the appointment of a former Conservative MP and campaign manager for Boris Johnson as head of the Office for Students, with Labour calling the move “another example of cronyism”. As Peter Walker reports, James Wharton, who was an MP from 2010 to 2017 and is now a Conservative peer, was appointed to head the independent regulator of higher education in England despite having no experience of the sector.
That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.
Updated
At the press conference the Mirror’s Mikey Smith asked about a Sage paper from July 2020. It was released at the end of last week, and it’s here (pdf). It is worth reading because it set out four scenarios for the winter (ie, now) and, although not billed as a forecast, it turned out to be uncannily prescient. The paper was from SPI-M-O (the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational - a Sage sub group) and, describing one scenario, it said:
The early stages of exponential growth [in autumn 2020] would initially result in only a gradual increase in cases and so government and individuals might, at first, be unwilling to change policies and behaviour; this initial small increase in infections would likely happen in younger age groups (i.e. those under 50 years old) first, who are less likely to have severe symptoms. Widescale community transmission across all age groups would result, so much more stringent interventions would be needed than those required if measures were enacted earlier.
And here are three paragraphs in a section headed “What particularly worries SPI-M-O?”
When universities reopen, large numbers of young people will come into close contact with one another. This is highly likely to result in large numbers of asymptomatic infections, which will then spread to local communities ...
There is a chance that transmission will be seeded by people returning from travel overseas and not quarantining correctly, or if a holiday destination is believed to be “low risk” but, in reality, is not. Holidays taken within the UK may spread transmission to areas that have had relatively little transmission to date, especially in the south-west of England.
Christmas could result in explosive outbreaks across the country, as people of different ages come into close contact with one another, at a time when almost all social interactions take place indoors ...
The paper said some of these outcomes could be avoided if the government promoted measures to avoid risky contacts, including home-working. But a month later the government was launching a drive to get people back into the office, even at one point even briefing the Daily Telegraph that workers risked the sack if they chose to stay at home.
Updated
Q: When are you going to reimburse pharmacies for their additional costs during the pandemic? And how many are you happy to see close?
Johnson says he does not want to see any pharmacies close. They can play a really important role, he says.
He says he wants to ensure they are reimbursed as soon as possible.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Q: What effect does the vaccine have if you have had the virus already?
Vallance says, if you had the virus, you should still get the vaccine. That way you will get a really good immune response.
Q: You talked about booster jabs in the autumn? What infrastructure is in place for that?
Johnson says the vaccines are effective against the current variant. But he says the government should be getting ready for new variants in the autumn. We should start thinking of it as like a flu jab, he says. He says he wants all JCVI groups one to nine to be vaccinated by the end of April.
Updated
Q: You did not answer the question about summer holidays. Will you? And are you planning to get away this summer?
Johnson says he must repeat his previous answer. He will say more in the week of 22 February.
Q: In July Sage said you should keep people working at home, not rush reopening of schools and universities and stop mixing at Christmas. Two weeks ago you claimed you had done everything you could to save lives. Isn’t it the case that that is not true?
Johnson says there has been scientific advice of all kinds. As soon as he became aware of the new variant on 18 December, he acted decisively. Some scientists wanted a full lockdown. Some wanted no lockdown. These have been “brutally difficult decisions”, he says. He says he has done his best.
Q: Have you been talking to the international travel body IATA about an app that would record vaccination details? (See 10.17am.)
Johnson says the government is talking to organisations about all kinds of options for the future. But the key think is to get people vaccinated.
Q: How keen are you on lateral flow tests?
Vallance says lateral flow tests are useful. But there do not give you a 100% guarantee that you are not infected.
Johnson says they are part of the mix.
Q: Are you pleased about the reports of the early success of the vaccine?
Johnson says there is no one likely to be more encouraged by data than he is. But he has looked at it, and he does not think you can yet see results directly attributed to the vaccine.
Vallance says he wants to wait a bit longer. He wants data you can understand and analyse. The data from Israel is encouraging. But you should wait, he says, and look at the data properly.
He says it is important to remember that a significant number of people remain unvaccinated. They are at risk. So we should be cautious about opening up.
He says it is important to get enough data to know the trajectory we are on, and not get ahead of it, he says.
The virus won’t be interested in dates, he says.
Q: Should members of the public be booking a summer holiday?
Johnson says it is currently illegal to go on holiday. On Monday the government will say more about the JCVI top four priority groups, and in the week starting 22 February he will set out the roadmap. He hopes to offer more clarity then.
Q: How worried are you about the Bristol variant?
Vallance says the Kent variant in the UK does transmit more easily, and might be more severe, but does not change the effectiveness of vaccines.
The Bristol variant has got one of the changes that the South African variant has got as well. It is not surprising that it has happened and it will happen elsewhere as well.
In getting that variant it does make it slightly more likely to look different to the immune system so we need to watch out for it. We need to keep on top and need to keep testing the vaccine effects in this situation.
Updated
Q: Can lateral flow tests be used to open up events like weddings?
Johnson says he is a big supporter of these tests. They are getting more sophisticated and simpler. But these tests will come into their own as the vaccine programme rolls out.
Of course he wants to allow events like weddings to go ahead.
Vallance says we need to wait for numbers to come down before opening up. But then lateral flow tests clearly have a role.
In response to the first question, Johnson says he cannot see the impact of the vaccination programme in the data yet.
Vallance says it takes two to three weeks for vaccines to have an impact. It is early, he says. He says he would expect to see figures in the next week or two.
Sir Patrick Vallance is now presenting the slides.
Here are case numbers.
Here are cases, as measured by the ONS surveillance survey.
Here are the hospital numbers.
Johnson says the government thinks it will be able to vaccinate everyone in the top nine priority groups by the end of April.
Johnson says 13m people in UK have now had first dose of vaccine
Boris Johnson says it is five weeks since the 15 February vaccination target was set.
With less than a week to go, the government has made “great strides”. Just over 13 million people in the UK have been vaccinated, including 25% of adults in England and more than 90% of over-75s.
But there are 2 million people - roughly twice the size of the population of Birmingham - who have not been vaccinated.
Johnson says he is appealing to these people - among the over-70s and health and social care workers - who have not had a jab yet. He urges them to come forward and ask for one.
Updated
Boris Johnson's press conference
Boris Johnson is about to hold a press conference at No 10. He will be joined by Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser.
Statistics authority says 'room for much improvement' in published government vaccine data
The UK Statistics Authority has urged the government to provide more detailed information about the vaccine rollout. In a letter to the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee, which is investigating data transparency in government, Sir David Norgrove, the authority’s chairman, said:
On vaccinations data, UK governments have been quick to start publishing data and have learnt some of the lessons from test and trace. However, there remains room for much improvement in terms of the amount of information that is published and the breakdowns within the data. We would like to see more granular breakdowns and more consistency between administrations across the UK.
Norgrove proposed four improvements: more granular data on percentage take-up; more consistency of data for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; figures relating to vaccines type; and statistics for vaccine refusal.
More than one million Scots have now had first dose of vaccine, Scottish government says
More than 1 million people in Scotland have now had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, the Scottish government has said. That means more than a fifth (22%) of the 4.5 million people who will be offered a vaccine have now received a dose. In a statement Jeane Freeman, the health secretary, said:
This is an important milestone in the biggest vaccination programme ever delivered in Scotland and I would like to thank everyone involved and all those who have taken up their offer of a vaccine.
We have now given first doses to more than a million people in the groups which were prioritised to address 99% of preventable deaths associated with Covid-19.
These include elderly care home residents and staff, frontline health and social care workers and those who are at risk of serious harm and death from this virus.
Updated
UK records 1,001 further deaths and 13,013 new cases
The latest UK Covid statistics are now up, on the government’s dashboard. Here are the headline numbers. The key illness figures are all moving in the right direction (down), and at a marginally faster rate than yesterday.
- The UK has recorded 1,001 further deaths. A week ago today the figure was 1,322. The total number of deaths over the last seven days is 25.9% down on the total for the previous week. Yesterday the rate of decline was 25.7% week on week.
- The UK has recorded 13,013 new cases. That is an increase from yesterday’s total (12,364), but week on week, the seven-day average is down 27.7%. Yesterday it was down 26.6%.
- The UK had 1,872 Covid hospital admissions on Saturday, the last date for which figures are available on the dashboard. The previous day the figure was 1,987. Week on week, hospital admissions are falling 22.6%. Yesterday the figure was down 22.2%.
-
411,812 people received their first dose of a vaccine yesterday.
Sir Charles Walker, the vice chair of the the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee, has escalated his attack on Matt Hancock, the health secretary, over the plan to threaten anyone lying about visiting a “red list” country with up to 10 years in jail. Walker was reasonably robust on the World at One (see 2.11pm), but on Sky News just now he let rip even further. Walker said:
Are we really going to lock people up for 10 years for being dishonest about the fact that they’ve been to Portugal?
By all means give them a fine, give them a hefty fine, a few thousand pounds. Are you really seriously suggesting, secretary of state, that we’ve got enough prison capacity to start locking up 19-year-old silly kids for 10 years?
What a stupid thing to say, I mean a really stupid thing to say, that demeans his office and his position around the cabinet table.
Updated
The World Health Organization’s Sage (theirs is the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts; the UK’s is the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) has recommended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in all adults. Its report is here.
WHO SAGE presenting its interim recommendations on the use of AstraZeneca Vaccine against #COVID19 https://t.co/S06dixPEUP
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 10, 2021
Updated
Some Northern Ireland businesses are adapting to and even benefiting from the Northern Ireland protocol but many others are struggling and need extended grace periods for Irish Sea border checks, MPs were told this morning.
The Northern Ireland affairs committee heard mixed reports about how the region’s businesses are faring amid compulsory post-Brexit checks on a range of plant and food-related goods travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The retail distributer AM Nexday said turnover was down 12% and the transport company DFDS said its turnover was down 25%. Some customers were unprepared for the changes, said Sarah Hards of AM Nexday. “Suppliers in Great Britain are fearful.”
The business leaders called for extensions to grace periods – the first of which is due to end in March - which delay the full enforcement of EU rules.
The MPs heard stories of adaptation, including a Dungannon-based engineering firm that had delivered a load to France via the UK landbridge without glitch and then gained work from the French company.
The evidence suggested the protocol was “neither Armageddon nor nirvana”, said the committee chair, Simon Hoare.
Burnham says lockdown should be eased 'at pace of slowest' regions
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has called on the government to release lockdown at the “pace of the slowest” regions.
He cautioned against “repeating the mistake of last year, when we left lockdown too early for the north of England”. Case rates were lower in London and the south-east than the north when society began opening up.
“When new strains are around, it makes sense to move at the pace of the slowest rather than what happened last year,” Burnham said at his weekly press conference. A failure to do so would “trap parts of the north in ineffective tiers again for large parts of 2021 and that is not something that we believe is right or fair.”
Burnham went on:
We would say, start with schools in early March. But then there should be a phased release from lockdown as and when it’s safe to do so, bringing sectors back that can be brought back safely, leaving in national financial support systems for those who will take longest to return.
Other information from the briefing included
- Greater Manchester currently has a slightly higher infection rate than England as a whole (231.1 per 100,000 people, compared with 202.1 per 100,000 people in England and 203.5 in London).
- Weekly hospital admissions for Covid-19 have dropped from 382 to 266 in Greater Manchester in the last fortnight, but 160 people in the region are currently in intensive care.
- Greater Manchester had vaccinated 539,494 people by Tuesday 9 February. Sir Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council and Burnham’s deputy mayor, said he believed everyone in the four priority groups had been offered a jab.
- Greater Manchester police gave out 246 fixed penalty notices for lockdown breaches over the last week, including 180 over the weekend. Most related to house parties and large gatherings.
Updated
The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. Jessica Elgot and John Crace look at why the latest coronavirus travel restrictions might not work the way the government expects, as well as Robert Jenrick’s latest announcement on cladding funds. Plus, Helen Davidson and Jon Henley on how the world sees the UK’s Covid response.
Updated
As HuffPost’s Paul Waugh reports, at the lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman had difficulty justifying some of the work done by the three taxpayer-funded photographers now working from Downing Street.
Asked why the taxpayer should fund ‘vanity’ photographers who took these pix of the PM’s dog playing in the snow, No.10 spokesperson suggests Dilyn works for govt: “These photographers document the work of the government, as well as the work inside Number 10.” pic.twitter.com/UgdDF2Tdrp
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) February 10, 2021
The Mirror has a full write-up here.
No 10 refuses to back Shapps's claim that it would be wrong to book summer holiday now
Downing Street has also refused to back Grant Shapps’ claim that it is too soon for people to book a summer holiday, either abroad or in the UK. (See 9.08am.) The prime minister’s spokesman said that holidays were currently not allowed. But when asked if Shapps was right to say people should not book ahead, the spokesman said: “Well, of course that is a choice for individuals.”
The spokesman said that in the week starting 22 February the government would set out a timeframe for easing restrictions.
No 10 says MPs won't get vote on 10-year sentences for travel ban cheats because Forgery Act applies
The Downing Street lobby briefing is over. And the PM’s spokesman has explained the legal basis under which people who fail to admit to having visited a “red list” country could face a jail term of up to 10 years under the plan announced yesterday. The government will use the existing Forgery Act to enforce this, he said. He told reporters:
If people failed to abide by the rules, and inaccurately or purposely didn’t fill in the relevant documentation properly, they would be charged under the Forgery Act, which includes forging or lying on forms.
In this context, the relevant form is the passenger locator form. The maximum sentence under the Forgery and Counterfeiting act 1981 for submitting false information is 10 years in jail.
Because the government is using existing legislation, MPs will not get the chance to vote on this.
Boris Johnson will hold a press conference at No 10 at 5pm, Downing Street has said.
Updated
Stephen McPartland, one of the Conservative MPs most vocal on the need for government help for leaseholders affected by the cladding scandal, is not impressed by the £3.5bn rescue package announced by Robert Jenrick in the Commons earlier. He has posted these on Twitter.
I am listening to @RobertJenrick's announcement with my head in my hands. Wondering how he can have got this so wrong. It is a betrayal of millions of leaseholders. It is not good enough. It is shocking incompetence. It is clear the PM has to step in now. @ukcag @EOCS_Official
— Stephen McPartland (@SMcPartland) February 10, 2021
The statement from @RobertJenrick is all smoke and mirrors. He is very careful to just state cladding. No mention of fire safety defects, Waking Watches or Excessive Insurance Premiums which are often the main costs for millions of leaseholders 🤷🏻♂️ @ukcag @EOCS_Official
— Stephen McPartland (@SMcPartland) February 10, 2021
Charles Walker, a vice-chair of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee, used an interview on the World at One to criticise both Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, over their recent Covid interventions.
Walker, who is one of the Tories most critical of the lockdown and who voted against it in January, said:
The prime minister has had a good few weeks where he seems to have been on top of things and then he is somewhat let down by both his secretary of state for health and the secretary of state for transport.
First of all the secretary of state for health threatening to lock people up for 10 years if they are not truthful about where they have been, for example coming back from Portugal.
Of course that’s not a good thing to do [lying] but 10 years! For crying out loud! And then we have the secretary of stare for transport urging people not even to book domestic holidays.
Referring to Shapps’s comment about summer holidays, Walker also said: “There’s a lot of people who would have seen a lot of hope evaporate at that.”
Updated
Travel industry urges people to ignore Shapps and book summer holiday if they want to
Abta, the trade body for the travel industry, has said that people should ignore Grant Shapps (see 9.08am) and book a summer holiday if they want to. An Abta spokesperson said:
You can book a summer holiday now with confidence by booking a package holiday through an Abta member, and many travel companies are also offering additional flexibility to take into account the uncertainty created by the pandemic.
If we wait for the full rollout of the vaccination programme in the UK before people start to travel overseas, we’ll lose another summer season to the pandemic – something the travel industry can’t afford. We need a reopening strategy that keeps up with the developing medical situation and with medical understanding, and considers the role of optional vaccine certificates and testing together to open up travel.
Updated
At a press conference in Cardiff Dr Andrew Goodall, the chief executive of NHS Wales, said Covid hospital numbers in Wales were still almost 50% above what they were at the peak of the first wave in April. He said:
The NHS has been under intense and sustained pressure over the last few months but I’m pleased that we’re beginning to see the lower levels of community transmission translate into lower levels of admissions to our hospitals.
There are now around 2,200 Covid-related patients in Welsh hospitals.
This is around 25% lower than the peak we saw in January but there are still nearly 50% more patients with coronavirus in hospital beds than at the peak of the first wave in April.
There are 84 people with coronavirus in critical care. This is nearly 25% lower than last week.
Goodall also said incidence rate of coronavirus in Wales had fallen to around 110 cases per 100,000 people.
And Public Health Wales has said a total of 655,419 first doses of the Covid vaccine have now been given, an increase of 26,659 from the previous day. It said 3,687 second doses had also been given, an increase of 196.
Public Health Wales has recorded 323 further coronavirus cases and 21 further deaths.
The equivalent figures a week ago today were 455 new cases and 50 further deaths.
The rapid COVID-19 surveillance dashboard has been updated
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) February 10, 2021
💻https://t.co/zpWRYSUbfh
📱https://t.co/HSclxpZjBh
Read our daily statement here: https://t.co/u6SKHz0zsG pic.twitter.com/7idapMvOBA
The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has announced a new £3.5bn fund to fix dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings in England and further loans for leaseholders to fix similar problems in shorter buildings, with maximum monthly repayments of £50 a month, my colleagues Robert Booth and Peter Walker report.
UK Covid border rules not in 'top bracket' of nations, says Starmer
Here is my colleague Jessica Elgot’s story on PMQs.
And this is how it starts.
Britain is not even in the “top bracket” of countries when it comes to Covid border restrictions, Keir Starmer has said, as Boris Johnson said he did not want to “cut this country off from the rest of the world”.
Boris Johnson was challenged at prime minister’s questions in the Commons over his claim that Britain has “one of the toughest regimes in the world”, which Starmer said did not stand up to the evidence, despite tougher measures including hotel quarantine announced on Tuesday.
“We know his home secretary disagrees with him. We know the health secretary disagrees with them. Oxford University keeps track of how tough border restrictions are in every country,” Starmer said.
PMQs - Snap verdict
The exchanges between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition often reach a stalemate stage, and it feels as if that is where we are now with Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer. When a new principal arrives, the incumbent does no really know what to expect, and with a new style, a fresh intellect, a different approach, the novice can make some remarkable headway. It happened with Hague v Blair, Cameron v Blair, even (in the early weeks) Corbyn v May. But then the incumbent learns some effective response techniques, and it settles down. Starmer ran rings around Johnson in the early days, but Johnson now prepares a lot harder for PMQs than he used to (which might also have something to do with personnel changes at No 10) and now it’s all a bit Western Front circa 1915.
Starmer mostly focused on a series of “gotcha” questions. Will business rate relief be extended? And the furlough scheme? And the ban on evictions from residential properties? Starmer (a man who believes in process) knew full well that he was not going to get a straight answer, particularly to the first two, because they are scheduled as announcements for the budget, but he succeeded in making Johnson look moderately evasive. Only moderately, though, because many observers will have understood why Johnson did not pre-empt budget announcements today – and on all three points he strongly implied that the current protections would be extended. This was followed by an exchange about the border controls which added very little to what was said on this last week.
The exchanges did half-confirm a Sunday Times story (paywall) that Starmer wants to make Labour “unashamedly pro-business”. Since Brexit has strained the Conservative party’s links to business to breaking point and beyond, there is clearly some potential in this line of attack, although whether there is much support for this strategy within the Labour party may be another matter.
Starmer’s best moments came with two retorts to Johnson. The allusion to Johnson’s “fuck business” jibe will not get on the TV news, because the context would need explaining, but Tory MPs will have registered it. What will get on the TV news, though, may be this.
I’m not going to take lectures from a man who wrote two versions of every column he ever wrote as a journalist, proposed Donald Trump for a Nobel peace prize and gave Dominic Cummings a pay rise.
Starmer is normally scrupulously accurate, unlike Johnson who is normally anything but. But this comment is Johnsonesque in its accuracy. Johnson did not write two versions of every column he wrote; just the Brexit one. He did not recommend Trump for the Nobel peace prize. (Johnson said: “If Trump can fix North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal then I don’t see why he’s any less of a candidate for the Nobel peace prize than Barack Obama.” But Trump did not fix North Korea, or the Iran nuclear deal, and Johnson seemed to be implying that Obama did not deserve the Nobel peace prize either – a sentiment also shared by Obama himself.) The bit about Cummings was true, though.
That said, as an attack soundbite, this was good. One of the reservations about Starmer is that he is a bit too high-minded for politics; that he’s not prepared to get his hands dirty, and deploy the sort of half-truth invective common in political campaigning. Perhaps that might be changing.
Updated
From the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar
I'm not sure it's entirely fair of Boris Johnson to suggest he "pioneered" the living wage during his time as Mayor of London when it was in fact Ken Livingstone who introduced it five years earlier #londonfacts
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) February 10, 2021
Johnson says further vaccinations likely to be needed in autumn
In response to a question from Julian Smith, the Conservative former Northern Ireland secretary, Boris Johnson gave what may be the clearest hint we’ve had from government yet that people will need further vaccines in the autumn. Johnson said:
As the house will have heard from the chief medical officer and the deputy chief medical officer and others, I think we’re going to have to get used to the idea of vaccinating, and then re-vaccinating in the autumn, as we come to face these new variants.
Updated
Gregory Campbell (DUP) asks when people in the Northern Ireland will be able to enjoy free trade within the UK, including from GB to NI.
Johnson says it is essential that there is untrammelled free trade of goods, services and capital across all parts of the UK. If necessary, he will invoke article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol to enable this, he says.
And that’s it. PMQs is over.
Updated
Neil Gray (SNP) asks if the government will follow the lead of the SNP and give public sector workers a pay rise.
Johnson claims that, as mayor of London, he pioneered the national living wage. And, referring to the SNP, he says he does not know whether they are nationalists or not. They should clear it up, he says. (The party is called the Scottish National party, but Johnson offered refers to them as the Scottish nationalist party in the Commons, much to their annoyance.)
Sir Roger Gale (Con) says if the PM is the friend of the countryside, he should place an immediate ban on the use of farmland for housing.
Johnson claims Gale was asking for a moratorium on the building of all housing. He says that is not possible. But he will take on board Gale’s argument, he says. He says 30% of land surface has been consecrated to nature.
Lucy Powell (Lab) says the government has gone back on a promise to extend the green homes grant. This amounts to a cut of £1bn, she says.
Johnson says Powell is “on to something, but she’s barking up the wrong tree”. The problem with the green homes grant is that take-up has been too low, he says.
Nicola Richards (Con) asks if the government will commit to making the revival of cancer diagnosis services a priority.
Johnson says Richards is right to raise this. Everyone who needs treatment should come forward, he says.
Geraint Davies (Lab) asks about the Covid outbreak at the DVLA in Swansea. He says thousands of people are working on the site, even though people could be working at home. He asks the PM to meet the union to discuss how home working can be rolled out there.
Johnson says there are 6,000 people in the workforce there, but only nine cases of Covid now. He says the solution is to roll out the vaccination programme.
Caroline Ansell (Con) asks about homelessness in Eastbourne. She says Brighton council is not cooperating to address this.
Johnson says he wants to see cooperation. No one should be sleeping rough during the pandemic, he says.
Ian Mearns (Lab) asks if the government will start work on the eastern leg of HS2, in the north-east, at the same time as starting in the south.
Johnson says the government is committed to the eastern leg of HS2. The government will be saying much more about this, he says.
Julian Sturdy (Con) asks for an assurance that all pupils will be back in school from 8 March.
Johnson says he will do all he can to make this happen. It is the settled will of the Commons, he says. He says the government will say more about this on Monday next week, and then more in the roadmap coming in the week starting 22 February.
Layla Moran (Lib Dem) asks the PM to set up a compensation scheme for those affected by long Covid.
Johnson says it is important to study the long-term effects of this, and to continue to look after people.
Sajid Javid (Con) says the threat to biodiversity is not just a moral failure, but economically short-sighted too. Referring to the recent Treasury report on this, which he commissioned when he was chancellor, he asks if this will feature at the Cop26 summit.
Johnson says it is high time world leaders took steps to address biodiversity.
Yasmin Qureshi (Lab) says the government said no council would lose out from the pandemic. But Bolton council has now announced cuts worth £35m. So is that another broken promise?
Johnson thanks Bolton council for the work it does. He says he is a creature of local government himself.
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, says the Tories’ record on levelling up is abysmal. She says Wales only gets about 40% of R&D spending elsewhere. Will the PM extend R&D spending in Wales?
Johnson says Saville Roberts is doing Wales down. There will be record spending in Wales on R&D, he says.
Lee Anderson (Con) asks for an assurance that Ashfied, his constituency, will never be let down by the government again.
Johnson says his commitment to levelling up is rock solid.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, refers to new figures about child poverty, and asks if the government will extend the universal credit uplift.
Johnson says the government is committed to throwing its arms around everyone to help during the pandemic.
Blackford accuses the PM of empty words. He asks if Johnson will attend a summit on child poverty.
Johnson rejects the claim that he does not care about child poverty. He says, unlike the SNP, he believes work is the best way of addressing poverty.
Starmer says Johnson wants specific recommendations. He has two, he says. He says the government should extend furlough and business rates relief and the VAT cut for hospitality. And it should quarantine everyone on arrival.
Johnson accuses Starmer of bandwagoning. And, referring to a Mail on Sunday story, he says some in Labour welcome this crisis.
Starmer says he won’t take lectures from someone who wrote two versions of every article, who proposed Donald Trump for the Nobel peace prize and who gave Dominic Cummings a pay rise.
He says at least 33 countries have tougher border controls. Why has the government waited 50 days since the discovery of the South African variant before toughening borders.
Johnson says the UK has one of the toughest border policies in the world. Arrivals have gone down from 250,000 per day to 20,000 per day.
Starmer says MPs all know what Johnson once wanted to do to business.
Will the government extend the ban on evictions from residential properties?
Johnson says the government is committed to protecting people from evictions during the pandemic. He is glad to see Labour supporting the government, he says.
Starmer asks why the PM think he knows more than business.
Johnson says he is delighted to see Labour supporting business when it had a manifesto at the last election to destroy capitalism.
Starmer says businesses cannot wait until the budget. Will the furlough scheme be extended?
Johnson says the government will soon set out a roadmap for the route out of lockdown. He says Starmer won’t have to wait for long.
Sir Keir Starmer starts by thanking everyone involved in the vaccine rollout. It has been a “truly amazing” achievement?
Will business rates relief be extended beyond the budget?
Johnson says Starmer will have to wait for the budget. But the government is committed to supporting business, he says.
Gary Sambrook (Con) asks the PM to thank people who have helped with surge testing in Birmingham.
Boris Johnson does thank all staff involved. People should get a test when asked to do so, he says.
Brexit will cost the economy of London up to £9.5bn a year, according to a report (pdf) published by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London. In a statement Khan said:
London is a world leader in finance, law, professional services, the creative industries and technology.
However, whichever way you slice it, the government’s Brexit trade deal was the equivalent of a ‘no deal’ Brexit for financial and professional services, and our businesses now face a costly red tape mountain caused by the UK having to trade with the EU as a ‘third country.
Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, has issued a statement calling for a global vaccine strategy. Here’s an extract.
The pandemic has exposed the lack of resilience in global vaccine manufacture. To tackle this, we need to create capacity on every continent for vaccine production and associated bioscience capabilities.
This will require significantly scaling up support for local pharmaceutical industries. We need increased public financing and improved government facilitation for the expansion plans of existing producers. And we also need to expand Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity in particular, as the only continent without this capability, and enable it to make its own biologics, such as antivirals and antibodies.
Governments and global structures should step up to guarantee purchase of vaccines to enable vaccine manufacturers to invest in expanding capacity, including in Africa where this is urgently needed.
The speed with which #COVID19 vaccines were developed & are being rolled out has been an inspiration. But the unequal distribution of those vaccines globally is both unfair & unsustainable.
— Tony Blair Institute (@InstituteGC) February 10, 2021
Read Tony Blair's statement on creating a global vaccine strategy https://t.co/CNa9CaOaV3
At the No 10 press conference on Monday Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said the South African variant of coronavirus was unlikely to become dominant in the UK. In his Q&A on BBC News this morning, he deployed one of the vivid analogies for which he has become famous to explain why. He said:
If you are running a bath and you have got the hot water tap on and you add in a very small amount of cold water, so the cold tap is running as well but at really a very low volume, your bath water is basically going to remain hot.
It’s only if that cold tap was gushing much more than the hot tap, the cold water would take over.
That’s probably the best analogy I can give you at the moment. There are no signs that South African variant is running at that speed at the moment and therefore I don’t frame it as something that is going to be a dominant issue in the next few months.
Van-Tam also said that the Kent variant now accounted for more than 90% of cases in the UK, and that fewer than 200 cases of the South African variant had been found.
A manufacturing site in Wales has had its coronavirus vaccines contract extended, PA Media reports. PA says:
The government agreement with Indian pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm Wockhardt to fill and finish the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at its site in Wrexham, North Wales, has been extended from 18 to 24 months, international trade secretary Liz Truss announced on Wednesday.
The extension will lead to more than 40 new jobs being created and mean the contract will run until August 2022.
Dexamethasone may have saved lives of 12,000 Covid patients in UK, research suggests
New research suggests that the use of dexamethasone as a treatment for patients seriously ill with Covid, which has been used around the world after a trial in the UK found it was effective, may have saved 12,000 lives in Britain and perhaps 650,000 globally (although there is more uncertainty about this latter estimate). These are from Prof Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at Oxford University and one of the authors of the study. Horby is also chair of New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group
Potential health and economic impacts of dexamethasone treatment for patients with COVID-19 https://t.co/iJyzg7CsyI
— Peter Horby (@PeterHorby) February 10, 2021
Between July and December 2020, dexamethasone is estimated to have saved 12,000 (4,250 - 27,000) lives in the UK and 650,000 (240,000 - 1,400,000) globally. pic.twitter.com/LMN3mwUj40
Dexamethasone is a globally accessible and highly cost effective treatment for hospitalised COVID-19.
— Peter Horby (@PeterHorby) February 10, 2021
Clinical trials can be done during health emergencies, change practices and save lives.
Updated
Gains from Eat Out to Help Out 'may have come at cost of more infections', says study
The Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE has today published a report (pdf) on the effectiveness of last summer’s Eat Out to Help Out (EOTHO) scheme. The impact was limited, the report suggests. Nicolás González-Pampillón, a co-author of the report, said in a news release:
Industries that rely heavily on footfall and social interactions were directly and severely affected by lockdown. While we find that the EOTHO programme increased visits to food establishments, this effect was concentrated on days when the discount was available – Mondays to Wednesdays in August. It failed to encourage people to go out for other purposes or to eat out after the discount ended.
The report also says the scheme may have helped to spread Covid. It says:
Over 160 million meals were claimed by the end of September 2020, with government spending £849 million on the policy. Data limitations as well as the interaction between different policies complicate any cost-benefit calculation of the programme. On top of that, there is evidence indicating the increase in footfall due to EOTHO had an adverse effect on new Covid-19 cases. Thus, any economic gains from the scheme may have come at the cost of more infections. Further research – using administrative data– is needed to assess the overall cost-effectiveness of EOTHO.
Van-Tam urges 'caution' about leaked report about performance of single dose of Pfizer vaccine
The Sun has splashed today on a story saying that unpublished data shows that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine gives people two thirds protection. Nick McDermott writes:
The dose reduced the symptomatic infection risk by 65 per cent in younger adults, and 64 per cent in over-80s.
Experts found Brits given two shots of the jab saw protection rise to between 79 and 84 per cent, depending on age.
Although lower than the 95 per cent efficacy shown in clinical trials, the figures remain hugely encouraging.
The story quotes a “government source” saying:
One of the key findings is the Pfizer vaccine is having just as big an impact in over-80s as in under-65s. The only difference is that protection starts after 15 days in younger age groups, but it takes three weeks for it to work in older people.
And the story also claims “early data also shows the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab — which was rolled out a month after Pfizer — offers similar levels of protection across all age groups”.
This morning Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, was asked about this story in a Q&A on BBC News. He said that within a week or two, or perhaps earlier, the government should have reliable data about how the vaccines are performing. But he said he would not comment on leaked information, and he hinted that he thought the Sun’s write-up might be too simplistic. He said:
I would offer a lot of caution about leaked information, about understanding it and interpreting it properly, and potentially that it’s preliminary. So I won’t comment further on that report in the Sun.
THE SUN: Every 1’s a winner #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/PmZ1F3WKiX
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) February 9, 2021
Shapps suggests UK would back international vaccine passport scheme for travel
And here are some further lines from the Grant Shapps morning interview round.
- Shapps, the transport secretary, confirmed that the government was interested in facilitating a vaccine passport scheme for international travellers. He said:
I imagine that in the future there will be an international system where countries will want to know that you have been potentially vaccinated or potentially had tests taken before flying. I was speaking to my Singaporean counterpart, I was speaking to my US counterpart this week, and we’ll have discussions about those things to have an internationally recognised system.
In the past Downing Street has said the government is not planning vaccine or immunity passports. But Shapps said people were confusing a document for international travel saying someone had been vaccinated with a domestic document saying the same that could be used to qualify for access to jobs, venues or services. Shapps said domestic passports of this kind were “not on the cards”.
Last night Alexandre de Juniac from the international airline trade body IATA told the BBC’s Newscast podcast that it had been talking to the British government about a vaccine passport scheme for travellers. “The UK authorities are among those with whom we have the closest link on this element,” he said.
- Shapps suggested that Britons returning to the UK worried that they could not afford the new hotel quarantine charges should contact the British embassy for help. Asked about a woman who had to travel to Portugal because of the death of her father and who now faced a bill, he said:
If she doesn’t come back before Monday, that is right.
You do get these cases, which we have seen throughout the whole of the coronavirus, where sadly families throughout the UK have been impacted by this and sometimes haven’t been able to say goodbye to loved ones.
If there are harsher cases, people should of course contact the embassies and posts in various different countries.
- He implied that the government ruled out hotel quarantine for all arrivals because that was impractical. Asked why Portugal was covered by the scheme but not Spain, he replied: “We also need to match it with the practicalities of putting a system in place.”
- He said the government expected fewer than 1,000 people a day to arrive in the UK from “red list” countries. Travel was down 95% on normal levels, he said.
Updated
In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, revealed that his 89-year-old father has been on a coronavirus ward for “quite some time” after contracting the virus in hospital.
He said that his father originally went into hospital for another reason “but unfortunately he did pick it up and we’re all very worried”.
Paying tribute to the hospital staff, Shapps said:
The work they do is incredible, I speak to them every single day, of course, we have not been able to visit my dad for two months now.
'Coronavirus that gets everybody, got my Dad. We're all very worried.'@grantshapps talks to @piersmorgan and @susannareid100 about his dad who is currently on a Covid ward in hospital.
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) February 10, 2021
He praises the NHS for the way they are working and caring for patients, including his dad. pic.twitter.com/8sGlqs8EKV
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have had their first Covid-19 vaccinations, Clarence House has announced. Charles is 72 and Camilla is 73, meaning they are both in the fourth priority cohort for vaccination. In most areas the vaccine programme is now focusing on people in groups three and four.
Shapps defends maximum 10 year jail sentence plan for lying about 'red list' visits
As my colleague Matthew Weaver reports, two former Conservative attorneys general - Dominic Grieve and Sir Geoffrey Cox - are among the many people who have said that the maximum jail sentence of up to 10 years announced by the government yesterday for anyone who lies on arrival about visiting a “red list” country is disproportionate.
But in interviews this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, defended the plan. He told the Today programme:
Since the upshot of bringing a mutation that we weren’t able to deal with [into the UK] ... if that did happen, then you of course would be ultimately responsible, potentially, for impacting on a lot of people’s lives, or indeed losing a lot of people’s lives. So I think it is important to have very stiff penalties in place, fines of up to £10,000 and potentially prison sentences. I think you would have to have deliberately gone out of your way to lie about it in order to end up anywhere near that.
In another interview Shapps said 10 years was a maximum and that “it’s not necessarily how long somebody would go to prison for”.
Shapps says people should not book summer holidays now, either abroad or in Britain
Good morning. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, caused a row with the travel industry in April last year when he said people should not book a summer holiday and now he has done it again. In an interview on the Today programme he said that, “on the shrinking chance” that anyone was thinking about a summer holiday, he would advise them not to book anything now - not just abroad, but domestically too.
Given that dreaming about a holiday is one of the things people are most likely to be doing in lockdown, it was an odd form of words. Here is the quote in full.
First of all, I should say, people shouldn’t be booking holidays right now, not domestically or internationally ...
On the shrinking chance that there is anybody listening to this interview at this stage, and thinking of booking a holiday under the current circumstances ... and until we know the route out of lockdown, which we can’t know until we have more data, more information on vaccines as well, please don’t go ahead and book holidays for something which, at this stage, is illegal to actually go and do - whether it’s here or abroad.
And, further down the line, I simply don’t know the answer to the question of where we’ll be up to this summer; it’s too early to be able to give you that information. You would want to wait until that’s clear before booking anything. So the best advice to people is do nothing at this stage.
Shapps said that Boris Johnson would be saying more about the easing of restrictions when he publishes his roadmap out of lockdown later this month. But he said he did not know whether the plan would include guidance on holidays.
I will post more from his interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.
12.15pm: Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of NHS Wales, speaks at a Welsh government coronavirus press conference.
12.30pm: Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, makes a statement to MPs about cladding. As Jessica Elgot reports, he will announce billions of pounds in extra support to address the cladding crisis that has left homeowners bankrupt and distraught.
12.30pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions in the Scottish parliament.
1.30pm: Downing Street is expected to hold its daily lobby briefing.
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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