Early evening summary
- More than 16,000 new confirmed Covid cases were reported in the UK on Wednesday, the highest daily figure since early February, official data has shown, casting even more doubt on the chances of reopening measures coming any earlier than 19 July. But Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation for Public Health England, told today’s Downing Street press conference that the latest figure for new cases was particularly high because of surge testing in Scotland. (See 5.20pm.)
- Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, has welcomed the news that 60% of adults in the UK have now had two doses of vaccine. (See 3.21pm.) Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, he also said he was confident that 66% of adults would have had two jabs by 19 July.
- Ramsay has played down concerns about the Delta Plus variant. Speaking at the press conference, she said just 41 cases have been found in this country. Enhanced testing and and enhanced follow-ups were being deployed, she said. She went on: “So I think we’re on top of the situation and I think we continue to be vigilant”. At PMQs earlier, when Boris Johnson was asked a question about the Delta Plus variant, he said: “All the advice we have at present is that the vaccines are effective against all the variants that we can currently see.”
- Angela Merkel has said travellers from the UK should be quarantined wherever they arrive in the EU, as the union’s agency for disease control forecast that the Delta variant of Covid will account for 90% of cases in member states by the end of August.
That’s all from me for today. But our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.
Updated
This is from Alastair McLellan, editor of the Health Service Journal.
NEW: Growth in Covid hospitalisation slowing sharply now. Actually falling in London [calculated on a week on week basis]
— Alastair McLellan (@HSJEditor) June 23, 2021
The Office for Students, the higher education regulator for England, has announced a review of “inclusive” assessment at universities that overlooks spelling and grammar in marking student work.
The move follows controversy around a small number of universities that have adopted policies allowing markers to ignore errors in writing unless they are “central to the assessment criteria”.
Susan Lapworth, the OfS’s director of regulation, said:
We have been clear that standards should not be reduced for particular groups of students and it is patronising to expect less from some students under the guise of supporting them. Effective academic writing requires good spelling, punctuation and grammar from all.
The regulator said its review would identify “future regulatory concerns as well as areas of good practice”.
The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. Heather Stewart and Gaby Hinsliff look at the latest news out of Westminster. Plus: as we mark the fifth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, has it transformed British politics forever? Laura Parker, James Starkie and Anand Menon look back. If you listen carefully you’ll hear a Janet Jackson lyric quoted to discuss Brexit ...
Scotland’s health secretary Humza Yousaf has insisted that the county’s nurses “are the best paid in the UK” as the Royal College of Nursing in Scotland lodged a formal trade dispute for the first time in the union’s history.
Describing the RCN’s action as “unprecedented”, Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said:
This is about so much more than pay. Nursing staff have been warning for years that the unsustainable vacancy levels, increasing workload demands, and the risk that this poses to patient care and safety, need to be addressed.
Now nursing staff were exhausted after months of working on the COVID frontline. Many are considering leaving the profession, making staff shortages worse.
But Yousaf insisted that his government had an “exceptional record” on pay; in May it confirmed a NHS pay deal that will see most workers receive a 4% rise, with an additional £500 thank you payment. He said the government was committed to investing in its workforce, including supporting their mental health.
The RCN has been calling for a 12.5% pay increase in recognition of the urgent need to fill vacancies as well as the complexity and responsibility of the job.
Photograph: WPA/Getty Images
Zahawi ends by saying the “Dunkirk Spirit” is playing a role in ensuring people are coming together and getting the vaccine.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Q: One in six people in Pakistani or Bangladeshi communities is still not getting the jab. Why are you failing to reach these people?
Zahawi says work is being done to reach these communities.
He says they are learning from what works. In Haringey in London officials have been helping people book appointments. In other places walk-in centres and advertising is being used.
Kanani says media voices can play an important role too.
Q: In the Pakistani community messages are being spread saying vaccines could kill you, or stop you having a child. What is being done to combat this misinformation?
Zahawi says claims like this are completely untrue. He says the system used to check the safety of vaccines is very thorough.
A unit in the Cabinet Office is looking at disinformation, and working with the social networks to get this removed as quickly as possible.
The important thing is to spread true information, he says.
And he says through the G7 the UK is working to get true information circulated.
Q: Could the Delta Plus variant derail the reopening next month?
Zahawi says viruses always continue to mutate.
The vaccines being deployed now are “incredibly effective” against the Delta variant after two doses.
And he says the UK has one of the largest genomic sequencing capacities in the world. That is why the UK picks up these variants early, he says.
Ramsay says we have only seen 41 cases of the Delta Plus variant. Enhanced testing is being done, she says. She says she thinks they are on top of this.
Q: Why not introduce vaccine passports? Wouldn’t that encourage people to get vaccinated?
Zahawi says people can either use the app, or get a letter, if they need to show they have been vaccinated for travel.
Q: Should the government websites be updated to reflect different symptoms for the Delta variant [said to be headaches, a runny nose and a sore throat, rather than a persistent cough, loss of smell or a temperature]?
Ramsay says she is not convinced the symptoms are that different. Symptoms like a headache or runny nose are very common anyway, she says.
She also says it is important to test people without symptoms.
Q: The latest data shows black people are less likely to have had a vaccine. There is still some reluctance there. Is it time for a new approach?
Zahawi says if you look at the uptake for phase one, black and Afro-Caribbean communities were behind. But it has improved since then.
He says since April vaccine uptake in the white community has gone up by 3%. But in the black and Afro-Caribbean community is up by 7%. And in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi community it is up by 10%.
Q: Why are vaccination centres closing?
Zahawi says it is decided locally whether national vaccination sites, or GPs, or pharmacies, should administer most of the vaccines.
Sometimes vaccines are being moved around the system. That can mean vaccination centres being stood down in favour of other sites.
Q: Most people going into hospital now are unvaccinated. Is that because they refused the vaccine, or had not been offered one yet?
Zahawi says more than 60% of hospitalisations for the Delta variant are for people who have not been vaccinated.
He says if 85% of all adults are double vaccinated, and the vaccines are 85% effective, then the protection level is 72%. That means 28% of the population would still remain unprotected.
He says by 19 July he wants to have 66% of the adult population double-vaccinated.
Dr Nikki Kanani says the NHS has made good progress in tackling vaccine hesitancy.
She urges people to book an appointment if they have not done so already.
Ramsay says today’s figure for new cases is very high. (See 4.25pm.) That is largely explained by surge testing in Scotland, she says.
She presents the next slide, showing hospitalisations. That suggests the link between cases and hospitalisations is being broken, she says.
And she says death figures are so low you can barely see the increase on the graph.
Updated
Dr Mary Ramsay is playing the Chris Whitty role today, and introducing the slides.
She says vaccines protect against the Delta variant, particularly against hospitalisations.
And she says if people have missed appointments for other vaccines, they should get those too.
She starts with the slide for cases.
Zahawi says the latest ONS figures show that vaccine hesitancy has halved among black and Asian people since February.
In London first doses are behind the rest of the country. But the government will help address this with a London summit later this week which will explore what more can be done.
He says the country is getting “a little bit safer” every day.
Zahawi says the UK has one of the highest rates of vaccine take-ups in the world.
The government has gone out to address people’s concerns, and explain why vaccines are safe, he says.
Zahawi says the time until 19 July will be used to give the NHS more time to get people vaccinated.
Two weeks ago there were two million people in England who had had one dose but not two.
Now that number is down to 900,000.
So the pause until the final easing of restrictions will save lives, he says.
Zahawi says almost half of all 25 to 29-year-olds in England have had a first dose.
The vaccination programme has already saved more than 14,000 lives.
And it has presented more than 44,000 hospitalisations, he says.
He shows a slide showing the impact the vaccine programme has had on the profile of people going to hospital.
Nadhim Zahawi starts by saying the government has come a long way. But it wants to get even more people vaccinated.
He says 82% of adults have had a first dose, and 60% have had a second dose.
Any adult in the UK can now book a first dose.
At one point six appointments were being booked every second.
Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi's press conference
Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, is about to hold a press conference.
He will be at Downing Street with Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation for Public Health England, and Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director for primary care for NHS England.
UK records 16,135 new coronavirus cases - highest total for more than 4 months - and 19 more deaths
The UK has recorded 16,135 new coronavirus cases, according to the latest update to the government’s dashboard. That is the highest daily total for recorded cases since 6 February (18,262), four and a half months ago. The total number of cases over the past week is up 43.9% on the total for the previous week.
And there have been 19 further deaths. The total number of deaths over the past week is up 53% on the total for the previous week.
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Defence secretary says he will consider proposal for royal yacht replacement to double up as frigate
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has told MPs that he will consider a proposal to ensure the £200m ship being built as a replacement for the royal yacht could double up as a naval frigate.
He has been giving evidence to the Commons defence committee, and Tobias Ellwood, the committee chair, expressed scepticism about the government’s plan for the MoD to fund the yacht so it can be used to help the UK drum up trade. Echoing a comment he has already made on Twitter, Ellwood suggested the government should use a repurposed Type 23 frigate for this task.
New ‘TRADE SHIP’
— Tobias Ellwood MP (@Tobias_Ellwood) June 21, 2021
If the MOD is to pay then it would be more efficient to utilise a modular Type 32 for this function (as we’ve done with the A330 Voyager).
Any other vessel would require a war ship escort and that’s an extra burden our overstretched surface fleet cannot afford. https://t.co/HEbWA5Nxwq
In response, Wallace said he would be happy to look at the idea. He went on:
And you’re on the right track in so far as all of these ships are platforms that should be flexible. We should be designing in flexibility, where you can plug and play in a different fit, whether it’s an amphibious support guard ship or whether it was an anti-air ship or whether it was an escort ship or whatever it is. The smartness of our modern weapon systems makes the platforms potentially more generic.
Ellwood also argued that another problem was that the new ship would require a second naval vessel to protect it. Wallace said the royal yacht only had a naval vessel guarding in when a member of the royal family was on board.
Wallace confirmed that his department would pay for the new ship.
And he insisted that it was not a new royal yacht. He said it was being called the national flagship for now, but that this did not make it the flagship of the British fleet, which is a different ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth. When the national flagship has a name, it will be called that, he said.
Describing the role it would play, Wallace said it would be a bridge between hard power and soft power. Responding to a question from Martin Docherty-Hughes (SNP), Wallace said:
It is going to be that bridge that shows Britain can do hard, but it also can do defence diplomacy, it can do national security, it can do securing economic security and it can showcase the United Kingdom around the world. The Scottish government has Scotland House in Brussels.
Wallace said the MoD was in charge of the project because, unlike other government departments, it was experienced at building ships.
Asked to defend the cost, he said it would cost less than 0.1% of the defence budget. He also said it would be a good training vessel for the Royal Navy.
Updated
More than 60% of UK adults have now had two doses of vaccine, DHSC says
More than 60% of UK adults have now had two doses of a vaccine, the Department of Health and Social Care has said. In a press notice it said:
More than three in five adults in the UK have received a second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, securing the fullest possible protection, as the vaccination programme continues at unprecedented pace and scale.
With 75,188,795 doses administered in total, 43,448,680 people across the UK have now been vaccinated with a first dose (82.5%), while 31,740,115 people have had both doses (60.3%).
Updated
Here is a full summary of the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- Downing Street condemned an anti-vaccine campaigner who filmed himself abusing Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, in the street. Asked about the incident, the prime minister’s spokesman said:
People working to fight the pandemic and save lives, which is what Prof Van-Tam is doing every single day, should never face that kind of appalling behaviour for doing their job. The right to free speech is fundamental to our democracy, but violence, threats or intimidation are absolutely never acceptable.
- The spokesman said the government is monitoring the spread of the Delta Plus variant. He said 41 cases of the variant have been identified in the UK.
- The spokesman dismissed reports that a Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Defender, was subject to warning shots fired by Russia in the Black Sea. The claim was made by the Russian defence ministry. But the PM’s spokesman said:
It’s incorrect to say either that it was fired upon or that the ship was in Russian waters. HMS Defender was taking the most direct and internationally recognised route between Ukraine and Georgia.
As you know, the UK does not recognise Russia’s claim to Crimea and we continue to uphold the international consensus that Russia’s annexation of Crimea is illegal.
But the spokesman said the UK and other countries had been warned that Russia was undertaking a “gunnery exercise” near to where HMS Defender was sailing.
- The spokesman said the UK and the EU are still discussing the UK’s request to extend the grace period for chilled meats in place under the Northern Ireland protocol. It is due to lapse at the end of this month, which would stop the export of sausages and other chilled meats from Britain to Northern Ireland. The UK has asked to extend the grace period until September.
- The spokesman said it was wrong to claim that the Department for Education (DfE) had asked anyone to sing songs for One Britain One Nation day (OBON). Asked whether it was sensible for the department to encourage schoolchildren to sing the OBON patriotic song on Friday, the spokesman said:
The prime minister supports schools promoting fundamental British values, including tolerance and respect, and we endorse One Britain One Nation’s aims to help children learn about equality, kindness, pride, but I will point out the department has not asked people to sing songs or promoting any specific materials for One Britain One Nation day.
The question was prompted by the DfE’s decision to post this on Twitter on Monday.
We're encouraging schools across the UK to celebrate One Britain One Nation Day on 25 June, when children can learn about our shared values of tolerance, kindness, pride and respect.#OBONDAY21 @1Britain1Nation
— Department for Education (@educationgovuk) June 21, 2021
For more information:https://t.co/y7PQblUeDN
The tweet was widely mocked.
- No 10 defended Boris Johnson uses of the word “jabber” to dismiss the questions Sir Keir Starmer asked him at PMQs today. (See 2.37pm.)
Updated
Updated
No 10 refuses to apologise for PM's 'jabber' quip about Starmer's questions about rape prosecutions
Downing Street has defended Boris Johnson uses of the word “jabber” to dismiss the questions Sir Keir Starmer asked him at PMQs today. (See 12.49pm.) At the lobby briefing, asked about the remark, the prime minister’s press secretary said:
I think that exact phrase was used at the end of the exchange and I think it was a broader point about the fact that Labour often do not follow up their words with actions - similar to wanting to talk about tougher sentences but not actually voting for the bill that would deliver that.
The press secretary rejected the suggestion that the word showed Johnson did not take sexual violence seriously. “As you can see from what he set out, that is certainly not his view and he spent the whole exchange talking about the action we are taking,” she said.
She also said Johnson would not be withdrawing the comment.
Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic violence, used a point of order in the Commons a few minutes ago to say that Boris Johnson should apologise for what he said earlier about Sir Keir Starmer’s questions about rape convictions. She said:
I wanted to ask, Madam Deputy Speaker, if you could enable me to seek an apology from the prime minister ... for referring at [PMQs] questions about the pitiful rape conviction rates in our country as jabber.
The prime minister, when questioned about the falling rape conviction rate, asserted that this was merely “jabber” and not something that sees, for every 60 people who come forward to say that they have been raped, one charge. And that doesn’t even cover convictions ...
What I would like to seek today is an apology from the person who is meant to keep our streets safe. And currently, if you are a woman or a girl in this country, they are failing.
Eleanor Laing, the deputy Speaker, said she was not about to help. She said Johnson offered one interpretation of what happened, and Phillips offered another. She said it was the function of the Commons to allow different views to be expressed in this way. But she also said MPs should avoid giving offence and that, as Erskine May says, “good temper and moderation” should be the characteristics of parliamentary language.
The number of fatalities in Scotland linked to Covid-19 has doubled over the past week, up from six recorded deaths in the second week of June up to 13 in the seven days ending 20 June.
National Records of Scotland, the population statistics agency, said there were four deaths registered in Glasgow last week where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate, and other fatalities spread across mainland Scotland.
The data follows a marked increase in Covid-19 infections in Scotland linked to the highly infectious and more transmissible Delta variant, which has led the Scottish government to delay the lifting of travel and distancing regulations.
Scotland’s averaged-out daily infection rate jumped by 40% in a week, Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs yesterday, with 2,167 cases recorded yesterday against 1,250 on Monday.
The seven-day positivity rate per 100,000 has hit 295 in Dundee, 242 in Edinburgh, 226 in East Ayrshire and 176 in Glasgow. There were 171 people in hospital on Tuesday, with 18 in intensive care, but those levels are much lower as a proportion of overall cases seen in previous surges.
Updated
Most people did not change their lifestyles after being vaccinated, even as the vaccination programme expanded to cover younger age groups, according to an ONS survey on how our behaviours have changed between the two lockdowns.
Non-vaccinated people, more likely to be younger and employed in jobs outside healthcare, spent marginally more time socialising, working and travelling and less time sleeping in the second lockdown than the first, than those who received a vaccine.
The research found that the gender gap in unpaid work was smaller than it was at the start of the pandemic but was still substantial, with women spending almost an hour more time per day than men on housework during the second lockdown - totalling three hours on average per day.
The big difference in behaviours between unvaccinated and vaccinated over the 12-month period was that those who had not received a vaccine worked roughly an extra hour per day, whereas there was virtually no change for the vaccinated group. Individuals without a vaccine worked more regularly, and for longer on a working day, compared with a year ago.
“These differences in working times are likely explained by the different jobs both groups worked in. Healthcare professionals, who were extremely busy in the first lockdown, had predominantly received at least one vaccine dose, whereas those without a vaccine were much more likely to include professions like teachers, who could not work as much during the first lockdown,” the report found.
The report also found we reduced our watching of TV or other video entertainment but still watched an average of 2 hours, 45 minutes a day during the second lockdown.
Updated
PMQs - Snap verdict
In his Q&A for his Substack subscribers on Monday Dominic Cummings, the PM’s former chief adviser, had some advice for Labour as to what it should be doing to bring down Boris Johnson (an objective Cummings and Sir Keir Starmer now share). It was simple, Cummings implied: “Kick Tories up and down the street on violent crime.” Not for the first time on a matter of political strategy, Cummings was probably right.
Traditionally law and order is seen as a Tory issue, and as long as the issue is defined in authoritarian terms (tougher sentences), that is how it will usually play out. The Labour party as a whole will always be queasy about addressing crime by locking up offenders for ever longer periods, not least because in many respects that does not work. But, as Tony Blair demonstrated in 1997, crime can be a Labour issue too (“tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”), and Starmer demonstrated that very well today by focusing on the rape prosecutions and convictions, not sentencing.
Given that there is currently an enormous backlog of cases waiting to be heard by the courts (more than 50,000 in the queue for a crown court hearing), there is a wider failure here that Labour could exploit. And it is an issue on which Labour could play to both sides. If you want to see criminals locked up, then long waits for trials are clearly unacceptable. But if you believe the primary role of the criminal justice system is to clear the innocent, the status quo is clearly unacceptable too.
Starmer just focused on the problems identified by the rape review in his questions today and he quite easily had Johnson floundering. It was one of Starmer’s clearest wins for a while.
As a former DPP, Starmer was of course on home territory. But he also started with a very short question (normally the best sort) and he focused relentlessly on the question as to why prosecutions and convictions for rape are so low. Johnson had half an answer - he cited the difficulty obtaining evidence, and how the increasing importance of mobile phone messages has made the process more complicated - but he did seem to know enough to be able to handle repeated questioning on this point, and soon he was veering off into weak irrelevancies. Citing the sentence-toughening measures in the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill that Labour did not vote for was only half effective, because Starmer was able to resurrect the point that it does more to protect statues than women. And trying to claim that recruiting more women police officers would help seemed particularly lame.
A more emotionally astute PM than Johnson would have apologised profusely from the start. Johnson would have blunted much of what Starmer had to say if he had done this, but apologising has never been one of his strengths.
And Johnson ended with a silly soundbite. Jess Phillips (the Labour politician who also crafted the “protecting statues not women” line) has now dismissed that forcefully. (See 12.49pm.)
For the record, this is what the rape review report (pdf) said in its summary about why so few rape complaints reach court.
Our research found that the reasons for the decline in cases reaching court are complex and wide-ranging, including an increase in personal digital data being requested, delays in investigative processes, strained relationships between different parts of the criminal justice system, a lack of specialist resources and inconsistent support to victims.
Updated
Labour accuses Johnson of trivialising sexual violence with 'jabber' quip
At the end of his exchanges with Sir Keir Starmer, in a familiar, pre-cooked soundbite for TV, Boris Johnson said that while Labour were engaging in “jabber”, the government was delivering jabs. The FT’s Jim Pickard has the full quip here.
Boris Johnson: “They jabber, we jab. They dither, we deliver. They vacillate, we vaccinate.” #pmqs
— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) June 23, 2021
Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for domestic violence, has condemned Johnson for this remark, accusing him of trivialising sexual violence. She said:
For the prime minister to describe questions about rape convictions as ‘jabber’ is disgraceful. But this is the man who once said investigating child sexual abuse was ‘spaffing money up the wall’ - he simply doesn’t care about tackling sexual violence. He should apologise for his comments and his government’s appalling record.
Johnson says he does not want to allow his planning reforms to be misrepresented. He says it is intended to extend home ownership, and to allow levelling up.
And that’s it. PMQs is over.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Lab) asks about the Delta Plus variant, and asks if the PM will support a vaccine intellectual property waiver. The G7’s efforts were negligible, she claims.
Johnson says he does not accept Ribeiro-Addy’s point about the G7. And she says the scientists say the current vaccines are effective against all variants.
Updated
Esther McVey (Con) urges the PM to ditch HS2 and invest in high-speed broadband instead.
Johnson says the government is rolling out gigabit broadband. But he does not agree with McVey on HS2.
Updated
Janet Daby (Lab) says yesterday was Windrush day. It was a reminder of the “appalling failure” of the government’s compensation scheme. Does the PM accept this scheme must be handed over to an independent body?
Johnson says he accepts the injustice done, and he renews the apologies already offered. He says he hopes in time the name Windrush will be a positive name, associated with the amazing contribution of that generation. He says he hopes Windrush will be seen as the UK’s Mayflower.
Andrew Mitchell (Con) asks the PM if he accepts that there must be a meaningful vote on the decision to cut the aid budget, as the Speaker demanded.
Johnson says there will be an estimates day debate on overseas aid. But he says he does not accept Mitchell’s account of how calamitous the aid cuts will be.
Owen Thompson (SNP) asks what the government is planning that requires it to neuter the Electoral Commission.
Absolutely nothing, Johnson replies.
James Davies (Con) asks about poor broadband in his constituency.
Johnson says BT has agreed to extend its service in the area.
Philippa Whitford (SNP) says the PM claimed during the referendum there would be no change to the rights of EU citizens after Brexit. Will he extend the deadline for the EU settlement scheme.
Johnson says the scheme has produced 5.6m applications already. He says they were told only 3m EU citizens were living in the UK.
John Nicolson (SNP) condemns the trade deal with Australia, and says he hopes Johnson is coming to Scotland soon, because every visit he makes is “toxic” for the unionist cause.
Johnson says he can’t wait to return to Scotland. And he says Nicolson should have more faith in Scottish farmers.
Updated
Johnson says he was 'shocked' to learn Amazon destroying unsold laptops
Julie Elliott (Lab) says Amazon was throwing brand new equipment into landfill when parents were searching for laptops to help children learn at home. Will the PM condemn this?
Johnson says he was “shocked and amazed” by this. He says all MPs will think this is “bizarre and unacceptable”. He says he is sure Amazon will rectify this.
Steve Double (Con) says the housing crisis in Cornwall is getting worse. Will the planning reforms help local people buy homes?
Johnson says this point has been raised with him repeatedly. He wants to ensure local homes are built for local people.
Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says at the Chesham and Amersham byelection he spoke to carers who felt the PM was not interested in them. When will he stop taking working family carers for granted?
Johnson says he salutes carers. The government has supported carers, and it putting unprecedented sums into social care. But no words could express the value of what carers do.
Updated
Mark Pawsey (Con) asks if the PM will support plans for a gigafactory at Coventry airport.
Johnson says he wants to ensure that Coventry is in the lead for building new electric vehicles.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, asks about the Herald story (see 12.04pm) saying Covid funds were used to carry out polling on Scottish independence. Did the government use this fund for political campaigning?
Johnson says he is not aware of this contract.
Blackford says Johnson has demonstrated his does not have a clue. The answer is yes. The Tories cannot be trusted, he says. He says these emergency contracts were meant to be used for things like PPE. But this emergency contract was used to research attitudes to the union. He says this was political campaigning. He calls for an inquiry into the misuse of public funds.
Johnson says he cannot think of a better use of public funds than ensuring the UK fights Covid together.
Updated
Starmer seems unimpressed by Johnson’s reply, saying you can always tell when Johnson is on weak ground. He says the justice secretary has apologised. Will Johnson?
Johnson says of course he is sorry for what people have experienced. He says the government is addressing that. The government wants to get the courts moving, and the best way to do that is to get the country moving. He says Labour vacillates, while the government vaccinates.
Starmer says he spent five years as head of the CPS prosecuting rapists. He says the government cut the CPS and closed half the courts, and it cannot pretend a small budget increase will make a difference. He says the rape review plans are too timid.
Johnson says Starmer got his party to vote against tougher sentences for serious sexual offences. That is weak.
Updated
Starmer says that is an “appalling answer”. He says there is nothing in the bill to improve conviction rates. Does the PM agree that cuts to the criminal justice system have had an impact?
No, says Johnson. He says the CPS has hired an extra 200 people. He says the problem is do with evidential issues. He says it would be good for Labour to support what the government is doing.
Starmer says Labour voted against the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill because it does more to protect statues than women. The main problem is that 98% of reported cases don’t go to court. What part of the bill would have addressed that?
Johnson quotes a part of the bill that would stop early release for rapists. It is important to say serious sexual violence not be tolerated, he says.
He says 40% of new police recruits are female. That will help too, he claims.
Starmer says the record is appalling. It is a long-term trend, not related to Covid. And it is not because fewer rapes are being reported. So why is this happening?
Johnson says there are evidential problems, particularly with recovering evidence from phones. He says the government is addressing these issues.
Sir Keir Starmer asks why under this government rape prosecutions and convictions are at a record low.
Johnson says prosecutions and convictions were too low when he became PM. That is why he commissioned the rape review. He quotes figures for the amount invested in this area. He says he is addressing the “misery” of victims having to hand over their phones. And Labour should back tougher sentences, he says.
John Stevenson (Con) asks if the PM supports a plan to make solar panels compulsory for all new-build homes.
Johnson says this is an interesting idea. He will look at it. But some new homes do not have enough space on the roof.
Boris Johnson says today marks five years since the UK voted to leave the EU. He reads a short statement, making some of the points made in the statement issued overnight. (See 9.34am.) He says any EU residents who have not yet applied for the EU settlement scheme should do so.
Updated
PMQs is starting now.
In Scottish questions in the Commons Mhairi Black (SNP) has just asked Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, about this Herald story.
It is indeed scandalous that Tory ministers used emergency COVID-19 contracts for constitutional campaigning during the pandemic. It’s also a salutary reminder of Tory hypocrisy & the need for careful preparations for #independence. https://t.co/EB4neLQ5Rs
— Joanna Cherry QC (@joannaccherry) June 23, 2021
Jack said he had spoken to the the Cabinet Office about this and it told him that it did not commission political polling.
In evidence to the Commons education committee this morning, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, complained that too many schools are still closing early. This is from the Mail’s Jack Maidment.
Most striking thing from Gavin Williamson's appearance @CommonsEd is him saying some schools 'currently close far too early'.
— Jack Maidment (@jrmaidment) June 23, 2021
He said he is 'very concerned' some schools send pupils home at 2.45pm/3pm and he hinted at a crackdown as he said 'I don’t want to see that continue'.
Updated
In her Telegraph article (paywall) Priti Patel, the home secretary, confirmed that the deadline for EU citizens resident in the UK who want to apply to stay through the EU settlement scheme is 30 June - a week today. But she said people with “reasonable grounds for missing the deadline” would still be able to apply.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said today the deadline should be extended. In a statement she said:
Five years ago the people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU but today we find ourselves subject to a damaging, hard Brexit.
This will have been a particularly difficult time for EU citizens who have made Scotland their home but who have been forced by the UK government to apply to stay here.
They have friends, families, careers and communities that are dear to them and that they are dear to. I can barely begin to imagine the anxiety and stress they have suffered – indeed many continue to suffer – as they wait to be told whether or not their right to all of that will be removed.
The UK government’s refusal to listen to our call to extend the deadline is unacceptable and means all EU citizens must urgently apply for settled status if they have not already done so.
Patel claims some EU countries not doing enough to protect rights of Britons living on continent after Brexit
Priti Patel, the home secretary, has accused some EU countries of not doing enough to respect the rights of Britons living on the continent. In an article in the Daily Telegraph (paywall) to mark the fifth anniversary of the Brexit vote, she said:
The UK’s approach is very generous. Our EU settlement scheme has been open for more than two years. Many EU countries have an application window of 12 months or less; France’s is currently open for less than nine months.
We are aware that some UK nationals in the EU have faced disruption on boarding and entry to the EU; and there have been a number of reported instances of UK nationals in the EU being asked for residence documents they do not need to hold, being prevented from accessing benefits and services, and having trouble with their right to work.
It is only right that the EU uphold their obligations on citizens’ rights, just as the UK has done for EU citizens in the UK.
Photograph: Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock
Dame Vera Baird QC, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, told the Commons home affairs committee this morning that the government’s recently-published rape review was “underwhelming” but also a “watershed” moment. She explained:
There is a very large amount of kicking the can down the road, having more pilots, and causing delay, in there.
Nonetheless, this is a watershed. As long as the strength of that [government] apology ... survives, and is publicly scrutinised, I hope that we can really bring a change and push from the outside to improve some of the weaker recommendations in the rape review and drive the government further.
Baird also described the current treatment of victims as “appalling”.
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Malta and the Balearic Islands could be included in an update to the government’s green list for foreign travel, which is otherwise expected to be lean for holidaymakers hoping for a getaway, according a report in today’s Times (paywall).
As PA Media reports, the paper says the Mediterranean islands are among a “handful” of places being considered for quarantine-free trips ahead of the update to the lists under the traffic light system tomorrow. The weekly rate of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people on Malta is just 1.6, compared with 108.4 in the UK, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
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Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, will hold a press conference at Downing Street at 5pm, No 10 has said.
Lewis says he is 'optimistic and confident' UK can get changes to NI protocol as it's 'not sustainable'
Here is the full quote from Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, speaking about the Northern Ireland protocol at the start of his evidence to the Northern Ireland affairs committee this morning. He said:
We are very clear that the current position of the protocol is not sustainable, it is causing issues for businesses and consumers and citizens in Northern Ireland and we need to rectify that. We need to ensure that that gets corrected.
The prime minister has been very clear he is taking nothing off the table. And we do want to get that done.
I’m optimistic and confident we will get that done in the period ahead ...
Ultimately for us there is a very core point about the protocol, which is about protecting and respecting the UK’s internal market and not disrupting everyday lives of people in communities.
We want to get that rectified and we are determined to do so, so I think it is reasonable for anybody to take the view that we have said that there will be changes because there has to be, the current status quo is not sustainable ...
At the moment it’s very questionable whether it’s going to be sustainable in its current format and I think that’s why it’s in everybody’s interests to see it rectified.
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Back in the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, says it is not just people in the unionist community who want to see changes to the Northern Ireland protocol. He says almost all business organisations he has consulted have problems with the way it is working now. And he says businesses with a different constitutional view to his (ie, nationalist-leaning firms) are also say the operation of the protocol is affecting them, he says.
UK likely to see 'significant flu epidemic' this winter, says Prof Ferguson
In his interview on the Today programme Prof Neil Ferguson said he expected a “significant flu epidemic” this winter. Echoing comments made by Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, Ferguson said:
Certainly seasonal influenza is likely to be a significant issue coming into the autumn and winter because all the measures we adopted against Covid around the world drove flu to very low levels and as you say, nobody got infected basically with flu last year and so immunity has dropped a little.
We can counter that with seasonal flu shots which will be rolled out in the autumn, but I think we do need to be prepared for potentially quite a significant flu epidemic probably late this year, early next year.
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Edwin Poots, the outgoing DUP leader, has told the BBC this morning that if there were to be an election in Northern Ireland now, Sinn Féin would probably emerge as the largest party. This is from the BBC’s Darren Marshall.
“They probably would have largest number of votes & seats as things stand. Yes.”
— Darran Marshall (@DarranMarshall) June 23, 2021
Edwin Poots - when asked if Sinn Féin would win the first minister position if an election was called today.
Back in the Northern Ireland affairs committee Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, says he has a lot of sympathy with people who complain that the Northern Ireland protocol is limiting consumer choice for people in the region.
Ian Paisley, the DUP MP, says Northern Ireland companies are facing “commercial discrimination”. There must be significant changes to the protocol.
Lewis says the protocol has to work in a pragmatic way. If products are going from Britain to Northern Ireland, but are not going to go to Ireland, they do not pose a risk.
Q: Could goods not be checked at source, or on entry to Ireland?
Lewis says the UK has submitted around a dozen papers to the EU suggesting changes to how the protocol works. The EU says it wants to be flexible, he says. He says the UK thinks that too.
Prof Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College London epidemiologist whose modelling helped to persuade the government to order the first lockdown, told the Today programme this morning that the latest Covid data was encouraging. He said:
The overall picture is encouraging of all the surveillance data streams at the current time.
We are seeing as we expected rises in case numbers across the country, but they have slowed slightly compared with a couple of weeks ago, and we’re seeing rises in hospitalisations and indeed in deaths but again they’re at a much lower level compared with cases than they were previously, demonstrating the high effectiveness of vaccines at protecting people particularly against severe illness.
John Whittingdale, the culture minister, was doing the morning broadcast round for No 10 this morning and he spent much of his time defending the government’s plans to consult on privatising Channel 4. He told Sky News that the government wanted to make Channel 4 sustainable. He explained:
We don’t want to get rid of it, we want to sustain it. This is about making sure that it has a long-term future in a very different world to the one which most people are familiar with ...
One of the requirements, I think, over the coming years is that Channel 4 needs to have access to the kind of capital investment needed in order to retain viewers.
You do need investment in good content and with some of the new entrants, Netflix and Amazon, they are spending huge amounts more than Channel 4 is able to do, and an alternative ownership model may make it possible for them to access the kinds of money to continue to provide great programming.
Asked about a statement from the Loyalist Communities Council saying Irish government ministers are no longer welcome in Northern Ireland, Lewis says that ministers from Ireland - and indeed from almost all other countries in the world - are welcome in Northern Ireland.
He says if anyone is threatening violence, that is not helpful.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, is giving evidence to the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee.
Simon Hoare (Con), the committee chair, opens the questioning.
Q: What did you tell Edwin Poots [the outgoing DUP leader, who said he has been told by the government there will be significant changes to the Northern Ireland protocol]?
Lewis says the current situation is not sustainable. So there will have to be changes, he says.
He says he is “optimistic and confident” that the UK and the EU can agree changes.
UPDATE: From Darren McCaffrey from GB News
NEW: Northern Ireland Secretary @BrandonLewis on Brexit Protocol: "There will be changes because there has to be" insisting status quo is unsustainable
— Darren McCaffrey (@DarrenGBNews) June 23, 2021
pic.twitter.com/hdYUSNcD5h
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The statement that Boris Johnson issued overnight to mark the fifth anniversary of the vote to leave the EU does not seem to be on the No 10 website yet, so here it is in full.
Five years ago the British people made the momentous decision to leave the European Union and take back control of our destiny.
This government got Brexit done and we’ve already reclaimed our money, laws, borders and waters.
We’ve installed a new points-based system for immigration, delivered the fastest vaccine rollout anywhere in Europe, negotiated trade deals with the EU and 68 other countries – including our first post-Brexit free trade agreement with Australia – and we’ve just begun negotiations to join the $9 trillion Pacific trade area.
Now as we recover from this pandemic, we will seize the true potential of our regained sovereignty to unite and level up our whole United Kingdom. With control over our regulations and subsidies, and with freeports driving new investment, we will spur innovation, jobs and renewal across every part of our country.
The decision to leave the EU may now part of our history, but our clear mission is to utilise the freedoms it brings to shape a better future for our people.
As I said earlier, Johnson’s statement is surprisingly understated given the hopes that he invested in Brexit. For example, the third paragraph, which is supposed to itemise specific benefits, only mentions four things - of which one, the vaccine rollout, is not really relevant, because it could have happened if the UK had remained in the EU, and another, the 69 trade deals, is misleading because 67 of them essential just replicate trade arrangements the UK had as an EU member. Of the other two, the Australia deal may bring the UK very modest benefits, but in trade terms the deal with the EU is far worse than what existed before.
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Gove rules out second Scottish independence referendum until 2024
Good morning. It is five years to the day since the referendum on leaving the EU, which to the surprise of many people - including some of the leading leave campaigners - led to a vote for Brexit. To mark the occasion, Boris Johnson has released a surprisingly low-key and non-triumphalist statement, saying: “The decision to leave the EU may now part of our history, but our clear mission is to utilise the freedoms it brings to shape a better future for our people.” In an interview with the Times, João Vale de Almeida, the EU ambassador to the UK, pointed out that it was hard to know how Brexit would play out in the long term. He said:
I don’t know what our relationship will be in 20 years’ time. I don’t know what the EU will be like in 20 years. And maybe I don’t know what your union here will be like in 20 years’ time. Who knows? So we have to be ready for change.
In 2017 some Brexiters thought that the UK’s departure could lead to the break-up of the EU. Now it seems more probable that, over the medium term at least, it might lead to the break-up of the UK.
And on that topic this morning this morning there has been an important development. Ever since Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, formally started calling for a second independence referendum in March 2017, the UK government’s response - under Theresa May, and then Boris Johnson - has been to say not now. May argued that the time was not right because the country was preoccupied with Brexit, and Johnson argued that the time was not right because of Covid.
Today, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Michael Gove, who as Cabinet Office minister has a special role in overseeing union matters, has gone further, effectively ruling out a second referendum until after the next general election. In his write-up of the interview, Ben Riley-Smith says:
Asked whether he could imagine “any circumstance” in which Mr Johnson would agree to a second referendum before the 2024 election, [Gove] said: “I don’t think so.
“The prime minister is completely focused on making sure that, for the lifetime of this parliament, we increase economic opportunity, we provide people with the chance to make more of their lives, take control of their futures.”
Asked whether it was “pretty clear” from the response that his position was “no referendum before the 2024 election”, Mr Gove doubled down, saying: “I can’t see it.”
Gove also told the Telegraph that Johnson was more popular than people assumed in Scotland and that he should visit the country more often. Gove said:
One of the things that I think people consistently underestimate is the degree of connection, personal and emotional, that the people across the country have for the prime minister.
I think there’s a myth that has been built up, fed by Scottish nationalists, that somehow the prime minister doesn’t go down well in Scotland. In my experience I’ve seen folk in Orkney, folk in Aberdeenshire, responding as warmly to the prime minister as people in Oxfordshire or Hartlepool.
I think it’s an SNP mind game, as it were, to try to suggest that somehow the prime minister of the United Kingdom shouldn’t set foot in part of the United Kingdom.
In his report Riley-Smith adds:
Asked whether the prime minister is a help or hindrance to keeping the three-centuries-old union intact, [Gove] does not pause. “A help.” So should he visit Scotland more often? A one-word answer: “Yes.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee.
10am: Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, gives evidence to the Commons education committee.
10am: Dame Vera Baird, the victims’ commissioner, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about rape prosecutions.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.
12.30pm: Helen Whately, the social care minister, responds to a Commons urgent question about social care.
1.30pm: Downing Street is expected to hold its daily lobby briefing.
2pm: Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, gives evidence to the Commons defence committee about global Britain.
4pm: Sir Kevan Collins, who resigned recently from his post as the government’s education recovery commissioner, speaks at the Festival of Education.
Politics Live has been a mix of Covid and non-Covid news recently and that is likely to be the case today. For more coronavirus developments, do follow our global Covid live blog.
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