Afternoon summary
That’s all from me for today. But our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog.
The UK has recorded a further 167 coronavirus deaths and 38,013 new Covid cases, according to the latest update on the government’s dashboard. The total number of deaths over the past seven days is up 18.5% on the total for the previous week, and cases are up 15.3% week on week.
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Kim Leadbeater, the sister of Jo Cox, who succeeded Cox as MP for Batley and Spen in July, has made her maiden speech in the Commons, saying that while she was deeply proud of her role, she would “give literally anything” to have not had to do it.
Leadbeater was speaking in a backbench debate about the legacy of Cox, who was murdered by a rightwing terrorist in 2016. She paid tribute to her sister’s campaign work on cross-party cooperation and mutual aid.
Leadbeater, who directly took over the seat from Tracy Brabin, who is now mayor of West Yorkshire, said:
I am sure every new MP experiences the same mixture of pride and responsibility that I’m feeling right now. But, as the house does my family the great honour of paying tribute to my sister, I hope members will understand that I mean no disrespect to this place when I say that I’d give literally anything not to be standing here today in her place.
At the end of her speech the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, said:
Can I just say we are all moved. We will always think of your sister, and I know that you are going to be a great member of parliament.
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Back in the Scottish parliament the SNP’s SNP’s Gillian Martin is speaking now. Taking out her phone, she says that Douglas Ross was wrong in what he said earlier (see 3.41pm) and that councils do have definitions of nightclubs. She quotes from Moray council’s one; it includes having dancing as a primary function, having more more people standing than sitting, and being open from 1am to 5am.
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Scottish parliament to become protected site, giving police stronger powers against protesters
Scottish police will be given stronger powers to arrest protesters inside the Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh after Holyrood is made a “protected site” under UK national security laws.
Alison Johnstone, Holyrood’s presiding officer and a former Scottish Green MSP, announced today that the order giving the devolved parliament that new status was laid before Westminster this week and is expected to be approved this month.
The building on the edge of Holyrood park has been the focus of direct action by Extinction Rebellion climate protesters, who have peacefully occupied the debating chamber and attempted to disrupt first minister’s questions. Demonstrators have also clambered on to its roof.
In a letter to MSPs she said that meant “it becomes a criminal offence to remain on the parliamentary estate without lawful authority.” She said Westminster and the Senedd in Cardiff were already designated under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA). She went on:
[This] will not affect the [Scottish parliament corporate body’s] policy of welcoming and facilitating peaceful protest that respects the rights of others. We recognise that such protests are an essential part of the expression of democracy in Scotland.
[Both] the UK parliament and Welsh Senedd are already designated as protected sites. We were reassured to learn from their experience that having the designation as a protected site has not limited protest – far from [it] – but has encouraged those engaging with the institutions to keep activities in line with their policies.
SOCPA was enacted specifically to provide a solution to these competing tensions, to the extent that the right to protest and right to assemble at protected sites have already been balanced in law against the public interest in such sites being able to function safely and securely.
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Ross accuses the Scottish government of not understanding the impact their plans will have on business.
He says the Scottish Conservatives will be voting against the plan. Their case is set out in an amendment to the motion, which says:
As an amendment to motion S6M-01123 in the name of John Swinney (Covid vaccine certification scheme), leave out from “recognises” to end and insert “notes that the Scottish government has rushed out its proposals for Covid-19 vaccine certification without proper consultation or the infrastructure in place to deliver them; notes that the deputy first minister described the introduction of a certification scheme as the ‘wrong way to go’; recognises that the affected businesses have not been able to prepare for the introduction of a certification scheme, and believes that, for these reasons, this Covid-19 vaccine certification scheme should not be introduced”.
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Douglas Ross, the Conservative leader, is speaking now.
He starts by inviting John Swinney again to say how a nightclub will be defined for the purposes of this legislation.
Swinney says there has been no need to distinguish between nightclubs and pubs that stay open later. He says there will be further consultation with the industry.
Ross suggests that is not good enough if MSPs are expected to approve the legislation.
The SNP’s Gillian Martin says local authorities have an agreed definition of nightclubs.
Ross says he was a councillor, and he sat on a licensing board and did the required training. There was no such definition, he says.
Swinney explains what venues would be covered by the scheme: nightclubs and analogous venues; sexual entertainment venues; live events: indoors events with more than 500 people standing; outdoors events with more than 4,000 people standing; and all events with more than 10,000 attending.
Swinney does not define a nightclub, as Douglas Ross asked him to earlier.
Swinney says the threat posed by Covid means the government could have to reimpose restrictions.
He says vaccine certification would be an alternative; it would reduce the need for those measures, he says.
He says double vaccination reduces the chances of people getting Covid. And some settings, and the activity associated with those settings, increase the risk.
So ensuring only the double-vaccinated are allowed into those settings will reduce the risk.
Douglas Ross, the Scotttish Conservative leader, asks Swinney to say how the government will define a nightclub (one of the areas where vaccine certification will be needed).
Swinney says he will address later this in his speech.
He says vaccine certification will enable some venues to stay open that might otherwise have to close.
And he says the policy may boost vaccination uptake.
The regulations will be reviewed every three weeks, and they will only be kept when they are needed, he says. He says the law would lapse on 28 February 2022.
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Swinney opens debate in Scottish parliament on vaccine passports
In the Scottish parliament John Swinney, the deputy first minister and the Covid recovery secretary, is now opening the debate on vaccine passports.
Here is the motion that he is asking MSPs to support.
That the parliament commends the extraordinary effort of vaccination teams throughout Scotland, which means that, as of 6 September 2021, 84% of eligible over 18-year-olds were double-vaccinated against Covid-19; recognises that case numbers remain stubbornly high and that action is needed from all sectors to ensure that baseline Covid measures are rigorously implemented; acknowledges that a number of other countries have introduced Covid certification schemes and that the UK government has plans to introduce a vaccine certification scheme in England; believes that, in line with the Scottish government’s strategic intent, a Covid vaccine certification scheme can provide a targeted means to maximise Scotland’s ability to keep certain higher risk settings open, while reducing the impact of transmission and encouraging the remaining sections of the population to get vaccinated; supports the implementation of a Covid vaccine certification scheme; agrees that the scheme will apply to nightclubs, sexual entertainment venues, indoor unseated live events with 500 or more attendees, outdoor unseated live events with 4,000 or more attendees and all events with 10,000 or more attendees; notes that measures are being taken to ensure digital inclusivity and to ensure that disabled people are not disproportionately impacted, and agrees that this scheme will be kept under regular review.
And here is a paper published by the Scottish government today explaining the government’s plan.
Priti Patel’s proposal to allow Border Force staff to force boats carrying migrants in the Channel back into French waters has been widely condemned by campaigners who support refugees.
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, said:
The government’s pushback plan is senseless, dangerous and almost certainly unlawful.
Intercepting vessels in the Channel is incredibly high risk and to push people back will endanger their lives, which is totally at odds with the legal duty of rescue at sea.
People have every right to seek asylum in the UK, and they only make dangerous journeys and rely on smugglers because there are no safe alternatives made available to them.
Tim Naor Hilton, Refugee Action’s chief executive, said:
Resorting to cowardly, extreme and illegal pushbacks shows government policy has always been about bullying refugees to score political points rather than breaking up smuggling gangs.
We all want the boats to stop but this plan massively increases the chances of families drowning at sea.
And Alex Fraser, UK director of refugee support and restoring family links at the British Red Cross, said:
The focus of any interventions in the Channel, first and foremost, should be on protecting lives.
We’re concerned that a policy to turn back people already on the water will at best detract from finding solutions that will create alternatives to people taking dangerous journeys, and at worst could make already treacherous journeys even more perilous.
Crossing the Channel in a small boat is only ever a desperate last resort, and an extremely dangerous one. When people’s lives are in danger they need help, compassion and humanity, not to have their ordeal extended.
More than 10% of Covid regulations came into force before MPs even had chance to read them, thinktank says
The Institute for Government thinktank has accused the government of being “all too willing to disregard the value of parliamentary scrutiny”. It has made the claim in its latest Parliamentary Monitor report, which analyses the performance of parliament in the 2019-21 session.
The report says the Covid crisis meant the government had to make a lot of law using secondary legislation very quickly. This minimises the opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny, and some statutory instruments (SIs - the most common form of secondary legislation) came into force before MPs had even had a chance to read them. The IfG says while this may have been justified in an emergency, the practice continued when the urgency had faded. It says:
For parliamentarians to scrutinise secondary legislation, they need to be able to see it. Yet 13% of all Covid-related SIs laid by the government in the 2019–21 session came into legal force before they were even formally laid before parliament.
It is so unusual for this to happen that, when it does, the government must formally notify the Speakers of both houses: a requirement designed to ensure ministers do this only in exceptional circumstances. There were 44 such notifications made by ministers during the 2019–21 session, prompting the [joint committee on human rights] to warn that what should be an exceptional practice was “becoming routine”, which “creates risks for the rule of law and the separation of powers”. Nonetheless, ministers have continued to lay regulations only after they have come into force, including during the new 2021–22 parliamentary session.
But the IfF says this is just one example of the government evading scrutiny. It also curtailed time for debate, the IfG says. In her foreword to the report Bronwen Maddox, the IfG’s director, says:
The repeated use of emergency legislation, less justified as the crisis wore on, and a curtailing of Commons debating time shown most strikingly in the single day allocated to the long-awaited UK–EU trade deal spoke to a government all too willing to disregard the value of parliamentary scrutiny. This needs to change if parliament is going to be able to scrutinise the government properly and hold it to account.
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Burnham suggests Labour should present alternative to PM's social care plan at party conference
Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester who is widely seen as a potential future party leader, has said Labour should come up with its own alternative to the government’s social care plan at its conference, which starts in little over a fortnight.
As Kate McCann reports, Burnham told Sky:
I don’t think the Labour party can come up instantly with its alternative to what the government announced ... it needs to digest what the government has said, but I would like to see them do it soon - perhaps at conference.
We have a government plan here, I think they’ve gone down the wrong path because they’ve loaded the whole cost of social care on the shoulders of younger people, lower paid people, people who have student debt, people struggling to get on the housing ladder, I don’t think that’s fair.
There’s an opportunity here for Labour to set out a much better alternative and I would say to them I think they should do that sooner rather than later, but the conference would be a good time to do that.
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Mary Lou McDonald, the president of Sinn Féin, has described Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s speech earlier today (see 10.20am and 1.45pm) as “reckless, irresponsible and a short-sighted election stunt”. She said:
They are threatening the stability of the political institutions when we are in the midst of the Covid pandemic, when the Tories are putting families and workers under pressure with more cuts, and when there is big work to do on the issues that matter to people’s everyday lives - on hospital waiting lists, on schools, on housing and on jobs, and on rebuilding our economy.
The DUP is clearly in panic mode, driven by poor opinion polls they are focused on their own narrow self-interest ahead of the interests of workers, families and local businesses.
Unionism has lost its political majority, the DUP is in disarray and their vote is in decline.
McDonald was referring to a recent poll that put the DUP in fourth place in Northern Ireland ahead of the next Stormont elections due next May. Given that for most of the last two decades the DUP has been the most popular party in Northern Ireland, these figures are dire for Donaldson.
EXCLUSIVE: @LucidTalk poll for @BelTel
— Suzanne Breen (@SuzyJourno) August 28, 2021
🔷DUP overtaken by UUP & TUV -now 4th placed party
🔷DUP 13% (-3 from May)
🔷SF 25% (no change)
🔷UUP 16% (+2)
🔷TUV 14% (+3)
🔷Alliance 13% (-3)
🔷SDLP 13% (+1)https://t.co/ii45JGbAAW
EU says it did not retaliate after UK further delayed full implementation of NI protocol so it could create 'space' for talks
Maroš Šefčovič, the vice president of the European Commission, who leads for the EU on negotiations with the UK over Brexit, has said that Brussels did not retaliate to the unilateral British decision this week to indefinitely delay implementing some aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol because it wanted to create “space” for talks.
Speaking on a visit to Northern Ireland, he said:
What we decided to do was that we are taking note of that decision.
As you know we didn’t proceed with the legal action at this stage because we want to create political space for the negotiations.
We are talking over the last few weeks constructively on solving the issues linked with the protocol and I hope that also the way that we handled Monday’s announcement coming from London just proves that we are ready to do our utmost to look for every possible solution within the protocol to resolve the problems.
So, my visit over here is also kind of information gathering, a listening tour and I want to get inspired how we can resolve the remaining issues still on the table.
Photograph: Jonathan McCambridge/PA
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No 10 says DUP threat to collapse power-sharing shows 'real pressures' NI protocol is causing
And here are some more lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- No 10 defended Priti Patel’s decision to look for new ways of stopping migrants crossing the Channel. Asked about the plan to allow the Border Force to turn back migrant boats in some circumstances, the spokesman refused to comment on the details of the proposal, but he said: “Without getting into operational matters, as part of our ongoing response we continue to evaluate and test a range of safe and legal options to find ways of stopping small boats making this dangerous and unnecessary journey.” He also said:
We know this is a longstanding problem that the public expect us to address. It simply cannot be right that dangerous ... that criminal gangs are able to exploit our most vulnerable and put their lives at risk. It needs to be addressed, it’s what the public want, and it’s what we’re doing.
But the spokesman also said that no “single approach” was going to solve the problem. And he said the government did not accept the French claim that Patel was engaging in “financial blackmail”. (See 12.48pm.)
- The spokesman said that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s speech this morning, in which he warned the DUP might collapse power-sharing in Northern Ireland if the Northern Ireland protocol is not revised (see 10.20am), showed the “real pressures” the protocol was causing. The spokesman said:
This illustrates the real pressures that the protocol is causing in Northern Ireland and the lack of cross-community support for the current arrangements.
Without this support, the protocol cannot be sustainable for the long term. That’s why we’ve published a command paper setting out the significant changes needed to put the protocol on durable footing, and we’re engaging with talks with the EU to determine whether a constructive process can be established that addresses these issues.
- The spokesman said it was still the government’s “intention” to introduce vaccine passports at the end of this month, although he said the government had not made a final decision about what venues would be covered.
- The spokesman said the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust should think again about its decision to rename itself the Churchill Fellowship and to limit references to the wartime prime minister on its website. The fellowship also features a blogpost saying many of Churchill’s views on race “are widely seen as unacceptable today”. The changes have been highlighted in a story in the Sun today accusing the organisation of being “woke”. Asked what the PM felt about the story, the spokesman said:
Winston Churchill was a hero who helped save this country, and the whole of Europe, fascist and racist tyranny by leading the defeat of Nazism. It’s completely absurd, misguided and wrong to airbrush his giant achievements and service to this country and that trust should think again.
The prime minister has always been clear that, whilst it’s legitimate to examine Britain’s history, we should aim to educate people about all aspects of our complex past, both good and bad, and not erase them.
We need to focus on addressing the present and not attempt to rewrite the past and get sucked into the never-ending debate about which well-known historical figures are sufficiently pure or politically correct to remain in public view.
Given that Johnson himself wrote a biography of Churchill, which was sold on the basis he had something new to say, it is a bit rich for No 10 to argue that people should “not attempt to rewrite the past”. Perhaps he will also abandon his plans to one day write a book about Shakespeare, for which he has reportedly got a deal worth £500,000.
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These are from my colleague Jennifer Rankin in Brussels.
Context to Priti Patel's 'send the boats back' plan.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) September 9, 2021
Last year the Home Office said that after Brexit transition, the UK "will be able to negotiate its own bilateral returns arrangements" with EU member states. That's all gone very quiet.
During Brexit talks, the government quietly asked the EU for a Dublin-type deal so it would keep the right to return migrants who had travelled to UK via an EU country. The EU said no.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) September 9, 2021
Downing Street denies French claim that Patel engaging in 'financial blackmail'
Downing Street has rejected the French government’s claim that Priti Patel, the home secretary, is engaged in “financial blackmail”. (See 11.41am.) At the Downing Street lobby briefing, asked if this charge was fair, the prime minister’s spokesman replied:
No. I think we’ve provided our French counterparts significant sums of money previously and we’ve agreed another bilateral agreement, backed by millions of pounds, and we’re working with our French counterparts to implement it.
The claim was based on reports that Patel told Conservative MPs that the £54m offered by Britain to France in return for it agreeing to increase the number of patrols it is carrying out to stop migrants crossing the Channel was conditional. “It’s payment by results and we’ve not yet seen those results. The money is conditional,” she reportedly said, implying the £54m offer could be withdrawn.
I will post more from the lobby briefing soon.
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Speaker tells Foreign Office minister he's 'very, very concerned' about MPs' Afghanistan emails going unanswered
Boris Johnson has been accused of breaking a promise he made to ensure that MPs who wrote to the Foreign Office on behalf of people trying to flee Afghanistan to the UK would get a reply by the end of the day on Monday.
Johnson made the promise in the Commons, following reports that thousands of emails relating to these cases had been left unread.
But in a Commons urgent question this morning the Labour backbencher Chris Bryant said that MPs just received a standard circular, instead of replies that answered their questions. He said:
The prime minister told the house on Monday that every single email from colleagues is being responded to by ‘close of play today’. That was Monday, not next Thursday or in a month’s time, it was this Monday that has already gone.
So far all we have had is a circular, a ‘dear colleague’ letter not even hand-written from one of the ministers - as referred to by the minister just now. No answer to the 143 individual cases that I have - sorry 142 - because one was murdered the other day.
I have to say this has been a complete and utter shambles the way the government has dealt with members. I know they want to do good but they have let us all down in this.
James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister, said MPs had received a response that would let them know their emails had been seen, but 200,000 emails had been received, and that it was just not possible to process them all quickly. He said:
It is just not possible to open, analyse and respond to 200,000 emails in the same timescale that we would normally be able to do. The commitment made by the foreign secretary and the prime minister was discharged. Every single MP received a response so they could know that their email had been received and had been opened and will be worked upon.
At the end of the UQ Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, said he was “very, very concerned” that correspondence from MPs was not being answered by the Foreign Office promptly.
He also said he was “not happy” to hear during the exchanges that the government had been holding some Afghanistan briefings just for Tory MPs. “It should be for all,” he said. “I represent everybody in this chamber, not the select few.”
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These are from Colin Yeo, a specialist immigration lawyer, on Priti Patel’s plan to turn around boats carrying migrants across the English Channel.
1. The supposed “turn around” policy looks like a bullshit ‘sounds tough but will never be implemented’ policy equivalent to installing wave machines or a floating fence. Think about the practicalities as well as well established law.
— Colin Yeo (@ColinYeo1) September 9, 2021
2. Interception or interdiction policies are fairly common: Australia, the United States, Italy, Greece and Spain have all done it. But they return the refugees into the arms of someone else (sometimes in breach of the Refugee Convention, as with the United States/Haitian cases).
— Colin Yeo (@ColinYeo1) September 9, 2021
3. The French aren’t co-operating with Patel’s supposed plan. So what does “turn around” mean? Towing a small boat back out to sea with insufficient fuel to resume its journey to the UK? It is obvious how dangerous that is for the passengers. They may well die.
— Colin Yeo (@ColinYeo1) September 9, 2021
And this is from the Migrants’ Rights Network, a campaigning organisation.
This may be a distraction technique from the HO, but what an inhumane and illegal distraction! WE must fight this ridiculous plan that will cost actual lives.https://t.co/xdP5n58EAB
— Migrants' Rights Network (@migrants_rights) September 9, 2021
And this is what Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, said in his letter (see 11.51am) to Priti Patel, the home secretary, about why the number of migrants crossing the Channel has increased.
Recent events in Afghanistan, as well as the improved way in which we are thwarting attempts by road, all increase pressure on the sea route
The figures of the past few weeks are undoubtedly, as you point out, less satisfactory, but you will have noted that, since the beginning of the year, the rate at which small boat crossings are thwarted stands at 57.3%, i.e. a higher level than that recorded over the same period in 2020.
While there is an increase in the number of migrants landing in the UK, it is mainly due to a new strategy by people smugglers of using larger boats which can now hold up to 65 people, in place of the makeshift boats each carrying around 15 people between 2019 and 2020. These groups of migrants are made up of particularly vulnerable people (infants, young children and elderly or disabled people), which limits our means of action, in addition to the fact that the migrants’ behaviour is increasingly violent.
Added to these well-known difficulties are new diversionary tactics which consist in launching a large number of small boats, known as “decoy boats”, in order to overwhelm intervention capabilities and make it even trickier for our forces to intervene. And the tragedy of 11 August shows how extremely careful we must be when it comes to interceptions at sea.
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Here is the text (pdf) of the letter that Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, sent to Priti Patel, the home secretary, about her plan to deal with migrant boats in the Channel. The letter is dated Monday 6 September, but was released by the French yesterday.
This is what Darmanin said specifically about the plan to turn around migrant boats.
The French position on intervention at sea remains unchanged. Safeguarding human lives at sea takes priority over considerations of nationality, status and migratory policy, out of strict respect for the international maritime law governing search and rescue at sea. With regard to traffic and conditions for crossing the Channel, France has no other solution than to intervene most often on the basis of the provisions in international law governing search and rescue at sea (SAR). The use of maritime refoulements [returning refugees] to French territorial waters would risk having a negative impact on our cooperation.
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France accuses Priti Patel of 'financial blackmail' and posturing over migrant boats plan
The French government has restated its opposition to Priti Patel’s plan to allow Border Force staff to force boats carrying migrants in the Channel back into French waters. Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, used Twitter this morning to repeat his belief that her proposal is contrary to the law of the sea.
He also accused Patel of “financial blackmail” (because she has threatened to withhold money from France) and of posturising.
Here are his tweets, with translation below.
La France n’acceptera aucune pratique contraire au droit de la mer, ni aucun chantage financier. L’engagement de la Grande Bretagne doit être tenu. Je l’ai dit clairement à mon homologue @pritipatel (1/2)
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) September 9, 2021
France will not accept any practice contrary to the law of the sea, nor any financial blackmail. Britain’s commitment must be kept. I made this clear to my counterpart @pritipatel(1/2)
L’amitié entre nos deux pays mérite mieux que des postures qui nuisent à la coopération entre nos services. (2/2) https://t.co/6y4pkEDLhM
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) September 9, 2021
The friendship between our two countries deserves better than postures that undermine cooperation between our services. (2/2)
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In the vote on the government’s new £12bn health and social care levy last night just five Conservatives voted against the government. They were: Sir John Redwood, Esther McVey, Sir Christopher Chope, Philip Davies and Neil Hudson.
Another 37 did not vote. At least five of them indicated that they were deliberately abstaining - Jake Berry, Steve Baker, Dehenna Davison, Richard Drax and Sir Roger Gale - but it is likely that many others were also not voting as a protest. The full list is here.
This morning Chope, one of the MPs who voted with Labour, told Time Radio he thought the levy could end up as a poll tax moment for the government. He said:
I see this as a community charge-stroke-poll tax moment, because although the government initially won the votes on the community charge, in the end, the suggestion that the community charge was unfair because the duke and dustman were treated equally, that just didn’t wash.
And so I think we’re in a similar situation now that real Conservatives will be putting pressure on their MPs and saying that we need to go back to the drawing board on this.
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Archbishop of Canterbury criticises social care tax rise
Boris Johnson’s plan to increase national insurance contributions to raise £12bn for the NHS and social care could pose a “serious problem” for low-income workers, the archbishop of Canterbury has said. My colleague Aubrey Allegretti has the story here.
Record 5.6m people waiting for hospital figures in England, latest figures show
The number of people in England waiting for hospital treatment has reached a new record high, PA Media reports. PA says:
A total of 5.6 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of July, according to new figures from NHS England.
This is the highest number since records began in August 2007 and includes those waiting for hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery.
The number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at 293,102 in July 2021, down from 304,803 in the previous month, but more than three times the number waiting a year earlier, in July 2020, which was 83,203.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said he was warned the NHS waiting list could reach 13 million without immediate action as he pledged to tackle growing numbers.
Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst at The King’s Fund, said: “Despite the best efforts of NHS staff, waiting lists for routine NHS care have swollen to levels last seen 15 years ago.
“There are over 5.6 million people waiting for care already, often in pain and dealing with the uncertainty of when they will be treated.
“All NHS services are affected, with primary care, hospital care and mental health services seeing the demand for care rise as the immediate threat of Covid-19 recedes.
“Even before Covid-19, waiting lists for treatment had substantially worsened.
“The significant investment the government has now promised is very welcome but will not lead to an increase the number of hospital beds or clinical staff overnight.”
The data shows the total number of people admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England in July 2021 was 259,642, up 82% from a year earlier (142,818), although this reflects lower-than-usual figures for July 2020, which were affected by the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The equivalent figure for July 2019, a non-pandemic year, was 314,280.
NHS England said many more tests and treatments have been delivered this summer compared to last, while hospitals cared for thousands more patients with Covid.
It said there were 3.9 million diagnostic tests and 2.6 million patients started consultant-led treatment in June and July, compared with 2.7 million tests and 1.6 million treatments over the same time last year.
DUP may walk out of Stormont power-sharing over Brexit protocol
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has warned his party is prepared to walk out of power-sharing in Stormont if the Brexit Northern Ireland protocol is not changed substantially. My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has the story here.
Labour criticises Patel's 'dangerous' plan to try to turn back migrant boats in the Channel
Labour has criticised Priti Patel’s plan to allow Border Force staff to force boats carrying migrants in the Channel back into French waters. In a statement Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said:
Turning boats around at sea in the world’s busiest shipping channel is dangerous and risks lives.
The home secretary has failed to tackle the vile criminal gangs who are profiting from people-smuggling and this should be her focus, along with securing an effective deal with France and safe and legal routes.
That the home secretary is even considering these dangerous proposals shows how badly she has lost control of this situation.
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Internal government analysis shows impact of cutting universal credit will be 'catastrophic', report claims
According to a report in the Financial Times (paywall), the government’s own internal analysis of its decision to cut universal credit from the start of October (by ending the temporary £20-per-week uplift introduced during the pandemic) says the impact will be “catastrophic”. The paper says:
A well-placed Whitehall official said the government’s own analysis highlighted the deep impact of reversing the change. “The internal modelling of ending the UC uplift is catastrophic. Homelessness and poverty are likely to rise, and food banks usage will soar. It could be the real disaster of the autumn.”
One minister warned that the political backlash over universal credit, which is claimed by 6m people, was likely to be more serious for prime minister Boris Johnson than the debate about social care.
“There’s no doubt that this is going to have a serious impact on thousands of people and colleagues are really worried, I think it will definitely eclipse social care as a political problem. It’s not just red wall MPs who are fearing a major backlash from the public.”
The paper does not quote directly from the internal analysis. But it is not hard to guess what it will say because there is plenty of information already in the public domain to show what impact that cut will have. For example, this is from a Joseph Rowntree Foundation analysis published last month.
This cut will impose the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the foundation of the modern welfare state.
Our analysis has shown that 6 million low-income families will lose £1,040 from their annual income, creating serious financial hardship and leave 500,000 people to be swept into poverty - including 200,000 children. Families with children will be disproportionately impacted and worryingly, 6 in 10 of all single-parent families in the UK will be impacted.
The government is rightly saying that it wants to support people back into work as we emerge from the crisis. But working families make up the majority of families who will be affected.
The JRF also said that 21% of all working-age families would be affected by the cut and that in 140 constituencies (including 36 Tory ones) more than one in four families would be affected.
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In another interview this morning Helen Whately, the care minister, said she thought it was “highly unlikely” that Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, was racist. She was responding to questions about how he muddled up two black sportsmen, Marcus Rashford and Maro Itoje.
Asked on LBC whether Williamson’s mistake was due to incompetence or racism, she replied:
Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is that Gavin has put out his explanation, and there’s really nothing more that I could say about it.
Asked whether it could, therefore, be racism, Whately said:
I can’t believe for a moment that he is [racist]. I think that sounds highly unlikely.
You’ve given me a false choice, you’re trying to put me in a trap to say it’s one thing or the other.
I don’t accept the choice that you’ve offered me there; what I’ll say is Gavin has said what’s happened, there’s not a lot more I can say.
NHS staff unwilling to be jabbed could be moved into back-office roles, health minister suggests
Helen Whately, the care minister, was on the morning interview round this morning, primarily to talk about the consultation on making vaccines compulsory for NHS frontline staff. She told Times Radio that staff unwilling to get jabbed could be moved into back-office roles. Asked what would happen to them, she said:
You can look at whether there are alternative ways somebody could be deployed, for instance, in a role that doesn’t involve frontline work, or doesn’t involve being physically in the same setting as the patient - whether it’s, for instance, working on 111, something like that.
So we could look at alternative roles for individuals, these are exactly the sorts of things that we can investigate.
In his interview with the BBC’s Today programme this morning, Prof Adam Finn, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation member, said that he was worried that rolling out an extensive vaccine booster programme could limit the global supply of vaccine. “Each dose going into the arm of someone who’s immune is not going into the arm of someone who’s got no immunity at all,” he said.
He also said that a wider programme might not be needed now.
Although there’s waning against mild disease, we’re not clear that we’re seeing waning against severe disease, and the programme is really driven by trying to keep people out of hospital and stop people dying rather than by trying to control the spread of the vaccine.
Ministers have floated the prospect of giving booster doses to all over-50s this autumn, but the JCVI has not approved that plan. It is expected to make a recommendation today.
Priti Patel’s plans to send back small boats carrying migrants in the Channel are already “dead in the water”, an immigration workers’ union has said. My colleague Jamie Grierson has the story here.
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Government plan for compulsory Covid jabs for NHS staff 'admission of failure', says expert
Good morning. It will be quite an important day for Covid policy. The Scottish parliament will vote on whether to introduce a coronavirus vaccine certification scheme. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is expected to take a decision on a UK-wide booster programme. And the government has launched a consultation on whether all frontline staff in health and social care settings in England should be required to be vaccinated. It has already decided to make vaccination compulsory for social care staff.
Here is an extract from the Department of Health and Social Care’s news release about the new consultation.
A six-week consultation will be launched today, looking at whether requirements should apply for health and wider social care workers: those in contact with patients and people receiving care. It would mean only those who are fully vaccinated, unless medically exempt, could be deployed to deliver health and care services. The consultation will also seek views on whether flu vaccines should be a requirement for health and care workers.
There is a longstanding precedent for vaccination requirements in NHS roles. Workplace health and safety and occupational health policies are already in place requiring the Hepatitis B vaccine for those undertaking exposure-prone procedure – such as surgeons.
The percentage of NHS trust staff who have received one dose of a Covid vaccine is around 92% nationally, with 88% of staff having received both doses. However, there is variation in uptake with new due data due to be published today showing that between NHS trusts, uptake rates can vary from around 78% to 94% for both doses.
National flu vaccination rates in the health service have increased from 14% in 2002 to 76% last year. In some settings, however, rates are as low as 53%.
Flu vaccination has been recommended for staff and vulnerable groups in the UK since the late 1960s, with the average number of estimated deaths in England for the five seasons 2015 to 2020 at over 11,000 deaths annually. During the 2019/2020 winter season, 86% of deaths associated with flu were people aged 65 and over.
As well as protecting vulnerable patients, the proposals will protect staff, which is particularly important for hospital trusts where extensive unexpected staff absences can put added pressure on already hardworking clinicians providing patient care during busy periods like winter.
But the proposal is already generating criticism. Prof Adam Finn, head of the Bristol Children’s Vaccine Centre and a member of the JCVI, told the Today programme, that he had concerns about the proposal. He explained:
It’s a kind of an admission of failure. It’s like saying you can’t either find the time or find the ability to explain to people why it makes sense and create the culture in which everybody does it because they understand why it’s important.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, gives a speech on the Northern Ireland protocol. His speech will coincide with Maroš Šefčovič, the vice president of the European Commission who leads for the EU on negotiations with the UK over Brexit, visiting Northern Ireland.
11.30m: Downing Street holds its daily lobby briefing.
Around 2.30pm: MSPs begin a debate on introducing a Covid vaccine certification scheme in Scotland. The vote will come at 5.30pm.
At some point today the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is also expected to make a recommendation about a vaccine booster programme.
For further Covid coverage, do read our global coronavirus live blog.
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