Top story: PM tags on to Labour anti-sleaze motion
Hello, Warren Murray with this morning’s messages.
A Conservative party donor who supported Michael Gove’s Tory leadership bid won £164m in Covid contracts after the minister referred his firm to a “VIP lane” that awarded almost £5bn to companies with political connections, new analysis reveals. Meller Designs, based in Bedford, was awarded six personal protective equipment (PPE) supply contracts worth £164m from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) during the coronavirus pandemic. When the contracts were awarded, Gove was a minister at the Cabinet Office, which is responsible for government procurement, and in charge of the office of the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, which referred Meller Designs for PPE supply. A spokesperson for Gove denied that the referral involved any impropriety. Meller Designs said it approached the government offering equipment and was “extremely proud” of its role in supplying “more than 100m items of PPE”.
A list of the 47 companies referred to the government’s VIP fast-track lane for contracts to supply PPE has been revealed. These are five of the significant political figures whose referrals ended up with the companies winning contracts. Boris Johnson will try to outflank Labour and seize back momentum in the escalating row over MPs’ second jobs today. An opposition motion being tabled by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, would ban MPs from being paid for working as parliamentary advisers. Downing Street said Johnson would table an amendment to “toughen up” the opposition motion by adding that MPs should be investigated and “appropriately punished” if they prioritised other jobs over their taxpayer-funded role.
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‘Children only get one chance’ – Headteachers are objecting to government plans for all England’s schools and further education providers to be inspected in the next four years. There are calls to suspend routine inspections in view of the continuing Covid disruption. The education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said the pandemic had provided an opportunity to build back better and fairer, and provide parents “an up-to-date picture and swifter recognition of the hard work of leaders and teachers”. But Dr Mary Bousted from the National Education Union said teachers and leaders were already under “exhaustion and stress”. Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said: “Children only get one chance at school … I’m pleased that we will now be able to reach all schools, colleges and apprenticeship providers by summer 2025.”
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Midweek catch-up
> Naomi Osaka has expressed “shock” at the disappearance of the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, who has not been heard from publicly since she accused the country’s former vice premier of sexually assaulting her.
> In North America a deadly storm has hit the Pacific north-west, destroying highways and shutting down power to tens of thousands of Canadians and Americans.
Vancouver, Canada’s largest port, was cut off by flood waters. These pictures tell the story.
> The sport equipment retailer Decathlon will no longer sell canoes in the north of France to prevent migrants attempting to use them to cross to England. It comes as a report finds nearly two-thirds of such people are genuine refugees entitled to remain.
> Britney Spears has spoken out about the realities of her new freedom after her 13-year conservatorship was lifted last week.
“I’m just grateful for each day and being able to have the keys to my car, to be able to be independent and feel like a woman. Owning an ATM card, seeing cash for the first time … It’s the little things.”
> Pfizer has announced a deal to make its prospective antiviral Covid-19 pill, called Paxlovid, available more cheaply in the world’s least-wealthy countries. The drug interferes with how the virus reproduces.
> Eleven years after a mine explosion killed 29 workers, remains of some of them have been found using underground cameras that were put down boreholes at Pike River in New Zealand. The mine remains too dangerous to recover the bodies.
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Dog and phone – Researchers have created a ball that allows dogs to ring up their owners. The DogPhone is a soft ball that, when moved, sends a signal to a laptop that launches a video call. The owner can also call their pet – although the dog has to move the ball to pick up. “This is just one way to demonstrate that dogs can control technology,” said Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, of the University of Glasgow. “We can build technology for dogs.”
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‘Feeling the child’s joy’ – Grannies may be more emotionally connected to their grandkids than to their own sons and daughters, the first study to examine grandmothers’ brain function in this regard has suggested. “What really jumps out is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy,” said Prof James Rilling from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. “If their grandchild is smiling, they’re feeling the child’s joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they’re feeling the child’s pain and distress.”
When the grandmothers instead looked at images of their own adult child, brain areas for cognitive empathy were activated – indicating they were trying to understand rather than experiencing direct emotional connection. “Emotional empathy is when you’re able to feel what someone else is feeling, but cognitive empathy is when you understand at a cognitive level what someone else is feeling and why,” Rilling said. This could possibly help to explain the experience many grown-up children have of their parents often seeming more excited to see their grandchildren than them.
Today in Focus podcast: Is Trump setting up to steal 2024?
Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 US election was ultimately thwarted, but through efforts at state level to elect loyalists to key positions, the stage is set for a repeat showing in 2024.
Lunchtime read: ‘We have to allow EU workers back’
Anas Zein Al-Abdeen owns a chain of four Middle Eastern coffee houses around Birmingham. But while customers are plentiful, staff are another matter. “It’s horrific,” he says. “We can’t plan for anything.” September figures from the Office for National Statistics show that hospitality businesses are now twice as likely as those in other industries to struggle to fill vacancies.
Many within the sector chalk this up to the exodus of EU workers from the UK since Brexit. Jane Gratton from the British Chambers of Commerce says: “Employers are telling us that lots of people, even if granted settled status, have chosen to return to their native countries. We’re seeing staff shortages in many sectors that didn’t have shortages before.” Al-Abdeen says: “We can’t force British workers into jobs they don’t enjoy or want … We have to allow EU workers to come back and apply for these jobs that, for whatever reason, are not attractive to local jobseekers.”
Sport
English cricket has descended into crisis after Azeem Rafiq’s powerful testimony laid bare its institutional failings on racism, bullying and dressing room culture while also alleging a past drugs cover-up by Yorkshire. Rafiq’s courage, writes Barney Ronay, shows Yorkshire and the ECB what a real leader looks like. The chairman of the Premier League, Gary Hoffman, is to announce his resignation from the role following the controversy over the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle United. Kieffer Moore cancelled out Kevin De Bruyne’s opener as a 1-1 draw with Belgium was enough for Wales to secure home advantage in their World Cup play-off in March. The coach who guided South Africa’s “Bomb Squad” to World Cup glory is urging his self-styled “Fight Club” of English front-row forwards to make a name for themselves at Twickenham this weekend.
Gareth Southgate has indicated that his new England contract should be a formality as he looked forward to a seismic 12-month period and beyond. Usman Khawaja and Travis Head have been named in a 15-man Australia squad for the first two Tests of the upcoming Ashes series, after selectors left the door open to both players to make the final cut for next month’s opener against England. Emma Raducanu will compete in Britain for the first time since her US Open triumph when she faces Elena-Gabriela Ruse at the Champions Tennis exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall this month. The US is going to stage a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in China and will not send an official delegation in protest against human rights abuses, according to a report. And transgender women should no longer be required to reduce their testosterone levels to compete in the women’s sport category, new International Olympic Committee guidelines have suggested.
Business
JPMorgan has sued Tesla for $162.2m, accusing Elon Musk’s electric car company of “flagrantly” breaching a 2014 contract relating to stock trading options that Tesla sold to the bank. Musk’s infamous tweet in 2018 saying he was planning to take Tesla private caused a change in the terms of the contract, JPMorgan argues, and it is demanding extra returns. The pound is on $1.342 as the greenback climbed again, but sterling continued to rise against the euro and now fetches €1.186. The FTSE100 is on track to shed 0.3% at the opening.
The papers
Our Guardian print edition leads today with Michael Gove and the “‘cronyism’ furore” but the picture space is occupied by Azeem Rafiq’s Commons testimony about racism in cricket. Also on the front: “Questions over Prince Andrew’s £1.5m loan”. The Duke of York took out a £1.5m personal loan that was subsequently paid off by companies connected to David Rowland, a multimillionaire Conservative donor and financier, it has been claimed. A spokesperson for the Duke of York said he was “entitled to a degree of privacy in conducting his entirely legitimate personal financial affairs, on which all appropriate accounting measures are undertaken and all taxes duly paid”.
The Mirror has that as “Tax haven banker pays off Andy’s loan” – and that diminutive is also used by the Daily Mail. Its lead story though is “Priti: our asylum merry-go-round” as the home secretary blasts the system of reviews and appeals that let the Liverpool bomber stay. But the paper adds “… so when WILL she get a grip?” as it points to “hundreds more” asylum seekers risking their lives to cross the Channel. The Telegraph picks up on the theme: “Church under fire for helping asylum seekers to ‘game’ the system”, as does the Express: “Bomber abused ‘broken’ asylum system”. The Times says the bomber claimed to be Christian as a ploy to stay in Britain, so he could claim he would be persecuted if sent back. Its lead story is “Tory MPs set to revolt over ban on second jobs”.
The Metro laments the “Poison at the heart of cricket” after the Rafiq testimony. The i has “Home care cliff edge: 100,000 at risk of sack over jabs”. The Financial Times leads with “Washington and Beijing agree to hold talks on nuclear arsenals” – another big story on its front is Germany suspending approval of the pipeline that would double its reliance on Russian gas.
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