Boris Johnson news – live: UK facing lockdown due to PM's 'failure,' says Rayner as Starmer says he must apologise

Emergency Cobra meeting should be ‘matter of urgency’, Andy Burnham says

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has released a statement calling for Boris Johnson to reconvene the emergency Cobra committee “as a matter of urgency”, with representation for all English regions.

Mr Burnham also criticised the government over difficulties in accessing tests in the north of England, which has seen the highest infection rates for coronavirus.

“I would like to thank the government for listening to our calls to provide financial support for people on low pay to self-isolate,” the Labour mayor said.

“We now need to build on this positive move and establish a stronger sense of national unity ahead of a winter which will test us all in so many ways.”

He added: “To do this, I am today calling on the prime minister to give a place for all of the English regions on a reconvened Cobra, alongside London, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“The North of England is experiencing the highest number of cases but also the greatest difficulty in accessing tests. This North-South testing divide can’t be right and is exactly the kind of issue that a reconvened Cobra needs to resolve.

“The North needs to be levelled up on testing without delay.”

ICYMI: ‘Coronavirus has saved Keir Starmer from a fractious Labour conference’

As Labour gathers for its virtual conference today, you can read our political columnist John Rentoul’s take on the event, which he believes has helped Sir Keir Starmer strengthen his grip on the party.

John writes:

“As Labour gathers in cyberspace for its Connected event, replacing its annual conference that would be happening in Liverpool this weekend, other ways in which the pandemic has helped Starmer are becoming evident.

“No conference means no votes. It means no fiery denunciations from the rostrum of the witch-hunt against Rebecca Long-Bailey. No singing of ‘Oh, Jeremy Corbyn’. No waving Palestinian flags. No fringe meetings condemning Starmer for selling out the workers.”

You can find his full piece below:

Labour raises concerns over Dido Harding’s government roles

Labour has raised concerns about the appointment of Conservative peer Dido Harding to two major government roles, warning over a potential breach of the civil service code.

Baroness Angela Smith, the shadow leader of the House of Lords, wrote to new cabinet secretary Simon Case this week to ask for urgent clarification on whether the appointments were acceptable.

Baroness Harding is currently the head of the government’s Test and Trace scheme and was recently appointed to lead the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).

However, she is also a backbench Tory peer and takes the Conservative whip, which would breach the requirement for civil servants to not act in a political manner. 

“It is such a corruption of our constitution to make a Tory backbencher in parliament a senior civil servant without any process and without even requiring the most basic rules of political impartiality,” Lord Falconer, the shadow attorney general, told The Observer.

“It is hardly surprising that our track and trace system is going so wrong if your talent pool is restricted to Tory backbenchers in parliament.”

Johnson needs to ‘level with public’ over testing problems, Starmer says

Battle of Britain heroes and NHS staff celebrated at anniversary service

Parallels have been drawn between the heroes of the Battle of Britain and modern-day NHS staff and key workers at a small and intimate service at Westminster Abbey marking the 80th anniversary of the war event.

The annual Sunday service usually attracts around 2,200 people to the London landmark as the UK commemorates the first battle in history fought entirely in the air during the Second World War.

However, this year’s service saw attendance significantly reduced and social distancing measures in place for 79 invited guests.

Prime minister Boris Johnson was among the guests at the service, as well as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Stirrup, representing the Prince of Wales

An address, given by the Chaplain in Chief, the Venerable Air Vice Marshal John Ellis, honoured NHS staff and key workers in the “fight against an invisible army”.

“Once again there have been sacrifices made, often quiet, often humble, unnoticed by many,” he said.

“Although starkly different events, each of them has two things that are so important for our humanity – service and value.

“We have seen the selfless giving to a greater cause.”

Our Whitehall editor, Kate Devlin, has a round-up below of Angela Rayner’s Labour conference speech – in which she warned Boris Johnson’s “failure and incompetence” could lead to a second national lockdown:

Thousands of private renters ‘at risk of losing their homes’ when eviction ban ends

Tens of thousands of private renters could be at risk of losing their homes when the ban on evictions ends on Monday, campaign groups have said.

Renters in England and Wales have been protected from eviction during the coronavirus pandemic by a ban announced in March which was then extended, meaning anyone served with an eviction notice since 29 August has been given a six-month notice period.

Labour has called for protective measures to be extended and warned of a winter homelessness crisis, while the Local Government Association (LGA) has said councils are “concerned that the ending of the ban could see a rise in homelessness”.

Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, said renters served notice before August could still face automatic eviction from Monday, while for those served notice after August “the measures simply delay the threat of homelessness”.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said ministers had taken “unprecedented action to support renters” with the eviction ban.

“To help keep people in their homes over the winter months, we’ve changed the law to increase notice periods to six months and introduced a ‘winter truce’ on the enforcement of evictions for the first time,” they added.

“In addition, we have put in place a welfare safety net of nearly £9.3bn and increased Local Housing Allowance rates to cover the lowest 30 per cent of market rents.”

Sadiq Khan criticises government’s ‘hapless’ handling of coronavirus pandemic

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has criticised the government’s “hapless” handling of the coronavirus pandemic in an appearance at Labour’s virtual conference.

“Unfortunately, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, we’ve all been catastrophically let down by the government,” Mr Khan told party members.

“If ministers had risen to this moment, as the British public have, then the loss of many lives and much of the economic hardship could have been avoided.

“These times called for a government that could put ideology, dogma and ego aside, and calmly and competently do whatever it takes to save lives and jobs.”

He added: “Unfortunately, we got the exact opposite. Just when we required a steady, capable hand on the tiller, we’ve had a hapless government that keeps on steering us onto the rocks.”

ICYMI: Starmer says Labour needs to listen to people who stopped voting for them

Sir Keir Starmer said this morning that Labour needed to listen to people who had deserted the party in recent years to regain power.

He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday that the party’s “New Leadership” slogan meant “recognising the scale of the [party’s] defeat” at the last general election in December.

“It means listening particularly to those who used to vote Labour and don’t anymore, changing and focussing on winning the next general election – because if you’re in opposition, you’re not changing anything,” Sir Keir said.

Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham has called for all regions in England to be represented at an emergency Cobra meeting on coronavirus.

“There are clear regional differences when it comes to testing & lockdown policy,” Mr Burnham said.

“To build national unity, all English regions MUST be represented on COBRA.”