Boris Johnson news – live: PM ‘really, really awful’ over Covid response, says first minister of Wales

Boris Johnson’s widening lead over the Labour party in the polls is down to a “vaccine bounce” boosting support for the Tories, Keir Starmer has said.

In a rare comment on the polls the opposition leader said his party was behind because voters tended to “gravitate” towards the government during a time of crisis and felt good after getting their jabs.

“There is undoubtedly a vaccine bounce going on,” the Labour leader told BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show on Monday afternoon. “But let’s be honest, we’ve got to do better as a Labour Party I’ve got to do better, we’ve got a job and a half to do.”

Starmer told the programme that he “never thought for a moment” that Labour could reverse its bad election result from 2019 in the space of a year.

Mark Drakeford said he felt a “sense of despair” and was “wringing” his hands after a crisis meeting with the PM following France’s travel ban.

On the Zoom call, Johnson said he wanted to “urgently look at the implications of the travel bans that some of our European friends have imposed”.

A S4C TV documentary crew cuts away from most of the meeting – which cannot be recorded for security reasons – but Drakeford is then heard to say: “Dear me, he really, really is awful.

“Imagine that some deadly new variant of the virus had been discovered in France and they were trying to persuade us that there was no need to take any action to stop French lorry drivers from driving across the continent.”

More now from Scottish Tory party leader Douglas Ross’ remarks to the Onward think tank. Ross has suggested negotiations to break up the UK would be far, far messier than the process we’ve all just lived through.

“What the process would be if we had an independent Scotland negotiating leaving the United Kingdom – well, it would be immensely worse than the difficulties that were experienced in leaving the European Union.”

“We would be leaving a country that we remain part of, that we have been the proud and strong member of for centuries, rather than for the European Union for just over four decades.”

Tory party funds are not being used for the refurbishment of No 10, Boris Johnson’s press secretary said – but any “gifts or benefits” from individual donors would be properly declared.

The Daily Mail reported at the weekend that Tory party funds met “a large part” of the bill for the work wanted by the PM and his fiancee, said to be in the region of £200,000.

The PM’s aide Allegra Stratton told reporters: “Conservative Party funds are not being used to pay for any refurbishment of the Downing Street estate.”

Asked whether the party had encouraged Tory donors to pay for the refurbishment, Stratton said “all of those donations” would be declared through the Electoral Commission, the House of Commons register of members’ interests or in ministerial transparency declarations.

“At every twist and turn of this there will be records and reports,” she said. “You are going to get the details very soon.”

Boris Johnson will use a Cabinet reshuffle to boost the number of women in his top team, Downing Street has indicated.

The PM’s press secretary Allegra Stratton told reporters: “We know that there is improvement to come in the years ahead when he – who knows when this comes – when we have promotions to cabinet.

“He does accept that he would like to improve how representative his cabinet is of the population at large.”

She said Mr Johnson describes himself as a feminist, but indicated he was unlikely to keep his previous promise of taking paternity leave.

“He is the prime minister and he works a very long day, he has a huge workload and I don’t think he will be taking paternity leave,” she said.

Downing Street has contradicted an education minister by saying that children who test positive for Covid in a lateral flow test can be cleared to go to school if they later test negative in the more reliable PCR test.

Children’s minister Vicky Ford sparked alarm among parents by saying that schools should not take the risk of having a child in the classroom even after testing negative in a rapid-turnaround PCR test carried out at home.

But Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said: “If a PCR test is negative following a positive lateral flow, children can go back to school.”

Keir Starmer has said the allegations made by the Duchess of Sussex in her television interview should be taken “very, very seriously”.

Speaking during a visit to a school in Dagenham, east London, the Labour leader said: “It is really sad to see the family in turmoil like this.

“The issues that Meghan has raised of racism and mental health are really serious issues.

“It is a reminder that too many people experience racism in 21st-century Britain. We have to take that very, very seriously.

“Nobody, but nobody, should be prejudiced (against) because of the colour of their skin or because of their mental health issues.

“This is bigger than the royal family. For too many years we have been too dismissive and too willing to put these issues to one side.”

The Scottish Tories are demanding an end to political leaders making decisions on allegations against ministers.

Attacking Nicola Sturgeon for having “lied to parliament” over the Alex Salmond controversy, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross condemned her ability to decide if the ministerial code has been breached.

Ross questioned why Sturgeon had the power to ask James Hamilton QC to review whether she’d broken the code.

“It’s left to the first minister to uphold the ministerial code and take decisions on the scrutiny of ministerial behaviour … we will propose that responsibility for scrutiny of ministerial behaviour be given to the standards committee.”

Labour continue to press the government hard on its decision to restrict the pay rise for NHS staff to 1 per cent – which is effectively a pay cut when inflation is taken into account.

On International Women’s Day, the party highlighted a statistic that 76 per cent of workers affected were women.

Marsha de Cordova MP, Labour’s Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, said:

“Once again the Chancellor has chosen to turn his back on women who have experienced the worst economic and social impacts of the pandemic.

“To give women on the NHS front lines a pay cut is just another example of how badly Boris Johnson’s government have consistently failed women.

“Inaction risks further entrenching inequalities long into the future and turning the clock back on progress made over the last few decades.

“The government must guarantee NHS workers a real pay rise, conduct an equality impact assessment and immediately restart gender pay gap reporting.” 

New Reform UK leader Richard Tice, who has taken over from Nigel Farage, began his first press conference by jumping into the furore over the Harry and Meghan interview with Oprah Winfrey.

He said: “I actually think its a tragedy that private family conversations are aired in public – it’s just a breach of trust.

“Given the Queen and the royal family’s duty to the Commonwealth of two billion people from all ethnicities and faiths, I really do find the inference of racism being present just totally unbelievable.”

The EU has rejected the claim by Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister Lord David Frost that its approach to talks on Northern Ireland was driven by “ill-will” towards the UK, insisting: “We never sulk”.

Lord Frost made the incendiary charge in a newspaper article on Sunday, in which he claimed that London’s second threat to breach the terms of the Brexit deal which Mr Johnson signed with Brussels was “lawful”.

EU Commission spokesman Eric Mamer shrugged off Lord Frost’s accusations, telling a Brussels press conference: “We never sulk. We don’t have moods. We are an institution, so we try to work on a day-to-day basis with a very, very even temper.”

Boris Johnson will hold a Downing Street press conference at 4pm today, No 10 has confirmed.

It is expected to focus on the relaxation of the Covid lockdown restrictions and the return of pupils to school this morning, but he may be asked about the ongoing Brexit dispute with the EU.

He will also probably get a few questions about the Harry and Meghan interview with Oprah Winfrey…

Home secretary Priti Patel has marked International Women’s Day by saying there are “no boundaries” to the political roles young women can aspire to.

“We should encourage more and more girls and women and girls to go for it,” she told LBC. “We should absolutely encourage them to go for those big positions of leadership.”

We reported earlier on the Fawcett Society research showing about seven in 10 women say they would not become a politician because of fears of facing abuse or harassment in the role.

Boris Johnson met Joe Biden’s climate change envoy John Kerry this morning during his visit to Europe, Downing Street has said.

Kerry is visiting London, Brussels and Paris ahead of Biden’s summit on climate in April and the UK-hosted UN Cop26 meeting in November.

Alok Sharma – the president of the Cop26 conference in Glasgow – also met Kerry at Downing Street.

A senior member of Labour’s frontbench has called for Buckingham Palace to investigate allegations of racism after the Duchess of Sussex claimed that a member of the royal family raised “concerns” about the skin colour of her son Archie.

Meghan Markle said that the unnamed royal voiced “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”.

Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green described the comment as “really distressing – shocking”.

Ms Green told Sky News: “If there are allegations of racism, I would expect them to be treated by the Palace with the utmost seriousness and fully investigated.”

I guess we know what Boris Johnson’s spokesperson will be asked about this lunchtime.

The Scottish Greens said they are willing to form a pro-independence coalition government with the SNP if Nicola Sturgeon’s party falls just short of winning a majority at Holyrood in May.

Pro-separation Patrick Harvie told The National newspaper he would be willing to form a coalition – and claimed polls showed his party could increase the number of seats it has in the Scottish parliament (the Greens currently have five MSPs).

Sturgeon has claimed she would look to hold a “legal” referendum if she has a majority after the election. Could the Greens’ move could change her definition of majority?

We’ve heard criticisms from one former Theresa May-era official this morning. Time for another.

Philip Rycroft – the top civil servant in charge of the Brexit Department between 2017 and 2019 – said the protocol remained “least-worst option” and had to be made to work. He suggested No 10 was “playing games” by taking unilateral action to change agreed arrangements.

“Traders simply aren’t ready to do the things that are required on the protocol, not least because the government spent the best part of last year saying to them they wouldn’t have to do anything,” he told BBC Radio 4.

“Extending those grace periods is not an unreasonable thing to ask for,” he added.

“But the way that [Brexit minister] David Frost has gone about this, to tell the Commission he was unilaterally extending without doing his opposite number in the Commission the courtesy of picking up the phone, suggests that they’re still playing games around Brexit.”

I was trying to spare you the Meghan and Harry interview stuff. But a government minister has been pulled in to comment on it this morning.

Children’s minister Vicky Ford told Sky News that there is “absolutely no place for racism in our society” after the Sussexes alleged that an unnamed member of the royal family raised “concerns” about how dark the colour of her child’s skin would be.

Most MPs are staying clear of the subject on social media this morning, although Labour MP Nadia Whittome has commented.

“Now that Meghan has revealed comments about her child’s skin colour, will they investigate racism in the Palace? I won’t be holding my breath.”

The UK’s goods exports slumped by £54bn in 2020 as the country lost market share to competitors over Brexit and Covid hammered global trade, new research shows.

The findings show that the UK suffered a 14.7 per cent fall in goods exports – one of the largest of any major country – and also saw a slower recovery as other nations took market share in key export destinations.

Researchers at Aston University’s Centre for Business Prosperity said “considerable post-Brexit challenges” threatened to derail any recovery from the pandemic.

“It is anticipated that the combination of Covid, Brexit and the UK’s long-term productivity challenges will put British businesses in an adverse position for the foreseeable future,” the report’s authors wrote.

Our business report Ben Chapman has more details:

Boris Johnson has used International Women’s Day to pay tribute to some of those involved in the fight against coronavirus.

The PM praised the work of Professor Sarah Gilbert, who helped develop the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, former vaccines taskforce head Kate Bingham, medical regulator boss Dr June Raine, and NHS England’s Dr Emily Lawson and Dr Nikki Kanani.