At prime minister’s questions in the Commons, the Labour leader said Everard’s death should be a “watershed moment” and urged Mr Johnson to press ahead with swift legislation to deal with the “epidemic of violence” faced by women.
The PM agreed, saying he believed that “frankly, unless and until we have a change in our culture that acknowledges and understands that women currently do not feel they are being heard, we will not fix this problem”.
While the pair found some common ground on this issue, they went on to butt heads over the Conservative Party’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which has played into the causes for mass protests in central London over the past four days.
The PM launched an attack on Labour for voting against the bill, which he argued included measures to make the streets safer for women and girls, but Sir Keir retorted that the bill “said a lot more about protecting statues than protecting women”.
PM says he is ‘deeply sorry’ for lives lost to Covid
Boris Johnson has said he is “deeply, deeply sorry” for all the coronavirus deaths in the UK over the past year.
His words came during PMQs after Labour’s Richard Burgon urged him to “hold up his hands” to the fact that his government’s late decisions had led to “deadly consequences”.
Mr Burgon, the MP for Leeds East, added that the death toll was now “six times higher” than the 20,000 figure which was deemed a “good outcome” 12 months ago.
The prime minister said he takes “full responsibility” for the government’s actions during the pandemic, adding that a “fully inquiry” would happen at a later date.
No 10 refuses to say whether PM regrets past sexist comments
Downing Street has refused to say whether Boris Johnson regrets using sexist language in the last, while insisting that he has a “strong track record” on support for women and girls.
The comment follows Mr Johnson’s call on Wednesday for the UK to undergo a “cultural and social change in attitudes” in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard.
Iran accuses PM of ‘utter hypocrisy’ over nuclear arsenal expansion
Iran has seized an opportunity to criticise the UK government after Boris Johnson announced he would remove the Cold War-era limit on the nation’s nuclear stockpile.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, accused the prime minister of “utter hypocrisy” over the decision. Russia also condemned the move.
“Unlike the UK and allies, Iran believes nukes and all WMDs are barbaric and must be eradicated,” Mr Zarif added.
Our international correspondent Borzou Daragahi reports:
GB suppliers deciding trade with NI ‘too much hassle,’ warns food industry chief
A leading food services company has expressed concern that GB suppliers are deciding that trading in Northern Ireland is not worth the hassle of extra Brexit bureaucracy.
Andrew Lynas, managing director of Coleraine-based Lynas Foodservice, told MPs that buying mozzarella cheese from one of his long-standing suppliers in England now requires eight separate processes under the Northern Ireland protocol.
Prior to the protocol coming into effect at the end of December, he said there were no checks required.
Mr Lynas was among business representatives giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday, on the implications of the extra red tape required by the contentious arrangements governing Irish Sea trade post-Brexit.
He said a GB company that he buys food from to fulfil his contract supplying Northern Ireland schools is charging him an extra £150 per load to cover administrative costs.
“If I was going to a GB supplier and saying: ‘Can I get good x from you?’… If he’s got orders from a Welsh supplier, a Scottish supplier and someone in Birmingham, and he gets my order, what position do you think my order is going to go in?
“Unfortunately, we know it’s going to come fourth.”
Mr Lynas added that his business was facing paying an extra £50,000 in admin costs a year due to the protocol.
Sturgeon ‘strongly refutes’ whistleblower allegations from Tory MP
Nicola Sturgeon has said she “refutes” claims made by Conservative MP David Davis over the Scottish government’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against former first minister Alex Salmond.
Using parliamentary privilege, David Davis claimed messages disclosed by a whistleblower show there was a “concerted effort by senior members of the SNP to encourage complaints” against the former first minister.
Mr Davis told the Commons the messages present a case “which demands serious investigation”.
The Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints was set up after a successful judicial review by Mr Salmond resulted in the Scottish government’s investigation being ruled unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”, with a £512,250 payout being awarded to him for legal fees in 2019.
Speaking at the Scottish government’s Covid briefing, the first minister said: “Other than to say that I strongly refute the suggestions and insinuations of David Davis in the House of Commons last night, I am not going to have this Covid briefing sidetracked by the latest instalment of Alex Salmond’s conspiracy theory.
“I have given eight hours of evidence to the parliamentary committee looking into this. They are now able to assess all of the evidence they’ve taken, including, I’m sure, the evidence they have in relation to the suggestions and claims made by David Davis last night.
“They have a job of work to do, now, I’m going to allow them to do that job of work and, in the meantime I’m going to get on with my job.”
Make Everard’s death a ‘turning point’ for safety of women, urges Starmer
Keir Starmer has offered cross-party cooperation to make the death of Sarah Everard a “turning point” for safety for women and girls.
At prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons, the Labour leader said the 33-year-old marketing executive’s death should be a “watershed moment” leading to change as profound as that which followed the murders of Stephen Lawrence and James Bulger.
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full report:
PM urged to protect right to peaceful protest
Green MP Caroline Lucas has urged the government to protect the right to peaceful protest, describing it as a “cornerstone of liberal democracy”.
The prime minister replied: “She is quite right to stick up for peaceful protest and I understand that and I sympathise with that.
However, Boris Johnson added that human contact needed to be restricted because of the pandemic.
“I think that we also have to strike a balance between the need to allow peaceful protest to go ahead – and we do on a huge scale in this country – but also to protect free speech and vital parts of the UK economy,” he said.
Johnson to receive AstraZeneca jab soon
SNP condemns PM over increase to nuclear arsenal
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, has urged Boris Johnson to tell Scots why Westminster decided to extend the UK’s nuclear arsenal.
The SNP politician said that extra “weapons of mass destruction” should not be forced on Scotland, after the UK government said it planned to increase its nuclear stockpile by 40 per cent.
The prime minister did not directly address the question, but instead accused Holyrood of seeking a second Scottish independence referendum at the expense of more serious issues.
Peter Grant, another SNP politician, later asked Mr Johnson to address his colleague’s earlier question about the “obscenity” of building more nuclear weapons.
“We need strong defences – that’s what people in this country voted for,” the prime minister said.
EU vaccine situation proves benefit of leaving bloc, Cummings claims
As mentioned earlier, Dominic Cummings has said the EU’s handling of its vaccine rollout proves the UK did well to leave the bloc.
Here’s Ashley Cowburn with more details:
Starmer says rape and sexual violence sentences need to be tougher
The Labour leader has called on the prime minister to introduce tougher sentences for rape and sexual violence offenders.
Keir Starmer listed several examples of sentences he deemed too lenient. This included a man who was sentenced to 7 years in jail for raping a 13 year-old girl.
In response, the prime minister said that Labour should have supported yesterday’s policing bill to support this wish.
Mr Starmer replied by claiming that the bill would not toughen the sentences he was discussing.
PM pledges that Sarah Everard’s murder will be a ‘turning point’
At PMQs, Keir Starmer asked Boris Johnson whether his government would commit to making Sarah Everard’s murder a “turning point” in society.
In response to the Labour leader’s question, the prime minister said his government would work to make the UK a safer place for women and girls.
PM faces Starmer at PMQs
Watch Boris Johnson face Keir Starmer in this week’s PMQs:
Cummings lambasts EU for vaccine row
Dominic Cummings has said Brussel’s recent actions over coronavirus vaccines prove that the arguments he made during the Vote Leave campaign were justified.
Speaker to MPs on the Science and Technology Committee, the former No 10 aide said he had argued that it would be “very dangerous to let the EU continue to regulate science and technology in this country”.
Mr Cummings referred to the recent decision by many European countries to suspend the AstraZeneca vaccine over safety concerns – despite experts suggesting there is no certain link between the jabs and blood clots.
“Just this week we’ve seen what happens when you have an anti-science, anti-entrepreneurial, anti-technology culture in Brussels married with its appalling bureaucracy in its insane decisions and warnings on the AstraZeneca vaccine,” he said.
Labour criticises government on education after NAO report
Shadow education secretary Kate Green has criticised the government after the National Audit Office (NAO) released a report suggesting that the poorest children were missing out on catch-up tuition.
The NAO said that fewer than half of those receiving extra tuition in February were on pupil premium, a grant given to schools to help disadvantaged children.
Ms Green said: “The government has failed children throughout this pandemic. A step change is needed to ensure they are not also left behind in our recovery.”
No targets to measure effectiveness of government’s ‘levelling-up” agenda, minister reveals
Eddie Hughes, a local government minister, has said that no targets will be set to assess whether the government is successful in its “levelling-up” agenda.
This comes more than a year afterThe Independent was told by No 10 to “wait for the Budget” to hear how the effectiveness of the levelling-up policy would be measured.
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:
Salmond inquiry should be allowed to run its course, SNP says
The Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s botched handling of harassment allegations made against Alex Salmond should be allowed to run its course, the SNP has said.
John Swinney, the party’s deputy leader, made the comment the day after Tory MP David Davis used his parliamentary privilege to share messages released by a whistleblower.
Mr Davis claimed on Tuesday that these messages showed a “concerted effort by senior members of the SNP to encourage complaints” against Mr Salmond.
In response, a spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said: “As with Mr Salmond’s previous claims and cherry-picking of messages, the reality is very different to the picture being presented.”
Cummings struck ‘deal’ with PM before entering No 10
Here’s Ashley Cowburn with more on the “deal” Dominic Cummings struck with Boris Johnson before he became prime minister:
Video – Johnson made ‘deal’ with Cummings before entering Downing Street
Dominic Cummings told MPs on Wednesday morning that he only accepted the job of Boris Johnson’s chief adviser in July 2019 after some stipulations were met.
These included a promise from Mr Johnson that Brexit would happen, that the science budget would be doubled and that a scientific research agency like the US’ DARPA would be created in the UK.
Labour faces awkward by-election after MP quits
Mike Hill, the Labour MP for Hartlepool, has stood down from parliament amid allegations of sexual harrassment which he denies.
Elected as the northeast town’s MP in 2017, he was suspended from Labour in 2019 after the allegations came to light.
A by-election in the potentially vulnerable “red wall” seat will take place soon. Although no date has been fixed, it is most likely to happen on 6 May.
