Boris Johnson news – live: 'Cowardly' PM refuses to apologise after blaming care homes for coronavirus deaths, as UK resumes arms sales to Saudi Arabia

One in seven UK workers could be unemployed this year, OECD warns

Our business correspondent Ben Chapman has more:

What the chancellor’s ‘mini-Budget’ could mean for you

What might Rishi Sunak reveal tomorrow when he delivers his “summer economic update” to the Commons? There has been speculation about a £500 giveaway for all, a VAT cut and a stamp duty holiday – as well as heavily trailed announcements on support for jobseekers and green investments.

Felicity Hannah has taken a loser look:

Nobody wants ‘frozen relations’ with China, says leading Tory MP

Tory MP Alicia Kearns said holding concerns over China’s behaviour did not equate with being against continued trade with the Asian powerhouse.

She made her comments after ex-chancellor Philip Hammond warned of an “alarming” rise in anti-Chinese sentiment in the Conservative Party.

The Commons foreign affairs committee member told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Unfortunately, it is just not something I accept.

“There is a lot of concern about China and I think it is very interesting how during the Covid-19 pandemic that awareness and concern has actually filtered through to the general public,” added the member of the China Research Group, a band of Tory MPs.

“But when I speak to my colleagues, none of us want to enter into an era of frozen relations with China, that’s just not what we want or are trying to seek to achieve.”

Explaining her concerns about how China operates, she added: “China is an autocratic regime with a president who is increasingly flexing his muscle internationally and at home and also China is now seeing a UK that is standing by our moral and legal responsibilities and it will also need time to adapt to that Britain which it possibly is not as used to because we haven’t had to take those actions.”

Barnier issues warning ahead of No 10 dinner

Ahead of today’s meeting-and-dinner talks with UK negotiator David Frost, Michel Barnier, Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator, tweeted that the EU “wants an agreement – and we are doing everything to succeed – but not at any price”.

Posting an image from his train journey to London, Barnier added: “We are engaging constructively & I look forward to equivalent engagement from the UK this week.”

Incidentally, we’re told this evening’s menu consists of chargrilled asparagus, followed by a fillet of halibut and then a terrine of summer fruits.

No new target for ending illegal migrant crossings, says Patel

There is no new target for when illegal migrant crossings should have become an “infrequent phenomenon”, the home secretary has said.

Priti Patel said the crossings are a “complicated issue” and the English Channel has become “far too viable for criminals”.

Less than a year ago she vowed “urgent action” on the dangerous crossings, aiming for them to be virtually eradicated by spring this year.

But at least 2,324 migrants have crossed to the UK in the first six months of 2020, according to analysis by the PA news agency.

Patel was asked if there was a new target date for the crossings to be reduced to an “infrequent phenomenon” – a reference to her pledge in 2019.

Patel replied: “No. The fact of the matter is, I’ve said from day one this is a complicated issue. Illegal migration has been a feature of every single government. The fact of the matter is, and I have repeatedly said this, when it comes to small boats in particular that is a route that has become far too viable for criminals.”

White House-style TV briefings ‘obviously political move’, says Starmer

Keir Starmer doesn’t like the idea of White House-style daily press briefings from No 10, claiming they risk “unbalancing the political discourse” in Britain.

No 10 is expected to recruit an experienced broadcaster as a “political appointee” to answer questions from Westminster journalists starting in October.

The Labour leader said the televised events were “obviously a political move” and that his party is considering a right of reply.

Starmer told the Evening Standard: “Nobody can quarrel with greater transparency but this is political and one of the greatest things in our democracy is balance and hearing both sides.

“We are exploring, and keen to explore, just how the political balance is maintained if you move to this style of briefing. That’s the risk of it, that it unbalances the political discourse.”

 

Tory conference cancelled – and replaced with virtual event

Conservative party chair Amanda Milling has announced there won’t be a proper party conference this October. Event are still being held “online” so members can share ideas.

She said: “If guidelines allow we hope we can include some elements of the traditional Party Conference we all know and love.”

MPs demand Boris Johnson apologise after blaming care homes

A cross-party group of MPs has now written to Boris Johnson to demand an apology for his apparent attempt to blame care home operators for deaths of residents from coronavirus.

In the letter, signed by Lib Dem leadership candidate Layla Moran, as well as party colleagues Wendy Chamberlain, Jamie Stone and Wera Hobhouse, Labour’s Clive Lewis, Green MP Caroline Lucas, the MPs branded the PM’s comment “deeply offensive”.

They said: “Whether your comments are an attempt to shift the blame, or just a case of unfortunate wording, it really is deeply offensive and has caused great hurt in a sector you supposedly champion in words, maybe not in deeds.”

The group also called on the PM to come forward with his long-promised plan for reform of the sector’s funding, as well as a pay rise for social care staff.

UK to resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia, says government

Britain is to resume selling arms to Saudi Arabia despite assessing that the country could be using them to commit war crimes, the government has announced.

International trade secretary Liz Truss said on Tuesday that the government had completed a review of how arms export licences were granted in order to comply with an earlier court ruling suspending sales.

Truss said in statement that while some “credible incidents of concern” related to Saudi forces’ conduct had been classified as “possible” breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL), the UK government viewed these as “isolated incidents”.

‘We can only regret such unfriendly steps’

More now on the Russian warning of retaliatory sanctions against the UK. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow regretted the “unfriendly” actions of the UK government after Dominic Raab announced 25 Russian officials were on Britain’s first unilateral list of sanctions for human rights abuses since leaving the EU.

“We can only regret such unfriendly steps,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency. “Of course, the principle of reciprocity will be enforced to the extent that would fit the interests of the Russian Federation.”

On the unilateral list of sanctions for human rights abuse are the head of Russia’s investigative committee, Alexander Bastrykin, deputy prosecutor general Viktor Grin and deputy interior minister Alexei Anichin.

Frost and Barnier to dine on fish

Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier will have dinner in No 10 later on Tuesday to kick off the latest round of Brexit talks, a spokesman for Boris Johnson said.

“David Frost and Michel Barnier are having dinner at No 10 this evening for informal talks,” said the spokesman. “The dinner tonight kicks off the talks and then tomorrow there’ll be teams of officials from the UK and from the EU sitting down having further discussions.”

The menu? Chargrilled asparagus, followed by a fillet of halibut and then a terrine of summer fruits, we are told.

Downing Street said the talks were likely to include discussions on the so-called level-playing field. The PM’s spokesman said: “They are informal talks so there is no published agenda, but I think you’ll be fully aware of the full range of issues that we need to reach agreement with the EU on.

“So I’m sure discussions will cover everything from what the EU calls the level-playing field through to governance structures.”

‘Boris Johnson’s boomerang of blame has hit him in the face’

Our chief political commentator John Rentoul has taken a look at the flak received by the prime minister over his claim care homes “didn’t really follow the procedures” – and the idea he is trying to shift the blame for Britain’s high coronavirus death toll.

“The worst thing about Johnson’s comment from his own point of view is that it feeds an unhealthy public mood of hunting out someone to blame,” he writes.

“By trying to shift the blame from himself and his government, the prime minister has only lit the torches of the pitchfork-wielding crowd besieging No 10.”

PM refuses to apologise for blaming care homes for coronavirus death toll

Boris Johnson is not offering an apology or formal retraction for his claim that some care homes “didn’t really follow the procedures” to protect residents and staff from coronavirus, Downing Street has indicated.

Asked what Johnson meant by his comments, the PM’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: “Throughout the pandemic care homes have done a brilliant job under very difficult circumstances.

“The prime minister was pointing out that nobody knew what the correct procedures were because the extent of asymptomatic transmission was not known at the time.”

Asked if Johnson would like to apologise or retract the comments, the spokesman said:

“As I’ve just set out, the PM thinks that throughout the pandemic care homes have done a brilliant job under very difficult circumstances.”

Police forces should record misogyny as hate crime, says campaigner

Police forces across the UK should immediately start recording misogyny as a hate crime, a leading campaigner has said.

The comments come as Labour’s metro mayors lent their support to a parliamentary proposal launched by MP Stella Creasy  centred around making the police start recording misogyny as a hate crime. The Labour MP for Walthamstow has put forward an amendment to the domestic abuse bill which would make this possible.

Sylvie Pope, who helped spearhead the campaign for misogyny to be treated as a hate crime, told The Independent seven police are already recording misogynistic hate crimes – and called on more to act. “Police can start doing it from today … we hope to see more police forces adopting it immediately.”

Our women’s correspondent Maya Oppenheim has more details.

Former Labour MP pleads guilty to child sex offence

Former Labour MP Eric Joyce has pleaded guilty to making an indecent photograph of a child. Joyce, who represented the party for Falkirk between 2000 and 2012, appeared at Ipswich Crown Court today for a pre-trial hearing.

According to the BBC, Joyce was charged last month after being arrested in November 2018. The charge alleged that he had made an indecent photograph of a child which was found on a device and classified as a Category A image.

Judge Emma Peters said that the single 51-second movie, found on a device, “depicts a number of children”.

No 10 must ‘tread carefully’ with China, ex-chancellor warns

A closer look now at ex-chancellor Phillip Hammond’s warned of an alarming rise of “anti-Chinese sentiment” within the Conservative Party – as he suggested the UK should avoid jeopardising its trading relationship with the world’s second largest economy.

Hammond, foreign secretary when David Cameron declared a “Golden Era” of Sino-British relations, said the UK was already “loosening its ties” with the EU in “the name of expanding its global reach”.

“It seems to me this is not a time to be wanting to weaken our trade links with the world’s second largest economy,” he said. Hammond added: “I’m concerned about the outbreak of anti-Chinese sentiment within the Conservative Party.

“As I say, it’s always been right to be clear-eyed about the challenges of a relationship with China and frank about the differences we have with China, but that seems to me over the last months to have accelerated into something which is becoming a little bit more alarming.

“At the same time, we are in a position where need to build our trade relationships around the globe, but China is Britain’s third largest trading partner after the EU and the US and I think we need to tread carefully in how we manage this relationship.”

Our correspondent Ashley Cowburn has more:

Kremlin: Russia will respond to UK sanctions with ‘reciprocal measures’

Russia will respond with reciprocal measures to British sanctions against 25 Russians, including the country’s top state investigator, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Britain imposed sanctions on 25 Russians and 20 Saudis on Monday as part of post-Brexit measures foreign minister Dominic Raab said were aimed at stopping the laundering of “blood money”.

‘British sanctions won’t have impact without EU’

What impact can the UK have now the country is going it alone of sanctions against alleged human rights abusers?

Commentator Lauren Crosby Medlicott argues that the foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s autonomous programme “will not produce proposed results and is ill-timed”.

“Following Brexit and coronaviurs, the UK is in a weak position. We are not in a place to bargain with other countries as all of our chips are gone,” she writes.

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