Brexit news – live: Boris Johnson warned of export slump, as two-thirds of lorries leaving UK empty

Boris Johnson tweeted: “Very encouraging that early trials of the vaccine developed by Janssen show it to be effective against coronavirus. We have secured 30 million doses, and if approved by our medicines regulator we should expect these to be available later this year.” 

The health secretary, Matt Hancock has said the recent news on the Novavax and Janssen vaccines showed the UK’s “approach of buying abroad and making here at home is paying off”.

“I want to say a huge thank you to everybody involved who has helped get the UK in this pole position to protect our population and to make sure we get out of this pandemic,” he said in a video posted to Twitter.

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford has suggested that the new border restrictions the British government has announced are too weak in scope. 

Under the changes, passengers travelling from “high risk” countries will have to quarantine in accommodation such as hotels. Mr Drakeford said more should be done. 

Speaking at a press conference in Cardiff on Friday, he said: “I think they’ve done the minimum that was necessary this week and we have supported them in doing that. I think the case for doing more is a significant one.

“None of us know where a new variant may crop up. It may crop up in a country where we’ve got no concerns at all at the moment. And in the current arrangements, people could be here with that new virus before we knew anything about it.” 

Downing Street has said that the UK will not “look the other way” when it comes to Hong Kong nationals with British National (Overseas) status. 

The announcement came ahead of a new visa scheme for those with BNO status, which will start on Sunday. 

The government’s commitment to support Hong Kong nationals was first given last year after China introduced a controversial security law, which restricts citizens’ rights and freedoms in the territory.  

An official No 10 spokesperson said that 7,000 BNO passport holders have been granted leave to settle in the UK since July. 

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said that much of the debate around Black Lives Matter has not grasped the complexity of history. 

Speaking on the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast, he said: “I think a lot of the debate around Black Lives Matter and imperialism or colonialism has a very kind of cartoon-like view of what was happening over centuries across a quarter of the world.”

He also described the toppling of statues earlier this year as an “act of vandalism”.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has more on this story: 

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford has announced that schools in Wales could start to reopen in February, as the country has seen a significant drop in the number of Covid-19 cases.

He said: “If infections continue to fall, we want children to be able to return to school after half-term from February 22, starting with the youngest children in our primary schools.”

The country currently has 170 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, down from 270 last Friday. 

Amazon plans to open its first packing warehouse in Ireland, Bloomberg has reported. 

While the retail giant said it would not comment on “rumour and speculation”, the potential move would allow the Irish customers to receive its goods faster. 

Currently, many items are dispatched from the UK to Ireland, with delays resulting from the new post-Brexit customs rules. 

Sian Berry, the Green Party’s candidate for London mayor, has vowed to change the policing of cannabis, if she is elected to City Hall. 

The co-leader of the Greens, who is currently third in the polls, said tackling the problems around the enforcement of cannabis laws would “fix the heart of a lot of the disproportionality of policing”. 

“The experience of young black men on the streets of London is they are constantly suspected of drug offences when in actual fact they’re even less likely to be taking drugs than white young men. It’s just utterly disproportionate,” Ms Berry told The Independent. 

Here’s my colleague Andy Gregory with this exclusive: 

Has the EU been hard done by? Or are Brussels bosses attempting to cover for their failure to order vaccines quickly enough? The AstraZeneca contract is finally out, so we can all get reading.

UK-based pharma giant AstraZeneca will publish a redacted version of its contract with the EU amid a deepening row between the two sides over vaccine supply shortages.

Eric Mamer, chief spokesmen of the European Commission, told a Brussels briefing: “AstraZeneca has agreed to publish the redacted contract signed between the two parties on August 27 2020.”

He added: “We welcome the company’s commitment towards more transparency in its participation to the rollout of the EU vaccine strategy.”