Markus Andrews

David Frost has branded Covid lockdowns a “serious mistake”, stepping up his criticism of the beleaguered Boris Johnson as he fights to stay in office.The former Brexit minister – who resigned last month – said there were too few voices “challenging the epidemiologists”, calling mask-wearing and Covid passes “stuff that doesn’t work”.Lord Frost also criticised the drive to achieve ‘net zero’ carbon emissions, saying: “We are rushing at some of this stuff. We’re bringing in measures that are sort of unnecessary, too soon.”The criticisms confirm the former close Johnson ally is now firmly aligned with backbench MPs determined to end all Covid rules and who believe he is “not Tory enough”.On lockdowns, Lord Frost said: “I think, honestly, people are going to look back at the last couple of years globally and see lockdown as a pretty serious public policy mistake.“I would like to see the government ruling out lockdowns for the future, repealing the legislation, ending them. We can’t afford it, it doesn’t work,” he told a Daily Telegraph podcast.“Stop doing Covid theatre – vaccine passports, masks, stuff that doesn’t work – and focus on stuff that does work. Stuff like ventilation, antivirals, proper hospital capacity – that’s what we need to be focussing on.”On the climate emergency, Lord Frost criticised “technologies that aren’t ripe, trying to pick winners, trying to subsidise technologies that may not be the best way forward”, saying: “That is increasing costs on individuals.”Many suspected Lord Frost resigned because Mr Johnson forced him to soften his hardline stance on the Northern Ireland Protocol, in his deadlocked talks with the EU.But he insisted it was Covid policy, saying: “That was the reason I resigned, that’s what took me out of the government.“I didn’t agree with the plan B measures, masks, vaccine passports – that’s what forced me out.”The government is widely expected to lift plan B after a review in two weeks’ time, or possibly earlier, as Omicron cases peak at a level lower than feared before Christmas.The prime minister stepped back from imposing tougher restrictions after a cabinet revolt and to avoid another damaging Commons clash with his own MPs.His future hangs in the balance after his dramatic Commons confession that he did attend a No 10 garden party – while claiming he did not realise it was a party.Tory MPs say his fate is now in the hands of Sue Gray, the Cabinet Office civil servant investigating the controversy, although it is unclear whether she will judge whether rules were broken.Some senior Conservatives – Scottish leader Douglas Ross, rising star William Wragg and ex-minister Caroline Nokes – have called for him to quit immediately.Amid the crisis, Tory poll ratings continue to plunge to 28 per cent in one survey – while the chancellor Rishi Sunak has refused to back the prime minister before the inquiry has concluded. More

Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski is facing the prospect of a one-day suspension from parliament for “undermining” an apology he gave in the Commons for bullying staff.The Commons Standards Committee has recommended the MP should also make a further apology in the Commons after media interviews he gave appeared to call into doubt the sincerity of his earlier apology.In its report, the committee said Mr Kawczynski had been required to apologise “unequivocally” for the earlier breach.“Although he says he was sincere by the time he made the apology to the House, he had that morning effectively undermined the sincerity of that apology by broadcasting the fact that he was making it because he was required to do so and he disagreed with the way the case had been conducted,” the committee said.“Mr Kawczynski also broke confidentiality requirements by speaking to Radio Shropshire about the content of the report before it was published and identifying complainants’ job descriptions on nine occasions in his radio interview.”The MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham made his original apology in June last year after he was found to have breached rules on bullying and harassment following a complaint by Commons staff.However, the same day he told an interviewer from BBC Radio Shropshire: “I have no alternative but to apologise because if I don’t apologise then I risk the option of being sanctioned further.”An investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards Kathryn Stone found he also breached confidentiality rules by identifying the complainants through their job titles.In its report, the committee said Mr Kawczynski’s conduct was particularly serious as it risked undermining the credibility of the independent complaints and grievances scheme for Commons staff which has only recently been established.Normally it would merit a more serious sanction but the committee acknowledged the mitigating circumstances cited by the MP, including his commitment to work on his “attitude and behaviour”.It said: “We are persuaded that Mr Kawczynski has been making a sincere attempt to arrive at a better understanding of the roots of his poor behaviour and is genuinely committed to this personal ‘journey’ and to assisting others who may find themselves in the same situation as himself.“Mr Kawczynski has demonstrated to us that he is contrite. He knows that he was foolish and wrong to speak to the journalists as he did.“But his contrition does not detract from the fact that his actions caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole.” More

Liz Truss said the European Union had a “clear responsibility” to solve the problems caused by Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit deal as she prepared for her first face-to-face talks with Maros Sefcovic.The foreign secretary, who assumed responsibility for the negotiations following Lord Frost’s resignation, will host European Commission vice-president Mr Sefcovic at her Chevening country retreat in Kent for talks on Thursday and Friday.She said the EU must show a “pragmatic approach” to the issues created by the Northern Ireland Protocol, which effectively creates a trade barrier in the Irish Sea for goods crossing from Great Britain in order to prevent a hard border with Ireland.Mr Sefcovic will be treated to a dinner of Scottish smoked salmon, Welsh lamb and apple pie made with fruit from Kent. More

A Cabinet minister has refused to say that Boris Johnson will quit even if the inquiry into the lockdown-busting No 10 party he attended finds he broke the rules.Brandon Lewis was told that people would be “shocked” that he would not concede that no prime minister can carry on in office if they have breached their own laws.But the Northern Ireland Secretary – who also defended Mr Johnson for trying to keep secret that he joined the party, in May 2020 – called the issue of rule-breaking “hypothetical”.Pre-judging the inquiry would not be “helpful”, Mr Lewis said, adding: “It’s not accurate. I would always take a view based on the facts as we know them. We don’t know them yet.”But the interviewer, on BBC Breakfast, told the minister that “some people might be shocked” that any prime minister could “remain in place” in such circumstances.“It seems like a pretty good point of principle – which is, if the prime minister breaks the rules, then he can’t be prime minister. How about that?” Mr Lewis was told.The clash came as Mr Johnson’s future hangs in the balance after his dramatic Commons confession that he did attend the party – while claiming he did not realise it was a party.Tory MPs say his fate is now in the hands of Sue Gray, the Cabinet Office civil servant investigating all the No 10 parties, although it is unclear whether she will judge whether rules were broken.Some senior Conservatives – Scottish leader Douglas Ross, rising star William Wragg and ex-minister Caroline Nokes – have called for him to quit immediately.Amid the crisis, Tory poll ratings continue to plunge to 28 per cent in one survey – while the chancellor Rishi Sunak has refused to back the prime minister before the inquiry has concluded.All eyes are on Mr Sunak after he remained silent for eight hours after Mr Johnson’s statement, before issuing a tweet that said only that he had been “right to apologise”, pending Ms Gray’s verdict.Meanwhile, only Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, knows whether the number of letters from MPs calling for a no-confidence vote is close to the 54 needed to trigger that contest.Ms Gray’s report is expected as early as the end of next week, but is designed to set out the facts – which are now largely known – rather than assign blame for what took place.Some MPs believe she may question if Mr Johnson broke the ministerial code with his early denials about rule-breaking – which could prompt a further probe by his own ethics adviser.On BBC Breakfast, it was also put to Mr Brady that it was “absurd” that Mr Johnson will “decide what happens with that report”.He replied that “the findings of that report will be made public and he will make a statement to parliament”.Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow housing secretary, said relatives who did not get to say goodbye to loved ones who died during the first lockdown felt “appalled, horrified and re-traumatised” by Mr Johnson’s actions.And she said: “It’s strange that the police have not launched any kind of wider investigation given the number of pieces of evidence about what’s happening in Downing Street.” More

As Novak Djokovic awaits a final decision on whether his visa will be revoked, all eyes have turned to Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke. He has to decide whether he will overturn the decision of a federal judge, who ruled Djokovic’s visa should be reinstated because he was unfairly treated by officials at the border. Hawke has discretion to revoke Djokovic’s visa but has taken longer than expected to reach a decision which has legal, political, sporting and diplomatic consequences.____WHAT HAPPENS NOW?Whatever Hawke decides, it’s unlikely to be the last word. Djokovic’s lawyers are expected immediately to seek an injunction if the decision that goes against the top ranked Serb tennis player. That would send the matter back to the Federal Court and if the court can’t sit Friday, it won’t be heard until next week when the Australian Open already is underway.Despite the cloud hanging over Djokovic’s ability to compete, Australian Open organizers included the top seed in the draw. He is slated to play fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic, who is ranked world No. 78., in the opening round next week.If Djokovic’s visa is revoked, Djokovic might have to return to a detention facility while legal proceedings play out. If Djokovic is allowed to remain, he will attempt to win a 10th Australian Open singles title and a record 21st Grand Slam title. But if his visa is revoked and his legal challenge fails, he will deported and might not be able to reapply for an Australian visa for three years. Djokovic is 34 and a three-year hiatus might mean he won’t have another chance to win the Australian title.WHAT MUST THE MINISTER CONSIDER?The immigration minister has considerable discretion under Australia’s Migration Act to revoke visas. He can do so on public health grounds, character grounds and for a variety of other reasons.While deliberating on the Djokovic case, Hawke is said to have separated his office from other parts of the government to avoid any impression of political interference.Hawke’s office will consider the original decision to grant Djokovic a visa and an exemption on medical grounds from the rule that all travelers arriving in Australia must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.It will also likely consider whether Djokovic made misstatements on his incoming passenger card when he indicated he hadn’t traveled in 14 days prior to his arrival in Australia. It is now known he traveled to Spain.Djokovic also attended public events and gave an interview to a French newspaper after his positive test. The Serbian and Spanish governments are reported to be investigating those issues.WHAT DOES DJOKOVIC SAY?Recent revelations of his travels and giving an interview after testing positive led to calls for Djokovic to be more forthcoming. British former World No. 1 Andy Murray welcomed Djokovic’s win in court but agreed he had questions to resolve.”There are still a few questions that need to be answered about the isolation and … I’m sure we’ll hear from him in the next few days,” Murray said.Djokovic addressed those questions in a lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday, where he blamed “human error” by his support team for failing to declare that he had traveled in the two-week period before entering Australia. He said he went ahead with the interview “as I did not want to let the journalist down” but conceded he might have made an error of judgement.WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?No definitive polls have been conducted to determine how Australians feel about Djokovic and his treatment by the government. But vox pops and self-selecting polls on some news websites suggest public support for Djokovic has ebbed and flowed since his visa was first canceled.The initial decision to grant the unvaccinated tennis star a medical exemption to play at the Australian Open was polarizing. Australians have faced almost two years of strict border controls during the pandemic, which have limited their ability to travel overseas and prevented those overseas from returning.The decision to allow a prominent vaccine skeptic an exemption to pass through the border was not warmly welcomed in a country in which 91.3% of the eligible population is vaccinated.Former top ranked player Martina Navratilova put in succinctly.“The bottom line is sometimes your personal beliefs have to be trumped by what’s good for the greater good,” Navratilova said Thursday. “Quite frankly, you have two choices: get vaccinated or don’t go play.”Public sympathy turned a little in Djokovic’s favor when he was held for four days in an immigration detention hotel. And when the Federal Circuit Court found in his favor, there was concern mishandling of the visa cancellation painted Australia in a bad light.More recent revelations of Djokovic’s behavior after he tested positive might again have turned public opinion against him.WHAT DO POLITICIANS SAY?When news broke last week that Djokovic had been detained at the border and his visa canceled, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was quick to embrace the decision.Morrison’s government had been under pressure as the omicron variant swept across Australia, and he sensed a political win in a decision that made him look tough on immigration. He has had less to say since the court overturned the cancellation of Djokovic’s visa, allowing the legal process to play out.But Anthony Albanese, leader of the opposition Labour Party, has been scathing in his criticism of the government. “This has been diabolical for Australia’s reputation, just in terms of our competence here and it is extraordinary that as we are speaking we still don’t know what the decision will be,” Albanese said. “The decision should have been made before he was granted a visa. Either he was eligible or he wasn’t.”Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was equally blunt.“The vast majority of Australians … didn’t like the idea that another individual, whether they’re a tennis player or … the king of Spain or the Queen of England, can come up here and have a different set of rules to what everybody else has to deal with,” he said. Djokovic “is still a child of God like the rest of us, isn’t he? So he has to abide by the laws.” More

Jacob Rees-Mogg has branded the Scottish Conservative leader “a lightweight” after he told Boris Johnson to resign. Douglas Ross called for Mr Johnson to step down following the prime minister’s admission that he attended a Downing Street party during lockdown in May 2020.Just hours after the prime minister’s apology to MPs, Mr Ross said the prime minister’s position was “no longer tenable”.But Mr Rees-Mogg told BBC’s Newsnight: “Douglas Ross has always been quite a lightweight figure.”He said the Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, who is supportive of the prime minister, was “much more substantial and important”.The Commons leader made the remark after brushing aside presenter Kirsty Wark’s statement that Newsnight had been told all 31 Scottish Conservative MSPs believe Boris Johnson should quit. Earlier, Mr Rees-Mogg told LBC he did not think the Scottish Conservative leader was “a big figure”.He added: “I don’t think it’s a surprise Douglas Ross takes this view.“He’s never been a supporter of the prime minister. He has constantly made disobliging comments about the PM.”Mr Rees-Mogg’s defence came amid a bruising day for Boris Johnson.The prime minister is facing intense pressure after a leaked email showed around 100 No 10 staff were invited to a drinks gathering in Downing Street’s rose garden on 20 May 2020, while the country was still subject to strict Covid lockdown restrictions.At PMQs, Mr Johnson apologised for attending the party – but insisted he thought it was a “work event”.Mr Rees-Mogg also dismissed opinion polls suggesting Boris Johnson should resign yesterday, and said Tory MPs who have called for the PM to go were “people who are always unhappy”.He told Times Radio: “They are people who have never really supported the prime minister, two of the ones you mentioned have always been quite strongly opposed to him, and therefore you would expect them to be relatively grumpy, and so that’s not surprising.”He said: “I think they are fundamentally mistaken and they are misjudging where we are and what the Prime Minister has succeeded in doing.” More

Many rivers in England contain a “chemical cocktail” of pollution which poses a risk to public health, according to a new parliamentary committee report.The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) raised concerns over sewage, agricultural waste and single-use plastic in the country’s waterways, saying this could harm swimmers and wildlife. It said England’s rivers were “in a mess” – and none had received a clean bill of health for chemical contamination. “Disturbing evidence suggests they are becoming breeding grounds for antimicrobial resistance,” the report said.Experts said it provided a “scathing snapshot” of the water quality of England’s rivers and the risks were being exacerbated by the climate crisis.Agricultural waste was the most common form of pollution stopping rivers from achieving good ecological status, while sewage was having the same effect on over a third of water bodies, the EAC report said.It also found a major source of plastic pollution in rivers were tiny particulates worn away from brakes and tyres that get wased into watercourses from busy roads.Single-use plastics were “clogging up” drains and sewage works, while water companies appeared to be dumping untreated or partially treated sewage in rivers “on a regular basis”, the report – published on Thursday – said.Bacteria found in sewage and animal slurry – that can end up in rivers – can make people ill, the EAC said. “Poor monitoring arrangements mean that river users cannot currently make informed decisions about when it is safe or not to use rivers,” it said.“The prevalence of plastic pollution, the prescence of persistent chemicals and spread of antimicrobial pathogens in rivers in England are all of grave concern.” Surfers Against Sewage told the EAC poor water quality was a public health issue, as it risked exposure to harmful viruses and antimicrobial resistant bacteria that could cause sickness and even long-term health effects.It was important for both public health and wildlife to clean up their waters, the report added.Philip Dunne, the Tory chair of the EAC, said: “Our inquiry has uncovered multiple failures in the monitoring, governance and enforcement on water quality.”“For too long, the government, regulators and the water industry have allowed a Victorian sewerage system to buckle under increasing pressure.”The report said the sewerage system was “overloaded and unable to cope with the increasing pressures of housing development, the impact of heavier rainfall and a profusion of plastic and other non-biodegradable waste clogging up the system”. Professor Rick Stafford, the chair of the British Ecological Society policy committee, said: “Sewage and agricultural waste not only cause disease, but disrupt the nutrient dynamics of rivers, causing excess algae and harming biodiversity.“Poor water quality can also greatly impact many charismatic river species, including salmon and otters, which have only recently recovered in many UK rivers.”The EAC report said the build-up of excess nutrients from animal waste and sewage was reducing oxygen levels in rivers – which can cause fish to die.Professor Hannah Cloke from the University of Reading said the report gave “a scathing snapshot of the state of the water quality in England’s rivers”.The hydrology professor said she was “appalled that we have reached a point where every single river in the country is considered dangerously polluted by chemicals”. Last year, another report said England’s rivers, lakes and streams had some of the lowest water quality in Europe and warned the climate crisis was worsening conditions.In response to the EAC report, Professor Nigel Watson from the Lancaster Environment Centre said: “The risks to public health and to wildlife from poor water quality are exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. “Discharges of untreated sewage have become increasingly commonplace as a result of more frequent intense rainfall and storm events, despite those discharges only being permitted by law in exceptional circumstances.”Rebecca Pow, the environment minister, said the report highlighted “many areas” being tackled by the government, who she claimed was going “further and faster” than any others to protect and enhance the health of rivers.“Our Environment Act puts in place more protections against water pollution than ever before and we are the first government to instruct water companies to take steps to significantly reduce storm overflows, which we have also put into law,” she said, adding the government would take action against water companies failing to reduce pollution. More

Labour has posted a ten-point lead against the Tories, according to the latest YouGov poll.The Tories saw arguably their most tumultuous day of Boris Johnson’s leadership on Wednesday as the prime minister admitted to having attended a party in the Downing Street garden when the UK was still in lockdown.A poll conducted by YouGov for The Times put the Tories on 28 per cent, with Labour ahead on 38 per cent.Labour were up one point, while the Tories were down five points.In the same poll, Sir Keir Starmer was far ahead on who would make the best prime minister. Just 23 per cent said Mr Johnson would, while Sir Keir was on 35 per cent.Just 6 per cent of people said they thought Mr Johnson had been honest in responding to questions about Downing Street parties.And 60 per cent said they thought he should resign, including 38 per cent of people who voted Conservative in 2019. A separate poll taken on Tuesday by Savanta ComRes found that two-thirds thought he should resign, including 42 per cent of Tory voters.It has been bad news in the polls for the Tories since the first allegations of parties in government during lockdown emerged.Meanwhile, Labour has been able to take advantage of the government’s poor standing with the public. Sir Keir Starmer took several jabs at Mr Johnson’s “ridiculous denials” and said the British public thought he was “lying through his teeth”.The Liberal Democrats have also seen a slight boost amid the recent furore, gaining 3 points in the YouGov poll to put them on 13 per cent. More