Markus Andrews

Next year’s Christmas is at risk from Covid restrictions unless the UK and other rich nations stop hoarding vaccines desperately needed in Africa, Gordon Brown is warning.The former prime minister has hit out at Boris Johnson for a false claim that low take-up of jabs – rather than a shortage – is to blame for a lack of protection in countries with the new Omicron variant.In an article for The Independent, Mr Brown calls on Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance, the chief medical and scientific officers, to “sit Johnson down” and make him understand “basic medical facts”.They are that South Africa and Botswana have administered a “far higher” proportion of their does than Western nations – but that effort is crippled by “broken promises” by rich countries to share more jabs.The UK was already lagging behind the EU and US by pledging only 100 million doses, but has released only 11 per cent of that total in the 5 months since, he says.Mr Brown writes that such delays are “leaving all of us at risk when – through no fault of their own – a number of countries have become spaces for outbreaks of new variants of the virus”.And he urges Professor Whitty and Sir Patrick to “make clear that in all our interests he changes course in the way he is treating Africa”.A failure to do so “will not just put Christmas 2021 at risk but may leave us facing similar problems of a half-vaccinated world next year – and even next Christmas,” the former Labour leader warns.The prime minister provoked astonishment, at the Saturday night press conference where he unveiled the return of some Covid restrictions, with his claims about vaccine-sharing.He rejected criticism that the spread of Omicron in southern Africa showed the folly of hoarding jabs – insisting the problem has “not been supply, but hesitancy and lack of take-up” and arguing the UK has been “leading” the world.In the article, Mr Brown, now the World Health Organisation ambassador for global health financing, quotes a warning from the Africa Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance co-chair.Ayoade Alaki said, of the arrival of Omicron: “What is going on right now is inevitable, it’s a result of the world’s failure to vaccinate in an equitable, urgent and speedy manner.“It is as a result of vaccine hoarding by high-income countries of the world, and quite frankly it is unacceptable.”Mr Brown writes: “Not for the first time, Johnson has shown a casual disregard for the facts. But this time his erroneous claims – and the result – a longer-term failure to speed up the delivery of unused Covid-19 vaccines to Africa, is putting lives at risk not only in Africa but round the world.“Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, our well-respected chief medical and scientific advisers, should sit Boris Johnson down and acquaint him with some basic medical facts.” More

Boris Johnson risks a leadership challenge unless No 10 “gets its act together”, says a senior Tory MP, in a sharp criticism of the prime minister.Simon Hoare attacked the botched attempt to rip up anti-sleaze rules to save the disgraced Owen Paterson and a failure to liaise properly with Conservative MPs.The chair of the Commons Northern Ireland committee said it was not yet time to discuss “leadership challenges”, amid claims that some of his colleagues have submitted letters, pushing for that to happen.But he added: “That comes with a health warning, that No 10 as an operation needs to pull its socks up, get its act together, start talking to the parliamentary party far more than it has been doing up until now.“That has, of course, been difficult because of Covid and the restrictions being there … I don’t think we’ve gone past the point of no return, but the act needs to get better.”The criticism comes after Mr Johnson’s speech to the CBI – in which he mislaid part of his text and talked about his visit to the Peppa Pig World theme park – was widely ridiculed.Allegations of sleaze will return to centre-stage at Westminster on Monday, with the publication of cross-party recommendations for a crackdown on MPs’ second jobs.In a U-turn this month, Mr Johnson angered his older MPs with lucrative outside earnings by suddenly proposing curbing outside work to “within reasonable limits”.He had already alienated newer MPs in marginal seats by whipping them to protect Mr Paterson – before a public backlash forced a humiliating retreat and left them exposed to criticism.Meanwhile, crucial announcements on capping social care costs and on improving Northern rail services backfired when key elements of both were watered down.On Sunday Politics on BBC Northern Ireland, Mr Hoare said the forcing through of an amendment to prevent Mr Paterson being censored and suspended from parliament was “manifestly wrong”.And he added: “Clearly the operation of No 10 needs to sharpen itself, the political antenna of No 10 need to be far more acute.”A total of 54 MPs – 15 per cent of the total elected to the Commons – would need to submit letters requesting a leadership challenge before it would go ahead.Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and foreign secretary Liz Truss are the grassroots favourites to take over, with both considered to be “on manoeuvres”.Sajid Javid attempted to bolster the prime minister’s position saying it he is still “absolutely” an election winner, despite the recent difficulties.“Let me tell you why: Because we are delivering on our promises,” he told Sky News, as he discussed the new Covid restrictions. More

Interior ministers from across Europe are due to meet in Calais on Sunday to discuss the migrant crisis without Priti Patel, after her invite to the talks was rescinded.Emmanuel Macron reacted with fury to Boris Johnson’s publication of a letter making a series of demands on France, accusing him of not being “serious” about finding solutions and dramatically cancelled the invitation for home secretary to come to the summit.The prime minister tweeted a letter to Mr Macron outlining his call for talks to begin on a bilateral returns agreement, saying it could have “an immediate and significant impact” on attempts to cross the Channel, after the UK left a EU returns agreement as a result of Brexit.French government spokesman Gabriel Attal rejected the proposal as “clearly not what we need to solve this problem” as he said the Prime Minister’s letter “doesn’t correspond at all” with discussions Mr Johnson and Mr Macron had when they spoke on Wednesday.“We are sick of double-speak,” he added, and said Mr Johnson’s decision to post his letter on his Twitter feed suggested he was “not serious”.Emmanuel Macron reacted with fury to Boris Johnson’s publication of a letter making a series of demands on France, accusing him of not being “serious” about finding solutions and dramatically cancelling the invitation for home secretary to come to Paris for the talks.Ms Patel said on Thursday that conversations with her French counterpart, Gerald Darmanin, had been “constructive” , though she did not repeat the term about their talks on Friday as the diplomatic row came to head.“As I have said time and time again, there is no quick fix, no silver bullet. The UK cannot tackle this issue alone, and across Europe we all need to step up, take responsibility, and work together in a time of crisis,” she said in a statement.“We will not shy away from the challenge we face, and next week I will continue to push for greater co-operation with European partners because a failure to do so could result in even worse scenes in the freezing water during the coming winter months.”Her comments come after the capsizing in the Channel that claimed the lives of 27 people on Wednesday – the highest death toll on record in the current crisis – including an expectant mother, children and a 24-year-old Kurdish woman from northern Iraq trying to reunite with her fiancé. The prime minister tweeted a letter to Mr Macron outlining his call for talks to begin on a bilateral returns agreement, saying it could have “an immediate and significant impact” on attempts to cross the Channel, after the UK left a EU returns agreement as a result of Brexit. More

Air passengers from South Africa were not tested on arrival on Friday, despite fears they could be carrying the Omicron variant, Sajid Javid has conceded.They travelled on from airports in normal ways – including on public transport – and were only then asked to take Covid tests and to go into isolation if they tested positive, the health secretary said.It means the UK does not know how many arrivals from South Africa were infected – after a staggering 10 per cent of people on one flight into the Netherlands did test positive.Quizzed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Javid admitted there was no testing but insisted: “It’s fair to say that, as the UK, we could not have acted more swiftly.”But, asked how the passengers “got home from the airport”, he acknowledged: “They would have they would have got home in the normal way.”Mr Marr asked him: “To be clear, you didn’t test them as they came into Heathrow and then they were allowed to disperse around the country without being tested?“And, if the Dutch experience is anything to go by, 10 per cent of them had the new variant of coronavirus?”The health secretary said the “appropriate thing to do” was to contact the passengers afterwards, to ask them to take tests. Flights were banned later on Friday. Mr Javid also revealed that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will advise within a few days on expanding booster jabs to under-40s and cutting the six-month gap after a second jab.And he defended not adopting a work from home rule – despite the Sage advisory group concluding it is the most effective Covid-curbing measure – saying: “They give advice and ministers need to decide.”Mr Javid said advice would be updated if it proves to be the case that the symptoms of Omicron are different, causing extreme fatigue but no loss of taste or smell.Earlier, he said England is “nowhere near” introducing tougher Covid restrictions such as social distancing, or working from home.Mask-wearing will be compulsory in shops and on public transport from Tuesday. Day 2 PCR tests for all arrivals will be re-introduced from 4am that day.New coronavirus regulations will be laid in parliament on Monday, but a vote will not be held until up to 28 days later – long after the measures take effect.A number of backbench Tories are likely to stage a rebellion but, with Labour supporting the restrictions, there is no danger that the vote will be lost.But the doctor who discovered the Omicron variant said the UK is “panicking unnecessarily” and that the symptoms are “extremely mild”.Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, said: “What we are seeing clinically in south Africa, and remember I’m at the epicentre – that’s where I’m practising – it’s extremely mild. For us, that’s mild cases.” More

England is “nowhere near” introducing tougher Covid restrictions, Sajid Javid says, despite the return of mask-wearing and PCR tests for travellers.The health secretary rejected stricter curbs – such as social distancing, or a working from home rule – arguing they “carry a very heavy price” and are not necessary now, despite the arrival of the Omicron variant.Mr Javid also said people should “continue with their plans as normal for Christmas”, although warning it would be “irresponsible to make guarantees”.Asked about moving to harsher restrictions, including social distancing, Mr Javid told Sky News: “We are not there yet – we are nowhere near that.”He pointed out the measures announced by Boris Johnson on Saturday night, within hours of the first two Omicron cases being detected in the UK, would be reviewed after 3 weeks.“I hope this is something we can remove within weeks. In terms of making progress, we want life to go back towards normal,” the health secretary said.Mr Javid revealed that Tuesday is whne mask-wearing will be compulsory again in shops and on public transport in England – a rule never dropped in the rest of the UK.Day 2 PCR tests for all arrivals will be re-introduced from 4am that day, following discussions with the devolved governments.The health secretary rejected a warning that people will disobey the mask rule, arguing that – because it will now be a “government regulation” – “people will take it seriously”.He also dismissed fears that fears of cancelling Christmas will recur every winter, because widespread vaccination has changed the picture, while saying: “We will have to learn to live with Covid. We will never defeat it.”As part of a “temporary and precautionary” package announced late on Saturday, the prime minister also announced that the contacts of Omicron cases must isolate for 10 days.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has been asked to urgently consider expanding booster jabs to under-40s and cutting the six-month gap after a second jab.One member of the Sage advisory group, psychologist Susan Michie, was quick to criticise the moves, saying: “This is plan B lite and we should have had plan B plus.”The two detected Omicron cases, in Essex and Nottingham, are “linked” and have been traced to travel to southern Africa. Targeted sequence testing in those areas is underway.And four more countries – Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia – have been added to the travel ‘red list’, requiring arrivals to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.Early evidence suggest Omicron may be more transmissible than the Delta variant, the current dominant strain, and that current vaccines may be less effective against it.However, some scientists have downplayed the dangers. The microbiologist Professor Calum Semple, who also sits on Sage, said some horror headlines were “hugely overstating the situation”. More

The Czech president on Sunday swore in Petr Fiala as the country’s new prime minister following last month’s parliamentary election.Milos Zeman in a wheelchair, was separated from Fiala and the other officials by transparent panels during the ceremony at the presidential chateau in Lany, west of Prague The president tested positive for coronavirus last week and must isolate.Zeman wished Fiala “success.” Following the Oct. 8-9 vote, a three-party, liberal-conservative coalition known as Together, composed of the Civic Democratic Party, Christian Democrats and the TOP 09 party, led with a 27.8% share of the vote.Together teamed up with a center-left liberal coalition made up of the Pirate Party and STAN — a group of mayors and independent candidates — which came in third place with 15.6% of votes.The new partnership will hold 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house of Parliament, relegating populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his centrist ANO (YES) movement to the opposition. The five parties in the future governing coalition have agreed on a power-sharing deal. They are closer to the European Union than Euroskeptic Babis. Fiala, 57, who has led the conservative Civic Democratic Party since 2014, is a professor of political sciences. Previously, he served as Education Minister between 2012-13.It’s not immediately clear when Zeman might appoint the entire Cabinet. Zeman said he will meet the candidates for the ministers between Monday and Dec 13 to discuss their future jobs. Zeman, 77, was only discharged from the capital’s military hospital on Saturday following more than a month’s treatment for an unspecified illness and then a couple of days of concern after he tested positive for the coronavirus. The ceremony had originally been due to take place on Friday.He was rushed to the hospital on Oct. 10, a day after the election for the lower house of parliament, and was treated in an intensive care unit. His condition was attributed to an unspecified chronic disease. More

People will be ordered to wear masks in shops and on public transport in England again in response to the arrival of the Omicron variant.Boris Johnson also announced that contacts of Omicron cases must isolate for 10 days – and the return of day 2 PCR tests for all international arrivals, who must isolate until they receive a negative result.Calling the measures “temporary and precautionary”, until the danger from the variant’s mutations are known, he told a press conference: “We will review them in 3 weeks.”Asked why he was not imposing the government’s full ‘plan B’ – also including vaccine passports and working from home – Mr Johnson insisted the UK is still in a “much, much stronger position” than earlier in the pandemic.Omicron could be tackled by efforts to “slow the seeding with the tough measures we are taking at the border” – while more booster jabs are delivered, to beef up protection.But he did not rule out further festive restrictions, saying only: “I’m absolutely confident that this Christmas will be considerably better than last Christmas. That will do for the time being.”Speaking after the first two Omicron cases were found – in Essex and Nottingham – Mr Johnson also revealed moves to expand booster jabs to under-40s and cut the six-month gap between a second jab and a booster.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has been asked to consider the changes – in a clear sign that ministers want them to happen – although the prime minister called it “an independent body”.“Clearly we hope we will get some answers for everybody as soon as possible,” he told the press conference in Downing Street.Mask-wearing is already compulsory in shop and on public transport in the rest of the UK, which is expected to follow England in imposing the PCR test crackdown for travellers.Mr Johnson also rejected criticism that the spread of the new variant in southern Africa showed the folly of rich nations failing to deliver vaccines to poorer nations.He claimed the problem in such countries has “not been supply, but hesitancy and lack of take-up”, arguing the UK has been “leading” the world in sharing jabs.Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, warned of “a reasonable chance of some type of vaccine escape” from the Omicron variant, but said jabs should still offer protection against serious disease.One member of the Sage advisory group, psychologist Susan Michie, was quick to criticise the moves, saying: “This is plan B lite and we should have had plan B plus.”And Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, tweeted that the measures should not “have been relaxed” in the first place, adding: “It will now be harder, and take longer, to get levels of compliance up to where we need them to be.”But Mr Johnson said the measures – all to be brought in “next week“ – would “buy time for our scientists to understand exactly what we are dealing with”, in a very uncertain situation.And he sought to reassure the public, saying: “Though case numbers have remained relatively high, we’re seen falling hospitalisations and falling numbers of deaths.”The latest Covid figures revealed a further 39,567 lab-confirmed cases in the UK and 131 deaths within 28 days of a positive test – bringing the UK total to 144,724.Earlier, the health secretary Sajid Javid said the two detected Omicron cases were “linked” and had been traced to travel to southern Africa, as he announced targeted sequence testing of other cases in the areas concerned.Four more countries – Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia – are being added to the travel ‘red list’ from Sunday, requiring arrivals to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.Early evidence suggest Omicron may be more transmissible than the Delta variant, the current dominant strain, and that current vaccines may be less effective against it.However, some scientists have downplayed the dangers. The leading microbiologist Professor Calum Semple, who also sits on Sage, said some horror headlines were “hugely overstating the situation”. More

Sajid Javid is expected to announce more details on the measures being brought in after the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant.As two cases of the heavily mutated variant – feared to potentially be more transmissible and evasive of vaccines – were discovered in the UK on Saturday, and four more countries were added to the travel red list, Boris Johnson held a press conference at Downing Street. The prime minister announced a range of new “temporary and precautionary” restrictions in England, including the return of mandatory mask wearing in shops and on public transport, and self-isolation for contacts of cases and for all international arrivals until they receive a negative PCR test result.But the following morning, it still remained unclear exactly when these measures would come into force, amid sparse detail on how the travel isolation requirement would be implemented.The health secretary is expected to outline the policies in more detail during broadcast interviews on Sunday morning in appearances on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show and Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme.MPs will be given a subsequent vote on the new measures, which Mr Johnson said would be reviewed in three weeks’ time – the week before Christmas.Mr Javid, who in his first significant comments as health secretary vowed there would be “no going back” into lockdowns shortly before he axed nearly all Covid measures in England, had struck a somewhat starker tone in the Commons on Friday as he warned that the variant discovered by scientists in southern Africa was of “huge international concern”, telling MPs: “We must move quickly.”And he told the BBC on Saturday: “This is a real reminder to us all that this pandemic is far from over. “If there’s one thing that everyone can be doing right now is, if they’re eligible, please take your vaccine when it’s your first shot, your second shot, or your booster jab. If you’re eligible, please take a vaccine.”He added: “We know this is new out there. We don’t know enough about it yet. But for what we do know that we know that the protections that we have, especially the vaccines are hugely important.” More