Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has today warned of a “blizzard from the east” which could derail his hopes for a Christmas free of disruption from coronavirus restrictions.The prime minister said there was nothing in the data now which suggests that the UK should move to the government’s Plan B, involving compulsory face masks, advice to work from home and Covid vaccine passports for crowded venues.But he warned that some areas of Europe are now seeing a “storm of infection” which could spread across the Channel to Britain.As experts gave the go-ahead for booster jabs for over-40s and second vaccine shots for 16 and 17 year-olds, Mr Johnson urged everybody to take up the offer of inoculation as soon as possible to ward off the danger of new restrictions.The decisions of the 25 per cent of over-70s who have still not had their booster jab will “make all the difference” to the kind of festive season Britain enjoys this year, after its effective cancellation in 2020, he said.Asked whether he could guarantee a normal Christmas season, Mr Johnson said: “We don’t see anything in the data at the moment to suggest that we need to go to plan B. We’re sticking with with Plan A.“But what we certainly have got to recognise is that there is a storm of infection out there in parts of Europe. You can see those numbers ticking up very sharply in some of our continental friends.“And we’ve just got to recognise that there is always a risk that a blizzard could come from the east again, as the months get colder. The best protection for our country is for everybody to come forward and get their booster.”Mr Johnson said it was “very good news” that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation had today authorised an extension of the booster scheme.“When you look at what’s happening in  the pandemic at the moment, sadly there are people in intensive care who are suffering badly from Covid but they are all the unvaccinated .“If you can get your booster, then your immunity goes right back up to 95 per cent.“So far, we’ve got 75 per cent of everybody over 70 getting a booster. That’s a huge number of people, but it’s that further 25 per cent that will make all the difference to the winter, to Christmas, to our plans going forward, because it’s that extra level of protection that we really need.“So the message is ‘Anybody over 70, come forward and get your booster. Anybody over 50, come forward to get your booster. Now, in the next week or so, anybody over 40 as well, come forward and get your booster.” More

The Conservatives have again rejected a watchdog’s call for Boris Johnson to be stripped of the power to decide whether ministers are investigated for sleaze, despite rising public anger.The independent committee on standards in public life made the recommendation – followed by a startling warning that Britain risk slipping into becoming “a corrupt country”.It followed Mr Johnson’s refusal to allow investigations of Robert Jenrick and Matt Hancock, a controversy then fuelled by the botched attempt to fix anti-sleaze rules to clear Owen Paterson.But, despite the backlash and the Tories’ slump in the polls, the party chair Oliver Dowden indicated there would be no rethink in Downing Street.“It has been the case in the past, and will continue to be the case, that the prime minister has discussions with the independent advisor to determine whether to conduct those investigations,” Mr Dowden.It is a “basic principle” that the “prime minister ultimately has to be able to decide who is in his cabinet,”, the party chair argued.Mr Dowden also rejected the warning by Jonathan Evans, the head of the committee, of a slide into corruption, insisting: “I think we are an exceptionally long way from that.”He also defended reopening the hunt for a chair of the media regulator Ofcom – in what is widely seen as an attempt to secure the job for former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre- insisting only a “very small field” of eligible candidates had come forward.Criticism of Mr Johnson’s refusal to apologise for the Paterson affair was “semantics’, he insisted, because he had acknowledged that mistakes had been made.Mr Dowden also claimed the public did not care about that refusal, because it wanted the government to be focusing on the “job at hand”, tackling the climate crisis and delivering booster jabs.Two weeks ago, Lord Evans said the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial interests, Christopher Geidt, must have “meaningful independence” to carry out his job.The post-holder should be appointed by a majority-independent panel, not by No 10, able to initiate their own investigations and have the authority to determine breaches of the ministerial code, his report said.Reports should also be published within eight weeks of submission to the prime minister, with sanctions for breaches set out, including apologies fines and asking for a minister’s resignation.But Mr Dowden, on corruption, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think we are an exceptionally long way from that.“The fact that you are subjecting me at a little after 8 o’clock in the morning to a forensic going over in terms of what the government has done – in a corrupt country you don’t find this kind of level of free press scrutiny and accountability.“We introduced as a government the register of lobbyists in 2014. We are constantly improving standards.” More

Conservative MPs will be challenged to vote to ban second jobs on Wednesday, as Labour piles pressure on Boris Johnson to act on sleaze.Keir Starmer revealed his party would stage the showdown – and argue for all outside work to be outlawed, except for working in the NHS or other public services.The vote would be “a measure of where people are on how we now move things forward”, the Labour leader said, but would not be retrospective.The prime minister has refused to say where he stands on second jobs, despite rising public anger over MPs extra-parliamentary work and a Tory slump in the polls.Oliver Dowden, the party chair, has again rejected a watchdog’s call for him to lose the power to decide whether ministers are investigated for sleaze.On LBC Radio, Sir Keir said: “We are going to put to parliament on Wednesday a vote which is going to ask MPs to vote to get rid of paid directorships and paid consultancies – change the rules in parliament.Labour will also demand that the government publish all the minutes of meetings between the government and Randox, which employed ex-minister Owen Paterson as a consultant.During the call-in, the Labour leader also:* Called accusations that he broke Commons rules by using his office for Zoom calls with the public “utter nonsense” – saying: “It’s exactly what the leader of the opposition should be doing.”* Suggested he saw the outcome of the Cop26 climate summit as a failure – saying: “It didn’t achieve what we needed to achieve.”* Said the key to curbing cross-Channel migrant crossings was tackling refugee crises, because “if you don’t tackle the issues upstream then you will never fully get to grips with this”.* Criticised the Insulate Britain group’s tactics in blocking major roads as “completely wrong and counterproductive”.* Said expelled ex-Labour MP Claudia Webbe should quit parliament following her conviction for harassment – and that he would support a recall petition if she refused.On second jobs, Sir Keir pointed to Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who does shifts as a hospital doctor, and MPs serving as army or police reservists, arguing that should be allowed.But there was a “strong case” for all other second jobs to go – and no doubt that paid consultancies and directorships should be outlawed.In a statement he called on the Conservatives to “do the right thing and vote to publish the Randox papers, end dodgy lobbying and show that standards in public life still matter”.“It was the prime minister’s decisions which has led to this scandal, he has repeatedly failed in his leadership over this issue, and Boris Johnson now has a choice.“Support Labour’s plan to fix this, or whip his MPs to vote against a ban on dodgy second jobs for MPs and a cover-up on the Owen Paterson scandal.” More

Boris Johnson has been mocked for mistakenly referring to the Cop26 climate summit “in Edinburgh” rather than Glasgow where it was actually held.The prime minister was speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Sunday as he defended a pledge by countries to start “phasing down” coal.”I don’t think António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, would want people to think that we’ve cracked it here at Cop in Edinburgh, of course not,” he said.Twitter users were quick to spot the misstep, with one joking that Mr Johnson is living in a “parallel universe to the rest of us”.”Perpendicular. He’s living in a perpendicular universe,” another quipped. “Parallel would indicate at least heading in the same direction.”It is not the first time a prominent figure has mixed up Glasgow with the Scottish capital while talking about the crucial climate summit, which ended on Friday.CNN news anchor Wolf Blizter was teased online after “reporting from Edinburgh in Scotland where 20,000 world leaders and delegates have gathered for the Cop26 Climate Summit” as he tweeted a picture of himself in front of Edinburgh Castle.“I can see how you could make that mistake. I was looking for a map and it looks like every place in Scotland is actually Glasgow,” Marcel Dirsus, an academic, tweeted sarcastically in response.Cop26 in Glasgow finished with countries agreeing on a pledge to “phase down” the use of coal power in order to limit global temperature rises.But China and India came under fire following a last minute intervention to water down the language in the final document to “phase down” rather than “phase out.”Mr Johnson said the agreement sounded the “death knell” for coal power and that the final wording in the paper doesn’t “make that much of a difference – the direction of travel is pretty much the same.”Campaigners claim that the agreement doesn’t go far enough and that the conference as a whole has been a failure. But UN climate change chief Patricia Espinosa called the pact a “good compromise” and said the goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C was “definitely alive” after Glasgow. “I think this is a very positive result in the sense that it gives us very clear guidance on what we need to do in the coming years,” she said. More

The government will reportedly extend its Covid vaccine booster programme to people under the age of 50, in a bid to drive down transmission rates this winter.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is expected to give its approval to the move on Monday, according to The Times.Precise details of the age groups who would be offered a third jab have not been confirmed, the newspaper added, but suggested the rollout would first be extended to people in their late 40s.Currently, only those over the age of 50 or people who are clinically vulnerable are eligible for a booster vaccine.It comes after a top government adviser said giving booster vaccines to young people would make a “big difference” in bringing down Covid transmission in the UK during colder months.Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of the government’s Sage sub-committee, said expanding the booster programme to younger adults would significantly cut Covid transmission.“I see no reason why we shouldn’t be rolling them out to younger age groups once we’ve got through the priority groups – the over 50s and the clinically vulnerable,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.“Our modelling – modelling of a group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – suggests that yes, it could make quite a big difference to driving transmission down to low levels.”More than 12 million people have received a booster jab across the UK since the programme began.The scheme aims to top up immunity among the population ahead of winter, amid concerns waning vaccine protection could lead to a surge in hospital admissions during colder months.Boris Johnson warned on Friday the “storm clouds” of a new coronavirus wave were gathering over parts of Europe, with many countries preparing to step up restrictions due to rising cases.The Netherlands has confirmed a three-week partial lockdown amid surging cases, Austria has imposed a lockdown on unvaccinated people, while German politicians are considering legislation that would pave the way for new measures at the same time as the country’s disease control centre is urging people to cancel or avoid large events.Prof Ferguson said the UK is in “quite a different situation” to some its European counterparts due to a greater level of immunity among its population following months of high virus prevalence.He said the fast rollout of booster jabs has also given the UK an advantage in the fight to control Covid.Acknowledging however the UK is seeing a “hint of an uptick in the last few days” following weeks of declining case numbers and hospital admissions, he added: “We’ve had very high case numbers – between 30,000 and 50,000 a day – really for the last four months, since the beginning of July.æThat has obviously had some downsides.æIt has also paradoxically had an upside of boosting the immunity of the population compared with countries like Germany, the Netherlands and France, which have had much lower case numbers and are only now seeing an uptick.ÆAdditional reporting by agencies More

Boris Johnson has defended the pact agreed at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow following a furious backlash from campaigners and vulnerable countries appalled by the “weak” and watered-down deal.The prime minister hailed the agreement, and dismissed criticism over the dramatic change, forced by India and China, that meant that the commitment was to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal power.Mr Johnson insisted that the Glasgow Climate Pact “sounded the death knell for coal power” and claimed that it didn’t matter that the wording of the agreement had been changed at the last minute.“Whether the language is ‘phase down’ or ‘phase out’ doesn’t seem to me, as a speaker of English, to make that much of a difference – the direction of travel is pretty much the same,” he told a Downing Street press conference on Sunday.Mr Johnson welcomed the outcome of the Cop26 conference, describing the agreement as “game-changing” – but admitted that his own feelings at the end of the summit were “tinged with disappointment”.In a pointed message to China and India, he said: “We can lobby, we can cajole, we can encourage, but we cannot force sovereign nations to do what they do not wish to do. It’s ultimately their decision to make and they must stand by it.”Cop26 president Alok Sharma denied climate campaigners’ claims that the pact agreed by world leaders was a failure, and defended the commitment to reduce coal dependence. But he also sought to push the blame for the weakened language onto India and China.“This is the first time we have got language about coal in these [Cop] agreements – that really is historic,” he said. “That means countries have to collectively reduce their use of coal. In terms of China and India, they will have to explain themselves to developing countries.”Many of the poorer countries most vulnerable to climate change were angered over the behind-the-scenes change, and that a proposed funding deal to pay for loss and damage from extreme weather events was kicked into the long grass.The final agreement was condemned as “an utter betrayal” by the Cop26 coalition, an international group of environmental organisations. Spokesperson Asad Rehman attacked the UK government’s “greenwash and PR”, adding: “This Cop has failed to keep 1.5C alive.”Activist Greta Thunberg dismissed the Cop26 climate summit as more “blah, blah, blah” that would fail to see the “immediate” and “drastic” emissions cut needed. Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai also said that the Cop26 summit had not lived up to campaigners’ expectations.Shauna Aminath, the Maldives’ environment minister, said: “We are deeply disappointed with the outcome in here. There’s a lot of work for us to do because really the difference between 1.5C and 2C for us is a death sentence. Our islands are eroding.”The UN’s climate change chief Patricia Espinosa called the pact a “good compromise” and said the goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C was “definitely alive” after Glasgow. “I think this is a very positive result in the sense that it gives us very clear guidance on what we need to do in the coming years,” she said.But the UN conceded that the deal had failed to achieve the goals of cutting world carbon dioxide emissions by about half, or of making good on a 12-year-old promise for $100bn a year of support for developing countries.The US climate envoy, John Kerry, also focused on progress, arguing that the summit had been a success despite the “imperfect” pact. “We are in fact closer than we have ever been before to avoiding climate chaos and securing cleaner air, safer water and a healthier planet,” said the Biden administration official.Labour said the target of keeping global warming within 1.5C was in “intensive care” following the agreement reached by world leaders at the end of the Glasgow conference.The opposition accused Mr Johnson of leaving the Cop26 president in a weakened position at the summit because of the UK government’s own overseas aid budget cut and the failure to stop fossil-fuel projects across Britain.Writing for The Independent, shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband said the government must “learn the lessons of what we didn’t succeed in doing in Glasgow”. He added: “It’s time finally to say no to the proposed new coal mine in Cumbria and end the plan for the new Cambo oil field [in Shetland].”Chris Stark, head of the government’s independent advisory body the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said that both the UK and Scottish governments should now set a timetable for ending oil and gas exploration.“It’s clearly useful and helpful to name a date, and then build the public support for that date behind it, and crucially get commercial response that’s behind it,” he told The Herald on Sunday.After a fortnight of negotiations in Glasgow, the Cop26 conference saw a series of deals by countries and businesses on cutting methane emissions, curbing deforestation, switching to electric cars, and driving investment in clean technology, as well as phasing out coal power.Top climate scientist Michael Mann warned against despondency among activists and policymakers after the summit. He tweeted: “Real progress was made [at Cop26], but much more work to be done.” More

Labour’s newly-selected candidate to fight the by-election forced by resignation of former Conservative minister Owen Paterson has vowed to bring back “a sense of decency”.Ben Wood said he was “over the moon” to be chosen as the flagbearer for Keir Starmer’s party in the upcoming North Shropshire contest.Mr Paterson quit earlier this month following the debacle which saw Boris Johnson’s government make a botched attempt to save him from suspension and rewrite disciplinary rules in the process.The former Conservative MP had a huge majority of almost 23,000 in the West Midlands seat, but Mr Wood claimed the Tories had “taken North Shropshire for granted”.The Labour campaigner – a former intern of MP Neil Coyle – tweeted: “I’ll be putting forward a new plan with fresh ideas to give our area a brighter future, but I also want to bring a sense of decency back to our politics.”He added: “Local people are quite rightly proud of where they live and they have been let down very badly. This by-election gives them the chance to scrub North Shropshire clean of Tory sleaze.”Saying the Labour candidate would “stand against corruption”, Sir Keir said the people of North Shropshire “deserve an MP who will work to improve their communities, not line their own pockets”. Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst, a former British Army Medical Officer who now works as a barrister, was selected by Tory party members in North Shropshire on Saturday.Mr Johnson’s faces a series of electoral tests in the weeks ahead, with the North Shropshire contest taking place on 16 December. Another by-election will be held in Old Bexley and Sidcup following Conservative MP James Brokenshire’s death from cancer last month.There is also the prospect of a by-election in in Leicester East, after MP Claudia Webbe was convicted of harassment and given a suspended jail sentence. The Labour leader has called for Webbe – who has been sitting as an independent – to stand down.Mr Johnson has refused to apologise for the Paterson mess. But he did offer some contrition at his post-Cop26 press conference on Sunday, admitting: “Things could certainly have been handled better by me,” he said.It comes as Labour demanded investigations into fresh standards allegations against Mr Johnson and Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, as sleaze claims continue to dog the government.The opposition said that new information from Jennifer Arcuri about her relationship with Mr Johnson while he was mayor of London should be investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).In a diary entry published in The Observer, the US entrepreneur alleged that Mr Johnson overruled the advice of his staff in 2013 to attend an event promoting her tech venture Innotech.Deputy leader Angela Rayner said the diary entries merited a “full investigation” into whether Mr Johnson acted appropriately and the processes which led to more than £100,000 of public funding being given to Ms Arcuri’s businesses.Labour also wants Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg investigated by Commons standards commissioner Kathryn Stone over claims in the Mail On Sunday that he failed to declare director’s loans from his company Saliston Limited between 2018 and 2020.The Tories have been rocked in recent days after opinion poll results suggested claims of sleaze have damaged their standing with voters – with as many as four surveys in the past five days suggesting Mr Johnson’s governing party has lost its lead over Labour. More

Labour has urged a police watchdog to “look again” at its decision to rule out a criminal investigation into Boris Johnson following fresh claims by Jennifer Arcuri about their relationship during his time as Mayor of London.The US entrepreneur has claimed that Mr Johnson overruled advice of his staff in 2013 to attend an event promoting her tech venture Innotech and make her “happy”.A diary entry from February 2013 claims he told her: “I just want you to know they came to me and I crushed them. They said: ‘You can’t do this Innotech in April.’ I said: ‘Yes, I can, I’ll be there.’”According to a seperate entry, the then-mayor asked Ms Arcuri: “How can I be the thrust – the throttle – your mere footstep as you make your career? Tell me: how I can help you?”Arcuri shared new details from her diary with The Observer following the prime minister’s statements last week about how politicians “should be punished” for any breach of misconduct rules.Labour’s deputy Leader Angela Rayner says the diary evidence merited “a full investigation” into the processes which led to public funding for Ms Arcuri’s businesses and whether Mr Johnson acted properly.The former model accompanied Mr Johnson on several trade missions while he was in City Hall, and it emerged in September 2019 that her companies received more than £100,000 in public money.The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) last year examined whether Mr Johnson should face a criminal investigation into misconduct, but found no evidence he influenced the payment of thousands of pounds to the US businesswoman’s companies.A new inquiry by the IOPC would require a referral from Greater London Authority (GLA)’s monitoring officer. Labour has written to the monitoring officer to request that the office refers the new evidence to the IOPC urgently.In her letter, Ms Rayner states: “I am requesting that you refer this new evidence to the IOPC so they can look again at their decision to rule out a criminal investigation.”She added: “These new revelations make a full investigation into the processes which led to public funding for Ms Arcuri’s business, and her presence on publicly funded trade visits, more important than ever.”The chair of the GLA’s oversight committee also said the police watchdog may want to consider whether they need to make fresh inquiries, since Ms Arcuri’s diary was not available at the time investigators looked into their relationship.The Lib Dem committee chair Caroline Pidgeon – speaking in her role as an assembly member – told The Observer: “This new material from Jennifer Arcuri is significant and the IOPC may wish to consider whether they need to reopen their investigation.”A government spokesperson said: “As mayor, Boris Johnson followed all the legal requirements in the Greater London Assembly’s code of conduct at the time.”The allegations come as another opinion poll piled pressure on Mr Johnson, becoming the fourth survey in less than a week to suggest the Conservatives had lost their lead over Labour as the impact of sleaze allegations continues to ripple.Opinium put Labour (37 per cent) one point ahead of the Tories (36 per cent), with Sir Keir Starmer’s party up by one, and the governing party down by one after a survey conducted between Wednesday and Friday.It is the first time an Opinium poll has had Labour in the lead since January, while the Prime Minister’s approval rating slipped to a new low in one of the company’s polls, with a net rating of minus 21%.The drop in support for the Tories since its botched handling of the Owen Paterson affair has been recorded in a number of polls in recent days, with a Savanta ComRes poll putting Labour six points ahead and a YouGov survey finding the rival parties neck-and-neck.The Independent has contacted the office of the GLA’s monitoring officer for comment. More