Markus Andrews

David Cameron met vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi with representatives of a private health firm which he advises, two months before the US company won public contracts worth up to £870,000.The meeting, uncovered by Open Democracy, is listed in official government transparency records as taking place between Mr Zahawi, Mr Cameron and Illumina on 1 March 2021 “to discuss UK genomics sequencing”.Shortly afterwards, on 29 April, Illumina Cambridge Ltd was awarded a £697,788 Public Health England contract to supply medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and laboratory, optical and precision equipments. A week later on 7 May, a second PHE contract worth between £34,564 and £172,824 was awarded to the company for a similar range of supplies.Mr Cameron was appointed as an adviser with Illumina in 2018. Applying for clearance to take up the role, he told the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments that he would be paid for working two to three days a month for the company.His role involved assisting Illumina’s engagement with foreign governments and stakeholders as the company expanded into other countries, he said, and he would also be expected “to provide strategic advice; assist with business development, particularly in an international context; and perform other duties, as reasonably requested by the Board”. Mr Cameron informed Acoba that he would not play any role in contract negotiations between Illumina and the DHSC or Genomics England – a DHSC-owned company which he set up while he was PM in 2013.And Acoba said he assured them that while his role might involve “some very limited contact with UK ministers from time to time”, he “would not lobby ministers or the UK government in any way on behalf of Illumina or its partners”.The revelation of the meeting comes shortly after a parliamentary inquiry found that Mr Cameron showed “a significant lack of judgement” in his intensive lobbying of government ministers on behalf of finance firm Greensill Capital, which was seeking involvement in Treasury coronavirus support schemes in 2020.Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner told Open Democracy: “David Cameron’s behaviour is evidence that the rules that are supposed to regulate lobbying are completely unfit for purpose and need a radical and urgent overhaul. “There appears to be nobody in government who the former prime minister has not lobbied in an effort to enrich himself and his clients during this pandemic.”A spokesperson for Illumina said: “Illumina always follows the correct and necessary process in its negotiations with customers. “We have worked with Genomics England since 2013, when we won a competitive tender process for the £78m contract for the 100,000 Genomes Project. Our ISO-accredited facilities in Cambridge were chosen by Genomics England as being the most appropriate in the UK in terms of being able to deliver this advanced genomics programme. “The vast majority of David Cameron’s work with Illumina is outside the UK, representing the best practices of the UK in genomics to other countries.”The Independent has reached out to DHSC, Public Health England and Mr Cameron’s office to request comment. More

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called on Boris Johnson’s government to match Wales by bringing forward the date on which fully-vaccinated people in England can avoid isolation.Wales’s Labour first minister Mark Drakeford has confirmed 7 August as the day when double jabbed adults can escape isolation if they come into contact with a Covid cases.Scotland is also expected to remove the need for fully-vaccinated people to isolate on 9 August, but Mr Johnson has insisted England remained “nailed on” to wait until August 16.Sir Keir said bringing forward by nine days the exemption for the fully vaccinated from having to self-isolate would “allow some order to come back into our lives”.Speaking to broadcasters on Friday, the opposition leader said: “We have got to find a way forward here. We’re seeing a real summer of chaos, you can see the impact it is having on so many businesses, so many sectors.He added: “The government has never really explained the logic of its August 16 date on isolating.”Asked why Labour was not calling for an immediate change, Sir Keir said: “August 7 is only a week tomorrow and it takes a little bit of change to be put into the system.”Wales’s change will come into effect on the same day the country is expected to move to alert level zero, when most coronavirus restrictions will be lifted.Anyone who tests positive for Covid or has symptoms must continue to isolate for 10 days regardless of their vaccination status, the Welsh government has said. It will also advise those identified as a contact of a positive case to have a PCR test on day two and day eight, whether they are fully vaccinated or not.Mr Drakeford said: “We know a full course of the vaccine offers people protection against the virus and they are far less likely to contract it when they are identified as close contacts. This means they no longer need to self-isolate for 10 days.”Backbench Tory MPs and business leaders earlier this month urged Mr Johnson to bring forward the date to ease isolation restrictions after a rise in Covid cases led to a surge in people being “pinged” by the app, which caused disruption to several sectors.Data published on Thursday showed the number of people being told to self-isolate reached another record, with almost 700,000 alerts sent to Covid app users in England and Wales.Some frontline workers are exempt from isolation, including those in prisons, waste collection, defence, the food industry, transport, Border Force and police and fire services.But Labour accused the government of taking a “shambolic” approach after it emerged that just 260 testing centres of 2,000 planned are currently open.“Hundreds of testing centres opening weeks after they’re needed typifies the government’s shambolic approach to the pandemic,” said Justin Madders MP, shadow health minister.Elsewhere, the UK government also faced demands to recall parliament amid concern Covid vaccine passports had been introduced by “stealth” via the NHS app.On the NHS app, a tweak to the wording on the NHS Covid Pass section has raised concerns.It now includes a “domestic” section, which states: “You may need to show your NHS Covid Pass at places that have chosen to use the service.”The government has said it wants to make vaccine passports mandatory for some settings – such as nightclubs – and crowded events from the autumn. More

A senior cabinet minister has said it was a “good idea” for companies in the UK to insist their staff are fully vaccinated against Covid before returning to the office.Fears have been raised that a “no jab, no job” policy could lead to discrimination, as US tech giants Google, Facebook and Netflix announced that they would require all employees to be double-jabbed.Transport secretary Grant Shapps said he thought many British firms would follow suit and said it was sensible to encourage the greater “protection” the jab offers.“Yes it’s a good idea, and yes – some companies will require it,” Mr Shapps told Sky News on Friday.But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he did not think it would be wise for companies to bring in a “jabs for jobs” policy. “I don’t agree with that,” said Sir Keir.“I can see a case for vaccine passports, alongside testing, when it comes to big sporting events or mass events, certainly for international travel,” the Labour leader said.Sir Keir added: “But for day-to-day routine – access to the office, access to health services or dentistry or even food – I don’t agree with vaccine passports for day-to-day access.”Mr Shapps suggested that American firms may decide take a more draconian approach than their British counterparts because of lower jab take-up rates in the US. “Fortunately in this country, as opposed to the US … we have very little vaccine hesitancy,” he said.The transport secretary also said the government would not force companies to follow the policy. “We’re not going to make that legislation, that every adult has to be double-vaccinated before going back to the office – but yes, it’s a good idea.”Asked on LBC radio whether he would require staff at the Department for Transport (DfT) to be double-jabbed, Mr Shapps said: “We’re not having to turn to compulsion.”It follows backing for the corporate policy from foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who said it was “smart” for employers to ensure their staff have been double jabbed before returning to the office.Mr Raab told Sky News on Thursday: “Whether or not there should be legal rules, I think we need to look at carefully.”But No 10 insisted that it would remain up to individual businesses whether or not they would require staff to be double-vaccinated before returning to the workplace.The government guidance no longer instructs people to work from home if they can, but unlike last summer there are no plans to encourage employees to return to the office.Asked if the government was planning a campaign to persuade more Britons to head back to their workplace, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said: “We obviously expect people to return to work as we move through this year.“It is obviously for individual businesses and individual employees to discuss how or when that happens.” More

Labour has accused Boris Johnson’s government of siding with property companies over planning law and workers’ rights, after new research showed the Conservatives are receiving donations worth £17,500 a day from businesses in the sector.Deputy leader Angela Rayner published analysis indicating that gifts to the Tories from companies directly linked to property development have totalled just over £10m since the start of 2019.It came as separate research published in the Financial Times found that gifts from a wider group of companies and individuals with an interest in property development – also including groups like hotel and care home operators – now make up around a quarter of all donations to the Conservatives, totalling almost £18m since Mr Johnson became leader in 2019.Transparency International calculates that the share of property-sector cash in Tory donations has risen from annual figures between 4 and 12 per cent under Mr Johnson’s predecessors Theresa May and David Cameron.Ms Rayner told The Independent that Mr Johnson’s government had consistently “put the interests of the donors who bankroll the Conservative Party ahead of the interests of the public”, whether through “crony contracts”, tax breaks for developers or reforms to planning rules which Labour has denounced as a “developers’ charter”.But she said that the government’s favours for the sector also extended to resisting the expansion of rights to work flexibly, which are opposed by many property tycoons.Even at the height of the coronavirus pandemic – and in the immediate post-election period when donations usually fall – the Conservatives were still taking in £200,000 a month from the property industry in 2020, said Labour. And donations from the sector rose to £282,000 a month in the first quarter of this year.Ms Rayner said this coincided with the government kicking a manifesto pledge on making flexible working the default “into the long grass” and Mr Johnson issuing calls for workers to go back to the office.As the UK emerges from a prolonged period of enforced working from home due to Covid-19, Labour is demanding the right to flexible working for all workers as a default and the ‘right to switch off’ to enable workers to disconnect from work.Ms Rayner said: “There is no question that the companies that bankroll the Conservative Party have a financial interest in maintaining the status quo, whereas working people want the right to work flexibly after the pandemic.“By refusing to give people the right to work flexibly, yet again Conservative ministers have shown they are only interested in acting in the interests of their mates and their donors, not working people.“As we emerge from this pandemic we need to fundamentally change working practices for the better and to improve the lives of working people.“The ‘new normal’ must mean a new deal for working people that enables them to enjoy the benefits of flexible working, from a better work-life balance to spending less time commuting and more time with their family.”A Conservative party spokesperson said: “Government policy is in no way influenced by donations the party receives. They are entirely separate.” More

British lawmakers say they found “shocking conditions” at a facility for people arriving in England on small boats, with babies and small children among dozens packed into a small room in the port town of Dover Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee said in a letter released Friday that its members found 56 people crammed into a waiting room at the Kent Intake Unit when they visited this week.Chairwoman Yvette Cooper an opposition Labour Party lawmaker, said the crowded conditions created a “clear risk” of a COVID-19 outbreak.“The space is clearly unfit for holding this many people,” Cooper said in a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel Britain’s immigration minister. “Most people were sitting or lying on a thin mattress and those covered almost the entirety of the floor including the aisles between seats. “Sharing these cramped conditions were many women with babies and very young children, alongside significant numbers of teenage and young adult men.”Cooper said some people were being kept in the room for up to 48 hours before being sent to accommodation, despite a law saying they shouldn’t be held there for more than a day. Others were spending up to 10 days in “essentially an office space” while awaiting onward travel.The Home Office said “unacceptable numbers of people are making life-threatening journeys crossing the Channel at the hands of criminal trafficking gangs.”“We take the welfare of migrants extremely seriously and despite these pressures we have improved our facilities, arranged additional staffing and are working to process people as quickly and safely as possible,” it said in a statement to the BBC.The British and French governments have worked for years, without much success, to stop people trying to reach England from northern France, either by stowing away in trucks or on ferries, or in small boats organized by people smugglersAlmost 8,500 people have arrived in Britain by crossing the Channel in small boats so far this year, about the same as the total for all of 2020. Several people have died trying to make the journey.The journeys have been seized on by anti-immigration commentators such as former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who has criticized Britain’s sea-rescue service, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, for picking up migrants from boats in the Channel and bringing them ashore.The RNLI, a charity, defended its humanitarian work and said donations rose from a daily average of 7,000 pounds ($9,800) to 200,000 pounds ($280,000) in one day after the criticism.___Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration More

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has defended France’s status on the UK’s amber plus travel list – insisting that the Beta Covid variant is a problem in mainland France.The government has been accused of sowing confusion after Mr Shapps’ cabinet colleague Dominic Raab said the move was down to the prevalence of the Beta variant “in particular” in the French island of La Reunion – 6,000 miles from Paris.The French government said keeping quarantine rules for travellers coming from France was “scientifically unsound”, while Brittany Ferries said it “madness” to base the policy on the Indian Ocean island.“It would be like France hammering British holidaymakers due to a Covid outbreak on the Falkland Islands,” said a spokesperson for the French travel firm.But Mr Shapps told Sky News on Friday that the government’s data showed that the Beta variant was “an issue” in northern France. “It’s not just, as has been reported, on an island thousands of miles away.”The transport secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the UK’s Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) “were sufficiently concerned about the Beta variant in France – and I should say that the cases they were picking up were from France.”Mr Shapps said: “There’s been some discussion about whether those cases were in La Reunion – they may have started there, but they were measured in [mainland] France.”He added: “We haven’t suffered many cases at all of that Beta variant. France has seen a much higher level. And the concerns from the scientists is the extent to which there could be vaccine escape – in other words, whether the vaccine could be effective against the Beta variant.”Officials have moved to point out Mr Raab was wrong to suggest the issue was the prevalence of the Beta variant on La Reunion. “Ministers took this decision based on data on the prevalence of the Beta variant in mainland France,” a government source told The Times.As the diplomatic row grew, France’s Europe minister Clément Beaune said decision to keep quarantine for French travellers “discriminates because other Europeans, even countries that are in more difficult health situations because of the Delta variant or another variant, are not affected by this quarantine”.The government decided earlier this month to maintain quarantine rules for double-vaccinated travellers from France, moving it onto “amber plus” over concern about the Beta variant.Reports suggest government officials are confident France can be moved back onto the amber list and quarantine rules dropped next week – but Mr Shapps said a decision would not be taken until Friday, 6 August.The transport secretary said he hoped the situation could be “regularised” soon. “I hope that over time we will be able to regularise the position with France, but we will have to be a bit patient. Next week will be the first opportunity to look at that.” More

Education charities have expressed disappointment after a summit hosted by Boris Johnson to raise money for education around the world fell well short of its fundraising target.The prime minister’s Global Education Summit missed its goal by $1bn (£716m) after other countries followed the UK’s example of skimping on its aid pledge.Save the Children’s head of education, Emma Wagner, said the failure showed the UK’s “diminishing leadership on the world stage following its devastating aid cuts and a lacklustre G7 summit”.And Plan International UK’s chief executive Rose Caldwell noted that it was the “first time in history that the host of a major education finance summit has simultaneously cut their overall funding for global education”.Education organisations had called on the UK to offer £600m to meet the current global education crisis, but the Treasury ultimately only offered £430m. The spendthrift approach was reflected in other donations, which came to just $4bn – below the stated $5bn target.Boris Johnson capped off the day’s fundraising with a keynote speech in which he described education investment as the “Swiss army knife” in terms of the amount of global issues it could solve.“This is the silver bullet, this is the magic potion, this is the panacea, this is the universal cure, this is the Swiss army knife, complete with allen key and screwdriver and everything else, that can solve virtually every problem that inflicts humanity,” he said. “I’m absolutely serious. If you educate the world properly, fairly, then of course you end a great natural injustice but you also … perform the most fantastic benefits for humanity.”Mr Johnson added: “You lift life expectancy, you lift GDP, you deal with infant mortality and if you educate people properly in the way that they deserve, then, of course, you help to end all kinds of ignorance and prejudice.“By educating people, you help to end all the things that ignorance and prejudice helps to create, so you deal with terrorism and war and extremism, and you help people to tackle climate change.”But charities lined up to point the finger at the PM for the lacklustre result, which came following substantial cuts to UK aid spending. Lis Wallace, UK head of advocacy at ONE, described the outcome as a “decidedly underwhelming result”.“As host, the UK has to shoulder responsibility for this outcome. Despite bold words and bombast about the importance of girls’ education, the prime minister has not demonstrated the leadership expected,” she said.“The UK aid cuts have impaired the government’s efforts to leverage others, and damaged our credibility. This is not just letting down millions of children, it’s a bad look for British diplomacy.”Save the Children’s Emma Wagner added: “Today world leaders have failed to respond to the scale of the global education crisis exacerbated by Covid-19. The total pledged is a full $1bn short of the $5bn target.“The failure of the UK as co-host to mobilise sufficient funds is a clear example of its diminishing leadership on the world stage following its devastating aid cuts and a lacklustre G7 summit. The UK’s own pledge to in June fell well short of expectations and clearly failed to galvanise the global action required at the summit.“Across the world, children hardest hit by inequality and discrimination will pay the price. Following school closures during the pandemic, 16 million may never return to the classroom, on top of the 258 million children already denied their right to quality education. “If the UK is serious about being a global leader on girls’ education and green recovery, it must up its game on the world stage. The government must take urgent action to mobilise additional funding for education to ensure an equitable Covid-19 recovery.”Plan International UK’s Rose Caldwell said donor governments had “failed to grasp the scale of the global education crisis”. “As co-host of the summit, the prime minister has trumpeted his own commitment to girls’ education even while cutting the overall aid budget. It is little surprise that he has struggled to inspire other governments,” she argued.“This is the first time in history that the host of a major education finance summit has simultaneously cut their overall funding for global education. Girls around the world called for the UK to listen and fund education; they asked for leadership, but they got broken promises. “The G7 resulted in strong political commitments on girls’ education, yet now there is not enough money to back them up. We urge the UK and other donor governments to step up and fill this gap, especially as they prepare for the climate summit in December. Covid-19 has created the biggest education emergency of our lifetime and we need funding that reflects the scale and urgency of children’s needs. Without it, millions of girls could see their chance for an education lost forever.” Mr Johnson has previously spoken of the importance of education for girls, arguing it was his “fervant belief” that it would be key in ending poverty. More

RNLI does an ‘incredible job’ says Raab, but small boast issue needs ‘hard’ responseNewly-published emails show Boris Johnson’s government used taxpayers’ money to conduct political polling on opposition figures, such as the Labour leader, under the guidance of Dominic Cummings.The former senior No 10 adviser led the charge in awarding Hanbury Strategy a £580,000 contract to do polling on the government’s response to the Covid pandemic. In messages released by the Good Law Project, Mr Cummings told the most senior civil servant responsible for Covid contracts to sign off on it, saying if “anybody in CABOFF [the Cabinet Office] whines tell them I ordered it from PM”.Labour said the newly-released emails showed “all the hallmarks of a racket” and claimed taxpayers’ money had been “abused”.Meanwhile, Dominic Raab earlier suggested that the government’s “robust approach” to small boats crossing the English Channel is not “inconsistent” with the RNLI’s attempts to rescue migrants. Show latest update

1627541385Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of all things UK politics. Stay tuned as the government receives yet another warning over the fallout in Northern Ireland and Dominic Raab takes a stand against China. Sam Hancock29 July 2021 07:491627541497EU and UK ‘must find way to resolve NI Protocol issues’ – reportThe Northern Ireland Protocol risks becoming a constant irritant in future EU/UK relations unless both sides change their “fundamentally flawed” approaches to resolving the dispute, peers have found.A House of Lords committee set up to examine the controversial post-Brexit trading arrangements for the Irish Sea has warned that Northern Ireland could become a “permanent casualty” of Brexit unless compromise is found urgently.The EU and UK remain at odds over the implementation of new checks and processes on goods being shipped into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.The committee has published an introductory report on the arrangements that have created the economic barriers on Irish Sea trade.Lord Jay of Ewelme, who chairs the committee on the Protocol, said there was an urgent need for compromise.“That won’t be easy, but it is an absolute necessity that the UK and the EU should now work together urgently to identify solutions if Northern Ireland is not to become a permanent casualty of the Brexit process,” he said.“The tensions over the Protocol currently seem insoluble. Yet that was also true of the political situation during the Troubles. But the peace process ultimately took root and flourished, through a process of time, patience, dialogue, and most of all trust. Those same qualities are now needed to address the problems that Brexit and the protocol present.”Sam Hancock29 July 2021 07:511627542194Sunak must apologise to Scottish people over furlough, SNP demandsThe chancellor should use his visit to Scotland on Thursday to apologise for “prematurely withdrawing furlough and risking thousands of unnecessary redundancies”, the SNP has said.Rishi Sunak will visit Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife on Thursday to meet people supported by the UK government’s “plan for jobs” scheme, which he said has supported one in three jobs in Scotland and tens of thousands of Scottish businesses.Mr Sunak hailed the strength of the Union and Scotland’s “innovation and ingenuity” ahead of the visit, saying: “We’ve come through this pandemic as one United Kingdom.”But the SNP’s shadow chancellor Alison Thewliss urged him to explain “why he is short-changing us on youth jobs” and going ahead with Universal Credit cuts that will “plunge half a million people into poverty”.She went on: “I would urge Rishi Sunak to explain to the people of Scotland why he is shortchanging us on youth jobs, and ploughing ahead with Universal Credit cuts that will undermine the Scottish Child Payment and plunge half a million people into poverty, when at the same time he can find £250m for a UK government yacht.“It is increasingly clear that the only way to keep Scotland safe from Tory austerity is to become an independent country with the full powers needed to protect jobs and secure a strong, fair and progressive recovery.”The Treasury has said that through the pandemic, 900,000 people in Scotland were furloughed, more than 90,000 businesses have received loans, and £1.535bn has been paid in self-employment support.From 1 July, though, employers had to pick up 10 per cent of their furloughed workers’ salaries, with the government paying 70 per cent. This will decrease further in August and September, when the government will move to pay 60 per cent and employers 20 per cent. More