Markus Andrews

Only allowing students who are fully vaccinated against Covid to attend lectures, would be “hugely discriminatory”, a university union has said.It comes amid reports the government is considering introducing such rules for students, as well as only letting those who have received two doses return to university halls. Education minister Vicky Ford refused to rule the measures out on Monday, saying the government had to “consider everything”. But the University and College Union has criticised the idea.Jo Grady, the general secretary, said students should be prioritised for vaccinations to ensure as many as possible have been given the opportunity to get jabbed before the start of the next academic year. “But making vaccinations compulsory as a condition to access their education is wrong and would be hugely discriminatory against those who are unable to be vaccinated, and international students,” she added. “Sadly, this looks and smells like a prime minister trying to pin the blame on students for not yet taking up a vaccine they haven’t been prioritised to receive.” Ms Grady urged the prime minister to work with the NHS and universities to “enable and sensitively encourage student vaccination” instead of restorting to mandatory vaccination rules. The government has been approached for comment.The Times reported on Monday that Boris Johnson had suggested compulsory jabs for students to attend lectures and live in halls in order to help drive up the rates of young people taking up the vaccine.The prime minister made the suggestion, subject to medical exemptions, during a virtual meeting from his isolation at Chequers, according to the newspaper. It added Mr Johnson was “raging” over comparatively low jab take-up in younger age groups and was considering the move in an attempt to boost vaccination rates.On Monday, Downing Street did not deny reports that students would need to be fully vaccinated to attend lectures.“You have heard what the PM has said before, specifically that the pandemic is not over,” a No 10 spokesperson said. “We are still looking at the scope for vaccination certifications.”Vicky Ford, the minister for children, was repeatedly asked about the potential policy for students on Monday morning.Although she initially answered “no” when asked about the plans on Sky News, before stressing the need to prioritise education, she did not take the opportunity to rule the policy out later on.She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Obviously, I can’t comment on things that haven’t been announced. But one does need to look at every practicality to make sure that we can get students back safely and make sure that we can continue to prioritise education.”Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat’s spokesperson for health, said it was “completely unacceptable” the government was considering these plans.“While it is crucial every adult who can get vaccinated does get the jab, attempting to withhold face-to-face education from students until they do is crossing a line,” the MP added.Additional reporting by Press Association More

Former House of Commons speaker John Bercow has defended the backbench Labour MP who was kicked out of the chamber for calling Boris Johnson a liar.Mr Bercow said Dawn Butler was entitled to claim the prime minister had lied – calling for “absurd” parliamentary rules to be changed so MPs can accuse one another of lying in the chamber.Ms Butler was told to leave the Commons for one day last week after she refused to withdraw her claim that Mr Johnson had “lied to the House and the country over and over again”.In an article written jointly with the Labour backbencher, Mr Bercow wrote: “The glaring weakness of the system is that someone lying to tens of millions of citizens knows he or she is protected by an ancient rule.”They told The Times: “They face no sanction. By contrast, an MP with the guts to tell the truth is judged to be in disgrace. It is absurd.”Sir Keir Starmer has said he supported and “agreed” with Labour MP Dawn Butler when she said Mr Johnson had repeatedly lied to the country.“I agree with what Dawn had to say – I think the prime minister is the master of untruth and half truths,” Sir Keir told LBC on Monday. “Dawn was simply giving some examples of that.”Expressing his sympathy with the Labour MP, Sir Keir suggested that it was unfair she had been sanctioned for saying the prime minister had lied.But the Labour leader also said it was “right” for the backbencher to have been ordered to leave the House of Commons for a day for breaking parliamentary etiquette.Ms Butler was ordered to leave the House after refusing twice to take back her remarks, since it breaks current parliamentary etiquette to call another member a liar.She highlighted disputed claims made by Mr Johnson – referring to his statements on economic growth, NHS spending and nurses’ bursaries, before adding: “It’s dangerous to lie in a pandemic.”As explained on the UK parliament website, such language “breaks the rules of politeness in the House of Commons chamber” and can lead to a member being asked to withdraw what was said or leave.In a chamber where MPs must refer to each other as the “honourable member”, accusations of deliberate deceit and dishonesty are forbidden.Many left-wing commentators and Labour MPs, including the party’s deputy leader, threw their support behind Ms Butler after the incident. “Just to confirm, Boris Johnson is a liar regardless of who calls him a liar or where they call him a liar,” Angela Rayner said. More

The world is at risk of harmful new Covid-19 variants emerging unless the UK and other wealthy nations share more vaccines, a government adviser has warned.It is likely new and “dangerous” variants will emerge which will “chip away” at the effectiveness of vaccines unless there is a global plan of action, the Wellcome Trust and Institute for Government (IfG) think tanks have warned.A joint report released on Monday said the recent G7 summit was a wasted opportunity to come up with a global response – warning highly-vaccinated countries like the UK not to view the crisis as nearly over.“If we don’t vaccinate the world we’re in danger of generating new variants, which, like the Delta variant, will come back to all of us in the future – and they may be much worse than Delta,” said Wellcome director Sir Jeremy Farrar, one of the UK government’s Sage advisers.Sir Jeremy added: “For geopolitics, for science and public health, and for the moral and ethical argument, we have to make the vaccine available globally. And I’m afraid, to date, we’ve failed to do that.”The joint report released on Monday said low and middle-income countries are still only sequencing a tiny proportion of Covid cases – leaving the planet “flying blind” when it comes to tracking and responding to potential new variants.In the run-up to the G20 meeting in October, the report calls on governments to respond to the challenge with much stronger commitment to sharing vaccinations and virus surveillance – as well as boosting healthcare capacity.The report also says global leaders must define an acceptable level of domestic vaccination and supply, and agree what surplus vaccines can be committed to the global effort.The report states: “With approaching half a million new cases being recorded per day globally – a figure that is rising – it is likely that further dangerous variants will emerge.”It adds: “While most scientists do not currently expect a new variant to emerge that will fully evade vaccines, what are more likely are variants that ‘chip away’ at vaccines’ effectiveness.”Urging wealthy nation government to commit greater resources, the report finds that vaccinating the whole world to the level of rich countries requires around 11 billion doses at a cost of around £36bn – around £26bn more than has so far been spent.“One of my major concerns is that the rich world … will gradually move in what I would call a good direction,” Sir Jeremy told a virtual IfG event on Monday – hailing the “extraordinary achievement” of the UK’s vaccine roll-out.“Tragically though, the rest of the world is a very different position, with less than 1 per cent of populations in low-income countries vaccinated.”Reflecting on the mistakes made by Boris Johnson’s government in 2020, Sir Jeremy said he “regrets” the failure to re-impose restrictions in England last autumn, as Covid cases kept on rising.“I do regret the decision and delays in the fourth quarter of 2020 which led to the January-February wave and yes, the loss of life then,” he added.“Was the delay during the autumn of 2020 the right decision? It was not the right decision.” More

The government has refused to rule out the idea of making full Covid vaccination mandatory for students if they want to return to college and university campuses this autumn.Boris Johnson is said to have been “raging” about the low rates of vaccination among young people and is keen to encourage more of them to get the jab.The prime minister proposed making the vaccine compulsory for students in higher and further education during virtual meetings he held at Chequers last week, according to The Times.Asked whether the government was considering banning un-jabbed students from campus, education minister Vicky Ford refused to rule out the idea – saying ministers had to “consider everything”.The minister for children told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I can’t comment on things which haven’t been announced, but one does need to look at every practically to make sure we can get students back safely.”Pressed on whether the government was considering the plan, Ms Ford added: “We’ve always considered everything we can do to make sure [students] are safe in education. And the key thing to get infection down is to make sure people get their vaccination.”Asked twice on Times Radio whether unvaccinated students could be banned, Ms Ford said: “I think it’s important that everyone looks at every practical situation that we have there to try to keep people safe.”She added: “If you want to get that freedom, not worrying about self-isolation, get on with university life …. do make sure you’ve had that vaccination.”Mr Johnson reportedly suggested in Zoom calls with colleagues last week that students should be fully vaccinated before being allowed to attend lectures or return to halls of residence.But the Department for Education (DfE) is thought to have concerns about both the legality and the practicalities involved in enforcing any ban on students.The proposal will be staunchly opposed by many Conservative backbenchers. A group of around 40 Tory MPs have have already vowed to vote against the government’s plan to make double vaccination a condition of entry at nightclubs and other crowded venues.Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Education Select Committee, criticised the idea as “wrong-headed,” adding: “It’s like something out of Huxley’s Brave New World where people with vaccine passports will be engineered into social hierarchies.“Where does this stop? Do we fire apprentices who have not had the vaccine? Do we remove older students from [further education] colleges? Do we close down adult education courses where adults have not had the vaccine? I hope not.”Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson, the party’s spokesperson for health, said the idea was “completely unacceptable” – saying it would be unfair to “punish” students.“While it is crucial every adult who can get vaccinated does get the jab, attempting to withhold face-to-face education from students until they do is crossing a line,” said Ms Wilson.“Government attempts to strong-arm them into getting vaccinated will simply push them away … This will not wash, and we cannot stand by while ministers try to punish young people for a pandemic Boris Johnson has utterly mishandled.”Downing Street did not deny reports that students would need to be fully vaccinated to attend university lectures.“We are still looking at the scope for vaccination certifications,” said a No 10 spokesperson.Asked if there was concern about take-up of the vaccines in younger age groups, the spokesperson said: “I think you continue to see more and more young people coming forward to receive the vaccine, both in terms of first doses and now second doses.“Of course, we want to see more people come forward to receive it.“We would like to see everybody who is invited to come forward and receive the vaccination to do so. That’s the message we continue to try and give to young people.”The Independent has asked DfE for comment. More

Boris Johnson has cautioned against claims that the UK may have passed the peak of its third wave of Covid-19, warning that “we’re not out of the woods yet”.While the drop in daily cases from almost 55,000 on 17 July to fewer than 30,000 on Sunday was “encouraging”, Downing Street said the prime minister believes that the impact of relaxations introduced a week ago could soon start driving numbers back up again.Step 4 of Mr Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown – which saw an end to mandatory face-coverings and work-from-home guidance as well as the reopening of nightclubs – had always been expected to result in an increase in cases, said a No 10 spokesperson.But crucially, the time-lag between infections, symptoms and positive tests means that the rise in cases linked to Step 4 on 19 July is not expected to become apparent for another week or two.Even allowing for the usual dip in positive cases recorded over the weekend, the decline in numbers over the past 10 days has been steep and protracted enough to spark speculation that the UK’s wave of Delta variant infections may have peaked earlier than expected.The high of 54,674 new cases reported on 17 July is well below the 100,000 figure described as “almost inevitable” by government scientific adviser Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, who said the true peak could be as high as 200,000.One theory to explain the fall has been that it reflects the end of the Euro 2020 football tournament, which saw large crowds at stadiums as well as fans gathering in pubs and in front of TVs to watch the matches. Others have suggested that the recent spate of hot weather has encouraged people to mix outdoors, where transmission is more difficult.But the No 10 spokesperson made clear the PM was not claiming victory over the virus yet.“The prime minister doesn’t think we’re out of the woods yet and has stressed many times before that the pandemic isn’t over,” said the spokesperson.“We’ve said before when we moved to Step 4, that allowing large numbers of people to meet in indoor settings would have an impact on case numbers.“We won’t have seen the impact of Step 4 yet in terms of case numbers so as we always do, we will continue to keep all the stats under review.”Bristol University professor of paediatrics Adam Finn cautioned against letting up on efforts to reduce the spread of Covid in response to the fall in cases.“We need to be pleased about the recent fall in daily numbers of positive tests,” said Prof Finn. “Not confident about the implications, nor certain of what may happen next, but pleased simply because the numbers have spent five days not going up even further and faster.“That means less viral transmission and eventually fewer hospitalisations and deaths than we feared and expected a week ago.”But he warned: “We still have enough non-immune people around to reverse this trend if we completely stop trying to avoid spreading the infection.“Together we desperately need to keep this happening if we can. It’s a joint effort. There’s a lot we can all do. We need to test ourselves before we go to work or mix with others, always wear a mask in crowded places and when inside with others – places to avoid for now whenever possible – and, above all, get vaccinated.” More

Labour could back the use of Covid passports for mass-attendance events like sports fixtures, saving Boris Johnson from the prospect of a humiliating defeat in parliament.Leader Sir Keir Starmer today said he was ready to support “passports plus testing” to enable mass-attendance events to admit large audiences, but said he would rule out checks to access healthcare or food shops.And he suggested the government should “look again” at the 16 August date for double-vaccinated people to be freed from the requirement to self-isolate, if current exemptions for key workers are shown not to drive up infection rates.He said he hoped the date could be brought forward to help rein in the “pingdemic” of self-isolation instructions, which he said was causing “absolute chaos” in the UK economy.The Labour leader – who is self-isolating after his 13-year-old son tested positive for Covid-19 – said he would distinguish between people who are living with a coronavirus patient, who should continue to observe quarantine, and those “pinged” due to casual contacts, who might be freed from the requirement to stay home.He rejected threats from the RMT transport union of possible industrial action if staff were forced to work alongside colleagues exempted from self-isolation, saying that strikes were not “the right way” to deal with the fear of infections.There was speculation last week that Starmer could join Liberal Democrats and Conservative rebels in opposing the use of vaccination records on the NHS smartphone app as a means of regulating access to venues.With 40 or more Tories expected to vote against the scheme – initially proposed for nightclubs and similar businesses – Labour opposition could consign the prime minister to defeat when the measure reaches the Commons in September.But, speaking on LBC radio today, Sir Keir said he wanted to be “pragmatic” about the scheme, making clear he was not committed to telling his MPs to vote against.“We’ll look at what government puts forward,” the Labour leader said. “I want to be pragmatic about it.“I want to make sure that sports and all sectors are opened up as quickly as possible.“I think that passports on their own aren’t enough, because as we know, sadly, you can be double-jabbed and still get the new variant.“So it’s got to be passports plus testing. And that would be for sporting events, etc.”Sir Keir said that Labour support for vaccine passports would be dependent on them being restricted to a limited set of circumstances.“I don’t want to see vaccine passport used on an everyday basis for access to critical things like health, dentistry, food, etc,” he said.“For sporting events, I will look at what the government puts on the table. I want to be pragmatic because we all want all business sectors and sporting sectors to return as quickly as possible, but not for everyday use, because I don’t want to see people denied health, dentistry, food, because they have no vaccine passport.”Sir Keir said that if the government’s exemptions from self-isolation for key workers were shown to be effective “then we should support it and look again at 16 August”.And he added: “I’m hoping we can do something because at the moment it’s absolute chaos in terms of keeping the economy going, keeping businesses going.”The Labour leader distanced himself from predecessor Tony Blair’s proposal that double-jabbed people with a negative test should not have to observe self-isolation rules.“I would personally distinguish between those that are living with someone who’s got Covid, and those that have been pinged because they’ve seen someone at work or whatever,” said Sir Keir..“In my position, I’m acutely aware that our boy has actually got Covid and therefore theoretically could pass it on to any of the rest of us at any moment. So I personally wouldn’t put myself in a scheme like that.“But where it’s not a family member that you’re living with, I think, then maybe we need to look at that again.”He said he would not support industrial action by workers concerned at having to share their workplace with individuals who have been “pinged” but told they need not stay home.“I don’t think that’s the right way,” said Starmer. “I think that if it is possible to show that with a double vaccination and a negative test critical workers can go back to work I would support that.“Obviously we need to keep an eye on how safe it is, we need to be cautious. But we need to keep our critical sectors working and I think we should support exemptions that allow us to do that.” More

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has dismissed a Boris Johnson pledge to provide victims of crime with a named officer to call about their case as a “ridiculous gimmick”.The prime minister is expected to unveil his new plan for “beating crime” on Tuesday, after leaving self-isolation at his Chequers country retreat.Mr Johnson vowed on Sunday to make sure that every victim of crime has “a named officer to call, someone who is immediately on your side”.But speaking to LBC on Monday, Sir Keir said officers would have too many cases to be a single point of contact. “This is just a gimmick by the prime minister yet again – he loves soundbites, he loves slogans, he loves gimmicks.”The Labour leader added: “This one won’t work … if anything it will make things worse because individual officers work shifts, they’re doing investigations, they’re off duty. It will actually slow things down. It’s an ill-thought-through gimmick.”Sir Keir said he was in favour of making sure victims “get information, they’re consulted, they’re engaged … I’m absolutely in favour of that, I would actually put that in law”.The Labour leader also said home secretary Priti Patel’s position had become “untenable” following the Police Federation’s vote of no-confidence over a pay freeze.Sir Keir told LBC on Monday he was “not surprised” by the move from the body representing rank and file officers. “I think that government has let down the police over 10 years now,” he said.“It’s all very well saying they’re recruiting more officers now but they stripped 21,000 out over the last 10 years. They are now gradually replacing some of those officers. They, police, have been through added challenges over the last 18 months.”On Ms Patel, the Labour leader added: “They’ve got no pay rise, and they feel very, very let down by our home secretary. So I think her position is untenable.”Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, also criticised the government’s “named officer” plan as unworkable.“If that officer is on a shift pattern or off sick or on holiday, that just puts added pressure on that officer,” he said. “It doesn’t work in that way – you can’t start singularly naming officers because by the sheer nature of their work … if they’re not at work, what happens then?”Other measures outlined by the prime minister in a piece for the Sunday Express included publishing league tables for 101 and 999 call-answering times, as well as intensifying efforts against county lines drug gangs.Mr Johnson also claimed on Sunday that he backed police officers “all the way”.However, Mr Marsh responded: “Well he’s not backing us all the way is he, he’s treating us in a derisory way. “And what do we get at the end of it? As usual, absolutely nothing. His words are hollow and my colleagues are fed up with it now.” More

Sir Keir Starmer has said he supports and “agrees” with Labour MP Dawn Butler after she stood up in parliament and said Boris Johnson had repeatedly lied.But the Labour leader also said it was “right” for the backbencher to have been order to leave the House Commons for a day for breaking parliamentary etiquette.“I agree with what Dawn had to say – I think the prime minister is the master of untruth and half truths,” Sir Keir told LBC on Monday. “Dawn was simply giving some examples of that.”Expressing his sympathy with the Labour MP, Sir Keir suggested it was unfair that she was sanctioned for saying the prime minister had lied.“I think there’s a lot of people that feel that it’s the person who has not told the truth, rather than the person who is calling it out, who ought to be in a hotspot,” the Labour leader said.However, he said it was right for Ms Butler to have received the one-day ban. “In fairness to the temporary Speaker, Judith Cummins … she did right thing – she followed the rules, because parliament doesn’t allow you to call other parliamentarians liars in the chamber.”The Labour leader added: “So I don’t criticise the [temporary] Speaker for what she did – she was following the rules. But do I support Dawn in what she said? I absolutely do.”The former Commons Speaker John Bercow has called for the etiquette rule – which prevents MPs calling another member a liar in the chamber – to be ditched.Mr Bercow said Ms Butler was entitled to claim the prime minister had lied, saying the “absurd” parliamentary rules should be changed so MPs can accuse one another of lying in the chamber.In a joint piece with the Labour backbencher, Ms Butler and Mr Bercow wrote: “The glaring weakness of the system is that someone lying to tens of millions of citizens knows he or she is protected by an ancient rule.”They told The Times: “They face no sanction. By contrast, an MP with the guts to tell the truth is judged to be in disgrace. It is absurd.”Ms Butler was ordered to leave after refusing twice to take back her remarks about Mr Johnson lying “over and over” to both the House and the country.She highlighted disputed claims made by Mr Johnson – referring to his statements on economic growth, NHS spending and nurses’ bursaries – before adding: “It’s dangerous to lie in a pandemic.” More