Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson’s plans to bring in mandatory Covid vaccine passports for crowded venues this autumn have been thrown into disarray after Labour signalled its opposition.A group of about 40 Tory MPs are believed to be ready to rebel against the plan to make full vaccination a requirement of entry into nightclubs and other large, crowded venues from the end of September.With the Lib Dems already opposed to the use of mandatory vaccine passports, Labour’s opposition could spell disaster for the government when a vote comes to the Commons.Sir Keir Starmer used PMQs on Wednesday to criticise the prime minister’s decision to focus on vaccination alone, rather than allowing people to show they recently received a negative test.A Labour spokesperson later said: “We need to see the detail of what the government puts forward regarding vaccine passports.”But they made clear Labour was opposed to the plan to make vaccination status the be-all and end-all of certification policy. “We oppose the use of Covid vaccination status for everyday access to venues and services. It’s costly, open to fraud and is impractical.”The Labour spokesperson added: “Being double jabbed doesn’t prove you aren’t carrying the virus. Testing for access to venues would be more efficient, and would give people and businesses more certainty.”In a fiery clash with Mr Johnson at PMQs, Sir Keir said: “I remember when [the prime minister] used to say he’d eat an ID card if he ever had to produce one, and now he is introducing one.”Sir Keir added: “Why is it okay to go to a nightclub for the next six weeks without proof of a vaccine or a test, and then from September, it will only be okay to get into a nightclub if you’ve got a vaccine ID card?”Mr Johnson accused Sir Keir of trying to “score cheap political points” and noted: “Everybody can see we have to wait until the end of September … when [young people] will all have got the two jabs, before we consider something like asking people to be doubled jabbed before they can go into a nightclub.”Reacting to Labour’s statement opposing vaccine passports, the Lib Dems’ home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said he was “glad” that Sir Keir had appeared to come out against the government’s plans.Mr Carmichael told The Independent: “Labour under Keir Starmer cannot help but swivel because they haven’t decided which way the wind is blowing. We need a national campaign this summer to scrap these authoritarian proposals. Liberal Democrats will oppose these illiberal vaccine passport plans – no ifs, no buts.”A group of 42 Conservative MPs have reportedly signed a Big Brother Watch declaration against Covid status certification denying individuals “access to general services, businesses or jobs”. Dozens of Labour and Lib Dem MPs have also signed the declaration.Earlier on Wednesday, a senior minister appealed to sceptical Tory MPs to consider vaccine passports for uniquely risky settings such as nightclubs – saying they were being proposed with the “heaviest of hearts”.Welsh secretary Simon Hart said: “We only come up with regulations because we feel there is sufficient medical evidence, and the advice of Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance is so compelling that we are really left with no option.” More

Boris Johnson’s government has sparked anger by rejecting the chance to announce a pay rise for NHS staff in England – accused of “bottling” the promised hike in salaries.The government was expected to reveal a 3 per cent pay rise for health service staff on Wednesday, but health minister Helen Whately said a final decision had been delayed.“The government asked for recommendations from NHS pay review bodies,” the minister told MPs in the Commons. “The government is seriously considering those recommendations, and we will be responding as soon as we possibly can.”Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, shadow health minister, said the failure to deliver the pay rise before the summer break was “an insult of the highest order” – adding: “Our NHS staff deserve better than this.”Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth added: “So what’s happened to the government response to the NHS pay review body? Our NHS staff deserve a fair pay rise not a pay cut.”The government had been widely expected to offer NHS staff in England a 3 per cent pay rise this week in a bid to stave off the threat of strikes by doctors and nurses.It followed outrage over the initial proposal from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) of only a 1 per cent pay rise – telling the independent NHS Pay Review Body that was all the government could afford.Labour, the Lib Dems and the health unions said sticking with a 1 per cent rise would effectively amount to a pay cut, since it was below inflation levels of 1.5 per cent.Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson, the party’s health spokesperson, said on Wednesday: “Words and clapping are cheap – where on earth is the widely-reported and trailed pay deal announcement that was expected today?”Ms Wilson said: “Does the minister really believe a 1 per cent pay rise, which is actually a pay cut, is actually giving NHS doctors and nurses what they need?”Speaking later, Ms Wilson added: “After all that build-up, the government bottled it and have once again turned their backs on those who are getting us through this pandemic.”The GMB union described the government’s non-announcement of an NHS pay award as “completely outrageous”, while the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the further delay was “shameful”.RCN chief executive Pat Cullen said: “This treatment of our NHS workers is shameful. Ministers are holding them in contempt and we have no choice but to condemn this behaviour.”Ms Cullen added: “Ministers need to stop the wrangling and come clean about the pay rise they believe NHS staff deserve. Nursing staff will only accept this pay award if it’s significant, consolidated and fully funded with additional monies.”The RCN had demanded pay be boosted by 12.5 per cent – so it remains unclear if a 3 per cent rise, if it does come in the weeks ahead, will be high enough to placate union members. More

The EU has rejected the UK’s demand to rip up the Northern Ireland Protocol, within three hours of the audacious demand being made in Parliament.“We will not agree to a renegotiation of the Protocol,” said Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice president, in an official statement.The rejection came after a new UK “command paper” insisted the agreement – hailed as “a fantastic deal” by Boris Johnson, when Brexit was sealed in 2019 – must be frozen and radically reworked.The demands include abandoning full Irish Sea trade checks – due to start in October, when “grace periods” expire – and for Brussels to shelve legal action for non-implementation of existing terms.The UK also wants the Protocol to “no longer be policed by EU institutions and courts of justice” – the bedrock for ensuring London can be punished for non-compliance, in EU eyes.And a so-called “honesty box” approach should allow goods “meeting both UK and EU standards to circulate” in Northern Ireland, Brexit minister David Frost argued.Checks would only be carried out on goods definitely destined for the Republic of Ireland – a dual-standards regime long rejected by the EU, for fear it will undermine its single market.In the statement, Mr Sefcovic reiterated that the Protocol was “the joint solution” reached to solve the problems provoked by “the type of Brexit chosen by the British government”.Pointing to the overarching need to protect “the integrity” of the single market, he added: ”In order for these objectives to be achieved, the Protocol must be implemented.”David McAllister, chairman of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, underlined the gulf across the Channel, saying the EU would not allow the agreement to be “undermined”.“The protocol was painstakingly negotiated under high political pressure, ensuring to minimise disruption and to help local communities and businesses. It cannot be renegotiated,” he said.And Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, insisted: “Any solutions must take place within the framework of the Protocol and the principles that underpin it.” More

A Commons watchdog has found five Conservative MPs breached the code of conduct and attempted to “improperly” influence legal proceedings related to their disgraced former colleague Charlie Elphicke.Mr Elphicke, the former Tory MP for Dover, was jailed for two years in 2020 for sexually assaulting two women.Natalie Elphicke, Sir Roger Gale, Adam Holloway, Bob Stewart and Theresa Villiers were all accused of seeking special treatment for Mr Elphicke after writing to senior judges using Commons stationery.The Commons Committee on Standards said the letters sent by the MPs was “an attempt improperly to influence judicial proceedings” – finding they had all breached the code of conduct.The committee recommended that three of the MPs – Ms Elphicke, Sir Roger and Ms Villiers – be suspended from the Commons for one day, while Mr Holloway and Mr Stewart should apologise to the House.The standards watchdog’s report, released on Wednesday, added: “Such egregious behaviour is corrosive to the rule of law and, if allowed to continue unchecked, could undermine public trust in the independence of judges.”The committee’s findings followed a probe by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone – who found that “by privately requesting the intervention of two senior judges” the five MPs “had attempted to interfere in a judicial process”.The five MPs sent a letter in November 2020, using House-provided stationery, to senior members of the judiciary raising concerns that a more junior judge was considering publishing character references provided for Mr Elphicke.It was also copied to Ms Justice Whipple, who had heard the trial of Mr Elphicke, and was to hear and decide on an application to release the pre-sentencing character references.The MPs’ behaviour was found to have “caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity” of the House of Commons.Of the three recommended for suspension, two had “substantial legal experience” while the third, Sir Roger, is both the longest standing of the group and “still does not accept his mistake”, the report said.Labour had previously accused the group of five MPs of seeking special treatment for Mr Elphicke.Thangam Debbonaire MP, Labour’s shadow Commons leader, said: “The report today into the conduct of a gang of Conservative MPs once again shows that the government and their MPs think it is one rule for them and another for everyone else.”Mr Elphicke was given a two-year prison sentence in 2020 after he was convicted of three sexual assaults on two younger women.Ms Elphicke won the Dover constituency for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election after her estranged husband had stepped down. More

Keir Starmer accuses Boris Johnson of being ‘super-spreader’ of Covid rule confusionBoris Johnson has refused to apologise for a text in which he suggested that Covid-19 was only killing people over-80 in the autumn of 2020, as he took part in Prime Minister’s Questions from self-isolation today.Speaking in the House of Commons, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also labelled the PM as a “super-spreader” of confusion on Covid policy following U-turns over self-isolation guidance and vaccine passports.It came as Sir Keir was forced into self-isolation himself due to one of his children testing positive for the virus this afternoon.Meanwhile, the UK government has demanded a “standstill period” to freeze the Northern Ireland Protocol and to end oversight by EU courts, setting ministers on a collision course with Brussels.Brexit minister Lord Frost told peers on Wednesday that “we cannot go on as we are” with the current Protocol arrangements but stopped short of unilaterally suspending the measures.Show latest update

1626879300It isn’t unusual to renegotiate treaties, Lord Frost insistsBrexit minister Lord Frost has insisted it is not unusual to renegotiate treaties after the EU rejected the UK government’s plans to change the Northern Ireland Protocol.Lord Frost was asked on Wednesday whether Boris Johnson had lied in 2019 when he said there would be no extra customs checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.He replied: “What we expected at the time was that we would be able to operate the protocol in a light touch way, taking account of the delicate politics and the peace process in Northern Ireland and obviously that’s not how it’s turned out.”Speaking to broadcasters, the minister added: “I don’t think that there’s anything unusual or surprising in looking again at a treaty. “We have a lot of experience now about how it’s operating that we did not have in 2019.”Conrad Duncan21 July 2021 15:551626878583Our deputy political editor, Rob Merrick, has more details below on the EU rejecting the UK government’s call for a renegotiation the Brexit deal:Conrad Duncan21 July 2021 15:431626877642EU ‘will not agree to renegotiation’ of NI Protocol, European Commission VP saysThe European Commission’s vice-president has said that the EU “will not agree to a renegotiation of the Protocol” in response to the UK’s call for major changes to the post-Brexit trading arrangements with Northern Ireland.Maros Sefcovic said that the bloc would “continue to engage” with the UK but solutions had to be within the framework of the Protocol and in the interest of all communities in the region.“However, we will not agree to a renegotiation of the protocol,” Mr Sefcovic added.“Joint action in the joint bodies established by the Withdrawal Agreement will be of paramount importance over the coming months.“We must prioritise stability and predictability in Northern Ireland. I look forward to speaking to Lord Frost soon.” More

Sir Keir Starmer is self-isolating after a member of his immediate family tested positive for Covid, his spokesperson has said.Shortly after participating in the weekly session of prime minister’s questions, the Labour leader was informed one of his children had tested positive for Covid-19 around lunchtime.“In line with the rules, Keir and his family will now be self-isolating,” a spokesperson for Sir Keir said.“Keir was already doing daily tests and tested negative this morning. He will continue to take daily tests”Sir Keir was expected to continue a summer tour in the Midlands on Thursday — as part of conversations across the country with voters who abandoned the party at the last general election – but in line with government rules he will now spend up to 10 days in quarantine.It will be the fourth time Sir Keir has had to enter quarantine since the pandemic began.It comes after the Labour used the final session of prime minister’s questions before recess on Wednesday to criticise Boris Johnson for an extraordinary U-turn at the weekend when he initially sought to sidestep Covid isolation rules.On Sunday, No 10 was forced to backtrack on plans for both the prime minister and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to avoid quarantine by joining a daily testing scheme, which is supposed to select members of the public at random.Faced with a considerable political backlash, Mr Johnson and the chancellor said just hours later they would not participate in the scheme, and are both now self-isolating.Raising the issue in the Commons, Sir Keir asked: “If somebody’s pinged by the NHS app, as millions will be over coming weeks, should they isolate yes or no?”“Can I wish the prime minister, the Chequers one, well in his isolation. With half a million people self-isolating, I think we were all a bit surprised that the prime minister, the chancellor and the Cabinet Office minister were all randomly chosen for a get-out-of-isolation-free card.“But it’s good that the prime minister finally recused himself, even if it took a public outcry, for the communities secretary to be humiliated on live TV and a trip to a country estate. If somebody’s pinged by the NHS app, as millions will be over coming weeks, should they isolate yes or no?Responding virtually from Chequers, Mr Johnson replied: “I think that everybody understands the inconvenience of being pinged, as he rightly says here I am, I wish I was with you in the Commons chamber today.“I apologise to everybody in business up and down the land in all kinds of services, public sector or otherwise who are experiencing inconvenience.“We will be switching, as the House knows, to a system based on contact testing rather than contact isolation, but until then I just must remind everybody that isolation is a vital tool of our defence against the disease.” More

Boris Johnson has refused to apologise in the House of Commons for saying that coronavirus only kills over-80s.Mr Johnson was challenged by Sir Keir Starmer at prime minister’s questions over a WhatsApp message published by his former adviser Dominic Cummings.The PM made no attempt to deny the authenticity of the message, sent in October last year, in which he resisted a second lockdown on the grounds that the majority of those dying were above the average life expectancy, joking: “Get Covid and live longer.”Mr Johnson appeared to admit that Cummings was correct about his determination to prevent the reimposition of lockdown last autumn, telling MPs that things had changed “since we were thinking in those ways”.Starmer demanded an apology from the prime minister, telling Johnson that every over-80 who lost their life left behind “grieving families and loved ones”.Dodging the call to apologise, Mr Johnson said that “nothing I can say… could make up for the loss and the suffering” felt by those affected by Covid.Giving evidence by video-link from Chequers, where he is isolating after coming into contact with Covid-positive healths secretary Sajid Javid, he said that the government had made “incredibly tough” decisions in the effort to balance controlling the disease with the suffering caused by lockdown to mental health and young people’s life chances.But Starmer said the government was “all over the place” on its imposition of of controls as England emerges from lockdown, following confused messages on Tuesday over whether workers should self-isolate.And SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused the PM of being “glib” about the prospect of an early death for thousands of elderly people and treating the over-80s as “expendable”.He repeated his call for the public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic to be brought forward from Mr Johnson’s preferred date in 2022, so that he and other ministers can be made to answer questions under oath about their performance. Following the PM’s use of three-word slogans like “Get Brexit Done” and “Hands Face Space”, Sir Keir said Johnson should now adopt “On The Hoof” to describe his Covid policies.“When it comes to creating confusion, the prime minister is a super-spreader,” the Labour leader told the Commons chamber, which was fuller than it has been for many months following the relaxation of coronavirus controls on Monday.Repeating his warning of a “summer of chaos”, Starmer said: “Yesterday his business minister said the app was an advisory tool only, another government minister – and I kid you not – said yesterday the app is just to allow you to make ‘informed decisions’. What on earth does that mean?”He added: “The prime minister and the chancellor spent the weekend trying to dodge isolation altogether. “The British people are trying to follow the rules, how can they when his ministers keep making them up as they go along?“And he asked: “Why is it OK to go to a nightclub for the next six weeks without proof of a vaccine or test, and then from September it will only be OK to get into a nightclub if you’ve got a vaccine ID card?”Boris Johnson accused Sir Keir of trying to “score cheap political points” and noted: “Everybody can see we have to wait until the end of September, by which time it is only fair to the younger generation, when they will all have got the two jabs, before we consider something like asking people to be doubled jabbed before they can go into a nightclub.“That’s blindingly obvious to everyone, it’s common sense.”Mr Johnson said it would also “encourage” younger people to get jabs. More

The UK has demanded a “standstill period” to freeze the Northern Ireland Protocol and to end oversight by EU courts, triggering a fresh clash with Brussels.Unveiling a new “approach” to the agreement it agreed and signed, the government also warned Brussels it is already within its rights to suspend it altogether – should it choose to.David Frost, the Brexit minister, blamed EU intransigence for the “burden” of Irish Sea trade checks and the “febrile political climate” in Northern Ireland – which had led to “disorder”.The UK demands would “maintain grace periods” – preventing further checks in the autumn – and halt “existing legal actions” by the EU, which accuses London of a failure to implement the agreement.To gasps in the House of Lords, the minister also insisted the Protocol “must no longer be policed by EU institutions and courts of justice” – a key aspect of the 2019 deal.“These burdens will worsen, not improve, over time as grace periods expire”, Lord Frost warned, leaving businesses and society in deeper trouble, he argued.And he insisted: “Putting it simply, we cannot go on as we are.”Crucially, Lord Frost claimed “it is clear that the circumstances exist to justify the use of Article 16” – the mechanism that would suspend the Protocol.But he added it was “not the right moment to do so”, saying the UK would continue to talk to the EU to try to agree “a new balance” without that draconian step.The minister also explained the UK would be seeking the EU to allow goods “meeting both UK and EU standards to circulate” – another clear breach of the 2019 agreement.Full Irish Sea checks “should only be applied to goods genuinely destined for the EU”, a command paper argues, a so-called “honesty box” approach.Brussels has opposed a dual-standards regime – even if UK goods were labelled as only for use in Northern Ireland – for fear it will undermine the single market.The package of demands adds up to a move to renegotiate the Protocol entirely, rather than simple seeking changes to customs and animal products checks, to reduce the impact.The hardline stance was hailed as “a significant step in the right direction” by Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, and “an acceptance that the Protocol is not sustainable”.But Stephen Farry, the deputy leader of the Alliance Party, attacked a breach of trust, saying: “Rather than rewrite the Protocol, the government wants to rewrite history.”And Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat Northern Ireland spokesman, said: “This is a joke.“The government is taking us all for mugs when they say this mess could not have been predicted. They signed up to the Protocol knowing full well businesses would be caught up in a game of political football.” More