Markus Andrews

Sir Lindsay Hoyle delivered an extraordinary double rebuke to Boris Johnson on Monday, saying it was “entirely unacceptable” that the prime minister held his televised news conference about changes to the Covid roadmap timetable without informing MPs in the House of Commons.The House of Commons speaker said Johnson “must now lead from the top and follow the guidance” in the ministerial code, which states major announcements should be made first in parliament.“I will be pursuing this matter with him,” Sir Lindsay said. “I do not find it acceptable at all. Members of this house are elected to come here to serve their constituents, not to serve them via Sky or BBC.”Health secretary Matt Hancock took questions from MPs at 8.30pm, two hours after the TV announcement.As he waited on the front bench, Sir Lindsay said: “The prime minister should be here. I am sorry if his dinner would have been affected because I was told he was in Brussels. The nearest Brussels tonight were the sprouts on his dinner being served.“I say now, prime minister, you are on my watch and I want you to treat this house correctly.”Sir Lindsay earlier said Mr Hancock’s statement only came after he “got involved” with Downing Street, adding: “We’re not accepting it and I’m at the stage where I’m beginning to look for other avenues if they’re not going to treat this house seriously.”He was responding to points of order from two senior Conservative MPs, Peter Bone and Sir Edward Leigh, who voiced their unhappiness with the handling of the announcement.Mr Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, told MPs he could “think of no more important policy announcement than changes to regulations that restrict the freedom of the British people”, meaning it was all the more “concerning” that the press and public were being informed before legislators. “What makes this matter more concerning is that about 30 minutes ago the media were given an embargoed copy of the statement,” he said during an appearance at the Commons. “So the media have the statement in advance, there will be a public press conference at 6pm and the last people to know about the changes to the Covid regulations will be members of parliament.”Mr Bone added it was “very disrespectful” and even suggested the move might be considered “a contempt of parliament”. This was followed by a senior figure in the Conservative Party, MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith, querying if it would be possible for the government to provide a statement to parliament at 6pm – before Mr Johnson goes live to the nation. “If somebody’s willing to do that from Downing Street, I will always ensure that this house will hear it,” Sir Lindsay responded. “My view is I was told no decisions have been taken. That’s why I’m more shocked to know there is an embargo [with the press], a list of what’s going to happen to this country, without this house knowing.” More

The UK and Australia have agreed the broad terms of a post-Brexit trade deal to be announced later on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison were said to have agreed the pact over dinner in Downing Street.Downing Street did not deny the reports and, if confirmed, the agreement would be the first trade deal negotiated from scratch since the UK’s exit from the European Union.Industry leaders have raised concerns over possible compromises on food standards, while farmers fear they could be undercut by cut-price imports.A split in the Cabinet also appeared between International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Environment Secretary George Eustice, who has concerns about the impact on farmers.Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove also fears a deal could fuel demands for Scottish and Welsh independence.The deal is expected to give food producers in both countries easier access to each other’s marketsThe UK government says membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could provide British farmers with huge opportunities.However, there have been concerns in the farming community about the UK compromising on its food standards.Farmers in Australia are allowed to use some hormone growth promoters, pesticides, and additives that are banned in the UK.Mr Morrison has said that Britain joining the European Common Market in 1973 dealt “a devastating blow to Australian producers” and that Brexit “was an opportunity for us to pick up where we left off all those years ago”. More

The UK government’s hopes of scrapping the final social restrictions imposed on the public to tackle the coronavirus pandemic have been put on hold as the Delta variant of the disease continues to drive up infections.At Monday’s 6pm press conference, Boris Johnson confirmed that the lifting of remaining coronavirus restrictions in England will be delayed by four weeks to 19 July.It was “sensible to wait just a little longer” and potentially until 19 July, he said, adding he was “confident” no further extensions of lockdown measures will be needed.As it stood, Boris Johnson’s roadmap was originally scheduled to end on 21 June when the last precautionary measures were due to be lifted.But the threat posed by the new strain – thought to be 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha variant – raised doubts about the wisdom of pressing ahead.When asked whether he could rule out extending this delay to the easing of lockdown, the prime minister said: “At a certain stage we’re going to have to learn to live with the virus and to manage it as best we can.”“At the end of that [four-week delay] … we do think that we will have built up a very considerable wall of immunity around the whole of the population.” More

Conservative MPs have lambasted the government’s handling of a month-long delay to the end of lockdown restrictions in England. Ministers were accused of an “unjust” and “unconscionable” decision not to offer any extra financial support to businesses alongside an announcement that so-called ‘freedom day’ would no longer take place on 21 June.A number of Conservative backbenchers, including former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, also criticised the decision to brief the media before MPs on the decision to pause a further easing of restrictions because of fears over the new Delta variant.Opposition MPs, meanwhile, accused the government of failing to crack down on the strain of the virus, first identified in India, soon enough.Tensions boiled over as the health secretary Matt Hancock updated the House of Commons, hours after the prime minister gave a press conference.Tory MP Steve Baker warned Mr Hancock that “alarming numbers of people… believe they are never going to see true freedom again”.His fellow backbencher Sir Robert Neill warned the minister that even just a few weeks would mean the “the difference between survival and closure for some businesses”. Announcing the delay and forcing some businesses to remain closed without additional financial support was “unjust, unconscionable and unsupportable,” he said. Mr Hunt said he agreed with the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle that it was wrong that parliament heard the news after the media, and said it should have been the prime minister, not Mr Hancock, who made the announcement to the House.Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the prime minister’s “complacency” had allowed the Delta variant to spread, for the sake of a “photo call with Prime Minister Modi” on a trip to IndiaHe told Mr Hancock: “Our constituents did what was asked of them, they queued up for vaccination… and yet now we’re in the grip of a Delta wave spreading with speed and our constituents face further restrictions.”The Prime Minister’s complacency allowed this variant to reach our shores. On March 25 there were warnings of a new variant in India, it is reported that ministers first learnt the Delta variant was in the UK on April 1, the Government red-listed Pakistan and Bangladesh on April 9 but didn’t red-list India until April 23, by which point 20,000 people had arrived from India.”Our borders were secure as a sieve and all because the Prime Minister wanted a photo call with Prime Minister Modi. “It’s astonishing that these ministers promised to take control of our borders, and conspicuously failed to control our borders at the very moment it mattered most.”In response to similar charges from other MPs, the health secretary insisted he had acted swiftly against the threat posed by the Delta variant and accused opposition politicians of believing he should have had information about events before they had happened. More

More than 40,000 people could die this summer as the Delta variant of coronavirus sweeps through the UK, even after Boris Johnson’s decision to delay the lifting of lockdown restrictions by four weeks to 19 July, scientists have warned.A paper submitted to the government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) said that a summer wave of infections, hospitalisations and deaths is “likely” whether or not restrictions are lifted because of the highly virulent nature of the variant, but the potential peak death rate could be reduced from 700 to 500 a day by delaying Step 4 of Mr Johnson’s roadmap from the planned date of 21 June.The prime minister today said he was “confident” that the so-called Freedom Day – when most remaining social distancing rules will be lifted and crowds return to sports fixtures and arts events – will not have to be deferred again beyond 19 July and that it will not be necessary to reimpose any of the curbs on shops and hospitality which have been removed over the past few months.But the worst-case scenario figures drawn up by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are certain to revive controversy over Mr Johnson’s delay in imposing travel restrictions from India, where the Delta variant was first identified, at a time when he was planning a crucial trade visit to the country in March.European countries which barred travellers from the south Asian country earlier than the UK have suffered less from the Delta variant, which is believed to be 40-80 per cent more transmissible than the original Covid-19 strain and now makes up around nine in 10 British cases.With Downing Street seeing the coming weeks as a race against the virus and the vaccine, the target for offering a first jab to all adults in England is being brought forward from the end of July to 19 July.And the delay between first and second jabs is being cut from 12 to eight weeks for over-40s, as scientists said promoting high vaccine uptake is critical to suppressing the worst effects of the third wave.The authorities believe that by stepping up inoculations, around two-thirds of adults will have been offered a second dose by 19 July, significantly reducing the risk of hospitalisation and cutting deaths by thousands.But the LSHTM study, presented to Sage on 8 June, said that a five-week delay to the start of the summer holidays would only reduce the projected worst-case scenario number of deaths to a central estimate of 43,500 – within a range stretching from 31,200-62,900. Going ahead with relaxations on 21 June under this scenario would see a central estimate of 49,700 deaths over the summer wave – within a range of 35,600-67,200.Mr Johnson said: “Now is the time to ease off the accelerator because by being cautious now, we have the chance in the next four weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people.”A two-week review will be carried out on 28 June, but Downing Street made clear it was thought unlikely that the situation will have improved enough by then to allow reopening to be brought forward to 5 July. The result of a second review, announced on 12 July, is expected to lead to the lifting of remaining restrictions a week later.The PM held out some consolation to couples planning to get married or enter civil partnerships over the coming weeks, announcing that the cap of 30 attending ceremonies and receptions is to be lifted.Care home residents will no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days after trips outside the premises. And trials of mass attendance events with audiences of various sizes will continue, meaning there is no change to numbers of fans expected to be allowed to attend Euro 2020 football matches.But he said there would be no additional financial support for businesses hit by extended closure, despite warnings that the delay will cost the nightlife and hospitality sector alone as much as £3bn. The moratorium on commercial evictions will end as scheduled on 1 July, despite many businesses now not being able to reopen until after that date.The UK is now recording around 8,000 positive Covid cases a day, the highest level since February. Numbers are growing by 70 per cent nationally week-on-week and are doubling weekly in areas with higher levels of infection, focused in the northwest of England but now covering one-third of the country.Average numbers of people admitted to hospital are increasing by 15 per cent each week – but by 66 per cent in the northwest. But deaths remain low, with just three recorded nationwide on Monday.Minutes of a Sage meeting on 9 June showed that the SPI-M expert modelling group estimates that there are between 7,000 and 13,000 new infections per day in England. The proportion of cases that result in hospitalisation has decreased significantly due to vaccination and that older people – who are more likely to have had both jabs – are making up a decreasing share of those needing hospital treatment.But crucially, the number of infections and hospitalisations are still linked and there is “considerable uncertainty” about the scale of the expected resurgence in infections and hospital admissions.SPI-M modelling found that going ahead with relaxation of curbs could result in hospitalisations hitting the peak seen in the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020, when 2,500-3,000 patients were being admitted by the NHS every day.In any scenario, Sage found that delaying Step 4 of Mr Johnson’s roadmap would avoid admissions and deaths, by giving extra time for people to get vaccinated. Most of the benefit comes in the first four weeks of delay – in part because it pushes Freedom Day closer to the school holidays, when infections are expected to be reduced – and peak admissions could be cut by a third to a half during this time.“Reducing uncertainty about whether there may be unsustainable pressure on the NHS also reduces the risk of needing to consider reimposing measures,” said the Sage minutes. “Although there is a risk of unsustainable pressures even with a delay, it is much lower.”The LSHTM study submitted to Sage on 8 June said that a summer wave of infections comparable to those seen in spring and autumn 2020 could be expected, with a peak in August or September.More than half of the hospitalisations and deaths are expected to occur in unvaccinated individuals, with deaths concentrated in the over-75 age group, said the paper. More

Boris Johnson has announced a four-week delay to the lifting of remaining coronavirus restrictions in England to 19 July, as a wave of the highly virulent Delta variant sweeps across the country.But the prime minister said he was “confident” that the date of so-called Freedom Day – initially scheduled for 21 June – will not have to be postponed again.And he said that scientists were not advising the reversal of any of the relaxation of curbs in areas like shopping and hospitality introduced over the past few months.With Downing Street seeing the coming weeks as a race against the virus and the vaccine, the target for offering a first jab to all adults in England is being brought forward from the end of July to 19 July.And the delay between first and second jabs is being cut from 12 to eight weeks for over-40s, as scientists said promoting high vaccine uptake is critical to suppressing the worst effects of the third wave.The authorities believe that by stepping up inoculations, around two-thirds of adults will have been offered a second dose by 19 July, significantly reducing the risk of hospitalisation and cutting deaths by thousands.Mr Johnson said: “It’s unmistakably clear the vaccines are working and the sheer scale of the vaccine roll-out has made our position incomparably better than in previous waves.“But now is the time to ease off the accelerator because by being cautious now, we have the chance in the next four weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people.”He said that the extra four weeks would give medics time to build a “very considerable wall of immunity” around the whole of the population by maximising vaccinations.But he admitted that he could not rule out the possibility that the emergence of new and even more virulent variants may force a further delay in the return to more normal life.A two-week review will be carried out on 28 June, but Downing Street made clear it was thought unlikely that the situation will have improved enough by then to allow reopening to be brought forward to 5 July. The result of a second review, announced on 12 July, is expected to lead to the lifting of remaining restrictions a week later.The PM held out some consolation to couples planning to get married or enter civil partnerships over the coming weeks, announcing that the cap of 30 attending ceremonies and receptions is to be lifted.Care home residents will no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days after trips outside the premises. And trials of mass attendance events with audiences of various sizes will continue, meaning there is no change to numbers of fans expected to be allowed to attend Euro 2020 football matches.But he said there would be no additional financial support for businesses hit by extended closure, despite warnings that the delay will cost the nightlife and hospitality sector alone as much as £3bn. The moratorium on commercial evictions will end as scheduled on 1 July, despite many businesses now not being able to reopen until after that date.The UK is now recording around 8,000 positive Covid cases a day, the highest level since February. Numbers are growing by 70 per cent nationally week-on-week and are doubling weekly in areas with higher levels of infection, focused in the northwest of England but now covering one-third of the country.Average numbers of people admitted to hospital are increasing by 15 per cent each week – but by 66 per cent in the northwest. But deaths remain low, with just three recorded nationwide on Monday.Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference that the spread of the Delta variant meant “we have obviously faced a very difficult choice”.“We can simply keep going with all of Step 4 on 21 June, even though there is a real possibility that the virus will outrun the vaccines and that thousands more deaths would ensue which could otherwise have been avoided,” he said.“Or else we can give the NHS a few more crucial weeks to get those remaining jabs into the arms of those who need them.“And since today I cannot say that that we have met all our four tests for proceeding with Step 4 on 21 June, I think it is sensible to wait just a little longer.”A bride-to-be who has had to postpone her wedding twice asked the prime minister why testing and vaccination status cannot be used to open up weddings in the same way it is being used for football matches.Speaking to the Downing Street press conference by video link, she said it felt like weddings are “bottom of the priority list despite being significant life events without which some people cannot progress with their lives”.Mr Johnson said he was “very, very sorry” to hear about her situation, adding: “All I can say is I’m sorry for the disappointment that this will certainly bring to weddings, to many, many businesses, but it’s a few weeks that I think is worth it to get those jabs in.” More

The government will not extend its flagship furlough payments even as it delays plans to lift the final lockdown restrictions in England. The scheme, which has paid the wages of millions throughout the coronavirus crisis, will start to be phased out from the end of this month and is due to end entirely on 30 September.But Boris Johnson is facing calls to announce extra support for workers and businesses after he confirmed that the so-called ‘freedom day’ on 21 June has now been postponed until July.Ministers are understood to believe there is no need to extend the furlough scheme after changes in the Budget mean the aid lasts into the autumn.But Claire Walker, the co-executive director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said:  “It would be extraordinary if we saw government retracting support to businesses now, given that some firms will remain unable to fully trade and others effectively forced not to trade at all.”Dr Roger Barker, director of policy at the Institute of Directors (IoD), said the delay was a “blow” for many businesses, particularly those in the retail and hospitality sectors.He warned: “We are now approaching a cliff edge, with Government support for business ending or beginning to taper off. It is vital that this support is pushed out commensurately with the lockdown extension. Economic support and public health measures must be aligned.”As well as furlough a number of other support measures are due to change at the end of this month.A ban on commercial rent evictions is due to come to a halt on June 30, while business rates relief will also taper off.Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), warned the delay would make many businesses “highly reliant” on government help. He said: “Many of these businesses and individuals have adapted, overcome and survived for an exceptional length of time with the bare bones of support, and have arrived at this opportunity to find that it could be ripped away from them.”Nigel Morris, employment tax director at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, called for changes to the phasing of the furlough scheme.”Keeping Government contributions at 80 per cent throughout July – instead of going ahead with the proposed reduction to 70 per cent support for businesses with a mandatory 10 per cent employer contribution – would be an enormous help given the delay to ‘Freedom Day’.”However, there is some good news for wedding venues. Ministers have made an exception for the industry and will scrap the current limit on the number of wedding guests. This will now be decided by the size of the venue and its ability to support social distancing. But it could prove a shot in the arm for an industry which has suffered disastrously during the crisis. Under the changes events such as weddings and wakes will no longer be limited to a total of just 30 guests.A series of pilots organised by the government will also proceed, in a bid to allow large scale events to go ahead.Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, otherwise known as furlough, the government currently pays 80 per cent of wages up to £2,500 a month.From July, however, that contribution will fall to 70 per cent, with employers either having to make up the extra 10 per cent themselves or let an employee go.In August and September the government will further cut its support to 60 per cent, and employers will be asked to raise their contributions to 20 per cent. After September the scheme will come to an end altogether. More

The fourth and final part of Boris Johnson’s roadmap from winter lockdown planned for all limits on social contact to be lifted on or after 21 June, paving the way for the way for the reopening of nightclubs and full audiences at events and performances.However, the prime minister announced on Monday that the four tests — success of the vaccination rollout, vaccine efficacy, the continuous dropping of infection rates and emergence of new variants — had not been met and that the fourth step must be delayed, until 19 July.He also said people may wish to continue social distancing after that date.“This is a virus that’s going to be with us forever,” Sir Patrick Vallance told the same news conference.Limits on numbers for sports events, pubs and cinemas will therefore remain in place, nightclubs will stay shuttered and people will be asked to continue working from home where possible.Downing Street left open the option of ending restrictions on 5 July if the data proves drastically better than expected but conceded this is “unlikely”.Mr Johnson did, however, announce a limited easing of restrictions to take place from June 21 as he faces the prospect of a rebellion from Conservative MPs who are furious about the delay.The 30-person cap for wedding ceremonies and receptions, as well as wakes, will be lifted, with limits to be set by venues based on social distancing requirements.We can expect masks, two-metre distancing and hand sanitiser to be with us for some time, as the vaccine rollout continues over the coming months to take in the less “at risk” groups.Mr Johnson spent the early weeks of February urging extreme caution regarding the lifting of lockdown restrictions.He has been placed under considerable pressure from within his own party after the Covid Recovery Group led by MPs Steve Baker and Mark Harper issued a letter signed by 63 backbenchers hailing the “tremendous pace” of the UK’s vaccine rollout – with 15m jabs already administered – and calling for the swift easing of restrictions. More