Markus Andrews

Dominic Raab has told the EU not to be “bloody-minded” about implementing the Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, ramping up tensions ahead of crucial talks.In a defiant message, the foreign secretary said the bitter stand-off was putting the unity of the country at risk, vowing: “We will not allow the integrity of the UK to be threatened.”The criticism came as Boris Johnson faced an onslaught of pressure to end his refusal to impose agreed checks and restrictions on trade across the Irish Sea, in face-to-face talks with EU leaders.He is meeting Emmanuel Macron, the French President, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, at the G7 summit in Cornwall – where the controversy will be raised.On the summit eve, Mr Macron branded the UK’s attempt to reopen the Northern Ireland Protocol, a legal treaty signed in 2019, as “not serious”, saying: “Nothing is renegotiable.”The EU has warned it is ready to start a trade war if the UK defies unilaterally an agreed ban on chilled meats being exported from Great Britain across the Irish Sea, from July.But Mr Raab said the Protocol was designed to ensure “all communities in Northern Ireland” are protected, insisting the EU must respect “both sides of that pact”.“They can be more pragmatic about the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol in a way that is win-win or they can be bloody-minded and purist about it,” he told BBC Radio 4.“In which case I am afraid we will not allow the integrity of the UK to be threatened.”In the interview, Mr Raab faced the suggestion that the UK’s clout on the world stage is weakening, because “people don’t trust the word of the British government”.“They make a treaty on Brexit and N Ireland, now they want to break it. They say they’ll give international aid at a certain level, then they change their mind,” the foreign secretary was told.But he rejected the charge, insisting: “When I go outside of Brussels, probably not even outside of Europe, no one talks to us in those terms.”As he travelled “around the world”, the UK’s “respect for international law” was recognised, Mr Raab claimed, pointing to its strong stance on the Belarus’s s seizing of a dissident journalist.“The answer is for the Northern Ireland protocol in its entirety, in its letter and its spirit, to be properly implemented – that is all we asked for,” Mr Raab said.“The threat to the Northern Ireland Protocol, also the Good Friday Agreement, is coming from the one-sided approach that the EU has taken, and I think that’s a reasonable argument.”Downing Street has made clear it will shelve the agreed ban on chilled meat exports if necessary, saying: “All options are on the table.” More

A “virtual trial” could take place of the US diplomat’s wife whose car killed teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn, the foreign secretary has suggested.Washington is continuing to block the extradition of Anne Sacoolas over the fatal incident outside a US military base in Northamptonshire, but Dominic Raab pointed to a different breakthrough.It comes after Boris Johnson said US President Joe Biden was “actively engaged” and “extremely sympathetic” about the case after a face-to-face meeting at the G7 summit in Cornwall.Mr Raab said: “The US has not agreed to the extradition, but the path is clear for the legal authorities in the UK to approach Anne Sacoolas’s lawyers – without any problem from the US government – to see whether some kind of virtual trial or process could allow some accountability and some solace and some justice for the Dunn family.“I would like to see some accountability. I think the family deserve no less,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.Mr Dunn died, aged 19, in August 2019 when Ms Sacoolas’s car crashed into his motorbike outside RAF Croughton, the US base where she worked.There was an outcry when she was allowed to leave the UK nine days after the death, when diplomatic immunity was asserted on her behalf.Ms Sacoolas, who has since been charged with causing death by dangerous driving, has refused to return to the UK, but has suggested she is willing to serve a civil penalty in her home country.Speaking after the two leaders discussed the issue, Mr Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, expressed gratitude that it was “being taken so seriously as to be raised on the eve of the G7 meeting with so many worldwide crises going on”.“We very much hope that President Biden takes a different view to the previous administration, given his deeply personal connection to the case, having suffered loss in similar circumstances,” she said.Mr Biden’s first wife and daughter were killed in a road crash in 1972, while his sons Beau and Hunter survived.The Dunn family has challenged the diplomatic immunity asserted on Ms Sacoolas’s behalf, which will be heard in the Court of Appeal next year.Ms Charles and Mr Dunn’s father, Tim Dunn, have also brought a civil claim against Ms Sacoolas and her husband in the US state of Virginia.After discussing the controversy with Mr Biden, Mr Johnson said: “As you know, he has his own personal reasons for feeling very deeply about the issue.“And he was extremely sympathetic, but this is not something that either government can control very easily because there are legal processes that are still going on.” More

Boris Johnson is to announce a delay of up to four weeks to the end of England’s lockdown restrictions, according to multiple reports.The prime minister is expected to announce his final decision on Monday as to whether measures to contain the coronavirus should be eased on 21 June as planned.Asked about the various reports which suggested a delay of two to four weeks was likely, a Downing Street spokesperson did not offer a denial but cited the prime minister’s most recent comments on the subject.Mr Johnson said on Wednesday that it was still too early to say whether the lockdown easing should go ahead, saying: “On Monday … we’ll have a look at where we are. I think what everybody can see very clearly is that cases are going up, and in some cases hospitalisations are going up.“What we need to assess is the extent to which the vaccine rollout, which has been phenomenal, has built up protection in the population in order for us to go ahead to the next stage. And so that’s what we’ll be looking at.”The Telegraph reported on Friday night that Mr Johnson had resigned himself to a four-week extension of restrictions and will tell the country on Monday that it is now too risky to go ahead as planned.The paper cited a senior Whitehall source as saying that a delay would “give protection to many, many millions of people who haven’t had their second [vaccine] doses yet but may be vulnerable” to Covid-19, adding: “The prime minister always said the reopening should be ‘cautious but irreversible’. We don’t want to do anything that risks going backwards.”The Guardian, the BBC and Sky News also reported that a delay of two to four weeks was likely, with the latter describing “widespread pessimism across government” over the 21 June date.It comes after the British Medical Association (BMA) lent its voice to calls to scrap the 21 June date – first floated back in February – over concerns about the impact of the now dominant Delta variant, estimated by Public Health England to be 60 per cent more transmissible than the Kent variant responsible for the UK’s devastating wave of infections in January.With the variant first identified in India now accounting for 96 per cent of new cases, Public Health England data showed on Friday that 42,323 cases had now been recorded in the UK – up 29,892 from the previous week.BMA council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul said the figures showed more time is needed to get the vaccine to more people, saying: “With only 54.2 per cent of the adult population currently fully vaccinated and many younger people not yet eligible, there is a huge risk that prematurely relaxing all restrictions will undo the excellent work of the vaccine programme and lead to a surge of infections.“It’s not just about the number of hospitalisations, but also the risk to the health of large numbers of younger people, who can suffer long-term symptoms affecting their lives and ability to work.”Research into how effective vaccines are against the Indian variant, published by NHS England in May suggests that two vaccine doses are far more effective than just one – with a single dose of both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer jabs found to offer just 33 per cent protection against the Delta variant, compared with 60 and 88 per cent, respectively, after two doses.The BMA’s stance emerged as a survey of health and care organisations by the NHS Confederationfound that 63 per cent of the 282 leaders working across primary care, hospitals and community who responded did not think restrictions should be lifted.According to The Telegraph, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has warned the government that cases could exceed the first wave peak if the 21 June date goes ahead.Meanwhile, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, Layla Moran, said the figures should “set alarm bells ringing” in government, insisting that ministers must “immediately explain to the public whether this exponential growth suggests the country is in line for a severe third wave, and if so what it is doing to prevent this”.While the Cabinet’s Covid Operations group will reportedly meet on Sunday ahead of a full Cabinet meeting on Monday, this will take place amid the G7 and Nato summits.Although the prime minister may reportedly offer some concessions on weddings on 21 June, according to Sky News, restrictions on nightclubs and other venues are expected to remain.Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the pace of new infections was “deeply worrying” and put the lifting of restrictions at risk, adding: “The blame for this lies with the prime minister and his reckless refusal to act on Labour’s repeated warnings to secure our borders against Covid and its variants.”On Friday morning, the government’s vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi emphasised that the virus “hasn’t gone away” when asked about reports of a delay.“There have been some really hard-won battles against this virus and we don’t want to squander those hard-fought gains that we have made through the vaccination programme,” Mr Zahawi told Times Radio Breakfast.“The virus hasn’t gone away, the virus will continue to attempt to mutate, to escape, to try and survive, and I think it’s really important that we are really careful.”Mr Zahawi said the government was “on track” to meet a target of all over-50s being offered their second jab by 21 June, as he appealed to those who had not had a first dose to come forward to be vaccinated. In the UK, more than 41 million people, or 78 per cent of the adult population, have now had a first vaccine dose, while some 29 million have received their second.Additional reporting by PA More

The government has failed to justify the use of Covid passports, which would discriminate against minorities and risk social and economic harm, a group of MPs has warned.A delayed review into the certificates is expected to be published next week, as ministers finally announce whether or not they will press ahead with plans to lift the last parts of England’s lockdown on 21 June. Last month Michael Gove, the minister in charge of the review, talked of the disadvantages of such a system but said it could allow large events such as Premier League football matches to resume.But the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) said the government had failed to make the scientific case for the passports.In a report published today MPs on the committee also warned the scheme would disproportionately discriminate on the basis of race, religion, age and socio-economic background, because some groups were less likely to be vaccinated than others.The report also said the implementation would “by its very nature be discriminatory” and the MPs found “no justification for introducing a Covid-status certification system that would be sufficient to counter what is likely to be a significant infringement of individual rights”.William Wragg, the Conservative MP who chairs the PACAC said: “We recognise the need to formulate an effective lockdown exit, but Covid passports are not the answer. We are entirely unconvinced by the case for their introduction. Although it is a tool that is being sold as and built with the intention of being for the universal good, it has the potential to cause great damage socially and economically.“As vaccine uptake statistics indicate, any Covid certification system will be a discriminator along the lines of race, religion and age.” He always said there were question marks over the cost of a passport scheme compared to any gains it might provide.“Frankly, the Government needs to scrap any idea of introducing Covid passports,” he said. “They are unnecessary and there is no justification for them in the science and none in logic.”Mr Gove has described the benefits of a vaccine passports scheme are “finely balanced”.The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said ministers would not pursue the proposals if they proved too costly or too much “hassle” for the hospitality industry.The NHS app has already been updated to allow users to prove their vaccine status. More

Leaders of the world’s major democratic powers have agreed to work together to stamp out future pandemics within 100 days.A new animal vaccine centre in the UK will be at the centre of a plan to prevent diseases crossing to humans and spreading through populations in the way that is believed to have caused the Covid-19 crisis.Leaders of the G7 states gathered in Cornwall – the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan – will on Saturday launch the “Carbis Bay Declaration”, committing them to a series of measures to prevent a repeat of the coronavirus crisis.They will be briefed by the UK government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and philanthropist Melinda French Gates on findings from their work on the pandemic preparedness partnership.The Carbis Bay Declaration will incorporate the recommendations of their findings, which highlight that the first 100 days after the identification of an epidemic threat are crucial to changing its course and preventing it from becoming a pandemic.Key targets will be to slash the time taken to develop and license vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future “zoonotic” disease – one which crosses from animals to humans – to under 100 days.And the declaration will promise to reinforce global surveillance networks and genomic sequencing capacity and support reforming and strengthening the World Health Organisation.Prime minister Boris Johnson said: “In the last year the world has developed several effective coronavirus vaccines, licensed and manufactured them at pace and is now getting them into the arms of the people who need them.“But to truly defeat coronavirus and recover we need to prevent a pandemic like this from ever happening again. That means learning lessons from the last 18 months and doing it differently next time around.“I am proud that for the first time today the world’s leading democracies have come together to make sure that never again will we be caught unawares.”It is hoped the new UK Animal Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre at The Pirbright Institute in Surrey will stop new animal-borne diseases before they put people at risk.The centre will be backed by £10m from the UK government and £14.5m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, drawing on Pirbright’s existing expertise to accelerate the delivery of vaccines for livestock diseases.Dr Tedros Adhanom, director general of the World Health Organisation, said: “We welcome the Carbis Bay Health Declaration, particularly as the world begins to recover and rebuild from the Covid-19 pandemic.“Together we need to build on the significant scientific and collaborative response to the Covid-19 pandemic and find common solutions to address many of the gaps identified.”Professor Bryan Charleston, director and CEO of Pirbright, said: “There is a global unmet need to accelerate the development of vaccines from the laboratory to provide effective products for livestock keepers to control disease in their animals.“Preventing disease by vaccination will help secure food supplies and so improve human health and welfare.” More

Leading Brexiteers are among those to have been recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list, with Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom given a damehood.The former Tory business secretary is joined on the honours list by Oliver Lewis, a veteran of the Vote Leave campaign who is made a CBE for political and public service.A prominent Brexiteer, Dame Andrea resigned as leader of the Commons in 2019 amid a backlash against Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal plan.She had previously entered the fray to succeed David Cameron as leader of the Conservatives in 2016 but withdrew from the race, clearing the way for Mrs May to become the prime minister.Meanwhile, Mr Lewis has been made a CBE just months after he quit as Boris Johnson’s main adviser on combatting the threat of Scottish independence – less than a fortnight into the role.He reportedly told friends his position at the so-called “union unit” was made “untenable” by others at No 10. It came amid a bitter power struggle which saw the exit of Mr Lewis’ allies Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain.Dame Andrea said she is “deeply honoured” to be recognised on this year’s list, adding: “It is an immense privilege to be recognised for service to politics.”Elsewhere in politics, influential Labour MP Meg Hillier – who chairs the Public Accounts Committee which has scrutinised public spending during the pandemic – is made a dame.Labour MP Tony Lloyd gets a knighthood for his public service, while Conservative deputy Lords leader Earl Howe is honoured with the Knights Grand Cross.Former Labour MP for Wakefield Mary Creagh, who lost her seat in the 2019 election, said she was “honoured and surprised” to be made a CBE for her services to parliament and politics.“I am delighted that my work in government, shadow cabinet and as chair of the environmental audit committee has been recognised,” she said. “I hope it encourages everyone working to tackle climate change and protect the environment to keep the faith.” More

Boris Johnson has told G7 leaders he wants to create a “more feminine” world as the international community builds back from the Covid crisis.The prime minister was speaking as he welcomed leaders including Joe Biden, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron to the first round-table session of the summit of leading democracies in Cornwall.Mr Johnson said that world powers must ensure that the coronavirus pandemic does not leave a “lasting scar” of deeper and more entrenched inequality.And he told his fellow leaders they should be aiming at “building back greener, building back fairer and building equally and – how should I put it? – in a more gender-neutral and perhaps a more feminine way.”Mr Johnson appeared to acknowledge the damage done by the austerity policies of Conservative-led governments in the wake of the 2008 financial crash as he said that today’s leaders must ensure that they do not “repeat the mistake” of that crisis as they plot the recovery from Covid.“It is vital that we don’t repeat the mistake of the last great crisis, the last great economic recession in 2008, when the recovery was not uniform across all parts of society,” he said.“I think what’s gone wrong with this pandemic – or what risks being a lasting scar – is that I think that inequalities may be entrenched.“We need to make sure that as we recover, we level up across our societies and we we build back better.”Describing the better world which he hopes will result from the recovery, Mr Johnson said: “As a G7, we are united in our vision of a cleaner, greener world, a solution to the problems of climate change.“And in those ideas, in those technologies -which we’re all addressing together – I think there is the potential to generate many, many millions of high-wage, high-skill jobs.“And I think that is what the people of our countries now want us to focus on.“They want to be sure that we’re beating the pandemic together discussing how we will never have a repeat of what we’ve seen, but also that we’re building back better together. Building back greener, building back fairer and building equally and – how should I put it? – in a more gender-neutral and perhaps a more feminine way.”Recovery from the pandemic is top of the agenda for leaders of the G7 nations – the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan – at Carbis Bay in Cornwall.They are today expected to agree to donate 1 billion doses of vaccine to help poorer countries protect their populations against the virus – thought campaigners argue that this is not enough without the finance to drive the rapid inoculation of all the world’s people. More

“Keep politics out of sport” is a slogan we’re hearing a lot of again, thanks to the controversies over historical tweets by members of the England cricket team, and some booing of the “taking the knee” protests by the English and Welsh teams, though not the Scots, at the Euro football championship. The truth, though, is that sport and politics have always been tangled up, particularly at the international level. We can think, for example, of the 1936 Berlin Olympics and Jessie Owens, the boycott of apartheid-era South Africa and the athlete Zola Budd, of the Moscow Olympics of 1980 and the Los Angeles games in 1984, when the US and Soviet blocs applied sanctions to one another, and right up to the design of the Ukraine football shirt at the Euros, depicting the Crimea as part of Ukrainian sovereign territory. Images such as an England football team making the Nazi salute at a “friendly” match in 1938, or Tommie Smith and John Carlos giving the black power salute on the winners’ podium at the Olympics in 1968 remain stark and powerful decades on. Politics doesn’t stay out of sport for long. It can’t. Politically, “taking the knee” at the Euro football competition presents an acute difficulty for the government, and a familiar one – what should the line be, and how to make ministers stick to it. It poses particular problems for the Westminster government vis a vis the England team. Thus far, the government has played a poor game, its defence in disarray and its attack at best muted. There are three current versions of the policy. Boris Johnson has given the lead by indicating that the players have the right to make the protest, and make their feelings known, but has not actually said he supports it. Gillian Keegan, an education minister, says it is “divisive”, deriding it as “symbolism more than action” and adding, in an oddly oblique formulation that: “There are some Conservative MPs (that) are very much against it, why? Because Black Lives Matter stands for things that they don’t stand for. It’s really about defunding the police and the overthrow of capitalism, which is, you know, Black Lives Matter the actual political organisation.” More