Markus Andrews

The daughter-in-law of a Tory peer has been charged with manslaughter by negligence over the death of a police officer in Belize. Jasmine Hartin, the partner of Lord Ashcroft’s son, was taken into custody after the body of a superintendent was discovered on a dock in the central American country on Friday.Police said Henry Jemmott, who was found dead in the town of San Pedro, had been fatally shot. His body was found in the water with an apparent gunshot wound behind his right ear, a police commissioner was quoted as saying in local media.Ms Hartin has been charged with manslaughter by negligence in connection with the death, her lawyer said on Monday.“Bail has been denied,” Godfrey Smith told local media outside court. “We appeal to the Supreme Court, as is normal.” Ms Hartin is married to Andrew Ashcroft, the son of former Conservative treasurer and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft.Her father-in-law holds Belizean citizenship and was once its representative at the United Nations.Lord Ashcroft, who is also a Tory donor, sat in the House of Lords until 2015 and has retained his peerage since stepping down.Ms Hartin’s lawyer is expected to release a statement concerning the case later on Tuesday. Speaking about the events surrounding the discovery of Mr Jemmott’s body, police commissioner Chester Williams previously said a single gunshot was heard “and upon investigating, police found the female on a pier, and she had what appeared to be blood on her arms and on her clothing”.The gun involved belonged to police superintendent Mr Jemmott and police understand he and Ms Hartin were friends, according to local broadcaster Channel 5 news.Additional reporting by Associated Press More

Today’s daily politics briefingA staggering £113bn has been wiped off exports of UK services as a result of Brexit – even before the sector was left out of the final trade agreement, new research suggests.Industries from IT and finance to business and professional services are among some of the hardest hit since the 2016 vote to leave, experts at Aston University in Birmingham found.Meanwhile, thousands of people are at risk of losing their rights to live and work both in the UK and on the continent because they are yet to apply for post-Brexit residency.British citizens in France, Malta, Luxembourg and Latvia have until 30 June to apply for settled status. And thousands of EU nationals and their families in the UK are appealing for urgent help with applications.Elsewhere, No 10 is refusing to say where Boris Johnson went for a short break after he and wife Carrie got married on Saturday. A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The PM spent Sunday and Monday away but is now back working.” Asked where the newlyweds travelled, following suggestions that they were to visit the seaside, the spokesperson added: “It is a personal matter so I won’t be getting into any further detail.”Show latest update

1622558108Unions furious as TfL forced to develop plan for driverless trains in return for fundingBoris Johnson’s government has demanded work is carried out on introducing driverless tube trains as part of the £1bn bailout agreed with Transport for London (TfL).TfL chiefs have been forced to come up with a business plan for automated services on the London Underground’s Piccadilly and Waterloo and City lines in return for the latest funding package.My colleague Adam Forrest reports: Matt Mathers1 June 2021 15:351622555918Stop new Covid variants emerging by giving poorer countries more jabs, WHO, WTO, and IMF urgeWealthy countries like the UK need to give more vaccines to developing countries in order to stop a new Covid-19 variant emerging and destroying progress against the virus, leading international bodies have warned.The World Health Organisation, World Bank, World Trade Organisation, and International Monetary Fund are among organisations warning of a “two-track” pandemic and a “dangerous gap” between countries.Our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports: Matt Mathers1 June 2021 14:581622554435Nicola Sturgeon announces Glasgow lockdown restrictions to be eased from midnight FridayNicola Sturgeon has announced that coronavirus restrictions in Glasgow City will be eased from midnight on Friday, with the area moving into Level 2 measures.The Scottish first minister said the country was at a “delicate and fragile point” of the pandemic, with the new delta variant accounting for over half of new daily cases.In an update to Holyrood, she stressed the Scottish government must “err on the side of caution”, as she outlined what she described as a “slight slowing down of the easing of restrictions.Our politics correspondent Ashley Cowburn has more details on this breaking story: Matt Mathers1 June 2021 14:331622553711TfL funding package ‘falls well short’, Labour saysA government funding package to support Transport for London’s (TfL) finances amid collapsing demand for travel during the Covid pandemic “falls well-short” of what Londoners and the economy needs, Labour has said.“It is adding insult on top of injury to expect TfL to stump up an extra £500m every year without unfairly punishing Londoners for doing the right thing by not using public transport during lockdown,” Sam Tarry, the shadow transport minister, said.Earlier on Tuesday, it was announced that TfL had agreed a third funding package to keep services running amid declining passenger numbers.The Department for Transport said the latest package is worth £1.08 billion and runs until 11 December.Mr Tarry added: “The government needs to set out substantial, long-term funding for TfL that will enable it to plan for the future, secure thousands of jobs across the capital and continue to build a transport network that’s the envy of the world.“Once again, this government has opted to play politics with TfL rather than giving it the backing it needs.”Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said the deal will support London and its transport network through the pandemic, and ensure it is a modern, efficient and viable network for the future.Sadiq Khan, Labour’s London mayor, said it is “not the deal we wanted” but it ensures “we can continue to run vital transport services at this crucial time for our city”.Matt Mathers1 June 2021 14:211622551585Does Johnson believe lockdown easing can go ahead on 21 June?Does Boris Johnson still believe there is “nothing in the data” to suggest the lifting of all Covid restrictions on 21 June should be delayed, as he said last Thursday? asks our deputy politics editor, Rob Merrick.The answer is……nobody knows, because he has been away for two days, celebrating his surprise wedding to Carrie Symonds, and his own spokesman has not bothered to ask him.In the five days since last Thursday, the number of Covid infections has leapt by 30 per cent, and admissions to hospitals by 23 per cent, so it seems clear that the situation is deteriorating.But, asked whether Mr Johnson still believes next month’s full unlocking remains on course, his spokesman told reporters “you have got the prime minister’s words from last Thursday”.It then emerged he has not even spoken to the prime minister, who “spent Sunday and Monday away”, despite the fact that “he is now back working from Downing Street”.Of course, interviewed last Thursday, Mr Johnson also warned “we may need to wait” by delaying the 21 June roadmap date – so what the prime minister really thinks is, as ever, uncertain.And where did the happy couple go: “It is a personal matter so I won’t be going into any further details,” journalists were told.Matt Mathers1 June 2021 13:461622550653India Covid variant shows test-and-trace isn’t working, top biologist saysThe dramatic surge of infections with a Covid variant first detected in India proves that the £37bn test-and-trace system “doesn’t work”, an Oxford biologist says.The system – hailed as “world-beating” by health secretary Matt Hancock and others – should have been able to curb the spread when cases were originally low, Professor James Naismith said.Our deputy politics editor Rob Merrick has more details: Matt Mathers1 June 2021 13:301622549600 I’d be happy if Covid restrictions went beyond 21 June – it will mean greater protection for us allVaccinations are key. As we all should know by now, no one is safe until everyone is safe, writes our associate editor, Sean O’Grady.Read Sean’s full piece here: Matt Mathers1 June 2021 13:131622547051Israel should listen to its friendsIsrael has always seen itself as a beacon of freedom and democracy in the Middle East, writes Dominic Grieve. But the interpretation and application of law are being skewed to try and protect the interests of one community only.Read Dominic’s full piece below: More

Nicola Sturgeon has announced that Covid restrictions in Glasgow City will be eased from midnight on Friday, but outlined that other areas of Scotland’s central belt will see a “pause” in measures being relaxed.Due to a recent rise in infections, Glasgow is the only part of the country remaining under Level 3 restrictions, prohibiting non-essential travel out of the area, alongside greater restrictions on socialising, hospitality and businesses.From Saturday morning, Glaswegians, however, will be able to travel outside the area as the city moves down to Level 2 measures. They will also be able to meet people socially in groups of up to six people from three households indoors – including overnight stays – and also meet inside restaurants, cafés and pubs.But in an update to Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon stressed that the government must “err on the side of caution”, as she outlined a “slight slowing down” of the planned easing of restrictions for other areas.With the country facing a “delicate and fragile point” in the pandemic — the new variant now accounts for over half of new daily cases — the first minister said the vast majority of Scotland’s central belt will remain in Level 2.It had been the plan for much of Scotland to move down to Level 1 — allowing greater freedoms — by next week.The first minister said that Edinburgh and Midlothian, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, North, South and East Ayrshire, North and South Lanarkshire, Clackmannanshire and Stirling did not meet the criteria to see restrictions ease, however.“It also our judgement with case numbers as high as they are in these areas, and with a substantial proportion of adults not yet double dosed, it is safer and more likely to protect our progress overall if we hold these areas in Level 2 for a further period,” she said.She told MSPs there could even be an argument to move these areas in into Level 3 restrictions, given the raw figures, but the impact of the vaccination programme has meant this would not be needed.“However, it is important to stress that this is a pause, not a step backwards,” the first minister insisted. “And Level 2 is not lockdown. It does not have an impact on opening hours of pubs and restaurants and the numbers than can attend certain events.”She added: “And taking a cautious approach now — while more people get fully vaccinated — gives us the best chance of staying on the right track overall.” More

Boris Johnson’s government has demanded work is carried out on introducing driverless tube trains as part of the £1bn bailout agreed with Transport for London (TfL).TfL chiefs have been forced to come up with a business plan for automated services on the London Underground’s Piccadilly and Waterloo and City lines in return for the latest funding package.London mayor Sadiq Khan, who chairs TfL, admitted on Tuesday that it was “not the deal we wanted” and vowed to fight against further moves to bring in driverless trains.The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union reacted with fury to the news, calling driverless trains “unwanted, unaffordable and unsafe”.The union is also angry that Mr Khan has agreed to review TfL’s pensions scheme. General secretary Mick Lynch warned that its members could take strike action to resist the “disgraceful stitch up of a deal”.The RMT leader said: “It is completely unacceptable for transport workers who have risked and in some cases tragically lost their lives to now be asked to pay this political price for the coronavirus.”He added: “Attacks on workers’ pensions are wholly unacceptable while driverless trains are unwanted, unaffordable and unsafe.”TfL agreed to a third government bailout worth £1.08bn to keep services running amid the collapse in demand for travel during the pandemic.It brings government support for the capital’s transport network to more than £4bn since the pandemic hit last year.The DfT said Mr Khan had committed to “review TfL’s generous pensions scheme” and “make progress” towards running driverless trains with an on-board attendant.A full business case for driverless trains on the Waterloo and City line is required within a year, while a more general plan for driverless trains the Piccadilly line expected within 18 months.Mr Khan claimed that TfL had “successfully managed to see off the worst of the conditions the government wanted to impose,” adding that the bailout allowed the city to keep running vital transport services.Boris Johnson has accused Mr Khan, his successor as London mayor, of “blowing” TfL’s finances through an “irresponsible” policy of freezing some fares.But TfL insists it was on the path to achieving an unprecedented level of financial self-sufficiency until the pandemic significantly reduced its fares revenue.Under the latest agreement, TfL must find £300m of new savings or income in the 2021/22 financial year and £500m of new or increased sources of revenue each year from 2023.Transport secretary Grant Shapps made clear the government would effectively block the mayor’s plans for a £3.50 daily “boundary charge” on motorists entering London by refusing to hand back any raised income.In a letter to Mr Khan, Mr Shapps said that it “cannot be right to impose a ‘boundary tax’ on non-Londoners to pay for services mainly enjoyed by Londoners”.The minster said the £1bn bailout deal would help ensure TfL runs “a modern, efficient and viable network for the future”.Mr Shapps added: “Throughout this process the government has maintained that these support packages must be fair to taxpayers across the UK and on the condition that action is taken to put TfL on the path to long-term financial sustainability.” More

Wealthy countries like the UK need to give more vaccines to developing countries in order to stop a new Covid-19 variant emerging and destroying progress against the virus, leading international bodies have warned.The World Health Organisation, World Bank, World Trade Organisation, and International Monetary Fund are among organisations warning of a “two-track” pandemic and a “dangerous gap” between countries.It comes a day after more than 100 MPs and peers from across the parties urged Boris Johnson to commit to matching every dose bought for the UK with a donation to the WHO’s Covax scheme.The international organisations made their call an article authored jointly by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO; Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the IMF; David Malpass, the president of the World Bank Group, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the WTO.It appeared in newspapers across the world including Der Spiegel in Germany, la Repubblica in Italy, the Daily Telegraph in the UK, Le Monde in France, and the Washington Post in the United States.”Increasingly, a two-track pandemic is developing,” the authors say, adding: “Inequitable vaccine distribution is not only leaving untold millions of people vulnerable to the virus, it is also allowing deadly variants to emerge and ricochet back across the world.”Even countries with advanced vaccination programmes have been forced to reimpose stricter public health measures. It need not be this way.”They call call for $50 billion (£35 billion) in new spending commitments including grants to help developing nations with vaccination schemes.And they further suggest that the target of vaccinating 30 per cent of the world’s population by the end of 2021 should be increased to 40 per cent, and 60 per cent by the first half of 2022.These “doses need to be donated immediately”, the authors argue – in an article timed to coincide with G7 finance ministers convening in London and G7 health ministers in Oxford ahead of a major leaders’ summit in Cornwall on June 11.Scientists worry that new, more virulent or deadly variants are more likely to emerge in countries where the virus has run out of control because there are more instances of infection where mutations can happen.These new variants have the potential to make existing vaccines less effective, which would be a disaster for the UK which has invested heavily on protecting its population through vaccination. More

The dramatic surge of infections with the Indian Covid variant proves that the £37bn test-and-trace system “doesn’t work”, an Oxford biologist says.The system – hailed as “world-beating” by health secretary Matt Hancock and others – should have been able to curb the spread when cases were originally low, Professor James Naismith said.“That was certainly the theory and the promise of the track and trace system,” said the professor of structural biology at the University of Oxford.“With numbers as low as they were and a reasonable amount of lockdown, if track and trace was ever going to work and make a difference it would be this time – but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference at all.”“The simple answer is that it doesn’t work,” Prof Naismith said, adding: “The evidence is there for everyone to see.”The warning came after the latest daily figures revealed another 3,383 confirmed Covid cases, with up to 75 per cent thought to be the Indian variant.Blackburn with Darwen reported 584 cases in the seven days to May 26, the equivalent of 390.1 cases per 100,000 people and the highest seven-day rate for the area since the start of February.The seven-day rate in Bolton stands at 386.7 cases per 100,000, which is down from 452.8 on May 21 and suggests that the surge in cases may have peaked.Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to slam the brakes on his plan to lift all Covid restrictions on 21 June, some scientists fearing a third wave of the pandemic is already under way.The British Medical Association has warned the government not to “repeat past mistakes with a premature easing of measures that could “undermine our health service”.And Dr Adrian Boyle, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, warned of a “perfect storm of hospitals just not having enough capacity.”Professor Adam Finn, from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said: “There’s vulnerability across the country. The idea that somehow the job is done, is wrong.“We’ve still got a lot of people out there who’ve neither had this virus… nor yet been immunized, and that’s why we’re in a vulnerable position right now.”But Professor Sir Mark Walport, a former chief scientific adviser, said that more data was needed before the final decision could be made about the June 21 easing of restrictions.”We need to substitute speculation for scientific data that’s the truth of the matter. As everyone has said in the last few days, the situation is very delicately balanced with some three sets of moving parts,” he said.“Firstly we have got a new more transmissible variant, of that there is no doubt, though we don’t know exactly how much more transmissible.“Secondly, there’s been a change in behaviour following the relaxation of measures on May 17, and the effects of that will just be starting to come through.“And, thirdly, we’ve got a vaccination programme that is very successful, but with a lot of people that still need both their second dose of vaccine and vaccination from scratch.” More

The UK government’s hopes of scrapping the final social restrictions imposed on the public to tackle the coronavirus pandemic appear to be fading fast as the Indian variant of the disease continues to drive up infections.As it stands, Boris Johnson’s roadmap ends on 21 June when the last precautionary measures are due to be lifted but the threat posed by the new strain – thought to be more highly transmissible than the first – is raising doubts about the wisdom of pressing ahead.While there is significant pressure for a return to normality as the summer weather finally arrives and after more than 14 months of hardship, frustration and uncertainty, the prime minister has previously promised to be guided by “data, not dates” in his decision-making and, at present, the former is not looking good.The UK recorded 3,383 new infections on Monday, its sixth consecutive day hitting more than 3,000 cases, a rate not seen since early April.The rise has been sufficient to provoke concern among the experts, several of whom have sounded the alarm about the risk involved in pushing on with stage four of the easing process.“I think there’s a significant chance that [the date] could change,” Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told Sky News.“We’re better off being cautious at this point and being able to progressively unlock ourselves than to overdo it and then end up having to lockdown fully all over again.”His comments followed those of Professor Ravi Gupta, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group counselling the government, who told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Bank Holiday Monday that the UK is now in the grip of an “early” third wave of Covid-19 infections spearheaded by the Indian variant.“There has been exponential growth in the number of the new cases and at least three-quarters of them are the new variant,” the University of Cambridge academic said.“Of course the numbers of cases are relatively low at the moment – all waves start with low numbers of cases that grumble in the background and then become explosive, so the key here is that what we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave.“It will probably take longer than earlier waves to emerge because of the fact that we do have quite high levels of vaccination in the population, so there may be a false sense of security for some time, and that’s our concern.”Prof Gupta pointed out that Mr Johnson’s roadmap was formulated before the existence of the variant was known and backed delaying the final easing by “a few weeks” to allow more people to be vaccinated against it.“If you look at the costs and benefits of getting it wrong, I think it is heavily in favour of delay, so I think that’s the key thing,” he said.“People are not saying we should abandon the 21 June date altogether but just to delay it by a few weeks while we gather more intelligence and we can look at the trajectory in a clearer way.”A number of other leading experts have agreed that the current date for relaxation is inadvisable given the current evidence but, so far, none are advocating new lockdowns – either national or local to hotspots like the hardest-hit north west, Midlands and London.Instead, they are united in calling for stage four to be temporarily delayed and for the public to be patient one final time in order to avoid a fresh setback that could undo much of the good work this year’s successful vaccine rollout has achieved. More

Fans of the hit Netflix programmes Bridgerton and Emily in Paris can now count a surprising public figure among their number – Rishi Sunak. In an interview with Radio Times, the chancellor also said he was an “enormous fan” of the BBC. His comments come amid recent fears that Tory politicians are targeting the corporation as part of a so-called culture war. Mr Sunak conceded that his tastes were “probably not quite the same” as those of some of his cabinet colleagues.He joked: “Like Emily In Paris, I’m not sure how many others watched that. I’ll check.”He also said he has spent “a lot of time” watching the hit period drama Bridgerton, which was released in December.Mr Sunak told the magazine of the special part some familiar television shows had played in his childhood. “We were never allowed to eat in the sitting room, but Saturday nights were the exception,” he said.“We would spread a plastic picnic blanket out and I’d go with my dad to pick up either Pizza Hut or KFC from Portswood in Southampton, and we – Mum, Dad and my younger brother and sister – would eat on this picnic mat and watch The A-Team, Baywatch and Blind Date, which were on one after the other.“That was a special part of our growing up.”He warned that the BBC must take “every step possible” to ensure lessons are learnt following Lord Dyson’s damning report into the handling of a 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.But he described himself as an “enormous fan”, saying that it was his connection with home when he lived abroad.“I was living thousands of miles away in California, and the BBC was still my homepage. There’s an emotional attachment to it,” he told the magazine. Mr Sunak also praised the creative industries as one of the UK’s “crown jewels”.“It’s something we do better than most other countries; we export it round the world,” he said.“We should be enormously proud of it, and it’s part of our soft power and brand. Brand Britain.” More