Markus Andrews

The foreign secretary has welcomed a UN agency probe to understand what led to the “grave violation of international law” resulting in a Ryanair flight being diverted to Belarus, allowing a prominent critic to be arrested.Dominic Raab said he hoped the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) fact-finding investigation into the events that forced the landing of Ryanair flight FR4978 in Minsk on Sunday would discover the “full circumstances” leading up to what he branded an “attack” on global aviation rules.The opening of an inquiry comes after the foreign ministers of G7 nations on Thursday jointly called on the ICAO, a United Nations agency which helps govern the rules of the sky, to act.The Foreign Office said the plane was grounded “on the basis of a false bomb scare” in order to arrest an opposition journalist, Roman Protasevich.The reporter was one of more than 100 passengers on board the Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius when it was forced to change course to head for the Belarus capital, escorted by a MiG fighter jet.Mr Protasevich was captured and, in a video released by Belarusian authorities on Monday evening, appeared to admit – allegedly under duress – he was involved in organising mass protests in Minsk last year.Mr Raab said: “The UK welcomes the ICAO investigation into the Lukashenko regime’s forced landing of Ryanair flight FR4978.“We join our international partners in wanting to know the full circumstances that led up to this grave violation of international law and the attack on the principles that underpin civil aviation.”Government officials said the targeting of the Ryanair flight by President Lukashenko – who Mr Raab has suggested may have been supported by Russia – was a further move by the Belarusian authorities in its “ongoing war” against independent journalism and opposition voices.Alexander Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since the post was established in 1994 and won re-election for a sixth time in 2020 with 80 per cent of the vote, in a ballot deemed “neither free nor fair” by the European Union.Since winning the disputed election last August, Mr Lukashenko has cracked down on dissenting voices, with many opposition figures arrested and others forced into exile.The prime minister warned of “consequences” this week over the move to ground the plane, with transport secretary Grant Shapps announcing on Tuesday that Belarusian airlines will be prevented from entering UK airspace unless specifically authorised.Although Belavia, the country’s state-owned airline, does not have any scheduled flights through UK airspace, the Department for Transport said it had done so in the past, flying to places such as North Africa and Ireland.It follows Monday’s announcement that the EU and the UK would issue new sanctions against Belarus in light of the arrest, with Mr Shapps instructing the Civil Aviation Authority to request airlines avoid Belarusian air space “to keep passengers safe”.On Monday, he also suspended the operating permit for Belavia, while EU leaders have called on member states to do similar.Additional reporting by PA More

What a difference a day makes. By the end of Dominic Cummings’s evidence session with MPs it was a wonder that Matt Hancock didn’t just resign and turn himself into the nearest police station. It was devastating stuff. And yet, 24 little hours later, Hancock was back at the Downing Street podium, untroubled by the fuss, behaving, apparently, as though nothing had happened. Appropriately for a man in charge of the health service, it was the biggest comeback since Lazarus.How so?First, he is fortunate in having Dominic Cummings for an enemy. True, Cummings can muster evidence, deploy an argument and pursue it with determination; but on the other hand, “Dom” is pretty much still hated by the public and, more to the point, much of the Conservative party, who cannot easily forgive or forget the damage he has inflicted on their government and party. Cummings is far from being rehabilitated, and can easily be portrayed as an unreliable witness, a bitter and twisted figure who is mad, bad and dangerous to know. More

Matt Hancock massively exaggerated the rate of vaccination in coronavirus hotspot Bolton in the House of Commons today.The health secretary told MPs that jabs were going into arms in the northwest town at a rate of “tens of thousands every single day”.But official government statistics show that daily inoculations have never topped 5,500 in Bolton, and have hovered around the 2,000 mark in recent days.Bolton is one of a number of areas to be offered a surge vaccination programme in response to outbreaks of the highly infectious B1.617.2 variant of Covid-19 first identified in India.Speaking to the House of Commons today, Mr Hancock said: “The people of Bolton have again risen to this challenge.“The number of vaccinations happening in Bolton right now is phenomenal – tens of thousands every single day.“And it is heartening to see the queues of people coming forward.”While there have indeed been queues of people rushing to get their jabs in the town, official government statistics show that the numbers have never approached five figures.The highest daily number recorded on the government’s coronavirus dashboard was 5,447 – 1720 first doses and 3,727 second jabs – on 20 May.But the most recent official figures show 2,121 jabs on Tuesday this week, 1,628 on Monday, 922 on Sunday and 2,045 on Saturday.In total by Tuesday this week, some 168,289 adults in the area (69.1 per cent) had received their first jab 99,532 (40.9 per cent) their second jab.There was no immediate explanation for the health secretary’s comment from the Department for Health and Social Care.But prime minster Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said: “The data for vaccination rates in Bolton and other areas is published on the dashboard very clearly.“It is right that Bolton is well above the average numbers of vaccinations being carried out daily, which is testament to the work being done by local NHS staff and the public in Bolton.” More

Hancock should have been fired for at ‘least 15-20 things’, Cummings saysBoris Johnson has brushed aside claims by his former aide Dominic Cummings that the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was “disastrous”.In an interview with Sky News following Cummings’ explosive testimony, the prime minister said the former Vote Leave supremo’s allegations do not “bear any relation to reality”.Mr Johnson insisted that the government had done “everything” to save lives, protect the NHS and “protect care homes as well” at the height of the pandemic.Mr Hancock previously said a “protective ring” had been thrown around care homes, a claim which is disputed by the sector and branded “nonsense” by Mr Cummings yesterday.Speaking to reporters today, Mr Johnson also refused to answer questions on whether or not he said he would rather let the “bodies pile high” than order a third lockdown – a claim he has previously denied.Earlier, Matt Hancock also denied a string of accusations from Mr Cummings, including that he had lied repeatedly to officials and the public throughout the pandemic. Appearing before MPs in the Commons to answer an urgent question on Thursday, Mr Hancock said Mr Cummings’ “unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true”.Show latest update

1622127036Matt Hancock wrongly claims ‘tens of thousands’ being jabbed each day in BoltonMatt Hancock massively exaggerated the rate of vaccination in coronavirus hotspot Bolton in the House of Commons today.The health secretary told MPs that jabs were going into arms in the northwest town at a rate of “tens of thousands every single day”.But official government statistics show that daily inoculations have never topped 5,500 in Bolton, and have hovered around the 2,000 mark in recent days.Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports: Matt Mathers27 May 2021 15:501622125678Full report: Boris Johnson refuses to answer on Dominic Cummings’ claims he bungled Covid responseBoris Johnson has declined to rebut Dominic Cummings’ explosive claims that he bungled his Covid response, leading to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.Quizzed one day after the allegations, the prime minister ducked an invitation to reject them as false – instead saying: “I make no comment on that.’Our deputy politics editor Rob Merrick reports: Matt Mathers27 May 2021 15:271622124395Matt Hancock has questions to answer – but transparency is a flexible friend for this governmentAnswering an urgent question in the Commons today, Matt Hancock deliberately refused to engage with what he admitted were ‘serious allegations’, writes Andrew Grice.This is in line with the government’s wider strategy not to rebut Cummings’s long list of claims about how the pandemic was mishandled.Hancock dodged Cummings’s incendiary charge that tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily. At every opportunity, he turned the spotlight on the successful vaccine rollout. Boris Johnson and his ministers have adapted the US political strategists’ mantra of “it’s the economy, stupid”, to “it’s the vaccine, stupid”.Read Andrew’s full piece here: Matt Mathers27 May 2021 15:061622123546Boris Johnson defends ‘rolling out the red carpet’ for right-wing Hungarian autocrat Viktor OrbánDowning Street has defended Boris Johnson’s decision to “roll out the red carpet” for right-wing autocrat Viktor Orbán.Hungary’s authoritarian leader is to visit Downing Street on Friday for talks with the prime minister — one of the first EU leaders to visit since Brexit.Our policy correspondent Jone Stone reports: Matt Mathers27 May 2021 14:521622120756Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK demands meeting with Johnson and Hancock next weekThe Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group is demanding a meeting with Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock next week.Their request comes less than 24 hours after the PM’s former aide Dominic Cummings claimed thousands of lives have been lost unnecessarily during the pandemic.In a withering statement, the group said both the PM and health secretary have refused to meet with them on several occasions.“In Parliament Matt Hancock claimed that he and the Govt has a track record of openness, transparency & explanation & that they ‘will keep on with the spirit of openness and transparency,” the group said.“Over 2,660 questions have been answered in Parliament but he has refused to answer a single one from us – how can he when both himself and the Prime Minister have refused to meet with us directly on seven occasions?”Full statement here: Matt Mathers27 May 2021 14:051622119856ICYMI: It’s hard to see Dominic Cummings returning to politics now – but just how damaged is Boris Johnson?Whatever his motivations, Cummings has shone a light on government failings that would have remained in the dark without his fireworks display, writes Andrew Grice.Read Andrew’s full piece here: Matt Mathers27 May 2021 13:501622118923Cathy Newman: Cummings once advertised for ‘weirdos and misfits’ to join him – now we see whyNo wonder he seems to have fallen out with every single boss he’s ever worked with – severing ties one by one with former party leader Iain Duncan Smith, the Leave campaign and now Johnson himself, writes Cathy Newman. He doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere.Read Cathy’s full piece on yesterday’s events here:Matt Mathers27 May 2021 13:351622118049Starmer vague on whether he believes Cummings over JohnsonAsked whether he believed what Dominic Cummings told MPs yesterday, Keir Starmer asked: “It’s Hobson’s Choice. You have got Dominic Cummings on one hand and the prime minister on the other.”I don’t think Dominic Cummings should have the last word on this and that’s why all the evidence should be put before the committee, the health secretary should answer the allegations and the inquiry should be fast-forwarded.”It’s not about taking anyone’s word, it’s about getting to the bottom of it.”We also have to look at the other evidence.“We know people were discharged from hospitals to care homes without tests, we know protective equipment didn’t get to the frontline on time and we know the prime minister was slow to lock down, particularly in the autumn and we know the consequence of that was the highest death toll in Europe.”Jon Sharman27 May 2021 13:201622117389Starmer maintains pressure on Johnson over Cummings claimsKeir Starmer has said that bereaved families deserve answers about the government’s handling of coronavirus, following Dominic Cummings’ evidence to MPs.During a visit to the Bristol Port Company with West of England metro mayor Dan Norris, Sir Keir said the allegations made by the former No 10 adviser were “very serious”.”They are very serious allegations from Dominic Cummings about the chaos and the incompetence of the decision-making in the Government and there are consequences for that in relation to those that died,” he said.”What we need to do is put what Dominic Cummings said alongside the facts we know – that we have one of the highest death tolls in Europe.”The families who have lost someone are entitled to answers in relation to this because bad decisions have consequences and in this case the consequence, I’m afraid is unnecessary deaths.”Yesterday Sir Keir’s deputy, Angela Rayner, called for the public inquiry into Covid-19 to be brought forward from 2022, as did Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader and the Royal College of Nursing.Mr Cummings did the same in his evidence session, warning that by 2022 memories will have changed and important documents will have been lost.Jon Sharman27 May 2021 13:091622116221Dominic Cummings: How papers reacted to explosive claims at Covid hearingExplosive revelations by Dominic Cummings about how the govenrment responded to the coronavirus pandemic feature on the front of many of Thursday’s papers.The former aide’s marathon seven-hour session of evidence to MPs provided plenty of incendiary claims, with some calling it a “rain of fire” and others a “Domshell”, writes Samuel Osborne.Jon Sharman27 May 2021 12:50 More

The race to find the next Ofcom chair will be “re-run,” the government has revealed – with former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre said to be facing opposition from the online tech giants in his bid to land the job.Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has written to the public appointments commissioner to ask for the interviewing process to restart.Mr Dowden has decided the existing process to find next chair of the media watchdog has been deficient and there is reason to put a new selection panel in place, The Independent understands. Mr Dacre is thought to be Boris Johnson’s choice for the Ofcom job, but the legendary Fleet Street figure is said to be facing strong opposition from Facebook and Google.The tech companies would prefer Tory peer Lord Vaizey – the former culture secretary who is also in the running – to be given the role, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who now leads Facebook’s international PR operation, previously compared the ex-Mail editor to the villain of the Star Wars saga, branding him “Darth Dacre”.Mr Dacre has been a fierce critic of the Silicon Valley tech firms – previously calling for “monopolistic” online platforms to be broken up.Ministers are concerned that Mr Dacre had been “marked down” for making clear he would challenge Ofcom’s current executives and bring in major reforms, The Times has reported.The newspaper claims that the existing interview panel – chaired by a senior civil servant in Mr Dowden’s own department – concluded that Mr Dacre was not suitable for the role after he shared “robust” views during the interview process.The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed that candidates for the Ofcom job will now be interviewed again, following the culture secretary’s intervention. More

Boris Johnson has declined to rebut Dominic Cummings’ explosive claims that he bungled his Covid response, leading to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.Quizzed one day after the allegations, the prime minister ducked an invitation to reject them as false – instead saying: “I make no comment on that.’Asked if the death toll soared because of his government’s blunders, Mr Johnson replied: “No I don’t think so, but of course this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we’ve taken lightly.”And, asked, if he was “arguing with the things he [Mr Cummings] said” in his damning evidence given to MPs, he gave the reply: “I make no comment on that.”On Mr Cummings’ statement that he is not a fit person to lead the country, the prime minister urged the media “to focus on what really matters to the people of this country”.“What people want us to get on with is delivering the road map and trying – cautiously – to take our country forward through what has been one of the most difficult periods that I think anybody can remember,” he said.Mr Johnson also cast fresh doubt on his plan to lift all Covid restrictions on 21 June, as infection rates surge and more people are taken to hospital.“I don’t see anything currently in the data to suggest that we have to deviate from the road map, but we may need to wait,” he told reporters on a hospital visit.“Don’t forget the important point about the intervals between the steps of the road map. We put that five weeks between those steps to give us time to see what effect the unlockings are having.”The prime minister acknowledged there are “signs of an increase in cases”, particularly of the B1617.2 Indian variant of concern.“But I want to stress that we always did expect to see an increase in cases, that was always going to happen,” he added.“What we need to understand is to what extent the vaccine programme is starting to make a real difference in interrupting the link between infection and hospitalisation and serious illness and death.”Earlier, in the Commons the health secretary Matt Hancock failed to deny “signing off’ the policy of discharging patients into care homes without testing – or that he told Mr Johnson they were being tested.Mr Cummings alleged an angry prime minister then demanded to know: “Hancock told us in the Cabinet Room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes, what the hell happened?”Asked about that claim, Mr Johnson said: “We did everything we could to protect them.“We did not know quite the way in which the virus could transmit asymptomatically and that was one of the reasons we had the problems we saw in care homes”. More

The buck stops with Boris Johnson for decisions which led to unnecessary deaths from Covid-19, Keir Starmer has said.The Labour leader stepped up demands for an immediate public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, following dramatic claims from former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings that “tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die”.The prime minister today said that some of the commentary around Mr Cummings’ evidence to a House of Commons inquiry “doesn’t bear any relation to reality”. Asked if tens of thousands died unnecesarily because of his inaction, Mr Johnson replied: “No I don’t think so, but of course this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we’ve taken lightly.”But he made no specific denial of his former right-hand man’s central claims that the government initially pursued a “herd immunity” approach to the outbreak and that health secretary Matt Hancock wrongly claimed that testing was being carried out on all patients discharged into care homes.After being branded a serial liar by Mr Cummings on Wednesday, the health secretary today told the Commons that “these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true”, insisting he had been “straight with people in public and in private throughout”.But he did not explicitly refute allegations that he knowingly allowed hospital patients to be sent untested to care homes, telling MPs: “The challenge is we had to build testing capacity, and at that time of course I was focused on protecting people in care homes and in building that testing capacity so that we had the daily tests to be able to ensure that availability was more widespread.”Challenged on Mr Cummings’ claim that it was “nonsense” to suggest that care homes were shielded from the disease, Mr Johnson acknowledged that “of course what happened in care homes was tragic”.Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Essex, he added: “We did everything we could to protect the NHS, to minimise transmission with the knowledge that we had.“We did everything we could to protect the NHS and to protect care homes as well… We put £1.4 billion extra into infection control within care homes, we established a care homes action plan, I remember very clearly, to ensure that we tried to stop infection between care homes.”In response to Mr Cummings’ judgement that he was not a fit person to be leading the country, the PM said: “I think, if I may say so, that some of the commentary I have heard doesn’t bear any relation to reality.“What people want us to get on with is delivering the road map and trying – cautiously – to take our country forward through what has been one of the most difficult periods that I think anybody can remember.”But Sir Keir said: “What we need to do is put what Dominic Cummings said alongside the facts we know. We’ve got one of the highest death tolls in Europe and the families who have lost someone are entitled to answers in relation to this. Bad decisions have consequences. In this case, I’m afraid, they’re unnecessary deaths.”Speaking on a visit to Bristol, the Labour leader said: “They’re very, very serious allegations. They paint a picture that actually leads to the prime minister – the buck stops with him.”Sir Keir said that it was now essential to bring forward the public inquiry into the handling of Covid, which Mr Johnson has said will not start until the spring of 2022.“I don’t think Dominic Cummings should have the last word on this and that’s why all the evidence should be put before the committee, the health secretary should answer the allegations and the inquiry should be fast-forwarded,” said Starmer.“It’s not about taking anyone’s word – it’s about getting to the bottom of it.“We also have to look at the other evidence. We know people were discharged from hospitals to care homes without tests, we know protective equipment didn’t get to the frontline on time and we know the prime minister was slow to lockdown, particularly in the autumn and we know the consequence of that was the highest death toll in Europe.”Helen Keenan, whose mother Kathleen died in a care home from coronavirus after being transferred from hospital, told Sky News: “I would like to see the statutory public inquiry brought forward, because waiting until 2022 is frankly insulting to the people that have lost loved ones . There is no excuse for leaving it any longer.“We’ve learnt from Grenfell and Hillsborough how important it is to have these inquiries and to have a rapid review process where we get the messages through as early and as quickly as possible to prevent any further deaths.” More

Downing Street has defended Boris Johnson’s decision to “roll out the red carpet” for right-wing autocrat Viktor Orbán.Hungary’s authoritarian leader is to visit Downing Street on Friday for talks with the prime minister -– one of the first EU leaders to visit since Brexit.But the visit has been criticised by human rights groups, as well as Jewish and Muslim MPs, who questioned whether he was an appropriate guest of honour given his targeting and scapegoating of minorities.At the helm of his far-right Fidesz party, Mr Orbán has centralised power in Hungary around himself and his allies, cracking down on civil society and monopolising the media.His government has also been accused of running antisemitic and Islamophobic hate campaigns, notably against Jewish philanthropist George Soros.Mr Orbán himself has decried “Muslim invaders”, described migrants as “a poison”, and said he wants to end liberal democracy.In 2018, Mr Orbán said his party had “replaced a shipwrecked liberal democracy with a 21st-century Christian democracy” in Hungary.The passing of unlimited laws allowing him to rule by decree at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic has led human rights groups to question whether Hungary remains a democracy at all. Labour MP Alex Sobel said: “Viktor Orbán is a renowned antisemite, fuelled violence against the Romany, clamps down on the LGBT and Muslim Communities. “He suppresses basic democratic norms and press freedom. However Boris Johnson is rolling out the red carpet. MPs of all parties should be calling this out.”Naz Shah, Labour’s shadow minister for community cohesion, described the development as “extremely worrying”, while shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Tomorrow Johnson welcomes Viktor Orbán to Downing Street, a leader who has attacked press freedom and democracy, called refugees ‘Muslim invaders’ and is a cheerleader for Putin and Lukashenko. What are the chances he’ll be challenged on any of this?”Asked about the visit by journalists in Westminster on Thursday, Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said:“As president of the Visegrad group of central European nations later this year, co-operation with Hungary is vital to the UK’s prosperity and security. It will be a moment to promote UK interests in the area and discuss wider issues.”The spokesperson declined to say whether Mr Johnson would raise human rights issues.But asked about the PM’s view of Orbán’s comments about “Muslim invasions” and migrants being “poison”, the spokesperson said: “On all human rights issues we do not shy away from raising them. The PM has condemned those specific comments, which were divisive and wrong.”Last year Mr Orbán praised Mr Johnson as “one of the bravest European politicians”. In 2018 UK Conservative members of the European Parliament were criticised for standing almost alone among mainstream western European conservatives for refusing to censure Hungary over breaches of the rule of law.The Hungarian prime minister was also one of the first leaders welcomed to No.10 by Theresa May. More