Markus Andrews

The department of health was a “smoking ruin” while trying to run key parts of the response to the Covid-19 outbreak, Dominic Cummings has said.Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser told MPs on Wednesday that the vaccination programme had only succeeded because it was taken away from Matt Hancock’s department. Citing the ministry’s attempts to procure protective equipment for NHS workers Mr Cummings said it had been a deliberate decision to split off the programme – which has been widely seen as successful.Speaking at the Commons Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday, the former chief of staff said he and Patrick Vallance had argued the programme needed to be split off from DHSC.”It is not coincidental that we had to take it out of the Department of Health. We had to have it authorised very directly by the Prime Minister,” he said.”In spring 2020 you had a situation where the Department of Health was just a smoking ruin in terms of procurement and PPE and all of that. You had serious problems with the funding bureaucracy for therapeutics.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday”We also had the EU proposal which looked like an absolute guaranteed programme to fail – a debacle.”Therefore Patrick Vallance, the Cabinet Secretary, me and some others said ‘obviously we should take this out of the Department of Health, obviously we should create a separate taskforce and obviously we have to empower that taskforce directly with the authority of the Prime Minister.'”Mr Cummings added that there was a need for “a very, very hard look” at what went wrong and why.The UK’s vaccination programme is ahead of most of Europe and one of the most advanced in the world in terms of the number of people to have been given a single dose.Meanwhile PPE and other government procurement around the Covid crisis has been dogged with allegations of inefficiency, waste, and cronyism.Mr Cummings quit the government in November as part of row over influence in No.10. He was called the committee on Wednesday to discuss his proposals for a British state-directed scientific agency.The Independent has contacted the department of health and social care for comment but not received a response at the time of going to press. More

It was an opportunity to pounce, and Iran’s outspoken foreign minister seized it. The United Kingdom has announced it is set to remove Cold War-era limits on its stockpiles of nuclear weapons, even as it is demanding that the Islamic Republic constrain its own atomic programme.Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused prime minister Boris Johnson of “utter hypocrisy” for announcing plans to increase Britain’s arsenal of weapons of mass destruction while chastising Tehran for its decades-long attempt to master nuclear technology.Mr Johnson told British MPs on Tuesday that the government is planning to reverse a planned reduction of its nuclear weapon stockpile. Under the new proposal, Britain will increase its number of warheads to 260. It had previously agreed to reduce the number to 180.In a note posted to his Twitter feed and tagging Mr Johnson, Mr Zarif mocked the British leader for saying he was “concerned about Iran developing a viable nuclear weapon” on the very same day as announcing that “his country will increase its stockpile of nukes”.He added: “Unlike the UK and allies, Iran believes nukes and all WMDs are barbaric and must be eradicated.”Iranian state television widely covered Mr Zarif’s remarks, which came before Russia also denounced London’s decision on Wednesday. Both China’s and Russia’s official media have focused on the UK’s plan to up its nuclear arsenal, describing it as hypocritical.“Citizens are demanding that Boris Johnson look under his feet, fight against the coronavirus and street crime,” state-guided NTV’s London correspondent Liza Gerson said in a broadcast, referring to the murder of Sarah Everard. “People are demanding safe streets and lamps in parks in London, not warheads in Scotland.”The UK decision comes at a particular tense moment in the arena of global arms control.Iran is currently locked in a diplomatic statemate with the United States and the so-called E3 – the UK, Germany and France – over an attempt to re-establish the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal forged by Tehran and world powers but abandoned by the Trump administration in 2018.After abiding by the terms of the agreement for a year, even as the US upped crushing sanctions, Iran began to expand its nuclear programme beyond the strict limits set by the JCPOA. The new administration of president Joe Biden has said it would like to restore the terms of the nuclear deal, but insists that Iran first roll back its production and stockpile of enriched uranium that could be used as fissile material for a bomb.Iran insists that its nuclear programme is meant for peaceful civilian purposes only, though arms-control experts and intelligence professionals believe Iran is at least aiming to achieve nuclear weapons capability, if not the bomb.On Monday, Reuters reported that the United Nations nuclear watchdog had confirmed Iran had begun feeding uranium gas into a second advanced device that can more efficiently produce fissile material than the ones permitted under the JCPOA.Iran has insisted the US first remove sanctions, since it was Washington that first breached the deal. On Wednesday, a senior official in Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s government confirmed that Tehran had received indirect communications from Washington regarding a possible return to the JCPOA. More

Former Tory health minister Edwina Currie has been condemned for comparing Boris Johnson’s decision to shake hand with Covid patients to Princess Diana’s efforts to remove stigma surrounding people living with HIV.The prime minister’s actions in the early weeks of the pandemic have come under renewed scrutiny ahead of the one-year anniversary of the first national lockdown.Mr Johnson was told by advisers to discourage the public from shaking hands ahead of a 3 March press conference – only to boast he “shook hands with everybody” when visiting Covid patients in hospital, according to a BBC report.Defending Mr Johnson, Ms Currie likened the move to Diana’s visit to an HIV hospital in London in 1989. “The prime minister shook hands as a reflection of what Diana did during the HIV problems,” she told Good Morning Britain.“When Diana went into the hospitals in order to shake hands with patients and say to them, ‘you are not being stigmatised’, that, I think, is what he was doing.”Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV & sexual health charity, said the comparison was “offensive” – making clear that Diana had helped tackle misinformation rather than promote it.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayA spokesperson said: “Please don’t. Lazy comparisons between HIV and Covid-19 are misguided and offensive.“Princess Diana shook hands with and hugged people with HIV to *educate*. To show the world the virus can’t be passed on through touch at a time when hysteria was rife. It is not the same.”Diana’s visit to the Mildmay hospital in east London, during which she met with HIV patients and shook their hands, was seen as a landmark moment in changing public perception and removing the stigma around both HIV and Aids.Ms Currie, health minister under Margaret Thatcher’s government between 1986 and 1988, clashed with GMB host Susanna Reid on Wednesday and sought to defend Mr Johnson’s handling of the initial Covid crisis.“This time last year absolutely nobody in this country, or in other countries, had any experience of anything like this,” said Ms Currie. “We had no idea it was so lethal. We did our best.” More

The former senior adviser, who left Downing Street last year after losing a power struggle at the heart of government, said the prime minister asked him to help “sort out the huge Brexit nightmare” during a private meeting in the summer of 2019.Mr Cummings’ remarks came as he provided evidence to the Commons science and technology committee on the multi-million pound Advance Research & Invention Agency (Aria) — an independent body that he is regarded as the designer of. The chair of the committee, Greg Clark, also revealed the former No 10 adviser and Vote Leave strategist had agreed to give evidence to MPs on the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic at a later date.Pressed on whether he proposed the idea of Aria to the prime minister, Mr Cummings told MPs: “I would say it’s my idea. All I’m doing was suggesting what a lot of the best scientists in the world had been suggesting for decades actually.”Read more:Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday Addressing a private meeting with Mr Johnson in his living room in July 2019, Mr Cummings said: “The prime minister came to speak to me the Sunday before he became prime minister and said will you come into Downing Street to try help sort out the huge Brexit nightmare.“I said yes, if first of you’re deadly about actually getting Brexit done and avoiding a second referendum, secondly double the science budget, third create some Arpa-like entity, and fourth support me in to try and change how Whitehall and the Cabinet Office works because it’s a disaster zone. He said deal.”Questioned on whether he was “confident” the government would stick by those aims, the former official replied: “As far as I can see from the Budget, the plan is to stick to the doubling of the science budget, though there are some issues around that.”He went on: “The bigger danger is that is sort of half happens, they create something that’s basically no different.”A number of senior Whitehall figures also resigned during his tenure as Mr Johnson’s adviser, including the head of the civil service and permanent secretaries at the Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice and Department for Education. Despite his departure, reports have also suggested Mr Cummings’ overhaul of the civil service communications teams will still go ahead over the course of the next year, with cuts to workforce expected.Mr Cummings also told MPs during Wednesday’s committee he had “no regrets” on leaving No 10, adding: “I think I made the right decision to resign when I did.“I actually said to the prime minister back in July that I would leave by Friday 18 December at the latest. “As I said earlier on I’d be very happy come back and answer any and all questions about how No 10 works, why I left, all the different things, crazy stories that have been in the media, I’d be happy to clarify all of those.” More

Russia has condemned the decision by the UK government to boost its arsenal of nuclear weapons, saying the move would harm international stability.The UK will increase the cap on its nuclear warhead stockpile by more than 40 per cent, prime minister Boris Johnson revealed as part of his foreign and defence policy review on Tuesday.Moscow described the British plans – which ends decades of gradual disarmament since the fall of the Soviet Union – as a serious blow to arms control.“We are very sorry that Britain has chosen the path of increasing the number of nuclear warheads,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “This decision will harm international stability and strategic security.”Russia said it would take Downing Street’s move into account when working on its own military planning, the RIA state news agency reported the country’s foreign ministry as saying on Wednesday.The UK had previously been committed to cutting its stockpile to 180 Trident programme warheads by the mid-2020s. However, the review by Mr Johnson’s government said the policy would now be to increase capacity to 260 warheads.Increasing the stockpile would be a violation of international law, campaigners and experts have warned – pointing to the UK commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.Mr Johnson’s review also stated that the UK reserves the right to withdraw assurances that it will not use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear armed state “if the future threat of weapons of mass destruction … or emerging technologies that could have a comparable impact makes it necessary”.British foreign secretary Dominic Raab claimed the UK’s stockpile of Trident programme warheads were the “ultimate insurance policy” against threats from hostile states.Keir Starmer questions ‘purpose’ of increasing number of nuclear warheadsAsked why the government wanted to end three decades of gradual disarmament, Mr Raab told the BBC: “Because over time, as the circumstances change and the threats change, we need to maintain a minimum credible level of deterrent.“Why? Because it is the ultimate guarantee, the ultimate insurance policy against the worst threat from hostile states.”The Labour opposition criticised the plans to increase the size of the stockpile, though the party supports the renewal of Trident nuclear programme in general.Labour leader Keir Starmer said the plan “breaks the goal of successive prime ministers and cross-party efforts to reduce our nuclear stockpile,” adding that Mr Johnson had failed to explain the “strategic purpose” behind the move. More

Wednesday morning will see the former top aide to the Prime Minister be interrogated by the Commons Science and Technology Committee.Mr Cummings will give evidence on the Advanced Research & Invention Agency (Aria) – an independent body that he is regarded as the designer of – after concerns have been raised over a lack of transparency.Launched just four weeks ago, Aria is backed by £800 million – as set out by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the March 2020 budget – to fund “high-risk research” and to support “the most inspiring inventors to turn their transformational ideas into new technologies, discoveries, products and services” according to the UK government.The government also describes the agency as having “a much higher tolerance for failure than is normal”, stating that “freedom to fail is often also the freedom to succeed”.Mr Cummings will be appearing before the Commons Science and Technology Committee, which is comprised of cross-bench Members of Parliament, and will be discussing these issues of transparency.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday More

Ministers have been accused of lacking the “ambition necessary” to decarbonise industry as the government outlined £1bn of spending to reduce emissions from businesses, hospitals and schools.It comes as Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, prepares to publish the government’s industrial decarbonisation strategy, including plans to move towards more green energy sources.Forming part of the government’s strategy to reach the legally-binding net zero target by 2050, officials said the funding – announced last year – will create thousands of jobs while cutting emissions by two-thirds over 15 years.Setting out how the £1bn will be spent, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said an initial £171m has been allocated to nine green tech projects in Scotland, south Wales and northern England to study the rollout of infrastructure such as carbon capture and storage (CCS).Local authorities across England were being allocated £932m to fund green upgrades to public buildings including schools, hospitals and council buildings in 429 projects across England. More

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has been accused of throwing human rights campaigners in repressive states “to the wolves” after he said the UK will seek trade deals with countries which do not meet international standards on the issue. In a leaked video call with staff in the Foreign Office (FCDO), Mr Raab said that Britain would miss out on trade with future “growth markets” if it insisted on dealing only with countries which meet the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights.Amnesty International said his comments would “send a chill down the spine of embattled human rights activists right across the globe”.But the Foreign Office insisted his words had been taken out of context, and that he had gone on to speak about the importance of exerting influence to secure a change in behaviour. The foreign secretary’s comments emerged shortly after the release of a new foreign policy document which set out Boris Johnson’s plans for an “Indo-Pacific tilt” away from traditional partners in Europe and was criticised by senior Tory backbenchers for failing to take a tough enough line with China over abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayRead more:“If we restrict it to countries with ECHR-level standards of human rights, we’re not going to do many trade deals with the growth markets of the future.”Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: “This apparent willingness to sacrifice human rights at the altar of trade is shocking, but sadly unsurprising. It fits a depressing pattern on human rights from this government.“Trade is obviously important to all nations, but the foreign secretary shouldn’t be throwing human right defenders to the wolves like this. “So-called ‘growth markets’ – countries like India, Indonesia or Brazil – are often precisely places where human rights protections are fragile and under threat.“And in some countries such as Myanmar, the army has control of economic activity which directly funds its military operations, including those implicated in human rights abuses.”It is understood that Mr Raab went on to say: “We don’t junk whole relationships because we’ve got issues – we have a conversation because we want to change the behaviour. And I think we’re in a much better position to do that if we’re willing to engage. “There will be moments, and I can think of behaviour that would cross the line and render a country beyond the pale. But fundamentally I’m a big believer in engaging to try and exert positive influence even if it’s only a moderating influence.”But Ms Allen warned that any trade which arises from or contributes to human rights violations “can never be sustainable” and called on the government to subject all trade deals to proper human rights impact assessments.A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We regret that this audio has been deliberately and selectively clipped to distort the foreign secretary’s comments. As he made crystal clear in his full answer, the UK always stands up for and speaks out on human rights. “In his full answer, in an internal meeting, he highlighted examples where the UK has applied Magnitsky sanctions and raised issues at the UN regardless of trade interests, and that this was a responsible, targeted and carefully-calibrated approach to bilateral relations.”   James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister, was asked about Mr Raab’s comments on BBC Newsnight. He said holding countries like China or Saudi Arabia to European rights standards as “the sole parameter” of a trading relationship was “a question that doesn’t really relate to reality”. He added: “We have trade relationships all around the world.” More