Markus Andrews

Rather like his master Boris Johnson, Dilyn the dog doesn’t seem to care where he cocks his leg. Last year, for example, it was allegedly the turn of a handbag belonging to Downing Street adviser Katie Lam to get a golden shower. In the fracas that reportedly ensued in the usually tranquil garden of 10 Downing Street, Carrie Symonds, the prime minister’s fiancée, is said to have intervened to protect the little terrier. According to some possibly fanciful reports, the incident did not endear Lam to Symonds, and may have contributed to Lam leaving her job this month. Poignantly, Lam had some responsibility for HR. More likely, her departure was part of a continuing clear-out of those associated with Dominic Cummings and the Vote Leave campaign. This has resembled not so much a reshuffle as an exorcism. The other recent victim of the purge was old Cummings ally Oliver “Sonic” Lewis, so-called because of his supposed resemblance to the computer game character, though in fact he looks more like the Duke of Gloucester. He was supposedly briefing against Michael Gove, though Lewis denies it. After a month or so, he is no longer responsible for the union unit. No one is. More

Too much Brexit ‘red tape’, says Keir StarmerDowning Street has denied that Boris Johnson’s fiancée Carrie Symonds has a key role in running the country, after a Tory think tank called for an inquiry into the extent of her influence.The Bow Group has called for a public review into whether Ms Symonds has power in shaping policy. “It’s incorrect,” said No 10 press secretary Allegra Stratton when asked if the PM’s fiancée had a key role.Meanwhile, the DUP and other unionist parties in Northern Ireland have teamed up to launch a legal challenge against the protocol, part of the Brexit deal with the EU aimed at avoiding a hard border in Ireland.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 weekdayShow latest update
1614005318Stop the ‘silly games’ over protocol, says Sinn FeinThe DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley suggested advantages to the protocol “did not exist” and insisted it should be “destined for the dustbin” during a session at the Northern Ireland assembly.Urging the DUP to stop playing “silly games”, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill replied: “My own personal view is, thank goodness for the protocol.“What we’re experiencing right now is the fact that the British government didn’t prepare, they didn’t work with businesses in terms of being ready for a post-Brexit world.The deputy first minister said: “What we’re dealing with now is the new trading reality as a direct result of Brexit. So what this executive has to focus on … is actually ironing out the difficulties that have now arisen as a direct result of Brexit“It’s around stability, it’s around certainty, and it’s not around playing games with the protocol that has been agreed over the course of four years.” More

Over the last week Boris Johnson has been working through the data on coronavirus deaths, cases and hospital admissions as he prepares to unveil his road map to relax lockdown restrictions in England.The prime minister has also been considering the effect of the country’s various lockdown measures and the vaccine rollout in advance of unveiling his blueprint to parliament on Monday.Here’s a look at how the day will unfold.When will the prime minister announce his plans?Mr Johnson will unveil the plans to MPs in the Commons at around 3.30pm on Monday.Later in the day, at around 7pm, he will lead a Downing Street press conference.What can we expect from the announcement?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 weekdayThe prime minister will tell MPs that all pupils in all years in England can go back to the classroom from 8 March, with outdoor after-school sports and activities allowed to restart as well.Socialising in parks and public spaces with one other person will also be permitted in a fortnight, when the rules are relaxed to allow people to sit down for a drink or picnic.A further easing of restrictions will take place on 29 March when the school Easter holidays begin – with larger groups allowed to gather in parks and gardens.The moves form the first step in a four-part plan, which will not be completed until the summer – with around five weeks between stages expected to assess the impact on the spread of the virus and prepare businesses for the next move.By the Easter holidays the “rule of six” will return, along with new measures allowing two households totalling more than six people to meet – giving greater flexibility for families and friends.The government’s plan also contains an expedited target to vaccinate all adults aged over 50, in addition to those with underlying health conditions which put them at greater risk, by 15 April.Mr Johnson has pledged to offer all adults in the UK a vaccine by the end of July.Nadhim Zahawi- Vaccination programme is beginning to ‘bear fruit’What will the government use to dictate the speed of the unlocking? The roadmap for easing coronavirus restrictions will involve four tests that have to be met before any unlocking can begin: The vaccine deployment programme continues successfullyEvidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinatedInfection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHSThe assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants of the virusThe government will use the metrics in England to assess the impact of loosening the rules at each stage.If any of the conditions are not met, the pace of the unlocking could be slowed. What has Mr Johnson said about his plans?Mr Johnson has said there will be “no let up” in the vaccine rollout and said he wanted it to go “further and faster in the coming weeks”.”We will now aim to offer a jab to every adult by the end of July, helping us protect the most vulnerable sooner, and take further steps to ease some of the restrictions in place,” he said.”But there should be no doubt – the route out of lockdown will be cautious and phased, as we all continue to protect ourselves and those around us.”Additional reporting by agencies More

Downing Street has denied that Boris Johnson’s fiancée Carrie Symonds takes a role in running the country, after a Conservative thinktank called for an inquiry into her behind-the-scenes power. The Bow Group – which boasts Tory grandees Norman Tebbit and Norman Lamont among its patrons – has said that Ms Symonds appears to enjoy huge influence in the hiring and firing of No 10 staff and in policy making, despite having no formal role in government.Warning that her reported involvement in several recent changes of personnel at Downing Street looked like “cronyism”, the group’s chairman Ben Harris-Quinney called for an inquiry to be held in public, with testimony from current and former No 10 staff and the release of records and correspondence.“Consistent reports in the press suggest that Ms Symonds is taking a central role in running the country, without any authority or accountability to do so,” said Mr Harris-Quinney.“She has not been elected, she has not been appointed, she holds no legal or constitutional powers to make decisions relating to who should hold government posts, to be party to privileged information, or to set the policy direction of the country.”But Mr Johnson’s press secretary Allegra Stratton described Mr Harris-Quinney’s claims as “incorrect”.Asked if it was true to say Carrie was taking a central role in running the country, Ms Stratton said: “It’s incorrect. The prime minister’s fiancée is on maternity leave, she is raising their son Wilf and shortly she will be taking up a new role at the wildlife charity the Aspinall Foundation.”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 weekdayMs Stratton declined to comment on the Bow Group’s call for an inquiry, telling a Westminster media briefing: “We have no response to that at all.“As you will see shortly, the prime minister is coming forward with a 60-page plan to get us out of lockdown, and that is his focus at the moment.”Asked whether Mr Johnson regarded attacks on his fiancée as sexist, Ms Stratton replied: “That’s not something I’ve heard him say.”Questions over Ms Symonds’ role in No 10 have been raised after she was reported to have played a part in the shock departure of the head of Mr Johnson’s “Save the Union” unit, Oliver Lewis, as she did in the earlier ousting of Vote Leave supremo Dominic Cummings and his close ally Lee Cain.Two of her close friends have recently been appointed to key No 10 roles, senior adviser Henry Newman and Simone Finn, the new deputy chief of staff who hosted Ms Symonds’ 30th birthday celebrations.Mr Harris-Quinney said: “Failure to clarify Ms Symonds’s position and authority, and to ensure that Ms Symonds is not and cannot take any action in governing the United Kingdom, potentially has huge hazards for the government, the Conservative Party, and the nation.“The public take a very dim view of cronyism, democracy in Britain is and must always be sacred, and no one should be involved in running our country without accountability to the people.”Although her depiction by critics as a Lady Macbeth figure has sparked accusations of sexism, no-one denies she enjoys influence beyond that of previous prime ministerial consorts.The former head of Conservative Party press operations is keen to soften the government’s image, through the departure of Vote Leave veterans including Mr Cummings and Mr Lewis, and push forward the green agenda as a committed environmentalist.The Bow Group, which is independent of the party despite its strong Conservative links, said Ms Symonds – who is not a special adviser – was therefore not accountable to any minister.That meant she had also not been security vetted, giving her authorisation to view privileged government information.A Downing Street spokesman denied that Mr Lewis’s abrupt resignation on Friday had undermined the operations of the Union Unit, which was set up by Mr Johnson to counter the independence drive of Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party but has lost two chiefs in the space of a few weeks.“The Union Unit will continue to support the prime minister in his capacity as minister for the Union,” said Mr Johnson’s official spokesman. “The prime minister’s commitment to levelling up across all four countries of the United Kingdom stands and he will continue to prioritise that work.” The spokesman declined to comment on speculation that Scottish-born Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove might be given new responsibilities for defending the Union.Ms Stratton said that recent months had seen the Westminster administration “working very well” with the Scottish Government on the UK’s emergence from lockdown.Despite the fact that Scottish schoolchildren have returned to the classroom ahead of their English counterparts, Ms Stratton said that Mr Johnson’s roadmap ran “hand in hand with Nicola Sturgeon’s plans”.“Going back further, you have the furlough and support for Scottish businesses that the Westminster government made available,” she said.“You have test and trace and the help for the Highlands and Islands, and most critically the Westminster Government making sure that the number of vaccines were there to distribute around Scotland.“So the relationship between the Westminster Government and Scotland and the Scottish people is working very well at the moment. “What matters is what’s felt on the ground by the Scottish people, and I think Scottish people would say that they’ve seen support for their businesses, they’ve seen support whether they are self-employed or not, and they’ve also most brilliantly seen the vaccine rolled out around Scotland.” More

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi appeared to have discovered time travel in an interview today, when he suggested that children returning to schools in March would have additional protection because of people being vaccinated in April.Mr Zahawi got his dates tangled in an early-morning TV interview ahead of the unveiling of Boris Johnson’s roadmap to take England out of lockdown.Challenged over the danger that the return of children to school on 8 March might increase coronavirus infections, he said that the date had been carefully chosen to be three weeks after the mid-April deadline for giving a first dose of vaccine to all over-50s.As the Covid-19 vaccines take three weeks to offer their maximum effect, he suggested that this would reduce the risk of infection from children mingling at school and bringing infection back home. However, he did not appear to notice that three weeks after mid-April would take him to a date in May, not early March. The 8 March date was in fact chosen because it is three weeks after the successfully-hit deadline of giving a first dose of vaccine to over-70s.Mr Zahawi told Sky News that the reopening of schools was being done in a“gradual cautious” way. “It is not a coincidence that 8 March is the date that we have focused on, because if you take the mid-April date when we will have given at least one dose to all over-50s – offered that one-dose protection to all over-50s – three weeks after the middle of April takes you to the first week of March.”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 weekdayMr Zahawi said that completion of the “phase one” group of vaccinations, covering over-50s, health and care workers and people with certain clinical conditions, would mean that 99 per cent of those at risk of dying from coronavirus would have been offered protection.“So it’s no coincidence that we are opening schools after three weeks of protecting the over-50s,” he said. More

Keir Starmer has told teachers not to take industrial action over the government’s back-to-school plan and suggested they might have to give up some of their holidays to provide catch-up lessons.Speaking on Monday the Labour leader said unions were right to “stick up for their members”, acknowledging that teachers had been put under “stress and strain” during the pandemic.But he said he did not support mooted industrial action over safety concerns, after nine teaching unions warned it would be “reckless” to open schools at all once on 8 March.Speaking on LBC radio Sir Keir expressed concerns that children were falling behind, having previously urged the government to open schools as quickly as possible.Asked whether teachers could be drafted in during the summer to help children catch up, he said: “That may be possible. “Again, schools staff have been working around the clock. Remember, this time last year they were preparing to work through the Easter break and they’ll probably end up doing that again.”So they do need a break. There needs to be a long-term plan to catch-up because the attainment gap has got bigger over this pandemic – it was bad enough before 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 weekday”We need a long-term plan for catch-up, but we do need to give credit to teachers and school staff. We need to think of how we do catch-up and close the attainment gap.”On Friday nine unions – the Association of School and College Leaders, GMB, National Association of Head Teachers, NASUWT, National Education Union, National Governance Association, Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, Unison, and Unite – all warned the government to be cautious on opening schools.They said they did not stand in the way of reopening schools but that they were “increasingly concerned that the government is minded to order a full return of all pupils on Monday 8 March in England”, branding it a “reckless course of action”.The unions say the science around the role of schools in transmitting Covid-19 is “uncertain” and that it would be better to have a phase reopening to avoid starting another wave of infections. They stress they are not against the reopening of schools.
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Nadhim Zahawi has insisted Britain’s vaccination programme is starting to “really bear fruit”, as he suggested evidence to be published today on the impact of jabs on hospitalisations and transmission was encouraging.With the latest figures showing over 17.5 million people having received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, Mr Zahawi said the prime minister will also reveal critical data on the effect of vaccines on hospital admissions and transmission of the virus.“The prime minister will say more about this, but you will know that Public Health England have been running a couple of large scale studies,” he told Sky News. “Suffice to say the evidence looks good. The Oxford team demonstrated their own evidence of cutting transmission by two thirds.“We wouldn’t be in this place this morning to be able to say that we’re going to reopen schools on 8 March, and of course, as the school holidays begin on 29 March, we will look at the rule of six and two families being (able) to see each other outdoors, if we’re not confident that actually the vaccine programme is beginning to really bear fruit.”However, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, a statistician from the University of Cambridge who sits on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said it was “upsetting” ministers were yet to publish more data on the vaccine rollout.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 don’t know about the numbers of proportions by the priority groups — the group one to nine; we don’t know the proportions by ethnicity; we don’t know this broken down by region,” he said. “I mean they do, somebody does, but we’re not getting it. And I think that’s a real shame as it was asked for a long time ago and so far nothing has happened.”On the easing of restrictions, Mr Zahawi said in a separate interview the roadmap was about the “gradual reopening of the whole of England”, rather than a regional lifting of restrictions.Asked if the tier system would return, he told LBC: “I think because the way this new variant actually took hold, which has become the dominant variant, the Kent variant, in the United Kingdom, infection rates around the country pretty much rose to similar, very high, unsustainable levels.“So the view is very much that this is about a gradual reopening of the whole of England, not regional.” More

The roadmap for easing coronavirus restrictions will involve four tests that have to be met before any unlocking can begin.The government will use the metrics in England to assess the impact of loosening the rules at each stage.If any of the conditions are not met, the pace of the unlocking could be slowed. With the UK having suffered the world’s fifth-highest official death toll and its biggest economic crash in more than 300 years, the prime minister is expected to proceed with more caution this time around, having said he wants the current lockdown to be the last. While Boris Johnson is due to confirm the details of the plan for unlocking in a Commons statement on Monday afternoon, the four tests are expected to be:The vaccine deployment programme continues successfullyEvidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinatedInfection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHSThe assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants of the virusAccording to the BBC, there will be a five-week gap between each stage of the unlocking to allow time for the changes to take effect and to ensure that the four conditions are met each time before further easing is allowed to happen.More than a quarter of the population – some 17.6 million people – have now received a first dose, behind only Israel and the United Arab Emirates in vaccines per head of population. 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 weekdayThe government aims to give a first dose to all adults by the end of July. More