Markus Andrews

The South African variant of coronavirus is unlikely to become dominant in the UK, England’s deputy chief medical officer has said. Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said he wanted to reassure the public after a small study found the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, one of two vaccines currently in use in the UK, was not effective at preventing mild illness caused by the South African variant.Prof Van-Tam said the “most likely scenario” was that the variant, which has prompted door-to-door testing in areas where there have been outbreaks, would not become dominant over the coming months.Early modelling suggested the variant did not have a “transmissibility advantage” over other forms of the virus, he said. He added: “I don’t think that this is something that we should be concerned about right at this point in time.” Ministers were putting contingency plans in place in case the variant meant high-risk groups in the UK could need a booster vaccine this autumn, he said. But he added that scientists did not know yet if that would be necessary. 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 weekdayAnd he predicted any easing of lockdown restrictions in England would have to take place gradually, warning it was too early to say whether or not the public should start booking holidays for this summer. “The more elaborate your plans are for summer holidays, in terms of crossing borders, in terms of household mixing, given where we are now, I think we just have to say the more you are stepping into making guesses about the unknown at this point,” he told a No 10 briefing.“I can’t give people a proper answer at this point because we don’t yet have the data. It is just too early to say.”Earlier, Boris Johnson did not rule out the possibility that the South African variant could delay the lifting of lockdown. His comments came before the government announced urgent door-to-door testing would be carried out in six postcodes of Manchester where cases of the Kent variant have been detected.But during a visit to a coronavirus test manufacturing facility in Derby, Mr Johnson said all the vaccines in use in the UK provided strong protection against serious illness and death.“We’re very confident in all the vaccines that we’re using,” he said.A separate study suggests that the other jab currently in use in the UK, produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, is effective against the South African variant. The UK has ordered millions of doses of other Covid vaccines, but these have yet to arrive in the UK. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi on Monday suggested that a “booster” vaccine to tackle new variants of the disease could be approved by regulators in just 30 to 40 days if based on an existing jab.However, it could take another three to six months to manufacture enough vaccines to treat the population, he added.Speaking at an event organised by the Tortoise news website, he also suggested that the public could receive combined Covid and flu vaccines in the future.And despite the high take-up rates of the vaccine seen so far, Mr Zahawi said that ministers would be doing more in the coming days to increase them further. More

Anyone in England aged over 70 who has not been invited to receive a coronavirus vaccine should now contact the NHS to make an appointment, Matt Hancock has announced, in a change to the government’s tactics.The health secretary issued the call at a Downing Street press conference, where he revealed that 91 per cent of over-80s, 95 per cent of people aged 75 to 79 and almost three-quarters of those aged between 70-74 have now received their first Covid-19 jab.The NHS has previously appealed to over-70s to wait for an invitation to be vaccinated, to avoid hospitals and clinics being overwhelmed with phone calls.But Mr Hancock said that the procedure was now being changed to try to make sure that as many as possible of the most vulnerable people are protected as the government approaches its 15 February deadline to vaccinate the over-70s, health and care staff and those with certain underlying health issues. This also offers a second chance for those who have turned down the jab to change their minds and get inoculated.Mr Hancock said he was “thrilled” at the high take-up of the vaccine among over-70s, declaring: “We are turning a corner in our battle against coronavirus.”But he added: “We’re not going to rest until all those who are vulnerable have been protected.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“So the NHS and local authorities and the teams working with them are doing everything they can to reach the remaining people in these at-risk groups. And we’ll keep on searching for those final few per cent, even as we expand the offer of a vaccine to younger age groups.”Mr Hancock said the government was “on track” to meet its 15 February target of offering the vaccine to priority groups one to four, before moving on to the next phase, in which all over-50s should be protected by 1 May. “The NHS has worked hard to contact everyone in groups one to four, but we want to be certain,” he said.“So from today, I have a message for everyone aged 70 and above. “Until now, we’ve said please wait for the NHS to contact you. But now that message is changing.“If you live in England and are 70 and over and have not yet an appointment to be vaccinated, then please contact the NHS. “If you’re in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, we are also on track, working together, to meet the goal by 15 February and your local health teams will be in touch.”Over-70s can book their appointments using the website www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination or those unable to get online can call 119 or phone their GP practice.Health and social care workers, who are also among the top four priority groups for vaccination, should speak to their employer about arranging their jab.And GP teams have been asked to contact their clinically extremely vulnerable patients.The NHS has also urged people who have been given two jab slots to cancel one so the slot can be used by someone else.This might occur if a patient’s GP surgery books an appointment as well as the national booking service.So far 12 million people across the UK have received a Covid-19 inoculation.Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director for primary care at NHS England and a practising GP, said: “The NHS vaccination programme, the biggest in health service history, is off to a strong start with every eligible care home receiving a visit and millions more people being vaccinated at one of over 1,500 centres across the country thanks to the tireless efforts of my colleagues.“But if you are aged 70 and over, and haven’t yet received your vaccine, please come forward and make an appointment as soon as you can.“The vaccine is safe, simple, and will offer you and those around you crucial protection against this virus.” More

A Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP has been condemned for referring to an all-black line up in a gospel edition of Songs of Praise as “the BBC at it’s BLM (Black Lives Matter) worst”.East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell has been accused of “race-baiting” by campaigners who are calling on him to apologise.Opposition politicians have also called for Mr Gregory to apologise and have urged the DUP to take action against him.Mr Campbell’s comments came in a Facebook post on 31 January following the semi-final of the gospel singer of the year competition.Mr Campbell wrote: “There were five singers, all of them black. There were three judges all of them black and one presenter who was incidentally, yes black. “The singers were all very good but can you imagine an all-white line up with an all-white jury and presented by a white person? No I can’t either.”Northern Ireland’s North West Migrants Forum (NWMF) said it is “both astonishing and shocking that Mr Campbell watched this deeply moving edition of Songs of Praise, full of love and praise for God, and saw only skin colour.”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 weekdayIn a statement that has been signed by more than 1,500 people and community organisations and charities, NWMF added: “Mr Campbell’s statement is not a trivial matter. It is deeply irresponsible. “It is deeply worrying that Mr Campbell can confidently display such clear bias, apparently without fear of challenge or accountability.”The statement continued: “Given his role as an elected representative and public servant, Mr Campbell’s statement cannot go unchallenged. The potential costs are too high.”Sinn Féin said it had reported Mr Campbell’s comments to the parliamentary standards commissioner.One of the party’s MLAs, Caoimhe Archibald, called on the DUP to “take action” against their MP, adding “there can be no place for racism in society”.She added: “Gregory Campbell’s disgraceful comments don’t reflect the views of the vast majority of the constituents he’d purport to represent.”Stephen Farry, an Alliance Party MP, urged the DUP to remove the whip from Campbell. Mr Campbell has previously come under fire for mocking the Irish language while speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly.The Independent has contacted the DUP for comment. More

Michael Gove faces Brexit questions from MPsThe government has rejected claims that its handling of Brexit is to blame for a reported drop in exports to the EU in January after new figures suggested exports had plunged by 68 per cent.In the letter, RHA head , Richard Burnett appeared to blame the government’s handling of Brexit, asserting that he had “warned repeatedly” of how the lack of clarity on post-Brexit rules would impact hauliers, traders and manufacturers. In a statement to The Guardian on Monday, a Cabinet Office spokesperson rejected the accusations, asserting that the government does not “recognise these figures at all”. “We know there are some specific issues and we are working with businesses to resolve them,” they said. Meanwhile, the government is facing fresh accusations of “cronyism” from Labour, with shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accusing leadership of passing over businesses with experience in favour of companies with close ties to the Conservative Party.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
1612794408Boris Johnson says government is ‘very confident’ in all vaccines being used Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said his government is “very confident” in all of the vaccines being used in the UK, despite recent findings suggesting the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine may offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of Covid-19. “All of the vaccines are effective in protecting against death and serious illness,” Mr Johnson said, according to Sky News, as the UK marked seeing more than 12 million people vaccinated so far. Addressing concerns over the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine head-on, the PM said: “We also think, in particular in the case of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, that there’s good evidence it’s stopping transmission as well.”He said he had “no doubt that vaccines generally are going to offer the way out”. Mr Johnson made the comments during a visit to a coronavirus test manufacturing facility in Derby, where millions of rapid response tests are being produced for rollout in the UK. Chantal Da Silva8 February 2021 14:261612792984Forcing employee to have Covid vaccine is ‘discriminatory’, No 10 says Forcing an employee to have the coronavirus vaccine in order to keep their position would be “discriminatory,” No 10 has said. In a Westminster briefing on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said taking a vaccine is “not mandatory and it would be discriminatory to force somebody to take one”. The comment came after The Telegraph reported that some ministers believe companies that adopt a “jab for a job” stance would be protected by health and safety laws. The outlet quoted a government source as saying: “Health and safety laws say you have to protect other people at work, and when it becomes about protecting other people the argument gets stronger.”No 10 does not appear to agree, however, making clear it could be considered discriminatory to threaten someone’s job or withhold employment over their vaccination status.Chantal Da Silva8 February 2021 14:031612791628Wales Health Minister Vaughan Gething ‘deeply sorry’ over Covid-19 death toll Wales Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said he is “deeply sorry” to have to mark the milestone of more than 5,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the country. “I’m deeply sorry for every single life that’s been lost, every family who’s been affected,” Mr Gething said, according to PA. “Right from the outset of this pandemic, we made a point of recognising that these aren’t just numbers, these are people who are loved and valued and leave others behind.”He said the Welsh Government had taken “extraordinary measures” to prevent the spread of coronavirus and reduce its impact. However, he said: “Despite all of that, we know that more than 5,000 people have lost their lives.””I’m afraid we can be terribly confident that without the measures that we’ve all taken together, more people would have come to harm and more families would be grieving the loss of a loved one,” he said. “That’s why it’s so important that we all stick with what we’re doing to help drive down rates even further.”Chantal Da Silva8 February 2021 13:401612790618Boris Johnson suggests border controls could play greater role to block new Covid variants Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested border controls could play a greater role in the effort to prevent new coronavirus variants from reaching the UK when infection rates are further reduced. Asked about the possibility of introducing tougher measures, the PM told reporters: “They are most effective, border controls, when you’ve got the rate of infection down in your country,” according to PA. “At the moment we’ve greatly reduced the rate of infection from the peak, where it was a few weeks ago, but it’s still extremely high and for border controls really to make that final difference so you can isolate new variants as they come in, you need to have infections really much lower so you can track them as they spread,” he said. The prime minister noted that it was true that “we in the UK are capable of seeing variants arise here,” as has been the case with the Kent variant of Covid-19.However, he said: “That doesn’t mean we’re not going to be relying very much on border controls as we get the rates of infection down overall.”Chantal Da Silva8 February 2021 13:231612789901Tories take 4 point lead over Labour, new poll showsThe Conservatives have regained their lead over Labour, according to a new poll, as the opposition party continues to struggle to maintain a consistent lead over the government.Research by YouGov, conducted last week, showed the Tories on 41 per cent, up by 4 percentage points, and Labour on 37 per cent, down by 4 points.You can find the full results below:Conrad Duncan8 February 2021 13:111612788879Rogue agents with no ‘knowledge’ offering Brexit trade help, adviser warnsRogue customs agents with no “knowledge or experience” are offering help with post-Brexit chaos after Michael Gove failed to recruit enough officials to guide firms through the new red tape, a trade adviser has warned.Anna Jerzewska, an independent customs expert, said firms were being “dumped by their long-term customs broker in favour of a larger client that they can charge more”.Our deputy political editor, Rob Merrick, has the full story below:Conrad Duncan8 February 2021 12:541612787805DUP MP under pressure after attacking gospel music ‘Songs of Praise’ specialA Democratic Unionist Party MP has been condemned for referring to an all-black line-up for a gospel edition of Songs of Praise as “the BBC at its BLM [Black Lives Matter] worst”.Campaigners have accused Gregory Campbell of “race-baiting” over his comments and called on him to apologise.Our reporter, Matt Mathers, has the full story below:Conrad Duncan8 February 2021 12:361612787308UK terrorism threat level reduced from ‘severe’ to ‘substantial’The UK’s terrorism threat level has been reduced from “severe” to “substantial” due to a significant reduction in the momentum of attacks across Europe, the government has said.Home secretary Priti Patel told MPs that the lowered threat level still meant an attack on the UK remained “likely” and warned that the public should remain vigilant.“The decision to lower the threat level from severe to substantial is due to the significant reduction in the momentum of attacks in Europe since those seen between September and November 2020,” Ms Patel said.“However, the UK national threat level is kept under constant review and is subject to change at any time.“Terrorism remains one of the most direct and immediate risks to our national security.”Conrad Duncan8 February 2021 12:281612786712Buckingham Palace denies Queen lobbied government to conceal private wealthBuckingham Palace has rejected a report that suggested the Queen blocked legislation in the 1970s to conceal her private wealth as “simply incorrect”.The Guardian reported that the monarch’s private lawyer lobbied ministers to change a draft law enabling companies used by “heads of state” to be exempt from new transparency measures.Our reporter, Tom Batchelor, has the full story below:Conrad Duncan8 February 2021 12:181612785825Derby company’s rapid result Covid tests will ‘strengthen national response ‘significantly’, Matt Hancock says Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said a contract with a diagnostics company in Derby to supply millions of rapid lateral flow coronavirus tests will strengthen the national response to the coronavirus pandemic “significantly”. SureScreen Diagnostics has become the first British manufacturer contracted to supply Covid-19 tests to the government. In a Monday tweet, Mr Hancock said said the deal with SureScreen Diagnostics would see at least 20 million more rapid lateral flow tests rolled out.”These tests strengthen our national response to the virus significantly, helping identify the around 1 in 3 asymptomatic people & break chains of transmission,” he said.The tests are expected to be used as part of the government’s rapid testing programme for people without Covid-19 symptoms, including home care staff, school workers and others.Chantal Da Silva8 February 2021 12:03 More

Margaret Thatcher opposed the idea of government warnings about “risky sex” in an Aids awareness campaign during the late 1980s, a former Conservative cabinet minister has said.Norman Fowler claimed the then-prime minister believed that mentioning risky sexual practices in a leaflet campaign would encourage people to “experiment”. Lord Fowler, then Tory health secretary, said she was “just wrong” on the matter – and claimed she had been sceptical about running any information campaign on the Aids epidemic. The success of Channel 4’s drama It’s a Sin – which portrays widespread confusion in Britain during the HIV-Aids crisis of the 1980s – has raised questions about the Thatcher government’s response.Despite Ms Thatcher’s own misgivings, her health secretary launched the government’s ‘Aids: Don’t die of ignorance’ campaign in 1986.“Right from the beginning Margaret was a sceptic about having this major campaign … on the dangers of contracting HIV and how you could avoid it,” Lord Fowler told the BBC. “There was a section in [the leaflet] on risky sex andMargaret came back on it and said, ‘Do we really need to have this thing on risky sex?’ Well, as the whole point of it was to warn people about it, it seemed to me that it was essential to have that in.”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 section was not included. The final wording on the leaflet warned: “Those most at risk now are men who have anal sex with other men. Drug misusers who share equipment. Anyone with many sexual partners.”Lord Fowler said: “Her concern was – it’s always seemed to me a bit odd – that we were teaching people, telling people things about which they didn’t know – the implication being that, once they knew it, then they would go out and experiment.” The Tory peer, who now serves as Lord Speaker of the upper chamber, added: “Well, as this was exactly the opposite of our message, it did seem to me curious.” More

Boris Johnson has said he is still “very confident” in all vaccines being rolled out across the UK despite concerns a new Covid variant could render one of them less effective.Early scientific trials suggest the Oxford-AstraZeneca, which is being widely deployed in the UK, gives “minimal protection” against mild disease when up against a new variant from South Africa.The prime minister however said all vaccines being used provide a “high degree of protection against serious illness and death”.During a visit to a coronavirus test manufacturing facility in Derby, he told reporters: “We’re very confident in all the vaccines that we’re using. “And I think it’s important for people to bear in mind that all of them, we think, are effective in delivering a high degree of protection against serious illness and death, which is the most important thing.”We will be continuing to study the results, the effectiveness of the vaccine rollout, and that’s going very, very fast indeed, and we will be looking at ways in which the population is starting to respond to the vaccines as we prepare to say what we’re going to do in the week of the 22nd and what kind of roadmap we want to lay out.”The study suggesting the Oxford vaccine is less effective at preventing mild disease involved about 2,000 people who were an average an average of 31 years old, and is yet to have been peer-reviewed.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 vaccine’s developers at Oxford have said it should still protect against severe disease, and that is is likely to have been modified by the autumn to protect more fully against the new variant.The emergence of new Covid-19 variants is not unexpected and scientists had always expected vaccines would probably need to be updated to keep pace with mutations.South Africa’s government has paused the roll-out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after a study showed it had “disappointing” result against the new variant, which is extremely common in the country and accounts for around 90 per cent of new cases there.Around 147 cases of the South African variant have so far been positively identified in the UK, but there are likely to be more as these were the result of random checks on positive tests.
World news in picturesShow all 50 More

A former Labour MP picked to carry out the review warned of “disruption or even violence carried out in the name of progressive causes”, as he started work.John Woodcock, a former aide to Gordon Brown and now an independent peer, stressed that far-right groups remained a significantly bigger threat to British life.But he said: “We must be vigilant against a similar blind spot in Britain to the prospect of progressive extremism.“That is, unacceptable disruption or even violence carried out in the name of progressive causes to which the political establishment and large majority of the population have great sympathy, like climate change and racial injustice.”Lord Walney, as he is now known, told The Daily Telegraph: “There have been a number of, at the moment isolated, examples of climate change activist groups, particularly Extinction Rebellion, overstepping the mark into antisocial behaviour.“I think there’s been a recognition that, even among that movement, they have at times risked undermining their own cause.”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 peer added: “I’m coming at this with an open mind, but with an understanding that there is clearly a potential for groups to develop into increasingly problematic areas.”But Gary McFarlane, a Black Lives Matter (BLM), activist said: “Tarring Extinction Rebellion (XR) and BLM with the same brush as far-right terrorists is an outrage.”He described Lord Walney as “the hand-picked servant of a prime minister  who described black people using vile racist language that thankfully most people left behind in the 1950s”.“The truth is that both XR and BLM have wide support and encompass people of divergent political views united in common aims – and our rulers clearly find that a threat,” Mr McFarlane added.Lord Walney, who quit Labour in July 2018 and endorsed the Conservatives at the 2019 general election, is Mr Johnson’s independent adviser on political violence.He has said the role will “examine how fringe groups are using the pandemic to exploit fears and produce recommendations on the problem of activists on far right and far left hijacking legitimate causes with violence and law breaking”.The peer also said people joining movements to achieve good causes are vulnerable to “a conscious or often unconscious bias in overlooking the strategies to get there”.”I want to look at the way antidemocracy, anti-capitalist far left fringe groups in Britain like the Socialist Workers Party tend to have much more success hijacking important causes,” he told the Telegraph. More

Rogue customs agents with no “knowledge or experience” are offering help with post-Brexit chaos after Michael Gove failed to recruit enough, a trade adviser is warning.The Cabinet Office minister pledged to recruit 50,000 agents to guide firms through the blizzard of new red tape created – but has repeatedly refused to say how many are in place.Anna Jerzewska, an independent customs expert, said firms were being “dumped by their long-term customs broker in favour of a larger client that they can charge more”.And she warned: “What we’ve seen are companies that don’t have knowledge or experience in customs or rules of origin attempting to advise clients and charge clients with that advice – without having any kind of background in that.”Giving evidence to a Lords enquiry, Dr Jerzewska said: “This number of 50,000 – whether that was an accurate estimate or not, we’re definitely lacking customs agents.“It really is a market whereby customs brokers can pick and choose who they want to work with.”It is thought that only around 10,000 agents have been signed up, despite a huge recruitment drive to find staff with at least two years’ experience in global trade.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 weekdayThey are needed to help fill out millions of new forms – paperwork costing £7.5bn a year – for trade that was free of customs checks and tariffs before the UK left the single market and customs union.Ms Jerzewska said firms desperately needed help with what “it means to be an importer, what kind of records you need to keep, what it all means and how you deal with that”.“It’s not just a question of bringing goods across the border, it’s the question of, okay, yes, you’re responsible for this, you’re liable for this legally for several years to come,” she said.“We’re definitely missing that capacity, that experience,” the adviser told the Lords EU goods sub-committee.The comments come amid growing criticism of Mr Gove amid a survey suggesting exports have plunged by an astonishing 88 per cent since the transition period ended.The Road Haulage Association protested that he had failed to respond “pretty much every time we have written”, raising fears over the new trading rules, over the last six months.“He tends to get officials to start working on things, but the responses are a complete waste of time because they don’t listen to what the issues were that we raised in the first place,” the organisation said.But a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: “Thanks to the hard work of hauliers and traders to prepare for change, disruption at the border has so far been minimal.”Mr Gove will meet Marcos Sefcovic, the European Commission vice president, this week to press the case for ‘grace periods’ delaying some of the new Irish Sea paperwork to be extended.Trade organisations giving evidence to the committee backed the delay – but there is deep unhappiness in Brussels at London’s push for an extension for two years. More