Markus Andrews

The health secretary said case numbers are still “incredibly high” and the NHS remains under “enormous” pressure, as ministers grapple with how to counter the emergence of three worrying new variants.“There is early evidence that the lockdown is starting to bring cases down but we are a long, long, long way from being low enough because the case rate was incredibly high,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.“You can see the pressure on the NHS – you can see it every day.”Mr Hancock said that while he hoped schools in England could reopen by Easter, it would depend on the levels of infection in the community at that time.
UK news in picturesShow all 50 More

Tougher travel restrictions for British holidaymakers are looming, Matt Hancock says, warning “we can’t risk the progress we have made”.The Health Secretary paved the way for a likely decision to put at least some returning travellers into hotels, saying the spread of new Covid-19 variants had “changed the discussion”.
“The new variant I really worry about is the one that’s out there but hasn’t been spotted,” Mr Hancock said – as experts examine whether the strains from South Africa and Brazil are vaccine-resistant.He also played down any hopes of an early easing of the lockdown, warning the country is “long, long, long, way” from cutting infection and hospitalisation figures low enough.And he did not dispute that schools could remain closed until at least Easter, saying: “If we knew for sure, we would let everybody know.”Mr Hancock spoke ahead of a crucial Cabinet committee meeting on Tuesday, which is expected to order at least some arrivals – including returning holidaymakers – to pay to stay in hotels for up to two weeks afterwards.
The fight appears to be over whether all must do so – or just passengers from high-risk countries, with many Tory MPs warning of another “devastating blow” to the aviation and travel industries.
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 weekdayPatrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, is known to be in favour, after admitting keeping the borders when the pandemic struck last March was his biggest regret of the past year.
Asked if there should be “a blanket ban on people coming into this country”, Mr Hancock told Sky News: “We can’t risk the progress that we’ve made. And the discussion on borders has changed for two reasons.”He pointed to the success of the vaccination programme – with three quarters of all over 80s having received a first dose – which was “absolutely brilliant progress”.
And he said: “At the same time, there are new variants, particularly in South Africa and Brazil, where we’re particularly concerned that they might have a lower response to the vaccine.
“In the meantime, we’ve got to have a precautionary principle that says, ‘let’s not bring these new variants, back to the UK’.”
Later, on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Programme, asked about ‘vaccine passports’, Mr Hancock hinted they could be introduced for international travel.But he said he was “not attracted to the idea here at home” – arguing the UK is not a “papers-carrying country”.
On the likelihood of the lockdown being eased when it is reviewed next month, Mr Hancock pointed to “incredibly high” case numbers and an NHS still under intense pressure.
“There is early evidence that the lockdown is starting to bring cases down but we are a long, long, long way from being low enough, because the case rate was incredibly high,” said.
“You can see the pressure on the NHS – you can see it every day.” More

The government is being urged to show it is serious about “levelling up” by extending the Equality Act to cover economic inequality.It comes after ministers said too much time was taken talking about subjects like race and gender at the expense of “socio-economic status” and class.The Equality Act was passed at the end of the last Labour government and requires the government take into account protected characteristics like race, sex or disability when making decisions.But the Act also includes a “socio-economic duty” that would bind ministers and public bodies to have “due regard” for economic inequality in every major decision they take.Yet the duty has never been properly implemented in law, over a decade since the Act was passed.Polling seen by The Independent and carried out by Opinium shows that 57 per cent of voters agree that the clause should be activated, with just 6 per cent disagreeing.Campaigners say if the provision had been in force for the last decade, parts of the government’s austerity programme could have been struck down as unlawful by the courts.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“This is clear evidence of a growing desire amongst the British public for their government to take real and momentous action to tackle poverty and inequality,” said Jennifer Nadel, co-director of the campaign group Compassion in Politics, which commissioned the survey.“And no wonder. Since 2010 child poverty and homelessness rates have risen at alarming rates, infant mortality has grown, and life-expectancy has flat-lined. The Covid crisis has exposed and exacerbated this deplorable situation.”She continued: “The government is now out of step with the public. During Covid we have seen communities come together to support one another, witnessed the selflessness of key workers, and been inspired by the campaigning efforts of Marcus Rashford. “Let’s translate that energy, care, and concern into our politics and into a compassionate drive to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, and provide everyone with the support they need to live a good life.”Ms Nadel said the government should immediately enact the duty in the act, as well as setting benefits and minimum wage rates “at a level that is high enough to meet the cost of living”.She added: “A compassionate nation does not allow people to be made homeless or go hungry because their benefits or wages are inadequate.”
UK news in picturesShow all 50 More

The Welsh Conservative leader has bowed to pressure to quit after he had drinks with colleagues, triggering allegations he broke an alcohol ban.Paul Davies – who had claimed the backing of his party to stay on in the job – admitted he had “damaged trust and respect” with the people of Wales.Mr Davies drank alcohol with Tory chief whip Darren Millar, the party’s chief of staff Paul Smith, and former Labour Welsh government minister Alun Davies last month.An investigation by the Welsh parliament’s chief executive concluded “a possible breach of regulations occurred” and referred the controversy to Cardiff Council.
On Friday – one day after Priti Patel, threatened partygoers in England with £800 fines – Mr Davies had insisted he had the backing of colleagues to continue in his post.
The resignation comes at a bad time, meaning the Conservatives have lost their leader little more than three months before the Senedd elections in May.
Mr Millar has also quit as chief whip, but both men continued to insist they had not broken any rules, four days after a pub alcohol ban was brought in last month.
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 his statement, Mr Davies said: “I am truly sorry for my actions on December 8 and 9.
“They have damaged the trust and respect that I have built up over 14 years in the Welsh Parliament with my colleagues and the wider Conservative Party, but more importantly with the people of Wales.”
But he added: “What we did was to have some alcohol with a meal we heated up in a microwave, which was a couple of glasses of wine on the Tuesday and a beer on the Wednesday. I broke no actual Covid-19 regulations.”Plaid Cymru criticised the delay before the pair resigned, saying it “was obvious to everyone else that their positions were untenable”.
“Everyone will be asking what took them so long,” said Senedd member Helen Mary Jones.
The Conservatives are expected to move quickly to find a replacement for Mr Davies, prompting suggestions they will turn back to former leader Andrew RT Davies.
However, earlier this month, he was sharply criticised for likening the attack on the US Capitol building incited by Donald Trump to the anti-Brexit campaign.
Paul Davies’ resignation statement continued: “Yesterday I indicated to the Conservative group in the Welsh Parliament that I wished to resign, but they urged me to reflect further, and we agreed to meet again on Monday.“However, for the sake of my party, my health and my own conscience, I simply cannot continue in post.
“Therefore, I am stepping down as leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Welsh Parliament with immediate effect.”
Mr Davies was suspended from Welsh Labour’s Senedd group on Monday by Mark Drakeford, the First Minister, after the allegations emerged. More

At least £100,000 of tariffs have been slapped on Fairtrade bananas from Africa because of Brexit, prompting mounting anger that farmers face ruin.
Ministers are under pressure to explain why the levies are being charged, despite an announcement that a last-gasp deal was struck between the UK and Ghana on New Year’s Eve.
Both banana exporters in the developing country and UK shipping firms are losing money on deliveries – £20,000 a week, says one company – while the crisis continues.“Thousands of jobs in rural areas will be put at risk,” the head of the Commons international trade committee has warned the government, in a letter seen by The Independent.The UK was accused of “bullying” the country into a deal – which Ghana believes would break its obligations to its neighbours in the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
George Kporye, manager of the Golden Exotics company, said it only learned on 1 January that – despite the “agreement” – it was moving onto punishing World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs.
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 shipment from Ghana, due this weekend, was set to pay charges of £20-25,000, taking total tariffs imposed this month through the £100,000 barrier.
“Such punitive tariffs are clearly unsustainable and it is important that a solution is found as quickly as possible to relieve us of such a burden,” Mr Kporye said.
“If this issue continues for weeks, it will put the jobs of over three thousand workers mostly in rural communities at great risk.”
Keith Sadler, managing director of importers Compagnie Fruitiere UK, said his firm was paying weekly tariffs of £20,000, adding: “If you add that up, it would be £1m over a year. No business can operate with that level of extra costs.”Warning it might have to turn its back on Ghana, he said: “This is a serious threat to the banana industry and it needs to be resolved before we have to make difficult decisions.”The letter, sent by SNP MP Angus MacNeil, asks Liz Truss, the Trade Secretary, to explain why a statement said “an agreement had been reached on all the main issues”.“With businesses losing £20,000 each week, the longer this issue is left unresolved the more the costs mount and the more unsustainable it becomes, especially at a time when business is already suffering,” he has written.
Mr MacNeil pointed out that Ghana sends more than 40 per cent of exports to the UK, adding: “If importers are forced to move away from sourcing from Ghana, thousands of jobs in rural areas will be put at risk.”
Mr Kporye urged Ms Truss to “waive tariffs in the interim period or commit to refund them after the agreement has been signed”.
The Department for International Trade was unable to say when tariffs would be lifted – and blamed Ghana for failing to “engage with us fully until it was too late”.“We share the Ghanaian government’s concern for their banana industry, and that is one of the reasons why we made an early and generous proposal to Ghana that would have guaranteed their continued and lasting access to the UK market, but they chose not to take this take up,” a spokesperson said.
“We are glad Ghana is working with us to reach an agreement, and the restoration of our trading terms is in sight. It is the responsibility of both our countries to work to resolve this issue as soon as possible.”
Ghana argued a rollover deal would have meant agreeing a different tariff for UK goods than its neighbours, undermining that customs union and badly damaging relationships.Back in 2017, then-trade secretary Liam Fox promised exporters that “nothing would be done to jeopardise trade with Africa”, as Brexit was carried out, Mr Kporye has said.  More

Senior doctors have criticised the decision to make people wait 12 weeks for a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, calling for the wait to be halved.
“What we’re saying is that the UK should adopt this best practice based on international professional opinion,” said Dr Chaand Nagpaul, its council chairman
“If the vaccine’s efficacy is reduced….then of course the risk is that we will see those who are exposed maximally to the virus may get infected.”
It emerged on Friday that the Sage advisory group had raised the possible risk of triggering a “vaccine-resistant mutation”, by delaying second doses.
However, both the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser have backed the decision to rip up the original promise of a second Pfizer dose after just three weeks.Chris Whitty, the medical officer, said it was a “public health decision” that would allow “many more people to be vaccinated much more quickly”.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 Patrick Vallance, the scientific adviser, told the Downing Street press conference: “The most risky thing in terms of new mutations is to have very high prevalence.”
But the World Health Organisation recommended a gap of four weeks between doses – to be extended, only in exceptional circumstances, to six weeks.
Pfizer has said it has tested the level of protection given by its vaccine only when the two doses are given up to 21 days apart.
Dr Nagpaul said he understood the “rationale” behind the decision to delay the second dose to 12 weeks, but argued it was “difficult to justify”.“Most nations in the world are facing challenges similar to the UK in having limited vaccine supply and also wanting to protect their population maximally,” he told BBC Breakfast.“No other nation has adopted the UK’s approach. We think the flexibility that the WHO offers, of extending to 42 days, is being stretched far too much to go from six weeks right through to 12 weeks.
“I do understand the trade-off and the rationale but if that was the right thing to do then we would see other nations following suit.”
There is no similar concern over the 12-week wait for a second dose of the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca vaccine, which is being made in the UK.
Its trials provided greater confidence that the first dose can continue to provide protection for at least a few months, before the booster shot.
The researchers found it delivered 64.1 per cent protection, compared with 70.4 per cent after two full doses and – in a baffling result – 90 per cent in people who received one half dose, followed by one full dose. More

The Welsh Conservative leader will keep his job despite being caught drinking with colleagues on parliament premises while an alcohol ban was in force.Paul Davies has been told he has the “unanimous support” of the Welsh Tory group to continue in his role as leader.It comes after an investigation into allegations that Mr Davies drank alcohol with chief whip Darren Millar, the party’s chief of staff Paul Smith and former Labour Welsh government minister Alun Davies in a Senedd tea room concluded a “possible breach of regulations occurred”.The incident, on 8 December, came just four days after a ban on the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol on licensed premises came into force, although off-licences were allowed to sell alcohol until 10pm.
In a statement, Llywydd Elin Jones MS said an internal investigation by the Senedd Commission had established that “alcohol was consumed by five individuals”, four of whom were elected members, in the Senedd’s licensed tea room. It is not clear who the fifth individual was.“The investigation has concluded that a possible breach of regulations occurred and therefore the chief executive of the Senedd Commission has referred the matter to Cardiff Council,” she said.“The regulations in place at the time imposed strict restrictions on members of the public with regard to the consumption of alcohol.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“Given that the possible breach in question occurred as a result of the consumption of alcohol by members of the Senedd, I have also written to the Standards Commissioner to ask him to investigate whether these members acted in accordance with the duty in the Code of Conduct to conduct themselves in a manner which maintains and strengthens the public’s trust and confidence in the integrity of the Senedd.”Catering company CH&CO Group, which offers catering services at the Senedd estate, previously said it was aware of “an alleged breach of public health regulations” and was investigating.In a previously issued statement, Paul Davies, Mr Millar and Mr Smith said they were “profoundly sorry” for their actions.Fellow Conservative MS Nick Ramsay also denied he was part of the group but said had attended the tea room alone for a meal on the same day.
Janet Finch-Saunders, chair of the Welsh Conservative group, said on Friday: “The Welsh Conservative group met today to discuss events involving three members of the group on 8 December.“The group extended its unanimous support for Paul Davies to continue in his post as leader of the group.”First minister Mark Drakeford told a press conference in Cardiff that he had “immediately made the decision” to suspend Alun Davies from Welsh Labour’s Senedd group after hearing of the allegations on Monday.He told reporters he understood a single member of staff was on duty in the tea room at the time of the incident and he was anxious that she did not “carry the can” for what had happened.Additional reporting by PA More

Government considering closing UK borders to prevent Covid spreadUK retailers are considering abandoning goods returned by EU customers, with some even thinking of burning them due to the cost and trouble of bringing them back into the country.After the post-Brexit introduction of new paperwork and charges for goods crossing over the border, fashion industry boss Adam Mansell said it was “cheaper for retailers to write off the cost of the goods than dealing with it all”, adding the process includes at least four new charges and documents.Meanwhile, tens of thousands of online shoppers have been faced with additional customs and delivery charges costing up to one-third of the price of items ordered from the EU. One shopper was asked to pay £77 in tax on £245 of clothes bought from a French website, The Times reports.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
1611326427Patel pays tribute to PC who died after contracting CovidThe home secretary has joined those paying tribute to PC Michael Warren, who died after testing positive for coronavirus.Colleagues said the departed Metropolitan Police officer “went above and beyond” to support others, with Chief Superintendent Karen Findlay describing him as “lovely, genuine and hard-working”.Liam James22 January 2021 14:401611325222Wales first minister speaks out after Senedd drinking session“We cannot possibly expect other people to follow the rules when we are not doing everything we can to make sure that we are complying with them ourselves.”Just short of a condemnation there from Mark Drakeford, the first minister of Wales, after a group of senior Welsh politicians were reported to have drank together in the Senedd, or Welsh parliament, during a ban on licensed alcohol sales.The Welsh Conservative leader, Paul Davies, who was among the four said to have gone for a glass of wine or two, has confirmed he was present but his party said he will continue in his post. More