Markus Andrews

UK Covid-19 vaccinations: Latest figuresThe government has secured a “great deal” for the fishing industry in its post-Brexit trade agreement, Dominic Raab has insisted, rejecting the charge that ministers had “comprehensively betrayed” the industry amid an outpouring of anger and concern for its future.Faced with warnings that the Scottish fishing industry is “drowning under red tape” and that generations-old firms could collapse in a matter of days, the foreign secretary claimed he was “not convinced” that the chaos was a result of Brexit.It came Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds accused Cabinet of harbouring a “corrosive” culture of not taking responsibility following the accidental deletion of hundreds of thousands of police records. And Sir Keir Starmer told The Independent that bereaved families “deserve to know” when an independent inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic will begin, with the UK’s death toll nearing 90,000. Meanwhile, ministers are to propose new laws to protect colonial-era monuments, following the toppling of slave trader Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol.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
1610894272Government told to ‘get a grip’ after Raab claims Brexit deal ‘great’ for fishingThe MP for Scotland’s Northern Isles has told the government to “get a grip” after Dominic Raab claimed that its Brexit deal is “great” for the fishing industry.“It’s hard to find a minister who will admit to having even sat down and read the trade deal” said Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem MP for Orkney and Shetland. “Brexit might be a game to the likes of Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson but for thousands of people in Scotland this is their business and their livelihood on the line. The government needs to get a grip now.“Fishermen are telling the PM that his deal did not do any of the things he claimed for it, let alone what he had promised.  The harder the Tories spin, the angrier fishing communities get.  The government needs to start listening to the people who know what they are talking about and start to clean up the mess that the prime minister has created.“The government doesn’t know whether it is coming or going on the crisis facing our fishing industry. One second this is a ‘great deal in the short term’ and the next there are ‘some teething problems’. One day there will be compensation for Scottish businesses and the next there is no money to pay for it.”Andy Gregory17 January 2021 14:371610893428What is the G7 summit that is coming to Cornwall in June?Our political editor Andrew Woodcock writes that the travelling political circus of the G7 that will descend on the rugged shores of Cornwall in June is variously seen as the premier diplomatic event of the year or as a talking shop which causes untold disruption but delivers little of value.His Politics Explained piece explores what we can expect from the annual gathering.Andy Gregory17 January 2021 14:231610892128Editorial: Boris Johnson is not learning quickly enough from his mistakes“We don’t want to trip up at this late stage,” said Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, as he announced a ban on flights from Brazil and 15 other countries including Portugal in an attempt to prevent a Brazilian variant of coronavirus getting into the UK.Not for the first time in the pandemic, the government has shut the stable door slowly, and long after the horse has bolted. It has already “tripped up” several times.The Independent’s latest editorial on UK politics warns that the prime minister is still being too slow in learning from his errors. Andy Gregory17 January 2021 14:021610890808No-one should be going on holiday while NHS is ‘on the cusp’, Raab saysOur political editor Andrew Woodcock has this report on Dominic Raab’s comments when asked whether he thought it was right for people to be going on holiday at the moment.Andy Gregory17 January 2021 13:401610889488Housing minister Kelly Tolhurst resigns after ‘devastating’ family newsKelly Tolhurst has resigned as a housing minister in order to spend “precious time” with her family following “devastating” family news.In a letter to Boris Johnson, the MP for Rochester and Strood, said she hoped to have the opportunity to serve again in government “in the fullness of time”.Downing Street said that assistant whip Eddie Hughes has been appointed as her replacement.Andy Gregory17 January 2021 13:181610888108Leading epidemiologist criticises government’s ‘lax’ approach to travel quarantinesWith Dominic Raab pledging to “beef up” checks on whether new UK arrivals are self-isolating, a leading epidemiologist criticised the government’s “pretty lax” approach so far to quarantining foreign arrivals and contacts of coronavirus cases.Amid reports that ministers are considering introducing quarantine hotels, which Mr Raab did not deny, Professor John Edmunds said that if there is a quarantine policy it should be made “as effective as you possibly can”.“If you’re going to have quarantine then you should probably make it as effective as you possibly can,” the Sage member told Times Radio.“Ours has been rather lax, not just for visitors coming into the UK the vast majority of whom do not have covid but we’ve also been rather lax with our quarantine of individuals who have been in direct contact with a case; indigenous cases. We’ve been pretty lax about that.“We just ask them to stay at home and so I think yes, if we’re going to have quarantine we should try and make it work as best as possible.”Andy Gregory17 January 2021 12:551610887015Labour attacks government’s ‘corrosive culture of not taking responsibility’Priti Patel should take responsibility for an error that has led to hundreds of thousands of police records being deleted from UK-wide databases, the shadow home secretary has said.Asked by a member of the public whether the home secretary should resign over the matter, Nick Thomas-Symonds told the Fabian Society conference audience: “A cabinet minister who actually took responsibility for their own department would be a novelty in this government, I am sad to say.“There was a time when ministers did take responsibility and, of course, I would take responsibility as the home secretary for what happens in the department and my responsibility to put it right.”He added: “Far from having a home secretary that takes responsibility, the home secretary hasn’t even appeared in public since this crisis broke on Thursday night – indeed we had to learn about it from the newspapers rather than learn from it actually from her and what she was going to do about it.“Ministers in this government, I am afraid, just don’t take responsibility. There is a culture of not taking responsibility and it is corrosive, frankly, to the quality of governance right across the Cabinet.”Andy Gregory17 January 2021 12:361610884383‘Mercenary’ for UK lawyer to take case against Hong Kong democracy activists, says Dominic RaabA British lawyer prosecuting a case against Hong Kong pro-democracy activists under the Chinese territory’s notorious national security law has been branded “mercenary” by foreign secretary Dominic Raab, our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports.Asked about the decision of barrister David Perry QC to act on behalf of authorities against nine activists facing seven-year jail sentences for unlawful assembly, Mr Raab said he could not understand how anyone could “in good conscience” take on such a case.Mr Raab also said it was “disgraceful” for the Chinese Embassy in the US to say that the Beijing government’s activities in Xinjiang province were “eradicating extremism” and ensuring Uighur women would no longer be treated as “baby-making machines”.Andy Gregory17 January 2021 11:531610884128Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family hope jailed Briton could be freed in seven weeksNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family has said she could be free to leave Iran on 7 March, when her sentence is due to expire, my colleague Tom Batchelor reports.The British-Iranian woman has been under house arrest in Tehran since being moved from jail last spring. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has written to the foreign office asking for details about the end of her sentence, including what arrangements have been made for her to be given the correct papers to travel and how an ankle tag she wears will be removed, The Sunday Times reported.Andy Gregory17 January 2021 11:481610883130Vaccinations being administered ‘four times faster’ than virus transmitting, NHS England boss saysSomeone is currently admitted to hospital with coronavirus “every 30 seconds” in England, Sir Simon Stevens has said, however some 140 inoculations are being given out every minute.The NHS England chief executive told Andrew Marr: “Since Christmas Day we’ve seen another 15,000 increase in the inpatients in hospitals across England, that’s the equivalent of filling 30 hospitals full of coronavirus patients.” While hospitals now have 75 per cent more Covid patients than during the first peak, sir Simon said jabs are being administered “four times faster” than people are newly catching the virus.Andy Gregory17 January 2021 11:32 More

People should not be going on any holidays, abroad or in the UK, while the NHS is “on the cusp” due to the coronavirus pandemic, Dominic Raab has said.The foreign secretary was speaking on the eve of Monday’s closure of the travel corridor scheme, which allowed people to enter the UK from a limited number of countries – including Australia and New Zealand – without going into quarantine. Also from Monday, those arriving in England will be required to show that they have tested negative for coronavirus within 72 hours of departure.The foreign secretary confirmed that ministers had considered the option of requiring arrivals in the UK to self-isolate for a period in specially designated hotels, but played down the prospect of its imminent introduction, saying there were question marks over its “workability”.He said that checks would be stepped up to ensure that those arriving in the UK comply with the 10-day quarantine rule.In a round of media interviews, Mr Raab denied the government had been slow to take action to prevent movements across its borders, particularly since the emergence of virulent new Covid-19 strains in Brazil and South Africa. He insisted the UK was broadly in line with countries like Germany and Canada in imposing travel restrictions.Asked whether any Briton should be going on holiday during the current lockdown, Mr Raab told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “Right now, people should be staying at home unless it’s absolutely necessary.“So no, they shouldn’t be going on holiday. I don’t think that’s appropriate.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“Any travel, domestic or otherwise, ought to be for the limited exceptions that have been spelt out.”He warned that travel would risk increasing the spread of Covid-19 and raising pressure on the NHS at a time when ministers have warned the service faces being overwhelmed.“We’ve got this narrow period where the NHS is on the cusp,” said Mr Raab. “We’ve got to protect it. “We’ve got the light at the end of the tunnel with vaccines. We’ve just got to stay at home as much as possible, unless there are really strong limited exceptional reasons for travelling domestically or internationally, and that’s the way we get through to a better place.”Government sources described as “speculative” reports in The Sunday Times that plans were being drawn up for the creation of quarantine hotels for those arriving in the UK.Mr Raab did not deny that this option had been considered, telling the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “We’ve said we keep all the potential measures under review.”But he added: “I think there is a challenge in terms of its workability, its deliverability. But we need to look at that very carefully, based on the experience of other countries.”The foreign secretary said that controls were being stepped up on adherence to the 10-day quarantine, which will be required for all arrivals from overseas from Monday.“We’re going to be strengthening the checks at the border to make sure when people come in that they filled out the passenger location form, that they’ve got that negative test that they have to vouch for before they get on a flight,” said Mr Raab.“Also, because the effect of abolishing or suspending the travel corridors is that people go into quarantine and self-isolation for 10 days, we’re making sure that Public Health England checks to make sure people are adhering to those rules.“As well as changing the rules, we are also making sure we pick up the capacity to make those checks.”Mr Raab described the suspension of travel corridors as “a precautionary measure just to make sure we don’t undermine the programme of vaccination and protection of the NHS here at home”.A member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies gave his backing to the idea of quarantine hotels.“If you’re going to have quarantine then you should probably make it as effective as you possibly can,” Professor John Edmunds told Times Radio. “Ours has been rather lax, not just for visitors coming into the UK – the vast majority of whom do not have Covid – but we’ve also been rather lax with our quarantine of individuals who have been in direct contact with a case; indigenous cases. “We’ve been pretty lax about that, we just ask them to stay at home. So I think, yes, if we’re going to have quarantine, we should try and make it work as best as possible.”Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, said that he was ready to “look at” the option of quarantine hotels for passengers arriving from abroad.Mr Reynolds told Sky News: “If that is the most effective way to tackle that, I’d look at that. I’m not sure necessarily it is the case.”Questioned over whether it was selfish for people to be going on holiday at present, Mr Reynolds said: “I just don’t understand why it has taken so long to put those arrangements in place.“We’ve seen what went on in other countries, I think we were told initially that those just weren’t effective, they weren’t worth doing, but clearly they are.” More

The government is aiming to offer a coronavirus vaccine to the entire adult population of the UK by September, foreign secretary Dominic Raab has said.The foreign secretary told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show that blanket vaccination could be completed earlier if the capacity is available to do so.But government sources said that reports of a private target of the end of June to get a jab to all under-18s were “speculative”.The government has previously committed only to offering a first dose of vaccine by mid-February to all over-70s, elderly care home residents, health and care workers and people with serious underlying health conditions.But Mr Raab told Marr: “The plan is to get the first 15 million most vulnerable people vaccinated with the first dose by the middle of February. “We then want to get by early spring another 17 million. At that point we’ll have 99% of those most at risk of dying of coronavirus administered with a vaccine.“The entire adult population we want to have been offered a first jab by September.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“That’s the roadmap. We think we got the capacity to deliver it.“Obviously if it can be done more swiftly than that, then that’s a bonus. The number one thing right now is to protect that roadmap and rollout and protect the NHS, given the new variants that we’ve seen.”NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens told Marr the health service was now vaccinating at a rate of “140 jabs a minute” and will start testing 24/7 vaccinations in some hospitals in the next 10 days.Sir Simon said he expects lockdown to be eased gradually around spring and summer time.He said: “It is not going to be the case that on Valentine’s Day, with one bound, we are free.“Equally, I don’t think we will have to wait until the autumn, I think somewhere between those two.”But he warned that this forecast was subject to uncertainty around new variants of coronavirus – particularly any strains which showed signs of resistance to available vaccines.Mr Raab said the government hopes to start easing lockdown restrictions as early as March, but said measures would be eased gradually, rather than withdrawn overnight in a “big bang”.He told Sky News’s Sunday with Sophy Ridge: “What we want to do is get out of these national lockdowns as soon as possible.”The roadmap that I described is that by early spring, hopefully by March, we’ll be in a position to make those decisions. “I think it’s right to say we won’t do it all in one big bang. As we phase out of the national lockdown, I think we’ll end up phasing through the tiered approach.  “We want to make sure that we can do it in a safe way. But again, we’ve got to, at this point in time, really focus on protecting the NHS and rolling out the vaccine.  If we do those two things, we get into a much better place by early spring.”More than 3.5 million people in the UK have now received their first dose of a vaccine and some 324,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines were administered in the space of 24 hours.Leading epidemiologist Professor Azra Ghani said a combination of low case numbers and having vaccinated the most vulnerable would be needed before restrictions could be eased.She told Sky: “Really, we want to get back to the situation we were in the summer with relatively low case numbers compared to now, so that we can actually test and trace and reduce onward infections.“At the same time we’re, of course, rolling out a vaccine, that’s something we haven’t had up until now and that vaccine rollout is going very well.“That will hopefully protect those that are most vulnerable to the severe consequences of this disease.“We’ll need to get a balance of these two things in place before we can start to lift restrictions and it’s very difficult to say exactly when that will be.” More

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has denied betraying the UK’s fishermen, insisting that the Brexit trade agreement signed by Boris Johnson was “a great deal” for the industry.Mr Raab was speaking amid howls of outrage from fishing companies, who say that the additional red tape and delay caused by the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement has led to them losing huge sums from consignments unable to reach European export markets.And the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation has described the deal as “desperately poor”, leaving many businesses fearing for their survival amid reports of an 80 per cent collapse in the prices they can charge for their catch.But confronted with fishermen’s angry comments during an interview on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Raab said: “I think this is a great deal for the fishing industry, both short term and long term. “We get control over our fisheries back – full control as an independent coastal state – there is an immediate 15% uplift in our access to fisheries for the UK sector in the first year. That rises to two-thirds in the five year transition period, then we have annual negotiations.”Marr read out comments from Jamie McMillan, manning director of Loch Fyne Langoustines, who said: “We have no sales to the EU, our biggest market for live shellfish, in the last two weeks. If we go another week without that, we are finished.”And he confronted Marr with the comment of  Donna Fordyce, chief executive of Seafood Scotland, who said: “Some businesses, which may have been run by families for generations, are now days away from collapse as a result of the agreement”.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 Raab dismissed the difficulties faced by fishing businesses as “teething problems” and said he was “not convinced” that the thickets of Brexit paperwork and delays were the result of the agreement.“The agreement we have struck, both short term and medium term and long term, will create huge sustainable opportunities,” he claimed.“Of course, we’ve always said as we leave the transition period with a deal – but even more if we hadn’t had a deal – there will be some teething problems.“We’re very focused on working with all of the different sectors, including the fishing industry, to resolve any of these teething problems.”Mr Raab said that the government was investing £100m into the fishing industry to enable it to grasp the additional opportunities which it believes will be available as a result of Brexit.Despite warnings from industry figures of boats being tied up at quayside and companies being on the brink of closure, Mr Raab said: “The fishing industry is going to want to increase its capacity to take advantage of those increased stocks.“That’s why we’re putting in £100 million to shore up, to strengthen, the fishing industry right across the whole of the UK, to make sure that this really important opportunity of leaving the EU and leaving the transition period can be properly grasped.”Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland Alistair Carmichael responded: “Brexit might be a game to the likes of Dominic Raab and Boris Johnson but for thousands of people in Scotland this is their business and their livelihood on the line.“Fishermen are telling the PM that his deal did not do any of the things he claimed for it, let alone what he had promised.  The harder the Tories spin, the angrier fishing communities get.  “The government needs to start listening to the people who know what they are talking about and start to clean up the mess that the prime minister has created.”In a letter to Mr Johnson last week, SFF chief executive Elspeth Macdonald accused the prime minister of misleading the public about the agreement and giving the industry “the worst of both worlds”.”You and your government have spun a line about a 25 per cent uplift in quote for the UK, but you know this is not true, and your deal does not deliver that,” Ms Macdonald wrote.The prime minister’s stated approach, known as “zonal attachment”, would have secured British boats up to 90 per cent of the catch in UK waters for important stocks such as herring. Instead the deal actually means the UK share of the herring catch is just 32.2 per cent and for other fish is even lower, while EU boats have “unfettered” access to British waters, she said.”This can hardly be claimed as a resounding success,” Ms Macdonald wrote.“This industry now finds itself in the worst of both worlds. Your deal leaves us with shares that not only fall very far short of zonal attachment, but in many cases fail to ‘bridge the gap’ compared to historic catches, and with no ability to leverage more fish from the EU, as they have full access to our waters.” More

A British lawyer prosecuting a case against Hong Kong pro-democracy activists under the Chinese territory’s notorious national security law has been branded “mercenary” by foreign secretary Dominic Raab..Asked about the decision of barrister David Perry QC to act on behalf of authorities against nine activists facing seven-year jail sentences for unlawful assembly, Mr Raab said he could not understand how anyone could “in good conscience” take on such a case.Mr Raab also said it was “disgraceful” for the Chinese Embassy in the US to say that the Beijing government’s activities in Xinjiang province were “eradicating extremism” and ensuring Uighur women would no longer be treated as “baby-making machines”.He issued a challenge to Beijing to allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit Xinjiang’s network of “re-education” camps in which up to 1 million members of China’s Muslim Uighur minority have been detained in what Amnesty International says is an attempt to enforce loyalty to the Communist Party regime.Mr Perry has so far refused to comment on why he took the unlawful assembly case, though his defenders claim he is acting under the “cab rank” principle requiring him as a part-time member of the Hong Kong bar to take cases as they come up.But Mr Raab – himself an international lawyer who led on human rights cases at the Foreign Office before entering parliament – told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “I don’t understand how anyone in good conscience, from the world-leading legal profession that we have, would take a case where they will have to apply the national security legislation at the behest of the authorities in Beijing, which is directly violating, undermining the freedom of the people of Hong Kong, and I understand, in the case of Mr Perry, in relation to the pro-democracy activists.”He added: “From Beijing’s point of view, this would be a serious PR coup.
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”There’s no doubt in my mind that under the bar code of ethics a case like this could be resisted and, frankly, I think people watching this would regard it as pretty mercenary to be taking up that kind of case.”Ridge asked Mr Raab to comment on a tweet by the Chinese embassy in Washington – deleted after it provoked widespread outrage – which said that “in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uighur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines”.China has denied allegations that women in the far-western province have been subjected to forced abortion and birth control.Mr Raab said: “It’s absolutely disgraceful. It’s appalling and shocking in the modern world, in a leading member of the international community, and, no, this isn’t enough.
“What China says is this is all lies cooked up by the West, and Britain a leading member amongst them.
“What we say is if you dispute the allegations and the claims and the reports, there’s a simple way to clear this up: allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit and access and see these sites.
“We are pushing for an authoritative third party, like the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the UN, to conduct that visit.”Asked whether the treatment of the Uighurs amounted to genocide, Mr Raab said: “I think it’s for a court to decide whether the very complex definition of genocide is met.
“But what is clear, frankly, whatever legal label you put on it, is that there are convincing and persuasive third party authoritative reports of serious violations of human rights on an appalling industrial scale.”Mr Raab said the Government had recently announced measures would make sure “we don’t have any British businesses that are either supplying to or profiting from the internment camps”.He added: “I think it’s a shocking, truly shocking, set of circumstances in Xinjiang, against the Uighur Muslims.”Mr Raab said 38 other countries had followed the UK’s lead in “criticising and condemning human-rights abuses” in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. More

The government plans on introducing new legal protections for statues linked to colonialism and racism, with a minister saying the UK should not try to edit or censor its history.Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, said decisions to take down heritage assets in England will need both planning permission and a consultation with local communities to go ahead. Elsewhere in the capital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals removed two statues of their namesakes from public view due to slave trade links.Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said there had recently been attempts to “erase” pieces of “our national story”.“This has been done at the hand of the flash mob, or by the decree of a ‘cultural committee’ of town hall militants and woke worthies,” he said.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 live in a country that believes in the rule of law, but when it comes to protecting our heritage, due process has been overridden. That can’t be right.”In the article with the headline ‘We will save Britain’s statues from the woke militants who want to censor our past,’ the minister laid out new legal protections for statues.“I am changing the law to protect historic monuments and ensure we don’t repeat the errors of previous generations. Proper process will now be required.”The death of George Floyd while in the custody of police in Minneapolis sparked protests across the world, with the Colston statue dumped into Bristol Harbour and a memorial to Sir Winston Churchill vandalised with the words “is a racist”.Speaking last June, Boris Johnson said: “The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny.The UK prime minister added: “Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

Cabinet minister Dominic Raab has refused to guarantee that all people who have received a first dose of coronavirus vaccine will get a second jab within 12 weeks.The foreign secretary was repeatedly pressed in an interview on Sky News to give a firm guarantee that supplies of the vaccines would be sufficient to deliver the second injection within the target time.But he declined to do so, instead saying: “We absolutely are aiming for that We should be able to deliver it… We’re quietly confident”.It was initially planned to give the two doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines within three weeks, but the government introduced a longer delay in response to last month’s spike in infections following the emergence of a virulent new strain of Covid-19 in the UK.Holding back the second jab for three months was intended to double the number of vulnerable over-70s, care home residents, health and care workers and people with serious health issues who could be protected by the mid-February deadline.But it has raised concerns over the effectiveness of a single jab, with TV presenter Joan Bakewell launching legal action accusing the government of breaching the terms of approval of the Pfizer vaccine.Asked by Sky’s Sophy Ridge whether he could guarantee that there was enough supply for all those who have had a first dose to receive the second within 12 weeks, Mr Raab said: “I think if we follow the roadmap and the supply chains that we have set out, along with the back-up that we’ve got because we’ve got the volume of doses – 360 million – and we’ve also got seven suppliers, we ought to be able to deliver on that.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“But of course right the way through this pandemic we’ve had to adapt to all sorts of different things. So we are just focused on making sure we deliver on the roadmap that we’ve got.“We’ve got the distribution and logistics in place. The NHS, backed up by the armed forces have done an incredible job, local authorities have done an incredible job. Now we have just got to deliver on that.“We absolutely are aiming for that. We should be able to deliver it. And actually if you look at our track record, which is what I think people should judge us on, we’re well ahead of any other country in Europe, we’re a global leader frankly in rolling out a responsible vaccine. And I think we are quietly confident.” More

Ten further mass vaccination centres are due to open in England this week with more than a million over-80s invited to receive their coronavirus jab as part of the drive to protect 15m people in the most vulnerable groups by mid-February.It comes as health secretary Matt Hancock urged the public to “play their part” in supporting “the largest vaccination programme in British history”, including helping the elderly attend their appointments.Mr Hancock called on the public to commit to three pledges to “help out”, “join up” and “stay informed” during ongoing efforts to vaccinate, run clinical trials and share accurate health advice.Official figures released on Saturday showed 3,559,179 people have now received their first dose of vaccine – a rise of 324,233 in 24 hours, bringing the total protected to around one in 19 of the UK population.On Saturday 1,295 daily deaths were reported, increasing the pandemic death toll to 88,590. But numbers of positive cases reported over a 24-hour period fell to 41,346.Blackburn Cathedral, St Helens rugby ground, Norwich Food Court and a park-and-ride outside York are among the new locations where large-scale vaccination will take place from Monday.NHS England said they joined the seven existing mass vaccination sites across the country, alongside a thousand GP-led surgeries and more than 250 hospitals already providing jabs.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 10 new centres opening from Monday are:- Bournemouth International Centre on the south coast- Taunton Racecourse in Somerset- Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire- Salt Hill Activity Centre in Slough, Berkshire- Norwich Food Court in Norfolk- The Lodge in Wickford, Essex- Princess Royal Sports Arena in Lincolnshire- St Helens Rugby Ground in Merseyside- The park-and-ride at Askham Bar in York- Olympic Office Centre in Wembley, north LondonPeople aged 80 or over who live up to a 45-minute drive from a centre are being offered the choice of arranging a jab at one of the 17, or at a pharmacy site through the national booking service.Anyone not wanting to travel can wait to be contacted by their GP-led vaccination service or hospital.Some 641,000 invitations were sent out to last week and another 380,000 were due to land on people’s doormats this weekend.Another half a million letters will go out this week, NHS England said.NHS England said the new centres would be able to administer “thousands” of jabs a week, scaling operations up and down according to vaccine supplies.It will also mean at least one centre is located in each health region and ensures that rural parts of the country like Boston in Lincolnshire and Norwich are within reach of one.Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said the NHS vaccination programme had got off to a “strong start” with more than 3 million vaccinated, including “more than a third of those aged 80 or over”.According to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), around 45 per cent of those aged 80 and over have been vaccinated.Marion Teulon, 67, a nurse at the new Blackburn Cathedral site, urged people not to arrive early for appointments.“I know how eager people are to be protected and while it is important that people turn up on time, the last thing we want is people waiting unnecessarily in the cold so people should avoid arriving early and stick to their allocated slot,” she said.The government is said to be hopeful that every adult in the UK will have received their first vaccine dose by July as the inoculation drive gathers pace.Whitehall sources told The Sunday Telegraph two further vaccines in the pipeline, produced by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, could accelerate the rollout sufficiently for every over-18 to have been given by jab by the end of June.Meanwhile, the public is being urged to continue practising social distancing and following coronavirus-related government guidance.DHSC said people could back “the national effort” by committing to the government’s pledges request.The department said they can “help out” through supporting family and friends to attend vaccine appointments or becoming an NHS volunteer responder, and “join up” to Covid-19 treatment clinical trials.People can also help others “stay informed” by sharing accurate NHS advice and being alert for Covid vaccine scams.Mr Hancock said: “Throughout this pandemic, I have been in awe of how much the British public has contributed to the fight against the virus. I want to thank everyone for the time, effort and patience they have put in to keep themselves and others safe.“We recognise that so many people want to support our NHS so health and care workers can continue to save lives, and now is your chance to get involved by helping the remaining people aged 80 and over get their jabs.“I urge everyone, no matter who you are, what you do or where you’re from, to come forward and take on our three pledges.“Everyone has a part to play in this national effort – to protect our NHS, our loved ones and other people’s loved ones too.”Additional reporting by Press Association More