UK Politics

The Home Office has been accused by a Tory MP of “trying to railroad through” an “unacceptable and unworkable” plan to hold asylum seekers on another military site in Kent.The department announced on Tuesday that a Ministry of Defence barracks in Manston, Kent, would be used as a processing site for people who have crossed the Channel in small boats by January 2022.Sir Roger Gale, MP for North Thanet, where the facility is located, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that there had been “no consultation” with him as MP, the local authority or local health services about the plan.“All we were told by the civil servant leading the project, who was I understand working from home and has not visited the site, is that the Home Office is establishing a processing centre before Christmas,” he said.Accusing ministers of a “lack of foresight and preparation”, he added: “Trying to railroad a bad idea through the shelter of Christmas recess can only have unfortunate and undesirable consequences for the communities, and the people affected and the government.”The Home Office has not yet indicated how many asylum seekers will be held at the site, but it has said that it “anticipates” men, women and children will be held there for a maximum of five days.Critics have questioned why it is going ahead with the plan when its use of Napier Barracks, another military site in Folkestone, as asylum accommodation has been fiercely criticised by the immigration watchdog, the prison watchdog and others.Sir Roger said Manston Barracks would be “largely unsuitable” to hold asylum seekers, adding: “They will be accommodation in min-Winter in marquees, and detained securely while being processed.“There’s no indication of how the site will accommodate these human beings, will be made secure, or what facilities will be made available, other than statutory on-site medical services. These are real people who have been subjected to great misery.”He called on ministers to “put this unacceptable and unworkable proposal on hold” and instead examine the viable alternatives, suggesting that “clean, comfortable and secure operational vessels” could be used.Responding, immigration minister Tom Pursglove claimed that consultation with the council and Sir Roger was “ongoing” and said the move had “directly come about because of those very high number of crossings that we’ve seen”.Announcing the plan on Tuesday evening, he said: “This new site will provide safe and secure accommodation for illegal migrants whilst the government carries out necessary checks.” More

Prime minister Boris Johnson will hold a Downing Street press conference at 5pm today alongside chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and NHS director Dr Nikki Kanani. The announcement comes as data released on Wednesday showed that omicron is now the dominant Covid-19 variant in London and is rapidly spreading across the country. At the same time as the conference, minister for levelling up Michael Gove will be chairing an emergency Cobra meeting with the devolved administrations at 5:15pm. Mr Johnson is not expected to announce further covid measures at the press conference.Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, told MPs on Wednesday to expect “quite staggering” figures on omicron growth in the next few days. There have been over 4,700 confirmed cases of omicron but it is thought that the variant could be infecting as many as 200,000 people a day. The prime minister will be joined at the press conference by Dr Nikki Kanani, a GP and medical director of primary care for NHS England. GP practices across England have been asked to “clinically prioritise” Covid booster jabs over routine care. GPs will be on the front line of the desperate drive to ramp up booster vaccinations to tackle an incoming “tidal wave of Omicron”. Wembley stadium will on Sunday join the growing list of venues where jabs are being administered, with Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge also due to host vaccinations.Mr Johnson is aiming to get booster vaccinations to 20m Britons by the end of December, requiring a daily rate of more than 1m jabs a day, though Downing Street has set no daily target.Following the return of some restrictions, including covid health passes for clubs, there have been reports that more rules could be introduced if infections keep soaring. “Plan C” restrictions could include a return to social distancing and wearing masks inside pubs and restaurants. The prime minister’s spokesperson told political journalists on Wednesday that there was no plan for further restrictions beyond Plan B rules that are already in place. The prime minister has also committed to give MPs a vote before any further regulations are put in place, if they become necessary. The spokesperson said that the Cobra meeting would discuss “the ongoing UK-wide response to omicron”, but stressed that it remained a matter for devolved administrations to decide their own public health measures. More

Watch live as Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQsSir Keir Starmer has branded the prime minister “weak”, saying he had to rely on Labour to push through new Covid measures last night.Labour’s leader said Tory MPs had “had enough” of Boris Johnson and “won’t defend him” as he tore into the PM on Wednesday. Mr Johnson has also been warned a leadership challenge is “on the cards” in the new year after 99 of his own MPs defied him over Plan B Covid restrictions in the largest rebellion of his premiership.It comes as North Shropshire prepares to go to the polls in a by-election on Thursday – triggered by the resignation of Owen Paterson.Elsewhere, the Liberal Democrats have weaponised pictures showing a former Conservative London mayoral candidate at a banned Christmas party as they seek to win votes in the traditionally safe Conservative seat. Show latest update

1639579111Chancellor unlikely to reintroduce furloguh, Tory peer saysChancellor Rishi Sunak is unlikely to reintroduce the furlough scheme if new Covid restrictions are brought in to tackle the spread of omicron, a Tory peer has said.Lord Vaizsey made the comments on the BBC’s politics live show earlier ahead of a Covid press conference with the PM later this afternoon.“I suspect that Rishi Sunak will resist,” he said. More comments below: Matt Mathers15 December 2021 14:381639578356Labour makes Starmer meme to poke fun at PM’s ‘lack of authority’The Labour Party has created a meme of Keir Starmer to poke fun at what it claims is his lack of authority.Party campaigners have clipped footage from Prime Minister’s Questions showing the Labour leader shaking his head in disbelief, after Johnson said he has his house in order despite last night’s 99-strong Tory rebellion on Covid plan B measures.“When Boris Johnson claims he still has authority…”Matt Mathers15 December 2021 14:251639576887PM questioned on support for businessesIn more on the jobs and economy, SNP Westminster leader has called on the PM to confirm if there is any “new money to support businesses” amid the surge in omicron cases.Ian Blackford warned more assistance was needed to help people and businesses during the latest phase of the pandemic.Mr Johnson told the Commons: “We will of course continue with the discussions with the Scottish administration.”Zoe Tidman15 December 2021 14:011639576047Another furlough?As concerns mount over Covid, a Tory peer said he believes the chancellor will push back against having another furlough scheme.Watch here:Zoe Tidman15 December 2021 13:471639574923Starmer says PM ‘weak’Sir Keir Starmer has called Mr Johnson “weak” and told him to “get his house in order”, warning rebel Tories are undermining the fight against omicron.Also in the Commons, Boris Johnson dismissed the furore over Christmas parties in No 10 as “trivia” and denied he needed Labour votes to pass his Plan B restrictions – even though a revolt by 100 Tory MPs wiped out his Commons majority.Our deputy political editor, Rob Merrick, has the full story:Zoe Tidman15 December 2021 13:281639574429Full report: ‘Tell them the party’s over’: Lib Dems pay to promote Tory Christmas party photo in last by-election pushThe Liberal Democrats are paying to promote a leaked Conservative Christmas party picture into the social media feeds of voters in the North Shropshire by-election.My colleague Colin Drury reports: Matt Mathers15 December 2021 13:201639573829Watch: Starmer calls Johnson ‘worst possible prime minister’Keir Starmer calls Boris Johnson ‘worst possible Prime Minister’Matt Mathers15 December 2021 13:101639573655No health department Christmas parties last year, official saysThe most senior civil servant in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said he is not aware of any Christmas parties held there last year.Sir Chris Wormald, DHSC permanent secretary, told the Commons public accounts committee: “Obviously the DHSC has had some issues with social distancing, including one extremely famous event.”But in terms of Christmas parties, I am not aware of any that occurred last year. Should any evidence of anything come to light, it would be investigated in the usual way.”But I’m not aware that anything occurred in terms of Christmas parties in DHSC.”Jon Sharman15 December 2021 13:071639573248Watch: PM dodges calls to come clean on what he knew about No 10 Christmas parties:Boris Johnson dodges calls to come clean on what he knew about No 10 Christmas partiesMatt Mathers15 December 2021 13:001639572322PM: I’ve shown leadership“We won that vote with Conservative votes”, PM says again.He again claims government approach is proportionate and reasonable.PM again points to a number of pandemic issues he says were successful but opposed by Labour.He says “courageous steps” to take country of lockdown and reopen economy are evidence of leadership.Matt Mathers15 December 2021 12:45 More

Boris Johnson has once more been forced to introduce social restrictions to combat the coronavirus, with the recent emergence of the omicron variant in southern Africa providing fresh cause for concern.As we head into the festive season, the prime minister has brought back mandatory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops, cinemas, theatres and places of worship, asked citizens to work from home where possible and made an NHS Covid Pass or negative lateral flow test a necessary requirement for entry to crowded venues and events involving mass gatherings.The precise characteristics of the new strain are not clear at this early stage in its development, although it is feared it could have the potential to usurp the delta variant as the dominant strain of Covid-19 in a matter of weeks given its high transmissibility.In his most recent televised address on the pandemic on Sunday evening, Mr Johnson warned of a “tidal wave” of infections breaking on these shores unless the public adhere to the new measures and get their vaccine booster jab as a matter of urgency.The rollout of third shots is being greatly expanded to address the omicron threat, with the aim of offering one to all over-18s by the end of December, bringing forward that deadline by a month and placing further pressure on medical professionals across the country in the process.That decision came in response to findings by the UK Health Security Agency indicating that two jabs do not offer strong protection against symptomatic infection from omicron, with the current suite of vaccines less effective against it than they were against delta.However, that same analysis also concluded that those who had received a booster remained up to 70 per cent protected, underlining the importance of getting a third shot as soon as possible.On Monday, the UK confirmed the first death from the new variant globally while health secretary Sajid Javid estimated that the rate of omicron infections was already at around 200,000 per day, with the strain expected to become dominant in London imminently.NHS England meanwhile announced that it will return to its highest level of emergency preparedness, level four national incident, meaning that the NHS response to omicron will be coordinated as a national effort rather than led by individual trusts.Confirmed Covid cases have since risen to 59,610 in the latest figures, with the number of infections over the past seven days up 12.1 per cent to 360,480.A further 150 more deaths were also recorded, making 801 in total over the course of the last seven days.Meanwhile, just 41.9 per cent of British adults have had their booster injection so far, although demand is high so that figure should continue to climb rapidly as more people make an appointment and roll up their sleeves.Speaking during a visit to a west London vaccination clinic on Monday, Mr Johnson sought to strike a reassuring note, saying: “Throughout the pandemic I’ve been at great pains to stress to the public that we have to watch where the pandemic is going and we take whatever steps are necessary to protect public health.“We think the steps that we are taking – so Plan B, combined with a hugely ambitious acceleration of the booster campaign, bringing it forward by a month so we offer a booster to every adult by the end of the year – we think that’s the right approach.”It has now been confirmed that the PM will hold a Covid press briefing on Wednesday 15 December, at 5pm, alongside chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and NHS director Dr Nikki Kanani.Reports also suggest an emergency Cobra meeting will be held in Westminster this afternoon with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland taking part. The usual statistical update will certainly take place this evening and we can expect further announcements from the prime minister in the coming days, if not today, as the omicron situation develops. More

Boris Johnson has dismissed the furore over Christmas parties in No 10 as “trivia”, despite launching an investigation into whether Covid rules were broken.Under fire from Keir Starmer, the prime minister also denied he needed Labour votes to pass his Plan B restrictions – even though a revolt by 100 Tory MPs wiped out his Commons majority.The comments came as the Labour leader called Mr Johnson “weak” and told him to “get his house in order”, warning rebel Tories are undermining the fight against omicron.Mr Johnson also faced a call to “resign”, but told a Scottish National Party MP: “No, I am going to carry on protecting the public of this country.”The controversy over lockdown-busting parties, a year ago, has triggered a collapse in public support for the prime minister – threatening him with a by-election defeat in the rock-solid Tory seat of North Shropshire.Polls have given Labour leads of up to 11 per cent – while Mr Johnson’s favourability rating has plunged to -42 per cent – leading the leading pollster John Curtice to warn even Tory supporters “no longer believe” him.In the Commons, Sir Keir said his own MPs loss of trust in their leader had led them to “vote against basic public health measures”, on Wednesday evening.He quoted leading rebel Mark Harper, a former chief whip, who asked last week: “Why should I shouldn’t tell my constituents to treat these rules the same way that Downing Street treated these rules last year?”But Mr Johnson switched the subject to the extension of booster jabs, claiming: “That is what the people of this country are focused on. This is bigger than the partisan trivia that he continually raises.”Sir Keir told him: “His own MPs have had enough. They won’t defend him, they won’t turn up to support him and, if he proposes them, they won’t vote for basic public health measures.“The prime minister is so weak that, without Labour votes last night, vital public health measures wouldn’t have got through.“We can’t go on with a prime minister who is too weak to lead. So will the prime minister take time this Christmas to look in the mirror and ask himself whether he has the trust and authority to lead this country?”Mr Johnson claimed it was “not true” that Labour votes were needed to pass Plan B – apparently based on the fact that there was a much smaller backbench rebellion against the extension of mask-wearing.However, the revolt against the use of Covid passes to enter crowded venues would have been defeated if Labour had opposed the measure.The disillusionment with the prime minister has cut the odds on a vote of no confidence, in an attempt to topple him, but not until the New Year at the earliest. More

The Liberal Democrats are paying to promote a leaked Conservative Christmas party picture into the social media feeds of voters in the North Shropshire by-election.The shock image shows 24 Tories posing with drinks during an apparent festive shindig in the party’s Westminster HQ last December – when coronavirus restrictions were in place. So brazen is the bash that a buffet can be seen and guests are wearing party hats.Key within it are Shaun Bailey – the Conservative’s former London mayoral candidate – and billionaire party donor Nick CandyNow, after the picture was published by the Daily Mirror, the Lib Dems have splashed out to have it appear in the timelines of constituents preparing to go to the polls on Thursday.They hope the push will persuade voters in the traditionally safe Tory seat to give the government a bloody nose.“The Conservatives think the rules don’t apply to them,” the accompanying post states. “Tell them the party’s over.”Bookies have already made yellow candidate Helen Morgan favourite to win the seat following a series of government missteps and scandals over the last four weeks – including ongoing revelations about another Christmas Party at 10 Downing Street itself.Tory campaigners say they have had to spend significant amounts of time listening to disquiet about the government – and about Boris Johnson himself – before they can begin presenting a positive case for their own candidate Neil Shastri-Hurst.“I would say, if we do lose this, he [Mr Johnson] would have to reflect on his position,” Roy Aldcroft, the Conservative Mayor of Market Drayton previously told The Independent. “I would like to see the whole issue of who leads us through future elections looked at if we lose. I think that applies even if we win but it’s with a largely reduced majority.”By rights, the by-election – called after previous Tory MP Owen Paterson resigned amid a lobbying scandal – should have been a blue stroll. The party has a 23,000 majority and has held the area for almost 200 years.Yet, while local activists remain confident of seeing off the strong Lib Dem challenge, they say the job has been made intractably more difficult by events in London. More

Metropolitan Police have been asked to investigate the Christmas party held at Conservative headquarters last December when London was still under Covid curbs which banned households from mixing indoors.Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party politicians on the London Assembly have written to commissioner Dame Cressida Dick to probe the 14 December gathering’s apparent breach of tier 2 rules.Tory London Assembly member Shaun Bailey quit as chair of a police and crime committee after a photo emerged of his team partying at Tory HQ – but he remains on the assembly and a member of the committee.Labour’s Leonie Cooper, Lib Dem Caroline Pidgeon and the Green Party’s Caroline Russell – all London Assembly members – said the drinks and buffet attended by 23 Tory staff must be investigated “swifty”.In their letter to Dame Cressida, the opposition politicians wrote: “These latest images and reports regarding the alleged party at Conservative HQ seem to indicate a clear breach of the regulations … and it is essential these alleged breaches and all involved are fully investigated by the Met.”On Mr Bailey’s attendance, they added: “It is essential that all those who breach the rules are held to account, not least of us who are in public life and should be setting an example for our country and our city at this difficult time.”A Conservative Party spokesman said formal disciplinary action was taken against four CCHQ staff who were seconded to Mr Bailey’s campaign following the “unauthorised social gathering”.Transport secretary Grant Shapps condemned scenes of Mr Bailey partying with staff last Christmas in a breach of coronavirus guidance at the time.“That scene is absolutely unacceptable,” the cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It is unacceptable for people to be breaking the rules. That was not authorised by the Conservative Party.”He added: “Those Conservatives who were on secondment from the party have already been disciplined and whatever further action needs to be taken will be taken.”Although Mr Bailey is yet to apologise personally for the party, a campaign spokesperson said: “This was a serious error of judgement and we fully accept that gathering like this at that time was wrong and apologise unreservedly.”Mr Bailey’s resignation as police and crime committee chair came shortly before The Mirror published a photograph of him and about 23 staff at a party with drinks and a buffet.A spokesperson for the Greater London Authority Conservatives said Mr Bailey stepped down to prevent the “unauthorised social gathering” distracting from the committee’s work.Cabinet secretary Simon Case has been tasked with investigating a series of gatherings held at Downing Street and the Department for Education in the run-up to last Christmas.Although the Metropolitan Police have declined the chance to investigate government parties, Downing Street staff have been told not to “destroy any relevant information” during internal probe into gathering.No 10 staff have been not to dispose of any potentially incriminating material and that any evidence which suggests possible law-breaking would be handed to police, according to ITV News. More

The omicron variant of Covid-19 is “probably the most significant threat we’ve had since the start of the pandemic” and could place the NHS in “serious peril”, the head of the UK Health Security Agency Jenny Harries has warned MPs.Dr Jenny Harries told a parliamentary committee that “quite staggering” numbers of infections can be expected in the coming days due to the highly contagious nature of the new strain.And she warned that the speed of spread was accelerating, with infections now doubling in less than two days in most parts of the UK, compared to an estimated four or five days when the threat first emerged.The multiple variations seen in the omicron virus means it “runs the risk of evading our natural and/or vaccine immunity”, warned the UKHSA chief executive.The strain – first detected in South Africa – could have “very significant impact on our health services”, she said.Dr Harries was speaking a day after chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty told Boris Johnson’s cabinet that hospitalisations from omicron can be expected to increase “significantly” over the Christmas period.With the UKHSA estimating daily infections at 200,000 on Monday this week, Dr Harries’ estimate of a doubling time of less than two days suggests that more than a million Britons a day could be catching the virus by the weekend, with millions infected by Christmas Day.But she said it was too early to say whether high infection rates will translate into hospitalisations, severe illness and death.Dr Harries told the House of Commons Transport Committee: “I’m sure … the numbers that we see on data over the next few days will be quite staggering compared to the rate of growth that we’ve seen in cases for previous variants. “The real potential risk here – and I would underline that because we are still learning a lot about the variant – is in relation to its severity, clinical severity, and therefore whether those cases turn into severe disease, hospitalisations and deaths. “We’re still at too early a stage for that, in fact the world probably is still at too early a stage to be clear.”But she said it was clear that protection against infection was “much reduced” from two doses of vaccine and even with a booster jab was lower than had been the case with the earlier delta wave.“We have early studies looking at immune serum from patients who’ve been ill and been vaccinated, to see that two doses of vaccine against symptomatic infection – so we don’t know yet about severe disease but about symptomatic infection – is much reduced,” she told MPs. “We do know that the booster dose will push that right back up but it still comes back to a level below that that we’ve had with the booster effect for delta, our previous wave.”Dr Harries said that the speed of the spread of omicron was much faster than the original coronavirus in the spring of 2020 or the later alpha and delta variants, meaning that large numbers of people are becoming infected before scientists have a clear idea of the likely outcome.“The difficulty is the growth of this virus,” she said. “It has a doubling time which is shortening … it’s doubling faster, growing faster. “In most regions in the UK it is now under two days. When it started we were estimating about four or five.”While infection rates were particularly high in hotspot London and were rising fast on Tuesday in Manchester, the UKHSA was now “very sure there are levels growing across most communities in the UK now, although there is quite a lot of regional variation still”, she said. Dr Harries’ appearance before the committee came as 11 countries in southern and western Africa were removed from the UK’s travel red list, in a sign that ministers accept that omicron is here in such quantities that there is no longer any point trying to keep it out.She told MPs that travel restrictions played an important role, “particularly when we can foresee a very large wave of omicron coming through and our health services potentially being in serious peril”.But she said the curbs “have a time and place” and it was important to free countries from restrictions as soon as it becomes clear they no longer serve a purpose.“Very early restrictions were placed on countries where we had good evidence of high rates of omicron at a time where we had low knowledge of rates in the UK, as a delaying tactic,” she explained. “That gives us time to prepare, to understand, to boost particularly our population, but actually it’s really important that where there isn’t a benefit, countries are clearly freed from those restrictions. “At the moment the rate of growth in the UK … is now significant, and the benefit of those border controls against particular countries is reduced. “However, because we now have widespread global cases of omicron there is still value in preventing that variant or other cases coming into the country when we don’t need it to be there, not least because we don’t want hospitals to be under any increased pressure than they are currently.”MPs heard that there have been “unprecedentedly high rates” of positive Covid cases among travellers quarantined from the red list countries, including South Africa and Nigeria.UKHSA official Jonathan Mogford told the committee: “The latest figures are suggesting that nearly 5 per cent of people in the hotels are positive.”Of those, “at least 1 per cent are omicron-positive but probably as much as 3 per cent”.With around 5,000 passengers staying in quarantine hotels during the latest round of restrictions, Mr Mogford’s figures suggest around 250 of them were infected with Covid-19, including 50-150 with omicron. 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