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A man was fined £100 for standing in the street the same day Downing Street staff allegedly held a lockdown-breaking garden party.Nuradeem Mohammed, 28, was stopped by police in Ealing Road, London, in the early hours of 20 May 2020 and accused of being in a gathering of more than two people “without reasonable excuse”, the Evening Standard reports.The UK was at that time two months into its first national lockdown and Covid rules meant people were only allowed to meet one other person from outside their household in an outdoor public place while keeping a distance of at least two metres.Mohammed, of Hayes, west London, was convicted of breaching the Health Protection regulations and ordered to pay a £100 fine plus £134 in court costs and fees within a month, according to court documents seen by the Standard.It has now emerged that later the same day, Number 10 staff, including the prime minister himself, attended a gathering in the rose garden of Downing Street despite the strict lockdown restrictions.According to a leaked email, Boris Johnson’s principal private secretary Martin Reynolds invited more than 100 members of staff to the “bring your own booze” event.Boris Johnson on Wednesday finally admitted he had attended the gathering – but insisted he thought it was a “work event”.After days of stonewalling questions, the prime minister told MPs he acknowledged the “rage” of the public “with me and with the government I lead when they think in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules”.“And though I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the current inquiry, I have learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility,” he said at prime minister’s questions.The gathering would have taken place just five days after another party, at which the prime minister and his wife Carrie Johnson were pictured having cheese and wine with officials in the garden.The Metropolitan Police said it was “in contact” with the Cabinet Office relating to alleged breaches of the Health Protection Regulations in No 10 on 20 May 2020. More

Covid testing rules are expected to be relaxed to help ease the staffing shortages caused by rising Omicron infections, it has been reported. The changes would allow those who test positive on lateral flow tests to no longer need a follow-up PCR to begin the self-isolation period if they do not have symptoms. The new testing rules could be announced as soon as Wednesday. When asked whether the announcement would be made imminently, health minister Gillian Keegan said: “You may be able to expect some news – I don’t know when.”Ms Keegan told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning: “The teams are looking constantly at what makes sense and what works, etc, but I don’t have any official news or updates for you this morning.”She added: “I don’t have any official news on that but I know that the teams are looking at testing and testing regimes.”Ms Keengan explained that there were “many, many more lateral flow tests” and that “they are really accurate when you’ve got a very infectious variant like Omicron.”The Daily Telegraph reported that health officials have drawn up plans to limit PCR tests to people who have symptoms of coronavirus. This would allow those who are asymptomatic – around 40 percent of cases – to return to work more quickly. Under current rules asymptomatic people who test positive on a lateral flow test are asked to order a PCR test to confirm their infection and can only begin their isolation period once they’ve received their positive PCR result. This effectively extends the period of isolation for longer than seven days, especially as some labs are struggling to process PCR tests quickly. Many hospitals have been struggling under increased staff absences and 17 hospitals in Greater Manchester announced yesterday that they would be suspending some non-urgent surgery as 15 percent of staff were off sick. United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust announced on Monday that they were experiencing a “critical incident” over “extreme and unprecedented” staff shortages. In an internal memo shared among staff, the NHS trust said that “the rapid increase in staff absent because of sickness is the largest factor in this deterioration in staffing levels, although reduced bank and agency fill is also a factor”. Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, which runs six hospitals in South Cumbria and North Lancashire, reported that staff sickness had gone up from around 7 per cent to over 10 per cent in the last week or so. Referring to the potential change to testing rules, a UK Health Security Agency spokesperson said: “We keep everything under review and any announcement will be made in the normal way.” More

The controversial Nationality and Borders Bill will make Black and Asian Britons second-class citizens as they face the possibility of having their UK citizenship revoked without notice, a peer has warned.Lord Woolley, an equalities activist, said he would also face being stripped of citizenship under Clause 9 of the bill in this way as his mother was born in the Caribbean.Under the proposed legislation, which is being debated in the House of Lords on Wednesday, those who are eligible for citizenship of another country could be quietly stripped of UK status if it were deemed to be in the “national interest”.“This will further exacerbate the reality that millions of British people, many of African, Caribbean and Asian descent, are second class citizens,” Lord Woolley told The Independent.“I’m a lord of this realm and yet I’d be rendered as such because my mother was born in Barbados.“For those of us born here to foreign parents, our citizenship is precarious; the government has called it a ‘privilege and not a right’ that can be stripped away and in some cases without appeal.”The amendments to the bill that the House of Lords will vote on are yet to be decided, but The Independent understands Labour peers would be minded to back a move to remove the controversial clause.Lord Woolley, who set up the Operation Black Vote organisation, also pointed to similarities with the Windrush scandal. The Home Office has recently come under fire for human rights breaches by numerous Black claimants.“Surely the Windrush scandal has taught us that when you have a tiered citizenship system, you’re not only viewed as less than, but at times of political stress, you can shockingly be treated as such,” he said.“The Lords must show leadership in its response to this bill.” More

Government departments have spent more than £14.2 million on hire cars for staff this year despite a public sector pay freeze, an investigation has revealed.In particular, the Ministry of Defence has come under fire for “wasting” taxpayers money after it was revealed it spent almost £13 million on hire cars for staff in 2021.The next highest figure was from the Department of Transport, which spent more than £1.1 million on hire cars for staff. Other government departments spent up to tens of thousands of pounds.The figures, revealed by a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the PA news agency, showed the MoD spent £12,960,612 on hire cars through the Phoenix II vehicle contract in the current calendar year up to November 30. The figure includes VAT but excludes fuel and other costs, it said.The Phoenix II contract covers all the so-called Top Level Budget areas of the MoD, including Land Forces, Air Command, Defence Equipment and Support, Joint Forces Command, Navy Command, Head Offices and Corporate Services and Defence Infrastructure Organisation.The MoD fleet covered by the Phoenix II contract provides a mixture of leased and rental vehicles including cars, minibuses, coaches, vans and freight transport, as well as specialist vehicles ranging from dog vans to horse ambulances to mountain rescue vehicles.Reacting to the revelation, Unite’s acting national officer for defence staff, Caren Evans, called the figure “excessive” and was representative of how “inefficient the MoD is”.She said: “This is an entirely excessive figure, it demonstrates how hugely inefficient the MoD is and is exceptionally poor value for money for taxpayers.”This revelation of grandiose spending on hired vehicles by the MoD is a kick in teeth for civilian MoD staff who have experienced a pay freeze this year and are now struggling to make ends meet due to the cost of living crisis in the UK.”The money spent on hiring cars could and should have been better spent on giving MoD workers a much-needed pay rise.”In his 2020 spending review, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that firefighters, teachers, police, members of the armed forces, civil servants, and council and government agency staff would have pay rises “paused” to reduce expenditure.Shadow defence secretary John Healey added: “The Defence Department has blown millions of pounds on taxis at the same time as cutting Army numbers and freezing forces’ pay.”There’s so much waste in MoD budgets and ministers have got no grip on the problems. This Tory waste is letting down frontline forces and taxpayers.”The MoD justified its spend on hired vehicles as its staff “have to travel to locations that are not always accessible with public transport,” and said it is “committed to delivering value for money.”A spokesperson for the MoD said: “As a large organisation with out-of-town sites across the UK and bases all over the world, our staff have to travel to locations that are not always accessible with public transport and often a lease/hire car or taxi is the most efficient and cost-effective way to travel.”We are committed to delivering value for money. Our current contract for non-operational vehicles aims to deliver savings of around £152 million over six years.”It added that all travel by MoD civil servants and military personnel must be confirmed as essential and authorised by a manager to ensure the request is valid and represents value for money.The Department for Transport and its Executive Agencies, which include Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), spent more than £1.1 million on hire vehicles between January and October.It spent a total of £1,105,126 in the UK and overseas in this period, with the majority of spend incurred by the DVSA, for driving examiners who may need to switch locations as to where they are carrying out tests at short notice.It said: “Although DVSA is aware of booking patterns and volumes and aims to provide an appropriate number of staff in each location to meet forecasted volumes, there are always going to be cases (on a daily basis) where DVSA needs to move staff from their ‘home’ test centre to an alternative centre to meet increased customer demand and to cover short notice absences.”The Departmental travel policy states that hire cars can be used rather than personal cars if this is more cost effective.”Other departments spent tens of thousands of pounds on hire cars for staff, including the Cabinet Office and the Department for Education, which spent £48,645.80 (excluding VAT) and £22,840 between April and October respectively.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spent £76,262 from April to October. The department said hire cars were needed by Defra for accessing rural locations for fieldwork.Between January and October, the Department for International Trade spent £36,339 both in the UK and overseas, and the Treasury spent £16,392.42, saying it included additional costs such as petrol, parking, charges for Congestion, Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) and Dartford Bridge.Meanwhile, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it had not spent any money on private hire cars for its staff this year while the Attorney General’s office spent just £65.50.Additional reporting by Press Association More

Overuse of antibiotics on farm animals could lead to a pandemic “much bigger than Covid,” campaigners have warned.Health experts are calling for a ban on the use of low doses of antibiotics on healthy farm animals, saying the practice was breeding untreatable “superbugs” which could spread to humans.Farmers often give animals a preventative low dose of antibiotics as an insurance policy against disease. But from 28 January, new EU legislation will prohibit all forms of routine antibiotic use in farming, including preventative treatments.The government’s veterinary medicines directorate has begun a consultation about whether the UK should follow suit.Use of antibiotics on farmed animals has decreased significantly over the past few years – a 52 per cent reduction since 2014 – but campaigners say this does not go far enough.They are calling on the government to follow the EU and ban the practice of giving the drugs to healthy farm animals.The UK’s Health Security Agency warned last month that antimicrobial resistance was a “hidden pandemic”, while the World Health Organisation has estimated drug-resistant diseases could killed 10 million people globally each year by 2050 if no action is taken. Doctors are now trying to tackle patients’ overdependence on antibiotics by decreasing their prescription. Although 66 per cent of antibiotics are used by humans, a sizeable percentage – 26 per cent – are used on farm animals.Suzi Shingler, campaign manager for the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, said: “If you imagine a big herd of pigs or chickens that are stressed and overcrowded, the immune suppression they get from this environment is really asking for disease and illness to spread. Instead of making changes to these conditions, it has been for decades cheaper and easier to give them all low levels of antibiotics in their feed and water.”Ms Shingler warned low doses could significantly increase the risk of breeding untreatable bacteria. “Mass dosing creates the perfect breeding ground for the strongest type of bacteria to survive,” she said. “The worst elements will survive the long-term low dosing of antibiotics and it’s like supercharging the normal natural selection process of superbugs.”These bacteria can make their way to humans through waterways, such as during wild swimming, as well as through undercooked meat products and effluent spread on fields.Daniel Zeichner MP, the shadow food, farming and fisheries minister, said that while there has been “some progress to reduce antibiotics in farm animals, we need more ambition and urgency from this government”.He added: “Farmers and the food industry should follow the voluntary code by stopping routinely using antibiotics to promote growth and prevent disease in healthy animals, as the World Health Organisation has long advised.” He also called on the government to ensure that trade deals require “at least the same standards for imported animal products” as British farmers adhere to. SNP MP Lisa Cameron, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Health, said that she was “deeply concerned about the overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture” and warned of the “ease with which antimicrobial resistance can develop in humans”. She concluded that recommendations from the Health Select Committee on the issue should be “taken forward urgently”.A 2018 inquiry by the committee warned of “serious concerns” about the use of antibiotics on healthy animals. They warned “attention must be paid to this following the UK’s departure from the EU” and recommended any future trade deals commit to the same standards in antibiotic use as the EU.But Chris Lloyd, secretary general of the Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture (Ruma), said the UK has “got a positive story in terms of antibiotic use”. He said that there was a debate to be had about whether the UK followed Europe “because we’ve already done a lot of what the EU is trying to achieve”.Ruma has been working with each of the UK farm animal sectors to raise awareness about the dangers of antimicrobial resistance.Referring to the prospect of a ban, he said: “You can always do more and we continue to work on responsible use but our recent track record is a positive one.“I’m not convinced that a black and white decision is the right one when the realities are often much more complex. Do we need more restrictions in the way antibiotics are used when we’ve done so well in reducing their use already?”Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer, said Britain was making “important reductions” in antibiotic use on farm animals. She promised to continue working closely with the industry and added: “It is encouraging to see farmers and vets continuing to work together to tackle antibiotic resistance.” The National Farmers’ Union said its members had cut voluntarily cut antibiotic use by 52 per cent since 2014. Catherine McLaughlin, the NFU’s chief animal health and welfare adviser, added: “We will consult with our members and respond accordingly when the detail of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate consultation comes out.”Research carried out by World Animal Protection (WAP) last year found dangerous antibiotic resistant superbugs in rivers and lakes near factory farms in Spain, the USA, Canada and Thailand.The group collected surface soil and dust particles from waterways upstream and downstream from pig farms in North Carolina, US. Eighty-three out of 90 samples came back positive for antimicrobial resistant genes, a “widespread contamination” that researchers concluded “strongly suggests factory farms are discharging resistance genes into public waterways”.The group will be carrying out similar research in the UK next year.Lindsay Duncan, UK campaign manager at WAP, said the coronavirus pandemic had shown how the issues emerging in one country were not confined there. She said: “If there are one or two bad players that’s still going to cause a problem for the rest of the world.“It’s not just the case of the EU doing the right thing. We all need to be doing this and putting in this legislation. This is going to be the next major pandemic and it’s going to have a really big effect on people.”Ms Duncan said antimicrobial resistance was “actually going to be much bigger than Covid” because the problem could not be solved with vaccines. “We can’t just produce vaccines for bacterial infections. These medicines have allowed us to live the way we do; having amazing life expectancies, heart transplants, major surgeries and recover well from them.”She warned: “If antimicrobial resistance continues growing in the way that it is right now we are going to lose one of our most powerful medications. There is no fix for that, so it has to be addressed now.” More

Britain’s long-awaited ban on ivory sales – already delayed by three years – has been postponed by another two months.Conservationists say they are “extremely disappointed” because with every day that passes more elephants are slaughtered to meet consumer demand for trinkets made from tusks.Ministers say they need more time to fix technical details but critics argue that background work should have been done before now.Thousands of elephants are killed every year, and it’s calculated that one is killed on average every 15-25 minutes, leaving the animal at risk of extinction.The UK is the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.Research has found hundreds of ivory items are still changing hands in the UK, with ivory from newly killed animals being passed off as antique, which may be legally sold, keeping the killings going.The Ivory Act, described by ministers as “world-leading” and which bans imports, exports and sales, received royal assent three years ago last Monday.But its implementation was delayed first by a legal challenge, which was defeated, and then by a government consultation on how to enact the law, more than two years after it had been passed.Last week the European Commission announced new restrictions on the ivory trade, bringing an EU ban closer.Now, when the ban had been expected around the three-year anniversary of the Act, another delay has emerged.This time it’s down to “technical issues in developing a digital registration and certification system for dealing in exempted ivory”, according to animal welfare minister Lord Goldsmith. In a letter, seen by The Independent, he wrote: “In the Action Plan for Animal Welfare, I committed to implementing the Act by the end of this year and have said I will bring the ban into force in spring 2022.“For us to achieve this, officials have been developing a digital registration and certification system for dealing in exempted ivory.“Although significant progress has been made, there have been some technical issues in its development, and to proceed under the current timeline would risk introducing a system that does not work or is potentially not as close to the law as it needs to be to deliver one of the toughest ivory bans in the world.”Lord Goldsmith writes: “Given these risks, I have made the decision to delay implementation of the Ivory Act by two months, with the opening of the registration and certification service to deal in exempted ivory to February 2022.“This extra time will ensure that the digital service for exempted ivory is robust and meets the requirements of the Act.”He said he still planned for the ban to take effect in spring.But the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) said it was extremely disappointed and feared a watering-down of the legislation.James Sawyer, UK head of the charity, said responses to recent parliamentary questions have suggested people will be allowed to “gift, donate or bequeath items” to others.“We are concerned this will enable unscrupulous traders to take advantage and continue to buy and sell ivory,” Mr Sawyer told Lord Goldsmith.And he warned the government: “There is also continued refusal to implement a destruction or donation system for people who no longer wish to own their items of ivory and want to ensure they will not reappear on the market.”He said many people who own ivory had asked the charity to destroy their items to ensure nobody profited from them in future.This year, a 12-day research project by Ifaw discovered 913 ivory items on sale in the UK, acting as “a smokescreen” for new ivory passed off as antique.Ifaw says it has repeatedly pressed for a process for the public to donate ivory for destruction.The Independent has asked the government to respond. More

People who are medically allowed to get a Covid vaccine but refuse to do so are “idiots”, Tony Blair has said as he backed Boris Johnson’s “gamble” to continue with plan B restrictions in the run-up to Christmas Day amid the spread of the Omicron variant.”If you’re not vaccinated and you’re eligible, you’re not just irresponsible, you’re an idiot,” the former prime minister said in an interview about Covid broadcast on Wednesday morning.Mr Blair has made repeated interventions during the pandemic and his Institue for Global Change thinktank has been credited with devising policy proposals later adopted by government.When asked what he would do if he was still prime minister, Mr Blair, 68, said he was in favour of not bringing in fresh curbs before 25 December.He told Times Radio: “I think we’ve got to be very clear with people as to why not. I don’t think it’s really that there’s some great piece of data we’re waiting on. “It’s really because the pain of going into a full lockdown – and with this variant [Omicron] that’s the only thing that would work. And the fact that you’re dealing with people in different categories.”He added: “The people who are boosted, double vaccinated…or people who are completely unvaccinated. I think it’s incredibly difficult and so, right now, it is a gamble what the government’s doing..but the public has already been through too much”.Mr Blair’s comments came as the current prime minister was urged to outline his post-Christmas Covid strategy, as a health minister warned there is “uncertainty” around people making new year’s eve plans.Mr Johnson on Tuesday confirmed no further restrictions will be introduced before 25 December given there is not enough evidence on the severity of the Omicron variant and hospital admission to justify stricter measures.But with the situation being reviewed by the “hour”, Conservative frontbencher Gillian Keegan urged caution over the days ahead.Asked on LBC about going ahead with a gathering or party on New Year’s Eve, the health minister said: “There is uncertainty. We can’t predict what the data is going to tell us before we’ve got the data.”We are trying to take a balanced and proportionate approach so that people can see their families over Christmas to try and plan some stuff. But of course it is difficult to anticipate.”She said the uncertainty in the data is “particularly” around severity.But Labour pressed for decisions to be made as soon as possible. Shadow work and pensions secretary Jon Ashworth told Sky News: “People are anticipating that some form of restrictions will come in post-Christmas, and I think we just need to give people certainty.” More

PM Boris Johnson will miss his target to offer all adults a Covid booster jab by the end of this month, according to government officials.As the tide of Omicron cases becomes larger, millions of people will be unable to get jabbed over the coming weeks if they fall ill with the virus, a source of the i newspaper has said.Those who contract Covid will not be able to get their booster until at least the end of January, due to a compulsory 28-day wait after testing positive to ensure that they are no longer infected.Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency, has said: “Anyone who catches Covid-19 must wait 28 days before getting their next vaccination, including the booster, to ensure they have fully recovered from the virus. This is extended to 12 weeks for healthy under-18s.”Despite warnings that the target will not be met, a record 861,306 boosters and third doses were administered in the UK on Thursday. In total, more than 26 million people have had more than two vaccine jabs.According to the most recent government data, there have been 14,909 cases of Omicron recorded in the UK – including 65 hospitalisations and one death specific to the variant.Researchers at Imperial College London have found in their analysis that a Covid-19 booster jab will provide about 85 per cent protection against serious illness if exposed to the Omicron variant, which has been found to be more contagious than the previous variant Delta.Scientists have said that there is still a lot of real-life information about Omicron that needs to be discovered and confirmed.Due to its high transmissibility, more than two million people could contract Covid-19 if the current rate of growth in the variant continues and no further restrictions beyond the government’s ‘plan B’ measures that came into force earlier this week, the i reported.On Friday, the UK recorded its highest number – 93,045 – of new daily Covid cases since the pandemic began, and 111 deaths linked to the virus.Meanwhile, officials are reportedly drawing up plans for a two-week circuit breaker lockdown after Christmas.Draft regulations were being prepared which would ban meeting others indoors except for work purposes, and that pubs and restaurants would be limited to outdoor service only, according to The Times.Mr Johnson has been presented with a number of options under a so-called ‘plan C’, ranging from “mild guidance to nudge people, right through to lockdown,” the Financial Times reported.The newspaper quoted the PM’s allies who claimed Mr Johnson still wanted to go down the guidance route, but that he also had to be realistic about the threat of Omicron.Leaked minutes from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), seen by the BBC, reportedly said scientists had told ministers that tougher measures need to be brought in “very soon”.A government spokesperson said: “The Government will continue to look closely at all the emerging data and we’ll keep our measures under review as we learn more about this variant.”Meanwhile, the UK’s devolved administrations have ramped up their demands for more cash support amid rising cases of the Omicron variant.A Cobra meeting is set to be held over the weekend with the leaders of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.Mr Johnson has warned that Omicron is “a very serious threat to us now”.On a visit to a vaccination centre in Hillingdon, west London, on Friday, he said: “We are seeing a considerable wave coming through and people have got to be prepared and they have got to understand what it entails.” More