Inside Politics: Johnson’s border policy ‘chaos’ and Covid app tweaked

Team GB is again off to a flyer. Sailors Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell came first in the men’s 49er event after a tense finish. And in the past hour Giles Scott has won the Finn class, boosting hopes of another gold rush on day 11 of the games. It’s shaping up to be a great day in the water for UK athletes. Back at Westminster, it looks as though Boris Johnson is beginning to drown in Covid policy after two more U-turns. Labour wants to see the data behind the decision to scrap plans for the amber watchlist. Elsewhere, Allegra Straton is back in the headlines and Rishi Sunak says you should get back to the office.

Our chief political commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson is expected to meet Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarussian opposition leader, to discuss human rights. Good timing, after Krystina Timanovskaya, the Belarus sprinter, refused to fly home from the Tokyo Olympics and was given asylum by Poland. It is a year since the fraudulent elections in Belarus. Gillian Keegan, skills minister, will launch the flexi-job apprenticeship schemes that were announced in the March Budget.

Coming up shortly:

-Apprenticeships minister Gillian Keegan on talkRADIO at 8.05am

-Shadow child poverty secretary Wes Streeting on Times Radio at 8.30am

RED LIGHT FOR AMBER WATCHLIST: After waking up in a spin on Covid rules, Johnson has performed two U-turns in the past 24 hours, making a complete circle. Last night it was confirmed that mooted plans for an “amber watchlist” have been scrapped, following a cabinet and backbench backlash. “What I want to see is something that is as simple and as user-friendly for people as possible,” the PM said. Tory MPs welcomed the move, as did the travel and tourism industries, although there are continuing calls for more countries to be added to the UK’s green list. The story makes several front pages this morning, with the Johnson supporting Telegraph splashing with “PM steps in to save summer”.

SUNAK & SHAPPS SANDWICH: But did he step into the decision or was he bounced into it? According to cabinet sources spoken to by The Guardian, plans for the amber watchlist were killed off by Rishi Sunak’s Treasury and Grant Shapps’s department for transport, where the plan is said to have originally come from. No prizes for guessing which departments the cabinet sources belong to. Sunak, who is reported to have last week met with Lynton Crosby, the Tory strategist, had already written to the PM calling for changes to the UK’s border. The Times says Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, was also opposed to the move. Ministers are to meet on Thursday to discuss further changes to travel rules.

SHOW US THE DATA: The government is today insisting that it was never at a point where it was about to make a decision on the amber watchlist, saying it was only ever an idea. But Labour says Johnson’s flip-flopping is just the latest example of the Tories “total chaos” over border policy. Jim McMahon, the shadow transport secretary, called on ministers to publish the data behind the decision to ensure “maximum clarity”. “Not only have ministers failed to protect our borders, allowing the Delta variant to reach the UK in such force, but time and time again they’ve refused to be straight with the public and industry,” he said.

FULL CIRCLE: In other Covid-related news, tens of thousands of people will no longer be required to self-isolate if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus following major changes to the NHS Covid-19 app.

DIESEL UP: Is Allegra Stratton trying to get sacked? She’s certainly been making a lot of headlines lately. Boris Johnson’s climate spokesperson has said that she prefers to drive her diesel Volkswagen Golf over an electric car. The prime minister’s former press secretary claimed she is put off by how long it takes to recharge an electric car before long journeys. Stratton said she needed a car that doesn’t need to be charged when she makes long journeys up to 250 miles away from her home in north London to visit elderly relatives in Scotland, Gloucestershire, north Wales, and the Lake District with her two young children. Elsewhere, Sunak is telling young people to get back to the office if they want to get on in their careers. In an interview with LinkedInNews, he highlighted his experiences and a recent visit to Scotland where he met those starting careers in financial services. The chancellor said: “I was telling them that the mentors I found when I first started my job I still talk to and they have been helpful to me even after we have gone in different ways. I doubt I would have had those strong relationships if I was doing my internship or my first bit of my career over [Microsoft] Teams and Zoom. That’s why I think for young people in particular being able to physically be in an office is valuable.” The story makes the front of today’s Times.

“I understand that people care very much about their holidays, people want to go abroad, I understand how much people plan, prepare, for the summer holidays.”

PM gives an insight into move to scrap amber watchlist.

“On an amber watch list… might it actually increase confidence among fully jabbed travellers going to straight amber countries that they are unlikely to have to do hotel quarantine on return? As a country would now go to amber watch before it went red.”

Sky News political correspondent Rob Powell on changes to travel.

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