Inside Politics: Boris Johnson ‘wants Australia trade deal for G7 summit’

It’s open season on the BBC after an inquiry unravelled the “deceitful behaviour” used by Martin Bashir to wheedle his way into the Diana interview. Earl Spencer said Bashir was “very good at amplifying anxieties” and making you think he would “save you in a difficult and dangerous world”. Remind you of anyone? Boris Johnson is facing the flak over his impossible Brexit promises. The PM is accused of screwing over British farmers to get a free trade deal with Australia. And campaigners have claimed that deceit over the UK-EU deal is finally unravelling, after David Frost admitted the No 10 team didn’t get what they wanted.

Inside the bubble

Deputy political editor Rob Merrick on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson will speak at a health summit in Rome, organised by the G20 and the EU, about his plan for a new “global pandemic radar” to track new Covid variants. Meanwhile, health secretary Matt Hancock will give evidence at the inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal – primarily about government support for the victims of that tragedy.

Daily briefing

BEEF QUASHED: Boris Johnson has ended the row among ministers over a zero-tariff trade deal with Australia, making clear he wants the agreement struck soon. The PM is understood to have backed international trade secretary Liz Truss’s goal of inking a deal by the G7 summit in Cornwall. “Johnson made clear he was with Liz on this,” a government official told The Times on Thursday’s cabinet showdown meeting. Truss is expected to speak to her Aussie counterpart Dan Tehan today about pushing it through in the next few weeks. Labour’s shadow trade secretary Emily Thornberry warned Truss not to strike a bad deal just to “prove a political point” about Brexit, while Welsh first Mark Drakeford warned cultural identity was at risk. “We’re talking here about the things that make Wales ‘Wales’. That’s what’s at stake here,” he said. Neil Shand, chief executive of the UK’s National Beef Association, told The Independent that cheap imports could cause “a slow, painful death” to the domestic sector.

TESTING TIMES (AGAIN): Yet more failures in England’s Test and Trace system have been found partly responsible for the spread of the Indian Covid variant. Eight council areas didn’t get access to relevant data on positive tests for three weeks in April and May, according to a report seen by the BBC. The number of missing cases was highest in Blackburn with Darwen, which has seen a huge surge in variant cases. The government blamed a Track and Trace “software issue” – but insisted it had been resolved “as quickly as possible”. Labour said ministers must now explain what had gone wrong. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said it “beggars belief” that local leaders were “left in the dark” during vital weeks when the variant surged. With variant cases up nearly 50 per cent over the last three days, the situation in Bolton is getting grim. Staff at the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust told The Independentan extra ward has been opened for Covid positive patients.

AMBER HERD: More details have emerged from Boris Johnson’s latest meeting with the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers. He is said to have told them that the “one-metre plus” social distancing rule should get ditched in June. The PM also told MPs that “quite a few” countries could be added to the green list next month. In the meantime, criticism over the amber list keeps on coming. EasyJet boss Johan Lundgren claimed travelling to amber-list countries is “absolutely legal”, despite ministers’ pleas with holidaymakers to stay away. As hundreds of flights continue to amber-list destinations each day, the government confirmed that 10,000 “door knocker” home checks will be carried out every day to catch holidaymakers flouting the 10-day quarantine rule. LBC’s Nick Ferrari challenged transport secretary Grant Shapps over the “travel Stasi” checks. “These are the day of East Germany, aren’t they?” Shapps politely told Ferrari that was a bit of a difference from the government’s travel rules “and what happened in East Germany under communism, if you don’t mind me saying”.

WHEN THE DEAL GOES DOWN: The Best for Britain campaign group said the latest remarks by Brexit minister David Frost showed “the spin” around Boris Johnson’s deal with the EU has “completely unravelled”. In some pretty extraordinary comments, Frost admitted his hopes that the agreement would ensure smooth free trade had been dashed – blaming the pressure the government was under in late 2019. “We expected to be able to get some facilitations that we didn’t get,” he told The Spectator. “We expected there would be a trusted trader scheme, for example. We expected … there’d be an equivalence mechanism in there. None of that we’ve got.” He cited the stress involved in trying to strike the withdrawal agreement while anti-Brexit MPs manoeuvred to block a no-deal exit in parliament. “We signed it in conditions, obviously, as you remember, where we had the Benn-Burt Act,” he said. What will Labour MP Hilary Benn make of getting the blame for a bad deal?

BEEB BASHING: The fall-out from Lord Dyson’s damning report into the “deceitful” means by which Martin Bashir secured his Diana interview is sure to dominate today. How far will Tories go in pushing for reform at the BBC? Culture secretary Oliver Dowden responded with a threatening tweet about the public broadcaster’s “failures” last night. “We will … consider whether further governance reforms at the BBC are needed in the mid-term charter review.” Tory MP Steve Baker led the anti-Beeb push from the backbenches. “If this sort of thing was still being done by the BBC … very serious questions would have to be asked about its existence in its current form.” Elsewhere today, health secretary Matt Hancock faces questions about how compensation will work for victims of the contaminated blood scandal. He gives evidence at the public inquiry into the historic NHS scandal – which saw around 3,000 people die after receiving blood containing HIV and hepatitis C.

STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE: Jacob Rees-Mogg has scoffed at the “fanciful” idea of MPs and peers decanting from parliament, citing new figures showing that it would cost up to £1.1bn to turn nearby sites into makeshift debating chambers. The pandemic has shown that MPs can simply work from home, said the Commons leader. “The idea of members being marched out of the Palace of Westminster for an entire parliament or longer now appears more fanciful than it once did.” Labour MP Meg Hillier, chair of the public accounts committee, is not happy – accusing Rees-Mogg of failing to take the repairs seriously. Hillier told MPs there is a “a risk of catastrophic fire” at parliament if major repair work wasn’t done. The Labour MP cited a fire last year – which she said might not have been caught if it had happened on the weekend rather than a weekday.

On the record

“How can we compete when our standards of animal welfare and environmental standards are higher than they are in Australia?”

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford urges caution on the trade deal.

From the Twitterati

“This is a spectacular intervention by David Frost, rewriting what was a very clear Brexit process, providing nonsensical excuse & casting false blame. Gaslighting 101.”

Irish politician Neale Richmond is amazed at Frost’s ‘rewriting’ of history...

“I was so angry about Brexit, but somehow even more angry about David Frost admitting he had no idea what he was doing.”

...while Sarah Hurst is livid at Frost’s excuses and blame-shifting.

Essential reading

Jon Davis, The Independent: Could Tony Blair actually get elected again?

Sean O’Grady, The Independent: The Bashir scandal will give the Tories plenty of space to attack the BBC

Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, Prospect: Does Nicola Sturgeon have the law on her side over indyref2?

David Gauke, New Statesman: What Labour need to do to smash the Tories’ ‘blue wall’ in the south

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