Inside Politics: Boris Johnson tells Tory MPs ‘greed’ behind vaccine success

Moving on is a process – not a single moment. Ask Prince Harry. The Duke may not yet be entirely done with his former colleagues in the royal family yet, but he’s found a new job as “chief impact officer” at a Silicon Valley start-up. Boris Johnson hopes Britain is moving on from coronavirus – thanks to greed, capitalism and the vaccine. But the PM also admitted we’ll be dealing with the fall out from the disease “for as long as I live”. Speaking of never-ending fall-outs, the EU is set to enforce tougher export rules for vaccines today, as the endless row continues.

Inside the bubble

Political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:

Following PMQs, Boris Johnson will face 90 minutes of questions from the liaison committee on his response to the pandemic, the economy and the recent review of foreign policy. Meanwhile, the home affairs select committee will begin a short inquiry into the policing of vigils following the controversy over the arrests at the memorial for Sarah Everard.

Daily briefing

GREED IS GOOD! So the UK’s vaccine rollout success – it’s down to the NHS and huge state spending, right? Wrong, says Boris Johnson. The PM told Tory MPs last night that “capitalism” and “greed” had done it. “The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed, my friends,” he said in remarks to the 1922 committee first reported by The Sun. Johnson “realised he had messed up as soon as he had said it,” one MP told the BBC. No 10 isn’t commenting, but backbenchers have made clear the “greed” bit wasn’t intended as a comment on the row with the EU. It comes as the EUCommission is set to enforce tougher rules on exports, according to Bloomberg. The rule tinkering will make it easier to stop shipments leaving the bloc if manufacturers don’t fulfil commitments. But No 10 still hopes the EU will backoff from a wider export ban when leaders meet on Thursday. In fact, Johnson is preparing the ground to “slip” the EU a limited quantity of the vaccines, government sources have told ITV’s Robert Peston.

HASTE YE NOT BACK TO NORMAL: Boris Johnson also told Tory backbenchers last night that he would to stick to the reopening timetable, saying “people want certainty over haste”. One figure from the Coronavirus Research Group (CRG) said Johnson’s speech was “s***”. Earlier, at his latest No 10 press conference, the PM admitted there were “many things that we wish we’d done differently” in the response to Covid. Pressed on whether he would have locked down earlier in retrospect, Johnson replied: “These are very, very hard decisions and there are no good outcomes either way.” Johnson warned of a potential third wave fromEurope, and revealed that a permanent memorial to those who had died during the pandemic would be built “at the right moment”. It seems the successful vaccine campaign has failed to persuade a large chunk of voters to trust Johnson. Some 41 per cent of those quizzed for The Independent in a BMG survey said they did not trust the PM to do the right thing during the pandemic, compared to 38 per cent who said they did. Trust in Matt Hancock to deal with the crisis stood at just 29 per cent.

GO AHEAD RUTH, MAKE MY DAY: Nicola Sturgeon survived a vote of no confidence in the Scottish parliament (MSPs voted by 65 to 31 to reject the Conservative motion) – and challenged Holyrood’s Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson to get rid of her at the ballot box. “If you think you can bully me out of office you are mistaken,” said the first minister. “If you want to remove me from office as first minister, do it in an election.” The Holyrood committee of MSPS investigating the Scottish unlawful investigation into Salmond said on Tuesday that Sturgeon had misled the inquiry. But the politics have become an awful lot easier for Sturgeon since QC James Hamilton concluded on Monday that she did not breach the ministerial code (despite her “incomplete narrative”). Sturgeon told MSP she was “at peace with my own conscience”. What will voters think? The latest poll by the Hanbury think tank found a clear majority of Scots (64 per cent) don’t want another independence referendum until after 2022, at least. Or never.

GOOD REFUGEES VS BAD REFUGEES: Home secretary Priti Patel will unveil government plans to change asylum rules today. Patel plans to make sure people who enter the UK“illegally” to claim asylum won’t have the same entitlements as people who arrive “legally”. She has claimed those who arrive via approved routes will immediately get the right to remain here indefinitely – but things would get“harder” for those who come by routes deemed illegal. Campaigners called the proposals “unreal”. The Refugee Council accused Patel of “seeking to unjustly differentiate between the deserving and undeserving refugee”. Meanwhile, Labour has called on the government to ensure proper legal action is taken against companies doing business with overseas PPE suppliers accused of “abhorrent”modern slavery. Bill Esterson MP, shadow trade minister, has written to the attorney general seeking assurances. It follows reports by The Independent showing the government has repeatedly sourced PPE from companies in Malaysia facing slavery allegations.

FINE TIME FOR A HOLIDAY: Best to ease off on vacation planning for now. The government will introduce a new £5,000 fine for anyone trying to travel abroad (from England) without good reason. It’s part of the legislation expected to come into force on Monday, and will be voted on in parliament on Thursday. Boris Johnson said it was still “too early” to set out any foreign travel rules for the summer – saying he hoped for more information by 5 April on whether overseas travel could start opening back up in May. Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College professor who formally advised the government, called for overseas holidays to be banned until late summer. “Conservatively, and being risk averse at the moment, I think we should be planning on summer holidays in the UK, not overseas.” Matt Hancock, meanwhile, has told Tory MPs that voting against updated regulations on Thursday would be a vote to stop the furlough scheme. Some angry backbenchers say the health secretary is quite wrong, pointing out that furlough scheme didn’t depend on the extension of the Coronavirus Act.

EXECUTIVE ACTION? Joe Biden has urged Congress to act with haste to pass tighter restrictions on gun ownership – including banning assault weapons and requiring more stringent background checks – in the wake of mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder in the last week. Biden addressed the nation to speak out on gun control and offer condolences to the families of the 18 people who died in the two mass shootings. “This is not and should not be a partisan issue. This is an American issue,” the president said of two bills that would expand universal background checks to cover private gun sales. Could the White House try to bypass Congress if blocked by the Republicans? Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki said: “We are considering a range of levers, including working through legislation, including executive action … that has been under discussion.”

On the record

“I think in retrospect, there are, there are probably many things that we wish that we’d known and many things that we wish we’d done differently at the time.”

Boris Johnson says he has regrets – but nothing too specific.

From the Twitterati

“Boris Johnson very keen to calm things down there in his answer on vaccines.”

James Forsyth suggests the PM is trying to play peacemaker…

“Huge suspicion in Paris (& other EU capitals) that AstraZeneca, in effect, sold the same vaccines TWICE – to UK & EU which is why it’s now reneging on its (less watertight) EU deal.”

… but analyst Mujtaba Rahman suggests things aren’t going to calm down.

Essential reading

Vince Cable, The Independent: Peaceful protests should be part of any mature democracy

Sean O’Grady, The Independent: Sturgeon may have won the battle, but the war is not over

Rafael Behr, The Guardian: Europe’s trust in Britain has gone

Eleanor Clift, The Daily Beast: Once upon a time, Republicans backed more people voting

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