Inside Politics: Joe Biden offers Brexit bill warning

Live animals are not valid masks, the authorities have been forced to remind us. A man in Manchester boarded a bus wearing a snake as a face covering – freaking out fellow passengers who watched the reptile slither away from his mouth and onto the hand rails. Speaking of slimy, slippery customers, Boris Johnson has struck a compromise deal with rebel Tories. Our serpentine prime minister hopes he has convinced them to back down by giving parliament a vote on future overrides to the Brexit divorce deal. But Johnson has given MPs crucial votes before – and always seems to find a way to wriggle out of his responsibilities.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Health secretary Matt Hancock is expected to give details of new restrictions in the north-east and elaborate on the new system for rationing coronavirus tests when he gives a statement in the Commons. The boss of the NHS Test and Trace scheme, Dido Harding, can expect a tough grilling when she appears before the science and technology committee after a week in which even the PM admitted there are “huge problems” in the system.

Daily briefing

REBEL YELL QUELLED: Turns out the rebel Tories weren’t very rebellious after all. Boris Johnson, worried his Brexit bill could be defeated next week, managed to have a quiet word and got them to agree on a compromise amendment to his Internal Market Bill. It means any breaches of international law would only be triggered by further votes in parliament. Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said it wouldn’t “fix the problem of breaking the law … Labour will still oppose it”. Tory minister Lord Keen, the government’s chief lawyer for Scotland, was also unconvinced and quit. The advocate general said he had “found it increasingly difficult to reconcile” the law-breaking bill with his “obligations as a law officer”. He even said he had tried to make a “respectable argument” for its legality – but his own respectability in legal circles was obviously more important to him.

AMERICAN FRENEMIES: Joe Biden may be a bit busy to follow the details of the PM’s bill. But he has expressed his disproval – vowing not to allow peace in Northern Ireland to become a “casualty of Brexit” if he’s elected. The Democrat also said any UK-US trade deal would be “contingent” on respect for the Good Friday Agreement. Dominic Raab claimed his big reassurance mission in the US was “very positive”. The foreign secretary may not have convinced Biden or the four congressmen who signed a statement condoning the UK government’s law-breaking plans, but did get counterpart Mike Pompeo onside. The US secretary of state said he trusted Britain to “get this right”. Back home, Chris “Failing” Grayling has somehow managed to land a £100,000 job advising the owner of some of the UK’s main ports terminals. The ex-transport secretary, still an MP, will work just seven hours a week for Hutchison Ports for the whopping sum.

HOT TUB PRIME MACHINE: Boris Johnson has a rather more relaxed attitude to his own rule of six than Priti Patel. The PM said people should “speak” to social distancing rule-breakers before reporting them to police, telling The Sun he has “never much been in favour of sneak culture, myself”. He added: “If there is some huge kind of Animal House party taking place, hot tubs and so forth … then it’s reasonable for the authorities to know.” In more serious mode in front of the liaison committee, Johnson was forced to admit the UK does not currently have enough coronavirus testing capacity – but blamed a “colossal spike” in demand. In fine form at PMQs, Angela Rayner accused Johnson of having “no plan” for the pandemic despite “staring down the barrel at a second wave”, attacked him for finding the time to prioritise the restoration of grouse shooting – and caught him out by asking how much care workers earn (he didn’t know).

H’WAY HOME THE LADS: The north-east of England is bracing itself. Around two million people in Newcastle, Sunderland and County Durham are expected to be placed under new restrictions as infections rise. Measures set out could include pub curfews and a ban on households mixing, but Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes denied it would amount to “lockdown”. According to The Times, pubs in hotspots across England will ordered to shut by 10pm if cases continue to rise. Matt Hancock may enlighten us later when he sets out new restrictions. The health secretary will also be setting out the government’s plan to prioritise tests to certain groups to cope with the shortages. Hancock has said he was reluctant to introduce eligibility checks, but he may not have much choice. Rationing will mean some people will be refused tests even if they have symptoms under rationing plans, according to The Daily Telegraph. But those in “watch-list” areas will still be high on the priority list.

TEACHING TO A HALT: The increasingly “out of control” testing chaos could force widespread school closures in the weeks ahead, teachers and unions have warned. School leaders have told The Independent about the obstacles faced by teachers who are off with virus symptoms and struggling to get Covid-19 tests – and said staff shortages were already causing “significant” problems in delivering lessons. One survey found that 4 per cent of staff were off school for Covid-related reasons – equating to around 25,000 teachers across England. Education secretary Gavin Williamson said more testing kits had been made available for schools to order online. “I would doubt it would be enough to make up for failures in the wider [testing] system,” said one secondary head. Another teacher who spent 11 hours online trying to book a test for his son said: “It’s like booking Harry Potter tickets.”

DONALD VS DR ROBERT: Donald Trump claimed Americans would be able to start getting a coronavirus vaccine as early as next month – just in time for his big push to win the November election. “We think we can start sometime in October,” the president said. “We’re ready to move, and I think it will be full distribution.” But it contradicts claims made by the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Robert Redfield. The vaccine wouldn’t be broadly available until the spring or summer 2021, the expert estimated. “The worst thing that could happen is if we have a vaccine delivered and we’re still not ready to distribute,” he told Senate lawmakers. What did Trump make of that? Not much. He said Dr Redfield was “confused”.

On the record

“The next time a man with Covid symptoms drives from London to Durham it will probably be for the nearest Covid test.”

Angela Rayner scores the best joke at PMQs.

From the Twitterati

“I’m sorry but giving MPs the right to vote on government’s proposal to break international law still doesn’t cut it – it should never be proposed in the first place. Period.”

Green MP Caroline Lucas isn’t impressed by compromise forged by the amendment…

“Amendment makes no difference to the legal position. Pointless and irrelevant to the issues at stake.”

…and legal expert David Allen Green agrees – saying the government will still tear up withdrawal treaty.

Essential reading

Andrew Grice, The Independent: Boris Johnson doesn’t actually understand the detail of his own Brexit deal

Wendy Chamberlain, The Independent: With no aid select committee, we can’t analyse how we spend aid

Aditya Chakrabortty, The Guardian: Covid testing is a fiasco because this government hates the public sector

Paul Krugman, The New York Times: The Republican plot to sabotage 2021

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