Boris Johnson news – live: Russia report on influence in UK politics could soon be released as Grayling nominated to chair security committee

‘I can only apologise’: Sunak says sorry to freelancers

Yet more from Rishi Sunak as he continues his round of morning interviews. The chancellor csaid more than a million businesses had benefited from government financial support during the crisis – but apologised to those who had not been reached.

He told Times Radio: “Over a million businesses have benefited, for example from the furlough scheme a million businesses have accessed some of our loans, almost a million businesses have got access to cash grants or business rates holidays.

“So clearly the scale of what we’re doing is reaching a lot of people. Is it going to reach absolutely every single person and every single company in exactly the way they would like? I’m sure not and I can only apologise for that.”

He also apologised to freelancers who feel left behind by the support schemes. “Does everyone feel that they’ve been helped in the way that they would like to have been? Of course not and I can only apologise for that.”

Truss said ‘staged’ approach could be challenged by WTO

More now on the letter Liz Truss wrote to chancellor Rishi Sunak and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove expressing her “key areas of concerns” on the government’s Brexit border plans.

In the email, first published by Business Insider, the international trade secretary warned the UK would “be vulnerable to WTO challenge” over its “staged” approach to border policy – because it would temporarily give the EU preferential treatment in the absence of a trade deal.

Gove backtracked last month over plans to immediately introduce full border checks when the transition ends on 31 December and instead said Britain would “phase” in the changes over six months.

But Truss was said to have asked for “assurances” that the UK will deliver full border controls at ports by July next year and that plans are in place from January “to mitigate the risk of goods being circumvented from ports implementing full controls”.

Truss also reportedly warned of angering unionists in Northern Ireland by delivering the “high-risk” dual tariff system on all imports to the nation on 1 January. “This is very concerning as this may call into question NI’s place in the UK customs territory,” she said, according to the report.

Former Labour communications chief Alastair Campbell is among those amazed by the uncertainty which still remains. “These charlatans are destroying one of the greatest countries in the world, and they’re not even clear why,” he tweeted.

Cummings ‘will tour highly-classified national security sites’

Boris Johnson's top aide Dominic Cummings is reportedly set to head out on a tour of highly-classified national security sites as part of his plan to shake up the British military, according to a new report.

Correspondence obtained by Australian media outlets The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age shows Cummings has requested visits to five sites – including facilities that specialise in defence intelligence.

So what might he be hoping to achieve? Our associate editor Sean O’Grady has taken a closer look.

Higher taxes on the way, says IFS expert

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) director Paul Johnson warned that a “reckoning, in the form of higher taxes” would have to come eventually to repair the battered public finances.

He questioned whether the billions of extra spending announced by Rishi Sunak would offer value for money but acknowledged that measures needed to be taken now in the face of a recession that was the “deepest in our history”.

At a presentation of the think tank’s findings on the mini-Budget, he said that normally they would be asking “what can be afforded” but “today the question is better posed as what is needed and what can be delivered”.

There was also the issue of whether the extra funding would offer the benefits claimed.

“Even in a crisis we shouldn't ignore the basics,” he said. “A lot, probably a majority, of the job retention bonus money will go in respect of jobs that would have been, indeed already have been, returned from furlough anyway.”

Stay the hell away, Europeans tell British tourists

The latest YouGov survey from Europe makes for interesting reading. It shows 61 per cent of people in Spain want British tourists to stay at home, while a majority of people in Germany and France fell the same way.

YouGov also asked British citizens what they thought of tourists coming to the UK. People are most wary of visits from Americans (76 per cent opposed) and Chinese visitors (72 per cent opposed).

Report claiming Huawei targeted UK elite ‘totally without evidence’ top official tells MPs

Some of the top executives of Huawei UK are answering MPs questions at the science and technology committee this morning.

They have been asked about allegations the company has targeted members of the British elite for support. It follows claims made in a new dossier – reportedly compiled with the help of former MI6 spy Christopher Steele – that the firm tried to persuade high-profile figures in the UK to act as “useful idiots”.

“We have not seen the report – we’ve seen press coverage of the report. We refute the content of what we have seen,” said Jeremy Thompson, vice president of Huawei UK.

Victor Zhang, chief representative of Huawei UK said the claims were “totally without evidence. We reserve the right to take any legal actions … once we see the full story”.

Victor Zhang at science and technology committee (Parliament TV)

John Lewis to close eight stores, putting 1,300 jobs at risk

More bad economic news. John Lewis has announced it is to permanently close eight UK stores, putting 1,300 jobs at risk, as sales failed to rebound after the coronavirus lockdown.

It follows a warning from the head of Burger King UK that up to 1,600 jobs could be lost as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The chief executive suggested the company may have to permanently close up to 10 per cent of its British outlets.

Anger after Sunak serves food without wearing mask

There’s been plenty of responses to Rishi Sunak’s trip to a central London branch of Wagamama, in which he served customers without wearing a mask.

One tweeted: “What the hell is Rishi Sunak doing clowning around in a restaurant without a mask?”

Stefan Simanowitz, media manager at Amnesty International tweeted: “Rishi chatting while holding plate of food. Thousands of saliva gobbets would have landed on the food.”

More reaction here: 

First-time house buyers could now be ‘worse off’, says IFS

First-time house buyers will be left “worse off” by the chancellor’s decision to scrap stamp duty for most purchases, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has suggested.

The IFS warned that house prices will rise as some of the tax break is captured by sellers – which will punish first-time buyers.

“This is a group that might actually be made worse off by the policy,” said Helen Miller, the IFS’s deputy director.

She said “across the whole market, it’s more likely that prices will rise and therefore first time buyers could be left keeping less of the discount”.

More on IFS analysis of the mini-Budget here:

EU open to Scotland joining but '’very reluctant’ to let UK return, expert says

Kirsty Hughes, former director of Scottish Centre on Europe Relations, has said predicted the EU would have “complete openness” to Scotland joining the bloc if they voted for independence in a legally binding referendum.

“On the Scottish side I think there is complete openness if Scotland was to vote Yes in a constitutionally and legally valid referendum. There is complete openness to welcoming another small, northern European country into the European Union,” she said.

Hughes is less certain there’s a way back for the UK.

“I think the EU would be very reluctant in the near future to welcome a penitent UK back. It would have to be more than penitent, it would have to be one that had clearly worked through all its political, democratic, constitutional problems and come out the other side of that.”