Boris Johnson news – live: Government 'far too slow' to roll out economic recovery plan, says Sadiq Khan, as Rishi Sunak unveils mini-budget

Boris Johnson urged to set up committee to publish Russia report after 100,000-strong petition

Petitions Committee chair Catherine McKinnell has written to the prime minister and foreign secretary Dominic Raab following a 100,000 strong petition calling for the government to take the steps necessary for the intelligence and security committee's Russia report to be published.

On 19 March, the government said that the report was for the committee to publish, and that a new committee was being set up at the normal pace, arguing that it took five months to set up the ISC committee after the 2017 general election.

"However, it has now been almost seven months since the 2019 general election," Ms McKinnell's letter states. The Labour MP urged him to expedite the committee's establishment and called for him to respond by 13 July.

It comes after the defence select committee chair Tobias Ellwood urged the government to publish the report amid allegations that a Russian intelligence unit has offered bounties to Taliban-linked militias to kill British troops in Afghanistan.

"Let's get that intelligence and security committee up and running, let's publish the overdue Russia report, let's make it very, very clear that it is simply unacceptable for a member of the UN security council to place bounties on US and UK heads," Mr Ellwood told Sky News.

Government 'to nominate Liam Fox' as candidate to lead World Trade Organisation

A senior government source has told the PA news agency that the former international trade secretary has been put forward by the UK to be the WTO's new director general.

Dr Fox has held ministerial roles under John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May, latterly serving as international trade secretary during the Brexit negotiations. He was an ardent supporter of the UK's exit from the EU.

The WTO is seeking a new director general after Roberto Azevedo announced he will step down next month.

EU chief negotiator praises 'useful' Brexit discussion and 'nice dinner'

Here's our article on last night's fishy Downing Street dinner last night:

Theresa May seeking to jail killer drivers for life

Theresa May is to seek a law change to ensure killer drivers face life behind bars. The former prime minister wants to introduce the Death By Dangerous Driving (Sentencing) Bill to the House of Commons.

This would amend existing 1988 legislation to increase the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving from 14 years to life imprisonment. The issue was reviewed and consulted upon by Mrs May's government.

It led to a commitment in 2017 that drivers who caused death by speeding, racing, or using a mobile phone would face the prospect of a life sentence.

Offenders who caused death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs would have also faced a life sentence under the plan.

But the commitment was not acted upon and earlier this year Ms May pressed Boris Johnson's Government to follow through on the policy.

Ms May will use the 10-minute rule motion procedure to try and introduce her Bill, which is scheduled to be heard on July 21. If successful on that day, the Bill will have several stages to clear before it becomes law but could be aided by Government backing.

PA

Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer will imminently face off at prime minister's questions.

PM 'rubbing salt into the wounds of care home workers', Keir Starmer says as Johnson refuses to apologise

Calling the prime minister out over his comments that care homes didn't follow the correct procedures in response to the 25,000 deaths suffered within those facilities, Keir Starmer said: "That's caused huge offence to frontline care workers. It's now been 48 hours. Will the prime minister apologise to care workers?"

"The last thing I want to do is blame care workers for what has happened or for any of them to think that I was blaming them, because they've worked incredibly hard throughout this crisis looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our country and doing an outstanding job," Boris Johnson replied.

"And as he knows, tragically, 257 of them have lost their lives. And when it comes to taking blame, I take full responsibility for what has happened. But the one thing that nobody knew early on during this pandemic was that the virus was being passed asymptomatically from person to person in the way that its is.

"And that's why the guidance and procedures changed, and it's thanks to the hard work of care workers that we've now got outbreaks down in our care homes to the lowest level since the crisis began."

The Labour leader retorted: "Mr Speaker, that's not an apology and it just won't wash ... It was clear what he was saying, and the prime minister must understand just how raw this is for many people on the front line, and for those who have lost loved ones.

He quotes Mark Adams who runs a social care charity, relaying his comments that "you've got 1.6 million social care workers going into work to protect our parents, our grandparents, our children, putting their own health and potentially lives at risk. And then to get perhaps the most senior man in the country turning round and blaming them on what has been an absolute travesty of leadership from the government, I just think it's appalling".

Mr Johnson replies that it is "simply not the case" that he blamed care workers. He asks whether Mr Starmer "Captain Hindsight" would claim to have known in April that the virus was being transmitted asymptomatically. 

Sir Keir Starmer says: "By refusing to apologise, the prime minister rubs salt into the wounds of the very people that he stood at his front door and clapped."

PM and health secretary 'only people left in country who think they put protective ring around care homes'

"The prime minister and the health secretary must be the only people left in the country who think that they put a protective ring around care homes. Those on the front line know that that wasn't the case," Keir Starmer says.

He quotes a care home manager from ITN news, who said: "I'm absolutely livid at the fact that he says we didn't follow the procedures. Because the care home assistants, the nurses, everyone in the care home have worked so hard. And then he's got the audacity to blame us."

Asked what he would like to say to that care home manager, Mr Johnson responds: "What I would like to say to this lady in question and indeed every care home manager in the country is that this government appreciates the incredible work they have done ... and let me say further than we will invest in our care homes and reform the care home sector.

"And I hope, that we'll do it on the basis of cross-party consensus and get a lasting solution to the problems in our care homes and the difficulties many people face in funding the cost of their old age."

Government takes 'full responsibility' for every action taken throughout crisis, PM says

"Well I'm glad to hear it, Mr Starmer says of Boris Johnson's pledge to improve the care system. "Might I gently suggest that his government has been in power for 10 years with no plan and no white paper. Of course we'll join him in plans for reforming social care but 10 years [have been] wasted. 

He adds that one in 20 care home residents are estimated to have died with the virus.

"It's chilling," he says. "These are extraordinary numbers, yet the prime minister has consistently ducked responsibility for them. Will he accept it isn't care workers to blame, it's his government?"

Mr Johnson accuses him of reading out a pre-prepared question "without listening to the answer I've just given", continuing: "I've made it absolutely clear that this government takes responsibility for everything that we've done throughout this crisis, and of course I pay tribute once again to the work of every care worker in the country and I thank them. 

He adds that the government has put forward a care home action plan to get the incidences of coronavirus "right down in every care home in the country to the lowest level", and are now putting in monthly testing for every resident, and weekly testing for every care home worker.

The Labour leader says Mr Johnson "continues to insult everyone on the front line by not taking these issues seriously".

"The prime minister must recognise that huge mistakes have been made, Sir Keir Starmer says, adding: "Two months ago, at PMQs, I highlighted the weakness of early guidance on care homes. The prime minister, typically flippant, simply said it's not true."

There were repeated warnings from the care sector, and repeated warnings over PPE, he says, adding: "This wasn't hindsight, it was real-time for the front line ... and the decision to discharge 25,000 people into care homes was clearly a mistake. Will the prime minister simply accept that his government was just too slow to act on care homes, full stop."

The prime minister retorts: "The right honourable gentleman should know very well that the understanding of the disease changed dramatically in the months that we had it, and when he looks at the action plan that we brought in to help our care workers, I think he would appreciate the vast amount of work that they have done.

"The PPE that they've been supplied with, the testing they've been supplied with, that has helped them get the incidents of the disease down to record lows. And it has enabled us to get on with our work in the government in getting this country through this epidemic, getting the country back on its feet."

"What this country wants to see is a steady, stable approach to getting back on its feet, and that is what we are delivering," he adds.

PM appears to dodge question over NHS staff parking charges

"Finally, to add further insult to injury, there are reports this morning that the government is to remove free hospital parking for NHS workers in England," Keir Starmer says. 

"The prime minister will know that this could cost hundreds of pounds a month for our nurses, our doctors, our carers and support staff. We owe our NHS workers so much, we all clap for them, we should be rewarding them, not making it more expensive to go to work. The prime minister must know this is wrong. Will he reconsider and rule it out?"

Saying nothing of the reported plans to reintroduce charges for NHS staff, Mr Johnson replies: "The hospital car parks are free for NHS staff in this pandemic, they are free now and we are going to get on with our manifesto commitment to make them free for patients who need them as well.

"The House will know that that was never the case under a Labour government and neither for staff nor for patients. May I suggest that he takes his latest bandwagon and parks it free somewhere else. One week he's backing us, the next week he's not ... He's consistent only in his opportunism, whereas we are consistent in our agenda."