Boris Johnson news: Care home workers excluded from ‘shambolic’ new NHS visa, as Brexit ad blitz warns of higher travel cost

Stay at home or get back to the office?

Boris Johnson has repeated his call for employees to consider returning to work - but official Government guidance continues to urge people to work from home where they can.

During a visit to the London Ambulance Service the PM said people “should start to think about getting back to work” if their employers had made their workplaces safe against coronavirus, in a reiteration of similar comments he made on Friday.

Justice secretary Robert Buckland, however, when asked about the official guidance on the government’s website, confirmed it is for people to work from home where possible. “That’s still there - work from home if you can, if you are able to do things remotely then carry on.”

Our sketch writer Tom Peck has taken a look at the confusing messages.

‘We’re losing our grip’

Our associate editor Sean O’Grady has taken a look at the state of play as Britain heads towards the end of the Brexit transition period. He thinks there is a clear sense of opportunities contracting rather than expanding.

“Let me see if I’ve got this right,” he writes. “By the end of this year Britain will: have failed to conclude a free trade deal with our largest trading partner, the EU; have made little progress in new ones with America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand; be embroiled in a likely trade and sanctions war with China; and have risked the remaining economic/financial relationships from Saudi Arabia to Russian under our newly minted ethical foreign policy.”

Read more here:

Millionaires ask government to tax them ‘substantially​’ more

Eighty-three millionaires have signed an open letter calling on governments around the world to tax them more to help fund the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

The group, which has called itself ‘Millionaires for Humanity’ is asking governments to raise taxes on its members “immediately, substantially and permanently”.

The letter has been signed by four British millionaires, including Four Weddings and A Funeral writer Richard Curtis.

Compliance with face coverings in shops ‘extremely high’, Sturgeon says

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she believes compliance with new guidelines making face coverings mandatory in shops was “extremely high” last week.

“Everything I've seen or heard through social media, through other reports and through my own brief visit to a couple of shops yesterday, everything suggests that compliance with the new law has been extremely high indeed and I want to thank everybody for that,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“It is what I would have expected but nevertheless it is still welcome.”

Her comments came as Scotland recorded no new coronavirus deaths for the fifth day in a row.

Nicola Sturgeon speaking at Holyrood (Getty)

Government supporting destitute migrants in domestic violence cases, says Patel

Labour MP Neil Coyle has asked home secretary Priti Patel whether the government will think about amending the domestic abuse bill so families left without money because of the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NCPF) policy.

“We are offering support to migrants who suffer domestic abuse [through the] the destitution domestic violence concession scheme,” said Patel.

Priti Patel speaking in the Commons (Parliament TV)

Face coverings mandatory on public transport in Wales from 27 July

Face coverings will be mandatory on public transport in Wales from 27 July, the country’s first minister has announced.

Mark Drakeford said the change was in part “for the sake of simplicity and consistency” with similar rules used in England.

“Public transport moves across our porous border with England. There, the use of face coverings is mandatory on public transport,” Drakeford told the Welsh government’s daily press briefing.

“And for the sake of simplicity and consistency, as well as being part of our plan to help reduce the risk of transmissions while on public transport where it is not possible to maintain a two-metre physical distance, it will become mandatory in Wales for people to wear a three-layer face covering while travelling on public transport.”

‘Embarrassing shambles’: Exclusion of care workers from new health visa condemned

The government has been condemned for excluding social care workers from its new visa, with the move described as an “embarrassing shambles”.

It was announced on Monday that a health and care visa will provide a visa route for key health professionals to work in the UK – but this will exclude social care workers.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he had serious concerns that the new rules could damage the capital’s economic recovery, causing difficulties for sectors including social care.

“Undermining these sectors will make it even harder to look after our elderly relatives and resolve the ongoing pressures within our NHS and social care system,” he said. “The government is pulling up the drawbridge to much of the talent we continue to need as a city and a country.”

Rehana Azam, national secretary of trade union GMB, said: “The government’s new immigration rules are descending into an embarrassing shambles and make no consideration or acknowledgement of the vital job care workers have been doing these past few months.”

She said care homes relied on hundreds of thousands of workers from outside Europe, adding: “Demand on health and social care is increasing every day and the pandemic has shown just how vital these workers are, yet the government seems intent on branding them as low-skilled and exacerbating the crisis by creating new barriers.”

Hancock wants biggest winter flu vaccination drive in history

Matt Hancock has said the UK will see the biggest seasonal flu vaccination drive in history this winter to try and mitigate the fear of a winter crisis mixed with coronavirus.

Speaking remotely at the National Pharmacy Association annual conference, Hancock said the government was planning now for winter, adding: “We’re going to frankly need to use all of the capabilities at our disposal to deliver the vaccine programmes that we need to in the months ahead.”

“We’re working hard on a combination of the Covid vaccination programme, should a vaccine work, and of course, the science on that is as yet unproven. And of course, the biggest flu vaccination programme in history. I want to see pharmacies involved in that flu vaccine rollout.”

Carers 'treated as second class citizens' by government

The chief executive of Care England has joined criticism of the government's new immigration rules after excluding social care staff from its new visa.

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: "The Government's decision not to include social care workers in the NHS visa scheme is another example of the way in which the Government treats social care staff as second class citizens.

"There will be a continuing need for overseas staff, until the Government delivers a proper workforce strategy for social care and also the money required to give the staff the salaries and conditions they richly deserve."

Mark Adams, chief executive of Community Integrated Care, said the decision would make the existing workforce shortage of 122,000 even worse.

He said: "The Government's decision to restrict access to visa entitlements based on salary and educational attainment compounds the enormous workforce shortages that currently exist and may worsen after Brexit.

"However, clearly the biggest opportunity to build the workforce capacity that the care sector desperately needs is by recruiting from within this country - this simply will not be possible so long as social care remains, largely, a minimum wage sector due to the restricted funding that care providers receive."

Points-based immigration system 'not right' for care sector

Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, said the government's new points-based immigration system did not take account of the salaries of highly skilled workers in the care sector.

She added: "It is not right that the government has brought forward a points-based system that does not recognise the skills of those workers, and indeed the huge commitment and contribution of staff from around the world who are today involved in the delivery of care to millions of UK citizens.

​"We need to ensure that those workers continue to feel welcome, and to be able to bring their skills and expertise."