Boris Johnson news – live: PM warned to ‘get a grip’ of ministers as government accused of cladding ‘betrayal’
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Your support makes all the difference.A senior Tory MP has warned Boris Johnson to "get a grip" of his ministers following, what he referred to as, "unacceptable behaviour" from various secretaries of state.
Vice-chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers Sir Charles Walker, who said he was "very disappointed", named Matt Hancock and Grant Shapps in his interview with BBC Radio 4's World at One programme. In response to the travel threats introduced by the health secretary, Sir Charles scoffed: "Ten years [in prison] for crying out loud".
Meanwhile, the government has received backlash from both Conservative and Labour MPs for its refusal to pay for cladding removal from shorter buildings (below 18m), forcing many leaseholders to take out loans to cover the costs.
Communities secretary Robert Jenrick made the announcement in the Commons today following Mr Johnson's weekly PMQs session, sparking Tory MP Stephen McPartland to call it a "betrayal of millions of leaseholders". Shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire responded by blaming "government choices" for "repeated undelivered promises".
"As a result of government choices, three-and-a-half years on from the Grenfell tragedy in which 72 people lost their lives, hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped in unsafe homes, many more unable to move," she told MPs.
“Mistakes were made’ by EU in vaccine row, von der Leyen admits
The president of the European Commission has said she "deeply" regrets the bloc's threat last month to override the Northern Ireland protocol during a row over coronavirus vaccines.
Speaking about the fiasco, Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday: “Allow me a word on the island of Ireland. The bottom line is mistakes were made and the process leading up to the decision and I deeply regret that."
She added that the bloc was right to backtrack on its threat and said the Commission "will do its utmost to protect the peace of Northern Ireland".
Ashley Cowburn reports:
Ursula von der Leyen admits ‘mistakes were made’ over EU-UK vaccine row
Top retail distributor blames 12 per cent drop in revenue on uncertainty over the NI protocol
One of Ireland's leading retail distributors said it has lost a significant amount of revenue as a result of the new Brexit trade regulations.
AM Nexday reported that its turnover last month was 12 percent lower than the previous January.
Senior manager Sarah Hards said the company had hired extra staff and had paid additional costs to deal with new post-Brexit paperwork.
"There does not seem to be enough rewards for us really here," she told the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Ministers failed to learn from first lockdown, says Professor Ferguson
Professor Neil Ferguson, who sits on the government's Nervtag emergency virus committee, has suggested that ministers failed to learn lessons from the first lockdown.
He told Sky News that the "fragmented" consensus about the appropriate level of restrictions meant that the country was in a weaker position in the run-up to Christmas than it should have been.
“Had we learnt the lessons properly from the first wave, then we would have been in a better situation coming into Christmas and much lower infection levels and therefore fewer deaths,” he said.
Between mid-November and the end of January, the UK's coronavirus death toll doubled to 100,000.
Tom Batchelor reports:
Ministers failed to learn lessons from first Covid wave and locked down too late, says leading scientist
No safety concerns with coronavirus vaccines, says Van-Tam
England's deputy chief medical officer has ruled out safety concerns with the Covid-19 vaccines being administered in the UK.
Jonathan Van-Tam said on Wednesday: “We are well over the 12 million mark now in terms of vaccines we've deployed. We're getting to a point where, if we were going to see any kind of safety signal, it would be pretty obvious by now.”
He also quashed rumours that the vaccine could affect fertility, describing it as “a nasty, pernicious scare story” which was “completely, utterly groundless”.
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more details:
Van-Tam effectively rules out safety issues with coronavirus vaccines
PM does not confirm extension to business rate relief or furlough scheme
Labour leader Keir Starmer asked the prime minister to confirm that business rate relief would be extended beyond 31 March.
In response, Boris Johnson said he would have to wait until the next budget in March.
The prime minister also failed to say more about whether the country's furlough scheme would continue.
Mr Starmer said this was not good enough, adding: "The trouble is that businesses don't work as slowly as the prime minister."
UK’s coronavirus border regime not strong enough, warns Starmer
The government has not done enough to protect the UK's borders from the arrival of new coronavirus variants, Keir Starmer has warned.
Citing research from Oxford University, the Labour leader said there were 33 countries who had tougher border measures than the UK. These include Canada, Denmark and Israel.
Boris Johnson responsed by reasserting that we have "one of the toughest" border regimes in the world.
Labour should ‘stop sniping from the sidelines’, says Johnson
Boris Johnson said the opposition should "stop sniping from the sidelines" and instead "back business and back the British people".
Keir Starmer replied by saying that Labour "would rather listen to businesses" than the Conservatives, adding that the prime minister had not made any decisions on business rates or furlough yet.
Speaking during PMQs, the Labour leader added: "I'm not going to take lectures from a man who wrote two versions of every column he ever wrote as a journalist, proposed Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize and gave Dominic Cummings a pay rise."
Government failing to protect vulnerable, says Rayner
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has hit out at Boris Johnson for failing to say whether a ban on eviction would be extended.
"Families are facing eviction in less than 2 weeks, in the middle of a deadly global pandemic, because this government is refusing to protect them," she tweeted.
Boris Johnson’s accidentally calls Speaker ‘Mr Crisis’
Knowledge of Scotland not essential for government’s new ‘union unit’ jobs
The government is recruting staff for a new "union unit" to counter the SNP's drive for Scottish independence.
However, the Cabinet Office's job advert for four policy positions does not require candidates to have knowledge about Scotland.
It states that “understanding of policy issues relevant to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland” is only “desirable” – rather than essential.
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