Inside Politics: Boris Johnson considers Christmas amnesty

The new dystopian era we find ourselves in continues to surprise: government scientists are now suggesting the cost of spending one day with relatives over the Christmas period may have to be repaid with five days of tough restrictions afterwards. If Boris Johnson signs off a short reprieve, back of the fag packet calculations suggest the country could be facing the prospect of entering 2020 with 25 days of stringent measures. A potential vaccine continues to be the light at the end of the tunnel, however. The University of Oxford is expected to release data on the effectiveness of its vaccine in the coming weeks, with the latest trial results suggesting strong immune results in healthy adults. Fingers crossed.

Inside the bubble

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

Highlight of the day in Westminster is a statement from Boris Johnson on military spending which will decisively end a struggle between the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence in defence secretary Ben Wallace’s favour. Later in the Commons, that doughty defender of the rights of beleaguered men, Shipley MP Philip Davies, will make his annual attempt to wind up feminists with a debate on International Men’s Day which he has secured with fellow Tory Ben Bradley.

Daily briefing

XMAS AMNESTY: Giving the public a Christmas reprieve from the pandemic restrictions may come hand in hand with tougher measures on either side of the festive break, government scientists have suggested. The warnings comes amid suggestions Boris Johnson is considering a five-day amnesty from the rules stretching from Christmas Eve until 28 December. But is it worth it? According to Public Health England every day of relaxation would require five days of more stringent restrictions immediately afterwards in order to get transmission rates of coronavirus back down again. The latest government figures show 19,609 Covid cases were recorded yesterday – the lowest daily total for more than two weeks. However, deaths from the virus were well above the 416 average for the last seven days, with 529 recorded on Wednesday, only slightly down from the 598 tally the previous day.

DEFENCE OF REALM: Addressing MPs from television screens in the Commons chamber, the prime minister, who continues his period quarantining in No 10, will unveil a military spending spree. Billing the funding as the largest increase in investment in defence since the Cold War, the government said the four-year package worth £16.5 billion comes on top of the Conservatives’ manifesto commitment to increase military spending by 0.5 per cent in real terms for each year of the parliament. “I have taken this decision in the teeth of the pandemic because the defence of the realm must come first,” Mr Johnson said last night, as he boasted of ending the “era of retreat”. The PM is said to have been persuaded to back the spending boost not only by the desire to throw some red meat to traditional Tories, but also the prospect of job-generating investment in the construction of drones, robots and other futuristic kits.  Other Whitehall departments will inevitably be envious, ahead of a one-year spending review in which they are expected to be offered no more than is needed to tide them through the Covid crisis.

LABOUR LAND: Precisely one year on from facing Boris Johnson in the first televised leadership debate of the gloomy 2019 winter election campaign, Jeremy Corbyn could have been coming to the end of his first year in Downing Street. Instead, he now finds himself sitting as an independent MP on the backbenches of the Commons.  In a decision that provoked the wrath of the former leader’s allies, Sir Keir Starmer yesterday ruled against restoring the Labour parliamentary whip to his predecessor, despite Mr Corbyn’s membership of the party being restored on Tuesday. Sir Keir said he had “undermined” efforts to restore confidence in the party’s ability to tackle antisemitism following the damning report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission last month. Some 28 MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group have demanded Mr Corbyn's reinstatement while Unite union boss Len McCluskey, one of the party’s biggest donors, issued a blistering statement. He said he was “astonished” by the decision, calling Sir Keir’s move “vindictive and vengeful” and accusing him of “recklessly” undermining unity.

THAWING RELATIONS: Following the departure of Dominic Cummings, who reportedly referred to prominent political journalists as “reptiles”, and the prime minister’s director of communications, Lee Cain, No 10 is seeking to repair strained relations with the media. Kicking off the week, the health secretary Matt Hancock ended the 201-day ministerial boycott of Good Morning Britain and faced a grilling from presenter Piers Morgan. In a briefing with Westminster journalists on Wednesday, Mr Johnson’s new press secretary Allegra Stratton also said the press had played a “powerful role”during the coronavirus pandemic. It marks a significant shift in strategy from a No 10 spokesperson who was claiming in April that “public confidence in the media has collapsed” without any evidence to back up the claim. It remains to be seen whether Ms Stratton, who will soon begin hosting White House-style press conferences televised from Downing Street, will start shouting "Fake News" at reporters.

PRESIDENTIAL BEST SELLER: According to reports in September, former prime minister David Cameron’s memoir of his time in office – For the Record – sold just over 20,000 copies in the first weeks of sales. In pales in comparison to former US president Barack Obama’s new book, a Promised Land,which has sold nearly 890,000 copies in the US and Canada in the first 24 hours of sales. Discussing the first volume of his presidential memoir in an interview with The Atlantic magazine, Mr Obama also said that social media companies are making “editorial choices” and that governments need to find adequate regulation to address how they spread “crazy lies and conspiracy theories”. He warned: “If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn’t work. And by definition our democracy doesn’t work. We are entering into an epistemological crisis.”

On the record

“The prime minister as a former journalist I think has spoken publicly about the positive role the media has played during this pandemic in spreading information about what we need people to do...”

Allegra Stratton, the new press secretary to Boris Johnson, tells journalists

From the Twitterati

“OK then, relax the rules if you must for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, that's plenty, no[one] wants to be sitting around in lockdown until late January just because you wanted to stay at your mum's until December 30th".

Jim Waterson on plans to open up for Christmas, and pay each day back with five days' worth of restrictions

"On the 5th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me... a January lockdown."

… Alan White adds

Essential reading

Andrew Grice, The Independent: Boris Johnson is in a tough spot over his 'levelling up' agenda – he needs more than a slogan

Caroline Lucas, The Independent: This is what's really needed in a plan to battle the climate crisis

Sienna Rodgers, The Guardian: The Labour Party is more divided than ever over Corbyn and anti semitism

Gordon Brown, New Statesman: How to save the United Kingdom

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