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Inside Politics

Hancock plays down concerns over ‘significant’ disruption to Covid vaccine supply

The NHS is braced for ‘significant’ reductions in inbound vaccine supplies, but ministers are unclear about the source of the issue, writes Ashley Cowburn

Thursday 18 March 2021 06:14 EDT
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(REUTERS)

Perhaps the prime minister will raise his eyebrows this morning while reading The Times from the No 10 residence: a report suggests a café on the remote Hebridean island of Canna is on the hunt for new staff to help serve a population of just 18 people. It boasts 20,000 seabirds and thousands of years of history. Tips are included.  Back in reality and down the staircase of his predecessors’ portraits in Downing Street, he faces questions over the rollout of the Covid vaccine, threats from Brussels on exports, and growing calls for a public inquiry into his government’s handling of the pandemic.

Inside the bubble

Political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Two senior former mandarins, ex-cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill and the Foreign Office’s recently-departed head Lord McDonald, will give evidence on the government’s strategy towards China, amid loud complaints from Tory MPs that Boris Johnson’s new integrated review of defence and diplomatic policy is too soft on Beijing. The government’s education recovery tsar Sir Kevan Collins will address headteachers on plans to help children catch up on lessons lost to Covid in a virtual speech to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference.

Daily briefing

VACCINE SHORTAGE:  A year on from chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance telling a Downing Street press conference the country would be “lucky” to have a vaccine in 12 months’ time for mass use, some 25 million people have received a first dose of a Covid-19 jab. But the rapid pace of inoculations hit its first major issue last night, with health bosses revealing a “significant” reduction in supply could last a month from the end of March due to “reductions in national inbound vaccines supply”. It is not expected to affect second doses but officials said first doses will be “significantly constrained”. The exact reason for the supply reduction, however, remained unclear, with an AstraZeneca spokesperson saying last night: “Our UK domestic supply chain is not experiencing any disruption and there is no impact on our delivery schedule”. Matt Hancock attempted to downplay the significance of the letter sent by health bosses, but the story has made the majority of the newspaper front pages. The health secretary is sure to face a grilling in the Commons later, as he responds to MPs’ questions.

BRINKMANSHIP:In a sign of just how rosy the post-Brexit relationship between London and Brussels has become of late, Dominic Raab effectively accused the EU of acting like a dictatorship last night. After the bloc threatened to restrict exports of Covid jabs to third countries, including the UK, in an effort to safeguard them for their own citizens, the foreign secretary didn’t mince his words: “Frankly, I’m surprised we’re having this conversation. It’s normally what the UK and EU team up with to reject when other countries with less democratic regimes than our own engage in that kind of brinkmanship”. It also comes amid a row over the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, with several European countries suspending jabs due to concerns over links to blood clots, despite repeated reassurances from the scientific community. The European Medicine Agency (EMA) committee is expected to meet to discuss the vaccine later.

CUMMINGS AND GOINGS: The former Vote Leave official and No 10 maverick Dominic Cummings delighted MPs yesterday with a 90-minute question-and-answer session on his pet science project. He couldn’t resist the temptation, however, to touch briefly on the government’s handling of the pandemic, claiming the Department of Health was a “smoking ruin” while trying to run key parts of the UK’s response to coronavirus. It was therefore necessary that he (among others) requested the prime minister take responsibility for the vaccine away from the department and create a separate taskforce. Touching on a “deal” made with Mr Johnson on the weekend before he became prime minister, Mr Cummings also told the committee he’d asked for a number of conditions, including a commitment to deliver on Brexit, double science funding and a mandate to reform the “disaster zone” of Whitehall. He ended his session, teasing: “I’d be very happy to come back and answer any and all questions about how No 10 works, why I left, all the different, crazy stories that have been in the media, I’d be happy to clarify all of those.”

BACK CATALOGUE: The prime minister’s former career as a columnist was once again under the spotlight yesterday as the prime minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton refused to say whether Mr Johnson regretted his sexist comments in the past. In a media briefing, questions were raised, for example, on his past reference to women as “totty” or saying children of single mothers were “ill-raised, ignorant and illegitimate”. But No 10 insisted the prime minister had a “strong track record” on support for women and girls. Hours later, in a major concession for campaigners, a minister revealed police will record hate crimes which have been motivated by misogyny on an “experimental” basis in a major concession for campaigners. Forces across the country will be asked to identify where a victim believes the crime has been prompted by “hostility based on their sex”.

TRUMP VERSUS MEGHAN: Donald Trump, remember him? In an interview with his beloved Fox News, the former president made an intervention on the Meghan and Harry interview with Oprah last week. “I’m not a fan of hers,” he said, again, before going on to say: “I think what she talks about the Royal family and the Queen, and I happen to think, I know the Queen as you know, I met the Queen and I think the Queen is a tremendous person and I am not a fan of Meghan.” Don’t expect any statement from Buckingham Palace praising a “tremendous” former president who was impeached a second time by the House of Representatives for fomenting an insurrection on the US Capitol building – despite the pair, allegedly, “knowing” each other. But Trump didn’t stop there: he also urged the Duchess of Sussex to run for the Oval Office “because if that happened I think I’d have an even stronger feeling toward running”.

On the record

“I’d be very happy come back and answer any and all questions about how No 10 works, why I left, all the different things, crazy stories that have been in the media. I’d be happy to clarify all of those.”

Dominic Cummings tells MPs on the science and tech committee

From the Twitterati“When’s No 10’s half hour vaccine documentary coming out btw?”

asks POLITICO’s Alex Wickham on vaccine supply issue..

“Good news: 25m people jabbed. Hooray. Bad news: Jab supply about to slum. Hmm.”

… adds the i’s Andrew Johnson

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: Cummings wants to turn the UK into the ‘home of science’

John Rentoul, The Independent: PM couldn’t do serious even whentalking about violence against women

Melissa Reddy, The Independent: The truth about covering football as a female journalist

Joel Golby, The Guardian: My advice for any politicians thinking of TikTok? Don’t

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