Coronavirus

Matt Hancock’s department has signed off on two Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) deals worth more than £90million with a state-backed Chinese firm listed at a hotel room in Beijing, new documents show. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) struck two lucrative contracts during the first coronavirus wave with Beijing Union Glory Investment Co Ltd, […]

The government has tried to give NHS staff “as much as we possibly can” after recommending a 1% pay rise, the prime minister has said. The proposal has sparked talk of industrial action and demonstrations were planned across England on Sunday, with senior Conservatives also speaking out. An Opinium poll has suggested as much as […]

Despite attempts to bridge it since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the chasm between Eastern and Western Europe remains wide. The pandemic has pushed the two regions even further apart. No-one better embodies the liberation of Central and Eastern Europe from Communism than Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright, dissident and first democratically-elected president of the modern era. […]

Health minister Nadine Dorries has been left to defend the government’s decision to give a 1% pay rise to nurses and other health workers, following the revelation that the figure has been submitted to the sector’s pay review body (PRB). She gave a series of media interviews on Friday defending the government’s position, saying nurses have […]

Labour has accused the chancellor of failing patients due to planned cuts to day-to-day spending in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Written Budget documents revealed that there is a planned cut of £30 billion in day-to-day spending from April of this year, falling from £199.2 billion to £169.1 billion. NHS England will […]

JAMES BALL on the mounting national debt, and what should be done about it. Think, for a moment, about your home. This should not be a difficult task for most of us, given we’ve all been spending a lot more time than usual stuck there. There’s probably a bed, a kitchen, hopefully a TV – […]

CHRISTINE JARDINE calls for the government to clean up the mess left behind by Brexit and its failed Covid support schemes. This week will be a pivotal moment for our economy and for all our futures. When the chancellor gets to his feet to deliver the budget, millions of people who have seen their lives, […]

The decision to delay second doses of Covid vaccines in an effort to jab more older people has been credited with saving a “large number” of lives after data suggested hospital admissions are being greatly reduced by the rollout. The “exciting” and “hugely reassuring” results from a Public Health England (PHE) study have indicated that […]

Slovak president Zuzana Čaputová has praised the EU’s joint vaccination procurement programme, arguing without it, small countries like hers would have struggled to source their own jabs. Čaputová said though negotiations could have started earlier, member states made the right decision in pooling their resources. The president told POLITICO it was a “good thing, that we had a […]

A hunt is underway to locate one of the first people in the UK believed to have contracted the Manaus variant of coronavirus, a new strain that may spread more rapidly and respond less well to existing vaccines. Public Health England (PHE) said on Sunday that six cases of the concerning P.1 variant first detected […]

A new record is about to be set for the longest period of time since a parliamentary by-election was held in the UK. On March 5, a total of 582 days will have passed since voters last went to the polls in a Westminster by-election. The gap is unprecedented in post-war history, according to analysis […]

The coronavirus crisis has made the UK look “dysfunctional” at times due to a lack of co-operation between administrations, Gordon Brown has said. In an article on devolution for the Scottish Fabians think tank, the former prime minister also said Boris Johnson risks becoming the “biggest recruiting sergeant for nationalism” due to his position on […]

Reports claim that chancellor Rishi Sunak will not include a pay boost for health workers in England’s forthcoming budget, despite warnings it could cause an exodus among frontline staff. Sunak will not make any decision on salaries for NHS staff until he receives the NHS Pay Review Body’s conclusions, which are due to be delivered […]

A German newspaper has expressed “envy” at Britain’s roadmap out of lockdown and criticised Angela Merkel’s handling of the country’s vaccine programme. German daily Bild criticised chancellor Merkel on Tuesday over her failure to secure the same results for her citizens. The paper read: “Dear British, WE ENVY YOU! Simply HAPPY! This means: normal life is coming […]

MPs have called on Matt Hancock to apologise after he denied there was ever a national shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves urged the health secretary to say sorry to NHS and care staff who “had to make makeshift PPE” due to a lack of […]

There are good signs that coronavirus will not suddenly start escaping from the vaccine, MPs have heard. Professor Sarah Gilbert, of the University of Oxford, told the Science and Technology Committee: “Certainly what we’re seeing at the moment is a reduction in efficacy against variants rather than falling off a cliff edge. “We have to […]

Wales’ elections in May could be delayed – but when they eventually happen they will help make history. The scene was set for May 6 2021 to be a historic day for democracy in Wales. It would be the first time that 16 and 17 year olds would be able to vote in an election. […]

Education secretary Gavin Williamson has not ruled out lengthening school days or shortening summer breaks to help pupils in England catch up from coronavirus disruption. Ministers have announced an extra £400 million of funding and asked secondaries to deliver some summer teaching to counteract the months of classroom closures. With all pupils in England set […]

Matt Hancock appears to have removed a picture of a friend’s pub from his wall following a court ruling on coronavirus contracts. Alex Bourne, who ran the Cock Inn near Hancock’s former constituency in Thurlow, secured a contract to provide medical equipment after contacting the health secretary over Whatsapp. It comes as the UK’s medicines regulator, […]

When it comes to the NHS, the pandemic has changed everything. It will emerge exhausted and facing colossal demand. Yet attitudes to it have been utterly transformed. In a special report, Lawrence Dunhill considers what lies ahead for the service. The coronavirus vaccination programme offers realistic hope the NHS will soon be through the worst of this pandemic, […]

Just over a third of the public in England think Matt Hancock should resign after a court ruled that he had “breached his legal obligation” by not publishing details of contracts surrounding personal protective equipment (PPE). New polling from Savanta ComRes – conducted on Monday – found the public were split on the issue with […]

Matt Hancock has said he has no problem breaching laws surrounding the issuing of contracts again if he were the health minister during another public health emergency. The health secretary refused to apologise after a High Court ruling found he had “breached his legal obligation” to publish details of contracts within 30 days. The breach applied to […]

The Labour Party has criticised the decision to delay enforcement action against companies that fail to report their gender pay gap by this year’s deadline. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it will not begin enforcement proceedings against companies until six months after the deadline of April 4, the Guardian newspaper reported. The […]

Jeremy Corbyn has called on Boris Johnson to sack his health secretary and replace him with someone who would “obey the law” following the minster’s run-in with the courts over the awarding of Covid contracts. The former Labour leader on Monday said that “answers are required” from the prime minister over Matt Hancock’s role in unlawfully […]

Boris Johnson has said spring and summer in England will usher in changes to make lives “incomparably better” as he set out a plan to fully ease the lockdown by June 21. The prime minister defended his “cautious but also irreversible” approach to relaxing restrictions with a four-step plan on Monday, arguing he will not […]

Scientists advising the government fear that a fresh wave of coronavirus cases and deaths could hit the country by July as lockdown lifts – with the most optimistic assumption leading to a further 30,000 deaths. Documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) show how modelling predicts a big rise in cases and deaths if restrictions lift […]

Matt Hancock has declined to apologise after the High Court ruled the government unlawfully failed to publish details of billions of pounds’ worth of coronavirus-related contracts. The health eecretary has faced calls for greater accountability after a judge said he did not publish redacted contracts in accordance with the transparency policy. However, Hancock insisted legal […]

Our understanding of Covid, and of how to treat it, has grown enormously over the past year. But mortality hasn’t significantly fallen. In the early weeks of 2020, the NHS prepared for the pandemic however it could. Wards were labelled red and green to keep active Covid cases away from those not infected, where possible. […]

A year ago coronavirus switched from being something remote to something much more real. For everyone, that precise moment of understanding was different. Nicky Woolf reports. There is a before, and there is an after. Before was normality – going to the pub, socialising, hugging, shaking hands, not being afraid. After was isolation, despair, loneliness, sickness and death. […]

New Zealand has attracted the envy of many European liberals, not just for its handling of Covid but – perhaps not unconnected – also its political leadership. Returning native Garth Cartwright reports back from a nation experiencing a very different pandemic. Imagine a land where the populace is enjoying a long, blissful summer; theatres, cinemas, […]

The government unlawfully failed to publish details of billions of pounds’ worth of coronavirus-related contracts, the High Court has ruled. The Good Law Project took legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for its “wholesale failure” to disclose details of contracts agreed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The government is required by […]

England should impose a “traffic light system” for re-opening various sectors of the economy, Tony Blair has advised in a report published by his thinktank, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI). The former Labour prime minister weighed into the lockdown debate by publishing his own plans on how the nations should ease restrictions. The plan includes a […]