Coronavirus

Implementing tougher Australia-style border closures would not help the UK tackle the coronavirus pandemic, transport secretary Grant Shapps has insisted. The cabinet minister said the UK’s proximity to continental Europe means it is important that vital goods and people continue to move in and out of the country. The government has faced criticism for not […]

Matt Hancock has downplayed suggestions he took advice on the UK’s vaccine strategy from a Hollywood film, telling Good Morning Britain (GMB) he had in fact consulted numerous sources. Hancock told LBC radio he had become aware that a row could break out over who was eligible for a Covid jab from Contagion, a 2011 thriller about the deadly outbreak of […]

The UK’s advertising watchdog has banned Ryanair’s “jab and go” holiday advertisement campaign, citing concerns it encourages the public to act irresponsibly once they had received the coronavirus vaccine. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the two ads, which were the third-most complained-about of all time, mere days after the airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said […]

Captain Sir Tom Moore has died at the age of 100 after testing positive for Covid-19. The charity fundraiser was taken to Bedford Hospital on Sunday after being treated for pneumonia for some time and testing positive for coronavirus last week. In a statement, his daughters Hannah and Lucy said: “It is with great sadness […]

Downing Street has denied that government scientific advisers called for the closure of UK borders to prevent the spread of new coronavirus variants ‘weeks ago’. The discovery of the South Africa strain of coronavirus has prompted a series of travel bans, with people arriving into England from anywhere outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands […]

A “mutation of concern” has been detected in the UK variant of coronavirus, which scientists have described as “a worrying development”. This mutation, known as E484K, is already present in both South African and Brazilian coronavirus variants and experts believe it could have an impact on the effectiveness of some Covid-19 vaccines. Laboratory studies have […]

A Tory MP who refused to apologise for misleading comments about Covid-19 may still face disciplinary action by his party, Michael Gove has hinted. Sir Desmond Swayne wrongly told a group of vaccine sceptics that some Covid-19 data had been “manipulated” while encouraging them to “persist” with their campaign against lockdown restrictions. Gove, a cabinet minister, said […]

James O’Brien has hit out at critics who have said Remainers are defending the EU’s decision to impose a hard border on the island of Ireland, simply because they are supporters of the bloc. O’Brien took some time during his show on LBC radio to address accusations that Remainers have failed to condemn the EU over […]

Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock have both been compared to TV characters in the latest poll that explored public perceptions of No 10’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Respondents said Johnson reminded them of Mr Bean while the health secretary was compared to the self-pitying Ian Beale from BBC’s EastEnders. A portion wished New Zealand’s Jacinda Arden […]

An anti-Brexit campaigner has called on politicians in Westminster and Brussels to “think more maturely” after the EU invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Scientists for EU director Dr Mike Galsworthy said the “kerfuffle” over the weekend “in no way justifies burning £200billion on Brexit”. On Friday, EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen triggered Article 16 of […]

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said the bloc’s contracts with AstraZeneca – which produces one of several Covid jabs – contains binding orders and clear delivery quantities. AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot has said the contract was “not a commitment” and that the firm had only agreed to meet demand to its “best effort”. Von der […]

A government minister has defended the government’s decision to lock down when it did in March, despite saying that acting earlier “would have saved more lives”. Apprenticeships minister Gillian Keegan told Question Time that had the country locked down earlier and shut its borders then “we would have had a lower death toll for sure”. […]

A German MEP has warned the UK is acting like Donald Trump over the coronavirus vaccines. Dr Peter Liese was speaking to the BBC’s Newscast podcast when said the UK appeared to be echoing the former US president’s “US-first policy”. He said: “If it’s true what some say that the UK had a ‘UK first’ contract – […]

Priti Patel has denied that she was hypocritical for going on a work trip away from London after criticising social media influencers for using work as an excuse to travel. The home secretary defended the decision to leave London for a meet and greet with police officers, saying it was part of her “statutory duties”. She […]

PAUL KNOTT on the reasons behind Brussels’ stuttering vaccine rollout. Alarm bells are ringing loud across the European Union about the slow rollout of its Covid-19 vaccinations. Brussels opted for a characteristically centralised vaccine process in order to reduce tensions between countries, but may have ended up inadvertently stoking them. The original decisions that partly caused this unsteady […]

The government has withdrawn a “stay home, save lives” poster following backlash over its apparently sexist depiction of women. The poster showed one picture of a woman reclining in a man’s arms on the sofa followed by three images of women looking after children and doing housework. Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “It has been […]

An excursion to film a new BBC show provides some escape from politics… but not much. I virtually unplugged from politics for a whole day last week, and felt a lot better for it, until the day ended, and I caught up with what had been happening in my absence. Just another day in the […]

Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne has refused to apologise for telling vaccine sceptics to “persist” with their campaign against lockdown restrictions, arguing he was unaware of their position on jabs. After being told to apologise by Cabinet minister Michael Gove, the New Forest West MP told the PA news agency: “I have always had a […]

Cabinet minister Michael Gove has said there is “an opportunity to look back” at government decisions made during the pandemic as he dismissed concerns it should not have allowed households to mix over Christmas. Gove suggested the government was not to blame for a spike in infections after Christmas during an interview on Good Morning Britain (GMB). No […]

A Tory minister has refused to say if one of their MPs should lose the whip for “completely out of order” comments about Covid-19 statistics. Swayne was interviewed by a US anti-vaccine campaigner and urged an anti-lockdown group to persist with their efforts, suggesting official data should not be trusted. He said he is a […]

Tory Brexiteer Sir Desmond Swayne has been accused of spreading “dangerous misinformation” about the coronavirus after he reportedly said that the infection and mortality figures had been “manipulated”. In comments reportedly made in November, the lockdown-sceptic Tory MP told the group Save Our Rights UK that the UK was “bouncing round at the typical level of […]

An SNP MP is proposing a bill to parliament which he hopes would end the “growing culture of secrecy and cronyism at the heart of government”. Owen Thompson says that the Ministerial Interests (Emergency Powers) Bill would “force government ministers to answer questions about any personal, political or financial connections they may have to a […]

Boris Johnson is “the worst PM” and must resign soon, Alastair Campbell has suggested in an article savaging the prime minister’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Campbell, The New European‘s editor-at-large and former Downing Street director of communications, said it was “hard to overstate the scale of the catastrophe” over which Johnson presides. In an opinion piece […]

A Spanish MEP is lobbying for the European Union to include the flag of Europe on coronavirus vaccines which are produced in the EU 27 countires. Domènec Ruiz Devesa is campaigning for the blue and gold star logo to feature on the vaccine boxes and delivery vans where the jabs have been produced to promote […]

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has urged Boris Johnson to follow his own coronavirus advice ahead of a planned trip to the country – to work from home and avoid unnecessary travel. The SNP politician said her Tory opponent is “welcome” any time as prime minister of the UK, but reminded him of his advice […]

AstraZeneca (AZ) has denied pulling out of an EU vaccine conference, its chief executive has said as a row over supply continues to heat up. Chief executive Pascal Soriot withdrew company officials from a planned meeting with EU representatives on Wednesday, Sky News reported. The company denied the claims though – and said it was still scheduled. This comes as the […]

A Tory former minister broke the ministerial code when he began working for a PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) firm shortly after leaving government, the UK’s anti-corruption watchdog has said. George Freeman MP, who was a former health minister and member of Boris Johnson and David Cameron’s government, failed to register with the watchdog before accepting a […]

AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot has given an optimistic prediction for the UK’s coronavirus vaccine rollout as he sought to explain the problems being faced by the EU. “By March, the UK will have vaccinated maybe 28 or 30 million people,” he said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “The prime minister has a […]

Boris Johnson is “gaslighting the nation” when he says No 10 has done all it could to minimise coronavirus deaths, a Sky News presenter has said. Niall Paterson also accused the prime minister of being tone-deaf. Interviewing housing minister Robert Jenrick, Paterson said: “The words of a prime minister when 100,000 people have died with […]

The UK could see another 50,000 deaths from coronavirus, a scientist advising the government has warned, as the prime minister said he was “deeply sorry” for every life lost. Boris Johnson insisted he takes “full responsibility” for the response to the pandemic and said “we did everything we could” to minimise suffering as the government’s […]

Boris Johnson has claimed that the government “did everything we could to minimise loss of life” as the UK’s coronavirus death toll reached 100,000. Speaking at the latest Downing Street press conference, he said it is “hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic”. “I’m sorry to have to tell you that today the […]

An SNP MP has asked Priti Patel why she has not quit as home secretary following the revelation she failed to close the UK’s borders back in March. The confrontation occurred during a statement from the home secretary in the Commons. Defending the government’s border strategy, Patel told MPs: “From January 2020 the government has had […]