Oliver Dowden – We have ‘every confidence’ there will not be future lockdowns
The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden was in the hot seat this morning amid reports that a third wave of Covid-19 is engulfing much of continental Europe. Many of the UK’s close neighbours, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, are re-introducing or extending measures to combat the so-called ‘Kent variant’ of the disease. Andrew Marr sought to get reassurance from Dowden that the government would not end up plunging England back into a fourth nationwide lockdown:
OD: [Our] aim… is to make sure this is irreversible… You can’t rule things out, but we have every confidence that we won’t have to have another lockdown… That is why we’re taking a more cautious approach.
Moderna vaccine expected ‘in April’
Problems with vaccine supply have been plaguing EU countries over recent months, and this has been the cause of sabre rattling from the Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Threats to block exports of jabs from factories within the single market, coupled with a temporary ban on AstraZeneca vaccines from leaving India, have threatened to delay the government’s ambitious targets. Help is on the horizon in the shape of the Moderna vaccine, first made famous by a significant investment from Dolly Parton, but Dowden said that all over-50s should still be able to receive their doses as originally planned:
OD: We remain on course to deliver the vaccine rollout by the middle of next month – that is to say [for] all over-50s. We expect that in April, Moderna will come…
AM: Can you guarantee everybody a second dose within 12 weeks…?
OD: We’re confident that we’ll be able to deliver [a second dose] and we are confident that it won’t require mixing of vaccines.
I have ‘zero recollection’ of Lex Greensill
Former Prime Minister David Cameron has found himself in hot water after it was alleged that he had texted Chancellor Rishi Sunak in order to lobby on behalf of a since-failed financial services company called Greensill Capital. Cameron was cleared of wrongdoing by the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, but the Sunday Times has reported today on the owner, Lex Greensill, having apparently secured extensive influence across Whitehall during Cameron’s premiership. Sophy Ridge asked Dowden, once Cameron’s deputy chief of staff, more about Mr Greensill:
OD: To the very best of my recollection, I never met with him, but I can’t say for sure… I don’t think there was any change in government policy [from the texts]. And certainly from working with David Cameron over a number of years, I have always found him to be a man of the utmost integrity.
Mark Drakeford – The union is in greatest peril ‘of my political lifetime’
Marr also spoke to the First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford. Marr confronted Drakeford over the unionist credentials of the Welsh Labour party after it was found that at least three candidates for the upcoming Senedd elections back Welsh independence. Drakeford also raised eyebrows when he claimed earlier this month that the current state of the union is ‘unsustainable’:
MD: The conversation over the last 12 months, the way the Welsh government has used our powers to keep Wales safe… has led many people to ask whether the current arrangement is the right one. I believe that the UK has to be fundamentally reformed if it is to survive, and that it is in greater peril today than it has been at any time in my political lifetime.
Vaccine passports must be ‘fair and reliable’
Drakeford also suggested that vaccine passports had the potential to be more trouble than they were worth. The Prime Minister had raised the issue of pubs being able to require such proof from potential customers, but the idea has been met with resistance:
MD: We’re prepared to go on considering this on a four-nation basis… but there are some very big practical and ethical challenges to face as well. What about those people who can’t be vaccinated?… I don’t say that these problems can’t be solved… [but] the system… has to be fair and it has to be reliable.
Nick Thomas-Symonds – Violent criminals have ‘never had it so good’
Sophy Ridge spoke to the Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, seeking his response to a Sky News report on the impact of ‘county lines’ gangs, which have been responsible for ferrying drugs and weapons across the country, using vulnerable young people as their mules. This issue appears to have become exacerbated as a result of the pandemic, and Thomas-Symonds called for a ‘victim’s law’ to help address this and the issue of violence more generally:
NTS: Violent crime has gone up in every single police force area of England and Wales over the last decade… This is a chronic failure. Frankly… violent criminals have never had it so good… We need more police out there on the streets… and we need to have a victim’s law… that puts victims first.
Intimidating teachers ‘is unacceptable’
Batley Grammar School made the news this week after it was reported that an unnamed teacher had been suspended after showing his class a controversial cartoon of the prophet Muhammad as part of a lesson on blasphemy. There have been demonstrations outside the school by offended parents, but a petition in support of the teacher has received over 50,000 signatures. Ridge asked Thomas-Symonds for his perspective:
SR: [Do] you think suspending the teacher was the right thing to do?
NTS: …I think what now needs to happen… is that we need to lower the tension and we need to move on, putting the children first. We can’t have any situations where teachers or others are somehow intimidated going about their work. That is unacceptable.
Kenny MacAskill – We want an ‘independence super-majority’
The former First Minster of Scotland Alex Salmond made waves on Friday as he announced his new political party – Alba – which will stand in May’s Holyrood elections on the proportional representation list. Kenny MacAskill, once the Scottish government’s Justice Secretary, has become the first MP to defect to Alba from the SNP. Ridge asked him to explain why:
SR: [Isn’t] what you’re doing making this election all about catfighting in the independence movement – Nicola Sturgeon vs Alex Salmond?
KA: No, this is about delivering [an] independence super-majority… The arithmetic is clear. In 2016, the SNP did not get a majority… The independence super-majority can be delivered by Alba on the list…The independence movement is a broad church.
Lorna Slater – Alba a ‘vendetta’ party ‘thrown together at the last minute’
If the fledgling Alba party does gain momentum then the chief casualties are likely to be the Scottish Greens. Their co-leader, Lorna Slater came out on the attack, and argued that the two parties would be competing for a very different pool of votes:
LS: This new party has been thrown together at the last minute by a man who is less popular in Scotland than Boris Johnson is…. [Our voters] are a totally different demographic than people that are likely to vote for a party that’s been thrown together by a disgruntled ex-First Minister as part of his vendetta against our First Minister.
Douglas Ross – PM will not grant a referendum
Ridge interviewed Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, and asked him how Boris Johnson would react if pro-independence parties do achieve a majority once the dust is settled in May. Ross insisted that there were no circumstances under which Boris Johnson would acquiesce to granting another referendum:
SR: Will he refuse to grant another referendum in all circumstances?
DR: The Prime Minister has been clear. He’s not going to grant the powers for another independence referendum…
SR: Would it be democratic though, for Boris Johnson to refuse…?
DR: Well, it wouldn’t be democratic for the nationalists to go ahead with a wildcat illegal referendum, but they’re going to do it anyway.
Nusrat Ghani – Sanctions are a ‘turning point’ in UK/China relations
And finally, the Conservative MP Nus Ghani is one of 9 UK citizens who have been sanctioned by the Chinese government for alleged ‘lies and disinformation’. The action relates to their vocal stances on the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang province. Ghani spoke to Sophy Ridge about being on the blacklist:
NG: I think the Chinese Communist party thought they were intimidating us… It’s actually made Parliament come together… and it’s also given us an opportunity to talk about… the gross human rights abuses against the Uighur people… I think these sanctions are a turning point… and I think that this is a moment that I don’t expect the Chinese [government] wanted to come about.
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