Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can Gavin Williamson limit the impact of school closures?

It is much harder being an embattled minister in the socially distanced Commons than in normal times. There is no group of supportive MPs to arrange behind you, no ability to organise sympathetic noises from the backbenches as you give your statement explaining why you’ve taken a last-minute decision to close all schools when you said you wouldn’t and had been threatening councils who were trying to do so just before Christmas with legal action, and why you’ve spent the past few weeks insisting that exams would go ahead in the summer, only to cancel them this week too. On this charge sheet, Gavin Williamson would have struggled in any

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

How many vaccinations are needed to end lockdown?

12 min listen

The government has announced that 23 per cent of over 80s in England have now received their first dose of the Covid vaccine. With Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock aiming to give 13.5 million people the jab before the middle of February, will that be enough to end lockdown restrictions? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Gavin Williamson’s schools opening gaffe

Oh dear. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has not exactly been at the top of his game in recent weeks. Across the country teachers, children and parents have been thrown into turmoil by the government’s haphazard education plans, which have seen schools open up for a single day, and national exams cancelled, despite the Education Secretary’s insistence they would ‘absolutely’ go ahead. Still, Mr S hoped that Williamson would at least be clear in his mind about getting schools back open once again. Unfortunately, the minister seemed to rather struggle with that message when in Parliament today. In a statement, Williamson instead insisted that: ‘I can absolutely assure the honourable lady,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can the PM sustain his vague lockdown timetable?

Boris Johnson doesn’t have as angry a Conservative party to deal with as he might have expected after announcing his third national lockdown. The Covid Recovery Group of MPs has largely moved on from opposing further restrictions to putting pressure on the government over its vaccine timetable, meaning any revolt on tonight’s vote will be much smaller than the 55 who rebelled against the tiered system in December. But that’s not to say that the Prime Minister can afford to be careless with the way he communicates with MPs, and his statement in the Commons today showed that. He opened by telling MPs that there was a ‘fundamental difference between the

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Liam Fox’s jab at vaccine red tape

Liam Fox is a qualified GP, albeit one who isn’t practising at the moment. So why is it that he — and no doubt thousands like him — are subjected to ‘diversity’ paperwork before he’s allowed to help with the Covid vaccine rollout? Fox asked the PM: ‘As a qualified, non-practising doctor, I volunteered. But can I ask the Prime Minister why I have been required to complete courses on conflict resolution, equality, diversity and human rights, moving and handling loads and preventing radicalisation in order to give a simple Covid jab?’ The PM promised on Sunday that he would remove these barriers, which include guidance on ‘deradicalisation’ and ‘conflict

Debbie Hayton

Closing schools was inevitable. But cancelling exams is a mistake

On Sunday morning, Boris Johnson told us that schools were safe but, tellingly, did not rule out further closures. By Monday evening he had shut every school in England to most pupils. By then, of course, many primary schools had opened for just one day. Children mingled – as they do – and went home not to return. But after those bubbles were mixed, fewer grandparents may be willing to look after them. When will they return? Johnson said not until half term, at least. But when policy can reverse so quickly in less than 36 hours, just about the only certainty is that it is far easier to close schools than

Alistair Haimes

Lockdown sceptics should support this lockdown

Scepticism is supposed to be the bedrock of science. But where scepticism shades into cynicism it can be as blind to changing events as the unexamined credence it claims to displace. Scientific belief should be based on informed supposition which is then rigorously tested against the evidence — that is the basis of the scientific method. There should be no shame in changing opinions and assumptions when facts change. We start with assumptions, test them against the evidence (which itself changes) and then use that conclusion to repeat the process, ad infinitum. So if conclusions don’t change when facts change, something might have gone awry. As an example: your view

Tuesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Inside Boris Johnson’s Zoom Q&A with Tory MPs

After Boris Johnson used a statement to the nation on Monday evening to announce a third national lockdown, ministers made plans to recall parliament for a Wednesday sitting to debate the measures. But before Johnson faces the music in the Chamber, the Prime Minister addressed his own MPs in a 45-minute meeting of the 1922 committee via Zoom.  In his opening statement, Johnson tried to explain to his party why he felt he had no choice but to resort to a national lockdown – stating that 2 per cent of the population now have Covid. He said the aim of the vaccination programme was to create ‘a force field of immunity’. He

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Britain’s vaccination programme is running out of time

Was the latest release from the Office of National Statistics the shocking piece of evidence that led the Prime Minister to change his mind on children going back to school, and to introduce a full lockdown in England?  The ONS does not usually publish its infection survey on Tuesdays – it usually comes out on Fridays – yet today we seem to have a special release. It shows that the sharply rising numbers of new infections as picked up through the NHS Test and Trace system, and which have shown 60,000 new infections today, are not the result of distortions caused by Christmas. The ONS survey is based on testing

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson’s justifications for lockdown

Boris Johnson this evening tried to give a little more background to why he had called England’s latest lockdown – and why he had confidence that this really was the darkness before the dawn. The Prime Minister told the Downing Street coronavirus briefing (yes, we are back in that sort of lockdown) that more than 1 million people in England are now infected with Covid – around 2 per cent of the population, according to the ONS – but that as of today, the same number of people in England, and a total of 1.3 million people across the UK, have received the vaccine. He had to explain why he

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Boris Johnson isn’t the only one to blame for Britain’s Covid crisis

Britain has suffered one of the world’s highest Covid death tolls and worst Covid recessions. It has managed this abysmal feat despite spending nearly £300bn on countering the virus, a sum far greater than almost any other comparable country. We have achieved the triple crown of medical, economic and fiscal failure because of a reason that is under-discussed: the lethal divisions on the right. They have paralysed the government, and condemned thousands to premature deaths and needless suffering. Yet we do not see them with the clarity we should because of our skewed culture. Conservative titles dominate the written media, and for reasons I will get to, opposition to public health

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why are the UK’s borders still open?

11 min listen

Following the announcement of a third lockdown, a testing regime for arrivals could be put in place. It comes as Michael Gove said there would be announcements in the coming days about ‘how we will make sure that our ports and airports are safe’, and Nicola Sturgeon said ‘urgent’ discussions were underway. Isabel Hardman talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Can Boris hit his vaccine target?

The government has failed to meet so many Covid-related targets so far that many will be extremely sceptical of the Prime Minister’s pledge on Monday evening to get the over-70s, front-line care workers and vulnerable people of all ages vaccinated by the middle of February. That is around 13 million first doses which will have to be delivered over the next six weeks – compared with just over a million which have been administered since the Pfizer vaccination programme began four weeks ago. We now have the AstraZeneca vaccine as well as the Pfizer one, but can the NHS really increase the rate of vaccination tenfold, as would be necessary to

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Gavin Williamson is the least convincing education secretary ever

It was Michael Gove who declared today that the Government was closing schools with the ‘heaviest of hearts’ and confirmed that A levels and GCSEs were off. Where, you wondered, was Gavin Williamson, the actual Education Secretary? Busy, no doubt, preparing for his own announcement on Wednesday, which, on the basis of his previous record, will reassure no one. Personally, I think the decision to cancel exams is really bad. I can’t remember whether it was Einstein we credit with that quote about repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome being the quintessence of stupidity, but it pretty well sums up the situation here.  Last summer, some schools

Robert Peston Robert Peston

We need to cut vaccine red tape

As I mentioned on Monday, in a fortnight AstraZeneca will be putting 2 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine into vials every week. At that point the limiting factor on how many people can be vaccinated will switch from manufacturing to distribution – and in particular how long it takes to ‘process’ each person who turns up to be vaccinated. It allegedly takes three times longer in the UK than in Israel to do the on-site paperwork for each vaccinated person. Which, if true, means the UK would be processing a smaller number of people than it could be vaccinating every day. And in the current raging epidemic that would

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Why haven’t we shut the UK border already?

‘This country has not only left the European Union but on January 1 we will take back full control of our money, our borders and our laws,’ said Boris Johnson in October last year. The transition period is now over; we are out of the single market and customs union, which means freedom of movement of people is at an end. The UK has total control over its borders (other than the one on the island of Ireland, but let’s not go there today). So it is worth asking why the government is choosing not to exercise this right in anything approaching an appropriate manner at present, particularly when such

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Sunak unveils lockdown bail-out for businesses

Rishi Sunak’s latest giveaway totals £4.6 billion in grants for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, amounting to up to £9,000 per outlet. Alongside this comes an additional £1.1 billion for local authorities and a £600 million discretionary fund for businesses that might not qualify for the main grant. This money is meant to help businesses with their fixed costs problem: having to pay rent, utilities and upkeep despite bringing in far less income (in some cases, no income at all). The largest cost for most business owners — payroll — was addressed in December when the Chancellor extended the furlough scheme to the end of April.  But this extra support

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Britain has two key advantages in the vaccine race

Everything now turns on how quickly the vaccines can be rolled out. When this lockdown ends – and when all the restrictions can be lifted – depends on how fast people can be immunised. Last night, Boris Johnson set the state the target of having vaccinated 13 million people by the middle of February so that the lockdown measures can be eased later that month. There is an understandable scepticism about this target —people remember when test and trace was meant to prevent the need for a second national lockdown.  But the UK has two great advantages when it comes to rolling out a vaccine. First, it has a domestically-manufactured

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Vocational students are being treated with contempt – again

England’s third national lockdown is an avalanche of news, affecting just about every bit of our lives. It’s a lot for anyone to grasp, but that’s still not an excuse for the fact that, once again, young people studying for technical qualifications such as BTECs have been ignored and let down. According to the Association of Colleges, around 135,000 students are due to take assessments or sit exams in colleges this week: some exams are due today. And while the Prime Minister in his televised address last night talked about school and the need to cancel summer exams such as GCSEs and A-levels, the Government currently considers that BTEC tests

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Michael Gove suggests lockdown could continue until March

When Boris Johnson addressed the nation on Monday evening, he was keen to offer a glimmer of hope as he announced a seven-week lockdown. The Prime Minister said that the lockdown would be reviewed in the week commencing 15 February – with a hope of sending pupils back to school after the February half term. This is the date by which Johnson aims to have vaccinated 13.2 million people, making up the most vulnerable and elderly. However, anyone thinking about making firm plans for the following week may need to think again. As has become a trend in this pandemic, Michael Gove has embarked on a morning round in which he