Boris Johnson news: Robert Jenrick releases documents in £1bn property row involving Tory donor after Labour pressure
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Housing secretary Robert Jenrick bowed to pressure from Labour to release documents about his approval of a £1bn property development involving recent Tory donor Richard Desmond.
The 129-page bundle included text messages between the pair about the decision which allowed Mr Desmond to avoid making a £45m payment to the local council. Two weeks later Mr Desmond gave the Conservative Party £12,000.
Meanwhile Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed that Boris Johnson “has been found out” at PMQs, alleging he “either dodges the question or gives dodgy answers”, after the Children’s Commissioner’s office labelled the prime minister’s child poverty claims the week prior “mostly false” and “simply false”.
It came as Mr Johnson – a day after taking significant steps to ease England’s lockdown and scrapping the daily Downing Street briefing – was urged to publish a “transparent” and “forward-looking” review by October into whether the UK is prepared for the “real risk” of a second wave of coronavirus, in an open letter by 16 prominent health leaders.
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Priti Patel pledges to implement Windrush scandal review's recommendations 'in full'
The home secretary has promised that all 30 recommendations of the review into the Windrush Scandal will be implemented by the Home Office, and said she will speak to the report's author Wendy Williams this week about realising the Lessons Learned Review recommendations in full.
In a Commons statement, Ms Patel said: "I was clear when Wendy Williams published her Lessons Learned Review that I would listen and I would act. I have heard what she has said and I will be accepting the recommendations she has made in full.
"I am committed to ensuring that the Home Office delivers for each part of the community it serves and I will come back to update the House on how we will be implementing the recommendations before the summer recess."
She added: "My determination to right the wrongs and the injustices suffered by the Windrush generation is undiminished and I will do all I can to make sure that more people are helped and more people are compensated in full. And if additional resources are needed, they will be provided."
The review, which was published in March, was critical of the "hostile environment" policy operated by successive governments to tackle illegal immigration. Ms Williams' report concluded that the Home Office had shown "ignorance and thoughtlessness" on the issue of race when some people were incorrectly told that they did not have the right to be in Britain.
The Williams report made 30 recommendations, including that the government should host a programme of reconciliation events with members of the Windrush generation, ensure that Home Office staff undertake a comprehensive programme covering the history of the UK and its colonial history, and appoint a Migrants' Commission who would be responsible for speaking up for migrants and those affected by the system.
'Extraordinarily risky' to lift lockdown measures now, warns ex-chief scientific adviser, cautioning move risks second wave
Lifting lockdown measures now risks a second wave during the winter, former chief scientific adviser Sir David King has warned, saying: “I think it’s extraordinarily risky.
“If we take the long view we know that the winter is a likely period when the virus takes off again. We must therefore aim to completely get rid of the virus from this country before the winter.”
His warning came a day after Boris Johnson announced that pubs and restaurants will reopen on 4 July, and that the two-metre rule will be eased.
“If we move too quickly, which is what I think is being proposed here, the risk of running into a second wave becomes very significant,” Sir David told Sky News.
MPs oppose Commons debates on bullying and harassment complaints against them
Bullying and harassment complaints against MPs will not be debated in the House of Commons after a controversial proposal was amended, Richard Wheeler, Sophie Morris and Lewis McKenzie report.
MPs voted by 243 votes to 238, majority five, in favour of Labour former minister Chris Bryant’s amendment, which ruled out debating complaints against them in the chamber.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg had tabled a motion to establish an independent expert panel to determine complaints of bullying or harassment under the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS).
Part of the motion would have enabled a constrained debate to take place, but it raised fears that complainants could be “re-victimised” if MPs were given the chance to speak about the case in public and stop victims coming forward.
An independent complaints process was developed following a major report on bullying and harassment in the House of Commons by Dame Laura Cox, who also expressed concerns about the possibility of allowing debates.
MPs on the home affairs committee will today question the National Police Chiefs' Council chair over the disproportionate targeting of black people and ethnic minorities.
Chris Whitty says he expects UK to remain at 'significant' levels until the spring of 2021 at least
The public has been urged by Boris Johnson and his chief scientific advisers to proceed with caution despite the reopening of pubs and restaurants from 4 July, Andrew Woodcock reports.
Announcing relaxations to lockdown rules in the Commons, the prime minister said “our long national hibernation” was over and agreed with a Tory MP who said people should “do their patriotic best for Britain” by going to pub as they reopen.
But at the daily Downing Street briefing later, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance warned that the PM’s package – which will also see hotels open, friends and families allowed to meet in their own homes and the two-metre social distancing rule cut to a minimum of one – was “not risk-free”.
And chief medical officer Chris Whitty predicted that Covid-19 would still be circulating at “significant” levels at least until the spring of 2021.
Both stressed that two metres remains the general rule for social contacts outside of the home, and that people should approach more closely only if they have taken mitigating steps like wearing face coverings, sitting side by side and keeping interactions brief.
Health leaders urge UK nations to review readiness for second wave
Writing in the BMJ, 16 health leaders - including the presidents of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Nursing, GPs and Surgeons, and the editors of the BMA, BMJ and The Lancet - have called on the four UK governments to urgently review their preparedness for a second wave of coronavirus, by October.
They call for the review to be "forward-looking" rather than attribute blame, and to focus on:
- Governance, including parliamentary scrutiny and involvement of regional and local structures and leaders - Procurement of goods and services - Coordination of existing structures, in a way designed to optimise the establishment of effective public health and communicable disease control infrastructure, the resilience of the NHS as a whole, and the shielding of vulnerable individuals and communities - The disproportionate burden on black, Asian, and minority ethnic individuals and communities - International collaboration, especially to mitigate any new difficulties in pandemic management due to Brexit
Government faces further challenge over complicity in property development involving Tory donor
Labour is to attempt to force the Government to release all documents relating to a controversial approval by housing secretary Robert Jenrick for a major property development involving a Tory Party donor.
The party said that it would use an opposition day debate in the Commons on Wednesday to stage a vote requiring the government to release all correspondence involving ministers and their special advisers concerning the Westferry Printworks Development in east London.
With a Conservative majority of 80, the government is unlikely to be defeated, but it represents a further opportunity for the opposition to press Mr Jenrick - who denies any impropriety - over an issue which will not go away.
The housing secretary has faced accusations of "cash or favours" after it emerged the developer, former Daily Express owner Richard Desmond, had personally given the Conservative Party £12,000 two weeks after the scheme for 1,500 homes was approved.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday's debate, shadow communities secretary Steve Reed said: "The Secretary of State has admitted he knew his unlawful, biased decision to approve Richard Desmond's property deal would save the Conservative Party donor up to £150 million, but there are still far too many questions left unanswered.
"It is essential the Government maintains public trust during the coronavirus crisis. Dominic Cummings and now Westferry have severely tested this - the Government's moral authority hangs by a thread. If the Secretary of State has nothing to hide then he has nothing to fear from publishing these documents."
PA
Plans to ‘check in’ to pubs to be monitored by information commissioner over data fears
The information watchdog is monitoring plans to require pubs to keep a register of punters, amid fears personal data could be misused, Kate Devlin and Andrew Woodcock report.
The information will help track individuals in the event of an outbreak.
But critics have called for guarantees the data will not be shared more widely, and the industry itself has expressed concerns.
It is understood ministers are consulting on how businesses should record customer information to help support the new test and trace system to fight the global pandemic.
‘Gaping lack of oversight’: UK Border Force doesn’t know how many detention facilities it runs, says report
UK Border Force doesn’t know how many detention facilities it runs, according to a new report which also highlights that children and pregnant women are being held in poor conditions for “far too long”, our social affairs correspondent May Bulman reports.
An inspection by the prisons watchdog warns of an “alarming lack of oversight and accountability” in Britain’s short-term holding facilities, with staff telling inspectors they felt as though they had been “forgotten” and that there had no national guidance as to how they should be run.
The report — the first national inspection of UK Border Force-run short-term holding facilities, where newly arrived unauthorised migrants are held — warns of “inadequate oversight” of detention practices for children, with youngsters handcuffed and searched by adults of the opposite sex.
It found that some vulnerable detainees had been held for “far too long”, including one pregnant woman who was held for nearly 28 hours in Harwich, Essex, with “little meaningful engagement” beyond the offer of food and drink.
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