Helen MacNamara fmr dep cab sec emerging as one of the heroes of the pandemic. Her email to the then NHS England chief Simon Stevens on the issue of PPE for women (SS told her it wasn't a problem) MacNamara in her witness statement points out there was more thought in No10 put into hunting/shooting than childcare/pregnancy/domestic abuse during pandemic response

NEW: Boris Johnson wrote the word "bollocks" across a Dept of Health document on Long Covid, the Covid Inquiry has heard this afternoon. This and other extraordinary revelations about his handling of the pandemic, here @theipaper inews.co.uk/news/politics/… The inquiry has also heard more from chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance's diaries including: Vallance criticised Johnson's "flip-flopping" and "panic" over pandemic measures inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

One of contributing factors to the markets crisis was the Govt didn't publish OBR forecasts alongside mini-Budget = uncertainty. Govt said OBR couldn't get them ready within timescales for 23 Sept. In fact, the OBR "stood ready" to produce them by 14 Sept: inews.co.uk/news/politics/… In its defence, govt said this week that the OBR had said (quoting OBR) any forecasts would “necessarily require some reduction in the breadth and depth of the analysis and information that we would be able to provide” inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

Boris Johnson RESIGNS timetable will be agreed next week

Slightly surreal moment when Huw Merriman, the chairman of the transport select committee, tells the PM he wants to talk about "transport policy delivery" aha!

https://twitter.com/HuwMerriman/status/1544693144645734402

NEW: I've done an analysis of every time No10 announced a phone call between Boris Johnson and President Zelensky and it's amazing how many have coincided with his worst crises (full disclosure, No10 have told me this thesis is "ludicrous") inews.co.uk/news/politics/… So while it may be completely coincidental/just fancy that, here are some dates: 15 June: 6.58pm Lord Geidt resigns / 7.48pm No10 announces PM has had a call with Zelensky
6 June: 8.10am Graham Brady announces confidence vote from MPs / 11.50am PM call with Zelensky announced

Keir Starmer accuses PM of wanting “the country to grind to a halt so he can feed off the division” #PMQs #strikes Starmer says PM “thinks he’s on #LoveIsland … contestants that give the public the ick get booted out” #pmqs

Speaking very personally, I am appalled at this case and the way the victim, who was failed by the SNP's own informal investigation, was then implicitly criticised by the Commons investigators for going public about his ordeal. Details in this thread below

https://twitter.com/WEP_UK/status/1536703339995582464

My heart goes out to the victim, whose ordeal was in 2016 yet had to wait until today for the outcome. Once again, another MP receives a two-day sanction for a serious breach of the Commons' harassment and bullying policies

The government's daily dashboard will no longer be updated at weekends from this week as part of plans to "live with the virus" @theipaper inews.co.uk/news/politics/… This is major news for dashboard fans like myself. I interviewed covid dashboard heroes @statsgeekclare and @Pouriaaa a year ago about what exactly goes into the daily update. Pouria said at the time, it will be there for as long as it is needed: inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

This is correct. The reality is more time/analysis is needed. Senior U.K. health official last week: most cases are 20-40 age group because they’re the most mobile/active in a population. Variant only around a couple of weeks, so cases won’t be going to hospital yet anyway.

https://twitter.com/bnodesk/status/1464734073897766919

Maybe Omicron causes less severe illness, maybe not. Nobody knows for sure yet and anyone claiming they know differently is wrong. This is why govts are taking precautions until they have more evidence

The two Omicron cases in Nottingham and Chelmsford were identified due to overnight sequencing, Dept of Health says. It’s worth saying the U.K. capacity to sequence Covid genomes - which spot the variants - is world class AND Omicron has a feature which makes it easy to spot in this sequencing. So it’s a concern but our scientists and public health experts are *on it*

Just going back to all my tweets from April raising concerns about the Indian variant, as Delta was called then, and all the people - including some experts! - who berated me for scare-mongering or “not understanding” the virus I see some of those “expert” tweets have been deleted. Anyway, this is not about I told you so, this is to say that I spend every day, often into the evening, contacting virologists/epidemiologists/other scientists/Whitehall officials about Covid and I don’t scaremonger

BREAKING: I understand South Africa will be placed on the U.K. red list due to the rise in cases of the “super variant” Full story here @theipaper inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

NEW on Nu: UK medical experts are meeting to discuss whether South Africa should face travel restrictions given the very rapid developments on B.1.1.529, as first reported by @theipaper yesterday inews.co.uk/news/politics/… Cases in South Africa are nearing 100, but experts there say there'll be "many more" tomorrow. The WHO's advisory group on variants is holding urgent talks, also Fri, on whether to designate it variant of interest or of concern with the potential label Nu inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

Key phrase from Rachel Reeves’ speech - “the everyday economy” - has a good ring to it: shifting the economy to one that works for ordinary working people, taxes tech giants, cutting business rates for high street #Lab21 Reeves accuses Chancellor Rishi Sunak of being “missing in action” over the fuel crisis and says “the Tories have lost control”. #lab21

BREAKING: cases of the India Delta variant have risen from 12431 to 42323 in *a week* - 21 June looking increasingly unlikely PHE analysis suggests Delta is 60% more transmissible than Kent/Alpha

Greg Clark confirms that despite agreeing to at his committee appearance, Dominic Cummings has not provided any evidence to back up his allegations against Matt Hancock in time for today’s hearing, nor has he provided an explanation Hancock says “no” to question of did he say anything to PM that he knew to be untrue

Since reading Gareth Southgate’s Dear England piece, this line - “we are independent thinkers” - has stayed with me. That’s it isn’t it? We lament division, rightly, when it causes harm but we have always embraced debate, constantly questioning group think. This isn’t unique to England or the U.K. of course, but diversity of opinion has been a common quality of successful political parties, culture, the arts

At the daily Downing St press conference on Sunday 5 April 2020 I tried to ask Jenny Harries, alongside Matt Hancock, what the plan was for testing in care homes. I always remember this because I had to follow up twice to get an answer because she wasn’t completely clear 1/ The answer in the end was they were doing 5 in each setting & where there had been outbreaks. Harries said “we wouldn’t necessarily test everybody”. This sounded odd at the time - this isn’t hindsight - & I kept asking when there would be a plan to do proper testing in care homes

I feel like I might be in a minority but I’m approaching the Cummings hearing like this: he’s a super-whistleblower offering us a dress rehearsal for the full public inquiry Huge admission right at start: “the truth is senior ministers, senior officials senior advisers like me tell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this. When the public needed us most the government failed”

BREAKING: I’ve learnt that Sage are holding an urgent meeting tomorrow to discuss a dramatic rise in cases of the Indian variant, with some scientists fearing delays to roadmap: inews.co.uk/news/scientist… Cases to be published tomorrow are expected to show a tripling of B1617.2 in the past week inews.co.uk/news/scientist…