I’m at the Old Bailey for the sentencing of Jordan McSweeney, who murdered 35-year-old Zara Aleena as she walked home in Ilford in June.

Slight delay as he is refusing to come to court. His defence say he ‘doesn’t want to relive’ the night by watching CCTV played out. @LBC @LBC Jordan McSweeney is still refusing to come to the court room. Sentencing now beginning with him absent, though he is in the building.

Just Stop Oil have just thrown soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery. @LBC They walked into the gallery this morning and threw two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the masterpiece - which has an estimated value of $84.2 million.

Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Lord Brian Paddick just suggested to @AndrewMarr9 the force “may not have investigated [partygate] as hard as they could have done, because they didn’t want to upset Number 10” @LBC Lord Paddick made the comments after comparing the Partygate investigation to the Met’s failure to investigate phone hacking at first - saying in that case they didn’t want to upset their friends in the media.

5,279 Children were Strip Searched by the Met Police in London in the past three years (that's five every single day.)

THREE QUARTERS of them were from ethnically diverse backgrounds

Just under half were black

Only 22% were white 🧵
lbc.co.uk/news/three-qua… The Met's already under pressure over its use of the tactic, after a damning report found racism was a factor in a 15-year-old girl, "Child Q", being strip searched while on her period at her school in Hackney, without an appropriate adult in the room.

This is Tanya and Richard Spinks. She's Ukrainian, he's a Brit, and they both live in Lviv.

On Tuesday, she got an email from the Home Office telling her to go to a visa appointment 500 miles away in *Kyiv*

- to an office that's closed. @LBC @LBC The booking for an appointment to take her biometrics was made on 18th February - for Wednesday 9th March.

The site has since closed, and they eventually managed to get out to Poland.

But on the 8th they were staggered to get a follow-up email, reminding them to go to Kyiv.

Fire in a high rise on Whitechapel High Street. London Fire say ten engines & 70 firefighters are at the scene. They’re asking people to avoid the area if possible

https://twitter.com/JamieLFC_1892/status/1500865890212093959

Now 100 firefighters are tackling this blaze in Aldgate. You can see external parts of the building flying off as the flames spread. Praying everyone is ok

Minister James Cleverly says the Govt carries "as a badge of honour" Putin's criticism of London's sanctions against Russia @LBC @LBC "We are limiting his ability to wage war" - James Cleverly says the sanctions against Russia are hitting the country's economy

NEW: the police watchdog has slammed 'disgraceful' sexist, bullying, racist behaviour uncovered by officers based mostly at Charing Cross police station.

The killer line - "We believe these incidents are not isolated or simply the behaviour of a few ‘bad apples’." @LBC This is some of what the nine independent investigations into officers (mostly PCs) found

Sue Gray’s stripped back report still finds “some of the behaviour surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify.”

Some of the parties “should not have been allowed to take place.”

Full report here assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl… Ultimately, as expected, Sue Gray has gone into very little detail thanks to the Met Police’s last minute request.

But she does find “failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times.” 🔥

“I’m crapping myself this morning, and I feel like crying.”

Oliver is one of nine Insulate Britain activists at the High Court this morning for breaching injunctions by blocking motorways. He tells me he’s expecting a custodial sentence. @LBC Nine Insulate Britain defendants are due before the High Court Judge this morning.

The hearing is booked to last three days but they have little legal representation, and tell me they will admit to breaching the injunction - so it could be over much sooner. @LBC

Keir Starmer tells @LBC caller Graeme Labour will force a vote in Parliament on Wednesday to ask MPs to "get rid of their paid directorships and consultancies and to change the rules in Parliament."

Says in the main, "second jobs must go." @LBC Sir Keir Starmer says "second jobs must go" save for "public interest or public service jobs." Says it's the difference between being paid by a commercial firm, and working in A&E during Covid....

Calls Geoffrey Cox "A barrister moonlighting as an MP." @LBC

If you're confused by that decision re. jabs for 12-15 year olds

💉The JCVI have said the health benefits alone from vaccination for 12-15 year olds are *marginally greater* than the potential known harms. But that benefit gap isn't enough for them to give the full green light. /2 Instead they've basically passed the buck over to the Government to weigh up OTHER harms/ benefits for children in getting the vaccine. This will include the damage done by schools being shut due to outbreaks and the wider impact of community covid transmission.

🚨 20 fire engines on the scene of a fire at New Providence Wharf in East London this morning.

The building’s still covered in ACM cladding - the same type as was on Grenfell. Awaiting updates. @LBC Back in January the East London Advertiser wrote about the fight to remove the flammable cladding from this building - even though funding had been made available years ago. eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/housing/u…

Laura Pidcock, former MP for North West Durham tells @LBC "the Labour party have got it wrong."

She blames the leadership for spending "a lot of time attacking the left. That's a dispute that needs to end. People are desperate for that representation." Laura Pidcock also attacks Starmer and Angela Raynor for not being "relentless enough in taking on this hard-right Tory Government."

Says we need to return to the "magnificent manifesto of 2019."

*That being 2019, when Tories won a massive majority and she lost her seat... @LBC

The Grenfell Inquiry has just learnt that mere weeks after the June 2017 tragedy, Kingspan - who made some of the combustable insulation on the tower - hired a PR firm to lobby MPs on their behalf. WATCH: These politicians are the sort of 'key decision makers' who Kingspan were trying to access. Looks like they wanted to convince MPs that ‘combustible materials are no more dangerous than non-combustible when properly installed’. #GrenfellInquiry

Gavin Williamson won't say that Brexit helped us to get the vaccine first. Instead, he tells @LBC:

"I just reckon we've got the best people & medical regulators. Much better than the French/ Belgians/ Americans have. Because we're a much better country than every single one." Full quote here:

HUGE: the Pfizer vaccine will be made available in the UK from next week, after the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved it for use here. Statement from the Dept of Heath here This means the UK is the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use.

It has a 95% efficacy, and the UK has pre-ordered 40 million doses (enough for 20 million people).

New: In a landmark ruling, the High Court says Children under 16 who wish to undergo gender reassignment can only consent to puberty blockers if they are able to 'understand the nature of the treatment.' The challenge came from Keira Bell, a 23y/o woman who identified as trans as a teenager, took puberty blockers aged 16, before detransitioning. Lawyers argued children going through puberty are "not capable of properly understanding" the effects of such treatment.

💉 the Oxford jab is far cheaper and easier to store than Pfizer and Moderna’s
💉 the UK has pre-ordered 100m doses
💉 the 90% success rate comes when people were given a ‘low’ dose, followed by a ‘high’ one - which should mean there’s more vaccine to go around.

https://twitter.com/uniofoxford/status/1330769567409385474

Health Secretary Matt Hancock tells @LBC its “good news and a good day.”

Next the regulator needs to look at this data and “will only sign it off if it’s safe.”

Then “the NHS stands ready to deliver the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines from next month.”

New: Figures from the Home Office show there's been a 53% yearly rise in Stop and Searches in England and Wales.

2018-19 : 365,554
2019-20 : 558,973

@LBC 73,423 of those stops led to an arrest BUT the data shows the stop and search arrest rate dropped slightly from 16% to 13%.

That means the relative 'success' of these stops are dropping.

🚨This report finds only 1/3 of all high-rise buildings with ACM cladding (the same type as Grenfell) have had it removed. Even though the Government's deadline was June 2020: " Progress has been unacceptably
slow"

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmse… - 155 out of 455 buildings have had the cladding fully removed.
- The Dept Housing made £600m available to pay for ACM removal BUT by April 2020 it had only paid out £134m "due in part to difficulties in working with private building owners."