PMQs: Boris Johnson suffers technical difficulties Sign up for FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Boris Johnson was cut off by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle as MPs in the House of Commons were struggling to hear him. The Prime Minister, who is self-isolating after being pinged by the NHS Covid app last week, joined PMQs remotely from Chequers. He then repeatedly asked if he could be heard by Sir Lindsay which did not receive any response. Related articles Brexit LIVE: Johnson issued warning as Biden wades into Brexit row Farage mocks Charlie Mullins over Pimlico £50million turnover Interrupting Mr Johnson, Sir Lindsay said: "Just a moment, …
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PMQs LIVE: ‘Get it into your head!’ Boris silences Starmer over Covid testing probe
PMQs: Boris Johnson defends cuts to foreign aid budget Sign up for FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info Amid a clash over the Prime Minister's self-isolation, Mr Johnson insisted he has followed the protocol. The Prime Minister also insisted everyone who can, should apply for a jab as he praised the wider vaccine rollout across the country. The Prime Minister also accused Sir Keir of attempting to score political points. Trending Amid the threat to introduce Covid passes, Mr Johnson said the potential plans were common sense. Sir Keir asked: "When it comes to creating confusion, the Prime Minister is a super-spreader. "Why is it OK to go to a nightclub for …
Hungary breaks ranks from EU to back Liam Fox as next WTO chief
The Hungarian Government has broken ranks from the rest of the EU to back Liam Fox, a former UK Cabinet minister, for the next director general of the World Trade Organisation. In a statement released on Facebook, Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian foreign affairs minister, said Boris Johnson had successfully canvassed his Government into supporting the former international trade secretary for the job. The move is a significant departure from the stance of the rest of the EU, who it has been reported voted in a bloc for another candidate in an attempt to prevent Mr Fox’s appointment. The deliberations of member states are kept secret, but one Whitehall source briefed the Sun: “Liam’s progression through this process is evidence of the global support we can command as a country with a huge reputation for supporting free trade. “Whatever the eventual outcome of the nomination, it’s clear the UK doesn’t need EU support to make an impact as an independent nation.” Despite the support …
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EU coronavirus vaccines strategy is a failure, says Hungary’s Viktor Orbán
Britain’s vaccination strategy has been far more successful than the European Union’s failed and slow response to the coronavirus pandemic, Hungary’s prime minister has said. Viktor Orbán said Budapest would now go it alone rather than wait for the doses secured by the EU, which negotiated for supplies as a bloc. Mr Orbán defended his decision to approve and buy Russia’s Sputnik vaccine separately to the joint EU effort to procure jabs, which he branded “a bad decision”. He said: “It’s now clear that it was a bad decision. The United States, Britain, Israel and Serbia are far ahead of us EU Member States,” Mr Orbán told German news website focus.de. “We’ve sought to do something together that we could have managed more successfully on an individual basis – take a look at the examples of Britain or Serbia.” Mr Orbán, who has long been at loggerheads with Brussels over migration and the rule of law, said, “We shall exercise our national powers, and provide for ourselves.” …
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How transforming crop waste into ‘chaff burgers’ could change the world
"Chaff burgers" made from crop waste will be a reality within five years, according to the boss of Quorn. Eight billion tonnes of chaff is created around the world each year and largely goes to waste, with most being burned or ploughed back into the ground. Chaff is a name for discarded parts of crops such as wheat and barley, which are left behind after the grain has been extracted and include straw, leaves and husks. Marco Bertacca, the CEO of Quorn, told The Telegraph he hopes to develop a way to ferment the leftovers and turn them into a protein to be forged into food products. He said developing an environmentally-friendly method to do this would "change the world" by slashing the greenhouse gas emissions made by farming. Quorn, based in Stokesley, Yorkshire, has already started work on creating the technology needed to recycle the harvest leftovers. But the difficulty is that the main component of the waste is a polymer called lignocellulose, which makes up the …
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Scotland mulls vaccine drop-in clinics outside busy pubs, bars and restaurants
Vaccine drop-in clinics could be set up outside busy pubs, bars and restaurants across Scotland, after the country’s vaccination programme ground to a near standstill among young adults. Critics said more “creative” ideas were urgently needed to encourage 18 to 39-year-olds to accept doses, with a refusal to take up an offer of vaccination among younger groups potentially putting Scotland’s planned Freedom Day on Aug 9 at risk. The slowing pace of the rollout means that the SNP is set to deliver a “triple whammy” of missed targets, the Scottish Tories warn, including the crucial goal of having all adults double jabbed by Sep 12. If current trends continue, the target would be missed by more than 600,000 people, the analysis found. A goal of fully vaccinating all 40 to 49-year-olds by Monday will also be missed, with around a quarter yet to receive both doses. The programme will also fall well short of a target of fully vaccinating everyone in their 30s by Aug 20 on current …
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The real threat to the UK isn’t asylum seekers, it’s the far right
The government’s Nationality and Borders Bill is as flawed as it is inhumane. It’s a clear signal that the UK government is more than willing to turn its back on some of the most vulnerable people on Earth, hitting a new low with the risk of criminalising even RNLI lifeboats saving people from drowning in the Channel. A less publicised area of the bill focuses significantly on asylum accommodation centres, suggesting an expansion of their use and a move away from community accommodation. But as well as inhibiting integration, and the fact that institutional accommodation for asylum seekers has been so squalid they’ve been found unlawful , these proposals pose a significant terror risk from the far right. Last year, a shortage of accommodation and compliance with Covid restrictions saw the Home Office become reliant on housing asylum seekers in contingency accommodation, using hotels, B&Bs and disused barracks. Almost immediately, the far-right seized on this to …
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Ending free movement wasn’t meant to boost wages – are we now being proved wrong about Brexit?
Recent headlines about how average salaries in hospitality and retail have risen pose some interesting questions. On Twitter I was asked : “How do economists reconcile with the idea EU immigration was not impacting wages? Timing? Sector? Nothing to do with Brexit ? Or were the models wrong?” These are fair questions, in light of widespread reports of labour shortages resulting from the exodus of EU-origin workers during the pandemic. For the last 15 years – at least since the accession of central and Eastern European countries to the EU in 2004 – economic research has consistently shown that migration had no significant impacts on the employment prospects of UK-born workers; and that wage impacts, while observable, are relatively small. The most well-publicised estimate suggests that migration might have depressed wages for lower-skilled service sector workers by perhaps 1 per cent over a period of almost a decade. As a consequence, most economists argued …
Trump official says coronavirus vaccine expected in January, countering president
A Trump administration official leading the response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.S. can expect delivery of a vaccine starting in January 2021, despite statements from the president that inoculations could begin this month. And a growing, bipartisan chorus of lawmakers, experts and public health officials says the country is ill prepared for a projected winter surge of COVID-19. Dr. Robert Kadlec said in an email Friday that the administration “is accelerating production of safe and effective vaccines ... to ensure delivery starting January 2021." Kadlec is the Department of Health and Human Services' assistant secretary of preparedness and response. President Donald Trump has said at rallies, debates and press conferences that a vaccine could arrive within weeks. “We think we can start sometime in October,” Trump said at a White House press briefing last month. Kadlec wasn't the first health official to counter the president's optimistic timeline. …
Brussels publishes capitulation plans for hated Brexit deal – bloc ready to bend own rules
EU trying to ‘undo’ gains made in Brexit says Sammy Wilson Sign up for FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info In a “non paper” published today by the European Commission, eurocrats set out plans to ease restrictions on drugs between shipped from mainland Britain to the region. The offer is part of a package of concessions by the EU tabled in the hope of ending the row over the implementation of the Brexit deal’s protocol to avoid a hard border. It comes after warnings that about 2,000 medicines currently offered to patients in Northern Ireland could be withdrawn as drugs manufacturers grapple with EU red tape. Related articles Brexit LIVE: Underhand French fishing …