Politics latest news: Angela Merkel’s demand to quarantine British tourists is 'unjustified', says Cabinet minister
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Angela Merkel's demand for EU countries to impose quarantine on British tourists is not "justified", a Cabinet minister has said.
Boris Johnson is convening his 'Covid O' committee this afternoon, where he is expected to approve plans for fully vaccinated people to be able to travel to amber list countries later this summer and not be subject to quarantine when they return home.
The Balearic Islands, Malta and some Caribbean islands could also be added to the green list.
However the German Chancellor has threatened to scupper hopes of holidaymakers, suggesting that EU countries introduce mandatory quarantine for travelling Britons.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, told LBC: "I'm not sure that such an approach would be justified given the highly advanced stage we are currently at now in terms of vaccination, with 80 per cent having had one jab and now 60 per cent having had the second jab.
"I don't think such a move would be justified but obviously it's for individual countries to make these judgments."
Follow the latest updates below.
09:38 AM
Junk food ban carve-out 'underlines absurdity' of rule, says IEA
The Government's decision to carve out smaller businesses from its junk food ban "underlines the absurdity" of the new rules, the Institute of Economic Affairs claims.
Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the free market think tank, said: "Under the new plans, an apple pie can be advertised by a café but not by the McDonalds next door. The local takeaway can advertise kebabs and pizzas but Asda cannot advertise cheese.
"With its new exemptions, the government has acknowledged that banning adverts for normal, everyday food products would stifle competition, hurt businesses and be bad for consumers. It should now throw in the towel and accept that advertising jam, sandwiches and olive oil should not be a criminal act under any circumstance, regardless of how many people the company employs.”
See 10:04 for more.
09:25 AM
Technology 'starting to get into place' for restrictions to be lifted in travel, Grant Shapps signals
Grant Shapps has signalled that new technology could help lift quarantine for people who have received both doses of the vaccines.
Huw Merriman, chairman of the transport committee, asked if Mr Shapps was "confident" that technology would help "get more people who have been double-jabbed through arrivals".
The Transport Secretary said there had been a "remarkable digital transformation" over the last week, with passports being scanned and "linked back" to data about their test history and the NHS app, which carries the vaccine history.
"So yes, automation is really starting to get into place now."
09:16 AM
Con Coughlin: Putin's provocations of Britain will backfire disastrously
Vladimir Putin enjoys poking fun at what he regards as Britain’s diminishing status as a world power, writes Con Coughlin.
The Russian President once famously dismissed the country, during a row with David Cameron, as “a small island that nobody listens to”.
On another occasion, the Russian leader lambasted Britain’s “colonial thinking” when the UK government demanded that the Kremlin hand over the Russian businessman accused of murdering dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
Yet, if Mr Putin believes Britain is a nation in terminal decline, why is he investing so much time and effort in directing Russia’s formidable military, security and disinformation forces against the UK?
Read more from Con here.
09:09 AM
Baby bust: Lockdown caused 'relatively steep decreases' in births
The introduction of coronavirus lockdown restrictions in March 2020 did not lead to a baby boom, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Fertility rates in England and Wales for December 2020 and January 2021 - when conception would have mostly taken place at the start of the first lockdown - showed "relatively steep decreases", down by 8.1 per cent and 10.2 per cent on last year respectively.
There was a year-on-year increase in the fertility rate for March 2021 of 1.7%, however, which "mostly translate to live births conceived when lockdown restrictions were beginning to be eased in summer 2020", the ONS said.
But the total fertility rate in England and Wales for 2021 could end up being the lowest ever recorded, with estimates putting the rate at 1.53 children per woman, down from 1.92 in 2011.
09:04 AM
Government sets out plans for junk food watershed next year
Boris Johnson is pressing ahead with his ban on unhealthy food adverts online and before the 9pm television watershed, in his bid to tackle childhood obesity.
Regulations will come into force at the end of next year to introduce a new watershed for advertisements of foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS).
The watershed will apply from 9.00pm to 5.30am, meaning HFSS adverts can only be shown during these times. It follows a consultation in which 79 per cent of respondents agreed with a TV ban and 74 per cent with the same restrictions online.
Jo Churchill, the public health minister, said: “We are committed to improving the health of our children and tackling obesity. The content youngsters see can have an impact on the choices they make and habits they form. With children spending more time online it is vital we act to protect them from unhealthy advertising."
08:55 AM
HS2 'can and must' treat residents with respect, says minister
HS2 Limited "can and must" treat residents affected by the massive infrastructure project with "consideration and respect", a transport minister has said.
Andrew Stephenson told MPs the "root and branch review of land and property cases that I commissioned is now starting to bare fruit", confirming he holds the company "to direct account" with fortnightly meetings.
He noted "several pressing constituency cases" in Andrea Leadsom's seat, signalling that he would address them.
08:51 AM
Ed Miliband attacks 'very confusing' traffic lights system
Labour's shadow business secretary has attacked the Government for creating a "confusing situation" with its traffic lights system.
Ed Miliband told Sky News: "It's very, very confusing. I think it needs to be clarified, it needs to be simpler and above all it needs to be safe."
Asked if he would go, he said only "if there is advice to be able to do so".
He added: "There's got to be support for the travel industry. You see these public health restrictions continue to be in place for reasons we understand but there isn’t the economic support.
"The travel industry is suffering so badly."
08:35 AM
Allister Heath: Decadent Britain is sleepwalking into a vortex of permanent decline
What has happened to Britain, asks Allister Heath. Why does it feel as if, almost uniquely, we will never quite recover from Covid?
The pandemic is almost over, and yet it has changed Britain far more profoundly than countries with different political traditions.
Lockdown’s catastrophic collateral damage, combined with a series of pre-existing errors such as Boris Johnson’s spending spree, his net zero agenda and the housing shortage, mean Britain faces years of social and economic decline, tax rises and inflation.
The Tories may be riding high in the polls today, but they will soon have to grapple with some nightmarish challenges.
Read the rest of Allister's column here.
08:21 AM
George Eustice admits 'draconian rules are not entirely fair'
George Eustice has defended legal changes allowing Uefa officials to come to England without quaranting, but admitted some coronavirus rules were unfair.
The Environment Secretary told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "We have never pretended that in introducing these draconian rules they are entirely fair in every case or entirely consistent in every case."
But he insisted that the distinction between attending a football match while parents are still banned from school sports days was "a difference in magnitude between finding a way to facilitate a single event, a big sporting event that a lot of people are interested in and want to follow, and making a change that affects the whole population and would affect things in thousands of schools".
He added: "I've got a young daughter as well, we all want to see a return to people being able to attend sports days, but at the moment it's really about the magnitude of scale."
08:14 AM
Vladimir Putin was 'testing will of the West', says former Army chief
Vladimir Putin was "testing the will of the West" following conflicts in waters off Crimea, a former head of the British Army has said.
"I'm a little bit surprised that the Ministry of Defence is playing it down," Lord Richard Dannatt told Sky News.
"It was unreasonable of the Russians to challenge HMS Defender in the way that they did. The underlying point is that there are international laws that must be upheld by everyone and HMS Defender had the absolute right to be where she was yesterday."
Lord Dannatt continued: "I don't like to use the word power-game but it is actually something along those lines. Mr Putin testing the will of the West and the West demonstrating it has a rather increased resolve... What we're seeing now post the G7 summit is the West acting in a rather more cohesive fashion."
08:11 AM
Russia 'perhaps' trying to 'make some point' in clash with HMS Defender, says minister
Russia may have been trying to make "some point" by firing warning shots at HMS Defender as it travelled through Ukranian waters in the Black Sea, the Environment Secretary has said.
"The official reason given by the Russians for the activities they were undertaking is that they were doing a gunnery exercise," George Eustice told ITV's Good Morning Britain.
"Whether that was cover for them to try and make some point, we don't know. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't.
"But their official reason was they were just running a gunnery exercise in the area."
08:04 AM
Planet Normal tackles the trans athlete debate
On this week’s Planet Normal podcast, the selection of the world’s first transgender athlete is in the spotlight. After weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who has previously competed in male events, was announced as part of New Zealand’s women’s team, developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton joins co-hosts Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan.
Dr Hilton, the co-author of a study published in the Sports Medicine journal suggesting that a strength advantage is retained following a transition from male to female, tells listeners why she believes strict guidelines on who can compete in sporting events are essential for just competition.
"You need look no further than the Paralympics, which is the ultimate exclusionary sport.. And that’s done to ensure fairness," she says.
Listen to the interview in full below.
08:00 AM
Madeline Grant: Gone are the doomy graphs of yesteryear
Wednesday’s Downing Street press conference was meant to give a booster jab to the national morale; encouraging the last anti-vax stragglers to end their resistance once and for all, and urging the country to sit tight for a few more weeks, writes Madeline Grant.
But it also delivered a world-class boost for Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, who bathed in the glory of this world-beating, and conversation-ending, success.
No change in policy was announced; but no matter. This wasn’t so much a press conference as a victory lap – a mass back-slapping exercise.
07:58 AM
Environment Secretary hits out at 'caricature' of PM's inaction on climate
George Eustice has hit out at a “caricature” that Boris Johnson is not genuinely committed to grappling with climate change.
This morning the Climate Change Committee, an advisory group, said they were "very concerned by the gulf between promises and actions". His "remarkable" climate leadership is undermined by inadequate policies and poor implementation, the group added.
But the Environment Secretary said: “This is an agenda that matters to the Prime Minister and it is not true to say he has just made a promise that he isn’t [meeting].
“I am a current Cabinet member and get to see exactly what the Prime Minister is doing and how much priority he places on this, and I can reassure you that he places a great deal of priority and emphasis on this.”
07:29 AM
Sausage war 'truce' in sight, says Cabinet minister
There have been "positive indications" that a truce will be reached in the "sausage war" trade dispute with the European Union, George Eustice said.
The Telegraph revealed yesterday a ceasefire could be reached within days.
The Environment Secretary appeared to agree, telling LBC: "I think we are getting some positive indications and it's always our view that it's better if we can reach agreement with the European Union on these things.
"It didn't make any sense to simply say that there's a ban on the sale of sausages to Northern Ireland, we're still in dialogue with the European Union about some longer-term solutions on the wider issues around export health certificates.
"While those are ongoing, I think it makes sense for them, just for a few more months, to leave the current arrangement we have in place."
07:24 AM
George Galloway: Andy Burnham more electable than ‘catatonic’ Sir Keir Starmer
Andy Burnham should replace Sir Keir Starmer if Labour is to have any chance of becoming electable again, George Galloway has said.
Mr Galloway, a former MP who was expelled from Labour and is now running against the party in the forthcoming Batley and Spen by-election, said Sir Keir was a "catatonic, desiccated calculating machine" and Mr Burnham would be a better opposition leader.
Read our interview with him here.
07:19 AM
Angela Merkel's call to impose quarantine on British tourists 'unjustified'
Angela Merkel's call for more European countries to impose quarantine on British tourists is unjustified, a Cabinet minister has said.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, told LBC: "Each country is taking their own decisions on this, so it will be for them to judge what approach they want to take.
"I'm not sure that such an approach would be justified given the highly advanced stage we are currently at now in terms of vaccination, with 80% having had one jab and now 60% having had the second jab.
"I don't think such a move would be justified but obviously it's for individual countries to make these judgments."
Read what the German Chancellor said here.
07:17 AM
The countries that could go green, amber and red today
Another week, another traffic light update.
Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, is expected to reveal what changes will be made to our holiday traffic lights this afternoon.
The changes will then come into effect from Tuesday 4am next week.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, dropped some hints that islands could be added to the green list - but which are the most likely, and what other changes are we expecting?
07:14 AM
Queen calls Matt Hancock ‘poor man’ as she restarts in-person audience with PM
The confidential nature of the Queen’s weekly audiences with her serving prime minister has always been highly prized.
But a brief clip of Her Majesty receiving Boris Johnson on Wednesday offered a rare insight into the historic meetings, as she revealed Matt Hancock had told her: “Things are getting better.”
The Queen, 95, described the Health Secretary as a “poor man,” an apparent reference to the pressure he has faced throughout the pandemic.
A royal aide insisted that her comments were not choreographed, saying: “It was a natural conversation.”
07:11 AM
Russia acting like a 'rogue state', claims former Royal Navy chief
Russian forces firing 'warning shots' at a Royal Navy warship in waters off Crimea are the actions of a "rogue state", a former Royal Navy chief has said.
Lord Alan West said the Russian president's behaviour was "dangerous and stupid".
"The bottom line is Putin is an expert at disinformation and his actions are very reckless, and we've seen that now for three or four years," he told LBC. "His behaviour is appalling. There's no doubt the (HMS) Defender was asserting her right of innocent passage from one port to another.
"Putin wants to play to his home audience, he wants to tell them 'aren't I tough, look at that, I've made Britain go away', and that's why I think they lied about firing warning shots at the defender - which they didn't do.
"As per usual, I'm afraid, Putin's organisation is lying about that.... I would say it's the behaviour of a rogue state, but Russia shouldn't be a rogue state," he said.
07:08 AM
Royal family 'good value for money', says Cabinet minister
The royal family offers value for money to the British taxpayer despite the £87.5 million cost during 2020/21, Cabinet minister George Eustice said.
The Environment Secretary told Sky News: "I think the system that we have with a constitutional monarchy is way better than all the alternatives, better than presidential systems.
"It means you have that stability, you have a monarch that can bring the country together.
"I think the royal family is good value for money. It's a vital part of our constitution, always has been."
His comments come as it emerged that the Prince of Wales gave Prince Harry a substantial sum to help set up his life outside the family, contradicting the Duke of Sussex's account given during his interview with Oprah.
07:05 AM
UK 'needs a bigger Navy' to counter threats to international waters, says senior Tory
The chair of the defence committee has warned that "cede" ownership of international waters to China "they have won".
Tobias Ellwood said yesterday's events were "dramatic and provocative" but that we "shouldn't get spooked". However it was illustrative about rising threats from Moscow and Beijing that must be taken seriously.
"Absolutely we must defend international waters... we probably are going to need a bigger Navy given the threats we face."
He noted how quickly the Russian disinformation campaign kicked off after the clash with HMS Destroyer, adding: "Putin likes nothing more than being talked about."
Highlighting that 90 per cent of our goods come by ship, he added: "Freedom of navigation of the seas has become ever more problematic, it requires constant policing, a consistent presence -if you leave a vacuum it gets filled by authoritarian states."
06:57 AM
Environment Secretary ready to 'shed face mask' on July 19
George Eustice has said he will "shed" his face mask when England's restrictions are lifted on July 19.
The Environment Secretary confirmed that stage four will see the end of the legal requirement, including to wear coverings on public transport and other indoor areas, as The Telegraph noted yesterday.
"Now, whether there will still be some people who might choose to wear masks or whether it may be advisory in some settings, that's a separate matter," he added. "But the objective of that final stage is to remove the legal requirement to do these things."
Asked if he would still wear a mask once restrictions end, Mr Eustice said: "I wouldn't, no.
"I have to be honest, once I'm told that it's safe not to, I want to get back to normal. I think a lot of people will want to shed those masks. "
06:54 AM
UK would take same Black Sea passage, despite clash with Russia, minister says
UK warships would be prepared to sail again through the disputed waters around Crimea, a Cabinet minister has said.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, insisted that no warning shots were fired at HMS Defender by Russian vessels, but a "gunnery exercise" was conducted in the area and defended the right of passage "through Ukranian waters".
He told Sky News: "I think it's important people don't get carried away."
Asked if the Royal Navy would sail in those waters again, he said "of course, yes", adding: "We never accepted the annexation of Crimea, these were Ukrainian territorial waters."
06:39 AM
Holidays in doubt after ‘quarantine the British’ demand
Angela Merkel on Wednesday night threatened to scupper hopes of foreign holidays in Europe this summer by demanding that EU countries introduce mandatory quarantine for travelling Britons.
The German chancellor urged countries to introduce the quarantine for vaccinated Britons just as the UK Government is finally preparing to relax its rules for returning holidaymakers.
Her intervention came ahead of a key meeting on Thursday at which Boris Johnson is expected to approve plans for fully vaccinated people to be able to travel to amber list countries later this summer and not be subject to quarantine when they return home.
The Balearic Islands, Malta and some Caribbean islands could also be added to the green list.
06:39 AM
Good Morning
We've got another busy day ahead, with the long-awaited green list announcement expected this afternoon, a debate on the Australia free trade agreement negotiations in the House of Lords and the fall out from the Russian 'gunnery exercise'.
We may also hear from the Prime Minister.
Here is today's front page.
