Climate minister Alok Sharma’s air travel to 30 countries in seven months is “bizarre” and sets a bad example ahead of COP26, a Labour minister has said. Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News, David Lammy told that reports that COP26 President Mr Sharma flew tens of thousands of miles during the pandemic are “worrying”
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Fully vaccinated travellers and under 18s arriving in England from France will no longer need to isolate, while India is coming off the red list. The Department for Transport has set out the government’s latest COVID-19 travel update, with all of the changes taking effect from 4am on Sunday. In a surprise move, the cost
Nicola Sturgeon has said it is “a bit strange” for Boris Johnson to have declined her invitation to meet for talks during the PM’s trip to Scotland this week. Speaking to reporters, Scotland’s first minister said “most people will think it is a bit odd” that the prime minister did not want to discuss COVID-19
Boris Johnson has declined Nicola Sturgeon’s invitation to meet for talks while he is in Scotland this week. The first minister had invited the prime minister to her official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, to discuss their plans for recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world But in
Nicola Sturgeon has invited Boris Johnson to meet her to discuss their COVID recovery plans. The Scottish first minister invited the prime minister to her official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, during his visit to Scotland this week. She said it would be “their first opportunity to meet in person for a while”. Ms Sturgeon acknowledged
Fully vaccinated travellers from the US and EU can now arrive in the UK without having to isolate. The new rules came into effect at 4am on Monday but they have not yet been met by a reciprocal easing of restrictions for travellers from the UK. The new rule applies to England, Scotland, Wales and
The UK and US have blamed Iran for an attack on an oil tanker in which two crew members, including a British national, were killed. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused Iran of carrying out a “deliberate, targeted” assault which he says constituted “a clear violation of international law”. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken
Something strange seems to be going on in the Conservative government. Recent weeks have seen ministers announce mandatory vaccination to enter nightclubs, speak supportively of businesses that demand workers are jabbed and moot the idea of barring students from university who’ve not been inoculated. Novel developments for members of the self-professed “freedom-loving” party. Please use
The Conservatives could be in danger of losing more than a dozen seats in their so-called “blue wall” heartlands, a new poll suggests. YouGov found that voting intention in 53 such constituencies in the south and east of England currently held by the party stood at 44% for the Conservatives, 24% for Labour, 18% for
The Liberal Democrats are campaigning for parliament to be recalled from summer recess to debate proposals to introduce the use of vaccine passports. The party’s leader Sir Ed Davey has written a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson accusing his government of “committing to vaccine passports by stealth” which he warned was “a recipe for
A number of Conservative MPs have told Sky News they do not think the government will follow through and actually introduce domestic vaccine passports. The prospect of people having to prove their COVID-19 status to access a range of venues has been raised in recent weeks. Boris Johnson has already said that individuals will need
Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said “no one really knows” how many COVID-19 cases there might be during the rest of the summer as he failed to stick to his previous prediction of 100,000 daily infections. According to government figures, there were more than 54,000 COVID cases reported on 17 July – the current highest
Fully vaccinated travellers from the EU and the US will be able to avoid quarantining when they arrive in England from next Monday, the government has confirmed. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has also announced the resumption of international cruises. The change regarding US and EU arrivals come into force from 4am on 2 August. Live
The UK will give Kenya 817,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, the government has announced. Ministers said the offer would help the nation – which has a population of around 52 million – to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, with the first 400,000 doses due to be sent this week. It comes as Foreign Secretary
The prime minister has defended plans to widen police use of stop and search powers, describing it as a “kind and loving” way to get dangerous weapons off the streets. Speaking as the government set out its new Beating Crime Plan for England and Wales, Boris Johnson said stop and search was not a “strong-arm”
A Labour MP was right to call Boris Johnson a liar in the Commons, party leader Sir Keir Starmer has said. Sir Keir backed Dawn Butler, who was kicked out of the chamber last week for refusing to withdraw her claim that the prime minister has “lied to the House and the country over and
University students could need to be fully vaccinated against coronavirus to attend lectures and stay in halls this coming academic year. “We aren’t ruling it out,” a senior government source told Sky News about the prospect of mandating COVID-19 vaccination passports for universities. Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world Please use
A minister has apologised to those who have experienced delays at the UK’s airports over the weekend. People have complained of “total chaos” at airports as the summer holidays began for millions. Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world Two hour-long queues to show COVID-19 documentation before being allowed airside were reported
The health secretary has apologised for saying people should no longer “cower from” coronavirus. Sajid Javid said he had deleted the tweet, which he posted on Saturday to say he had made a “full recovery” a week after testing positive for COVID-19. Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world I’ve deleted a
The UK’s former cyber security chief has raised the alarm over the sale of a Welsh microchip manufacturer to a Chinese-backed company. Ciaran Martin, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said the purchase of Newport Wafer Fab by Nexperia, a Dutch subsidiary of the Chinese company Wingtech, poses a greater