Politics Live
5:00pm – Goodbye
That’s all from the live team today. Here are your key headlines and we’ll see you tomorrow!
4:33pm – NHS contact tracing changes
Is the pingdemic now over? New changes to NHS test and trace means that the app will look back at close contacts for two days, instead of five.
The DHSC shows analysis that the app prevented 50,000 cases of covid in the first three weeks of July.
3:50pm – SNP MSP reports nursery school over racial profiling.
▪️I would love for there to be another explanation for all of this. That's why Little Scholars Nursery was contacted in advance & given ample opportunity to explain. Instead their response is effectively the "I cant be racist my pal is Black" defence. That doesn't fly any more.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) August 2, 2021
🧵Not a step my wife & I have taken lightly. After our nursery application for our daughter was refused a 2nd time, my wife asked her White Scottish friend to put in an application for a Child the same age. Within 24hrs of refusing our application my wife's friend's was accepted. https://t.co/lnyME8Ezmi
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) August 1, 2021
2:45pm – Westminster’s “broken electoral system”
A new report by the Electoral Reform Society has found “a huge contrast” between the fairness of proportional representation systems in the UK, compared to Westminster’s first-past-the-post voting system.
According to the new report:
- “Scotland – Westminster results are four times more warped/disproportionate as Holyrood”
- “Wales – Westminster results are nearly twice as warped/disproportionate as the Senedd”
- “London – Westminster results are nearly three times as warped/disproportionate as the Assembly”
1:45pm – Boris’ bumps
Last week, Boris Johnson predicted that the UK’s economic recovery from the pandemic will be “steady” in the next year, but warned there would be “bumps on the road”. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast that the UK’s economic output could grow by 7% this year.
12:34pm – Tory chairman fights covid tests scandal
This is quite the story. According to The Times, the Conservative Party’s co-chairman, Ben Elliot, sold covid tests to clients of his company Quintessentially in April 2020 whilst the government struggled to ramp up testing.
Not a good look for the “Tory sleaze” image the Conservative Party has been fighting against this summer.
12:26pm – Ian Dunt on the government’s “attack” on the courts.
Silencing dissent: New bill targets judicial review as government takes revenge on the courts
11:28am – Sunak frontrunner for Conservative leadership
Rishi Sunak is the clear front-runner to be the next leader of the Conservative Party, according to a new survey by ConservativeHome. The Chancellor (31.07% is nearly three times ahead of Liz Truss, who sits in second place on 12.08%.
- Rishi Sunak – 31.07%
- Liz Truss – 12.08%
- Penny Mordaunt – 10.79%
- Dominic Raab – 8.09%
- Sajid Javid – 7.15%
10:30am – £5bn broadband boost
The department for digital, culture, media and sport has announced today that £5 billion will be spent on broadband for hard-to-reach homes and businesses, as part of Project Gigabit.
9:12am – Travel chaos
Minister for digital infrastructure, Matt Warman, has defended the government’s foreign travel policy in the morning broadcast rounds.
Minister for Digital Infrastructure Matt Warman says he does not accept that the government's travel guidance is "complicated in a way that is not something people can apply their common sense to"#KayBurley
Read more: https://t.co/qpdaie7yED pic.twitter.com/L1GSp3MxLC— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 2, 2021
8:30am – Good morning.
It seems apt that whilst everyone is on their holidays, the travel industry is at war with the government. New plans to put major holiday destinations like Spain and Greece on an “amber watchlist” have been met with a significant backlash by the travel industry. Tory backbenchers are also in rebellion at the plans, as they face angry constituents whose holidays are likely to be in jeopardy.
Key headlines
- PM faces backbench rebellion over reported “amber watchlist”.
- Boris Johnson suffers a slump in the polls after the vaccine bounce wanes.
- The next phase of the vaccine rollout is reported to begin in September.
Newspaper roundup
- Daily Mail – “Pay for your own heart op”: The Mail claim that a growing number of the 5.3 million people on the NHS waiting list are paying for their own surgeries due to the record backlog.
- Daily Mirror – “UK warns Iran killers”: The Mirror delves into the rise in UK-Iran tensions after a UK security guard was killed during an attack on an oil tanker.
- Financial Times – The FT leads with the story that house prices are “booming” in major economies across the globe in the wake of the pandemic.
- The i – “Tories hit by poll slump as PM suffers backlash”: The i suggests the ‘vaccine bounce’ is over for Boris Johnson, whose self-isolation U-turn has damaged his popularity.
- Guardian – The Guardian reveals the PM faces a Tory revolt over Treasury spending this summer, with the universal credit uplift due to be withdrawn at the end of September.
- Times – “Tories revolt over new crackdown on holidays”: Tory backbenchers are ready to rebel over the reported new amber watchlist.
- Telegraph – “Booster shots for 32m begin next month”: The Telegraph says the next phase of the vaccine rollout will begin in September and it is hoped the rollout will be completed by Christmas.
