the announcement that a second company has developed a coronavirus vaccine, but the who is warning against complacency. the head of the agency has said he's extremely concerned by a surge in cases in europe and the americas. the latest vaccine, reported to be 95% effective, is made by the american firm, moderna. the us president—elect, joe biden, has warned that donald trump's refusal to begin the transition following his election defeat earlier this month could cost lives. mr biden said more people might die from covid—19 unless the president worked with the incoming team to coordinate vaccination programmes. thousands of people have been evacuated from the coasts of honduras and nicaragua as hurricane iota bears down on the region damaged two weeks ago by another storm. forecasters say the hurricane threatens to destroy many homes, wreck power supplies and make the area affected uninhabitable for months.

now on bbc news, monday in parliament. hello there, and welcome to monday in parliament. coming up: as the prime minister self—isolates after a coronavirus contact, the leader of the commons back tracks and allows more mps to contribute from home. but some members don't think he's done enough. the fact of the matter — he is suboptimal, he should resign. the housing secretary rebuffs accusations about how money to support deprived towns in england was allocated. we will not apologise for investing in communities that have been under—invested in and undervalued by the party opposite for generations. and as brexit trade talks continue, fears about what change could mean for food travelling from great britain

to northern ireland. the member might recall the famous issue around lasagnes from great britain into northern ireland. frankly, it is a nonsense. but first: boris johnson, six tory mps, and two political aides are self—isolating after a breakfast meeting inside downing street last week. one of the mp5, lee anderson, later tested positive for covid—i9, and on sunday, the prime minister was told to self—isolate by nhs england's test and trace. in a video from number ten, boris johnson urged others to "follow the rules" if contacted. he insisted he had no symptoms and is "fit as a butcher's dog". meanwhile in the commons, jacob rees—mogg announced that the government plans to extend virtual participation in debates to include extremely vulnerable mps. it follows an incident last week when an mp with breast cancer complained to him

that she hadn't been able to take part in a debate on the illness in the parallel debating chamber of westminster hall. my honourable friend, the member for chatham and aylesford, made a brave and moving appeal to be allowed to contribute more to our proceedings through virtual participation. this followed the appeals of a number of other members. while my understanding is that capacity constraints prevent us from extending westminster hall debates to members participating virtually, my honourable friend has certainly convinced me that we should seek to do more to support additional virtual participation in the commons chamber. i have therefore decided that, in line with the government advice, the clinically extremely vulnerable should not go into work. we should work with the house authorities to find a solution. and when that had been done, he'd put a motion before mps. but the mp who'd asked jacob rees—mogg to come to the commons wanted him to go further. of course we accept there is a balance to be struck between continuing the essential work of parliament and accommodating the exceptional situation of the pandemic.

but i suggest the current measures do not strike that right balance. they have created a hierarchy of mps, however inadvertently, which few mps welcome. my right honourable friend is still excluding those members who are shielding with wives, husbands, or partners who themselves are clinically extremely vulnerable. i suggest this exclusion is insensitive of family situations, and i ask him to think again. the government guidance is that, if you are living with someone who is clinically extremely vulnerable, that does not mean you should not go to work in a covid—safe environment. labour asked about lee anderson — the mp whose positive test forced the prime minister to self—isolate. it may well be that the honourable number for ashfield and his contacts have been identified and isolated, but he did not have a proxy and he was in the queue. that means he's exposed all honourable members who have been in the queue. so can i ask him to look again at remote voting?

i think there's something inelegant, if i may say so — and perhaps i'm taking the words of my right honourable friend were he still a backbencher — for the government to say what backbenchers should be able to contribute in this house. we pay tribute to my right honourable friend for the way he's conducted himself in the house, helpful to mps most of the time. the leader has not accepted that members are not able to be physically present — this is because of legitimate concerns they have about their own and the public's health, rather than because they are work—shy and trying to avoid their responsibilities. maybe, mr speaker, we should be grateful for small mercies. but really, this is far too little, far too late. he knows it is the speaker's view, mr speaker — and i hope i can quote you on this — that this is not a safe environment for us to attend. well, i did say, and i think i need to put clarity around it — if people are vulnerable, i did say i don't want people to be put at risk. let's clear that up.

this is a covid—secure workplace. the mp who'd sparked the change of heart said many mps had been raising the issue for some time. with that said, may i thank the leader for calling me on saturday to advise me of his intention to allow members who are clinically extremely vulnerable to participate in proceedings here in the chamber. and i'm looking forward to being able to raise important issues on behalf of my constituents as and when i can during the rest of my treatment. he might not know that i contracted covid—19 in early march, and it developed into what's known as long covid. eight months on, on my good days, i only struggle with cognitive brain fog, but on my worst days, it is still sheer exhaustion and debilitating headaches on top. thankfully the good days now outnumber the bad, but i cannot plan which it's going to be. virtual participation in questions, uqs, statements and select committees have been a godsend — but i've had to miss out on important debates, including on key issues affecting my constituency, and indeed on the subject

of long covid itself. i'm not unsympathetic to the requests that are being made. however, this is all a question of getting the balance right between ensuring that this place has effective debates, that legislation is passed in a timely manner, that we follow the guidance that we are giving to the country at large. the public have been asked not to travel to areas where there is lockdown. and many of us who are doing that, despite being asked not to do it, also have underlying health conditions. and so, every day, they have to make the decision of what comes first — the risk to our health, or representing our constituents? after nearly an hour of being battered from all sides, i think it's about time that somebody supported the leader of the house, and do the unpopular thing in defending the government. i can either stay to him that i welcome what he said, in the moderate way he said it was up and whilst i'm very happy with extending this to people who are clinically vulnerable, may i urge him not to bow to pressure and extend

virtual debating to everybody, to give everybody carte blanche? i do think in this country, we are in a danger of creating two worlds — a sort of aldous huxley's brave new world, where middle—class people can sit in the comfort of their own homes and do theirjob, but ordinary people are forced out into the working place. and ourjob is to set an example and be here. this may be deemed a covid—secure environment, but every single day i'm here, i witness breaches of the "hands, face, and space" criteria set out by her majesty's government. so if you are clinically vulnerable, you are at risk. i'm concerned to hear the honourable lady say this is not a covid—secure workplace. i think if you look around, you see the precautions that have been taken, the advice given to people to wear masks — which most people are doing as they walk about the palace of westminster — the gaps that have been placed, the covid—security of this chamber. jacob rees—mogg.

now, mps have accused the housing secretary of misusing taxpayers' money in allocating funding to boost struggling towns in england. last year, a multi—billion pound scheme was launched to help deprived areas. but controversy arose when it was announced that robertjenrick‘s constituency of newark had been chosen to receive £25 million. looking into the matter, the commons spending watchdog, the public accounts committee, found that the process for selecting the recipients was "not impartial". a lack of transparency, the report said, could fuel accusations of political bias — accusations made forcefully by labour's shadow communities secretary. there is growing public concern that the secretary of state may have misused taxpayers' money from the 5.6 billion towns fund to boost the conservative party's general election campaign. but he can easily clear the matter up. will he publish in full the accounting officer's advice and the full criteria that he and the former minister

of state used when they blocked funding for towns ranked amongst the 100 most deprived, and instead funnelled millions of pounds to each other‘s constituencies ahead of the general election? well, mr speaker, the department has already made clear that a robust process was established — in fact, established before i became secretary of state. it was followed to the letter, and we will not apologise — we will not apologise for investing in communities that have been under—invested in and undervalued by the party opposite for generations. with respect to the accounting officer's report, accounting office assessments are not routinely published. that's a matter for the department, and i'm sure they'll consider it and reply to the select committee in due course. when the secretary of state ignored his own civil servant's

advice in which areas to support with the towns fund, was that on his own initiative, or was he receiving instructions from downing street? well, it's a shame that the honourable gentleman makes party political points without understanding the facts. because no minister in my department has ignored the advice of their officials. the department produced a robust process which was followed by myself and any other minister in the department. so he should be careful before making wild and false accusations. controversy also surrounds planning reforms in england. new housing targets prompted a backlash among conservative mps — so ministers have decided to update the formula, or algorithm, which calculates where new developments should be located. given the likely response to covid will mean office space will be much less needed in the future — and this is likely to be a long—term trend — does my right honourable friend agree that this should have a profound impact on the algorithmic distribution of housing numbers anticipated by the

planning white paper? well, i thank my honourable friend makes an important point. i think we are seeing the most substantial change to our city centres and our town centres since the second world war. and that does give us pause for reflection. i think we now need to consider what those opportunities will be for the repurchasing of offices into residential, for turning retail into mixed use, and that will, i think, lead us to a different approach to distributing housing numbers across the country. the consultation he refers to has closed, we are considering the responses, and i'll be making a statement on that in the weeks ahead. robertjenrick. ministers have come under pressure to make it easier for people to obtain impartial advice before they access their pension savings. although the government is planning to "nudge" people towards its pension wise service, the labour mp, stephen timms, who chairs the work and pensions committee, wants savers

to be automatically given an appointment before retirement. we cannot sit back while pension wise continues to be an excellent service taken up by a very small minority. the government and regulators need to end their indifference on this. aspiring to an 11% take—up is not enough. we need auto—enrolment into a service that enables better outcome from pension savings. one of the reasons for the importance of pension wise, madame deputy speaker, is in equipping people to avoid being scammed. does he agree with me that we don't want a stronger nudge, we need a great big shove into the arms of impartial free advice? stephen timms' amendment to the pension schemes bill was backed by a conservative, who acknowledged that mandatory appointments would increase the cost of the scheme, which is funded by a

levy on the industry. i think when we created this, we assumed there would be a lot more employments and the cost would be a lot higher. and i think the relatively small cost per person that retires provided in this guidance — the benefits of them not making a catastrophic mistake with their 40 years of lifetime savings outweigh the cost of doing that. stephen timms said data on the use of pension wise used to be published monthly, but that had changed to annually — he wanted the minister to change it back. subject to the powers that i have, and the respect given that it's an arm's length body, i'm very happy to renew the annual publication to go back to a monthly publication. i would simply make the point that the stronger nudge that he's going through is something that is done by reason of the work and pensions select committee's recommendation in 2018. we are enacting what they asked us to do. guy opperman. you're watching monday in parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy.

don't forget, you can watch all our programmes on the bbc iplayer — just search for parliament. borisjohnson has reiterated he is "confident the uk will prosper" outside the eu, if a post—brexit trade deal is not agreed with the bloc. talks have begun again in brussels with the uk's chief negotiator, lord frost, saying there had been "progress," but there was quite a lot to do." at questions to the first minister in northern ireland, members were worried what impact the uncertainty or no agreement would have. the minister will be aware that before covid—i9 had established its economic impact, that we were in recession and one the reasons why is because of the uncertainty around brexit and the uncertainty facing our businesses and employees. will the minister agree with me that the worst case outcome is that we have no deal at the end of this and that could leave us with a more devastating impact upon us.

we do need to see an overall agreement reached in very much encourage negotiators to find that way forward and we know that there are still some very significant sticking points, particularly around the fisheries, governance and the level playing field issue. we hope that solutions can be found to those issues in the coming days, because if not, then we will have a hugely significant task ahead of us running up to the end of the year. and the executive has agreed that there needs to be flexibility shone by others so we do not break the protocol which could cause severe difficulties to us, particularly with food coming from great britain into northern ireland. the worry is that there could be increased checks and controls on food products entering from great britain from the first of january.

minister yourself the deputy first minister wrote the 5th of november to the european commission and received for the europeans a prompt reply, but not very forthcoming reply. the first minister update is any further steps the office is taking to ensure that we do have security of our food supply? we felt there was a need to write to the vice president of the commission, in connection to the issue around food coming from great britain to northern ireland, particularly concerning about the fact of the joint committee has not reached an agreement on the goods at risk and we are now faced with another challenge around pre—prepared meat products which the european union is saying that there is a difficulty around and the member might recall the famous issue around lasagnes from great britain and northern ireland, frankly, as far as i'm concerned, the lasagne comes over in the supermarket truck, which goes to its destination northern ireland and is sold in sterling to a consumer. so, what is the difficulty?

so, i hope there's enough flexibility shown by the european union to find a solution to this problem. i also hope they are not using this as a way to get their way in the negotiations. seniorfigures representing the uk's ports have warned peers that they may not be ready when the brexit transition period runs out at the end of this year. giving evidence to a group of peers, they raised concerns that governmented border controls and crucial complained of "chaos" at felixstowe port in suffolk, affecting goods in the run—up to christmas. had ports been able to access any necessary government funding for these projects,

could the government do more to ensure that this work is completed on time? the short answer is it's too early to tell. the bits that have gone into the ports to the infrastructure elements to the fund. we don't know yet whether they've been successful, to the extent of being successful, in the long start laying concrete places in the ground. so, we cannot tell yet. the one area of concern is that fact of the fund is already significantly oversubscribed. that could mean the government having to find more money. we are keen that government might decide to look in increasing funding in the infrastructure can be ready. we'll be ready as big question, it is probably fair to say that it will, though i cannot list exactly when it's going to be ready because a lot of the discussions on the subject of what happens

to the funding announcements. has the necessary construction work to build this and other infrastructure projects on track to be completed by the 1st ofjanuary, the 1st of april and the 1st ofjuly deadlines? which in your view of not being ready in time, and what would be the practical consequence of the. that gives us six months, maybe six and a bit months to build that border infrastructure, substantial border control posts in the uk took about 11 months. so, we're going to have to move more quickly, significantly more quickly than we have before. now, we live in a world where you can deliver a brand—new a&e in a conference centre in a matter of weeks, all things are possible, but nevertheless, we have to move a lot quicker than we have done previously. his key concern was for ports

in northern ireland, where much of the new infrastructure needed had to be in place by the first of january. that is currently very challenging and i anticipate that officials in northern ireland are looking at minimum viable alternative solutions to providing some stock back cover there. there's been a lot going on i with a plot that is being very good to have a lot more communication, but the things we have needed to know, we found to be agonising getting some of the information out of government. he was concerned too at the checks that might have to take place on animal and plant products. we are notjust talking about the channel straits here, we are talking about port gateways and it even covers other products like cut flowers for exa m ple, coming through from the netherlands. we are hopeful that this won't completely kill those trades, but i think there's an element of pragmatism that needs to be here. another area that was worrying the witnesses was the government it system — the goods vehicle movement

service, or gvms. given that the gvms system is still in development and some other systems that the uk government is developing currently, like the check system that will be essential for the traffic going through to the short straight routes and they have not been tested in real life yet. in the testing is planned for the middle of december, that there has to be a degree of concern as to whether or not they will be fully ready in time. gvms will be used for some of the activities of the irish sea for the northern irish traffic. otherjuly is a targeted deadline for most of the portes industry, and great britain to work towards, you still have potentially a shorter timescale for northern irish traffic in order to have customs control.

peers have been seeking assurances about the plan to bring university students in england home while minimising the transmission of covid—19. the government announced last week that there'll be staggered departure dates along with mass testing — a strategy described by one peer as an "enormous undertaking". the minister will be aware of the outbreak of covid—19 cases of the university and colleges across the uk and students having to self—isolate on strenuous circumstances. can the minister give me an assurance that the sufficient testing capacity for students returning home for christmas and the plans to the government have for the students again before the return to their college universities injanuary and they are kept safe in the communities in which they live safe as well. we have established walk—through testing sites and deployed mobile test sites

domicile universities or than one half miles of testing sites so that staff and students have access to tests if they develop symptoms. as part of our ongoing work, we have started a series of tests and are working with the department of health and social care to target mass asymptomatic testing at universities and working with the universities to build testing provisions including that use of lateral devices. last week, 192 academics from the university of manchester wrote to the vice chancellor saying they were ashamed and humiliated at the erection of a metal fence literally locking students in their residence. the students slogan said it all. paid, blamed, caged. it might be extreme, but it is not a one—off. will the minister explain to the vice chancellors that such invasive heavy—handed security measures are not

necessary when covid—19 is not a lethal risk to the lives of students? that was the decision of manchester university, not something encouraged by government guidance. i understand the universities undertaking inquiry of its own on the decision that it took in the communications around it which report by the end of this month. rolling out mass testing for the proposed travel window even in the targeted manner is an enormous undertaking and the universities that are there are keen to understand the details. for example, will students be required to have two negative tests as in scotland, before being cleared to travel or will one suffice? and will there be any liability on the universities? only one negative test is required. the stories of so many covid—19 operates on universities which have clearly impacted on learning and student mental health. the universities were asked to priume for a return on the basis of fully

functioning test track and trace programme which did not happen. can we be assured that the lateral flow devices will be available to universities and how many of them will be provided. and what steps can the government take to ensure a safe return injanuary with a staggered returning system and will students require a testing service in the january period? my lords, as part of our work to develop new testing technology, listed a series of pilots already on lateral flow tests and work with universities in the department of health and social care to rule that out. we also welcome the efforts of universities themselves in developing their own testing, which has shown the innovation that we would expect from universities. and that's it from me for now, but do join me at the same time tomorrow for another round up of the day here at westminster. but for now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

hello. we're all going to be sitting under a fairly hefty whack of cloud in the next few days. that cloud is being pulled in from the atlantic and it comes along with some very mild air. if it does thin and break in a few spots, which it may do with a little bit of help from the hills, we could see our temperatures and eastern regions shooting up today. but as we continue to pull in the south—westerly air into western scotland, there's going to be a lot of moisture around. here, some fairly relentless rain and across the hills, the totals keep adding up. i think we'll see perhaps some rain setting in from western wales and parts of northern ireland with the higher ground, especially through the day as well. a lot of cloud around, as i said, but some sheltered eastern spots will see the sun coming out and the temperatures could shoot up to 16, even 17 degrees, but widely, we're in the mid—teens on tuesday despite the grey skies. through tuesday evening over into wednesday, still lots of cloud around, still that rain across western scotland.

it will be a mild start to wednesday in many areas, temperatures down no lower than the low teens. what will actually happen through wednesday is during the daytime, our temperatures will come down, some as this weather front advances from the west. yes, it will bring rain, it'll be another windy story on wednesday too. the east starts with some sunshine. we mayjust cling onto the mild air here into the afternoon with a little bit of brightness across east anglia, temperatures could get up to 16 degrees. behind the front, it's clearer, it's brighter but it's consequently colder. temperatures just 10—11, so chillier in the figures to start the day. this perhaps shows the transition best, though. wednesday into thursday, we sweep away the mild atlanta air and we're plunged into arctic air, a northerly

blast setting up as our area of low pressure that's been with us for quite some time gets replaced by a brief ridge of high pressure. very clear air coming down from the arctic. there'll be some beautiful sunshine around on thursday, some showers, though, for scotland, cold enough to be wintry. gales down the north sea coast. it will be particularly cold when we factor in the wind, and a few showers possible for wales and eastern england on that wind as well. the biggest change for thursday is how it will feel. for the likes of scotland, temperatures will feel closer to freezing when you factor in the wind.

welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: the world health organisation warns against complacency after a second firm announced successful trials of a covid—19 vaccine. i broke into an ear—to—ear grin when i heard the numbers. it really exceeded our best hopes and it is an incredibly exciting moment for us. as coronavirus cases in the us top 11 million, president—electjoe biden warns more people could die if the trump administration doesn't cooperate with the transition. reporter: what do you see as the biggest threat to your transition right now, given president trump's unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power? more people may die if we do not co—ordinate. hurricane iota bears down on central america forcing thousands of people in nicaragua and honduras