this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. uk prime minister borisjohnson confirms that new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from sale in 2030, as part of what he's calling a "green industrial revolution". president trump fires his top cyber security official, chris krebs, for rejecting claims of fraud in the us presidential election. the uk's public spending watchdog says ministers failed to uphold normal standards of transparency in the rush to secure coronavirus supplies at the start of the pandemic — the business secretary says there was huge pressure at the time. we had to do an enormous amount of work very fast to secure the ppe and that's what we did and i'm not going to apologise for the fact that, you know, quite rightly we made the effort and people

were quite rightly asking us to make that effort. if you want to get in touch with me about any of those stories — or anything else on today's programme — tweet me @annita—mcveigh or use the #bbcyourquestions. uk doctors‘ leaders warn hospitals will be overwhelmed with covid patients unless tough new restrictions are imposed after lockdown ends in england, amid reports of rules easing to allow families to get together over christmas. none of us want to see a situation over christmas where you've got the mixing of generations of people, grandparents mixing with grandchildren, and then finding that some of the most vulnerable in our society end up becoming infected. and coming up this hour — the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. the uk sees its highest levels of loneliness this autumn as a result of the disease.

hello, and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. plans for a "green industrial revolution" are being set out today to help the uk reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. among the announcements is that new cars and vans powered entirely by petrol or diesel will not be sold in the uk from 2030. it's hoped the ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars will speed up the transition to electric vehicles. the scheme plans to provide investment for a range of green energy initiatives, like hydrogen for heating and producing enough offshore wind to power every home and quadrupling how much we produce. more nuclear energy is part of the government's solution.

the plan is to build more small plants, which could support thousands of jobs. and new house building will have to play its part. from 2023, all homes will need to insulated so they don't require a gas boiler. this report from our environment analyst, roger harrabin. the fuel pump, on a slowjourney towards the scrapheap. from 2030, the government will ban new cars powered only by petrol and diesel. new hybrids that run on petrol and electricity will still be allowed, and people can still drive conventional cars. it's part of a plan to steady the volatile climate. planet—heating gases from modern society haven't caused the wildfires sweeping the world, but they have played a part. more nuclear energy is part of the government's solution. the prime minister wants jobs at the giant sizewell c plant in suffolk, although there are still hurdles to overcome and no solution yet for nuclear waste.

offshore wind plays a key role too, producing enough electricity to power every home by 2030 — supporting up to 60,000 jobs. cities in the north—east should benefit. the government wants them to become new technology hubs for making wind turbines and creating the clean fuel, hydrogen. house—building will also have to play its part. from 2023, all new homes will need to be so cosy, they don't require a gas boiler. as the new policies cut emissions, so the prime minister's road—building plans will increase emissions. critics say he should stop driving policies in the wrong direction and invest far more in putting the nation on track for a zero emissions future. roger harrabin, bbc news.

0ur chief environment correspondent gave his analysis of today's announcement. roger listed all the areas, hydrogen, nuclear, carbon capture and storage, a restatement of the commitment to offshore wind. we have energy efficiency for homes, all that kind of stuff and it is definitely a move in the right direction towards this net to zero future that we are now legally obliged to go towards. also, a real statement of intent from the government in the run—up to this big climate conference they will be hosting this time next year. you will not be surprised to hear, however, that the labour party and the greens say this is an ambitious enough. they point out that the 4 billion of new cash, there is 12 billion of new cash, there is 12 billion in total, but the 4 billion of new cash is just one 20th, 5%, of

the total being spent on the new high—speed rail link. they say could be more ambitious. it certainly could be more ambitious if you compare the plans that europe has for transitioning to a low carbon economy or indeed joe biden‘s ma nifesto economy or indeed joe biden‘s manifesto pledges in america. he was talking about $2 trillion over the four years of the presidency. so, definitely it is an ambitious start. as you say, the cars is a very ambitious headline policy but we wa nt to ambitious headline policy but we want to see kind of more energy behind this before we can say for certain that we are on the pathway toa certain that we are on the pathway to a low carbon economy here in britain. justin rowlatt, our chief energy correspondent. let's return to one part of the plan, that by 2030, new cars petrol and diesel ca i’s 2030, new cars petrol and diesel cars will not be sold in the uk. we can get reaction to that plan now from edmund king, the president of

the aa foundation. good to have you with us as ever. you say this 2030 target is incredibly ambitious, is it achievable? yes, it is ambitious, pretty radical, and it is new cars and vans. i think the vans is more ofa and vans. i think the vans is more of a challenge than cars ever stop with cars, we are already seeing some really good electric vehicles on the market. with vans, the adaptation to electrics being a lot slower. but i think the government has put forward a package here, if they gave that date in 2030, ten yea rs they gave that date in 2030, ten years earlier than we first thought, they were first talking about 20110, but alongside that date, they have committed to more investment in charging infrastructure, more research and development investment around batteries and, indeed, incentives for drivers who are

buying evs. so i think as a package, it actually works. and do you think the other side of that, if we look at, you just mentioned about the drivers' point of view, if we look at the manufacturing point of view, is there a big incentive here? we know lots of car manufacturers are already heavily into research and development on electric vehicles, is this an incentive for them to drive that forward, excuse the pun?!” think for the manufacturers, if you look at it, they've been making combustion engine cars per 100 yea rs. combustion engine cars per 100 years. they now have nine years to convert all of their models to electric. there has been a slight let off for some plug in hybrids. they can still be sold until 2035, which we think is right because for many people, getting your first hybrid car, that you plug in at home, is a good stepping stone to electric. so i think a lot of the kind of perceptions about electric

ca i’s kind of perceptions about electric cars need to be overcome. many of them are myths. the range of electric cars is getting better, the infrastructure is getting better. at the aa, we deal with about 26,000 brea kd owns the aa, we deal with about 26,000 breakdowns a year of electric vehicles and ironically only about 396 vehicles and ironically only about 3% alcohol is running out of charge. the majority of breakdowns are to do with punctures, tyres or the 12 volt battery. so they are pretty reliable. they are a little more expensive, but if people buy them on lease deals, they don't have to worry about the battery life and the running costs are much cheaper. you don't have to go to the garage to fill up with petrol or diesel. we know that a car, a petrol or diesel car bought anytime between now and 2030, you know, it's going to be a pretty reliable vehicle that could stay on the road for a long time and presumably vehicles... the government's plans will be reflected

in taxation policy and so forth, but we we re in taxation policy and so forth, but we were talking to the green party a little earlier and they were saying alongside this government's ambition to move the green vehicles, it needs to move the green vehicles, it needs to invest more in public transport, to invest more in public transport, to make this plan work in the round. would you agree with that? yeah, it's a bit tricky with public transport at the moment because of the covid virus. a lot of people are avoiding public transport. but of course, in our towns and cities in particular, we cannot just course, in our towns and cities in particular, we cannotjust rely on cars, whether they are electric or not. electric cars also cause congestion, so we do need a combination of public transport, walking, cycling and then making our ca i’s walking, cycling and then making our cars greener and cleaner. the one problem, though, is still the 36% of people who don't have a driveway for parking, so it's a lot more

difficult to charge. need to look to more on street charging points. 0nly about one in six councils are putting up on street charging points in residential areas, so that needs to improve, so people that live in terrace houses or flats can also charge their vehicles overnight. taking into account everything you have just said to us, back to my first question, is this plan achievable by 2030 ? first question, is this plan achievable by 2030? it's ambitious, can it be done? yes, i think this plan can be done. it's a step in the right direction. it's a radical new future but there's some great electric cars are out there at the moment, the ranges are getting better. they are good to drive, they are cheaper to run, so i think the future is looking bright and it's looking green. 0k, edmund king, president of the aa foundation, thank you very much. donald trump has sacked an official who'd rejected his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the presidential election. christopher krebs was the director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, which had described the election

as "the most secure in american history". mr trump said he'd made a "highly inaccurate" statement. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. another post—election sacking by donald trump. another senior official with whom the president disagrees over the accuracy of the result. chris krebs was in charge of the agency responsible for the integrity of the election. 0n polling day he said some overseas attempts to interfere in the process had been addressed, but he warned the country wasn't out of the woods yet. today, in some sense, it's half time. there may be other events or activities or efforts to interfere and undermine confidence in the election. so, i'd ask all americans to be patient, to treat all sensational and unverified claims with scepticism. last week, with mr trump still refusing to concede the election, the security agency said there was no evidence

that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised. not so, says the president. "there were massive improprieties and fraud," he writes on twitter, making unsubstantiated claims — including dead people voting, pollwatchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from trump to biden, late voting, and many more. "therefore," the president adds, "effective immediately, chris krebs has been terminated as director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency." for his part, mr krebs, who reportedly expected to be fired, is standing by the conclusions of his agency. he tweeted. .. donald trump is still refusing publicly to acknowledge that he lost tojoe biden,

and the white house isn't cooperating with the president—elect as he prepares to take office. court challenges have failed to support mr trump's view that the election was stolen. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. and tonight at 9.30pm, we'll be joined live by top american infectious disease expert dr anthony fauci to discuss the us‘s latest coronavirus surge, that's 16.30 eastern time. we'll also be speaking to dr atul gawande from president—electjoe biden's virus task force and uk epidemiologist professor neil ferguson, as part of a 30—minute focus on what the latest vaccine breakthroughs means for you. baroness dido harding, who leads the uk's nhs test and trace programme, has revealed she is self—isolating after receiving an alert from the service she runs. the tory peer tweeted a screenshot of an app notification on wednesday

which carried the message "you need to self—isolate" until the end of november 26th. she wrote above the image: the news comes as prime minister borisjohnson prepares to answer questions at pmqs by videolink on wednesday as he continues to self—isolate after a meeting with mp lee anderson, who tested positive. the uk government's spending watchdog has accused ministers of setting aside normal standards of transparency as they scrambled to secure personal protective equipment at the start of the coronavirus crisis. the national audit office says £18 billion was spent on supplies and services as the usual competitive tendering process was bypassed, with firms recommended by mps and others within whitehall given priority. andy verity reports. from the start of the pandemic to the end ofjuly, government contracts worth £18 billion were awarded at high speed,

using emergency rules to bypass the normal competitive tendering process. most of the contracts were to suppliers of personal protective equipment. the independent national audit office said even in an emergency, it remained essential to public trust for the government to document why it had chosen a particular supplier and how it had managed any potential conflicts of interest. in a sample of 20 cases, it found repeated failures to do so. in one example highlighted by the nao, a contract was awarded to the focus group organiser public first, whose owners previously worked for the cabinet 0ffice minister michael gove and alongside borisjohnson's then top adviser dominic cummings. yet the cabinet office failed to document any consideration of any potential conflicts of interest. by not keeping proper records, by not being transparent about when these contracts were awarded and what they were doing, it lays the government open to these accusations — whether they are true or not. and, certainly, this weird vip route through, where certain companies got a closer

look, because they were recommended by mps, peers... i mean, this is not something mps wanted, and yet it has happened. and the question is — did anyone know about it and put people through that route, and a lot of us would not have known there was a fast track route to recommend certain companies. the nao also confirmed that where ministers' offices, mps or health chiefs recommended suppliers, their applications were fast tracked. public first said it was hired on a pay as you go arrangement that meant it could be fired if it did not perform well. the cabinet office said it welcomed the nao's scrutiny and its recommendations for improvement, but declined to comment on the case of public first. andy verity, bbc news. business secretary alok sharma has insisted that "checks were done" in the case of a spanish businessman acting as a go—between, who was reportedly given £21 million of uk taxpayers' cash. there was huge pressure to get ppe to our front line workers...

mr sharma, you have said that but £21 million of public money spent, paid to one individual? as i said, dan, my understanding is the department of health did checks in that particular case and, of course, look, it's worth pointing out that all public contracts are disclosed in the appropriate manner at the appropriate time. but i think, i go back to this fundamental point, just take yourself back to some months ago where there was huge pressure to get ppe — and that's what we did. the head of the nao, gareth davies, told our business presenter sima kotecha that it was criticial the government was consistent in explaining why it awarded ppe contracts to certain suppliers. we are very careful to set out the context here, the extraordinary volume of ppe that needed to be procured very fast. everyone except it wouldn't be possible to carry out the normal tender process in every

case here, inviting bids and taking time to evaluate them and so on, there wasn't time for that. the question is what control is needed to replace that competition? what we found is in some cases there was a clear explanation of why a particular company had been picked and the due diligence carried out to ensure they could deliver but that wasn't the case in all of the ones we looked at. that is a really important finding because clearly for the size of contracts we are talking about, often tens of millions of pounds each, then it is critical that the government has a clear explanation of why it was picked and all of that is in the public domain. government missed its own rules on publishing these contracts in a timely way and that lack of transparency allows all sorts of concerns to start circulating. what is your response to the business secretary we just heard defending the government because that system? he was very defensive of how it works and said

there had been nothing unethical taking place here? clearly people had to move at great speed. everyone agrees with that but we don't accept that it's not possible simultaneously to be clearly documenting the reasons for each contract award and then to be putting that in the public domain, in line with government's own rules. those two things didn't happen consistently. no extra time would be taken there, there would be no delays in acquiring the required equipment but those things do need to be reliably in place if public confidence is to be maintained. and, gareth, what does this mean for the public? this is taxpayers' money, so if somebody is watching this interview today, how does your report impact them? well, with all of our reports, we produce factual findings of the kind we have today. those are then used by the public accou nts those are then used by the public accounts committee, which is a

cross— party accounts committee, which is a cross—party committee of mps in the house of commons and that committee uses our reports to hold to account the senior civil servants who are responsible for the areas that we are reviewing. so in this case, the public accounts committee will be holding a hearing in december, where they seek evidence from the civil serva nts they seek evidence from the civil servants who oversaw these processes . servants who oversaw these processes. that is a chance for a public accountability process that everybody can tune into and understand the answers given. i think that is a crucial part of the way in which government is held to account by parliament for its spending. the chair of the public accou nts spending. the chair of the public accounts committee has said that this could be the tip of the iceberg. how damaging that these findings be for the government? the important thing is to act on the findings. so already, some of the processes the government is following, clearly it is out of the initially incredibly pressured phase of the pandemic but we are still dealing with extreme demands on

public services. so it is good that the department here have tightened up the department here have tightened up the due diligence processes that we re up the due diligence processes that were carried out on the companies we have seen evidence of that. what we now need to see is the backlog of publication of these contracts cleared quickly, so that everything is in the public domain, and then for consistent standards of documentation and transparency to be maintained from now on. thank you, gareth davies, the head of the mao. this is, as he said, about public trust. people want to see a transparent system, or some people at least that we have been speaking to say they want to know what steps have been taken. there will be many questions for the government as more people digestive the findings from this report. that was sima kotecha talking to gareth davies from the national audit office. leading uk doctors have warned

that they don't want to see a situation where generations mix over christmas and some of the most vulnerable people in society become infected. the british medical association also said the lifting of the lockdown in england must be better handled this time around to avoid a surge in covid that could overwhelm the nhs. the bma has created a blueprint with suggestions as to how a new system should look. it includes replacing the "rule of six", with a two—households restriction to reduce social mixing. the government says its infection control guidance is under constant review. the chair of the bma council, dr chaand nagpaul, spoke to bbc breakfast earlier and said that the priority has to be stopping the spread of the virus now and that the next few weeks will be crucial. what we must be guided by is the safety of our nation. i think it's very hard at the moment to make predictions on what will be the case in december, which is why we're saying we need to have those measures put in place now and the public need to understand what will be expected when we exit lockdown. none of us want to see a situation over christmas where you've got the mixing of generations, of grandparents mixing with grandchildren and then finding that some of the most vulnerable

in our society end up becoming infected. none of us want that and therefore i think it's premature to talk about that. we need to bring the infection down. that's our priority today — to try and reduce the spread by christmas. our health correspondent, nick triggle told me more about the dilemma the government is facing. well, there is, as you say, a clear desire to give people a little respite from the long, hard slog of fighting the pandemic. from what i understand, it's delicately balanced behind the scenes and there's lot of discussions on it. whatever is done, they want to do it on a uk—wide basis, so we don't see the differences in rules between england, scotland, wales and northern ireland that we have seen this year. but clearly, if they allow people to mix at christmas, it is going to lead to more spread of the virus and we still don't know the impact of lockdown. cases haven't yet started falling,

although it is still early days. the other fear, and this is something the behavioural, human behavioural experts behind the scenes are warning government, is that people may welljust ignore it and get together at christmas because it is such an important time and people have been denied that sort of social contact for so long. the concern is that if people start breaking the restrictions, that then normalises it and makes compliance worse for the rest of the winter. so, some of the experts are saying to the government, actually, you're better off relaxing at a little and then reintroducing it. so, what is the bms‘s blueprint, tell us about the plan and what it wants to see done differently coming out of this lockdown as opposed to earlier in the? —— in the year? along with the discussion about christmas, a lot is being focused on what should happen once lockdown ends on the 2nd of december. we heard the government advisers this week at the daily press briefing mentioning we may need

to strengthen tiers. the british medical association i think is having its say today and it's suggesting we do need tighter restrictions than we did have. their particular concern is the rule of six, which can allow people from several different households to come together and then the following day you can be mixing with people from other households. what the bma wants to do is really tighten that restriction, so you are only getting together with one other household. that means if the infection does spread in a group, it's limited to those two households, whereas if you are seeing multiple different people across several days, the virus can spread much more. they think this would be a really important way of keeping the virus down over the winter. long queues have formed in supermarkets in south australia, ahead of new coronavirus restrictions introduced by the authorities to deal with the latest cluster of cases. state premier steven marshall describes them as a "circuit—brea ker". pubs, restaurants, cafes and most shops will close for six days.

schools and universities will shut. and, from midnight, mask wearing will be mandatory across the state. the parliament in thailand has begun voting on whether to accept changes to the constitution demanded by pro—democracy protesters. i think we can show you some live pictures from downtown bangkok. demonstrators — who want reform of the monarchy and the resignation of the prime minister — have returned to the streets of bangkok today. these protests have intensified in recent days. more than a0 were injured yesterday after violent clashes with police as they tried to reach the parliament building. new figures from the office for national statistics show that this month has seen the highest levels of acute loneliness recorded in britain since the beginning of the pandemic. 11.2 million people said they were "always" or "often" lonely —

up from 2.6 million in april. young people are most likely to feel isolated, according to the report. elaine dunkley has more. especially caring for my mum and my little sister, itjust leaves you isolated from your friends and everyone around you. everything when you're pregnant is unknown, but to deal with a global pandemic, my mental health has suffered because of it. you know, not having my friends around. a lot of care leavers tend to be quite isolated anyway, but i think with the lockdown in place, it's more a sense of feeling trapped. for poppy, pregnancy and becoming a parent has been a difficult journey. she is in stockport, her family are nearly 300 miles away in scotland.

ijust really miss my mum. i wish i could go and see her. you know, i feel bad that she is missing out on so many things with arlo. i've been really anxious all day today. just thinking about if we're not allowed to go to scotland for christmas, what i'm going to do. you know, it willjust be me and arlo here by ourselves because my partner is working for most of december. ithink it's, you know, affected me being able to make friends. and, it sounds like it's not really a big deal, but it absolutely is, to have peer support is sometimes more important than having a gp

on the end of the phone. it's so much more thanjust being able to go for a coffee with someone, you know, it is everything. elorm is a young carer. her mum has sickle cell anaemia. shielding and extra responsibilities at home has added to the feeling of isolation. it's like you're carrying the whole world's burden on you. with college, i definitely still have to go in. it's just me being extra careful. i'm just like, no, don't touch me! i want to be extra careful. you are outside with other people but you're still isolated from them because you don't want to get too close in case you catch it and take it home, it could be dangerous. 21—year—old jaymie grew up in care. her grandfather recently passed away and she's worried that this year's christmas gathering for care leavers will be cancelled. last year, we'd had a really nice sit—down meal with a group of us. it was like just a big family

sitting down for christmas dinner. like, it was a really good atmosphere and there would usually be christmas quizzes and stuff as well and, like, we'd get given presents and stuff. a lot of care leavers may not necessarily have a family to go to. since lockdown began, young people have been the most likely age group to experience loneliness. poppy has now helped to start a walking group for parents. a simple thing, being able to go out for a walk in the park. but, you know, seeing how much it means to some people isjust... can't really describe that feeling. jaymie has nowjoined an online art group to help herfeel connected to have grandfather and his passion for painting. whenever i talked to him about art and stuff, he'd be always like, you take after me with that. which made me smile. and elorm is determined to help others. she is part of campaign called lonely not alone. today i'm wearing my yellow socks, we chose yellow socks as our symbol.

and itjust brings me so muchjoy when i see a random person on the bus wearing yellow socks. that will make you feel more like you're definitely not alone through all this. and you can get in touch with us from our action line, and you can see the details on screen. more now on the criticism from the government's spending watchdog, which has accused ministers of setting aside normal standards of transparency when they awarded contracts for personal protective equipment at the start of the coronavirus crisis.

well to discuss the findings from that watchdog report, we can speak now tojolyon maugham, a barrister and director of the good law project which is pursuing a legal action against the government about ppe. thank you forjoining us today. for viewers who are not aware how it came to light, you could begin by explaining that. yes, so, way back in may there was a small piece in the times newspaper about a contract award to an unlikely counterpart, a small pest control specialist in littlehampton with £18,000 of net assets. we thought it was pretty remarkable that it had been awarded as it appeared then, £108 million of ppe contracts and we took advice from one of the leading specialists in the country and out of that

initial phone conversation we are now pursuing eight, nine, ten judicial reviews and since may i have been writing about it and tweeting about it and the good law project has been sending out e—mails to its 200,000 strong mailing list about the issue and now we have perhaps eight, nine, tenjudicial reviews of foot and have broken all sorts of extraordinary stories, for example, yesterday, the story that a jeweller in florida gave $50 million toa jeweller in florida gave $50 million to a middleman in orderfor that middleman to find someone who could enable him to supply £250 million worth of ppe to the nhs. these are startling stories. that story yesterday was broken by colleagues of yours at the bbc. indeed, and certainly eye grabbing. the amount of taxpayer money involved is eye watering at times. the government, and you will have seen the response

from the government this morning, is that it was working at pace in a time of crisis. have you received any explanation or any more detailed explanation as to why these contracts were awarded in certain cases? no, in short. no. as always with these things, there is some reality to that government response. way back in march britain, like every other country in the world, was desperately scrambling around for ppe and we all understand that at that moment in time you need to buy stuff and it doesn't really matter how. we all remember those horrifying stories from our tv screens of nurses and doctors having to make use of ski goggles and beanbags because there was no ppe. that is a failure of government policy itself, but a different failure this one. although it took this contracts were entered into in march and april, it doesn't explain

the odd counterparty that was selected, like this small pest control company. if i may interrupt, you are saying the failure of this one, but what if we don't have, and what i think you're looking for, is document creation —— documentation to show the trailer procurement and why certain people were awarded contracts. that is what you are pushing the government to tell us, isn't it? our concern is very much foran isn't it? our concern is very much for an explanation as to why on the government's own figures it bought 32 billion items of ppe at the height of the market prices, but has consumed only 6.8 billion items of ppe. so when you look at the explanation from alloc sharma, that we needed to get stop in to the nhs, thatis we needed to get stop in to the nhs, that is true, but it doesn't explain why they bought five times as much supply as we have consumed from

february until now —— to get stuff in. top of the market prices, as i said. a lot of that is clogging up the port in folkestone and has been airlifted to fields in suffolk. you can't get it into the nhs warehouse in daventry, although this is only room, but i am told that we bought so much of this that we are having to rent warehouses in china to store it and there was no reason at all, none at all, it's completely inextricable to me —— inexplicable to me that we bought all that stuff that we won't need an much will probably expire un—used because it has a use date without proper government. that is the thing i am genuinely outraged by. so the national audit office said that even ina time national audit office said that even in a time of crisis there has to be transparency and a trail of documentation. if the government does not produce this swiftly, you

are then going to pursue this case in the courts, is that right? we haveissued in the courts, is that right? we have issued a number of separate legal cases and we will be pursuing those cases and there will be hearings in february and government is now going to have to, under the compulsion of the rules of court, produce material that it has so far refused to produce. the government's attitude to transparency on this is really pretty shocking. there are contracts entered into in april that it has still not published, and the law is abundantly clear. the law says you have 30 days to publish details, and we are looking at delays of six or seven months, and no sign of these contracts coming forward. i don't understand it. i also don't understand why, if government is going to operate a vip channel for its contact —— rich contracts, we should be entitled to know who has gone through the vip

channel and what contracts have been awarded and on what terms because u nless we awarded and on what terms because unless we know that information, it is impossible for us to rule out the possibility that this was basically a wheeze to give colleagues, associates, friends of ministers enormously lucrative contracts at public expense. transparency is profoundly important and we are not getting any and it is quite wrong. thank you very much for your time today and the government in response today and the government in response to all of this, the business minister, on air in various sections of the media today saying that proper checks were carried out, and he was talking specifically about the case involving the jeweller in florida and the middleman that he employed. he says that proper checks we re employed. he says that proper checks were carried out. jeremy corbyn has been reinstated

as a member of the labour party. mr corbyn was suspended three weeks ago for saying the scale of anti—semitism within labour had been "overstated" in a report by the equalities and human rights commission. he issued a statement saying he regretted any "pain" caused. earlier this morning the labour leader sir keir starmer was asked about jeremy corbyn's reinstatement. good morning. what is your reaction tojeremy corbyn being reinstated? i put a statement out last night. will you be restoring the whip? i put a statement out last night, thank you. the labour leader there, as he left the house this morning. earlier i spoke to our political correspondent, leila nathoo, and asked about the reaction. predictably, jeremy corbyn's reinstatement to the labour party has divided the crowd, as his suspension did in the first place. his supporters say this is the right way forward, that he has clarified his comments and this is good for party unity but critics in the party, including jewish groups and

jewish mps, say that this is now an illustration of why labour‘s complaints process needs to be overhauled and that he should have apologised and say how can labour claim to have zero tolerance on anti—semitism ifjeremy corbyn is back in the party. it's worth stressing that the process that jeremy corbyn was subject to was independent of the labour leader, sir keir starmer, although he did back jeremy corbyn's suspension, a decision taken by the general secretary. but keir starmer now has a difficult decision to make himself, which is whether to restore jeremy corbyn as a labour mp. there has been some internal party debate going on this morning about whether that should be an automatic right because he's been brought back into the party as a member he should automatically be sitting as a labour mp once again, but certainly the labour party, officially, and sir keir starmer‘s office believe that's not the case and this is a separate decision that keir starmer has to make, but it's very tricky for him to put himself at the centre of,

because either outcome, whether jeremy corbyn does not end up sitting as a labour mp, that will be hugely inflammatory to supporters on the left of the party, and equally, if he is reinstated, then those who are his critics, and jewish groups, will be dismayed to see that their eyes sir keir starmer is not trying to draw a definitive line under the toxic issue of anti—semitism which dogged the party for all of those years. slovakia is the first country in europe to test its entire population for the virus. the rapid antigen tests can show whether you have the virus within 15 minutes, although there's also a high rate of false negatives. however, other countries have been watching the operation closely. dr alexandra brazinova is an epidemiologist at the medical faculty of comenius university. shejoins me now from bratislava. really good to have you with us again, because i spoke to a couple of weeks ago alongside a guest who is involved in the liverpool testing

pilot here in the uk. to contrast and compare what you were doing, it's really good to get you back to follow u p it's really good to get you back to follow up what's been happening in slovakia. so as we mentioned, this first round of mass testing of the entire population is done. what are your initialfindings entire population is done. what are your initial findings from that? well, hello, good to be here. we had the first round of mass testing and the first round of mass testing and the whole country already two weeks ago and then we had another round, and the second round was done only in about half of the country, in the districts with the highest rate of positive results out of the people that were tested, and the results we re that were tested, and the results were quite impressive. we have identified about 50,000 people that tested positive and these people we re tested positive and these people were isolated and at one time point were isolated and at one time point we we re were isolated and at one time point we were able to identify many people who were infected and we are hoping

that this will help slow down the spread of the pandemic in slovakia. it is possibly a little bit too early, isn't it, to say whether it has done that, but if you have identified all of those positive cases on those people have self isolated, then it should follow that cases of the virus will begin to reduce. yes, that's true. however, we are aware that the mass testing itself does not stop the pandemic. we have already adopted substitute measures in october and as of early november we are seeing the effect. there is also a partial lockdown, and that, together with the mass testing, we are hoping that we'll end up slowing down the spread of covid—19 in the country. end up slowing down the spread of covid-19 in the country. can you say anything at this stage about the reliability of these antigen tests,

especially with regard to perhaps false negatives, picking up cases of the virus where people have a low viral load or are asymptomatic. we are aware that these antigen tests being used in mass testing are not as sensitive as pcr tests which are considered to be the gold standard. there is lower sensitivity and specificity meaning that when you test many people you have many false negatives on this is bad, because these people have a negative result but they are still able to spread the infection. and you also have a number of small false positives, and these people need to be quarantined, but they are actually healthy. can i just asked, and i know the prime minister has announced another round of mass testing before christmas. what do you think all of this effort will make christmas look like in slovakia? this is exactly the goal,

to make christmas as safe as possible forfamilies to make christmas as safe as possible for families to gather and have a celebration, so we will have another round this coming weekend and this will be done in 500 towns. so we went from the mass testing of the whole country to testing several districts, and now targeted testing for the towns where the incidence of covid—19 is the highest, so this is actually the best way to use the antigen test. there is no reason to use them for the whole population because in big numbers, you will have many false results, but if they are targeted, in a high incidence populations, then that is the best and most efficient way to use this antigen test. doctor, thank you very much forjoining us again. thank

you. police in kenya have arrested three medical officers in a public hospital following a bbc africa eye investigation which exposed a child trafficking syndicate in the capital nairobi. the documentary uncovered a series of illegal networks in which children were stolen from homeless mothers and sold on the streets for as little as a50 us dollars. they also uncovered evidence of new born babies offered for sale in illegal private clinics as well as at a public hospital in nairobi. there are now 11.2 million people in britain who are always or often lonely, that's according to a pandemic tracking survey by the office for national statistics. that figure is a 60% increase on pre—lockdown levels, with 2.6 million people saying they haven't left the house for any reason in the past seven days, figures up to november 8th have shown. baroness barran, the minister responsible for loneliness, told us "there are going to be very challenging months ahead" for loneliness, particularly

going into the winter. we're nowjoined by nazia hamidah who became a mum for the first time during lockdown in april and bob morse, project manager of platform 1, a men's mental health and crisis charity. you are both very welcome today and thank you forjoining us. and congratulations, first of all, on your baby, but what a time to become a new mum. difficult to get out and about, and really explore the normal avenues that would be open to new mothers by way of meeting other new pa rents, mothers by way of meeting other new parents, so what has that experience been like for you? definitely been challenging. i think when you become a new mum you have an expectation of able to meet other mums through baby century classes, nct groups, and family and friends being able to visit your home and share those intimate moments with everybody, and

when lockdown ends you are in a pandemic with a constant fear and anxiety over the virus and it really does take a toll on your mental health and loneliness and feelings of isolation are definitely two of the re—occurring ones. of isolation are definitely two of the re-occurring ones. how lonely and how isolated have you felt?|j think and how isolated have you felt?” think especially in the first lockdown when i became a new mum and had those feelings of vulnerability, i felt quite had those feelings of vulnerability, ifelt quite a had those feelings of vulnerability, i felt quite a lot of neglect and abandonment from the wider community, not having health professionals at your fingertips, not being able to see family and friends and not having those real—life experiences, so going on social media and having face and whatsapp calls, they are not a substitute for those meaningful interactions you get face—to—face. bob, turning to you, the men who contact your charity for help, has a

lot of that been to do with those feelings of isolation and loneliness through the pandemic? yes, the sad thing is that prior to the recent epidemic, there was another epidemic and it was caused by mental health issues, normally based around isolation and loneliness and that was quietly bubbling under, pretty much on seen by many and it was a case of people not being able to access support that they would have used to actually help them get over a crisis. we set our charity up and we re a crisis. we set our charity up and were dealing before covid—19, between 30 and 50 guys per day, who we re between 30 and 50 guys per day, who were coming into a safe space and when covid—19 arrived we had to close down. the net result of that

has been very traumatic. sorry to interrupt at that point, but ijust wa nt to interrupt at that point, but ijust want to get to this point, was at the cutting off of that personal connection, that face to face, in the same room, if you like, with others, that has contributed to the loneliness? yes, absolutely. prior to the lockdown we had people coming in and they were connecting, and i'm quite convinced that connection is to be key here and the people that we re to be key here and the people that were connected, albeit that we were a last resort, when covid—19 came, the last resort had stopped, so all ofa the last resort had stopped, so all of a sudden connection stopped. since then, we've experienced 15 attempted suicides and one i'm afraid to say one fatal suicide attempt which happened yesterday. afraid to say one fatal suicide attempt which happened yesterdaym is just terrific. and you are there

trying to help, but these are desperate, desperate times. your message, i'm sure, bob, is to reach out if people need help, please keep talking, please reach out. well, yes, it's the only way. expensive remedies are worthless if you haven't got a connection, so it's always about connections. for goodness' sake, talk to people. if you are that person, give organisations like platform won a ring and make contact. because isolation isjust there ring and make contact. because isolation is just there and waiting in the shadows and the damage it will cause is horrifying. you have explain that to us, it is just terrific what you are telling us. very, very sad, and obviously, as you were reflecting, that connection is so important. we are almost out of time, but if you could briefly

explain if you have been able to access help to kind of remedy those feelings of loneliness.” access help to kind of remedy those feelings of loneliness. i have. i turned to cognitive behavioural therapy and i've had elements of being able to form a community online, via social media, meeting new mothers through that and actually recently the baby century classes have begun again, saving up to socialise and meet mothers again via that platform as well. thank you for sharing your story and we appreciate that and also you, bob. thank you both very much. for details of organisations which offer advice and support, go online to bbc.co.uk/actionline. we will just

we willjust keep that on the screen for a moment more so you can see. the time is 1053. the beano has produced a one—off version for adults — for the first time in its history — to reflect the pandemic. it sees dennis the menace's parents looking back at zoom quizzes, home—schooling and toilet roll shortages — and it features uk prime minister boris johnson and the england footballer marcus rashford. mike stirling is the editorial director of the magazine. we speak to kids all the time when we make beano because we have to think about kids, and we kept asking kids how they were feeling during this terrible year, and how they we re this terrible year, and how they were coping with not seeing their friends, their grandparents may be, being from school. and what started to come through was the kids being worried about grown—ups and how grown—ups were feeling, and one little boy said it would be amazing if you could do a beano for

grown—ups to give them a laugh and cheer them up, and it gave us a thought, and i would have loved to have done a big john lewis advert telling everyone that subscriptions are half price this christmas, but instead, we stuck to what we know best and did a comic.” instead, we stuck to what we know best and did a comic. i love that story about the origin, the idea where it came from. tell us more about what is in it and who is in it. it's an 8-page pull-out, and like you say, it summarises because this year has been the year if you didn't find this year has been the year if you didn'tfind a this year has been the year if you didn't find a little thing to laugh about you would just cry, we've summarised some of the crazy things like people stockpiling toilet rolls and we have a snowman built out of discarded toilet rolls. we have the stockpiled christmas puddings from marcus rashford who is one of the stars of the story and he does some amazing football skills with it. we are showing some of the images now from the special edition as you talk to us. brilliant. awesome. the other

superstars on the issue are greta thunberg, who won a beano power award, voted for by readers, and also captain sir tom moore. that was mike sterling from the beano. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. hello again. for most of us it was a pretty mild start to the day but what you will find through the day is that temperatures will dip in the north and west and that is because we have a cold front bringing rain and moving from the west to east during the course of the day and it will also be a fairly windy day with the strongest winds across the north and west but the isobars which are squeezed together tells you that you will notice that where ever you are. this is the cold front moving west to east and we have a front moving across scotland will produce rain across scotland will produce rain across the northern isles, and after across the northern isles, and after a bright start and some in eastern

areas, we will see a band of rain and behind it we see a return to brighter skies but some showers, and they could be heavy and blustery. temperatures today peaking at about 14 temperatures today peaking at about 1a or 15 temperatures today peaking at about 1a or15 in temperatures today peaking at about 1a or 15 in the afternoon in southern and eastern areas but in the west going down compared to what we saw earlier in the day. through the evening and overnight we say goodbye to the weather front on the front across scotland sinks south and we now have northerly winds and it will turn cold enough for snow showers even to sea—level across shetland and down to about 200 metres we will see snow accumulate in the highlands, but we can see some of that going to lower levels in some of the heavier showers. through thursday, the blues return to the chart, indicating it will turn much colder. it will also be windy down the east coast bursting but the ridge of high pressure will kill off a lot of the showers and the wind will ease in the next front is waiting in the wings to come our way. windy across eastern scotland and eastern england with gail's

first thing, but as the ridge of high pressure builds in the wind will ease and a lot of the showers will ease and a lot of the showers will fade away and there will be dry weather and you can already see the signs of the next one coming our way, but there will be a significant wind chill and it will be a good 10 degrees colder tomorrow across parts of scotla nd degrees colder tomorrow across parts of scotland compared to today. on friday we start with a fair bit of cloud but then we have the rain coming in from the west, moving east and with it it will bring some milder conditions, eventually getting over to eastern areas and overnight on friday in the east temperatures could be higher than they are going to be during the day. through friday we see the back edge of the rain clearing away and then on sunday, something a little bit brighter.

good morning. welcome back. we are with you just a little bit before the top of the hour because at 11 o'clock we are expecting the downing

street briefing from the weekly scientific advisers to begin. it is the new weekly scientific briefing and it is going to be led this week by professor stephen powis, medical director of nhs england, angela mclean, the deputy chief scientific adviser, and susan hopkins from public health england. they will be updating as with all the latest scientific developments. there is a lot of discussion around what happens when the lockdown ends in england on the 2nd of december. you may have seen the papers today, lots of speculation about what might happen over christmas. i think there isa happen over christmas. i think there is a bit of movement. let's just have a look. here we go. let's listen in. we will talk through some sites and then have further discussion. —— talk through some slides. to say this is the first

sort of showing that we are on the post lockdown opinions and lifestyle survey, performed by the office of national statistics. at this point, england was on restrictions, wales was having a firebreak which ended on the november. scotland had parts of the country in a higher level of restrictions due to its five levels. what we can see here is that 81% of adults avoided contact with older or other vulnerable people in the previous seven days. we also can see a very high take—up of face coverings when outside the home, 98% of adults were face coverings. again, a high take—up of working from home. 38% of people work from home because of the pandemic in the previous week. that compares to normal working from home of about 1296 in normal working from home of about 12% in the previous year. finally, on the site, you can see that people are on the site, you can see that people a re really on the site, you can see that people are really washing their hands, especially when they return from

public places. it is excellent to say that 89% of people wash their hands with soap and water when they return to their house. i am now going to hand over to angela for some further slides. thank you. if i can have the next slide please. what we have here is a record of how much people have been moving around using google mobility data for the time period starting from the 1st of october running straight up to the 13th of november. this is how much people are moving relative to what would have been normal injanuary before the pandemic arrived. what is particularly good to note is that straight around the 5th of november, you can see in an orange and a blue line a big fall in the number of trips that people are making for retail and recreation. or through transit stations, train and bus stations. not surprisingly given the way things are this year, people are spending more time time at home,

thatis spending more time time at home, that is the top purple line. and more time in parks, although we know the weather is not been fantastic since the latest set of local restrictions. next slide, please. these are our estimates of how much the famous r number has changed week by week since the summer. what this number counts is what would happen if one infectious person where infectious and counts how many people we would expect that person to infect. this week, the estimate of the r value for the uk is between one and 1.2. the best way to think about that is that if we had ten infectious people, on average, between them they would infect 12 other new people. what you can see from that graph is that the r number

was really quite high for a while in late september, early october. somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 and has been falling, but has not yet falle n has been falling, but has not yet fallen below one. it is very important from the point of view of the progress of the pandemic in our country that it should fall below one because only when r is less than one, will the number of infections in the country be falling. as a final point to emphasise with this graph, which is that the methods that we use for estimating r have two, by definition, use data that is time lagged. these estimates are done using data on how many people are in hospital, how many people have died, sadly, and using some data about how much people are moving around. these are always a backward look. the fact that r is still above one four the 13th of

november estimate, is not a particular worry even though we had already been in national restrictions in england for over one week by then. next slide, please. these are the data that are collected by something called the covid infection survey, by the office for national statistics. what that survey does is it visits people in their home, it visits very large numbers of households, and takes swabs in the nose and throat of everybody over the age of two, who agrees, who lives in that household. week after week to the same people. the great thing about this data is that it the great thing about this data is thatitis the great thing about this data is that it is not affected by who feels like going to get tested one week or another. what you see and hear is the pattern is that we have observed in this survey since the summer. the first date is the 13th of august and the most recent data is the 6th of

november. the blue line counts how many people in that survey that week had a positive swab test. what you say there is about 650 positive swabs. over the past two weeks in the survey, more than 150 people took part. at the moment, our estimate is that about one in 85 people living in our communities would swab positive if you were to ta ke would swab positive if you were to take a swab from the back of their throat and nose. it is important to know that this survey does not cover people who live in institutional settings. it does not cover care homes, it does not cover students living in halls of residence, or events in hospitals for example. notice that the curve went up quite steeply through september and october, and has slowed down. it is not going up as fast any more but it

has not gone flat yet. that is ok because the last date any swabs were taken that are shown on this slide was the 6th of november. that is just a day after england went into a national restrictions, so we would not expect to see the impact of the national restrictions in this data so national restrictions in this data so far. the next slide, please. the same data, but split out into nine different regions in england. what you say is that even before national restrictions were brought in, in the parts of the country where the amount of infection was already very high, the progress of the epidemic had already flattened off. that is the north—west the yorkshire and humber in the top left. those happen to include the parts of the country that were under tier 3 restrictions. that is good news that some parts of the country have already flattened

off in this survey. not so good news is that if you look down at the bottom right, in the south—west and the south—east, progress of the epidemic has continued to rise. there are parts of the country, the whole country incredibly carefully next week, particularly so those parts of the country that were showing a rise right up to the 6th of november. that is the last light for me. nowl of november. that is the last light for me. now i would like to ask professor stephen powis to present data related to the nhs. as i am showing you, infection rates are continuing to rise, as i have said at previous briefings. unfortunately, a small proportion of people are sick enough with covid—19 to require hospital admission. that typically occurs up to two weeks

after an infection occurs. there is always a lag in the hospital admission data compared to the infection rate in the community. this first slide shows you the number of admissions into hospital in regions of england and the devolved administrations. you can see that, by and large, we are seeing increases in the number of people being admitted into hospital. there are some areas where you can see that there is beginning to be an effect of the measures that are in place. in england, iwould point effect of the measures that are in place. in england, i would point out the north west, which is on the left side of the chart in yellow. and in areas of the north west, there were tier3 areas of the north west, there were tier 3 measures in place before the latest national english lockdown, measures were put in place at the beginning of this month. we are beginning of this month. we are beginning to see some plateauing of

numbers of patients in hospital, and perhaps some decrease in the north west. but you can see in other areas, such as the midlands, numbers areas, such as the midlands, numbers are still very much rising. on the next slide, you can see the picture across all of england in terms of the numberof across all of england in terms of the number of patients who are in hospital in our hospital beds. a downing street briefing last thursday, at that point, 12,967 patients were in hospital, it now 14,011. an increase of 1444 in the space ofjust about one week. we are, unfortunately, still seeing increased numbers of patients in our hospital beds. the effects of the lockdown measures that were introduced a couple of weeks ago will not feed through into this data, i do not think, until this

weekend or next week. we clearly need to see these numbers reduce, particularly in those areas of the country with the highest numbers of patients. there is pressure on our health system, unfortunately, that means that in some cases that has effects on other services. it is really important as we go into this winter that these numbers come down. and we get into the real heart of winter with much lower numbers of covid in patients in hospitals. i would like to pass back to susan for the rest of the slides. thank you. this slide shows us the deaths within 28 days of a positive test in the uk. sadly, deaths reported yesterday were 598. these are the highest s we have seen since may. we should note that the deaths on tuesday have always had our highest

numbers, but it is still higher than last tuesday when we had 532 deaths. these are a cumulative deaths that we have seen across the uk using 28 days. it is 52,745 cases. the 0ns have reported a cumulative register deaths of covid—19 up to the 6th of november of 63,873 cases. next slide, please. many people wonder about, are these people that sadly may have died because of another condition? what we are seeing here is first of all in the dark blue the deaths involving covid. in the light grey, the deaths not involving covid. and the orange line is all deaths for the five year average. what we can see here and what we are very much aware of is throughout march and april, we very much saw an excess mortality compared to the

rolling five year average, notjust on covid—19 deaths reported to the ons, but on covid—19 deaths reported to the 0ns, but also in deaths not involving covid. 0ver 0ns, but also in deaths not involving covid. over the summer months, that equip liberated and became much more similar to our normal five year average that we see. sadly, over most recent weeks, we have seen an excess in mortality again, as indicated by the dark blue boxes on the most recent weeks. this is clearly concerning and this is clearly one of the reasons why the national restrictions had to come into place. thank you very much. that finishes the briefing and slides. we will now go to questions. ijust want slides. we will now go to questions. i just want to invite hugh slides. we will now go to questions. ijust want to invite hugh pym from the bbc. thank you very much. can you confirm whether, subject to a final decision to be made, you are

looking at the possibility of some limited form of household mixing over christmas and how that might work? i think the first thing to say is that we are very keen that we have christmas as close to normal as possible. that requires all of us to make every effort over this national restriction period, and even in early december, to get the cases as low as possible and reduce the risk of transmission within households and between families. final decision will rest with the government and we look forward to hearing what those plans are. angela, do you want to add anything? i am also looking forward to hearing what the plans are. are you modelling the possibility of some form of household mixing being permitted with other restrictions being in place? the best answerl can with other restrictions being in place? the best answer i can give as we did send some advice on, but we genuinely do not know what decisions have been made. do you think it is

feasible that could be allowed with other restrictions and other trade—offs? other restrictions and other trade-offs? i would reiterate what susanjust said. trade-offs? i would reiterate what susan just said. what trade-offs? i would reiterate what susanjust said. what is really important as we go into a festive week when we want to mix with our friends and family with the number of infections in the community as low as possible. is some sort of christmas possible do you think?” think it is. the other thing i would say is that some of the sage advice previously suggested that for every day that we release, we will need two days of tighter restrictions. coming into christmas, we need to be very careful about the number of contacts that we have to reduce transmission before christmas and get cases as low as possible. hopefully, the government will make the decision that will allow us to have some mixing, but we will wait and see what that is. then i think, once we have got past the christmas period, if there has been a release and some socialisation, we will all have to be very responsible and

reduces contacts again. thank you. i would like to go to sky. thank you for this. if the r does not come below one this week, is it too late for a lockdown to work by the 2nd of december, and another question about the google mobility stats, you said that people are travelling license lockdown, but there was a distinct and pronounced jump in retail and recreation just before lockdown, does that partly result in a high level of cases that we are seeing now and does that because you are a concern for christmas? this feeling that once the restrictions are ended, or if they are going to be put in place, then people really go out and party? your first question was if r is not below one, this week is that terrible news? the answer is

no that is not terrible news. we hope the r will be lower, but as i tried to explain, the way we estimate r is very dominated by what we would call lagging indicators. people who are in hospital or people who have died, people who are going into hospital now are people who got infected weeks ago. so that data stream reflects what was happening before the latest national restrictions arose. no is the short answer. if the r that comes out on friday is not below one or not firmly below one, that does not mean that the national restrictions have not worked. the two are completely compatible. national restrictions work, to maxi is still a bit above one this week, that would not cause me any concern at all. in terms of a bump in activity in the days, looking at the data here, in the day

before 5th of november when national restrictions came along. these things are all a worry to us, yes. you can imagine why people would wa nt you can imagine why people would want to maybe get some shopping in before the shops are all shut. yes, this is what we have said, we are concerned about how can we have a safe run—up to christmas so that we can have some kind of a good family christmas? thank you very much. emily morgan, itv. another question about christmas. you say that no decisions have been made about christmas and we all know we are not going to get a normal christmas this year. i just going to get a normal christmas this year. ijust wonder going to get a normal christmas this year. i just wonder what your best case scenario is for planning christmas. what is the at best, how many households can we hope to mix with? i do not think we can answer that. this is a government decision,

and it will be a decision made by government. i know they are working ha rd to government. i know they are working hard to develop an outline of what that will look like and what the new tiers will look like, post—december two and what christmas will look like. we will have to leave that to them. do you think that the government will even countenance if cases are still rising at christmas where we cannot mix with households? iam afraid where we cannot mix with households? i am afraid we will have to wait and ask them. i have no idea. i really do not know. we are advisers, they decide. we advise. just touching on to december again, could you... do you think socialising should be banned indoors in december given the evidence from yourself. it would suggest that you are one has no effect. separately, if we could

touch on vaccines, please, is it public health england and the government's intention that every aduu government's intention that every adult who wants to get a coronavirus vaccine should get one? and to professor powis, the nhs has been instructed to be prepared to deliver a vaccination programme by the start of december, could you update us on how these preparations are going and are you prepared to take on multiple different vaccines given that there are many different requirements, such as temperature and storage? angela, do you want to make a comment on modelling. it is pretty straightforward to look at the different parts of the country where different parts of the country where different tiers were imposed and you can see we are epidemics where growing, shrinking and growing faster than it used to, that is not a difficult analysis. i am pretty

confident that those sorts of consideration will be taken into account. i do not know what decision will be made. stephen, over to the vaccines question. lean back i should say, obviously i am on zoom today, i cannot join should say, obviously i am on zoom today, i cannotjoin you in downing street. thus becomes a member of my household recently tested positive for covid and i am self isolating. i'm completely asymptomatic and perfectly fine, but i will be staying at home until i have completed my period of isolation. on the vaccination question, as i said, the vaccination question, as i said, the nhs has been working incredibly ha rd the nhs has been working incredibly hard to ensure that we are ready to deploy vaccines and to make sure vaccines can be delivered as soon as the vaccine trials have finished. and the regulators have looked at the data and given approval for the use of vaccines. we will be using

our traditional vaccine roots, so general practices, likely community pharmacies, but we will also be looking at other vaccine... ways of looking at other vaccine... ways of looking at other vaccine... ways of looking at delivering vaccinations, such as vaccine centres. vaccines are at the forefront of the production of vaccines, the pfizer vaccine you will have heard of in the press recently, have different characteristics in the way they can be transported and away they can be delivered is different. we are planning for different types of vaccine and the plans around the delivery mechanisms will be contingent upon a particular vaccine, and the data that comes from the trials and the advice of regulators. we will be seeing more about this in the next few days, but meanwhile we are working hard, ensuring we have the workforce to do this, talked about general practice, who are stepping up for this, st

john's, for instance, are also recruiting volunteers so we have an additional vaccine workforce. we will be laying out more of this in the days and weeks to come. just on the days and weeks to come. just on the final comment, the joint committee for vaccinations and immunisations advises government on... they have laid those out as interim priorities, but the full priorities will be laid out once vaccines are announced. the times, please. looking at the potential new to back to that we might have after lockdown and going into christmas, does any of the modelling that you have provided to government envisage a new tierfor that have provided to government envisage a new tier for that is have provided to government envisage a new tierfor that is more similar to the lockdown measures that we have at the moment. are the mass testing pilots likely to play any role, we have any data them in time to potentially make a difference in terms of what can be eased around

christmas or early in the new year? angela, can i hand over the modelling question to you. we much prefer to talk about modelling work and consensus statements where we put together work that has been done by several different groups. we have not gone through that process yet for the question you just asked. i am missing our weekly modelling meeting because i am here, so i do not know what they are doing right this very minute. i am... the honest truth is i do not know what has been looked at in terms of more... what isa looked at in terms of more... what is a good word? tougher interventions than tier 3. i think when i look at the north—west and north—east, i look at what has happened with the ons survey is there, i see interventions that have worked. i say epidemics that are flattening. there is some good news

they are. from the point of view of mass testing, what we have got is a large—scale pilot happening in liverpool at the moment, working very closely with local authorities, and the nhs around liverpool, we are using this as a mass asymptomatic serial testing registry. we are finding people who do not have symptoms but yet are at risk of transmitting to other people. clearly the ambition is that this will help reduce the prevalence of the virus in liverpool and therefore they will come out of this with less infected people who could transmit to others. we are in week two, they have made great progress. more than 1000 people have had tests since it started, that is really good news.

what that intervention does to the overall prevalence in the city. thank you. finally, the guardian. thank you. finally, the guardian. thank you. finally, the guardian. thank you very much for this. these lockdowns work best when the time is used to beef up virus control measures, the so the cases do not just bounce back afterwards, what meaningful changes have been made in this lockdown to keep infections in check after the 2nd of december? and ona check after the 2nd of december? and on a related note, that when each data suggest about 650,000 cases in england, what prevalence would you regard as a good result for this lockdown, the 2nd of december? do you want to start with that one, angela? i will start with the second one, ifi angela? i will start with the second one, if i may. what would be a good result would be... let us have a think about... during the march

lockdown, the number of hospitalisations, which was really all we could keep track of at that time, because we did not have ons then, was having every three weeks. ido then, was having every three weeks. i do not think we are going to achieve that. i would say... i would be surprised if... lets have a think. i do not think we will have... ido think. i do not think we will have... i do not think we will have before the 2nd of december, there we are. ifi before the 2nd of december, there we are. if i am wrong, we will be happy. in terms of what we are doing, clearly nhs test entries has increased its testing capacity, and that has been a very important intervention. that basically has allowed us to try and work on decreasing turnaround time for those people who get tested in person. we are also working very hard with local authorities to enhance the contact tracing system, and by the end of this month, almost every lower tier local authority will have local contact tracing in place. that

is really allowed us to step up. that is an amazing achievement. in the summer where we were having 1000 cases per day, we were contacting on average 2000 3000 people per day. right now, with almost 30,000 cases a day across the uk, we are still managing to contact over 100,000 people per day. that's a huge achievement in itself. what we building isa achievement in itself. what we building is a local and national system that will sustain us for the months to come, and also in the future epidemics and pandemics. thank you very much. that was the scientific briefing led today by angela mclean, the deputy chief scientific officer, susan hopkins from public health england, and also stephen powis, the nhs medical director of nhs england. we heard from him that he was not taking part in the briefing at downing street because he is isolating at home

after a member of his household tested positive. although he said he is asymptomatic. as you would expect, the question is dominated by what we can expect once the national lockdown in england ends on the 2nd of december, and in particular what might happen at christmas. there is lots of coverage in the papers this morning of that. different reporting in terms of what might be allowed at christmas with various reports on possible household mix going. let's get the thoughts of two experts who we re get the thoughts of two experts who were watching that alongside me. dr kit yates, who's a senior lecturer in the department of mathematical sciences at the university of bath. he's also a member of the group of scientists that call themselves independent sage — giving alternative scientific advice on the pandemic. also with me in the studio our health corresponded. nick, what were the headlines for you? the questions about christmas were very interesting, and the fact that susan or susan hopkins said it is poppers, it possible to have something

something approaching a normal christmas. they have been looking at this and providing information to the government. we know the government is thinking about this very careful. it is delicately poised. from what i know, they want to see cases start falling. lockdown in england has yet to have an impact on those cases and it is still early days. i think, on those cases and it is still early days. ithink, with on those cases and it is still early days. i think, with christmas, what we are likely to see if they do allow some mixing of households is an urge, a plea to gather in small numbers. it will be just for a short period, just over the christmas days. people may well be advised to travel by car. i think one of the concerns with christmas as if you do not allow some mixing, people may well ignore it, and if they ignore it, that could normalise the breaking of the rules. i think the government is thinking very practically about this. they perhaps should allow mixing. it is also a respite from the long, hard slog of

the pandemic, so as i say, interesting that that was acknowledged in that briefing by the advisers for the government. they said that they are looking forward to him from the government, they advise, the government make the decisions. i haven't seen loads of data to convince me that cases are going to come down rapidly enough for a reformed test, trace and isolate system. it's arguable how long it should take for us to see an impact, may be about five to six days from catching the disease before people start to show symptoms, another couple of days to get a test and get the results, so a ten day lag at most. it has now been 13 days, we are nearly into the third week of this lockdown. we would expect to see a fall, cases look like they might be coming down a little bit, we know that last

week, we had a big rise in the numberof week, we had a big rise in the number of cases, that was alluded to in the conference there about how people went out and maybe had one big blow out before the lockdown came in, meeting up with friends and family or going shopping, other people suggest that peak might have been due to half term. we know that schools contribute a large amount to transmission and so to some degree, despite that we saw at the end of la st despite that we saw at the end of last week is obscuring the trends in data. i think i need to ask ourselves what we are expecting to see from this lockdown and what the criteria for loosening restrictions are going to be. we know that schools contribute a huge amount to the r number, so keeping schools open isn't going to slow the spread as much. there are good reasons for keeping schools open, closing schools increases inequality and working parents have to take time off. we can't expect that the spread off. we can't expect that the spread of disease is going to slow down as much as it might do otherwise if schools were closed and whether we are ina

schools were closed and whether we are in a position by the 2nd of december to significantly release restrictions is, it looks unlikely to me. that's exactly what i was going to ask about what we might be looking at after the 2nd of december based on these figures and also what the best case scenario might be for christmas. i think we have to be extremely careful when we come to the 2nd of december to make sure that if we do start to loosen restrictions that we do it in a sensible way so that we keep the r number below one two that if we do go back to the situation that we had on the 4th of november, we will see cases continue to rise again and then that will be followed by hospitalisations and deaths, so we need to come out of this lockdown into a sensible regime where people can keep the reproduction number below want to keep on top of cases. it was good to hear that we have been doing something on test, trace and isolate but we need to make sure that that can start to keep on top of the cases because so far, it hasn't been able to do that. nick,

when we are likely to hear from the government? what are the indications been? because the point being made clearly in that briefing on the figures and on the r number is that they are backward looking. the deputy chief scientific adviser said that even if r wasn't below one by the end of the week, she wouldn't be too concerned about that. i think by next week, we should certainly expect to see cases coming down, if lockdown is having the impacts the government hopes and of course, in terms of reducing numbers in hospital, that will take another week or two beyond that. looking ahead to what restrictions might be in place after the 2nd of december, there has been a lot of talk about tougher regional restrictions, may be more restrictions on hospitality and that very top tier, but again, angela maclean was quite

interesting, she pointed out that the regional tier, the tier 3 seemed to be working in some areas in the north—west in particular and she said that's good news, a sign that that approach was having an impact but obviously it wasn't coming down quickly enough and that's why the national lockdown was introduced but i think as we get closer to the 2nd of december i think the government will set out what kind of regional system they will be moving to an improbably what will be happening at christmas. one thing that was notable when we were looking at the regional breakdown was that the south—west and the south—east were actually seen the reverse trend of everywhere else, that the numbers we re everywhere else, that the numbers were going up. it's a very complex picture in england when you look at the differences between the regions. also in the midlands, rising cases, particularly hospital cases and i think what we've seen is the spread in the second wave happening more quickly and sooner in the north—west and the north—eastern parts of yorkshire. and then other parts of the country catching up on the

scientists always said that would happen when we went into lockdown, rates were quite low in some areas, but they said that the rates still going up and i think that's probably what we saw in those graphs there. thank you very much, nick and also hit, thank you very much. while we we re hit, thank you very much. while we were watching that, there's been some breaking news. the labour leader keir starmer says he will not restore the whip tojeremy corbin because he undermined and setback work in restoring trust and confidence in the labour party's ability to tackle anti—semitism. jeremy corbyn had his party membership restored after the political party leadership restore that. there was then a question as to whether having been welcomed back into the labour party would be able to sit as a labour mp and keir starmer has said no. lets bring in our political correspondentjessica parker.

that's a very clear statement, isn't it? yes, very clear move from keir starmer the labour this comes after jeremy corbyn was appended from the party following that report from the equality and human rights commission about anti—semitism claims within the party. he was suspended because he said in reaction of the scale of the problem had been dramatically overstated by political opponents and the media, the party, although keir starmer emphasised at the time, not him personally took the decision not him personally took the decision not to suspend him. he was then reinstated yesterday by a panel, a labour party panel and that is after he sent in a clarification saying he was trying to suggest that the vast majority of members were committed anti—racists, that was what he had meant by that initial controversial point and he was reinstated by the panel is a member of the party but then the question that did full to

keir starmer as to whether he should be able to sit as a labour party mp and he has said no. he said that jeremy corbyn's actions in response to the report undermined an setback in ourwork in to the report undermined an setback in our work in restoring trust and confidence in the labour party's ability to tackle anti—semitism. some in the party who were very critical ofjeremy corbyn's leadership will welcome this decision and there will be others who very much supported jeremy corbyn's leadership it will be very much opposed. so i think two things here, potentially keir starmer runs the risk of achieving some sort of compromise position of pleasing nobody but there is also a consideration that he has tried to draw a line under these anti—semitism claims within the labour party and clearly over the last couple of days, it's clearly emerged that he hasn't managed yet to do that, so i think we will have to do that, so i think we will have to wait from the reaction of the likes of len mccluskey who is an

ally ofjeremy corbyn is. the board of deputies of britishjews of a critical of yesterday's decision, they are welcoming keir starmer‘s decision in the last hour. it's been suggested that he didn't have to ta ke suggested that he didn't have to take the decision himself. it could have just been left out a process because by being allowed back into the party, jeremy corbyn would have automatically been able to sit as an mp again. is that the case and if so, why did keir starmer decide to make a stand here? there has been some slightly different interpretations of the rules. some suggestion yesterday that after jeremy corbyn had been admitted back into the party then yes, he would automatically surely therefore be an mp but however going through the rules, it did appear that it could actually falter keir starmer and his chief whip and clearly, that is the process that has happened because keir starmer has made it clear that he has made this decision. you are right as well in terms of the practical decision it makes, it's a political decision butjeremy

corbyn, still an mp, still a party member and would still probably sit on the labour benches and vote as he would wish because of course, jeremy corbyn's reputation when he was a backbencher before was that he was perfectly willing to rebel against his party when he thought that that was the right thing to do, so in terms of the practical differences it will make within parliament, potentially little but actually politically, the reaction will be very important to see whether keir starmer can successfully draw a line under this episode and try and move the party forward and whether there will continue to be fallout and repercussions. thank you, jessica. this 0ur political cprrespondent isjessica parker.(0sthe this the government's spending watchdog has accused ministers of setting aside normal standards of transparency as they scrambled to secure personal protective equipment at the start of the coronavirus crisis. the national audit office says 18 billion pounds was spent on supplies and services as the usual competitive tendering

process was bypassed, with firms recommended by mps and others within whitehall given priority. andy verity reports. from the start of the pandemic to the end ofjuly, government contracts worth £18 billion were awarded at high speed, using emergency rules to bypass the normal competitive tendering process. most of the contracts were to suppliers of personal protective equipment. the independent national audit office said even in an emergency, it remained essential to public trust for the government to document why it had chosen a particular supplier and how it had managed any potential conflicts of interest. in a sample of 20 cases, it found repeated failures to do so. in one example highlighted by the nao, a contract was awarded to the focus group organiser public first, whose owners previously worked for the cabinet office minister michael gove and alongside borisjohnson's then top adviser dominic cummings. yet the cabinet office failed to document any consideration of any potential conflicts of interest. by not keeping proper records, by not being transparent about when these contracts

were awarded and what they were doing, it lays the government open to these accusations, whether they are true or not. and, certainly, this weird vip route through, where certain companies got a closer look, because they were recommended by mps, peers. i mean, this is not something mps wanted, and yet it has happened. and the question is, did anyone know about it and put people through that route, and a lot of us would not have known there was a fast track route to recommend certain companies. the nao also confirmed that where ministers' offices, mps or health chiefs recommended suppliers, their applications were fast tracked. public first said it was hired on a pay as you go arrangement that meant it could be fired if it did not perform well. the cabinet office said it welcomed the nao's scrutiny and its recommendations for improvement, but declined to comment on the case of public first. andy verity, bbc news. donald trump has sacked an official who'd rejected his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the presidential election.

christopher krebs was the director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, which had described the election as "the most secure in american history". mr trump said he'd made a "highly inaccurate" statement. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. another post—election sacking by donald trump. another senior official with whom the president disagrees over the accuracy of the result. chris krebs was in charge of the agency responsible for the integrity of the election. 0n polling day he said some overseas attempts to interfere in the process had been addressed, but he warned the country wasn't out of the woods yet. today, in some sense it's half time. there may be other events or activities or efforts to interfere and undermine confidence in the election. so i'd ask all americans to be patient, to treat all sensational and unverified claims with scepticism. last week, with mr trump still

refusing to concede the election, the security agency said there was no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised. not so, says the president. "there were massive improprieties and fraud," he writes on twitter, making unsubstantiated claims — including dead people voting, pollwatchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from trump to biden, late voting, and many more. "therefore," the president adds, "effective immediately, chris krebs has been terminated as director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency." for his part, mr krebs, who reportedly expected to be fired, is standing by the conclusions of his agency. he tweeted. .. "on allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree — in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are

technically incoherent." donald trump is still refusing publicly to acknowledge that he lost tojoe biden, and the white house isn't cooperating with the president—elect as he prepares to take office. court challenges have failed to support mr trump's view that the election was stolen. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. the headlines on bbc news... labour leader sir keir starmer says he won't restore the whip tojeremy corbyn because he says the former party leader "undermined and set back" trust and confidence in the party to tackle anti—semitism public health experts say the final decision on any potential the public spending watchdog says ministers failed to uphold normal standards of transparency in the rush to secure ppe supplies at the start of the pandemic —

the business secretary says there was huge pressure at the time. it will be prime minister's questions at 12 o'clock. some breaking news to bring you from pfizer, some more data on its vaccine that we heard aboutjust a week or so ago and we are now hearing that they have analysed more data and the latest indicates that there vaccine has been demonstrated to be 95% effective. that's more effective than we were initially told and the information that was previously published. this is after the third wave of testing. they are saying that the efficacy in that vaccine was consistent across age, race and ethnicity demographics. this was interesting in particular because we didn't have this breakdown before from pfizer. they

say that the observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94%. just to put that into context, the efficacy rates the vaccines that we are already familiar with really ranges quite dramatically. the flu, for instance, it can be between 30 and 60% but anything over 90% is exceptional and we are hearing now that this pfizer vaccine is shown to be 95% effective across all groups. they say the data demonstrates the vaccine was well tolerated across all populations, with over 43,000 participates in rolled. no serious safety concerns of serbs, the only grade three adverse event greater than 2% in

are you surprised? yes, i think partly because keir starmer hasn't led the labour party for a very long time. he hasn't been in politics all that long so we are still all of us

learning exactly what type of leader and learning exactly what type of leader a nd exa ctly learning exactly what type of leader and exactly what he does to prioritise and this rout really has forced him to choose between two promises he made in that leadership election. the first was to reassure british jews that the labour election. the first was to reassure britishjews that the labour party we re britishjews that the labour party were on their side and tackling the problems of anti—semitism and the second was to keep the labour party united. he has decisively chosen the former over the latter. what do you think that will look like when you talk about is trying to keep the labour party united, what will the fallout be from this? it will reignite labour‘s internal conflicts not just over the issue reignite labour‘s internal conflicts notjust over the issue of how it tackles anti—semitism in the ranks but its overall political direction. keir starmer is someone who is seen as being from the middle of the party and this will very much mean that those on the left will no longer think that they can work constructively with him and will become much more oppositional. it will be a great number of unhelpful

political interventions. last week, we had some allies ofjeremy corbyn saying that keir starmer needs to apologise for labour‘s brexit position in 2019. keir starmer wants to move on from that, he doesn't wa nt to move on from that, he doesn't want anybody talking about it, let alone apologise it or bring it up in any way. so there will be more of that kind of thing i think. just a reaction from margaret hodge. she had indicated that she might resign the party whip if the decision had gone the other way. she has now tweeted to say, yesterday are shown once againjust how tweeted to say, yesterday are shown once again just how broken and unjust existing complaint system is. it has caused untold hurt and anguish across thejewish community, undermined progress made and made me question my own place in the party, asjeremy question my own place in the party, as jeremy corbyn question my own place in the party, asjeremy corbyn has refused to accept the findings of the hrc report, refused to apologise for his actions and refused to take any responsibility. withholding the whip is the right decision. so she is

obviously in the camp which is very supportive of what keir starmer has done here. how much division is there within the party? well, we don't know. we know that about 37% of labour members voted for the grassroots alliance which is the main political organising force of the labour left. and a similar number of people voted for labour to win, which is the organising body of the right of the labour party, so we know that the labour party is split on these broad ideological arguments and many on the labour left have chosen to prioritise their loyalty to corbyn over supporting tougher action on the issue of labour anti—semitism. what we don't know is how much of that third of the party will decide, do you know what?

jeremy corbyn is not with the energy. i want to focus on holding keir starmer‘s feet to the fire and tax, nationalisation, relations with the private sector etc and what proportion of that 30% will decide actually, jeremy corbyn is the hill that i am willing to die on. we know that i am willing to die on. we know that there is division amongst what we might call... but even on the kind of conservative assessment, probably talking about 15% of the membership and probably 15 to 25 labour mps for whom this is an issue and they will go to the barricades over. it's quite an extraordinary situation to be in and i can't think ofa situation to be in and i can't think of a precedent for this, but where the previous party leader is no longer able to sit for that party in the commons. yes. there is to my knowledge, when it happened, i'll busily had to do two things. i had to look through labour‘s... to see

what the basis of the suspension was to explain it for the readers and to see if there was a precedent and as far as see if there was a precedent and as farasi see if there was a precedent and as faras i can see if there was a precedent and as far as i can tell, there is no precedent for a party leader to be sanctioned in this way by their party. so it is unprecedented territory. thank you very much, stephen. now, we have prime minister's questions coming up. it will be a bit different because the prime minister is isolating at downing street after being contacted bya downing street after being contacted by a test and trace after contact with a tory mp who has tested positive. there will be mps in the chamber but the panellist himself will be in downing street. full coverage in a few moments. now, the weather with carol kirkwood. hello again. for most of us, it was a pretty mild start to the what you will find through the day as temperatures will dip in the north and the west and that's because we have a cold front bringing rain moving from the west to the east through the course of the day. it's also going to be a fairly windy day. the strongest wind is always across the west but the isobars, which have

squeezed together, tells you that you will notice the wind wherever you are. so this is the cold front moving west to east, we also have a front across the north of scotland, that's going to be producing some rain across the northern isles all day. after a bright start in some eastern and southern areas, the cloud will build, we will see a few showers ahead of this band of rain and behind this band of rain, we see a return to brighter skies but some showers and some of those could be heavy and certainly blustery. temperatures today peaking at about 14 or 15 in the afternoon southern and eastern areas but in the west, going down compared to what we saw earlier on in the day. through this evening and overnight, we say goodbye to the weather front, the front across scotland sinks southwards. we now have northerly winds and it's going to turn much colder, cold and offer some snow showers even to sea level across shetland and down to about 200 metres, we start to see the snow accumulating the highlands, but we could see some of that getting down to lower levels in some of the heavier showers. through thursday, the blues return to the charts through thursday, the blues indicating it is going to turn much colder. it also going to be windy down

at east coast first thing, but this ridge of high pressure will kill off a lot of the showers and the winds will ease. the next front is waiting in the wings to come our way. windy across eastern scotland and eastern england with gail's first thing, but has that ridge of high pressure building, the winds will ease, a lot of the showers will fade away and there will be a lot of dry weather and you can already see where signs of the next front are coming our way. there will be significant wind chill. it will be a good 10 degrees colder tomorrow across parts of scotland compared to today. on friday, we start off with a fair bit of cloud, but then we have the rain coming in from the west, it's moving east and with it, it will bring some milder conditions, eventually getting over to eastern areas. in fact, overnight, friday, in the east, temperatures could be higher than they will be during the day. through friday, we see the back edge of that rain clear away, clears completely on saturday and on sunday, something a little bit brighter.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the coronavirus vaccine from pfizer has reached its safety data milestone and is 95% effective — according to further data from the firm. labour leader sir keir starmer says he won't restore the whip tojeremy corbyn because he says the former party leader "undermined and set back" trust and confidence in the party to tackle anti—semitism. public health experts say the final decision on any potential easing of covid restrictions over christmas rests with the government. and in a moment we will go live to the house of commons for prime ministers' questions — borisjohnson will be taking part virtually as he is still isolating. we willjoin him now. as you know,

mr speaker, i take this matter extremely seriously and i am returning to update the house in due course. this morning i had virtual meetings with ministerial colleagues and others in addition to my virtual duties in this house. i shall have further such meetings later today. this pandemic has shown how interconnected and vulnerable we are to global challenges when we are still grappling with covid, the climate emergency, growing hunger, why is this government reported to be breaking its own manifesto commitment and cutting the aid budget which saves lives and builds resilience? will the prime minister stop this retreat from the global stage and take this opportunity to roll that out here and now?” stage and take this opportunity to roll that out here and now? i can tell the honourable lady, everybody

in this country can be immensely proud over the massive commitments that this country has made and will continue to make to tackling poverty and deprivation around the world. i think they can be even prouder of the commitment that we are now making, leading the world to tackle the threat of climate change. and the threat of climate change. and the investment we are making, whether through odour or other means, in tackling that problem, is second to none. it is the uk that is leading the world in tackling one of the greatest problems that this country faces. press the button, andrew. cyan thank you, mr speaker. the prime minister will know that my constituents in romford have put servant with a dangerous flyover, which was meant

to be only a temporary structure, but has been there for 50 years. the prime minister has been there with me when he was mayor of london. as pa rt of me when he was mayor of london. as part of this government's plans to build back better, will the prime minister commit today to stepping in where sadiq khan has failed, bankrupting where sadiq khan has failed, bankru pting tfl by where sadiq khan has failed, bankrupting tfl by the tune of ten billions, and guarantee the necessary funding to replace and reshape this junction, especially as it will form a major route to and from the new lower thames crossing? my from the new lower thames crossing? my honourable friend is absolutely right, it is the current labour mayor of london who blew tfl's finances, which were left in remarkably good condition by the previous mayor of london. even before the pandemic struck. i can assure my honourable friend that tfl, we are working with tfl to see

what we can do to resolve the problem that he mentions. we will update him in due course. we now go to the leader of the opposition. thank you. can i start by sending my best wishes to the prime minister and all those across the country who are doing the right thing by following the rules and self isolating. mr speaker, devolution in scotland, wales and northern ireland is one of the proudest achievements of the last labour government. until now, whatever our disagreements, there has been a very broad consensus about devolution. so why did the prime minister tell his mps this week that scottish devolution is, in his words, a disaster?” think what is unquestionably been a disaster is the way in which the scottish nationalist party have taken and

scottish nationalist party have ta ken and used scottish nationalist party have taken and used devolution as a means, not to improve the lives of their constituents, not to address their constituents, not to address their health concerns, not to improve education in scotland, but co nsta ntly, a nd improve education in scotland, but constantly, and i know this is a point of view that is shared by the right honourable gentleman who reads the opposition, constantly to campaignfor the opposition, constantly to campaign for the break—up of our country and to turn devolution, otherwise a sound policy which i personally benefited when i was running london, turn devolution into a mission to break up the uk. that, in my view, would be a disaster. if he does not think that would be a disaster, perhaps you could say so now. could i just disaster, perhaps you could say so now. could ijust say, it is the scottish nationalist party, not the nationalist party. —— scottish national party. they are national

not nationalist, i say. set the biggest threat to the future of the uk is the prime minister every time he opens his mouth on this. in the prime minister said he wanted to ta ke prime minister said he wanted to take back control, nobody thought he meant from the scottish people. the prime minister's quote is very clear. he said the revolution has been a disaster north of the border. this is not an isolated incident. whether it is the internal market bill, the way the prime ministers sidelined the devolved parliaments over the covid response. the prime minister is seriously undermining the fabric of the uk. instead of talking down devolution, does he agree that we need for greater devolution of powers and resources across the uk? mr speaker, i think it is tony blair himself, the former labour leader who has conceded that he did not foresee the rise of a

separatist party in scotland. he did not foresee the collapse of scottish labour, mr speaker. ithink not foresee the collapse of scottish labour, mr speaker. i think the right honourable gentleman is absolutely right, there can be great advantages in devolution. i was very proud when i was running a devolved administration in london to do things in which i passionately believed, like improving public transport, improving housing for my constituents. we had a great deal of success. what disappoints me is that the scottish national party, mr speaker, i abide by your ruling on their correct name, the scottish national party is not engaging in that basic work. instead, they are campaigning to break up the union, andi campaigning to break up the union, and i hope the leader of the opposition will repudiate. will he say now that he opposes the break—up of the uk? it is not a ruling, it is a matter of fact. a sign not of course i do not want to break up of

the uk. if if anything is feeling that break—up, it is the prime minister. turning out to the prime minister's handling of the pandemic, the prime minister is doing the right thing by safe isolating by being notified by track and trace, does he think he would been able to does he think he would been able to do so if like so many other people across the country, or he had to rely on for the next 14 days was either statutory sick pay, which is £95 per week, £13 per day, or a one—off payment of £500 which works out at £35 per day? it is good finally to hear something from the right honourable gentleman in praise of nhs test entries. having secured his objectives to keep me away from answering these questions in person. what i can say to him is that i believe that the package that we have in place to protect people and

support people throughout this crisis has been outstanding and exceptional. i think that the uk has put itself out, i have said around many times, a £200 billion package of support, increasing the living wage by record amounts, uplifting universal credit. many, many loans and grants to businesses of all kinds, and support for people who are self isolating. £500 of support in addition to all the other benefits and support that we give. i do think it is a reasonable package, mr speaker. i know it says tougher people have to self—isolate, and i am glad that after a long time in which he simply attacked nhs test entries, he seems now to be coming round and supporting it.” entries, he seems now to be coming round and supporting it. i am not going to take lectures on supporting. the lockdown measures we re supporting. the lockdown measures were passed the other week with labour votes. 32 of his own mps broke a three line whip, and i hear

that about 50 of them have joined a whatsapp group to work out how they are going to oppose him next time round. he should be thanking us for our support, not criticising. as he well knows, the £500 scheme, only one in eight workers qualify for that scheme. the prime minister always does this, talking about the numberof always does this, talking about the number of people he is helping, but ignoring the huge numbers of people falling through the gaps. membership may be able to afford to self—isolate, but that is not the case for many people across the country. it is estimated that only about 11% of people self—isolate when they are asked to do so. 11%! that is not because they do not want to, it is because many do not feel that they can afford to. for example, for a self—employed plumber, a construction worker, a photographer, and you do not qualify for social security benefits, or you runa for social security benefits, or you run a small business and you cannot work from home, you are likely to see a significant cut your income if you have to self—isolate. this is affecting many families across the country. does the prime minister recognise that if we want to increase the number of people who

are outside, we need to make it easier and affordable for people to do so? mr speaker, again, i do think that it do so? mr speaker, again, i do think thatitis do so? mr speaker, again, i do think that it is extraordinary that he is now coming out in favour of nhs test entries when he is continuously attacked it. the numbers that he gives for the success rate of nhs self isolation programme, according to my information, way too low. we continue to encourage people to do the right thing. it does break the chain of transmission of the disease. as for the self—employed groups that he mentions, we have given £13.5 billion so far in support for self—employed people. uplifted universal credit. what we wa nt to uplifted universal credit. what we want to do is get the virus under control, get b3 down below one, which is the purpose of these measures. encourage people to a self—isolate on the way i am,

thereby stop the disease from spreading so that businesses that he talks about can get back to there, something is close to normality as soon as possible. in the meantime, we are giving them every possible support. the prime minister must understand there is a huge gap in the system. if you cannot afford to isolate, there is little point in being tested or traced. whilst the prime minister and chancellor will not pay people enough to isolate properly, we learned this week that they can find £21 million of taxpayer's money to pay a go—between to deliver lucrative contracts to the department of health. £21 million! i will remind the prime minister that a few weeks ago he could not find that amount of money for free school meals for children over half term. does the prime ministers think that £21 million to a middle man was an acceptable use

of public money? when this crisis began, we were being urged by the right honourable gentleman to remove the blockages in our procurement process in order to get ppe. we were facing, as he will remember, a very difficult situation where across the world there were not adequate supplies of ppe. nobody had enough ppe. we shifted heaven and earth to get 32 billion items are ppe into this country. i am very proud of what has been achieved. 70% of ppe is now made in this country. it was only 1% at the beginning of the pandemic. it is entirely typical, i may say, of captain hindsight that he now attacks our efforts to procure ppe and says we went to fast when he now says that... said then that we were now going fast enough and now says that we are going too fast. he should make his mind up. he

talks about hindsight, i say catch up. i called for a circuit breaker, the prime ministers out there and said it would be a disaster, he would not do it. then he cut up and did exactly thatjust would not do it. then he cut up and did exactly that just a few weeks later. we have now got a longer, harder lockdown as a result of his delays. i will not take that from him. last week, the prime minister could not explain how his government ended up paying £150 million on contracts that did not deliver a single piece of usable ppe. this wiki is effectively defending the paying £21 million on a contract with no oversight. the independent national audit office concluded that the government approach was, in their words, managed public transparency. they reported that more than half of all contracts relating to the pandemic, mr speaker, that is £105 relating to the pandemic, mr speaker, that is £10.5 billion, were handed out without competitive tenderand handed out without competitive tender and that suppliers with political connections were ten times more likely to be awarded contracts.

mr speaker, we more likely to be awarded contracts. mrspeaker, we are more likely to be awarded contracts. mr speaker, we are eight months into this crisis and the government is still making the same mistakes. can the prime minister give a cast—iron assurance that from now on, from now on all government contracts will be subject to proper process with full transparency and accountability? all government contracts are of course going to be published in a due way and are already being published. again, i must say it is extraordinary that he now attacks the government for securing ppe in huge quantities. i want to thank, again, all the people who were involved in that effort, provided literally thousands of others who built upa literally thousands of others who built up a mountain of ppe against any further crisis. he talks about transparency and moving too fast to secure contracts. the shadow chancellor of the dutch are actually wrote to the government attacking us

for failing wrote to the government attacking us forfailing to procure ppe. a historical clothing manufacturing company who currently offering me hundred and 75 gowns per week and his current rate includes 16th century silk bodices. again, mr speaker, at the time he bashed the government for not moving fast enough. it is absolutely absurd that he is attacking in hindsight, once again trying to score party political points by attacking us for moving too fast. i am proud of what we did to secure a huge quantities of ppe during a pandemic. any government would do the same. we are now going to count mccartney.” government would do the same. we are now going to count mccartney. i feel the positive rose two negative thoughts today. i'm sure he is aware of re ce nt thoughts today. i'm sure he is aware of recent successes of lincoln

foot ball of recent successes of lincoln football club, have enjoyed. unfortunately covid—19 has hit foot ball unfortunately covid—19 has hit football hard. can my right honourable friend urges cabinet colleagues to review funding for foot ball colleagues to review funding for football clubs, may be outlining how we can return funds to football at all levels of the game. as it has been awhile since prime minister visited lincoln, we take care to join me at a match when we can return in person as fans of the beautiful game? i will... i can return in person as fans of the beautiful game? iwill... i can tell him that we do not want any football tea m him that we do not want any football team to go out of business as a result of this pandemic and we are doing everything we can. i understand the frustration of fans and we want to get crowds back into the ground as soon as possible. as for his invitation to come and watch, i will do whatever i can to oblige as soon as possible. i will bear his invitation in mind. the leader of the snp, he and blackford.

samak and leader of the snp, he and blackford. samakand! leader of the snp, he and blackford. samak and i wish the prime minister and although self isolating well stop mr speaker, set over the past 20 years, westminster has posed a extreme brexit, an illegal war on iraq, a windrush scandal, the bedroom tax and a decade of tory austerity cuts which have pitched millions into poverty. at the same time, the scottish parliament has provided free personal care, free bus travel, the baby box, world leading climate action, or which have made scotland a fairer and more equal place to live. does the prime minister understand why the people in scotland think it is him and his parliament that are the real disaster? i respectfully refer my honourable gentleman to the answer i gave to the leader of the opposition. i do think that his policies of wanting to break up the union area

policies of wanting to break up the union are a disaster, and i wish he and his party would focus on the real priorities of the people of scotla nd real priorities of the people of scotland — education, health, tackling crime, and housing. the issues that matter to all our people. that is what a devolved government should do. i was very proud to run a devolved administration, that is what we focused on. we did not go on about constitutional change and the break—up of the uk. constitutional change and the break-up of the uk. i am not sure if the prime minister was listening, because ijust started some of the achievements of the scottish government delivering on behalf of the people of scotland. no apology and no regrets from this prime minister. his attack on the revolution was not just a slip of the tongue, it was a slip of the tory mask. the chasm between westminster and the scottish people has never been bigger. we know that these were notjust has never been bigger. we know that these were not just flippant has never been bigger. we know that these were notjust flippant remarks when scotland faces the biggest threat to revolution with the tory power grab bill. scotland has been

completely ignored by westminster, we now face an extreme brexit, a powergrab, and another we now face an extreme brexit, a power grab, and another round of tory cuts all being imposed against our will by a tory government that we did not vote for. is it not the case, mr speaker, that the real disaster facing the people of scotland is another 20 years of westminster government? is it not clearer than ever that the only way, mr speaker, to protect scotland's interest, our parliament, and our place in europe is for scotland to become an independent country?” could not disagree with the honourable gentleman more. he is totally wrong. what the uk does as a whole is far bigger, better and more important than what we can do as individual nations and regions. i think that when you look at the way

the uk has pulled together during this pandemic, the way the armed services have worked to get testing throughout the whole of the uk, the way that the furlough scheme has been deployed across the uk, the billions and billions that have been found to help people across the whole of the uk, businesses in scotland, wales and northern ireland, i think that the uk has shown its value and will continue to shown its value and will continue to show its value. the way he talks about wanting to take scotland back into the european union, which i think is what he was saying just now, what he should understand, what the people of scotland should understand, is that is a massive surrender of power by the people of scotla nd surrender of power by the people of scotland straight back to brussels just as this country, just as the people of scotland have taken it back again. a power notjust over many aspects of their lives and regulations, but power to control scottish fisheries, as well. all that would be lost under his

programme, and! that would be lost under his programme, and i may say! that would be lost under his programme, and i may say i do not believe it will commend itself to the scottish people. it is a programme that was decisively rejected in 2014. i believe that it is something that they would almost certainly reject again, mr speaker. as he said before, or as his party said... sir graham brady! thank you, mr speaker. tens of thousands of jobs have already been lost in aviation. hundreds of thousands more hang in the balance. when my right honourable friend and through the industry a lifeline by making sure that the government task force reports in time for a testing regime to replace the current quarantine arrangements as we come out of this lockdown on the 3rd of december? we are certainly working very fast to see if we can replace the current

quarantine arrangements for every category of self isolation, whether it will come fast enough, i do not know. i will keep my right honourable friend informed of developments. we certainly want to help the airlines. the people of northern ireland today will say again the benefits of the union, with £165 million invested in rural broadband across northern ireland, the result of our agreement with the government during the last parliament. mr speaker, following on from the current population testing initiative in liverpool, with the prime minister agree that northern ireland's1.8 prime minister agree that northern ireland's 1.8 million prime minister agree that northern ireland's1.8 million population, spread across 11 local government districts, would prove ideal for the next phase of the government's ongoing programme of work on large—scale ongoing programme of work on la rge—scale covid ongoing programme of work on large—scale covid testing?” ongoing programme of work on large-scale covid testing? i thank him for his excellent proposal and

he is right that mass testing of that kind is very powerful weapon in the fight against covid. we will certainly be talking to the northern ireland executive about how to proceed. i have been contacted by many constituents who are owners of leasehold flats and buildings under 18 metres in height, which are cove red 18 metres in height, which are covered in cladding which has not been replaced. some of these residents are desperate to move but cannot because their flats are effectively valueless. can the premier started out somewhat progress is being made by the chartered surveyors and the national fire chiefs council to develop the urgently needed rest prioritisation matrix so that my constituents can move on with their lives?” matrix so that my constituents can move on with their lives? i have deep sympathies with people who face this problem, and it is not right or fair because if your building is under 18 metres, you do not need one

of these ews one forms and you would hope the lenders would understand. we are working as fast as we can to make sure all the buildings in question are identified and that we remove cladding where ever it is necessary , remove cladding where ever it is necessary, and give an assurance and security wherever that is necessary, too. government plans to scrap the union learning fund means that thousands of workers around 200,000 a year, many of them low—paid, will miss out on training opportunities. with unemployment levels rising, while the prime minister today act on his commitment to offer a lifetime skills guarantee to help people train and retrain at any stage in their lives? and reverse this decision to ensure working people can access education, training and skills for the future? that is exactly what we announced only a couple of weeks ago with the

lifetime skills guarantee. the purpose of the lifetime skills guarantee is to make sure that if you... if you're over 23 and currently not eligible for support from the government and getting a new skill or a new qualification, we will now pay you for that skill. we will now pay you for that skill. we will support you. we want people, particularly in the context of this pandemic, we want to help train and retrain people throughout their lives so that they can adjust to our changing economy. she is making a very good point. in order to truly revel up constituencies like mine in lincolnshire, we will need to mobilise billions of private capital to help us pay for new infrastructure investment. while the prime minister consider launching a new financial institution, such as a national development bank, to help achieve this? i am grateful to my honourable friend for what he is doing to campaign for grantham and

south lincolnshire. i can tell him that we are putting out another hundred £85 million into lincolnshire through the growth deals. another 25 million through the building fund. we will be bringing forward further measures, andi bringing forward further measures, and i take his point on board. further measures to boost investment in uk infrastructure in due course. in march, the government chief scientific officer said that keeping covid deaths below 20,000 would be a good outcome, but still an enormous numberof good outcome, but still an enormous number of deaths. we have now passed 50,000 deaths and suffer the deepest recession of any 67 country, gdp dropping by 10% in the last year, why does the prime ministers think the uk has the deepest recession in the uk has the deepest recession in the g7 and has a number of deaths in

europe? a global pandemic and one in which the uk, as he rightly says, been badly affected. every life that has been lost, and of course we are supporting businesses and individuals all over the uk. i have absolutely no doubt that we will get through this strongly by next spring. scientific advisers have said we have the tools to do it, we have the scientific weaponry to do it, and that is why we are engaged in the current restrictions to get the r down, to suppress the virus, and to try to get the economy moving in the way that i am sure he would like. most of our fabulous independent retailers are currently closed due to covid restrictions. while we appreciate the very welcome

financial support provided by the government, they are concerned that supermarkets and multiple retailers continue to sell the same products as them, homeware and clothing, this has enabled them to generate substantial profits whilst at the same time they have had a holiday on the payment of business rates. i wonder whether the prime minster with me that there should be fairness between retailers, and with the government spending £200 million to support businesses and people in these very tough times, it would be a welcome gesture from multiples who continue to trade to volunteer to pay their business rate?” understand the point that he makes, and a feeling of unfairness that he describes. what we are trying to do with the business rate holiday and all the other measures we have announced is to help all retailers. the best thing we can do is get through this tough period as well as we possibly can and allow all

retailers to reopen and give them our support with our custom. that is what we are aiming for. we are now going up to scotland with an audio only margaret ferrier. thank you, mr speaker. my constituent applied for the eu settlement scheme in september 2019 for her and her son, 15 months on and she is still waiting for a decision on her application. with the end of the transition period just a few short weeks away, while the prime minister give a cast—iron guarantee that my constituents because mac application and all other applications to the scheme will be concluded before the sist scheme will be concluded before the 31st of december 2020? i understand that the case is now under urgent review and that a decision will be made shortly.

damian collins. it's fantastic that we will very soon have the covid vaccine but extremely concerning that in a recent survey, one in five people were once take it. —— won't ta ke people were once take it. —— won't take it. should the prime minister be doing more to remove anti—vaccination theories and will he allow the scope to do that in a forthcoming online harms bill?” he allow the scope to do that in a forthcoming online harms bill? i am very pleased that facebook, twitter and google have committed that no company should profit from promoting vaccine disinformation and to respond to that kind of content very quickly, we are going to be publishing our response shortly as the online harm is white paper consultation and will be setting out our plans for legislation. child poverty is evil. i know, i grew up with it. the north—east child poverty commission reports that our

region suffered a country's biggest increase in child poverty between 2015 and 2019, when half of children in newcastle central were growing up poor and that's before covid. and yet, 15,000 of the poorest households in my constituency stand to lose £1000 a year because of planned cuts to universal credit in april. so instead of damaging last—minute u—turns, will apply minister commits to maintaining universal credit at least the current rate? mr speaker, she is writing what she says about the impact of child poverty and that's why this government has worked so ha rd to why this government has worked so hard to combat child poverty, and that's why we did indeed upgrade universal credit, as was right, for the exceptional circumstances that we are in, £1000 per household, and we are in, £1000 per household, and we will continue to support people

throughout this country. but the most important thing we can do is to ensure that we get people into work and to support families to get the jobs that they need. it's the record of this country in creating jobs, newjobs in particular, that actually 400,000 children have been lifted out of poverty in the past ten yea rs lifted out of poverty in the past ten years and that is something, thatis ten years and that is something, that is progress. it's not enough, but it's that is progress. it's not enough, but its progress. that is progress. it's not enough, but it's progress. more than 1 million fellow citizens have recovered after testing positive for covid—19. 0n the 2nd of november, the british medicaljournal reported that all those people will have protection from the t cells which ensure that they cannot be rei nfected ensure that they cannot be reinfected for at least six months. in light of that, will my right honourable friend follow the example of sweden and exempt from all the

covid regulations those people who have tested positive within the past six months and thereby show that he is following the science and also common sense? i thank my right honourable friend for his suggestion, but there is evidence both ways on what everybody can expect is that everybody who does get contacted by nhs test and trace should follow the rules. thank you, mr speaker. six out of ten people who have died by covid—19 are disabled. yet, during this pandemic, disabled people have seen their care cut back, struggled to isolate without sufficient support and been excluded from the government's shambolic communications. as we start

disability history month, will apply minister tell the house why disabled people have been so let down by his government? i am gratefulfor people have been so let down by his government? i am grateful for the question and i'm gratefulfor the campaigning that the honourable gentleman does on behalf of the disabled, but i must reject what he says because we have done everything we can to reach out to disabled and vulnerable groups of all kinds to give them all the advice that we think is necessary and all the support that we possibly can throughout this pandemic. i know this has been very tough for people andi this has been very tough for people and i thank people for the way that they have pulled together and followed the guidance. i know it's been particularly tough as the honourable gentleman rightly says that disabled people. we know what we need to do and that is why we have given huge quantities of support, as i said before, to the nhs and to vulnerable groups of all kinds, but the way forward now is to

keep the virus under control, to come out of the current measures on december the 2nd and to allow our economy to start moving again and to use testing and the prospect of a vaccination next year ready to get the disease under control. the prime minister is aware of the success we have seen across scotland through city and region growth deals and moray are set to benefit from both scottish and the uk government working together on our local deal. however, with my right honourable agree that the benefit tomorrow could be greater if it were spread over a shorter period than the current 15 years, say ten or less. that would be something that was very worthwhile, very beneficial and welcomed by everybody.” very worthwhile, very beneficial and welcomed by everybody. i thank my honourable friend for this campaign, he has raised this idea with me

before. and what i will say is that while we will certainly look at what he says, i'm very glad that we've signed the heads of terms with the murray growth deal, with over £30 million investment and i thank him for the lobbying that he has been doing. thank you, mr speaker. professor... front the children's hospital in liverpool west derby recently stated that the environment a child develops in, even before being born, can affect its dna detrimentally by 10%. this government has been responsible for creating an environment which is pushing millions of families into food poverty, which will be shaping this terrifying outcome. i asked the prime ministerfor the this terrifying outcome. i asked the prime minister for the second time, will he work with me and other groups to put the rights of food into law to address this? mr speaker, the honourable gentleman is right to raise the issue of food

poverty and poverty generally, that's why the answer to this previous question for the honourable lady for newcastle, i made the point that we have actually been successful through championing work, championing employment and getting families out of poverty, large numbers of family out of poverty and thatis numbers of family out of poverty and that is what we are going to do and we are putting out hundred and £70 million in supporting local councils throughout the winter, so that no child goes hungry this christmas are over the winter season through an attention from this government. but i'm grateful to him for raising the issue with me. as the prime and are still no, the scottish cashmere and whiskey industries are being hammered by the tariffs being imposed by the united states as a result of the trade dispute with the european union. these tariffs are now doing serious harm to these iconic scottish products, costing us

jobs in the scottish borders. 0n the premise to reassure me that the government is doing everything it possibly can to find a resolution to this dispute? my honourable friend is entirely right to raise that issue. it continues to be a cause of great concern and i raise it repeatedly with our american friends and i'm working with my honourable friend the secretary of state for international trade to reach a negotiated solution as fast as we possibly can. a recent study of 18 million people in the lancet shows that bame people are twice as likely as white people to catch coronavirus and more likely to go to intensive care. this is suggested that structural inequalities are not genetics are the key differential. how will the plan is to redress structural inequalities as the vaccine is rolled out? well, the

honourable gentleman raises an important point and we are thinking about this issue in government right now. as he knows, in response to the early data that we saw about the impact on black and minority ethnic groups, we have brought forward enhanced testing procedures to vulnerable groups, those exposed to a heavy viral load, perhaps in the course of their work and there are other factors as he knows that are its play in the prevalence of the disease. i'm sure that the point he makes will be among the considerations that the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation takes into account in the course of deciding on how to roll out the vaccine and where it should go first because he is making an important point. i would like to

put a big thank you on record for the broadcasting team for making today happen. in order to allow for the safe exit members participating in this item of business... well, rather different prime minister's questions with the prime list of participating via video link due to self isolation. i want to bring some breaking news that there has been an arrest over the birmingham pub bombings in 1974, almost exactly 46 years to the day since those bombings of two pubs, killing 21 people and injuring many more and we are hearing from counterterrorism police and west midlands working with colleagues from the police service of northern ireland that a 65—year—old man has been arrested at his home in belfast. he was arrested under the terrorism act and a search of his home is being carried out. he will be interviewed under caution at a

police station in northern ireland. a very dramatic development there from police investigating the birmingham pub bombings so many yea rs birmingham pub bombings so many years ago, but the questions around what happened have never gone away. there were inquests last year, they concluded the victims were unlawfully killed, but did not establish who was responsible and last month, the home secretary priti patel said that she was considering a public enquiry, something that the families of the victims have been asking forfor families of the victims have been asking for for many years. at that time, west midlands police said there were still in active police investigation under way and we are now hearing that there has been an arrest. a 65—year—old man arrested at his home in belfast under the terrorism act. let's go back to prime minister's questions. 0ur political cprrespondent is jessica parker. those comments from borisjohnson

yesterday about scottish devolution really, the subject of a lot of discussion in prime minister's questions there. he was busy trying to defend himself over it. yes, it was the first thing that keir starmer brought up so i think it was on monday evening that borisjohnson was conducting a zoom call with the northern research group, a group of conservative mps representing constituencies in the north of england, also north wales and the scottish borders as well, where borisjohnson was reported to say that devolution had been a disaster north of the border in scotland and it was tony blair's biggest mistake. of course, it was under tony blair's tenure in the late 90s that devolution in scotland, the scottish parliament was established and boris johnson was quickly attacked for those comments and they came up today, keir starmer really suggesting that it was borisjohnson thatis suggesting that it was borisjohnson that is a real threat to the union at the moment, making such comments

like that. the prime minster‘s defence and something we have heard this week from downing street is that they are saying, no, no, the prime minister is a big fan of devolution. he was simply referring to the snp government who the government here in westminster are very critical of. but it's a tricky one for boris johnson. very critical of. but it's a tricky one for borisjohnson. the snp westminster leader ian blackford raised it as well and i think the snp will continue to raise those comments in the run—up to next yea r‘s comments in the run—up to next year's holyrood election, but privately behind the scenes, there are tory mps were pretty critical of borisjohnson on this issue as well. they feel that he is not only sometimes failing to make the case for the union but even in some cases damaging it, particularly with words such as those expressed to the northern research group on monday evening. he referred to the snp in the commons as the scottish nationalist party and lindsay hoyle who is normally a pretty mild mannered speaker actually stepped in and said it was the scottish national party not the scottish

nationalist party. borisjohnson went back on him again and said, ok, national not nationalist and lindsay hoyle said ok, we can argue over semantics later. it was quite tetchy and there was a moment when actually lindsay hoyle cut across the prime minister a bit later on to take a question from graham brady. almost certainly reject again, as he said mrs baker, or ice... sir graham brady! what was that about, jessica? 0r i'm not entirely sure, a expect perhaps that borisjohnson had been speaking for a little too long. 0r and lindsay hoyle likes to keep prime minister's questions to time. it is one of the perils of pm cues virtually, borisjohnson is of course doing that after self

isolating after a meeting with a group of mps last week one of whom tested positive for covid. so a slightly awkward moment in the chamber, but there were not high hopes for this virtual prime is questions but the wi—fi did hold up and boris johnson was questions but the wi—fi did hold up and borisjohnson was able to pa rta ke and borisjohnson was able to partake in it, not the typical atmosphere of prime minister's questions but that annecy has been lacking for a while now since they put a limit on the number of mps allowed in the chamber. let's get more analysis of that breaking news regarding the pfizer vaccine that it has passed the safety requirements of the us food and drug agency. for emergency use authorisation to be given. we don't know what response there has been to that, but certainly the data is now going forward for that emergency use

authorisation to be requested and the data is eye—catching because the efficacy of the vaccine has gone up from when we first heard about it's just about a week ago. now, it's 95% effective we hear, we were told last week that it was 90% effective, but that's increased with a bit more detail now about those who were tested throughout the process, they say that efficacy was consistent with age, race and ethnicity demographics and that is a significant and interesting because we didn't get that sort of level of detail last week. naomi grimley is our health correspondent. more detailfrom pfizer more detail from pfizer this week and it looks like an even more positive picture then we heard before. that's the case. they seem pretty confident now they have extra data on this. both on how effective it is but also on how safe it is and

the key figure is that in older individuals, they think it is 94% effective. that's in the over 65 is. the big worry that we had all along is that vaccines might work on younger people but not all the people. this dataset suggests that actually, it's good news all round whatever age or ethnicity. and on the side effects they have said that no serious safety concerns were observed tell us more about what they have observed about side effects and also those within the group that actually developed covid. numbers, it's really interesting because they did those trials over a number of countries, they looked at 43,000 individuals, 170 developed covid—19, 43,000 individuals, 170 developed covid-19, 162 43,000 individuals, 170 developed covid—19, 162 were

43,000 individuals, 170 developed covid—19,162 were in 43,000 individuals, 170 developed covid—19, 162 were in the placebo group and just eight were in the vaccine group. so that tells you how effective they think this was. when it comes to side effects, it seems very mild indeed. things like fatigue, about 30 two or 3% of people reported that and also headaches. most encouraging of all, in older people, the side—effects we re in older people, the side—effects were less than in younger people. in the last hour it's been confirmed that a man has been arrested over murders of 21 people in the birmingham pub bombings in 1974. 0ur ireland correspondent chris page is in belfast. what can you tell us? it is a significant development. the man has been arrested at his home in belfast. police are carrying out searches at his home also, detectives will be questioning at a police station here in northern ireland. the investigation into the

birmingham pub bombings is being carried out. the bombings happened in december 1974, so in two days' time, it will be the 4061 have a history of the attacks. 21 people we re history of the attacks. 21 people were murdered, 220 injured, it will be the worst death toll of attacks that happened in britain between the end of the second world war and the london bombings in 2005. the provisional ira never said that it carried out the bombings but it is widely believed that it was the organisation that did plant the bombs in birmingham in two pubs on that night. in terms of the ira's campaign therefore in britain, outside northern ireland, it was the worst attack that the organisation ever carried out. so we know that in the last few years, there have been fresh inquests into the killings, the families of those who are killed have been calling for a public

enquiry and also the police in investigation has been continuing which has led to the arrest of a 65—year—old man who is now being questioned under anti—terrorism legislation. new figures from the ons legislation. new figures from the 0ns shown... new figures from the office for national statistics show that this month has seen the highest levels of acute loneliness recorded in britain since the beginning of the pandemic. 4.2 million people said they were "always" or "often" lonely up from two—point—six million in april. young people are most likely to feel isolated according to the report. elaine dunkley has more. especially caring for my mum and my little sister, itjust leaves you isolated from your friends and everyone around you. everything when you're pregnant is unknown, but to deal with a global pandemic, my mental health has suffered because of it. you know, not having

my friends around. a lot of care leavers tend to be quite isolated anyway, but i think with the lockdown in place, it's more a sense of feeling trapped. for poppy, pregnancy and becoming a parent has been a difficult journey. she is in stockport, her family are nearly 300 miles away in scotland. ijust really miss my mum. i wish we could go and see her. you know, i feel bad that she is missing out on so many things with arlo. i've been really anxious all day today. just thinking about if we're not allowed to go to scotland for christmas, what i'm going to do.

you know, it willjust be me and arlo here by ourselves because my partner is working for most of december. ithink it's, you know, affected me being able to make friends. and, it sounds like it's not really a big deal, but it absolutely is, to have peer support is sometimes more important than having a gp on the end of the phone. it's so much more thanjust being able to go for a coffee with someone, you know, it is everything. elorm is a young carer. her mum has sickle cell anaemia. shielding and extra responsibilities at home has added to the feeling of isolation. it's like you're carrying the whole world's burden on you. with college, i definitely still have to go in. it's just me being extra careful. i'm just like, no, don't touch me! i want to be extra careful. you are outside with other people

but you're still isolated from them because you don't want to get too close in case you catch it and take it home, it could be dangerous. 21—year—old jaymie grew up in care. her grandfather recently passed away and she's worried that this year's christmas gathering for care leavers will be cancelled. last year, we'd had a really nice sit—down meal with a group of us. it was like just a big family sitting down for christmas dinner. like, it was a really good atmosphere and there would usually be christmas quizzes and stuff as well. and, like, we'd get given presents and stuff. a lot of care leavers may not necessarily have a family to go to. since lockdown began, young people have been the most likely age group to experience loneliness. poppy has now helped to start a walking group for parents. a simple thing, being able to go out for a walk in the park. but, you know, seeing how much it

means to some people isjust... can't really describe that feeling. jaymie has nowjoined an online art group to help herfeel connected to have grandfather and his passion for painting. whenever i talked to him about art and stuff, he'd be always like, you take after me with that. which made me smile. and elorm is determined to help others. she is part of campaign called lonely not alone. today i'm wearing my yellow socks, we chose yellow socks as our symbol. and itjust brings me so muchjoy when i see a random person on the bus wearing yellow socks. that will make you feel more like you're definitely not alone through all this. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. despite having had some sunshine and ease first thing and

then some sunshine following in the south and the west, on the whole, an u nsettled south and the west, on the whole, an unsettled afternoon will continue with strong winds, the tightly packed isobars sweeping as heavy rain eastwards and another weather front waiting in the wings giving the northern isles are pretty wet afternoon as well. relatively mild steel but already, seen cambridge a drop in the north and changes on the way. that is a change in direction. blustery and quite wet at times today. overnight, we give way to that south—westerly for a northerly wind instead, so yes, this rain will turn to snow but the hills and mountains of scotland allowing things to become a little bit icy with temperatures dropping to freezing here. elsewhere, clearer skies, still quite a lot of showers packing into northern and western areas on that strong to gale force northerly wind which is still with us to start thursday. that mild air is being swept away and we are into a brief cold snap with that arctic influence, but not for long, already that... it will feel different first

then, a blast of cold air, wintry showers, gale force winds in the east but as the day wears on, you can see the wind air is starting to ease down. the winds will, the showers will, the so there will be lengthier dry periods into the afternoon, lengthy spells of sunshine into the afternoon but already by the end of play, there will be cloudy skies rolling in across northern ireland and temperatures will be significantly down on those of today and particularly so across scotland, northern ireland and northern england where, when you add on the effect of the wind, it will feel significantly colder, —1 f aberdeen, evenin significantly colder, —1 f aberdeen, even in the south will be noticeable. as we go towards the weekend, the next weatherfront coming in through friday and friday night, our next cold weather front slipping southwards, introducing something a little chillier later in the weekend and we are stilljust driven by low pressure, so still saying unsettled, more rain, temporary a little bit of wintry nights on the hills of scotland before we get into that milder air, soa before we get into that milder air, so a rather damp feeling day and it

will feel cold with all that cloud around during the day on friday and as for the weekend, it stays generally unsettled, quite blustery with that atlantic influence, i wouldn't like to rule out some drizzly rain but still some dry weather to come as well.

even more effective than first thought — and ready for approval. more good news on a covid vaccine. pfizer says its vaccine works equally well in people of all races and ethnicities — and is 94% effective in adults over 65. but how quickly will we be able to get it? we'll be talking to our medical editor. also this lunchtime: stick to the rules now and you could still celebrate christmas — government scientists tell us all to do our bit. we are very keen that we have a christmas as close to normal as possible. that requires all of us to make every effort over this national restriction period, and even in early december, to get the cases as low as possible. what's your reaction to your whip not being restored? mr corbyn, what's your reaction? thank you very much for coming this morning.