bubbles, should not be mixing social bubbles, sorry, support should not be mixing social bubbles, sony, support bubbles should not be mixing social bubbles, sorry, support bubbles or childcare bubbles, you should stick to one bubbles, you should stick to one bubble only. although you can be in a support bubble and a childcare bubble at the same time, but it is about not mixing those bubbles to keep those meetings down and try to keep those meetings down and try to keep the transmission of the virus down at the same time.— keep the transmission of the virus down at the same time. thank you so much. down at the same time. thank you so much- thank— down at the same time. thank you so much- thank you _ down at the same time. thank you so much. thank you for _ down at the same time. thank you so much. thank you for having _ down at the same time. thank you so much. thank you for having me. - a 70—year—old grandfather from oldham has become the oldest man to complete a solo row across the atlantic. frank rothwell arrived in antigua yesterday, completing his journey in 56 days and a week ahead of schedule. frank has raised more than £600,000 for alzheimer's research uk. now, it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear.

iam going i am going to tell you how bitterly cold it is going to be all week. wintry weather set to stay with us right throughout the week this week, all due to a biting easterly wind thatis all due to a biting easterly wind that is going to dry and plenty of snow showers for some of us. a number weather warning, continues and will stay us until monday lunchtime across parts of east anglia and the south—east or some significant accumulations of snow. it isjust driving significant accumulations of snow. it is just driving and the south—east corner as we speak, and as we go through monday, we'll see further snow showers pushing and across eastern england and eastern scotland. it will be hla start to a monday morning, icy stretches bursting in the morning as well. the feet of snow showers stays whether is is a threat on monday, and there will be some fairly organised bands of shower and snow going through the day, accompanied by some blustery, strong and cool easterly winds. it will feel quite wrought out there, temperature is really struggling by day. factor in the wind strength and

direction, it will probably feel more like —52 —7 in those exposed east coasts. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... the 0xford—astrazeneca vaccine offers limited protection against mild disease caused by the south african variant of covid—19. but scientists say it will still help to beat the pandemic. the uk government has no plans to introduce �*vaccine passports�* — according to the vaccines minister — who says the focus should remain on the inoculation programme itself. heavy snow could bring significant disruption to the south east of england in the coming hours with weather warnings issued by the met office for large parts of the uk. now, the week in parliament.

hello again and welcome to the week in parliament, as good news breaks out at westminster. our nation, madam deputy speaker, is getting safer every day as more and more people get protected by the biggest immunisation programme in the history of our health service. borisjohnson is warned he's picked the wrong sort of brexit. the protocol has betrayed us and has made us feel like foreigners in our own country. team sympathy will not cut the mustard. and a long life well lived. commons tributes to captain sir tom moore. who was indeed an inspiration l to all of us and a beacon of light at a time of darkness. and a true gentleman. amid the grim statistics of the pandemic, there is occasionally a milestone to welcome.

a first dose of the covid vaccine has now gone into more than ten million arms in the uk. many conservative mps hope that will bring forward the end of england's lockdown, but borisjohnson is still in cautious mode. and labour say the good work of the vaccine programme could be undermined by confusion over the prime minister's borders policy. but when the vaccines minister came to update mps, he had good news to tell. our nation, madam deputy speaker, is getting safer and safer every day as more and more people get protected by the biggest immunisation programme in the history of our health service. over 10 million people have now received their first dose of one of our coronavirus vaccines. this is almost one in five adults in the united kingdom. that figure includes almost 90% of people over the age of 75 in england. madam deputy speaker, it has been heart—warming to see how excited so many people have been

to get their vaccine and see the work taking place in local communities to encourage people to come forward to get theirjab. but details of the government's airport quarantine policy have been delayed, and at prime minister's questions, the labour leader, sir keir starmer, argued that the biggest threat to the programme was the government's reluctance to order the complete closure of the uk's borders. is he saying that quarantining all arrivals would make no difference to fighting new variants of the virus, or is he saying that quarantining all arrivals at the border would make a difference, but it's too difficult to do it? when he calls for a complete closure of borders or suggests _ that might be an option, _ mr speaker, he should be aware that 75% of our medicines come to this . country from the european continent, 45% of our food. 250,000 businesses in this country rely on imports. - it is not practical completely

to close off this country, asl he seems to be suggesting. it's the 3rd of february, 2021. with new variants in the country, our schools are shut and our borders are open. everybody knows there are exceptions, whatever the quarantine regime. everybody knows that. if you want to come into this country from abroad, - 72 hours before you fly, _ you have to get a test, mr speaker. you have to have a passenger locator form, you're kicked off the plane - if you don't have it. you then have to spend ten days, mr speaker, in quarantine. - if you come from one _ of the countries, you have to go straight into quarantine, and all this, of course, is to allow us i to get on with the - vaccination programme. and if he'd have listened _ to the right honourable gentleman, we would still be at the starting - blocks because he wanted to stay in the european medicine's agency, l

mr speaker, and said so four times from that dispatch box! keir starmer. nonsense, don't let the truth get in the way of a preprepared gag. mr speaker, the prime minister knows i've never said that from this dispatch box or anywhere else, but the truth escapes him. well, borisjohnson said the evidence was there on youtube. the debate continued behind the speaker's chair and sir keir later admitted he'd made a mistake. the success of the vaccine programme has fuelled calls by conservative mps to re—open england's schools. the health secretary found himself in the firing line. parents are desperate to have the schools opened, the teachers want the schools opened, the businesses want the schools opened, and — god bless them — even our children are desperate to have the schools opened. so, will my right honourable friend confirm that schools will be the first to reopen on or before the 8th of march? i can confirm what the prime minister has set out, that schools will be the first

in the queue for reopening. but not before the 8th of march. a critic of the government's approach sought assurances that restrictions would be lifted sooner rather than later. given the vaccine roll—out's going so well ahead of - what i suspect the secretary- of state thought it would, can i ask i him to confirm that on march the | 8th, when we start seeing schools going back, it'll be those two metrics, deaths andl hospitalisations, as they fall, - which will guide the reopening not just of schools, but of. the rest of the economy? matt hancock thought deaths would fall more quickly than hospitalisations. and then the other two considerations are that we don't see further new variants that put all this at risk and of course that the vaccination programme rolls out well. i wouldn't say that the vaccination programme is ahead of plans, i would say that it is on track. i make no further claim than that. matt hancock.

now, besides fighting the pandemic, the prime minister's also fighting to save the united kingdom. but a visit to a vaccine production plant in livingston, where there'd been a covid outbreak, didn't go down well with the snp. the prime minister put politics before public health. prime minister, why be so reckless? is it any wonder that people in scotland have no faith in this prime minister? isn't he the worst possible leader at the worst possible time? borisjohnson said the scottish vaccine might be able to tackle different strains of the virus. it's amazing, wonderful to see i scottish scientists working to do that. i had a fantastic time. nobody | raised that issue with me before or| i since, and it is myjob to visit . every part of this country. nothing and no—one is going to stop me. not even nicola sturgeon, who announced that pupils in scotland will begin a phased return to school from the 22nd of february, although the current

lockdown will remain in place in scotland at least until the end of the month. in a statement, the first minister said the latest figures did show real progress but the situation remained fragile. all of what i've just set out underlined the need for continued and very extreme caution in our fight against covid, especially if, as i think we all do, we want to get some children back to school later this month. that is why cabinet has reached the conclusion that the lockdown restrictions must stay in place until at least the end of february. however, if our progress continues, then i am cautiously — and i stress cautiously — optimistic that as more and more people get vaccinated, and with the protection of some of the additional measures that i will set out shortly, we may be able to begin looking towards a careful and gradual easing around the start of march. and i will give an update on that in two weeks�* time. the acting scottish tory leader welcomed the return of schools but questioned progress

in delivering covid vaccines. at the moment, all the evidence shows the scottish government's roll—out is slow, stuttering and lagging way behind the rest of the uk. while we saw record highs elsewhere this weekend, on sunday, scotland saw the lowest number ofjabs administered since the start of the mass roll—out over a month ago. as we said last week, the new mass vaccination centres already open elsewhere will help pick up the pace, but all throughout january, the first minister has disputed any and all criticism. she's rubbished suggestions from gps, patients and even the bma that scotland's roll—out was sluggish and missing targets that he needed to hit. i�*ve not rubbished the concerns of anybody. in fact, we�*ve worked with gps and others to make sure that any issues that are being raised are appropriately addressed and any challenges that are being faced are overcome. in wales, the health minister gave a virtual meeting of the senedd — an upbeat assessment of progress made delivering vaccines to older and vulnerable people.

our focus now is on completing i vaccines for all those in the force i four priority groups. in the last i week, we've vaccinated more people of our population thanj any of the uk nations. we are on track— to deliver by the middle of february. we expect to sustain this level of progress, and in fact, - expect to see an additional step up. vaughan gething. and those priority groups are set out by thejcvi — thejoint committee on vaccination and immunisation. the labour—run welsh government is not adopting sir keir starmer�*s suggestion that all school staff should be vaccinated this month. now, a row over vaccines between the uk and the eu has shone a light on growing tensions over the brexit deal in northern ireland. the cabinet office minister,

michael gove, told mps that trust between the uk and the eu was "eroded" after brussels threatened briefly to stop vaccines crossing the irish border. as tensions rose, checks on goods arriving in northern ireland were suspended on tuesday after threats to staff. michael gove said the bloc had recognised it "made a mistake" in triggering what�*s known as article 16, which could have seen checks at the irish border. article 16 exists for good reason, that it is meant to be a ——invoked only after notification, only after all other options are exhausted and in the interest of the people of northern ireland. mr speaker, none of these conditions were met. neither the uk government representing the people of northern ireland, nor the irish government, an eu member, were informed. trust has been eroded, damage has been done, and urgent action is therefore needed. peace, progress and strong community relations northern ireland have been hard won.

and in recent days, we�*ve seen an increase in community tension and, as was reported last night, port staff in belfast and larne have been kept away from work following concerns for their safety. he was replying to an urgent question from labour. yesterday, as he has said, we saw staff withdrawn from the ports of larne and belfast because of alleged threats to their safety. this is totally unacceptable and we all have responsibility to dial down our rhetoric and to ensure that people in northern ireland are safe. it was a misstep which follows significant problems with the i northern ireland protocol, - with businesses facing delays. it perhaps not helped - the prime minister himself saying he'd have no _ hesitation in triggering article 16, after spending months denyingj that there would be any kind of post—brexit checks at all between great britain i and northern ireland. and at prime minister�*s questions, borisjohnson was challenged directly by unionist and nationalist mps from northern ireland. the sdlp warned, for the last five years, about the destabilising

impact brexit would have on northern ireland, though we take no pleasure in the disruption, nor in the injuries, some feel to their british identity. prime minister, you say that your commitment to northern ireland is unshakeable. i speak for all of my constituents today when i tell you that the protocol has betrayed us and has made us feel like foreigners in our own country. tea and sympathy will not cut the mustard. and will he be a man of his word and allow businessmen in my constituency to bin the unnecessary documentation that he told us we could bin? prime minister, be the unionist we need you to be. i utterly share the frustration of the honourable _ gentleman about the way the eui in particular, the eu commission, seemed to call to use the protocol .

in such a way as to impose a border, contrary to the spirit _ of the good friday agreement. according to the letter of the good friday agreement. and we will dol everything we need to do, mr- speaker, whether legislatively or by invoking article 16 to ensure there is no barrier down the| irish sea. the prime minister. now, in these challenging economic times, is it fairfor companies to make workers redundant before re—employing them on worse terms and for longer hours of work? the bitter "fire and rehire" dispute at centrica, the parent company of british gas, has resulted in claims of intimidation from both sides. the company�*s chief executive told mps on the business committee that his wife and son had been sent excrement in the post. the gmb union has accused the firm of forcing engineers to accept worse terms and conditions

or face redundancy. over 25 years, i have never had a circumstance where before we have even begun formal negotiations that the employer has put what our members quite correctly described as a gun to their head and said that "we will sack and rehire, if necessary, the entire workforce if you do not agree to the changes that we want to make." some of our colleagues, about 20% of our colleagues, will have pay rises under this. a substantial number of our colleagues will see more holidays. so, i know that we're asking a lot of our colleagues to go from 37 to 40 hours per week, but the reality is that we've lost too manyjobs over the past several years. and when we can see that our direct labour model is far more expensive than a contractor model, something has to give. i've had testimony from your staff. one man who said — actually, - idon't know it's a man or a woman — i "i've had chest pains for a few. weeks now, anxiety, body aches, headaches and shortness of breath."

this person even took a covid test because he thought - that was the reason, but it wasn't. - it was anxiety because of this fire and rehire action that you're taking. would you care to comment? undoubtedly, what i'm asking people to do is difficult. however, my view is that i would rather do what's in my power to save the 20,000 jobs that we've got rather than watch... i had one colleague tell me the other day... they've been with us two years and been through three rounds of redundancy. i know this puts a lot of pressure on people. only yesterday, my wife and teenage son had a package of excrement delivered to them, with a note about fire and rehire. this is something that affects absolutely everybody. i'm not immune to this. chris 0�*shea. time now for a look at what else has been going on around westminster. and a health minister has said the government is reviewing the way victims of medical mistakes get compensation in england. she was speaking to the health committee,

which is investigating the safety of maternity services. at the moment, the compensation that you get takes account of loss of earnings, and the practical impact of that is that the disabled child of the banker gets much more compensation than the disabled child of a cleaner. do you think that�*s morally justifiable? no, it's absolutely wrong. and it also is based upon the fact that any injury requires... ..is required from the health care system going forward for the rest of that individual's life. these are outdated practices, outdated systems. and as i've said, i can't withdraw, but that whole system is under review at the moment. the government has been defeated in the house of lords over its trade bill, with peers insisting on protections which would outlaw deals with countries judged to be committing genocide. the peer behind the amendment was in no mood to compromise. at yesterday�*s meeting,

the minister said the amendment, and i quote, "may frustrate foreign policy and create diplomatic difficulties." diplomatic difficulties, my lords. we�*re talking about genocide, not diplomacy! the bill now goes back to the commons. last month, 33 conservative mps rebelled over the issue amid concern about any trade deal with china, given beijing�*s treatment of the uighur muslims in xinjiang. the government�*s announced an extra £50 million for a hardship fund for students in england. most students have been told to stay away from university for the time being, leaving many paying rent for accommodation they�*re not using. mps welcomed the money but thought ministers could go further. so can my honourable friend update the house on what discussions have been held with universities about or partial refunds for tuition and accommodation fees in this academic year? thank you, mr speaker. i agree with my honourable friend.

this is a really difficult and challenging time for students, and my heart goes out to all of them. we as a government set the maximum tuition fee level, not the minimum, and it is up to universities to then decide what to charge. every single one of them has continued to charge the maximum during this pandemic, and in return, we have said that we expect the quantity and quality and accessibility of provision to be there. if a student feels it's not, there is a process in place. they can make a formal complaint to their university. and if still it isn't resolved, they can take it to the office of the independent adjudicator, which can, in fact, lead to a potential or partial refund. the snp�*sjoanna cherry has been sacked from her role as party spokesperson onjustice after a row over trans rights. across our society, and particularly in universities and the third sector, women and some men are losing theirjobs, having their positions undermined and their personal safety put injeopardy simply for questioning the ideology that any man can self—identify as a woman

and for speaking up for women�*s sex—based rights under the equality act. does the leader of the house agree with me that all democrats should condemn such attacks on free speech? the commons leader was sorry to see her go. and much that i disagree with her on so many things, may i commend her courage in standing up for freedom of speech and putting forward her views clearly in a difficult and sensitive area, but one where she has a right to be heard? jacob rees—mogg. the prime minister has promised a "full package" to help people living in flats with combustible cladding. borisjohnson said leaseholders "shouldn�*t have to worry about the cost of fixing historic safety defects". three and a half years after the grenfell fire, in which 72 people died, thousands of flat owners face large bills for fire safety work. borisjohnson faces a growing conservative rebellion over the issue. at prime minister�*s questions, the labour leader raised the plight of one leaseholder.

take, for example, will martin. he�*s a doctor who�*s got a flat in sheffield. he�*s been spending his days on the front line, fighting covid in the nhs. he spends his nights worrying about the £52,000 bill that he now has to pay for fire safety repairs. he doesn�*t want future promises, prime minister. he doesn�*t want to hear that it�*s all been sorted when he knows that it hasn�*t. he wants to know, here and now, will he or will he not have to pay that £52,000 bill? mr speaker, we're determined that no leaseholder should have to pay for the unaffordable cost of fixing safety defects that they didn't cause and are no fault of their own, and that's why, in addition to the £1.6 billion we are putting in to remove the acm, the upl cladding, we are also setting up and have set up a £1 billion building safety fund, which has already processed almost 3,000 claims. and i sympathise very

much with the gentleman, dr martin, that he mentions, and i hope very much that his particular case can be addressed in the course of the forthcoming package that will be produced by my right honourable friends. campaigners noted the pm�*s focus on "unaffordable" costs there. labour say up to 11 million people may be affected. the party forced a debate and a non—binding vote on the issue. mps shared their constituents�* stories. their homes are fire traps. they�*re worthless. they cannot borrow against them, they cannot sell them. they are trapped — trapped by waking watch bills, trapped by rising insurance and trapped by the fear that they will be told they must pay to fix this even though they are not in any way responsible. they're locked into an absolute nightmare, in unsafe homes, unable to sell, unable to remortgage and facing mounting bills to fix a crisis they didn't create.

the government's response today had little basis in reality. they have, in truth, shunted this into the too difficult to tackle box and abandoned leaseholders. several conservative mps said the government should step in. because in too many cases, leaseholders have been asked to pay huge bills to rectify a problem that isn�*t their fault. they are facing waking watch charges and vastly increased insurance costs, worries about external wall system certificates and massive loss of property value. the mp whose seat includes grenfell tower welcomed the existing fund to repair the most dangerous buildings in england. however, i suspect that £1.6 billion is not going to be enough, so today, i call on government to put together a substantial and comprehensive

package, such that we can remove all dangerous cladding on high—risk buildings. and the housing minister said we can expect that package "very shortly". mps held a minute�*s silence before prime minister�*s questions on wednesday in honour of captain sir tom moore. the retired army officer and charity fundraiser died at the age of 100. sir tom raised more than £32 million for nhs charities by walking 100 laps of his garden. the queen, who knighted him last summer, has sent a private message to his family. the commons tributes were led by the speaker, sir lindsay hoyle. his dignity and determination in raising money to support the nhs charities caught the nation�*s mood at the most difficult time. he exemplified the best of our values. i invite members to nowjoin me for a minute�*s silence to commemorate sir tom�*s life and to pay her respects to those who have lost their lives as a result of covid, and their families and friends.

after the silence, party leaders past and present paid their tributes. captain sir tom moore — or captain tom, as we all came to know him — dedicated his life to serving his country and others. his was a long life lived well. as captain tom repeatedly reminded us, please remember tomorrow will be a good day. he inspired the very best in us all and his legacy will continue to do so for generations to come. can ijoin you and the prime minister in sending my condolences to the family of captain sir tom moore? he, perhaps more than anyone, embodied the spirit of britain and he will be sadly missed. can i associate myself . with your remarks about the remarkable gentleman captain sir tom moore - and everything that he's done? he has been an inspirationl

to each and every one of us and i would like to send my condolences to his i family and friends. may ijoin the whole house in paying tribute to captain sir tom moore, who was indeed an inspiration to all of us and a beacon of light at a time of darkness and a true gentleman? later, the speaker and other mps joined a nationwide clap for sir tom and the health workers for whose charities his walks raised money. applause and it�*s with the sound of clapping, in memory of all that sir tom did to put heart into the british people, that we end this look at the week in parliament. thank you for watching. tomorrow will be a good day. bye for now. wintry weather set to stay with us

right throughout the week this week, a right throughout the week this week, biting easteri infrequent a biting easterly wind will drive infrequent snow showers for some of us. we have an amber weather warning for east anglia and parts of south east england. by the end of monday we can see in excess of 25 centimetres of lying snow, may be more. that will continue through the night tonight. at the same time, the wind will showers from eastern england up into scotland, temperatures below freezing and we can�*t rule out icy stretches almost anywhere. sunny spells and scattered showers feeding on of the north sea, some could organise themselves into fairly frequent lines of snow showers accompanied by gusty wind. that is going to make it feel very cold indeed. temperatures on your thermometer may reach 1—3 , but factor in the wind direction, it is going to feel noticeably colder. take care.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines: the astrazeneca vaccine provides limited protection against the south african variant, but scientists say it will still help in the pandemic. it will still help with deaths, hospitalisations and severe forms of the disease. the uk government has no plans to introduce "vaccine passports", according to the vaccines minister, who says the focus should remain on the inoculation programme itself. of course, you have the evidence that you have been vaccinated held by your gp. if other countries require you to show proof of that evidence, then that is obviously up to those countries. a himalayan glacier collapses,

sending a wall of water and rock downriver in northern india.