Politics latest: Starmer hosts European leaders at 'reset' UK summit; COVID Inquiry publishes report (2024)

It's a busy day in politics with Sir Keir Starmer at a Europe summit in Oxfordshire and the COVID inquiry publishing its first report.

Amid all this, Sir Ed Davey, Lib Dem leader and former postal affairs minister, is also giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon inquiry.

He has so far mainly been asked questions about his witness statement, in which he said he had been unaware of complaints about Horizon before or while taking office in 2010.

Sir Ed also said he had not been aware that the Post Office or Royal Mail Group had pursued convictions against subpostmasters.

He told the inquiry he was briefed by officials that Horizon was an "operational matter" for the Post Office and it was not his role to intervene in "day-to-day operations".

Asked by Jason Beer KC, counsel to the inquiry, when he first became aware of the Post Office pursuing its own convictions against subpostmasters, Sir Ed said he probably only became aware of that during the inquiry procedure.

"I certainly didn't realise it when I was a minister," he said.

He later said private prosecutions seemed"quite an old fashioned thing to do".

Sir Ed also said in his witness statement that he believes he was "seriously misled" by the Post Office.

Asked whether he believes senior executives lied to him while he was postal affairs minister, the Lib Dem leader said it was for the inquiry to identify who was "really responsible", as it was difficult for him to know.

One of the deals that it is being suggested Sir Keir Starmer will need to make is that, in order to stop small boat crossings in conjunction with the EU, the UK would need to accept asylum seekers from the bloc.

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is at Blenheim Palace where the European Political Community is meeting.

This group includes EU leaders, as well as the rest of the continent - except Belarus and Russia.

Asked about the prospect of the UK taking EU asylum seekers, Ms Cooper said: "Well, the discussions here today are actually about security and about organised immigration crime and about that security cooperation.

"Of course, what we want to do is have increased returns and return arrangements right across the world.

"And that's part of what our new returns and enforcement unit will be doing."

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey is now appearing before the Post Office Horizon inquiry.

He was postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012 and has since apologised to victims of the scandal, though he has defended his position.

We'll bring you some of the key moments through the afternoon, but if you want to follow every piece of evidence, you can watch at the link below:

The prime minister has now responded to the COVID Inquiry's first report, which was published this afternoon.

“The memories brought about by the Inquiry will be very difficult for many people. My heartfelt sympathies go out to all those who lost a loved one during that time," he said in a statement.

“The pandemic showed us that the backbone of Britain is made up of those committing their lives to service - key workers like carers, nurses, paramedics, cleaners and teachers. They put themselves in the eye of the storm, and together with people up and down the country, many of them lost their lives or are still living with the impact of the virus.

Starmer added: “Today’s report confirms what many have always believed - that the UK was under-prepared for Covid-19, and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed UK citizens.

“The safety and security of the country should always be the first priority, and this government is committed to learning the lessons from the Inquiry and putting better measures in place to protect and prepare us from the impact of any future pandemic.”

Wes Streeting is beginning formal negotiations with junior doctors over their pay.

The medics, who are represented by the British Medical Association, want a path towards pay restoration - equivalent to a 35% pay rise.

Mr Streeting said: "After a second constructive meeting, I am pleased to announce that my department will enter formal negotiations with the BMA junior doctors' committee on Tuesday.

"This is a crucial step forward, as we work to end this dispute and change the way junior doctors are treated in the NHS.

"This government has been honest with the public about the terrible economic circ*mstances we inherited, and I have repeated that message in meetings with the junior doctors.

"But I am encouraged by our early meetings that there is a deal to be done.

"Strikes have had a significant cost to patients, staff, and the NHS. Serious work is now underway to finally bring them to an end."

The COVID inquiry report is a "moment of truth and reflection" that confirms how "austerity left the UK underprepared" for the pandemic, the Trades Union Congress has said.

General secretary Paul Nowak said the country's "defences were down" due to "severe" spending cuts.

"This is a moment of truth and reflection for the country," he said in a statement.

"Baroness Hallett's report confirms that austerity left the UK underprepared for the pandemic."

He said "we owe it" to the victims and workers who put their lives at risk during the pandemic to "make sure this never happens again".

"As Baroness Hallett rightly points out the cost of investing in 'systems for our protection' is 'vastly outweighed' by the cost of not doing so," said Mr Nowak.

A spreadsheet 'issue' lead to 6,558 votes not being included in the cont for the Putney constituency at the general election.

However, the ballots have now been tallied, and there have been no change in the outcome - with Labour's majority increasing.

A statement on Wandsworth Council's website said: "We acknowledge a spreadsheet issue that resulted in not all the properly counted and allocated votes being included in the announcement on the night in the Putney election count for the general election 2024."

It added: "While we are confident this was an isolated incident we are taking this opportunity to review processes with a particular focus on spreadsheet procedures."

The leader of the local Conservatives said residents "deserve urgent clarification about how an error of this magnitude could have occurred".

Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney, said she had been updated on the clerical error and the "reasons for the error in the process".

COVID inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett is speaking now following the publication of one of the inquiry's reports.

She warns "there will be a next time", with expert evidence suggesting "it's not a question of if another pandemic will strike, but when".

"The evidence is overwhelmingly to the effect that another pandemic, potentially one that is even more transmissible and lethal, is likely to occur in the near to medium future," she says.

Baroness Hallett says that there will be "immense suffering" and society's most vulnerable will be most affected if the UK is not better prepared for another outbreak.

She reiterates that the UK was ill prepared to deal with any pandemic, let alone the COVID pandemic that struck.

The country "lacked resilience" going into the pandemic, due to a slowdown in health improvement and widening health inequalities, she adds.

'This cannot be allowed to happen again'

Baroness Hallett says the country had long planned for the possibility of a flu pandemic - but this preparation was "inadequate" for the scale of the COVID pandemic which struck the entire globe.

She describes as "labyrinthine" the institutions and structures responsible for emergency planning, and says there were "fatal strategic flaws" when it came to risk assessments for the UK.

The government's pandemic strategy, from 2011, was "outdated and lacked adaptability" and had never been properly tested, she says.

"There were serious errors on the part of the state and serious flaws in our civil emergency systems. This cannot be allowed to happen again," Baroness Hallett says, before detailing the 10 recommendations laid out in today's report.

Each organisation responsible for implementing the recommendations will have to explain their plans within six months, Baroness Hallett says.

"Unless the lessons are learned and fundamental change is implemented, the human and financial cost and sacrifice price of the COVID-19 pandemic will have been in vain.

"The harrowing accounts of loss and grief given by the bereaved, witnesses and others who suffered during the pandemic serve to remind us why there must be radical reform," she concludes.

The UK's citizens were "failed" by their governments' processes, planning and policy ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, a public inquiry has concluded.

There were more than 235,000 deaths involving COVID-19 in the UK up to the end of 2023 and a report published today says some of the "financial and human cost may have been avoided" had the country been better prepared for the deadly outbreak in 2020.

The 83,000-word document details "several significant flaws", while the inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett is calling for "radical reform" as she makes 10 recommendations, including a major overhaul of how the UK government prepares for civil emergencies.

Read more on this breaking news story here:

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been speaking in the House of Commons today about her recent announcement that prisoners would need to be released early to ease overcrowding.

She said the government had "no option" but to release 5,500 people early.

Ms Mahmood said: "It is now clear that by September of this year our prisons will overflow. That means there is only one way to avert disaster."

The changes - which will see inmates on eligible sentences released after serving 40% rather than 50% of their time behind bars - are expected to lead to 5,500 people being let out early between September and October.

She says the 40% benchmark will become the new standard release point until the government is able to reverse the measure.

Ms Mahmood said a review into the capacity crisis will be carried out, and accused the last government of putting the country in "grave danger".

Reforms to the planning process for building more prisons cells were branded a "gimmick" by the Conservatives.