Steerpike

As Boris Johnson's Brexit deal sails through the Commons, the hope among Labour MPs is that this will mark an end to Brexit dominating UK politics. In 2021, Sir Keir Starmer has signalled that he wants to move beyond the issue as he begins to put the flesh on the bones of his leadership. The Labour leader has said he plans to be more proactive on policy with a focus on the economy. So, what will this look like? Up until now, Starmer has managed to get by saying very little about what he actually wants to do in various key areas – instead developing a reputation for abstaining on the issues of the day.

When a Tory MP recently suggested on the party's WhatsApp group that MPs ought to be one of the priority groups to receive the vaccine early on, they were met with derision from their colleagues – with several suggesting it would be a bad look. However, that message does not appear to hold much sway with Labour. With limited does of the Pfizer vaccine in the country, they are currently eligible to those at the top of the priority list – care home residents, care workers, health workers and the over-80s. However, the Birmingham Mail reports that local MP Khalid Mahmood has managed to get the Coronavirus vaccine ahead of schedule.

We're closing 2020 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here's No. 5: Steerpike's questions from April for Neil Ferguson. It was a tale of two interviews on the Today programme this morning. First up on the show was Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, who has been instrumental in forming the UK government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, and whose virus modelling led to the current lockdown being put in place. On the show, the professor received an almost deferential line of questioning from Sarah Smith with his views seemingly taken as near-Gospel as he declared that a 'significant level' of social distancing could have to be maintained indefinitely until a vaccine becomes available.

Boris Johnson will be hoping for at the very least a brief break after securing a Brexit deal on Christmas eve. So, how will the Prime Minister choose to unwind? Perhaps a clue can be found in a photo recently uploaded to Flickr by 10 Downing Street official photographer Andrew Parsons.  There has been much amusement online over the new photos by Parsons which document the fateful hours leading up to Johnson securing a deal with the EU. In a range of pictures, the Prime Minister is photographed deep in conversation with his closest aides as well as swigging from a can of beer and near a bag filled with Five Guys burgers.

Oh dear. Nicola Sturgeon has been forced to apologise after photos appeared of her in the Sun breaching Covid rules. The SNP leader had been attending a funeral when she got chatting to three seated women drinking in the public part of the venue. Scottish Covid regulations state that those not drinking in a public venue should be wearing a mask. https://twitter.com/ScottishSun/status/1341647454454878208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw She told Holyrood she was 'kicking herself' after her breach became apparent. It seems it's one rule for Nicola...

It seems like a lifetime ago when the Imperial College academic Neil Ferguson was caught breaking lockdown rules to meet his married lover. Since then, a whole series of mad, bad and downright nonsense regulations have come and gone. At the time though, the breach was taken very seriously by both the government and Ferguson himself, who had been the main champion of strict lockdown rules being instated in Britain. On 5 May, Ferguson promised to stand down as a government advisor, saying he regretted ‘undermining’ the government’s harsh measures on social distancing. His decision was backed by the government.

When schools returned in September, the sudden spike in demand for Covid-19 tests caught the test and trace programme out. Dido Harding, head of NHS test and trace, told MPs back then that demand was 'significantly outstripping the capacity we have'. It was a predictable situation – but has the government learned its lesson? Sadly, it appears not.  With Christmas only a week away, Brits have taken heed of the warnings not to give anything nasty to granny when they sit down for lunch on the big day. Unsurprisingly, many are keen to get tested as a result. University students are also returning home in their droves, adding extra demand for tests. And the recent spike in infections has also put the test and trace programme under strain.

SNP tempers were running high this afternoon, as the Commons debated amendments to the Internal Market Bill, which deals with the UK’s goods and services after Brexit. The Scottish nationalists have described the Bill as a ‘full-frontal assault on devolution’ because it hands some EU powers back to London. That might explain the poor behaviour of one SNP MP this afternoon. Ahead of the amendments being voted on, the Nationalist politician Drew Hendry decided to make an impromptu intervention. Despite having finished a five-minute speech on the Bill moments before, Hendry clearly decided that his voice hadn’t yet been heard enough and used the opportunity to launch yet another diatribe at the government.

Today, Whitehall departments published their gender pay gaps, as part of a government commitment to ‘transparency’ and its drive to encourage equal pay among the sexes. The gender pay gap scheme is run by the Government Equalities Office, a branch of the Civil Service which sits inside the Cabinet Office, and which is responsible for forcing private companies across the land to publish their own pay gaps every year. Mr S wonders though if there might be some red faces in the Civil Service after this year’s release. Although the GEO did not release statistics about its own pay gap, its parent department, the Cabinet Office, did.

The government has gotten itself in a right muddle in recent weeks about its plans for ‘immunity passports’ for those who have received a vaccine – with ministers seemingly unable to agree whether passports will allow vaccinated members of the public to be free from restrictions. On Monday, for instance, Mr S noted that minister James Cleverly would not say if immunity ‘cards’ or ‘passports’ were on the table, as he toured the broadcast studios in the morning. Could the confusion lie in the plans the government has to issue ‘passports’ for those who have tested negative for the disease instead?

After Kay Burley was caught breaching social distancing rules at her 60th birthday party, she and her colleagues in attendance – political editor Beth Rigby, correspondent Inzamam Rashid and presenter Sam Washington – have been the subject of a disciplinary inquiry. The results of which are now in. Burley has been suspended and is off air for six months while Rigby and Rashid are suspended and off air for three months each. Burley has taken to social media to confirm the news – saying she has agreed to a 'period of reflection'.

Avid PMQs watchers will have spotted an odd occurrence in the Commons just now. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle chastised the Labour MP Chris Bryant, shooing him away and admonishing him for his 'disgraceful behaviour'. But what was the set-to all about?  Apparently, Hoyle's former opponent in the election for the speakership last year had been standing in the door of the voting lobby. Unhappy that the Rhondda MP was blocking a door, supposedly open for Covid ventilation, he tried to signal for Bryant to move.  There was then a standoff in which Bryant pulled faces and allegedly even swore at the Speaker, perhaps why Hoyle then suggested a Labour whip go and have a word with the clearly agitated MP. Feisty stuff from the former challengers.