Steerpike

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.

This morning the new vaccine deployment minister, Nadhim Zahawi, appeared to change his tune when it comes to the use of ‘immunity passports’ for the British public. After telling the BBC last week that UK residents might need some proof of their Covid vaccination status to dine out at a restaurant or attend a sporting event, Zahawi rolled back his comments on Spectator TV. In a Q&A following his keynote speech at The Spectator's Health Summit (held in partnership with MSD), Zahawi told broadcaster Alastair Stewart that so-called 'immunity passports' were not actually on the cards: 'There will not be an immunity passport. I may have misspoken or it was conflated in the interview I gave. I was talking about the brilliant use of the app...

Running London, you might have thought, should probably involve some knowledge of London. Living in the city would be a good start — or at least living in the same time zone. But Sadiq Khan's top aide clearly disagrees.  Jack Stenner, the Mayor of London's director of political and public affairs, upped sticks and moved to sunny San Francisco earlier this year, according to an investigation by the Sun.  The £120,000-a-year political lifer moved 5,000 miles away back in October, instead shacking up with his girlfriend in an 'ocean-facing apartment', the paper reports. Nice work if you can get it — who knows, perhaps Mr S might start applying for some cushy mayoral jobs...