Boris Johnson ‘beyond contempt’ for attack on Covid inquiry’s findings

Families of the Covid bereaved have lashed out at Boris Johnson for being “beyond contempt” after he used his column in a national newspaper to lampoon those “still wrangling on” about the deaths in the pandemic.

The disgraced former prime minister has refused to apologise for extra Covid deaths he has been accused of causing by delaying taking action, but instead launched a blistering attack on the pandemic inquiry itself.

Mr Johnson and other senior Tory ministers at the time were damned in the Covid inquiry report chaired by former Appeal Court judge Baroness Heather Hallett for the “toxic and chaotic” culture in Downing Street during the pandemic.

She concluded that unnecessary delays in locking down caused an extra 23,000 deaths, and families of those who died have said they are considering taking legal action against Mr Johnson.

But after initially remaining silent, the former prime minister used a footnote in his column in the Daily Mail to attack Baroness Hallett and the inquiry which he himself set up.

“Have these people lost their minds?” he wrote. He accused the former judge of “breathtaking inconsistency” and being “hopelessly incoherent”.

“More than three years after the end of the pandemic, they are still wrangling about what went wrong,” he said.

The comment has infuriated campaigners seeking justice for those who died unnecessarily during the pandemic.

A spokesperson for the Covid bereaved families group said: “It is beyond contempt that Boris Johnson has chosen to respond to the Covid inquiry by attacking the Covid bereaved for ‘wrangling on’ about the deaths of our loved ones.

“Instead of showing regret, contrition or even apologising, Johnson is using a newspaper column to do what he couldn’t do under oath at the Covid Inquiry – twist the truth, promote debunked myths and ignore the facts.

“But the truth, which Mr Johnson has never had a close relationship with, is now clear: he was responsible for thousands of avoidable deaths. The one promise he delivered on was to ‘let the bodies pile high’.

“He has no place in public life and we are calling again for Boris Johnson to lose all of his ex-PM privileges following the inquiry report.”

Their response came after an astonishing rant by the former PM in his weekly column.

Mr Johnson blasted: “Some judge has just spent the thick end of £200m on an inquiry, and what is the upshot?

“She seems, if anything, to want more lockdowns. She seems to have laid into the previous Tory government for not locking down hard enough or fast enough – just when the rest of the world has been thinking that lockdowns were probably wildly overdone.”

He went on: “Bozhe moi, you say, wiping away tears of laughter. My goodness, these Britskis!”

Instead, he made it clear that his biggest regret was locking down the country at all.

“An idea occurs to you, fleetingly, that in future you could easily plunge the whole of the UK into state-enforced paralysis just by convincing them that they had to take precautions against a new Russian-originated virus.

“That is the logic of the report by Baroness Hallett, and I am afraid it’s not just in Moscow that people are tapping their heads, but around the world.

“To the best of my knowledge all other countries have long since concluded their official investigations into Covid.”

He said: “There are and remain only two big questions that need a proper answer if we are to prevent a disaster like Covid from happening again, and they are: how did it really emerge?

“And to what extent did the non-pharmaceutical interventions – the lockdowns, social distancing etc – make enough of a difference to the epicurve to justify the huge social, economic, educational and psychological damage that these measures inflicted?

“On the first question, the origins of Covid, the report is silent. On the second great question – which is of real strategic importance for this country – Lady Hallett is hopelessly incoherent.”

He claimed that the 23,000 extra deaths figure, originally made by Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, was “speculative and unsubstantiated”, arguing that his “hysterical predictions were largely discredited at the time”.

He claimed that the charge of causing extra deaths was “totally muddled”.

In his defence he noted that while the country went into full lockdown on 23 March 2020, he had begun bringing in measures from 12 March.

He suggested: “I think it’s pretty obvious. Lady Hallett has been unable or unwilling to address the really important questions.

“So, faced with the agony of the Covid victims and their families – and their entirely understandable desire for catharsis of some kind – she has decided that the neatest thing is to administer a judicious kicking to the Tory administration, who no one much has an interest in defending except me, and to move on.”

‘Beast from the East’ weather phenomenon returning to UK this winter

The UK could be facing another cold snap as the weather phenomenon that brought in 2018’s ‘Beast from the East’ looks set to have “significant implications” on the country’s weather.

The Met Office said “winter has arrived early across the UK, bringing cold Arctic air and a complex mix of weather hazards” after a week of ice and snow weather warnings across stretches of the UK.

Temperatures are set to increase this weekend as milder, more unsettled, Atlantic-driven weather moves in with cloud, rain and winds, but a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event in the next week could see colder weather return in the next two weeks.

A SSW involves a rapid increase in temperature in the stratosphere above the North Pole, often leading to a reversal of the stratospheric polar vortex winds, involving the rapid descent of cold air.

According to the forecaster, this increases the likelihood of colder weather in the UK 10 to 14 days later by roughly 70 per cent. While not guaranteed, meteorologists will be keeping a close eye on the weather phenomenon that can lead to a colder than average start to winter.

“From the clash of Arctic and North African air masses to the impacts of heavy rain, flooding, and significant snow, the country is experiencing a wide range of conditions”, the forecaster reported. “Regional differences are stark, with some areas facing substantial snow while others enjoy sunny skies and frosty nights. The outlook remains uncertain, with the potential for further cold spells and unsettled weather as the season progresses. “

A SSW was the same weather phenomenon that led to the brutal ‘Beast from the East’ in 2018, which transported cold air from Siberia to Europe and heavy snowfall to Great Britain and Ireland. Temperatures plummeted across the country with lows of -14.7C recorded in Faversham, Kent, and Storm Emma brought 50 cm of snow in some elevated areas.

Temperatures dropped well below average for this time of the year across the country this week with wind chill making it feel even colder with “feels like” temperatures widely at minus one or minus two degrees. The Met Office recorded lows of -11.7C at Loch Glascarnoch on Thursday night, the coldest night of the season so far.

The recent arctic air mass brought snow to the UK this week as schools were forced to close across the country, with yellow and amber ice and snow weather warnings issued for parts of the UK.

Saturday:

Cloudy, wet and windy weather will move east across England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland will be brighter with sunshine and showers, and brighter skies will reach the north and west of England and Wales later. Temperatures nearer normal.

Rain across central and southeast England slowly clearing. Clearer with showers elsewhere, though persistent rain and blustery winds arriving in the west. Some fog, and patchy frost in the north.

Sunday:

Wind and rain in the west moving north and east, becoming slow moving across Northern Ireland, northern England and southern Scotland. Brighter, showery in the far north, and increasingly south.

Monday to Wednesday:

Showery rain on Monday, especially central and eastern areas. Feeling cold again in blustery winds. Drier and brighter, with winds easing on Tuesday. Rain arriving midweek, though turning milder.

Reeves to scrap two-child benefit cap in Budget to appease Labour rebels

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are set to tack hard to the left in the budget to buy themselves time and prevent an attempted leadership coup by backbenchers.

The Independent has been told that the chancellor will bow to pressure scrapping the two child benefit cap altogether and unveiling a series of wealth taxes to fill the spending black hole in her budget.

Backbenchers and senior party members have been assured that the tax raid will include a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2 million, a profits tax on gambling companies demanded by former PM Gordon Brown, and a levy on bank profits.

It is also being briefed that Ms Reeves will raise capital gains tax but will fall short of equalising it with income tax levels.

A minister told The Independent: “The ink definitely won’t dry on this budget until Tuesday night but it looks like the PLP [parliamentary Labour Party] is getting what it wants…wealth taxes and an end to the child benefit cap.”

The contents of the budget now though are being tied to the future of Sir Keir and Ms Reeves with continuing speculation that the PM could be ousted following a Downing Street briefing accusing Wes Streeting of plotting to replace him.

Along with Mr Streeting, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, energy secretary Ed Miliband and home secretary Shabana Mahmood have been the centre of leadership speculation in the last fortnight.

A senior party source told The Independent: “The PM and chancellor are buying themselves time. There will be elements of the media who hate these taxes but it will please members and the PLP.”

It has also emerged that the decision to ditch an income tax rise breaking the manifesto commitment also came after pressure from backbenchers.

One Labour MP said: “The message went up that it is hard enough for us to get a hearing on the doorstep as it is but if we did that [raise income tax], then the doors would have been closed on us and not reopened.

“People would have just said ‘you lied, we can never trust you again.’”

Another MP noted that recent interventions by new deputy leader Lucy Powell, who was elected to replace Angela Rayner on a platform of being critical of the Starmer premiership, “were very much voicing the concerns of the PLP”.

Ms Powell had spoken out against income tax rises but has been strongly supportive of “a fair tax system” including wealth taxes.

Already cutting welfare or other spending in significant amounts has been rendered impossible after the benefits rebellion forced Ms Reeves and Sir Keir to abandon cuts worth £5bn.

In addition, there is a belief that moves to get tough on asylum and water down human rights will need to be balanced out with more leftwing economic measures.

Another MP said: “There is a lot of unhappiness about us copying Reform with the asylum announcements this week so they seem to be in a place where they have to listen to us on the economy.”

The bank levy, which is being pushed heavily by the Trades Union Congress, could raise Ms Reeves £30bn by 2029 if she sets it at 16 per cent.

Meanwhile, scrapping a cap on how many children can qualify for child benefit in a family will cost the taxpayer £3.5bn a year.

The mansion tax was being suggested as a 1 per cent levy on properties worth £2million or more but there is an expectation that it may be set much lower at a maximum of £5,000 because of concerns about the London housing market.

A gambling levy could raise as much as £3.2bn a year according to some estimates which campaigners like Mr Brown believe would fund the end of restrictions on child benefits.

The Treasury briefed out last week that a U-turn on increasing income tax was because of better than expected estimates by the Office for Budget Responsibility with the black hole in spending believed to be about £20bn well below an early estimate of £40bn.

But Ms Reeves still needs to ensure she has an economic buffer beyond the £10bn she gave herself last year because of the potential for further economic shocks following Donald Trump’s tariffs, uncertainty in the markets and the impact of war.

She also needs to find the cash to meet the defence spending target of 2.5 per cent of GDP.

Economists have warned that the only sustainable way to do this is through raising one of the big taxes – income tax, VAT or employee national insurance contributions.

However, the chancellor is set to ignore this advice and push for so-called wealth taxes instead.

She has already indicated that cancelling non-dom status and putting VAT on private school fees has brought in more money than originally estimated despite huge criticism of both moves.

But critics have warned that the measures will create instability in the tax system and will drive away wealthy individuals.

Karen’s Blackpool routine proves she should be in the Strictly final

Lewis Cope topped the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard on Saturday night but it was another of the show’s stars who delivered the real wow moment of the action-packed Blackpool special: the phenomenal Karen Carney.

With her partner Carlos Gu and their backing dancers – an addition that brings extra spice to all the Blackpool routines – Carney perfectly executed one of the best paso dobles Strictly has ever seen. From the moment the music kicked in, the former England player was every inch the powerful performer, and she comfortably held her own in a routine packed with drama, lifts and dizzying spins.

“That’s how you score a goal, that’s for sure,” said Craig Revel Horwood – who hopefully regrets his decision not to give Carney a 10. “I do not have a paddle that can express how good that dance was,” added Motsi Mabuse. “It doesn’t exist.” Shirley Ballas chimed in: “I’ve never seen a paso doble like that.” “This was an absolute tour de force,” concluded Anton du Beke.

The routine was Carney’s most impactful since week one, when she set the bar incredibly high for herself with a jive that gave the impression she’d been dancing for years. Unfortunately for Carney, she suffered the rare fate of coming out of the blocks too strong and has arguably been chasing the wow factor of that Saturday ever since.

It’s not that the England Lioness hasn’t had plenty of fantastic moments since week one. Her Halloween Week Argentine Tango was a similarly electric affair and the following Saturday, she delivered one of the most energetic Charlestons the Strictly ballroom has ever seen. But in Blackpool, she was back at her best.

There are multiple factors that may well have helped. Carney has thrived in routines that require getting into character and Saturday night’s needed that in spades. There was also the fact the pressure was off (at least temporarily), as there won’t be a dance-off this week following La Voix’s exit due to injury. But more than anything, the performance was a testament to how hard Carney works in the training room.

After her thrilling take on the American Smooth last week, a sobbing Gu told Claudia Winkleman: “[Karen] worked so hard this week.” Referencing the fact Carney has a spinal condition that causes a curved spine, he continued: “I know the ballroom is not her strength, but she came into the training room and she said, ‘Carlos, I really want to try hard. I know my back has problems, but I really want to try and I really want to show that I’m improving just a little bit’. And just hearing [the judges’ praise]… you have no idea how hard she’s been working.” If there were any doubts about Carney, Blackpool will have banished them.

This year’s Strictly is arguably the most open the competition has been in recent years. But with the final four weeks away (meaning there are just three eliminations to go) Saturday night proved one thing for sure: Carney deserves a place in it.

M5 motorway closed northbound after car crash as vehicle leaves road

Heavy traffic has built up on the M5 in Gloucestershire following a collision involving a vehicle which has left the road.

The motorway road is closed northbound between J14 (Falfield) and J13 (Stroud) as emergency services, including Gloucestershire Police, are in attendance.

National Highways Traffic Officers are also on scene providing assistance with traffic management.

Traffic caught within the carriageway closure are in the process of being released. Alternative routes have been established for those travelling northbound, as National Highways asks drivers to follow the Solid Triangle diversion symbol on road signs.

Motorists can exit the M5 northbound at J14 and turn left onto the B4509. Then at the junction with the A38, turn right and join the A38 northbound, before continuing on the A38 northbound, passing through the villages of Cambridge and Claypits, to then re-join the M5 northbound at J13.

Due to the severity of the incident, a police investigation is currently underway resulting in the closure being in place for several hours.

The Independent has contacted Gloucestershire Police for comment.

EV owners: Earn £55 with this E.ON Next tariff deal now

Considering getting an electric vehicle or have driven one for a while? You may be searching for the right energy tariff to charge your car, and if so, we have just the deal to help. E.ON Next is offering The Independent readers £55 credit with its Drive Smart EV tariff.

With impressively low overnight rates of 6.5p/kWh, it’s worth noting that when you use E.ON Next smart charging, that same competitive price is also applied to the rest of your home. We’d say that makes this limited-time offer of £55 credit sound even more appealing.

This exclusive offer is only available until 30 November, so you better be speedy to snap it up. Keep reading to learn more about the E.ON Next Drive Smart EV tariff – including eligibility, charting your energy use with the Next Home app and getting a quote.

There are a few straightforward requirements to be eligible for the E.ON Next Drive Smart EV tariff. As well as needing to have a smart meter and EV charger already installed at home, you must own or lease an EV that is a model supported by this tariff. Finally, you can only charge and connect one vehicle with E.ON Next’s EV tariff. Sounds simple? Once you’re signed up with your new tariff, you can set up Smart Schedules by downloading the E.ON Next Home app to get started.

After signing up to E.ON Next’s EV tariff, you need to have the Next Home app. This is a convenient way of accessing all of your EV charging information in one place. From seeing your entire charging history to planning future charging stints, you can view all energy cost savings here too. The app enables you to stay informed about charging rates, as you can map any cost changes according to what time of day or night you’re using energy to power your car. This handy level of monitoring lets you take the wheel when charging.

To get £55 when signing up for the E.ON Next Drive Smart EV tariff and make the most of this exclusive deal, head over to the quotes page here. With the offer only available until 30 November, you’d better put your foot down.

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Strictly star La Voix forced to withdraw completely due to injury

Drag Race UK star La Voix has had to withdraw completely from Strictly Come Dancing due to injury.

Due to an unfortunate injury to the 45-year-old, only six of the seven remaining couples were able to compete on this week’s show. It was later announced that the 45-year-old had to withdraw from the competition completely on medical advice.

Hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman later confirmed that there would be no elimination this week and there would therefore be no dance off.

Speaking the start of the episode, Daly said: “Now, as you may have heard, Le Voix sustained an injury, meaning that she can’t dance in Blackpool tonight, and following further advice from our medical team, we can now confirm she has very sadly had to withdraw from the competition.”

Fellow presenter Claudia Winkleman said: “We will be speaking to La Voix on tomorrow night’s show, we love you so, so much.”

This means that everyone will be back for next week’s episode. However, there is still everything to play for as the scores from this week carry over to next week.

Strictly Come Dancing arrived at its special Blackpool week with the remaining contestants competing at the prestigious Tower Ballroom.

La Voix, real name Christopher Dennis, had previously said that she was “devastated” by news of the injury adding: “I’ve been advised that I’m unable to perform, and my heart truly breaks knowing I won’t be dancing in such an iconic venue.”

A Strictly spokesperson had previously confirmed that La Voix would have automatically make it through to the next round of the BBC competition had she been fit enough to continue.

La Voix, who was paired with professional dance partner Aljaz Skorjanec, could be seen watching in the audience at Blackpool on Saturday, where the show’s remaining six couples will perform.

Speaking after their injury was first announced, La Voix said: “It is with immense sadness that I have to withdraw from this weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing shows in Blackpool.

“Due to an injury, I’ve been advised that I’m unable to perform, and my heart truly breaks knowing I won’t be dancing in such an iconic venue.

“Aljaz and I have worked incredibly hard, and we were so excited to share our routine with everyone.

“I am devastated not to be joining the rest of the cast on that famous dancefloor, but my focus now is on recovery.

“I’ll be cheering on all the amazing couples this weekend.”

The star is the second contestant to pull out of this year’s competition due to injury, after Neighbours actor Stefan Dennis pulled out of Strictly after an injury to his calf in October.

The Australian actor, 66, was paired with professional dancer Dianne Buswell, and said he was “devastated” to leave the show.

Lack of leadership proved to be the ultimate stumbling block for Cop30

Symbolism was everywhere as Brazil’s Cop30 drew to a close. First, there was the Africa Pavillion dramatically bursting into flames on Thursday afternoon, which – along with the daily bursts of Amazonian rainfall that flooded a number of meeting rooms over the two weeks – gave the impression that climate-induced extreme weather was right there in the room with us in Belém.

Then, there was the news that, after much squabbling between the two countries, the next UN climate conference, Cop31, is set to be hosted by the Australian government in the Turkish city resort of Anatalya, with a pre-Cop world leaders’ summit set to be held on a Pacific island. Quite how this will all pan out is anyone’s guess at this stage – but the decision reflects something of just how hard countries seem to be finding it to agree on anything at the moment.

Nearly a full day after Cop30 was supposed to finish – and several hours after two massive cruise ships hosting national delegations departed from Belém – the final decision document set to drive climate policy back home, or “Global Mutirão” as it is being called here, was released by the Brazilian Presidency. As ever with UN climate conferences, it was a compromise – but one that seemed to be defined by a resignation of ambition, rather than an attempt at genuine trade-offs.

At the heart of the outcome was a failure from rich countries – grappling as they are with weakening political consensus around climate, and cuts to aid budgets – to commit to a target to triple aid available for poorer countries to adapt to climate change by 2030. Instead, the deadline has been pushed back to 2035, while it is to be part of an existing promise to deliver $300bn in climate finance agreed to last year, rather than additional finance, which is what the world’s least developed countries have been asking for.

Meanwhile, the promise of a roadmap to assist countries move away from fossil fuels – which had been backed by Brazil’s President Lula at the opening of Cop30 – failed to appear in the text following intense lobbying from Saudi Arabia and others. The language calling for improved interim emissions targets, which the UN said ahead of Cop30 would only reduce emissions by around 10 per cent by 2035, was also notably weak.

Parties worked on the agreement throughout the night, and negotiators appeared exhausted as they gathered for the final plenary in Belém. “I was there the entire night, and we came to an agreement at 8AM this morning,” Emmanuel Yarkpawolo, chief negotiator for Liberia, told The Independent. “There are some outcomes that are good… It shows us that multilateralism is still working, and the Paris Agreement is working. Without it, the planet will be in a very bad condition.”

As Yarkpawolo attests, reaching any sort of deal is an achievement, given how far apart countries have been. But it is undeniable that Cop30 has failed to meet the twin challenges of closing the gap in ambition on decarbonisation, as well as boosting the amount of money available for poorer countries as climate impacts escalate.

“Cop30 was a failure for the communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” said Debbie Hillier, UNFCCC policy lead at the NGO Mercy Corps. “Ten years after the Paris Agreement — in what was meant to be the “implementation COP” — leaders left Belém, Brazil, without the commitments needed to protect people already living with the devastating consequences of climate change.

“Adaptation finance is not abstract,” she continued. “It determines whether farmers can protect their crops, whether coastal communities can reinforce shorelines, whether health systems can withstand climate-related disease outbreaks, and whether countries can build resilience rather than lose hard-won development gains.”

Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based think tank Power Shift Africa, described Cop30 as “baby steps in the right direction” – but added that “keeping the process alive alone will not cool the planet”. Sol Oyuela, from WaterAid, said that the ambition in the wider package agreed to in Belém ultimately “fails those most impacted by climate change”.

At the closing plenary on Saturday, with Amazonian rain echoing through the hall, there was serious disquiet among delegates around Brazil’s management of the process, with complaints around transparency of proceedings and concerns that some countries were being ignored.

But more broadly in Belém, there has been a sense that these talks have floundered due to a failure of other powerful pro-climate countries to take on a leadership role.

The EU, distracted by the war in Ukraine as well as the rise of the populist right, was not the moral authority it has previously been. The UK, with a weak government and Budget on the horizon, arguably failed to live up to its former climate mantle – while the Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney, formerly one of the world’s foremost climate champion when Governor of the Bank of England, formally launched plans to double the country’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity in the middle of Cop.

The US – which has traditionally been the country best able to exert pressure on key blocker Saudi Arabia – was of course completely absent from the conference, while hopes that China, the world’s biggest emitter and by far the world’s biggest producer of renewable technology, would take up a climate leadership mantle at the summit failed to materialise.

“China has been under very little pressure in negotiating rooms at Cop30, which is largely the result of an absent US and fragmented EU,” Kate Logan, who has been following negotiations closely for the Asia Society Policy Institute, told The Independent. “Officials see little incentive to actively push ambition, especially as they can point to China’s leadership in bringing down the cost of clean technologies globally.”

China, the EU and the rest of the world’s great powers can continue to hash climate out year after year at UN climate conferences, but as the clock keeps ticking towards irreversible climate breakdown, it is the world’s least developed countries who are set to suffer more and more.

“The Cop process may be in need of some reform,” acknowledged Mohamed Adow to The Independent after the publication of the final outcome. “The need for unanimous voting means that all it takes is for one country to veto progress, which gives undue power to the fossil fuel nations to block changes.

“Thankfully we can still find some solace in the fact that in the real world, clean energy technology is still advancing at speed, and the benefits of wind and solar are being embraced at rapid scale.”

This article was produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project