Inside Politics: Boris Johnson accused of ‘scapegoating’ over exams mess

Sign up here to receive this daily briefing in your email inbox every morning

Thursday 27 August 2020 07:59 BST

Boris Johnson urges pupils to return to school amid face covering row

Walk-outs! Sackings! Resignations! Dramatic exits abound in the worlds of football and politics. Barcelona supporters have been left reeling by Messi’s request to leave (sent by fax!), while Soccer Saturday fans are distraught over Sky Sports’ sacking of Charlie Nicholas, Phil Thompson and Matt Le Tissier. Fans of the British civil service, meanwhile, are pretty disgusted at Boris Johnson’s firing of the education department’s permanent secretary. And followers of EU bureaucrats will feel gutted now that Phil Hogan’s been forced out as trade commissioner. No room for sentiment in this game.

Inside the bubble

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today:

There’s suddenly a lot of interest in the Lib Dem leadership contest, now that it’s over. Either acting boss Sir Ed Davey or Layla Moran will be announced as the winner around 11.30am after the ballot closed on Wednesday. While Sir Ed has been slight favourite, Lib Dem figures have been saying it’s too close to call. Elsewhere in Westminster, government officials meet today to decide whether local lockdowns should continue in England.

Daily briefing

TEENAGERS’ MUTANT NINJA HURDLE: Too soon to joke about the exam results fiasco? Boris Johnson doesn’t think so, blaming a “mutant algorithm” for the mess during a trip to a secondary school in Leicestershire. The National Education Union claimed parents and teachers would be “horrified” to see the PM trying to “idly shrug away a disaster”. The civil service union had even harsher remarks after Johnson sacked the Department for Education’s permanent secretary Jonathan Slater (the PM concluded “fresh” leadership was needed). The FDA union’s Dave Penman fumed: “This government views civil servants as scapegoats, political pawns”. Tory backbenchers aren’t happy either. Charles Walker, vice-chair of the 1922 Committee, said a growing number of MPs were “very worried” at all the U-turns, following the big reversal on masks in schools.

UNLUCKY FOR SOME: Those on low incomes unfortunate enough to have to self-isolate have been promised a new payment of £13 a day. Those who claim Universal Credit or Working Tax Credit and can’t work from home will get £182 for the 14 days they’re out of action – amid concerns some people haven’t been self-isolating because of money worries. It’ll be trialled in parts of north-west England first. Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said £13 a day “goes nowhere near far enough”. Elsewhere, a group of 1,600 families who have lost loved ones to the virus have written to Johnson for the fifth time – urging him to meet them and launch a public inquiry into his government’s handling of the crisis. The group warned it’s ready to take legal action to force an inquiry.

SUMMERTIME SADNESS: The Brexit mood music has turned melancholy. The German government has ditched plans to discuss trade deal talks at next week’s EU Council summit. Why? No point. There’s been no “tangible progress” at all, one diplomat told The Guardian, while another spoke of a “completely wasted” summer. MEP Sandra Gozi, Italy’s former Europe minister, said: “I doubt even Merkel or Macron would be able to transform a stalemate.” But don’t worry folks, someone from Australia (might) be coming to save us. Controversial right-wing figure Tony Abbott, the country’s former PM, has reportedly been asked to help Britain drum up post-Brexit trade agreements around the world. Labour’s shadow trade secretary Emily Thornberry hates the idea – calling Abbot an “offensive, leering, cantankerous, climate change-denying, Trump-worshipping misogynist”. Don’t hold back Emily.

GHOST AT THE FEAST: Carolyn Fairbairn, head of the CBI, has urged Johnson to do something to stop our city centres becoming permanent “ghost towns”. Writing in this morning’s Daily Mail, Fairbairn argues that encouraging people back into the office was “as important” as reopening schools. In more cheerful news, some major restaurant bosses have said they’ll continue the Eat Out to Help Out scheme with their own money during September. Industry body UK Hospitality said it showed the scheme had been a “huge success”. In less cheerful news, the OECD said the UK was the major nation hardest hit from the coronavirus from April to June. Our 20.4 per cent GDP crash was well above the average 9.8 per cent for OECD nations.

OFF TO THE 19TH HOLE: The EU’s trade commissioner Phil Hogan has quit following the furore over his attendance at a golf dinner in his native Ireland which broke lockdown rules. He admitted the ongoing controversy “would undermine my work in the key months ahead”. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen had “taken note” of the incident and asked Hogan to explain himself. So she obviously wasn’t satisfied by what she heard. The Irish government said his exit was the “correct course of action”. Although “golfgate” has sparked huge anger in Ireland, there is now some regret that the man known as “Big Phil” is gone – leaving the country without their representative in a key post while negotiating the bloc’s arrangements with the UK after Brexit.

LAW AND DISORDER: Vice president Mike Pence claimed violence would spread if the Democrats win the November election. “The hard truth is you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” he said during the third night of the Republican convention. It comes amid renewed tensions following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday. Donald Trump said federal law enforcement will be sent to the state. Two people have been shot dead and a teenager charged with murder during recent days of unrest. Biden, meanwhile, said he had spoken with the family of Blake – who is alive but paralysed from the waist down. The Democrat candidate added: “Protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary, but burning down communities is not protest.”

On the record

“When you’ve been struggling with something in the classroom or whatever, some concept that you can’t get, like … is Harry Potter sexist? The answer is ‘no’, by the way.”

Boris Johnson confuses some schoolchildren in Leicestershire.

From the Twitterati

“What’s that in the top, right hand corner – ‘The Twits’. School librarian has a sense of humour.”

Mike Cameron spots an interesting title behind the PM’s head during his live broadcast from a school library…

“Whichever librarian managed to get not just the ‘The Twits’ but also ‘Betrayed’, ‘Resistance’ and ‘Fahrenheit 451’ in the shot behind Johnson has my admiration.”

…and ex-government advisor Sam Freeman spots a few others.