Inside Politics: England to ‘ride out’ Omicron wave & Starmer’s patriotism

PM sticks with plan B restrictions as pressure grows on hospitals and Labour leader sets out his vision for the country, writes Matt Mathers

Wednesday 05 January 2022 08:38 GMT

(REUTERS)

Good morning and welcome back to Inside Politics. It may be a new year but little has changed: Covid continues to dominate the headlines while Labour is trying to get into them. Boris Johnson confirmed yesterday England will try to “ride out” the Omicron wave as he acknowledged that the NHS would likely be overwhelmed in doing so. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer delivered a big set-piece speech, much of it trailed beforehand, in which he sought to further define his vision for the country and portray Labour as a patriotic party. The pair face off at a later-than-usual PMQs today as MPs filter back to Westminster following the Christmas recess.

Inside the bubble

Our political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:

An unusual 3pm late kick off for prime minister’s questions to give MPs more time to return from their constituencies after the Christmas break. (No suggestion of “one rule for us”, of course).

Omicron will likely loom large. It will be followed by a ministerial statement on covid restrictions in England. The cabinet, meeting this morning, is expected to back Boris Johnson’s proposal to stick to his Plan B without imposing additional measures.

On the committee corridor, Richard Hughes, who chairs the Office for Budget Responsibility, will be quizzed about the government’s “plan for jobs.” The House of Lords will begin debating the Nationality and Borders Bill, with peers likely to reject some of Priti Patel’s controversial reforms to the asylum system.

Coming up:

– Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden on Sky News at 8.05am

–Care minister Gillian Keegan on ITV GMB at 8.30am

Daily Briefing

PLACE YOUR BETS: Boris Johnson laid another bet last night as he outlined that England would attempt to “ride out” the Omicron wave of Covid by sticking to plan B restrictions, as the number of new confirmed cases across the UK topped 200,000 for the first time, hospitalisations rose and staff absence because of the virus heaped further pressure on an already overstretched NHS. The prime minister, who said that vaccines put the UK in a much better position than in previous waves, insisted the data does not justify further curbs but admitted that parts of the health service were likely to feel overwhelmed in the coming weeks as he promised to “fortify” hospitals and put them on a “war footing”. But some health workers, fearing patient care could come under serious threat, are questioning whether plan B measures will be enough to ride out the storm. The Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary Pat Cullen said that nurses watched his statement at a Downing Street press conference “in disbelief”. “One described to me today that the NHS feels more broken than she’s ever known it,” said Cullen. “This is not hysteria, this is blowing the whistle on falling standards as patient care comes under real threat.”

TESTING TIMES: Appearing alongside Professor Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, the PM also announced that 100,000 critical workers in the food processing, transport and border security sectors would be given rapid tests for the virus every day in a bid to tackle staff shortages as the more contagious Omicron strain rips through the country. He said the plan would be rolled out from 10 January and that government will “be sending testing kits directly to these organisations and liaising with them on logistics.” Meanwhile, government sources have not denied reports suggesting Covid testing rules will be relaxed to reduce absences, though the timing of the announcement was unclear. Today’s Telegraph said a change so that millions who test positive in lateral flow tests will not need a confirmatory PCR could come in as early as Wednesday. Johnson meets with his cabinet later where he will recommend to ministers that England does stick with plan B — safe in the knowledge that most secretaries of state are already in favour of not introducing stricter curbs. Labour is calling for the government to get on top of testing so that another lockdown can be avoided. Is Johnson’s gamble on vaccines and testing going to pay off? What we do know is that most of the numbers — on cases, hospitalisations and staff absences — are going up. Hospitalisations are well below the level seen during the last wave, although the impact of the holiday period is about to kick in. It was announced last night that 17 hospitals in Greater Manchester have paused some non-urgent surgery and appointments after coronavirus cases rose “sharply” in the region. We’ll have live pandemic updates throughout the day here.

HAPPY NEW KEIR: Riding high in the polls, Keir Starmer kicked off the new year with a big set-piece speech in which he sought to further define his vision for the country should Labour win power at the next general election. In an address that was heavily trailed on Monday night, the Labour leader attempted to capitalise on a number of recent scandals to hit Johnson, positioning himself as the straight and serious leader needed for the difficult road ahead, with the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis likely to remain two big issues over the next 12 months. The Labour leader said the party will offer a platform based on the principles of security, prosperity and respect at the election, which he expects in May 2023. There was little in the way of policy underpinning those three planks, but Starmer’s team might argue there is no use in putting out your best ideas this far out from an election, only for the government to nick them and pass them off as their own before voters head to the polls. One thing the speech was not short on was patriotism. Standing in front of not one but two Union flags, Starmer made repeated references to all things British and even managed to mention the Queen amid concerted efforts the remould Labour’s image as a party that loves its country. The Labour leader faces off against Johnson later at PMQs where is he is likely to focus on the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic. We’ll have live politics updates throughout the day on our liveblog, which can be found here.

‘SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS’: As the Nationality and Borders Bill gets its second reading in the House of Lords later today, a peer is warning that the legislation will make Black and Asian Britons second-class citizens as they face the possibility of having their UK citizenship revoked without notice. Lord Woolley, an equalities activist, said he would also face being stripped of citizenship under Clause 9 of the bill in this way as his mother was born in the Caribbean. “This will further exacerbate the reality that millions of British people, many of African, Caribbean and Asian descent, are second class citizens,” Lord Woolley told The Independent.

WHITEHALL ON THE BRINK: Government departments in Whitehall are considering whether emergency help from the military might be needed if staff absences soar due to Covid. Downing Street said all departments have been asked to look at plans to cope with huge workforce shortages – and would whether military aid to the civil authorities (Maca) requests would be useful.Johnson’s official spokesman said: “All departments have been asked to look at how they would mitigate against large-scale absences across their relevant workforces, up to 25 per cent.”He added: “In some circumstances that might require making a Maca request, a military aid request, in other circumstances it might not. There is no blanket requirement for military aid.”

BLAIR KNIGHTHOOD BACKLASH: Voters are overwhelmingly opposed to the decision to grant Tony Blair a knighthood, a poll has found. Just 14 per cent of the public agreed with the decision announced in the New Year honours – only three per cent strongly. By contrast, 63 per cent were against the move to turn Blair into Sir Tony, 41 per cent of whom said they were strongly against the move. The poll, by YouGov, comes after a petition to block the gong for the ex-Labour prime minister topped 600,000 signatures. The petition argues that Sir Tony’s role in the Iraq war makes him “personally responsible” for many deaths and accuses him of “war crimes”. He has never faced any charges in court over the allegations.

On the record

“The British people do not like being taken for granted. And they do not like being taken for fools”.

Starmer takes veiled swipe at PM during his speech.

From the Twitterati

“You don’t have to admire Blair to recognise he knew how to win elections, and this @Keir_Starmer speech is straight Blair: 1) Be optimistic about Britain and the future 2) Mention Queen in second par 3) Say security of citizens is govt’s ‘first duty’.”

FT politics editor George Parker reckons Labour leader’s speech had hints of Blairism about it.