Inside Politics: Boris Johnson considering local lockdowns to tackle Indian variant

The government is looking at regional Covid curbs to help prevent a third wave, writes Adam Forrest

Tory staff have been told to hand over communications over No 11 Downing Street flat within a week amid an investigation, reports say (Getty Images)

“There are no second acts in American lives,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald. Try telling Donald Trump. The disgraced ex-president is planning to stage a comeback with more MAGA rallies next month. The second act in David Cameron’s career appears to have been all about making money. The disgraced ex-prime minister admitted to his “big economic interest” in his lobbying work for Greensill. Boris Johnson has had so many second acts and comebacks, it’s hard to keep track of them all. His new ethics adviser has revealed that a list of the PM’s economic interests will be updated and made public by the end of the month.

Inside the bubble

Deputy political editor Rob Merrick on what to look out for today:

The controversy of the Northern Ireland protocol will take centre-stage when Boris Johnson meets Irish premier Micheal Martin for lunch. They will get together at the PM’s country retreat of Chequers, which he can now escape to after Covid restrictions were eased. Johnson’s response to the Ballymurphy massacre is also likely to come up, after the families of those killed condemned his apology as “disgraceful”.

Daily briefing

HIGH ANXIETY: The government is now seriously considering local Covid curbs to tackle the Indian variant, as concern grows about its rapid spread. “Economic and social” restrictions could be brought back in some places, the government said – with cases on the rise in London, Bolton, Nottingham and Tyneside. “We are anxious about [Indian variant],” admitted Boris Johnson, who said he was “ruling nothing out”. But the PM said he does not believe the variant would delay the end of lockdown planned for 21 June. Downing Street and health chiefs are said to be thinking about bringing forward second doses for older groups, according to The Times. There are around 10 million people who have yet to get their second jab. Tory MP Steve Baker, deputy chair of lockdown-sceptic backbenchers’ Covid Recovery Group, reminded Johnson of his promise of a “one-way road to freedom”. But unnamed health chiefs told the BBC that current surge testing efforts in hotspot areas for the variant “isn’t working”.

MONEY FOR NOTHING: So David Cameron got through his big grilling by MPs. Not necessarily with his reputation intact, but he got through it. The former PM admitted he had a “big economic interest” in Greensill Capital, but refused to say how much he was set to make in share options. He said his “generous big salary” was “far more” than the paltry £150,000 pay at No 10. Labour figures on the Treasury Committee really stuck the boot in. Dame Angela Eagle told him his constant messages to officials was “more like stalking than lobbying”. MP Siobhain McDonagh added: “Do you not feel that you have demeaned yourself … by WhatsApping your way around Whitehall based on a fraudulent enterprise?” Dave did not feel that way. He conceded he should have communicated more formally, agreeing there was a case for tightening lobbying laws so everyone registers their contacts. The ex-PM denied he had a plan in place with Lex Greensill while still at No 10. “At no stage did he suggest I could go and work with him or for him after I left office.”

UNSOLVED (AND SOLVED) MYSTERIES: Boris Johnson’s new ethics adviser has said he is ready to take the “nuclear option” of resigning if the PM ignores his recommendations. “If it came to it, I could,” Christopher Geidt told MPs. Geidt said he would publish his advice to Johnson on the mysterious flat makeover – alongside an updated list of the PM’s ministerial interests – by the end of May. The mystery of Johnson’s unpaid £535 debt took a bizarre twist on Thursday, when it emerged the bill was for a defamation claim. Yvonne Hobbs is reported to have launched multiple defamation claims – often sending copies of her complaints to the Queen and the BBC. No 10 had called the claim, now cancelled, “vexatious”. Elsewhere, Labour accused the government of “contract cronyism” after it emerged a former Tory party chairman urged the Cabinet Office to buy PPE equipment from a client at a time when he was advising a health minister. Andrew Feldman discussed contracts being awarded to Bunzl shortly before the company received a £22.6m deal, emails showed.

BATTLE OF KENMURE STREET: Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon attacked Home Office removal policy after two men detained in an immigration van were released after a dramatic staff-off in her Glasgow constituency. Hundreds of protesters surrounded the van in Kenmure Street, shouting: “Let our neighbours go!” The SNP leader said she would be “demanding assurances” from the UK government that it would not happen again. “No assurances were given, and frankly no empathy shown, when I managed to speak to a junior [Home Office] minister earlier,” said Sturgeon. Her justice secretary Humza Yousaf said the “hostile environment is not welcome here”. The Home Office is keeping quiet about the PR disaster and hoping it goes away. Meanwhile, Labour has suspended Unite’s assistant general secretary after he called for home secretary Priti Patel to be “deported”. Howard Beckett later said sorry to Patel for his now-deleted tweet, which read: “Priti Patel should be deported, not refugees. She can go along with anyone else who supports institutional racism.”

LET’S GET PERSONAL: Scottish Tory leader Ross sparked a nasty row with the SNP MP Pete Wishart on Thursday. He accused Wishart of “inept” chairmanship of the Scottish Affairs Committee. “Douglas! Douglas!” cried Wishart, before explaining said he was “trying to get on with his job without personal attacks”. It prompted the amused-looking Ross to respond: “When you’re so poor at your job I will personally attack you.” There was more jostling over an independence referendum at the committee. The SNP’s plan to legislate in Scotland for indyref2 will be a matter for “law officers” to decide on, Tory minister Alister Jack claimed. Nicola Sturgeon is desperate for the UK government to say it would block Scottish government legislation. But the secretary of state for Scotland put the ball back in the SNP’s court. Jack said it would be up to the Scotland’s top law officers to decide whether any inyref2 bill put forward by Sturgeon’s government was in the “scope” of devolved powers. It comes as the SNP’s Anum Qaisar-Javed won the Airdrie and Shotts by-election, as expected. It means the party has 45 MPs in the Commons again.

DRUG TRADE BARRIER: People in Northern Ireland could miss out on a new cancer drug because of the post-Brexit trade arrangements, it has emerged. The UK regulator has approved osimertinib for use in Britain for people suffering from early-stage lung cancer. But it has not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency, so could be blocked from coming across the Irish Sea. It looks set to ignite the row over the protocol – just in time for Boris Johnson’s meeting with Irish premier Micheal Martin today. One government official told The Times the drug issue was of “significant concern”, while another said: “We have been calling on the EU to show the flexibility and pragmatism required.” Meanwhile, the latest figures show more than five million EU citizens in the UK have now applied for settled status here. The Home Office has launched a campaign urging those who wish to take advantage of the settlement scheme to apply before the 30 June deadline.

On the record

“Looking back, aren’t you at least a little embarrassed by the way you behaved? Don’t forget, there were thousands of people dying at the time.”

Dame Angela Eagle asks David Cameron if he has any shame.

From the Twitterati

“Remarkable. The Home Office will have hated conceding in the face of popular protest and representations from Nicola Sturgeon.”

Robert Peston on the protesters’ victory in Glasgow…

“The Home Office needs to ask itself hard questions after today. Doing this on Eid, in the heart of our Muslim community, and in the midst of a serious Covid outbreak was staggeringly irresponsible – but the even deeper problem is an appalling asylum & immigration policy.”

…and Nicola Sturgeon says the Home Office should think again.

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: The sorry tale of Cameron and Greensill is as execrable as it gets

James O’Brien, The Independent: Arguing about Brexit made me famous – then I found an argument I couldn’t win

Polly Toynbee, The Guardian: If only Labour would start striking deals with the Lib Dems on seats

Harry Lambert, New Statesman: Is Tony Blair seriously planning a return?

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