Brexit news – live: Tony Abbott given top trade job despite controversy as Sadiq Khan says Boris Johnson must ‘get a grip’ on Covid-19 crisis
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson has been urged to “get a grip” on coronavirus and prevent a second wave, his successor as mayor of London has said.
Sadiq Khan also accused the government of being “offensive” to at-home workers by suggesting they were less productive, amid pressure on staff to return to the office.
Meanwhile, ministers have been warned of “border chaos” at the end of the Brexit transition period, as a leaked government document revealed that attempts to get the UK’s ready for trade for 1 January 2021 are “unmanageable”. Mr Johnson insisted on Friday that the government was “ready for any eventuality”.
And former Australian PM Tony Abbott has been named as one of the nation's top trade envoys despite criticism over past comments on women and the LGBT+ community.
Syrian asylum seekers left sleeping rought in Spain after deportation from UK
A group of Syrian asylum seekers have been left on the streets of Madrid after being deported from the UK to Spain, campaigners have said.
The 11 men, all of whom recently crossed the English Channel to Britain, were forcibly removed from the UK on a charter flight on Thursday under an EU law called Dublin III, which in some circumstances enables countries to return people to other EU nations where they have already sought asylum, to register a new claim or continue their previous one.
However, when they touched down in Spain, the Spanish authorities didn’t accept responsibility for them or provide them with any support, according to welfare group SOAS Detainee Support (SDS).
Video: Shapps would 'check record' of Abbott before drinking with him
'Privatisation ideology' blamed for poor Test and Trace performance
The poor performance of the UK's national coronavirus test and trace system is down to the government's "ideology" and obsession with using the private sector, a senior public health expert has warned.
Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organisation and of the Institute for Global Health at the UCL, said the system designed by the government had "failed" and that it was up to experts to raise the alarm.
"We are seven months into a pandemic," Professor Costello told a briefing hosted by the Independent Sage scientific advisory group.
Ed Davey begins 'listening tour' with shift at chippy
Sir Ed Davey, the new Liberal Democrat leader, has begin his "listening tour" of the UK with a shift at a chip shop in Stockport, Cheshire.
The local constituency of Hazel Grove was held by the Lib Dems for more than 20 years before losing it in 2015 to the Tories, who have kept the seat ever since.
Sir Ed also lost his seat - Kingston & Surbiton - in 2015, before wrenching it back from the Conservatives two years later.
He said the arch-Remain Lib Dems needed to listen carefully to voters after several torrid years at the polls.
He said: "This is the start of quite a long journey. I want to go around the whole of the United Kingdom talking to people, but mainly listening. It's a listening tour.
"The main reason is because I think the Liberal Democrats have not been doing enough listening.
"We've had three very poor election results - 2015, 2017 and 2019 - and the voters were sending a message.
"They were saying 'You used to listen, you used to be on our side, but I don't think you are now.'
"I'm saying to the party and the country - 'We are going to listen. We are going to make your concerns our concerns.'
"This is the very beginning, you are here at the very beginning of what's going to be a long exercise, months and months and months.
"I think the party has been talking to itself too much and not talking to ordinary people and listening and reflecting their concerns, and that's what I'm determined we do again.
"The problem I'm going to fix is the perception of the Liberal Democrats at the moment.
"It's not a very good one, is it? Because people have not come to our colours in the last three general elections."
'Hancock's car-crash Abbott interview buried another ridiculous government plan'
One upside of Matt Hancock’s bone-judderingly awful interview with Sky News’s Kay Burley on Thursday morning is that it is distinctly possible that neither he, nor Kay, nor anybody watching any longer has a clue what it was meant to be about, writes Tom Peck.
So mesmerically excruciating were the exchanges on “misogynist” and “homophobe” and “also an expert on trade” Tony Abbott, that the entire purpose of Hancock’s little morning TV interview round has already been forgotten.
Overwhelming majority of pupils back in school, NAHT says
A survey by the NAHT union suggests that at least four-fifths of school pupils are back in the classroom following reopening.
The body said it had received 849 responses to a survey it sent out on Thursday.
On Friday it said early analysis suggested that 99.7 per cent of schools had re-opened at the start of autumn term.
Of those, 92 per cent of head teachers reported pupil attendance at or above 81 per cent.
And 82 per cent of heads reported attendance of between 91 and 100 per cent.
Australian ex-prime minister Tony Abbott given top trade role despite sexist, homophobic remarks
Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has been handed a top trade role with the UK government, it has been confirmed.
Previous speculation that Mr Abbott might be given the role caused an outcry amid concerns that his views about women and gay people made him unfit to represent the United Kingdom.
Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss: "The new Board of Trade will play an important role in helping Britain make the case for free and fair trade across the UK and around the world."
Full board of trade revealed
The full board of trade has been unveiled by the Government - with controversial former Australian PM Tony Abbott joined by Brexiteer MEP Daniel Hannan and the staunchly pro-Beijing Lord Gerry Grimstone.
Meanwhile critics have pointed out an issue with the announcement of Mr Abbott (below) as made on the department of international trade's Twitter account: the misspelling of his name.
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