UK Covid: 96 further coronavirus deaths recorded, highest daily total since March – as it happened | Politics

The SNP has welcomed a report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman saying that the Department for Work and Pensions failed to properly inform women that they would be affected by a decision in 1995 to raise the state pension age. The party, which has been campaigning for some years on behalf of the so-called Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) said the report “exposes multiple failings and instances of maladministration”.

A summary of the report is here, and the full document is here (pdf).

Having established that there was maladministration, the ombudsman will now go on to consider if there was an injustice, and what remedies could be put in place. It cannot reinstate lost pensions, but it could recommend compensation.

David Linden MP, the SNP’s work and pensions spokesman, said:

The ombudsman has been damning of the DWP’s handling of communications relating to state pension age increases, effectively finding that ministers continued to take the same action despite knowing it wasn’t working and that women were being left in the dark about their retirement.

Women born in the 1950’s have suffered a huge injustice which has now been recognised by the ombudsman; they have been robbed of the retirement they deserve and I hope that the full impact of this is recognised by the ombudsman as he continues his work.

Boris Johnson has been speaking this afternoon to Micheál Martin, his Irish opposite number. The UK and the Irish governments are at loggerheads at the moment over two issues of crucial importance to the people on the island of Ireland – the Northern Ireland protocol, and the proposed amnesty for Troubles-related offences – and even though No 10 telephone call readouts are famously bland, this one does not hide the difficulties.

These summaries normally focus on the points on which the two leaders agreed, but this statement just talks about them agreeing to work together to tackle Covid.

On the Northern Ireland protocol, it says:

The prime minister emphasised that the way the protocol is currently operating is causing significant disruption for the people in Northern Ireland.

He made clear the UK government’s commitment to protecting the Belfast (Good Friday) agreement in all its dimensions. He said the EU must show pragmatism and solutions needed to be found to address the serious challenges that have arisen with the protocol.

The prime minister said that the UK government would outline its approach on the Northern Ireland protocol to parliament tomorrow.

And on the proposed statute of limitations (No 10 is not calling it an amnesty, even though that is what it is), it says:

The leaders also discussed the UK’s proposals, published last week, on addressing the legacy on the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The prime minister stressed that the current focus on criminal justice is not working for anyone and looked forward to further engagement with the Irish government, parties in Northern Ireland and others on the UK’s proposals.

The UK has recored 96 further coronavirus deaths, according to the latest update to the government’s coronavirus dashboard. That is the highest daily total on this measure for almost four months (since 24 March, when 98 deaths were recorded). And the total number of deaths over the past week is up 60.6% on the total for the previous week.

There have also been 46,558 new cases. Week on week, new cases are up 40.7%.

For the second day in a row, the number of new cases is bigger than the number of first doses of vaccine administered yesterday (35,670). With 88% of the UK adult population now vaccinated with at least one dose, some slowing in the rate at which first doses are being administered would be expected.

On the World at One Justin Madders, a shadow health minister, suggested that Labour might vote against plans to make vaccine passports mandatory for people wanting to go to a nightclub. The party would have to look at the legislation before taking a final decision, he said. But he said:

We’ve been very clear from the outset that we consider requiring vaccine passports as a condition of entry discriminatory against those people who may not be able to have the vaccine. And of course, as we know at the moment, actually having the vaccine is no guarantee that you are not carrying the virus ….

There is a real concern that if we move into this without any testing as a backup it creates a very unfair situation, also creates a very dangerous situation, because it creates a false sense of security that actually they are protected when they might not be.

Three more thinktanks have joined those criticising the proposal to use a national insurance increase to fund social care reform. (See 10.11am and 11.09am.)

This is from Charlotte Pickles, head of Reform, a centrist thinktank.

This is from James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation, another non-partisan thinktank.

Politicians face a difficult truth: there is no easy way to fund a social care system which has suffered from decades of neglect, with too many people facing the prospect of a catastrophic lottery of care costs and quality.

It is in the interest of all generations to reach an equitable solution, but raising national insurance contributions fails to meet that mark and breaks the contract between generations. A NI increase passes the buck to poorer, working families who have suffered significant financial hardship during the pandemic, whilst protecting the wealth of asset-rich older voters.

With an estimated £10bn required to plug the funding gap, the SMF has recommended a one-off “payment at 65” for those with household assets of more than £150,000 per adult. This levy would cap the cost of care for the elderly whilst also ensuring that workers don’t have to bear the burden of funding social care.

And these are from Miatta Fahnbulleh, head of the New Economics Foundation, which is on the left.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader, has told MPs that he is under threat from China. Speaking in the Commons, during an urgent question about the about the Chinese state-backed Microsoft Exchange hack, Duncan Smith said:

I understand now there is intelligence from the Five Eyes sources that there is now a very active and direct threat from the Chinese government aimed directly at the co-chairs of the inter-parliamentary alliance on China.

Some of these co-chairs, of which I am one, have now been warned by their intelligence services in receipt of this that they should be very careful and that they will be supported.

Earlier this year Duncan Smith was one of five parliamentarians sanctioned by China in response to their criticisms of its human rights record.

China has rejected claims from the UK and its allies that it is implicated in the Microsoft Exchange hack. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said

The Chinese side is gravely concerned and strongly opposed to this.

We call on the UK side to immediately stop echoing the groundless and irresponsible accusation against China.

China is a staunch defender of cyber security and a main victim of cyber thefts and attacks.

All the main parties in the Northern Ireland assembly have backed a motion condemning the government’s plans for an effective amnesty for Troubles-related offences. MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) broke off their summer recess to return to Stormont for the emergency debate, where the motion was passed without opposition.

Nichola Mallon, the SDLP deputy leader opened the debate, on a motion tabled by her party, and she said the plans would allow “perpetrators – state and paramilitary – walk free and instead condemn the victims and their families to a lifetime of pain and suffering through the denial of hope, truth and justice”.

Mervyn Storey from the DUP said:

My party rejects these plans. The majority of murders were carried out by paramilitary terrorist organisations. The secretary of state seems to have chosen a path which finds equivalence between the soldier and police officer, and those who planted the bomb or pulled the trigger. This is morally reprehensible.

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister, said that because of the extend of their interference with due legal process, the plan “actually places the British government to the right of Pinochet’s military dictatorship in Chile”.

Naomi Long, the Alliance party leader, said the government was planning “what is in effect a full amnesty for all those who committed murders and atrocities during the Troubles, whether in uniform or in terrorist organisations”.

And Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist party leader, said:

We have been quite clear that the soldier, the policeman, a terrorist, a member of the public or a politician – if you break the law, then you should face the law.

And everybody deserves the opportunity to get justice. It doesn’t mean they always will, but we cannot take away that hope.

Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, has announced plans to publish a white paper on prison reform. In a speech to the Centre for Social Justice this morning, he said:

I can announce today our ambition to publish a prisons white paper – to set a new direction of reform as the prison estate adapts to recent legislative changes, transitions from Covid-19 and begins to look to the future of criminal justice in England and Wales …

Making a success of the white paper can and should mean protecting the public from the effects of crime in the short and longer term, while at the same time giving those who want a second chance the opportunity to change their lives for good.