Brexit News – Live: Latest updates when Brits living in the EU rejected flights

A Labor MP apologized and deleted a tweet claiming that a government minister and his family had received the Covid-19 vaccine ahead of the projected timeline.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a Labor MP from Tooting, tweeted: “I have heard rumors that [Nadhim Zahawi] vaccinated him and his family at Wandsworth. “

He later deleted the tweet, calling it “inappropriate and incorrect” and containing “unsubstantiated claims.”

Tony Blair said that decisions for Britain have always rested with the British people, as he compared Brexit to “shock therapy”.

He said: “There is nothing Brexit is going to do for Britain alone. It is going to leave us economically weaker and with less political influence.

“So the only way I make sense of Brexit is by treating it as shock therapy, that then we realize that we have to make certain important decisions as a country, we have to set a new agenda for the future.” but that’s going to be difficult to do. “

Mr Blair added: “The truth of the matter is these so-called freedoms from European regulation that Brexit is supposed to give us, they don’t really give us anything at all.

“Because the truth is that decisions for Britain depend on and have always been in the hands of the British people and the British government they choose.

“But what does it mean, if we continue to have the same old political debate after Brexit that we had before Brexit, we are in a lot of trouble as a country.”

SNP Leader MP Keith Brown has criticized Boris Johnson’s comments on another Scottish independence referendum.

The prime minister reiterated his position that it should be a “once in a generation” vote, telling Andrew Marr that the lag between the referendums on Europe, the first in 1975 and the second in 2016, was “a good kind of gap”.

Brown said: “It may be a new year, but it is the same incoherent boast of Boris Johnson. The prime minister pretends otherwise, but he knows that he cannot continue to deny democracy.”

“Even his American friend, Donald Trump, has learned that if you try to stand in the way of a nation’s democratic election, you are swept away.”

“The people who will decide our future are the people of Scotland, not Boris Johnson and the Westminster Tories.”

Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: “Only the people of Scotland have the right to determine the future of Scotland.

“17 consecutive opinion polls have shown majorities in favor of independence, with the most recent indicating a record support of 58%.

“Whether from the failed handling of the coronavirus crisis, the Brexit catastrophe or simply the cruelty of the Conservative governments we have not voted for, it is clear that the UK is not working for Scotland.

“The Greens of Scotland will go into the May elections with a clear commitment to putting the future of Scotland in the hands of Scotland, and the people of Scotland will have a voice.”

The ministers have been accused of failing unemployed youth, after failing to deliver on a promise to recruit 30,000 new apprentices for public service.

A senior conservative said the government had not made achieving the promise “a priority” and criticized an attempt to blame Covid-19 for the embarrassing deficit.

In fact, the target was set four years ago, to ensure Whitehall “leads by example,” and only 16,155 apprentices had been recruited at the time of the March shutdown.

Tony Blair said he would have backed Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal in Parliament.

When asked if he would have voted for the agreement in the Commons, he said: “I would have supported (Sir Keir Starmer) on this.

“I mean, look, it’s a tactical question for the Labor Party because the problem is that their opponents can say that if they don’t support the deal, then they are voting for the no deal.”

Blair continued: “There was a case to abstain and there was a case to vote in favor because the alternative is not an agreement.”

“What I’m really saying is that as a decision for the Labor leader to make, I don’t think the Labor Party particularly cares in any way.

“I think what matters is that we are still in a position where we are pointing out what the problems are with this deal.”

Labor’s shadow secretary for culture Jo Stevens is being treated for Covid-19 at the hospital.

The 54-year-old Welsh deputy had been “struck down” by the virus since late December, according to a statement on her Twitter account.

Tony Blair said that unless there is a “radical change” in the vaccination program, it is difficult to see how schools can be kept open.

He told Times Radio: “On the one hand, it is a disaster for school-age children, particularly the poorest school-age children if they don’t get an education.

“But it’s also completely understandable for teachers and parents to say, not because they think their children … the risk to children is very, very small, it is the risk to transmission rates and it is the risk to teachers and parents, and therefore for those with whom their parents mingle.

“So for all those reasons, it just emphasizes once again why it is so important to start vaccination.

“Unless there is a radical change of nature in the vaccination program, it is very difficult to see how it will keep the schools open.”

Nicola Sturgeon has requested that the Scottish Parliament be called upon to consider “new actions” to stop the spread of the coronavirus, as he warned that the new variant of the disease was “very worrying”.

In a statement moments after Boris Johnson said measures in England would “probably” get tougher in the coming weeks amid concerns about pressure on the NHS, the prime minister said she would convene the Scottish government cabinet on Monday. .

“The steep increases and severe pressure from the NHS being experienced elsewhere in the UK are a sign of what may happen,” Sturgeon warned.

Boris Johnson is on track to lose his seat and neither of the two major political parties is likely to win an outright majority in the upcoming general election, according to a new poll.

It is the first detailed survey of public perception of the prime minister’s handling of the Brexit talks and the Covid-19 pandemic after he reversed plans to allow families to gather at Christmas in parts of southern England to fight. the spread of the virus.

On the first weekend since the Brexit transition phase ended, British Airways staff at Heathrow mistakenly turned away British residents in Spain seeking to return home as they prepared to fly home.

With the end of the transition, British passport holders no longer have automatic access to the European Union. Furthermore, Spain, like many other EU countries, is imposing strict rules to try to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.

Only Spanish citizens and legal residents of Spain can board flights from the UK until January 19.