Wednesday in parliament. Hello again, and welcome to wednesday in parliament as borisjohnson is warned his covid controls arent working. Its the 3rd of february, 2021, with new variants in the country, our schools are shut and our borders are open. The number of people getting a jab reaches ten million, but the head of test and trace strikes a note of caution. The big concern and worry is that the virus mutates and succeeds in finding a form that can escape the vaccine. And remembering a long life, lived well. I invite members to nowjoin me for a minutes silence to commemorate sir toms life. But first, The Government says its a hugely significant milestone in the fight against coronavirus. Ten Million People in the uk have now received their first dose of the Covid Vaccine. But at Prime Ministers questions, borisjohnson was told that the biggest threat to the Vaccine Programme was his governments reluctance to order the complete closure of the uks borders to limit the arrival of new strains of coronavirus. The labour leader, sir keir starmer, said Government Scientists had recommended A Complete Pre Emptive Closure Of Borders or the mandatory quarantine of arrivals in the uk. But the Prime Minister said closing the borders completely wasnt practical. He insisted the uk has one of the toughest regimes in the world. We know the South African variant is spreading across england, and measures are in place to try to deal with that. We also know that other variants are out there in other parts of the world. So is the Prime Minister really saying just as a matter of common sense is he saying that quarantining all arrivals would make no difference to fighting new variants of the virus . Or is he saying that quarantining all arrivals at the border would make a difference but its too difficult to do it . Mr speaker, this is the right honourable gentleman who only recently said that Quarantine Measures were a blunt instrument, and whose Shadow Transport Secretary said that quarantine should be lessened. We have one of the toughest regimes in the world, and i think when he calls for a complete closure of borders, or suggests that that that might be an option, mr speaker, he should be aware of the 75 of our medicines come into this country from europe. 45 of our food, 250,000 businesses in this country rely on imports. Its not practical, completely, to close off this country as he seems to be suggesting. What is practical to do is have one of the toughest regimes in the world and to get on with vaccinating the people of this country, which is what we are doing, mr speaker. Mr speaker, what he says is complete nonsense, he knows it. Its the 3rd of february, 2021, with new variants in the country, our schools are shut and our borders are open. Everyone knows there are exceptions, whatever the quarantine regime, Everybody Knows that. Borisjohnson said hed imposed tough new restrictions on people wanting to come here. If you want to come into this country from abroad, you have to 72 hours before you fly you have to get a test, mr speaker. You have to have a passenger locator form, youre kicked off the plane if you dont have it. You would have to spend ten days, mr speaker, in quarantine. If you come from one of the red list countries, mr speaker, you have to go straight into quarantine, and all of this, of course, is to allow us to get on with the vaccination programme, and if wed listened to the right honourable gentleman, mr speaker, we would still be at the starting blocks because he wanted to stay in the european medicines agency, mr speaker and said so four times from that dispatch box. Complete nonsense, dont let the truth get in the way of a pre prepared gag. Mr speaker, the Prime Minister knows ive never said that from this dispatch box or from anywhere else, but the truth escapes him. Well, borisjohnson said the evidence was there on youtube. And sir keir later admitted hed made a mistake. The snp leader also focused on Border Controls and the Prime Ministers recent trip north of Hadrians Wall to visit a Vaccine Production Plant in livingston a plant where thered been a Covid Outbreak. The Prime Minister. And his advisers knew there was a serious Covid Outbreak at this plant. I they knew the visit posed a risk, but they made a deliberate choice. They made the irresponsible choice. The Prime Minister put politics before public health. Prime minister, why be so reckless . Is it any wonder that people in scotland have no faith. In this Prime Minister . Isnt he the worst possible. Leader at the worst possible time . Mr speaker, i think what the people of scotland want to see is the whole country pulling together and working to develop the vaccine, as that fantastic plant in scotland is doing. One of the advantages of this vaccine is that it may be able to combat all sorts of variants in a very comprehensive way. Its amazing, wonderful to see scottish scientists working to do that. I had a fantastic time. Nobody, by the way, raised that issue with me before or since, and it is myjob, mr speaker, to visit every part of this country, nothing and no one, mr speaker, is going to stop me another border issue is also causing political problems for the Prime Minister. Post brexit checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland were suspended on tuesday after threats to staff. Tensions are high after the eu threatened briefly to block the flow of vaccines across the irish border, a move condemned across parties. The sdlp warned for the last five years about the Destabilising Impact Brexit would have on Northern Ireland, though, we take no pleasure in the disruption nor in the injury some feel to their british identity. Prime minister, you say that your commitment. To Northern Ireland is unshakeable. Well, i speak for all of my. Constituents today when i tell you that the protocol has betrayed us and has made us feel like foreigners| in our own country. Tea and sympathy will not cut the mustard, and will he be l a man of his word and allow businessmen in my constituency to bin the unnecessary documentation that he told us we could bin . Prime minister, be the unionist we need you to be i utterly share the frustration of the honourable gentleman about the way the eu, in particular the eu commission, temporarily seemed to call for you to use the protocol in such a way as to impose a border contrary to the spirit of the good friday agreement, contrary to the letter of the good friday agreement. And we will do everything we need to do, mr speaker, whether legislatively or indeed by invoking article 16 of the protocol, mr speaker, to ensure that there is no barrier down the irish sea. The Prime Minister. Borisjohnson wasnt the only senior figure challenged about his governments policy on Covid Travel Restrictions and quarantine. Earlier, the transport secretary, grant shapps, was questioned by mps on the Transport Committee. I mean, more people are going to be hit by the rules for quarantine, those coming home from red listed countries, where they may have been for essential reasons such as Family Illness and bereavement. And i wont be alone as having constituents in that position, who are really worried about how they are going to be able to afford the cost of the hotel for ten days. Will such travellers be offered Financial Assistance from The Government . No. But bear in mind, that the 33 countries on the so called red list at the moment, which do not have direct flights now coming to us, are places where, you know, people will have known for quite some time that there were issues. So, the numbers that we expect to see returning would be quite low, and people mightjust decide that there are probably people who have, potentially either dual nationality or being long term in those locations, they may decide to stick it out for a period of time. So, you know, those numbers will be relatively small. Gavin newlands asked why there was a differences in guidance between scotland and england . My question was about. The limitations of the virus and the concerns l about importing it. So that was my main concern. So if you could perhaps address that, that would be great. Yeah, sure. Well, let me be absolutely clear, if the Chief Medical Officer said, you know, secretary of state, hey, you must close our borders and you must do it now, we would close the borders because, you know, if he was saying thats the only scientific way. To be clear, that is not the medical, the Chief Medical Officers advice today. Its not been the scientific advice to date. We already have quarantine in place from everywhere in the world into this country. You may not come here, legally come here, without quarantine from anywhere in the world. You cant come here without Predeparture Testing from anywhere in the world. And we have the most large scale Genomics Testing of the coronavirus of any country in the world. And were requiring follow up testing and will require those from those red list countries, particularly where we have concerns about the mutations. Grant shapps was also asked about the future of hs2 the High Speed Rail Link being built from london to birmingham, manchester and leeds a One Hundred Billion pound project that continues to face opposition from people on its Construction Path and from mps along the route. I accept that you have, and the Prime Minister has, a commitment to this project and is looking to the future on it. But surely, on that very point Ofjust Stopping and pausing and really thinking about where passenger demand on rail is going to be over the next 20 a0 years, let alone 100 years, that would be the prudent thing to do, given the amount of money that the exchequer has had to borrow throughout covid, partly to prop up the railways. Surely, it is time to pause and just have a think about that. Unless we think that people are going to be able to move around in some other form, you know, which im constantly amazed by science, and maybe we will be able to, and i dont mean this facetiously, but teleport ourselves or some other way of getting around. Humans will always want to be in touch with humans. All of these years after that West Coast Main Line was built, 190 years later, we are still using it, and before coronavirus, in record numbers. So i dont think its too much of a punt to say that given that building this line is 10 20 years, connecting the rest of the network together, i dont think its a stretch to say that i think we will be back to people wanting to meet people and will be very, very grateful in 50 100 years, maybe 200 years, that we have done this. So. So, my view is that we shouldnt be stopping and switching, changing and what have you now. I do recognise and understand the disturbance that its created and devastating for some of your constituents, and i think ive come and met some of your constituents previously as well. Its very easy for me as a Government Minister to say, for the greater good, we are going to do this. I do understand, and you are quite right to defend your constituents, but, no, i think on a national level, it would be wrong to reverse this project at this stage, and certainly to use coronavirus as the reason to do that would definitely be the wrong approach. Thank you, in the interest of time, i will hand it back to the chair. Yup, thank you, greg, i hope those answers dont cause you to start tunneling under euston and joining swansea. Huw merriman, the chair of the Transport Committee there. Youre watching wednesday in parliament with me, david cornock. Mps have been told that around 20,000 people a day are not fully complying with instructions to self isolate after being contacted by the test and trace system. The head of programme, dido harding gave the estimate when she appeared in front of the science and technology committee. Its chair pointed to the cost of test and trace and the Business Case that had been made in septemberfor £15 billion of spending for the service, to avoid a Second National lockdown. But shortly after that we had a second lockdown and indeed a third lockdown. Does that indicate that the contribution of nhs test and a trace was not as you envisaged in the Business Case, which was to avoid that . Test and traces only one of the elements that enables us to fight coronavirus, we are not the single silver bullet. Between that Business Plan being published and us going into the lockdown were currently in now, in the virus mutated can we see in the new variant and merge which was something that none of us were able to protect. Was it not possible to be primed and ready to respond actually to mutations, which most scientists we have heard from across the year felt was not only likely but almost certain . Well, i think on the basis that this country is absolutely at the leading edge of genomic sequencing, we are better placed than i would argue any other country in the world to be able to spot mutations. And to then predict which ones will cause material problems, and which ones wont. What i was referring to earlier is predicting exactly when thats going to happen, and therefore being ahead of the curve thats much harder. A former Health Secretary turned to how many people were self isolating when they were asked to. Lady harding said a recent survey suggested 80 said they hadnt had contact with anyone during their Self Isolation. Jeremy hunt wondered about the other 20 . Lets take last weeks total number of cases and contacts circa 700,000 people. So circa 100,000 people a day. So circa 20,000 people a day, would not be coming into contact. So 20,000 people a day are not isolating. I put a lot of caveats on that. I understand the desire to get to a simple number and. Look, i can fully understand | i also understand that is not entirely your responsibility. Its a whole of government thing to get this right, but it will be exactly 20,000,| it could be 15,000 or 25,000. Its a huge number of peoplel Every Single Day that could be passing on the virus who are not isolating in a way that we need them to. So why do you think that is . She said there were a range of reasons including not understanding what was required, financial needs and the impact on mental health. One mp looked to the future. There has been suggestions from Behavioural Experts that actually theres going to be poorer adherence to Self Isolation as a result of the Vaccine Programme. Are you monitoring this . The big concern and worry is that the virus mutates and succeeds in finding a form that can escape the vaccine, and we need to have a scale Surveillance Process in place both at the border from overseas and in the uk to spot any outbreaks asymptomatic or symptomatic, to scale up our genomics and sequencing. Over in the lords, labour kept up the pressure over travel restrictions. Scotland has announced new extensive courting rules today. When will The Government get a grip and announce new Quarantine Measures they should have introduced weeks ago . I entirely agree with the noble lord, he is right that additional vigilance is required. The advent of new variants that could have high Transit Visibility or escape the vaccine is a complete game changer. And that is why we have changed our approach. To border management. We have upgraded our border management, border control| measures, and there will be i further announcements on that from The Government. Whilst the minister will be aware that australia is imposing a two week warranty for all travellers in from abroad with no exceptions. My son who has dual nationality is flying out in march to take upajob. He must have a negative test result before flying, and must stay in a hotel for two weeks as his own expense. Australia has shown the way, when does the minister expect the uk to follow . The Noble Baroness Isl completely right to cite australia and we take our hats off to their remarkable achievement in using their Island Status to protect. The nation against the virus. And we are responding to the challenge of new variants by upgrading our measures and future announcements| on this will be made shortly. The governments been urged to put more money into a Hardship Fund set up to help students in england during the covid crisis. Most students have been told to stay away from university for the time being, leaving many paying rent for accommodation theyre not using. The Hardship Fund was created in december, starting with £20 million, and this week The Government put in an extra £50 milllion. The Universities Minister praised students for their resilience and promised to monitor the situation closely. The new student Hardship Funding will really benefit those students who most need it by putting money into their pockets. Providers will have flexibility in how they distribute the funding to their students in a way that is best prioritised to the greatest need. And given the fact that we have asked the majority of students not to return to the University Term accommodation in this lockdown, support might include help for students basic additional costs arising from having to maintain accommodation in more than one location. Or assisting to help students access teaching remotely. She was responding to an urgent question from labor. The government has organised a problem but failed on the solutions. The minister will note that the many students it does not even cover rent. They fund their and studies from part time jobs that have disappeared from the pandemic. A Hardship Fund that equates to £26 for students or wages from half a shift. In scotland they have provided £300 and £80 per student. Does she not accept that students across the country deserve the same level of support . She agreed it had been a difficult time but insisted the fund would help thousands of students. This is £70 million for three months alone. On top of the 256 million, and the Additional Support of the university of have been given themselves. And we do continue to urge all Accommodation Providers to give refunds to students and more are doing so every day. I met students yesterday that fell simply forgotten by The Government, ministersj response to the pandemic has robbed them of the i university experience. Theyre isolated at home without support while paying for accommodation there j for forbidden from using, and seeing their fuse for basements, jobsl and opportunities disappear. Its utterly devastating and utterly unjust. I declare for the record i have three People Living in my house at the moment that should be away at university right now. One of them is in private accommodation paying £150 a week for a property have not lived in for two months now and have no idea when they may be able to return to it. So what would the minister say to them about why they should continue to pay rent for a property that theyve got no opportunity to use at the moment . Its a really difficult time for your child, and i feel exceptionally sorry for them, and its one of the awful ramifications of the pandemic that they are not able to access face to face teaching. We have this Hardship Funding available for those most in need and those that need help. I would also urge your loved one to contact their Accommodation Provider and see what flexibility they could provide. Several conservative mps had concerns too. The government set the maximum amount that universities can charge for tuition fees during normal times, i so therefore isnt it| the responsibility of government to set the maximum amount that universities can now charge during this covid 19 period when students are not. Getting the education or the Student Experience that they have paid for because of Government Restrictions . The 70 million support fund for students facing Financial Difficulties is very welcome so i can gradually ministers once again stepping in protect those most in need, but a number of my constituents have told that there studies have been drastically impacted by the pandemic, so can my right honourable friend up to the house and what discussions have been held with universities about full or partial refunds for tuition and accommodation fees in this Academic Year . Thank you, mr speaker, i agree with my honourable friend this is a really difficult and challenging time for students and my heart goes out to all of them. We set the maximum tuition fee level, not the minimum and its up to universities to then decide what to charge. Every single one of them has continued to charge the maximum during this pandemic and in return we have said that we expect the quantity and quality and accessibility of provision to be there. If a student feels its not as a process in place, they can make a formal complaint to the university. Michelle donelan. Before Prime Ministers questions, mps paid their respects to captain sir tom moore, the retired army officer and charity fund raiser, who has died at the age of 100. Sir tom raised more than £32 million for Nhs Charities by walking 100 laps of his garden. The queen, who knighted him last summer, has sent a private message to his family. The commons tributes were led by the speaker, sir lindsay hoyle. His dignity and determination in raising money to support the Nhs Charities caught the nations mood at the most difficult time. He exemplified the best of our values. I invite members to nowjoin me for a minutes silence to commemorate sir toms life and pay respects to those that have lost their lives as a result of covid and their families and friends. After the silence, Party Leaders paid their tributes. Captain sir tom moore, or captain tom, as we all came to know him, dedicated his life to serving his country and others. His was a long life lived well. Whether during his time defending our nation as an army officer, and last year bringing the country together through his incredible Fundraising Drive with the nhs that gave millions the chance to thank the extraordinary Men And Women Of Our Nhs who protected us in this pandemic. As captain tom repeatedly reminded us, please remember tomorrow will be a good day. He inspired The Very Best in us all, and his legacy will continue to do so for generations to come. Can ijoin you and the Prime Minister in sending my condolences to the family of captain sir tom moore. He perhaps more than anyone embodied the spirit of britain, and he will be sadly missed. Can also give my remarks about the Remarkable Gentlemen Captain sir tom moore, an inspiration to each. And everyone of us, and i would like to send my condolences to his and friends. And later, the Prime Minister and other Party Leaders took part in a special clap for sir tom and the Health Workers for whom he raised money. And that clap for captain tom brings us to the end of wednesday in parliament. Thank you for watching. I do Hope You Canjoin us at the same time tomorrow for the week in parliament with the highlights from westminster and the uks other parliaments. Until then, from me, david cornock, bye for now. Hello there. Winter is about to ramp up to another gear by the end of this week, certainly into the weekend. Itll be turning much colder with the risk of some disruptive snow in places. So for the next few days, itll gradually be turning colder for all, and well see increasing snow particularly over the hills in the north. Now for thursday, weve still got low pressure close by to the uk, its the Weather Front across the north bringing further cloud, outbreaks of rain to Northern Ireland, much of scotland, Northern England too, and here well see further snow over the scottish hills accumulating and drifting in that strong east southeast wind. Further south, after a bright start to the day, well start to see showery bursts of rain moving up from the south. Here, itll tend to be fairly mild, 8 10 celsius, but very cold across the north where we have that snow. Through thursday night, it continues with rain and the snow across scotland significant accumulations over the grampians and the highlands, very wet weather with a risk of flooding. Further south, a drier night to come and clear skies, could see some mist and fog across southern england, and again, a big temperature contrast from north to south. Now the snow continues as we head on into friday and saturday significant accumulations have prompted the met office to issue an Amber Warning for this heavy, incessant snow. And also, some very heavy rain for lower levels could cause some localised flooding so a whole host of issues there. Further west, well have sunny spells, a few showers, tends to stay dry across the far south east again, 9 10 celsius, much colder further north where it will also be windy with that drifting snow in the hills. Moving on into the weekend, our area of low pressure sinks a bit further southwards, so it means the rain and the hill snow across Scotland Will Drift into parts of Northern England at times too, so a whole wintry mix here could be disruptive. Further south, quite a bit of cloud around with outbreaks of rain, and temperatures dropping generally across the board. Still cold in the north and a little bit colder for much of england and wales, too. As we head on into sunday, the very cold air across the east pushes southwards right across the uk, and itll be very windy, so the wind making it feel even colder 2 3 celsius, some snow pushing into northern and eastern areas which could be disruptive. So turning very cold through this weekend for all areas, with the risk of some disruptive snow for some of us. Welcome to bbc news im james reynolds. Our top stories protests continue in myanmar as the un calls for the release of leader aung san suu kyi, whos been charged by Police Following mondays military coup. Future proofing the Covid Vaccine how scientists are already working to make sure the new vaccines can be adapted to deal with any new variant. A 22 year old american who had the worlds first face and hands transplant talks about his surgery, saying he feels grateful for a Second Chance at life. 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