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Prime Minister Boris Johnson tells reporters he loves John Lewis during a visit to a school in Marylebone
Boris Johnson has said he does not believe there is anything to see despite the Electoral Commission saying there are reasonable grounds to suspect an offence as it launched a formal inquiry over the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat.
The prime minister told reporters during a visit to a school in west London: We will comply with whatever they want and I don’t think there is anything to see here, or to worry about.
The probe will seek to establish who initially paid for the work and whether any donation was properly declared.
Wednesday April 21, 2021, 1:04 PM
Boris Johnson has defended his personal correspondence with Sir James Dyson, saying he makes no apology for assuring the billionaire inventor there would be a tax break if he relocated staff to the UK to manufacture ventilators.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer attacked the prime minister at PMQs for telling Sir James in a text message that he would temporarily fix tax rules at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
A defiant Mr Johnson told MPs: I make absolutely no apology at all for shifting heaven and earth for doing everything I could. to secure ventilators for this country and save lives.
Boris Johnson will address the nation from Downing Street this evening. Credit: No10
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to lead a coronavirus press conference from Downing Street this evening amid growing concerns about an Indian variant of Covid-19.
A time has not officially been set by Downing Street, but Mr Johnson is expected to address the nation from his new £2.6 million TV studio at around 5pm.
Not only had India s rocketing coronavirus rate seen the country record more than 150,000 new cases a day for three weeks, but the UK is concerned about a Covid strain first identified there which has since been found in Britain.
Not only are Covid-19 cases rocketing in the country, but a new variant found there is being investigated to see if it could spread more easily and evade vaccines.
The coronavirus situation in India has been worsening for weeks, but until now the government had resisted pressure to cancel the trip, keeping India off the red-list of countries from which arrivals to the UK must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days.
Mr Johnson said it is only sensible to cancel his trip, adding it is up to the UK Health Security Agency whether to add the nation to the travel red list .
Some care home residents feel trapped. Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
Care home residents are being held captive , their relatives say, due to government guidance requiring them to isolate for 14 days every time they leave their facility.
Families have hit out at “outrageous deprivations of liberty” over the guidance, with the sister of a disabled woman labelling the rule barbaric .
The daughter of another care home resident described her mother’s situation as akin to “being under house arrest”.
The Department of Health and Social Care guidance says the rule aims to ensure residents who may become unknowingly infected do not pass coronavirus to other residents and staff.