Coronavirus 1) Exclusive: 'UK vaccine passport plans to be scrapped'  "Plans to make Covid-19 passports a legal requirement for large events are set to be dropped, The Telegraph understands. Officials working on the review into Covid-19 status certification believe there is no chance the law will be changed to mandate their use within the UK. "It's not a case of 'it's finely balanced'. It's not going to happen," said one well-placed government source close to the review. "Everyone says it's dead." It comes as ministers examine data to determine whether the lifting of restrictions can continue as planned from June 21 in England, when it was hoped that the public would be able to return in greater numbers to mass events such as football matches and concerts. The Government first expressed interest in Covid passports in February, when a review into their use domestically was launched as part of Boris Johnson's reopening roadmap for England." - Daily Telegraph - Over-50s to have second vaccine in race to save June 21 - The Times
- Struggling hospitals warn of a 'perfect storm' on June 21 - The Times
- France locks the doors: British travellers must show 'compelling reason' to enter the country from today as Macron battles to keep Indian variant at bay - Daily Mail
Comment: >Yesterday: Sunak 1) Restaurant and pub bosses blame furlough for lack of staff as they struggle to fill 190,000 vacancies amid fears many people will lose the will to work  "Pub and restaurant bosses have called for an end to the furlough scheme as they desperately struggle to fill 190,000 job vacancies. Several businesses say they cannot get the staff needed to kickstart their recovery while millions remain on furlough. There are fears that workers languishing on the job retention scheme, which runs until September, will lose the will to work. The Office for National Statistics reported that a tenth of businesses' workforce was on furlough in mid-April, or 2.7 million people. Across the UK there are 700,000 job vacancies, including 188,000 in hospitality, where a million remained on furlough before the May 17 reopening. Bosses say some staff would rather stay at home on 80 per cent of their full salary than get a new job. But the industry said the scheme is needed to protect jobs because many businesses will operate below full capacity until restrictions are lifted." - Daily Mail
- End of eviction ban leaves tenants in Britain at risk - FT
Sunak 2) Chancellor urges Biden to strike deal on tech giant taxes "Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has urged Joe Biden to do a deal on the taxation of tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon as part of a global shake-up of business levies. Finance ministers from the G7 group of leading industrialised nations, including the UK and US, will meet in London on Friday, a week before Biden flies in for the leaders' summit in Cornwall. The US president has called for a minimum global corporation tax level, with 15 per cent proposed as a base rate, to stop companies using offshore strategies. Following years of criticism of the way that Silicon Valley giants handle their tax affairs, the UK wants to ensure that US tech firms pay their fair share of tax for their activities in Britain. Sunak told The Mail on Sunday: "I want to make sure we get the right deal for British taxpayers, that we level the playing field for British high streets and that's what I'm doing."" - The Times Nick Timothy: We're not drifting into segregation, we're hurtling perilously towards it  "After the 7/7 terror attacks, Trevor Phillips, then the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, issued a stark warning. "We are sleepwalking our way to segregation," he declared. "We've emphasised what divides us over what unites us. We have allowed tolerance of diversity to harden into effective isolation of communities, in which some people think special separate values ought to apply." Sixteen years later, optimists will point to the minorities reaching the top of UK business and government. The Business Secretary is black, the Chancellor and Home Secretary have Indian heritage, the Foreign Secretary is the son of a Jewish refugee, and the recent London election saw a black Tory challenge a Muslim Labour mayor. Many minorities are thriving at school, building successful careers, and raising confident and happy families, secure in their identities." - Daily Telegraph More comment:  |
"Ministers have been urged not to "threaten" NHS staff by forcing them to get vaccinated against coronavirus under plans being considered by the government. The shadow Commons leader, Thangam Debbonaire, said it was not a "good idea" after the vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, said the proposal was being investigated alongside the existing consultation on making jabs mandatory for social care workers. There is nervousness in Whitehall about doing anything to destabilise the vaccine rollout by requiring that people get the jab instead of keeping it voluntary – something that several behavioural scientists have warned could dampen take-up among already vaccine-hesitant groups. But after concerns that a sizeable number of health and social care staff, who were among the first to be offered the vaccine, are reluctant to get jabbed, the government has been consulting on making vaccines mandatory for care workers, and is now expanding that to include all those working in the NHS." - 
"Post Office executives "should be very worried" about possible criminal prosecutions after the accounting scandal that triggered the UK's biggest miscarriage of justice, one of its former lawyers has said. Speaking to a Radio 4 documentary that will be broadcast this evening, an unnamed former lawyer at the government-owned company said that several senior figures could be charged with perverting the course of justice over the Horizon computer system scandal. The lawyer's comments in the last instalment of the radio series The Great Post Office Trial: The Reckoning came after the Court of Appeal last month quashed 39 convictions of subpostmasters for fraud after it was found that the system, made by the Japanese company Fujitsu, had been faulty." - 
"The public is being asked to weigh in on the fur trade, as the government considers a potential ban on sales across the UK. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched a call for evidence amid plans for tighter animal welfare standards following Brexit. The consultation will consider the social and economic impacts of fur sales, both in the UK and overseas. It is understood that the UK could introduce an outright ban depending on the feedback it receives. The UK was the first country in Europe to ban fur farming in 2000, and has introduced strict rules prohibiting the import of skin and fur products from commercial seal hunting and domestic cats and dogs. However, the sale of other furs are still legal in the UK. Carrie Symonds, Boris Johnson's wife, has described anyone who buys fur as "really sick". The government has been been mulling tougher rules after Brexit, given the UK is no longer bound by the EU's single market rules that blocked any individual country from taking a unilateral stance on fur trading." - 
"A senior European Commission figure has defended the Northern Ireland protocol, calling on the UK government to ditch ideology in favour of pragmatism in order to transform problems arising from the Brexit deal. Maroš Šefčovič said he was looking at "solutions" to iron out disruption to businesses caused by the protocol, a key part of the Brexit agreement designed to protect the bloc's single market at its frontier with the UK on the island of Ireland, without a return to a hard border. It means Northern Ireland has in effect stayed within the EU's single market for goods, and a customs border was enforced on goods crossing the Irish sea. The resulting checks at the ports of Belfast and Larne have angered unionists and loyalists, who feel the region is being separated from the rest of the UK, and this anger has escalated into threats, violence and rioting." - 
"Benjamin Netanyahu's rivals were on the brink of removing him from power on Sunday after Naftali Bennett, a right-wing firebrand, threw his support behind a coalition government with centrist leader Yair Lapid. In a major step towards unseating Israel's longest serving prime minister, Mr Bennett said his Yamina party would back a "unity" coalition that would draw support from across the Israeli political spectrum. "It's either a fifth election, or a unity government," Mr Bennett said in a televised speech. He vowed to end the "madness" of Israel's worst political crisis in its history, which has seen four inconclusive election results since 2019. According to Israeli media reports, Mr Bennett is finalising a power-sharing deal where he will serve as prime minister for two years before handing the reins to Mr Lapid."- 
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