Starmer urges PM to ditch ‘confused’ travel traffic light system – follow live

Keir Starmer has taken Boris Johnson to task at PMQs for not doing enough to protect the UK’s borders from different variants of the coronavirus.

He suggested that not stopping flights from India once the country was placed on the UK’s travel red list was a mistake.

“We are an island nation. We have the power to stop this,” the Labour leader added.

Keir Starmer has accused the government of “losing control” over its travel messaging after restrictions were loosened earlier this week.

The Labour leader said that “absolutely clarity” was needed, after 170 countries were placed on the UK’s “amber travel list” on Monday.

He added that the government had confused the public, with one minister saying that travel to amber list countries was permitted to “visit family and friends” while another said travel was not recommended.

In response, Boris Johnson said: “We are trying to move away from endlessly legislating for everything and to rely on guidance and asking people to do the right thing.

“It is very, very clear – you should not be going to an amber list country except for some extreme circumstance, such as the serious illness of a family member.”

Boris Johnson has apologised in the Commons to the families of the innocent victims who were killed in west Belfast in 1971.

The prime minister’s apology comes a week after the Ballymurphy inquiry found 10 victims were innocent.

“No apology can lessen their everlasting pain,” he said, referring to the victims’ families.

Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQs amid accusations that the government did not do enough to protect the UK from the spread of the coronavirus variant first detected in India.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said he can’t reveal his party’s platform or values because they are subject to “confidential” discussions, writes Jon Stone.

When asked what Labour stands for, the shadow minister told ITV: “They’re confidential meetings. The Labour Party understands that we have got to speak to the British people about their priorities, and their interests, and their concerns.

“We’re launching a big policy review which we’re going to take to the country and we’re going to engage the country in a discussion and a debate and we’re going to listen to the country about what it is they want, how it is they want the country to change.”

Labour sources later said Mr Ashworth had meant shadow cabinet discussions were private, not the party’s policies.

Tory MP Peter Bone got into a bit of a pickle on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier, calling the environment secretary “George Useless” instead of George Eustice.

Speaking about the mixed messaging from government about travel guidance, the Conservative backbencher said: “George Useless was also not correct.”

When his own mistake was pointed out, he added: “It is early in the morning, at least for me anyway.”

The government has been criticised by its spending watchdog for failing to prepare for a threat on the magnitude of the pandemic.

In a report released on Wednesday, the National Audit Office (NAO) said ministers were left without a “playbook” of actions due to the lack of planning.

The NAO also said the crisis had “laid bare existing fault lines within society, such as the risk of widening inequalities, and within public service delivery and government itself”.

Boris Johnson has been accused of failing to protect Britain’s borders from coronavirus, after it was revealed that more than 100 flights from India have landed in the UK since it was placed on the travel red list.

Unlike other countries on the list – such as Brazil and South Africa – the government has not banned flights from India.

Now, the B.1.617.2 variant, which was first detected in India, is now dominant in the north of England and is spreading to the rest of the country.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, told LBC: “UK government mistakes have risked letting variants in, putting our hope for freedoms at risk.”

My colleague Matt Mathers has the story:

Nicola Sturgeon has started a major cabinet reshuffle, with two of the longest-serving cabinet secretaries no longer in government.

Economy secretary Fiona Hyslop and tourism secretary Fergus Ewing, who had been in cabinet since the SNP came to power in 2007, are no longer part of Ms Sturgeon’s inner circle.

Announcing the decision, the first minister said: “I want to pay tribute to the work of both Fiona Hyslop and Fergus Ewing and to thank them for their unstinting public service over many years.”

As part of the reshuffle, the deputy first minister John Swinney will move from the education brief to become the coronavirus recovery secretary.

Priti Patel and the Home Office should “stand back” and not interfere in operational policing matters, a chief constable has said.

Gareth Morgan, of Staffordshire Police, told The Times that while he supported Ms Patel’s close involvement with the police, he was worried it could create the impression that “policing is seen as the extension of government”.

“Being supportive and taking an interest is really good, but stepping into the policing arena is not,” he said.

“I think it is as incumbent on the service to assert itself and its independence and its role as it is for the Home Office to stand back.”

Mr Morgan’s comments come after the Home Office delayed the publication of a long-awaited reported into the murder of Daniel Morgan, a decision his family described as a “kick in the teeth”.