Boris Johnson warned against damaging relations with Biden – follow live

Home secretary Priti Patel also suggested action could be taken against catering provider Chartwells after images of their meagre free school meal parcels were widely shared on social media.

She told This Morning: “Those were just appalling in every way. The voucher scheme is coming back in place on January 18, so that scheme is coming. Quite frankly that scheme is just so, so important.

“I do think the company that were involved with that appalling display of food parcels should be ashamed of themselves quite frankly – it was thoroughly unacceptable and it is right that the government are investigating them … I personally think some action should be taken against that company.”

Home secretary Priti Patel has been grilled on ITV’s This Morning about the government’s Covid curbs. Asked about Boris Johnson’s seven-mile journey to ride his bike, the minister wouldn’t define what “local” means – but also insisted the rules were clear.

She did suggest people should go cycling in their own boroughs (although the PM went out of borough), but also said: “London is a big geography in terms of cycling.”  

Despite speculation there could be further restrictions, including a three-metre social distancing rule, Patel said that the government is not bringing in new social distancing restrictions “today or tomorrow”.

Some Scottish fishermen have been trying to sell their produce in Denmark because of Brexit problems selling to other EU countries, according to Danish broadcaster TV 2.  

Many who “have never been this way” are trying the market for the first time in desperation, said auctioneer Jesper Kongsted.

Scottish fish exporters have warned that prices are “collapsing” due to delays shipping goods to the EU after Brexit. Some prices have plunged as much as 80 per cent below normal levels.

So what about fisheries minister Victoria Prentis? How safe is her position after her admission she didn’t read the Brexit deal when it was published? A No 10 spokesperson said the PM had confidence in his minister, the SNP is leading calls for her to resign.  

The party’s Brexit spokesperson Philippa Whitford, said: “For the Tory Government’s fisheries minister to then admit that she did not even bother to read the details of the damaging deal because she was too busy is unbelievable and makes her position untenable.”

In case you missed it, here is the strange admission by Prentis she was “very, very busy” with her local nativity trail.

DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has urged the government to intervene to resolve the issues that have hindered the flow of food products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland in the past two weeks.

Sir Jeffrey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The protocol is damaging the Northern Ireland economy and if it damages the Northern Ireland economy it actually undermines the Good Friday agreement.”

He added: “And furthermore, that agreement makes clear that Northern Ireland will remain an integral part of the United Kingdom unless the people of Northern Ireland vote otherwise.

“Therefore, this breaches a fundamental element of the Good Friday Agreement by increasingly separating Northern Ireland from Great Britain in trading terms – our biggest trading partner, our biggest trading market, and that simply doesn’t help anyone in Northern Ireland.”

The Stena Line Group said it would be switching its new freight ferry from the Belfast-Liverpool route to a more direct route from France to Ireland (the Rosslare-Cherbourg route) from today to help it avoid any Brexit delays and maximise capacity.

Reports suggest the government is getting ready to announce that all direct flights between the UK, Brazil and neighbouring countries in South America will be stopped as a safeguard against the new Covid variant detected in Brazil.

Boris Johnson told a committee of MPs on Wednesday that the government was putting “extra measures” in place to protect the country from the variant – only to be unable to name any measures when grilled by senior Labour backbencher Yvette Cooper.

Michael Gove chairs a meeting of the COVID O group today, where top ministers are expected to agree on a suspension of flights.

Asked why travel from Brazil had not been immediately closed off, Home Office minister Victoria Atkins told Sky News that the UK was monitoring the new variant “very carefully” and that “practical measures” were being worked on.

The anger of the seafood industry is not likely to go away anytime too soon. Scottish Seafood Association chiefs took Boris Johnson’s promise of compensation to mean “extra” money was coming their way, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

But No 10 has had to make clear the PM was referring to the £100m already set aside to help them adjust to post-Brexit problems. The Scottish Seafood Association said it was ready to engage with the government on the “detail” of the package.

There will be an urgent question on the whole business in the House of Commons today.

Fishing industry chiefs remains furious with the government over the Brexit trade deal and the implementation chaos over the past two weeks. Jamie McMillan, the boss of Loch Fyne Seafarms, has threatened to dump rotten shellfish at Boris Johnson’s door.  

He is among the mounting number of Scottish seafood exporters who say post-Brexit hold-ups and red tape are leading to lorries full of seafood being rejected by EU customers.

In a video message, he said: “Prime minister and Michael Gove – I can assure you if Scottish exporters can’t get their product to market next week, we will be at the gates of Westminster and we will be dumping our shellfish on your doorstep, rotten.”

More criticism this morning for Boris Johnson’s comments at the liaison committee on Wednesday – when the the PM stood by his claim that Donald Trump potentially deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Asked by MPs on the liaison committee about his over-the-top praise for Trump, Johnson said it vital to have “the best possible relationship with the president of the United States”.

Labour’s shadow justice secretary David Lammy said his remark about the peace prize “tells you all you need to know about our prime minister’s judgement”.