Health News at Your Fingertips

Sir Simon Clarke, the former levelling up secretary, told Cleverly in the Commons that it was his “profound conviction” that, to be effective, the Rwanda legislation would have to allow the disapplication of parts of the European convention on human rights.

Cleverly told Clarke he was making an “incredibly important point”, but he said he did not want to prejudge what would be in the bill. He said he wanted to do everything he could stop to break the business model used by people smugglers.

Earlier he also refused to give two other Tory MPs the firm assurance they wanted on the ECHR. (See 3.14pm.)

In the Commons James Cleverly, the home secretary, has now responded to questions about illegal migration.

Two Conservatives, Miriam Cates and Jack Brereton, both asked for assurances that the bill being introduced to assure the courts that Rwanda is a safe country for deportations will be robust. Brereton asked for an assurance that all the necessary legal exemptions would be in place (referring to proposals that would allow the goverment to ignore the European convention on human rights).

In response, Cleverly did not try telling either of them that the Rwanda policy was not the “be all and end all”. (See 2.57am.) But he was evasive about quite how robust the legislation would be. He said the bill would be designed to ensure flights to Rwanda could take off, and he said he would do all he could to drive down small boat arrivals.

Coming back to Covid, this is from Prof Christina Pagel, head of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at University College London. She says Andy Burnham was right to say Covid cases were significantly higher in the north-west than in London as the first lockdown was eased. (See 2.34pm.)

Turning away from the Covid inquiry for a moment, James Cleverly and his Home Office ministers are taking questions in the Commons. It is Cleverly’s first question session in his new job.

At the weekend Cleverly alarmed some Tory rightwingers when he told the Times in an interview that the Rwanda deportation policy wasn’t “the be-all and end-all” of government policy on this issue. He said:

My frustration is that we have allowed the narrative to be created that this was the be-all and end-all. The mission is to stop the boats. That’s the promise to the British people. Never lose sight of the mission. There are multiple methods. Don’t fixate on the methods. Focus on the mission.

This came only a week after Cleverly refused to deny calling the Rwanda policy “batshit” in private.

The second question on the order paper was about small boats and Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, answered, instead of Cleverly himself. James Morris, a Conservative, used to have a go at Cleverly over this and he asked Jenrick if he agreed with his boss about Rwanda not being the be-all and end-all. And if he did agree, what was the government’s policy on small boats, he asked.

Jenrick defended Cleverly, saying that, although Rwanda was “an extremely important component” of the small boats strategy, it was not the only policy being pursued.

Burnham says he was shocked when the Scottish government announced a travel ban on people coming from Salford or Manchester. He was not given any warning about this, he says. He says the Scottish government was doing what it always criticised Westminster for doing: imposing measures without consultation.

Burnham says he wanted to be able to run his own contract-tracing service. He says the problem with the national one was that they just called people by phone. He says he wanted the service to be run locally so that officials could knock on doors.

Back at the Covid inquiry Andy Burnham says he was “astonished” in May 2020 when he heard the government was planning to ease Covid restrictions. He says the spread of the virus in Manchester was two or three weeks behind what was happening in London and the south of England, and that meant lifting restrictions for Manchester was not wise.

He says this illustrates how there was a “London-centricity in decision making”.

Manchester had a higher case rate at the time than London, he says. And he goes on:

And I think because of that Greater Manchester was left stuck with a high case rate throughout the rest of 2020.

Rishi Sunak will reject pleas to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece when he meets the country’s prime minister this week, Downing Street has indicated, saying the British Museum was the “right place” for the treasures. PA Media says:

Athens has long demanded the return of the sculptures, which were removed from Greece by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said he will raise the issue during meetings with Sunak and Keir Starmer during his visit to London.

Downing Street on Monday pushed back against the Greek leader’s likening of the British Museum’s possession of the sculptures to the Mona Lisa painting being cut in half.

Sunak’s spokesman stressed the PM’s support for the law that prevents the marbles from being permanently returned and suggested he would not be in favour of any loan arrangement.

British Museum chairman George Osborne, the former chancellor, has previously said he is exploring ways for the marbles to be displayed in Greece, with speculation that this could involve a loan deal in which part of the sculptures would be sent to Athens.

Asked about such an agreement, Sunak’s spokesman told reporters: “We have no plans to change our approach and certainly we think that the museum is the right place for them. I haven’t asked him specifically about short-term or new ideas that have been put forward, but I think he’s been fairly robust on his position.”

Burnham says he “repeatedly” called for metro mayors to be invited to Cobra meetings to discuss Covid.

During swine flu, when he was health secretary, Burnham says he recalls a wide variety of people being invited to Cobra meetings.

He says having the metro mayors there would have enabled them to raise issues in a structured environment. For example, he and Steve Rotheram, the Liverpool city region mayor, repeatedly pushed for better financial support for people who had to isolate.

Burnham says they had to raise this issue in the media. If they had been able to raise this in Cobra, the issue would have been taken up.

Q: Did you ask to attend in writing?

Burnham says he would have to check. But he repeatedly said he should be invited to Cobra in meetings with ministers, he says.

He says he never attended a single Cobra meeting on Covid – even though he represents a region with 2.8m people.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has resumed his evidence to the Covid inquiry. He is being questioned by Dermot Keating, counsel for the inquiry.

Burnham says on Monday 23 March he appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain and called for a national lockdown. He said that on the basis of the information he was getting from his own health advisers.

Later he and other metro mayors had a meeting with Grant Shapps, the transport secretary. Shapps hinted that an announcement was coming later, but did not confirm it.

Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown that night.

Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, suggested to Rishi Sunak that he should authorise the start of pre-election talks between civil servants and the opposition before he left work on sick leave last month, Oliver Wright says in the Times.

These talks routinely happen before an election, so the civil service can be ready if the opposition wins. But it is up to the PM to decide exactly when the process starts.

But Sunak was not keen, Wright says. He reports:

Sunak is said to have rebuffed [Case’s] proposal amid fears that it would send a signal to Whitehall that an election was imminent and result in officials “downing tools” and prioritising planning for the next government.

A Downing Street source did not deny that the men had spoken but insisted that Sunak had not blocked the plan, claiming it was a matter for the cabinet secretary and that Labour had to formally ask for access talks to start.