Immigration minister Robert Jenrick says migrants with diphtheria symptoms will no longer be dispersed around country
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has just told MPs in a statement about the Manston processing centre for asylum seekers that the Home Office will no longer carry on dispersing people from Manston around the country if they have diphtheria symptoms.
From today people with symptoms will either stay at Manston, in isolation, or be taken, in secure transport, to a designated isolation centre, he said.
He also confirmed there were 50 cases of diphtheria linked to the asylum accommodation. The UK Health Security Agency thinks it is likely these cases developed before the people concerned arrived in the UK, he said.
In response, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said that screening for diphtheria at Manston should have started much earlier.
And she said that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, should have been in the Commons to make the statement herself.
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Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has told MPs that the Home Office will no longer disperse asylum seekers with diphtheria symptoms around the country. (See 4.46m.) He was speaking at the UK Health Security Agency published a report saying said that between 1 January and 25 November 2022 there were 50 cases of diphtheria involving migrants who had recently arrived in England. There were two cases of “severe respiratory diphtheria requiring hospitalisation and treatment with diphtheria anti-toxin and antibiotics” and one fatality where a PCR test had confirmed the disease but the post-mortem examination will confirm the cause of death.
Review to consider whether civil servants can work on independence policy for Scottish government, MPs told
In evidence to the Commons Scottish affairs committee, Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, said that a review is underway following last week’s supreme court judgment as to what work civil servants in Scotland will be allowed to do on independence matters. He said that Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, and the Cabinet Office’s proprietary and ethics team were looking at this, with John-Paul Marks, permanent secretary to the Scottish government.
Now that the supreme court has ruled that the Scottish government cannot lawfully hold an independence referendum without permission from Westminster, which it does not have, Tories argue civil servants should not be working on this. (See 3.54pm.)
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader and a member of the committee, told Jack that people in Scotland would be concerned if civil servants were allowed to work on what was now a party political issue.
Alexander Brown has more details in a report for the Scotsman.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick says migrants with diphtheria symptoms will no longer be dispersed around country
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, has just told MPs in a statement about the Manston processing centre for asylum seekers that the Home Office will no longer carry on dispersing people from Manston around the country if they have diphtheria symptoms.
From today people with symptoms will either stay at Manston, in isolation, or be taken, in secure transport, to a designated isolation centre, he said.
He also confirmed there were 50 cases of diphtheria linked to the asylum accommodation. The UK Health Security Agency thinks it is likely these cases developed before the people concerned arrived in the UK, he said.
In response, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said that screening for diphtheria at Manston should have started much earlier.
And she said that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, should have been in the Commons to make the statement herself.
George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Peter Mandelson – Tony Blair has never been afraid to speak up in defence of people who horrify bien pensant metropolitan thinking, and today he’s at it again, defending Matt Hancock for going on I’m a Celebrity.
In an interview with the News Agents podcast, Blair said he thought it took quite a lot of courage for Hancock to do reality TV. But mainly he was defending Hancock because he did not approve of being unpleasant about him, he suggested. He explained:
I’ve got the stage in life where there’s a certain level of meanness I don’t find attractive when people talk about anyone in public life.
Owen Paterson explains why, as ‘vocal opponent of European institutions’, he is taking UK to Strasbourg court
The solicitors representing the former Tory MP Owen Paterson have released a statement explaining why he is taking the UK government to the European court of human rights over the parliamentary inquiry that found be broke the rules banning MPs from paid lobbying. Paterson insists he was innocent, and that statement says he is going to the European court because parliamentary privilege means he cannot challenge the findings of the standards committee in the UK.
As a “vocal opponent of European institutions”, Paterson can see the irony of his going to Strasbourg, the statement says. But it says he has “no other choice”.
The FT’s Sebastian Payne has the full statement.
NEW: Former Tory MP Owen Paterson has released a statement on why he’s taking his case on lobbying to the European Court of Human Rights:
“The irony that Mr Paterson, a vocal opponent of European institutions, should be seeking the help of the ECHR is not lost.” pic.twitter.com/dML5sfDfX9
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) November 28, 2022
At education questions in the Commons Claire Coutinho, an education minister, said the government would publish its plans to reform support for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the new year.
She was responding to a question from her Labour shadow, Helen Hayes, who said the government published its green paper on this eight months ago, and the consultation closed four months ago. “While this government has been preoccupied with its own internal disputes, the trashing of the UK economy and an endless merry-go-round of ministerial reshuffles, children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families are left to suffer,” Hayes said.
Scotland’s chief civil servant has been urged to seek ministerial direction on whether the Scottish government can continue to spend public funds on independence referendum plans, PA Media reports.
Donald Cameron, constitution spokesman for the Scottish Tories, has written to John-Paul Marks, permanent secretary to the Scottish government, to assess whether the forecasted spend of £20m on referendum preparation is “lawful”. In his letter Cameron said:
Given that the supreme court ruled that ‘the Scottish parliament does not have the power to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence’, there is now significant uncertainty as to whether the forecast use of £20m of taxpayer money on an issue that is not within the devolved competence of the Scottish parliament is lawful.
I am therefore seeking urgent clarification on whether this remains the position of the Scottish government, and also to request that you seek a “ministerial direction” to settle this matter.
Civil servants request a ministerial direction when they think they are being asked to spend money on a policy that cannot be justified. Ministers can over-rule their civil servants, but the ministerial direction means the objection has been noted.
At the Scottish affairs committee Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, asked how much money the government spent responding to the Scottish government’s application to the supreme court for a ruling on the legality of its independence referendum bill. Alister Jack said he thought the cost was £71,800.
Jack criticises SNP government for not providing ‘losers’ consent’ after vote against independence in 2014
Alister Jack told the Scottish affairs that two things underpinned democracy: losers’ consent, and adherence to the rule of law.
He said the “rule of law” had just been expressed, by the supreme court judgment. And he went on:
And we should have had losers’ consent from 2014.
I would just say it is important to the Scottish government that they respect the principles that [underpin] democracy.
