Boris Johnson news – live: Government U-turns on A-level results and will revert to predicted grades amid outrage over exams chaos

Follow all the latest developments

A-level students protest downgrading in Westminster gathering

The government has u-turned on its decision to award grades to A-level and GCSE students based on an algorithm which downgraded pupils from underperforming schools - instead allowing predicted grades allocated by teachers to stand.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson apologised to students and parents affected by "significant inconsistencies" with the grading process, adding "I am sorry for the distress this has caused young people and their parents but hope this announcement will now provide the certainty and reassurance they deserve"'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government had been caught in a "screeching u-turn", writing on Twitter: "the Tories’ handling of this situation has been a complete fiasco."

It comes after Northern Ireland’s executive said GCSE students’ grades would be decided using teachers’ assessments, while the Welsh government said both GCSE and A-level students will have grades decided by their teachers.

Key Points

• Government u-turns on A-level algorithm grades
• Education secretary apologises over results
• Keir Starmer accuses government of presiding over 'a complete fiasco'
• Northern Ireland to let teachers decide GCSE grades 
• Wales will also let teachers’ assessments decide results

[17 August 2020 20:40 · Vincent Wood]

Protect beavers in law and let them populate England’s rivers, experts tell ministers

Conservationists are urging ministers to protect beavers as a native species in England by law and let them stay on several rivers where they are already living wild.

They also say plans should be drawn up to license the release of the animals to other suitable rivers, including from where they are living in enclosures.

The steps would form part of a national strategy for the semi-aquatic mammals, according to wildlife charity Beaver Trust and other groups.

More below:

[17 August 2020 20:57 · Vincent Wood]

Tom Peck: Appointing a cabinet of demonstrable idiots comes with consequences

Our political sketch writer Tom Peck has said it was clear in the run up to the u-turn that "a government that cannot go three minutes without claiming it is 'levelling up' the country" wasn't going to be able to move on from a system that punished children "if they had the temerity to come from a disadvantaged background".

He adds: "That it has now decided to switch off the algorithm is so overwhelmingly inevitable it is barely even worth noting. Not when there is so much else to get through anyway."

More from him below:

[17 August 2020 21:28 · Vincent Wood]

All the U-turns Boris Johnson has made during the pandemic

Boris Johnson has been forced to make a number of significant U-turns in less than a year in office, with several key policy decisions scrapped during the pandemic.

Here is Kate Devlin with the battles fought and lost by the PM:

[17 August 2020 21:49 · Vincent Wood]

That's all from us, thanks for following.