Boris Johnson news : Self-isolating PM ‘in good health’, as UK warned time running out in Brexit talks
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At least five Conservative MPs, including Boris Johnson, and two Downing Street aides are self-isolating for 14 days following a meeting at Number 10 last week.
The prime minister, who was admitted to intensive care with coronavirus in April, on Monday announced he was isolation after meeting with a Tory MP who had since tested positive for Covid-19. He said he was notified by NHS Test and Trace that he must self-isolate on Sunday, but said he had “no symptoms”.
Health secretary Matt Hancock told a Downing Street press conference on Monday that the UK had bought five million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US-led biotech firm Moderna, hours after the company reported promising results in its ongoing trial.
During the televised briefing, Mr Hancock refused to guarantee a post-Covid pay rise for NHS staff in response to a question from The Independent.
Talks on a future trade relationship between the UK and European Union post-Brexit are continuing this week, with the UK’s Brexit negotiator, Lord David Frost, in Brussels ahead of a European Council video summit on Thursday which has been touted as a deadline for a draft deal.
Lord Frost warned “quite a lot” remains to be done if a trade deal is to be sealed with the EU, with just days to go before the effective deadline for agreement.
The Scottish National Party has claimed Boris Johnson is taking the UK “on the path to catastrophe”, while Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney has warned talks could collapse if there is no movement from the UK on fisheries, where he said London was asking for major concessions from Brussels in return for access to its waters for EU ships.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s politics live blog.
Boris Johnson self-isolating
Boris Johnson is self-isolating after meeting with a Tory MP who later tested positive for Covid-19.
The prime minister, who was admitted to intensive care with coronavirus in April, said he was notified by NHS Test and Trace on Sunday that he must self-isolate.
"I have no symptoms, but am following the rules and will be working from No10 as I continue to lead the government's pandemic response," he said.
Boris Johnson self-isolating after contact with coronavirus-infected MP
PM will carry on working from Downing Street, spokesperson says
Deadline looms in post-Brexit trade talks
Talks on a future trade relationship between the UK and the European Union post-Brexit continue this week as the deadline of the end of the transition period looms.
Lord David Frost is in Brussels for another round of negotiations ahead of a European Council video summit on Thursday, which has been touted as a deadline for a draft deal.
The UK formally left the European Union in January, but will continue to follow the bloc's regulations until the end of the year - just over six weeks away.
If no agreement is in place at the end of December, goods travelling between the two parties will be subject to tariffs set out by the World Trade Organisation.
The issues to be discussed are thought to include the ongoing row over fishing rights, how any deal between the two parties would be governed, and the "level playing field" measures aimed at preventing unfair competition on issues including state subsidies.
Prime minister ‘absolutely fine’, health secretary says
Boris Johnson, who is self-isolating after coming into contact with an MP who later tested positive for coronavirus, is "absolutely fine", Matt Hancock has said.
The health secretary told Times Radio he understands the Tory MP Lee Anderson is also "OK".
"The prime minister is absolutely fine," Mr Hancock said.
"He's self-isolating because he's been in close contact with Lee Anderson.
"Mr Anderson has coronavirus, and I understand he's OK.
"And the prime minister's self-isolating because he's been in close contact and you know these are the rules that we all live by now and the prime minister is following the rules, exactly the same as everybody else."
Johnson ‘in good health’ with ‘no symptoms’
Boris Johnson tweeted that he was "in good health and have no symptoms" after being instructed to self-isolate.
In a video posted to Twitter, he said: "Hi folks, the good news is that NHS Test and Trace is working ever-more efficiently, but the bad news is that they've pinged me and I've got to self isolate because someone I was in contact with a few days ago has developed Covid.
"It doesn't matter that we were all doing social distancing, it doesn't matter that I'm fit as a butcher's dog, feel great - so many people do in my circumstances.
"And actually it doesn't matter that I've had the disease and I'm bursting with antibodies. We've got to interrupt the spread of the disease and one of the ways we can do that now is by self isolating for 14 days when contacted by Test and Trace."
Questions over how PMQs will work with PM in self isolation
Matt Hancock said that he did not know what would happen for Prime Minister's Questions during Boris Johnson's period of self-isolation.
"I don't know what will happen with PMQs and I know the parliamentary authorities are working on it," he told Times Radio.
"Actually we're all getting used to being able to live our lives, in some cases remotely.
"I know that the prime minister will still be making announcements, talking publicly, and you can absolutely do that - the power of Zoom.
"The majority of my meetings with him are on Zoom and it's more convenient for both of us. That's now a pretty standard and regular part of government business. And in fact, I find Zoom much more convenient sometimes.
"He'll still be able to operate perfectly effectively across Zoom. The whole Downing Street is set up for remote working now. "
Hancock faces GMB grilling in first government appearance after 201 days
Matt Hancock faced on grilling on Good Morning Britain as his appearance marked the first time a government minister has been interviewed on the show in 201 days.
Host Piers Morgan accused the health secretary of taking part in a “boycott” of the show.
It comes after Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s controversial aide and his close ally Lee Cain left Downing Street.
Health secretary dodges question on Cummings’ trip to Barnard Castle
Asked on BBC Breakfast whether Dominic Cummings' trip to Barnard Castle had undermined the government's public health message, Mr Hancock said: "I'm not going to go into that, what matters is what happens from now on in.
"The mass testing and expansion that we're announcing today is actually brought to life by the fact that this testing capacity matters for a reason.
"Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, a brilliant local MP, he got a test within a couple of hours of phoning 119. He then got the test result incredibly quickly."
Rules requiring prime minister to self-isolate ‘probably are sensible’, professor says
Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said the rules that mean Boris Johnson has to self-isolate "probably are sensible".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there have been more than 25 confirmed cases of Covid-19 reinfection globally, but added: "I think most of us think the rate of reinfection is quite a lot higher than that, but not enormous."
Prof Altmann said: "I think my bottom line is not to be alarmist because whatever the risk is, it is low. My sense from some of our data and other people's data is that it's the people who've made the poorest and most negligible antibody response the first time round who are most at risk of reinfection.
"So that's maybe 10 per cent of everybody out there who's been infected in the first wave."
He added: "If we've learnt anything since the beginning of 2020, it's that this is an incredibly infectious and scary virus and you can't take it too seriously.
"So all the things that we know about - using masks, well-ventilated work spaces - following those rules really matter. And if you've got one take-home message from a reinfection discussion, it's not to be blase because you've had it or you think you've had it."
‘Too early’ to determine whether England lockdown will end after 2 December
Matt Hancock said it was "too early" to determine whether the lockdown measures in England would end after 2 December.
Asked whether the lockdown would simply be "rebadged" after the deadline, the health secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "You tempt me, but it is too early to say I'm afraid.
"We've seen in the last week that there is still a very high number of cases but we do absolutely want to come out of this national lockdown.
"That is our goal, everybody has a part to play in making that happen of course, following the social distancing rules and isolating when you need to, which is the critical thing."
He said one of the main goals now was to use the mass rapid testing roll-out to find those who are asymptomatic with the virus.
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