Politics latest: Politics latest: Starmer hosts European leaders at 'reset' UK summit; COVID Inquiry publishes report (2024)

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey is now appearing before the Post Office Horizon inquiry.

He was postal affairs minister between 2010 and 2012 and has since apologised to victims of the scandal, though he has defended his position.

We'll bring you some of the key moments through the afternoon, but if you want to follow every piece of evidence, you can watch at the link below:

The prime minister has now responded to the COVID Inquiry's first report, which was published this afternoon.

“The memories brought about by the Inquiry will be very difficult for many people. My heartfelt sympathies go out to all those who lost a loved one during that time," he said in a statement.

“The pandemic showed us that the backbone of Britain is made up of those committing their lives to service - key workers like carers, nurses, paramedics, cleaners and teachers. They put themselves in the eye of the storm, and together with people up and down the country, many of them lost their lives or are still living with the impact of the virus.

Starmer added: “Today’s report confirms what many have always believed - that the UK was under-prepared for Covid-19, and that process, planning and policy across all four nations failed UK citizens.

“The safety and security of the country should always be the first priority, and this government is committed to learning the lessons from the Inquiry and putting better measures in place to protect and prepare us from the impact of any future pandemic”.

Wes Streeting is beginning formal negotiations with junior doctors over their pay.

The medics, who are represented by the British Medical Association, want a path towards pay restoration - equivalent to a 35% pay rise.

Mr Streeting said: "After a second constructive meeting, I am pleased to announce that my department will enter formal negotiations with the BMA junior doctors' committee on Tuesday.

"This is a crucial step forward, as we work to end this dispute and change the way junior doctors are treated in the NHS.

"This government has been honest with the public about the terrible economic circ*mstances we inherited, and I have repeated that message in meetings with the junior doctors.

"But I am encouraged by our early meetings that there is a deal to be done.

"Strikes have had a significant cost to patients, staff, and the NHS. Serious work is now underway to finally bring them to an end."

The COVID inquiry report is a "moment of truth and reflection" that confirms how "austerity left the UK underprepared" for the pandemic, the Trades Union Congress has said.

General secretary Paul Nowak said the country's "defences were down" due to "severe" spending cuts.

"This is a moment of truth and reflection for the country," he said in a statement.

"Baroness Hallett's report confirms that austerity left the UK underprepared for the pandemic."

He said "we owe it" to the victims and workers who put their lives at risk during the pandemic to "make sure this never happens again".

"As Baroness Hallett rightly points out the cost of investing in 'systems for our protection' is 'vastly outweighed' by the cost of not doing so," said Mr Nowak.

A spreadsheet 'issue' lead to 6,558 votes not being included in the cont for the Putney constituency at the general election.

However, the ballots have now been tallied, and there have been no change in the outcome - with Labour's majority increasing.

A statement on Wandsworth Council's website said: "We acknowledge a spreadsheet issue that resulted in not all the properly counted and allocated votes being included in the announcement on the night in the Putney election count for the general election 2024."

It added: "While we are confident this was an isolated incident we are taking this opportunity to review processes with a particular focus on spreadsheet procedures."

The leader of the local Conservatives said residents "deserve urgent clarification about how an error of this magnitude could have occurred".

Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney, said she had been updated on the clerical error and the "reasons for the error in the process".

COVID inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett is speaking now following the publication of one of the inquiry's reports.

She warns "there will be a next time", with expert evidence suggesting "it's not a question of if another pandemic will strike, but when".

"The evidence is overwhelmingly to the effect that another pandemic, potentially one that is even more transmissible and lethal, is likely to occur in the near to medium future," she says.

Baroness Hallett says that there will be "immense suffering" and society's most vulnerable will be most affected if the UK is not better prepared for another outbreak.

She reiterates that the UK was ill prepared to deal with any pandemic, let alone the COVID pandemic that struck.

The country "lacked resilience" going into the pandemic, due to a slowdown in health improvement and widening health inequalities, she adds.

'This cannot be allowed to happen again'

Baroness Hallett says the country had long planned for the possibility of a flu pandemic - but this preparation was "inadequate" for the scale of the COVID pandemic which struck the entire globe.

She describes as "labyrinthine" the institutions and structures responsible for emergency planning, and says there were "fatal strategic flaws" when it came to risk assessments for the UK.

The government's pandemic strategy, from 2011, was "outdated and lacked adaptability" and had never been properly tested, she says.

"There were serious errors on the part of the state and serious flaws in our civil emergency systems. This cannot be allowed to happen again," Baroness Hallett says, before detailing the 10 recommendations laid out in today's report.

Each organisation responsible for implementing the recommendations will have to explain their plans within six months, Baroness Hallett says.

"Unless the lessons are learned and fundamental change is implemented, the human and financial cost and sacrifice price of the COVID-19 pandemic will have been in vain.

"The harrowing accounts of loss and grief given by the bereaved, witnesses and others who suffered during the pandemic serve to remind us why there must be radical reform," she concludes.

The UK's citizens were "failed" by their governments' processes, planning and policy ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, a public inquiry has concluded.

There were more than 235,000 deaths involving COVID-19 in the UK up to the end of 2023 and a report published today says some of the "financial and human cost may have been avoided" had the country been better prepared for the deadly outbreak in 2020.

The 83,000-word document details "several significant flaws", while the inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett is calling for "radical reform" as she makes 10 recommendations, including a major overhaul of how the UK government prepares for civil emergencies.

Read more on this breaking news story here:

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been speaking in the House of Commons today about her recent announcement that prisoners would need to be released early to ease overcrowding.

She said the government had "no option" but to release 5,500 people early.

Ms Mahmood said: "It is now clear that by September of this year our prisons will overflow. That means there is only one way to avert disaster."

The changes - which will see inmates on eligible sentences released after serving 40% rather than 50% of their time behind bars - are expected to lead to 5,500 people being let out early between September and October.

She says the 40% benchmark will become the new standard release point until the government is able to reverse the measure.

Ms Mahmood said a review into the capacity crisis will be carried out, and accused the last government of putting the country in "grave danger".

Reforms to the planning process for building more prisons cells were branded a "gimmick" by the Conservatives.

Away from the European Political Community summit, there have been some new steps in parliament.

Patrick Vallance and Jacqui Smith have both sworn their oaths as new members of the House of Lords.

Mr Vallance was chief scientific adviser - an apolitical role - during the COVID pandemic.

He is now a minister in the science department.

Ms Smith was an MP until 2010, and a minister before that, although she had to resign over her expenses.

She is now a minister in the education department.

Speaking to the European Political Community summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia's Vladimir Putin has already failed to divide European nations.

But he warns that Putin will may try to approach individual countries or parties in a bid to undermine the group.

This could involve "trying to tempt or pressure you or blackmail you so that one of you betrays the rest".

Ukraine's leader then says that the use of Western weapon has not led to an escalation in the war with Russia - and then calls for fewer restrictions on his country's use of the armaments.

"The fewer restrictions we have on the use of effective weapons, the more Russia will seek peace," he says.

He calls specifically on the US, UK, France, Germany, Poland and "other friends" to be "brave" to contribute extra resources - especially to shoot down drones.

Mr Zelenskyy concludes by calling on the nations to continue their diplomatic support of Ukraine.