Baubles and bubbles: Covid Christmas plans of government leak

Government has again leaked to the press about upcoming changes to Covid restrictions. New plans include a new regional tier structure and “additional household bubbling” over the festive period. The Prime Minister will this afternoon outline the tougher set of tiers to come into place as England leaves lockdown on December 2nd. The plans for Christmas are due to be outlined later in the week. Tory backbenchers are gearing up to rebel on the more severe measures. On the vote for the second lockdown, 32 Conservative MPs broke the whip – this time, reports suggest as many as 70 are considering doing so. Labour has not committed to unconditionally backing the new measures, with Anneliese Dodds saying that the party needs to “see the detail of those proposals” first.

Jonathan Ashworth has been doing the media round this morning in the wake of positive results for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. The Shadow Health Secretary called on the government to appoint a “dedicated minister for vaccines” to boost accountability and avoid repeating the mistakes seen with the procuring of personal protective equipment and the NHS test and trace system. Many will welcome a bit of extra scrutiny, particularly as reports today revealed £5.6bn of taxpayer cash wasted in the last year, including £42m on bonuses for Whitehall officials. This, remember, from a government that refused to spend £20m on free school meals over half term and is planning a public sector pay freeze for many of the frontline workers in this pandemic.

Rishi Sunak will deliver the spending review on Wednesday. Concerns around a public sector pay freeze have been mounting with reports that the Chancellor is planning a freeze from which NHS workers will apparently be exempt. Shadow Chancellor Dodds has slammed the proposal, which could see real pay fall for firefighters, community health workers and others, as “completely irresponsible” while citing the existing recruitment difficulties for many essential public service roles and the economic impact a freeze would have on high-street spending.

Nationals are picking up on the fact that Labour Party membership has fallen by 57,000, around 10%, since Keir Starmer became leader earlier this year, a rate of almost 250 per day. 552,835 were eligible to vote in the leadership election in April but this fell to 495,961 in the national executive committee elections two weeks ago. As Charlie Mansell pointed out in his thorough, deep-dive look into those numbers, membership totals rise and fall. But this is perhaps an indication that those on the left, upset by the direction of the party and the suspension of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, are not heeding calls from John McDonnell MP and others to stay and fight.