EU 

Telegraph
Downing Street has hit out at the European Union following reports that France may stall negotiations on financial services amid a feud over fishing rights.
“This threat is another example of the EU issuing threats at any sign of difficulties instead of using the mechanisms of our new treaties to solve problems,” said Max Blain, a spokesman for Boris Johnson.
“We’ve always been clear that an agreement on financial services is in the best interests of both sides.”
Emmanuel Macron, the French President, has been seeking to pressure Britain into granting European fisherman access to European waters. Tensions were high earlier this month after French fishing boats blocked the port of St Helier in Jersey as part of a dispute over licences.
On Wednesday, French officials warned that Mr Macron’s government could delay the ratification of an agreement that would pave the way for the City to access Europe’s Single Market.
Financial services – a crucial part of the UK economy – were broadly excluded from the Brexit deal, leaving many companies unable to operate in the bloc. 

Indian variant 

Evening Standard
Four hundred suspected cases of the Indian Covid-19 variant of concern have been detected in London using genomic sequencing, official figures have revealed.
They are believed to be largely household clusters linked to people who travelled from India.
Out of the 400 “confirmed or probable” cases of the B.1.617.2 Indian mutation of the virus, 106 were “cases that have travelled”, according to figures up to May 12.
A technical briefing by Public Health England states: “Whilst case numbers in general remain very low, the proportion of cases which are VOC21APR-02 (B.1.617.2) has increased, as monitored through both genomic and S gene target data.
“This is most pronounced in London and the North West.” 

Times
Ten million people could have their second doses of coronavirus vaccines brought forward as the government attempts to stop a faster spreading Indian variant from delaying the end of restrictions.
Cases of the variant have more than doubled in a week and Boris Johnson said yesterday that he was “anxious” about the threat posed by the strain to the route out of lockdown.
Indoor mixing will go ahead as planned on Monday despite calls yesterday from scientists and Dominic Cummings for it to be postponed.
But modelling for Sage has concluded that if the variant is much more than 30 per cent more transmissible than the Kent strain it would be a big risk not to delay the final easing of restrictions next month. 

Express
BORIS Johnson is poised to speed up second Covid vaccine injections to millions because of growing fears about the spread of the Indian variant of the disease.
Senior ministers were tonight in talks with health chiefs about rushing forward second jabs for people aged over 50 and others considered most at risk from the virus. Any frontline healthcare workers still awaiting their second vaccine dose could also benefit.
Officials say that while there is no evidence that the Covid variant first identified in India is more able to evade vaccines than other strains precautions are under discussion following surges in some parts of the country.
And the Prime Minister yesterday admitted he was “anxious” about the localised spikes in infection rates.
It is understood the Government has sufficient stocks of the Pfizer, Astra-Zeneca and other vaccines to speed up the rollout of second jabs. 

Mail
Ten million people could have their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine brought forward as the Government tries to slow the spread of the Indian variant. 
Ministers last night approved plans aimed at slowing the spread of the imported strain of Covid-19, after cases doubled in a week.
Older people living in areas of high infection are also to be offered their second dose of the vaccine early to protect them.
It means a total of ten million people who are considered to be most vulnerable could have their second doses of the vaccine brought forward to prevent them getting hospitalised if Britain faces a third wave, The Times reported.  

Covid passports 

Telegraph
Plans for Covid passports have been significantly scaled back as government ministers privately question whether they should be adopted at all, The Telegraph understands.
Covid status checks are unlikely to be required for cinemas, small theatres or restaurants, according to latest government thinking, with pubs already ruled out.
A meeting of the Covid Operations (Covid-O) committee last Friday about how status certification should be used in the UK saw concerns aired. Some ministers questioned whether there was a clear health benefit to adopting the scheme and requested more evidence, according to a well-placed source.
Another government source said the merits of the scheme have been called into question as Covid case and hospitalisation figures dropped.
“The mood music has changed over the course of the last few weeks,” said the source, who is familiar with discussions about Covid passports. “This different reality has prompted people saying ‘well actually, I saw the benefit of it before but do we really need it?’” 

Voter ID 

ITV News
Boris Johnson has been urged to change his plans to require voters to show ID in order to cast their ballot risk, amid warnings the plan would take a “sledgehammer to political engagement” in the country.
A group of 17 civil society groups called for the Prime Minister to drop the plans – arguing they would pull up the drawbridge for millions of voters who lack photographic ID and turn polling station workers into “de facto bouncers”.
The government has argued the plans, included in the Queen’s Speech, are necessary to prevent the “inexcusable potential” for voter fraud.
However, representatives from organisations including the Electoral Reform Society, Stonewall, Liberty, Operation Black Vote and the National Union of Students called for a rethink. 

Immigration 

Telegraph
More than five million EU citizens living in the UK have applied for settled status, nearly double the number thought to be residents before the EU referendum, official figures revealed on Thursday.
The Home Office data showed 4.9 million of the 5.4 million had already been granted settled status, of which 4.88 million were living in England. This compares with the three million that were estimated to have been in the UK at the time of the vote on Brexit in 2016. 
It came as the Home Office launched a new information campaign urging EU citizens living in the UK to apply for the settlement scheme as soon as possible, before the deadline of June 30.
But senior Tory MPs said it raised questions about the quality of government data on the numbers of migrants in Britain, which is critical for Whitehall departments, councils, health trusts and schools to plan the appropriate level of services to meet local demand.
Former Conservative security minister John Hayes said the disparity between the estimated number and true figures demonstrated the need to improve the way the UK managed and checked migration. 

Breitbart
It is eleven years since the Conservatives took power (originally in coalition with the Liberal Democrats) after fighting an election campaign in which one of their most prominent promises was to reduce net migration to the level it was in the 1990s — “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands.”
The context then was that the United Kingdom had been blindsided by a left-wing policy of mass immigration devised by New Labour. A policy that had led to escalating immigration levels and rapid population growth on a scale not seen before (in an already densely populated country) and which placed huge strains on services, infrastructure and on less well-off communities.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Conservative Party was able to lead a government after the 2010 General Election because of their stance on immigration.
The 2010 Cameron-led administration was, of course, a coalition with the Lib Dems, led by the extreme europhile and ultra-liberal, Nick Clegg — now “Vice-President for Global Affairs and Communications” at Facebook.
Immigration policy was in the hands of the Tories, with future prime minister as Theresa May leading the Home Office, which is broadly responsible for policing, national security, and border control in the United Kingdom.

Education 

Mail
Longer school days, summer lessons and letting pupils retake a year are among the measures needed help pupils catch up on lost learning during the pandemic, a report has suggested.  
A three-year funding package of £13.5billion is required in England to reverse the disruption to pupils’ education, according to the Education Policy Institute (EPI) think tank.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson should also offer more incentives for teachers to work in ‘challenging areas’ as part of its education recovery plans, the report said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already made £1.7billion of catch-up funding available in England to help children who have faced disruption from school and college closures due to Covid-19.
As part of the recovery package, this year summer school will be introduced for pupils who need it the most, while tutoring schemes will be expanded.
But the think tank said ministers will need to put in place an ambitious, multi-year programme of support to prevent total lost future earnings for pupils running into the tens of billions.
The report recommended a variety of policies to support pupils, including extending school hours to host sports clubs, social activities, games, pastoral support and academic programmes.
It said summer wellbeing programmes should be open to all school-aged children, rather than just targeted at Year 7s.
The government should also introduce a new right for pupils to repeat a year of education – where it is supported by their parents – to tackle extreme cases of learning loss after schools were first closed in March 2020. 

Guardian
The government will need to spend £13.5bn in England to plug gaps in pupils’ learning caused by disruption to their education over the pandemic, according to research.
The report also warns that the government’s forthcoming long-term education recovery plan will need “significant investment” more than three years beyond the existing £1.7bn in short-term catch-up funding if the government is to deliver on the prime minister’s promise that “no child is left behind”.
David Laws, executive chairman of the Education Policy Institute (EPI), which published the paper, said: “Over the last year, children have fallen badly behind in their learning, and those who are disadvantaged have suffered most acutely.
“We have seen the worst disruption to education in our country since the second world war.
“If the pandemic is not to scar this generation of young people, the prime minister needs to put in place an ambitious education recovery plan, based on sound evidence and sufficient funding.”
The report recommended that the recovery plan include extended school hours for social and academic activities, additional pupil premium funding, summer wellbeing programmes, incentives for teachers to work in “challenging areas”, mental health support in schools and an option for pupils to retake the year. 

GPs 

Mail
All GP practices must offer face-to-face appointments and have an in-person reception desk, NHS England bosses have said.
The measures would bring an end to the mandatory ‘total triage’ system introduced during the pandemic.
GPs can use telephone and online consultations where patients benefit from them but physical appointments must also be available from May 17, a letter sent out on Thursday said.
All practice reception desks must now be open to patients in a Covid-safe manner.
This is so those who do not have easy access to phones or the internet are not disadvantaged when accessing care.
It comes after plans to discourage face-to-face appointments in favour of patients having virtual consultations, even after the pandemic, were leaked. 
Matt Hancock and health chiefs are keen to digitalise the NHS going forward – with critics branding the plans ‘not acceptable’. 
More than 90million fewer face-to-face GP appointments were carried out last year, MailOnline can reveal.
NHS Digital statistics show 147.85million in-person consultations happened between April 2020 and this March — down from the 238.26million during the same 12-month spell the year before.  

Telegraph
The NHS on Thursday night performed a climbdown over plans to use online and telephone “screening” for GP appointments and announced that every patient would now have the right to see their doctor face-to-face.
The Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that family doctors had been told to introduce a system of “total triage”, meaning those seeking to see their GP were being discouraged and told to have an online or phone discussion first.
But NHS England has now ordered that the system be abolished amid a mounting backlash from patients’ groups and doctors. New guidance to all GPs will instead say that every practice in England must make “a clear offer of appointments in person” and respect the preferences of patients.
Dr Nikki Kanani, the NHS medical director for primary care, and Ed Waller, the director of primary care, wrote to all GPs on Thursday night to inform them that the new operating procedures supersede all previous guidance.
“GP practices must all ensure they are offering face-to-face appointments,” the letter says. “While the expanded use of video, online and telephone consultations can be maintained where patients find benefit from them, this should be done alongside a clear offer of appointments in person.
“Practices should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary, for example the presence of Covid symptoms.” 

Sun
THE NHS has performed a U-turn and is now saying that face-to-face appointments must return after pledging to discourage them as lockdown loosens.
GPs were told under new guidance that family doctors were to continue the ‘total triage’ system that was introduced at the start of the pandemic.
But in a letter sent out last night, GPs were told the use of telephone and online consultations can remain where patients benefit from them, but physical appointments must also be available from May 17.
All practice reception desks must now be open to patients, in a Covid-safe manner, so those who do not have easy access to phones or the internet are not disadvantaged when accessing care.
Total triage was a system whereby patients were remotely screened and directed to the most appropriate health service for their problems, and was introduced as a Covid-19 precaution.
GP appointments were also conducted by telephone, video or online unless it was clinically necessary for a consultation to take place in person.
Currently around half of consultations in general practice are being delivered face to face.
Before the pandemic, some 70% of appointments were face-to-face and 30% were phone, video or online, but this switched to around 30% face-to-face and 70% remote at the height of the crisis.

Digital currency 

Express
BRITAIN can use Brexit to build a digital currency experts believe has the potential to boost the UK’s economy by an eye-watering £90billion, a London-based think-tank has said.
And the CityUnited project has urged Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to be bold and think big as they look a future in which e-commerce will increasingly take centre-stage – emphasising the potential for the UK to get a massive head-start on the European Union. China is already pushing ahead with its own plan to launch its Central Bank Digital Currency’ by the time of next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics – and last month Mr Sunak  announced the creation of a task force aimed at exploring the possibility of Britain launching what he termed “Britcoin”.
Speaking today, Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, who sits on the CityUnited project’s advisory board, said: “State-backed digital currencies are coming: that is not in doubt.
“The question is whether another country will get there early enough to offer an alternative model to China’s – a model more rooted in the principles of privacy and private property.
“Britain, with its concentration of financial services expertise, its fintech hub and its common law system, is ideally placed to be that country.”

Rape 

Guardian
Twenty-nine men have been charged with the sexual exploitation of a victim over a seven-year period in West Yorkshire.
The men have been charged with various offences including rape, conspiracy to rape and indecent assault, after a West Yorkshire police investigation into non-recent child sexual exploitation.
The alleged offending is said to have mainly taken place in Calderdale, although some offences also happened in the Bradford district, between 2003 and 2010 when the female victim was aged between 13 and 20.
The men are due to appear at Bradford magistrates court on 7 and 9 July.
Eight suspects who were arrested over the course of the investigation have been released without charge. 

France 

Express
EMMANUEL MACRON’s party announced a new coalition with the French Conservatives ahead of crucial regional elections, in a sign of defeat for the French President.
The French President’s party, La Republique en Marche (LREM) was forced to team up with EPP-affiliated Les Republicains for the June regional elections in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
The alliance has been taken as a clear recognition within Mr Macron’s ruling party that it is too weak to win some key regions on its own ahead of the 2022 presidential elections.
Junior Minister Sophie Cluzel, the LREM’s regional candidate, will thus run on the same ticket led by Les Républicains’ Renaud Muselier, president of the regional assembly.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said Mr Muselier had proposed the alliance, to which Mr Macron had responded “very positively”.
The pair will be facing the right-wing National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen‘s party, which in 2015 gathered 45 percent of the votes in the region. 

Breitbart
A poll has revealed that as much as 60 per cent of the French police support populist National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen for president ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
The data, which was part of a survey published by the Centre for Political Research of Sciences Po (Cevipof), reveals that in the first round of the presidential election, a plurality of 44 per cent of police and soldiers would vote for Ms Le Pen.
In a second-round run-off vote against current French President Emmanuel Macron, the amount of support from the military and the police rises to 60 per cent, according to the figures, which were first published by the newspaper L’Opinion.
The figures are a slight increase for Le Pen from her second-place finish in the 2017 presidential election, in which she scored 57 per cent of the vote from the military and police.
When broken down by active and retired police officers, the difference is stark. While 51 per cent of retired police say they would vote for Le Pen, 74 per cent of active-duty police say they support the National Rally leader.
Around half the police, 48 per cent, say they have a positive view of Le Pen and say she “understands the problems of people like us”, compared to just 13 per cent who say the same of President Macron. Forty-two per cent also state that Le Pen would do a better job than the current French president. 

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