Breaking news

Zahawi sacked

MSN
Nadhim Zahawi has been sacked as Tory party chairman after paying a penalty to resolve a multimillion-pound tax dispute while he was chancellor.
Mr Zahawi had faced pressure in recent days to quit as questions swirled about his finances even after he released a statement to “clear up some of the confusion”.
He admitted he paid what HM Revenue & Customs said “was due” after it “disagreed about the exact allocation” of shares in the YouGov polling company he co-founded, an error he said was “careless” not deliberate.
He did not disclose the size of the settlement – reported to be an estimated £4.8m including a 30% penalty – or whether he paid a fine.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, resisted earlier calls from opposition parties to sack Mr Zahawi and instead asked his new ethics adviser to assess whether the HMRC settlement amounted to a breach of the ministerial code.
It emerged Mr Zahawi settled the issue while he was chancellor in the closing days of the Boris Johnson administration, which Sky News understands included a penalty to the taxman.

Illegal migrants

Express
Rishi Sunak is on a collision course with civil servants over plans to ban illegal migrants from claiming asylum.
Senior officials claim the Prime Minister wants to tear up the rule book in a bid to end the tide of people crossing the Channel in small boats. He is driving ahead with new laws that would completely remove the right to asylum here for all illegal entrants.
But furious Whitehall insiders have vowed to torpedo the plan, claiming it “drives a coach and horses” through the 1951 Refugee Convention. And last night the Home Office was understood to be urgently considering legal advice.
The clash between Downing Street and Home Office mandarins comes after Mr Sunak staked his reputation on tackling the Channel crisis which saw 45,756 landing illegally last year.
The PM and Home Secretary Suella Braverman are expected to announce new legislation in the next few weeks to ensure migrants are “detained and swiftly removed” – and also unable to exploit the asylum system.
But a highly placed source has made it clear they will face intense internal opposition from Home Office staff.

Northern Ireland

Telegraph
The Treasury has blocked a multi-million pound Brexit benefit for Northern Ireland by refusing to allow duty-free shopping on flights to Great Britain and the EU.
Travellers leaving the province are not allowed to take advantage of tax-free offers when heading to either Great Britain or European countries.
Ports and airports there have repeatedly warned the Government that this means they are losing out on vital custom to competitors, especially those in Ireland.
But the Treasury is resisting pressure and has told them it can’t allow duty-free shopping for travellers heading to Great Britain because Northern Ireland is part of the UK’s tax area.
The Commission has given the same reason for visitors to the EU, arguing the Province is following its tax rules under the Brexit border deal.
One industry source told The Telegraph that as a result, the travel industry in Ulster has “the worst of both worlds from the Protocol”.
Northern Ireland follows hundreds of EU rules, including on tax rates, under the deal that was struck to avoid a hard border with the Republic.
The return of duty-free shopping between the UK and the continent was one of the big selling points of Brexit for consumers and businesses.
Brussels banned tax-free allowances for travellers moving between EU states in 1999.

Lockdown critics

Mail
A shadowy Army unit secretly spied on British citizens who criticised the Government’s Covid lockdown policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Military operatives in the UK’s ‘information warfare’ brigade were part of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the official pandemic response.
They compiled dossiers on public figures such as ex-Minister David Davis, who questioned the modelling behind alarming death toll predictions, as well as journalists such as Peter Hitchens and Toby Young. Their dissenting views were then reported back to No 10.
Documents obtained by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, and shared exclusively with this newspaper, exposed the work of Government cells such as the Counter Disinformation Unit, based in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and the Rapid Response Unit in the Cabinet Office.
But the most secretive is the MoD’s 77th Brigade, which deploys ‘non-lethal engagement and legitimate non-military levers as a means to adapt behaviours of adversaries’.
According to a whistleblower who worked for the brigade during the lockdowns, the unit strayed far beyond its remit of targeting foreign powers.
They said that British citizens’ social media accounts were scrutinised – a sinister activity that the Ministry of Defence, in public, repeatedly denied doing.

NHS

Telegraph
More than half a million patients a year will be treated in “hospitals at home” in an attempt to relieve pressure on A&E departments.
Under the plans, elderly and frail patients who fall will be treated by video link, with ministers saying that a fifth of emergency admissions could be avoided with the right care.
Health officials said the “virtual wards” would be backed up by £14 billion in extra spending on health and care services over the next two years, as the NHS tackles record backlogs, with seven million people on waiting lists.
Rishi Sunak said the Urgent & Emergency Care Recovery Plan, to be published on Monday, showed that the NHS was one of his “top priorities”.
Plans for an expansion in community response teams will mean more elderly patients can be assessed and treated on the spot, instead of being brought to hospital, under schemes that aim to provide a response within two hours.
Trials that sent out a paramedic and community nurse to examine patients who suffered a fall found they could halve the proportion being taken to A&E – with some schemes using video links so that ambulances could liaise with hospital consultants from a patient’s home.
“Virtual wards” will provide round-the-clock monitoring for up to 50,000 people a month, with patients given wearable devices that track vital signs such as temperature, heart rate, and oxygen levels and alert medical teams to any changes.

BBC News
Plans to open more so-called virtual wards for patients in England are to be announced by the government.
The measures will enable some, particularly the frail elderly, to be monitored at home by doctors using video and other technology.
There will also be more community teams to visit people in their homes.
It comes amid intense pressure on the health service and a dramatic deterioration in waiting times for urgent care.
In December, the average ambulance response time for emergencies like heart attacks exceeded 90 minutes – five times longer than the target – while over a third of patients waited more than four hours to be seen at A&E.
On Monday, the government and NHS England will publish the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, outlining steps intended to bring waiting times back down.
The aim of virtual wards is to support mostly elderly patients, as well as those with respiratory conditions, in their own homes rather than hospitals.
Doctors and other health staff review their cases each day and patients using wearable devices can report daily readings and results so they can be remotely monitored.
Patients can receive home visits where necessary, and the technology can also be used to reduce the risk of falls.

ITV News
The Government is set to publish an urgent and emergency care plan on Monday, as the Health Secretary admitted that there was “no quick fix” to the serious pressures facing the NHS.
It comes as the Department of Health announced plans for tens of thousands of elderly and vulnerable people to receive tailored support at home each month, as part of a strategy to shift some NHS care out of hard-pressed hospitals.
Officials said that the plan would standardise and scale up current services to treat falls and frailty, with more services in place for next winter.
The Government said that the plan builds on the virtual wards already in place in the NHS, which see patients treated from home while monitored by medics either through daily visits or through video calls.
About 3,000 virtual beds are due to be created before next winter, with the plan set to suggest that about 50,000 people a month could be cared for from home under ministers’ ambitions.

Guardian
Prospective parents’ chances of having a baby are being affected by long NHS waiting lists for women’s health treatments, the UK’s fertility chief has warned.
Julia Chain, chair of UK fertility regulator the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), said delays to women getting diagnoses and treatments for gynaecological issues were preventing them from starting IVF quickly, which meant it was less likely to work.
Research shows success rates reduce the later in life a woman starts fertility treatment. Around a third of IVF cycles in women under 35 lead to the birth of a baby, compared with a quarter in women aged 35 to 37, and a fifth in women aged 38 to 39, HFEA figures show.
“We know that, post-pandemic, with NHS waiting lists growing ever longer, many patients who might require interventions before they can start [fertility] treatment might be hugely disadvantaged if they have a long wait,” Chain said.
“It means they’re older when they start fertility treatment. The chance of a successful birth decreases with a woman’s age, so time really is of the essence.”
Gynaecology waiting times in England have trebled in the last decade and are growing at a faster rate than most other areas of healthcare, with women now waiting an average of four months for a first hospital appointment.
Chain, speaking at the Progress Educational Trust (PET) annual conference, said healthcare services often put treatments women needed before starting IVF – such as the removal of fibroids (non-cancerous growths in the womb) – on the “back burner” because they were not life-threatening. She warned of a “hidden cost” to failing to deal with such problems swiftly because delays to starting IVF often mean couples need more cycles, which ultimately cost the NHS more.

Mirror
Hospital outpatients could get as little as an hour’s notice to fill a last minute cancelled appointment.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has asked NHS trusts to trial short notice lists for patients who live near hospitals and are able to drop everything. It is part of a major drive to cut 660,000 missed appointments each month.
Hospitals have been told to send appointment reminders in good time, beef up booking processes and use video links for consultations when possible.
Of 122million annual appointments, one in 15 patients cancel.
NHS Elective Recovery director Sir James Mackey said: “This drive has the potential to make a huge difference. Short notice lists mean patients on standby can be ready to fill any empty appointment.”
Mr Barclay said: “This will reduce no-shows, fill last-minute cancellations and make it easier for patients to be assessed from the comfort of their home.”
He spoke as Healthwatch England warned one in 10 patients will not go to appointments because of travel costs.

Education

Mail
Harry Styles fans might spend many an idle hour listening to his hits and watching his videos.
And now they can claim it to be homework – as the former One Direction star has been added to the GCSE curriculum.
His solo single Adore You is now on the syllabus of the media studies course offered by the OCR exam board, with teenage pupils asked to analyse the eight-minute video that accompanies it.
Released in 2019, the film features Styles plucking a fish out of the ocean and befriending it, housing it in ever-larger vessels as it grows, until it bursts out of its tank and is returned to the sea.
The video has been added to OCR’s list of ‘media products’ that pupils will study from September – to the dismay of traditionalists.
Critics claim the inclusion of 28-year-old Styles is a cynical move to lure students on to a frivolous ‘Mickey Mouse’ course.
Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘Harry Styles is a superstar whom the exam board is using as a poster boy to pull in punters for a discredited GCSE.
‘No youngster in their right mind should be opting for a study of Harry Styles over serious academic subjects. The Harry Styles media studies GCSE should come with a ‘trigger warning’ that it is likely to be regarded by employers and universities as a disqualification for employment or any quality higher education course.’
Previously, pupils on the course had to study Little Mix’s Black Magic video.

ITV News
The Education Secretary has asked teachers to inform schools if they plan to strike next week, in a letter to union leaders.
The National Education Union is planning seven days of strike action in England and Wales, with the first on February 1 coinciding with walkouts by staff at universities, train drivers and 100,000 civil servants.
Around 23,000 schools could be affected, according to the union.
In a letter, sent by Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to union chiefs on Friday, she said that staff informing headteachers of their intention to walk out would help avoid “unnecessary disruption”.
She wrote: “I am enormously grateful for all the work school leaders and teachers are doing to keep schools open next week.
“The flexibility your members have shown is critical in minimising disruption to the education of children.
“I recognise that many headteachers are facing difficult decisions about what is possible in their school in these complicated circumstances.
“I know that they are making every effort to keep their schools open and protect children’s learning, especially for disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils, children of critical workers and those taking exams later this year.”
“I understand the importance of maintaining teachers’ right to strike, but I hope this important right can be protected whilst minimising the impact on children, especially in the context of the disruption they have faced due to Covid.
“With that in mind, I am calling on the National Education Union to encourage their members to alert their headteachers if they intend to take strike action on Wednesday.

Guardian
Parents are being called on to help teachers in their fight for a pay rise as unions try to win the public relations battle against the government over next month’s strikes.
With thousands of schools across England and Wales set to close in February after teachers voted to strike, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union has told the Observer that it is working with Parentkind, the umbrella group for parent-teacher associations in schools, and with school governors to get parents to lobby backbench Conservative MPs on the crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers.
The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, said parents would be “deeply disappointed” that members of the National Education Union were risking the “education and wellbeing” of children with the strikes, which could close individual schools for up to four days.
But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said: “We are determined that after underfunding education for 12 years, the government won’t be allowed to get away with trying to blame the teachers.”
He said while ministers are trying to enforce minimum service requirements for teachers and public service workers through the government’s anti-strike bill, his union would urge parents to write to Conservative MPs, asking them: “Shouldn’t there be a minimum requirement that my child is taught by a qualified teacher [in that subject]?”

Mail
More than 75,000 students have joined legal action to demand compensation of up to half a billion pounds from top universities for lost learning over strikes and Covid.
It comes as more than 70,000 academics across 150 universities will walk out this week in the largest strikes in the history of British higher education.
The number of students joining the landmark legal action by the Student Group Claim has risen dramatically from just 20,000 last year after further action was announced.
If successful, the legal action could trigger a torrent of claims from anybody who attended university after 2018 seeking an average of £5,000 per person in compensation.
Eighteen universities, including University College London, Imperial College London and the Universities of Manchester and Leeds, have received legal letters notifying them of the lawsuit.
UCL will appear in court for the landmark hearing this week – the same day that millions of schoolchildren will be affected by over 100,000 teachers from the NEU walking out.
Lawyers for the university – which paid its vice chancellor a record £589,000 last year – are set to attempt to block the proceedings by arguing students should go through the university’s internal processes.
But lawyers for the students say this is simply a delaying tactic to avoid facing a High Court judge. They argue students deserve compensation for a ‘breach of contract’ over lost teaching by the 18 universities – who boosted their coffers by £1billion during the pandemic.

Drugs

Sun
POLICE could get new powers to carry out on-the-spot drug tests and fines on thugs and suspected criminals under radical proposals.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman is pushing for the new powers as part of a tough crackdown on anti-social behaviour.
Louts who terrorise their neighbours will also have to carry out more community service locally as part of the new “visible justice” drive.
Nitrous oxide – better known as laughing gas or hippy crack – could also be banned.
The triple whammy of measures are in the early stages of being discussed by ministers and still not signed off.
But No10 wants to show it is getting tough on anti-social behaviour after alarming polls revealed a growing number of Brits think it is out-of-control.
A Whitehall source told The Sun on Sunday: “Ministers know anti-social behaviour and crime is a major scourge.
“They are working on a new plan which is all about visible justice – showing people the authorities are cracking down on this stuff.”
Cops would only be allowed to demand on-the-spot drug tests of thugs suspected of criminal or anti-social behaviour.
It is not known how big the fines would be.
Meanwhile, plans to toughen up community service are also being floated.
Ministers want to link the sentence to where the loutish behaviour was carried out.

Covid

Mail
The authors of two United Nations reports into the origins of the pandemic say they believe a laboratory leak was the most likely cause of Covid-19, accusing top British and American scientists of helping China deliberately to suppress debate on the issue.
The distinguished professors hit out at the ‘cover-up’ in a damning joint article for The Mail on Sunday that calls for ‘re-evaluation of the likely pathways that caused this pandemic’.
They say ‘a pall of suspicious secrecy, deceit and conflicts of interest’ shrouded high-risk experiments being carried out in Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid first appeared, and argue that it was ‘enforced not only by China but by Western funding bodies and influential Western scientists’. The dramatic intervention comes from epidemiologists Colin Butler (based at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health in Canberra, Australia) and Delia Randolph (of the University of Greenwich, London).
‘I realise speaking out may be unpopular, even reducing my work opportunities, but the scale of this pandemic is far more important than any personal considerations,’ Professor Butler said yesterday.
He added that it was vital to restore trust in science – and that his investigations for the report led him to conclude that ‘gain of function experiments’, which can boost the infectivity of lethal viruses, ‘could rival nuclear weapons in their potential for harm’.