Boris Johnson has said a decision may have to be taken “very soon” about whether to impose tougher border measures on France over concerns about the spread of potentially vaccine-resistant Covid variants. Giving evidence to the Commons liaison committee, he also said that on 5 April he would be getting the recommendations from the government’s global travel taskforce and setting out details of what travel might be allowed from 17 May. But he warned: “Things are looking difficult on the continent and we’ll have to look at the situation as it develops.” Johnson effectively admitted that his thinking about personal liberty had changed as he defended the idea that entry to a pub could depend on having a Covid status certificate. Talking about Covid requirements generally, he said in some areas imposing Covid conditions might be compulsory, in others it might be allowed, and in others it could be banned. I think there is a hierarchy between mandating something and permitting it or forbidding it. I think in some areas, in particular sectors where vulnerable elderly people are being cared for, there may be some need for mandation, [in others] some need for a more permissive approach. All that will be set out in due course. He said it might be “highly responsible” for care home companies to insist on workers being vaccinated. Asked if having a Covid vaccine certificate could be a requirement for being allowed into a pub, he replied: I think that that’s the kind of thing - it may be up to individual publicans, it may be up to the landlord. When William Wragg (Con) put it to Johnson that this was not an idea that Johnson would have backed in his career as a Telegraph columnist, Johnson suggested his thinking had changed. He told Wragg: I’ve found myself in this long, national conversation thinking very, very deeply about it, and I think the public have been thinking very, very deeply about it. And my impression is that there is a huge wisdom in the public’s feeling about this. Human beings instinctively recognise when something is dangerous and nasty to them. They can see that Covid is collectively a threat and they want us as their government, and me as the prime minister, to take all the actions I can to protect them. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last year or more. Later government sources suggested that Johnson’s comment about pubs was a reference to having show either proof of vaccination or proof of a negative test - not just a vaccination certificate. (This is what the government’s Covid-status certification review is looking at.) This is from Sky’s Sam Coates.
Johnson said the EU could lose foreign investment if it imposed a ban on the export of vaccines. He told the committee. Vaccines, as you know, are the product of international co-operation. I don’t think that blockades of either vaccines or of ingredients for vaccines are sensible, and I think that the long-term damage done by blockades can be very considerable. I would just gently point out to anybody considering a blockade or an interruption of supply chains that companies may look at such actions and draw conclusions about whether or not it is sensible to make future investments in countries where arbitrary blockades are imposed. Priti Patel, the home secretary, has not secured agreements with any European countries to return migrants deemed “inadmissible” under a proposed new system of asylum, which has been branded “inhumane” by humanitarian experts. Liverpool city council should be brought under the joint control of government commissioners in an unprecedented move after inspectors found multiple failures and a “serious breakdown of governance” at the local authority, Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary has said. That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.