Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, has brushed aside claims that he should have done more to force No 10 to take the Covid threat seriously in February 2020. (See 3.24pm.) David Cameron, the new foreign secretary, has used his maiden speech in the Lords to defend his record as PM and to make a jibe about Boris Johnson’s “illusions”. (See 4.18pm.) The Low Pay Commission has said that next year the “national living wage” will be worth two-thirds of the median wage, putting the UK “at the forefront of comparable economies”. As the government announced it was accepting the LPC’s recommendations, which will see the main rate rise to £11.44 per hour (see 4.54pm), Bryan Sanderson, the LPC chair, said in a statement: The national living wage has delivered an improved standard of living to thousands of people who care for our children and elderly, work in farms and shops and at many other essential jobs. These efforts over the lifetime of the NLW mean over £9,000 PA more to a full-time worker without any increase in unemployment. This hasn’t been easy for employers, with the economy facing a range of unprecedented challenges in recent years. The high degree of political and economic uncertainty has made assessing and forecasting the performance of the economy, and therefore our task, very difficult. It is a tribute to my fellow commissioners that we have continued to achieve consensus. Our new recommendation of a national living wage of £11.44 attempts to steer a path through this uncertainty and achieve the government target of two-thirds of the median wage, an outcome which if accepted would position the UK at the forefront of comparable economies. The UK government borrowed less than expected in the first seven months of the financial year as Jeremy Hunt puts the last-minute touches to a series of potential pre-election giveaways in his autumn statement on Wednesday. The outcome of the Brexit vote and years of political uncertainty it triggered has had a chilling impact on business investment in Britain, a deputy governor of the Bank of England has said. Two protesters were “reasonable” in calling Iain Duncan Smith “Tory scum” outside the Conservative party conference, the high court has ruled, in a rejection of an attempt to overturn their acquittal.