Day: June 25, 2021

Tesco bosses raised the issue at a meeting with the minister for transport, Charlotte Vere, last week warning that the vacancies were creating 48 tonnes of food waste each week, the equivalent of two truck loads. Sources at the supermarket chain said the lorry driver shortage was affecting fresh food with short self life most. The country is facing a summer of food shortages likened to a series of rolling power cuts because of a loss of 100,000 lorry drivers due to Covid and Brexit, industry chiefs have warned. In a letter to Boris Johnson they have called for an urgent intervention to allow eastern European drivers back into the country on special visas, similar to those issued to farm pickers, warning that there is a crisis in the supply chain. They have said shortages of workers in...

The UK has reported 35,204 new cases of the Delta COVID variant in the latest week - a 46% increase. Public Health England (PHE) said two doses of vaccine are still effective at providing protection against risk of hospitalisation. It takes the total number of confirmed cases to 111,157 - with 102,019 of these recorded in England, 7,738 in Scotland, 788 in Wales and 612 in Northern Ireland. Some 42 of the latest cases are the Delta AY.1 sub lineage. Delta plus is thought to be more transmissible than the original Delta variant, according to health officials in India. The Delta variant, first identified in India, now comprises 95% of all sequenced cases, PHE added. Last week, it made up 99% of COVID cases across the UK. PHE said a new strain, Lambda, has been designated as a variant un...

Boris Johnson has said he continues to have “full confidence” in Matt Hancock after the health secretary was accused of having an affair with one of his close aides and breaking Covid rules. The PM’s spokesperson said that Mr Johnson had accepted his minister’s apology and considered the matter closed. On Friday, Mr Hancock said he was very sorry for breaching social distancing guidelines but made clear he did not intend to resign over the matter. I have let people down and am very sorry. I remain focused on working to get the country out of this pandemic, and would be grateful for privacy for my family on this personal matter, the health secretary said. The Sun claimed that Mr Hancock was caught on camera kissing Gina Coladangelo, with the newspaper publishing security pictures repor...