Author: Sumon Admin

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...

Self-isolation for holidaymakers who have received two coronavirus vaccines could be scrapped as soon as August, a report says. The Times reports that confirmation of the plan, which Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed ministers are considering, is expected at the next international travel review on 24 June. The rules change could see those who have been double-jabbed undergoing daily testing rather than quarantining before and after travelling to England from non-green list destinations this summer. Meanwhile, mental health minister Nadine Dorries has claimed that some people enjoyed lockdown and that the pandemic’s impact on mental health isn’t all doom and gloom. I know the outlook about the pandemic and the impact on mental health, if you read the media, is all doom and gl...

Boris Johnson is at odds with his chancellor Rishi Sunak over Treasury plans to suspend the triple lock on pensions for a year, with frustration over the prime minister’s desire to make expensive policy pledges, according to reports. The Sunday Times claimed that officials were said to be examining plans to prevent a rise in average wages over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic leading to a 6 per cent increase in the state pension costing the government £4bn. It added that there was growing consternation over Mr Johnson’s habit of announcing plans that would cost billions of pounds when there is no means to pay for them. It came as Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said he believed his party could win a large number of Tory constituencies in the south of England, where the Conservatives had...

Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi should have been identified as a threat on the night of the attack by those in charge of security, a public inquiry into the May 2017 attack has found. In his report examining security arrangements at the venue where 22 people were murdered and hundreds were injured at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders found there were a number of missed opportunities to prevent or minimise the "devastating impact". Sir John said he considered it likely Salman Abedi would still have detonated his device if confronted but the loss of life and injury is highly likely to have been less. He said that there were serious shortcomings in the security provided by the British Transport Police (BTP) among others as well as mistake...

MPs have voted by a margin of 461 to 60 to back Boris Johnson’s plan to extend lockdown restrictions in England to 19 July, despite a rebellion by Tory backbenchers in the House of Commons. It means limits on numbers for sports events, theatres and cinemas will remain in place, nightclub doors will remain closed and people will be asked to continue working from home where possible. Several furious Tories rounded on the prime minister for the four-week delay, which he said was forced on him by surging cases of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19. That variant could push the R rate up to 7 if left to spread without any restrictions, Susan Hopkins, a Public Health England chief warned. Any value above 1 means the virus is spreading exponentially. Another 9,055 new Covid-19 ca...

More than 30 million people in the UK are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the government. A total of 30,209,707 people have had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine (57.4% of the adult population). And 41,831,056 have received a first jab (79.4%). It comes as the UK reported more than 7,000 daily COVID cases for a seventh day in a row. Another 7,673 infections have been recorded in the latest 24-hour period, along with 10 more coronavirus-related deaths. The figures compare with 7,742 infections and three fatalities announced on Monday, while 6,048 cases and 13 deaths were recorded this time last week. NHS England has now extended the offer of a vaccine to everyone over the age of 23. And all over-18s in England will be able to book a first dose by the end of this w...