Leith Collective founder Sara Thomson honoured with Points of Light award by Boris Johnson
Every day in the UK, one individual volunteer, charity leader or community hero is recognised by the Prime Minister for the positive change they are making in their local area. Today, Monday 25 October, the award has been given to The Leith Collective founder, Sara Thomson, for her outstanding sustainability campaign.
Founded in 2019, The Leith Collective provides a platform for 130 artists brought together by a common aim to recycle, repurpose, and reimagine items that may otherwise have been destined for landfill.
The retail space has evolved into a hub of creativity, playing host to inspiring workshops designed to support the local community. It also actively supports individuals with mental health issues by providing vital employment opportunities.
In January 2021, The Leith Collective became the UK’s first single-use plastic free shop of its kind and was later crowned runner up in the Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Awards.
In July 2021, owner Sara Thomson took her message of sustainability west-side, opening The Clydeside Collective in Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre, followed by The Camdentown Collective in London’s Buck Street Market in September 2021.
Most recently, Sara was specially selected to become a UK ‘One Step Greener’ ambassador and will showcase her story of how she is tackling climate change at COP26 in Glasgow next week.
As the COP26 summit nears, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was particularly keen to highlight people who are Climate Leaders in their communities and who are championing sustainability as Points of Light.
From Sara’s role as a One Step Greener ambassador and the inspirational work The Leith Collective is doing to showcase sustainability, the Prime Minister chose Sara to become the UK’s 1772nd Point of Light.
The Prime Minister wrote to Sara to personally thank her for her tireless work and she also received an official Points of Light certificate.
Sara commented: ‘This is such a genuine honour, I’m absolutely delighted to receive this award. In January 2021 The Leith Collective became the first plastic-free shop of its kind in the UK and since then we’ve seen more and more businesses take the plastic-free pledge.
“I’m thrilled that awareness of the importance of sustainability is growing and so many people are getting behind the campaign. I hope that by accepting this Point of Light award that others will be inspired to join us in creating a greener future for all.”
Joseph Rowntree Foundation issues a stark warning ahead of the cut to Universal Credit scheduled for 6 October – the same day as the Prime Minister’s speech at Conservative Party Conference.
New analysis looks at the impact of the Universal Credit cut by local authority.
On Wednesday, as the Prime Minister delivers his speech to the Conservative Party Conference, his government will be imposing the biggest ever overnight cut to social security. This will reduce the incomes of around 5.5 million families by £1,040 per year.
In the Greater Manchester Combined Authority area – the host city of this year’s Conservative Party Conference – around 312,000 working-age families (26%) are facing this historic cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.
If the Government presses ahead with the cut, it would:
Pull half a million people into poverty, including 200,000 children.
Fundamentally undermine the adequacy of our social security system at precisely the moment when families are facing considerable increases in the cost of their energy bills, prices on the shelves are going up and National Insurance is set to rise in April 2022.
Reduce the main rate of out-of-work support down to its lowest level in real terms since around 1990 and its lowest ever level as a proportion of average earnings.
The Government themselves have admitted this week that families may struggle to meet basic costs, like food and heating, by increasing the funding available for local authorities to give grants to families in emergency situations.
The support available through their newly announced Household Support Fund is temporary and discretionary and is typically reserved for one-off emergency situations such as a broken fridge. This scheme does not come close to meeting the scale of the challenge facing families.
Who will be impacted by the cut?
New analysis finds that in 35 local authorities across Great Britain 50% or more of working-age families with children will be impacted by the planned cut.
JRF has consistently warned that:
Working families make up around 60% of families who will be affected by the cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.
Families with children (particularly single-parent families), those containing someone who is disabled, and Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (‘BAME’) families, will be disproportionately impacted by the reduction in Universal Credit or Working Tax Credit.
The cut will have the most severe impact in Yorkshire and the Humber, the North East, North West and West Midlands, although no region will be left unscathed by this decision.
Katie Schmuecker, Deputy Director of Policy & Partnerships at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:“The Prime Minister is abandoning millions to hunger and hardship with his eyes wide open. The biggest ever overnight cut to social security flies in the face of the Government’s mission to unite and level up our country.
“When the increase to Universal Credit was introduced, the Chancellor said it was to “strengthen the safety net” – a tacit admission a decade of cuts and freezes had left our social security lifeline to wear thin and threadbare for families in and out of work relying on it. This planned cut would reverse the progress made and leave it wholly inadequate.
“People’s bills won’t get £87-a-month cheaper from Wednesday and families are already anxious about how they will get through a looming cost of living crisis. This decision is set to plunge half a million people into poverty and shows a total disregard for the consequences. The Prime Minister cannot say he has not been warned, he must abandon this cut.”
Table 1: Top 10 Labour and Conservative majority local authorities with the highest percentage of working-age families with children impacted by the cut
Top 10 Labour majority local authorities affected
Top 10 Conservative majority local authorities affected
Local Authority
% of all working-age families with children impacted by the cut
Local Authority
% of all working-age families with children impacted by the cut
Newham
64
Pendle
58
Leicester
62
Walsall
53
Manchester
61
Great Yarmouth
52
Bradford
61
North East Lincolnshire
50
Oldham
60
Southampton
49
Birmingham
60
East Lindsey
48
Blackburn with Darwen
58
Dover
45
Kingston upon Hull – City of
58
North Lincolnshire
44
Sandwell
58
South Holland
44
Tower Hamlets
58
Nuneaton and Bedworth
44
Of local authorities with no majority party, with the highest percentages of working-age families with children impacted by the planned cut, Middlesbrough (60%) and Burnley (58%) are both coalition-led councils. Blackpool (57%) is Labour minority and Thanet (55%), Peterborough (55%) and Stoke-on-Trent (55%) are all Conservative minority.
Table 2: Families impacted by £20-per-week reduction to UC/WTC in October 2021
Family type
Families on UC or WTC losing £20 per week in October 2021
Number of families (millions)
Proportion of families who lose
% of all working-age families of that type who lose
All working-age families
5.5
100%
20%
Families with someone in work
3.5
64%
16%
Families without someone in work
2.0
36%
33%
Single without children
2.3
42%
18%
Couples without children
0.6
10%
8%
Single-parent families
1.1
20%
61%
Couple-parent families
1.5
28%
25%
Families where someone is disabled
2.8
50%
35%
Families where no one is disabled
2.7
50%
14%
BAME families
1.1
20%
25%
Non-BAME families
4.4
80%
19%
Source: Microsimulation by JRF using the IPPR Tax and Benefits Microsimulation Model and the OBR’s March 2021 forecasts. Breakdowns may not sum to totals due to rounding.
Making this decision with his eyes wide open:
The cut is opposed by six former Conservative Work & Pensions Secretaries, the Northern Research Group of Conservative MPs, the One Nation Group of Conservative MPs, all the devolved administrations, numerous cross-party committees in all nations of the UK. Iain Duncan Smith recently said, “the extra £20 has returned to UC some of the investment that was cut from my original design.”
100 organisations are urging the Prime Minister not to cut Universal Credit. Among the signatories of the joint open letter to the Prime Minister are leading voices on health, education, children, housing, poverty, the economy and other aspects of public policy. (published 2 September)
Work is underway across the whole of Government to ensure the Afghans who stood side by side with us in conflict, their families and those at highest risk who have been evacuated, are supported as they now rebuild their lives in the UK.
The plans, dubbed ‘Operation Warm Welcome’, will be overseen by Victoria Atkins (pictured below) as the new Minister for Afghan Resettlement.
The support provided will be similar to the commitments in the Syrian Resettlement Programme and ensure that those who worked closely with the British military and UK Government in Afghanistan, and risked their lives in doing so, get the vital health, education, support into employment and accommodation they need to fully integrate into society.
The UK has a proud history of providing safe haven to those in need and the plans to be set out next week will also harness that generosity of spirit and the offers of support which have already flooded in from charities, businesses and the British public.
This includes the creation of a central portal where people, organisations and businesses can register their offer of support, be it volunteering, a job opportunity, professional skills to help with integration and deal with trauma or donations of items like clothes and toys. Free English language courses will also be provided in recognition that many of the dependents of former staff and Afghan translators may need this.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “For those who have left their homes with no more than a small bag of belongings, and in fear for their lives, coming to the UK will no doubt have been a daunting experience, but also one of hope for the future.
“I am determined that we welcome them with open arms and that my Government puts in place the support they need to rebuild their lives.
“We will never forget the brave sacrifice made by Afghans who chose to work with us, at great risk to themselves. We owe them, and their families, a huge debt.”
Full details will be set out this week and build on the commitments already made.
These include £5 million for local councils to provide housing support, an offer of a vaccine for everyone on arrival and access to rapid mental well-being and trauma support.
That’s more than THREE TIMES the population of Scotland
Joint International Statement on Afghanistan safe passage
We are all committed to ensuring that our citizens, nationals and residents, employees, Afghans who have worked with us and those who are at risk can continue to travel freely to destinations outside Afghanistan.
We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country.
We will continue issuing travel documentation to designated Afghans, and we have the clear expectation of and commitment from the Taliban that they can travel to our respective countries. We note the public statements of the Taliban confirming this understanding.
The statement was released initially by the governments of the United States of America, Albania, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Canada, Central African Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Eswatini, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Korea, Republic of Kosovo, Romania, Rwanda, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, Spain, St. Kitts and Nevis, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland , The Bahamas, The Gambia, The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Union of the Comoros, United Kingdom, Vanuatu, Yemen, and Zambia.
US President Joe Biden says troops are on track to meet 31 August deadline
A joint statement on Afghanistan was released by the G7 Leaders last night:
Today, 24 August 2021, under the Presidency of the United Kingdom, we the Leaders of the Group of Seven met virtually to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. We were joined by the Secretaries General of the United Nations (UN) and NATO. We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the people of Afghanistan, and support the UN Security Council statement of 16 August.
We express our grave concern about the situation in Afghanistan and call for calm and restraint to ensure the safety and security of vulnerable Afghan and international citizens, and the prevention of a humanitarian crisis.
We call for adherence to obligations under international human rights law, including the rights of women, girls, and minority groups, and that international humanitarian law is upheld in all circumstances. We honour the significant sacrifices made by the Afghan people, people of our own countries, and countless others, who have worked toward a more peaceful, just and secure future for Afghanistan.
The Afghan people deserve to live in dignity, peace and security, reflecting the last two decades of their political, economic and social achievements, in particular for women and girls. Afghanistan must never again become a safe haven for terrorism, nor a source of terrorist attacks on others.
Working with partners, in particular NATO allies, we will continue to fight terrorism with resolve and solidarity, wherever it is found. Any future Afghan government must adhere to Afghanistan’s international obligations and commitment to protect against terrorism; safeguard the human rights of all Afghans, particularly women, children, and ethnic and religious minorities; uphold the rule of law; allow unhindered and unconditional humanitarian access; and counter human and drug trafficking effectively.
We call on all parties in Afghanistan to work in good faith to establish an inclusive and representative government, including with the meaningful participation of women and minority groups.
We affirm our enduring commitment to the people of Afghanistan, including through a renewed humanitarian effort by the international community. To this end we support the UN in coordinating the immediate international humanitarian response in the region, including unfettered humanitarian access in Afghanistan, and will contribute collectively to that response.
As part of that, we will cooperate together and with neighbouring and other countries in the region on supporting Afghan refugees and host communities as part of a coordinated long-term regional response. We call on all partners of Afghanistan to support this effort and wider regional stability through multilateral channels.
As part of this, our immediate priority is to ensure the safe evacuation of our citizens and those Afghans who have partnered with us and assisted our efforts over the past twenty years, and to ensure continuing safe passage out of Afghanistan. We will continue to coordinate closely on this, and we expect all parties to continue to facilitate this, and to ensure the safety of humanitarian and medical personnel, and other international service providers.
We will cooperate together, and with neighbouring and other countries in the region hosting refugees, on a coordinated approach to safe and legal routes for resettlement.
We will work together, and with our allies and regional countries, through the UN, G20 and more widely, to bring the international community together to address the critical questions facing Afghanistan.
As we do this, we will judge the Afghan parties by their actions, not words. In particular, we reaffirm that the Taliban will be held accountable for their actions on preventing terrorism, on human rights in particular those of women, girls and minorities and on pursuing an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan.
The legitimacy of any future government depends on the approach it now takes to uphold its international obligations and commitments to ensure a stable Afghanistan.
First Minister calls for more UK action on Afghanistan crisis
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging the UK Government to agree to resettle more than the current commitment of 20,000 Afghan refugees in the long term and 5,000 in the first year.
The First Minister says a substantial increase in numbers is required and urgently seeks further information on how many civilians, especially women, girls and others in need of refuge, will be protected – as well as further detail on the new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Programme.
The First Minister also seeks further details on a proposed four nations summit on the Afghanistan crisis, to which the Prime Minister indicated agreement in the House of Commons on 18 August.
Her letter reads:
Thank you for your letter of 20 August seeking Scotland’s continued support in resettling vulnerable Afghans in the UK and your recognition of the role Scotland is already playing under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy.
I want to take this opportunity to re-iterate that Scotland is committed to playing our part in welcoming and supporting people fleeing Afghanistan, through both the programme supporting locally employed staff and resettlement of refugees.
We will work with the UK Government, COSLA, local authorities and other partners in Scotland to support these programmes and provide people with the safety and security they need to rebuild their lives.
I recognise the incredibly difficult circumstances in which UK officials and service personnel are operating in Afghanistan. Their work is invaluable for those that they are able to assist, and it is crucial that the UK makes every effort to support people to reach a place of safety.
It is imperative that these urgent evacuation operations should support as many people as possible. I ask in particular that you seek to ensure those who have worked to support British interests in Afghanistan are able to benefit from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, whether or not they were directly employed by the UK Government. We must do all we can to support people who are at risk because of the help and assistance they have given to us.
Scotland is proud to play our part in supporting people arriving from Afghanistan who worked in support of the UK. I commend the work of Scottish local authorities who have received families through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and those preparing to do so.
The Scottish Government also welcomes your announcement of a refugee resettlement programme to support Afghan nationals. I am pleased that this will be in addition to Afghans arriving through relocation and the UK’s existing commitments to global refugee resettlement. Refugee resettlement is about meeting the needs of the most vulnerable, and I note your approach to prioritise women and girls, as well as those at risk of human rights abuses.
While recognising the pressures on accommodation capacity, we are concerned that the commitment to resettle 20,000 refugees in ‘the long term’ and just 5,000 in the first year is not sufficient in the context of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding. We believe a commitment to a substantial increase in numbers is required and urgently seek further details of how civilians, especially women, girls and others in need of refuge will be protected.
As you will be aware, all 32 of Scotland’s local authorities participated in the Syrian Resettlement Programme, with over 3,500 refugees welcomed into communities across Scotland under both that programme and the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme.
We want our local authorities to be able to continue to provide strong support for refugees. To do that, we need more detail about the new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Programme, including timescales for arrivals and funding to support local authority participation, as well as wider services which are essential to support people to settle and be able to begin to rebuild their lives.
People across our communities, including Afghans with family and friends who are still in Afghanistan, are distressed and concerned about how people will be able to leave and find a place of safety.
I am keen to know more about options for humanitarian routes for people in Afghanistan. In the current situation, many people will find it extremely difficult to directly reach a place of safety. We must work to reduce the risk of people being forced to make perilous journeys or becoming vulnerable to the exploitation of traffickers.
During the Westminster debate on Wednesday 18 August you indicated agreement to a summit with devolved nations. I would be grateful for more detail on plans for this.
I also welcome the commitment you made during the debate that the UK will not return Afghan nationals who have sought asylum in the UK. Given the drastic situation in Afghanistan, I expect the Home Office to consider asylum applications from Afghan nationals quickly and compassionately. Any cases which are in the asylum appeals process, or where people have previously been refused asylum on the basis that Kabul is safe, should also be urgently reviewed.
I look forward to receiving further detail about evacuation, safe routes and resettlement from Afghanistan as soon as possible. Scotland is committed to playing our part, and I am keen that communities across Scotland are able to be involved in the humanitarian response in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan.
PM to call on countries to match UK commitments to protect those most in need in Afghanistan and bolster aid to the region
Leaders set to discuss joint approach to securing a more stable future for Afghanistan
Meeting follows doubling of UK humanitarian aid spending and the announcement of one of the most generous resettlement schemes in British history
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will call on G7 leaders to continue to stand by the Afghan people and step up support for refugees and humanitarian aid when they meet this afternoon (Tuesday 24th August).
Chairing the meeting, he is expected to urge international partners to match the UK’s commitments on aid and the resettlement of those most in need, in order to protect human rights and contribute to the stability of the region.
Leaders are also expected to reiterate their commitment to safeguarding the gains made in Afghanistan over the last 20 years – in particular on girls’ education and the rights of women and minorities. Discussions are set to cover ongoing collaboration on evacuation efforts at Kabul airport and longer-term work to secure a more stable future for Afghanistan and ensure any new government is inclusive and abides by its international obligations.
Ahead of the meeting, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Our first priority is to complete the evacuation of our citizens and those Afghans who have assisted our efforts over the last 20 years – but as we look ahead to the next phase, it’s vital we come together as an international community and agree a joint approach for the longer term.
“That’s why I’ve called an emergency meeting of the G7 – to coordinate our response to the immediate crisis, to reaffirm our commitment to the Afghan people, and to ask our international partners to match the UK’s commitments to support those in need.
“Together with our partners and allies, we will continue to use every humanitarian and diplomatic lever to safeguard human rights and protect the gains made over the last two decades. The Taliban will be judged by their deeds and not their words.”
The meeting will take place by video conference and the NATO and UN Secretaries-General have also been invited to join the discussion.
Earlier this week the Prime Minister set out his five-point plan for addressing the risk of humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The plan has five parts:
immediately helping those to whom we have direct obligations
protecting ourselves against any threat from terrorism
supporting Afghan people in the region through humanitarian and development assistance
creating safe and legal routes to resettle Afghans in need
developing a clear plan for dealing with the new Afghan regime in a unified and concerted way
The meeting of G7 leaders comes after the Prime Minister chaired a meeting of COBR on Monday afternoon where ministers discussed the latest situation on the ground. As of the morning of Monday 23rd, the UK had secured the evacuation of almost 6,000 people out of Kabul since Operation PITTING began last week, which includes British Nationals and their dependants, embassy staff, and Afghan nationals under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) programme.
The UK has already doubled the amount of humanitarian aid to the region, committing up to £286 million with immediate effect, and last week we announced a new bespoke resettlement scheme. This programme will be one of the most generous in British history and is set to relocate up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to US President Joe Biden last night on the situation in Afghanistan, ahead of tomorrow’s G7 meeting.
They discussed the ongoing efforts by the UK and US to coordinate the rapid and safe evacuation of our nationals and those who previously worked with our governments from Kabul International Airport.
The leaders agreed to continue working together to ensure those who are eligible to leave are able to, including after the initial phase of the evacuation has ended.
The Prime Minister and President Biden noted the importance of concerted diplomatic engagement to secure the progress made in Afghanistan and prevent a humanitarian crisis.
They committed to driving international action, including through the G7 and UN Security Council, to stabilise the situation, support the Afghan people and work towards an inclusive and representative Afghan government.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was briefed on the policing operation for COP26 during a visit to Police Scotland yesterday.
Mr Johnson met officers and staff working at Police Scotland Headquarters, Tulliallan, and at the Scottish Crime Campus, Gartcosh, and thanked them for their public service during the pandemic.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack also participated in the visit and both met with officers and staff from Police Scotland’s newly formed International Academy, and spoke with probationary Constables.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Police forces across the U.K. have played a crucial role in keeping us safe throughout the pandemic.
“I was delighted to visit Tulliallan and give my thanks to the officers and recruits of Police Scotland.
“I congratulate them on the launch of their International Academy and I look forward to working together to deliver the COP26 conference this November in Glasgow.”
During the visit to Police Scotland Headquarters, hosted by Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, the Prime Minister was briefed on the policing operation for the COP26 summit due to be held in Glasgow over two weeks in November.
The United Nations climate conference will require one of the largest policing operations undertaken in the history of the United Kingdom with over 100 world leaders expected to attend.
Around 10,000 officers will be deployed on some days of the event with a significant number coming from police services across the UK, via mutual aid arrangements.
Chief Constable Livingstone said: “The officers and staff of Police Scotland have performed vital duties to support the collective efforts against coronavirus.
“They have done so in line with the values that underpin all we do – integrity, fairness, respect and commitment to upholding human rights and working with the consent of our fellow citizens to improve the lives of our communities.
“Those principles will be at the heart of our operation to police COP26, a major international event for Glasgow, Scotland and the whole of the United Kingdom. As a service committed to fundamental human rights, we will help people to make their voices heard on the crucial subject of climate change, while minimising disruption and ensuring all our communities continue to get the policing service they need and deserve.”
The Prime Minister also met with officers and staff based at the Scottish Crime Campus (SCC) at Gartcosh which houses staff from key agencies operating in Scotland, as well as state-of-the-art forensics laboratories, to combat the threat from serious crime and terrorism.
The Scottish Government funded SCC was opened in 2014.
Prime Minister’s statement on coronavirus: 26th January 2021
I am sorry to have to tell you that today the number of deaths recorded from Covid in the UK has surpassed 100,000, and it is hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic.
The years of life lost, the family gatherings not attended and, for so many relatives, the missed chance even to say goodbye.
I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one: fathers and mothers; brothers and sisters; sons and daughters and the many grandparents who have been taken.
And, to all those who grieve, we make this pledge: that when we have come through this crisis, we will come together as a nation to remember everyone we lost, and to honour the selfless heroism of all those on the front line who gave their lives to save others.
We will remember the courage of countless working people – not just our amazing NHS and care workers, but shop workers, transport staff, pharmacists, teachers, police, armed forces emergency services and many others – who kept our country going during our biggest crisis since the Second World War.
We will commemorate the small acts of kindness, the spirit of volunteering and the daily sacrifice of millions who placed their lives on hold time and again as we fought each new wave of the virus, buying time for our brilliant scientists to come to our aid.
In that moment of commemoration, we will celebrate the genius and perseverance of those who discovered the vaccines and the immense national effort – never seen before in our history – which is now underway to distribute them, one that has now seen us immunise over 6.8 million people across the United Kingdom.
And when those vaccines have finally freed us from this virus and put us on a path to recovery, we will make sure that we learn the lessons and reflect and prepare.
And, until that time, the best and most important thing we can all do to honour the memory of those who have died is to work together with ever greater resolve to defeat this disease.
And that is what we will do.
Keir Starmer, Leader of the Labour Party, said: “This is a national tragedy and a terrible reminder of all that we have lost as a country.
“We must never become numb to these numbers or treat them as just statistics. Every death is a loved one, a friend, a neighbour, a partner or a colleague. It is an empty chair at the dinner table.
“To all those that are mourning, we must promise to learn the lessons of what went wrong and build a more resilient country. That day will come and we will get there together.
“But for now we must remember those that we have lost and be vigilant in the national effort to stay at home, protect our NHS and vaccinate Britain.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a statement at the coronavirus press conference yesterday (Tuesday 5 January):
Good afternoon,
I want to update everybody about vaccines because across this entire country today there are people – everybody – making another huge sacrifice.
Teachers and pupils coping with online learning
Businesses who have borne the brunt of successive lockdowns,
and, of course, the amazing staff of our NHS and our care workers who are grappling with a new variant – this new variant – of coronavirus.
And I believe that when everybody looks at the position people understand overwhelmingly that we have no choice when the Office of National Statistics is telling us that more than 2 per cent of the population is now infected – that’s over 1 million people in England – and when today we have reported another 60,000 new cases. And when the number of patients in hospitals in England is now 40 per cent higher than at the first peak in April.
I think obviously – everybody, you all – want to be sure that we in government are now using every second of this lockdown to put that invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable in the form of vaccination and so to begin to bring this crisis to an end.
And I can tell you that this afternoon, with Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca combined, as of this afternoon we have now vaccinated over 1.1 million people in England and over 1.3 million across the UK.
And that includes more than 650,000 people over 80, which is 23 per cent of all the over 80s in England
And that means that nearly 1 in 4 of one of the most vulnerable groups will have in 2 to 3 weeks – all of them – a significant degree of immunity.
And when you consider that the average age of Covid fatalities is in the 80s you can see the importance of what we have already achieved.
And that is why I believe that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation was right to draw up a programme aimed at saving the most lives the fastest.
So by February 15th, as I said last night, the NHS is committed to offering a vaccination to everyone in the top four priority groups including older care home residents and staff, everyone over 70, all frontline NHS and care staff and all those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
And to help us with meeting this target we already have 595 GP-led sites providing vaccines, with a further 180 coming on stream later this week.
We have 107 hospital sites – with a further 100 later this week
So that is almost a thousand sites – vaccination sites – across the country by the end of this week
And next week we will also have 7 vaccination centres opening in places such as sports stadia and exhibition centres.
We know that there will still be long weeks ahead in which we must persevere with these restrictions, but I want to give you – the British people – the maximum possible transparency about this vaccine roll out with more detail on Thursday and daily updates from Monday so that you can see, day by day and jab by jab, how much progress we are making.
The year in which the Government was forced to tell people how to live their lives, how long to wash their hands, how many households could meet together.
And a year in which we lost too many loved ones before their time.
So I can imagine that there will be plenty of people who will be only too happy to say goodbye to the grimness of 2020.
But just before we do, I want to remind you that this was also the year when we rediscovered a spirit of togetherness, of community.
It was a year in which we banged saucepans to celebrate the courage and self-sacrifice of our NHS staff and care home workers
A year in which working people pulled the stops out to keep the country moving in the biggest crisis we have faced for generations – shopworkers, transport staff, pharmacists, emergency services, everyone, you name it.
We saw a renewed spirit of volunteering, as people delivered food to the elderly and vulnerable.
And time after time as it became necessary to fight new waves of the virus, we saw people unite in their determination, our determination, to protect the NHS and to save lives.
Putting their lives, your lives, on hold. Buying precious time for medicine to provide the answers, and it has.
In 2020 we have seen British scientists not only produce the world’s first effective treatment of the disease, but just in the last few days a beacon of hope has been lit in the laboratories of Oxford.
A new room temperature vaccine that can be produced cheaply and at scale, and that offers literally a new lease of life to people in this country and around the world.
And with every jab that goes into the arm of every elderly or vulnerable person, we are changing the odds, in favour of humanity and against Covid.
And we know that we have a hard struggle still ahead of us for weeks and months, because we face a new variant of the disease that requires a new vigilance.
But as the sun rises on 2021 we have the certainty of those vaccines.
Pioneered in a UK that is also free to do things differently, and if necessary better, than our friends in the EU.
Free to do trade deals around the world.
And free to turbocharge our ambition to be a science superpower.
From biosciences to artificial intelligence,
and with our world-leading battery and wind technology we will work with partners around the world,
not just to tackle climate change but to create the millions of high skilled jobs this country will need not just this year – 2021 – as we bounce back from Covid, but in the years to come.
This is an amazing moment for this country.
We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it.
And I think it will be the overwhelming instinct of the people of this country to come together as one United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland working together to express our values around the world.
Leading both the G7 and the COP 26 climate change summit in Glasgow – and an open, generous, outward looking, internationalist and free trading global Britain that campaigns for 12 years of quality education for every girl in the world.
2021 is the year we can do it, and I believe 2021 is above all, the year when we will eventually do those everyday things that now seem lost in the past.
Bathed in a rosy glow of nostalgia, going to the pub, concerts, theatres, restaurants, or simply holding hands with our loved ones in the normal way.
We are still a way off from that, there are tough weeks and months ahead.
But we can see that illuminated sign that marks the end of the journey, and even more important, we can see with growing clarity how we are going to get there.
And that is what gives me such confidence about 2021. Happy New Year!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the UN General Assembly in New York yesterday
Never in the history of our species – not since the almighty felled the Tower of Babel – has the human race been so obsessed with one single topic of conversation. We have been following the same debates, researching the potential of the same drugs, and time and again we have been typing the same word into our search engines.
COVID-19, coronavirus, has united humanity as never before.
And yet the crisis has also been an extraordinary force for division. We have all been up against the same enemy. The same tiny opponent threatening everyone in much the same way, but members of the UN have still waged 193 separate campaigns, as if every country somehow contains a different species of human being. Across the world there has been an infinite variety of curfews and restrictions and closures, and we have fought in a spirit of sauve qui peut.
And the pace has been so urgent and the pressures so intense that each national government – democracy or otherwise – has decided entirely understandably to put the interests of its domestic population first. We have seen borders spring up between friends and allies, sometimes without consultation. We have seen the disruption of global supply chains with cheque book wars on airport tarmacs as nation has vied with nation for a supply of PPE.
And after nine months of fighting COVID-19, the very notion of the international community looks, frankly, pretty tattered. And we know that we simply can’t continue in this way. Unless we get our act together. Unless we unite and turn our fire against our common foe, we know that everyone will lose. The inevitable outcome would be to prolong this calamity and increase the risk of another.
Now is the time – therefore, here at what I devoutly hope will be the first and last ever Zoom UNGA – for humanity to reach across borders and repair these ugly rifts. Let’s heal the world – literally and metaphorically. And let’s begin with the truth, because as someone once said, the truth shall set you free.
And with nearly a million people dead, with colossal economic suffering already inflicted and more to come, there is a moral imperative for humanity to be honest and to reach a joint understanding of how the pandemic began, and how it was able to spread – Not because I want to blame any country or government, or to score points. I simply believe – as a former COVID patient – that we all have a right to know, so that we can collectively do our best to prevent a recurrence.
And so the UK supports the efforts of the World Health Organisation and of my friend, Tedros, to explore the aetiology of the disease, because however great the need for reform, the WHO, the World Health Organization, is still the one body that marshals humanity against the legions of disease.
That is why we in the UK – global Britain – are one of the biggest global funders of that organisation, contributing £340 million over the next four years, that’s an increase of 30 percent.
And as we now send our medical detectives to interview the witnesses and the suspects – bats, the pangolins, whoever – we should have enough humility to acknowledge that alarm bells were ringing before this calamity struck.
In the last 20 years, there have been eight outbreaks of a lethal virus, any of which could have escalated into a pandemic. Bill Gates sounded the alert in 2015, five years ago he gave that amazing prediction – almost every word of which has come true – and we responded as if to a persistent Microsoft error message by clicking “ok” and carrying on.
Humanity was caught napping. We have been scrabbling to catch up, and with agonising slowness we are making progress.
Epidemiologists at Oxford University identified the first treatment for COVID-19. They did trials with our national health service and found that a cheap medicine called dexamethasone reduces the risk of death by over a third for patients on ventilators. The UK immediately shared this discovery with the world, so that as many as 1.4 million lives could be saved in the next six months by this one, single advance.
And as I speak there are 100 potential vaccines that are trying to clear the hurdles of safety and efficacy, as if in a giant global steeplechase. We don’t know which may be successful. We do not know if any of them will be successful.
The Oxford vaccine is now in stage 3 of clinical trials, and in case of success AstraZeneca has already begun to manufacture millions of doses, in readiness for rapid distribution, and they have reached agreement with the Serum Institute of India to supply one billion doses to low and middle-income countries.
But it would be futile to treat the quest for a vaccine as a contest for narrow national advantage and immoral to seek a head start through obtaining research by underhand means. The health of every country depends on the whole world having access to a safe and effective vaccine, wherever a breakthrough might occur; and, the UK, we will do everything in our power to bring this about.
We are already the biggest single donor to the efforts of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness to find a vaccine. And it is precisely because we know that no-one is safe until everyone is safe, that I can announce that the UK will contribute up to £571 million to COVAX, a new initiative designed to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine across the world. Of this sum, £500 million will be for developing countries to protect themselves.
The UK is already the biggest donor to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance. In June we helped to raise almost $9 billion to immunise another 300 million children against killer diseases, and Gavi also stands ready to help distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.
But even as we strive for a vaccine, we must never cut corners, slim down the trials or sacrifice safety to speed. Because it would be an absolute tragedy if in our eagerness, we were to boost the nutjobs – the anti vaxxers, dangerous obsessives who campaign against the whole concept of vaccination and who would risk further millions of lives.
General Assembly Hall
And now is the time above all to look ahead and think now about how to stop a pandemic from happening again. How can we stop another virus from coming along and again smashing that precious Ming vase of international cooperation? How can we avoid the mutual quarantines and the brutal Balkanisation of the world economy?
I don’t think there is any reason for fatalism: of course, the dangers can never be wholly eliminated, but human ingenuity and expertise can reduce the risk. Imagine how much suffering might have been avoided if we had already identified the pathogen that became COVID-19 while it was still confined to animals?
Suppose we had been able to reach immediately into a global medicine chest and take out a treatment? What if countries had been ready to join together from the outset to develop and trial a vaccine? And think how much strife would have been prevented if the necessary protocols – covering quarantine and data-sharing and PPE and so much else – had, so far as possible, been ready on the shelf for humanity to use?
So we in the UK we’re going to work with our friends, we’re going to use our G7 presidency next year to create a new global approach to health security based on a five point plan to protect humanity against another pandemic.
Our first aim should be to stop a new disease before it starts. About 60 percent of the pathogens circulating in the human population originated in animals and leapt from one species to the other in a “zoonotic” transmission. The world could seek to minimise the danger by forging a global network of zoonotic research hubs, charged with spotting dangerous animal pathogens that may cross the species barrier and infect human beings.
The UK is ready to harness its scientific expertise and cooperate to the fullest extent with our global partners to this end. Of the billions of pathogens, the great mass are thankfully incapable of vaulting the species barrier.
Once we discover the dangerous ones, our scientists could get to work on identifying their weaknesses and refining anti-viral treatments before they strike. We could open the research to every country and as we learn more, our scientists might begin to assemble an armoury of therapies – a global pharmacopoeia – ready to make the treatment for the next COVID-19.
Our second step should be to develop the manufacturing capacity for treatments and vaccines So that the whole of humanity can hold them like missiles in silos ready to zap the alien organisms before they can attack. But if that fails and a new disease jumps from animals to human beings and overcomes our armoury of therapies and begins to spread, then we need to know what’s going on as fast as possible.
So the third objective should be to design a global pandemic early warning system, based on a vast expansion of our ability to collect and analyse samples and distribute the findings, using health data-sharing agreements covering every country. As far as possible, we should aim to predict a pandemic almost as we forecast the weather to see the thunderstorm in the cloud no bigger than a man’s hand.
And if all our defences are breached, and we face another crisis, we should at least be able to rely on our fourth step, and have all the protocols ready for an emergency response, covering every relevant issue, along with the ability to devise new ones swiftly.
Never again must we wage 193 different campaigns against the same enemy. As with all crises, it is crucial not to learn the wrong lessons.
After the harrowing struggle to equip ourselves with enough ventilators – with countries scrabbling to improvise like the marooned astronauts of Apollo 13 – there is a global movement to onshore manufacturing. That is understandable.
Here in the UK we found ourselves unable to make gloves, aprons, enzymes which an extraordinary position for a country that was once the workshop of the world. We need to rediscover that latent gift and instinct, but it would be insane to ignore the insights of Adam Smith and David Ricardo.
We need secure supply chains – but we should still rely on the laws of comparative advantage and the invisible hand of the market. Many countries imposed export controls at the outset of the pandemic, about two thirds of which remain in force. Governments still target their trade barriers on exactly what we most need to combat the virus, with tariffs on disinfectant often exceeding 10 percent, and for soap tariffs for 30 percent.
So I would urge every country to take a fifth step and lift the export controls wherever possible – and agree not to revive them – and cancel any tariffs on the vital tools of our struggle: gloves, protective equipment, thermometers and other COVID-critical products. The UK will do this as soon as our new independent tariff regime comes into effect on 1st January and I hope others will do the same.
Though the world is still in the throes of this pandemic, all these steps are possible if we have the will. They are the right way forward for the world, and Britain is the right country to give that lead.
And we will do so in 2021, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of this great United Nations in London in January, and through our G7 Presidency, and as we host the world’s climate change summit, COP26, in Glasgow next November.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an immense psychic shock to the human race. Global fears have been intensified by the immediacy of round the clock news and social media. We sometimes forget, we face a virus – a small package of nucleic acid that simply replicates. It is not even technically alive.
Tragic as its consequences have been, it has been nothing like as destructive as other plagues – let alone the influenza of a century ago. It is absurd, in many ways, outrageous that this microscopic enemy should have routed the unity of the human race.
COVID-19 has caused us to cease other vital work, and I’m afraid it made individual nations seem selfish and divided from each other. Every day people were openly encouraged to study a grisly reverse Olympic league table, and to take morbid and totally mistaken comfort in the greater sufferings of others.
We cannot go on like that, we cannot make these mistakes again. And here in the UK, the birthplace of Edward Jenner who pioneered the world’s first vaccine We are determined to do everything in our power to work with our friends across the UN, to heal those divisions and to heal the world.
