Good evening and welcome to the latest edition of The Worst of Westminster!
The week kicked off with MPs voting overwhelmingly to approve the Privileges Committee report into Boris Johnson's conduct during the pandemic, but news on how the UK Government failed people during the Covid crisis did not end there.
Covid vaccine company 'shafted'
The UK Government has been accused of “absolutely shafting” a Scottish vaccine plant after it emerged a contract it axed cost taxpayers £358.6 million.
French firm Valneva, based in Livingston, was supposed to make more than 100 million Covid vaccines but the deal was controversially ditched in 2021.
Financial records filed by the firm show it has received hundreds of millions of pounds in non-refundable payments.
The UK Government reached a settlement with the firm and no more money is owed.
But Livingston MP Hannah Bardell said the whole episode has been a “tragedy” and insisted the company has been “absolutely shafted”.
Valneva has also revealed it is considering selling the mothballed Almeida plant in Livingston that it built to make the vaccine.
Bardell said: "It's sadly no surprise that the Tory UK government has been shown up for absolutely shafting this iconic vaccine plant in my Livingston constituency.”
Keir Starmer 'to pack the Lords'
There may come a day when Labour actually decide to hold on to one of their pledges…but it is not this day.
In yet another apparent U-turn, Starmer looks to have gone back on his promise to abolish the House of Lords and is now instead planning to flood the place with Labour peers to “level the playing field” if his party wins the next General Election.
The claims from party insiders came after Starmer criticised Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list. A Westminster committee has launched an inquiry into the appointments process following calls for Johnson’s list to be scrapped.
Conservatives dominate the upper chamber in terms of numbers, with party insiders telling The Times they would have to appoint peers to even the odds.
Several sources have also already said Labour were giving thought to who might become a full-time peer – focusing on those of working age, given many of the party’s peers are elderly and struggle to attend late-night sittings.
One shadow cabinet minister said: “We will need to appoint dozens of them, at least."
Starmer said in response to the claims: "We’ve got far less peers than the Conservatives and obviously we need to get the business of government through. But this is not some developed plan. I literally haven't discussed it with anyone."
Starmer has also not ruled out handing peerages and government positions to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
No state help for homeowners
Interest rates shot up to their highest rate for 15 years this week (5%), but Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has ruled out any public money to help mortgage holders.
He’s had a chat with the banks and building societies, but the Government has not committed to any direct help for those seeing their monthly payments soar despite some Tories insisting this needs to be considered.
Hunt says lenders have agreed to implement a 12-month minimum before repossessing homes and will allow struggling borrowers to extend the term of their mortgages or move to an interest-only plan temporarily with “no questions asked”.
But the SNP have said the “paper thin” measures will be “cold comfort” for homeowners while the support does nothing for renters.
Financial observers say the average two-year fixed mortgage rate topped 6% in the past week, up from 5.26% at the start of May.
Former Conservative Party chair Jake Berry urged the Chancellor to consider introducing “mortgage interest relief at source” to quell fears of a “mortgage bomb about to go off”, but Hunt said spending public money to help homeowners risked increasing inflation.
AOB
- A report by the Electoral Commission has shown 14,000 people were denied a ballot in the English local elections because they did not have photo ID. The elections were the first to take place since the controversial requirement came in and the SNP have said it “poses a damaging threat to democracy”. The Tories have already admitted the move was made in an attempt to “gerrymander” elections.
- Tory ministers were accused of cowardice after no senior government representative appeared on a BBC Question Time special on Brexit. The audience was made up entirely of people who voted Leave to mark seven years since the UK opted to depart from the EU. Former Labour spin doctor Alistair Campbell, who was on the panel, slammed the Tories on Twitter for not facing up to the audience.
- And Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden claimed that no-deal Brexit planning made the UK “match fit” ahead of the pandemic, while an expert told the Covid inquiry that Westminster was “not operationally prepared”. He told the UK Covid-19 inquiry that planning for a no-deal Brexit put the country in a “strong position” to respond to other challenges.
