News

Doctors and lawyers from organisations including the Helen Bamber Foundation, Doctors of the World and Freedom from Torture, wrote to Home Secretary Priti Patel and Health Secretary Matt Hancock in November setting out “grave concerns about the possibility, in fact the inevitability, of a covid-19 outbreak in one of these sites”, Ms O’Leary said, adding: “Sadly we were ignored and our worst fears have come true now.”

“This was not a minor oversight by an inexperienced individual within a large organisation, but a catalogue of serious errors by a number of people that should have been, but were not, picked up by any of the internal systems and safeguards that were put in place to regulate what is broadcast."

“I wasn’t expecting my forgiveness to be an invitation to lighten a sentence. Seeing this judgment, I can only wonder what deterrent there is for anyone else who spouts this kind of vile racist abuse."

"If they didn’t know this then what exactly are Dido Harding’s £1000 a day consultants doing for their money?"

Harding has said that infected people infected are too “scared” to get a test because of a lack of cash support.

A minute's silence was also held in the House of Commons today ahead of PMQs

Ireland’s foreign affairs minister has said any attempt to undermine the Northern Ireland Protocol poses “real difficulties”.

"Removing that uplift so suddenly – even with that one-off payment – would put benefit levels to their lowest since the early 90s, just whilst we’re in a recession, which applies to unemployment peaking, and the furlough scheme coming to an end.”

, Mr Mattarella said Italy could ill-afford to have a political campaign and early parliamentary election, adding that citizens demand “concrete and rapid answers” to the health, social and economic crises sparked by the pandemic.