“Priti Patel has told a police chief that he must uphold the law after his officers failed to stop anti-racism protesters from toppling the statue of a slave trader and throwing it into a harbour. The home secretary had a “firm” conversation yesterday with Andy Marsh, the chief constable of Avon and Somerset, and demanded an explanation for what had happened in Bristol on Sunday. She made clear that she expected those who pulled the statue down to face criminal prosecution. There have been no arrests so far. Her intervention came after the statue of Edward Colston, who made a fortune from the slave trade in the 17th century, was thrown into the city’s harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest.” – The Times
“A group of Tory MPs were replaced by cleaning professionals after attempting to scrub graffiti off the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square. After the Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend, the statue was left daubed with a message that said Churchill “Was a Racist”. Five MPs from the Blue Collar Conservatives group — Matt Vickers, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Gareth Bacon, Lee Anderson and Peter Gibson — left their offices with sponges and nail brushes to clean the 47-year-old bronze statue. Mr Gibson, the MP for Darlington, told The Times: “A number of Conservative MPs were incensed by what we’d seen: the desecration of our greatest hero, our greatest Briton, a freedom fighter who ended the country’s potential tyranny from fascism.” – The Times
“During the darkest days of the Second World War, my grandfather volunteered to leave his home in Jamaica to put on a uniform and join the British army and the fight to eradicate Nazism and intolerance from Europe. Thousands of other boys and young men did the same, journeying from the Caribbean and many other parts of the British empire, answering an emotional summons to defeat the greatest evil of the last century. Despite the heavy fire his unit took in Italy, granddad mercifully survived the war, and went back home to Jamaica. He has since died, and in some ways I am glad he did not live to see the weekend’s shameful events in Whitehall and Parliament Square.” – Daily Mail
“The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sparked unease among some on the left of his party on Monday, as he condemned as “completely wrong” the tearing down of the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol at the weekend. Starmer and the shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said they shared the sense of injustice that had brought more than 100,000 people out on to the streets of the UK to join Black Lives Matter protests in recent days. But in a clear shift in tone from Jeremy Corbyn’s attitude to civil disobedience, Starmer told LBC radio: “It shouldn’t have been done in that way, [it was] completely wrong to pull a statue down like that.” – The Guardian
“Primary schools will no longer be expected to open up to all year groups a month before the summer holidays, ministers will say today. It had been the government’s “ambition” that all primary children would get a month of school before the holidays “if feasible”. The logistics in getting even Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, the priority year groups, back last week and this week has been so challenging that the government accepts it cannot be done safely. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, will say today that schools should focus on managing their bubble of 15 children and not to spend time worrying about fitting more children into the school.” – The Times
“Bosses of the travel and hospitality industry have been privately assured by the Government that “air bridges” will be introduced for foreign summer holidays from June 29 to replace blanket quarantine. The Quash Quarantine group of more than 500 of the biggest names in the industry said that as a result they would suspend their threatened legal action to overturn quarantine. “There’s a desire by the group to take action and we are not ruling it out in the future but we have had these assurances from senior Government sources that travel corridors will be in place from June 29,” said Paul Charles, a spokesman for the group whose businesses turn over £10 billion a year.” – Daily Telegraph
“More than half of Boris Johnson’s cabinet are pushing for Downing Street to cut the two-metre social distancing rule to contain coronavirus, in a move that would provide a huge boost to the hospitality industry. Mr Johnson will chair a cabinet meeting on Tuesday and is sympathetic to calls to relax the two-metre rule to accelerate the reopening of the economy, but it would involve overriding the government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage). “The scientists have been quite firm on this,” said one government figure. “At the moment Sage is definitely not inclined to reduce the guidance.” – FT
“A private member’s bill that would give BNO (British National Overseas) passport holders the right to live in Britain permanently and open up the scheme to those born after 1997, who are excluded from the passport scheme, has won cross-party support. Drafted by Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat chairman of the all-party group on Hong Kong, it has received support from Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, and committee heads including Stephen Timms, Chris Bryant and Sarah Champion.” – The Times
“Boris Johnson must provide a legally-binding date to strip Huawei from Britain’s 5G network or face a Commons defeat, senior Tory MPs have warned. Conservatives are pressing for a concrete pledge by the Government within the next two months, while crucial legislation is expected to go through Parliament. Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Bob Seely said: “Parliament is feeling increasingly restless about the UK’s dependency on China. More and more legislators are recognising that how we handle this issue hugely affects our constituents. They said a ban on new Huawei equipment being installed into the UK network from 2023 or 2024, which the Government has been discussing, will “not be sufficient”. – Daily Telegraph
“The Conservative Party accepted a £50,000 donation from a pharmaceutical boss involved in price gouging the NHS, The Times can report. Amit Patel, who accepted a five-year ban last week from standing as a director for breaking competition law, donated the money during the June 2017 general election campaign led by Theresa May. The donation was made a year after The Times named Auden Mckenzie, the company Mr Patel had founded, as being among several businesses that had hugely increased the prices of old drugs. The companies had been able to do so by exploiting a loophole in NHS pricing rules that meant drugs were no longer subject to a profit cap if they were “debranded” and sold under a generic name.” – The Times
“The Duke of York has hit back against the US authorities, insisting that he had offered to help their criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein three times. In his first significant public intervention since stepping down from royal duties, Prince Andrew, 60, accused the Department of Justice yesterday of issuing “inaccurate” statements by claiming that he had refused to co-operate. He suggested US prosecutors were “seeking publicity” rather than his help, claiming through his lawyers that they were breaching their confidentiality rules. The statement from Prince Andrew’s lawyers, Blackfords, said: “The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness.” – The Times
“Speaking as one myself, I am troubled by the news that bald men are more likely than others to suffer severe symptoms from Covid-19. Male sex hormones are catnip to the virus, it seems. One study found that 79 per cent of male virus victims in Madrid hospitals were also victims of hair loss. Frank Gabrin, the first doctor in the United States to die of Covid, was bald. This is only the latest example of the vulnerability of our kind in modern society. It is typical of our marginalisation. No one has lifted a finger to help us. We are hurting.” – Daily Telegraph