In the headlines
Boris Johnson called Matt Hancock “totally f***ing hopeless” in a WhatsApp message sent in March 2020. It was published today by his former adviser Dominic Cummings. The PM also suggested the PPE effort was “a disaster”, Cummings says in his Substack newsletter. Covid vaccinations are to become mandatory for staff at care homes for the elderly. “I think persuasion rather than coercion is the way to deal with it,” Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group, told BBC Radio 4 this morning. Rising fuel, clothing and meal prices have pushed up UK inflation to 2.1%, higher than economists expected, says the FT.