Johnson faces trust crisis as sleaze shatters faith in MPs

Poll reveals huge public cynicism, with just 5% of respondents believing politicians work for public good

Trust in politicians to act in the national interest rather than for themselves has fallen dramatically since Boris Johnson became prime minister, according to figures contained in a disturbing new study into the state of British democracy.

The polling data from YouGov for the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows a particularly sharp fall in trust in the few weeks since the Owen Paterson scandal triggered a rash of Tory sleaze scandals.

Home Office borders bill could ‘create a British Guantánamo Bay,’ says Tory MP

Former Brexit secretary David Davis says Priti Patel’s plans could foster a situation similar to notorious US detention camp

A former Conservative cabinet minister has warned that the Home Office’s controversial borders bill risks creating a “British Guantanamo Bay,”. David Davis, who served as Brexit secretary from 2016 to 2018, said that the home secretary’s plans to send asylum seekers to another country while their claims are processed may create a facility as notorious as the US detention camp in Cuba.

Guantanamo Bay has been described as a “stain on the human rights record” of the US and the “gulag of our times” with detainees making repeated allegations of torture, sexual degradation and religious persecution.

Hundreds join vigil for stabbing victim Ava White, 12, in Liverpool

Event took place near where Ava White was killed after a Christmas lights switch-on last month

Hundreds of people have turned out to pay their respects to 12-year-old Ava White at a vigil held in her memory. She was fatally stabbed in Liverpool city centre on 25 November after a Christmas lights switch-on.

On Saturday, family, friends and others gathered in Church Street, close to where the attack happened, to pay tribute to her. Hundreds of balloons, some in the shape of the letter A, were released at the start of the vigil. Many people wore hoodies with Ava’s face on and others had her name written on their faces.

UK’s progress on Covid now squandered, warns top scientist

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust, suggests emergence of Omicron variant means pandemic is far from over

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The emergence of the Omicron variant shows that the world is “closer to the start of the pandemic than the end”, one of Britain’s most senior scientific figures has warned, as he lamented a lack of political leadership over Covid.

Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust who stepped down as a government scientific adviser last month, said the progress in combatting Covid-19 since its emergence was “being squandered”.

Omicron proves we’re not in control of Covid – only global action can stop this pandemic

If we keep allowing this virus to spread through unvaccinated populations, the next variant could be even more deadly

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It’s almost two years since we first heard of Covid-19, and a year since the first Covid vaccines were rolled out. Yet this staggering progress is being squandered. We have drifted for months now, with richer countries, taking a very blinkered domestic focus, lulled into thinking that the worst of the pandemic was behind us. This variant reminds us all that we remain closer to the start of the pandemic than the end.

There is a lot we need to learn about the Omicron variant. Whether or not this is a pandemic-changing variant – one that really evades our vaccines and treatments – remains to be seen. Research will tell us more in the coming days and weeks, and we must watch and follow the data closely while giving the brilliant scientific teams time to get the answers. Although I am very worried about countries with limited access to vaccines, I am cautiously hopeful that our current vaccines will continue to protect us against severe sickness and death, if we are fully vaccinated.