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Kamis, 27 Mei 2021

Fred West: No human remains found in Mary Bastholm search - BBC News

Fred West and suspected victim Mary Bastholm

No human remains have been found by police searching a cafe in Gloucester for a suspected victim of the serial killer Fred West.

Officers have been searching for Mary Bastholm, 15, who worked at the Pop-In Cafe - now called The Clean Plate. She was last seen in 1968.

Gloucestershire Police began excavating the cafe cellar in Southgate Street on 19 May and said it had now finished.

Miss Bastholm's family said they were sad but hoped she would yet be found.

They said: "We were hoping to get a final closure on her disappearance so that we could put her to rest.

"We have been opened minded throughout this process and we now know that the cafe can be ruled out.

"Mary was a strong willed and happy go lucky teenager dearly loved by her parents and two brothers.

"She enjoyed life and was just coming into her own when her life was tragically cut short."

Police started excavations after a TV production company filming at the site said it had found blue material in the cellar, suggesting Miss Bastholm might possibly be buried there.

She was last seen wearing a blue jacket with a blue and white dress and was carrying a blue bag.

However, police have confirmed no blue material was found in the cellar and what the production team saw was likely to have been part of a pipe.

It said it was appropriate to investigate and forensic archaeologists and anthropologists had been focusing on six "voids" beneath a toilet floor.

The force said the anomalies were identified by experts who concluded the remaining areas of the cellar had been undisturbed since before Miss Bastholm disappeared.

"Each area was carefully examined by the forensics team with support from officers from the constabulary," a spokesperson said.

"The team worked each day, everything that was dug up was analysed on site and all activity was meticulously logged and photographed."

Police at the Clean Plate cafe in the centre of Gloucester

Miss Bastholm went missing in January 1968 on her way to catch a bus to visit her then boyfriend Tim Merrett.

He said when the excavations began he thought it was unlikely police would find Miss Bastholm in the cafe because she had no reason to return there.

West, who was a regular at the Pop-In Cafe, took his own life in 1995 while in prison awaiting trial, accused of the murders of 12 women and girls.

The cafe is due to be handed back to its owners once reparation work has been completed.

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2021-05-27 11:04:56Z
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COVID-19: Hancock denies lying after Cummings claims health secretary should have been sacked for dishonesty - Sky News

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has denied claims he lied about the COVID pandemic after a scathing attack by Dominic Cummings, saying "we have been straight with people".

Mr Hancock said: "These allegations that were put yesterday… are serious allegations and I welcome the opportunity to come to the house to put formally on the record that these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true.

"I've been straight with people in public and in private throughout."

Live coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world

One of the key claims made by Mr Cummings was that the health secretary lied about COVID-testing people before they returned to care homes.

Addressing that specific allegation, Mr Hancock said: "We followed the clinical advice on the appropriate way forward."

He added that "so many of the allegations were unsubstantiated".

Boris Johnson, on a visit to a hospital on Thursday, avoided questions about whether he had confidence in Mr Hancock.

But he did deny Mr Cummings's claim that thousands of people needlessly died because of the prime minister.

Answering whether that was the case, he said: "No, I don't think so. But of course, this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we've taken lightly, and you've got to recognise, and I hope people do understand this, that when you go into a lockdown it's a very very painful, traumatic thing for people, for people's mental health, for their lives, their livelihoods, and of course you've got to set that against the horrors of the pandemic and of COVID."

Mr Hancock also told the Commons: "We've taken an approach of openness and transparency and spoke of what we do and don't know.

"Since last January I've attended this House over 60 times. With the prime minister we have together hosted 84 press conferences, I've answered 2,667 contributions to this House and answered questions from colleagues, the media and the public - and we'll keep on with this spirit of openness and transparency throughout.

"Sometimes what we've had to say hasn't been easy. We've had to level with people when it's been tough, when things have been going in the wrong direction.

"And also we've learned throughout. We've applied that learning both to tackling this pandemic and making sure that we're as well-prepared in the future as possible.

"Beyond all this, what matters remains the same - getting vaccinated, getting tested, delivering for our country, overcoming this disease and saving lives, and that is what matters to the British people."

Boris Johnson's former right-hand man gave a blistering account of how the government dealt with the pandemic, with the PM and Mr Hancock taking most of the flak.

During a marathon session lasting more than seven hours on Wednesday, Mr Cummings claimed he, the cabinet secretary and other senior officials continually called for the health secretary to be sacked for "15 to 20 things", including lying on multiple occasions.

Mr Cummings accused Mr Hancock of "criminal, disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm".

Among the alleged lies were, Mr Cummings said, that there was a protective shield around care homes when in fact people with COVID-19 were being sent back to care homes without being tested.

Mr Cummings said the PM "was close" to firing Mr Hancock in April 2020 "but just fundamentally wouldn't do it".

He added that Mr Hancock took too long to get test and trace set up and told the PM: "If we don't fire the secretary of state and we don't get testing into someone's hands, we are going to kill lots of people."

Mr Johnson's former chief adviser also said he believes Mr Hancock used government medical advisers Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof Whitty "as shields for himself" so that if things went wrong, he could blame them and say it wasn't his fault.

Analysis: Government will continue to refute Cummings' claims unless evidence emerges

By Tamara Cohen, political correspondent

Matt Hancock was firefighting the multiple blazes started by Dominic Cummings yesterday.

To the many pointed questions about care home deaths, Mr Hancock said testing capacity at the start of the pandemic was limited and insisted the discharge of thousands of hospital patients to care homes - before COVID testing was required from mid-April - was in line with clinical advice.

Cold comfort to those sounding the alarm at the time, who were told by government ministers that there was a "protective ring" around care homes from the start and a "world-beating" testing system.

But as to whether he misled No10 about it, as his predecessor Jeremy Hunt pointed out, Mr Cummings' allegations about lying yesterday are just that at this stage - unproven allegations.

Unless that evidence emerges, the government is determined to refute them, trumpet the vaccination programme, and delay a fuller discussion of what went wrong into next year's public inquiry.

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2021-05-27 11:03:45Z
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Vaccine programme opens to all adults in Northern Ireland - Sky News

The vaccination programme in Northern Ireland is now open for everyone aged 18 and over, the Department of Health says.

More than 70% of the adult population of Northern Ireland have now had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 40% have had two doses.

On Wednesday, health minister Robin Swann said that the rollout would be extended to 18 to 24-year-olds "in the very near future.

Live COVID updates from the UK and around the world

But on Thursday he said: "I am delighted that our vaccination programme is now open to all adults in Northern Ireland. I know this will be very welcome news for young people who have been waiting patiently for their turn to get the jab.

"Today's announcement is another important milestone in the drive to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we can, so that we can see a return to normality.

"The tremendous success of the vaccination programme has brought great hope and has helped to enable the recent further easing of restrictions.

"The expansion of the vaccination programme, well ahead of schedule, to everyone aged 18 and over is testament to the hard work and dedication of all those involved in delivering the vaccine throughout Northern Ireland."

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People aged 18 and over will be able to book their jabs from 8am, the Department of Health added.

On Wednesday, the vaccine rollout in England was extended to anyone over the age of 30.

In Scotland and Wales people over-18 can already book their jab.

In some areas of England where the Indian COVID-19 variant has spread rapidly, local health authorities are going against government guidance by offering doses to all over-18s.

This week in Northern Ireland waste water is now being tested to track COVID cases.

Sewage is being screened for the virus in a move which officials hope can track new outbreaks more effectively in light of the Indian variant.

An estimated 38% of the region's waste water is being tested at 13 different sites to indicate where the virus is present, including variants, which authorities plan to extend to 70% coverage at 40 sites in the coming weeks.

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2021-05-27 06:41:34Z
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Covid: Matt Hancock to face questions after Dominic Cummings attack - BBC News

Matt Hancock is due to face MPs a day after his handling of the pandemic was fiercely attacked by the prime minister's former senior aide.

Dominic Cummings described the health secretary as "completely incapable of doing the job" and said he "should have been fired" for lying.

He criticised Mr Hancock over PPE shortages and "stupid" testing targets.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: "We absolutely reject Mr Cummings' claims about the health secretary."

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told BBC Breakfast Mr Hancock and others had been "working round the clock to try to do the best they could for the country".

Mr Jenrick also said it was "sensible" for the independent inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic to begin in spring 2022, when the UK was out of the "response phase".

But Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said the inquiry should begin immediately, saying Mr Cummings' claims were "incredibly devastating to hear".

She added that Mr Hancock was facing serious allegations and must "justify how we ended up in these circumstances".

The health secretary's spokesman said Mr Hancock had not seen the evidence session in full and would continue working closely with the prime minister.

Mr Hancock will appear in the House of Commons at around 10:30 BST to answer an urgent question tabled by Labour about the government's handling of Covid.

He is also expected to lead a coronavirus press conference later in the day.

Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said Mr Cummings' "very grave allegations" appeared to be "well-founded" and the health secretary would have to "give us an explanation" in order for the country to "maintain confidence in him".

Mr Cummings left his role in Downing Street towards the end of 2020 following a power struggle inside No 10 and has since been highly critical of the government.

The former Brexit campaigner used his lengthy evidence session to the health and science select committees on Wednesday to portray a government unprepared for the pandemic and slow to act when it hit.

He argued that mistakes meant "tens of thousands of people died, who didn't need to die".

Professor Neil Ferguson, whose modelling was crucial to the government's decision to go into the first lockdown, was asked whether he agreed with the claim.

Prof Ferguson reiterated his previous comment that locking down a week earlier in March 2020 would have saved around 20,000-30,000 lives. "I think that's unarguable. The epidemic was doubling every three to four days in the weeks 13-23 March," he told the Today programme.

During the seven-hour appearance, Mr Cummings was particularly scathing about Mr Hancock, arguing that he "should have been fired for at least 15 to 20 things including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet Room and publicly".

On care homes, he said: "Hancock told us in the Cabinet Room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes... we only subsequently found out that that hadn't happened.

"Now the government rhetoric was 'we put a shield around care homes' and blah blah blah - it was complete nonsense."

Mr Cummings also attacked Mr Hancock for setting a "stupid" target of offering 100,000 Covid tests a day, saying it "hugely disrupted" efforts to "properly" establish a testing system.

"Hancock wanted to be able to go on TV and say 'look at me and my 100k target' - it was criminal disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm," he said.

On PPE provision, Mr Cummings described the situation as a "disaster" with "hospitals all over the country" running out of supplies, despite assurances from the health secretary that "everything is fine".

He added that the head of the civil service said: "I have lost confidence in the secretary of state's honesty in these meetings."

Analysis box by Laura Kuenssberg, political editor

Not the prime minister, nor the health secretary, nor the government's top scientists, nor the Whitehall machine, nor even Mr Cummings himself, escaped the barbs today.

The hours of testimony gave a disturbing sense of an administration simply overwhelmed by the scale of the Covid crisis at the start of last year - scrambling, and failing to keep up on many fronts.

It is the first time that one of those involved in making the decisions during those risky months has admitted in public that so many mistakes were made.

It is the first time that some of Boris Johnson's most controversial alleged comments about Covid have been put on the record, despite the prime minister's denial.

And it is the first time, most importantly perhaps, that someone who wielded significant power has said publicly that tens of thousands of people lost their lives in this country unnecessarily.

Imagine what that must have felt like for a bereaved family, or care home staff to hear.

Rabu, 26 Mei 2021

Covid: Matt Hancock to face questions after Dominic Cummings attack - BBC News

Matt Hancock is due to face MPs a day after his handling of the pandemic was fiercely attacked by the prime minister's former senior aide.

Dominic Cummings described the health secretary as "completely incapable of doing the job" and said he "should have been fired" for lying.

He criticised Mr Hancock over PPE shortages and "stupid" testing targets.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: "We absolutely reject Mr Cummings' claims about the health secretary."

"The health secretary will continue to work closely with the prime minister to deliver the vaccine rollout, tackle the risks posed by variants and support the NHS and social care sector to recover from this pandemic," he added.

Mr Hancock later said he had not seen the evidence session in full, adding: "Instead I've been dealing with getting the vaccination rollout going, especially to over-30s, and saving lives."

Mr Hancock is set to appear in the House of Commons at around 10:30 BST to answer an urgent question tabled by Labour about the government's handling of Covid.

He is also expected to lead a coronavirus press conference later in the day.

Hancock accusations

Mr Cummings left his role in Downing Street towards the end of 2020 following a power struggle inside No 10 and has since been highly critical of the government.

He argued that mistakes meant "tens of thousands of people died, who didn't need to die".

On care homes, he said: "Hancock told us in the Cabinet Room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes... we only subsequently found out that that hadn't happened.

"Now the government rhetoric was 'we put a shield around care homes' and blah blah blah - it was complete nonsense."

Mr Cummings also attacked Mr Hancock for setting a "stupid" target of offering 100,000 Covid tests a day, saying it "hugely disrupted" efforts to "properly" establish a testing system.

"Hancock wanted to be able to go on TV and say 'look at me and my 100k target' - it was criminal disgraceful behaviour that caused serious harm," he said.

He added that the head of the civil service said: "I have lost confidence in the secretary of state's honesty in these meetings."

Committee chairman Greg Clark told Mr Cummings he should provide written evidence to back up his claims about Mr Hancock, who will be questioned by the committee in two weeks' time.

Speaking at a Politico Live event, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss defended Mr Hancock as "an excellent colleague who is doing a very good job in what has been a very tough global pandemic".

Mr Cummings also attacked Boris Johnson, describing his former boss as "unfit for the job" and claiming he had ignored scientific advice and wrongly delayed lockdowns.

Mr Johnson has denied making the comments.

Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson insisted the government's priority had always been to "save lives".

He added that "none of the decisions had been easy" but that his government had followed "the best scientific advice that we can".

He said those on the front line of the pandemic were like "lions" being "led by donkeys".

Banner image reading 'more about coronavirus'

A SIMPLE GUIDE: How do I protect myself?
AVOIDING CONTACT: The rules on self-isolation and exercise
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW How to understand the death toll
TESTING: Can I get tested for coronavirus?
LOOK-UP TOOL: Check cases in your area

Mr Cummings also told the committee:

A herd immunity strategy was dropped when the likely death toll became clear
His trip to County Durham during the lockdown "undermined public confidence"
The PM had offered to be injected "live on TV with the virus" to show the public there was nothing to fear
The running of the government "kind of collapsed" when Mr Johnson was hospitalised with Covid
The PM's fiancee Carrie Symonds "wanted to get rid of" him

More than 127,000 people have died in the UK with 28 days of a positive test since the start of the pandemic, according to the government's coronavirus dashboard.

COULD PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS HELP TREAT DEPRESSION?: A ground-breaking trial looks for answers
SCAM CITY: The student at the centre of an alleged multi-million-pound fraud

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Matt Hancock says he didn't watch all of Dominic Cummings' testimony because he was busy 'saving lives' - Sky News

Matt Hancock has said he did not watch all of Dominic Cummings' testimony to MPs because he was "dealing with getting the vaccination rollout going...and saving lives".

Mr Cummings, the prime minister's former chief adviser, had earlier repeatedly attacked the health secretary during a seven-hour-long committee hearing.

In response, Mr Hancock said: "I haven't seen his performance today in full.

"Instead I've been dealing with getting the vaccination rollout going, especially to over 30s, and saving lives.

"I'll be giving a statement in the House of Commons tomorrow (Thursday) and I'll have more to say then."

Mr Cummings had told the joint science and technology and health select committee: "I think the secretary of state for health should have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly.

"There's no doubt at all that many senior people performed far, far disastrously below the standards which the country has a right to expect. I think the secretary of state for health is certainly one of those people."

Mr Cummings said he had encouraged Boris Johnson to sack Mr Hancock, and claimed the cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill - the country's top civil servant - recommended the same course of action.

Mr Cummings said it took too long to get the test and trace programme set up, and that in April, the "system was too distracted by the Hancock pledge" to reach 100,000 tests a day, which the former adviser described as "stupid".

"I said: 'If we don't fire the secretary of state and we don't get testing into someone's hands, we are going to kill lots of people'."

Mr Cummings said Mr Johnson "came close to removing" Mr Hancock in April last year, "but just fundamentally wouldn't do it".

Mr Hancock also used chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance as "shields" to blame for his failures, Mr Cummings claimed.

Earlier on Wednesday evening a spokesperson for Mr Hancock said he had "worked incredibly hard in unprecedented circumstances to protect the NHS and save lives".

The spokesperson added: "We absolutely reject Mr Cummings' claims about the health secretary."

Downing Street did not deny that the prime minister considered sacking the health secretary in April last year but insisted Mr Johnson has confidence in him now.

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2021-05-26 21:27:16Z
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Matt Hancock says he didn't watch all of Dominic Cummings' testimony because he was busy 'saving lives' - Sky News

Matt Hancock has said he did not watch all of Dominic Cummings' testimony to MPs because he was "dealing with getting the vaccination rollout going...and saving lives".

Mr Cummings had earlier repeatedly attacked the health secretary during a seven-hour-long committee hearing.

In response, Mr Hancock said: "I haven't seen his performance today in full.

"Instead I've been dealing with getting the vaccination rollout going, especially to over 30s, and saving lives.

"I'll be giving a statement in the House of Commons tomorrow and I'll have more to say then."

Mr Cummings had told the health select committee: "I think the secretary of state for health should have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly.

Mr Cummings said he had encouraged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to sack Mr Hancock, and claimed the cabinet secretary - the country's top civil servant - recommended the same course of action.

"I said: 'If we don't fire the secretary of state and we don't get testing into someone's hands, we are going to kill lots of people'."

Mr Cummings said Mr Johnson "came close to removing" Mr Hancock in April last year, "but just fundamentally wouldn't do it".

Mr Hancock also used chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance as "shields" to blame for his failures, Mr Cummings claimed.

Earlier this evening a spokesperson for Mr Hancock said he had "worked incredibly hard in unprecedented circumstances to protect the NHS and save lives".

The spokesperson added: "We absolutely reject Mr Cummings' claims about the health secretary."

Downing Street did not deny that the prime minister considered sacking the health secretary in April last year but insisted Mr Johnson has confidence in him now.

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