Western Morning News (Saturday)
The things they say
■ “One is the positivity rate has nearly doubled since the last review in Portugal and the other is there’s a sort of Nepal mutation of the so-called Indian variant which has been detected and we just don’t know the potential for that to be a vaccine-defeating mutation and simply don’t want to take the risk as we come up to June 21 and the review of the fourth stage of the unlock.”
– Transport Secretary Grant Shapps outlines two causes
of concern.
■ “Ministers spent last month hailing the restart of international travel, only to close it down three weeks later all but guaranteeing another lost summer for the travel sector.”
– Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye responds to
the UK’s decision.
■ “As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable.”
– President Joe Biden says the US will donate 75% of its unused Covid-19 vaccines to the UN-backed Covax global.
■ “So where there is the political will, the Treasury can find the money from the back of the sofa, and there has to be that political will because we need a long-term plan for education, a proper funding settlement.”
– Tory MP Robert Halfon criticises the Government for failing to commit more funding to help children catch up on missed lessons.
■ “I sought assurances that there would be no return to the cruel and damaging austerity of the past and that furlough and the £20 uplift in Universal Credit will be extended.”
– Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
■ “I think we have got a situation where some people seem to think it is a political stand that they don’t agree with. That’s not the reason the players are doing it. We are supporting each other”
– England manager Gareth Southgate on fans who booed when players took a knee before the game against Austria.
■ “It was reckless and callous to house people in accommodation that created ideal conditions for outbreaks of Covid.”
– Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds after six asylum seekers formerly housed at Napier Barracks won a legal challenge against the Government over their accommodation.