Tag Archives: Politics

Can Boris Johnson Escape Dominic Cummings?

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Despite swimming in allegations of “Tory sleaze” from his opponents, Boris Johnson was characteristically upbeat when he faced reporters on Friday afternoon.

Pressed on those leaked text messages he exchanged with billionaire James Dyson at the height of the pandemic, he snapped back that there was not “anything remotely dodgy or rum or weird or sleazy about trying to secure more ventilators”.

The PM was, as ever, carefully sidestepping the real question: what exactly did he mean when he told the Tory donor that Rishi Sunak could “fix” tax issues for Dyson?

But with election warfare resuming proper and Covid infection rates continuing to fall, this week felt as though the normal rough and tumble of politics was back and crackling.

Not least because it marked the return to the stage of a very familiar Westminster actor: the Downing Street source.

Also known as ‘a source close to the prime minister’ or ‘one familiar with the workings of Number 10’, the source briefed three newspapers that the PM’s former aide Dominic Cummings was behind leaks to the media.

The PM was “disappointed” at how “bitter” Cummings had become, the source said, in three reports published at almost exactly the same time on Thursday.

Johnson’s official spokesperson attempted to distance the PM from the reports (yes, the ones citing a ‘Downing Street source’), calling them “speculation”.

Not one to take it on the chin, Cummings hit back hard in a blog today, saying it was “sad to see the PM and his office fall so far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserve”, but he “will not engage in media briefing regarding these issues”. He repeated his call for a public inquiry into how the government has handled Covid and said he will give evidence to MPs.

An internal investigation is underway to find out who leaked what, but one thing’s for sure: Keir Starmer’s calls for a probe into the Dyson texts now seem like a sideshow.

And, while Johnson may struggle to escape Cummings’ desire for revenge if the former Vote Leave boss is indeed on the war path, it does Number 10 no harm if Johnson is able to sidestep scrutiny in the process.

It comes just days after the PM demoted his press secretary Allegra Stratton and scrapped on-camera briefings for journalists – rendering useless the new £2.6m press room Dominic Raab once insisted was “value for money”, which further raises questions about the government’s media strategy, both nationally and locally.

Angela Rayner was the first to go on the attack, telling Johnson had presided over a day of “cover-ups and cock-ups” and shown “breath-taking contempt for the country” over both the texts and Cummings.

The deputy Labour leader has also written to Tory chair Amanda Milling over the party amplifying “fake news” about hospital cuts in Teesside from a US-based site called Hartlepool TV. The site and its associated pages have also shared conspiracy theories about vaccines, the Capitol Hill attack and voting fraud in the 2020 US elections.

Rayner warned campaigning in the forthcoming elections must “not be used as a vehicle for the spreading of hate, conspiracy theory and misinformation”.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden won plaudits for his punchy pledge for a fans-led review of football this week. He has previously warned the government’s long-awaited online harms bill would herald a “new age of accountability” for tech companies who fail to tackle fake news on their platforms.

Here’s hoping the fast-approaching end of the pandemic is not seen by this government as a green light to avoid scrutiny itself.

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Dominic Cummings Blasts Boris Johnson Over His ‘Competence And Integrity’ And Denies Leaking Stories

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Dominic Cummings has questioned Boris Johnson’s “competence and integrity” as he accused the prime minister of being responsible for a series of false allegations about him in the media.

In an explosive blog posting, Johnson’s former top adviser denied he was responsible for the leak of private texts in which he promised to “fix” a tax issue for the entrepreneur Sir James Dyson.

He also claimed the PM had tried to stop an inquiry into the leak last year of plans for a second lockdown because it implicated a friend of his fiancee, Carrie Symonds.

He said that he had also warned Johnson against plans to have donors secretly pay for refurbishment of his Downing Street flat, saying they were “unethical, foolish (and) possibly illegal”.

“It is sad to see the PM and his office fall so far below the standards of competence and integrity the country deserves,” he said.

His attack follows briefings to a number of newspapers, which said Johnson believed Cummings was the source of the leaks about the lockdown and his texts to Sir James as well as stories about the flat refurbishment.

It follows his dramatic departure from No 10 last year amid the fallout from a bitter power struggle with Symonds.

Denying the being the source of the BBC story on Johnson’s text communications with the businessman, Cummings said: “I do have some WhatsApp messages between the PM/Dyson forwarded to me by the PM. I have not found the ones that were leaked to Laura Kuenssberg on my phone nor am I aware of being sent them last year. I was not directly or indirectly a/the source for the BBC/Kuenssberg story on the PM/Dyson texts.”

He said he is “happy to meet with the Cabinet secretary” and to have his phone searched.

He added: “If the PM did send them to me, as he is claiming, then he will be able to show the Cabinet secretary on his own phone when they were sent to me.

“It will therefore be easy to establish at least if I was ever sent these messages. I am also happy to publish or give to the Cabinet Secretary the PM/Dyson messages that I do have, which concerned ventilators, bureaucracy and covid policy — not tax issues.”

Referring to the leak of a decision on having another lockdown last autumn, Cummings said: “Last year there was a meeting between the PM, Cabinet Secretary, the director of communications and me regarding the leak of the decision for a further lockdown on the Friday evening immediately after the meeting in the Cabinet Room that made the decision (known in the media as ‘the chatty rat story’).”

He said Johnson “knows that I was not the source of the leak and that the Cabinet secretary authorised the prime Minister’s official spokesman to tell the media this, yet he has now authorised his DOC (director of communications) to make this accusation”.

He said events around that situation had “contributed to my decision to stick to my plan to leave No10 by 18 December, which I had communicated to the PM in July the day before my long-delayed operation”.

Cummings said Johnson had “stopped speaking” to him about renovations to the Downing Street flat last year “as I told him I thought his plans to have donors secretly pay for the renovation were unethical, foolish, possibly illegal and almost certainly broke the rules on proper disclosure of political donations if conducted in the way he intended”.

He added: “I refused to help him organise these payments. My knowledge about them is therefore limited.

“I would be happy to tell the Cabinet secretary or Electoral Commission what I know concerning this matter.”

Cummings said he has “made the offer to hand over some private text messages, even though I am under no legal obligation to do so, because of the seriousness of the claims being made officially by No10 today, particularly the covid leak that caused serious harm to millions”.

However, he added that this “does not mean that I will answer every allegation made by No10”.

He said the “proper way for such issues to be handled” would be through a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s conduct over the Covid crisis.

He said this “ought to take evidence from all key players under oath and have access to documents”.

He added: “Issues concerning covid and/or the PM’s conduct should not be handled as No10 has handled them over the past 24 hours.

“I will cooperate fully with any such inquiry and am happy to give evidence under oath.

“I am happy for No10 to publish every email I received and sent July 2019-November 2020 (with no exceptions other than, obviously, some national security / intelligence issues).”

The ex-aide confirmed he will appear before MPs next month.

He wrote: “I will not engage in media briefing regarding these issues but will answer questions about any of these issues to parliament on 26 May for as long as the MPs want.”

Johnson declined to say why No 10 insiders suspected Cummings is behind leaks of his correspondence.

During a campaign visit to Hartlepool, Johnson told broadcasters: “I think people aren’t so much interested in who is leaking what to whom as the substance of the issue at hand. The issue is really the question of the ventilators as you will remember James Dyson was offering to make.

“Let’s be absolutely clear I think it was right to talk to him.”

He said he is “mystified” as to why some people have “chosen to attack” his communications.

Asked if he will take legal action against Cummings, the prime minister said: “I think there’s much more public interest in what we’re doing not just to procure ventilators…

“And we’re now in a position where we do have 30,000 ventilators, we’re able for instance to think about what we can do to help the people of India who are suffering so terribly at the moment.”

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Labour Won’t Win Election With ‘Tory Sleaze’ Attacks Alone, Peter Mandelson Warns

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Attacking “Tory sleaze” will not win the next election for Labour alone and Keir Starmer needs to go on the attack against Boris Johnson, Lord Mandelson has said.

The party grandee told HuffPost UK’s Commons People podcast that while Labour’s local election attacks around “cronyism” and the lobbying scandal will “loosen and crumble” Tory support, it will not be enough to win nationally in 2024.

Starmer must also present a “credible and attractive alternative”, as well as showing Labour is strong enough to “tear [the Tories] inside out, strip them down, lay them bare, and see what they stand for and what they are not doing for this country”.

Mandelson told Commons People: “One thing is clear to me – it’s that Tory sleaze is not going to win the next election for Labour.

“It will loosen and crumble a lot of support for the Tories and people will reach the conclusion that they are out for themselves and that they suit themselves and they fill the pockets of their own cronies and supporters, that’s true.

“But that doesn’t mean to say that Labour’s just got to sit back and wait for the election to fall into their laps.

“That’s not how you win elections. 

“So fine, make the point, but you’ve got to present a credible and attractive alternative if you want people to vote for you.” 

Speaking from Hartlepool where he is campaigning for Labour ahead of the crunch May 6 by-election, Mandelson said the party had a “real fight” in the seat, where it was “completely outgunned” by the combined Tory and Brexit Party vote in 2019.

Johnson is also benefitting from a “vaccine bounce” in the polls, while voters in Hartlepool felt Labour had “lost its way over the last decade” because it was nationally “rubbish” and “fell into bad hands” locally, and that the party took the town for granted.

“Then along came Brexit which loosened the cement even more, and frankly Corbyn then was the final hammer blow for Labour in this town, and then we had the disastrous results in the election in 2019,” he said. 

GLYN KIRK via Getty Images

Labour grandee Lord Peter Mandelson 

But now, he said, they feel “Labour is coming home, that there is a new broom, and they feel it nationally with Keir Starmer and I’m glad to say they feel it locally”.

“Increasingly, people are seeing Labour as a credible alternative, they do see Keir Starmer as a man of principles and of integrity.

“But they want to know a lot more about him and what he believes in and what the policies of the Labour Party will be at the next election before they are prepared to transfer their allegiance to him and the Labour Party.

Pointing out that Labour’s leadership has been “hermetically sealed” from the public due to Covid, he said that now the party has to make its case “with greater intensity, and more speed and more focus than we’ve been doing at any time in the last year”.

Asked if Starmer needs to freshen up the shadow cabinet, Mandelson said: “He’ll know what to do when the time comes and I’m not going to start giving him advice or lessons about how he should do his job.

“All I know is this – that people want Labour to make the weather.

“They want Labour to make the news.

“They want the Tories properly taken apart.

“If you fall short, if it’s a bit weak, if it’s a bit flabby, if it appears not to know how to use the media well, if it’s not doing its opposition research well and honing its attacks and creating the ammunition, and [having] people strong enough to fire that ammunition in the Tory direction, then people are going to say well, are Labour strong enough?”

Mandelson went on: “You don’t win elections by going through the motions, you don’t win elections by saying nice things about yourself.

“You’ve got to go for your opponents as well, tear them inside out, strip them down, lay them bare, and see what they stand for and what they are not doing for this country.

“And then people will look to you, and when they do look to you, you better have a credible, affordable set of modern policies for people to vote for.

“And that’s what Labour’s got to create over the next year or so.”

He added: “I want my party to win, I’m fed up of losing, I’m fed up to my back teeth of losing, I want to see my party winning again, and that’s why I’m here and that’s why I work for it.”

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No.10 Launches Leak Inquiry Into Boris Johnson’s Texts With James Dyson

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Downing Street has announced an internal inquiry into the leak of private text messages between Boris Johnson and billionaire James Dyson over the tax status of his employees.

The prime minister promised the businessman he would “fix” the issue after personal lobbying from Dyson via texts.

Dyson was seeking assurances before he agreed to build ventilators at the height of the coronavirus crisis. In the end, Dyson never supplied any ventilators to the NHS.

Labour has demanded an urgent investigation be conducted by parliament’s liaison committee, which is made of up senior MPs.

Speaking during PMQs on Wednesday, Labour leader Keir Starmer suggested it was “one rule for those that have got the prime minister’s phone number, another for everybody else”.

The text messages were obtained by the BBC. Asked if there would be a leak inquiry, the prime minister’s spokesperson said on Thursday: “I can confirm that, yes, we have instructed the Cabinet Office to look into this.”

Downing Street also said it will publish correspondence between Johnson and Dyson “shortly”.

“The prime minister said in the House he’s happy to share all the details with the House, as he shared them with his officials,” the spokesperson said.

“That’s what we’re working on, we’re pulling together that information.”

No.10 also did not deny reports, including in The Times, that cabinet secretary Simon Case advised Johnson to change his phone number because of concerns over the ease with which lobbyists and others from the business world were able to contact him.

The spokesperson said: “We don’t get into details of the advice provided between a cabinet secretary and a prime minister ,and so I’m not going to do that in this instance.”

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Johnny Mercer Brands Westminster A ‘Cesspit’ Full Of Liars

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Kirsty O’Connor – PA Images via Getty Images

Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer

Sacked veterans minister Johnny Mercer has said Westminster politics is a “cesspit” and Boris Johnson’s government “the most distrustful, awful” place he has ever worked.

Mercer left the government on Tuesday expressing frustration at a lack of progress over legislation to protect British soldiers who served in the Troubles.

Ministers have since promised to bring forward legislation to protect from historical prosecutions veterans who served in Northern Ireland, which the Tories promised in their 2019 election manifesto.

But Mercer said “the truth is that nothing has been done” as he said of ministers: “Shooting straight is not one of their finest qualities.”

The former Army officer said he thought Johnson is “deeply committed” to the manifesto promise but said the prime minister “should expect” his ministers to show the same level of responsibility.

Speaking to Times Radio, the former Army officer said: “This is the most distrustful, awful environment I’ve ever worked in, in government.

“Almost nobody tells the truth is what I’ve worked out over the last 36 hours.

“And, you know, so so I don’t think anyone really can get on their high horse about trust and ethics and all the rest of it in politics, because as far as I’m concerned, most of it is a bit of a cesspit, I think we do have a clear commitment to follow through on our promises and do right by those who serve.”

Mercer also accused the government of leaking his plans to resign and then lying about it.

“It’s pretty clear that not everyone tells the truth up here do they.

“I mean, I told people, I was resigning as a courtesy to government.

“Three hours later, it’s in the press.

“And an hour later, there’s someone following me around London with a camera.

“And, of course, they all denied they ever leaked it.

“It’s ridiculous.

The Plymouth Moor View MP said the government was guilty of “gross betrayal of people who signed up to serve in the military” by failing to protect UK soldiers.

“The reality is that for these people, their experiences after having served this nation, 50 years later, they are constantly being dragged over to Northern Ireland, and asked to relive their experiences, it is people are drinking themselves to death. It is breaking up families, it is ruining our finest people,” he said.

“And all they did was serve at the behest of this government at the behest of the House of Commons, to uphold the rule of law on the peace in Northern Ireland.”

Mercer’s replacement Leo Docherty told the Commons on Wednesday: “A bill will soon come forward from the Northern Ireland Office that will protect our Northern Ireland veterans of Operation Banner and address the legacy of the Troubles.”

Johnson also told MPs that the government would be “bringing forward further measures in due course” when challenged by the DUP to protect Northern Ireland veterans from “vexatious” prosecutions.

Downing Street said details of the new legislation would be confirmed in the Queen’s Speech on May 11.

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Defence Minister Johnny Mercer Resigns From Government

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Defence minister Johnny Mercer, the Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View, has resigned from the government.

Boris Johnson thanked Mercer for his service as a minister, according to a Downing Street spokeswoman.

In a statement released shortly after 7pm, the spokeswoman said: “This evening the prime minister has accepted the resignation of Johnny Mercer as minister for defence people and veterans.

“He thanks Johnny Mercer for his service as a government minister since 2019.”

In a letter to the PM, posted on his Twitter account, Mercer said: “It is with a heavy heart that I am forced to offer you my resignation from your government.”

He said he had hoped Johnson’s premiership would “signal a step change in veterans affairs in the UK”.

Mercer added: “Whilst we continue to say all the right things, you will understand that if we fail to match that with what we deliver, we risk damaging an already bruised veterans cohort further, as I told you last month in our first face to face meeting, we crossed that line some time ago.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Follow HuffPost UK on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.

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Boris Johnson Announces Plan To Find Covid-19 Tablets You Can Take At Home

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Boris Johnson has announced a new taskforce designed to identify tablets people can take at home to help them recover from Covid-19.

The prime minister said on Tuesday it would be modelled on the “success of our vaccination programme”.

Johnson said medicines could be available as early as the autumn, designed to stop the infection spreading and speed up recovery time.

“Our new antivirals taskforce will seek to develop innovative treatments you can take at home to stop Covid-19 in its tracks,” he said.

“These could provide another vital defence against any future increase in infections and save more lives.”

Antiviral drugs are a type of medication used specifically for treating viral infections, and act by killing or preventing the growth of viruses.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the taskforce’s aim was to have at least two effective treatments this year, a tablet or a capsule, which people can take following a positive test or exposure to someone with the virus.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said medicines were a “vital weapon” in combating the disease.

“The UK is leading the world in finding and rolling out effective treatments for Covid-19, having identified dexamethasone, which has saved over a million lives worldwide, and tocilizumab,” he said.

“I am committed to boosting the UK’s position as a life science superpower and this new taskforce will help us beat Covid-19 and build back better.”

Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said tablets would be a “key tool”.

“They could help protect those not protected by or ineligible for vaccines. They could also be another layer of defence in the face of new variants of concern,” he said.

“The taskforce will help ensure the most promising antivirals are available for deployment as quickly as possible.”

A chair of the new taskforce has yet to be identified, but a recruitment process will start shortly, DHSC said.

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Government Refuses To Reject ‘Incoherent’ Race Report

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The government has refused to reject the controversial race report, which has been described as “incoherent, divisive and offensive”.

Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said she was “very proud” of the “independent” report and criticised the “appalling abuse” suffered by members of the commission on race and ethnic disparities.

She rejected calls to reject the review from Labour, which described it as a “shoddy, point-scoring polemic which ignores evidence and does not represent the country”.

The shadow equalities minister Marsa De Cordova said the report had been “discredited” by the British Medical Association, public health expert Sir Michael Marmot, trade unions, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and human rights experts at the United Nations.

On Monday, the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent said the “reprehensible” report attempts to “normalise white supremacy” and could “fuel racism” in the UK.

But Badenoch told the Commons: “I’m very proud of it and of course we will not be withdrawing the report.

The equalities minister also said it was wrong to accuse people who argue for a different approach on how to address racial inequality as being “racism deniers” or “race traitors”.

She added: “The government even more firmly condemns the deeply personal and racialised attacks against the commissioners, which have included death threats.

“And in fact one member from the opposition benches presented commissioners as members of the Ku Klux Klan, an example of the very online racial hatred and abuse on which the report itself recommended more action be taken by government.” 

House of Commons – PA Images via Getty Images

Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch

Badenoch also claimed the report does not deny institutional racism despite a government briefing on the eve of its publication making clear that “the well-meaning ‘idealism’ of many young people who claim the country is still institutionally racist is not borne out by the evidence”.

She told the Commons: “The report does not deny that institutional racism exists in the UK, rather the report did not find conclusive evidence of it in the specific areas it examined.”

The equalities minister also insisted the commissioners did not want to “put a positive spin on the atrocities of slavery”, despite chair Tony Sewell writing in the report’s foreword that schools should teach a “new story” about African people and that the slave period was “not only… about profit and suffering”.

De Cordova hit back: “If left unchallenged, this report will undo decades of progress made towards race equality in the UK. Since publication, this report has completely unravelled.

“Its cherry-picking of data is misleading and incoherent, its conclusions are ideologically motivated and divisive, it is absolutely clear to all of us on this side of the House and across civil society that this report has no credibility.”

She added: “It is reprehensible and I hope the minister will reject it today so that we can get on with the task of tackling institutional and structural racism which is the lived experience of many.”

Badenoch said the government would respond formally to the report by the summer.

She and the prime minister have established a new, inter-ministerial group to review the report’s 24 recommendations, which will be chaired by Michael Gove.

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Government Pledges To Do ‘Whatever It Takes’ To Stop Football ‘Super League’

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The government has promised to do “whatever it takes” to stop six English football clubs breaking away from mainstream competition for form a so-called European “super league”.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden condemned the clubs as “tone deaf” and said he would not stand by and “watch football be cravenly stripped” of what the fans love about it.

He said the government would give “full backing” to the Premier League and other football bodies, which are considering sanctions to stop the clubs breaking away.

But he made clear: “If they can’t act we will.

“We will put everything on the table to prevent this from happening. 

“We are examining every option, from governance to competition law and mechanisms that allow football to take place.”

He added: “I want to reassure this House of a very robust response.

“We will do whatever it takes to protect our national game.”

Dowden also said he was “formally triggering” a fans-led review of football promised by the Tories in the party’s 2019 election manifesto, which will be led by former sport minister Tracey Crouch.

He also hinted that the government could change the law to allow the football authorities to take strong action, and that a windfall tax on the clubs involved was under consideration.

It came after Conservative Damian Collins warned that under existing powers for the Premier League and FA “there’s nothing that can be done to stop these six clubs joining the ‘super league’”.

He went on: “Is the government prepared to consider amendments to the law in order to give those bodies the powers they need – in particular to prevent clubs joining competitions that have not been sanctioned by either the FA or Uefa?”

Dowden replied: “On competition law, we’re already engaging with Beis (department for business, energy and industrial strategy) in terms of our response to it. We rule out absolutely nothing.

“I know from my conversations with the Premier League and with Uefa they’re already proposing to take some pretty draconian steps to stop this, but we stand ready and we will not allow anything to stop us from doing this in terms of timing, we’ll get on with it as soon as we need to.”

The decision of Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs to create a “closed shop” European competition without promotion or relegation has been met with a fierce backlash from fans, players, politicians and the football authorities. 

Critics believe it would fundamentally distort competition in Europe for the benefit of the richest few clubs.

Among the sanctions under consideration by the football bodies are kicking the teams out of the Premier League and banning their players from playing for international teams.

Downing Street earlier said a “range of options” were being considered by the government in response, with a German-style system of fan ownership of clubs and clawing back coronavirus support loans included as possibilities.

Tim MarklandPA

Football fans opposing the European Super League outside Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium on Monday

The European Super League plans also involve Spanish sides Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona and Italian clubs AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan.

German giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, as well as French champions Paris St Germain have refused to join the league.

The proposal has support from investment bank JP Morgan, which will provide around £4.3bn in debt financing for the competition.

Shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens called this “a watershed moment for our national game” and said Dowden’s statement was “short on detail and the urgency that this situation merits”.

The Labour frontbencher went on: “Football governance is broken, football finance is broken, and football fans whichever club we support, are ignored.

“The hedge-fund owners and billionaires who treat football clubs like any other of their commodities have no care for history of our football, for the role it plays in villages, towns and cities up and down our country and especially for the fans who are the beating heart of it.

“They should understand their role as custodians rather than cartel chiefs.The future of our national game and all our clubs depend on it.” 

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India Added To UK’s Covid Travel ‘Red List’, Announces Matt Hancock

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India will be added to the UK’s “red list” for travel, Matt Hancock has announced.

It means from 4am on Friday April 23, only British, Irish and third-country nationals with residency rights travelling from India can enter England.

Anyone arriving in the country will be required to self-isolate in a government-approved hotel for ten days.

Hancock told the Commons on Monday: “We’ve recently seen a new variant first identified in India.

“We’ve now detected 103 cases of this variant, of which again the vast majority have links to international travel and have been picked up by our testing at the border.”

The health secretary said the samples have been analysed to see if the new variant has any “concerning characteristics” such as greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines.

He added: “After studying the data, and on a precautionary basis, we’ve made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list.”

Boris Johnson cancelled his visit to India next week, as the coronavirus crisis deepened in India and concerns grew over the new variant.

The already-curtailed trip was postponed indefinitely on Monday, but the prime minister said he planned to hold a call with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi ahead of a rescheduling “as and when circumstances allow”.

Johnson had until that point resisted demands to hold the talks, aimed at fostering closer ties with the nation, on a virtual basis amid calls to impose greater restrictions on travel to and from India.

The cancellation came as New Delhi entered a week-long lockdown to tackle a surge in cases and prevent a collapse of the capital’s health system, as India reported 273,810 new infections – the highest daily rise since pandemic began.

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