Budget news live: Latest updates as trust in Boris Johnson falls

Former PM David Cameron has called the coronavirus pandemic the “greatest difficulty” confronted by a government in the past 50 years – and admitted a mistake was made in preparing for it when he was in office.

Speaking on Monday, the ex-Conservative Party leader said Boris Johnson was faced with Brexit and the “immense challenge of the pandemic”, a dual-pronged assault that had afforded the current administration less time to consider foreign policy via the National Security Council.

“All the former prime ministers – we speak to each other from time to time – we’d all say we had difficult decisions to make and difficult circumstances to face but nothing like this – this has been the greatest difficulty a government has had to face for 40 or 50 years,” Mr Cameron said.

“So to be fair to the government, they have had these twin challenges to deal with.”

Mr Cameron, who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, said the Ebola outbreak in west Africa in 2013 helped remind his government about the threat of pandemics but that a “mistake” was made when putting in safeguards.

He said: “The mistake that was made was that, in thinking about future pandemics, the focus was very much on influenza rather than on respiratory diseases.

“And I’m sure there will be a big inquiry into what we learnt and all the rest, but I think there was a pretty good flu pandemic plan, but it was a flu plan rather than a respiratory diseases plan.”

He added: “More should have been learnt from the experience with Sars and respiratory disease in terms of our own preparedness.”

David Cameron used his appearance in front of the National Security Strategy Committee on Monday to criticise decisions taken on security and aid by his successors.

The former PM said Theresa May made a “very bad mistake” allowing the role of cabinet secretary and national security adviser to be merged, with Sir Mark Sedwill holding both roles during her tenure in Downing Street.

“I think it was for instance a very bad mistake combining cabinet secretary and national security adviser – they are two jobs,” he told the committee.

“For one person, even if you were a cross of Einstein, Wittgenstein and Mother Teresa, you couldn’t possibly do both jobs and I think that temporarily weakened the National Security Council.”

On Boris Johnson’s decision to scrap the Department for International Development (DfID), Mr Cameron said: “I think abolishing DfID is a mistake too for all sorts of reasons but one of which is actually having the Foreign Office voice around the (National Security Council) table and the DfID voice around the table I think is important – they are not necessarily the same thing.

“Can you really expect the foreign secretary to do all of the diplomatic stuff and be able to speak to the development brief as well? That’s quite a task, so I think it is good to have both.”

David Cameron used his appearance in front of the National Security Strategy Committee on Monday to criticise decisions taken on security and aid by his successors.

The former PM said Theresa May made a “very bad mistake” allowing the role of cabinet secretary and national security adviser to be merged, with Sir Mark Sedwill holding both roles during her tenure in Downing Street.

“I think it was for instance a very bad mistake combining cabinet secretary and national security adviser – they are two jobs,” he told the committee.

“For one person, even if you were a cross of Einstein, Wittgenstein and Mother Teresa, you couldn’t possibly do both jobs and I think that temporarily weakened the National Security Council.”

On Boris Johnson’s decision to scrap the Department for International Development (DfID), Mr Cameron said: “I think abolishing DfID is a mistake too for all sorts of reasons but one of which is actually having the Foreign Office voice around the (National Security Council) table and the DfID voice around the table I think is important – they are not necessarily the same thing.

“Can you really expect the foreign secretary to do all of the diplomatic stuff and be able to speak to the development brief as well? That’s quite a task, so I think it is good to have both.”

The number of people living in hardship could soar by one million by May, Rishi Sunak has been warned ahead of the Budget announcement on Wednesday.

According to an analysis by the New Economics Foundation even if the chancellor extends the £20-per-week increase in universal credit payments, over 21 million people — or one in three — will have too little income to afford the basics for a “decent standard of living”.

Following intense pressure from charities and opposition MPs, reports have suggested Mr Sunak will use the Budget on Wednesday to extend the uplift in universal credit until November. The extra payments were introduced at the onset of the pandemic and due to expire later this month.

Political correspondent Ashley Cowburn reports:

EU countries are split on plans to introduce a vaccine “pass” that would allow people with the jab to bypass coronavirus travel restrictions.

European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen on Monday said she would bring forward legislation for a “digital green pass” later this month.

The proposal was welcomed by summer holiday destinations that rely on tourism like Spain, Greece and Portugal – but other member states like France and Belgium have warned it could be unfair.

Sophie Wilmès, Belgium’s foreign minister, said there was “no question of linking vaccination to the freedom of movement around Europe”.

Policy correspondent Jon Stone reports:

A post-Brexit weakening of human rights laws could threaten Northern Ireland‘s peace agreement, academics at Queen’s University in Belfast have warned.

The UK government announced a review of the Human Rights Act (HRA) and how it is functioning in December amid long-standing calls from Eurosceptics to significantly redraft or ditch it.

But amending it risks upsetting the delicate constitutional balance achieved in the 1998 Good Friday accord, the experts from Queen’s claim.

The UK government is under fire after announcing plans to slash aid to Yemen by nearly 60 per cent, to £87m.

Save the Children released a statement on Monday to say “our worst fears have been confirmed”.

“In September last year, the UK announced a global Call to Action to avert famine. Six months later, it is slashing aid to a country on the verge of the largest famine the world has seen in decades,” Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save the Children UK, said.

“Global Britain should be standing up for the 400,000 children under five who might starve to death in Yemen this year, not abandoning them in their hour of greatest need. The government must urgently rethink this move and the plan to abandon the 0.7 per cent commitment in time to avoid tragic consequences for the world’s most vulnerable children.”

Former health and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt called the move “incomprehensible”.

Jon Sharman has the full story:

MLA Justin McNulty criticised DUP agriculture minister Gordon Lyons and claimed his “stunt” (halting construction on permanent inspection checkpoints on the border) had diverted Executive attention from finalising Northern Ireland’s lockdown exit strategy.

“It is a smokescreen, it’s a farce,” Mr McNulty told the Assembly on Monday. “You didn’t halt any building, as building has not commenced.

“You have not halted the protocol, as there is recognition from both the UK and the EU that the protocol is going nowhere.

“Will the minister acknowledge the harm and confusion he has caused. Will he agree with me that this is a Brexit protocol, as a direct consequence of Brexit. Will the minister acknowledge that the only thing that he has stopped is the publication of his Executive’s plan for the opening up of the economy, for the returning of life to some sort of normality in the weeks and months ahead.”

Mr Lyons replied simply: “I wouldn’t agree with any of the points the member has made.”

Gordon Lyons, DUP agriculture minister, has defended his decision to halt work on permanent inspection checking facilities at Northern Ireland ports.

He appeared before the Assembly on Monday afternoon to face an urgent oral question on his controversial decision on Friday.

Mr Lyons said the steps he took were “as a result of the practical barriers and the legal uncertainties that currently exist”.

“I think the steps that I’ve taken have been entirely reasonable and I would ask people whether their opposition to what I have done is based on common sense and practicality or is it just based on opposition to anything that they don’t like in relation to Brexit and the protocol.

Explaining his move, Mr Lyons said he made it would enable him to seek clarity around what Northern Ireland is facing when grace periods limiting protocol bureaucracy lapse. He said he was not going to commit to building structures that might ultimately not be needed.

“At this stage, Mr Speaker, what I have sought to do is get further clarity,” he told the Assembly.

“We don’t know what is going to be expected of us, we don’t know what is going to be required but what I am very sure that I want to do is to make sure that we are keeping value for money and the public purse at the top of the agenda and making sure that we can do everything we can to protect the public purse.”

Mr Lyons said he wanted to see what solutions the joint EU/UK committee on the implementation of the protocol might agree to address some of the problems facing traders.

“I think it’s entirely sensible that as those issues are being discussed, as the joint committee has said that they’re going to meet again to discuss some of these issues, that it’s only right that we wait and we see what comes out of discussions rather than do work which then might never be needed or required,” he told MLAs.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested unionist parties could undo the Northern Ireland protocol his government has agreed to fully implement if they sweep to victory at local elections in 2024.

The House of Commons leader said unionist members of NI’s Assembly could “get rid of the protocol” by uniting but urged them not to collapse Stormont’s institutions.

Mr Rees-Mogg’s comments came less than a week after Michael Gove and European Commission vice president Maroš Šefcovic announced in a joint statement that both sides are committed to making the protocol work for the “benefit of everyone” in NI.

My colleague Matt Mathers has the story: