Inside Politics: Minister admits government was warned of exam chaos

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We have our first glimpse at The Crown’s fourth season, featuring Thatcher’s rise to power and Diana getting ready for the royal wedding. “Something as important as the monarchy cannot be allowed to fail,” says Olivia Colman as the Queen. Will anyone ever make a drama out of the exam results crisis of 2020? Probably not. As another squalid episode in our political history comes to an end, it looks as though Gavin Williamson cannot be allowed to fail right out of his job as education secretary. There will, however, be a review into the evil algorithm – the actor chosen to be the villain of the piece.

Inside the bubble

Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn on what to look out for today:

The seventh round of Brexit trade deal negotiations conclude in Brussels today. No 10’s chief negotiator David Frost and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier are expected to have breakfast together, before finishing up talks and telling the media whether any progress has been made. No big breakthroughs were expected this week, with the thorny issues of regulatory alignment and fishing rights still as thorny as ever.

Daily briefing

SOME ALARM, NO SURPRISES: The national statistics regulator will carry out a review of the algorithm used to decide A-level results. But we don’t need a review to know Gavin Williamson and fellow education ministers knew about potential problems in grade moderation – schools minister Nick Gibb admitted they were warned about it in July. Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said: “I’d like to know what they’ve been doing since then … What on earth has been going on?” The government said all students getting the required A-level marks will get a place at university “where possible” – meaning some will have to defer. GCSE passes, meanwhile, have risen dramatically after the ditching of the algorithm. Over a quarter scored the equivalent of an A or above. Nick Gibb said BTec students would “hopefully” receive their grades next week – a delay Kate Green called “disgraceful”.

CARDS ON TABLE: Any sign of progress in the Brexit talks? Maybe, just maybe. Reports suggest UK negotiators have presented a draft of a desired trade deal to the EU team. David Frost gave Michel Barnier a “consolidated legal text”, according to The Times. Meanwhile, it looks like Britain will lose its power to send asylum seekers back to other EU countries at the end of the transition period. Brussels negotiators have reportedly rejected UK requests for a new agreement to replicate the Dublin Regulation. Elsewhere, trade secretary Liz Truss’s talks with Brexiteers’ favourite think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), were reclassified as “personal discussions” and removed from the public record. I’m sure they just chatted about holiday plans and stuff on Netflix, right?

LIFTING OF LISBON: The government is removing Portugal from the quarantine list – but adding Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago to the roster of countries from which returning travellers will have to self-isolate. Transport secretary Grant Shapps said the changes would come in 4am on Saturday. Meanwhile, as the spike in Covid cases continue across Europe, the Scottish government has added Switzerland to its own quarantine list. There was discouraging news in the latest weekly coronavirus case figures. They showed the number of infections has increased by almost a third. In other developments, it has emerged the government paid consultants at McKinsey more than £500,000 to come up with the “narrative” for the test and trace programme. What a narrative it turned out to be.

MY WORK HERE IS DONE: Dame Louise Casey has “stepped back” from her job as chief government advisor on homelessness. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick thanked Dame Louise for her work, especially the work leading the government’s homelessness task force during the pandemic. So now that Covid is over and homelessness is a thing of the past, there’s no need for her to waste her time any longer – right? Wrong, say the opposition and charities. Crisis warned of a “leadership vacuum” and Labour’s shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire said it “raised serious questions” about the commitment to tackling rough sleeping. She also called on the government to extend the ban on evictions – coming to an end in England this weekend.

BIBLICAL EPIC: Joe Biden summoned up a grand, religious vision of good versus evil in his speech accepting the Democratic nomination last night. Donald Trump had “cloaked America in darkness for much too long,” said Biden, adding: “I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness.” But the juiciest news from the US comes courtesy of Trump’s former strategic mastermind Steve Bannon. He and three others behind an online fundraising campaign to help build a US-Mexico border wall have been charged with wire fraud and money laundering. The Department of Justice’s indictment claimed that Bannon “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors”. It’s alleged he received more than $1m from the campaign (some of which was used to cover his “personal expenses”). Trump said he felt “very badly” about it all – but insisted he had no involvement.

TEA AND SYMPATHY: Russian opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny is fighting for his life in a medically-induced coma following a suspected poisoning, his spokeswoman has claimed. The Putin critic’s team suspect something was put in his tea at an airport cafe, before he fell ill on a plane then forced to make an emergency landing in Siberia. The Kremlin expressed sympathy – wishing Navalny a “speedy recovery”. An air ambulance organised by the Cinema for Peace group is now set to take him to Germany for treatment. UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he was “deeply concerned” by the incident, while France’s European affairs minister Clement Beaune said: “I share those fears and the shock caused by this dramatic situation.”

On the record

“This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme.”

Joe Biden paraphrases Irish poet Seamus Heaney in his big speech.

From the Twitterati

“Absolute head-scratcher for anti-migrant Brexiteers: that thanks to Brexit the UK will no longer be able to return immigrants to Europe.”

Comic David Schneider almost feels sorry for Brexiteers over the end of Dublin regulation…

“So much ‘control’.”

…and LBC host James O’Brien is reminded of a famous slogan.

Essential reading

Mark Steel, The Independent: The new way of governing: announce a stupid policy, abandon and repeat

Tom Peck, The Independent: Exam farce shows nothing will stop Boris Johnson enjoying a holiday

Katy Balls, The Spectator: The importance of Gavin Williamson to the government

Tom McTague, The Atlantic: Why the West shouldn’t long for a return of the 1990s

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