The diary extract from ex-Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance comes as the PM Rishi Sunak prepares to take the stand at the Covid Inquiry next week

Top civil servant summoned to give ‘full and frank’ answers after costs of scheme rose from £140m to £290m

Experts say alteration to holiday rights is one of the most significant erosions of employment protections since UK left EU

Attending the inquiry midweek with photos of relatives, Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice will unveil a powerful billboard

Designation means the bathing waters carry risk of sickness, as government is accused of ‘gross negligence’

One of the government's chief scientific advisers made the remark about the then chancellor in September 2020 - shortly after the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was rolled out.

Messages from Simon Case, Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings document tension at the heart of government during Covid

Co-founder of Change UK who opposed Brexit praises Keir Starmer as having the ‘values and competence’ the country ‘desperately needs’

Liberty is taking the home secretary to court for ‘unlawfully’ passing legislation Parliament had already rejected

Exclusive: Frank Hester, who gave Rishi Sunak’s party £5m this summer, is thought to have made huge sums from DHSC contracts

Deal with Centerprise was paid for from the same pot of cash earmarked to rebuild classrooms at risk of collapse because they contain ­potentially deadly concrete

The heavily-publicised protests were not quite the grassroots movement the right-wing press made them out to be

Exclusive: Major blow for Rishi Sunak as tycoon who donated £750,000 opens wallet to Starmer – and hotelier who gifted £100,000 says 'incompetence' is driving backers away