Shapps says RMT claim he wrecked talks ‘a total lie’ as Thursday’s rail strikes set to go ahead – as it happened

• Second day of strike action to go ahead after talks fail again
• Johnson ‘hasn’t lifted a finger’ to solve rail strikes, says Starmer
• Labour frontbenchers who joined strike pickets pressed to apologise

Moderna has announced that it will open a vaccine research and manufacturing centre in the UK. In a visit to mark the announcement, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said:

We all saw during the pandemic the differences that cutting edge vaccines and treatments can make and we all particularly saw that the mRNA technology has been very transformational. It has literally saved millions of lives over the last couple of years.

And that’s why I’m thrilled to announce this new partnership between the UK government and Moderna, where Moderna will established here in the UK, a global R&D facility with over £1bn for investment in this cutting edge technology, and also a huge manufacturing centre, their largest outside of the US, and so this is a great investment in the UK, and gives huge confidence to our life sciences sector already leading in Europe.

Boris Johnson will hold talks with the Prince of Wales in Rwanda after the latter’s reported criticism of the policy of sending asylum seekers to the country on a one-way ticket.

The prime minister will join Charles on Thursday in the east African country’s capital Kigali, where they are attending the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm).

The meeting between the prime minister and Charles will be the first time they have spoken since the service for the Queen’s platinum jubilee.

It was subsequently reported that Charles has described the policy of sending asylum seekers who arrive in the UK after unauthorised journeys as “appalling” in private remarks.

“They are due to meet, obviously they will encounter each other during the summit but they are due to have a bilateral discussion as well,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

The first flight removing people to Rwanda was due to take off last week but was grounded by successful legal challenges ahead of a full hearing on the scheme’s legality in UK courts.

Shapps says claim he wrecked strike negotiations 'a total lie'

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has accused Mick Lynch of “wasting time making false claims in the media” after the union boss accused him of wrecking negotiations.

He said in a statement: “This is a total lie from the RMT and its general secretary. I have had absolutely nothing to do with either the issuing of a letter from Network Rail, the employer, to the RMT - or any request to withdraw it.

“I understand that the letter makes no mention of 2,900 redundancies, but I do know it confirmed Network Rail would be introducing desperately needed reforms for the industry after the union chose strike action instead of further talks.

“The RMT continues to deflect from the fact that the only people responsible for the massive public disruption this week is them.

“I want to urge Mick Lynch and his members to stop wasting time making false claims in the media and instead return to the negotiating table so an agreement can be reached.”

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