Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden Speaks to G&T on the Reopening in England and More

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has spoken to Gloria De Piero and Tom Newton Dunn on Times Radio this morning.

After former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry described racism on social media as "too toxic to ignore" and shut down his accounts, Mr Dowden responded by saying action is being taken:

The most important provision (of the online harms legislation) is to make what's illegal on the street illegal online and to make sure that social media companies have proper regimes in place to remove illegal content. If they fail to do that they could face fines of up to ten percent of their global revenue and if you think of a large social media company, I won't choose one to name but they have multi-billion pounds worth of revenue that is a very strong sanction.

TND: So racism, on Twitter, against someone like Thierry Henry, will be illegal under your plans.

OD: If it's illegal in the street it will be illegal online.

After French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the UK will have a "problem" with the supply of the second dose of coronavirus vaccines, Mr Dowden said:

I don't think he's correct at all and certainly in all of the planning that we have had around vaccine rollout we have been absolutely clear of the need to factor in that second dose within twelve weeks and we are confident that we can deliver that. Anyone listening who's had their first dose should feel confident that the government has properly planned to have that second dose.

What he's said is simply not correct and I think that anyone listening to it should not worry about the commentary from a third government. We're very clear that we have those vaccines for the second dose.

And he's accused the BBC of straying into "sneering" over the use of Union Flag by ministers:

They need to have genuine impartiality. That is to say the impartiality can't be confined to the newsroom. It needs to be throughout all of their output and it should reflect all different perspectives in the UK. Secondly they do need to reflect all different parts of the United Kingdom not just the Brightons and the Bristols and the Hackneys of this world but also the Leeds and the Dudleys and the Borehamwoods of the world. And I think sometimes comments like we saw in that (BBC Breakfast) interview begin to stray from banter into sneering against attitudes that are held by many people in this country.