Prime minister Boris Johnson has failed to deny that as many as 3.5m people a week will be forced into self-isolation by his decision to scrap all coronavirus restrictions on 19 July.
Mr Johnson was pressed repeatedly in the House of Commons to spell out forecasts of deaths, hospitalisations and self-isolation orders, after health secretary Sajid Javid said that Covid-19 infections were set to soar to 100,000 a day following the end of mandatory face-masks and social distancing.
Accusing the PM of a “reckless” approach which would deliver a “summer of chaos and confusion”, Sir Keir Starmer told MPs: “It won’t feel like Freedom Day for those who are having to isolate.”
And he warned that Mr Johnson’s approach would undermine the Track and Trace system, as people delete the NHS app in order to avoid being “pinged” after coming into contact with infected people.
In fiery exchanges, Mr Johnson was twice rebuked by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle as he dodged the question and tried to turn the debate onto what he claimed was Labour failure to spell out its own plans.
Speaking during his weekly grilling at prime minister’s questions in the Commons, Mr Johnson claimed that it was “reasonable” to go ahead with a big-bang removal of coronavirus restrictions in 12 days’ time because scientific evidence showed that vaccines had “severed the link” between infection and serious illness or death.
But Starmer retorted that the link had in fact been “weakened, but it hasn’t been broken”, meaning that the surge in infections following 19 July is likely to result in an increase in hospitalisations, deaths and cases of long Covid and increase the risk of dangerous new mutations of the disease.
The Labour leader said that the relaxations were being introduced at a time when cases in the UK were soaring “because the prime minister let the Delta variant - and we can call it the Johnson variant - into the country”.
Citing estimates that between 2-3.5m people a week could be forced into self-isolation over the summer, Sir Keir asked: “Is the prime minister really comfortable with a plan that means 100,000 people catching this virus, every day, and everything that that entails?”
He accused the PM of trying to “wish away” the practical problems caused to families and businesses by the expected surge in infections as the summer holidays begin.
“He’s ignoring the next big problem that’s heading down the tracks which is going to affect millions of people who have to self isolate,” said the Labour leader.
“It won’t feel like Freedom Day to those who have to isolate, when they’re having to cancel their holidays, when they can’t go to the pub or even to their kids’ sports day.
“And it won’t feel like Freedom Day to the businesses who are already warning of carnage because of the loss of staff and customers.
“It must be obvious, with case rates that high, that his plan risks undermining the Track and Trace system that he spent billions of billions of pounds.
“There are already too many stories of people deleting the NHS app - he must have seen those stories. And they’re doing it because they can see what is coming down the track. We don’t support that, but under his plan it’s entirely predictable.
“What is the prime minister going to do to stop people deleting the NHS app because they can see precisely what he can’t see, which is that millions of people are going to be pinged this summer to self-isolate?”
