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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

UK coronavirus: 33,470 people test positive in a day; NI lockdown extended by a week - as it happened

Pedestrians wear face masks in Belfast in October.
Pedestrians wear face masks in Belfast in October. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

Early evening summary

  • The UK has recorded 33,470 further coronavirus cases - a new daily record, and more than 10,000 more than the total for yesterday. (See 4.58pm.) Today’s figure is also more than 6,000 above the previous highest daily total. At a No 10 press conference Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, was unable to give an explanation for the striking increase, but he stressed that the seven-day rolling average was a better guide to the trend than a single daily figure. The seven-day average for new cases is now running at 22,524, compared to 22,398 a week ago. (See 5.06pm.)

I’ve corrected the post at 4.05pm, about the Imperial College React survey, because originally the paragraph with regional prevalence figures was in the wrong place, making it look as if they were R numbers, not prevalence rates.

That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.

Updated

Northern Ireland's lockdown extended for another week after executive finally agrees compromise

Stormont ministers have decided to extend the Northern Ireland lockdown for a week, with the partial reopening of the hospitality sector on Friday 20 November, and a fuller reopening a week later. The five-party executive finally reached agreement after days of haggling.

These are from the BBC’s Darran Marshall.

Alok Sharma's press conference - Verdict from Twitter commentariat

The Alok Sharma press conference has just wound up, but journalists have been left wondering, what was the point?

From the FT’s Jim Pickard

From the Observer’s Michael Savage

From the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves

From the BBC’s Reeta Chakrabarti

(Actually, by the end of the press conference it was four times, because the question was asked again after Chakrabarti posted this.)

From the Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges

From the Telegraph’s Cat Neilan

Most of Greece now added to list of countries covered by English quarantine travel rules

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has announced the latest changes to the travel corridor rules for England.

Greece has been removed from the travel corridor list, which means that quarantine rules will apply to people arriving from Greece - unless they are coming from one of five Greek islands which remain on the list (Corfu, Crete, Rhodes, Zakynthos and Kos).

But UAE, Qatar, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Laos, Iceland, Cambodia, Chile, and Bahrain have been added to the travel corridor list.

And the travel ban for Denmark, imposed after the outbreak of a new varianet of coronavirus on a mink farm, has been extended for a fortnight.

Updated

Sam Coates from Sky asks the next question at the press conference.

Q: Who should Joe Biden’s chief of staff call in No 10 to speak to his opposite number?

Sharma ignores the question completely, and instead waffles on about how good relations are with the incoming Biden administration.

Q: How much of a distraction is the No 10 row about Lee Cain’s job?

Sharma says the government is focused on tackling the coronavirus crisis, and supporting workers and businesses.

Q: Why have case numbers risen so sharply?

Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, says it is more important to look at the rolling average than the daily figure. He quotes the latest figures, quoted by Alok Sharma earlier. (See 5.06pm.)

He also says it is important to look at other data, like Imperial’s “React” study, and the ONS infection survey. (See 4.05pm.)

Back in the No 10 press conference, Alok Sharma responds to a question from a member of the public who wants to know if England will return to the three-tier restrictions after the lockdown.

Sharma says the lockdown will end on 2 December. The PM will announce in advance what will happen next.

Students at Manchester University have occupied a tower in a rent strike, demanding a 40% reduction in rent for the rest of the academic year in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19.

The students, who have occupied the 200ft (61m) tower on the Owens Park campus in Fallowfield, also want the university to offer all students no-penalty early release clause from their tenancy contracts, for both this and the next academic years, and more help for students forced to self isolate.

In a letter to the vice chancellor, Dame Nancy Rothwell, the students say:

The decision to bring students back to university in September was purely motivated by profit and set a clear precedent. The poor decisions made by you and this university are not those of incompetence, but those of a calculating capitalist. This has been proven with the decision to ignore the rent strike and again with the erection of the fences around Fallowfield campus; a move clearly influenced by the disparity in cost between erecting fences and funding a working safety and security protocol.

One of the strikers, Izzy Smitheman, tweeted: “We were lied to and brought onto unsafe campuses, forced to pay insane rent for facilities we can’t even access. We’ve tried protests, we’ve withheld our rent and we’re being ignored! So we’re occupying the tower until they respond to us! #uomrentstrike #occupytoweruom”.

A University of Manchester spokesperson said:

We have made it clear to [the protesters] that they shouldn’t be there and that they may also be in contravention of current national health protection regulations. We are already engaging with elected students’ union representatives about many of the issues being highlighted by the protestors. The university is fully committed to freedom of expression.

Updated

Diving further into the revised Public Health Scotland figures quoted by Ruth Davidson at FMQs earlier, it becomes clear that nearly 10,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus were not spoken to by contact tracers within 72 hours.

The revised numbers show that around 9,469 people in total have not been traced within the 72-hour WHO target since records began in August.

The figures – which PHS says were revised following a coding error - show that the WHO target of tracing people within 72 hours was missed every week from 23 August to 11 October.

For three of the weeks, one-third of cases were not contacted within 72 hours.

Davidson, the Scottish Conservatives’ Holyrood leader, also pointed out that, from October 11, there was a sudden improvement in the figures which coincided with PHS changing their approach to contacting people primarily by text.

Davidson said:

The first minister found out these numbers were wrong a week ago and she should have fronted this up. She didn’t tell us that targets were missed eight weeks running – and they were missed by a mile. Figures now show that the situation only improved when ministers changed what constituted a “contact” – shifting the approach to “primarily” reaching people by text message.

Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, is speaking at the press conference now. He presents a slide with the latest hospital.

Covid hospital figures
Covid hospital figures Photograph: No 10

No 10 coronavirus press conference

Alok Sharma, the business secretary, is speaking at the No 10 press conference now.

He says the seven-day average number of Covid cases per day is now 22,524, compared to 22,398 a week ago.

He says there are now 14,196 patients in hospital, compared to 12,406 a week ago.

And he says the seven-day average for deaths is running at 375, compared to 295 a week ago.

Updated

UK records 33,470 further Covid cases

The UK government has updated the testing figures on its dashboard. And there has been a huge rise in the number of coronavirus cases.

  • The UK has recorded 33,470 further coronavirus cases. That is an increase of more than 10,000 (or 46%) on the total for yesterday (22,950) and a new record high. The dashboard does not say whether or not there are administrative reasons that help to explain the increase. Other figures on the dashboard have not been updated yet because the English deaths data is not yet available.

Public Health England has published its weekly Covid surveillance report (pdf). It covers the week up to 8 November (last Sunday).

Here are some of the key charts from the report.

The chart above shows a noticeable fall in the Covid rate in the north-west from the second half of October, coinciding with the introduction of tier 3 restrictions.

It looks as if Michel Barnier, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, may be near the end of his tether with trying to negotiate a trade deal with Britain. This is what he posted on Twitter within the last hour.

Covid infections in England running at around 1.3%, but some evidence of slowdown, Imperial College survey says

Imperial College London has published the latest data from its “React” survey, which uses mass testing to monitor the prevalence of coronavirus in England. These figures, along with the data from the similar ONS coronavirus infection survey, probably provide the best information available on the full spread of the virus, because they involve testing people at random - not just those with symptoms.

The latest Imperial figures (from round six of the survey) cover the final two weeks of October, and up to 2 November. More than 160,000 people participated. Here are the key findings.

  • The infection rate was running at 1.3% - equivalent to 130 people per 10,000. That was up from 60 people per 10,000 in the second half of September and early October. It was highest in the north-west and lowest in the south-east and east of England. Here are the full figures, with the change from late September/early October.

Prevalence of infection was highest in north-west (2.4%, up from 1.2% ), followed by Yorkshire and The Humber (2.3% up from 0.84%), West Midlands (1.6% up from 0.60%), north-east (1.5% up from 1.1%), east Midlands (1.3% up from 0.56%), London (0.97%, up from 0.54%), south-west (0.80% up from 0.33%), south-east (0.69% up from 0.29%), and east of England (0.69% up from 0.30%).

  • Infections were doubling every 24 days.
  • Growth may be slowing, the study says. In its news release Imperial says:

Coronavirus infections in England have continued to rise but growth may have slowed during the latter part of a recent study on community prevalence ...

Results from the most recent swabs suggest that there was a drop in infections followed by an uptick. But it’s too early to determine if this represents a levelling off or a transient dip followed by continued growth, the researchers say.

And the report itself says:

In contrast with our findings for mid- to late-October, we found evidence for a slowdown in the epidemic during the final days of October and beginning of November 2020, with suggestion of a fall and then rise in prevalence during that period. This slowdown was seen across the country, both north and south, and was not being driven by any one region.

  • R, the reproduction number, was 1.2 for England as a whole.
  • The rapid growth in the virus in the south detected by the survey in mid October was no longer apparent by the end of October.

Prof Steven Riley, study author and professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial, said:

These findings support those of other large studies that are monitoring England’s epidemic, but at the moment it’s too early to tell whether we are seeing a true slowing of growth.

That’s why it’s vital that we continue to monitor the situation closely with our next round of testing planned later this month. Combined with today’s report, these timely data will form part of the evidence base that will inform decision-makers.

There is a summary of the findings here. The full report is here (pdf).

The most recent ONS infection survey covered the period from 25 to 31 October. It estimated that around one person in 90 in England had the virus - or about 1.11%, to express it in the terms used by Imperial.

UPDATE: I’ve corrected this post because originally the paragraph with regional prevalence figures was in the wrong place, making it look as if they were R numbers, not prevalence rates.

Updated

Public Health Wales has recorded 867 more coronavirus cases. This is down from 928 yesterday, 1,272 a week ago today and 1,375 two weeks ago today.

But there have been 34 further deaths. That is down from 45 yesterday, but up from 30 a week ago today and 21 two weeks ago today.

NHS England has recorded a further 317 coronavirus hospital deaths. There were 90 in the north-west, 80 in the north-east and Yorkshire, 74 in the Midlands, 23 in London, 21 in the east of England, 15 in the south-east and 14 in the south-west. The details are here.

That is lower than the total for yesterday (361), but a substantial increase on the figure for last Thursday (236) and the Thursday before (192).

Updated

People with learning disabilities up to six times more likely to die from Covid during first wave, report finds

People with learning disabilities in England were up to six times more likely to die with coronavirus during the first wave of the outbreak, a study has found.

As PA Media reports, they were between 4.1 and 6.3 times more likely to die after contracting Covid-19 than the general population, Public Health England (PHE) said.

Younger adults with learning disabilities had “far greater” mortality rates, thought to be due in part to them being more likely to have other health problems like diabetes and obesity. Those aged 18-34 were 30 times more likely to die with the virus than adults of that age group in the general population.

Helen Whately, the care minister, has asked the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies to review the findings and advise on further action.

The full report is here (pdf) and there is a summary here (pdf). Here is an extract:

The key finding of this study was that people with learning disabilities had significantly and substantially higher death rates in the first wave of Covid-19 in England than the general population. Making no allowance for the younger age and different sex ratio of people with learning disabilities, the rate of deaths notified to LeDeR [the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review] in this group was 2.3 times the death rate in the general population. If this figure is adjusted to allow for the likely level of under-notification to LeDeR it was 3.5 times the general population rate. After standardisation for age and sex the rate calculated just from notifications to LeDeR was 4.1 times the general population rate. Adjusting for the likely level of under-notification it was 6.3 times the general population rate.

Explaining some of the reasons for these figures, the report says:

Many [people with learning disabilities] are likely to have had difficulty following government advice about self-isolation, social distancing and infection prevention and control. They may not have grasped the new significance of key symptoms or the advice to get tested if they develop these. Many have difficulty accessing healthcare in ordinary times and are likely to have had more difficulty negotiating the new ways to do this if needed. All these factors suggest people with learning disabilities are likely to have been more vulnerable than others in the various stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whately said that a third of people with learning disabilities who died were living in residential care, that there was now regular testing for people in care homes, and that regular testing was also being “rolled out to supported living settings in high risk areas”.

The disability charity Mencap said these deaths should be investigated in the forthcoming inquiry into the pandemic. Dan Scorer, head of policy at the charity, said:

The government has failed to protect some of our most vulnerable citizens.

Decades of underinvestment in social care has left most people with a learning disability with no support to understand ever-changing guidance on staying safe and accessing testing.

This - combined with the closure of the NHS for all but the most urgent care - has clearly had a devastating impact on people with a learning disability, and exacerbated already shocking levels of premature death and health inequalities.

The forthcoming inquiry into the handling of the pandemic must look closely at why so many people with a learning disability died from Covid-19 and what should have been done differently.

Updated

From the BBC’s Evan Davis

The government’s struggling test and trace system for England was hit by “huge” IT issues that delayed calls to some of the most vulnerable coronavirus patients last month, my colleague Josh Halliday reports.

R number in Scotland 'may be slightly below 1', says Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, told the Scottish parliament earlier that the latest estimate for R, the reproduction number, would be published soon.

She said it would show that R was still “hovering around 1, and may, actually, now be slightly below 1”.

She said that suggested that progress was being made, and that the current restrictions were having an effect.

She also announced the latest coronavirus figures for Scotland.

She said there were 1,212 more cases. That is broadly similar to the figures for yesterday (1,261), a week ago today (1,216) and two weeks ago today (1,128).

There are 1,207 people in hospital. That is down slightly from yesterday (1,235) and a week ago today (1,252), but up slightly from two weeks ago today (1,152).

And there have been 45 further deaths. That is down from 64 yesterday, but up from 39 a week ago today and 37 two weeks ago today.

Nicola Sturgeon during FMQs in the Scottish parliament.
Nicola Sturgeon during FMQs in the Scottish parliament. Photograph: Getty Images

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, leaving a conference centre in London. He has been engaged in the trade talks which are continuing.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, leaving a conference centre in London. He has been engaged in the trade talks which are continuing. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

A new study has found that showing just five pieces of vaccine misinformation can lead to a significant drop in the proportion of those intending to accept a Covid vaccine.

Researchers used nationally representative sampling to survey around 8,000 participants, half of whom were in the UK and half in the US, about their views towards a Covid vaccine.

The team then showed 3,000 of the participants in each country five pieces of recent Covid-19 misinformation around vaccines that have appeared on social media while the remaining 1,000 participants in each country were shown factual information about vaccines. After seeing the posts, each group again answered questions on their willingness to have a Covid-19 vaccine.

The study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, reveals that, at the start of the study, 54% of respondents in the UK and 41% in the US said they would definitely accept a Covid-19 vaccine. But after participants were shown five pieces of misinformation, these figures fell by 6.4 percentage points in the UK and 2.4 percentage points in the US, with posts that appeared more “scientific” found to have the greatest effect.

“It clearly has an impact on people’s intent to be vaccinated,” said Prof Heidi Larson of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who led the research, adding there was no change in the proportion of those willing to accept a Covid-19 vaccine was seen among the group shown factual posts.

Larson said the new study showed that, if vaccine acceptance was about or below the threshold needed for herd immunity, misinformation campaigns could tip acceptance of a Covid-19 vaccine below the level needed to protect the community.

Larson said it was difficult for tech companies to remove some posts which were not overtly harmful, such as those promoting scepticism, adding that it was crucial that people’s concerns were listened to and the correct information given and that more could be done by health authorities on social media to engage with the public.

“We can’t just take the misinformation down and not be there with an alternative,” she said

Updated

Members of the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland are holding fresh talks this afternoon in a bid to break the deadlock over new coronavirus restrictions for Northern Ireland. (See 12.46pm.) It will be the four meeting in four days.

From the BBC’s Jayne McCormack

Andrew Neil, the former BBC presenter, says Lee Cain was the person who misled the BBC during the 2019 general election campaign by saying Boris Johnson was willing to do an interview with Neil when he wasn’t. Jeremy Corbyn agreed to an interview because he thought Johnson would do one too, but the Johnson one never happened. But Neil also says he holds Johnson himself ultimately responsible.

'Significant gaps' remain between UK and EU in trade talks, says No 10

Here are some more lines from the Downing Street lobby briefing.

  • The prime minister’s spokesman said that there were still “significant gaps” between the two sides in the UK-EU trade talks, which are supposed to conclude next week. He said:

Talks are continuing in London and the negotiators are working hard to bridge the still significant gaps that remain. Time is in short supply and there are still significant gaps that remain.

Commenting on the talks in the Commons this morning, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, said:

The UK has already shown a great degree of flexibility in these negotiations, but it is important also that the European Union shows flexibility too.

In particular, there needs to be a full recognition that we are sovereign equals. And any attempt to continue to tie the UK into EU processes or to extend EU jurisdiction by other means would be quite wrong.

  • The prime minister’s spokesman rejected a claim from the Canadian PM yesterday that the UK was struggling to conclude a trade deal with his country by the end of this year. As Reuters reports Justin Trudeau told a conference hosted by the Financial Times:

I think we’re ready to have it [a UK-Canada trade deal] done before 1 January. One of the challenges is bandwidth. The UK hasn’t had to negotiate trade deals in the past few decades so there is an issue of not really having the bandwidth within government to move forward on this.

Asked about Trudeau’s comment, the No 10 spokesman said:

We’ve been working hard to reach an agreement with Canada and those discussions are ongoing.

If you look at the work that the Department of International Trade has been doing, they have been making good progress in terms of rolling over deals and also securing free trade agreements with countries such as Japan.

The Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale has urged Boris Johnson to hire a “serious heavyweight” as chief of staff. He said:

The government, and Downing Street particularly, should be concentrating all of its efforts on the pandemic and on the end game of Brexit, and frankly this is a distraction that cannot and should not be allowed to take place, and the prime minister has got to get a grip on it.

For my money Cummings is a liability and what the prime minister needs and deserves is a first-rate chief of staff who is a serious heavyweight, I think the expression currently in use is big boy pants.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman rejected claims, made by Labour (see 8.56am) and others, that the internal row about the chief of staff’s post was undermining the government’s handling of coronavirus. The spokesman said:

The prime minister is fully focused on tackling coronavirus. You can see the progress that we are making in terms of rolling out mass testing, in securing vaccines, and also in terms of making improvements to things such as test and trace.

What you can see is the prime minister is absolutely focused on beating this virus and taking the measures that are necessary to get that R rate down and get the infection rate back under control.

Alok Sharma, the business secretary, and Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, will be speaking at a No 10 press conference at 5pm this afternoon, the spokesman said.

The leaders of both the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour party, Ruth Davidson and Richard Leonard, attacked Nicola Sturgeon at FMQs on Scotland’s contact-tracing record, after the Scottish Sun revealed that figures proved test and protect results were five times worse than claimed.

A coding error was found to be responsible for overestimating the number of people contacted within 24 hours of testing positive for the virus.

Sturgeon insisted that the system was still working well. She said:

The coding error that has rightly been raised shouldn’t have happened and it has been rectified, but test and protect is working well.

She pointed out that Scotland was still ahead of the WHO standard of 80% new cases should have contacts traced with 72 hours.

But as the Sun’s Scottish political editor points out, this is not necessarily a useful comparison:

Public Health Scotland figures also show that since 22 June 6% of those who tested positive and 4% of their contacts were unable to be contacted by staff from the test and protect system, something Leonard went on to raise. But Sturgeon countered:

Those are people who, despite the best efforts of test and protect, don’t answer their phones or respond to text messages.

She said it was wrong to blame contact tracers for this behaviour and that instead we should be encouraging the tiny minority who are not participating in the system.

Updated

These are from Sam McBride, political editor of the News Letter in Belfast, on the Northern Ireland lockdown timing fiasco. (See 12.46pm.)

Northern Ireland's lockdown extended an extra 24 hours after officials admit they misread law

This week the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland has been split over what to do when its four-week lockdown ends this week. Health officials wanted a two-week extension, but the DUP would not agree. As of this morning, the deadlock had still not been resolved.

But, in a remarkable development, it has now transpired that the current lockdown is due to last 24 hours longer than expected.

The executive had said it would last until midnight tonight. But today, in response to a request for clarification, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland said that the law had been misunderstood and that the current restrictions would remain in force until midnight on Friday. A spokesman for the department said:

Executive ministers last night received revised legal advice that the deadline for the current restrictions on hospitality and close contact businesses is midnight on Friday November 13, and not tonight.

A protester from Action for Climate Truth and Reparations being removed after climbing the scaffolding outside the Houses of Parliament today.
A protester from Action for Climate Truth and Reparations being removed after climbing the scaffolding outside the Houses of Parliament today. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Only one in five of England’s council councils is confident of being able to set a balanced budget next year without “dramatic” cuts in services, according to a survey by the Tory-dominated County Councils Network.

David Williams, the Conservative leader of Hertfordshire county council and the CCN chair, said local authorities needed a “significant increase in funding” next year. He said:

Over the past decade, councils have done all they can to protect frontline services, transforming their organisations so they are more efficient. But as this survey shows, we are quickly running out of ways to meet the funding shortfall without dramatic reductions which will make visible and damaging changes to highly-valued services.

Updated

In the Commons this morning Julia Lopez, a Cabinet Office minister, said the government would be holding an internal review into the awarding of private contracts during the pandemic. She said ministers were conducting the review to satisfy themselves that claims that contracts were awarded on the basis of favouritism to Tory supporters or donors had “no basis”. She went on:

It is very important in this time of crisis that we maintain the confidence of the public in everything that we are doing.

She said, as well as the internal review, the National Audit Office was carrying out its own external review into procurement during the pandemic.

Updated

Record number of people test positive for Covid in one week

A record number of people tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to 4 November, according to the latest NHS test and trace weekly performance figures (pdf).

The statistics show 149,253 people tested positive for coronavirus, the highest number since the dataset was first published. This amounts to an increase of 8% compared with the previous week, where there were 138,107 positive cases.

Test and trace continues to struggle to reach contacts, with just 60.4% of all contacts identified. This is a slight increase on the previous week, where just 59.9% of contacts were reached, the lowest proportion since test and trace launched. More than 300,000 people were identified as coming into close contact with someone who had tested positive in the most recent week.

The proportion of people testing positive increased again to 9.8% of all tests completed, up from 9.3% last week. The positivity rate has been increasing since August, according to the official figures.

% of people testing positive
% of people testing positive Photograph: NHS test and trace

Updated

Today’s NHS England waiting time figures (see 11.07am) also show that only 77.6% of people were seen within four hours in major A&E departments in October, Labour says. Some 66,795 people had to wait more than four hours for admission to A&E, and 1,267 people waited more than 12 hours. Labour says these are the worst figures for October on record.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said:

Trolley waits at these levels are unacceptable at the best of times but in a Covid pandemic when infection control is so crucial this is dangerous and concerning for patients and staff.

Years of underfunding, bed cuts and understaffing left our NHS exposed when the coronavirus epidemic hit us.

Updated

This is from Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Covid symptom study, which uses an app to monitor the spread of coronavirus. He estimates that R, the reproduction number, is below 1 in all nations of the UK.

This is from Steve Back, a photographer covering Downing Street who tweets as @PoliticalPics.

Number of people going through courts halved during first wave of Covid, MoJ figures show

The number of people dealt with by the criminal justice system in England and Wales during the second quarter of the year fell by almost half at the height of the pandemic, according to the latest Ministry of Justice statistics.

In the three months of April, May and June this year, 49% fewer individuals passed through the system compared with the previous quarter as courts were closed and lockdown imposed across the country.

In its quarterly report the MoJ said:

Court activity was affected by the pandemic as adjustments were made to adhere to new rules on movement and social interaction. This has led to an exaggerated reduction in overall prosecutions, and the prioritising of certain types of court cases.

Among the other impacts observed were a steeper rise in the proportion of defendants being remanded in custody, reflecting the prioritisation during the crisis of offences most likely to result in custody.

The effect was most pronounced in magistrates courts. Compared with the first three months of the year, prosecutions fell by 58% and convictions fell by 59% in the latest recorded quarter to June 2020.

“The most notable drop was in summary non-motoring offences,” the report said, “where prosecutions decreased by 77% compared to the previous quarter and convictions decreased by 79%”.

The average custodial sentence length was also the highest in the past decade at 19.5 months for all offences and 22.0 months for indictable offences. That may also be as a result of more serious cases being prioritised for trial.

Updated

Almost 140,000 patients waiting more than year for hospital treatment in England, latest figures show

NHS England has published its monthly performance figures, and they confirm that coronavirus has created a huge backlog in the service. Here are some of the key figures.

  • In September the number of people who had been waiting for more than a year for hospital treatment was 139,545 - the highest number for any calendar month since September 2008. One year earlier, in September 2019, the number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,305.
  • In September 1.72m people had been waiting more than 18 weeks to start treatment. That was down from the figure in August (1.96m), but still well above the equivalent figure for September 2019, which was 672,112.
  • In September 420,445 patients been waiting more than six weeks for a key diagnostic test in September. That was down from the figure in May (571,459), but more than 10 times higher than the figure for September 2019 (38,750).

The figures also show that hospitals are still treating fewer people than before the pandemic.

  • The total number of people admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was down 27% in September compared with a year ago. Some 209,562 patients were admitted for treatment during the month, down from 288,230 in September 2019. But that is better than in July and August, when the year-on-year decreases were 55% and 43% respectively.
  • A&E attendances in October were 26% below their level for October 2019. That compares with with falls of 20% in September, 19% in August and 30% in July. Emergency admissions to A&E departments in October were down 14% in October from their level 12 months before.

An NHS spokesman said:

Despite rapidly rising Covid hospitalisations, cancer services are now back at pre-pandemic levels, GP appointments are running ahead of this time last year, and hospitals have have made particular progress in bringing back overnight elective operations. But it is clear that where there are higher levels of Covid we are seeing an impact on routine non-urgent care, so the public can play their part by continuing to help stop the spread of the virus.

In the Commons the SNP MP Pete Wishart asked Michael Gove about the Downing Street infighting. Wishart said the “faceless characters who actually run this country in Number 10 are at each other’s throats”, and he asked Gove: “Whose side is he on - Dom’s or Carrie’s?”

Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, replied:

I’m on the side of people from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth who voted to leave the European Union, who want us as a United Kingdom to make a success of these new opportunities [Brexit].

I know the Scottish government is a total stranger to behind-the-scenes intrigue and briefing wars, so I can imagine his shock and amazement to see things reported in the newspapers.

In truth, Gove is probably on Dominic Cummings’ side. The two have been close friends for years, and Cummings worked for him as an adviser when Gove was education secretary. Gove was also a leading figure in Vote Leave, where Cummings was campaign director.

Updated

Leading Corbynites Trickett and Lavery says Labour should apologise for Brexit second referendum policy

Jon Trickett and Ian Lavery, who were both prominent supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and members of the shadow cabinet when he was leader, are calling from an apology from Labour for its stance on Brexit before the 2019 general election.

They were both opponents of the party’s shift towards backing a second referendum during the 2017-19 parliament, and since the general election they have been researching why Labour lost support amongst working class voters. In an article for Huffington Post, they argue an apology would help to rebuild trust. They write:

At a time when many people think politics is broken and trust in the establishment is at a very low ebb, it is critically important that we reset the relationship between the party and the electorate. It may be that in order to do this we will need frankly to accept that we were mistaken.

So, let’s be honest. Labour got it wrong on a second referendum. The party went against one of the only times in recent history that people felt they could finally express their justified anger at the present political system.

To rebuild trust that has been lost and restore people’s trust in politics – Labour should say sorry. This is not only about Labour winning elections but restoring faith in democracy.

We do not believe that the party can move on until it has put this issue behind us.

For those who will say that the matter is behind us and we should move on, we say it will not do to whitewash or to ignore the recent past.

The country, our voters and our activists all deserve an explanation and perhaps an apology by the party for our actions in the years after the referendum up until the December election.

It must be a settling of accounts with leavers, of course – but also with the remainers, some of whom were falsely led to believe that we might be able to remain.

Peter Cardwell, who was a special adviser for four cabinet ministers under Theresa May and Boris Johnson until he was sacked in the reshuffle at the start of this year, told the Today programme the current No 10 was not functioning well. He told the programme

We were hearing from Jon Sopel earlier about the experience, competence and political agility of Ron Klain, Joe Biden’s new chief of staff. Those are not attributes that Downing Street could be accused of at the moment.

I think you [should not] underestimate the extent to which the backbenchers in the Conservative party are very concerned at how bad relations with No 10 are. That needs to be sorted, and sorted soon.

Updated

In a statement on the No 10 infighting, Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, said:

The fact that Boris Johnson’s most senior political advisers are busy waging a Tory civil war over their highly paid, taxpayer-funded positions, while the UK is hit by the worst health and economic crisis in decades, tells you everything you need to know about this arrogant, incompetent and self-serving Tory government. It’s a total shambles - they would be ashamed if they had a shred of decency.

Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, was doing the morning broadcast round for Downing Street this morning. He rejected claims that the government was distracted by the row about the post of chief of staff. He said:

It’s understandable that journalists, in particular, will be interested in the personalities of who works as advisers within Number 10 Downing Street.

But the prime minister runs the government. He is surrounded by a good team, a strong team of advisers, and, of course, the cabinet.

Our sole focus in government is trying to steer the country through the pandemic.

Updated

Sir Charles Walker, a vice chair of the backbench Conservative 1922 Committee, told the Today programme this morning, that Boris Johnson should appoint a chief of staff with good relations with Conservative MPs. He said:

I think there has been unhappiness about the Number 10 operation for some time.

Members of parliament have felt excluded from the decision-making process, and that’s no secret.

The real opportunity here is for the chief of staff position to be filled by someone who has good links with the Conservative party and its representation in the House of Commons.

Dominic Cummings has done little to disguise his general lack of respect for MPs, and one reason why the parliamentary party was opposed to the appointment of Lee Cain as chief of staff was because they feared this contemptuous attitude towards them would become further entrenched.

Dominic Cummings has arrived at No 10, the BBC’s Chris Mason reports.

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s most important adviser and a close ally of Lee Cain’s, did not respond to reporters outside his home this morning when asked if he too would be resigning. Cummings is the effective head of the dominant Vote Leave faction in No 10 and Cain’s departure suggests they are losing influence.

Last night there were reports that Cummings was considering resignation. But this morning that is being denied, and there is speculation that the resignation briefing was part of a (failed) attempt to persuade Johnson to keep Cain.

According to PA Media, Cummings left his home this morning “in a black cab before getting out and walking back down the street to return home”. Cummings then left home again in a silver car, PA Media reports.

Dominic Cummings outside his home this morning.
Dominic Cummings outside his home this morning. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

In an interview on the Today programme Guto Harri, who worked as Boris Johnson’s communications director in his first four years as London mayor, welcomed the departure of Lee Cain as evidence that Johnson was now less dependent on his tribal, aggressive Vote Leave advisers. Harri claimed that able people had been reluctant to work for No 10 because they thought they would have to answer to Dominic Cummings.

Harri praised the appointment of Allegra Stratton as Johnson’s press secretary, saying she was “highly effective”. He went on:

By having someone in the room for just a few weeks that reminds him what intelligent, thoughtful, competent people look like, it may have reminded the prime minister that the people in the room without her are not up to it. And it’s about time that he got more people like Allegra Stratton in the room to make sure that this government gets back on track.

Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson’s new press secretary, arriving at No 10 this morning. She is seen as the clear winner in a power struggle that led to the resignation of Lee Cain.
Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson’s new press secretary, arriving at No 10 this morning. She is seen as the clear winner in a power struggle that led to the resignation of Lee Cain. Photograph: John Sibley/Reuters

Britain’s economy grew at a record quarterly rate of more than 15% as lockdown restrictions were eased in the summer but the recovery has now petered out, my colleague Larry Elliott reports.

For the record, here is the statement that Lee Cain issued last night announcing his resignation as Boris Johnson’s director of communications.

After careful consideration I have this evening resigned as No 10 director of communications and will leave the post at the end of the year.

It has been a privilege to work as an adviser for Mr Johnson for the last three years – being part of a team that helped him win the Tory leadership contest, secure the largest Conservative majority for three decades - and it was an honour to be asked to serve as the prime minister’s chief of staff.

I would like to thank all the team at No 10 – including the many unsung and incredibly talented civil servants – for their hard work and support during the last 18 months.

And most of all I would like to thank the prime minister for his loyalty and leadership. I have no doubt that under his premiership the country will deliver on the promises made in the 2019 election campaign and build back better from the coronavirus pandemic.

Cain says he was invited to be Johnson’s chief of staff. What he does not say is that the offer subsequently seems to have been withdrawn, following a fierce and successful backlash involving Conservative MP, Allegra Stratton, the new press secretary, other aides, and Carrie Symonds, the PM’s fiancee. This means that Cain now joins a remarkably long list of people who have discovered that an offer or promise from Johnson is not always quite what it seems.

For the record, here is Johnson’s response.

I want to thank Lee for his extraordinary service to the government over the last four years.

He has been a true ally and friend and I am very glad that he will remain director of communications until the new year and to help restructure the operation. He will be much missed.

Lee Cain arriving at No 10 this morning.
Lee Cain arriving at No 10 this morning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

These are from the BBC’s Chris Mason, who has been in No 10 this morning.

'Pathetic' - Starmer condemns No 10 infighting after PM's senior aide Lee Cain resigns

Good morning. You might be wondering why the media is spending so much time obsessing about the departure of a No 10 communications chief when England is in lockdown, the pandemic is raging and the UK has just become the first country in Europe to record more than 50,000 Covid deaths, reinforcing claims that its handling of the virus has been relatively feebly by international standards.

But they are, of course, related. Why do you think the government’s handling of coronavirus has been flawed? Who was supposed to be in charge? Has having a dysfunctional Downing Street helped?

Here is my colleague Jessica Elgot’s overnight story about the resignation of Lee Cain.

And this is what Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, had to say about the row leading to Cain’s departure on LBC this morning.

This is pathetic. I think millions of people will be waking up this morning, scratching their heads, saying what on earth is going on?

We’re in the middle of a pandemic, we’re all worried about our health and our families, we’re all worried about our jobs, and this lot are squabbling behind the door of number ten.

It’s pathetic. Pull yourselves together, focus on the job in hand.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, takes questions in the Commons.

9.30am: NHS England publishes monthly waiting time and other performance figures.

9.30am: The ONS publishes figures on the economic impact of coronavirus.

11am: NHS test and trace publishes its weekly performance figures.

11am: Philip Hammond, the former chancellor, speaks at the launch of a Resolution Foundation report into repairing the public finances.

12.20pm: Nicola Sturgeon takes first minister’s questions in the Scottish parliament.

Afternoon: Downing Street is expected to hold a press conference.

Politics Live is now doubling up as the UK coronavirus live blog and, given the way the Covid crisis eclipses everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But we will be covering non-Covid political stories too, like the Downing Street chief of staff row, and when they seem more important or more interesting, they will take precedence.

Here is our global coronavirus live blog.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Updated

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