That’s it for the UK blog today. As always thanks for reading along, and my colleague Clea Skopeliti is continuing our coronavirus coverage over on the global blog, as Spain records its lowest death toll in two months.
Evening summary
- Up to 20% of hospital patients in England got coronavirus while in for another illness. Up to a fifth of patients with Covid-19 in several hospitals contracted the disease while already being treated there for another illness. Some of the infections were passed on by hospital staff who were unaware they had the virus, while patients with coronavirus were responsible for the others.
- UK daily coronavirus death toll lowest since lockdown began. A further 170 people died after contracting the virus, although due to hospital reporting delays, the numbers reported on Sundays and Mondays are typically lower than other days.
- Government pledges £84m to mass produce Oxford vaccine if trials successful. Oxford University has confirmed a global licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, which will make 30m vaccine doses available to the UK by September if the trials are successful, as part of an agreement for 100m doses in total.
- UK wrong to rule out global coronavirus comparisons, experts say. Academics’ data on excess deaths shows the peak in England was higher than Italy’s. Ministers have said comparisons are not accurate because countries collect their data in different ways.
- Data on reopening schools reassuring, says WHO scientist. Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), said evidence from countries where schools have remained open suggests this has not led to large outbreaks of Covid-19.
- Police quiz man over death of rail worker spat at by ‘Covid carrier’. Belly Mujinga, 47, died after a man who claimed to have the virus spat at and coughed over her at Victoria station. British Transport Police said detectives had now identified a 57-year-old man in connection with the incident.
- Doctors believe blood-thinning drugs could help save lives in Covid-19 fight. Medical researchers have discovered a link between the virus and blood clots in the lungs. Specialists at Royal Brompton Hospital’s severe respiratory failure service used hi-tech CT scans to take images of lung function in critically-ill patients. All of those tested suffered a lack of blood flow, suggesting clotting within the small vessels in the lung.
- Labour to plan green economic rescue from coronavirus crisis. Ed Miliband has called for the creation of a ‘zero-carbon army’ for eco-friendly industries, as part of Labour’s proposals to rescue the post-coronavirus economy with a radical green recovery plan, focused on helping young people who lose their jobs by retraining them in green industries.
Sharma wraps up the briefing by thanking the public for the action they are taking to reduce the R rate.
Q: One of the government’s five tests for lifting lockdown is that any supply issues with PPE and tests are solved, and the NHS can meet future demand. Are we there yet and if not, what is your best estimate for when we will be there?
Powis responds that the government is leading on procurement of PPE and securing tests. The situation has improved with PPE over the past few weeks but continues to be a challenge, he said, with many countries across the world seeking supplies.
I’m confident that the government is addressing [PPE supply], yet I don’t underestimate the challenges going forward.
Testing capacity has increased, he said, and all patients who present to hospital in an emergency are tested whether they show symptoms or not.
NHS staff are tested if they show symptoms, but hospitals are now being encouraged to test asymptomatic staff as well, he added.
Updated
The next question asks about regional differences to the easing of lockdown measures across the country.
Sharma is evasive in his answer, simply saying the government wants children to go back to school because “early learning is vital”, and this will happen at the earliest from 1 June.
He said academy chains across the country have said they will bring pupils back to school when the government says it is safe to do so.
Updated
BBC political correspondent Vicky Young asked:
Q: Is the government guaranteeing that the test, track and tracing system will be in place by 1 June, when many primary school pupils are due to return to classrooms in England?
“I want to thank teachers as they have managed to keep schools open for the children of essential workers,” Sharma said.
“Safety is absolutely paramount,” he added. “That’s why we’ve set out measures ensuring smaller class sizes... regular cleaning of surfaces, children washing their hands... that’s how we’ll ensure children and teachers are safe.”
Updated
Q: Why are visitors from France to the UK to be exempt from quarantine rules?
“I think there’s a trade-off between the health of the nation and the health of the economy,” Sharma said.
He added that discussions have taken place with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, which will be made available in due course.
Updated
There are no journalists live on screen today due to issues with Zoom, so Sharma will be reading questions out.
However, the first question is from a member of the public, Peter, from County Durham.
Q: The R rate in the North East and Yorkshire is now the highest in England. Does the government acknowledge that a phased geographically-based lifting of the lockdown would have been a better option?
Sharma responded that when national monitoring becomes more precise the government can look at different approaches for regions, but it is too soon for this right now.
Powis added that when we know the direct R rate - rather than discerning the R rate from modelling - the spread in different regions will become clearer.
Updated
The number of daily confirmed cases is stable, said Powis, showing the rate of infection is slowing, but this is reliant on people continuing to abide by the social distancing measures.
The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals throughout all parts of the UK continues to fall, he added.
The reduction has been greatest in London, but the fall has also been occurring in other parts of the country, although slower in some areas.
The number of people attending A&E has risen, said Professor Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England.
A&E figures have show a record low number visits, as people avoided hospitals during the coronavirus outbreak.
Powis said the number of people seeking help for things such as heart attacks “has now gone back to normal”.
He said people are listening to the message that they should be using the NHS as normal when they need it.
Sharma also announced the government is investing a further £93m in the Vaccines Manufacturing Innovation Centre at Harwell in Oxfordshire, ensuring it opens in summer 2021, ahead of schedule.
He added that six drugs for treating the virus have now entered clinical trials.
Updated
Sharma also confirmed that Oxford University has confirmed a global licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, which will make 30 million vaccine doses available to the UK by September if the trials are successful, as part of an agreement for 100 million doses in total.
The UK will be the first to get access, he said.
Updated
Government pledges £84m to mass produce Oxford vaccine if trials successful
Sharma said the government has already invested £47m in the Oxford University and Imperial College London vaccine trials, but is today announcing a further £84m funding to help accelerate their work.
He said this money will be used to start mass producing the Oxford vaccine is the trials prove successful, so it can be distributed to the UK population straight away.
The funding will also allow Imperial to launch phase three of its vaccine trial later in the year.
Updated
An update on the vaccine taskforce that Sharma announced last month, to coordinate government, academia and industry in the effort to find a Covid-19 vaccine.
I’m very proud of how quickly our scientists and researchers have come together.
Their work has meant two of the world’s front runners to develop a vaccine are right here in the UK, at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.
The first clinical trial of the Oxford vaccine is progressing well, with all phase one participants receiving their vaccine dose on schedule earlier this week.
Imperial College is also making good progress, and is looking to move into clinical trials in mid-June, Sharma added.
Updated
Sharma offers a reminder that the government has implemented a coronavirus alert level system, based on the R level (rate of infection across the country) saying we are on our way to level three, having been in level four since the start of lockdown.
A week on from when Boris Johnson announced the easing of lockdown restrictions in England, he reminds people that they should be going back to work if they are unable to work at home, and that people can meet one other person at the park while maintaining two metre distance.
He said people should wear face coverings in shops and on public transport and work at home where possible.
The latest coronavirus figures:
- 91,206 tests were carried out yesterday
- There have been 3,142 new recorded cases
- 10,035 people are in hospital with Covid-19, down 15%, from 11,817, this time last week
- 34,636 have died after contracting Covid-19, an increase of 170 fatalties since yesterday
Due to a technical issue, today’s numbers do not include Northern Ireland cases, Sharma said.
The government’s daily coronavirus briefing is being led by the business secretary, Alok Sharma, today.
He’ll be talking about the latest developments in the country’s search for a vaccine
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has tweeted the regional R numbers - that is, the rate at which people are passing on infections to others in different parts of the country.
The data shows that the rate of infection is current highest in the North East and Yorkshire, and lowest in London.
“I hope the Government will agree at some point to publish the regional R numbers at the Downing Street briefing,” Burnham said.
“But, until that happens, I will highlight them myself on a regular basis. Here’s the latest numbers that I have seen.”
He didn’t specify exactly which date the numbers refer to.
I hope the Government will agree at some point to publish the regional R numbers at the Downing Street briefing. But, until that happens, I will highlight them myself on a regular basis. Here’s the latest numbers that I have seen. pic.twitter.com/LGDvbyUVeY
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) May 17, 2020
An R value above 1 means the epidemic will start to grow exponentially again, which would result in a new surge of cases.
Concern has been raised in recent days about the implications of lifting lockdown measures across England, when the rate of infection is higher in some areas.
Updated
There has been a sharp rise in the number of people making contact with eating disorder charities since the start of the coronavirus lockdown almost eight weeks ago.
The charity BEAT says calls to its helpline have increased by 50% and that there had been a 78% rise in contact made via social media compared with February.
Charities are concerned that a reduction in hospital services and a move to online sessions could result in an increase in new cases and setbacks for those with an active eating disorder or those in early recovery.
Caroline Price, BEAT’s director of services, said: “It’s not surprising we’ve seen such a large increase in contact. Changes in routines, living situations and care plans have the potential to trigger eating disorders. It’s more important now than ever that those who are unwell feel supported.”
Dave’s eating disorders started to return after his father died from Covid-19 six weeks ago. He says:
At first I was in a state of constant denial.
Now I just feel really horrible in my body, like I’m losing control.
Being sat around the house, surrounded by food, unable to exercise, worrying about calories … It’s been really hard to cope, to be honest.
The 31-year-old has been in recovery for four years after fast-track treatment for severe anorexia. He says processing the grief after his father’s death, while struggling with an eating disorder has led to a deterioration in his mental health.
I realised quite early on in lockdown that I was at risk of this all affecting my wellbeing. It’s easy to go back to focusing on things that feel safe, somehow. I missed feeling I was winning at it, seeing the scales going down.
I really feel this will give people an insight into what a restrictive eating disorder, binge eating, and even overeating, are really like. It’s this constant thinking and talking about food - it’s our only enjoyment and occupation at the moment.
Hello everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’m taking over the blog ahead of the government’s daily coronavirus briefing which is taking place at 4.30pm today.
Updated
Tobias Altschäffl has written this on what it’s like to be at a Bundesliga game as Germany kickstarts football’s post Covid-19 era.
The teams come out one after the other, first home, then away. Pleasantly there are less theatrics and arguments: on the pitch – a purer football than before. The atmosphere, on the other hand, is very, very strange. When Augsburg equalised to make it 1-1, the goal jingle is played. But where 25,000 fans would normally sing along, there is now silence.
At this afternoon’s Scottish government briefing, which was delayed and beset by technical difficulties, health secretary Jeane Freeman announced a two week pilot across three health boards to test out the software which contact tracers will use to collect the information that they need digitally. There are 600 staff ready to start work from tomorrow – there were earlier reports that no tracers had been recruited, but this appears to be because the initial recruitment came from within NHS Scotland.
Freeman was questioned about claims this morning that the Scottish government had not conducted adequate contact tracing following an early outbreak of coronavirus at a Nike conference in Edinburgh in late February.
Last week, BBC Scotland’s Disclosure programme revealed that there were multiple transmissions of coronavirus in Edinburgh on 26 and 27 February, well before the first confirmed case in the country on 1 March, but that this was not disclosed to the public.
Today the Scottish Mail on Sunday has reported that staff at a kilt shop in Edinburgh city centre that fitted conference delegates, and staff at a digital marketing business that shares an office building with Nike in Glasgow, fell ill shortly after. Workers at the two companies have claimed they were not told about the February outbreak.
Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray described the lack of information to the public or those in contact with delegates as a “national scandal”.
Freeman insisted that “all the proper clinically-led standard protocols were followed”, including the standard contact tracing. She pointed out that the success of tracing depends on the quality of information given by the ‘trigger case’.
Three more coronavirus deaths confirmed in Northern Ireland
The number of people who have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Northern Ireland has risen to 476 after three more deaths were reported by the Department of Health.
A further 12 people die in Wales
A further 12 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of deaths there to 1,203.
Public Health Wales said 162 more people had tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 12,304.
Nine more coronavirus patients die in Scotland
A further nine people have died after testing positive for coronavirus, the Scottish government has said, taking the country’s total number of fatalities to 2,103.
As of 2pm today 87,660 people in Scotland have been tested for #coronavirus
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) May 17, 2020
73,123 confirmed negative
14,537 positive
2,103 patients who tested positive have sadly died.
Latest update ➡️ https://t.co/bZPbrCoQux
Health advice ➡️ https://t.co/l7rqArB6Qu#COVIDー19 pic.twitter.com/Vx8OYWpfXC
Best-selling author Neil Gaiman has caused outrage after admitting on his personal blog that he travelled 11,000 miles from New Zealand to his holiday home on Skye to isolate, after finding lockdown with his wife and son “rough”.
After weeks of entreaties from Scotland’s politicians that people should not travel to Highland or island boltholes, as they underlined the risks this causes to local communities, local MP and the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “To come from the other end of the planet is gobsmacking. We will welcome all to the Highlands when it is safe to do so. For now stay away.”
Gaiman wrote: “I needed to be somewhere I could talk to people in the UK while they and I were awake, not just before breakfast and after dinner. And I needed to be somewhere I could continue to isolate easily.” He went on to describe being “masked and gloved” on empty flights to London, and then the “surreal” drive north.
It’s fair to say that locals have found his arrival similarly surreal, with much online criticism of the author’s selfishness, and pleas that there should be no exemptions from lockdown guidance, while Gaiman insists that he has not put anyone at risk.
The Sunday Times has published its annual ‘rich list’, which finds that British billionaires have lost more than £54bn in the past two months amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The combined wealth of the UK’s 1,000 richest people has plummeted for the first time since the financial crash, the research finds, with some billionaires counting losses of up to £6bn since last year.
Inventor Sir James Dyson is ranked as the richest person in the UK for the first time. The Brexit-backing business man saw his wealth grow by £3.6bn over the past year, climbing to £16.2bn.
According to the paper’s calculations, the richest people in the UK are:
- Sir James Dyson and family, household goods and technology, £16.2bn.
- Sri and Gopi Hinduja and family, industry and finance, £16bn.
- David and Simon Reuben, property and internet, £16bn.
- Sir Leonard Blavatnik, investment, music and media, £15.78bn.
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos chemical giant, £12.15bn.
- Kirsten and Jorn Rausing, inheritance and investment, £12.1bn.
- Alisher Usmanov, mining and investment, £11.68bn.
- Guy, George and Galen Jr Weston and family, retail, £10.53bn.
- Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho, inheritance, brewing and banking, £10.3bn.
- The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family, property, £10.29bn.
A further 90 people die from coronavirus in English hospitals
NHS England has announced that a further 90 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in England, a sharp drop from yesterday’s figure of 181.
However, they said: “The Covid Patient Notification System did not operate for a period of time on Saturday 16 May. The consequences of this situation may therefore be reflected in the number of deaths reported today by NHS England and NHS Improvement.”
It brings the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 24,617. The patients whose deaths were reported on Saturday were aged between 45 and 100 years old, and one had no known underlying health condition.
While the vast majority of people appear to have heeded the pleas to stay away from beauty spots this weekend, it seems a few were tempted to breach the lockdown.
Police in Telford, Shropshire, broke up a group of about 70 people who had gathered in a park for a rave – complete with their own DJ set – on Saturday night.
We are attending a mass gathering/rave at the Granville park. I'm told 70 people here! We have worked so hard and sacrificed so much and this group decide it doesn't apply. I'm shocked that people would care so little. #hangYourHeadsInShame pic.twitter.com/VygsMcjLyF
— Telford Cops (@TelfordCops) May 16, 2020
In Wales, a family from Birmingham were fined and sent home after they were caught by police climbing Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons on Sunday morning.
Officers from the Brecon Roads Policing Unit said the saw the family walking down the mountain on a closed footpath in the national park, presumably after making the 100-mile cross-border journey from the Midlands.
A force spokesman said: “Wales is still closed. Our national parks are still closed.”
Afternoon summary
- Michael Gove has told local authorities refusing to reopen their schools on 1 June to “look to their responsibilities”, saying: “If you really care about children, you’ll want them in schools.” Appearing on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, the Cabinet Office minister said: “We are confident that children and teachers will be safe.”
- Gove also said the government had now recruited 17,000 contact tracers for its coronavirus test, track and trace programme – bringing it close to its target. Health secretary Matt Hancock said on 23 April that the government wanted to recruit 18,000 contact tracers by mid-May. But speaking on Friday, northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said only 1,500 had been recruited.
- The latest Opinium poll for the Observer shows that approval for the government over its handling of the pandemic has plummeted by nine points in the last week. Whereas net approval of its performance – the figure reached when the percentage who disapprove is subtracted from percentage who approve – stood at +42% on 26 March, it has now fallen to -3%.
- Overall data from the few countries that have reopened schools has been “very reassuring” but governments need to consider what checks are needed to avoid a spread of Covid-19, the chief scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. Dr Soumya Swaminathan said she believes that “society has to restart” but that there will be a new normal.
-
Boris Johnson has acknowledged “frustration” over the new lockdown rules, which have been criticised for being complicated and unclear, and admitted that there may never be a vaccine for coronavirus. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the prime minister announced a £93m investment to open the new Vaccine Manufacturing And Innovation Centre, 12 months ahead of schedule. He said:
There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition. But we are leading the global effort.
Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw has described as “deeply concerning” media reports on Sunday morning that the Scottish government has yet to recruit a single Covid-19 contact tracer, despite the fact that almost 8500 people have applied online for the 2000 roles as call handlers, data analysts and health protection nurses.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland, Carlaw said that the key to giving people the confidence to return to workplaces was the ability to properly test and identify outbreaks, and that until then “we are not going to be able to give people the reassurance they need”.
This week Nicola Sturgeon is expected to set out plans for further relaxing of lockdown restrictions, with outdoor activities such as golf, tennis and angling expected to be included. But it is also anticipated that she will continue to exercise more caution around mixing of different households, which of course has implications for a return to workplaces as well as social life.
Data on reopening schools reassuring, says WHO scientist
Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organisation (WHO), spoke to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show earlier. The PA news agency has her comments.
Asked about the reopening of schools, and evidence from countries that have done so, Dr Swaminathan said:
Overall, the data has been very reassuring, though of course it’s only a few countries that have done that. The guidance that has been put out by WHO clearly lays out the criteria you would use when you consider whether to reopen a school or not...
It’s really important that all the stakeholders, that is the teachers, the children themselves and the parents or caregivers, have had a chance to have a dialogue and ask questions, and be informed of what is being done to minimise the risks and what they need to do.
Dr Swaminathan said evidence from countries where schools have remained open suggests this has not led to large outbreaks of Covid-19.
What we have seen in countries where schools have remained open is that there have not been big outbreaks in schools, and where there have been it’s been associated with events - where a lot of people gather, not in regular classrooms, and it’s often been associated with an adult whose had the infection and has spread it.
Crown court jury trials to start on Monday
Four crown court jury trials are scheduled to start on Monday using socially distanced courtrooms in Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff and at the Old Bailey in London.
New jury trials were suspended on March 23rd due to the coronavirus crisis. A judiciary-led working group, under Mr Justice Edis, has been devising methods since then to ensure a safe resumption of criminal justice once lockdown is eased.
Juries will be spread out using seats normally occupied by barristers. The proceedings will be live-streamed to an adjacent courtroom where journalists will have space allocated to allow them to sit two metres apart.
Normally around 1,000 jury trials are heard every month in England and Wales. The next three crown courts expected to restart fresh jury trials are Reading, Warwick and Winchester.
Most of the initial cases are expected to be relatively short, lasting less than two weeks. Public Health England and Public Health Wales have been involved in the jury trials working group. The recommendations are detailed in a public information leaflet.
Jurors are instructed to: “Bring your own refreshments as cafes and canteens will not be open in our court buildings. Please provide your own drinking vessel, but do not bring metal cutlery.”
Two trials, which had been suspended in March, resumed with social distancing at the Old Bailey last week with the same jurors.
The chief executive of Heathrow Airport John Holland-Kaye has warned the government that quarantine measures should not extend beyond “a relatively short amount of time” to save the economy.
The government announced plans last Sunday for a two-week quarantine for travellers arriving in the UK from abroad, though the exact details haven’t yet been announced.
Holland-Kaye told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that Heathrow’s passenger numbers had dropped by 97% – from an average of 250,000 passengers a day to between 5,000 and 6,000. He said most of these passengers were either repatriating to the UK or going home to other countries.
The quarantine cannot be in place for more than a relatively short amount of time if we are going to get the economy moving again. There needs to be a plan for what comes next.
This is where we are urging the Government to have a common international standard, working with other countries so that traffic can start to flow in a normal way between low risk countries.
Speaking to the same programme, Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said she’d heard from businesses in aerospace and manufacturing who were very worried about the government’s quarantine plans. “We would like to see an international standard,” she said. “At the moment you’ve got different countries doing different things and that is very bad for global trade.”
The Scottish government is seeking the power to take over the running of private care homes, after the tenth death was confirmed yesterday at Home Farm on Skye, which is being stripped of its licence to operate after serious shortcomings in its management was found by the Care Inspectorate.
On Wednesday, Holyrood is expected to pass emergency powers that will allow care homes to be taken into public sector control in the event of similar failings.
NHS Highland has stepped in to help run the facility in Portree, Skye, where 30 residents and 29 staff have tested positive for coronavirus.
Last week, the Sunday Times revealed that some workers had been moved hundreds of miles to help plug staff shortages at the home, which has had long-running recruitment problems amid concerns about low pay.
Teachers and children will be safe at school, says Gove
Gove also defended the government’s plans to begin reopening primary schools in England from next month. He told Sky News:
Other countries have succeeded in ensuring children can return to school safely. The nature of what happens in the classroom has changed.
Instead of children working around the table they are sitting at desks separate from each other and, as a result, they are able to learn, they are able to benefit from being in school.
Gove told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show that the government were confident that teachers and students would be safe if they returned to school.
Michael Gove says he's confident "children and teachers will be safe" when schools open, provided the right measures are in place
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 17, 2020
The Cabinet Office Minister tells #Marr there haven’t been coronavirus outbreaks "in traditional class settings"https://t.co/lFtwIJGUT1 pic.twitter.com/ZHcRVOA36P
He said that pupils may have to sit at separate desks, that class sizes should be capped at 15 and arrival times should be staggered.
#Marr: How do you make classrooms safe?
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 17, 2020
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove says children will have to be distanced, arriving in a staggered fashion, with staggered breaks, and we will "cap classes at 15"https://t.co/lFtwIJGUT1 pic.twitter.com/UvaWSol6xi
17,000 contact tracers recruited, says Gove
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that the government has now recruited 17,000 contact tracers for its coronavirus test, track and trace programme – bringing it close to its target.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on 23 April that the government wanted to recruit 18,000 contact tracers by mid-May. But speaking on Friday, northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said only 1,500 had been recruited. The prime minister’s spokesperson said later that day that Lewis did not have the most up-to-date figures.
“It is now the case that more than 17,000 people have been recruited for contact tracing, so we are on course to meet that target,” said Gove on Sunday morning.
“I have to praise the work of the health secretary Matt Hancock. In the past people have seen Matt and the government set ambitious targets and said on testing ‘that won’t be met’ - Matt met that target,” Gove said of the 100,000-a-day testing target.
He said the test, track and trace programme – seen as key to further lifting of lockdown restrictions – would be up and running by the end of May.
A story in today’s Mail on Sunday reports that the Labour leader Keir Starmer owns land “worth up to £10m”. The piece of land in question is a field behind his parents house in Surrey, which he bought in 1996. It currently doesn’t have planning permission, but – if it did – it could be worth a lot of money, the paper reports. Starmer has no plans to sell the land.
Sir Keir's backyard riches... pic.twitter.com/5dlfKSV4SE
— MoS_Politics (@MoS_Politics) May 16, 2020
Starmer’s response to the story has been getting as much attention as the story itself. A spokesperson for the Labour leader told the paper:
Keir purchased the field for his late disabled mother. The field was used to house donkeys that Keir’s parents rescued and cared for. After his mother lost the ability to walk, the field allowed her to still watch the donkeys from her home.
The field is not for sale and no one, developer or otherwise, has been shown around it.
Alternate headline:
— Thomas Penny (@ThomasWPenny) May 16, 2020
Keir Starmer helped disabled mother set up donkey sanctuary. https://t.co/2zcloo4RH0
Updated
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has said that if the test, track and trace strategy were in place before reopening schools, that would reassure parents and teachers – a point also made by Rachel Reeves earlier this morning. She repeated calls for the government to publish the scientific advice that informed their decision to send some pupils back to school as early as 1 June. Labour wants as many pupils as possible to go back to school as quickly as possible, she said.
"If we've got the test, tracking and tracing in place for schools then that would reassure parents"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 17, 2020
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner says the government should reassure parents and teachers, & publish the science behind plan to reopen schools #Marr https://t.co/lFtwIJGUT1 pic.twitter.com/Z8eduxfu3C
Report – PM said UK should be "close to normality" by end of July
The Sun on Sunday reports today that Boris Johnson told a virtual meeting of backbench Tory MPs that he wanted the country back to “close to normality again before the end of July”.
The paper’s political editor, David Wooding, writes that the prime minister told a video call with 100 of his MPs that full Commons sittings would resume on 2 June.
He quotes an MP as saying:
Boris told us he is determined that the country should be as close to normality again before the end of July.
But he was clear that is all depends on the country meeting the conditions that have been set for tackling the virus.
Most importantly that means bringing down the infection rate – and that can only be achieved if the continues to obey the rules on social distancing to help stop it spreading.
'Test, trace and isolate' strategy needed for schools to reopen, says Reeves
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves has been speaking to Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme. She said the reopening of schools was a “difficult balancing act” as social distancing, particularly for young children, is “really, really tough” along with the wearing of face masks.
She said teachers and parents would be less anxious about the return to school if there was a test, trace and isolate strategy in place.
Government need to put in place some of the measures to improve confidence and that includes the test, trace and isolate strategy. The government abandoned that back in the middle of March, that was a mistake because the countries that have most successfully tackled the virus have had extensive systems of test, trace and isolate and the government now says they want to bring that back by mid-May … the anxiety that teachers and parents face, I think would be a lot less if we had that test, trace and isolate strategy in place.
Her comments come following an announcement by education secretary Gavin Williamson at yesterday’s Downing Street press conference that schoolchildren and their families would be tested for coronavirus if they develop symptoms.
Teaching unions have pushed back against government proposals for some pupils to return to school as soon as 1 June. The British Medical Association, the UK’s largest doctors’ union – also said in a letter to the National Education Union on Friday that the number of coronavirus infections remained too high to allow them to run safely.
Damian Hinds, former Conservative education secretary, told BBC Breakfast this morning that it was “totally understandable” that people had concerns about their children returning to school and that he would expect teaching unions to be thinking about their members, adding this is “absolutely right”.
He added that he thinks “the time is right now” for pupils to begin to return, saying “there is a lot scientific advice and analysis gone into this”.
Updated
Here are today’s front pages, tweeted by the BBC’s Neil Henderson.
OBSERVER: Revolt over easing of lockdown spreads as poll slump hits @BorisJohnson #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/jRfa61muvg
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 16, 2020
SUNDAY MIRROR: Two hours after this picture baby Alex had died #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/t8oZCBbEvi
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 16, 2020
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Drugs to thin blood can prevent virus deaths #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/OOiFFuYMQW
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 16, 2020
MAIL ON SUNDAY: Now it’s doctors at war on schools #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/Mej4qsWoLA
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 16, 2020
SUNDAY TIMES: Super rich lose billions to virus #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/ZvZ8H1XUpK
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 16, 2020
Approval for government's pandemic handling plummets, polling shows
More from the Observer – The latest Opinium poll for the paper shows that approval for the government over its handling of the pandemic has plummeted by nine points in the last week.
Whereas net approval of its performance – the figure reached when the percentage who disapprove is subtracted from percentage who approve – stood at +42% on 26 March, it has now fallen to -3%.
For the first time since Opinium began tracking views on the pandemic in March, more people disapprove of the government’s handling than approve. Only 44% think the new “stay alert” message is clear. Some 56% say they are not clear who they can meet outside their household.
Regional leaders not told about lockdown easing – Burnham
Andy Burnham has written in the Observer that no one thought to tell the leaders of the biggest towns and cities outside London in advance of the prime minister’s decision to encourage people to go back to work last Monday.
In Greater Manchester, we had no real notice of the measures. On the eve of a new working week, the PM was on TV ‘actively encouraging’ a return to work. Even though that would clearly put more cars on roads and people on trams, no one in government thought it important to tell the cities who’d have to cope with that.
Far from a planned, safety-led approach, this looked like another exercise in Cummings chaos theory.
But it wasn’t just the lack of notice that was the problem. The surprisingly permissive package might well be right for the southeast, given the fall in cases there. But my gut feeling told me it was too soon for the north. Certainly, the abrupt dropping of the clear “stay at home” message felt premature.
You can read the full piece here and the Observer’s news story here.
I’ll be bringing you the highlights from this morning’s political shows,
Sophy Ridge on Sunday (today hosted by Niall Paterson) is on Sky News at 8.30am. Guests will include the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove, and Rachel Reeves, his Labour opposite number.
Liam Fox, former international trade secretary will make an appearance, as will Heathrow Airport chief executive John Holland-Kaye and CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn.
Gove will also be on the Andrew Marr show on BBC 1, which starts at 9am. Other guests include Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan and Office for Budget Responsibility chair Robert Chote.
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s UK coronavirus live blog.
Boris Johnson has acknowledged “frustration” over the new lockdown rules, which have been criticised for being complicated and unclear, and acknowledged that there may never be a vaccine for coronavirus. Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the prime minister said:
I understand people will feel frustrated with some of the new rules. We are trying to do something that has never had to be done before – moving the country out of a full lockdown, in a way which is safe and does not risk sacrificing all of your hard work. I recognise what we are now asking is more complex than simply staying at home, but this is a complex problem and we need to trust in the good sense of the British people.
If we all stick at it, then we’ll be able, gradually, to get rid of the complexities and the restrictions and make it easier and simpler for families to meet again. But we must move slowly, and at the right time.
He thanked the public for being patient, saying: “I want to reassure you that there is a route out of this.”
Johnson added the government would throw everything they could at finding a vaccine, and announced a £93m investment to open the new Vaccine Manufacturing And Innovation Centre, 12 months ahead of schedule. (You can read more about that here.)
There remains a very long way to go, and I must be frank that a vaccine might not come to fruition. But we are leading the global effort.
I’m Frances Perraudin and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments in the pandemic in the UK today. You contact me with tips and comments on twitter @fperraudin and on frances.perraudin@theguardian.com.
