Evening summary
- The UK’s equality watchdog is launching an inquiry into the “long-standing structural racial inequality” thrown into the spotlight by the pandemic. The Equality and Human Rights Commission said analysis and evidence-based guidance is needed to tackle entrenched racism and Covid-19 death rates among BAME groups. It comes after Public Health England’s review came under criticism for not explaining the reasons for already known disparities in health outcomes and not making recommendations for tackling them.
- The R value in England has risen to between 0.7 and 1. The latest data suggests the north-west and south-west are areas of concern, and Matt Hancock confirmed the R was higher in those regions than the rest of the country. National easing of lockdown measures would go ahead, he said, with a focus on localised lockdowns to address flare-ups.
- All hospital staff, patients and visitors in England must wear face coverings from 15 June. Hospital staff will be required to wear type one or type two surgical masks at all times, while patients and visitors will need to wear face coverings, the health secretary said.
- The UK’s death toll passed the grim milestone of 40,000. The DHSC confirmed a rise of 357 deaths, bringing the total of reported deaths following a positive test to 40,261.
That’s it for today from the UK. If you’d like to continue following the Guardian’s coverage of the pandemic, head over to the global live blog for the worldwide picture.
Updated
The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 within the prison estate continues to rise, Ministry of Justice figures show, as the total population dropped below 80,000 for the first time in 12 years.
As at 5pm on Thursday, 482 prisoners had tested positive for the coronavirus across 79 prisons, an increase of less than 1% in 24 hours.
There 947 infected prison staff across 105 prisons, an increase of less than 0.5% in the same period.
There are around 79,800 prisoners across 117 prisons in England and Wales, and around 33,000 staff working in public sector prisons.The population was last below 80,000 in January 2008.
The total has come down from around 83,000 at the start of the crisis due to scheduled releases and reduced numbers coming into prisons via the courts, as well as processing prisoners held on remand.
At least 23 prisoners and nine staff are known to have died, as well as one prison escort driver and one NHS trust employee working in a secure training centre.
Updated
Here is the moment Matt Hancock urged Britons to avoid large protests over the weekend “for the safety of your loved ones”.
The health secretary said he understood why people are appalled at the death of George Floyd but warned that coronavirus remains a “real threat” in the UK as lockdown easing measures come into effect.
Tory MP attended lockdown barbecue with journalists
The Tory MP leading efforts to promote the Covid-19 contact-tracing app trial on the Isle of Wight appears to have broken lockdown rules at a barbecue also attended by the chairman of the Brexit party and political journalists, Simon Murphy and Peter Walker report.
Bob Seely went to the gathering at a time when the guidance stated you could only meet one other person and strictly ruled out groups mixing from different households or people visiting and entering another person’s home, including in gardens.
And that’s the end of the press conference.
It remains unclear why the health secretary led this one alone.
Updated
Q. BAME communities are disappointed with PHE’s review because it’s content was nothing new. Why were there no explanations for the disproportionate impact on, or mitigations for protecting, BAME lives?
Hancock says socioeconomic factors including the increased risks of customer-focused occupations need to be addressed.
The government will do the “next step” to address the issues following the PHE review, he says.
Q. Structural issues of racism and discrimination increase risks to health. Why wasn’t this included in PHE’s review, as Michael Gove promised?
Hancock says the government will be rigorous in trying to understand the reasons why and answer these questions.
Updated
Q. Isn’t 4 July an unrealistic target for reopening hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions, given the rates of infection and the R value?
Hancock says people shouldn’t seize on one report, but should look at all the reports in the round, which Sage has done.
Q. Would you be expecting the police to break up demonstrations of seven or more people this weekend?
Hancock says:
That is very much an operational matter for the police.
Updated
Q. Is there a different R value in the community compared with hospitals and care homes?
Hancock says of course there is a higher incidence amongst health and social care staff, but it’s not rising as a proportion.
But the measures you must take in health and social care settings are different to get transmission down, he adds.
Q. Why have you only made face masks compulsory for hospital staff now, was it because of a lack of PPE before?
Hancock says the change is about face masks for staff and face coverings for patients.
Updated
Q. When will there be guidance on how a regional lockdown will work in practice?
Q. Are you speaking to regional mayors and local authorities about protecting their populations and enforcing local lockdowns?
Hancock says there is engagement through test-and-trace with regional and devolved leaders.
Q. At what point [re the R number] do you put the brakes on easing measures?
Hancock says Sage’s assessment is that the overall UK R is between 0.7 and 0.9.
Hancock confirms R is closer to 1 in north-west and south-west England
Q. Studies suggest the R value could be above 1 in some areas, such as Liverpool and Manchester, and is rising due to increased mixing between households. Should people still exercise all the new freedoms or extra caution?
Hancock says everybody should exercise caution.
They’re moving towards a more local, as opposed to national, approach to lockdown, he adds.
Sage says the R is between 0.7 and 0.9, higher in the south-west and north-west of England, but remains below 1, he says.
The focus is on localised lockdowns, he says.
Q. Is the infrastructure in place to enact a local lockdown should one happen tomorrow?
Hancock says yes, as in Weston-super-Mare.
Updated
Q. What are the chances of a no-deal Brexit, given Michel Barnier said trade talks aren’t progressing well?
Hancock says he hopes not because the UK’s position is very reasonable.
Any agreement must reflect that the UK is an independent sovereign state, he says.
They will work hard to bring the vision based within the political declaration to the final agreement, he says.
Updated
Q. The chief scientific adviser once said keeping deaths below 20,000 would be a good outcome. How do you assess the outcome of more than 40,000 deaths?
Hancock says this is a time of sorrow for us all.
His heart goes out to all the families whose lives will never be the same again.
We need to keep the R value below 1, he says.
Q. Is the R value being around 1 in the south-west and north-west of concern and might there be a case for more regional restrictions?
Hancock says this is right and Sage advises R is below 1 in all regions.
However, local lockdowns in the event of flare-ups will be important.
The joint biosecurity centre is looking into areas where there have been flare-ups, he adds, to deal with the sources of outbreaks.
Updated
Q. When will UK zoos be able to reopen?
Hancock says this is close to his heart because he comes from Chester and knows Chester Zoo “extremely well”.
But they must be reopened in a safe way, he adds.
He is taking questions from members of the public now.
Q. How do you square the Bank of England’s £1.8bn bailout scheme for airlines with your promises of a “green transport revolution”?
Hancock says greenhouse gas levels have fallen sharply due to lower numbers of flights during lockdown.
Net zero emissions remains an important goal, he says.
But we do need an airline industry and a long-term trajectory to getting to net zero, he adds.
Protect yourself and loved ones by not protesting this weekend, says Hancock
Ahead of further protests this weekend, Hancock says he understands why people are deeply appalled and upset.
But, we still face a real threat from coronavirus, he says, so it is vital to protect yourselves and your families this weekend.
He says, for the safety of your loved ones, do not attend large gatherings, including demonstrations, of more than six people this weekend.
All hospital staff, visitors and outpatients must wear face coverings from 15 June
We must remain vigilant to protect the NHS, Hancock says.
As the NHS reopens across the country, it’s critical to stop the spread among staff, patients and visitors, he says.
All hospital visitors and outpatients will need to wear face coverings, he says.
New guidance will also be provided to NHS staff in England, coming into force on 15 June, he adds.
All hospital staff will be required to wear Type 1 or 2 surgical masks at all times, not just when they’re on the front line, he says, except areas designated as covid-secure.
Updated
7,080 people remain in hospital with Covid-19, down from 8,285 last week, he says.
A further 357 people died following a positive test, showing we have so much more to do, he says.
Tests carried out and posted out reached 207,231 as of 5 June, he says.
A further 1,650 cases were confirmed as of 5 June, he adds.
Through the antibody tests, which find out if you have had the virus, you can help make a difference, Hancock says.
By donating your blood, which has your antibodies in it, you can help someone in hospital suffering with Covid-19, he says.
If you have had coronavirus, you can go to the NHS blood and transplant website to do this.
The health secretary is speaking now, going straight into the slides.
He says the R value for the UK is estimated to be between 0.7 and 0.9, according to Sage.
And the ONS survey estimates the number of new infections stands at 39,000 per week – roughly 5,600 per day, which is lower than similar estimate last week, he says.
Updated
Matt Hancock's press conference
The health and social care secretary will lead this afternoon’s daily press briefing solo, due to begin shortly.
It comes as the UK’s official toll of reported deaths after a positive coronavirus test across all settings passed the awful 40,000 milestone (see 3.47pm.) and the R number in England rose to between 0.7 and 1 (see 2.35pm.).
Updated
People should wear masks in shops, public transport and where social distancing not possible, says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its guidance on wearing masks in public to help limit the spread of coronavirus.
Speaking during a virtual briefing on Friday afternoon, the WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said governments should encourage people to wear masks in shops, on public transport, and in areas where social distancing is not possible.
He said people aged 60 and over, or those with underlying health issues, should wear medical masks in situations where social distancing was not possible.
But he added:
Masks alone will not protect you from Covid-19, they are not a replacement for hand hygiene and social distancing.
The WHO previously stressed there was no evidence that wearing a mask – whether medical or other types – by healthy people in the wider community could prevent them from being infected with respiratory viruses.
Updated
The lacklustre response to the BAME Covid-19 death toll and and absence of recommendations in Public Health England’s report risk fuelling tensions over racial injustice in Britain, MPs have warned.
Haroon Siddique and Josh Halliday report that BAME MPs have said the government’s failure to tackle the disproportionate number of BAME deaths from coronavirus makes a mockery of Matt Hancock’s statement in the Commons that “black lives matter”.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the MP for Slough, who has lost three relatives to coronavirus, said:
It’s all very well saying black lives matter, but if you’re not going to be taking any action to make sure that, yes, those lives do matter, then those are just hollow words.
People have been talking about these injustices for so long, and if the government doesn’t take action, I think that that anger and exasperation will only increase, and that doesn’t benefit anybody.”
Chi Onwurah, the MP for Newcastle Central, said:
To use the phrase ‘black lives matter’, then to go on to not do anything about the clear outstanding case of black people dying disproportionately, reeks of hypocrisy and will undermine faith in the government’s desire or intention to take action.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Wales will consider making face coverings compulsory on public transport, the first minister has said.
Mark Drakeford said England’s decision to bring in a requirement for coverings had raised issues for people commuting between the two countries.
On Friday, the first minister was questioned about his government’s position on non-medical coverings after a trade union representing doctors in Wales said bringing in rules would help control the spread of Covid-19 in areas where people can’t socially distance and to save lives.
Drakeford told the government’s daily press briefing in Cardiff:
The context for face coverings has changed because of an announcement made yesterday in England about mandatory use of face masks on public transport.
That will not come in until 15 June, and that gives us a short number of days in order to consider the position here in Wales recognising that changed context.
Drakeford said a “definitive statement” on the issue would be made in the first part of next week, and that detailed questions about England’s new rules would be explored with ministers and officials in Westminster.
But he said the UK government had not discussed or given advanced notice of the decision with Wales, and questioned whether England was concerned with “making the headline, and then worrying about the detail afterwards”.
Earlier on Friday the British Medical Association (BMA) Wales called on the Welsh government to change its stance on non-medical face coverings, and ensure a supply are available to the public.
The trade union’s council chair for Wales, Dr David Bailey, said:
There still remains a considerable risk of infection, and emerging evidence has shown that if mouths and noses are covered when people are in areas where they cannot socially distance, it may help in controlling the spread of infection of Covid-19 and therefore save lives.
BMA Cymru Wales is calling on the Welsh government to change their position immediately, to lessen the risk of the public spreading the virus.
The meeting between Boris Johnson, European commission president Ursula von der Leyen and president of the European Council Charles Michel is expected to take place before the next European council summit on 19 June.
Sources expect that the face-to-face meeting being sought by chief negotiators David Frost and Michel Barnier will then happen towards the end of June or beginning of July.
However, some commentators think there may also be a high level political meeting between Johnson and a leading EU premier, likely to be Emmanuel Macron before the summit too.
This would be along the lines of the Wirral summit Johnson had with Leo Varadkar outside Liverpool last October which led to the breakthrough on the Irish border that helped the prime minister get the Brexit deal over the line.
We reported earlier that the Scottish health secretary has written to health board chiefs warning them that failures to routinely test care home staff for coronavirus will be made public in a weekly league table from next week.
Asked what sanctions were available should this new policy not be met, a government source confirmed that the standard board escalation route – the Scottish equivalent of special measures – would be used to make sure the job was done.
They added it is important to note that many boards are implementing the testing policy but there is a need for consistency and transparency, hence the weekly publication of data.
UK official coronavirus death toll passes 40,000
The Department of Health said 40,261 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, up by 357 from 39,904 the day before.
As of 9am 5 June, there have been 5,214,277 tests, with 207,231 tests on 4 June.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) June 5, 2020
283,311 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 4 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 40,261 have sadly died.
More info:
▶️https://t.co/xXnL3FU15k pic.twitter.com/CKjYXWff7f
Updated
Some interesting interim findings from a survey of Scottish parents, carried out by the parents’ organisation Connect.
With 2007 responses from 29 out of 32 local authorities, the survey finds that 59% are currently planning to send their children back to school when the next term begins on 11 August, while only 3% were definitely not planing to let them return, which is notable in contrast to the concerns of many English parents about the return of pupils this month.
Scotland’s education secretary has said that the schools return will be based on a blended model of in-school and at-home learning, which 20% said was not possible for them, while 36% said it depended on their employer being flexible.
A whopping 87% wanted more consultation on how part time schooling/nursery will work, while 25% said extra care would be ‘essential’ in addition to part time education.
A University of Oxford clinical trial into an anti-malarial drug will end with “immediate effect” after it was found to be ineffective against Covid-19, researchers have said.
The Recovery trials, which look at potential coronavirus treatments, involve a number of medications that are licensed for use in other conditions, including the drug hydroxychloroquine.
However, after reviewing the data on Thursday, the chief researchers have decided to end the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial after it was found to be not effective in preventing the deaths of Covid-19 patients in hospital.
The researchers found that 25.7% of patients who were in the hydroxychloroquine arm died after 28 days compared with 23.5% of people with standard care alone.
Prof Martin Landray said:
This trial has moved at incredible speed, there was a huge upsurge in cases if you go back a month or so, we have to base our decisions on the latest data and that came through just last night.
He added:
We never say never, but I think this is not a treatment for Covid.
A senior Northern Ireland police officer has made a strong appeal to protesters not to take part in demonstrations this weekend.
PSNI assistant chief constable Alan Todd said his officers are engaging with organisers of Black Lives Matter gatherings to explain the coronavirus regulations, adding if the warnings are ignored then enforcement will be used.
He made the comments ahead of three planned demonstrations across Northern Ireland this weekend over the death of George Floyd in police custody in the US last week.
Todd described the protest as “valid” but warned that public gatherings of more than six people are against coronavirus regulations, as is travelling for a protest.
Up to 2,000 people gathered in Belfast city centre on Wednesday to express their support for the Black Lives Matter campaign.
The first minister Arlene Foster described it as a breach of the law and urged that there should be no repeat of it, while the deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill said she was fully supportive of the BLM campaign but urged those involved to find other ways to show solidarity.
Todd said:
I have a very clear message to organisers, the best way to resolve this for everybody’s interests is to call off these events.
Large crowd protests are at this time inappropriate.
If people choose to ignore these warnings and with all the advice and guidance from the chief medical officer, healthcare professionals, from police, from political representatives across the spectrum, if people choose to ignore all that and break the law then there will have to be consequences.
People can take my messaging today as being my engagement with them, my explanation, and my encouraging them to obey the law - if they choose to ignore the first three Es they can expect over the weekend to find enforcement being used.
He added:
On any other day as a police service we would be fully facilitating those protests in a peaceful and lawful manner with the organisers, however this is not any other day, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and gathering in crowds, socially distanced or otherwise, is both a risk to public health and a breach of the health protection regulations.
It seems to be somewhat ironic that we would protest the avoidable and unnecessary death of an individual in the United States by risking unnecessary and avoidable deaths in Northern Ireland.
Wales’s first minister, Mark Drakeford, said the UK government had not discussed its decision to make the wearing of face masks on public transport mandatory in England.
He said he wished the Welsh government had had the chance to discuss it with the UK government before the announcement was made, adding:
That would have allowed us to have some answers to the questions that I raised today before the event rather than after the event.
But while on the bulk of issues we continue to be able to have discussion and co-operation in advance of decision making, in a small number of cases we hear about it only after the decision has been made.
We had no advance notice from the Department for Transport in England that this announcement was to be made.
We’re going to have to use the time we now have to find out from them the extent to which they have got answers to these questions in advance of making the decision, or whether it’s a matter of making the headline, and then worrying about the detail afterwards.
Updated
No separate test-and-trace system for police officers, says No 10
Police will have to abide by the requirements of the test-and-trace system, Downing Street has said.
The confirmation came after reports that forces were intending to carry out their own tracing processes if officers tested positive for coronavirus.
According to Sky News, forces were looking at a different contact-tracing system because of concerns the government’s scheme could place officers in danger, or compromise sensitive information.
But the prime minister’s official spokesman said the NHS test-and-trace system was for “everyone, including police officers”.
And the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) insisted forces were not setting up their own separate scheme.
The PM’s spokesman added:
Any member of the emergency services who has symptoms of coronavirus should self-isolate.
I think what the NPCC has said is that there are ongoing discussions with Public Health England (PHE) about how the NHS test-and-trace service will work for officers in cases where there may be operational or security issues to consider.
No 10 said the NPCC had made clear officers would still be “required to engage” with the tracking system but said the government would not want to “pre-empt” the conclusion of discussions between PHE and the NPCC about how it would work in sensitive cases.
In a statement, the NPCC said:
To be clear, police forces are not setting up a contact-tracing system for officers which is separate to the NHS test-and-trace service.
In order to ensure information about policing activity and the privacy of members of the public is protected, police officers and staff will not be able to disclose sensitive information to the NHS test-and-trace service.
The NPCC is in discussions with PHE to resolve this issue, and has proposed a system whereby police officers and staff in certain roles have their cases referred to a national vetted public health outbreak team.
Officers with symptoms will still be required to engage with the test-and-trace process at the outset.
They will still be able to access appropriate medical advice and treatment if they have tested positive for coronavirus, or are made aware that they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive.
Updated
NHS England has announced another 123 deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 27,282.
Of the 123 new deaths announced on Friday:
- 19 occurred on 4 June
- 50 occurred on 3 June
- 23 occurred on 2 June
- seven occurred on 1 June
The figures also show 19 of the new deaths took place in May, four occurred in April, and the remaining one death took place on 25 March.
NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago. This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published on Friday by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number of hospital deaths on a single day, with a current total of 899.
Updated
Infection rate has risen, according to government latest estimates
The R value in England has risen to between 0.7 and 1, according to the government’s latest official estimates with some regions now at risk of seeing a rise in the number of infections.
The latest data suggests that the north-west of England is an area for concern and that some local authorities may have R-values – the rate of transmission – above 1, at which point the epidemic will begin to grow in these communities.
The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance told a virtual briefing with journalists on Friday the R-number - the average number of people that will contract coronavirus from an infected person - for England was between 0.7 and 1, while it remained between 0.7 and 0.9 for the UK as a whole.
He said the prevalence of Covid-19 was on a “downward trajectory” in the UK, adding:
The prevalence of coronavirus, according to the ONS, is at 0.1%, with 53,000 people with Covid-19 in the past two weeks.
He said the incidence rate was at 0.7% per week, which meant there were “roughly” 39,000 new coronavirus cases each week.
Sir Patrick said:
The latest R-value calculation is between 0.7 and 0.9 for the UK as a whole, it may be a little bit higher in England it may be between 0.7 and 1, and there is a bit of regional variation.
Updated
Public Health Wales said a further four people have died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of deaths in Wales to 1,383.
Another 76 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 14,314.
The latest number of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Wales has been updated.
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) June 5, 2020
Data dashboard:
💻https://t.co/RwgHDufHE7
📱https://t.co/P6UF1MTOwc
Find out how we are responding to the spread of the virus in our daily statement here: https://t.co/1Lza9meaTL pic.twitter.com/SxtWQw5oVw
Updated
Downing Street said it was “disappointed” that BA had declined to meet with the Home Secretary on Thursday but would not comment on suggestions the airline would be pursuing legal action over ministers’ plans to quarantine visitors for two weeks.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman, when asked about the threat of legal action, said:
I don’t think you’d expect me to comment on threats of legal action.
In terms of our position on this, the quarantine system is designed to keep the transmission rate down, manage the risk of new cases being brought in from abroad and help prevent a second wave of the virus.
On BA’s no show, the No 10 spokesman added:
As the Home Secretary said at yesterday’s meeting, we want to work with industry across the board through this pandemic - that includes BA.
Obviously we’re disappointed they chose not to attend the meeting.
At the Downing Street press conference the Prime Minister’s spokesman has confirmed a group of scientists advising the UK Government saw the results of a test that showed a “clear gap” in Scotland’s preparedness for handling a virus similar to Covid-19 (see 09.07)
The exercise held in March 2018 simulated an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (Mers-CoV) to assess NHS Scotland’s readiness to respond to a suspected outbreak.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said:
It was specifically to test the preparedness of the Scottish Government, as I understand it, and that reflects the fact that public health is a devolved matter.
The report produced by the Scottish Government was shared with the Nervtag group - New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, in long-hand - at a meeting on June 2019.
When put to the spokesman that the report represented a missed opportunity to act earlier on the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), the PM’s spokesman said:
I think we’ve acknowledged that the UK Government did face challenges in securing PPE at a time when there was unprecedented global demand across the world.
We have now made good progress, both in terms of getting more PPE from overseas but also in increasing domestic (supply).
Updated
Important breaking news from Gary Lineker (well, for football fans at least).
The first ever live Premier League game to be shown on terrestrial television will be @afcbournemouth v @CPFC on Saturday 20th June. @BBCOne from 7.45. 👍🏻
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 5, 2020
The far-right activist Tommy Robinson has spent the night in a police cell in Barrow after being arrested at a rally in support of a local girl accused of lying about being raped.
He was one of four men from outside Cumbria arrested in Barrow on Thursday night, local newspaper The Mail reported.
Sky News: Coronavirus infection rate in UK second highest of any major European country
Sky News reports that its analysis suggests cases in the UK are taking longer to fall than in Spain, Italy, France and Belgium.
It says:
Only Sweden, which decided not to impose a lockdown, has a higher rate of infection.
In the last week of May, there were 236 newly confirmed cases per million population in the UK.
The findings confirm the concern expressed on Wednesday by the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, that the country’s epidemic has a “long tail”, with both cases and deaths taking longer to fall than he would like.
The coronavirus pandemic has evolved differently across Europe, affecting countries in the west more than those in the east.
The level of infection and the deaths in all these countries are now coming down, but not all are improving at the same pace.
In the UK and Sweden, the number of daily confirmed cases remains high and the shape of their epidemics is diverging from those of Spain, France and Italy.
The full Sky News report is here.
Updated
Brexit talks have hit the buffers, with “no significant progress” made in the fourth round of talks over trade and the future relationship with the EU.
At a press conference, Michel Barnier accused the UK of continuing “to backtrack on the commitments” it made in the political declaration including pledges to achieve a close economic partnership and to co-operate on security and policing.
I do not understand why. We cannot accept this.
Barnier: "Since the beginning the UK does not want to talk about our cooperation on foreign policy development and defense at all. Even though we agreed with Boris Johnson in the political declaration"
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) June 5, 2020
"I do not understand why"
"we will not accept this backtracking"
Full David Frost statement: reached limit of talks in these rounds. pic.twitter.com/PY9mEE9Vlh
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) June 5, 2020
No progress was made on fishing, with the UK expressing frustration that the EU did not take its own detailed proposed deal to the table.
A high-level summit between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen and David Maria Sassoli, the presidents of the European commission and parliament respectively, is now expected at the end of the month with a face-to-face meeting of a small team of negotiators before this to see if there is any hope of breaking the logjam.
The UK chief negotiator, David Frost, said both sides were “reaching the limits of what we can achieve” through video conferences.
Neither side wants talks to drag on to the autumn, with Barnier saying they cannot continue like this “eternally”.
UK sources said the same on Friday.
We’re not up for a long negotiation over the next months, well into the autumn where nobody knows what’s going to happen. October is too late for us.
The UK rejected suggestions by Barnier that the UK has been backsliding on the political declaration, adding:
We are committed to the political declaration. It describes itself as a document that sets the parameters. It isn’t in itself a treaty. It sets the parameters for our discussion and in my dictionary parameters means limits.
London has made a veiled threat of imposing tariffs on agricultural goods such as beef, tomatoes and dairy products that would have a high impact on exports from the likes of Ireland, France and Spain, as a means of unlocking talks.
This follows Michael Gove’s declaration last month that the UK would be prepared to move away from the zero-tariff goal if the EU was not prepared to budge on demands for a level playing field.
“We’d rather not,” said a senior source, but tariffs exist in the Canada and Japan deals on a small percentage of goods.
“We’re not up for line-by-line tariff negotiations. We have been clear about that,” the source added. “But typically the kind of goods that are excluded from FTA are the most sensitive agricultural goods,” said the insider.
Updated
Pilot progammes requiring voters to present ID at polling stations are lawful, the court of appeal has ruled, potentially paving the way for the scheme to be rolled out nationwide at future elections.
Ten local authorities participated in the pilots during last year’s May elections. Voters had to meet ID requirements, as set out by each authority, to be able to cast their vote.
The unanimous appeal court ruling dismissed a claim by Neil Coughlan, 66, a community activist from Braintree in Essex, who argues that it will disenfranchise those who do not have or cannot find their documents and alienate people from the democratic process.
Voter fraud is extremely rare and the electoral trials are unlawful, his lawyers told the court in April.
Delivering judgment, Lord Justice McCombe said:
Clearly, the right to vote at any election is an important right and courts will be vigilant to prevent the use of so-called ‘Henry VIII’ [statutory instrument] powers of this type by ministers to curtail such an important right by mere order, unless the claimed use of the power has been clearly and distinctly conferred by parliament.
In my judgment, however, the use of the power ... to test a pilot scheme of this type does not in truth override or abrogate the right to vote at all. The voter remains entitled to vote and must only produce sensible means of demonstrating that entitlement.
Lord Justice Underhill said while he understood Coughlan’s concern that voter ID “may inhibit some voters from voting, and that the impact may be greater on the more disadvantaged groups”, part of the purpose of the pilots was to establish whether there would be such an impact, and to what extent.
Cat Smith, the shadow minister for voter engagement and young people, criticised the initiative:
The government’s fixation with voter ID is a blatant attempt to rig future elections in its favour through voter suppression. We saw with the Windrush scandal how some communities struggle to provide official documentation, with the severe consequences. Yet the Tories continue to push through changes that disproportionately exclude people from ethnic minority backgrounds from voting.
Sarah Sackman, a barrister who represented Coughlan, said he would appeal. She said:
The court of appeal has today given the green light to the government’s plans to require ID before you can vote. That changes centuries of democratic practice in this country.
My client, Mr Coughlan, is seeking to take his case to the Supreme Court. He, along with groups like Operation Black Vote and Age UK, fear this will disenfranchise marginalised groups and that the UK will go the way of America, where ID requirements have been used to suppress voting amongst minorities.
Nicola Sturgeon and Scotland’s chief constable, Iain Livingstone, have urged Black Lives Matter supporters to avoid taking part in large public protests in Scotland this weekend because of the live risk of transmitting the coronavirus.
Livingstone said during the Scottish government’s daily press briefing he recognised people were “shocked and distressed” by the death of George Floyd. “I understand the desire of people to make their voices heard,” he added.
But attending the mass rallies planned in various cities in Scotland would be dangerous, he said. Police were liaising with the event organisers to urge them to avoid breaching Scotland’s strict lockdown and social distancing rules, which prohibits gatherings of more than eight people and requires those groups to stay at least two metres apart.
Livingstone said:
Because the threat of coronavirus is still with us, people shouldn’t attend mass gatherings which pose a very clear risk to public health. It is essential everyone sticks to the rules.
The first minister said protestors should heed the appeal from prominent BAME politicians on Thursday, including Hamza Yousaf, the Scottish justice secretary, and Anas Sarwar, a senior Scottish Labour MSP, to find different ways to protest.
Joint statement from me, @AamerAnwar @AnasSarwar & Kadijartu Johnson (Sheku Bayoh's sister & a nurse) expressing our solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter & urging people to protest using digital means and to stick to the Phase 1 rules currently in place. pic.twitter.com/6nIkuYN3NR
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) June 4, 2020
Issued with Kadijartu Johnson, the sister of Sheku Bayoh who died in Scottish police custody five years ago, the statement said some data showed BAME people were being disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. Progress defeating the virus was “fragile” they said, adding:
Therefore, as long-term anti-racist campaigners we are still urging people to protest but to use the many other methods available at this time, including digital protests.
Sturgeon said that in normal times, she would have taken part in protests this weekend but “mass gatherings isn’t safe and poses risks to health:
Every single decision we make just now as individuals affects the health and safety of everyone.
A £500 payment to social care workers in Wales to thank them for their efforts during the pandemic is to be extended, the first minister Mark Drakeford has announced.
Kitchen and domestic staff, agency and nursing staff working in care homes will receive the extra payment, and personal assistants and domiciliary care workers providing care to people in their own homes will also be eligible.
The payment will be subject to tax and National Insurance contributions and discussions were ongoing with the HM Treasury about waving that, Drakeford added.
Self-harm has increased among women prisoners during the pandemic and some are being released without anywhere to go, inspectors have said.
Inspectors, who carried out scrutiny visits on 19 May, said they were troubled by the impact of new restrictions at three women’s prisons – Bronzefield, Eastwood Park and Foston Hall.
The restrictions were aimed at controlling the spread of the virus but the inspectors were concerned about the suspension of specialist support for some of the most vulnerable women.
Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, said:
We found that self-harm had increased from the high levels seen prior to the restrictions being implemented.
Despite enhanced welfare checks and support in place at Bronzefield and Eastwood Park, Clarke said there was concern about the impact of “the very sudden withdrawal of a range of interventions from a small number of prisoners with very high levels of need”.
An inspectors’ report noted that despite the work of staff, “the very restricted regime meant prisoners at risk of self-harm felt isolated from others and craved more human contact”.
Prisoner release schemes were “undermined by the lack of accommodation for many on release”, according to Clarke. He said that since the start of the restrictions, “40% of prisoners released from Bronzefield and Eastwood Park and 20% of those release from Foston Hall had no accommodation on the day of their release”.
The inspectors’ report on the scrutiny visits added:
This was not a safe way to release potentially vulnerably prisoners, especially during a pandemic.
Efforts to reduce the amount of inmates through release schemes had proved largely ineffective as significant numbers of new prisoners were admitted.
Under the new restrictions, face-to-face visits and education sessions had stopped and prisoners were allowed out of their cells in smaller groups.
The inspectors were concerned by the absence of any organised physical education provision and they said that social distancing was not routinely observed at Bronzefield.
The report said video-based visits not been set up and some women had not seen their children for two months, which comes as children separated from their mothers and prison minister Lucy Frazer are set to give evidence to the joint committee on human rights on Monday.
Details about the significantly restricted daily regimes were well communicated by staff who maintained positive relationships with prisoners, the inspectors added.
Liverpool had the Beatles and Atomic Kitten; Manchester gave birth to Oasis and Take That. But which city has produced the better music overall? There’s only one way to find out: fight!
On Sunday the mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool city region will take part in a DJ battle to raise money for charities helping during the pandemic while settling an age-old beef over which of their regions is musically superior.
Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram will be taking turns on the decks to play songs by acts from in and around Manchester and Liverpool. The battle will be shown exclusively on the United We Stream platform.
Without the Beatles Liverpool wouldn’t stand a chance, suggested Burnham:
Let’s face it - if we had excluded music from the 1960s, there would be no contest.
Rotheram begs to differ. He boasted:
Everyone knows that our city region is the centre of the known musical universe. Not only are we a UNESCO World City of Music, but we have produced more No1 hits than anywhere else in the country.
Broadcast from 8pm, the mayors will play an hour’s set each, spinning tracks from the ‘60s up to the present day and including plenty of classic Merseybeat and Madchester. People will be invited to vote for the winning city by leaving a comment whilst making a donation on the United We Stream JustGiving page.
The money raised from the event will be shared between the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity, supporting efforts to tackle homelessness, and LCRCares, a campaign to support organisations on the frontline supporting communities throughout the Liverpool city-region.
The UK arm of lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret has slipped into administration, raising fears for more than 800 employees.
Victoria’s Secret UK runs 25 stores across the UK. It has called in Deloitte for a “light touch” administration, after the company was hit by the closure of high streets during the pandemic.
Victoria’s Secret had already furloughed 785 of its workers before appointing administrators.
Administrators will try to find a buyer for its assets, or re-negotiate its rents, in a bid to pull it out of administration.
Deloitte administrator Rob Harding said it was “yet another blow to the UK high street” and further evidence of the impact of the pandemic on the retail sector as a whole. He said:
The effect of the lockdowns, combined with broader challenges facing bricks and mortar retailers, has resulted in a funding requirement for this business, resulting in today’s administration.
Following on from his frank comments on the lack of progress in post-Brexit trade talks (see 12.25pm.), Michel Barnier accused the UK of having backtracked on the political declaration.
The EU chief negotiator told a Brussels press conference that the negotiating teams were still “very far” from reaching agreement on the level playing field, nuclear safety, and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism funding.
He said “round after round” the UK had sought “to distance themselves” from the political declaration agreed by the EU and the prime minister Boris Johnson. He said:
In all areas, the UK continues to backtrack under commitments undertaken in the political declaration, including on fisheries.
We cannot and will not accept this backtracking on the political declaration.
The UK’s chief Brexit negotiator David Frost has said the progress in the talks with the EU was “limited” but that the tone had been “positive”.
He took a rather different tone to his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier, who said there had been “no significant areas of progress” at the end of the fourth round of talks (see 12.25pm.).
Frost said that if further progress was to be made the two sides needed to “intensify and accelerate” their work rate. In a statement, he said:
Progress remains limited but our talks have been positive in tone. Negotiations will continue and we remain committed to a successful outcome.
He echoed Barnier’s suggestion that the resumption of face-to-face talks would prove more effective. Frost said:
We are now at an important moment for these talks. We are close to reaching the limits of what we can achieve through the format of remote formal rounds.
If we are to make progress, it is clear that we must intensify and accelerate our work. We are discussing with the commission how this can best be done.
We need to conclude this negotiation in good time to enable people and businesses to have certainty about the trading terms that will follow the end of the transition period at the end of this year, and, if necessary, to allow ratification of any agreements reached.
For our part we are willing to work hard to see whether at least the outline of a balanced agreement, covering all issues, can be reached soon.
Any such deal must of course accommodate the reality of the UK’s well-established position on the so-called ‘level playing field’, on fisheries, and the other difficult issues.
Updated
'No significant areas of progress' on UK-EU trade talks, says Barnier
There has been “no significant areas of progress” at the end of the fourth round of talks on a post-Brexit trade deal, the EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said.
He told a Brussels press conference:
My responsibility is to speak to truth and to tell the truth this week there have been no significant areas of progress.
On fisheries the UK have not shown any true will to explore other approaches beyond zonal attachment for the sharing of quotas.
They continue to condition access to waters to an annual negotiation which is not possible for us - not even technically possible.
The EU hopes to restart face-to-face talks with the UK at the end of June, Barnier confirmed, which he hoped would be “more effective”.
Barnier added that “the door is still open” for the UK to extend the transition period. He said:
All we are asking for is the political declaration to be complied with.
There has been no significant progress on these points, not since the start of negotiations, and I don’t think we can go on like this forever.
The UK has refused to extend the transition period to allow for more time for negotiations.
From our side, as indeed was already pointed by President Von der Leyen we have always been open to extending this period by one or two years.
It’s possible and written into the agreement. Our door is still open to that end. However, if there is no joint decision to such an extension, as is the case now, if there is no change, the UK will leave the single market and the customs union on 31 December.
Updated
CPS asked to review evidence over death of rail worker Belly Mujinga
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been asked to review evidence into the death of railway worker Belly Mujinga in recognition of wider public interest, although the case is not being reopened, British Transport Police (BTP) said.
Mujinga died in April with Covid-19, a few weeks after an incident at London’s Victoria station. She is survived by widower and an 11-year-old daughter.
BTP interviewed a 57-year-old man but said the incident did not lead to the worker’s death and decided not to refer the case to the CPS.
In a new statement on Friday, BTP said it had invited the CPS to conduct an independent review of the available evidence, and whether there were any further lines of inquiry.
BTP said it understood the depth of feeling over the case and that there were further questions over how it was decided there was insufficient proof of a crime to justify a prosecution.
We can assure the public that we have comprehensively reviewed all the available evidence and have not identified any offences or behaviour that meets the threshold for prosecution.
The development came as the number of people signing a petition launched in support of Mujinga topped a million. Her trade union the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) has received messages of support from across the UK and from countries including the US and Germany.
Mujinga’s husband Lusamba thanked those who have signed the petition and said the public reaction to her case had taken the family by surprise. He added it had come amid anger over the killing of George Floyd in the US.
He said:
On Wednesday, thousands of people protested in London to cry it loud that black lives matter. Black lives do matter. Belly’s life mattered. It mattered to me, to our daughter, our friends and family, to Belly’s colleagues, and now it matters to many thousands of you out there.
We were there, united in our anger and our grief. United in our determination to be heard and in our determination to get change. We want justice for Belly.
Updated
We reported earlier this morning that the UK’s equality watchdog – the Equality and Human Rights Commission – is launching an inquiry into the “long-standing, structural race inequality” that has been laid bare by the pandemic (see 7.44am.).
The EHRC said it would carry out in-depth analysis and develop evidence-based recommendations for urgent action to tackle entrenched racial inequalities in specific areas.
A government-commissioned Public Health England (PHE) investigation found that people of Bangladeshi background in England were twice as likely as white Britons to die if they contracted Covid-19, and other BAME groups faced an increased risk of up to 50%.
The BBC reported on Thursday that black communities felt they had been “misled” after it was revealed that the PHE inquiry was not led by black doctor Prof Kevin Fenton as was originally announced, and that he had instead “contributed” to the review.
The final report also did not include the responses of more than 1,000 organisations and individuals who had been consulted, highlighting issues of racism, trust, discrimination and stigma. One of the organisations angered by the omissions is the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).
Harun Khan, the secretary general of the MCB, said it was “disappointing” those responses were not in the final review:
It’s very disappointing when many organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain, put significant effort into supporting the government and Public Health England in this review, that those views been overlooked despite being specifically sought.
There has also been frustration that the PHE report confirmed what was already known – that BAME people are at higher risk of mortality from Covid-19 than their white counterparts – without setting out clear recommendations on how to better protect BAME lives from the virus.
Khan added:
The purpose of the review was not to replicate evidence already in the public domain - as appears to now be the case - it was to understand the extent of the problem, establish a clear action plan recognising the structural racism already previously identified, and crucially, develop specific recommendations to stop the unnecessary loss of lives in BAME communities.
It is therefore vital to have a third party external to government, such as the EHRC, to look into this issue. However whilst initial statements appear to recognise the importance of listening to experts, we remain cautious considering the poor track record the EHRC has on investigating racism with actionable recommendations, including in the case of Windrush or Islamophobia in the Conservative party.
Updated
British Airways’ parent company is considering taking legal action against the government’s decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on international arrivals.
IAG chief executive Willie Walsh described the policy as “terrible” and warned it has “torpedoed our opportunity to get flying in July”. He told Sky News:
We think it’s irrational, we think it’s disproportionate, and we are giving consideration to a legal challenge to this legislation.
We’re reviewing that with the lawyers later on today.
I suspect there are other airlines who are doing so because it’s important to point out there was no consultation with the industry prior to enacting this legislation.
We do believe it is an irrational piece of legislation.
From Monday, people arriving in the UK will need to self-isolate for 14 days.
There has been widespread concern that this will cause huge damage to the travel and aviation sectors as they recover from the pandemic. BA has announced plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs as part of a restructuring.
The home secretary Priti Patel has insisted the rule is “backed by the science” and is “essential” to save lives.
IAG had previously said it intends to make “a meaningful return to service” in July.
British Airways declined to join a meeting between Patel and the travel industry to discuss the quarantine on Thursday.
It is understood the Home Office received no reply from the airline after being invited to the discussion, which was attended by several of its competitors including Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and Jet2.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of union Unite, said it was “frankly irresponsible that BA would sit this out”.
A police force in Wales has urged English visitors to check its lockdown rules after being forced to turn away 1,000 cars from a beauty spot in just two days.
Dyfed-Powys police said they have stopped tourists from as far as London who had travelled to a picturesque area in the Brecon Beacons known as “waterfall country” last weekend.
On Friday the force said many of the drivers stopped in the village of Ystradfellte claimed they did not know Wales has a five-mile limit for non-essential journeys.
Meanwhile, in England people can now travel an unlimited distance for exercise and to access beauty spots.
Offenders included a doctor from London who travelled to Brecon to buy lamb, a group from Devon who made a 350-mile round trip to Wisemans Bridge, Pembrokeshire, to “look at the beach”, and a birthday party from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, who ventured to Elan Valley, Powys, for a barbecue.
A spokeswoman for the force said:
Police in Powys are reminding people to check the rules before they travel, as tourists from the Midlands, London and Bristol continue to visit despite lockdown restrictions.
Many of those stopped claimed they thought the rules around travel were the same as in England, while others had deliberately flouted them.
In Wales fines for repeated breaches of lockdown regulations start at £60 but double for each repeated offence to a maximum of £1,920.
Snowdonia, the Elan Valley and the Pembrokeshire coast all remain closed to the public, as do all National Trust car parks and properties.
Updated
Good morning. I’m Lucy Campbell, taking over the blog for the rest of the day. As ever, please feel free to get in touch with news tips, comments and stories you think we should be covering here. Your thoughts are always welcome and hugely helpful.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Tim Davie named as new BBC director-general
BBC Studios head Tim Davie will replace Tony Hall as the director-general of the corporation, it has been announced.
Davie, one of the BBC’s most senior executives, said in a statement:
I am honoured to be appointed the BBC’s next director-general. This has been a critical time for the UK and these past few months have shown just how much the BBC matters to people. Our mission has never been more relevant, important or necessary. I have a deep commitment to content of the highest quality and impartiality.
Looking forward, we will need to accelerate change so that we serve all our audiences in this fast-moving world. Much great work has been done, but we will continue to reform, make clear choices and stay relevant. I am very confident we can do this because of the amazing teams of people that work at the BBC.
The incumbent director-general, Lord Hall, said:
I’m delighted that Tim has been appointed as the next director-general. He is a fantastic leader. I wish him every success for the future. I know that the BBC is in safe hands.
The Guardian’s Mark Sweney has more.
Updated
Doctors of the World have welcomed the launch of an inquiry into racial discrimination in the UK by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The organisation said it had carried out a rapid assessment of the circumstances and needs of communities excluded from healthcare services.
The assessment revealed
- People unable to self-isolate because of housing and financial circumstances
- Literacy and language barriers prevented people getting through to NHS111.
- Poverty prevented some people reaching the NHS when they needed help and advice because they did not have mobile phone credit and people were forced to choose between food or phone credit.
- Digital exclusion caused by poverty prevented people from protecting themselves from COVID-19.
Doctors of the World UK Policy and Advocacy Manager Anna Miller said:
As a track and trace system is rolled out, and the pandemic response increasing relies on a technological solution, the disparities between those able to protect themselves and those who cannot will only increase.
Put simply, if track and trace is going to work then the government needs to ensure everyone has enough money to buy phone credit.
View the full report.
In its report the ONS stated that there is evidence that Covid-19 is currently under-diagnosed.
Looking at possible explanations for the number of non-Covid-19 excess deaths, it noted that a number of death certificates in England and Wales have stated that more information would be provided later, some of which have since been updated to mention Covid-19. It stated:
This supports the theory that Covid-19 is under-diagnosed at present on death certificates.
Deaths involving Covid-19 could also have been recorded as non-Covid-19 deaths if the person had a severe underlying condition that was exacerbated by Covid-19 - including deaths due to conditions such as chronic lower respiratory disease, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Separately, the fact that deaths related to asthma and diabetes are occurring at a “significantly higher rate compared to the five-year average” could indicate that some people with these conditions are not receiving care fast enough to prevent death taking place, due to extra pressures on the healthcare system.
The ONS added that it is “plausible” that some of these deaths are because undiagnosed Covid-19 had “exacerbated the pre-existing condition”.
ONS: Fewer than one in 1000 people in England have Covid-19
The number of people with Covid-19 in England has fallen to around 5,600 new infections a day from around 8,000 reported last week, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The ONS published data on how many people at any one time are infected with Covid-19 based on swab results from households across the country.
It said:
Modelling of the trend over time shows evidence that the number of people in England testing positive has decreased in recent weeks.
There were an estimated 39,000 new Covid-19 infections per week in England between April 26 and May 30, equating to an incidence rate per week of 0.07 new cases per 100 people.
This means fewer than one in every 1,000 people had Covid-19.
Just over a week ago, on May 28, the ONS estimated there were around 54,000 new coronavirus infections per week in England, or around 8,000 a day.
This suggests a drop of around a third between the two datasets.
The estimates are based on swab tests of 19,000 people in 9,000 households.
British Airways' consider legal challenge against quarantine plans
British Airways’ owner International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh says he is considering a legal challenge against the quarantine plans, Sky News are reporting.
More on this as we get it.
British Airways' owner International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh says he is considering a legal challenge against the quarantine plans
— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) June 5, 2020
Access to public toilets is incredibly important, so please do help us map what is happening throughout the UK.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyer says her furlough has been extended , say local reports
Iran International TV has reported that British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyer Mahmoud Behzadi-Rad has said that Nazanin’s furlough has been extended and that she is currently wearing an ankle tag, renewing hopes that she may soon be released form Evin Prison indefinitely.
Behzadi had claimed this morning that Nazanin’s previous leave had expired in early June and said: “We will have to wait to see what happens.”
He did not say how long Nazanin’s leave has been extended for, but expressed hope that the instructions of the head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to “pardon and mitigate punishment” would include a number of prisoners, including his client, Nazanin.
Last week Richard Ratcliffe told the Observer that his wife was the victim of “psychological torture” at the hands of the Iranian regime, her husband has said, as her hopes of being granted clemency were dashed for the second time in a week.
The 41-year-old mother had been left “deflated”, “unsettled” and desperate to see her five-year-old daughter, Gabriella, in England, Ratcliffe said.
Police planning their own contact tracing system, according to reports
Police forces are planning their own contact tracing system over concerns the government’s test and trace scheme could place officers in danger, according to Sky News.
Sky reports:
Under the plans, police officers who test positive for Covid-19 would not give their contacts to NHS contact tracers, but would instead inform their police force who would take over contact tracing to identify anyone at risk of catching the virus.
The plans, which are being developed by national police organisations, could see police forces take over all contact tracing for police officers and staff, according to a source close to the matter.
Another option being discussed is seconding staff from NHS test and trace to police forces, although police chiefs doubt Public Health England (PHE) has the resources to make this possible.
Police forces are concerned strict application of contact tracing rules could see entire stations or units having to shut down, and that contact tracing could compromise sensitive information.
Updated
House prices fell for the third month in a row in May
The average house price fell for the third month in a row in May, according to an index.
Across the UK, a 0.2% month-on-month decline in property values in May took the average house price to 237,808, Halifax said.
It followed monthly falls of 0.6% in April and 0.3% in March.
House prices were 2.6% higher compared with a year earlier.
Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, said:
This is the third successive monthly fall, though more modest than in April, and reflects a continued loss of momentum following what was a strong start to the year.
Though it should still be noted that with a limited number of transactions available, calculating average house prices remains challenging and increased volatility is to be expected.
People shielding in Wales have been told they should continue to do so until the middle of August.
Like in England, on June 1 the Welsh Government advised people who are shielding that they could leave their homes to meet people from another household outdoors, as long as strictly follow to social distancing rules and good hygiene measures.
But almost 130,000 people will this week begin to receive letters from the chief medical officer for Wales setting out the latest advice and will be told to continue shielding until 16 August.
Dr Frank Atherton, Wales’s chief medical officer said:
We are asking all those in the shielding group to continue to shield until 16 August because coronavirus has not gone away. We want to do all we can to keep those people in this group safe and that means asking them to continue to shield.
Thanks to reader Kaitey Dave for flagging this, and
Updated
The BBC have got an interesting story, which has come out of a freedom of information request.
It found that an exercise simulating a coronavirus outbreak in Scotland, which was shared with a UK government advisory group, showed a “clear gap” in preparedness.
A report into Exercise Iris revealed frontline staff “unease” over personal protective equipment and “the need for substantive progress”.
The exercise simulated an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a coronavirus like Sars-Cov-2 with different characteristics.
The Scottish government says its findings were shared with attendees.
Like the novel coronavirus, Mers-CoV causes a respiratory disease and key symptoms include fever and a cough. However, transmission rates are believed to be far lower and fatality rates are much higher.
Updated
The Scottish health secretary has warned health board chiefs that failures to routinely test care home staff for coronavirus will be made public in a weekly league table from next week.
In a strongly-worded letter to health board chief executives, Jeane Freeman ordered them to send her detailed plans on how they plan to implement the policy by 3pm on Friday, adding that the Scottish government will publish board-by-board data on the number of tests completed each week from next Wednesday.
“Where directions are issued, these will not be for local interpretation — they must be implemented in full and without delay,” she wrote.
At this week’s first minister’s questions, Nicola Sturgeon was challenged repeatedly about testing in care homes after NRS figures revealed that more people have now died in care homes in Scotland than in hospitals.
Sturgeon and Freeman have faced growing criticism over their directive to test all hospital patients twice before they are discharged to care homes on April 22, despite earlier warnings about the risks of asymptomatic infection. Nearly one thousand elderly patients were discharged from hospitals into care homes at the start of the pandemic without testing, and many staff fear that this had fatal results.
Transport for London volunteers will be handing out single-use face masks for journeys over the next week before they become mandatory on public transport on June 15, as announced last night by the government.
According to TfL, an estimated 30-50% of passengers are already wearing face coverings on journeys - in line with the Guardian’s own surveys around Britain this week. It urges passengers to buy masks from local shps or make their own coverings, which “can be a simple cloth that covers the nose and mouth” .
As with many lockdown rules, the impression is that authorities don’t expect to require fines and law enforcement for general co-operation - but from June 15 TfL said its “police partners will help customers to comply with the requirement”.
Sadiq Khan told the BBC that there would be an “element of discretion and good faith”, with young children and people with breathing problems exempt, and the policy relying on “positive peer pressure” – although he said commuters not “take the law into your own hands” if they saw people without face coverings.
Around 85% of Tube and bus services are now running but public transport capacity will be effectively 13-15% of normal levels with social distancing. With more businesses due to open on June 15, that date will also see another change, with older Londoners losing the right to use the Freedom Pass before 9am – agreed as part of the financial bailout package imposed on TfL by government.
Transport secretary: wear a mask, wash your hands
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has been doing the rounds today, defending the decision to ask all commuters to wear masks on public transport from June 15.
He told BBC Breakfast:
It is an additional measure, it is marginal, we accept it is marginal and the scientists weren’t in full agreement about it but we think it is worth doing absolutely everything possible.
He added that wearing a face covering is not as important as washing your hands or social distancing for preventing the spread of Covid-19.
He said the reason face coverings have not been mandatory so far is because the transport system has only been at 5% capacity.
He said:
I am afraid this is not some panacea, wearing a face covering has been argued about and the scientists have said before and I have commented before that it has been a debatable point because what happens is that as people take those coverings on and off, it can lead to cross infection.
I do think on balance it is right to do absolutely everything possible because it removes the doubt and provides some reassurance to passengers as well but it is not some panacea.
Shapps compared the new face coverings rule on public transport to the alcohol ban introduced on Transport for London a decade ago:
You won’t be able to use public transport unless you are wearing it, so you could be asked to leave and ultimately you could be fined but I don’t think that will be necessary in the vast majority of cases.
There were all these discussions at the time but in the end most people just want to do the right thing, most people just want to get on top of this disease and here is something small but important that we can do.
Shapps defended the Government’s track and trace system, which the Guardian revealed might not be fully operational until September or October.
He said the alleged delays only meant the app would continue to be improved. He said:
The app itself will continue to be improved just as apps are always being improved and I tend to think they are never really finished.
Just to be clear, right now, you’ve got an NHS test and trace system which is indeed on global scales extremely impressive - to give you an example, yesterday I announced 233,000 tests had been carried out.
Right now, if anyone watching this is feeling ill and they think they might have Covid-19 symptoms they can go online this minute and book a test - and the scale of testing right now is currently among the best in the world.
He said the government had now recruited 25,000 contact tracers, who were making thousands of calls “right now”. He added:
Anyone who gets a positive coronavirus outcome, their contacts are being requested - where they have been, who they have spoken to and how long they have been in those locations.”
Updated
Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband has also been on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.
He argued that the government should help airlines, but it should insist on conditions that make them “go green”.
Govt should help airlines but insist on climate action - says @Ed_Miliband. He would tell @richardbranson "...take your company out of the tax haven, we'll look at an equity stake if makes financial sense, but on the condition you go green"#R4Today https://t.co/dC8KRGIZIr
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) June 5, 2020
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Laurence Taylor, deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, has warned that future mass gatherings to protest against the death of George Floyd would be “unlawful” due to the current coronavirus restrictions in place.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme
The health protection regulations are really clear that it is unlawful.
The Government said that for health reasons people should not be meeting in groups of six, so we would strongly encourage people not to come out and gather in these large numbers because they are putting themselves and others at risk.
And if they do come out, then we would ask them to observe that social distancing, think about those around them.
But of course, by coming and gathering in these large groups they are potentially risking their health and also risking taking the virus back to their families.
Good Morning Britain’s Kate Garraway has given a really moving update on the health of her husband Derek Draper on the show this morning.
Draper has been in hospital for 10 weeks and has been put into a coma after being diagnosed with coronavirus.
'I'm just so grateful he is still here.'
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 5, 2020
Kate Garraway's husband Derek Draper has been fighting for his life against coronavirus for nearly 10 weeks.
She talks to Ben and Ranvir about his situation.
We're sending all of our love and support❤️ pic.twitter.com/VmdrDBhRG3
Speaking to her colleagues she said:
He’s still with us, he has fought the most extraordinary battle and I hate the idea of that but it is a battle.
The fact that he’s still here and holding on, I’m so grateful that he is still here.
He’s very, very sick and as time goes on it’s a virus, it’s a little bit like a computer virus, the doctors manage one bit extraordinarily well and there seems to be hope and then there is something else.
It’s affected him from the top of his head to the tip of his toes.
UK equality watchdog launches inquiry into entrenched racism
The UK’s equality watchdog is launching an inquiry into “long-standing, structural race inequality”, which has been thrown into stark relief by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it would carry out in-depth analysis and develop evidence-based recommendations for urgent action to tackle entrenched racial inequalities in specific areas.
Black and minority ethnic people have been disproportionately affected and have been two to three times more likely to die from Covid-19, according to a UCL study.
A government-commissioned Public Health England (PHE) investigation found that people of Bangladeshi background in England were twice as likely as white Britons to die if they contracted Covid-19, and other BAME groups faced an increased risk of up to 50%.
The mayor of London Sadiq Khan said Covid-19 had exposed “the major health inequalities that exist in our society”, adding that he was pleased about the investigation.
COVID19 has exposed the major health inequalities that exist in our society.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) June 5, 2020
Pleased that the Equality and Human Rights Commission have acted on my call to launch an investigation into the disproportionate impact of COVID19. https://t.co/9RZSMwXQVQ
The move came as the Government Equalities Office announced a review into the government’s response to inequalities in Covid-19 infection and death rates, including the impact of age, sex, occupation, obesity, comorbidities, geography, and ethnicity.
Earlier today, the government set out the Terms of Reference for the next part of the @PHE_uk review into into disparities in the risks and outcomes of COVID-19.
— Government Equalities Office (@GEOgovuk) June 4, 2020
This work will be led by @KemiBadenoch
More 👇https://t.co/qWPj36Ap7r
Read the full story here:
Opening summary
Here are some of the top stories in the UK today:
- The NHS coronavirus test-and-trace system designed to prevent a second deadly wave is not expected to work at full speed until September or October, the Guardian has learned. It comes as a leaked email from the chief executive of Serco – one of the main companies contracted to deliver the service – revealed how he doubted the scheme would evolve smoothly but said he wanted it to “cement the position of the private sector” in the NHS supply chain.
- Face coverings on public transport will be compulsory from 15 June in England to help stop the transmission of coronavirus as more people go back to work, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said on Thursday.
- Rail passengers can now be warned of busy trains and stations before they leave home as part of a UK industry system designed to help maintain physical distancing and safe travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
- A row has broken out between Priti Patel and British Airways over the plans to quarantine travellers for 14 days as the airline refused to meet her, and a government source branded the company “not serious about getting Britain working again”.
- Dentists have warned there will be no return to “business as usual” for dentistry in England report the BBC when practices can reopen from Monday, with some saying they lacked enough warning of openings and do not have the necessary protective kit.
I’m Lexy Topping and I’ll be with you on the UK coronavirus liveblog until 11am this morning. If you think we’ve missed a story, you want to give us a tip, or you have wonderful feedback to give us please do get in touch. I’m on alexandra.topping@theguardian.com and i’m @lexytopping on Twitter - my DMs are open.
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