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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Lucy Campbell (now); Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

UK coronavirus : Johnson suffers biggest Commons revolt since election as MPs back new Covid tiers by 291 to 78 - as it happened

Evening summary

  • MPs approved the UK government’s plan for a tougher tiered system for England to begin on Wednesday by 291 votes to 78. It means the new tier restrictions will replace the second national lockdown at midnight.
  • However, the figures represent the government’s biggest defeat since it won last year’s general election, thanks to a sizeable Tory rebellion against the new measures. A total of 55 Tory MPs voted against the government and 16 did note vote (some of these will have been abstentions, others will have been absences for other reasons). Senior Tories, MPs who would usually back Johnson on Brexit, as well as some from the 2019 intake, were among the rebels. For the most part, the Labour party abstained from the vote, though 15 of its MPs voted against the government. The division list is here.
  • The UK’s total Covid-19 death toll has passed 75,000, according to a tally of all fatalities that mention the disease on death certificates. Our story here.

Updated

Speaking after the vote on the strengthened tiered system of coronavirus restrictions, the foreign secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News:

It’s a very important set of regulations to help the UK bridge into the spring, where we hope a vaccine will move us into a whole different place, and the reason that these regulations mattered is it allows us to move to a tiered approach which, backed up by mass community testing, will help us keep control of the virus and avoid another lockdown.

Asked if he is worried about future votes going forward, considering the Tory rebellion, Raab said:

We listened to MPs on all sides of the House. We’ve passed this vote with a majority of over 200.

The most striking thing about the numbers is that the leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, abstained on the biggest issue facing the country today as we go through this pandemic and he’s got nothing to say about it, no leadership, doesn’t know what he thinks, or what the country should do.

These are from the BBC’s Lewis Goodall

From my colleague Peter Walker

Julian Sturdy, the Tory MP for York Outer, has said he “reluctantly voted backed the government tonight. But, as tonight’s rebellion represented an increase on the last Tory revolt on coronavirus restrictions, this could be the case for future votes as he also suggested the government may not be able to count on his support next time.

Among the Tory rebels was Sir Graham Brady, the MP for Altrincham and Sale West and chair of the influential 1922 Committee.

He tweeted before the vote:

Updated

The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he voted against the government’s coronavirus restrictions.

Corbyn had his Labour membership restored after being suspended for his response to the damning report into anti-semitism within the party, but Sir Keir Starmer has not restored the whip, meaning he cannot sit as a Labour MP. Starmer had ordered Labour MPs to abstain.

The Islington North MP, who voted as an independent, tweeted:

Updated

This is from Politics Home’s Kate Proctor

15 Labour MPs ignored party orders to abstain, instead opposing the regulations.

Updated

This is from PA Media:

Analysis of the division list showed the Conservative MP for Bridgend, Jamie Wallis, voted both aye and no, which is usually regarded as a formal abstention if done during a division.

This would suggest 52 Conservative MPs rebelled to oppose the measures, along with two colleagues who acted as tellers for the noes.

Abstentions would also be considered a form of rebelling given the party whip was to vote in favour of the motion.

Updated

Here is the full breakdown of the vote.

Fifty-three Conservative MPs voted against the government, plus the two tellers, Steve Baker and Sir Robert Syms.

Sixteen did not vote, though not all of these will have been abstentions.

Updated

Tory rebel leader Mark Harper said “we very much regret” that so many MPs “felt forced to vote against” the government’s measures during a national crisis.

The former chief whip, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of Conservative lockdown sceptics, said:

We very much regret that in a moment of national crisis so many of us felt forced to vote against the measures that the government was proposing.

The House of Commons has spoken and we hope that the government will take on board the comments we have been making on the need for better data and modelling, regional cost-benefit analysis, and on trusting MPs with the information they need to make such important decisions on behalf of their constituents.

We must find a way to break the transmission of the disease, recapture the public’s support and confidence, end this devastating cycle of repeated restrictions and start living in a sustainable way until an effective and safe vaccine is successfully rolled out across the population.

Updated

53 Tory MPs voted against government

The breakdown of the vote is in.

The division list reveals that of the 78 MPs who voted against the government tonight: 53 were Tories, 15 Labour, two independent and eight Democratic Unionist.

Updated

Good evening, this is Lucy Campbell.

This is from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh

The Forest of Dean MP and chairman of the rebel Covid Recovery Group, led tonight’s rebellion against the tougher Covid tier system for England, delivering a significant blow to the PM.

During the debate, Harper said he was not convinced by the government’s justification for the system, which puts most of the country in tiers 2 and 3. He added that if thetiers came with an economic cost, the government had to provide sufficient data and proof that they would work.

He told the House:

All I ask is that ministers share with the house the modelling and forecasting that they have seen that led them to come to the conclusions that they have. Unfortunately they have, so far, failed to do so.

Updated

These are from Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt.

That’s all from me for this evening. My colleague Lucy Campbell is taking over now.

No 10 welcomed the result. A government spokesman said:

We welcome tonight’s vote which endorses our winter plan, brings an end to the national restrictions and returns England to a tiered system.

This will help to safeguard the gains made during the past month and keep the virus under control.

We will continue to work with MPs who have expressed concerns in recent days.

Updated

According to Sky’s Jon Craig, Boris Johnson was standing at the door of the division lobby as voting took place, urging Conservative MPs to back the government.

Updated

There were 16 Labour MPs defying the whip and voting against the government, Sky News is reporting.

With around 56 Tory MPs voting against the government, that makes this the biggest Conservative rebellion of this government. See 7.13am.

56 Tory MPs voted against government, Labour whips claim

Labour thinks there were 56 Tories voting against the government, the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar reports.

MPs vote for Covid regulations - but with around 70 Tories not supporting goverment

The government has won by 291 votes to 78 – a majority of 213. But there are 364 Conservative MPs, which means 73 of them did not vote for the government.

Some of them may have had a valid reason although, now that proxy voting is allowed in the Commons, it can be assumed that most of the 73 who did not back the government were voting against or abstaining.

We will get a full division list later.

Updated

Previous biggest Tory Commons revolts since general election

We are expecting this to be the biggest Commons revolt that Boris Johnson has suffered since the general election.

The other main ones have been:

Vote on the 10pm “curfew” on 13 October - with 42 Tories voting against the government

Vote on stopping Huawei equipment from being used in 5G on 10 March - with 36 Tories voting against

Vote on the lockdown on 4 November - with 32 Tories voting against the government

These are the figures for Conservative MPs who voted against the government in those divisions. In each of them there were two more Tory MPs who rebelled by acting as tellers.

Updated

We’ve got the names of the first two Tory rebels. The tellers for the noes are Sir Robert Syms and Steve Baker - both Conservative MPs.

MPs vote on new Covid restrictions

MPs are now voting on motion 3. It reads:

That the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 1374), dated 30 November 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 30 November, be approved.

Hancock urges MPs to vote for new restrictions, saying only alternative another lockdown

Hancock says voting against these rules tonight is a vote to allow the entire system of restrictions to lapse tomorrow.

So he urges MPs to back the motion, backing doctors and nurses and teachers and businesses that don’t want another lockdown, “because that would be the only alternative”.

Updated

Hancock turns to support for hospitality. He says the International Monetary Fund has said that business support in Britain during the pandemic has been among the most generous in the world.

Updated

Hancock accepts that MPs are having to take a difficult decision. But he says none of the decisions in this have been easy.

MPs should think not about what will bring them short-term popularity, but about what is right.

Responding to demands from MPs for better data, Hancock says data is released as soon as it comes in. But he says it can take several days before it is clear from the figures what the trend is.

Hancock says he knows about the cost of coronavirus. He says his step-grandfather, Derek, died from the virus last month. We have to get this virus under control, he says.

Updated

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is winding up for the government.

He says Covid rates are falling - sharply, in some parts of the country.

Andy Carter, the Conservative MP for Warrington South, asks what can be done to get mass testing in Warrington. Hancock says Carter only has to ask.

Updated

Ashworth says it is not clear yet whether England is back to the whack-a-mole strategy or not.

As a Leicester MP, he says he knows all about this.

Leicester got its infection rates down. But it remained under restrictions, he says.

He challenges Matt Hancock, the health secretary, to explain how low rates must fall for areas to be allowed to go down a tier.

In the Commons Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is winding up now.

He says there are anomalies in the new restrictions. Under the lockdown rules, wakes are allowed. But from tomorrow, in tier 3 areas, they won’t be allowed, he says.

He says, if freedoms are being restricted, MPs want to know what economic support will be available.

Back in the Commons, Huw Merriman (Con) has just said that he will vote against the restrictions this evening. He said the ongoing restrictions were increasing the risk of unemployment, educational failure, poverty, illness, suicide, poor mental health and loneliness, and domestic abuse.

Updated

These are from the Sun’s Kate Ferguson, who reveals that Boris Johnson has still not exhausted his stock of inappropriate coronavirus metaphors.

From PoliticsHome

Felicity Buchan (Con) says, after much soul-searching, she will be voting with the government tonight. But she wants the restrictions to be lifted soon, because life soon needs to return to normal, she says.

Back in the debate Sally-Ann Hart, the Conservative MP for Hastings and Rye, says that although she “riles” against what is being proposed, on balance she will be voting with the government.

James Cartlidge, the Conservative MP for South Suffolk, has written a post on his website explaining why he is voting for the restrictions.

Greg Smith (Con), who represents Buckingham, says his constituents find it very hard to accept a system that treats the whole of the county of Buckinghamshire as the same. In the north of the county cases are particularly low, he says.

He also says he is particularly worried about the impact of the restrictions.

He says he wants ministers to look at how they can make their tiering system more localised.

Christian Wakeford (Con) says the sunset clause in the restrictions is too far off. He represents Bury South, and he says for Greater Manchester this means that it will have been under restrictions for too long.

But he says he is particularly worried about the rules for pubs, which have become a joke. That undermines public support for these arrangements, he says. That is why is he is “really struggling” to back these rules.

Back in the debate Chris Loder (Con) says he supports the government’s decision to replace the lockdown with regional restrictions. But he says they should be more localised. And he says his constituency, West Dorset, should be in tier 1. In the absence of any justification for it not being in tier 1, he says he will struggle to vote with the government tonight.

Updated

From the Times’s Steven Swinford

Updated

According to a poll for Savanta ComRes, people in English areas placed in tier 2 view that decision as fair rather than unfair by two to one. But people living in tier 3 areas are pretty evenly divided, with almost half of respondents thinking the decision is unreasonable.

Chris Hopkins, political research director at the polling company, thinks this finding is potentially problematic for the government. He explains:

With so little of England in tier 1, the differences in perceived fairness between the higher two tiers is stark, with those in tier 2 twice as likely to say their placing is fair versus unfair, whereas it’s far more evenly split among those in tier 3. Perceived fairness is likely to correlate with compliance, and the government does risk alienating those under tougher restrictions and compromising their effectiveness with such a tiered approach.

Updated

In a statement on her website Caroline Lucas, the sole Green party MP in the Commons, says she will abstain in the vote tonight. Here is an extract.

Ministers have decided to bundle up both the tier restrictions and Christmas relaxation into one vote. So I am faced with a take-it-or-leave it choice. If I vote for the government package, I am endorsing a significant relaxation at Christmas – a decision which, if taken now, could have major implications for public health and put many vulnerable people at risk. If I vote against and the government is defeated, there could be no restrictions at all, and the situation would be even worse.

My decision to abstain is carefully taken – my message to ministers is clear: match the restrictions with the financial support people and businesses need urgently get track, trace, isolate and support working, and put safety first for Christmas.

Updated

Back in the Commons Tim Loughton (Con) says, if he were to justify voting for these meaures tonight, he would have to explain why East Worthing and Shoreham in West Sussex should go into tier 2, when it was in tier 1 before lockdown. He says Worthing has just 28 cases per 100,000 people - the lowest rate in the country. And he says the local hospital had just eight coronavirus patients last week.

Updated

UK coronavirus death toll passes 75,000

The UK’s total Covid death toll has passed 75,000, according to a tally of all fatalities that mention the disease on death certificates. My colleague Pamela Duncan has the story here.

Steve Brine (Con) says he does not understand why the government is lifting restrictions for Christmas. Parodying the metaphors used by Boris Johnson in an article in the Mail on Sunday at the weekend, he said that there was a danger of tripping on the last barbed wire, just as the cavalry is coming into view. People were aware of the risks, and were planning a scaled-back Christmas anyway, he said.

Labour’s Chris Bryant told MPs that there was no chance of any area going from tier 2 to tier 1 before Christmas. Tory MPs would be mistaken to think otherwise, he says. That was because tier 1 did not work, and the government knew it, he said.

Updated

According to Labour, even allowing for the £1,000 extra payment for “wet” pubs announced by the PM today, pubs forced to close will still be more than £3,000 a month worse off than they were during the first lockdown. In a news release the party explains:

The average pub received a grant worth £6,666 a month during the lockdown in March. Even after today’s announcement of an additional one-off payment, pubs forced to close will receive just £3,000 a month - £3,666 less than they did during the first lockdown. The payment is a one-off and there was no mention of what will happen after January.

Restaurants and cafes, also hit hard by public health restrictions, received no additional support today - with the vast majority still receiving just a third or half of what they received in the March lockdown.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in London today returning to the government offices where the UK-EU trade talks have been continuing.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, in London today returning to the government offices where the UK-EU trade talks have been continuing.

 Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Labour’s Kevan Jones told MPs he would be voting against the restrictions.

Sir Robert Neil, the Conservative chair of the justice committee, says that when he voted against the lockdown, he said he would be happy to vote for measures that were proportionate.

But these measures are not proportionate, he says. The government has not justified them, he says. For the restrictions to be proportionate, the government would have to show that the harm being done was justified by the gains achieved. But it has not done that, he says.

And he says the tiering system is arbitrary.

There are better ways of protecting lives, he says.

Updated

Kate Osborne (Lab) says the prime minister’s decision to allow a national “knees up” over Christmas is likely to lead to another national lockdown in January.

Updated

Harriet Baldwin, a Conservative and a member of the Covid Recovery Group, says she will be voting for the restrictions this evening. She has explained why in an open letter to her constituents. Here is an extract, in which she explains that the prime minister’s concessions - including the offer of another vote in January, and the extra money for “wet” pubs - have been crucial. She says:

Over the weekend, the prime minister has moved significantly on some of our group’s principle areas of concern – including setting a date for future reviews and votes in parliament, improving test, trace and isolate, adopting more targeted measures and accessing more data about the economic and wider implications of lockdown. Further support for affected hospitality businesses has also been announced. I now feel that it will be possible to vote for a further short period of controls as we await the rollout of the vaccines.

Lucy Allan (Con) says she would find it hard to support the government if it were not for the fact that she knows the prime minister is a “freedom-loving” person, like her, and is only introducing these measures because he believes them to be essential.

Updated

Stephen Hammond (Con) says if he was going to vote with the government tonight he expected better treatment from the government. First, it should trust MPs more with the data, such as the document featured in today’s Times. (See 9.21am.) Second, it needs to justify local decisions about tiers. And, third, it should ensure that decisions about hospitality are taken not by behavioural scientists, but with reference to reality.

Updated

And Craig Mackinlay (Con) also told the Commons he could not support the government tonight. He was critical of the impact of restrictions and lockdowns, particularly on the elderly in care homes.

Back in the Commons William Wragg (Con) said he could not support the government tonight.

Now if these measures are arbitrary and there is no exact science behind them, the sooner that the government would admit that - because at least it would be an honest approach. But as it has not done so, I can’t support these measures this evening.

Updated

The UK government has updated its coronavirus dashboard. Here are the key figures.

  • The UK has recorded 603 further deaths. That is the highest daily total since last Wednesday (696) and well above the average for the last seven days (460). Total overall deaths in the last week are 4% higher than the previous week.
  • The UK has recorded 13,430 further coronavirus cases. That is up from 12,330 yesterday, but over the last fortnight the number of positive cases recorded has been falling very sharply. Over the last week there have been 18% fewer cases than in the previous week.
Positive cases
Positive cases. Photograph: Gov.UK

Updated

Steve Baker, the Conservative deputy chair of the Covid Recovery Group, which represents anti-lockdown and lockdown-sceptic Tories, says he has been looking for a proper cost-benefit analysis of the restrictions.

The document published yesterday did not take into account proportionality, he says.

He says he will vote no tonight to send a message to the government.

Sir Edward Leigh (Con) tells the Commons that he came into parliament today with his wife, who had some work to do. They tried sitting down together, but were immediately told by a member of staff that that was not safe. In Covid Britain, he claims, you can sleep with someone for 37 years, but not sit with them.

Leigh says he is a libertarian to his core. But those opposed to the government have to have an alternative plan, he says. Labour does not have one, he says - although he says he suspects Labour’s plan is for a total lockdown.

He says he cannot vote against the government because that would lead to frail people dying. Reluctantly he will vote for the government, he says.

Back in the Commons Tobias Ellwood (Con) said the government should reconsider the five-day opening up planned for Christmas.

In Northern Ireland there have been 391 further coronavirus cases and 15 further deaths.

This means the number of Covid-related deaths in Northern Ireland has now passed 1,000.

Labour’s John Spellar told the Commons that he would be voting against the restrictions tonight. He said it was not good enough for the government to just assume that next year the vaccine will solve the coronavirus problem. That was a mañana approach, he claimed.

Pubs in north Wales have banned the Welsh first minister from their premises in protest at his government’s latest restrictions on hospitality.

In an open letter to Mark Drakeford, West Conwy Pubwatch, which covers more than 70 pubs, wrote:

As a result of your behaviour ... your actions class as antisocial behaviour for the damage caused to our members premises.

The licensees of the West Conwy Pubwatch have jointly decided that in order to discharge their duty as referred to above they are exercising their right not allow you entry to their premises.

From 6pm on Friday pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants in Wales will not be able to serve alcohol.

Jeremy Wright, the Conservative MP for Kenilworth and Southam in South Warwickshire, says he cannot support the government tonight. He says his constituency went into lockdown in tier 1 and is coming out into tier 3 - even though Covid case numbers are lower now than pre-lockdown. He says he cannot justify that.

UPDATE: Wright said:

For the first time in 10 years, on a matter of policy, I will be voting against my government tonight. Not because I am unwilling to share responsibility for difficult decisions, I took my share in government and I voted for every set of Covid restrictions the Government has proposed so far.

And not because I oppose the move away from nationwide restrictions and towards a localised tiered structure, I do support that, but the logic of that approach is that you make the restrictions as local as you can consistent with accurate and reliable virus data.

We have that data at borough and district level, so why do we not consistently impose our restrictions at that level?

Updated

Adam Afriyie, the Conservative MP for Windsor, told the Commons that he did not feel able to support the government today because the evidence was not there to justify the restrictions. But he said he expected the restrictions to pass, and that when MPs voted on them again in the new year, he hoped he would be able to support the government.

Updated

Back in the Commons Greg Clark, the Conservative chair of the Commons science committee, calls for an assurance from ministers that, when they review the restrictions in a fortnight, they take decisions on a borough by borough basis, rather than on a county-wide. Clark represents a constituency in Kent, Tunbridge Wells, and he said he did not think it deserved to be in tier 3.

Updated

Sienna Rodgers from LabourList reckons around 20 Labour MPs will vote against the government tonight. She has a useful article here explaining who they are, and why they won’t follow orders to abstain.

In non-political coronavirus news, it has emerged that - like many of us - the Queen is scaling back her plans for Christmas this year. This is from ITV’s Chris Ship.

Public Health Wales has recorded 667 further coronavirus cases. That is up from 595 a week ago today.

And there have been 23 further deaths, up from 21 a week ago today.

Back in the Commons John Redwood (Con) says people in his Wokingham constituency were not happy to find themselves in tier 2 from tomorrow. He says they expect him to reflect their anger in the way he votes tonight.

Many of my constituents are very angry that West Berkshire and Wokingham has been placed in tier 2 when we were in tier 1 before the national lockdown. We still have very low figures and on all the evidence the government says it looks at - case numbers, trends in cases, and available hospital capacity - there seems a clear case that we shouldn’t be worse off as we come out of national lockdown than we went in before, and they will expect me to reflect their anger in the way I vote tonight.

He also describes support for the self-employed as “totally inadequate”.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon has said that Scotland is making “good progress” and that she is “hopeful” that vaccinations will begin before Christmas, as she confirmed that there will be no changes to local restriction levels at her weekly review. She added that next week’s review was likely to be “more substantial” given that level 4 – near lockdown - restrictions in 11 local authorities across central Scotland will definitely be lifted on Friday December 11.

There had been speculation that Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire could move to level 3 after an increase in cases across Grampian health board. Sturgeon said it was still unclear what was driving the increase and if it was linked to particular outbreaks in food processing and care homes.

Sturgeon told MSPs: “We are making good progress at this stage,” adding it was “important to stress that the sacrifices everyone is making are making a difference”.

On vaccines, she told the chamber:

We remain hopeful that even before Christmas, we will be able to start vaccinating people in Scotland against Covid. The cabinet reviewed the plans for vaccination this morning and I can confirm that we are ready to begin that process as soon as we receive the first supplies of vaccine. And we hope that by the spring, a significant proportion of the people who are most vulnerable to Covid will have been vaccinated.

She gave no further information on reports that school Christmas holidays could be extended to help virus suppression after the five days of relaxation, despite being pressed on the potential childcare crisis that parents are facing by Scottish Tories’ Holyrood leader Ruth Davidson.

Earlier today, in his first intervention on the pandemic, former first minister Alex Salmond backed alternatives to local lockdowns in an action plan on post-Covid economic recovery jointly written with former SNP health minister Alex Neil. The plan suggests that “our strategy should be to learn the lessons from numerous countries in Asia, which have successfully brought the virus under control by means which are far less damaging to their economies than wide-scale lockdowns and business closures, and has also resulted in fewer deaths from covid-19”.

Salmond and Neil argue this should include mass testing, “identifying those who are most likely to require hospitalisation if they catch Covid so they can receive early intervention to stop them doing so” and expanding distribution of Vitamin D supplements to targeted groups.

Back in the Commons Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Lab) says she is opposed to the government’s measures because they are wholly inadequate. The alternative is to adopt a “zero Covid” strategy, she says.

In Scotland 754 new coronavirus cases have been recorded. A week ago today the figure was 771.

And there have been 34 further deaths, down from 41 a week ago today.

Updated

Back in the Commons Grahame Morris (Lab) says he will vote against the government. The government does not have a clear strategy, he says. But he would vote for it if it provided a comprehensive support package for the hospitality sector.

NHS England has recorded 350 further coronavirus hospital deaths. The figures are here.

A week ago today the figure was 353, and two weeks ago the figure was 330.

Back in the debate Alec Shelbrooke (Con) said Boris Johnson’s announcement about an extra £1,000 for “wet” pubs was “risible” and “not good enough”.

He said he would vote for the government this evening, but he suggested he would not do so again unless ministers started listening to MPs’ concerns.

Updated

This is from Sky’s Tom Rayner. He is probably understating how bad it’s looking for the government. On the Conservative backbenches concern about these restrictions in this debate is extensive (even if some of the MPs who are critical are not going to vote against the government tonight). And we have heard from quite a few Labour MPs already who will vote against the government. Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to order them to abstain seems to be a green light to vote no.

Chris Grayling, the Conservative former cabinet minister, says the measures will be passed today, but the government has a “big task” to persuade MPs to vote for these rules again in January.

He says the data used to justify the lockdown at the end of October was not accurate. And he claims that the government has not accepted that Covid rates were falling before the lockdown, and has wrongly claimed that hospitals are now being overwhelmed.

How can MPs continue to support the government if its data is questionable and its attitude is risk-averse, he asks.

Mark Harper, the chair of the Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs, says the government has not provided evidence to justify these measures. In particular, he says it has not shown why the hospitality industry is assumed to pose a greater risk.

I’m afraid based on the fact that the government I don’t think has provided the information necessary to the House today to take decisions which are, by any normal measure, draconian - I’m afraid I won’t be able to support them.

He will vote against the regulations tonight, he says. In future, he says, the government should trust MPs more, and share its evidence with them. He implies that if that were to happen, he would be more supportive in the future.

Updated

Sammy Wilson (DUP) says he is concerned about these restrictions because he thinks measures in England get copied in Northern Ireland. He will accept restrictions if there is a reason for them, but he says he has not been persuaded that these are justified. And he says that, although the media highlight the deaths from coronavirus, they do not report the non-Covid deaths that might occur as a result of lockdown measures being in place.

Sir Desmond Swayne (Con) says using “immunity passports” to encourage people to get vaccinated would be wrong. And it could be counter-productive, he says.

Steve Baker (Con) intervenes, and says the government should also avoid implict coercion. It should not allow businesses or airlines to discriminate against people who have not been vaccinated.

Swayne agrees. That would be “vaccinationism”, he says.

The other thing that any kind of coercion would do is set the seal on this government’s reputation as the most authoritarian since the Commonwealth of the 1650s.

Updated

Emma Lewell-Buck (Lab) says she will be voting against the new restrictions because she has not seen the evidence to justify them and she thinks they will harm her constituents.

Welsh government faces growing backlash against ban on sale of alcohol in pubs

A backlash against the Welsh government’s decision to ban the sale of alcohol in pubs from Friday is growing.

The Tories in Wales have called for a vote on the move before it comes into force and have formally requested an urgent debate.

Adam Price, the leader of Plaid Cymru, called for a “sensible compromise”, suggesting cafes, bars and pubs should be allowed to serve a limited amount of alcohol to a limited number of people and shut earlier than usual. Price said:

The hospitality sector’s backlash to these latest restrictions is understandable. Public trust is being eroded because people don’t understand the logic. How can four people from four different households having coffee together be safer than two people from the same household having a pint?

Wales’s biggest brewery, Brains, has told the BBC it will close more than 100 managed pubs from Friday and furlough staff. The chief executive, Alistair Darby, said there was “an awful stench of totalitarianism” surrounding the new rules.

Updated

Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says his party will not support the government today because the prime minister has failed to provide evidence to justify his plans and failed to engage with local authorities. The government’s plans are “arbitrary, confusing and chaotic”, he says.

Adam Holloway (Con) says the Tory Covid Recovery Group does not want to let the virus rip. They just want to see evidence to justify the restrictions, he says.

He says he would rather see his constituents socialising in a Covid-secure pub than in a private home.

He says he does not understand why the government is not using the capacity in the Nightingale hospitals.

Labour’s Angela Eagle intervenes to say the Nightingale hospitals are not being used because staff are not available.

Holloway says that is the sort of thing the government should be investing in.

He says he will support the government tonight. But he warns that in future he might not if restrictions are not eased.

This is what Boris Johnson said earlier in the debate about the possibility of tiering decisions becoming more localised in the future. He said:

As we go forward ... the government will look at how we can reflect as closely as possible the reality of what is happening on the ground for local people, looking at the incidence of the disease, looking at the human geography and spread of the pandemic, and indeed the progress that areas are making in getting the virus down.

We will try to be as sensitive as possible to local effort and to local achievement in bringing the pandemic under control.

As Damian Green revealed a few minutes ago (see 2.18pm), this appealed to Conservative MPs.

Damian Green, the Conservative former cabinet minister, says he cannot support the government in this vote.

Of course he supports restrictions, he says. But he says the new system needs public support. Without that, people will not follow the rules.

I put to the prime minister last week the thoughts of a constituent who said that if the government imposes stupid rules, people will stop obeying the sensible rules as well. This was sadly dismissed. Since then, the national debate has moved on to how big a scotch egg has to be to constitute a substantial meal. I rest my case.

I’m afraid what we have before us today fails the test of maximising voluntary public support. To be specific, it certainly does in my constituency, where I’ve had the most angry emails over a weekend since the Dominic Cummings trip to Barnard Castle.

We can now see the glimpses of normal life resuming with the vaccine and regular quick testing. For us to reach that promised land as quickly as possible, the public need to give their full assent to the new measures. I very much hope the government will come forward with some that do reach that public assent, but these proposals I’m afraid don’t achieve that so I’ll be voting against.

Updated

Andrea Leadsom, the Conservative former cabinet minister, says the document published by the government did not provide a proper justification for the rules.

She says the rules do not seem fair or logical. A constituent asked why her husband could work in a closed space with a group of other workers, while she was unable to see her daughter at home in a socially distanced way.

I want to support my government and my prime minister in the lobby this evening, but I can’t and won’t inflict deliberate harm on my constituency unless I can see for myself that to do nothing would be worse.

Updated

Graham Stringer (Lab) says he will vote against the measures tonight. He says public health works best when it is localised.

These measures will be “extraordinarily damaging” to the economy of Greater Manchester and other places too, he says. And he says it is important to remember that poverty kills.

He says Boris Johnson reportedly vetoed putting London in tier 3, because he was told 500,000 jobs would be at risk. Stringer says this shows the government favours London over Greater Manchester.

David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, says the evidence from abroad suggests that highly localised measures work best.

He says he will not vote for these measures tonight. He hopes that, when the next vote comes, the measures will be much more localised, with restrictions imposed on a smaller area.

Restrictions on a local authority level, [which is] what we have now, is not enough, we must follow the example of Germany, South Korea and others by having restrictions imposed on a much smaller area.

They work better, they’re fairer and they cause much less economic damage. We don’t know for sure whether blanket lockdowns work to suppress the virus, but what we do know for sure is the economic damage caused by such restrictions, the impact on people’s livelihoods and even their mental health is absolutely clear.

Updated

Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, starts by saying that he thinks the PM’s instincts on this are similar to his.

If government is to take away fundamental liberties of the people whom we represent, they must demonstrate beyond question that they’re acting in a way that is both proportionate and absolutely necessary.

Today, I believe the government has failed to make that compelling case. The benefit of the doubt that this house has extended to the Government in March and since is harder to take for granted in December.

He asks for an impact assessment, he says, and information about the criteria used to decide which areas are going into which tiers. The government has published the criteria. But he says it has not published the “weighting” used to decide what factors count most.

He says his constituency, Altrincham and Sale West in Greater Manchester, is in tier 3. But the government has not justified that decision, he says. In the light of that, he will oppose the measures.

Updated

Back in the Commons Patrick Grady goes next on behalf of the SNP. He says that these are England-only measures, and so they SNP will not be voting on them. But they have implications for Scotland, he says. Scotland has introduced similar measures, he says, but in Scotland the government has attracted more cross-party support, he says.

He says people do not want “bluster and false hope” from leaders. They want honesty.

School attendance in England has improved slightly, according to official government data, but one in five secondary school children are still absent and a third of schools have one or more children self-isolating.

Overall attendance last week remained at 83%, with a very slight increase in primary schools in England (88% up from 87%). The proportion of secondary schools reporting one or more pupils self isolating remained high at 68%, though this was an improvement on last week’s figure of 73%.

Headteachers warned that Covid was continuing to cause widescale disruption in schools and called for a move to partial or full remote learning in the last week of term before Christmas to enable pupils and staff to enjoy the holiday break.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

The health secretary yesterday said the national lockdown had helped to bring coronavirus back under control. It will not feel like that in many schools which continue to operate under very difficult circumstances because of the impact of the pandemic.

We are particularly concerned about the final week of term when any positive cases will result in many children and staff having to self-isolate over Christmas in line with Covid protocols.

We are pressing the government to allow schools to move to partial or full remote learning during that week if they feel this would help address the situation. Parents, children, and school staff surely deserve this small degree of flexibility from the government at the end of an extremely stressful term.

Commenting on the latest figures, a Department for Education spokesperson said: “It is a national priority to keep education settings open full-time, which is supported by the chief medical officer, who has highlighted the damage caused by not being in education to children’s learning, development and mental health.

Updated

Sir Bernard Jenkin (Con) starts his speech by saying Labour does not have a plan. Chris Bryant (Lab) intervenes to say it is clear there will have to be a third lockdown in January.

Starmer says Johnson's plan 'full of holes'

Starmer says, again, that the government is on plan five, “and this one’s full of holes”.

Starmer says he accepts that, when the scheme was set up in a hurry in March, it was understandable people were overlooked.

But eight months later the problem should have been addressed, he says.

Starmer says the PM does not understand how much anger there is about the lack of support for businesses.

There have been six economic plans in eight months, he says.

The additional restrictions grant gives a flat figure to firms affected by the lockdown, he says. He says Greater Manchester, which was under restrictions for 40 days, got the same as the Isle of Wight.

And areas were getting the same regardless of how many businesses they have.

Some businesses are now getting less support than during the first wave, he says.

Starmer says millions of self-employed people are excluded from the support scheme. Yet every time he raises this, he says, the PM only talks about people who are covered by the scheme.

Updated

Starmer says over 500,000 close contacts have been missed by test and trace in the last month. “That is a huge gap in the defences,” he says.

He says the PM claims it is getting better. But it is not. And now the PM seems to have given up on this, and is putting his faith in mass testing instead.

Updated

Starmer says Johnson has failed to fix the problem with test and trace.

He quotes Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, who said testing is important, but it only works if people self-isolate.

He says one one in eight workers qualifies for the £500 payment for people who have to self-isolate.

Others have to rely on statutory sick pay.

He says he thinks people are not passing on details of their contacts to test and trace because they think those people will not be able to afford to self-isolate.

Sir Edward Leigh (Con) asks what Labour’s alternative plan is.

Starmer says he will come to that.

Starmer says he does not think this plan will work.

The new tier 1 will slow, but not prevent, the rise in cases, he says.

And he says he is not confident tier 2 will contain the virus.

It’s obvious that the new tier 1 may slow but won’t prevent a rise in infections, it’s far from certain that the new tier 2 can hold the rate of infection.

I hear the mutterings, but let’s just see where we are in two weeks - I look across to members in the House who think that perhaps in two weeks their area will have dropped down a tier just before Christmas. Let’s see.

One Conservative MP says Starmer is demonstrating “hindsight”, to which the Labour leader replies:

This isn’t hindsight. I’m telling you what’s going to happen in two weeks. We know where we’ll be in two weeks, and I’ve no doubt there will be [Conservative MPs] getting up and saying ‘I thought my area was going to drop a tier just before Christmas’. That’s not levelling, that’s not being straight, because that’s not going to happen.

I hope I stand here and I’m wrong about this, and I think all members hope I’m wrong.

Tier 2 depends on other factors falling into place at the same time, he says.

Updated

Starmer says PM now on his fifth Covid plan since summer - because first four did not work

Starmer says, when Boris Johnson announced his “whack-a-mole” strategy in June, he implied that restrictions would only be needed for a few weeks or days. That did not happen, he says.

Then he announced the rule of six. He said it would curb the number of infections and get the R number below 1. That did not happen.

Then the PM announced a three-tier system. That did not work, he says.

Nineteen days later the PM announced the national lockdown.

Starmer says there is a pattern here: Johnson “has a record of over-promising and under-delivering”, he says.

He says Johnson is on at least plan number five. People are entitled to be sceptical, because the others have not worked.

UPDATE: Here is a full extract in Starmer’s own words.

We’ve been here before. On 10th June the PM first told of us his “whack-a-mole” strategy to control local infections. We were told these would be so effective they would only last a few days or weeks. Far from reality. Leicester, for example, has had 154 days of restrictions. By the time these regulations run out on 2nd Feb – it will be 217 days. So that didn’t work.

Then on 22 September – with infections rising in 19 of the 20 areas then under restrictions, the PM announced new restrictions including the rule of 6, which the PM told the House would: “curb the number of daily infections and reduce the reproduction rate to 1”. That didn’t work.

Two weeks later, 12 October, with the precise opposite happening the PM introduced a three-tier system. Again, we were assured this would work.

The PM told the house that: “would deliver the reduction in the R rate, locally and regionally, that we need”. That didn’t work.

Fourth attempt: 19 days later: in a hurried press conference, the PM announced that the tiered system had failed, the virus was out of control and a national lockdown was now “unavoidable”.

The reason this all matters is that there is a pattern here: the PM has a record of over-promising, and under-delivering. Short-term decisions are taken, that then bump into the harsh reality of this virus. So a new plan is conjured up a few weeks later, and with even bigger promises that never materialise.

After eight months of this, the PM should not be surprised that we – and many of the British people – are less than convinced this time around.

Updated

Starmer says economic support on offer 'nowhere near sufficient'

Sir Keir Starmer starts by arguing that the lockdown was necessary.

Since it started, there have been 10,711 deaths, he says.

He welcomes the work being done on vaccines.

But today MPs must consider how to save lives and livelihoods until the vaccine is available.

Labour has supported the government in two national lockdowns, he says. And he accepts that restrictions have been toughened.

But the economic support in place is “nowhere near sufficient to support the communities most affected,” he says.

Updated

Johnson ends by saying people just need to wait until the vaccines are “in our grasp”, or being injected into our arms.

Johnson says there is no credible plan from Labour. He says it does not even have a view. Sir Keir Starmer has told his MPs to abstain, he says.

We’ve taken some tough decisions and the Labour opposition has decided tonight, heroically, to abstain and I think when the history of this pandemic comes to be written, I think the people of this country will observe that instead of having politicians of all parties coming together in the national interest, they had one party taking the decisions and another party heroically deciding to abstain.

Updated

Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks if anyone who wants a test before visiting family at Christmas will be able to get one on the NHS.

Johnson says they are rolling out rapid testing through lateral flow tests. He says he would encourage people to get one of those. He says the normal tests are for people who have symptoms.

Greg Clark (Con) says there is a huge range in Kent. Will the PM promise that, if areas in Kent are seeing cases fall, they can move down a tier at the first review.

Johnson says the government will look at this in “granular detail” when taking these decisions.

Johnson says the allocation of tiers will be reviewed every 14 days, starting on 16 December,

He says MPs can help their areas move down the tiers by throwing their full weight behind community testing.

Johnson announces one-off payment of £1,000 for 'wet' pubs

Johnson turns to help for the hospitality sector.

He says there will be a one-off payment in December of £1,000 to “wet” pubs - pubs that do not serve food, and which are having to close in tiers 2 and 3.

  • Johnson announces one-off payment of £1,000 for “wet” pubs, which are being forced to close.

Updated

Johnson hints tiering decisions could be more localised in future

Johnson says he accepts that this is not a return to normality.

Tan Dhesi, the Labour MP for Slough, asks why the town is in tier 3. Why does the PM hate Slough?

Johnson claims he loves Slough. He says he understands why people feel so aggrieved.

But he says in future the government will look “as closely as possible the reality of what is happening on the ground” when deciding what tiers places will be in.

As we go forward ... the government will look at how we can reflect as closely as possible the reality of what is happening on the ground for local people, looking at the incidence of the disease, looking at the human geography and spread of the pandemic, and indeed the progress that areas are making in getting the virus down.

We will try to be as sensitive as possible to local effort and to local achievement in bringing the pandemic under control.

  • Johnson hints tiering decisions could be more localised in future.

Updated

Steve Brine, the Tory MP for Winchester, says his city now has 78 cases per 100,000. A week ago it was 178 cases per 100,000. He asks Johnson to explain why it is in tier 2.

Johnson says he will come to that.

He explains how the rules will change tomorrow.

Johnson says Labour's decision to abstain in vote 'extraordinary

Johnson says Labour’s decision to abstain is “extraordinary”. He says he hopes they will vote for the government.

Johnson says the virus has been contained, but not eradicated.

The latest ONS figures show that one person in every 85 has coronavirus.

The NHS remains under pressure, with hospitals in the south-west, the north-east and Yorkshire treating more patients than during the first wave.

Boris Johnson opens the debate by saying he was hugely encouraged by his visit yesterday to a vaccine plant in north Wales.

I saw myself the vitals of one of seven vaccines backed by the UK government that could turn the tide of our struggle against Covid, not just in this country, but around the world.

He says the scientists at the plant were beginning to manufacture the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

The signs are promising, he says. But he says we cannot know when a vaccine will get regulatory approval.

Until then, we cannot afford to relax, he says.

By the way, if you think Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, looks particularly fed up in the picture posted by Boris Johnson on his Twitter feed a few minutes ago (see 12.46pm), this story may explain why. (Or it may not; unfortunately, we don’t know.)

MPs have approved the business motion. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, is suspending the house for three minutes to allow MPs to enter and exit the chamber in a Covid-secure way.

From Boris Johnson, or whoever manages his Twitter feed

Boris Johnson to open Commons debate on new coronavirus restrictions for England

In the Commons the Conservative MP John Howell is currently making a speech on a 10-minute rule bill. Although it is called the 10-minute rule, up to 20 minutes are allowed - but in practice it may take more like five minutes.

Then, after MPs have nodded through a business motion, Boris Johnson will open the debate.

MPs are voting on two motions. There are no amendments. For the record, the motions are:

That the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI, 2020, No. 1374), dated 30 November 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 30 November, be approved.

That the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Local Authority Enforcement Powers) (England) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 1375), dated 30 November 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 30 November, be approved.

Here is the call list of MPs who want to speak. There are 112 MPs on it. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, will wind up the debate just before the vote at 7pm.

Updated

The government has today announced a £16m grant to help pay for millions of meals for the vulnerable in England over the winter period. The funding, from the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, will go to the food redistribution charity FareShare which to provide food to at least 4,000 frontline charities.

The funding is being paid through Defra’s winter support programme - part of the wider government winter support package which aims to help those who are vulnerable and disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 to access healthy and nutritious food , starting this week.

Lindsay Boswell, the chief executive of FareShare, said:

In England alone we have delivered food equivalent to over 57m meals since 23 March. We welcome the government’s further financial support on behalf of the 4,000 plus charities we provide food to in England, who in turn created over 3m meals a week to help their clients at the height of the first lockdown.

Updated

UK has now recorded 74,529 deaths involving Covid, latest figures show

More than 74,500 deaths involving Covid-19 have now occurred in the UK, PA Media reports.

A total of 71,719 deaths have so far been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, according to the latest reports from the UK’s statistics agencies. This includes 65,006 deaths in England and Wales up to 20 November (and registered up to November 28), which were confirmed by the ONS in its report this morning.

Since these statistics were compiled, a further 2,525 deaths are known to have occurred in England, plus 89 in Scotland, 132 in Wales and 64 in Northern Ireland, according to additional data published on the government’s coronavirus dashboard.

Together, these totals mean that so far 74,529 deaths involving Covid-19 have taken place in the UK.

Updated

Ofsted is not expecting to resume graded inspections in January, its chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, has said. As PA Media reports, the watchdog was due to restart its full inspection programme in the new year after inspections were suspended in March, but the final decision on when they will resume is down to ministers.

Speaking at the launch of Ofsted’s annual report, Spielman said:

I’m not expecting us to be doing graded inspections from January.

We need to take account of the national situation. And indeed, we’ve always said that the timing of our return was under review and also the form of our inspections.

We do understand what teachers are going through.

From the Sun’s Harry Cole

From ITV’s Paul Brand

Results of the internal SNP elections that took place at the weekend’s conference may not make headlines, but they tell an interesting story about the position of ordinary members of some of the key challenges facing the party.

On Friday, the Guardian reported that calls to democratise SNP structures were coalescing around moves by the party’s Common Weal group to elect a slate of candidates on to the party’s national executive committee who want to give ordinary members a greater say in policy and decision-making.

In the end, only four of the Common Weal group’s 29 candidates were unsuccessful: they won 13 seats of the 29 available at NEC level and on the policy committee won nine out of 20 seats.

SNP CWG Convener Craig Berry said:

Ordinary SNP members across Scotland are the backbone of our party. In this weekend’s elections they have made their voices heard - and the message is clear: they want change. They want a role in the governance of our party. They want more say on our policy direction. And they want action on independence now.

Elsewhere, Craig Murray, the former diplomat who is being prosecuted for alleged contempt of court in his blogging about the Salmond trial, has told the National that he received a quarter of votes for SNP president, a honorary role which was taken by the constitutional affairs secretary, Michael Russell, last night.

Murray stood on a platform to deliver independence within two years, and told the National that overall the NEC results reflected grassroots’ concern that “a powerful clique” was neglecting the drive for independence.

If it is indeed the case that one in four of those delegates eligible to vote backed him, is raises significant questions about how SNP members feel about current referendum strategy, and also the Scottish government’s handling of the ongoing Salmond inquiry.

Updated

Prof Kevin Fenton, Public Health England’s regional director for London, has told MPs: “We’re not seeing the significant ethnic racial differences that we saw in the first wave of the pandemic.”

Several studies, including one by PHE, have shown that ethnic minorities are at greater risk of catching and dying from Covid but Fenton said the difference in risk with the white British population had not been so pronounced in the second wave.

Giving evidence to a joint Commons science/health committee hearing, Fenton said that in London PHE had been working with local authorities on implementing the recommendations the agency made in its June report, which included ethnicity data collection, culturally competent public health messaging and risk assessment tools. He said:

Those recommendations, I believe, give us a really good steer of what we can do to help to mitigate the impact on communities, and you can see from our most recent epidemiological data in London that we’re having a much better second wave than we did the first wave at this point.

The latest critical care data for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published by Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC), shows that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds make up 25% of patients admitted to intensive care units with Covid since 1 September, compared with 33% of patients before that date.

Fenton declined to criticise the government response to the increased risk faced by ethnic minorities - committee chair Jeremy Hunt described his reply as “diplomatic” - but asked by Hunt where progress could be made, he replied:

Given what we now know about some of the financial and economic realities of people’s ability to, for example, isolate, people’s ability to stay away from work, I would think that the interventions related to financial support, provision of grants and how we get them into the hands of the most needy are among the ones that we absolutely need to think about as we move through the second and subsequent waves of the pandemic.

Updated

Scotland’s main economics thinktank, the Fraser of Allander Institute, has challenged Nicola Sturgeon’s claims only the UK government can prevent Scotland’s health and social care workers losing money on a £500 Covid bonus.

The first minister announced yesterday that 391,000 Scottish NHS and social care staff would get a one-off £500 bonus because of their work and sacrifice during the Covid pandemic, at a cost of about £180m.

But her attempts to politicise that gift by calling on Boris Johnson’s government to make it tax free, claiming the Scottish government did not have the powers to do so, was rejected last night by the Treasury.

The Treasury said that since the Scottish government itself would recoup all the income tax paid by recipients, Sturgeon could simply increase the bonus to ensure staff got the full £500 in their wage packets.

The FAI said this was correct: the Scottish government would get that income tax back, although not until 2023/24, because of the way its funding is structured. The FAI pointed out, however, recipients would still have to pay £60 in national insurance contributions on that £500 - cash which flows to the Treasury.

The FAI blog, co-written by its analyst David Eiser and by Prof Graeme Roy, formerly head of Alex Salmond’s policy unit, added, however, that making bonuses tax-free was generally regarded as a bad idea. It was not a progressive policy, it said, and would breach the social contract the tax system upheld. They said:

There’s a reason bonuses are taxed; if they weren’t, everyone would want to be paid in bonuses rather than regular pay. Making an exception to the rule once opens the possibility of endless future lobbying for tax-exempt bonuses – which is not something any government should be keen to encourage.

More importantly, exempting bonuses from tax appears at odds with the context of the existing progressive tax system. If NHS workers received an extra £500 in normal pay, higher rate taxpayers would pay more of that in tax than basic rate taxpayers – that’s the basis of fairness on which the system is based.

Exempting the bonus from tax would gift higher rate taxpayers a significantly larger tax break than basic rate taxpayers. It is really not clear what the rationale for this would be.

Updated

People with learning disabilities 'at back of the queue' during Covid, says Jeremy Hunt

Giving evidence to a joint Commons science/health committee hearing this morning, as part of its inquiry into lessons to be learnt from coronavirus, Steve Scown, chief executive of Dimensions UK, said people in supported living had been neglected during the Covid crisis.

Dimensions UK supports people with learning disabilities and Scown said people with learning disabilities struggled to access the NHS for treatment of pre-existing conditions, while they had difficulty getting GPs to visit. “Often the only way we can access medical treatment is to dial 999,” he said.

Scown also said people in supported living were still not getting regular testing for coronavirus. “We decided we’re going to buy our own tests to enable Christmas visits [for families] because that’s the only way we’re going to get them,” he said.

Hearing the evidence, Jeremy Hunt, chair of the health committee, said:

What we’ve seen is a very clear picture of people with learning disabilities at the back of the queue, behind care homes who have had a lot of national attention, and they in turn complained about being in the back of the queue behind the needs of the NHS.

Boris Johnson returning to Downing Street, London after chairing a cabinet meeting in the Foreign Office.
Boris Johnson returning to Downing Street, London after chairing a cabinet meeting in the Foreign Office. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The leftwing Labour MPs Jon Trickett and Ian Lavery has published a report (pdf) today arguing that tougher, “tier 4” restrictions should be imposed on the whole of the England until the Covid curve has been “crushed”. In their conclusion they say:

London’s infection levels are climbing, especially among its over-60s. Its hospital levels from CV19 patients is also on the rise. Despite low testing, its week-on-week levels show a marked increase in infection levels. We have shown that parts of London have worse infection levels than some held back communities who have been placed in a higher tier level. Given the worse health outcomes for more deprived communities, especially ethnic minorities, it is clear the government is putting the perceived wealth of the nation against the health of its citizens. This is a false choice. Health is wealth. The best thing the government can do for the economy is have blanket tier four restrictions for the entire country until the curve has been crushed.

Sky’s Tom Rayner says around 20 Labour MPs are expected to defy the whip and vote against the government. Sir Keir Starmer wants them to abstain.

Updated

Excess deaths running at more than 20% in mid November, says ONS

Here are some of the key charts from today’s ONS report on the weekly death figures for England and Wales. (See 10.15am.)

  • Excess deaths were running at 20.8% in the week ending 20 November, the ONS says. Excess deaths are deaths above what would be expected at this time of year on the basis of the five-year average.
Excess deaths in England and Wales
Excess deaths in England and Wales Photograph: ONS
  • Excess deaths in Yorkshire and the Humber were running at more than 40% in the week ending 20 November, the ONS says. This was the highest regional figures, but all parts of England and Wales were recording excess deaths. Here is the table.
Excess deaths in England and Wales, by region
Excess deaths in England and Wales, by region Photograph: ONS

These are from the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush on the Times’ story about MPs not being shown all the government data on the economic impact of its coronavirus restrictions. (See 9.21am.)

From ITV’s Paul Brand

At one level this is not surprising at all; political parties whip their MPs, not parliamentary groups.

But the Covid Recovery Group (like some of the other backbench Tory groups recently established) is modelled on the very successful pro-Brexit European Research Group, and the ERG did impose an informal whip on its members. Steve Baker, a former chair of the ERG, is deputy chair of the CRG, and, in media campaigning terms at least, the new group seems to be copying a lot from the old one.

British factories recorded their fastest growth in almost three years last month but the upturn was down to Brexit stockpiling, according to the latest IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index

But Make UK, representing manufacturers, said the PMI data was largely down to Brexit stockpiling as companies rushed to buy components and complete work ahead of Brexit trade barriers including on 1 January. Fhaheen Khan, senior economist at Make UK, said:

The alarm bells that took hold of manufacturers just before the first EU-exit deadline have returned in some capacity as businesses sought to stockpile… it is creating the impression that manufacturing is performing well just before the transition period ends.

Khan added that the uncertainty was felt on both sides of the border, warning that such “actions are generally followed by a period of depressed activity” as manufacturers pause orders and turn to their stockpiles.

Gove says Welsh example shows why easing restrictions too quickly after lockdown would be mistake

Generally the four governments in the UK have been cautious about criticising the decisions the others have taken in coronavirus. That is not because they like each other or because they are allies: one is Conservative, one SNP, one Labour, and the other is a cross-party coalition. It is more because, although their policies have differed at times, they have shared a lot in common, and no administration has got everything right.

But this morning, in his interviews explaining why England needs to continue with tough restrictions once the lockdown ends tomorrow, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, singled out Wales as an example of what not to do. Referring to the decision announced yesterdays that pubs and restaurants in Wales will have to stop serving alcohol and be forced to close at 6pm, Gove said:

I’ve got enormous sympathy with the difficulties that the Welsh government are wrestling with.

But it looks, with the benefit of hindsight, as though immediately after their two-week lockdown they lifted restrictions too expansively.

As a result of doing that the virus once more got out of control, so they’ve had to slam the brakes on again.

That’s one of the reasons why we’re exiting the lockdown cautiously [in England].

The example of Wales shows what can happen if you lift the restrictions in too blanket a way too soon.

You might wonder, since the four nations of the UK have been implementing different Covid policies, whether anyone has tried to work out who’s done best. Well, Sage, the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, has looked at this and on Friday it released a paper (pdf) comparing the autumn interventions tried in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

On this analysis, Northern Ireland comes out best. Its semi-lockdown was followed by the clearest negative impact on cases. Tier 3 restrictions in England performed about as well, but not tiers 2 and 1. But the paper avoids saying that particular measures caused cases to fall in a particular way, because it says other factors could explain the trends. It says:

We must be careful not to infer process from these patterns for a variety of confounders could exist, including the fact that more severe interventions were introduced to places that were failing under lighter interventions.

Nevertheless, it is encouraging that two nations see almost all epidemics shrinking during some interventions. Those are, the vast majority of tier 3 LTLAs [lower tier local authorities] in England and all 11 districts in Northern Ireland following their national restrictions. But the picture is more mixed in Wales during their firebreak and in Scotland during the central belt restrictions, although the general trend is for a reduced growth rate following restrictions.

It also says the gains achieved by lockdown-type measures do not always last. It says:

After interventions have been in place for some weeks growth rates continue to shift. There is no overwhelming pattern of either improvement or deterioration visible in the data available to date. But it is clear that early benefits do not always endure, and we must therefore guard against over-optimism when we examine early outcomes.

Covid deaths in England and Wales still rising in mid-November, but at slower rate, ONS figures show

From my colleagues Niamh McIntyre and Tobi Thomas

The number of Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales continued to increase in the week ending 20 November, new ONS data shows.

There were 2,697 deaths due to coronavirus in week 47, up 9% on the previous week. The number of Covid deaths recorded has increased every week since early September.

However, the rate of the increase appears to be slowing, down from a 27% increase between week 45 and week 46.

Excess deaths - the number of deaths above the average for that week - remained higher than usual in hospitals, care homes and private homes. However, deaths in other locations were below the five-year average in week 47.

In Wales, there was a 17.4% increase of deaths involving coronavirus, with 223 deaths reported.

The north-west of England continues to have the largest number of coronavirus deaths, with the highest proportion of deaths seen in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The total Covid-19 death toll across England and Wales - including deaths registered after 20 November - now stands at 65,006.

Updated

No plan for Covid 'vaccine passports' in UK, says Michael Gove

This morning the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror have both splashed on stories generated by Nadhim Zahawi, the new vaccination minister, and what he said yesterday about how venues may decide not to admit people who have not had a coronavirus vaccination.

As my colleague Josh Halliday reports, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has spent half his morning responding to these stories, and insisting that this isn’t a government plan.

Lewis Hamilton tests positive for Covid-19

Lewis Hamilton will miss this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain after testing positive for coronavirus, PA Media reports.

Updated

Gove denies Tory MPs being denied secret data on impact of Covid restrictions

Good morning. MPs will vote on the new coronavirus restrictions for England at 7pm. With all the main opposition parties abstaining, there is no realistic chance of Boris Johnson losing; there are currently 364 Conservative MPs, and so around 183 would have to vote against the government for it to lose. But in some respects that will make it easier for the many Tories who are unhappy about the new system - and particularly having their constituencies placed in tier 3 or tier 2 - to register their disapproval.

If they do, does it matter? In the short term, no; the 70-page set of regulations published yesterday explaining the new rules for England will almost certainly come into force tomorrow, regardless of what happens in the chamber this afternoon. But in the long run this afternoon’s debate may well influence government coronavirus policy over the next few months.

During the first wave of the pandemic, ministers were able to impose draconian lockdown rules with virtually no parliamentary opposition or even scrutiny. This time it’s different; the opposition and backbench MPs are more critical, 34 Tories opposed the lockdown in the vote at the start of November and it is likely that more will defy the whip today. The rebels don’t need to get much above 40 before they reach the point where, theoretically, they could defeat the government in alliance with the opposition. That’s why today’s debate might prove meaningful; it may constrain ministers’ options going ahead.

One advantage that No 10 has is that the Tory rebels and Labour disagree on much; broadly, Labour wants restrictions to be tighter, while the Tory rebels want them to be looser. But they are agreed on the need for more support for businesses in their constituencies. And they are united in wanting the Commons to have more say over what happens next.

This morning the government’s attempt to win over backbenchers minded to vote against suffered a fresh blow when the Times claimed in its splash (paywall) that Whitehall has produced “a secret dossier detailing the impact of coronavirus on the economy, with a dozen sectors rated ‘red’ and facing significant job cuts and revenue losses”. The Times says the secret document undermines the claim in the impact assessment published yesterday that it is not possible to know what effect the new restrictions will have on businesses. Even before the Times story was published, the release of the impact assessment had backfired because Tory MP judged it worthless.

This morning, in an interview on the Today programme, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, sought to downplay the damage caused by the story. He said he had not seen the dossier referred to by the Times, a “Covid-19 sectoral impacts dashboard”, and he went on:

The evidence that I understand is in that dashboard is broadly from the ONS and other publicly available statistical databases, and also reports from business representative organisations ... The information that it contains is based on information which is publicly available.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.

9.30am: The ONS publishes its weekly death figures for England and Wales.

9.30am: Public Health England, the ONS and others give evidence to the joint health/science committee inquiry into lessons to be learnt from coronavirus.

9.30am: Richard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about the spending review.

11.30am: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

12pm: Downing Street is expected to hold its daily lobby briefing.

12.15pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is expected to hold a coronavirus briefing.

Around 12.45pm: Boris Johnson is due to open the Commons debate on the new coronavirus restrictions for England.

2.30pm: Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, gives evidence to the Commons justice committee.

7pm: MPs vote on the new coronavirus restrictions for England.

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

Here is our global coronavirus live blog.

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

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

Updated

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