That’s all for the UK live blog today, thanks for reading along - you can continue following the latest coronavirus coverage over on our global blog:
Evening summary
Here’s a roundup of all the latest stories from across the UK today:
- UK coronavirus death toll passes 50,000, official figures show. The tally confirms Britain’s status as one of the countries worst hit by a pandemic that has claimed about 375,000 lives globally and brings into view a prediction in April by disease analysts in the US that the UK could record 66,000 deaths by early August.
- Covid-19 death rate in England higher among BAME people. Death rates from Covid-19 in England have been higher among people of black and Asian origin than any other ethnic group, a government-ordered inquiry has found. In addition, those people of black backgrounds are the ethnic group most likely to be diagnosed with the disease.
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MPs vote to discontinue virtual parliament. MPs voted in favour of the government’s proposals to end virtual voting by 261 votes to 163, despite the Equality and Human Rights Commission condemning the plan for excluding older MPs or those with disabilities or illnesses.
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Ministers are still misleading the public on coronavirus tests, according to statistics watchdog. The head of the UK Statistics Authority has accused the government of continuing to mislead the public over the numbers of tests carried out for Covid-19. “The aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding,” said Sir David Norgrove in a letter to the health secretary, Matt Hancock.
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Covid-19 spreading out of hospitals and care homes, says UK expert. Coronavirus infections in hospitals and care homes are spilling into the community and sustaining the outbreak to the point that cases will remain steady until September, a leading scientist has warned.
- Downing Street scraps weekend press conferences. Briefings have been held on all but two days since 16 March, but the government has decided to scrap them on Saturdays and Sundays, starting this coming weekend, when viewing figures are “significantly lower”.
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Fresh fears over primary schools after staff test positive for Covid-19. Unions have raised fresh concerns about the wider reopening of primary schools in England after a school in Derby was forced to remain closed this week when seven members of staff tested positive for Covid-19.
Updated
The Scottish parliament could sit through its usual summer recess so members can continue to scrutinise the Scottish government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The presiding officer, Ken Macintosh, wrote to members on Tuesday outlining the proposed changes for what he described was “going to be a very unusual summer for everyone across Scotland”.
The Parliamentary Bureau agreed members should have the opportunity to meet each Thursday, with the majority as “virtual statement-led sessions”.
In the proposals, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is scheduled to make two statements to parliament at the beginning and end of next month, with members allowed to participate remotely, before parliament would resume on 11 August when Scottish schools are also expected to return.
Macintosh wrote:
Following discussion earlier today, the Parliamentary Bureau has unanimously agreed that members should have the opportunity to meet on a weekly basis each Thursday throughout the summer period.
MSPs will decide on the plans on Wednesday.
In the letter, Macintosh said:
I hope you would agree that the bureau’s proposals for the summer period strike the balance of enabling members to continue to scrutinise the government at this changing and uncertain time while avoiding any undue risk to members and staff.
Updated
1,749 people contacted by NHS Test and Trace
1,749 people have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace since the scheme started, according to Channel 4 News.
The programme has seen a leaked copy of the data from Thursday – the day the system was launched – to Sunday.
Across England, 4,456 confirmed Covid-19 cases had been reported to Test and Trace, and of those, 1,831 self-registered on the website or were called and had completed the form providing information about their contacts.
The number of contacts they provided was 4,634, of which just 1,749 had been contacted, Channel 4 News reported.
Updated
Many non-essential shopping chains are preparing to let customers back into stores as the Covid-19 lockdown eases, adapting their stores to abide by government’s social distancing and health and safety guidelines.
Following the example of lockdown procedures already introduced by supermarkets, DIY chains and furniture retailers, these measures include limiting the number of shoppers in stores with queuing systems, as well as installing plastic screens at tills and supplying face masks and other PPE to staff.
Other measures include keeping changing rooms closed, operating one-way systems on the shop floors, restrictions on touching merchandise and quarantining products that customers pick up and then return to shelves.
Government guidance requires goods returned to stores to be quarantined for up to 72 hours before being returned to store shelves. The precise detail of these measures may vary between different retail chains and types of store.
Here is a list of shop and restaurant chains that have confirmed plans to reopen:
Clothing and fashion stores reopening from 15 June:
- Primark (all 153 stores in England)
- Marks & Spencer (reopening the majority of its clothing stores)
- Next (25 stores)
- Debenhams (90 stores)
- Frasers Group: Sports Direct, Jack Wills, Flannels (number of stores reopening as yet unknown)
- Harrods department store (Knightsbridge, London)
- House of Fraser (number of stores reopening as yet unknown. Opening by the end of the week starting 15 June)
- Ted Baker (all stores from mid-June)
General/other retail reopening from 15 June:
- John Lewis (2 on 15 June in Poole and Kingston upon Thames and a further 11 on 18 June)
- The Entertainer (all 173 stores)
- Card Factory (about 100 of its stores)
Updated
Hancock hints government's social care reform plan may be delayed until 2021
Here are the main points from Matt Hancock’s press conference.
- The health and social care secretary hinted that the unveiling of the government’s long-awaited plan for the reform of social care could be delayed until 2021. Asked when it would be published, he said that he thought this issue had been “pushed to the side for too long”. The Conservatives made a clear commitment to address this in their election manifesto, he said. And he said that work on this issue had continued during the coronavirus crisis. He said:
One of the positive things amid the terrible things that have happened during this crisis is that people have recognised social care and just how important it is.
We need to follow that up with reforms to the way social care is supported and make sure more people get that dignity in their older age, and that people of working age get the support they need …
I am determined to push forward the social care reforms that I know so many [people] are interested in.
But when pressed as to when the plans would appear, he replied:
Well, the timeframe has been clear, which is that we have got to get these reforms done in this parliament and the prime minister has previously said we will get them set out this year.
That was before coronavirus. We will still try to do that but it is not straightforward.
A delay until 2021 would be hugely embarrassing for Boris Johnson. On the day he became prime minister in July last year, in his speech in Downing Street, he implied he had a policy that was all set to be implemented (“oven-ready”, to use the phrase he applied in a different context). He said:
I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve.
- Hancock declared that “black lives matter” as he stressed the importance of addressing why BAME people are more at risk from coronavirus - while failing to announce any concrete proposals. Earlier, the government published the Public Health England report into why BAME people and other demographic groups are more at risk from coronavirus. (See 12.56pm.) Referring to the report, Hancock used the slogan championed by the eponymous US-based human rights group. He said:
This is a particularly timely publication because right across the world people are angry about racial injustice. And I get that. Black lives matter. And I want to say this to everyone who works in the NHS and in social care: I value the contribution that you make, everybody equally.
But the report, which does not say much more about why BAME people are more at risk from coronavirus than earlier reports (like this ONS one), has disappointed people hoping for firm policy recommendations. Hancock has responded by promising … a further review, headed by the junior equalities minister Kemi Badenoch. He said:
There is much more work to do to understand what’s driving these disparities and how the different risk factors interact, and we are absolutely determined to get to the bottom of this and find ways of closing that gap.
Updated
MPs have been told it is “unacceptable” that children in young offenders institutions are still being locked up for more than 22 hours a day, 10 weeks after lockdown.
Many of them have had no access to face-to-face education during that time, the justice select committee hearing on the impact of Covid-19 on the youth justice system was told.
The custody estate should have moved more swiftly, and there were real concerns that young offenders, who had initially accepted the restrictions placed on them, would lose patience if they saw changes to lockdown in the community, but no relaxation of regimes in YOIs.
Very few children had been released under the early release scheme, the committee heard. Since lockdown, there had been additional evidence of self-harm and increased suicide attempts.
Angus Mulready-Jones, the Inspectorate of Prisons’ lead for children and young people, said:
Was it acceptable on 23 March to shut down regime, including education, so that you can assess the situation and start delivering a service safely to children? Absolutely it was.
Is it still acceptable, 10 weeks down the line, to be in a position where children across the estate are locked up for in excess of 22 hours a day? No. I think that is not an acceptable position, and the estate needed to have moved quicker.
Updated
On a typical day, 60,000 people fly out of Gatwick airport. Last Saturday, there were just 21. The Guardian reporter Archie Bland reports from the eerily deserted airport as the two-week quarantine for arrivals looms.
Just seven flights were scheduled at the airport on Tuesday, to and from Jersey, Dublin, Kingston and Sofia. At about 2pm, in one major thoroughfare that normally bustles with passengers, staff and whiteboard-wielding cab drivers, there were six people, or one-fifth the number of hand sanitiser stations.
Even stranger than the emptiness was the silence; with almost no passengers, the usually ubiquitous tannoy announcements had been muted completely.
As the lockdown begins to lift, the desertion of Gatwick is a reminder of the vast challenges that remain for the aviation sector, with the announcement of a 14-day quarantine period from 8 June, and continuing advice to only travel when necessary, meaning that services will be restored at a glacial pace.
The airport fears that the quarantine rules will have “a significant impact on our ability to restart”, a spokesperson said, adding that the airport would be lobbying for the guidelines to be regularly reviewed.
In the meantime, a single branch of Boots is all that remains of the usually rich retail offerings. There were no queues. “I’ve got no idea how long it’s been like this now, honestly,” a cashier said. “One day just merges into another.”
Updated
The headline figure today for the latest number of UK coronavirus deaths is 324. (See 4.39pm.) For reference, here are the equivalent figures announced in the last two weeks.
Tuesday 19 May - 545
Wednesday 20 May - 363
Thursday 21 May - 338
Friday 22 May - 351
Saturday 23 May - 282
Sunday 24 May - 118
Monday 25 May - 121
Tuesday 26 May - 134
Wednesday 27 May - 412
Thursday 28 May - 377
Friday 29 May - 324
Saturday 30 May - 215
Sunday 31 May - 113
Monday 1 June - 111
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said the government’s report into BAME Covid-19 deaths “is not nearly enough” and called for a full independent inquiry into the issue.
The government needs to wake up to the structural problems in our society that are being laid bare by this virus and take proper and decisive action to rectify them.
This report alone is not nearly enough - we need to know now why the virus disproportionately impacts these communities and crucially what is being done to stop it.
The government needs to also review the impacts of their policies that have led to a hostile environment and measures like ‘no recourse to public funds’.
The government needs to agree to a full independent inquiry into BAME Covid-19 deaths - with a commitment to implement the recommendations.
He added that the coronavirus crisis had increased inequality in the country, affecting “BAME people, those on the lowest incomes and Londoners living in the most deprived areas of the capital”.
He said the government should ensure ethnicity was recorded at death registration.
“A continued failure to do so means there is no accurate way to measure inequalities in our society,” he said.
Updated
Hancock says it was clear to him right at the start of the crisis that BAME people were most at risk. He says three of the four doctors to die first were black or minority ethnic people.
Q: When will the follow-up report come out?
Hancock says he “gets that yearning” for action. He needs to speak to Kemi Badenoch about a timeline for her report. But he won’t necessarily wait until it is done before acting, he says.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Updated
Q: When are we getting the long-promised reform of social care?
Hancock says this has been delayed “for too long”. Work on the plan has been continuing during this crisis, he says.
He says he hopes the plans will be published before the end of the year.
Updated
Q: What is the scientific rationale for having a quarantine for people coming into the UK from countries with low rates of coronavirus, like Greece?
Newton says he is not a member of Sage, and it is Sage’s advice that counts. He says anyone coming into the country should be treated as an unknown. That would justify quarantine.
He says one reason to exempt people might be because they were coming from a low-risk country. And another might be because it was possible to respond quickly with test and trace.
He says he thinks those are the principles behind the decision.
Q: Do you still think people will not be able to have a foreign holiday this year?
Hancock says he answered a question that way some time ago. Last week he gave a slightly more optimistic answer, he says.
Historic England has gathered 200 images which best reflect the nation’s experience during lockdown for its archive.
They issued an appeal for photographs on 29 April and after 3,000 submissions have selected the most “evocative, informative and inspiring” for the Picturing Lockdown collection.
The photos document experiences in England during one week in lockdown.
The collection will also feature 50 newly commissioned works by 10 contemporary artists and 50 more from Historic England’s photographers.
Here are a small selection of the images:
The rest of the collection can be viewed here.
Updated
Q: Shouldn’t all ethnic minorities now be in an at-risk category?
Newton says that although people from ethnic minorities are at a higher risk, that is not necessarily because of their ethnicity. Other factors are relevant, he says.
Q: You said the review of the impact of coronavirus on different groups would include recommendations. Where are those recommendations?
Hancock says more work needs to be done on this.
Prof John Newton from Public Health England says there are recommendations in the report out today, but more work is needed.
He says some of the factors that explain why some groups are more at risk explain health inequalities generally.
Updated
Hancock says the government is determined to find out why some groups are more at risk from coronavirus.
He says Kemi Badenoch, the junior equalities minister, will be in charge of the review into this.
(Earlier in the Commons he just said this would be led by the equalities minister. I wrongly took that as a reference to Liz Truss, Badenoch’s boss, who combines being international trade secretary with being minister for women and equalities. See 1.25pm.)
Updated
Here are the latest death figures.
In a reference to the fact that the headline figure announced yesterday, 111, omitted 445 deaths that happened before 24 May but that had only just been added to the total, Hancock says the government tries to keep the figures as accurate as possible, and that this sometimes involves revisions to the data.
Updated
Matt Hancock's press conference
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is holding the daily press conference now.
He starts with a chart for testing and new cases.
Updated
UK coronavirus death toll passes 50,000, official figures show
The UK has reached another grim milestone in its battle with coronavirus today as the death toll surpassed 50,000 for the first time, according to official figures.
This morning the ONS released figures showing that 44,401 Covid-19 deaths had occurred in England and Wales by 22 May (these figure differ from the daily figures put out by the government, which only include deaths that have occurred in hospitals and care homes where the person has had a positive Covid-19 test prior to their death).
This follows last week’s release from National Records of Scotland which showed that 3,779 deaths had been registered there up to 24 March.
A further 716 deaths had occurred in Northern Ireland by 22 May, NISRA figures show.
However, figures from NHS England show there were 931 deaths since then, a number which includes hospital deaths but not those occurring in care homes and other settings.
Scottish government figures released today show there have been 105 deaths newly registered after 24 May.
A further 78 deaths have occurred in Wales since 23 May while there were 22 deaths reported in Northern Ireland in the same period.
Updated
Hancock threatened with judicial review if he seeks to amend lockdown again bypassing parliament
The law enforcing the lockdown is one of the most draconian introduced by any British government in peacetime. It may not feel like that, but that is because the lockdown has widespread public support. On paper the powers taken by the state have been extraordinary (as even the Sun newspaper has twigged).
Yet ministers have managed to introduce these rules without putting a bill through parliament. The lockdown has been imposed under the Public Health Act 1984 using secondary legislation. (See 2.04pm.) The actual regulations have only received minimal parliamentary scrutiny.
In a letter (pdf) to Matt Hancock, the health secretary, the Good Law Project claims this is illegal. It says:
For the emergency procedure under section 45R of the 1984 act to be used, a minister must declare that s/he “of the opinion that, by reason of urgency, it is necessary to make the order without a draft being so laid and approved”. This provision must be interpreted in the light of the authorities referred to above which confirm parliamentary accountability as a fundamental constitutional principle ...
We simply do not understand how the amendment regulations were so urgent that it was not possible to put them to votes in both houses. There was no justification for parliamentary accountability to be jettisoned. It is inconceivable that parliament, when passing the 1984 act, would have conceived that the emergency procedure would be used repeatedly in order to avoid parliamentary accountability over the course of months.
It is not unusual to hear lawyers make arguments like this, but Hancock might be advised to take it seriously. It is run by Jolyon Maugham QC and it was one of the parties involved in the successful attempt to get the supreme court last year to rule Boris Johnson’s prorogation illegal.
Maugham is not taking Hancock to court - yet. But he reserves the right to do so. In its letter the Good Law Project says it supports the aim of the lockdown. But it says that restrictions as sweeping as this should not be introduced via a mechanism that does not allow full parliamentary scrutiny, and it says it might launch a legal challenge using judicial review if Hancock tries to amend the lockdown again using the 1984 act.
Updated
Further 324 Covid-19 deaths in UK
A further 324 people have died after contracting Covid-19, the Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed, taking the UK’s official coronavirus death toll across all settings to 39,369.
Another 1,653 people have tested positive for the virus, with 277,985 people having now tested positive since the start of the outbreak.
A total of 135,643 tests were carried out yesterday, 7,000 more than the previous day. In total, 4,615,146 coronavirus tests have now been conducted.
As of 9am 2 June, there have been 4,615,146 tests, with 135,643 tests on 1 June.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) June 2, 2020
277,985 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 1 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 39,369 have sadly died.
More info:
▶️ https://t.co/xXnL3FU15k pic.twitter.com/xYoVy7FQla
Updated
People should not be put off seeking urgent NHS care during the coronavirus pandemic, Wales’s health minister has said, while the country’s chief medical officer warned stricter lockdown measures could return in the winter if virus transmissions increase.
Health minister Vaughan Gething said emergency department activity in May across the country was between 25% and 40% lower than would normally be expected, with attendances by children under 16 having more than halved.
Gething told the Welsh government’s daily press briefing “the NHS is here for everyone” after saying people should still be seeking emergency or urgent care.
One of the reasons for this will be because the majority of us have been staying at home, and we haven’t seen the same demand for emergency care.
But we do know some people have put off seeking care because they have been worried about going into hospital during the pandemic.
It is really important that people do not put off urgent or emergency treatment. The NHS is here for everyone who needs it.
Gething said more essential services were returning, while maternity, cancer, and mental health services “were all still available”.
But the health minister was unable to give a restart date for cancer screening services, admitting he was concerned about the “potential hidden harm” caused to patients whose screenings have been suspended.
Earlier on Tuesday, Wales’ chief medical officer, Frank Atherton, published a statement to the Welsh government which said though Covid-19 transmission rates were currently decreasing, any early or extensive reducing of restrictions would lead to “a return of exponential growth of viral transmission”.
Dr Atherton also wrote that Wales’s recent relaxing of lockdown rules could be reversed, saying: “I recommend that public messaging highlights the potential need to re-impose more restrictive measures in the winter if viral activity increases.”
Asked about the statement, Gething said that the winter would prove a “difficult period of time” as more people would be indoors where there was a greater risk of the virus surviving.
He said a range of key factors would decide on whether restrictions are re-imposed, including the number of people testing positive, the success of Wales’s Test, Trace, Protect programme, and numbers of hospital admissions and people in critical care.
Updated
Government votes down attempt to extend remote voting in Commons with majority of 57
The government has won. The Karen Bradley amendment (see 3.48pm) was defeated by 242 votes to 185 - a majority of 57.
MPs are now debating on the main government motion. That means they have to go through the whole procedure all over again, even though the result is likely to be much the same.
The voting has now finished. It took about 40 minutes.
And here is a picture from one of the few Conservative MPs tweeting critically about the queue. Tim Loughton is a former minister.
So this new socially distanced voting system working well - hopefully we will get thete before it's dark pic.twitter.com/x3GqH43nEu
— Tim Loughton MP #StayAlertSaveLives (@timloughton) June 2, 2020
And here are some more tweets from the Mogg meander through Westminster Hall.
From Labour’s Neil Coyle
Any cat shepherds out there?! pic.twitter.com/QWJAGQhZfP
— Neil Coyle (@coyleneil) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Kate Hollern
Please keep off the grass pic.twitter.com/nMzxXE8eUO
— Kate Hollern MP (@Kate_HollernMP) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Ian Byrne
The utter madness of this charade is that as well as putting lives at risk, it may result in a democratic process which excludes 100s of MPs shielding having the ability to participate.
— lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) June 2, 2020
I hope Parliament brings Mogg to his senses and halts his batshit ideology. pic.twitter.com/amli9DMERL
From Labour’s Kevin Brennan
This queue is so long I just saw one MP using google maps #moggconga
— Kevin Brennan MP (@KevinBrennanMP) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Justin Madders
MPs queueing up to vote- some of them to uphold tradition, that tradition being stupidity pic.twitter.com/1Lh2ljE3gH
— Justin Madders MP (@justinmadders) June 2, 2020
It is claimed the British have a great love of queuing. For obvious reasons, MPs don’t share that sentiment. Here are some more tweets about their experiences of the Westminster Hall wait.
From Labour’s John Healey
The queue for the queue to vote in the Commons... pic.twitter.com/z3PhNNKHFf
— John Healey MP (@JohnHealey_MP) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Matt Western
Utter shambles from an #18thCenturyGovernment .. queue must be over a mile long..here back in Portcullis House and not moving. End the political charade now pic.twitter.com/21i76dlSOI
— Matt Western MP (@MattWestern_) June 2, 2020
From the SNP’s Joanna Cherry
Ludicrous scenes at Westminster in the conga voting queue which we are not allowed to photograph no doubt to avoid making a mockery of the place. Despite being in chamber waiting to speak I was forced to leave & now at end of queue 🙄
— Joanna Cherry QC (@joannaccherry) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Alex Cunningham
The queue to vote isn't just in Westminster Hall. It's now on the other side of the road and snaking through Portcullis House. pic.twitter.com/2XiOThmZpS
— Alex Cunningham MP (@ACunninghamMP) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Alex Sobel
Absolutely ludicrous we’re queued all the way back in Portcullis House. MPs still coming! Real difficulty in social distancing. The man himself thinks it’s hilarious pic.twitter.com/BduuYqlzKy
— Alex Sobel says stay home (@alexsobel) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Luke Pollard
Update: Still queuing. #ridiculous #moggconga pic.twitter.com/I2lZiBAbAO
— Luke Pollard MP (@LukePollard) June 2, 2020
From Tan Dhesi
Absolute farce!
— Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP (@TanDhesi) June 2, 2020
Mile long congo of MPs queuing to vote, because Govt can’t do sensible thing and vote online.
This inept Govt, having made UK a classic case study of how not to deal with a pandemic, has now completely lost its marbles and made us an international laughing stock. pic.twitter.com/VsAZdHD5GY
From Sarah Olney, a Lib Dem
Scores of MPs trudging disconsolately up and down Westminster Hall. pic.twitter.com/9oAXgf4cUJ
— Sarah Olney (@sarahjolney1) June 2, 2020
From Labour’s Neil Coyle
Vote two pending. Queue two doesn’t even begin in courtyard. Welcome to what Johnson and Mogg think is acceptable for a 21st century modern democracy. No more speakers in debates, no greater scrutiny but chaotic voting. Global Britain? Parish councils are better organised. pic.twitter.com/FWyDjJ0qyK
— Neil Coyle (@coyleneil) June 2, 2020
Opposition parties have pressed Scottish ministers to explain why the number of people being tested for Covid-19 for the first time in Scotland fell yesterday to less than a thousand, despite World Health Organization advice.
Labour and the Scottish Greens challenged Jeane Freeman, the Scottish health secretary, over the figures in Holyrood, contrasting the average test rate of 4,624 per day last week with government pledges to expand testing capacity to 15,000 per day.
Freeman insisted that the promise to increase capacity was met, but it was demand-led, she said. Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, has suggested the falling number of tests being sought could reflect falling infection rates.
Alison Johnstone, for the Scottish Greens, disputed that rationale. She said the government had pledged to test all Scotland’s care home staff regardless of whether they showed symptoms or not, after substantial outbreaks and mounting fatalities in care homes; those testing figures showed that promise had not been met.
Johnstone, a list MSP for the Lothians, said:
These figures simply don’t add up. Scotland is testing an average of 4,600 people a day, and that is across all sectors.
If regular testing of care home staff had begun, as she claims, then that alone would use up to 7,570 tests per day, and that’s before any residents, patients or NHS workers are tested.
There is no point in increasing Scotland’s capacity to test for Covid-19 if we are not going to use it.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, said the latest figures suggested only 2.1% of Scotland’s population had been tested, when the WHO had urged governments to test as many people as possible.
Baillie said:
Having to change the testing eligibility guidance seven times in three months clearly shows that the Scottish government got this badly wrong at the start of this pandemic and have been too slow to rectify the situation.
Without a rapid expansion in testing we cannot move to the “test, trace and isolate” stage and so cannot safely continue to ease the lockdown.
It is time for the SNP government to swallow its pride and get to work to expand testing.
Updated
At least MPs can queue in the shade, Labour’s Ian Murray points out.
We now appear to have entered the foliage in this voting fiasco pic.twitter.com/6X1dyWYOU9
— Ian Murray MP (@IanMurrayMP) June 2, 2020
Downing Street has announced that Iain Stewart, a former whip, has been made a junior minister in the Scotland Office following the resignation of Douglas Ross. Ross resigned to protest about Dominic Cummings being allowed to keep his post as a No 10 adviser after he broke lockdown rules.
And David Duguid is joining the government as an unpaid junior minister in the Scotland Office and an unpaid government whip.
Labour’s Louise Haigh has also posted a picture of herself queuing up to vote in the Commons.
Queuing up outside Westminster to vote against having to vote in Westminster pic.twitter.com/pY8F0zHkNJ
— Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) June 2, 2020
The new system they are using today may not be speedy, but it does mean that MPs have to cast their vote on camera. And, if you were so minded, you could keep a running tally of all the votes being cast for each side. In a tight or controversial division, this would at least heighten the drama ...
Updated
At least 169 care workers and home carers have now died with Covid-19, data from Public Health England has found.
Deaths among those in the care sector were 1.7 times higher during the pandemic compared with previous years, according to figures published on Tuesday.
The PHE review found that, between 21 March and 8 May, there were 548 deaths of all causes among care workers and home carers.
This is an increase of 232 from the same period in 2014 to 2018, while some 169 (73%) of those excess deaths were due to Covid-19.
Six senior care workers were reported to have died with coronavirus, in addition to the 169 care workers and home carers.
Some 81 nurses, 51 nursing auxiliaries and assistants and 20 social workers have died with the virus according to PHE figures, which are of deaths registered of 20 to 64-year-olds in England.
Outside of the health and social care sector, data shows there were 122 coronavirus-related deaths registered of taxi and cab drivers and chauffeurs between 21 March and 8 May.
Deaths of all causes among this sector were 2.5 times higher in this period compared with the period of 2014 to 2018 - increasing from 87 deaths to 217.
In comparison, PHE says that deaths of people aged 20 to 64 during this period were 1.5 times higher than average.
Updated
You can watch MPs voting on the live feed at the top of the blog.
The Lib Dem MP Layla Moran has posted this on Twitter, showing where MPs are lining up in Westminster Hall as they join the queue to vote.
I got told off for taking this picture, but people need to see how ridiculous this is. We are now 5 lines along with more snaking up the stairs. And not all MPs can be here as some are vulnerable. Each vote is going to take at least 30mins and we have 3 today. What a shower. pic.twitter.com/2otwn6OuKd
— Layla Moran 🔶 (@LaylaMoran) June 2, 2020
In the chamber Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, keeps trying to hurry the MPs up.
MPs vote on Rees-Mogg's plan to abolish remote voting
The 90-minute Commons debate is over. MPs are now voting on how they will hold votes in the future.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, called amendment b), an amendment tabled by Karen Bradley, the chair of the Commons procedure committee. A Labour amendment backed by almost all other opposition parties was not called.
The Bradley amendment would allow the current “hybrid” arrangements in place during the lockdown until now, including allowing remote voting, to carry on until 7 July.
In the Commons debate Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP who chairs the women and equalities committee, has just said that the abolition of remote voting in the Commons does not just look discriminatory; it is discriminatory. She said she would be voting for the anti-government amendment.
Updated
The London borough of Brent has recorded the highest coronavirus death rates in England among confirmed cases of the disease, new figures show.
Up to 13 May, the mortality rate for male confirmed Covid-19 cases in Brent stood at 244.9 deaths per 100,000 population, while for women the rate was 119.4 per 100,000.
The figures, published by NHS England, also show that the eight local authority areas with the highest death rates among male confirmed cases were all in London, with Brent followed by Lambeth (213.3 deaths per 100,000 population), Newham (196.6) and Lewisham (181.5).
The local authority area outside London with the highest death rate among males is Middlesbrough (156.0) followed by Luton (154.7).
For women, seven of the top 10 areas are in London, though Middlesbrough is ranked second (104.7 deaths per 100,000 population), followed by the London boroughs of Lambeth (100.8) and Lewisham (100.0).
Salford is ranked seventh (91.6) and Sunderland is ranked 10th (80.6).
Across England as a whole, the death rate among confirmed cases was highest in London for both males (140.3 per 100,000 population) and females (66.8).
South-west England had the lowest death rate among confirmed cases for both males (33.1) and females (16.3).
In every region of England, the death rate in males was higher than females.
All figures are age-standardised death rates and are based on laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Here are the figures for each region in England:
Males
- London: 140.3 per 100,000 population
- North-west England: 91.2
- West Midlands: 90.6
- North-east England: 77.6
- East of England: 70.1
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 68.7
- East Midlands: 61.6
- South-east England: 55.7
- South-west England: 33.1
Females
- London: 66.8 per 100,000 population
- North-east England: 48.6
- North-west England: 48.0
- West Midlands: 47.5
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 34.4
- East of England: 33.5
- East Midlands: 31.0
- South-east England: 28.3
- South-west England: 16.3
Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan has said Jacob Rees-Mogg’s proposals to end remote parliament voting is “democracy for the elite”.
He has also claimed that MPs who have traveled to Parliament today have shown 'dedication'.
— Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) June 2, 2020
He also suggested that MPs cannot infect each other in Parliament because each sit 2m apart.
Two people have been charged under Scotland’s coronavirus legislation after they needed to be rescued from a munro last Saturday.
Police Scotland confirmed that a 27-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman have been charged in connection with culpable and reckless conduct after travelling more than 60 miles from Glasgow to climb Beinn A’ Chroin, near Crianlarich.
While Scotland’s mountain bothies were closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the country’s mountain rescue teams said they were “nervous” about easing restrictions over the weekend, after they reported the longest period in 20 years without a single rescue during lockdown.
It is clear that the sunny weather encouraged urban hikers to head for the closest munros to Glasgow, with traffic on the A82 at Loch Lomond and in Glen Coe 200% higher than the previous weekend.
After beaches and beauty spots across Scotland were crowded with visitors, Nicola Sturgeon yesterday warned that day-trippers were risking lives and threatened to introduce new laws to limit travel for leisure to local areas.
Police received reports of the pair – who were not suitably equipped for the climb - being in difficulty on the munro at around 2.40pm on Saturday, when officers and members of Killin mountain rescue team were deployed to rescue them.
Chief Inspector Gill Marshall, area commander for Stirling, said:
The actions of this man and woman and their lack of equipment not only placed themselves at risk of injury, but also the officers and mountain rescue volunteers who were called to assist them.
We recognise that people have made significant sacrifices until now and while the temptation may be to head straight for one of our beauty spots, we would ask people to use their judgement and avoid going to places which are normally busy during the good weather or, in this case, could put individuals’ lives at risk.
We want people to enjoy our outdoor spaces safely and exercise should be done locally, not exceeding five miles from your home.
Updated
So lockdown is eased, sparking one of nature’s most stunning spectacles: the great migration of the humans across the Ikea car park, writes Guardian columnist Marina Hyde.
The Swedish store has replaced Wimbledon as the perfect sport for people who don’t like sport. They even have the dawn queuing. Do you have tickets this year? I’m indifferent to the furniture but I do like to watch the arguments. Seeing couples becoming a singles match over a side table is a quintessential part of British life, like cream teas and the Conservative party polling over 40%.
Meanwhile, and all of a sudden, the government has announced that some of the most vulnerable people in the country can go outside again. “Government eases lockdown for shielders”, was the big news.
And it’s hard to think of a more reassuring headline for this particular group, coming from this particular government.
Maybe “Government asks shielders to help them lift a sofa into the back of a van”.
“Government waves from storm drain at shielders looking for their paper boats”.
“Government responds to shielders saying ‘Dominic Cummings’ into a mirror three times”.
“Government asks shielders to check in at a family-run motel”.
“Government asks shielders to engage a 1980s Wall Street bro to take care of any household repairs/tree surgery they’ve been putting off during lockdown. Contractor will provide own nailgun and chainsaw.”
NHS England has announced 143 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 26,865.
Of the 143 new deaths announced on Tuesday:
- 19 occurred on 1 June
- 34 occurred on 31 May
- 20 occurred on 30 May
The figures also show 58 of the new deaths took place between 5 May and 29 May, eight occurred in April, and the remaining four deaths took place in March, with the earliest on 22 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 postmortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published on Tuesday by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number of hospital deaths on a single day, with a current total of 895.
Updated
British households repaid record amounts of debt racked up on credit cards and personal loans in April as consumers stayed away from the high street during lockdown.
Figures from the Bank of England show £7.4bn of consumer credit was repaid during the first full month of strict restrictions on business and social life, the largest net repayment since records began in 1993.
Reflecting a record plunge in retail spending in April as people stayed indoors, the Bank said £5bn in credit card debt was paid off in April, more than double the previous month and far more than the typical £300m paid back monthly by consumers.
However, outstanding debts on credit cards remain about £64bn. Experts also warned that while many households managed to repay their debts during lockdown, the hit to workers’ wages and rising job losses at the onset of the deepest recession in living memory would force others deep into the red.
A further seven people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of deaths to 1,354.
Another 67 people have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 14,121.
Downing Street scraps weekend press conferences
The daily Downing Street press conferences will no longer take place at weekends when viewing figures are “significantly lower”, Number 10 has said.
Briefings have been held on all but two days since 16 March, but the government has decided to scrap them on Saturdays and Sundays from this week.
The prime minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing:
From this week, the press conferences will be on weekdays only, so no longer on Saturdays and Sundays.
The PM will take a press conference every week alongside ... the scientific and medical experts.
Others will be led by secretaries of state, alongside scientific and medical experts where relevant.
Asked why the change was being made, the spokesman said: “It is just a fact that the numbers who are viewing at weekends do tend to be significantly lower.”
Number 10 insisted the government was “absolutely committed to keeping people updated”.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has led the most Downing Street press conferences so far, totalling 17 as of Tuesday, while Boris Johnson has led 12 and the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has taken 11.
Updated
In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg accepts the new voting system will involve some “teething problems”.
An MP asks if Rees-Mogg has ever been to Alton Towers. (The queuing system has been compared to the one at the attraction - see 2.26pm.) To the surprise of some MPs, Rees-Mogg tells them he has been there. He took his sister, Annunziata, many years ago, he says.
A further two people have died after contracting Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, bringing the total toll to 526.
Four more positive tests brought the total diagnosed, largely in hospitals, to 4,732.
In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, said that he disapproved of remote voting because voting was a serious act. He said that it was wrong for MPs to be able to exercise their vote while at home, perhaps watching TV.
He also said that he did not accept that, under his plan, MPs who had to shield at home were being disenfranchised. They would still be able to participate in other parliamentary affairs, such as by asking questions, he said.
MPs unable to attend parliament to vote in person could in theory pair with an MP from another party. (That would mean both agreeing not to vote, cancelling each other out.) But the political parties never reveal which MPs are paired, with the result that if an MP pairs, people do not know why they were absent.
Asked if pairing information should be published, Rees-Mogg said he could not give a commitment on this, but he suggested the idea should be raised with party whips.
And, asked if the proxy voting system (that allows MPs on maternity leave to vote by proxy) could be extended for those shielding, Rees-Mogg did not embrace the idea - but he said he was not ruling it out either.
The decision for England’s official coronavirus alert level to remain at four despite this week’s easing of some lockdown restrictions was made by the chief medical officer, Downing Street has said, indicating he vetoed the government’s wish for it to be lowered. Our colleague Peter Walker has the full story here.
MPs debate plan to end remote voting in Commons amid claims it will lead to members being disenfranchised
In the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has just opened the debate on his plan to end electronic, or remote, voting in the Commons. This is hugely controversial because MPs who have been told they cannot attend parliament because they are shielding say they will be disenfranchised. (See 9.35am and 2.14pm.)
Rees-Mogg said he would tomorrow table a plan to allow MPs who cannot attend the Commons on health grounds to participate in debates (presumably via Zoom, as MPs were able to do under the “hybrid” proceedings arrangements in place before the Whitsun recess.)
But he is receiving many hostile interventions from MPs who argue that the new system will not work. The DUP’s Ian Paisley said it was hard for MPs to travel from Northern Ireland to London at the moment and that, if they came to London, they wanted to concentrate on debating. He said that under the Rees-Mogg plan, which would involve MPs having to queue at great length to vote in person, divisions would take too much time.
Rees-Mogg did not accept the point. He said voting would only take a little longer.
The Labour MP Luke Pollard has posted this video showing the scene in Westminster Hall this afternoon, where MPs will be expected to queue as they line up to vote later.
This is ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/M77e1kYlm0
— Luke Pollard MP (@LukePollard) June 2, 2020
Rees-Mogg's plan to end remote voting in parliament condemned by rights body
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has condemned the UK government’s plan to only allow MPs to participate in Commons debates and votes in person, saying it “cannot be right” to exclude older MPs or those with disabilities or illnesses, our colleague Peter Walker reports.
In a joint statement welcoming the move the Conservative MP Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons education committee, and Labour’s Vicky Foxcroft, the shadow minister for disabilities, said:
What stronger message can you get than the EHRC, one of the government’s own non-departmental public bodies, confirming that the ending of remote participation for those of us who are shielding or otherwise unable to attend parliament is discriminatory?
As MPs - from opposite sides of the house - who are shielding, we have many important issues we need to raise on behalf of disabled people and our fellow shielders.
Disabled people have felt like an afterthought throughout this pandemic and it is therefore vital that the government looks again at the proposed return to physical participation.
This briefing, produced by barristers from Cloisters chambers, looks at the equality and human rights implications of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s plan to end electronic voting, and whether it could be challenged in the courts. It concludes:
The ability of MPs to participate in the parliamentary process on an equal basis regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, sex and carer status engages fundamental equality and human rights principles. The legal mechanisms for enforcing these principles through the courts are far from straightforward ... However, although the legal issues are technical, the basic question is not. What kind of democracy are we, if our elected representatives can be excluded from carrying out their democratic functions because of, or for reasons relating, to their age, race, sex or state of health?
Updated
Hancock says lockdown rules now to be reviewed every four weeks, not every three weeks
Under the initial lockdown law - the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 - the rules had to be reviewed at least every three weeks.
But, in a Commons written statement, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has said they will now be reviewed every four weeks. He explained:
This will allow decisions to align more closely with the period of time necessary to assess the impact of previous changes on key data feeds, including the R (infection) rate.
The government will also keep all the measures under continual review and will account to parliament on an ongoing basis.
Boris Johnson told Italian PM he wanted 'herd immunity', Italy's health minister says
Boris Johnson told his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, in early March that the UK was aiming for “herd immunity” as part of its approach to coronavirus, a TV documentary claims.
Channel 4’s Dispatches spoke to the Italian health minister, Pierpaolo Sileri, who said this is what was said in a conversation between Johnson and Conte on 13 March. Sileri told the programme:
I spoke with Conte to tell President Conte that I’d tested positive [for coronavirus]. And he told me that he’d spoken with Boris Johnson and that they’d also talked about the situation in Italy. I remember he said, ‘He told me that he wants herd immunity’.
I remember that after hanging up, I said to myself that I hope Boris Johnson goes for a lockdown.
In late February and early March the government’s scientific adviser were relatively open about saying that they thought it would be impossible to entirely suppress coronavirus and that there were advantages from allowing “herd immunity” to build up. Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said this publicly, including in a Today programme interview on 13 March (the day the Johnson/Conte conversation took place). But very soon afterwards the government abruptly changed policy, in response to modelling saying that anything other than a policy aimed at full suppression of coronavirus would led to the NHS being overwhelmed.
Subsequently ministers became averse to being associated with the “herd immunity” concept, because that implied toleration or even support for people dying from coronavirus in manageable numbers, and now they insist it was never part of their policy.
According to PA Media, the Dispatches programme also quotes Prof Graham Medley, who sits on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), saying he was dismayed by government complacency at the early stages of the outbreak. Medley told the programme:
We already knew that this virus was going to cause an awful lot of death and disability and would require an awful lot of NHS resource ... so it was with some dismay that we were watching senior politicians behaving in a way that suggested that this was not something that was too serious.
This is what Matt Hancock, the health secretary, told MPs about the Public Health England report (see 12.56pm) and the new review being led by the equalities minister. He said:
This work underlines that being black or from a minority ethnic background is a major risk factor. This racial disparity holds even after accounting for the effect of age, deprivation, region and sex.
The PHE ethnicity analysis did not adjust for factors such as comorbidities and obesity, so there is much more work to do to understand the key drivers of these disparities, the relationship between the risk factors and what we can do to close the gap.
I’m determined that we continue to develop our understanding and shape our response. And I’m pleased to announce that the equalities minister will be leading on this work and taking it forward, working with [Public Health England] and others to further understand the impact.
UPDATE: Hancock said the equalities minister would lead this review and originally this post said he was referring to Liz Truss, the cabinet minister responsible for equalities (as well as international trade, her main job). But later Hancock said Kemi Badenoch would take on this role. See 5.15pm. I’ve amended the post to make allowance for this.
Updated
Ten of the UK’s biggest disability charities have written to ministers to warn that they may have to close or drastically reduce care services if they do not receive emergency financial support from the government.
The charities estimate that they face a collective shortfall of between £50m and £75m over the next few months because of a collapse in fundraising income and extra spending on Covid-19 costs such as PPE.
The Leonard Cheshire charity, which runs residential care homes and community services, said it faced losses of up to £25m this year – around 15% of its total spending – and was currently drawing on financial reserves to meet PPE costs of £800,000 a month.
The letter, to charities minister Lady Barran, said, the government’s £750m charity support package announced in April was insufficient and had overlooked the needs of disabled people and their families.
It said:
Our services are often the only place disabled people and their families have to turn and we want to be there for everyone who needs us. Without vital funds, we will have stark choices to make about cutting vital services that are not provided by anyone else and in some cases closing our doors.
We are deeply concerned that it appears disabled people and their families have fallen through the cracks of government work and funding and are in real danger of being forgotten. Our organisations and our services are doing the best we can to support thousands of people each week yet without material support from government many of us will be unable to do so for much longer.
The 10 charities, which form the disability charity consortium are: Scope, Sense, Mind, Action on Hearing Loss, Business Disability Forum, Mencap, National Autistic Society, RNIB, Disability Rights UK and Leonard Cheshire.
Updated
Here are some graphs from the review into Covid-19 deaths among BAME people which help demonstrate the report’s overall findings.
Among both males and females, the report has found black, Asian, mixed and other ethnic groups have suffered a disproportionate amount of deaths during the Covid-19 outbreak in England.
The report states:
Black males were 3.9 times more likely to die than the white group, compared with 2.5 times in Asian males.
Among females, death rates were 3.3 times higher in the black ethnic group, and 2.3 times higher in the Asian ethnic group than the White group.
However, the baseline all-cause rates show lower mortality in Asian and black ethnic groups than the white group, therefore the inequality in Covid-19 mortality between these groups is the opposite of that seen for all causes of death in previous years.
The rates in the “other” ethnic group are likely to be an overestimate due to the difference in the source of allocating ethnicity codes to the mortality data and the population data used to calculate the rates. This may explain the high mortality rates in the other group, which cannot be interpreted and requires further investigation.
Updated
In the Commons Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is making a statement about coronavirus, and the Public Health England report into the impact of coronavirus on different groups.
He says, even allowing for age, deprivation, region and sex, BAME people are at much greater risk.
He says the equalities minister will take charge of a review looking at what more can be done to address this.
Updated
Some further information from the BAME Covid-19 report that has just been published
On the reasons for the disparities, the report says:
Firstly, people of BAME communities are likely to be at increased risk of acquiring the infection. This is because BAME people are more likely to live in urban areas, in overcrowded households, in deprived areas, and have jobs that expose them to higher risk. People of BAME groups are also more likely than people of white British ethnicity to be born abroad, which means they may face additional barriers in accessing services that are created by, for example, cultural and language differences.
Secondly, people of BAME communities are also likely to be at increased risk of poorer outcomes once they acquire the infection. For example, some comorbidities which increase the risk of poorer outcomes from Covid-19 are more common among certain ethnic groups. People of Bangladeshi and Pakistani background have higher rates of cardiovascular disease than people from White British ethnicity, and people of black Caribbean and black African ethnicity have higher rates of hypertension compared with other ethnic groups. Data from the National Diabetes Audit suggests that type II diabetes prevalence is higher in people from BAME communities.
Updated
The delayed report into into why black, Asian and minority ethnic groups have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus has just been published.
It says, after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region: “People of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death when compared to people of white British ethnicity. People of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Other Asian, Caribbean and Other Black ethnicity had between 10% and 50% higher risk of death when compared to white British.”
Crucially, it says the analyses did not account for the effect of occupation, comorbidities or obesity. There has been particular concern that BAME people are more exposed because of their occupations. For example, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that a third of all working-age black Africans are employed in key worker roles, 50% more than the share of the white British population.
Additionally it said that Pakistani, Indian and black African men are respectively 90%, 150% and 310% more likely to work in healthcare than white British men.
The report also looks at other risk factors for Covid-19, including age, sex and obesity. The largest disparity found was by age, with people already diagnosed with Covid.
Updated
Public Health England report published into why BAME people at greater risk from coronavirus
The government has just published the Public Health England report “Disparities in the risk and outcomes of Covid-19”. It examines how coronavirus affects different demographic groups. It runs to 89 pages and it is here (pdf).
There has been particular focus on what it will say about why BAME people are so much more at risk. This is what it says on this in the summary.
People from black ethnic groups were most likely to be diagnosed. Death rates from Covid-19 were highest among people of black and Asian ethnic groups. This is the opposite of what is seen in previous years, when the mortality rates were lower in Asian and black ethnic groups than white ethnic groups. Therefore, the disparity in Covid-19 mortality between ethnic groups is the opposite of that seen in previous years.
An analysis of survival among confirmed Covid-19 cases and using more detailed ethnic groups, shows that after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region, people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death than people of white British ethnicity. People of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, other Asian, Caribbean and other black ethnicity had between 10 and 50% higher risk of death when compared to white British.
These analyses did not account for the effect of occupation, comorbidities or obesity. These are important factors because they are associated with the risk of acquiring Covid-19, the risk of dying, or both. Other evidence has shown that when comorbidities are included, the difference in risk of death among hospitalised patients is greatly reduced.
And this is what the summary says about comorbidities (underlying health conditions).
Among deaths with COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate, a higher percentage mentioned diabetes, hypertensive diseases, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and dementia than all cause death certificates.
Diabetes was mentioned on 21% of death certificates where Covid-19 was also mentioned. This finding is consistent with other studies that have reported a higher risk of death from Covid-19 among patients with diabetes. This proportion was higher in all BAME groups when compared to white ethnic groups and was 43% in the Asian group and 45% in the black group. The same disparities were seen for hypertensive disease.
Several studies, although measuring the different outcomes from Covid-19, report an increased risk of adverse outcomes in obese or morbidly obese people.
Updated
Sturgeon concluded her speech by rejecting suggestions one-metre distancing is enough to stop the spread of Covid-19.
You might be reading or hearing in the media today some voices saying that one metre is sufficient, so I want to take the opportunity today to say the clear and strong advice from the Scottish government is to stay two metres apart from those in other households.
She reiterated that people shouldn’t meet up with more than one household, only once a day, and there should never be more than eight people in a group.
During her speech today, Nicola Sturgeon paid tribute to unpaid carers and volunteers.
She said that an additional £230 payment to those eligible for the carer’s allowance supplement - to help cover the strain of the coronavirus pandemic - will be paid automatically at the end of this month.
The carer’s allowance supplement, worth £460 a year, is paid to 83,000 people in Scotland.
She also acknowledged that it is Volunteers’ Week and said the efforts of volunteers are more important than ever during this period.
Updated
The latest coronavirus numbers from Scotland as the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, begins her daily press conference.
As of 9am this morning:
- There have been a 53 further confirmed cases, taking the total to 15,471 positive cases. This includes 40 older cases which have only been received today.
- The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 increased by 122, taking the total to 1,168
- There are 34 people in intensive care, an increase of seven from yesterday - all of these seven patients are suspected not confirmed cases
- A total of 3,721 have left hospital after recovering from Covid-19.
- A further 12 Covid-19 deaths have been registered from hospitals, taking the total death toll to 2,375.
Updated
HM Coastguard responded to nearly 450 incidents during its “busiest weekend of 2020”, as thousands of people flocked to beaches and beauty spots to enjoy the hot weather.
On Sunday, it had the highest number of callouts so far this year, with 241 incidents - a 168% increase on the May 2019 average.
It experienced its second busiest day of the year on Saturday, with 206 incidents - a total of 447 incidents over the weekend.
It warned “coronavirus hasn’t gone away”, and that “we all need to follow the rules”.
HM Coastguard duty commander Matt Leat said:
Boating, swimming and other sea-based activities are now allowed again across the UK, as is spending time on the beach.
However, now more than ever, people need to respect the sea and the coast to ensure the safety of themselves and their families.
Regardless of how well you know the coast, or how experienced you are in your chosen sport, the sea can still catch you out.
On Saturday, three people were seriously injured after jumping off cliffs into the sea at a beach in Dorset, leading the local council leader to call on the government to restrict people from travelling over five miles for leisure.
Updated
In the Commons Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has been making a statement about Hong Kong, where Beijing is imposing a draconian new security law. He said the new law would be a “clear violation” of China’s international obligations in relation to Hong Kong. He told MPs:
We have not yet seen the detailed, published text of the legislation, but I can tell the house that if legislation in these terms is imposed by China on Hong Kong it would violate China’s own basic law, it would upend China’s ‘one country, two systems’ paradigm and it would be a clear violation of China’s international obligations, including those specifically made to the United Kingdom under the joint declaration.
Updated
A primary school in Derby has temporarily closed after reporting that seven staff members tested positive for Covid-19.
Arboretum primary school is due to be shut for a week with all affected parties instructed to isolate for 14 days.
Derby Diocesan Academy Trust (DDAT), which runs the school, said four members of staff tested negative for the virus.
DDAT added that the affected staff had only suffered mild symptoms and were recovering well at home.
In a statement, the trust said:
Following one member of staff reporting symptoms, the school quickly identified any other members of staff, parents/carers and/or children who may have been in contact and instructed them to isolate for the government’s recommended period of 14 days.
Since then, six members of staff have tested positive and four members of staff who were in contact have tested negative.
There have been no reports of parents/carers or children displaying symptoms.
In line with guidance, the school has closed this week to allow a deep-clean to be completed and will reopen next week, initially to children of key workers and vulnerable children.
A Derby city council spokesperson said none of the seven staff members who tested has “been in touch with children”.
“The school will re-open on Monday June 8 and all of those adults who may have been in contact with the affected staff have been informed,” they added.
Updated
Main risk of second spike likely to come in September, Neil Ferguson tells peers
Here are the main lines from Lords science committee hearing with Prof Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College London academic whose coronavirus modelling led to No 10 introducing the lockdown. Ferguson was appearing with three other academics. (See 10.10am.) At no point was he asked, or did he allude to, the circumstances that led to his resignation from Sage, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, although at one point in his evidence, when speaking about care homes, he did sound like someone holding back strong views about government ministers. (When Ferguson resigned from Sage, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, seemed to relish denouncing him.)
- Ferguson said that he expected coronavirus levels to remain “relatively flat” as the lockdown was gradually eased over the summer but that it was “very unclear” what would happen in September, when a fuller relaxation is expected. He implied a second spike was a real possibility. Asked what would happen, he said:
One of the key issues is how much will relaxation of current controls lead to potential increases in transmission. I should say that it is not clear that it automatically will do so. But most of the modelling would suggest that we might get a small increase, but it’s very unclear whether that will lead to the reproduction number being [above 1] ....
I suspect, though, under any scenario that levels of transmission, and numbers of cases, will remain relatively flat between now and September - short of very big policy changes, or behavioural changes in the community.
The real uncertainty is if there are larger policy changes in September, as we move into the time of year when respiratory viruses tend to transmit slightly better, what will happen then? And that remains very unclear.
- He said that experts underestimated the extent of coronavirus in the UK in February, and that helped to explain why the death rate was higher than hoped. He said the experts had not realised how much infection was coming from Spain. He said:
One thing the genetic data is showing us now is most chains of transmission still existing in the UK originated from Spain, to some extent Italy. We have been worrying about importations, infections from China - we’re a very well connected country in the world, other Asian countries, the US - but it is clear that before we were even in a position to measure it, before surveillance systems were even set up, there were many hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals coming into the country in late February and early March from that area. And that meant that the epidemic was further ahead than we had anticipated.
That explains some of the acceleration of policy then. It also explains, to some extent, why mortality figures ended up being higher than we had hoped.
- He said he was “shocked” at how bad countries around the world had been at protecting people in care homes. He was not talking specifically about the UK, but he was not omitting it either. He said:
I, like many people, am shocked about how badly European - or countries around the world - have protected care home populations.
Prof Matt Keeling from Warwick University also said that more could have been done to protect people in care homes. He suggested that the academic modellers were partly at fault. He said:
If the lockdown had been very strict, if we’d have thought more about what was happening in care homes and hospitals, as you’ve heard, early on maybe that was one of the areas where modellers did drop the ball.
With hindsight, it’s very easy to say we know care homes and hospitals are these huge collections of very vulnerable individuals, so maybe with hindsight we could have modelled those early on and thought about the impacts there.
Updated
EasyJet to resume flights on half its routes by end of July
EasyJet will resume flights on half its routes by the end of next month.
The Luton-based carrier, which has grounded its entire fleet during the coronavirus pandemic, announced its plan to ramp up flights in the coming weeks.
Half of its 1,022 routes will be reopened by the end of July, increasing to 75% during August.
Flights will be at a lower frequency than normal, meaning the airline will operate at around 30% of its normal capacity between July and September.
EasyJet previously announced it would resume operations on 15 June, but flights will mainly be restricted to domestic routes in the UK and France.
A series of new safety measures will be introduced by the airline, including requiring passengers to wear face masks at airports and on aircraft.
It has produced thousands of face mask covers inspired by comic books to be handed to children flying on selected routes in a bid to ease their anxiety about the new rule.
Other steps to boost hygiene include not selling food during flights, enhanced cleaning of planes, and disinfection wipes and hand sanitiser being provided.
Passengers will be invited to sit away from people not in their party on flights with empty seats.
EasyJet’s chief commercial and planning officer, Robert Carey, said:
We are delighted to announce that we will be flying the majority of our route network across Europe, meaning customers can still get to their chosen destination for their summer holidays this year.
We’re passionate about helping our customers get back flying, which is why we’re offering one million seats at £29.99 for those planning on booking a holiday this summer.
Updated
BAME campaigners have said it is imperative to publish an inquiry into why black and minority ethnic groups have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus as soon as possible so action can be taken to mitigate the risks to vulnerable people.
The findings were meant to be released by the end of May but publication has been delayed and is now not expected until the end of this week at the earliest.
Simon Woolley, director of Operation Black Vote, said:
My view is that we need to have this report sooner rather than later. The impact on black and minority ethnic communities has been devastating and we want to work with the government on understanding the data, but even more importantly, having solutions to close what we see are some of the fundamental disparity gaps that at the very least have exacerbated the impact, the death, and heartache that it [coronavirus] has had on black and minority ethnic communities.
There was also criticism of the delay from unions representing healthcare workers.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the British Medical Association council chair, whose demand for a review in April, in an interview with the Guardian, helped bring the issue to public attention, said:
The government-commissioned review by Public Health England needs to be concluded as soon as possible in order for us to make sense of why this dreadful virus is impacting so adversely on the BAME community and – most importantly – what needs to be done to urgently protect them.
Dame Donna Kinnair, the Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary, concurred.
“The Public Health England review must be published as a matter of urgency,” she said.
“Every day we go without knowing why BAME health and care staff are disproportionately affected by Covid-19 is another day these workers are needlessly put at extra risk.”
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The Liberal Democrats say the UK Statistics Authority letter released today (see 10.37am) about the official testing statistics shows that government ministers have been “wilfully misleading the public”. The party has released this statement from the MP Layla Moran.
The UK Statistics chief has rightly criticised the government for their shocking misuse and spinning of statistics. The number of tests posted out is not the same as the number of people actually tested. Everyone sees through this and all it does, in the end, is erode trust in politics and politicians.
At a time like this, the government should be having honest, grown-up conversations with people based on clear reporting and facts. They should be making decisions based on actual numbers of people tested, rather than stats that are spun to fit a political agenda.
By continuing to withhold figures on the actual numbers of people being tested, and providing inadequate and confusing data, government ministers are standing up in Downing Street and wilfully misleading the public.
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has urged the government not to reduce the 2-metre physical distancing rule as it seeks to reopen the economy.
The CIEH said it was vital ministers did not reduce the distance to 1 metre “due to pressure from industry”. The World Health Organization (WHO) advises people to stay “at least one metre” away from others in order to reduce the chance of catching the coronavirus.
However, the most comprehensive study of the issue – part-funded by the WHO and published today in the Lancet – found that reducing social distancing to one metre could double the risk of infection.
Kate Thompson, CIEH Wales director, said:
We call on the government to stand firm in its stance on the 2m rule when it comes to social distancing, especially as the riskier businesses, like pubs and hairdressers, are set to re-open from next month.
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In the Lords committee Prof Neil Ferguson says relaxing the lockdown measures will not automatically lead to more incidents of coronavirus. He says he expects rates of coronavirus to remain relatively flat over the summer.
But he says the real uncertainty is about what might happen in September, when the lockdown could be be relaxed further. He says it is “very unclear” what will happen at that point.
In the Lords committee Lady Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, asks what has gone wrong. She says at the start of the crisis Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said the UK would be doing well to have just 20,000 deaths. The death toll is now about double that, she says.
Prof Matt Keeling from the University of Warwick said Vallance was talking about what would have happened if things had gone well. He suggests the lockdown could have been stricter. And more could have been done to protect people in care homes.
He says he thought the modelling gave a good indication as to what might happen.
Prof Neil Ferguson says genetic analysis says most strains of coronavirus in the UK originated in Spain or Italy. He says many thousands of infected people come into the country in February and early March. That helps to explain why death figures ended up being higher than hoped, he says.
Dr Adam Kucharski from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) says the lockdown in the UK has not been the same as the lockdown in other countries. Different measures will have different results, he says.
The number of mortgage approvals made to homebuyers slumped to a record low in April as the housing market was held at a near-standstill, Bank of England figures show. As PA Media reports, some 15,848 mortgage approvals for house purchase were recorded - around 80% below February levels before coronavirus lockdown measures were imposed - the Bank’s money and credit report revealed. This was around half the number of approvals taking place in the trough during the financial crisis, and the lowest since the figures started in 1993, the report said.
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In the Lords science committee Prof Neil Ferguson says he has been “shocked” at how bad countries around the world have been at protecting people in care homes.
In the Lords Viscount Ridley, a Conservative, says the modelling does not seem to have been very accurate. He says the death toll in Sweden is much lower than the modelling suggested.
Prof Neil Ferguson says Sweden did not use the Imperial College modelling, as Ridley suggested.
And he says that, even though Sweden did not introduce a full lockdown, there was nevertheless considerable social distancing. As a result the reproduction number, R, came down to about 1, he says.
Updated
In the Lords science committee Lady Rock asks if there was any difference in the modelling scenarios used by Sage.
Prof Neil Ferguson says Sage uses different models. He says Sage’s reasonable worst-case scenario is currently based on the Warwick model.
But he says the problem in early March was that the reasonable worst-case scenario was also close to the best estimate of what would happen.
He says the models do not produce the same results, but generally they support the same policy recommendations because the differences are not great.
Updated
Statistics watchdog criticises government's testing data
Britain’s statistics watchdog has again warned the health secretary, Matt Hancock, that figures on coronavirus tests remain “far from complete and comprehensible”.
In a strongly-worded letter, Sir David Norgrove, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, said the way the government presented the figures appeared to be aimed at showing “the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding”.
The government has faced repeated criticism for its daily testing figures, in which it counts in its headline figure the number of tests posted out to people as well as the number of those completed. It is also not clear from the government data how many of the tests carried out are repeat tests on the same person.
Norgrove said the government’s current statistics figures were misleading people during the daily No 10 briefing as they often do not explain how the headline figure on the number of tests has been calculated.
He said the way the tests were presented at the televised press conference gives “an artificially low impression of the proportion of tests returning a positive diagnosis”.
Norgrove said it was also “hard to believe the statistics work to support the testing programme itself”, adding that they “still fall well short” of the statistics code of practice which Hancock has said he supported. He added:
It is not surprising that given their inadequacy that data on testing are so widely criticised and often mistrusted.
You can read the letter in full below:
Sir David Norgrove has today replied to @MattHancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regarding the Government’s COVID-19 testing data https://t.co/jOvTnLMSXK pic.twitter.com/jSUjcZoZrV
— UK Statistics Authority (@UKStatsAuth) June 2, 2020
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In the Lords science committee Lady Sheehan asks if the scientists took into account “lockdown fatigue” - people getting less compliant over time - in their modelling.
Prof Neil Ferguson says fatigue with lockdown measures was not something everyone modelled.
But he says they assumed that the lockdown would lead to a 75% drop in contacts outside the home. But in practice there was an 85% reduction, he says.
Updated
P&O Cruises has extended the suspension of its sailings until at least 15 October, PA Media reports. The firm said it is “working in close co-ordination with all relevant public health bodies to approve further enhancement of the company’s already stringent health and safety protocols”.
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Prof Neil Ferguson tells the Lords that in March they learned that the UK had been more heavily affected than people expected.
Going forward, the UK has “limited room for manoeuvre”, he says.
He says it is necessary to keep infection suppressed by 65%.
Asked about the impact of coronavirus on BAME people, he says it is clear they have been heavily affected. But he says it is not clear whether that is because ethnicity is an independent risk factor, or because of other factors.
Updated
Total UK deaths involving Covid-19 nears 50,000
Our colleagues Robert Booth and Pamela Duncan have done the maths following the release of the latest ONS figures. They find that the total number of deaths involving Covid-19 throughout the UK now stands at 49,324.
When deaths in care homes and other settings are taken into account for the last week, the true death toll in the UK is likely already to have exceeded 50,000, they write. This confirms Britain’s status as one of the world’s worst hit countries by the pandemic that has claimed around 375,000 lives globally.
You can read the full story here.
Updated
Prof Neil Ferguson tells the Lords committee that immunity is a key issue when studying a virus. He says people develop seasonal immunity from other coronaviruses. But we still don’t know very much about Covid-19 yet, he says.
The Office for National Statistics said there have been 286,759 deaths to date in England and Wales this year - 51,466 more than the five-year average.
Of the deaths registered by 22 May, 43,837 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, which was 15.3% of all deaths.
One faint silver lining was that the weekly number of deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales fell to a seven-week low in the week to 22 May: 2,589 death certificates mentioned Covid-19 in the week, down from 3,810 in the previous seven days.
Nick Stripe, the ONS’s head of health analysis, has posted an interesting thread explaining the figures:
Some regions were further above 5-yr weekly average deaths than others:
— Nick Stripe (@NickStripe_ONS) June 2, 2020
The North East was 40% above, the East of England 30%, and Yorkshire & The Humber 29%
Whereas the South West was 8% above and Wales 13%
3/9
Updated
Neil Ferguson gives evidence to peers about coronavirus modelling
The House of Lords science and technology committee is now taking evidence from four experts on pandemic modelling. They include Prof Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London, who led the team that produced the paper (pdf) published on 16 March that prompted the government to introduce the lockdown. Ferguson subsequently resigned from Sage, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, after it emerged that his lover had visited him at his home in breach of lockdown rules.
The other witnesses are: Dr Ellen Brooks-Pollock from the University of Bristol; Prof Matt Keeling from the University of Warwick and Dr Adam Kucharski from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Imperial, LSHTM, Bristol and Warwick have all produced modelling on the spread of coronavirus, and the likely impact of lockdown measures, for Sage. They don’t always reach the same conclusions, as this paper (pdf), for example, illustrates.
Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, has described the government’s plans to impose quarantine on people arriving in the UK as “a total shambles”.
Ministers delayed quarantine for months as hundreds of thousands of people flew into the UK, only finally introducing measures as holidays approach. Now they’re hoping air bridges might help us. But we’re seen as a high risk country. What a total shambles https://t.co/fGfvqq2Yu1
— Lisa Nandy (@lisanandy) June 2, 2020
Priti Patel, the home secretary, is due to publish details of the plans today, but our colleagues Vikram Dodd and Peter Walker had key details in an overnight preview story.
Even though the plans contain more exemptions and loopholes than originally expected, the quarantine concept is still deeply unpopular with Tory MPs, who fear it will damage the travel industry, and the economy generally. The Telegraph (paywall) claims today that Boris Johnson is now in favour of introducing so-called “air bridges” - exemptions from quarantine for particular countries. It says officials are looking at plans to introduce these from the end of June.
In his London Playbook briefing this morning Jack Blanchard from Politico Europe suggests that the government may back down on its plans to abandon electronic voting in the Commons. (See 9.35am.) Blanchard writes:
Could some sort of government climbdown yet be on the cards? Word is that [Jacob] Rees-Mogg got a rough ride from MPs on the Tories’ backbench 1922 Committee last night, and Playbook notes that certain government officials now seem remarkably keen to, erm, socially distance themselves from this whole plan. “Nobody in government knew about this until it was announced,” one senior government official claimed last night. An opposition staffer reckons Boris Johnson privately told SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford at a meeting of opposition leaders last week that he, too, had not been made aware of the problems with how all this would work.
Updated
Nearly 44,000 Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales, ONS says
There have been 43,837 deaths involving the coronavirus in England and Wales up to 22 May, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Of those deaths, 12,733 (29%) were people in care homes, the ONS said.
Its figures show that that 42,210 people in England had died from confirmed or suspected Covid-19 in the same period, far higher than the government tally for that period of 32,666.
The government’s figure includes only deaths of people who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Whereas the ONS includes all mortalities in which Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate, so it includes suspected cases.
Our weekly deaths data for England show of all deaths occurring up to 22 May (registered up to 30 May), 42,210 involved #COVID19
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) June 2, 2020
For the same period
▪️ @DHSCgovuk reported 32,666 COVID-19 deaths
▪️ @NHSEngland reported 25,875 hospital deaths
➡️ https://t.co/nwSCC3rF6f pic.twitter.com/GiNxXM3hyY
Scottish Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone has accused the UK government of “forcing through” plans to end remote voting and return MPs to meeting in parliament in person. Stone, who represents Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and who cares for his disabled wife, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland that MPs had proved that remote scrutiny worked and that it was too early and too risky to push through a return to business as usual.
Scottish MPs are particularly concerned about the risks inherent in the length of travel time to the Commons from their constituencies.
The SNP’s shadow leader of the house, Tommy Sheppard, described the plans to “shut down virtual participation and replace it with a conga line parliament” as unacceptable and unworkable. He said:
SNP MPs will continue to press for full virtual participation and urge the Tories to scrap their plans. If they do not, we will balance protecting public health and Scotland’s democratic voice by sending the minimum number of MPs required to hold the UK government to account, while the majority will continue to work in their constituencies.
Given that there has been no change of heart so far, the SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, and a few MPs will be present today.
Updated
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog for the day.
As reported already (see 8.33am), one of the main events in the Commons this afternoon will be a vote about how to vote. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has infuriated many MPs - including Tories - by proposing to give up the system that allows MPs to vote electronically. Opposition parties want to retain electronic voting. But the vote on this issue will be resolved this afternoon by an “in person” vote. Social distancing rules do not allow MPs to congregate in the division lobbies, as they used to do pre-Covid, and instead they will have to form a long, socially-distanced queue. On the Today programme this morning the BBC’s Norman Smith suggested Westminster could end up looking like Ikea did yesterday.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, wrote a letter to MPs yesterday explaining what will happen today.
The Conservative MP Robert Halfon, who is one of the MPs who has had to stay away from parliament because he is shielding, has written an angry article for the House magazine saying the decision to abandon electronic voting is illogical.
The historian Macaulay once described my party as 'stern & unbending'.The stern, unbending refusal by powers that be, @Jacob_Rees_Mogg to allow genuinely covid-19 affected MPs to vote online or by proxy in @HouseofCommons is a classic example. My article👇https://t.co/o5LDFLiNXm
— Robert Halfon MP -Working Hard for Harlow- (@halfon4harlowMP) June 2, 2020
Here’s an extract.
Members are told that hybrid voting (both online and in parliament) is impossible, yet given no reason why. If hybrid voting is beyond the realm of the techno-Moggs, MPs are then informed that proxy voting (letting another parliamentarian vote on their behalf), is also unmanageable, with no explanation given.
It is truly extraordinary that a decision has been made in this way. MPs who are able to go in and vote will be able to show off to their constituents, like Giant Haystacks in the wrestling ring, yet those MPs who genuinely cannot come back to Westminster, will face questions from local residents why they are not voting, have to explain their personal circumstances, which may be uncomfortable for them to do, and, see their voting record trashed in the internet league tables. Not particularly helpful at election times.
Updated
Housing minister Simon Clarke has said the two-week quarantine period for new entrants to the UK will be enforced from 8 June, despite some backbench opposition.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Clarke described it as a “temporary, time-limited measure” but did not say for how long it might be in place. It has been reported that the government is planning to ease these measures three weeks later in time for the school summer holidays.
Clarke was also asked why the government had not yet published the number of people tested or traced under its flagship programme that got under way this week. He denied the government was “playing silly games” and added:
These figures are independently compiled, these are not produced by government ministers. They are published by PHE and all the health service parties who are working with us.
Nobody here is playing silly games with data. It’s absolutely about making sure that when we do issue it, it is accurate.
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Labour leader urges ministers to publish BAME review
Sir Keir Starmer has told the government to “stop the excuses” and publish its review into the disproportionate number of deaths of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds from the coronavirus.
It emerged last night that the publication of the report by Public Health England had been delayed (see 7:37am).
BAME communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 2, 2020
We need the findings of this review published and action taken now.
Stop the excuses: publish the review.https://t.co/Zwd7PNNhDk
The return of parliament from recess today will see MPs form a disorderly queue to vote on a government motion that would end the virtual voting system introduced only weeks ago.
How will it work? Your guess is as good as mine, given that many MPs – like Margaret Hodge – will be unable to vote because they are shielding or self-isolating and they can no longer vote online.
Tomorrow the Govt wants 650 MPs to stand in a giant queue to vote on how the Commons makes decisions from now on. As somebody in the 'vulnerable' category, I am unable to join them.
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) June 1, 2020
I am furious that for the first time in my 25 years as an MP I am being denied the right to vote!
It is expected that hundreds of politicians will have to form a kilometre-long queue stretching all the way through parliament, dubbed “the Rees-Mogg conga” after the Commons leader whose motion has prompted this spectacle.
The Commons leader Lindsay Hoyle wrote to MPs last night (email here) to say they must “ration” their time in the debating chamber as only 50 of them will be allowed in at any one time.
The 90-minute debate on the new voting system begins at 1.30pm, with socially distanced voting expected to begin about 3pm.
Updated
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AI firm that worked with Vote Leave wins new coronavirus contract
Here’s a big new story by my colleagues David Pegg and Rob Evans:
An artificial intelligence firm hired to work on the Vote Leave campaign may analyse social media data, utility bills and credit rating scores as part of a £400,000 contract to help the government deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
The company, Faculty, was awarded the contract by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government last month. However, the full details of its work for the government are unknown because the published version of the contract was partly redacted.
The disclosure comes amid questions from civil liberties groups as to how private companies hired by the government during the pandemic are using confidential personal data.
Dominic Cummings, the chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign and now chief adviser to Boris Johnson, recruited one of Faculty’s data scientists, Ben Warner, to work with him in Downing Street. In April we revealed that both Cummings and Warner had been attending meetings of Sage, the government’s committee of scientific advisers. It subsequently emerged that Marc Warner, the brother of Ben and the chief executive of Faculty, has also attended.
Read the full story here.
Updated
Deaths in care of people with learning disabilities more than doubles
The number of people with learning disabilities dying in care has more than doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new figures.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), the health and social care regulator, said it had found a 134% increase in the number of these deaths compared with last year.
It found that between 10 April and 15 May, 386 people with a learning disability died in care compared with 165 in the same period last year. Of the 386 people who died this year, 206 were as a result of suspected and/or confirmed Covid-19 and 180 were not related to the virus.
We've published data on deaths of people with a learning disability, showing a 134% increase in the number of notifications
— Care Quality Commission - gov.uk/coronavirus (@CareQualityComm) June 2, 2020
This new data should be considered when decisions are being made about the prioritisation of testing at a national and local levelhttps://t.co/pjCMVF8LJB pic.twitter.com/rjtHbVi83f
Kate Terroni, the CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care, said that while the data had limitations it showed a “significant increase” in deaths of people with a learning disability as a result of Covid-19.
She added:
Every death in today’s figures represents an individual tragedy for those who have lost a loved one. We already know that people with a learning disability are at an increased risk of respiratory illnesses, meaning that access to testing could be key to reducing infection and saving lives.
These figures also show that the impact on this group of people is being felt at a younger age range than in the wider population – something that should be considered in decisions on testing of people of working age with a learning disability.
Updated
Former transport minister Stephen Hammond has continued to call for the plan to quarantine all people arriving from outside the UK to be scrapped.
Hammond said a “blanket set of measures” for a 14-day quarantine would not work. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that a more targeted set of measures was needed, such as so-called “air bridges” permitting travel between two countries.
He said tourists could also be required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) on flights and undergo temperature checks at each end of their journey.
The release of an official report into the disproportionate number of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds dying from coronavirus has been delayed, it emerged last night.
The Public Health England review was announced in early May after early data showed that 35% of almost 2,000 patients in intensive care units were black or from another minority ethnic backgrounds, despite BAME people making up only 14% of the population, according to the last census.
On Monday night, Sky News cited unnamed sources in saying that the publication of the report had been delayed because of “worries” about releasing it in “close proximity to the current situation in America” – a reference to the huge demonstrations that have followed the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The Department for Health and Social Care said it was “not true” that the report had been delayed due to “global events” and said it would be passed to ministers for their consideration today before being published later this week.
However, Marsha de Cordova, the shadow women and equalities secretary, said:
It is unacceptable that this review should be delayed without a given date for its publication. BAME communities need answers.
Updated
The day ahead
Here’s what we’ve got coming up today:
9.30am ONS coronavirus-related deaths figures
10am Prof Neil Ferguson gives evidence to Lords science committee
10.30am Cabinet
11.30pm There will be quite the spectacle in parliament as MPs vote in person to end virtual voting.
12.30pm First minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to host the Scottish government’s daily briefing.
2.30pm Commons justice committee hears impact of Covid-19 on prisons, probation and court services
5pm daily No 10 press conference.
Updated
Government's quarantine plans under fire as MPs return to Westminster
Good morning and welcome to Tuesday’s UK liveblog on the coronavirus pandemic.
Leading the news today is confusion and concern about the government’s plans for a 14-day quarantine period for those entering the UK from abroad.
We revealed overnight that visitors would be able to go food shopping, change accommodation and use public transport under draft plans due to be laid before parliament.
The rules, which are due to be published later today, have prompted cross-party concern about the potentially severe impact on the travel and aviation industry and their relatively limited impact on public health. We’ll have more on that later.
Also today, MPs are returning to parliament to vote on a government motion that means they have to be physically present in Westminster to debate and vote.
The government wants to get back to normal proceedings as soon as possible, saying the virtual voting system has been too restrictive. But many MPs say it is unfair to force those who are shielding or self-isolating to physically return to the Commons and it could threaten the lives of staff.
Stay with us for breaking news on all the day’s main developments.
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