Early evening summary
- Boris Johnson insisted no child would go hungry this winter due to “inattention” by his government as his government tried to quieten an ongoing backlash over its refusal to extend food aid over the school holidays. Amid increasing anger from Tory MPs forced to vote down Labour’s motion last week, the Times (paywall) reported that Downing Street figures have begun a partial climbdown from their stance against Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign and are planning to increase funding for the poorest families during the Christmas holidays. However, throughout the day, ministers continued to defend the government’s provision of welfare during the pandemic, despite pressure from local governments (including several Tory-run councils) that resources were stretched and more direct action from central government was needed.
- It came on the first day of the October half-term, which saw hospitality businesses, local authorities and charities step in to provide free meals for disadvantaged children in their communities. The prime minister also confirmed he had not spoken to Rashford since the U-turn on free school meals during the summer.
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Warrington will move into tier 3 restrictions at midnight tonight amid rising infection rates, the government confirmed. Pubs and bars will close unless they can operate as a restaurant and people will be largely banned from mixing with anybody outside their household or support bubble. Betting shops, adult gaming centres, casinos and soft play centres will also close. The council will receive a financial support package of £1.68m to help contact tracing and enforcement as well as £4.2m in business support from the government.
- The Welsh government discussed its ban on the sale of non-essential items in supermarkets with companies, after it was heavily criticised over the weekend for creating confusion among retailers over what is considered “essential”, in a bid to ensure greater clarity in how the rules are applied.
- It comes as Tesco apologised after a store in Wales wrongly told a customer she couldn’t buy period products due to the government’s firebreak guidance on non-essential items. The Welsh health minister, Vaughan Gething, said he was “saddened” to hear of the incident and the Welsh government moved quickly to correct the supermarket, highlighting that hygiene products are essential items.
- Boots is to roll out a new coronavirus testing service it says can return results from swab tests in just 12 minutes over the next few weeks. The price will be £120 a test.
That’s it from me for today! Thank you so much for reading along and to everybody who got in touch to share tips throughout the day. To continue following our coronavirus coverage, head over to the global live blog.
Rotherham hospital reported higher numbers of Covid positive inpatients on Monday than at the height of the first wave.
A spokesman for the Rotherham NHS foundation trust said:
As of 8am this morning, we had 96 patients in Rotherham hospital who have tested positive for Covid-19, of these six were in critical care.
To date, we have provided care for a total of 884 patients who have tested positive for the virus.
During the initial peak, the highest number of Covid-positive inpatients at any one time was 78.
Updated
In Breightmet, an area of Bolton in Greater Manchester, volunteers at a community outreach group were loading up cars with bags full of ingredients for disadvantaged families to make packed lunches with during half-term.
Set up by Dorothy Foster, 69, and Jean Barrass, 52, seven years ago, Reach Family Project would usually be helping families in the area with things like money management skills, after a referral from schools or social services.
But the team of five headed out to deliver 50 free school meals packs – including bread, cheese, crisps, bananas, pasta and beans – which will benefit 250 people, off the back of Marcus Rashford’s campaign.
“We only made the decision on Friday as a result of the government’s decision [to vote down the extension of free school meals during school holidays],” said Barrass, a former safeguarding lead at a primary school.
It’s been non-stop this weekend.
The effort was being run from volunteer Angela Barry’s house, which is situated in the former “red wall” seat of Bolton North East, where Mark Logan is the Conservative MP. On Wednesday, Logan voted against Labour’s motion to extend the provision of free school meals during holidays until Easter 2021.
Barry, 33, said the group were trying to stay “unpolitical” about the subject, and “that it was too early to judge if [the government] was right or wrong”. Barrass, who said she struggled financially after being widowed at 37 with two young children, said the decision had made her “blood boil”, adding:
These are children, these are the future of our generation. [MPs] get everything they want on expenses. Their expenses cover the cost of hundreds and hundreds of meals.
The government grants that usually fund the group’s work did not cover the cost of the demand they have received since posting about the free school meals, so Reach has set up a GoFundMe page instead.
But Phil Hart, 59, who became one of the group’s trustees after a 40-year career in banking, said the “generosity” of the public and local businesses alone “is probably not enough” to feed children throughout school holidays.
It shouldn’t be political. I’ve never gone to bed hungry so why should anybody else. We’re the fourth richest nation in the world, this shouldn’t be happening.
Updated
Warrington will move to tier 3 at midnight, government confirms
The UK government has confirmed that Warrington will move to the highest tier of coronavirus restrictions from 00:01 on Tuesday.
The tier 3 rules mean pubs and bars will close unless they can operate as a restaurant and people are largely banned from mixing with anybody outside their household or support bubble.
Betting shops, adult gaming centres, casinos and soft play centres will also close.
The council will receive a financial support package of £1.68m to help contact tracing and enforcement as well as £4.2m in business support from the government.
The health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, said:
Infection rates are rising in Warrington, and we have agreed with local leaders that it’s time to take action.
I know that these new measures will mean sacrifices must be made by the people in Warrington, and I want to extend my thanks to each and every one of them for recognising the severity of the situation and sticking to the rules.
We have agreed a support package designed to help businesses while boosting efforts to control the virus locally, and will not hesitate to take similar action in any area of the country if infection rates continue to rise. Please remember - now is the time for us all to work together to get this virus under control.
Updated
My colleague Aamna Mohdin has spent the day at Hillingdon foodbank, which supports families in the prime minister Boris Johnson’s constituency. They saw a record number of donations over the weekend off the back of Marcus Rashford’s campaign. Here is her report.
The volunteers at Hillingdon Crisis Support Service in north-west London haven’t had much sleep this weekend. The team of 10 have been working around the clock to get a week’s worth of lunches ready for children over half-term.
The widespread anger at the government’s decision to refuse to provide 1.4 million disadvantaged children in England with £15 a week in food vouchers during holidays is particularly acute here: many of the families being supported by the centre live in prime minister Boris Johnson’s constituency.
“Where is Boris?” 55-year-old Kim Brigdale, the food bank manger asked.
Have you seen any of them in a food bank? Can you see any of them trying to sort out free school meals for the kids?
She points to receipts posted on the fridge for goods that the team of volunteers have bought with their own money.
Where’s the government?
Though Marcus Rashford’s attempt to get the government to provide meals for the poorest children was defeated in the Commons last week, local charities and businesses have rallied behind his campaign and offered to help. Several local councils, including Hillingdon council, announced they would be stepping in to ensure children don’t go hungry. But there was widespread frustration that it has come to this.
Over the weekend, the Hillingdon Crisis Support Service had a record number of donations to provide children with free lunch meals following a call for help posted on Facebook.
One brown bag has five days’ worth of the government recommended lunches for a single child. It contains half a loaf of bread; the option of jam, chocolate spread or ham; cheese; 100g pasta with sauce; two packets of biscuits; one jelly; two french fries; three types of fruit; and two yoghurts. There is a vegan and gluten free option. Each bag costs around £4, which a volunteer pointed out is a fraction of the cost of what MPs’ can expense on food a day.
For co-founder Joanna Murphy, food poverty is an issue she personally understands. When her partner was unable to work after an accident, she was forced to go to a local food bank to feed her children. She said the experience was so horrible, she left crying. She vowed to create a welcoming, non-judgmental space for the families who slip through the crack.
If we don’t look after each other, these children are not going to be fed, there are going to be parents that feel like they’re failures.
She described Johnson as the opposite of Robin Hood.
He takes away from the people when he is supposed to work for the people. He is supposed to better this nation.
In the early afternoon, community champions from the supermarket Morrisons responded to the Facebook callout with 30 lunches that they would deliver every day this week. The centre was delighted. Murphy said:
He’s [Johnson] not doing his job for the people. We are doing his job as communities, businesses, and volunteers.
Throughout the day, families turned up to pick up the free school meal bags, including a 16-year-old who picked up lunches for himself and his sibling.
Gemma Pugh, a 26-year-old mother of three, said Murphy and the centre provided an essential service, giving them food, blankets, and pillows for her family. She is deeply frustrated by the vote against providing free school meals.
How much does it cost to give a child a school meal? It’s a couple of pound a child and he [Johnson] can’t provide it, but he can provide these high pays for other people, but forget about the children that will be the next generation that is coming up in society. If we don’t provide for them, then what is going to be left in this world?
You can donate to the centre’s emergency appeal via its JustGiving page.
Updated
The defence secretary Ben Wallace insisted the UK government had been “incredibly generous” during the pandemic.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme:
People have access to universal credit and in response to this issue of Covid, we’ve increased that by over £1,000 a year. At the same time we’ve given local authorities £63m in England and Wales to be able to focus specifically on families in need.
He added:
The government will always look at cases as they come in front of them, that is part of the function of the government, which is to problem-solve as we see something.
If there is still need or if this Covid crisis continues to kick in and more lockdowns happen, of course the government will look at other alternatives, or other solutions. We’re not going to sit there in a static environment.
He went on:
Overall this government has been, from everything from business rate relief, to wages subsidies, to increase in benefits, has been incredibly generous with tax receipts to make sure we get through this crisis.
I don’t think anyone can say - our schemes are some of the most generous in Europe - and I think as a result people will understand that we’re always trying to make sure that when we help, we help those most in need, but at the same time balance the other requirements of the economy and indeed of public spending.
Updated
The debate over the government’s provision of free school meals during the holidays sounds like it is from Victorian times, according to George The Poet.
The spoken word artist, whose real name is George Mpanga, added that it is “weird” the cause had to be taken up by footballer Marcus Rashford before it became an issue that is widely discussed.
The Manchester United player has been campaigning for pupils who normally receive free meals during term time to be fed for no charge during school holidays.
Mpanga told the PA news agency:
It’s weird that we are having conversations that sound like they are from the Victorian era in 2020.
It is weird that Marcus Rashford, as much as I love and respect what he’s about and what he’s chosen to represent, it is weird that it falls on his shoulders, or he’s had to take up the mantle.
The Liberal Democrats have said the prime minister’s promises about feeding children through the winter (see 12.22pm.) do “not ring true”. The party’s education spokeswoman Daisy Cooper MP said:
Boris Johnson’s claim does not ring true given his hard-hearted refusal to U-turn on free school meals.
The idea that other measures will make up for the lack of provision just won’t wash - people know the real struggles that families are enduring.
That is why so many communities and businesses have stepped in to provide support while this callous government stands by.
The Liberal Democrats want to see a firm commitment from the Conservatives not only to extending free school meals through holiday periods, but also expanding eligibility to ensure any child from a family receiving universal credit can access this lifeline.
Updated
There have been a further 1,158 cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 43,839. Public Health Wales said six further deaths had been reported, with the total rising to 1,783.
The Conservative MP Danny Kruger, who voted against the extension of the free schools meal scheme, has just spoken on Sky News.
“We’re all in agreement that we’ve got to stop children going hungry this half-term and through holidays, but the question is how best to do that,” he says. “For years everybody who’s worked with children and young people and the disadvantaged as I have and the Labour party have agreed that supermarket vouchers are the wrong way to do that.”
He argues that vouchers are stigmatising and that cash is more helpful for those who need money in their pocket, while other families need more support and human contact.
Kruger is challenged about councils where allocated money has already run out because they were told to spend it in 12 weeks. “There’s a lot of money that they get that’s un-ringfenced,” he says. “Money is tight ... hundreds of billions of pounds are being spent to shore up the economy and put money into people’s pockets.”
He accuses Labour of being “quite cynical” and “jumping on a bandwagon” to back a policy he claims they previously opposed. The thrust of his argument is that local support is more useful than a centralised system - but he is unable to point to any new money available for hungry children.
He does acknowledge that the government has “definitely lost” the debate that Marcus Rashford started and “been slow to get our argument over”. He adds: “I think we have a lot of explaining to do about why our approach is the right one.”
I’m handing back to Lucy Campbell now.
Updated
NHS England has published its latest figures on the number of deaths in hospitals in England. It says that 91 more people have died, bringing the total reported in hospitals there to 21,910.
The patients were aged between 44 and 95. All had known underlying health conditions.
The deaths were between 24 September and 25 October, with the majority being on or after 23 October. Three other deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
Updated
NHS must take over test and trace, scientists warn
Leading scientists have called for an urgent change in control of the UK’s struggling test and trace system warning it will fail to prevent a third wave of infection unless it is taken over by the NHS.
Independent Sage, a group of scientists set up to scrutinise the government’s coronavirus response, said the £12bn system should be removed from the control of Dido Harding and the private companies Deloitte and Serco. They want laboratories to be taken over by the NHS and tracing to be run by local directors of public health with the money currently going into private contracts redirected.
It follows a call at the weekend by the leading Conservative backbencher Bernard Jenkin for Harding to quit after last week’s test and trace data showed its performance was getting worse not better. Less than 60% of close contacts are being reached, while test turnaround times rose to nearly 48 hours.
The government’s own scientific advisers warned last month the system was having only “a marginal impact on transmission”. Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said on Thursday rising caseloads are “diminishing its effectiveness”.
“We argue strongly now is the time to come up with a structure that allows test and trace to be assimilated into the existing [health] infrastructure,” said Deenan Pillay, professor of virology at University College London and a leading member of Independent Sage. “This is important because when infections come down, that is the time we need really well-functioning test and trace to prevent further lockdowns and surges”.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said on Monday that he “continues to have full confidence in Dido Harding”.
“NHS test and trace has built a testing capacity of over 360,000-a-day from a starting point of 2,000-a-day in March – that is a bigger figure per head than in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. 1.1 million have been contacted and told to self-isolate,” they said. “But as you’ve also heard the prime minister say, the system does need to improve especially in terms of the turnaround times for tests and we expect that to happen.”
Updated
My colleague Mattha Busby has interviewed frontline workers about their experiences of the pandemic.
An intensive care nurse in central London says:
The first time round there was a sense of we’re all in this, let’s sort it out, but now there’s a sense of real frustration. It’s very difficult to maintain the same level of working and motivation as before, and NHS staff across the capital are increasingly exhibiting PTSD symptoms.
And this is from a paramedic in the north-west:
The demand for ambulances for patients with a variety of conditions is worse than at the peak of the pandemic. Staff are exhausted, we’ve not had the opportunity to stop and hospitals are filling up. Back in March and April, we had additional support from students and medical professionals in administrative roles – along with extra vehicles, but none of this is available any more, and we have people going off sick. PPE is still not the best, it’s nothing more than what you see people wearing to make a bacon sandwich.
You can read the full piece here:
This is Archie Bland, covering UK coronavirus live for the next hour.
Labour’s Kate Green has issued a statement on the free school meals row:
Warm words from Boris Johnson will do nothing for the over 1.4 million children at risk of going hungry this half term that he and his MPs refused to help last week.
Labour will not give up on the children and families let down by this government and we will hold the prime minister to his word, forcing another vote in parliament if necessary.
The government must now make children a national priority, and ensure that no child goes hungry.
Updated
The UK government’s own advisory committee on social mobility has backed Marcus Rashford’s campaign on free school meals.
The Social Mobility Commission urged the government to extend free school meals during school holidays until Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.
A commission spokesman said:
We know that the current pandemic is having its greatest impact on the poorest regions in Britain where people are already struggling to afford food for their families.
Our recent report - The Long Shadow of Deprivation - identified some of the ‘coldest’ social mobility spots in the country and many of these are now in the higher tiers of Covid restrictions.
Our earlier research this year showed that 600,000 more children are in poverty than in 2012.
We believe the government should do all it can to start reversing that trend. It should begin by ensuring that all children are properly fed.
But it needs to go much further. We now need a much more ambitious programme to combat child poverty.
In this Guardian video, Boris Johnson claims that no child will go hungry this winter and says he “salutes” Marcus Rashford. The prime minister defended the government’s position saying that councils had been given extra cash and universal credit had increased.
A petition demanding an end to “subsidised” meals for MPs on the parliamentary estate has attracted more than 900,000 signatures.
It comes after the government whipped MPs to vote against extending food aid for children from low-income backgrounds during school holidays until Easter 2021. The vote followed a campaign by Marcus Rashford.
I’m grateful to reader Lilian for flagging this.
Updated
Wales’s health minister, Vaughan Gething, has said supermarkets have discretion to sell non-essential items to customers “in genuine need” during the firebreak lockdown.
Welsh government ministers were meeting retailers on Monday afternoon to review the regulations and guidance and ensure “that it is being applied fairly and consistently”, he said.
If there are anomalies, we will look at whether the guidance needs to be revised or strengthened to make it clear that supermarkets have some discretion to sell to people who are in genuine need.
Gething said public health advice about the effectiveness of the firebreak would have to be “revisited” if non-essential retail was opened.
If we want to unravel that now we’ll be in a very different place, a less effective measure, and that’s not what this government is going to do.
It comes amid confusion and controversy over the ban on supermarkets selling certain items. Earlier today, Tesco had to apologise after a customer in one of its Welsh stores was told that period products were not essential items.
About 60,000 people have signed a petition to the Welsh parliament calling for the ban to be reversed immediately, and the policy is now under review.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon has said she has “no plans” to reduce the two-week self-isolation period in Scotland.
The first minister was asked about reports that the UK government was considering reducing the length of time people with coronavirus symptoms or close contacts of people who test positive should isolate.
We have no plans at the moment to reduce the period of self-isolation. We keep all of this under review; we don’t want people to live under the most severe restrictions for longer than is absolutely necessary.
Scotland’s national clinical director, Jason Leitch, said he was not aware of any scientific advice in any part of the UK that would support a reduction from the current 14-day period, or 10 days from the date a person’s symptoms end.
We have no plans with the present clinical advice to change that in any way. As far as I know, there is no clinical advice in the other three UK countries.
There’s no present plan, but we keep it under constant review globally and locally and if we think the incubation period has changed or we think the risk has changed in some way, then we will of course advise appropriately. But for now, I’m afraid it’s still a 14-day self-isolation.
Updated
Andrew RT Davies, the Conservative shadow Welsh health minister, said the ban on supermarkets in Wales selling non-essential items during the country’s firebreak lockdown “must be dropped today”.
Davies said the “chaos and confusion” of a woman incorrectly being told she could not buy sanitary products at a supermarket was a direct result of the ban.
This ludicrous policy has caused real anger and it’s not fair on staff working in our supermarkets and the general Welsh public who are now at their wits’ end with Labour ministers.
The Welsh Labour government has rushed out a policy that was not even understood by the country’s largest supermarket and that’s the fault of the first minister and his colleagues.
Updated
Welsh health minister 'saddened' after period products barred from sale
Wales’s health minister, Vaughan Gething, has said he was “saddened” to hear of an incident in which a woman was incorrectly told she could not buy sanitary products at a Tesco store due to the firebreak lockdown (see 11.23am.).
Tesco has apologised over the error and said an aisle selling sanitary items at one of its stores was temporarily closed due to a break-in.
Gething told a press conference in Cardiff:
I was very saddened to see this particular exchange on social media this morning from a supermarket telling a woman she could not buy period products. This is simply wrong.
It’s an incorrect reading of the regulations and the guidance. I am very sorry that this woman was given this information.
Supermarkets are open and trading as are many other shops and are able to sell the wide range of everyday items that we all need.
But there are some other items that won’t be on sale for the next two weeks. These are items that other high street shops, which are currently closed, can’t sell at the moment.
Updated
Updated
Speaking at her daily press briefing, Nicola Sturgeon has said details of what lockdown level will apply to different parts of Scotland will be announced ahead of a coronavirus debate in the Scottish parliament on Tuesday.
The first minister announced last week that a new five-level approach would be introduced across the country from 2 November and the level will depend on the spread of Covid-19 in local authority areas.
She explained that areas in the central belt which are currently subject to stricter local restrictions are likely to be classified as level three, while other areas may be equivalent to level two.
Sturgeon said a “sustained” fall of virus transmission will be needed for an area to move down tiers.
The best way of moving to a lower level of restrictions and of living more freely is to have a lower level of transmission of the virus. The best way we have of driving transmission lower and keeping it low is for all of us to stick to the rules that are in place at any given time. And that, of course, is a collective responsibility for all of us.
Updated
Johnson insists no child will go hungry as he faces free school meals backlash
Boris Johnson insisted that no children would go hungry due to “inattention” by his government as he faced a backlash over the refusal to provide free school meals in England over half-term.
The prime minister hinted at extra support, promising to do “everything in our power” to tackle holiday hunger over the winter and the upcoming Christmas break.
Dozens of organisations, including Conservative-led councils, have stepped in to help, but Johnson insisted government support to local authorities and charities had helped.
A petition from footballer Marcus Rashford has attracted almost 900,000 signatures, piling pressure on the government to act.
Johnson praised Rashford’s work as “terrific” but confirmed he had not spoken to him since June. Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Reading, Johnson said:
We don’t want to see children going hungry this winter, this Christmas, certainly not as a result of any inattention by this government - and you are not going to see that.
He added that councils had been given extra cash and universal credit had increased.
We will do everything in our power to make sure that no kid, no child goes hungry this winter during the holidays, that’s obviously something we care about very much.
We support the local councils - indeed we fund the local councils and many of the organisations that are helping in this period - but we are also uplifting Universal Credit by £1,000 and we think that is one of the best ways you can help families in this tough time.
I totally understand the issue of holiday hunger, it is there, we have to deal with it. The debate is how do you deal with it. We are very proud of the support we have given, I have said repeatedly throughout this crisis that the government will support families and businesses, jobs and livelihoods, across the country. We’re going to continue to do that.
Updated
More areas face tier 3 restrictions this week as Hancock sets out exit strategy
Hundreds of thousands more people are expected to be placed under the toughest coronavirus restrictions this week as ministers opened up on how areas could exit their lockdown measures.
Parts of Nottinghamshire look set to be the next to enter the highest tier 3 alert level in England after discussions carried on through the weekend. Local politicians have indicated that they expect the new measures could come into force as early as Wednesday.
The council in Warrington in Cheshire has already said it will be joining tier 3 on Thursday, with Downing Street saying discussions are still “ongoing”.
It comes as the health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said areas would have to prove that their infection rate was “coming down”, especially among those aged 60 or over, before they could be removed from the strictest measures.
He has also refused to rule out bringing in a tougher set of tier 4 impositions following reports another level is being considered to tackle England’s rise in infections.
Over the weekend, South Yorkshire became the latest region to come under the highest tier of controls following Liverpool city region, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.
Asked about the criteria for an area to exit tier 3, Hancock told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
The first thing that’s most important is that the case rate has to be coming down, and in particular we look at the number of cases amongst the over-60s because that’s the number that is likely to translate into hospital admissions and sadly into deaths.
This is from my colleague Aaman Mohdin, who is at Hillingdon foodbank in the prime minister’s constituency, which reported a record number of donations over the weekend following Marcus Rashford’s campaign on free school meals.
At Hillingdon Food Crisis Support Centre, which supports families in Boris Johnson’s constituency. There was record number of donations on the back of @MarcusRashford campaign this weekend. Anger about FSM vote is palpable, with several people asking: “Where is Boris? pic.twitter.com/KD6HhjiPR0
— Aamna Mohdin (@aamnamohdin) October 26, 2020
Updated
Tesco apologises after Welsh store bars sale of period products
The Welsh government has tweeted a clarification on its firebreak guidance on the sale of non-essential items in supermarkets after a Tesco store had to apologise for barring the sale of period products.
On Sunday, the first minister Mark Drakeford said supermarkets have “discretion” over the ban on selling non-essential items during the nation’s firebreak lockdown. But customers seeking period products in St Mellons, Cardiff, said they found the pharmaceuticals area of their local Tesco blocked off.
I’m literally Raging & in tears 😢🤯😡 @Tesco how the hell is beer essential and PERIOD PRODUCTS are Non essential 😡!!!! @WelshGovernment this is RIDICULOUS #walesinlockdown #coronavirus @piersmorgan pic.twitter.com/3ZK8pPsD92
— Nichola-Louise 💞🏴💞 (@nicholasmith6) October 26, 2020
In a now-deleted tweet, a response from the Tesco Twitter account mistakenly suggested to another customer, who claimed they were told they couldn’t buy the items at a store, that this was in line with the guidelines. It read:
We understand how frustrating these changes will be for our Welsh customers. However, we have been told by the Welsh government not to sell these items for the duration of the firebreak lockdown.
As the tweet garnered attention, the health minister Vaughan Gething and the Welsh government both acted to correct Tesco, stating that this was not and had never been the case. It clarified that hygiene products are essential and that supermarkets can still sell items that can be sold in pharmacies.
This is wrong - period products are essential.
— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) October 26, 2020
Supermarkets can still sell items that can be sold in pharmacies.
Only selling essential items during firebreak is to discourage spending more time than necessary in shops. It should not stop you accessing items that you need. https://t.co/kIo5l5z2Zc
It’s not true @susannareid100 - the rules never prevented period products being sold and @Tesco have deleted their tweet. https://t.co/XNaxyGZ20S
— Vaughan Gething MS (@vaughangething) October 26, 2020
Tesco has now apologised, adding that the issue was localised to one store and is being urgently rectified. A spokesperson said:
Of course sanitary products are essential items and are available to customers in all of our stores including those in Wales. The reply to this customer was sent by mistake and we’re very sorry for any confusion caused.
The Welsh government is due to discuss the ban with supermarkets today, after it was heavily criticised over the weekend, in a bid to ensure greater clarity in how the rules are applied.
The new restrictions, which began at 6pm on Friday and will end on 9 November, halted the sale of items including clothing, toys, books and electronics in supermarkets, to limit the amount of time individuals spend in-store, which has created confusion for retailers over what can and can’t be sold.
I’m grateful to my colleague Elena Morresi for flagging this.
Updated
Gething added that allowing non-essential retail to open during the country’s two-week firebreak lockdown would “undermine the point” of the restrictions.
“We’re having a really difficult stay-at-home period to make sure more people are alive,” Gething told Sky News.
If we decided that larger retailers could carry on selling those items, we know we’d have the situation that Ireland faces right now, where smaller retailers are significantly unhappy and calling for action to be taken.
If we then allow all non-essential retail to open then we’ll undermine the point and the purpose of a package of measures to help save people’s lives.
He said many retailers had online shops which people could buy non-essential items from during the lockdown.
Wales’s health minister, Vaughan Gething, has said that supermarkets in the country can sell non-essential items during the firebreak lockdown in “exceptional circumstances”.
The Welsh government is due to discuss the ban, which has been heavily criticised over the weekend, with supermarkets today.
“We’re looking to have that clarity so you don’t see cards, for example, sealed up in one shop but available in another,” Gething told Sky News.
We want the clarity on the principle that if there really are exceptional circumstances when someone needs what would otherwise be a non-essential item, that can happen as well. We want that clarity because this potentially overshadows the much bigger issue of having a firebreak to save people’s lives.
On Sunday, the first minister, Mark Drakeford, had said supermarkets would have discretion over the ban on selling non-essential items.
He told ITV Wales News:
I won’t need, I don’t think, to buy clothing over this two weeks and I think many, many people in Wales will be in that position too.
For me it won’t be essential, but I recognise that there will be some people who for entirely unexpected reasons which they couldn’t have foreseen will need to buy items.
In those circumstances where those welfare reasons are at stake, we will make sure that our supermarkets understand they have the discretion to apply the rules differently.
The initial guidance said certain sections of supermarkets must be “cordoned off or emptied, and closed to the public” during the two-week lockdown.
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John Swinney, Scotland’s education secretary, has warned it is “a realistic possibility” students may be barred from going home for Christmas if Covid-19 rates remain high, or instead face a staggered departure during December.
Swinney told BBC Radio Scotland the Scottish government was in talks with other UK governments and the universities sector about a phased return home before Christmas and much more online learning in January, to ensure students could go back to university in stages.
But there is no guarantee students would be allowed home at all, he said.
There’s a risk, if the virus is not contained, we may not be able to support the return of students to their homes. We want to avoid that but it’s a realistic possibility.
If students are allowed home for Christmas, governments wanted to avoid a mass exodus from universities in December, and a mass return in January.
We may have to look at students leaving campus over a phased period towards the end of term, rather than getting to one particular moment where there’s an exodus of people wanting to go home. And equally we have to look at January, at how students return.
In January, many students may be asked to work from home, he went on.
We’re certainly envisaging and talking to institutions that there may be a tilt in that balance to enable there may be more online learning for a longer period of time to essentially vary the return of students over a longer period of time.
Swinney also urged parents not to allow children out guising, or trick or treating, at Halloween and asked people not to leave bags of sweets on doorsteps to allow socially-distanced guising. Children should dress up and do their jokes at home.
The interaction of humans is how the virus is spread and it can also be spread by the touching of items like bags of sweeties. So quite conceivably, without anyone knowing that they were doing any harm to anybody else, somebody could give a child an assembled bag of sweeties, those bags could be the purveyors of coronavirus.
I don’t want to see that happening in our society, which is why we’re giving the advice we’re giving to people.
The former children’s minister and Tory MP Tim Loughton called on the government to extend free school meals through half term, and “probably” into the Christmas holidays.
He told BBC 5 live this morning:
It’s not a matter of a U-turn. The government has given unprecedented amounts of money during the pandemic. The total bill is now over £215bn, of which a large amount is on welfare measures, not least a 20 extra on Universal Credit which is really, really welcome.
Let’s just do it over half term and probably into Christmas and that would continue doing a lot of good. I think it’s just so much easier, it’s a simple and effective method that you carry on free schools meals.
The East Worthing and Shoreham MP added that there is a “concern” in government that the funding would be open-ended and added that he does want it to become a “permanent commitment”.
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The health and social care secretary’s inference this morning that English councils are expected to use their share of the £63m Covid hardship fund to fill the gap for free school meals prompted surprise in some local authorities, Peter Walker reports.
The sum is also intended to help disadvantaged people with needs such as heating. Councils say they have faced a cumulative £8bn in costs and lost income due to coronavirus, which has not been fully met by central government.
The Conservative leader of Warwickshire county council, Izzi Seccombe, said her share of the £63m fund had already been spent, and that provision for free lunches over half-term and Christmas was being funded by the council.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It’s tight. We are going to be funding it ourselves now because there isn’t money in there to support it, so we will be trying to find it from other sources.
I think the main thing for us is what we don’t want is people within Warwickshire feeling anxious, feeling worried and children going hungry during this half-term period. We have a scheme, we can support it - well we’ll find means of supporting it - and for that it will help people to get over this particular week. It’s all about priorities isn’t it... we think it is a priority for us.
And this is from the BBC’s Nick Eardley last night.
"The resources to provide it will be stretched"
— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) October 25, 2020
Izzi Seccombe, Tory leader of Warwickshire council, tells @BBCNews funds from Govt won't be enough on their own to pay for free meals over holidays. Rest of the money will come from council coffers.
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Thousands of free meals will be provided to children by businesses, local authorities and community groups across England, including Conservative-run councils, on the first day of half term as the government faces a damaging revolt on the issue (see 9.44am.).
Dozens of people from a range of organisations have stepped in to help, with Matt Hancock hailing them as “absolutely wonderful” while insisting that millions has already been provided to councils to help their communities.
A petition from footballer Marcus Rashford, who has been spearheading demands for free meals to be extended in England over the school holidays, has passed 880,000 signatures, piling further pressure on the government to act.
Conservative-led Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council said it would be providing food parcels for families from Monday, tweeting:
No child should go hungry. From Monday, we’ll be providing food parcels for families struggling to access food this half term. We‘re standing up our #TogetherWeCan helpline with extra staff. Lines reopen Monday at 9am. Please call us for help. @marcusrashford #endchildfoodpoverty pic.twitter.com/DKZrvn5L9z
— BCP Council (@BCPCouncil) October 24, 2020
Announcing almost 3,300 youngsters would receive 15 vouchers from their schools to cover the cost of meals during the holiday, Kensington and Chelsea council, which is also Tory-run, said:
No kid should go hungry. We're supporting @MarcusRashford and providing pupils in the borough with free school meals over half term.
— Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (@RBKC) October 23, 2020
Almost 3,300 youngsters will receive £15 vouchers to cover the cost of meals.
More: https://t.co/wCyCjgGDNm#ENDCHILDFOODPOVERTY pic.twitter.com/DL7hqvAIer
Other Tory-controlled councils getting on board include Hillingdon, which is in Boris Johnson’s constituency, Medway and Wandsworth, with the latter approving a £10,000 food voucher scheme.
Councillors have agreed a Covid-19 half term food support package for vulnerable children from some the borough’s lowest income families to ensure their children don’t go hungry over the schools’ break https://t.co/1djXPtttON pic.twitter.com/kq3RuRlPc3
— Wandsworth Council (@wandbc) October 22, 2020
The prime minister is reportedly planning to increase funding for the poorest families over Christmas, a move seen as a partial climbdown by the government in its struggle with Rashford.
The Times (paywall) quoted allies of the PM as saying work was under way on providing additional support for eligible pupils outside term time. There was no immediate response to the reports from Downing Street.
It’s unclear if this will be enough to defuse the growing anger on the Tory benches as more MPs continued to speak out against the government’s handling of the issue.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer has sought to exploit the disarray in the Conservative ranks by confirming Labour would force another Commons vote on the issue if ministers do not relent in time for the Christmas holidays.
Labour will force another vote on free school meals if the Government does not change course before the Christmas break.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 25, 2020
It's not too late to do the right thing.
Senior Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin has warned the government had “misunderstood the mood of the country” and would probably have to think again. The former children’s minister Tim Loughton, who abstained in last week’s vote on the issue, said he would vote against the government if it came to the Commons again, while another ex-minister, Tobias Ellwood, expressed regret that he had supported the government last week.
The government comfortably defeated Labour’s motion calling for the extension of free meals during the holidays until Easter 2021 with a Commons majority of more than 60, with just five Tory MPs breaking ranks to vote with the opposition.
However, having already been forced to make one U-turn on the issue over the summer as a result of Rashford’s campaigning, ministers will be concerned at the prospect of another revolt when MPs return to Westminster following this week’s half-term recess.
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Boots is to offer a new coronavirus testing service it says can return results from swab tests in just 12 minutes.
The pharmacy chain said the LumiraDx devices, which are able to quickly process swab tests to give customers same-day results, will be rolled out in selected stores over the next few weeks.
The price will be £120 a test, which Boots said would make it one of the cheapest private Covid-19 tests available on the market. A spokesman for Boots said the price could drop depending on demand.
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Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Hancock said he understood the prime minister had responded to a letter from Marcus Rashford about the free school meals campaign.
There has been communication between the two, as far as I understand it. We have all seen what Marcus Rashford has done, and the way he has conducted himself in this campaign I think is absolutely exemplary. He is making an argument based on his personal experience for the benefit of people who really need that support.
Pressed on the response from No 10, Hancock added:
I’m not in charge of the prime minister’s correspondence - if there hasn’t been, I’m sure that that will be followed up.
Rashford, however, denied the claim that he had been in contact with the PM, tweeting:
Hmm, unless he’s referring to the call we had following the u-turn in June?... https://t.co/QSwmyETN7x
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) October 26, 2020
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Speaking to Sky News this morning, the health and social care secretary Matt Hancock said he agrees “very strongly” with “the purpose” of Marcus Rashford’s campaign, while insisting the government had provided enough support.
I think we’re all inspired by the way that he’s led that campaign. And the purpose is that no child should go hungry, and that’s right. The question is how we then fulfil that, and so I think that there is a need during this pandemic, and at all times, for the country to come together and to support people and that’s what we’re doing putting that investment in.
Hancock said the government has put a “huge” amount of extra investment to support people during the pandemic, and referred to “an extra 20 a week into universal credit”.
When it was put to him that councils - including Tory-run councils - businesses and charities were stepping in to say they will help with free meals for pupils shows that more direct action is needed, he responded:
I think that’s absolutely wonderful that companies have come forward and are playing their part and supporting people in these very difficult times.
I also think that it’s brilliant that the councils are coming forward, having been funded by central government - 63 million has gone to councils so that they can do exactly what you say, so that they can support people and make sure that everybody and every child gets the support that they need.
Hancock said “of course” he welcomes the support from councils “because that is the councils delivering with the funding that has been provided by central government”.
I saw yesterday that Marcus Rashford called for people to work together, for collaboration on this, and I strongly agree with that. It’s about making sure that we give everybody the best possible start in life in what are very difficult circumstances.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if urgent extra government measures are needed on free school meals, Hancock said:
We have put that 63 million into councils ... There’s constantly work ongoing with councils, especially given that their finances have been hard hit by the pandemic, to ensure that they can provide the services that they need to.
The extra money that has gone into councils, as I say, is for this - including for this purpose - so central government, councils and private companies are all playing a role in trying to support the goal that we all share, which is that no child should go hungry.
I think that working together with central government providing funding, which we’ve done, the councils often know on the ground how best to get to the children who need support most and people as individuals.
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'More cash' for poorest families as PM seeks to end school meals row
Good morning. Featuring on several front pages today is the Tory revolt Boris Johnson’s government is facing over the free school meals debacle. Several papers carry the story that the PM is planning to increase funding for the poorest families during the Christmas holidays, with his MPs growing angry at the damaging impact of his government’s refusal to climb down from his stance against Marcus Rashford’s campaign to extend free school meals during the October half-term.
The Times (paywall) reports that Downing Street figures have begun the partial climbdown after Johnson was urged to act by his ministers and amid the growing backlash from Tory MPs - including senior figures like Sir Bernard Jenkin - who were forced to vote against the extension of free school meals last week. It reports that George Eustice, the environment secretary, called at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting for the expansion of a £63 million scheme for the most vulnerable.
This morning, however, the health and social care secretary Matt Hancock insisted that the government does not need to extend free school meals beyond term times in England because local councils have been funded to support disadvantaged children instead. Defending the government’s stance, he said it had already provided “a huge amount of extra investment”.
I’ll be bringing you all the latest UK developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next eight hours. Please feel free, as always, to get in touch with me as I work, if you have a tip, story or personal experience to share - your thoughts are always welcome!
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
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