We’re now closing this live blog. This live blog is now closed. Head over to our global live blog for all the latest coronavirus updates from around the world:
Afternoon summary
- Sir Keir Starmer has said that local lockdowns could go on for “months and months and months” unless the government improves its test and trace system. (See 4.51pm.) The Labour leader was speaking to the Local Government Association after a PMQs at which he accused the government of withholding information from Leicester and other councils that would have helped them assess the seriousness of local coronavirus outbreaks. My Observer colleague Nick Cohen says one problem was the nature of the contract signed with the private company carrying out testing.
Just been talking to @leicesterliz who says Leicester not given virus info because Hancock signed testing contract with Deloitte and did not include the instruction to pass data on to the local authorities who could actually use it. https://t.co/6wbOFsgtV7
— Nick Cohen (@NickCohen4) July 1, 2020
The great @stellacreasy uncovered the failure. Not only do Deloitte not have to share info with local authorities. They don't even have to share it with Public Health Englandhttps://t.co/NfGItVJJid
— Nick Cohen (@NickCohen4) July 1, 2020
- Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, has rejected claims that Sinn Fein was to blame for social distancing rules being breached at a Republican funeral yesterday. (See 10.21am.) Arlene Foster, the first minister, has urged O’Neill to apologise for what happened. But giving evidence to her assembly scrutiny committee, O’Neill declined the invitation to apologise to anyone who might have contracted Covid-19 as a result of being among the crowds at the funeral. She said that in the things the organisers could control - such as the size of the cortege and the numbers inside the church - the regulations were observed. She went on:
I’m satisfied that my actions were within the regulations and the public health guidance - my actions I stand over.
I can only control what’s within my gift.
That’s all from me today.
But our coverage continues on the global coronavirus live blog.
Updated
Bradford Council has said it is “working hard” to prevent another lockdown as figures revealed it has one of the highest rates of Covid-19 infection in England.
As PA Media reports, latest data shows the West Yorkshire city has 69.4 cases per 100,000 population, the second highest in England behind Leicester with 140.2.
In a statement, council leader Susan Hinchcliff said:
We know that figures from Public Health England show Bradford with a high number of infections along with a number of other northern authorities, although we are some way behind Leicester. The number of people testing positive for the virus is still too high and we continue to work hard with all our partners to prevent infection spreading as no-one wants a second lockdown.
As we take more and more steps towards returning to a more normal life, it’s easy to believe that Covid-19 is less of a threat to our health and the health of our family and friends.
This is simply not the case. We urge all residents to continue to follow the guidelines around staying at home as much as possible, social distancing, washing hands frequently and ensuring that they self-isolate and get tested if they, or anyone in their household, develop any symptoms.
Starmer warns local lockdowns could go on 'for months and months and months' unless test and trace improved
Communities could face local coronavirus lockdowns lasting months unless the Government delivers an effective contact-tracing system, Sir Keir Starmer has warned. Speaking to the Local Government Association annual conference - taking place online - the Labour leader said there was a “massive problem” with the NHS Test and Trace programme. As PA Media reports, he said figures from the ONS suggested that three-quarters of the people infected by the virus were not being contacted by the system. He said:
If we don’t get to grips with it we could be in local lockdown situations for months and months and months. It is going to be the story of the summer if we are not careful.
Starmer also called for local councils to be given additional powers to ensure they were able to enforce local lockdown regulations.
If you need to close down a particular area at the moment, I don’t think local authorities have got the necessary powers to do it.
What we can’t have is a situation where statutory instruments or other bits of legislation have to be passed in a hurry in response to each outbreak. There is a huge amount of work to do there.
Starmer also said that with councils facing an estimated £10bn “black hole” in their finances as a result of the pandemic, local services would be slashed without additional support from central government. He said:
After a decade of cuts the coronavirus crisis and the Government’s inaction have created a perfect storm.
Councils are faced with much higher costs for key services such as social care and much lower revenues through falls in areas such as business rates.
It could mean further cuts to social care, fewer police officers. It could mean street lights going on later and going off earlier. It could mean libraries, gyms and community centres staying closed.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) Biostatistics Unit at Cambridge University, which is one of several groups producing R number (reproduction number) estimates for the government, has published its latest “nowcast and forecast”.
It says that R is probably below 1 in every region of England, that new infections are running at about 3,000 per day and that the number of deaths each day is likely to fall to between 35 and 70 by mid July.
The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. Jonathan Freedland and Sonia Sodha break down a chock-a-block week for the government and opposition. Patrick Wintour explains the latest spat in the Commonwealth and local councillors David Williams and James Lewis discuss local council finance pressures post-Covid.
Oldham, a former mill town in Greater Manchester, has been mooted as “the next Leicester” by various public health experts today.
But Sean Fielding, Oldham’s council leader, insists the district is “nowhere near” Leicester in terms of the number of positive Covid-cases. He said the council finally had a complete picture of where positive cases have been reported in Oldham and “it shows we are some considerable distance behind Leicester (with others above us).”
He added:
We can’t relax because it’s right that we are high, relatively speaking, but Leicester seems to be something of an outlier.
The Greater Manchester combined authority released its infection figures today, showing what while there had been 135 cases in Leicester per 100,000 people over the last seven days, with numbers increasing, in Greater Manchester there were 13.3 and falling.
Of the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester, Rochdale has the highest rate, with 28.8 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 27.8 in Oldham.
No 10 won't say for another week whether 24-hour test results target set for 1 July has been met
The government has not yet got an answer as to whether it met its target of returning the vast majority of coronavirus tests within 24 hours, as Boris Johnson promised would happen by the end of June. (See 10.13am.) In fact, we learned on the regular No 10 lobby media conference call, we won’t know for another week.
The first statistics on the number of tests completed within 24 hours will come out on Thursday as part of the weekly test and trace statistics, and will then be updated every week. However, this first batch will cover the period of 18-24 June. We will thus have to wait another seven days for the 30 June figure.
Asked whether even he knew if the target had been met, Johnson’s spokesman said: “I don’t, no.”
A sceptic might say that No 10 will at least have some idea, and if it looked like the 24-hour target had been reached, news would get out sooner. But time will tell.
At the science committee Prof Sir John Bell, regius professor of Medicine at Oxford University, says he thinks the figure from ONS surveys suggesting 70% of people infected with coronavirus don’t get symptoms is robust. That is why tackling Covid is so hard, he says; it is a largely asymptomatic disease.
He says that is why mass testing is so important.
He says “saturation testing” in hospitals should be an absolute requirement.
Back in the science committee Kate Bingham, chair of the government’s vaccine taskforce, tells MPs that Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine is ahead of any other in the world.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman defended the way coronavirus testing information had been shared with local authorities. He said:
Since April detailed local data has been shared by Public Health England with local areas. And since June 11 an operational data dashboard was made available by NHS Digital which includes counts of local tests, total positives and test and trace data - it’s to give local authorities a clear picture of the stats in their local area, it was provided to support directors of public health and councils.
Last week we started securely sharing postcode-level testing data with all local authorities including Leicester and that data is available to them at any time.
The UK has enough stocks of the drug remdesivir, the Department of Health has confirmed, after the US bought nearly all the manufacturing stock for the next three months. As PA Media reports, the Department of Health said it had secured supplies of remdesivir in advance and had enough to treat every NHS patient who needs it. It comes after the US Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) said it had secured more than 500,000 treatment courses of remdesivir for American hospitals.
But there have been no further deaths in Northern Ireland, according to today’s bulletin from its Department of Health.
There has been one further coronavirus death in Scotland, the Scottish government has said.
UK official death toll rises by 176 since yesterday
The UK’s official coronavirus death toll has gone up by 176 since yesterday, with a total of 43,906 people who have lost their lives in the pandemic in Britain.
The Department of Health and Social Care has also released the latest testing figures in its daily tweet:
As of 9am 1 July, there have been 9,662,051 tests, with 226,398 tests on 30 June.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) July 1, 2020
313,483 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 30 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 43,906 have sadly died.
More info:
➡️ https://t.co/r2YbE2e3O8 pic.twitter.com/BsOl2p5Wvk
Public Health Wales says a further six people have died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of deaths to 1,516.
Updated
Air pollution likely to make coronavirus worse, say UK government advisers
Air pollution is likely to be increasing the number and severity of Covid-19 infections, according to the UK government’s expert advisers. As my colleague Damian Carrington writes, in a report published on Wednesday, the experts said further investigation of the link between dirty air and the coronavirus pandemic was “urgently required” and may be relevant to how the pandemic is managed. The report also found that levels of nitrogen oxides, produced mainly by diesel vehicles, fell by 30-40% in urban areas during the lockdown, though they are likely to be rising again as the restrictions are eased.
Damian’s full story is here.
At the Commons science committee Prof Sir John Bell, regius professor of Medicine at Oxford University, says there will be “pandemonium” in A&E departments if a second wave of coronavirus overlaps with a bad flu outbreak this winter.
At the science committee Prof Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, says that once they get the results of their vaccine trial, they will see if it is less effective for older people. If so, they may need a stronger dose, or a double does, she says.
Kate Bingham, chair of the government’s vaccine taskforce, says she is assuming that people will need two doses of a vaccine for it to be effective.
Sir Peter Soulsby, the mayor of Leicester, says Sir Keir Starmer was right to complain at PMQs about councils not getting full and up-to-date coronavirus infection data from the government.
We should have had this data right from the start. Council’s up and down the land are the ones at the front line, we need to know what is happening in our communities and the Government needs to tell us. https://t.co/iaUL8x2jai
— Leicester City Mayor (@CityMayorLeic) July 1, 2020
Prof Sir John Bell, regius professor of Medicine at Oxford University, tells the science committee that his strong advice would be that the government should prepare for not having a vaccine in time for the winter. It is better to assume the worst, he says.
At the science committee Kate Bingham, chair of the government’s vaccine taskforce, says she thinks it is likely that vaccines will start to appear by early next year.
She says social distancing has been effective in the UK. That makes testing a vaccine harder, she says.
Greg Clark, the committee chair, says that implies the UK might have to face the winter without a vaccine.
“I think that would be a reasonable assumption,” says Bingham.
Prof Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, says she hopes the Oxford vaccine might be available more quickly.
She says they are testing theirs in Brazil, where 4,000 people will take part in the trial, and in South Africa, where 2,000 people will take part.
In the UK she says 8,000 people have now been vaccinated.
She says the aim is to have a large amount of vaccine available in the autumn ready for use as soon as the results of the efficacy trials are available.
Updated
Commons science committee takes evidence from vaccine specialists
The Commons science committee has just started taking evidence on progress towards getting a vaccine. The first three witnesses are Prof Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University; Kate Bingham, chair of the government’s vaccine taskforce; and Prof Sir John Bell, regius professor of Medicine at Oxford University.
Bingham says she is “optimistic” about the prospects of getting a vaccine.
But she says there is a difference between a full sterilising vaccine, that would stop someone getting infected, and a less powerful vaccine, that would just take the edge off symptoms and reduce the risks of death.
She says she optimistic about the prospects of getting the second sort of vaccine. But she is less confident about the chances of getting a full sterilising one.
NHS England has recorded a further 50 coronavirus hospital deaths in England. The full details are here.
For comparison, here are the equivalent daily figures for the past fortnight.
Wednesday 17 June - 77
Thursday 18 June - 62
Friday 19 June - 46
Saturday 20 June - 71
Sunday 21 June - 26
Monday 22 June - 20
Tuesday 23 June - 46
Wednesday 24 June - 51
Thursday 25 June - 55
Friday 26 June - 67
Saturday 27 June - 78
Sunday 28 June - 18
Monday 29 June - 19
Tuesday 30 June - 37
Deaths registered in Scotland last week fell below the five-year average for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown began, according to the latest weekly figures from the National Records of Scotland. There were 35 deaths involving Covid-19 in the country in the week ending June 28, the ninth weekly fall in a row.
In the House of Commons Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has used a statement to MPs to confirm that the UK will extend the right of people in Hong Kong with British national (overseas) status to enter and stay in the UK. Raab told MPs:
We have worked with ministers right across Whitehall and we have now developed proposals for a bespoke immigration route for BNOs and their dependants. We will grant BNOs five years’ limited leave to remain, with a right to work or study.
After these five years they’ll be able to apply for settled status and after a further 12 months with settled status, they will be able to apply for citizenship. This is a special bespoke set of arrangements, developed for the unique circumstances we face and in light of our historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong. All of those with BNO status will be eligible as will their dependants who are usually resident in Hong Kong and the Home Office will put in place a simple streamlined application process and I can reassure (honourable members) there will be no quotas on numbers.
The Foreign Office news release on this is here.
My colleague Rebecca Ratcliffe has more on our Hong Kong protests live blog.
Updated
Sturgeon hits back at Johnson after he condemns talk of Scotland quarantining English visitors
Nicola Sturgeon was visibly vexed at this lunchtime’s media briefing after a succession of questions on Boris Johnson and others’ response to her warning earlier in the week that she might have to quarantine visitors from England. She told reporters:
The fact we are describing this as a “row” should make us all take a long hard look at ourselves ... Other countries are just doing what they need to do in a public health sense to stop transmission of virus.
The fact that in Scotland we are trying to turn this into a standard political constitutional row – and I’m saying we to be charitable because it isnae me - is frankly disgraceful.
Addressing Johnson, Scottish secretary Alister Jack and other critics directly, she said: “If you find yourselves trying to turn any of this into a political or constitutional row go and take a long hard look at yourself in a mirror.”
At PMQs, in response to a question from a Scottish Conservative MP, Johnson said that he found the idea of visitors from England being quarantined “astonishing” and that there was no border between the two countries. (See 12.15pm.) Asked to respond to Johnson’s comments, Sturgeon was palpably frustrated, describing them as “absurd and ridiculous political statements”. She went on:
For a prime minister to try to politicise these things is shameful and unacceptable.
Pointing to the announcement by the governor of New York that he would quarantine visitors from particular states, she said:
I don’t think the governor of New York is being political or constitutional – he’s trying to protect the people he serves from being exposed to the spread of the virus.
She said that she would be failing in her duty not to consider cross-border quarantines if her scientific advisers suggested it.
Anybody you hear trying to turn this into a proxy debate about Scottish independence or the constitution, they are the one who are being reckless and failing the public health test.
Her comments come as national clinical director Jason Leitch confirmed a “cross-border cluster” of coronavirus infections around Gretna and Annan, right on the border between Scotland and England (the one Boris Johnson just said at PMQs doesn’t exist).
Sturgeon described it as a “sharp reminder for us that the virus is still out there”.
Leitch said that the cluster was currently in single figures and was complex because some tests were done in England and some in Scotland. The infections are not thought to be linked to a particular event. He said that Public Health Scotland and Public Health England have put together a cross border incident management team already, adding that clusters were much easier to deal with than sustained community transmission. “This is exactly what we expected to happen at this stage in the pandemic.”
Updated
PMQs - Snap verdict
You can tell a major political announcement has misfired when it has to be rewritten 24 hours later. Yesterday Boris Johnson gave a major speech on his plans for economic recovery, and in so far as the headline writers were concerned, he was announcing a £5bn investment package. By today, by the alchemy of political spin, that has now metamorphosed into a £600bn spending package. The press release yesterday did say that what the PM was announcing was part of £640bn investment package for the next five years set out in the budget in February, but the headline writers ignored that because it was not new, or even crisis-related.
Why was Johnson trying to retrospectively increasing the price tag on his big speech by more than a hundred-fold? Because he was getting pummelled by Sir Keir Starmer. Johnson introduced the figure at the end of their exchanges, when Starmer was making the quite reasonable point that what was announced yesterday would not be much use to those in the hospitality or retail sector losing their jobs now. Johnson’s best moment of the exchanges came when he was able to boast about what has already been done to protect 11m jobs, but he did not have a decent answer to Starmer’s point about jobs being lost now, which is when he resorted to magic numbers.
The early exchanges went even more badly for Johnson. He was not quite as evasive as he was last week, but his claim that the government did act in a timely manner in Leicester was wholly unconvincing and Starmer managed to refute what Johnson said about pillar 2 information being shared with Leicester without even trying. Starmer’s most effective question was his third, when he accused Johnson of being too flippant on a matter of life or death. He said:
The prime minister can’t just bat away challenge. These are matters of life and death, other people’s livelihoods. An example of this, last week [Labour MP Peter Kyle] asked the prime minister how can seaside towns be expected to cope with likely influx of visitors to beaches and parks during the hot weather? The prime minister replied, show some guts. Two days later Bournemouth beach was closed with 500,000 visitors, a major incident was declared. Does the prime minister now regret being so flippant?
Johnson responded by claiming that somehow the question was illegitimate - always a sign that an attack his hitting. Perhaps Johnson would be better off if he just resorted to humility and total honest (although God help the person at the No 10 meeting who suggests that).
Unlike Starmer, Johnson is a deft phrase-maker and he put his talent to use in the slogan he used in his peroration. He said:
We’re the builders, they’re the blockers. We’re the doers, they’re the ditherers. We’re going to get on with it and take this country forward.
In other circumstances (particularly in a full chamber, with Tory MPs cheering), this might have been effective. But to have any bite, a slogan has to be at least half-true and a prime minister who has repeatedly been accused of dithering over coronavirus (most importantly over lockdown in March; now over Leicester) really needs to cultivate a better line of attack. Starmer is averse to these sort of alliterative jingles, and at PMQs has repeatedly been understated rather than overstated. But this can make what he says all the more powerful, as when he labelled Johnson “flippant” on a matter of life and death. It was a clear hit.
Updated
Johnson says the Department for Education has been working with the Department for Transport on ensuring children can use buses to return to school in the autumn.
And PMQs is now over. Snap verdict coming up soon.
Johnson says he does think there are issues with the way the DBS criminal record check scheme works. He agrees to look at this.
Summary
Johnson says as soon as nail bars can open in a way that is Covid secure, they will be allowed to open.
Labour’s Stephen Timms asks if non-universal credit benefits should be raised in value in line with the increase applied to universal credit. (Some people are still on the “legacy benefits” because they have not yet moved over to UC.)
Johnson accepts that Timms has been a strong campaigner on this, but refuses to make this pledge. He just quotes figures for how much UC has increased.
Labour’s Siobhain McDonagh ask about children on free school meals. If the PM is sincere about wanting to level up, will he support a bill to ensure all children on free school meals get internet access.
Johnson says he supports this aim. But the most important thing now is to get pupils back to school. It is disappointing that Labour has not unequivocally backed children going back, he says.
The DUP’s Ian Paisley says it was good to see the PM at a Christians in parliament event yesterday. Will the government invest in hydrogen-powered buses (some of which are made in Northern Ireland).
Johnson says he is a big fan of buses made in Northern Ireland.
Jason McCartney, a Conservative, asks if the government will replenish arts council funds so that the creative sector can be supported.
Johnson says the house is speaking with one voice this morning. But, as we open up, we must be careful. He says the theatres will reopen, but in a Covid secure way.
Labour’s Stephen Doughty asks about job losses in South Wales and elsewhere. Workers do not want slogans. They want to know what the PM will do to protect their jobs in the long term.
Johnson says he recognises that people are worried about their jobs. That is why they have a £600bn investment programme, he says.
Labour’s Bambos Charalambous asks abou Chicken Shed theatre and asks what will be done to support the arts.
Johnson says this is becoming a theme this morning. He is a fan of Chicken Shed, he says. He urges arts organisations not to lay off their staff.
James Daly, a Conservative, asks if the PM will do everything possible to support the creative sector.
Johnson says he will do all he can to get those sectors back. The way to do this is to defeat the virus, he says, accepting that he is repeating himself.
The Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine says 3m self-employed people are not getting help. Will the PM consider a universal basic income?
Johnson says he has looked at this. The best way forward is to get this disease under control, he says.
Johnson says the new security law in Hong Kong is a clear breach of its obligations under the treaty. He says the UK will now create a new route for people in Hong Kong with a British National overseas passport to come to the UK and have a path to citizenship, as he proposed.
Stephen Farry, the Alliance MP, asks if the government will provided clarity on how GB/Northern Ireland trade will work from January by the end of the summer. There is great uncertainty, he says.
Johnson says unfettered trade will continue.
Nickie Aitken, a Conservative, asks if the PM agrees “the show must go on” in theatres in the West End.
Johnson agrees. But to do that, we must defeat the disease, he says.
The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, says Johnson delivered a “self-proclaimed relaunch speech” yesterday. But the PM’s spokesman laughed when asked about new funding, he says.
What are the Barnett consequentials for Scotland as a result of the speech?
Johnson says his spokesman would not have laughed. The full Barnett consequentials will be announced next week, when the chancellor makes a statement, he says. He says Scotland has seen the UK Treasury get funding to all parts of the UK.
Already the Barnett consequentials for Scotland are worth £3.8bn.
Blackford says there was not a single penny for Scotland in the speech yesterday.
On the same day, the benefit sanctions regime was reintroduced, he says. He says that is heartless.
Johnson says he beseeches Blackford to think he may be mistaken. Benefts have been increased by £7bn. There will be plenty of wonderful things that will benefit all the UK, including Scotland, he says.
Johnson says there is no such thing as a border between England and Scotland.
UPDATE: Here is the full exchange.
The Scottish Conservative MP Andrew Bowie asked:
Does [Johnson] not share my anger and the frustration of the Scottish tourist sector, just as it’s getting back on its feet, that it’s having the legs pulled out from under it by deeply irresponsible, damaging and divisive talk of arbitrary border closures and quarantining of visitors from across the United Kingdom?
Johnson replied:
I must say I found the suggestion absolutely astonishing. There have been no such discussions with the Scottish administration about that but I would point out to [Bowie] what he knows very well - there is no such thing as a border between England and Scotland.
Updated
Starmer says the annoouncement yesterday was worth less than £100 per person. Meanwhile firms are being laid off. There was nothing in the speech for people in hospitality or retail. Will the furlough scheme be extended for those most at risk.
Johnson says overall the package is a £600bn package. He says the opposition should stop equivocating. They should emphatically support ending the lockdown and puttings kids in school. We are the builders, they are the blockers, he says. We are the doers, they are the ditherers, he says.
Starmer says the people not being contacted is a real problem. Johnson cannot just brush it away.
He says in the PM’s speech yesterday he said many of the jobs furloughed were not coming back.
How many jobs will yesterday’s announcement protect?
Johnson says the government has protected 11m jobs. He cannot put a figure on the number of jobs at risk. But the risk is serious. That is why he is promoting a new deal, he says. There is an investment in infrastructure going up to £100bn.
Starmer says the restrictoins are being lifted, but without the world-beating app we were promised.
When Tory MPs heckle, he says he supports the lifting of the lockdown - but, unlike Johnson, is not ignoring the risks.
How can the PM explain that three quarters of cases are being missed by test and trace.
Johnson says the system has been more successful than Starmer expected. He says 130,000 contacts have been traced. Overall cases are coming down, he says.
Starmer says he spoke to the mayor of Leicester. He was absolutely clear they did not get that information until last Thursday.
These are matters of life and death, he says. He says the PM cannot just bat this away.
He says last week the PM told an MP to “show some guts” and back beaches reopening. Two days later Bournemouth beach had to be closed. Does the PM regret being so flippant?
Johnson says that question was beneath Starmer. He says he wants people to act responsibly.
Boris Johnson denies Leicester lacked infection data
Starmer says he supports the Leicester lockdown. But the 4,000 businesses in the city won’t accept the govdernment acted quickly enough.
He asks why Leicester did not get the pillar 2 testing information. (See 11.37am.) There was a lost week. Will the PM ensure that other cities are not put in the same position?
Johnson says Starmer is mistaken. Pillar 2 information was shared, he says.
He says there were particular problems in Leicester.
Updated
Sir Keir Starmer says he will celebrate the birthday of the NHS too.
He asks why restrictions were only introduced on Leicester on Monday, 11 days after Matt Hancock told the daily press conference there was a problem there. Why did it take so long to act?
Johnson says the government acted on 8 June. It sent in testing laboratories. This is what it has done elsewhere. Unfortunately this was not successful, and so the decision was taken on Monday to put the city into lockdown.
Richard Graham, a Conservative, says today is the 72nd anniversary of the NHS. He says the launch of the UK new deal yesterday paves the way for exciting attention. He asks if a new energy park in Gloucester can be included.
Johnson supports Graham’s work backing the project.
Boris Johnson starts by commending the Together initiative for organising what he says will be the biggest ever thank you for the NHS on Sunday. He says key workers, as well as NHS workers, will be thanked.
PMQs
PMQs is starting soon.
Here is the “call list” (pdf) showing which MPs are down to ask a question.
One in eight care home residents still waiting for coronavirus test, survey suggests
Around one in eight care home residents have not yet been tested for coronavirus, a survey of more than 300 care homes has found. As PA Media reports, the National Care Forum (NCF), which represents 120 of the UK’s social care charities, surveyed members on the whole home-testing experience for staff and residents.
Respondents said 2,318 staff (9% of the total) and 1,706 (12%) of residents in care homes are still awaiting Covid-19 tests. This is despite all homes with residents over 65 having been offered testing, and could be due to struggles to access tests and staff absences.
This is from Anthony Costello, a former World Health Organisation director and a member of Independent Sage, the unofficial group set up to shadow the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. Independent Sage has been very critical of the government’s test and trace system.
We are failing. Here are Prof Christina Pagel's figures on UK contact tracing. Most contacts traced by public health not the call centres. No data on isolation. https://t.co/gqhyFJpFA5 pic.twitter.com/poiH9dgFGm
— Anthony Costello (@globalhlthtwit) July 1, 2020
The Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who represents Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford in West Yorkshire, has said that it is “appalling and incomprehensible” that local public health teams have not been getting the full data about people testing positive for coronavirus in their area.
Our local public health teams, council, NHS doctors & managers in Wakefield have had to fight for months to try to get this data. In public health crisis, most important thing is knowing where infection is. Appalling & incomprehensible that basic info hasn’t been provided https://t.co/txt1oXkkOW
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) July 1, 2020
The idea this could have been Ministerial choice rather than failure of competence is even more shocking. What on earth is going on? Transparency & trust are basic currencies for dealing with public health crises. Pls, pls Govt, dont keep screwing this up https://t.co/xByXdRosei https://t.co/58X44tivHd
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) July 1, 2020
Cooper was speaking out following the revelation that in Leicester local officials were unaware of the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak because of the data they were getting from central government.
The Department for Health and Social Care publishes daily UK testing figures, including the figures for pillar 1 tests (tests carried out in hospitals and Public Health England laboratories) and pillar 2 tests (tests carried out by commercial providers, eg at drive-through centres or via kits sent to people’s homes). But daily local figures are only published for pillar 1.
In Leicester this meant that local health officials did not realise that in mid June the number of new coronavirus cases was actually ten times as high as the figure they had been given based on pillar 1 results.
It would be surprising if this does not come up at PMQs.
Here is the Guardian’s map showing, by local authority areas, where coronavirus cases are rising and falling throughout the UK.
According to a report for Sky News, further local lockdowns similar to the one in force in Leicester could be “just days away”. There are 36 local authority areas where the number of coronavirus cases is growing, Sky reports, and it claims that “the City of Bradford and boroughs in London, including Brent and Harrow, could be the next to lockdown”.
Turkey is hoping to welcome British tourists again shortly and expects to be on the list of destinations to be exempted from the UK’s quarantine measures. Umit Yalcin, the Turkish ambassador to the UK told the Today programme this morning that his country believes it will be among those to form so-called air bridges when an announcement is made later this week. As PA Media reports, Yalcin insisted it is safe to open up travel with Turkey despite a recent spike in cases after lockdown restrictions to combat the spread of Covid-19 were eased.
Families of children with special educational needs 'utterly abandoned' during lockdown, MPs told
Families of children with special educational needs feel they have been forgotten and abandoned during the lockdown, the Commons education committee has been told this morning.
Amanda Batten, chair of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, told the committee that was the message from a survey of 4,000 families that her organisation has carried out. She said:
That was a predominant finding really, that families feel very much forgotten and I think the overall picture from the survey was one of exhaustion and stress. A lot of families aren’t only home-schooling, they’re home nursing, administering therapies, some doing 24/7 care generally with very little support.
Batten said 45% of parents surveyed said their child’s physical health had deteriorated during the lockdown and just over 70% said their child’s emotional health had declined.
Ali Fiddy, chief executive of the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA), told the committee that some families felt “utterly abandoned”. She said:
I think it’s really important to recognise that children and young people with Send [special educational needs] are not vulnerable by virtue of having Send, they are vulnerable by virtue of the way that the system treats them ...
What we’re certainly hearing from families is that very many children and young people with Send who are apparently in school are actually on very part-time timetables.
What we’re certainly seeing is the risk assessment process being used really as a blanket excuse for not meeting the needs of children and young people and not having them in their education sessions.
Imogen Jolley, head of public law at Simpson Millar, told the committee that some health provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities had “effectively dropped off a cliff”. She said occupational therapies, speech and language therapies and physiotherapy had largely stopped and would need to be taken into account.
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Rebecca Long-Bailey has deleted the two tweets that led to her being sacked as shadow education secretary last week.
DT Rebecca Long-Bailey: Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond https://t.co/TxkRAxnkAk https://t.co/KLeaR3D8XV
— Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) June 30, 2020
DT Rebecca Long-Bailey: I retweeted Maxine Peake’s article because of her significant achievements and because the thrust of her argument i… https://t.co/Du2wqBu3zN https://t.co/ndous1DkWw
— Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) June 30, 2020
If she had been willing to delete them last week, when ordered to by Sir Keir Starmer, she would have kept her job. At the time she said she could not do that without also being allowed to issue a press statement of clarification. In a Guardian article published on Monday night Long-Bailey explained her side of the story, and how she never intended her original tweet to cause offence. That presumably counts as the statement of clarification that means she now feels comfortable taking the tweets down.
Sinn Féin accused of breaching lockdown rules at funeral of IRA commander
Sinn Féin is facing accusations of imperilling Northern Ireland’s fight against Covid-19 after its leaders allegedly breached guidelines and regulations by leading hundreds of mourners at the funeral of an IRA commander.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said it would review footage of the funeral in Belfast on Tuesday that drew more than a thousand people in apparent violation of rules limiting outdoor gatherings to 30 people.
Mary Lou McDonald and Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin’s respective current and former leaders, and Michelle O’Neill, a deputy leader who is also Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, attended the send-off for Bobby Storey, a veteran republican and IRA figure.
Politicians from other parties who share executive power with Sinn Féin at Stormont accused it of undermining efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The health minister, Robin Swann, said:
What we are seeing ... was a breach of the guidance that has been issued and has been worked on by the executive and has been supported by the executive. I sincerely hope that this isn’t the Dominic Cummings effect in Northern Ireland because in our health service we can’t afford it to be.
It was a reference to the Downing Street adviser taking long drives during England’s lockdown.
Naomi Long, the justice minister and Alliance party leader, said in a tweet that when the rule makers broke the rules it was more hurtful “for all who made huge sacrifices to obey the regulations”.
As I have said too many times to count, I recognise that funerals are a sensitive issue. People want to pay respects to their loved ones and support the family in their grief.
— Naomi Long MLA (@naomi_long) June 30, 2020
But COVID-19 does not recognise any of that. Gathering in crowds for any reason is dangerous. 1/2
Many families have endured burying a loved one alone, to help save lives. When others ignore the rules, that compounds their hurt and pain.
— Naomi Long MLA (@naomi_long) June 30, 2020
And when those who make the rules, break the rules, it is is more hurtful still for all who made huge sacrifices to obey the regulations.
O’Neill, who is expected to face tough questions at Stormont on Wednesday, defended her attendance at the funeral and said it respected regulations and guidelines.
The cortège had a “maximum of 30 people” and the service inside St Agnes’ church was “exemplary” in terms of social distancing and hygiene, with only three people per pew, she told the Irish News. “It was all done in accordance with the guidelines.”
The loosening of lockdown restrictions has prompted loyalist Orange Order marching bands to ask permission to hold traditional parades this month.
This long Irish Times article by Gerry Moriarty explains why Storey was so important to the IRA.
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Johnson expected to reveal whether government has hit target for completing all coronavirus tests within 24 hours
This is from the Department of Health and Social Care, on its latest initiative to speed up testing times.
We've partnered with @RoyalMail to set up priority post boxes for returning home test kits.
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) July 1, 2020
By skipping the need to book a courier, these priority post boxes will increase the speed in which tests are collected and results processed.
Find your nearest: https://t.co/1YzQLbpNpP pic.twitter.com/gbOmKA9ceO
It is 1 July, and that means we’ve hit the deadline for the government to ensure that all coronavirus test results should be available within 24 hours. Boris Johnson made this commitment at PMQs at the start of this month when he said:
We already turn around 90% of tests within 48 hours. The tests conducted at the 199 testing centres, as well as the mobile test centres, are all done within 24 hours, and I can undertake to him now to get all tests turned around in 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that.
Johnson was speaking in response to a question from Jeremy Hunt, his main rival for the Tory leadership in 2019 and the chair of the Commons health committee, who has repeatedly said testing in Britain is inadequate.
Today Johnson is certain to be asked if the 24 hours target is now being met. We have no real idea how close it has been to this, because the government has never published figures for what percentage of tests are completed within 24 hours. When No 10 was asked about this last week, it just said the majority of tests were completed within this timescale.
The issue is important because test and trace only works if people who have been in contact with someone testing positive for coronavirus are told to self-isolate quickly. According to one report (pdf) presented to Sage, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, in South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand – four of the countries with the most effective contact tracing systems – test results are available in four to five hours.
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Agenda for the day
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Helen Pidd.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Iain Duncan Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee, on the wait for the first payment.
10am: The Commons education committee takes evidence on the impact of coronavirus on children with special educational needs.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.
12.30pm: The Scottish and Welsh governments are due to hold their daily coronavirus briefings.
12.30pm: Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, makes a statement to MPs about the new security laws imposed on Hong Kong.
1.30pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.
2pm: Starmer is due to address a Local Government Association virtual conference.
2.30pm: The Commons science committee takes evidence from academics and health officials on progress towards a coronavirus vaccine.
2.30pm: The OECD and the IMF give evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about the economic impact of coronavirus.
2.30pm: The Commons women and equalities committee takes evidence from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, BME National, and the Runnymede Trust on the impact of coronavirus on BME people.
Leicestershire Police Federation chairman Dave Stokes admitted to Sky News that the local force didn’t know how it was supposed to enforce the local lockdown in Leicester:
We don’t know. And that’s simply because we are waiting for the government strategy and the legislation, which will obviously support us locally about how we are going to police it. It’s a moving picture and I’m sure the information will be fed down but at the moment that clarity isn’t there.”
Asked if he sees a role for the police in enforcing a ban on “non-essential travel” in Leicester, Stokes said that enforcement was always a last resort. He said:
What has worked really well in Leicestershire is public engagement. In terms of enforcement, it’s been quite limited. And it has worked.
The challenge is more about fatigue, officers working long hours. And when I say fatigue, that is each and every officer, there has been a really difficult period working long hours.
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A key scientist in the coronavirus response has said there is a window of just a few weeks to resolve “teething problems” in order to have systems up and running for the scheduled full return of schools in England.
Imperial College London’s Prof Neil Ferguson, who used to advise the Government, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I think we have not a huge amount of time, but a few weeks now, to resolve those teething problems and get the data systems in place and get the modes of operation between local and national government working well, because we will desperately need them to work efficiently from September onwards.
I think we need to get the systems working, but I also agree that Public Health England and everybody involved is doing their best. It’s a very complex system to combine data from multiple sources from across the whole country. I don’t think we have any time to lose but I’m not going to sit here and start criticising people at the moment.
Ferguson said infection rates in Bradford and Doncaster were also a cause for concern.
Those are areas, where not as high as Leicester, but they have some of the highest numbers of cases per 100,000 of the population, which is the relevant measure, so they’re clearly of concern.
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Leicestershire county council leader Nicholas Rushton has just been on Talk Radio talking about the “very difficult” local lockdown in place in Leicester. He said the government had promised special funding compensate the region for the “substantial” losses caused by the lockdown. But he said he didn’t know how much money that would be. He said:
The secretary of state has promised myself and Sir Peter [Soulsby - the mayor of Leicester] that there will be some funding given to the county council and city council to businesses to help them, but we don’t know how much it is, we are not sure when it’s coming and we are not sure what strings will be attached.
He said he hoped residents would abide by the new lockdown to stop the disease spreading, saying the region had not had particular problems with non-compliance in the past three months. He said:
We haven’t had particularly bad outbreaks of people abusing the regulations in Leicester or Leicestershire to be honest, but ultimately the police will have the powers to be able to stop people travelling around.
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More local lockdowns should be expected, warns government adviser
A scientist advising the Government on the coronavirus response warned that more local lockdowns should be expected, as per the Guardian’s front page splash this morning.
Oxford University’s Prof Peter Horby, who chairs the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group (Nervtag), was asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the public should brace for more local outbreaks. He replied:
Unfortunately I think we should. We’ve seen the epidemic is focal, which is often the case, it’s not the same in all places.
And we saw that London unfortunately led the way in the UK and now Leicester is unfortunately leading the way and we can expect more of that, so I think there will have to be local responses to local outbreaks.
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A group of 1,000 people whose relatives have died due to Covid 19 have strongly criticised Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock for failing to meet them or respond to their letter and formal petition for an immediate public inquiry, sent on 11 June.
The group, Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, advised by Pete Weatherby QC, who acted for 22 families at the 2014-16 inquests into the Hillsborough disaster, argued that the government is under a legal duty to hold a public inquiry, principally because most people’s deaths from the virus will not be fully investigated at inquests.
On Monday, the group received a two-line acknowledgement from a Downing Street correspondence officer, which stated: “Your correspondence is receiving attention.”
Jo Goodman, who co-founded the group after her father Stuart, 72, died from the virus on 2 April, said:
We are deeply disappointed that the government has not accepted our invitation to meet. It has not even had the courtesy to respond to our petition. Once again, grieving families feel forgotten, with the government refusing to accept any degree of responsibility for mistakes that have been made in its response to the pandemic. The government offers condolences to those who have been bereaved, but while it is unwilling to engage with us, it is very difficult to accept its sympathy.
In their petition, the families argued that there is “a compelling need” for an immediate public inquiry, to learn lessons from the government’s handling of the crisis, and to urgently consider the best measures to improve its response and save more people from dying. Stating that there has been “criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis from all quarters,” the group also argued that when a full public inquiry is held, it must consider key issues including:
- The timing of the UK lockdown on 23 March, which was later than almost all European countries.
- The state of the government stockpile of personal protective equipment and testing capacity.
- The response to warnings in the 2017 Exercise Cygnus report that the UK was not adequately prepared for a pandemic.
- The disproportionately high number of black and minority ethnic people who have died from Covid-19.
- The transfer of patients from hospitals to care homes.
“The UK has recorded one of the highest Covid-19 death tolls in the world, and yet we have seen very little recognition of the fact that this is a country in mourning,” Goodman said. “As reports came in from Italy, the country was rightly horrified by what it saw, but as similar harrowing scenes have played out in our own country, those of us who have been bereaved feel that our loss has simply been swept under the carpet.”
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Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary has been talking on Sky News as it today expands its service to put 150 planes in the sky.
He said the airline was flying from 26 UK airports and would operate almost a thousand services “with a load factor of almost 70%”, amounting to 104,000 passengers.
He railed against the “stupid” quarantine which requires travellers returning to the UK to isolate for two weeks:
It’s irritating, the government has been causing a huge amount of damage with its badly thought out quarantine measures that aren’t a quarantine; filling in forms at airports which are then thrown in the bin and not followed up, but are deterring visitors to the UK in July and August. These badly thought-out, badly implemented policies have no effect on Covid are doing untold damage to British tourism, to British jobs and to the wider British economy. We need to get this stupid quarantine lifted.
On Friday airlines including Ryanair are taking the UK government to court to challenge the legality of the quarantine and O’Leary said he was “reasonably confident” they would win. “The government has been unable to come up with scientific evidence for this form-filling exercise,” he said.
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Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the business secretary Alok Sharma twice dodged the question of whether he would extend the furlough scheme beyond October to help the airline sector survive. He said:
The furlough scheme will have been in place for a total of eight months and I think like any international standard, it has been groundbreaking. You talked about the airline sector specifically: of course, as you know, work is going on in terms air bridges and later in the week I hope we will be able to set out some of those low-risk countries so that when people return from these countries they will not be faced with quarantine.
Asked whether there would be localised extra support for businesses and workers in Leicester during the city’s local lockdown, Sharma seemed to suggest not, harking back instead to earlier business grants and the national furlough scheme:
Anyone in Leicester will be incredibly disappointed and in fact worried about having to go back into lockdown and I know that businesses will be incredibly concerned as well. In terms of support to businesses in Leicester, we have provided over 5,900 businesses — small businesses — with grants to the value of £68m. We have also ensured that 40,000 jobs have been protected through the Job Retention Scheme and that is going to continue.
Presenter Louise Minchin also extracted from Sharma that rarest of things in Westminster — an apology — after he gave out incorrect testing figures on the programme last week. He had said 240,000 people had been tested for Covid-19 on Monday 22 June. In fact, he accepted, it was the number of tests:
I was wrong and I apologise for that. It was an inadvertent mistake.
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Up to 5,000 jobs are under threat at Upper Crust and Caffe Ritazza owner SSP amid a shake-up following plunging passengers numbers at railway stations and airports due to the coronavirus pandemic, my colleague Kalyeena Makortoff reports.
The group warned it expects to open only around a fifth of its sites in the UK by the autumn as travel is set to remain at very low levels amid the Covid-19 crisis. It has launched a consultation on a restructure to “simplify and reshape” the business in the face of the pandemic, which it said could lead to more than half of its 9,000-strong peak season workforce being axed.
The group said head office and UK staff would be affected by the cuts. Chief executive Simon Smith said:
In the UK the pace of the recovery continues to be slow. In response to this, we are now taking further action to protect the business and create the right base from which to rebuild our operations. Regrettably, we are starting a collective consultation which will affect our UK colleagues.
These are extremely difficult decisions, and our main priority will be to conduct the process carefully and fairly.
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As pubs in England get set to reopen on Saturday (apart from in Leicester), the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned that medics are “bracing” themselves for the reopening of pubs during the coronavirus crisis.
President Dr Katherine Henderson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We’re bracing ourselves, I think would be a fair way to say it. It actually is quite serious, we have emergency departments having to work in a very different way than they did before because we have to keep vulnerable patients safe so we can’t have crowded emergency departments.
What we can’t do is have a department that gets overwhelmed by people who are injured because they have got themselves into a fight, they have fallen off something, they have drunk so much that they actually need the health service’s help.
People have been standing at doorways clapping the NHS, well more important than clapping the NHS is using the resources responsibly and anybody who goes out and gets so drunk that they need an ambulance and they need to come to an emergency department is not supporting the NHS.
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Good morning. I’m Helen Pidd and I will be keeping the live blog warm until Andrew Sparrow clocks in later this morning.
It is day two of the UK’s first local lockdown in Leicester, with leading doctors urging the government to give councils accurate and up-to-date data to manage localised spikes, 101 days after the national lockdown.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said local authorities need “timely, comprehensive and reliable” information to all those involved in the management of new cases at a local level.
The mayor of Leicester has complained that he only received a full picture of local infection patterns last Thursday. Until then, the government had not shared detailed results of so-called “pillar 2” tests conducted at pop-up drive-through testing centres and completed via post.
The BMA also called for clarity about how regional spikes will be managed in the future.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA Council, said:
The prime minister has talked about a ‘whack a mole’ strategy to tackle local outbreaks, but this is no use if the people leading the response on the ground – be they public health teams or local leaders – are not given the most accurate up-to-date data possible.
This is crucial to allow swift action and to protect lives and the health service, and something that is not happening right now. This is all the more important given that the ‘world-leading’ test and trace app is not in place, meaning local leaders and teams armed with up-to-date information will be vital in containing spread of outbreaks.
Ahead of further lockdown restrictions being eased at the weekend, the BMA made a series of demands from the government.
These include the use of set “metric trigger points” at which action will be taken to reintroduce local and national restrictions, which would take into consideration the regional reproductive rate – known as the R rate – as well as the level of infections in communities.
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