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The Guardian - UK
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Kevin Rawlinson, Lucy Campbell, Sarah Marsh and Alexandra Topping

UK coronavirus: Amber Rudd calls on Cummings to quit – as it happened

Closing summary

We’re closing this blog down now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the latest news:

  • More than 40 Tory MPs have now called for Dominic Cummings to go. With Downing Street continuing to defend him, the senior government minister Penny Mordaunt also said there were “inconsistencies” in Cummings’ account of his actions and apologised to her constituents for how recent days were distracting from key public health messages. The former de facto deputy prime minister Damian Green criticised Cummings, but stopped short of calling for him to go.
  • The former home secretary, Amber Rudd, added her voice to those calling for Cummings’ departure. Rudd, who stood down as an MP in December, told ITV’s Peston programme that Cummings’ continued presence in No 10 was making the government’s job more difficult at a time of national crisis.
  • Boris Johnson said an independent inquiry into Dominic Cummings’ actions wouldn’t be a good use of official time. The PM was grilled on the Cummings affair and his government’s response to the pandemic by the powerful liaison committee. Under forensic questioning and several times facing the charges of putting political concerns before the nation’s health and of underestimating the public’s anger, the prime minister said it was time to “move on” from the “very frustrating” episode. He also didn’t give a clear answer on whether he was saying that if people don’t have access to childcare they could do what Cummings did.
  • The NHS test and trace programme goes live at 9am on Thursday. If you get a call from a contact tracer because you’ve been in contact with an infected person, you must isolate for 14 days, even if you don’t have symptoms. The government has said these instructions must be followed. Though they will be voluntary at first, they will be made mandatory if necessary. “It’s your civic duty to follow test and trace instructions,” Matt Hancock said.
  • Officers are reporting people breaking lockdown rules and using Dominic Cummings as an excuse, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner said. David Jamieson told the BBC in the last few days the public has pushed back and the police’s ability to enforce the rules has been undermined. He said people are telling officers that “if it is OK for Cummings, it is OK for us”.
  • Most people now believe there is “one rule for them, and one rule for us” after Cummings remained in post despite breaching the lockdown, a government adviser said. Prof Stephen Reicher, who advises the government on human behaviour during disease outbreaks. He has told Channel 4 News: “And all the research on compliance with authority shows that it depends critically on thinking that authority is part of us, is with us, is for us. And so, once you create that sense of ‘us and them’, you undermine trust and you undermine compliance.”

If you’d like to read yet more, head over to our global pandemic live blog, which is still running:

Updated

McGuinness said Cummings’ actions had undermined the goodwill needed to maintain the lockdown. She told Newsnight:

I think people do feel that Dominic Cummings’ action undermines everything that they’ve all put themselves through, the things that they’ve missed, the people that they’ve missed and all of that.

But I also think that we’re at the back end of a lot of very complex and confused messaging from government who haven’t been clear about what the rules are and why the rules are there.

You know, why can you meet one person and not two people? Social distancing is optional and so on. And so the police have been there to enforce it, to keep us safe and they’ve done that but that goodwill with people is so very important and Dominic Cummings completely undermined that and then the prime minister has refused to hold him to account.

Kim McGuinness, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria, has told BBC’s Newsnight she was concerned the public’s attitude towards the lockdown has changed.

We’re already anecdotally hearing from MPs, from the media, from police officers that people are using Dominic Cummings as an excuse when they’re approached about why they’re breaking lockdown rules.

So, whilst people have been great in the last eight weeks, they’ve been, by and large, listening to the lockdown because we’re in it together fighting this deadly virus, that confidence is starting to erode and if test, track and trace is going to work we need to get that back on track.

When asked how people who will need to self-isolate after being informed by a contact tracer will likely respond, McGuinness replied:

I think it’s very difficult, you’re asking people to go right back to the beginning of where we were eight weeks ago.

And that is a big ask at the best of times and particularly when they’ve already been asked to do that and so I think that we need to make sure that people are aware of what is expected of them, that they have confidence that other people are doing it as well.

So this system needs to be slick, it needs to be well delivered and it needs to be ready to go and really we should have had it weeks ago.

Here’s a little more from Rudd’s appearance on this evening’s edition of Peston:

Updated

Former home secretary calls on Cummings to resign

The former Tory home secretary Amber Rudd has become the latest prominent figure to say Dominic Cummings should depart No 10 over his lockdown breach.

Rudd, who also served as work and pensions secretary and chose not to stand for reelection as an MP in December after resigning the Conservative whip, has told ITV’s Peston:

He should quit because he’s making things worse. People have been great during the lockdown. In a really difficult period, they have complied. And now they’re confused and that makes them angry and I think that will have consequences.

So when he thinks, as any of us working in government must, ‘am I adding here, am I helping?’ he can only conclude that his presence is making things worse at a time when we’re already in a crisis.

Responding to the launch of the test and trace system in England (see 4.45pm), the British Medical Association public health medicine committee member and former chairwoman Dr Penelope Toff has said:

Having a robust test, track and trace system in place is vital to being able to effectively prevent a second wave of infection and to ensure that we can safely ease out of lockdown.

What will be absolutely crucial is that the government can implement this effectively with all the components in place, so it can run at capacity.

Success will not just hinge on the availability of testing and delivering test results quickly but on rapid identification of contacts and support to enable them to self-isolate.

There is a very real concern that as funding has only now been made available at local level, and as much of the local contact tracing will need to be done in person, there is the potential for some of these systems to become overwhelmed with the sudden surge in demand. It is vital that adequate support is on hand, to enable all directors of public health and Public Health England consultants leading these local systems, to deliver this effectively.

The safety of the public and key workers is paramount and given the limits of the test itself, self-isolation of those with symptoms and their contacts is even more vital. This will require good communication with the public at a national level.

Establishing local test, track and trace is a step in the right direction but will require significant resources, monitoring and vigilance to ensure that it is working effectively across the country.

Alicia Kearns, the Tory MP for Rutland and Melton, is another to criticise Cummings, while stopping short of calling for his departure. A statement posted on her website reads:

Over the weekend. I relentlessly pressed for more information to get the facts of what happened, I believed that was the least the British people were owed. On Monday, we received more of the information that residents had been calling for: I wish this information had been made available at an earlier time.

I do not support Mr Cummings’ actions. I would not have done the same.

Mr Cummings believed he was protecting his family, and not just from his fear of not being able to care for his child, but from the abuse his family was enduring at their home. I know what it is to be a worried parent, but his actions have caused much disappointment.

Mr Cummings has accepted that he could have done better. I agree.

With regards to his travelling to County Durham, he was acting within the very limits of what Deputy Chief Medical Advisor Dr Harries OBE set out at the daily televised press conference on 24th March when she said ‘clearly if you have adults that are unable to look after a small child, that is an exceptional circumstance’.

It is for the police, not me, to determine whether Mr Cummings breached the lockdown guidelines. Durham police had publicly stated that there was no case to answer. However, since then they are now investigating and dependent on the outcome, I will make a further statement.

And, on Sunday, the MP for Winchester and Chandler’s Ford Steve Brine posted a statement on his personal website saying he too has spoken to the chief whip.

The Guardian has also been passed an email from him to constituents in which he said:

In a painfully difficult time when the government, trying as it is to safely ease the necessary restrictions on our lives, needs to retain public trust this is unhelpful to put it mildly.

Furthermore, when the UK has north of 36,000 deaths from this awful pandemic, it’s a distraction for ministers – and proper scrutiny from the media on track and trace, vaccine etc – which I would think this country can ill afford right now.

Public adherence to the rules is done by consent in this country and that is made much harder if people feel, no matter that these events were some time ago, it’s one rule for them and another for senior government advisors.

I have this lunchtime robustly raised my concerns and disappointment at Mr Cumming’s behaviour in the most appropriate – and I believe effective way – with the government chief whip. Ultimately, it is for the prime minister to decide the future of his senior advisors.

Brine has not responded to a request for comment.

More Tory MPs have expressed concerns about Cummings’ actions, while stopping short of calling for his removal from No 10.

The Guardian has been passed an email to a constituent from the former education secretary, Damian Hinds. He said he believes that, at the very least, Cummings breached the spirit of the rules.

The key tasks at hand are fighting this terrible virus, dealing with all its knock-on effects, and starting to move gradually and cautiously towards reopening more of the economy and society more broadly. It is essential that attention is not further deflected from these priorities.

I am not convinced that changing personnel at this stage would actually help that, and there is a real possibility it could have the opposite effect. But it does need to be acknowledged that in the case of Mr Cummings mistakes were made and the spirit, at least, of the rules broken, whatever the motivation; and acknowledged again the huge restrictions and privations that the country as a whole has withstood.

The Tory backbencher Royston Smith has called for Cummings to resign or be sacked, taking the number of Conservative MPs who have done so to 44.

We are in the middle of the worst health and financial crisis this country has faced since the war. Unfortunately, the Dominic Cummings saga has become a distraction from the very urgent issues facing the country. We cannot allow crucial messaging and public understanding to be clouded by this, and for that reason I feel it is time Mr Cummings stood aside so that the government can dedicate all its resources to managing the pandemic and our way out of it.

Updated

Former senior Tory cabinet minister criticises Cummings

The former de facto deputy prime minister Damian Green has lamented the damage done to the government’s public health efforts by Cummings’s lockdown breach, but stopped short of calling for him to resign or be sacked.

In a letter to a constituent, Green has said:

I have expressed my own displeasure, and the anger of many of those who wrote to me, both to the chief whip and to cabinet ministers. No one at the top of government can be unaware of the widespread public anger at Dominic Cummings’ actions. Many of the individual points put in emails to me have been relayed to senior ministers.

Green, who was sacked as first secretary of state in 2017 after admitting he lied about the presence of pornographic images on his House of Commons computer, added:

We all know that some families have suffered appallingly during the lockdown, not just losing relatives but being unable to comfort them at the end. For many more there has been the pain of long-term separation from close family members.

It is possible to put up with this if we all accept that we are in the same boat. A combination of Dominic Cummings’s actions and the way they were reported has clearly damaged that sense of solidarity, as is reflected in many of the emails I have received.

Updated

People now believe it's one 'rule for us, one for them', says government adviser

Most people now believe there is “one rule for them, and one rule for us” after Cummings remained in post despite breaching the lockdown, according to Prof Stephen Reicher, who advises the government on human behaviour during disease outbreaks. He has told Channel 4 News:

I think there is very little doubt – and the polling shows it very clearly – that most people think now there is one rule for them, and one rule for us.

And all the research on compliance with authority shows that it depends critically on thinking that authority is part of us, is with us, is for us. And so, once you create that sense of ‘us and them’, you undermine trust and you undermine compliance.

However, there is a positive side as well because I think many people are going along with restrictions not because they have been told to by the government but because they realise it is the right thing.

And, if you look at the data on people’s own behavioural intentions, it doesn’t look as bad.

And I think the point is this: That there is an irony here, because to the extent that people think that Dominic Cummings is one of them, and if they think that his behaviour doesn’t represent them, it’s counter-normative, it can prove a model of what we shouldn’t do.

Adding the Lib Dem response, the party’s health spokeswoman Munira Wilson has said:

The coronavirus crisis is leaving people rightly worried about their loved ones. Sadly, the government has left confusion in its wake this week and there are plenty questions still to answer.

Central to the government’s strategy must be a comprehensive test, trace and isolate system. Time and again, we have seen ministers announce the next steps but never an effective plan to support people in isolation, thereby stopping the spread and saving lives.

Ministers must come forward with these clear and honest answers, in addition addressing the obvious issues with their app and why the level of testing remains so low across the UK compared to some countries.

Responding to the announcement of the government’s test-and-trace strategy (see 4.45pm), the shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said:

We have long called for a functional testing and tracing regime as key to the safe easing of the lockdown. The government’s decision to abandon contact tracing in mid-March was a huge error leaving a huge gap in our defences against the virus.

We will need everyone asked to cooperate fully with NHS Test and Trace’s stay at home instructions to keep all of us safe. It’s why Boris Johnson’s support for Dominic Cummings is both dangerously irresponsible and undermines vital public health messaging. It’s remains clear there is still one rule for Mr Johnson’s friends and another for the rest of us.

Hello, Kevin Rawlinson with you now for a while. If you’d like to get in touch, feel free to email me on kevin.rawlinson[at]theguardian[dot]com or you can get me on Twitter.

Evening summary

  • More than 40 Tory MPs have now called for Dominic Cummings to go. With Downing Street continuing to defend him, the senior government minister Penny Mordaunt also said there were “inconsistencies” in Cummings’ account of his actions and apologised to her constituents for how recent days were distracting from key public health messages.
  • Boris Johnson said an independent inquiry into Dominic Cummings’ actions wouldn’t be a good use of official time. The PM was grilled on the Cummings affair and his government’s response to the pandemic by the powerful liaison committee. Under forensic questioning and several times facing the charges of putting political concerns before the nation’s health and of underestimating the public’s anger, the prime minister said it was time to “move on” from the “very frustrating” episode. He also didn’t give a clear answer on whether he was saying that if people don’t have access to childcare they could do what Cummings did.
  • The NHS test and trace programme goes live at 9am tomorrow. If you get a call from a contact tracer because you’ve been in contact with an infected person, you must isolate for 14 days, even if you don’t have symptoms. The government has said these instructions must be followed. Though they will be voluntary at first, they will be made mandatory if necessary. “It’s your civic duty to follow test and trace instructions,” Matt Hancock said.
  • Officers are reporting people breaking lockdown rules and using Dominic Cummings as an excuse, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner said. David Jamieson told the BBC in the last few days the public has pushed back and the police’s ability to enforce the rules has been undermined. He said people are telling officers that “if it is OK for Cummings, it is OK for us”.

Cummings's journey was 'neither necessary nor justified and he should apologise' says Javid

Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, has said “the journey made by Dominic Cummings to County Durham to isolate on his family estate was neither necessary nor justified”, the Bromsgrove Standard reports.

In a letter to his constituents, seen by the Standard, the Bromsgrove MP said the prime minister’s chief adviser should have made a full and frank apology for his actions.

Javid also said:

I remain unconvinced his visit to Barnard Castle could be considered reasonable.

I was also deeply concerned by his decision to return to Downing Street directly after coming into contact with a family member who was ill, potentially with coronavirus.

He stopped short of calling for Cummings to go, saying he thought it best to reserve judgement on his actions until “we were in possession of all the facts” and until he was given the opportunity to explain himself.

Updated

Another Tory MP, George Freeman, has called for Dominic Cummings to go. He said it was clear to him that public anger at the betrayal of trust and compliance now risks the collapse of respect for the government’s public health advice.

Q. What more can and should the government be doing to reassure parents about schools reopening?

Hancock says the government wouldn’t have made this decision unless it was safe.

Harding adds children under five will be able to get tested from tomorrow, so immediate action can be taken.

Q. New data has revealed that BAME people in England are 54% more likely to be fined under coronavirus laws than white people. If Dominic Cummings were black it’s statistically more likely he’d have been stopped by police with his family. What’s your message to black families who worry fines aren’t being issued fairly?

Hancock says it’s vital that the rules are policed without fear or favour and fairly and equally according to the evidence.

Q. Are you able to share any preliminary findings on the PHE research into BAME deaths at this time?

Van Tam says he regards this as very pressing and important.

PHE says the report is on schedule and will be very comprehensive, he says.

It will deal with the enormous complexity of unpicking several signals in the data, he says.

Q. Is the reason the NHS tracing app is being delayed because of problems on the Isle of Wight? Are you confident test and trace will work even if the app doesn’t work?

Hancock says the Isle of Wight has proven that asking people to isolate is better when it comes from human contact tracers.

The app is a complement to this system, he adds.

Updated

Q. When there are grey areas, whose authority is it that decides whether something is in keeping with the law?

Hancock says test and trace isn’t going to be a mandatory system in the first instance.

Q. If you get stopped by the police but believe you were using your “good judgment” as the communities secretary put it this morning, who’s judgement is right – yours or the police?

Hancock says there are exceptional circumstances in the guidelines.

With test and trace, if you’re told to isolate, this will at first be voluntary, he adds.

Harding says people need to feel safe and confident in coming to NHS test and trace and sharing their contacts.

Van Tam adds that the natural R for Covid-19 is three, so it would go out of control very quickly.

The extent to which we keep control of it and move towards normal life very much depends on people engaging with and cooperating with NHS test and trace, he says.

Updated

Q. If you have no symptoms but you get a call from a contact tracer, do you have to isolate at your normal home or can you isolate somewhere else?

Hancock says if you’re a contact of somebody who’s tested positive and you’re instructed to isolate, your household members don’t have to isolate – they can carry on under the normal guidelines.

That means you can isolate at home, he adds. He moves swiftly on.

Q. If there are local flare-ups, who will identify whether a road or tower block needs to be locked down, who will communicate it, who will enforce it?

Hancock says it is a local judgment where directors of public health have a critical role to play, which will be tied up with national intelligence through test and trace, the biosecurity centre and Public Health England.

Harding adds it is a genuinely national effort. It needs to be locally led and nationally supported, she says.

Updated

Q. Have you ironed out problems of some people waiting over a week for a test?

Harding says there will be examples where the turnaround time wasn’t fast enough. It’s got to get better and better, she adds.

Crucial to the speed of it all will be the individual recognising they have symptoms and the speed with which their contacts also isolate, she adds.

Updated

They are taking questions from journalists now.

Q. Are you sure you have sufficient capacity to test the contacts of all of those infected, given the ONS puts the figure for new cases at over 9,000 in England alone?

Hancock says over 2,000 people tested positive yesterday. He says it’s right the ONS survey estimates there are between 7 to 9,000 people who had coronavirus. As many of those as possible need to come forward into the contact tracing system, he says.

Harding says there are 25,000 contact tracers ready to start work tomorrow, which is easily enough, she adds.

Updated

Chris from Whitley Bay asks if the government has a strategy for future pandemics.

Hancock says the government is learning about the disease and how to handle the pandemic.

They are taking questions from the public now.

Ella from Maidenhead asks if lifting of lockdown restrictions can be targeted at different age restrictions.

Hancock says that while those under the age of 45 are at less risk from the disease, they’re just as likely to get it and transmit it.

Van Tam says while the death rate due to Covid-19 is very age-dependent, it’s simply not true that those under 45 aren’t at risk.

The infection rates in under 45-year-olds isn’t any lower, he says. And the transmission rates are likely higher based on social contacts and networking, he adds.

Prof Van Tam is going through the slides now.

Use of cars, light goods vehicles and HGVs are gradually increasing, he says.

117,013 tests were delivered in the last 24 hours, he says.

2,013 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours, he adds.

Updated

Baroness Harding, the chair of NHS Improvement and the government’s lead on the test and trace programme, is speaking now.

If you have one of the symptoms of coronavirus, you must immediately self-isolate, she says.

You should then book a test on nhs.uk/coronavirus or call 119, she says.

Do not leave home for any other reason, she says.

If you test positive, the test and trace service will contact you within 24 hours, she says.

NHS test and trace will help you establish who you might have infected and gather their contact details, she says. This could be someone you’ve been in contact with for more than 15 minutes or in your own household.

If you’ve been in contact with an infected person, NHS test and trace will instruct you to self-isolate, even if you don’t have symptoms, she says.

You must follow the instructions, she says.

Updated

In the coming weeks, we’ll move away from a blanket lockdown and focus on local action to tackle local flare-ups, Hancock says.

If you receive a call from a contact tracer saying that you need to isolate, whether you have symptoms or not, you must do so, Hancock says.

This is because you could have the virus and spread it to others without ever having symptoms at all, he adds.

The test and trace system will start tomorrow morning at 9am, he says.

The first people to be contacted will be those who got a positive test result today, Hancock adds.

'It's your civic duty' to follow test and trace instructions, Hancock says

To protect your friends and family, testing and tracing must become a new way of life, Hancock says.

The four nations are working together so this is coordinated, he adds.

The instructions are clear: if you get symptoms, isolate and get a test. If you get a call from an NHS contact tracer, you must self-isolate.

This will be voluntary at first, he says, but this can be made mandatory if that’s what it takes.

It’s your civic duty to follow the instructions, Hancock says.

Updated

Testing eligibility extended to under-fives from tomorrow, Hancock says

We now have capacity for 161,000 tests a day, Hancock says.

So, from Thursday, eligibility for testing will be extended for under-fives, he says.

So, anyone with symptoms can get tested, he adds.

We must all follow the NHS test and trace instructions, Hancock says. This is how we will protect the NHS and save lives.

The health and social care secretary is speaking now.

Until an effective treatment or vaccine comes through, NHS test and trace is a big part of how the country moves forward out of lockdown, Hancock says.

Through testing, we find out who is infected, Hancock says. “We” all have a part to play, he adds.

If you have symptoms you must isolate immediately and get a test, the health secretary says.

The next step is that the clinician and patient identify the possible movements of the virus and who else it might have infected, he says.

Those contacts will be isolated and break the chain of transmission, he says.

Updated

Matt Hancock's press conference

The health and social care secretary will lead this evening’s news briefing, pushed back to this later time following the prime minister’s extended questioning by the liaison committee.

He’s joined by Prof Jonathan Van Tam and Baroness Dido Harding.

Updated

'Inconsistencies' in Dominic Cummings' story, says senior government minister

Penny Mordaunt, a senior government minister, has said there are “inconsistencies” in Dominic Cummings’ account of his actions during lockdown and apologised for how recent days have “undermined key public health messages”, my colleague Rowena Mason reports.

In an email sent to constituents, seen by the Guardian, Mordaunt said Cummings’ continued position as Boris Johnson’s chief adviser was a “matter for the prime minister” but she also she could “fully understand how angry people are” and believed there was no doubt he “took risks”.

The Cabinet Office minister, whose official title is paymaster general, is the second and most senior government minister to have criticised Cummings, after Douglas Ross resigned as Scotland Office minister on Tuesday.

Mordaunt’s letter was sent in her capacity as a constituency MP, rather than as a government minister. But her comments are the most critical to come from a senior member of Johnson’s team.

More on this exclusive story here.

Updated

UK death toll rises by 412 to 37,460

As of 9am 27 May, there have been 3,798,490 tests, with 117,013 tests on 26 May, DHSC said. 267,240 people have tested positive.

And as of 5pm on 26 May, of those tested positive for Covid-19, across all settings, 37,460 have died. That is a rise of 412 since yesterday.

Updated

In a rare example of a U-turn on a U-turn, the government said it will now fund free school meals for school children in England over the half-term holiday – even though the holiday is halfway over.

The Department for Education had funded free school meal vouchers over the Easter holidays, and then said it had no plans to fund them for the current break, despite criticism from opposition parties and teaching unions.

But Nick Gibb, the schools minister, told the education committee the DfE was now willing to fund food vouchers during the week-long break that began for most schools last Friday.

The news came as a surprise to many head teachers, some of whom had sought to buy supermarket vouchers for the children of disadvantaged families from their school’s budgets.

Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s shadow minister for children, said:

Labour has always supported families accessing free school meals over half-term, but announcing this u-turn during the week itself is far too late. Families have been extremely worried that they would not be able to feed their children properly this week as a result of the government’s initial reluctance.

Updated

40th Tory MP calls for Dominic Cummings to go

Meanwhile, another Tory MP, seeing this performance, believes it’s time for Dominic Cummings to go. Giles Watling says his presence is “an unwanted distraction” at this time.

Updated

Jenkin asks what is causing the delay to tests and who is in charge of implementing a resolution.

Johnson says the delays are caused largely by difficulties in the labs with producing the results in a speedy way.

Hunt asks if the government will look at banning agency workers from working in several care homes to reduce the risk of spreading the disease.

Johnson claims they have done this already.

Hunt, who chairs the health committee, asks why the UK doesn’t return test results in 24 hours like other countries.

Johnson says they’re working to reduce the time.

Isn’t turnaround time just as important as the volume of tests, Hunt points out. Why don’t you say all tests need to be returned within 24 hours, in order to galvanise the system to work more effectively?

Johnson claims he’s introduced a 24-hour target. He doesn’t reveal if there’s a deadline for this target to come in beyond “as soon as possible”.

Hunt says a consequence of this was the UK couldn’t test everyone being discharged from hospitals. Did the prime minister get any advice saying that doing that would risk spreading the virus into care homes?

No, Johnson says.

Every discharge from the NHS into care homes was made by clinicians, he adds.

It’s not true that there was some concerted effort to move people out of NHS beds into care homes, the prime minister says.

Why did it take until April to introduce the test and trace target, even though our first case was in January, the Tory former health secretary Jeremy Hunt asks.

Johnson says Public Health England didn’t have the capacity that other countries had.

This country didn’t learn the lessons of Sars or Mers, Johnson adds.

Updated

If you’re phoned up by a contact tracer and told to stay at home as you’ve had contact with an infected person, is staying at home compulsory or can people use their judgement, Clark asks.

Johnson says no, they will be asking people to stay at home. If people don’t follow that advice, financial sanctions will be considered.

You should self-isolate, he adds. If people don’t, we’ll consider fines.

Updated

Clark suggests Sage could review the two metre rule before shops and other non-essential places begin to reopen.

Johnson says he has already done this.

Clark asks why the UK’s social distancing policy is two metres, when the WHO recommends one metre.

Johnson says the advice from Sage remains at the moment there is a considerable reduction in risk from two metres.

Greg Clark, who chairs the science committee, asks if the prime minister reads the scientific advice himself.

Johnson says “only in exceptional circumstances”.

What he gets is the “direct digest” from Sage, he adds.

Hoare asks why Cummings is so pivotal to moving the country forward from coronavirus. Is it on your radar than people are very annoyed?

Johnson says he understands people’s feelings about the pain of the lockdown.

He refers to the “political ding dong” over what one adviser has done, and that several allegations weren’t correct.

You have a choice between Dominic Cummings and putting the national interest first, which will it be prime minister, Cooper asks.

Johnson says we should lay aside “party political point-scoring” and stress the vital messages.

NHS test and trace programme to go live on Thursday, Johnson says

Labour’s Yvette Cooper says it’s “extremely surprising” he won’t provide that evidence to the cabinet secretary or have any independent verification.

What are your instructions now to parents who either have Covid or have symptoms, who won’t know how seriously they’re going to get ill and have no local childcare available?

Is the message to those parents now the one from Dr Jenny Harries to stay at home unless there is risk to life and to contact local community hubs, or is it the message from members of your government to travel to wherever you have a support network?

Cooper cites the communities secretary’s words this morning. Robert Jenrick said:

If you don’t have access to childcare, you can do what Dominic Cummings did.

Johnson says he’s not sure there’s a discrepancy between those two pieces of advice.

Cooper said a Mumsnet survey of parents found that a quarter of them had no access to local childcare and had symptoms of Covid, and were in exactly the same circumstances as Dominic Cummings, which aren’t “exceptional”.

A third said they’re more likely to break the rules now, she says. You need to give clear advice to parents.

Johnson says the clear advice is to stay at home unless you have exceptional problems with childcare which might make you “vary your arrangements”.

You’d have to look at each individual case, he says.

From tomorrow, we’ll require compliance from the public with the test and trace programme, he adds.

Cooper says the reason he can’t give a clear answer is because he’s trying not to incriminate Dominic Cummings. You’re putting your political concerns ahead of clear public health advice, she adds.

Updated

Labour’s Meg Hillier, who chairs the public accounts committee, asked if the prime minister saw any evidence to prove the allegations against Cummings was false.

Yes or no, prime minister?

Johnson says yes, if it please you.

Hillier then asks if it might be a good idea for the cabinet secretary to also see it.

Johnson says he would not be doing his job if he were to “shuffle” this into the hands of officials dealing with the coronavirus.

He “totally understands” public indignation, he says.

He reiterates it’s time to move on.

Conservative MP Simon Hoare told the PM that, if his inbox is anything to go by, the nation will be “far less energetic” about obeying future restrictions as “a direct result of the activities of your senior adviser” if the R starts to creep up.

Hoare asked what MPs should tell constituents who ask “if other people don’t abide by it why on earth should we” because “we know what your views are, frankly prime minister, I don’t think anybody understands why you hold those views”.

Johnson replied:

I don’t think that’s true about how the British people will respond to the next phases, to how to work the test and trace system, I don’t think that’s how they responded at all throughout the crisis.

If, just suppose for a second that you were right, which I don’t accept, all the more reason now for us to be consistent and clear in our message driving those key messages.

Updated

But anger is growing and reaching fever-pitch, Wishart says.

You know that eventually you’ll have to let him go, why not just get on with it?

Johnson says he considers the government needs to focus on getting its message across.

Wishart says his inbox, and that of so many MPs, is full of messages from constituents who haven’t seen loved ones in so long.

To them, this looks like one rule for him [Cummings] and one rule for them, he adds.

He wouldn’t say sorry, will you say sorry on his behalf, Wishart asks the PM.

Johnson says he is sorry for the pain, the anguish and the heartbreak people have felt.

He says we need to set aside this row – and a lot of allegations turned out to be wrong, he adds.

It’s a distraction, the prime minister says, and it’s time to move on.

You’ve managed to unite the nation in condemnation and indignation over your handling of Cummings, the SNP’s Pete Wishart says.

80% of the British public feel he broke the rules, 63% think you should sack him, but most worryingly, 65% say his conduct make it less likely the public will now follow lockdown rules, he adds.

Surely no man is more important than keeping this nation safe, Wishart asks.

Johnson says a lot of what was said on Friday and Saturday was “false” and his adviser has “cleared that up”.

He says Wishart is making “party political points”.

He respectfully disagrees that the message is unclear.

He says the best thing would be is for us to move on.

We need to move on, says Johnson

It’s unprecedented for an adviser to have their own press conference, how was the cabinet consulted before agreeing to this, Jenkin asks.

Johnson said he thought it would be good for people to understand what took place.

It’s been a very frustrating episode, the prime minister adds.

We need to move on and get onto how we deal with coronavirus, he adds.

Jenkin asks what advice he has sought from the cabinet secretary on compliance with the code and the matter of integrity in the code.

Johnson says he has no reason to believe there is any descent from what was said a few days ago.

Jenkin then asks if the cabinet secretary has had the opportunity to ask Cummings questions himself.

Johnson says he won’t go into the discussions that have happened.

Inquiry into Cummings's actions 'not a good use of official time' says Johnson

The committee is “extremely concerned” about his senior adviser, Jenkin says.

Polls suggest the vast majority of the public believe he did break the lockdown rules, how much do you think this undermines the authority of the government at a time when public confidence in the government is so important?

Johnson says he’s deeply sorry for the anxiety and hurt people have been through in this period.

He says there has been a lot of “autobiography” on this and he doesn’t propose to add to this.

Jenkin asks why the cabinet secretary hasn’t been invited to conduct an independent inquiry in order to give independent advice on this.

Johnson says it’s a reasonable question but there has been lengthy discussion on this and he isn’t certain that an inquiry into this right now is a very good use of official time.

Updated

The last time a prime minister appeared before the committee was 12 months ago, Sir Bernard Jenkin, the committee chairman, said.

Can you, prime minister, commit to attending regularly this and again before summer recess?

Boris Johnson asks if he can get back to him on that as “there is a lot on at the moment” and his time is scarce.

Updated

Boris Johnson probed by senior MPs over Cummings row and pandemic response

The prime minister is in for a grilling from senior MPs at the powerful liaison committee, due to begin shortly.

Updated

A rainbow bench near the City of London in tribute to the NHS.
A rainbow bench near the City of London in tribute to the NHS. Photograph: Paul Insect/Block London Furniture/PA

Updated

The UK is unlikely to get a fishing deal that will unlock the latest Brexit impasse by the deadline of 30 June, Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator has said.

Despite reports that the EU was willing to make concessions in order to clear the way for the wider free trade agreement, David Frost said he was not hopeful.

“I’m beginning to think we might not make it by 30 June,” he told the House of Commons Future Relationship with the EU.

He said the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier had dropped hints that the EU’s position may not be “completely realistic position” but the UK could not accept the status quo, nor did it support the EU’s insistence that a full trade deal was contingent on fishing agreements.

The row centres on continued access to British waters with the EU arguing that while the UK takes back control of the seas it relies on the single market to sell its catch.

More than 770,000 people have signed a petition calling for Dominic Cummings to be sacked.

The change.org petition was set up on Saturday and has racked up thousands of signatures over the last few days. All the while a growing number of Tory MPs continue to join calls for the prime minister’s key aide to either resign or be dismissed.

Fast food giant McDonald’s is rapidly expanding its store openings across the UK and Ireland and expects to have more than 1,000 restaurants reopened for drive-through or delivery by next Thursday (4 June).

Last week, it reopened 33 drive-through sites in London and the south-east but in some areas decided to close some lanes where demand “impacted local communities or the safety of our people or customers” due to lengthy queues.

The company said today every drive-through in the UK and Ireland will be reopened between Tuesday and Thursday of next week.

The exact locations will be announced on the morning they open their doors, it said, to help manage customer demand, while it is working with local authorities and the police over openings.

Updated

Further evidence that the Dominic Cummings has ruffled feathers all over the place. Here is an exceptionally sassy Dublin airport, winning the internet.

Updated

Durham county council has advised schools that 15 June “is a more realistic date for the phased reopening to begin”.

In a statement, councillor Olwyn Gunn, cabinet member for children and young people’s services, said the priority was staff and pupil safety, adding:

We have at no point stated schools should return on 1 June.

And in the light of the new scientific advice, high infection rates and the unacceptable delays in implementing contact tracing, we believe 15 June is a more realistic timeline for all schools to work towards, subject to government scientific advice and individual school risk assessments.

Ultimately it remains a decision for schools to open when they feel it is safe to do so and I would like to place on record our sincere thanks to all headteachers and staff for the tremendous work they are doing to this end.

It comes after Downing Street reiterated that, ahead of the official legal review of the lockdown on Thursday, the government remains “hopeful” that schools could begin reopening on 1 June (see 1.07pm.).

Public telling police 'If it's OK for Cummings, it's OK for us', says commissioner

West Midlands police and crime commissioner David Jamieson said officers are reporting people breaking lockdown rules and using Dominic Cummings as an excuse, amid fears Boris Johnson’s key aide’s actions are undermining the government’s public health messaging.

Jamieson told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme that people are telling officers that “if it is OK for Cummings, it is OK for us” and “it looks like there is one rule for us and another rule for the people in No 10 Downing Street”.

He said:

Now you can’t ... if the rules are flexible, and people seem to have interpreted them who are at the heart of government, then it is almost impossible then for police officers to be able to carry out their job effectively.

What the police are now saying to me is they are getting quite a push back, not just from some of the younger people who previously where saying why can’t I play football, why can’t I go out in the streets? They’re getting push backs from other generations of people as well.

Now that is a bad sign, showing that confidence in the rules, confidence in government and thereby the police’s ability to enforce it has been undermined very much in the last few days.

Updated

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has told reporters that the Cummings controversy has had a “real impact in our fight against this virus”, with a clear increase of people breaking lockdown rules on social distancing and gathering in groups.

Bev Hughes, the deputy mayor and lead on policing, told a virtual press conference that resulting confusion over what is and isn’t allowed has made it “almost impossible for police to deal with” infringements. She added:

It’s difficult to see a role for police in maintaining social distancing rules.

Hughes said there were clearly more group gatherings over the weekend but police issued just five fixed penalty fines, all to people who had driven to Greater Manchester from Birmingham.

Covid-19 remains a significant problem in the north-west. There were 349 new cases in Greater Manchester over the past week, said Burnham, representing a gradual slowing of the virus.

But he warned that 25 people were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 yesterday, up from 18 the previous Tuesday. Sixty-five people are currently in intensive care in Greater Manchester hospitals, down from 77 last week.

Burnham said he had “significant concerns” after hearing the health secretary, Matt Hancock, float the idea of local lockdowns to deal with flare-ups in particular communities. He said:

It would be a real challenge with regards to the enforceability of any lockdown and indeed the fairness.

If we rush into a local lockdown policy I think it’s a recipe for chaos.

He also complained that Greater Manchester had received “minimal” information from the government about how these local lockdowns would work, adding:

We are in the dark as to this policy even though it will have a major impact on us. I’m afraid it follows a pattern on PPE and testing and now this.

Hi everyone. I’m Lucy Campbell, back from lunch. Please do continue to get in touch throughout the day with news tips and stories we should be covering.

Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_

Mike Freer, Conservative member of parliament for Finchley and Golders Green and government whip, has said he would not have done what Dominic Cummings did. In a letter to his constituents who raised complaints, he said:

I certainly would not have taken the actions Mr Cummings did. There is an argument that can be made for Mr Cummings’ trip, and I know that many will understand his actions as a father. Of course, it is entirely reasonable for people to vehemently disagree with his view of events. I do not believe it is the conclusion many of my constituents, or myself, would have reached. Many would simply not have taken this course of action.

I completely understand the anger with which you write, especially as the British public have given up so much to help fight this virus. Please be assured that the full feeling of my constituents is always passed on to relevant ministers, including the Prime Minister.

As a government minister, I am in the privileged position of being able to ensure your views, the strength of your views, alongside my own views, are conveyed directly to the prime minister. I take my role in representing the constituency very seriously and in my experience, firm but private representations are more effective than public denunciations.

Updated

The chief executive of NHS Providers has said healthcare professionals would like “dots to be joined up” with the government’s track and trace plan.

Chris Hopson told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One Programme:

I think what we’re saying here is we are about to enter a dangerous phase, but if we haven’t got the track, test and isolate infrastructure in place, and if we’ve got confidence and trust in the guidelines starting to reduce, that feels to us to be really quite a dangerous position.

So if I was one of those select committee chairman, I would be asking the question - prime minister, given we’re not going to have the world-class test and trace in by June 1, when will it be available?

How can you restore the trust and confidence in the social distancing guidelines that has been lost over the last four days, given that we are entering this dangerous phase?”

Asked why the government’s system would not be world class, Hopson said “we need to build local test and trace capacity and that is simply not going to be in place”.

Updated

A retired doctor who set up the UK’s first Covid-19 contact-tracing scheme has warned the government faces major challenges after they struggled to persuade health and care workers to self-isolate.

Dr Bing Jones told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme that only a third of people involved in their testing scheme agreed to self-isolate.

He said: “The other two-thirds were mostly co-operative but we didn’t complete the follow-up. One of the reasons was that three-quarters of these people who we were unable to follow, so that is around 30 people, were employed in the health service or care homes or home care.

“They generally said ‘we’d like to help but I discussed it with my manager and my manager says no’.”

He added that “this is a major challenge for the government”.

Greg Fell, a director of Public Health in Sheffield, added: “I hope the app will do what it was built to do but certainly I’m not building my hopes and aspirations about the app being there to save us. I’m building my hopes and aspirations about having skilled humans.”

Updated

Hello everyone. I am covering the blog for an hour while Lucy Campbell takes a well-earned lunch break. Please do get in touch to share any news tips or information with me.

Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com

The schools minister, Nick Gibb, has told MPs it is “difficult to say” whether the government’s ambition for primary schools to reopen to all pupils this summer term will be met.

He told the education select committee that the final decision on the wider reopening of primary schools before September will depend on whether transmission rates continue to decline.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is pushing for pupils in reception, year one and year six at English primaries to return from 1 June, to be followed soon after by other years.

Gibb said:

We don’t know [this will happen] until we see more evidence of the R factor continuing to reduce over the next few weeks.

The R number refers to the average number of people that will contract coronavirus from an infected person.

Gibb confirmed that a decision on reception, year 1 and year 6 pupils will be taken on Thursday after the government has reviewed the latest scientific evidence.

He added that rotas could be introduced if primary schools also reopened to other years to ensure physical distancing takes place.

Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis raised concerns that the furore over Dominic Cummings refusing to apologise for breaking lockdown rules had undermined parents’ and teachers’ confidence in the government’s plans, to which Gibb responded:

The more we all adhere to the rules, the more that we’ll be able to make further progress in reopening schools.

Meanwhile, the NEU teaching union has written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, criticising the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ advice on reopening schools.

Among the concerns raised in the letter is the issue of regional variations in the R number, which was also raised in the select committee hearing. The Labour MP for Gateshead, Ian Mearns, pointed out it was five times higher in his constituency than in Cornwall.

Updated

No 10 lobby briefing – key points

Here are some of the main points from this afternoon’s lobby briefing.

Downing Street defended not carrying out a review into fines issued to families who travelled to get childcare during lockdown.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said:

We’re confident that the police will use their common sense and discretion, they have been very clear throughout that they will explain, encourage and finally enforce fines are always used by police as a last resort.

Boris Johnson maintains his position that Dominic Cummings acted legally and with integrity despite a Tory backlash and opinion polls suggesting the public disagree.

The spokesman said:

The PM set out on Monday night when he was asked about this that people would have to make up their own minds.

He said his own conclusion was Dominic Cummings acted reasonably, legally and with integrity and care for his family and for others.

He noted that the PM said reasonable people may disagree with some of the decisions but not his aide’s motivation, adding:

From the prime minister’s view, he concluded that Dominic Cummings acted reasonably and legally.

Downing Street said the Treasury’s schemes will help the economy bounce back after the latest figures showing their cost were published.

The spokesman told the briefing:

The Bank of England and the OBR have both said that without these schemes the impact on our economy would’ve been much worse.

The schemes put us and businesses across the UK in a strong position to bounce back in the future and carry on delivering the agenda set out earlier this year at the budget.

Downing Street said it is “hopeful” that schools could begin reopening on 1 June ahead of the official legal review into the lockdown on Thursday.

The spokesman said:

The PM said on Sunday night the final decision will be taken as part of the formal review into lockdown measures, which the law requires us to undertake by Thursday.

That formal review will happen tomorrow and we are hopeful, without prejudging it, that we will be able to proceed with the reopening schools on June 1.

Downing Street denied that the PM outlined plans to reopen schools to distract from the Dominic Cummings furore.

The PM’s spokesman said:

No, absolutely not. I’ve been asked here day after day when we were going to say to schools what our position was because they needed a significant period of notice to start planning for the reopening, so the PM’s timing reflects that and nothing else.

Downing Street said the lockdown review should be announced at the daily press conference on Thursday after ministers consider Sage advice.

The spokesman added:

Cabinet has discussed the road map and the decision which the government would like to implement on the proviso that it’s in line with the five tests and any package we bring forward wouldn’t risk a second spike in the virus that would overwhelm the NHS.

A further cabinet meeting was not expected on Thursday, he added.

Downing Street remains confident of hitting the 200,000 target for testing capacity by Monday, with that ability standing at 154,120 in the 24 hours up to 9am on Tuesday.

Asked if the target will be met, the PM’s official spokesman said:

Yes, that’s right. It’s in tandem with the commitment we have to have the tracing and testing scheme in place on Monday.

Updated

The prime minister missed vital meetings on coronavirus and had barely been seen for weeks, but for Dominic Cummings he’s fought tooth-and-nail, writes Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty.

An extract from this week’s column reads:

Soon will come a point when the memes peter out and the media scrum disperses. What will be left is a historic economic depression and a public realisation that far more people have died in this pandemic than in the Blitz, thanks to an administration that could barely bring itself to care for anyone beyond its own senior members.

And here is the full piece.

Updated

At first minister’s questions, Nicola Sturgeon was challenged repeatedly about the hundreds of older people who were discharged from hospital in the early days of the pandemic to care homes, without being tested for coronavirus.

The first minister has previously accepted she cannot say for certain whether people died as a result of being discharged from hospital into care homes.

Last week the Scottish health secretary, Jeane Freeman, said 921 “delayed discharge” patients were moved to care homes in March, yet mandatory testing of all those being moved into care homes only started on 21 April, raising fears the untested patients transferred from hospitals took the infection into homes with fatal results.

Sturgeon said she could see “with everything we know now, people will look and ask why”, but asked people to appreciate that at the time hospitals were expecting “a tsumani” of cases and to leave older people in hospital would have put them at huge risk.

The Scottish Conservative leader, Jackson Carlaw, described the untested discharges as a “national scandal”, and Sturgeon assured him that the promised public inquiry into the response to the pandemic would “undoubtedly include what happened in care homes”.

But she told the Holyrood chamber that she had taken “the best decisions I can every step of the way, based on the best information and evidence I had at the time”.

She added that she would “not shy away [from admitting to] instances where had I known then what I know now I might have come to different conclusions. But that is what leadership means, you have to make the tough calls when they fall to be made, you can’t hide away with your head down and hope it all goes away.”

Updated

Senior MPs to grill Boris Johnson on coronavirus response and Cummings

Boris Johnson will be questioned by senior MPs as he faces a growing Tory revolt and plummeting poll ratings over the Dominic Cummings row.

The prime minister will appear before the powerful liaison committee – the only committee with the authority to question the PM – at 4pm. The group of senior MPs are to grill Johnson on all aspects of his response to the coronavirus crisis, including over his most senior adviser Dominic Cummings’ 260-mile lockdown trip to Durham.

It is understood that parliamentarians will have 20 minutes at the start of the session to interrogate the prime minister on the Cummings affair, while other aspects of the government’s handling of the lockdown are set to be discussed in three other 20-minute periods.

About 40 Tory MPs have called for Cummings to go and, despite expressing public support for the PM’s chief adviser, there are reports of private dissatisfaction among cabinet members who also believe he must go.

Updated

A road sign that says ‘Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives’ alongside an additional sign, added by members of the public, stating ‘Except Dominic Cummings’ in Bridport, England.
A road sign that says ‘Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives’ alongside an additional sign, added by members of the public, stating ‘Except Dominic Cummings’ in Bridport, England. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

The latest figures from the National Records of Scotland show the fourth consecutive weekly reduction of deaths involving Covid-19.

With lockdown restrictions easing across the country on Thursday, the new data reveals a decrease of a third in death registrations relating to the virus, from 335 the previous week to 230 between 18 and 24 May.

This means that as of 24 May, there have been a total of 3,779 deaths in Scotland where the virus was mentioned on the death certificate.

It’s still the case that more than half of all registered deaths involving Covid-19 in week 21 occurred in care homes, standing at 54%, compared with a previous peak of 60% in week 18. Three-quarters (76%) of registered deaths involving Covid-19 to date were people aged 75 or over.

The total number of deaths registered in Scotland from 18-24 May was 17% higher than the average number of deaths registered in the same week over the last five years, but the number of excess deaths has been decreasing week on week over the past six weeks.

The report also notes fewer deaths from respiratory diseases, circulatory conditions, and dementia and Alzheimer’s compared with the average for this time of year.

Updated

The Dominic Cummings saga shows no sign of letting up and government ministers have repeatedly defended his actions as coming down to his family’s “exceptional circumstances”, ie needing childcare if both he and his wife became ill with the virus.

However, several readers have been in touch over the last few days to highlight the precise point made in this piece – that the “exceptional circumstances” clause was added to the lockdown guidelines to safeguard women and children in domestic abuse households. It stated that lockdown rules could be broken in these exceptional circumstances, to protect vulnerable people from abuse and neglect.

There is thus the perception that Cummings is exploiting a rule meant for abuse victims, and the government continues to defend him for doing so.

Updated

Calls to the Refuge charity’s domestic abuse helpline have increased by two-thirds since lockdown started, while website visits have risen nearly tenfold.

The charity said it had seen a 66% rise in demand for its 24-hour 0808 2000 247 helpline since the nation was ordered to stay indoors and more women ended up trapped inside with abusive partners.

Meanwhile, visits to the service’s helpline website, where women can confidentially ask for a safe time to be contacted, have soared by 950% since 23 March, it added.

The chief executive, Sandra Horley, said:

Right now women’s lives depend on them being able to access the specialist services Refuge provides, and now, more than ever, we must continue to provide the confidential support needed.

While lockdown itself does not cause domestic abuse, it can aggravate pre-existing behaviours in abusive partners. Women up and down the country are isolated with abusive partners – and children will be witnessing and in some cases experiencing domestic abuse.

This is a terrifying ordeal and Refuge wants women to know they are not alone.

Last week, the director of public prosecutions, Max Hill QC, said domestic abuse cases were among those being treated “as a priority”.

He told the Commons justice committee:

We are as alarmed as anybody by the very difficult position that, in the main, women are put in, particularly in some communities, in enforced lockdown.

It is very important that we say publicly that we are there to deal with those cases.

The security minister, James Brokenshire, also announced the government was looking at implementing a “key word” system to help victims alert people such as shop workers during a rare trip outside the home that they need help.

Updated

Good morning. I’m Lucy Campbell, taking over the blog for the remainder of the day. As always, please do feel free to get in touch with news tips and comments!

Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_

ONS: men doing less unpaid labour than women

More evidence exposing a lack of equality in the home and at work, this time from the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS has found that men are doing more than an hour less unpaid labour than women each day, despite increasing their responsibilities during the coronavirus lockdown.

Time spent on childcare has risen by more than a third (35%) during the lockdown, while help from grandparents has plummeted 90%, according to the ONS survey.

Men increased their unpaid labour, such as caring for children or adults, housework and volunteering, by 22 minutes to two hours and 25 minutes a day, the study found.

But while women’s burden was reduced by 20 minutes a day, to three hours and 32 minutes, they are still giving an hour and seven minutes more of their time than men.

The time use survey compared data from 28 March to 26 April with figures from the previous study between April 2014 and December 2015.

The study found people with low household incomes have been spending more time doing paid work since the lockdown began.

Those with monthly household incomes up to £1,700 have spent an extra 21 minutes a day on average doing paid work, compared with a drop of about 32 minutes for those on monthly incomes of £1,700 to £3,300.

The ONS said low-paid jobs were less likely to be able to be done from home.

Households earning up to £1,700 per month after tax were working the same amount outside the home as they were five years ago, while higher-income households were more likely to have switched to home working.

Gueorguie Vassilev of the ONS said:

These new findings show that not all households are experiencing the impacts of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in the same way.

It will be interesting to see if time use reverts to a pre-pandemic pattern after this crisis is over, or if some changes will be lasting ones.

While higher earners had seen a daily increase of 46 minutes of free time, lower earners only experienced a 19-minute increase.

Updated

Trade union membership increases by 91,000

The number of workers in a trade union increased by 91,000 last year, according to data published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The total rose to 6.44 million, the third consecutive yearly increase following a low of 6.23 million in 2016.

The proportion of workers who were trade union members increased to 23.5% in 2019, up from 23.4% a year earlier.

The rise was driven by the increase in female members, up 170,000 on the year to 3.69 million, the highest figure since the records began in 1995.

The main boost to numbers has come from the public sector, which rose by 74,000 to 3.77 million; private sector membership rose by 17,000 to 2.67 million.

The TUC said the most recent figures did not take into account increases in union membership since the coronavirus outbreak.

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said:

Today’s figures show that union membership was growing before the coronavirus crisis hit, and we know that in the last few months, thousands of workers have been turning to unions to protect their jobs, defend their rights and keep their workplaces safe.

The hard work and dedication of millions of workers has brought us through this crisis.

Ministers must put workers’ voices at the heart of their strategy, including through a national recovery council bringing together unions and employers.

Updated

The Conservatives’ poll lead over Labour has suffered a sharp week-on-week drop following the Dominic Cummings row.

A YouGov survey for the Times reveals that support for the Conservatives is down by four points to 44%, while Labour climbed five points to reach 38%.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the key findings:

The majority of voters think the media has been fair in the reporting of the row.

And 70% of Britons – and 59% of Conservative voters – say the Cummings coronavirus row will make it harder for the government to get future lockdown messaging across to the public.

Updated

Mothers doing most of the housework and childcare during lockdown

A really significant report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which has found that mothers appear to be doing most of the housework and childcare during lockdown.

The research suggests that in homes where there is a working mother and father, women are doing more chores and spending more time with children.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and University College London (UCL) interviewed 3,500 families and found mothers were only able to do one hour of uninterrupted work, for every three hours done by dads.

Lucy Kraftman, a research economist at the IFS, said the finding applied to families where a mother and father were both working, as well as to families where both parents were furloughed or out of work.

Mothers are doing, on average, more childcare and more housework than fathers who have the same work arrangements.

The only set of households where we see mothers and fathers sharing childcare and housework equally are those in which both parents were previously working, but the father has now stopped working for pay, while the mother is still in paid work.

However, mothers in these households are doing paid work during an average of five hours a day, in addition to doing the same amount of domestic work as their partner.

Mothers in two-parent households are only doing, on average, a third of the uninterrupted paid-work hours of fathers, UCL and the IFS found.

Before lockdown, mothers completed on average around 60% of the uninterrupted work hours that fathers did.

Alison Andrew from the IFS said:

A risk is that the lockdown leads to a further increase in the gender wage gap.

But her colleague, Sonya Krutikova, said the lockdown had also given some cause for hope that the future could see a more equal division of household labour between parents:

Fathers, on average, are doing nearly double the hours of childcare they were doing prior to the crisis.

This may bring about changes in the attitudes of fathers, mothers, children and employers about the role of fathers in meeting family needs for childcare and domestic work during the working week.

Sam Smethers, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said:

This data reveals the motherhood penalty multiplied by the effects of the lockdown and confirms what we have feared. This will reverse decades of progress on women’s participation in the labour market unless the government intervenes to address it. Leaving women behind means we risk no economic recovery at all.

What this study shows is that we are going backwards and that is extremely worrying. There is also the real prospect of two-tier workplaces as the lockdown is eased with men getting back into work and women still left at home caring for children, without nursery places or schools fully open for months.

Government must now prioritise strategic investment to create a childcare infrastructure, reform parental leave, to equalise parenting in a child’s first year and normalise flexible and remote working in the post-Covid economy. And they could also relieve the financial pressure on parents by increasing child benefit.

Updated

Three Tory MPs newly elected to seats in County Durham issued a statement last night to express their disappointment in Dominic Cummings – but stopped short of calling for him to resign.

In their joint statement, Richard Holden (North West Durham), Dehenna Davison (Bishop Auckland) and Paul Howell (in Tony Blair’s former seat of Sedgefield), said they would not have done the same as Cummings, particularly not the 30-mile trip to Barnard Castle to “test” his eyesight.

But they said they accepted he was “motivated out of his desire as a parent to do what he thought was necessary in protecting his family”.

This is the full statement.

Updated

I’m making no apologies for posting a few pictures of some happy, in-love people this morning.

Here is ambulatory emergency nurse Jann Tipping, 34, and acute medical registrar Annalan Navaratnam, 30, who have got married at the hospital where they work.

They were married by the Rev Mia Hilborn (who I interviewed about her work when the NHS turned 70, incidentally) in the Grade II-listed chapel at London’s St Thomas’ hospital.

Tipping said they “wanted to make sure we could celebrate while we were all still able to even if it meant our loved ones having to watch us on a screen” and described the wedding on 24 April as “intimate” and “lovely”, but added it felt “surreal” getting married where they both work.

Navaratnam said they were “so happy that we have been able to commit ourselves to one another”.

They had a virtual drinks reception, including a first dance and speeches.

Congratulations Jann and Annalan!

Updated

Halfords is set to reopen 53 stores to deal with a surge in bike sales since the government relaxed lockdown rules and encouraged commuting that avoids public transport.

The stores, spread across the country, will allow a limited number of shoppers through its doors under a model bosses want to call “Retail Lite”.

The decision comes a day after the government said most non-essential retailers could reopen from June 15.

Halford’s had been permitted to open during the strict lockdown, but shut its shops, allowing only purchases from outside or online.

New rules include reduced customers, queuing marshals, safety notices and floor markings, sneeze screen visors for staff and instructions to customers not to handle or try on products.

The chief executive, Graham Stapleton, said:

There has been a big surge in demand for our bike products and services as people have taken to cycling during the lockdown, both for commuting and for fun.

We are also anticipating a similar level of demand for our motoring products and services in the coming days, as people begin to use vehicles again that in some cases will have been off the road for many weeks.

Updated

It's time to 'move on' from Cummings saga, says Jenrick

Meanwhile, the housing, communities and local government secretary, Robert Jenrick, has said it is time to “move on” from the Cummings scandal.

Asked if he believes Boris Johnson’s chief adviser should resign, Jenrick told the BBC’s Breakfast programme:

No, he shouldn’t. He has given his explanation to the prime minister, who listened and concluded that he’d acted reasonably and legally.

The prime minister then asked him to give that statement on Monday to the public and to answer questions from journalists.He answered them for over an hour and now, I think, is the time for us all to move on.

That’s not to say this isn’t an important issue or that people don’t care about it, but I think there’s a lot more that we need to focus on now.

Jenrick said the explanation given by Cummings over his reasons for travelling to Durham was “reasonable”. Asked if he could understand the anger of the public over the issue, Jenrick said:

I can and many people would disagree with the decisions that Dominic Cummings made, both members of the public and members of Parliament.

But he set out why he made those decisions and his motivations, which were to protect his unwell wife and his young child, and to self-isolate at a household somewhere where he believed he could get the childcare and support that they needed.

I think that that’s a reasonable explanation and it’s a legal one, it doesn’t look as if any of the guidelines or the rules have been broken.

My view is that now we accept that and we move on because there are many, many more important issues that we need to be talking about.

Jenrick said there will not be a review of UK lockdown fines for childcare-related travel.

Here isn’t going to be a formal review. It’s for the police to decide whether to impose fines under the law.

They have the guidance that we’ve provided and the national police chiefs have provided their own guidance, which does give officers a degree of discretion to use their common sense, reflecting the fact that all of our circumstances are different and families, in particular, face particular challenges.

They are encouraging their officers to engage in the first instance, to explain and to resort to fines only where absolutely necessary and in most cases that is what’s happened.

Updated

Johnson must take responsibility over Cummings controversy, says Labour

The shadow foreign and commonwealth affairs secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said the prime minister must take responsibility over the scandal surrounding his adviser Dominic Cummings.

Speaking on the BBC’s Breakfast programme, the Labour MP said:

The prime minister has got to take responsibility for this now. He’s got to decide whether he can actually account for why that situation was so unique that the rules had to be broken and if he can’t, then I think it’s right that he should take action to restore public confidence.

At the moment, we’ve got a situation where both the prime minister and his own adviser are just refusing to resign or to sack him, and also refusing to answer basic questions.

That’s just not sustainable. Something has got to change and it’s got to change very, very quickly if the public are going to have confidence.

Updated

Conservative former MP Dr Sarah Wollaston has added her voice to calls that Dominic Cummings must be sacked.

Wollaston, who previously chaired the liaison committee, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that she would urge Boris Johnson “unequivocally” to sack the prime minster’s chief adviser over his trip to Durham from London.

She said:

You cannot put one single special adviser above the public health of the nation and put the health of the nation at risk just to protect somebody who’s clearly not being straight with the public.

The principle that there’s one rule for you, one rule for everybody else, it just won’t wash and he has to go.

Updated

Vicar 'disappointed' there will be no official review of lockdown fines for childcare reasons

The Rev Martin Poole, the Church of England vicar who last night put health secretary Matt Hancock on the spot by asking if fines given to people travelling for childcare reasons during the lockdown will be looked into by the government, has been on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.

Hancock said during the press briefing that it was a “perfectly reasonable” question to ask and he would ask the Treasury about the penalty notices, which were initially £60 and later rose to £100, which were given to people breaching the lockdown rules.

But Poole said this morning he was “disappointed” that shortly after government advisers stressed that Hancock had been asked about another government policy area and had not promised an official review but only to look into the issue. The Home Office, rather than the Treasury, will look into the issue.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Poole said:

I took [Hancock] at his word that he would go away and have some discussions and that was really nice to hear. It’s a little disappointing to hear afterwards that they’ve rowed back on that a bit.

What I want is honesty from Government all the time and if their response is they can’t review things or they don’t want to, I accept that they’ll say that.

But I do feel that if there are people with children, who have been fined for doing that, then they’ll want some sort of recourse.

Asked if he knew of any families who had been fined, he added:

I don’t know anyone who has, but I know plenty of people where both parents (are) sick with small children and have deliberately stayed in because that’s what they understood the rules to say.

And I think, more widely, there’s just that feeling that there’s a different set of rules for those in leadership than there are for the rest of us.

Here’s our original story:

Updated

Good morning to all of our readers around the world and in the UK.

Here the row over the prime minister’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings continues to rumble on. Here’s a quick roundup of our main stories:

Updated

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