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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

UK Covid: Priti Patel announces £800 house party fine; 1,290 further Covid-related deaths reported - as it happened

Early evening summary

Next week we will be introducing a new £800 fine for those attending house parties, which will double for each repeat offence to a maximum level of £6,400.

These fines will apply to those who attend illegal gatherings of more than 15 people in homes.

The science is clear: such irresponsible behaviour poses a significant threat to public - not only to those in attendance, but also to the wonderful police officers who attend to shut down these events.

  • The power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland has decided to extend its lockdown until 5 March. At a news conference Arlene Foster, the first minister, said:

The executive today has reviewed the current restrictions and agreed that they remain an appropriate and necessary response to the serious and imminent threat posed by Covid-19.

Following a detailed outline from health highlighting continuing pressures on hospitals and intensive care units and the emergence of highly-transmissible variants the executive has agreed that the restrictions will be extended for four weeks until March 5 2021.

  • The UK vaccination programme has recorded its best day so far, with 363,508 people vaccinate, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has said.

That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.

Updated

Tory Covid Recovery Group says ministers should announce plan now to ease restrictions from 8 March

With Boris Johnson playing down the prospect of an early release from the lockdown, the Covid Recovery Group, which represents Tory MPs pushing for restrictions to be lifted, has renewed its call for the measures to be eased from early March. In a statement its chairman, the Conservative MP Mark Harper, said:

Once the top four risk groups have been vaccinated and fully protected by 8 March - assuming the government hits the 15 February deadline - the government must start easing the restrictions.

Vaccinations will of course bring immunity from Covid, but they must bring immunity from lockdowns and restrictions too.

Of course we must relax restrictions in a way that is proportionate and safe. The top four at-risk groups account for about 88% of deaths and about 55% of hospitalisations from Covid - that gives us a good guide to the reduction in risk and therefore a roadmap to the rollback of restrictions.

Ministers must come forward now with a plan for lifting restrictions. People must see light at the end of the tunnel and feel hope for the future, and businesses need to be able to plan our recovery as more and more of the vaccinations are rolled out to the most vulnerable groups.

Mark Harper.
Mark Harper. Photograph: PRU/AFP/Getty Images

Q: Was it a mistake to ease restrictions over Christmas given how high the death toll now?

Patel says every death is tragedy. But the government has always acted on the basis of scientific advice. That has always been the case and remains the case, she says.

Q: Would you introduce fines for people who jump the queue for vaccines?

Patel says she agrees that doing this is reprehensible. All measures are kept under review, she says.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Updated

Q: Is the government considering putting new arrivals to the UK in hotels? (See 3.02pm.)

Patel says those are “speculative measures”. She says strong measures are already in place.

Q: Are you disappointed that No 10 has ruled out including police officers in the first wave of the vaccination programme?

Patel says this a decision for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. But she says she is working on ensuring the police can be prioritised in phase two.

Hewitt says he would like to see police officers vaccinated as a priority.

Q: What proportion of people are refusing to have vaccines? And are you worried about any particular group?

Diwakar says there is a huge amount of acceptance of the vaccine from people. There is a real sense of hope.

There are communities with legitimate concerns about the vaccine. Black and Asian people have longstanding concerns, going back generations to when unethical experiments were carried out in the last century. He says the government will be tireless in addressing these concerns.

Updated

From my colleague Peter Walker

Q: Are there any circumstances in which the government will lift the lockdown in three weeks’ time?

Patel says it is “far too early” to say or even speculate on when it might be possible to lift the restrictions. The priority is to make sure the most vulnerable people are vaccinated, she says.

Diwakar says he has learnt in this pandemic that you cannot look more than a few days, or a couple of weeks, ahead. So it is too early to look ahead to the lifting of lockdown, he says.

Q: You seem to be blaming the public, when perhaps the rules are at fault. Should they be stronger?

Patel says the majority of the public are following the rules.

She says we have heard shocking examples of people breaking the rules. People want to know that people are being punished, she says.

She says it is right that the government is doing “everything at the border” to protect the rollout of the vaccine. All measures are under review. The vaccine rollout is a “great British success story”, she says. She says it is right to protect it.

Hewitt says the police are not blaming the public. They are working with the public. But you have to focus on people breaking the rules, he says. He says he does not accept that, if 150 people attend a party, they don’t know the rules.

Patel says it is too early to say whether people can safely book a foreign holiday

Q: Should people be booking a foreign summer holiday?

Patel says it is far too early to speculate on what the situation will be in the summer. We are still in lockdown, she says. She says people are not allowed to travel.

She says there are stringent measures at the borders for a very good reason - to protect health.

Diwakar repeats the point about there being “early glimmers of hope” from what the lockdown is achieving.

Q: In Northern Ireland the lockdown is being extended. Will this happen in England?

Patel says it is too early to speak about new measures. The advice now is to follow the rules, she says.

Diwakar says it is very early, but there are “some glimmers” of positive news in the numbers. Hospital admissions have stabilised, he suggests. But he says that has not fed through to figures for people in intensive care beds.

Q: Will there be tighter controls at the borders?

Patel says all measures are kept under review.

Q: Why have the definitions of key workers being broadened to allow more children to stay in schools?

Patel says in schools measures are in place to protect pupils and teachers.

(She does not even come close to addressing the question.)

She passes this on to Diwakar who says a “difficult balance” must be struck. But the key point is that schools must be safe.

(He obviously does not know anything about why the criteria were broadened either.)

Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS England regional medical director for London, is speaking now. He talks about the new vaccination centres opening in England, including one in a mosque in Birmingham. (See 4.09pm.)

He says he was horrified that some people have been trying to jump the queue for vaccine because of an IT loophole. That is “morally reprehensible”, he says, because it denies the vaccine to someone who needs it more.

Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, is speaking now.

He welcomes the announcement about the new fine. He says the police have been asking for a power like this.

There has been a significant increase in the number of fines issued to people breaching lockdown rules, he says.

He says up to Monday 250 fines had been issued by forces in England to people attending large gatherings.

He gives examples of parties the police have had to break up.

Last week in Brick Lane in London, following reports from neighbours, offices attended a house party where there were more than 40 people indoors. Those people in there were hostile to the police, three officers were injured and one actually required hospital treatment. And we also found drugs on the premises.

Patel announces new £800 fine for people attending house parties during lockdown

Patel is reading out more figures from the dashboard, including the death figures. (See 4.27pm and 4.52pm.)

She says most people are obeying the rules. But some are not.

She says she is announcing that from next week there will be a new £800 fine for people attending house parties. It will double for every repeat offence, going up to a maximum fine of £6,400.

These fines will apply to people who attend illegal gatherings of more than 15 people in homes, she says.

Patel says she wants to counter vaccine disinformation, particularly aimed at black and minority ethnic people.

She says the vaccine is safe. She would urge everyone to get it.

Priti Patel's press conference

Priti Patel, the home secretary, starts by reading out today’s vaccine figures.

And here are some more of the key figures from today’s update to the UK government’s coronavirus dashboard, which is recording 1,290 further deaths. (See 4.27pm.)

  • The daily death toll, as measured by the date on which deaths occurred, now shows more than 1,000 or more people dying every day for 10 days in a row. The headline figures announced every day are for deaths reported on a given day, but deaths by date of death are also recorded and they are in four figures for 10 days up to Monday 18 January. As the figures get updated, the Tuesday and Wednesday figures are also like to pass 1,000. During the first wave of the pandemic deaths only passed 1,000 a day by date of death on one day (8 April) - although this tally only includes people who died after testing positive. During the first wave many people died from Covid without having a positive test.
  • The UK has recorded 37,892 further coronavirus cases. That is only slightly below the total for yesterday (38,905). Week on week, new cases are down 24%.
  • Hospital admission figures for the UK for the current week are now down, by 1.1%, on the total for the previous week. Yesterday they were still going up week on week (by 0.5%).
  • The total number of Covid patients in hospital in the UK was 38,676 on Tuesday, the most recent day for which figures are available. On Monday it was 39,128.
  • 4,973,248 people in the UK had had their first dose of vaccine by yesterday.
Covid dashboard
Covid dashboard Photograph: Gov.UK

Updated

Northern Ireland to extend lockdown until 5 March

Northern Ireland’s coronavirus lockdown restrictions will be extended to 5 March 5, PA Media is reporting. Its story goes on:

Stormont health minister Robin Swann proposed the step to help drive down case numbers.

Ministerial colleagues at the executive in Belfast agreed the move and there are suggestions the curbs could ultimately continue until Easter.

An extended lockdown closing non-essential retailers, keeping schools shut to most pupils and encouraging employees to work from home began after Christmas.

Family gatherings are prohibited and police enforcement has been stepped up.

Updated

The proportion of positive tests for Covid-19 in England declined for the second week in a row, according to Public Health England data to 17 January.

In week 2, 10.5% of Covid-19 tests in England came back positive, down from 13.3% the week before and 17.5% the week before that.

There was also a decline in the number of confirmed cases; however, test results for the most recent week are provisional due to a delay in processing samples.

The figure also showed hospital and ICU admissions began stabilise, but more data is needed to confirm this trend.

UK records 1,290 further coronavirus deaths

The UK has just updated its coronavirus dashboard, and it says 1,290 further Covid deaths have been recorded. That is well down on the totals recorded for yesterday (1,820 - the highest so far) and for Tuesday (1,610), but it is still very high compared with previous daily headline figures. Prior to last Tuesday, there were only two days during the entire pandemic recording daily death totals of more than 1,200. Now the seven-day rolling average is running at 1,224.

I will post more from the dashboard shortly.

Northern Ireland will extend its lockdown until 5 March, the BBC’s Jayne McCormark reports.

Here is the BBC’s full story, which also says ministers on the Northern Ireland executive were told the lockdown might have to remain in place until Easter.

Updated

The Al-Abbas Islamic Centre in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, opened as a vaccination centre today, and is expected to vaccinate up to 500 people a day. Sheikh Nuru Mohammed, the imam, said the programme was going well, and the first woman to be immunised was “elated and excited”. He told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One:

We believe we are together in this, we have a role to play in the fight against this pandemic. My community has had its share of Coronavirus, we’ve lost people, and so we thought we cannot sit on the periphery, sit on the fence, we need to stand up and be counted.

Secondly, fake news is making rounds and we cannot allow it to be doing the damage it is doing. Opening the mosque [for vaccinations] will send a very strong, powerful signal.

In my own community, thankfully, people are slowly but surely accepting that the way out is vaccination. We have a group of medical doctors in our community who each week answer very important questions. That is helping a lot....

I strongly believe as an imam, as a religious leader of this community, by opening our doors for this to take place we will definitely solve the problem. And our religious authorities have issued verdicts saying there is nothing wrong with this vaccination - go for it, otherwise you’ll keep on suffering from this pandemic.

People waiting to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine today at the Al-Abbas Islamic Centre in Birmingham.
People waiting to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine today at the Al-Abbas Islamic Centre in Birmingham. Photograph: Darren Staples/AFP/Getty Images

Just under a quarter of people aged over 80 in Wales have received the Covid-19 vaccine, PA Media says. Its report goes on:

Public Health Wales said 43,879 first doses had been given to the over-80s - 23.9% of the 183,394 people in that age group.

The agency confirmed 56.4% of care home residents had received their first jab, totalling 9,364 out of 16,602, while 67.5% of care home staff had been vaccinated.

There have been 86,717 jabs given to health care workers across Wales, the figures released today showed.

Here are the latest daily vaccination figures from NHS England, showing the total number of people to have received a first dose and a second dose, by region, by yesterday.

According to the government’s dashboard, which has not yet been updated since yesterday, on Tuesday the cumulative total for first doses in England was 3,985,579, implying 318,151 first doses were administered yesterday.

Latest vaccination figures up to yesterday.
Latest vaccination figures up to yesterday. Photograph: NHS England

Dr Marc Baguelin, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), one of the groups that feeds advice into Sage, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, told the World at One that bars and restaurants should not reopen before May.

He told the programme:

We looked at the partial reopening [of the hospitality sector] and the increase in the R number; it will generate an increase in the R number, the extent of which we don’t know really.

Something of this scale, if it was to happen earlier than May, would generate a bump in transmission, which is already really bad.

So you have a lot of pressure on hospitals, you will have another wave of some extent.

At best you will keep on having very, very unsustainable levels of pressure on the NHS.

Updated

Northern Ireland has recorded 21 further Covid deaths (up from 16 a week ago today) and 732 further cases (down from 973 a week ago).

Julian Knight, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons culture committee, has said that the cancellation of Glastonbury this year is “devastating” and that the government should be doing more to protect music festivals.

Public Health Wales has recorded 46 more Covid deaths (down from 54 a week ago today) and 1,153 further cases (down from 1,644 a week ago today).

Public Health England has published its latest weekly Covid surveillance report (pdf). It covers the period to the end of last week, and it says case rates are falling in all regions, but remain highest in London.

Updated

On his visit to Didsbury, south Manchester, to inspect damage caused by the flooding, Boris Johnson said he was a passionate believer in the value of planting trees as a means of reducing the risk from flooding. He said:

One idea that everybody in the Environment Agency talks about, and I believe in absolutely passionately, is planting trees on the higher ground to help absorb some of that rainfall, to help mitigate the effects of flooding.

This government has a very ambitious tree-planting programme, but, in my view, we’re not going fast enough.

As the spring comes and we come out of the pandemic, we’re going to want to see a lot done to build in long-term resilience against flooding and against climate change, and planting trees is a big part of that.

He also said the government had spent £60m on flood defences in the Greater Manchester area, and that another £20m would be spent as part of a £5.2bn programme of flood defences over the next six years.

Boris Johnson talking to the media during his visit to Manchester.
Boris Johnson talking to the media during his visit to Manchester. Photograph: Paul Ellis/PA

Updated

Ministers from the Northern Ireland executive have been meeting today and, according to the BBC’s Jayne McCormack, they are considering a recommendation to extend their lockdown until 5 March, with the possibility that it could be extended until Easter.

According to a report in today’s Telegraph (paywall), hotel groups have begun talks with the government about the possibility of their facilities being used as quarantine centres for people arriving in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer said he was not against the idea, but that what mattered most was that checks are carried out to ensure people are complying with quarantine, not where people stay. He said:

The most important thing is not where somebody is located but are we checking? Is the system really working? That’s been the structural flaw since the start.

It would be easier to monitor [in hotels] but the central question for the government is why have you been so slow with borders.

I’m not against hotels but I don’t think that’s the answer.

Wherever people go are they being checked on, that’s the critical question. If that works better in hotels, then so be it. I don’t stand or fall on hotels, I stand or fall on how well the system works.

Vaccine supplies to the north-east and Yorkshire will be halved next week, mainly to allow other regions to catch up with the progress they have been making, the Health Service Journal reports.

In its story, which it attributes to well-placed sources, the HSJ says this will mean around 100,000 doses will be available for vaccination centres in the region run by GPs, where most vaccinations are taking place – down from around 200,000 this week.

The HSJ says people have been told “the main reason is that large parts of the north-east and Yorkshire have vaccinated a greater percentage of their population than other regions, including very many of the over-80s, meaning they are more quickly moving on to groups under 80”.

Updated

People queuing today to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccination centre at the Bournemouth International Centre
People queueing today to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccination centre at the Bournemouth International Centre Photograph: Matthew Childs/Reuters

Updated

One in 10 major hospital trusts had no spare adult critical care beds last week, NHS England figures show. The report from PA Media goes on:

Some 15 out of 140 acute trusts reported 100% occupancy of all “open” beds each day from January 11 to 17.

These included University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, one of the largest trusts in England, along with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust and Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust, both in south-east England.

The figure is up slightly on 12 out of 140 acute trusts that reported 100% occupancy of beds each day from January 4 to 10.

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre confirmed it has abandoned plans to stage 101 Dalmatians this year, PA Media reports. The central London venue said it appears likely that coronavirus restrictions will be in place when rehearsals are scheduled to begin in March and that social distancing will remain in force during the performance period.

Updated

NHS England has released regional vaccination figures for England. Here is the key chart showing the number of people vaccinated region by region up to Sunday 17 January.

Regional vaccination figures
Regional vaccination figures Photograph: NHS England

Boris Johnson speaking to residents during his visit to Withington in Manchester, to inspect flood damage.
Boris Johnson speaking to residents during his visit to Withington in Manchester, to inspect flood damage. Photograph: Reuters

NHS England has recorded 789 further coronavirus hospital deaths. That is lower than the total for yesterday (1,027 - a record high) and lower than the total for Thursday last week (884). The details are here.

Updated

Tory war on 'woke' suffers setback as No 10 spokesman says he's not sure what term means

At the Downing Street lobby briefing there was an attempt - sadly, unsuccessful - to get some clarification from the prime minister’s spokesman as to whether or not Boris Johnson sees himself as “woke”. This followed last night’s surprising “woke U-turn”. Since the general election Tory ministers have generally been all too happy to condemn all things “woke” (in what seems to be a fairly transparent attempt to goad Labour into a culture war) and this reached its apotheosis on Sunday, when Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, used an article in the Sunday Telegraph to protect statues from “town hall militants and woke worthies”. Amanda Milling, the Conservative party co-chairman, was at it again today.

But last night Johnson declared “there’s nothing wrong with being ‘woke’”. He made the comment in an interview with Sky’s Sam Coates, who asked him if he thought President Biden was “woke”. It was a brilliant question that left Johnson improvising desperately as he tried to come up with an answer acceptable to both the White House and the diehards at Telegraph Towers and CCHQ.

But when asked at the lobby briefing if Johnson saw himself as “woke”, the spokesman said the journalists would have to define the term because he (the spokesman) was not sure what it meant.

But the spokesman did say Johnson was committed to levelling up - prompted complaints that that has nothing to do with “wokeness”. The spokesman replied:

The prime minister is clear of his belief that we need to ensure that everybody has the same opportunity up and down the country. I’m not sure what you mean specifically by being ‘woke’ but, as I say, you’ve got what the prime minister said on issues like this previously.

Updated

No 10 refuses to rule out possibility of English lockdown lasting until summer

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of the lockdown in England lasting until the summer.

Asked directly whether he could rule out the lockdown lasting into the summer, the spokesman said:

We will continue to keep all of the scientific evidence and data under review. It remains our position that we want to ease restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so, but in order for us to do that we need to see the transmission rates of the virus come down and we need to see the pressure on the NHS reduce.

In 2016, when Boris Johnson was mayor of London, he infuriated Barack Obama by writing an article in the Sun implying the Obama’s anti-Britishness helped to explain why a bust of Winston Churchill had been removed from the Oval office. Obama responded at a press conference, saying that in fact he loved Churchill.

Now Joe Biden has also marked his arrival in the Oval Office by removing a bust of Churchill. But, at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the prime minister’s spokesman refused to offer any criticism. Asked about Biden’s decision, the spokesman said:

The Oval Office is the president’s private office and it’s up to the president to decorate it as he wishes.

I would point you back to what the prime minister has said previously about looking forward to working closely with Joe Biden.

We’re in no doubt of the importance that president Biden places on the UK and US relationship, and the prime minister looks forward to having a close relationship with him.

Donald Trump showing Theresa May the bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office when she visited in 2017. The bust has now been removed.
Donald Trump showing Theresa May the bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office when she visited in 2017. The bust has now been removed.
 Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Williamson publishes plan for pupils to get university offers only after A-level results out

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, has given his backing to sweeping reform of the university admissions system, which could mean UK students will only be offered places at university once they have received their A-level results.

The radical shift, revealed in the Guardian last year, is the subject of a new government consultation in which Williamson nails his colours to the mast, calling for change to increase fairness for disadvantaged students and see off unconditional offers.

Personal statements, which prospective university students are currently required to submit as part of their application, could also be scrapped, amid criticism that they reflect the amount of support available to each applicant rather than academic ability.

Under the current system sixth-form students apply up to a year before starting university and are made offers on the basis of teacher predicted grades. Critics say that predicted grades are inaccurate and the admissions system as it stands lacks transparency.

Support has been building in the sector for a post-qualification admissions system (PQA), with both the university admissions service, Ucas, and Universities UK, which represents vice chancellors, in favour of change. The consultation warns however that despite the potential benefits, “the challenges we may face in implementation may result in the policy being unviable”.

In a foreword to the consultation, Williamson said it was becoming increasingly evident that the current system of admissions to higher education was preventing some students from reaching their full potential at the first hurdle.

By using predicted grades, it is limiting the aspirations of students before they know what they can achieve. We know that this disproportionately affects the brightest children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.I want to smash through ceilings that are preventing students from reaching their full potential, and I believe exploring this reform will help to do that.

The consultation outlines two possible approaches. In the first students would be unable to apply until after their results, with results day moved forward to the end of July, offers in September and the university start date pushed back to early October. In the second, students apply in the January ahead of their A-levels, but don’t receive offers until they get their results.

Updated

Tax Justice UK says today’s inequality figures from the ONS (see 12.46pm) show why, when taxes have to rise after the pandemic, the rich should pay most. Robert Palmer, its executive director, said:

We know that the economic impact of Covid has not been equal. During the pandemic people on lower incomes have seen a massive hit to their finances. However, these stats show that inequality was at a 10-year high, even before the pandemic struck.

But in financial terms 2020 was a bumper year for many in the middle classes, with record levels of savings for those able to work from home. We need to make sure that those with the broadest shoulders bear the lion’s share when taxes rise.

Updated

The number of Covid-19 patients in Scottish hospitals has hit a new record of 2,004 overnight, including 161 people in intensive care, amid signs the current lockdown across much of Scotland is suppressing the spread of the virus.

There were 89 deaths of people confirmed to have Covid-19 overnight, close to recent records of 93 on 8 and 9 January, and 92 on Wednesday. In all, 5,468 people with positive Covid tests have died in Scotland since the start of the pandemic.

John Swinney, the deputy first minister, admitted many Scottish hospitals were now under severe pressure dealing with the surge in cases, but said the latest assessment of the R number, the rate of community transmission, was now at about 1 for Scotland.

“That assessment produces some further evidence that the [lockdown] measures are at the very least helping stabilise cases, but numbers remain disturbingly high,” Swinney said, standing in for Nicola Sturgeon for Thursday’s daily coronavirus briefing.

The Courier newspaper in Dundee has been running a detailed tracker on its website, showing the daily data and latest seven-day trends for Scotland, at both local council and national level. It shows that Scotland’s rate of cases and test positivity rates are falling, after the main post-Christmas surge in cases.

Updated

Glastonbury cancelled for 2021 because of Covid

Glastonbury has been cancelled for 2021, the festival has announced. Michael Eavis and his daughter Emily, the organisers, have issued this statement.

Here is my colleague Laura Snapes’ story.

Updated

UK entered Covid pandemic with income inquality at 10-year high, ONS says

Household inequality in the UK was at a 10-year high in the financial year ending in March 2020, just as the Covid pandemic started, the Office for National Statistics said in a report today.

It bases this conclusion on the Gini coefficient for disposable income. The Gini coefficient is widely accepted measures of inequality where, if income or wealth were perfectly equal, a country would score 0, and if it were 100% unequal (ie, one person has everything), it would score 1.

The ONS report says:

During the 10-year period leading up to financial year ending (FYE) 2020 (April 2019 to March 2020), income inequality increased by an average of 0.2 percentage points per year to 36.3%, as measured by the Gini coefficient. This was the highest level of income inequality since FYE 2010 but was lower than levels reported during the economic downturn of FYE 2008.

Figure 1 highlights that over the 10-year period to FYE 2020, the Gini coefficient for original income (which includes sources of income from employment, private pensions, investments and other income) remained stable. However, the Gini coefficient for gross income [which includes benefits], increased by 1.8 percentage points. This highlights the diminishing effectiveness of cash benefits at reducing income inequality (demonstrated by the reduction in the gap between the Gini coefficients on original and gross income), most likely reflecting the moderation in the value of cash benefits received relative to households’ original incomes.

And here is figure 1.

Income inequality in the UK as measured by Gini coefficient
Income inequality in the UK as measured by Gini coefficient Photograph: ONS

The report also looks at four other measures of inequality. On three of them, inequality increased over the last decade, while on the fourth it was relatively stable. The ONS explains:

The characteristics of the Gini coefficient make it particularly useful for making comparisons over time, between countries and before or after taxes and benefits. However, one drawback of the Gini is that, as a single summary indicator, it cannot distinguish between different-shaped income distributions. For that reason, it is useful to look at this index alongside other measures of inequality.

One such measure is the S80/S20 ratio, which is the ratio of the total income received by the richest 20% of people to that received by the poorest 20%. In addition, the P90/P10 ratio compares the ratio of the income of the person at the bottom of the top 10% with that of the person at the top of the bottom 10%. Finally, the Palma ratio compares the ratio of the income share of the richest 10% of people with that of the poorest 40% of people. Together these measures provide further evidence on how incomes are shared across households and how this is changing over time.

In the 10-year period leading up to FYE 2020, the S80/S20 ratio increased from 5.3 to 6.2, its highest level since FYE 2008. Similarly, the P90/P10 ratio increased from 4.1 to 4.5, while the Palma ratio has remained broadly stable.

The amount of income accounted for by the richest 1% has increased by 1.3 percentage points to 8.3% between FYE 2011 and FYE 2020.

Income inequality as measured by other indicators
Income inequality as measured by other indicators Photograph: ONS

Johnson plays down prospect of early end to lockdown

Boris Johnson has recorded a clip for broadcasters during a visit to Manchester, where he has been inspecting the flood damage. Mostly he was asked about flooding, but in response to a question about coronavirus, he played down the prospect of restrictions starting to lift from late February or March. He also said that the UK was facing “a tough few weeks ahead”.

When the PM announced the lockdown on 4 January, he said the lockdown might start to lift after the February half-term. (See 9.05am.) But today, when asked if the lockdown might have to stay in place until the summer rather than until the spring, he replied:

I think it’s too early to say when we’ll be able to lift some of the restrictions.

He said 15 February was the deadline for around 15 million people in the top four priority groups to have been offered the chance to have had their first dose of vaccine. He went on:

We’ll look then at how we’re how we’re doing.

But I think what we’re seeing in the ONS data, the React survey (see 10.34am and 11.35am), we’re seeing the contagiousness of the new variants that we saw arrive just before Christmas. There’s no doubt it does spread very fast indeed. It’s not more deadly, but it is much more contagious.

So, as we get the vaccination programme out there, as we continue to expand - I think we’re up to 4.6 million people today, 5m jabs - we’ve got to observe the lockdown, the stay at home message, protect each other, protect the NHS. That is absolutely crucial in what is unquestionably going to be a tough few weeks ahead.

Boris Johnson interviewed on Sky News.
Boris Johnson interviewed on Sky News. Photograph: Sky News

Updated

Priti Patel, the home secretary, will hold a press conference in Downing Street this afternoon, No 10 has announced. She will be joined by Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS England regional medical director for London.

A total of 330,871 people tested positive for Covid-19 in England at least once in the week to 13 January, according to the latest test and trace performance figures (pdf). As PA Media reports, this is down 15% on the previous week and is the first week-on-week fall since the start of December.

Figures for people testing positive in England, week by week
Figures for people testing positive in England, week by week. Photograph: NHS test and trace

Updated

Student tuition fees in England are to be frozen for a year while the government considers changes to the loans system and the introduction of minimum entry requirements for higher education, a move described as regressive by university leaders.

Fees will remain capped at a maximum of £9,250, but the government’s “interim” response to the Augar review of post-18 education, published this morning, put off the big decisions likely to change the landscape of higher education while government efforts are focused on the pandemic.

The “interim” review did however indicate the government’s general direction of travel in higher education, confirming that it is considering imposing minimum entry requirements for prospective university students and changes to the student finance system to address the growing taxpayer subsidy.

It did not, however, address one of the key recommendations in the Augar review that tuition fees should be reduced to £7,500. The government’s full and final response to the Augar review will now be tied to the next comprehensive spending review, which is unlikely before autumn at the earliest.

The Augar review, which was set up by former prime minister Theresa May in 2017 and reported two years later, also proposed the idea of an entry tariff, which would have the effect of restricting university student numbers, but many in the sector are vehemently opposed.

Updated

Here is some comment from experts and journalists (and perhaps people who qualify as both) on today’s Imperial College React study. (See 10.34am.)

From Prof Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at St Andrews University and an adviser to the Scottish and UK governments on Covid

From Nick Triggle, the BBC’s health correspondent

John Roberts, a member of the Covid-19 Actuaries Response Group, has posted a Twitter thread on the report starting here.

And here is one of his posts.

From the Times’s Chris Smyth

From ITV’s Robert Peston

Boris Johnson has been in Didsbury, Manchester, this morning, to inspect the damage done by the recent flooding.

Boris Johnson talking to a resident who was evacuated from his home due to flooding, during his visit to a storm basin near the River Mersey in Didsbury, Manchester, this morning.
Boris Johnson talking to a resident who was evacuated from his home due to flooding, during his visit to a storm basin near the River Mersey in Didsbury, Manchester, this morning. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

A person walking past a Covid testing centre in London this morning.
A person walking past a Covid testing centre in London this morning. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Under-19s in Scotland are to be given free bus travel later this year after Scottish government ministers tabled draft legislation at Holyrood, mirroring similar concessions for teenagers in London.

Michael Matheson, the Scottish transport minister, said the scheme would extend free bus travel to around 770,000 teenagers, adding to the third of Scots already eligible for free fares. Unlike the Transport for London scheme, it will not include trams or discounts on adult rail or underground fares for 16s and over, but does allow free travel for adults travelling with disabled children under 5.

The scheme follows concerted campaigning by Scottish Labour’s former leader Richard Leonard, who made free buses for teenagers a key policy pledge in 2019, leading Nicola Sturgeon’s government to adopt the policy last year.

The Scottish Greens said it secured funding for the scheme during budget talks with the Scottish government last year; the SNP is in a minority at Holyrood and needs at least one opposition party to back its budget.

Updated

As the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent, James Landale, reports, “the UK is refusing to give João Vale de Almeida [the EU’s ambassador to the UK] the full diplomatic status that is granted to other ambassadors”. In his story Landale says this is because the government does not want “to set a precedent by treating an international body in the same way as a nation state”.

Gavin Barwell, the Conservative peer and former MP who was chief of staff to Theresa May when she was PM, says this is a “strange” decision that does not square with Boris Johnson’s claim to want a good relationship with the EU post Brexit.

Updated

Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the Commons health committee, says it is clear that the new variants are “massively more dangerous” because they allow the virus to spread more quickly.

He suggests the government should be setting up quarantine hotels for people arriving in the UK, ending all household mixing outside the home and making FFP2 masks mandatory in shops and public transport, as has been happening in Germany.

Hancock says the government has already tightened the rules on travel, but he says it is important to remain vigilant. On masks, he says the government’s medical advice is that the current guidelines are right.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, says the findings of the Imperial College survey (see 10.34am) are alarming. He asks what is being done to speed up vaccinations in London and the south-east.

He asks if there is a contingency plan for altering vaccines if they do not work on the South African variant.

And he asks about the situation in care homes.

Hancock says 63% of elderly care home residents have now been vaccinated.

And he says the early indications are that the vaccines work on the new variants just as well as on the old ones. But the government is remaining vigilant, he says.

Updated

Huw Merriman (Con), who asked the urgent question, says vaccination in parts of Sussex has been slow.

He asks if GPs can be allowed to use just the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. This is easier to store, and more GPs would sign up to the programme if they knew they did not have to use the Pfizer/BioNTech one.

He asks for an assurance that people will get their second dose, and that they can get them at GP surgeries.

And he asks for weekly updates to parliament.

Hancock says he does normally come to parliament every week.

He says he will consider Merriman’s point about where the second doses of the vaccine are delivered.

But he stresses that supply of the vaccine has been “lumpy”. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is easier to deliver in rural areas, he says. But he says they have to use the vaccines they have got.

Matt Hancock tells MPs more than 5m vaccinations have now taken place

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is responding to a Commons urgent question on the vaccination programme.

He says over 5m doses of vaccine have now been given in the UK to 4.6 million people.

The UK is vaccinating at a faster rate than any other European country.

And the programme is being expanded. More centres are opening today, he says.

And he says from today more “granular” information about who is being vaccinated and where will be published.

He says people are being vaccinated at the rate of 200 per minute.

Updated

As my colleague Ian Sample reports, cases of coronavirus may no longer be falling across England, according to Imperial’s College London’s React study. The report, which was released overnight, that raises concerns over whether lockdown measures can contain the new variant. Ian’s story is here.

Here is the news release from Imperial College. And here is the academic paper (pdf).

Speaking about the report on Times Radio, Prof Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London, said the interim findings of the study show that the prevalence of infection increased between 6 and and 15 January. “Were the lockdown working effectively, we would certainly have hoped to have seen a decline,” he said.

Updated

Labour has called for a plan to support the vaccination of black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.

The party is urging the government to publish daily data showing the progress of the vaccine rollout across people from different ethnic backgrounds; an analysis of the impact pre-existing health inequalities are having on lower uptake among some communities; and a vaccine communications strategy that reaches all communities and tackles disinformation.

Labour’s call comes amid fresh concerns raised by advisers from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) over Covid vaccine uptake among BAME communities as research showed up to 72% of black people said they were unlikely to have the jab.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, speaking ahead of a meeting with black faith and community leaders, said:

This crisis has had a disproportionate impact on black, Asian and ethnic minority communities, and it is so important that the vaccine rollout doesn’t leave any community behind.

Updated

Wealthy less likely to lose pay if they could not work during pandemic than poor, ONS says

A report published by the ONS this morning provides ample evidence that the pandemic has widened inequalities. It contains data on personal and economic wellbeing in Britain from March until December last year, and here are some of the main findings.

  • Wealthy people who have had to miss work during the pandemic - because they have been furloughed, or for other reasons - were more likely to keep getting paid in full than poorer people. More than half of people in this situation in the richest 20% by income still got paid in full, but in the poorest 20% it was only 28%.
% of people still getting full pay when they have had to miss work during pandemic
Percentage of people still getting full pay when they have had to miss work during pandemic. Photograph: ONS
  • People with household incomes under £10,000 were 60% more likely to be furloughed than the rest of the population.
  • People under 30 were 35% more likely to be furloughed than the rest of the population.
  • Working parents were almost twice as likely to report a loss in income during the pandemic compared with workers in general - although this gap did narrow when schools reopened.
  • Self-employed people were more likely to report reduced income than other workers.

But there was some good news in the survey too.

  • People were more optimistic about their household finances at the end of 2020 than at the start of the pandemic. In April only 11% of people thought their personal household financial situation would get better over the next 12 months and most people thought it would either get worse or stay about the same. By the end of the year the proportion thinking their finances would get better (bottom line on the chart below) had almost doubled, the proportion thinking their finances would stay the same (top line) had also increased, and the proportion thinking their finances would get worse (middle line) had fallen sharply.
People’s views on whether their personal finances will get better, worse or stay the same over next 12 months
People’s views on whether their personal finances will get better, worse or stay the same over next 12 months. Photograph: ONS

Updated

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, did a full round of interviews this morning. As well as saying he hoped schools would reopen by Easter, here are some of the other main lines to emerge.

  • Williamson said that he wanted to give schools and parents two weeks’ notice before schools reopened. He said:

We’ll give teachers and parents time to prepare ... and give them good notice of it. But we want to see school children back.

We’d aim to give teachers, pupils and parents two weeks’ notice so they’re able to get ready and we’ll always be looking for how we can get schools open for all at the earliest possible moment.

With the emergence of a new variant what we have been asked to do by Public Health England is that they wanted to look at more detail as to how that was working with the new variant. We very much hope that we will be able to restart that programme that worked so well.

  • He said the Skills for Jobs white paper being published today was intended to ensure young people get access to quality training. He said:

This is about millions of youngsters, making sure they get the right skills in order to be able to move into work, making sure they’re not taking courses that are not leading them into a job. We want to make sure that a person of any age can access really high quality training.

  • He brushed aside repeated criticism of his own performance as education secretary. The most brutal probably came from Piers Morgan on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

Updated

Good morning. When Boris Johnson announced the latest lockdown on Monday 4 January, he suggested that schools in England might start to reopen after the February half-term. In his TV address to the nation, he said:

If the rollout of the vaccine programme continues to be successful, if deaths start to fall as the vaccine takes effect, and, critically, if everyone plays their part by following the rules, then I hope we can steadily move out of lockdown, reopening schools after the February half-term and starting, cautiously, to move regions down the tiers.

Johnson has never formally withdrawn this comment, although perhaps he doesn’t need to because it must be becoming increasingly obvious to people that the chances of pupils all marching back to school at the end of February are very slim. (One of the features of the pandemic has been that public expectations about future lockdown policies have tended to be a better guide as to what will happen than what ministers are saying at the time.) Now the timeframe has slipped, and on the Today programme this morning Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, was asked if there was any “realistic prospect” of schools reopening before Easter. Williamson said that schools were the last institutions to close, and would be the first to open, but Nick Robinson had to ask his question twice before he got a firm answer. Williamson finally told him:

I would certainly hope that that [schools reopening] would be certainly before Easter ...

Any decision to open schools to all children is based on the best health advice and the best scientific advice. The reason that we were placed in the position to close schools to all but the children of critical workers and vulnerable children was down to the mounting pressure on the NHS.

Williamson was doing a full media round this morning. I will post more from his interviews soon.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: NHS England publishes weekly vaccination figures by region.

9.30am: The ONS publishes data on coronavirus and the economy, and on personal and economic wellbeing.

10am: Jim Harra, chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about post-Brexit border arrangements.

10.30am: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, responds to a Commons urgent question on the vaccine rollout.

11am: NHS test and trace publishes its weekly performance figures.

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

12.15pm: John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, and Jason Leitch, the national clinical director, are holding a daily coronavirus briefing.

2pm: Public Health England publishes its weekly Covid surveillance report.

5pm: A UK minister is expected to hold a press conference at No 10.

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

Here is our global coronavirus live blog.

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

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

Updated

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