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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Sajid Javid implies new restrictions will be abandoned if Omicron no more dangerous than Delta – as it happened

Early evening summary

Updated

We have not heard much about the Labour reshuffle yet, but here are two snippets from two political editors.

From my colleague Heather Stewart

From the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar

Head teachers welcomed the government’s announcement that children aged 12-15 will be invited for a second Covid jab, but expressed concern about capacity after problems and delays during the first round of vaccinations.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

We strongly urge the government to ensure that the health service has in place the capacity to deliver this commitment.

The programme to provide a first dose of the vaccine to 12 to 15-year-olds has been beset with delays because the health teams responsible for going into schools and delivering the vaccines clearly have not had sufficient resources to be able to do this at the scale and speed required.

The NHS Confederation has welcomed the massive expansion of the booster rollout - but warned that GPs and their teams who will play a key role in the delivery of third jabs are already very busy dispensing winter flu jabs and dealing with record numbers of patients seeking care.

Ruth Rankine, the organisation’s director of primary care, said:

The booster vaccine will offer people significant extra protection against Covid-19 and NHS leaders and staff will do all they can to ensure those eligible for booster jabs get them. But this is a significant expansion that adds to the complexity of an already challenging programme, so we would encourage the government to support front-line teams to play a critical role in ensuring the public get vaccinated as quickly as possible.

Rankine stopped short of saying that finite capacity in general practice might slow the pace of the now-shortened booster programme. But GPs say that they are currently facing unprecedented demand for advice and treatment for all sorts of ailments, and are still dispensing many winter flu jabs. However, in England at least, many more pharmacies are now delivering boosters - 1,100 of the 2,600 vaccination sites are pharmacies - than when second Covid jabs were rolled out, and that has significantly increased overall capacity.

Will there be enough vaccines available to administer to the many millions of people who are now suddenly eligible? Rankine asked ministers and NHS leaders to ensure there is. While vaccinators are not reporting any shortages just now, today’s announcement will mean that increased supplies are needed.

Rosena Allin-Khan, the shadow health minister, angered Sajid Javid, the health secretary, when she responded to his Covid statement earlier by critising the Tories for their record on mask wearing. She has repeated the point on Twitter.

Rosena Allin-Khan in the Commons earlier.
Rosena Allin-Khan in the Commons earlier. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/Parliament/House of Commons

The latest update to the UK’s Covid dashboard shows the total number of cases over the past seven days up 3.7% on the previous week. There have been 42,583 cases recorded today. But deaths are down 18.4% week on week, with 35 recorded today.

Covid dashboard
Covid dashboard Photograph: Gov.UK

Here is the UK Health Security Agency news release with details of the five confirmed cases of Omicron that have been found in England. (See 3.30pm.)

Mark Harper, chair of the Tory lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, says he hopes the measures will lapse after three weeks. If they have to be extended, he asks for an assurance that MPs will be recalled from the Christmas recess for that purpose.

Rees-Mogg says he has allocated three hours for the debate tomorrow, not the 90 minutes required, because the government takes the views of MPs’ seriously. He says he cannot say what will happen in three weeks’ time, but it was only Oliver Cromwell who made the house sit on Christmas day, he says.

Chris Bryant (Lab) says the regulations have not even been laid yet (published, so that they can read by MPs) and they will come into effect before the debate tomorrow. That is wrong, he says. They should be debated first.

Rees-Mogg says they are being laid at 5pm. If Bryant’s question had lasted a little longer, they would have been out before he finished.

The Javid statement is over. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has just made a short business statement saying the debate on the new Covid restrictions will take place tomorrow, before the SNP debate. (See 3.37pm.)

He says the Covid debate will run for three hours. And the SNP will get three hours for its debate too, he says.

Pupils at a school in Nottinghamshire are being tested because of a possible link to the Omicron case found in the country, the BBC reports.

Earlier, in his question to Javid in the Commons, Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chair of the health committee, said low vaccine rates in poorer countries amounted to a “moral failure” by richer countries. He said:

Whilst I recognise the enormous contribution the UK has made through Covax, through the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine and so on, is it not a moral and practical failure that richer countries have managed to vaccinate 60% of their populations when for poorer countries it is just 3%?

Javid said that he agreed, but he claimed the UK cold be proud of its record donating vaccines.

Dame Diana Johnson (Lab) asks Javid if he thinks all MPs in the chamber should be wearing masks.

Javid says they all know what the guidance is, and it is up to them.

Updated

Back in the Commons Javid says there are no plans that he is aware of to close schools early because of Omicron. That would be “very detrimental” to the education of children, he says.

Humza Yousaf, the Scottish government’s health secretary, has confirmed that Scotland has welcomed and will implement the latest recommendations from the JCVI. (See 3.43pm.)

Alun Cairns, the former Tory Welsh secretary, says infection rates are higher in Wales even though it has kept working from home and mask wearing in place.

Javid says he thinks England has had the best approach.

Updated

Chris Byrant (Lab) asks Javid to look at disinformation campaigns being carried out. Some of these are dangerous.

Javid says he agrees with Bryant on disinformation campaigns. The government is trying to counter this, he says.

Andrew Gwynne (Lab) asks about the transmissibility of Omicron. He says Australia has got some of the toughest entry requirements, but Omicron has got through. It is as if it got through “a concrete wall”, he says.

Javid says they will learn more about its transmissibility over time.

Steve Brine (Con) asks when we will have data on the effectiveness of vaccines against Omicron.

Javid says after three weeks the government will have more information, from its own work and from international partners.

Caroline Lucas (Green) asks why the government does not support waiving intellectual property rights on vaccines.

Javid says the government does not think that would be helpful. It would give pharmaceutical companies a huge disincentive to investing in vaccine research, he says.

Andrew Bridgen (Con) asks how MPs will get the chance to review the decision on these measures being takein in three weeks’ time. Parliament will be in recess.

Javid says the government wants to act quickly, so a three-week review is right. He says unless people favour recalling MPs, the government’s approach is best.

Javid claims many European countries wish they had followed England in abandoning most Covid rules in summer

Javid says getting rid of almost controls in the summer turned out to be the right move. He claims that some of his European counterparts wish they had done the same.

We did take measures in the summer where we set out that we were removing almost all domestic rules and controls. They turned out to be absolutely the right measures. There’s many of my counterparts in Europe that now believe that they should have taken a similar route as well.

Labour opposed those moves, he says.

Sir Desmond Swayne (Con) asks what evidence there is that tougher mask wearing policies in Scotland have made a difference. He suggests belief in the effectiveness of masks is “mumbo jumbo”.

Over the last few months there has been a useful controlled experiment on face coverings given the different policies pursued in Scotland and England. What estimate has he made of the result? It’s mumbo jumbo isn’t it?

Javid says research has shown that wearing masks has benefits.

Updated

Sir Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative backbencher 1922 Committee, says he welcomes the news that the debate and vote will be tomorrow. But why not have the vote before the measures come into force.

And he asks what assessment Javid has made of reports from South Africa suggesting Omicron produces a milder version of the illness.

Javid, who did not say the vote would be tomorrow, says Jacob Rees-Mogg will address this later.

On Omicron’s severity, Javid says South Africa has a younger population.

Theresa Villiers (Con) says, if the situation deteriorates, can the government do everything possible not shut down the hospitality sector. She says it is just getting back on its feet.

Javid says he agrees absolutely.

Matthew Hancock, the former health secretary, asks if a new vaccine will be deployed against Omicron.

Javid pays tribute to the preparatory work Hancock did on this when he was in post, and he says if it is necessary to procure vaccines, the government will do that.

Mark Harper, chair of the Tory lockdown sceptic Covid Recovery Group, asks how close contacts of someone testing positive with Omicron will find out about that.

Javid says the UK Health Security Agency is working out the best way to establish if a case is Omicron. He says the S-gene dropout might be used (see 10.59am), but other methods might be used.

Updated

The SNP’s Richard Thomson asks why the Scottish government’s call for an four-natons Cobra meeting seems to have been dismissed by No 10 out of hand.

Javid says the four nations of the UK have been working together on coronavirus anyway.

Rosena Allin-Khan, a shadow health minister, responded for Labour. Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is isolating after testing positive last week. She was largely critical of the government, saying that masks should never have been made voluntary on public transport in the first place, that sick pay is still inadequate, and that there should be compulsory pre-departure Covid tests for people flying into the UK. She also criticised Boris Johnson for his record on mask wearing, saying he had put people at risk in a hospital.

Javid told her, in response, that her partisan reply had misjudged the mood of the house. He joked that she might have been auditioning for the reshuffle.

Updated

Javid implies new restrictions will be abandoned if Omicron turns out to be no more dangerous than Delta

Javid says scientists are working quickly to discover how dangerous Omicron is. He goes on:

If it emerges that this variant is no more dangerous than the Delta variant, then we won’t keep [these] measures in place for a day longer than necessary.

That implies that, if the scientists decide Omicron poses no greater threat than Delta, compulsory mask wearing in shops and on public transport in England, and the new PCR tests for UK arrivals, could be abandoned within weeks.

This line seems to have been included more as a sop to the Tory lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group than because there is a serious expectation that Omicron will turn out to be just like Delta.

Updated

Javid turns to the online meeting of G7 health ministers he convened today. He says they all praised South Africa for its leadership, and for the openness it has shown about Omicron.

Javid accepts recommendations on expanding booster programme

Javid says he asked the JCBI to urgently review if it could reduce the gap between second doses and boosters.

He confirms the changes proposed by the JCVI at its own briefing earlier. (See 3.20pm and below) And he says he has accepted the recommendations in full.

He says this will be a “huge step up” for the vaccination programme. But he is confident the NHS is up to the task, he says.

More information about how this will be put into action will be announced in coming days, he says.

  • JCVI is advising all adults over the age of 18 should get a booster.
  • The booster programme should be rolled out by age and risk group. Boosters should be given no sooner than three months after the second dose.
  • Severely immunocompromised people should get another booster, in addition to the one they have already had.
  • Booster vaccines should be mRNA ones, either Moderna or Pfizer.
  • Children aged 12 to 15 should now be offered a second dose of vaccine.

Updated

Javid tells MPs they will get vote on new Covid restrictions announced at weekend

In the Commons Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is making a statement about Covid.

He starts by confirming the measures announced over the weekend.

And he says there will be a vote on these measures in the Commons. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, will give details later, he says.

MPs to debate Boris Johnson's honesty tomorrow after SNP tables censure motion against him

Tomorrow, time in the Commons has been set aside for a debate on a motion chosen by the SNP. The party has announced that it is tabling a censure motion against Boris Johnson. The motion says:

That, this house censures the prime minister, the right honourable member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, for frequently violating the sixth principle of public life, for seeking to undermine the recommendations of the standards committee on Owen Paterson, for regularly ignoring independent advice on matters such as international treaties and breaches of the ministerial code by his ministers, for putting forward proposals to diminish the powers of the Electoral Commission, for ignoring independent advice concerning the granting of peerages to Conservative party donors and nominations to public bodies such as Ofcom; and further calls for his ministerial salary to be reduced by £41,567 per year.

The sixth principle of public life, as drawn up by the Nolan committee, is honesty. “Holders of public office should be truthful,” the Nolan principles say.

Updated

Two more Omicron cases found in England, UKHSA says

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has identified two further cases of Covid-19 with mutations consistent with B.1.1.529 in England, officials have announced.

The two cases are in addition to the previous three confirmed cases of the Sars-CoV-2 variant known as B.1.1.529 – aka the Omicron variant – on 27 and 28 November. The total number of confirmed cases in England is now five.

The individuals that have tested positive are not connected to each other and are not linked to the previously confirmed cases. Both have links to travel to southern Africa. One case is located in Camden, London and one case is located in Wandsworth, London.

Both individuals and their households had been told to self-isolate, the UKHSA said. It was carrying out targeted testing at locations where the positive cases were likely to be infectious.

Updated

Q: If you are reducing the gap between second doses and booster doses from five months to three months, doesn’t that imply you are panicking?

Van-Tam says he is asking people not to panic. But he is also saying they should not ignore the weather forecast either.

Lim says, in general, the longer the gap between a first and second dose, the better. So usually it is good to extend the duration between vaccine doses.

But he also says they do not want to wait so long that they cannot precede the next wave.

He says there is data from a study showing that, after three months, you still get very strong booster response. That is why the JCVI feels it is reasonable to use that timetable.

Updated

They are now taking questions.

Q: Will you be able to deliver these boosters before Christmas?

Van-Tam says the NHS will set out in the next few days how this will be operationalised. It will be very complicated, he says.

He says the NHS understands the real urgency of this, and is up for the task.

He says they do not want younger people getting ahead of older people, who are at higher risk.

Van-Tam is onto one of his famous football analogies.

We started with 11 players, he says. With Alpha and Delta, we lost a couple of players, and had to field replacements, he says. With Omicron, it is like picking up two yellow cards. So we are at risk of going down to 10 players, he says. He says that means everyone on the pitch needs to up their game.

Here is our story on the announcement, by Jamie Grierson and Rowena Mason.

All over-18s should get booster vaccines, JCVI says

Lim says from what we know so far, the vaccines may be less good against Omicron than against the Delta variant, the one now dominant in the UK.

He says doctors can counter this by increasing the immune response from the current vaccine.

He says the immune response from the booster is higher than from the second dose.

Timing is important, he says. He says you would want to deploy boosters before a new wave. He is not saying there will be a new wave. But, in case there is one, it would be best to boost vaccines in advance.

  • Lim says JCVI is advising all adults over the age of 18 should get a booster.
  • The booster programme should be rolled out by age and risk group, he says. This is how the first and second doses were rolled out. He says the JCVI favours this method because the variant does not seem to be affecting age cohorts in a different way to the original virus. He says boosters should be given no sooner than three months after the second dose.
  • He says severely immunocompromised people should get another booster, in addition to the one they have already had.
  • He says booster vaccines should be mRNA ones, either Moderna or Pfizer.
  • He says children aged 12 to 15 should now be offered a second dose of vaccine.

Raine says, even with Omicron, vaccines still have an “overwhelmingly positive benefit/risk balance”.

Van-Tam stresses it's 'not all doom and gloom', saying vaccines should not be powerless against Omicron

Van-Tam starts by saying this is a technical briefing from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

He says we have always known variants would be inevitable. We have seen “many come”. Variants always cause concern, because we don’t know how they will behave, and how the vaccines will hold up.

We knew one would arrive that would cause “heightened concern”. And with this one, Omicron, we are there, he says.

But he says it is important to stress the degree of uncertainty. He says there is more we don’t know than we do know.

He says that will change over the next three weeks.

Omicron has many mutations. Some are ones we know a lot about, some are new.

But, on first principles, there are enough mutations to cause a worry about the effect on vaccine effectiveness.

He says Omicron is associated with an increased growth rate. But he says that is not the same as saying it is definitely more transmissible.

He says it is “not all doom and gloom” at this stage, and people should not panic.

He says if there is an impact on vaccine effectiveness, the biggest effect will be on likelihood of infection. There should be less impact on the likelihood of severe disease, he says.

Downing Street briefing on booster vaccines

The Downing Street press conference on booster vaccines is about to start. It is taking place at 9 Downing Street, where the main government press conferences take place, but it will not feature any ministers. The attendees will be Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, Prof Wei Shen Lim, chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, and Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

Jo Stevens, Labour MP for Cardiff Central, has confirmed she is moving from shadow culture secretary to shadow Welsh secretary in the Labour reshuffle. That will be seen as a demotion.

As shadow Welsh secretary Stevens will replace Nia Griffith, who seems to be going back to the backbenches. This is from the Times’ Patrick Maguire.

There will be a Downing Street briefing at 3pm with an update about the booster programme. It will feature Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, Prof Wei Shen Lim, chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, and Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

There will be full coverage here, of course.

Ban MPs from working as paid consultants, watchdog suggests

MPs should face a complete ban on working as paid consultants and ministers should be more open about any potential conflicts of interest, the Commmons standards committee. In his story, my colleague Peter Walker goes on:

Other recommendations in the report from thecommittee include an obligation for MPs to have a written contract for any outside work, available for inspection if needed, and which would spell out that they cannot lobby on behalf of the employer.

Another idea, which the committee said would need cross-party support to implement, would be to limit how much time MPs can spend on outside jobs or other interests, and how much they can earn from them. It acknowledged, however, that it was difficult to see how this might work in practice.

Peter’s full story is here.

And here you can read the full report here (pdf).

Essex Omicron case linked, indirectly, to person who arrived from South Africa two weeks ago, health official reveals

There have been three confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in England, one of which was found in Essex. On Radio 4’s the World at One Dr Mike Gogarty, Essex county council’s director of public health, said their case was linked to someone who returned from South Africa about two weeks ago.

But the case was two steps removed from the South African arrival, he said. He said: “This case contracted the case from somebody else who contracted it from one of her family who had been recently to Africa.”

He said the person with the confirmed case was tested on 20 November, but that genomic sequencing only confirmed it as Omicron at the weekend.

This timetable explains why scientists believe community transmission could already be well established.

No 10 says Scottish/Welsh plan for tougher travel rules would have 'detrimental effect' on the industry and passengers

Here are the main lines on Covid from the Downing Street lobby briefing.

  • No 10 rejected the call from the Scottish and Welsh governments for eight-day isolation for all arrivals to the UK. (See 11.06am.) Asked about the proposal, the PM’s spokesman said this would have a “detrimental effect” on the travel industry. He went on:

We believe that the approach we’ve taken is the proportionate one to the evidence that we currently have available about this variant. Introducing further isolation requirements and testing requirements would have a detrimental effect on the travel individually industry and indeed those who are planning to go travelling.

  • The spokesman also said there were no plans to convene a four-nations Cobra meeting, as the Scottish and Welsh governments have requested. Asked about this proposal, the spokesman said:

We would confirm any plans for a Cobra meeting in the normal way. Currently, there isn’t one scheduled.

We obviously speak to our devolved administration counterparts very regularly and we will continue to co-ordinate our response with them.

  • The spokesman said children would not be exempt for the requirement for people who have been in close contact with a person testing positive for Omicron to isolate for 10 days. Yesterday Steve Baker, deputy chair of the Tory lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, has said this rule could “cause chaos” in schools. (See 9.26am.) But the spokesman defended the rule, saying:

We believe our measures strike the balance between keeping children in face-to-face learning while ensuring education settings remain as safe as possible while we investigate this new variant.

  • The spokesman has defended the government’s decision not to make mask wearing compulsory in hospitality venues in England. (See 12.27pm.)
The Christmas tree outside No 10.
The Christmas tree outside No 10.
 Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

Updated

Labour briefing war breaks out over whether Rayner kept in dark about reshuffle

With almost no detail out yet as to who is moving in the Labour reshuffle, all the reporting at the moment is focusing on what Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader, did or did not know about the plans.

‘Whether the deputy knew or not’ would normally be an issue of little or no interest. But Starmer’s last reshuffle was overshadowed by a botched attempt to demote her, which understandably made her doubly keen to ensure the same thing did not happen again. And launching the reshuffle at a time when it would overshadow Rayner’s speech looks like a clear snub (although, to be fair, Rayner’s speech was extensively briefed overnight, which means that as a news event it was largely over before it began).

This is what journalists are reporting about the briefings coming out from both sides. It is heading into ferrets-in-a-sack territory.

From the Telegraph’s Harry Yorke

From the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar

From the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire

From the Mirror’s Rachel Wearmouth

From my colleague Aubrey Allegretti

Sturgeon urges Scots to take lateral flow tests every time before they meet up with friends

Nicola Sturgeon has urged people to self-test for Covid every time they leave home to mix with people from a different household, to help suppress the virus and the new Omicron variant in the run-up to Christmas.

In a speech to the SNP conference, which is being held entirely online, Sturgeon said she had previously asked people to use lateral flow tests twice a week; she now wanted the public to self-test far more often.

Scotland already has strict rules on wearing face-masks in shops, on public transport and in shared spaces, but has relaxed its previous use of vaccine passports to go to large sports and cultural events.

In a speech pre-recorded before Scotland detected six Omnicron cases, Sturgeon said:

Please - even if you are feeling fine - test yourself on each and every occasion you intend to mix with people from outside your household. That means before you go to the pub, or to a restaurant, or to someone’s house, or even to a shopping centre.

And if the test shows up positive do not go. Instead, get a confirmatory PCR test and self isolate until you get the result of that.

[If] we all do this, we will slow the spread. And we will maximise our chances, not just of a more normal Christmas but a safer Christmas too and, let’s all hope, a much brighter new year.

Nicola Sturgeon speaking to SNP’s virtual conference
Nicola Sturgeon speaking to SNP’s virtual conference. Photograph: BBC

Updated

Truss says government wants to keep travel routes 'open where possible'

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has signalled that the UK government is opposed to tightening travel restrictions, as the Scottish and Welsh governments are proposing. (See 11.06am.) At a press conference with her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, at the Foreign Office, she said:

On the subject of the variant, we have taken very rapid action to first of all put countries on the red list where that is a risk, but also to take domestic precautions.

We don’t yet have the full information about this new variant but it is right that we take those precautionary measures while we’re investigating further.

And it is important to make sure that we keep travel routes open where possible, particularly to make sure that our economy remains strong, at the same time as taking necessary action. We’ve got the balance right.

Liz Truss with her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, at the Foreign Office this morning.
Liz Truss with her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, at the Foreign Office this morning. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Updated

Downing Street has confirmed that Sajid Javid, the health secretary, will give a statement to MPs on Covid at 3.30pm.

Here is the moment when Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, was asked about the reshuffle that started around the time she was delivering a major speech at the Institute for Government.

My colleague Aubrey Allegretti says Rayner was only given limited warning of what was coming.

Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, says Keir Starmer’s failure to keep Rayner fully notified could be problematic.

Updated Covid rules for England 'measured and proportionate', says No 10

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman defended the government’s decision not to make mask wearing compulsory in hospitality venues in England. He said:

We believe that this is a measured and proportionate approach based on the evidence that we have so far.

It appears likely but not certain this variant is more transmissible than previous variants, but we don’t have any hard evidence and indeed no one has any hard evidence on its impact on things like hospitalisations and deaths and individuals that are vaccinated.

So we think that this is the proportionate approach to take in the current circumstances.

Updated

The Labour MP Cat Smith has confirmed that Keir Starmer has started a reshuffle. She has released a letter announcing that she is no longer shadow secretary of state for young people and democracy.

She says that Starmer offered to let her remain in her current brief, implying that Starmer wanted to downgrade her role.

It would not be surprising if Starmer does want to slim down the shadow cabinet. Currently it has 32 members. The full cabinet just has 23 members, although another seven ministers are invited to attend.

In her letter Smith, a Jeremy Corbyn supporter, also complains that the party’s refusal to restore the party whip to the former leader is “utterly unsustainable”.

Boris Johnson has “broken” the standards system and left watchdogs meant to ensure politicians who break the rules are punished “muzzled and neutered”, Anegla Rayner has said.

In a major speech setting out how Labour would restore probity in public servants, the party’s deputy leader said it was important to “rebuild the regime that isn’t working”.

Rayner has called for a new body to be set up - the Integrity and Ethics Commission - to replace the one meant to regulate former ministers’ new business activities, currently looked after by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba).

When asked by the Guardian whether now was the right time for a reshuffle (see 11.49am), Rayner said: “We need some consistency in how we’re approaching things as an opposition.”

She stressed Labour should be “focused on getting us into power” and if the party took its eye off that, it would be letting people down.

Updated

Starmer to reshuffle Labour frontbench

Keir Starmer is set to reshuffle his frontbench team for the second time in a year, as Labour seeks to take advantage of the government’s disarray over social care and the cost of living.

With Boris Johnson facing a series of backbench revolts in recent weeks, and the poll bounce the Conservatives gained from the vaccine rollout apparently fading, Labour are keen to get on the front foot.

No announcements have yet been made; but a party spokesperson acknowledged a reshuffle was imminent – and several party sources refused to deny that it was kicking off immediately.

Starmer is understood to want to boost the party’s media standing, as well as promote some figures perceived to have performed strongly in recent months.

He had hoped to carry out a wider reshuffle in May, in the wake of the loss of the Hartlepool byelection, but more ambitious plans were stymied by a furious standoff with his deputy, Angela Rayner, over a change to her role.

Updated

Sturgeon/Drakeford letter to Johnson - snap analysis

Last week, when Boris Johnson wrote a letter to President Macron about possible solutions to the Channel crossings crisis and released it to the media simultaneously, the French government reacted furiously, arguing that this was little more than a publicity stunt designed to boost Johnson’s standing with British voters and that, if he were serious about trying to reach agreement with Macron, the last thing he would do would be negotiate in public.

Johnson’s private reaction to the Sturgeon/Drakeford letter may be quite similar to Macron’s response to his. But in the light of what happened last week, of course he could not say that publicly.

Is the comparison fair? In many respects, no. Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford are both more serious, and less provocative leaders than Johnson, and the approach they set out in their letter is entirely consistent with the approach they have taken throughout the pandemic, when they have been notably more cautious about opening up than the UK government. And, in his letter, Johnson was proposed something totally unacceptable to French voters (that they just take back people who cross the Channel on small boats). The Sturgeon/Drakeford travel proposal would probably be popular with British voters, who have consistently backed tougher restrictions than those advocated by Johnson.

But Sturgeon and Drakeford may be going beyond the scientific consensus. We have not heard large numbers of Sage scientists over the weekend calling for eight-day isolation for all arrivals to the UK.

And the two first ministers must know that their proposal would be unacceptable to a significant number of Conservative MPs, who are aggressively opposed to anything that they view as a move back towards lockdown. It is very hard to imagine Johnson agreeing to this without much, much stronger pressure for this from his own advisers, and so in that respect this does seem like a move likely to demonstrate how hamstrung Johnson is by the Tory right.

That won’t be the main motivation, almost certainly, but for the SNP, and Welsh Labour, it will be a happy bonus.

It is more probable that Johnson might agree to a four-nations Cobra meeting, although this could be downgraded to a meeting of the joint ministerial committee. At the start of the pandemic there were regular four-nations Cobra meetings. But over time No 10 lost their enthusiasm for them, partly because they thought that Sturgeon turned up and then made a point of announcing her own post-Cobra decisions ahead of the PM.

Updated

Back at her press conference Sturgeon says she thinks people will “raise an eyebrow” if Boris Johnson refuses her request for a full four-nations Cobra meeting.

Full text of the Sturgeon/Drakeford letter to PM proposing eight-day isolation for all UK arrivals

Here is the full text of the letter that Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, and Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, have sent to Boris Johnson this morning. The bold text is from the original.

The emergence of Omicron poses a potential threat to the UK. It is clear that the strain is already here and that it appears highly transmissible. We need to work collectively – and effectively – as four nations to take all reasonable steps to control the ingress of the virus to the country and then to limit its spread.

We are clear that a four nations approach to issues such as border restrictions is the most effective approach. This requires that a meeting of the Cobra committee be held as soon as possible.

We would wish to use that opportunity to see the latest evidence from UK government health professionals on the variant and to understand the international picture along with the implications that it might have for the UK.

In particular, we believe the reinstatement of a requirement for a ‘day 8’ PCR test for travellers arriving into the UK – alongside the ‘day 2’ requirement already announced, and thereby requiring isolation for that whole period – is now necessary. Public health advice is unequivocal that this is the best and safest way to protect against the importation of this variant to the fullest extent possible.

While our public health systems work hard to minimise the spread of cases already in the UK, it is imperative that we do all we can to avoid under-cutting these efforts by permitting on-going importation.

We also wish to confirm that devolved financial business support schemes will be funded by the Treasury in the event more interventionist measures are required to respond to the public health situation. In our view, it would be better to consider this now, in advance of a potential escalation in the seriousness of the situation, to support effective planning. In particular, it is important for us to agree that if the conditions in a devolved nation were to require more significant interventions than in England, the agreed package of financial support would be available to that nation. We do not want to be in a position again where our public health interventions are negatively impacted by a lack of financial support, but can be switched on as required for England.

Given the public interest in our working together to achieve the strongest possible response to this threat, this letter is being made public.

Updated

Gregor Smith says the Omicron variant has S-gene dropout. That applied to Alpha too, although not to Delta. He says the S-gene dropout does not guarantee Omicron. But he says it is something that genomic sequencing can pick up quickly, and he suggests it is a good indicator for Omicron, which means they should get a sense of how widely it is spreading soon. He says they are already starting to see signs of S-gene dropout appearing again.

Updated

Sturgeon won't rule out link between Scottish Omicron cases and Cop26, but says it's 'not probable'

Sturgeon is now taking questions alongside Scotland’s chief medical officer, Gregor Smith.

Q: Are any of the Omicron cases linked to Cop26?

Sturgeon says there is no evidence of that. She says that is “not impossible”, but she also says it is “not probable”. She says, given the timing, if Omicron had been at Cop26, you would expect more to be in circulation now.

Sturgeon says she also wants a reassurance from the Treasury that it will fund any new business support schemes that need to be introduced in the light of the Omicron variant.

Scottish and Welsh governments call for eight-day isolation for all new arrivals to UK

Sturgeon says Scotland has beefed up travel restrictions, in line with what the UK government is doing.

And she points out that, while the UK government has tightened restrictions in England, in Scotland they are already tougher.

She says the Scottish and Welsh governments both think that travel restrictions should be tougher. They think people arriving in the UK should have to isolate for eight days, with PCR tests at day eight as well as at day two (which is what is required already).

She says this will make it easier to identify new cases of Omicron coming into the UK.

And she says a UK-wide approach is needed, because new arrivals can travel freely within the four nations.

She says she and Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, have written to Boris Johnson proposing this.

And she says they want Johnson to convene a four-nations emergency Cobra meeting to discuss this proposal.

Updated

Sturgeon gives details of the six cases in Scotland.

Echoing what John Swinney said earlier (see 9.38am), she says there might be community transmission.

But she says there is no evidence of “sustained” community transmission, and no evidence that it is widespread.

Sturgeon says what we do know confirms that we should take the new variant seriously, and act on a precautionary basis.

This prevents “potentially the most challenging development in the course of the pandemic for quite some time”.

Sturgeon stresses that there is “a huge amount that we do not yet know” about the variant.

The number of mutations suggest it might be more transmissible. But more data and analysis is required, and if it is more transmissible, they will have to find out by how much.

The WHO said yesterday that “preliminary evidence” suggested there was a higher risk of re-infection.

And there is no evidence yet that it is more severe, she says.

Sturgeon says they knew the winter would present real risks.

There is much they do not know about Omicron, the new variant, she says.

And she says she will set out what is known about cases in Scotland. The situation will change in the coming days, she says.

Nicola Sturgeon's Covid briefing

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is holding a Covid briefing.

There is a live feed at the top of the blog.

The confirmed Omicron case in Brentwood has been linked to primary school, Essex county council has announced.

Updated

French interior minister says UK must accept its responsibilities in relation to Channel crossings

Turning away from Covid for a moment, Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, has restated his criticism of Boris Johnson’s handling of the Channel crossings dispute. He posted this on Twitter this morning:

This translates as:

When Mr Johnson says that France must “take back its migrants”, what he is actually asking us is that France exempt him from any responsibility for reception. The British government must accept its own responsibilities.

And in his TV interview he said:

When there are serious diplomatic exchanges ... and lives that are at stake ... and some minutes later you see that a letter, which no one has ever mentioned before, is published on Twitter from the British prime minister to the president of the French Republic before the president of the Republic has received it, it’s a bit peculiar.

When in this letter the English say the French should ‘take back their migrants, all their migrants’, it’s a mockery.

Darmanin made similar points in an interview with my colleague Kim Willsher in which he said that, in private, British ministers were more reasonably and friendly; the provocative stuff is stuff for show, he suggests.

Health minister defends decision not to make mask wearing compulsory in English hospitality venues

Edward Argar, the health minister for England, was doing his best to quash alarmism in his morning interviews this morning. Here are some of the key points he made.

  • Argar said that he did not expect Covid regulations for England to tighten in the next three weeks beyond what was announced by Boris Johnson on Saturday. Asked if he expected further restrictions over that period, Argar replied: “It’s not something I’m anticipating.” Johnson has said the rules will be reviewed the weekend before Christmas. Argar said he was “looking forward to a Christmas spent with family and friends”.
  • He defended the decision not to make mask wearing compulsory in hospitality venues in England. Asked to explain why they were not included in the new rules, as shops are, he replied:

It’s in the nature of the venue. In a pub, you’re drinking. You can’t do that if you’re wearing a mask. And in restaurants, you’re normally seated at your table to give your order, you stay at your table with your group of friends or your partner or whoever you’re there with, and similarly in pubs you are normally - even when you’re standing up rather than sitting down - you’re drinking.

And therefore it’s in the nature of the hospitality industry, the hospitality trade. And therefore, we think this is a proportionate and reasonable way to put in a precaution to give us that time to better understand this variant by slowing down the seeding and the spreading of it.

Labour has implied that mask-wearing should be compulsory in hospitality venues. Angela Rayner, the deputy party leader, told Sky News this morning:

We think that in hospitality settings that people should be wearing a mask ... Especially if you’re moving around the pub, people should be wearing their masks in hospitality settings. If you’re [in] an indoor setting, there’s no distinction between a pub, sitting in a pub, or sitting on a train, or sitting in a hospital. It’s still a venue that’s indoors and we should be taking the necessary measures to protect people around us.

  • Argar said that he was confident test and trace would be able to meet the challenge posed by the Omicron variant. He said:

We’re confident that test and trace can meet this challenge.

And just by way of an example, I think 91% of contacts, where they’re given by someone who tests positive at the moment, are being reached and contacted within the appropriate time. So it has come a long, long way from when it was first set up. And I’m confident it will be able to scale up and meet the challenge.

Edward Argar.
Edward Argar. Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

The government has announced that, in England, it will be compulsory to wear masks in shops and on public transport from tomorrow. This will move England closer to the situation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where rules on mask wearing have constitently been tougher than in England.

But, as the Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith points out, in England there are plenty of venues where masks remain voluntary.

This morning Angela Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, said the UK government should be doing more to encourage mask-wearing in England. She told:

We think we should be encouraging people to wear masks when we’re all mixing indoors, as much as possible.

So we would recommend that people do wear masks when they’re out and about, specially when they’re moving around venues.

The prime minister unfortunately has undermined those messages in recent weeks, but wearing a mask can be a very protective way of supporting people in stopping the virus being able to spread as quickly.

Updated

Scottish cases show Omicron spreading in community, and no longer just linked to travel, Swinney says

John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, told the BBC this morning that some of the six confirmed Omicron cases in Scotland are people who have not been travelling, which means the variant is spreading in the community. Swinney said:

We obviously have some travel history on some of the cases, I don’t have all of that detail available to me at this stage, but on some of the cases we are aware that there is no travel history involved on some of the cases.

So what that tells us is that there must be a degree of community transmission of this particular strain of the virus in the absence of direct travel connection for some of the cases in the southern African area.

So that obviously opens up further challenges for us in terms of interrupting the spread of this particular strain of the virus and that will be the focus of the contact tracing operation that is under way already.

John Swinney.
John Swinney. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

A person infected with the Omicron variant in Essex is “well” and isolating with their family, the region’s top public health official has said. Essex’s director of public health, Dr Michael Gogarty, told BBC Breakfast:

Most importantly with the confirmed case is that they are well, they are isolating with their family. When I say that they are well, I mean they are not seriously ill. They have some symptoms but they do not require hospitalisation.

Updated

Health minister says more cases of Omicron expected to be confirmed in England

Good morning. So far there have been only three confirmed cases of the new Omicron variant found in England. But this morning the Scottish government announced that it has six confirmed cases, and Edward Argar, the UK government health minister (which means health minister for England, in practice) told the Today programme that more cases will be confirmed south of the border. Asked if he was expecting more cases to be confirmed in England, he said yes. He went on:

We’ve seen three confirmed cases in England. But I think we’ve been clear since we first knew about this new variant that we would expect to see the number of cases rise. And I think what we’re seeing in Scotland reflects that. That’s in the nature of the virus, and the likely – not certain but likely – increased transmissibility of this variant.

According to Harry Cole in the Sun, government sources say there are 75 “probable” case of Omicron in the UK – with possibly more than 150 more.

Here are the main UK Covid developments around this morning.

  • Steve Baker, deputy chair of the Tory lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group, has criticised rules saying school pupils, like other people, who are close contacts of someone testing positive with the Omicron variant will have to isolate for 10 days. He told the Telegraph this will “cause chaos including collateral harms like damage to children’s education”.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.30am: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, holds a Covid briefing with Scotland’s chief medical officer, Gregor Smith.

11am: Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, gives a speech on standards in public life. As my colleague Peter Walker reports, ministers would be barred from lobbying or other paid work connected to their government roles for five years after they leave office under Labour’s plans.

11.30am: Downing Street holds its lobby briefing.

12pm: Sturgeon is due to give her speech to the SNP’s online conference.

2pm: The Commons standards committee publishes its report proposing changes to the code of conduct for MPs.

After 3.30pm: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is expected to give a statement to MPs on Covid.

At some point today we are also expecting the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization to make an announcement about extending the booster programme.

I will be mostly looking at UK Covid developments today, but I will covering non-Covid politics too. For global Covid developments, do read our global 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.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com

Updated

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