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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Yohannes Lowe (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

UK coronavirus live: MPs pass new lockdown laws by 524-16 as daily death toll hits second wave high – as it happened

That is all from us tonight folks. To see how your MP voted, visit our interactive

If you would like more live updates from the UK and around the world, please follow our continuing coronavirus coverage at our global liveblog.

Updated

Here is a list of the 16 MPs who voted against the measures, according to the CommonsVotes app.

Conservative: 12

Graham Brady, MP for Altrincham and Sale West

Philip Davies, MP for Shipley

Richard Drax, MP for south Dorset

Karl McCartney, MP for Lincoln

Stephen McPartland, MP for Stevenage

Esther McVey, MP for Tatton

Anne Marie Morris, MP for Newton Abbot

Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford

Desmond Swayne, MP for New Forest West

Robert Syms, MP for Poole

Charles Walker, MP for Broxbourne

David Warburton, MP for Somerton and Frome

DUP: 4

Sammy Wilson, MP for east Antrim

Paul Girvan, MP for south Antrim

Carla Lockhart, MP for Upper Bann

Ian Paisley, MP for north Antrim

Updated

The division list showed 12 Tory MPs voted against the regulations enabling a third national lockdown in England.

They were joined by four DUP MPs opposing the regulations.

Rishi Sunak listening as prime minister Boris Johnson speaks in the House of Commons.
Rishi Sunak listening as prime minister Boris Johnson speaks in the House of Commons. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK PARLIAMENT/AFP/Getty Images

Business leaders have been thanked for their efforts in helping to keep the country going through the Covid-19 crisis, in a call with the prime minister and chancellor.

Alok Sharma, the business secretary, and Liz Truss, the trade secretary, also joined the call alongside Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, a spokesperson said.

He said Johnson started the conversation with 250 executives by “recognising 2020 has been a tough year for businesses across the country, thanking them for their huge efforts helping to keep the country moving and looking ahead to the rollout of the vaccine as a source of hope this year”.

Updated

Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, has condemned the confusion sparked by the schools fiasco, after telling ministers they “owed the public an apology”.

Updated

MPs vote overwhelmingly for latest lockdown in England

Parliament has supported the new lockdown with 524 votes for the measures and 16 against. It is not yet clear who the rebels were.

Updated

Following four hours of debate, MPs are now voting on whether to approve the new lockdown. Despite an expected rebellion of a minority of vocal Conservative backbenchers, it is widely thought that the vote will pass with a sizeable majority thanks to the backing of Labour. The results should be back in just under ten minutes or so.

Updated

The debate is coming to a conclusion, as MPs across the benches discuss the details of the proposed lockdown.

Labour’s shadow health minister Alex Norris has described the daily figures of deaths - 1,041 - as “sobering”, and said his party will support the lockdown for England.

Other Labour MPs have expressed their backing on social media, as they criticise why the government did not introduce tougher restrictions sooner.

Updated

Ahead of the retrospective vote to approve the lockdown measures, Ian Paisley, the DUP MP for North Antrim, said:

I have consistently voted against these restrictions because I will not be dragged behind the banner-wavers that take us into this cul-de-sac that we have been marched into...I don’t actually believe the secretary of state (for health) does have certainty that can be relied upon in terms of this virus ... When this lockdown drags on through February and into March, and it still hasn’t worked, what’s the Government going to do for its encore, what’s next?

Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be taking over the blog now and will be providing updates on the Commons lockdown vote from 7pm. Please feel free to drop me a message on Twitter if you have any coverage suggestions.

Early evening summary

  • Matt Hancock has told MPs that the lockdown measures they are voting to approve tonight are not expected to be in force at the end of March - even though the legislation allows them to last until then. Speaking at the start of the Commons debate on them, he said:

While these regulations do provide for new restrictions until the end of March, it is not because we expect the full national lockdown to continue until then but to allow the steady, controlled and evidence-led move down through the tiers on a local basis.

Several MPs asked for an assurance that they would get a further vote on the lockdown measures before March. But there was very little outright opposition to them, and even MPs who near the end of last year were alarmed about the possibility of a third national lockdown today seemed reconciled to the need for action now in the light of the rising number of cases and deaths. MPs are due to vote at 7pm, but the measures are expected to be passed very easily.

I’m finished for the day, but a colleague will top up the blog after 7pm with the result of the vote.

Updated

ONS estimates for extent of prevalence of Covid in England, region by region

Yesterday at the No 10 press conference Boris Johnson revealed that the latest ONS Covid infection survey figures showed that at the end of last week one person in 50 in England was estimated to have coronavirus.

The ONS has not published a full report on these figures, but it has published a statement about them, and some of the key data. It is interesting because it shows the estimated prevalence of coronavirus in England region by region.

Here are the estimated figures for Saturday 2 January, expressed as the ratio of infected people amongst the population as a whole.

London - one person in 30 infected

North-west - one person in 40

East Midlands - one person in 40

East of England - one person in 45

South-east - one person in 45

North-east - one person in 55

Yorkshire and the Humber - one person in 55

West Midlands - one person in 65

South-west - one person in 125

Ireland is tightening its lockdown as hospitals treat a record number of patients with Covid-19, with many suffering the variant first detected in England.

From Friday non-essential construction is to stop, from Saturday passengers arriving from Britain and South Africa must have a negative PCR test for Covid-19 and schools are to remain shut at least until the end of January.

There is exception for leaving cert students – the equivalent of A-levels – who can attend school three days per week.

“We may now be entering the most challenging phase of all,” the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, told a news conference on Wednesday. “Unless you are involved in absolutely essential work you have no reason to be away from your home.”

A 5km travel limit for exercise announced last week remains in place – the government had considered reducing it to to 2km.

Asked if pubs could still serve takeaway pints, Martin replied: “Forget about takeaway pints.” That led to congregation, he said.

Hospitals are treating 921 people with the virus, exceeding the previous peak of 881 on 15 April.

Authorities reported one bright spot: the number of close contacts for each infected person has fallen from 6 to 3.8.

In the Commons the debate on the lockdown regulations is continuing. There has been very little outright opposition to what the government is proposing, although some Conservative MPs have expressed concerns about the prospect of the lockdown going beyond mid February.

Sir Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, said MPs should not be approving a full lockdown until 31 March. They had a duty to protect the liberties of the public, and to hold ministers to account, he said. He went on:

Neither of those things would be consistent with approving regulations that would allow a full lockdown to be in place for the next three months until 31 March.

Today both the prime minister and secretary of state [Matt Hancock] have given me reassuring words that they don’t want that, but the regulation gives the power to the government to decide that, not to this house.

Mark Harper, chair of the Covid Recovery Group, which led opposition to the three-tier system of restrictions in the debate on 1 December, said the lockdown should not run until the end of March without a further vote. He said:

I do think that regulations that run all the way to the end of March is too far a distance in the future. It seems to me the obvious checkpoint for government to come back to this House to seek the authority to proceed is the middle of February when the prime minister set a very clear goal to have vaccinated those four first groups.

Another Conservative, Sir Charles Walker, said he could not vote for the regulations. He explained:

I can’t support criminalising a parent for seeing a child in the park over the coming months, it’s not within my DNA to do that ...

The next three months are going to be really, really hard for a lot of people who don’t have my advantages of a monthly salary, a monthly pension payment, these are people who are going to be worrying about their jobs, about their future, about their mental health, about their family relationships because they will miss people terribly or they will be in very small environments where apparently they can only leave to exercise once a day.

Sadly, some of these people are going to break and it’s going to be too much for them, and that is when we in this place, the journalists up there with all their privileges, instead of sneering and dismissing them, instead of calling them covidiots should show some compassion and understanding - because we should wear our advantages and privileges with great humility.

These are from Sky’s Sam Coates.

This is from Sir Keir Starmer on the latest UK Covid death figures. (See 4.22pm and 5.19pm.)

Today’s figure for Covid deaths on the UK government’s dashboard (see 4.22pm) is significant not just because it is so big, but also because it is the first time that the government’s daily headline figure for deaths has passed 1,000.

That does not mean that that actual number of coronavirus deaths on a particular day has reached a record high. For a start, today’s figure is for the number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported today. That is not the same as the tally for the number of deaths occurring today, or yesterday. The dashboard records deaths by date of death separately.

And at the peak of the first wave, in April, there were 22 days when the daily Covid death toll passed 1,000. The peak came on on 8 April, when 1,445 people died from Covid in 24 hours.

But at that point the main headline figure announced by the UK government, often at the Downing Street press conferences which were then taking place every day, related to hospital deaths. Significant numbers of deaths were left out. This meant that the daily death total given most attention by the media at the height of the crisis never reached 1,000 - even though this methodology misrepresented the seriousness of the situation.

My colleagues Robert Booth and Pamela Duncan explained this in detail in an article last year. It’s here.

The government subsequently revised the way it reported coronavirus death figures at the end of April (by which time deaths were falling). And the government dashboard does now have full figures going back to the start of the pandemic, showing that there were days in April when the number of reported Covid deaths was in four figures. But those numbers were not announced publicly at the time.

Number of Covid patients in UK hospitals passes 30,000 for first time

Today’s UK government dashboard also shows that the number of Covid patients in hospital in the UK has passed 30,000.

  • There were 30,451 Covid patients in hospitals in the UK at 8am on Monday this week, the government dashboard says. Monday is the most recent day for which a UK figure is available, and this is the first time this figure has passed 30,000. The Monday total is well above the peak during the first wave of the epidemic, when UK hospital numbers peaked at 21,684 on 12 April.
Numbers of Covid patients in hospital in UK
Numbers of Covid patients in hospital in UK. Photograph: Gov.UK

Updated

UK records 1,041 more Covid deaths and 62,322 more cases

The UK government has updated its coronavirus dashboard, and today’s figures are the most shocking of this wave of the pandemic.

  • The UK has recorded 1,041 more deaths. That is the highest daily figure for this wave of the pandemic and close to the highest daily total for the first wave. According to the chart on the dashboard showing deaths by dates reported, there were only nine days in April when daily deaths reported were over 1,000. The peak came on 21 April (1,224). But these figures have been revised retrospectively. At the time the government’s daily headline figures related to hospital deaths only, and on 21 April it announced 823. (UPDATE: see 5.19pm for an explanation as to how this is the first time the headline daily death total has passed 1,000.)
  • The UK has recorded 62,322 more coronavirus cases. That is a new daily record, passing yesterday’s previous record figure (60,916). At the peak of the first wave in March there were probably many more new cases per day, but there was much less testing then and so the daily published figures were much lower.
Daily dashboard figures
Daily dashboard figures Photograph: Gov.UK

Updated

Sir Keir Starmer has described the government’s refusal to provide emergency housing for rough sleepers during the new lockdown, as it did during the first one, as “shocking and extremely irresponsible”. He was responding to this report in the i.

Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s first minister, has said that following public health advice has never been more important.

With the reproduction number in Northern Ireland approaching 1.8, Foster said:

We will be asking everyone to help us get through the next period of time by complying with the public health messaging and by adhering to the full range of restrictions because it has never mattered so much.

Today 1,985 more positive cases have been reported in Northern Ireland, and 13 more deaths. Yesterday 2,069 cases and 18 deaths were recorded.

A woman passing Covid-themed graffiti on Meriden Street in Birmingham today.
A woman passing Covid-themed graffiti on Meriden Street in Birmingham today. Photograph: Jacob King/PA

West Midlands ambulance service had its busiest ever day on Monday, handling 5,383 emergency calls due to a combination of Covid-19 pressures and winter weather, PA Media reports.

The service declined to comment on reports that up to 15 ambulances had queued outside New Cross hospital in Wolverhampton at one point on Monday night to hand over patients. The BBC reported that one patient in the region faced a wait of five hours and 39 minutes, with two of the longest waits at the Royal Shrewsbury hospital and Heartlands hospital in Birmingham.

Updated

The National Education Union has welcomed the decision to cancel Sats in England this year. (See 2.37pm.) It said:

Teachers and parents will be relieved that Gavin Williamson has faced up to reality and cancelled this year’s Sats tests. With the pressures of Sats lifted, schools will have some space to address the urgent issues of educational recovery.

Updated

Greater Manchester hospitals 'at serious risk of falling over', says city council leader

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester city council, has warned of the “absolute seriousness” of the position Greater Manchester’s hospitals are now facing. In a press conference this afternoon, Leese said:

Others, including the secretary of state for health, talked about our hospitals falling over. It was part of the argument for putting us into tier 3 months ago. I don’t believe we were at risk of falling over at that time. I now do believe that we are at serious risk of falling over, and that really does mean we have to do everything possible to ensure that doesn’t happen.

In Greater Manchester, approximately 30% of all cases are a new variant of coronavirus, and that proportion appears to be growing.

The seven-day rate of positive cases per 100,000 has increased from 193.2 as of 25 December to 320.5 as of 1 January in Greater Manchester. In Wigan it has increased from 182.3 to 354.8, and in Stockport from 212.0 to 350.3, with the same respected dates.

Leese also recognised “phenomenal change” in hospitals across Greater Manchester, with 250 ICU beds for coronavirus patients. “The standard number of ICU beds for Greater Manchester is 227, so there are already 23 surge beds in that number,” Leese said.

The proportion of residents testing positive in care homes has fallen to 1.9%.

With regard to vaccines, according to Leese, in the top four categories in Greater Manchester, there are 556,000 people requiring vaccines. In order to meet the vaccination target, he said, they would need to vaccinate 90,000 people a week.

I’d have to say we need a bit of a gale in order to be able to achieve that time, but let’s hope that we do and we are certainly gearing up to be able to do that.

Numbers of Greater Manchester residents in 9 priority categories for vaccination
Numbers of Greater Manchester residents in 9 priority categories for vaccination Photograph: Manchester city council

Updated

Sir Edward Leigh (Con) says Liam Fox has just shown him the list of training modules that people volunteering to help out with the vaccination programme need to complete. (See 1.24pm.) Why do they need training covering issues like terrorism?

Hancock says he agrees. He says some of these training requirements have been abolished, including fire safety and terrorism.

Hancock suggests vaccinating people in top four priority groups could prevent 80% of Covid deaths

Hancock restates the government’s determination to ensure that everyone in the top four priority groups has had their first dose by the middle of February. (See 12.44pm.)

He says the people in these top four categories account for four out of five of Covid fatalities.

Mark Harper, the Conservative MP who chairs the Covid Recovery Group (see 11.19am), says if this is the case, why can’t the government just agree to lift the restrictions at this point?

Hancock says it will be important to see what the impact of the vaccination programme is having. But he says he does not want to keep the restrictions in place for any longer than necessary.

Updated

Hancock opens debate on lockdown regulations

In the Commons Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has just started his speech opening the debate on the lockdown regulations.

He said that in previous debates on lockdown restrictions he had to ask MPs to take it on trust that there would be a way out. But now, he says, the vaccination programme offers a guaranteed way out.

NHS England reports 674 more Covid hospital deaths

NHS England has reported 674 further hospital coronavirus deaths. The details are here.

This is almost 100 more than the total number of hospital deaths announced yesterday (582) which was until now the largest daily figure for hospital deaths announced by NHS England in this wave of the pandemic.

For comparison, here are the equivalent figure for the last four Wednesdays.

A week ago today - 494

Two weeks ago today - 416

Three weeks ago today - 369

Four weeks ago today - 344

All these figures relate to people who died in hospital after testing positive for Covid. They are the headline numbers produced by NHS England. But it also records patients who die in hospital without having had a positive test, but where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate. Today, in addition to the 674 headline deaths, NHS England is recording 47 other Covid-related deaths.

The seven mass vaccination centres set to open next week have been outlined – with venues in London, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Surrey and Stevenage.

As PA Media reports, the prime minister’s spokesman told a Westminster briefing that the centres would include Robertson House in Stevenage, the ExCeL Centre in London, the Centre for Life in Newcastle and the Etihad Tennis Centre in Manchester.

The other three are Epsom Downs racecourse in Surrey, Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol and Millennium Point in Birmingham.

The spokesman said he expected the centres to be run with a combination of NHS staff and volunteers.

Updated

The Scottish government has reported a further 68 deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, in one of the highest daily totals since the fresh outbreak began, with another 2,039 positive cases being detected.

The latest data shows 95 people in intensive care, the highest daily figure since late November, and 1,384 people in hospital. Public Health Scotland data shows that 47.5% of all new Covid cases involve the highly infectious new variant B117.

In all, the deaths of 4,701 people with positive Covid tests have now been registered in Scotland, with some death registrations delayed by public sector holidays over the Christmas and new year holidays.

National Records of Scotland, a government agency, is due to produce updates of all deaths where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate, involving all cases since 20 December, on Thursday.

Updated

At least three London boroughs have written to faith leaders in their areas to ask them to suspend communal services of worship even though it is not required under the new lockdown rules.

Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Harrow councils sent letters on Tuesday saying the rate of Covid infection warranted a pause in communal worship.

According to the letter from Barking and Dagenham council, the Anglican bishop of Barking and the acting bishop of Chelmsford have called on churches in east London to move services online. Mosques, gurdwaras and Pentecostal churches in the area supported the move, the letter said.

Many local faith leaders in England have expressed anxiety over keeping places of worship open, with infection rates at their highest level since the pandemic began. Churches and other places of worship in Scotland have been ordered to close.

This is from the Muslim Council’s Miqdaad Versi.

Updated

Williamson says Sats not going ahead in England this year

Gavin Williamson has said that Sats will not go ahead in England this year. He was responding to a question from the Labour MP Paul Blomfield, who said that having Sats this year would “place an unnecessary and pointless burden on schools”.

Williamson replied:

I can absolutely confirm that we won’t be proceeding with Sats this year.

We do recognise that this will be an additional burden on schools and it’s very important that we’re very much focused on welcoming students back into the classroom at the very earliest opportunity.

Updated

The National Education Union has criticised Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, for not announcing a move to teacher-assessed grades, as a replacement for exams, earlier. In a response to Williamson’s Commons statement (see 1.33pm), the NEU joint general secretary Mary Bousted said:

Gavin Williamson said in parliament today that he and Ofqual had prepared a contingency for teacher-assessed grades to award qualifications in summer 2021 but, if this is the case, why did he keep it from the sector? The NEU alongside other unions had called for structures to enable such a back-up option to exams in October. Had these structures been put in place then we would be in a much better position now to make it happen.

Instead, there is a danger that implementing such a process fairly and consistently nationally at this late stage will lead to further extreme stress and workload for education staff, students and parents. This stress could have been avoided had government not been so obsessed and blinkered by their pursuit of exams in the face of the obvious prospect that they may not be fair or possible.

At Stormont Northern Ireland’s education minister, Peter Weir, is announcing that GCSE, AS and A level exams are being cancelled this summer for Northern Ireland pupils. These are from the BBC’s Jayne McCormack.

A cyclist on a largely deserted street outside Buckingham Palace in London today.
A cyclist on a largely deserted street outside Buckingham Palace in London today. Photograph: Ian West/PA

The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. Heather Stewart and Polly Toynbee discuss the latest Covid restrictions and the government’s vaccine rollout plans. Plus, Sally Weale speaks to the former education secretary Estelle Morris about what Gavin Williamson should do next.

Williamson is replying to Green now.

He says teachers will get support and guidance as they move to a system of teacher-assessed grades.

He says the government always had plans for this. But he says it would have been better if exams had been able to go ahead.

On cancelling BTecs, Williamson said he decided it was better to leave this decision up to individual colleges because they know more about the needs of their students. For example, they would know if students need a particular qualification to take up a job offer.

Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, is responding to Gavin Williamson. She says “confusion and chaos” follow the education secretary.

She asks what the government is doing to ensure that all pupils have the equipment they need to access remote learning.

On exams, she asks how the government will ensure that standards are consistent.

She criticises him for not cancelling BTec exams this months. Williamson should have cancelled them, instead of leaving it up to colleges.

And she asks him when he expects pupils to be back in school.

Gavin Williamson’s statement to MPs

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, is making his statement to MPs now. He says the government wanted to keep schools open, but had to close them.

He says schools are now under a legal duty to provide remote learning. Pupils should receive between three and five hours per day. He says Ofsted will ensure standards are met.

He confirms that exams will not take place this summer.

And he says he is going to “trust teachers rather than algorithms”. He says teacher assessment will be used to award grades this summer. Teachers will get training and support so that the system can be applied “fairly and consistently” across the country.

Updated

More than third of hospital beds in Wales occupied by Covid patients

More than a third of hospital beds across Wales are occupied by Covid patients, the Welsh NHS chief executive, Andrew Goodall, has said.

Goodall said six hospitals in Wales were at level 4 - the highest level of emergency - and 10 were at level 3. He said:

The NHS is working very hard to balance winter and emergency pressures, with the demands of looking after increasing numbers of people who are seriously ill with coronavirus.

Goodall said there were almost 2,800 Covid-related patients in Welsh hospitals. This is 4% higher than the same point last week and it represents the highest number on record. He went on:

If this trend continues, very soon the number of coronavirus-related patients in hospital will be twice the peak we saw during the first wave in April.

More than a third of hospital beds are occupied by Covid-related patients. This varies across Wales and is close to 50% in two health boards. This has a significant impact on their ability to deliver local services.

Updated

Boris Johnson has just finished his Commons statement. Earlier he was asked by Liam Fox (Con), the former international trade secretary who is also a qualified doctor, about the conditions being imposed on people offering to volunteer for the vaccination programme. Fox said:

As a qualified but non-practising doctor, I volunteered to help with the scheme and would urge others to do the same. But, can I ask the prime minister why I’ve been required to complete courses on conflict resolution, equality, diversity and human rights, moving and handling loads and preventing radicalisation in order to give a simple Covid jab?

Can I urge him to get the NHS and the Department of Health to drop the bureaucracy, drop the political correctness and do all they can to actually get the vaccine programme moving.

Johnson said that he has been “assured by the health secretary that all such obstacles, all such pointless pettifoggery has been removed”.

Back in the Commons Dame Cheryl Gillan asks for young autistic adults to be added to the priority list. She says they are up to six times more likely to die from Covid. And she says they should get more freedom to exercise under the restrictions.

Johnson says he agrees with her point about exercise. He does not address her question about the vaccine priority list.

(The JCVI priority list does not mention autism. But some autistic people also have a “severe and profound learning disability” and under the JCVI conditions this counts as one of the underlying health conditions that put adults aged 16 to 64 in priority group 6.)

Met police announce stricter approach to enforcing Covid rules

The Metropolitan police have said Londoners are “increasingly likely” to face fines in the new lockdown. In a statement explaining its intention to adopt a slightly stricter approach to enforcing the rules than has applied in the past, it says:

Although officers will still apply the 4 Es approach of engaging, explaining, and encouraging – only then enforcing, the Met has issued refreshed instructions to officers to issue fines more quickly to anyone committing obvious, wilful and serious breaches.

In practice this will mean that all those attending parties, unlicensed music events or large illegal gatherings, can expect to be fined – not just the organisers of such events. Similarly, those not wearing masks where they should be and without good reason can expect to be fined - not reasoned with.

Additionally, with fewer “reasonable excuses” for people to be away from their home in the regulations, Londoners can expect officers to be more inquisitive as to why they see them out and about. Where officers identify people without a lawful reason to be away from home they can expect officers to move more quickly to enforcement.

Updated

Johnson says some of the individual parts of the lockdown package are not susceptible to “iron logic”. But cumulatively they are there to protect the public.

Damian Hinds (Con) asks Johnson to prioritise teachers for the vaccine.

Johnson says he is sure the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will bear this point in mind as they make future judgments.

(That was a less honest answer than the one Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccination minister, gave when asked the same question in an interview this morning. See 9.28am. The JCVI has already made its decision about the priority list.)

Labour’s Tan Dhesi criticises Johnson for telling parents that schools were safe, and then saying they were not safe.

Johnson asks Dhesi to withdraw this. He says he has never said schools are not safe.

Dhesi says Johnson said they should be closed, which implied they were not safe.

Huw Merriman (Con) says he has not always voted with the government on lockdown measures, but that he will today because the vaccination programme “changes the game”.

Sir Edward Leigh (Con) thanks the PM for keeping places of worship open. He says this shows how the economy can be opened up. He claims only 400 people who were healthy and between the ages of 16 and 60 have died.

Johnson says Leigh is making a valid point about the impact of coronavirus. It falls disproportionately on the elderly and the vulnerable, he says. But he says those lives should be saved.

Johnson's opening statement to MPs - Summary and key extracts

Here are the key extracts from Boris Johnson’s opening statement to MPs.

  • Johnson effectively set 15 February as a deadline for when people in the top four priority groups should be vaccinated. He said:

By February 15 the NHS is committed to offering a vaccination to everyone in the top four priority groups, including older care home residents and staff, everyone over 70, all frontline NHS and care staff, and all those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.

Later, in response to a question (see 12.06pm), Johnson suggested 15 February might be the point at which the government could start considering easing restrictions, but he was more guarded on this in his opening statement.

  • Johnson said the vaccination programme was being accelerated. He said:

And in working towards that target there are already almost 1,000 vaccination centres across the country, including 595 GP-led sites with a further 180 opening later this week and 107 hospital sites – with another 100 later this week.

Next week we will also have seven vaccination centres opening in places such as sports stadia and exhibition centres.

Pharmacies are already working with GPs to deliver the vaccine in many areas of the country.

  • He said people should be “extremely cautious” about the prospect of the lockdown being eased after the the February half-term, as he would like. The easing of the lockdown would be “gradual”, he said. He told MPs:

When we begin to move out of lockdown I promise [schools] will be the very first things to reopen.

That moment may come after the February half-term, although we should remain extremely cautious about the timetable ahead.

And as was the case last spring, our emergence from the lockdown cocoon will be not a big bang but a gradual unwrapping.

That is why the legislation this house will vote on later today runs until 31 March.

Not because we expect the full national lockdown to continue until then, but to allow a steady, controlled and evidence-led move down through the tiers on a regional basis.

  • He said the government was under a legal obligation, in the restrictions, “to remove them if they are no longer deemed necessary to limit the transmission of the virus”.
  • He said schools would be “the very first things to reopen” when the lockdown could be eased.
  • He said the risks to children from being in school were “vanishingly small”. But schools had to be closed because of the wider risk, he said. He told MPs:

All the evidence shows that schools are safe, and that the risk posed to children by coronavirus is vanishingly small.

For most children the most dangerous part of going to school, even in the midst of this global pandemic, remains I’m afraid crossing the road in order to get there.

But the data showed, and our scientific advisers agreed, that our efforts to contain the spread of this new variant would not be sufficient if schools continued to act as a potential vector for spreading the virus between households.

  • He said that 50,000 laptops had been delivered to schools on Monday for disadvantaged pupils, and that more than 100,000 were being delivered in the first week of terms.
  • He thanked phone companies for offering free mobile data to disadvantaged pupils. He said:

We have partnered with some of the UK’s leading mobile operators to provide free mobile data to disadvantaged families to support access to education resources.

And I am very grateful to EE, Three, Tesco Mobile, Smarty, Sky Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone for supporting this offer.

Steve McCabe (Lab) asks if support for rough sleepers that was available in the first lockdown (when many were housed in hotels) would be introduced again in this lockdown.

Johnson says the government will do everything it can to help people rough sleeping.

Stephen Crabb (Con), a former work and pensions secretary, asks Johnson if he agrees that it would be wrong to remove the £20 a week uplift in universal credit later this year. The increase is only temporary, and is currently due to be reversed from April.

Johnson says he understands the point Crabb is making and that this is being kept under review.

I fully understand the point that [Crabb] makes and all I’ll say is that we’ll of course keep this under review.

Updated

Sir Graham Brady, the Conservative chair of the 1922 Committee, says many MPs are “concerned” about the prospect of the lockdown continuing until the end of March. He asks if MPs can get a vote at the end of January, and again at the end of February, on extending the regulations until the end of March.

Johnson says he does not think MPs will have to wait until the end of March for those restrictions to be eased.

I can’t believe it will be until the end of March that the House has to wait before having a new vote and a new discussion of the measures we have to take.

Updated

Sir Desmond Swayne (Con) suggests the lockdown is malicious. Johnson says he does not accept that. He says he is trying to limit “the overall budget of risk”.

UPDATE: From the Evening Standard’s Sophia Sleigh

Updated

Sammy Wilson (DUP) says for the third time the government is introducing a lockdown that will cause thousands of businesses to go bust.

Since the previous lockdowns did not work, why does the PM think this one will, Wilson asks.

Johnson says he takes no pleasure from this. Much of western Europe is doing the same thing, because they face the same problems. He says the last lockdown did prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed. If that had happened, the death toll would have been “unconscionable”, he says.

Updated

Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, says the chancellor was guilty of “wilful misrepresentation” yesterday because of the way he presented economic support available to Wales as new.

A Conservative party newsletter recently told party members to ‘say the first thing that comes into your head, even if its nonsense’.

Yesterday it appears the chancellor took on board this advice and unwrapped £227m of already announced funding as new for Wales.

This is, and I choose my words with extreme restraint, wilful misrepresentation which deliberately misinforms desperate businesses in Wales.

Will the prime minister apologise on behalf of his chancellor and recognise that for Welsh Covid measures to be most effective, there’s an urgent need to lift financial borrowing constraints imposed on Wales by Westminster?

Johnson does not accept that.

And Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says he is not happy about Saville Roberts using the word “wilful”. MPs are not supposed to accuse each other of lying in the chamber. But he does not ask her to retract.

Updated

Johnson says he is confident the economy will stage a “very substantial bounce back” later this year.

Johnson says there could be 'substantial opportunities' to start lifting lockdown from mid-February

Jeremy Wright (Con) asks for an assurance that once a certain point has been reached in the vaccination programme, restrictions will be lifted.

Johnson says he understands why people want a more detailed timeline.

If the virus does not change, and the vaccine works as expected, and the rollout is successful, and people obey the rules, then around 15 February, when the first four cohorts have been immunised, “there will be substantial opportunities to relax the restrictions we currently face”.

Schools will be the priority, he says.

And he says the Commons will have the opportunity to debate these measures.

UPDATE: Here is the full quote from Johnson.

If our understanding of the virus doesn’t change dramatically again as it has, if the vaccine takes effect, the vaccines take effect in the way that we think that they will, and the roll out continues to be successful - and above all, obviously, if everybody continues to play their part in following this lockdown and following the guidance to stay home, protect the NHS and save lives - then clearly at that moment ... around about the middle of February, 15 February, when we have taken those four cohorts and immunised them, or shortly thereafter, there will be substantial opportunities to relax the restrictions that we currently face - if all those conditions are satisfied.

And schools, as I say, will clearly be the priority and the whole matter will quite properly be debated by this House of Commons.

Updated

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, also accuses Johnson of being repeatedly slow to act in response to the Covid threat.

He says he has four questions about the vaccine.

First, what is being done to increase supplies of vials?

Second, will the PM close the UK border to all but essential travel?

Third, why were 3 million freelancers and self-employed people excluded from the financial package announced yesterday.

And, fourth, why was there no new money for Scottish businesses in the announcement yesterday?

Johnson say the government has already spent £37bn on employment support.

The Barnett consequentials for Scotland will be passed on, he says.

He says the government is protecting the borders.

And he criticises Blackford for not giving credit to the UK NHS, and the part it has played in ensuring the vaccine is being distributed.

Updated

Chris Grayling (Con) asks for an assurance that Johnson will lead a Commons debate on lifting the lockdown before the February half-term.

Johnson says he thinks it may be possible to start lifting the restrictions after the half-term. He says the Commons will be consulted in the normal way.

Updated

Johnson is replying to Starmer.

He says the government has already supplied large numbers of laptops to schools. Gavin Williamson will say more later, he says.

He says the government has taken efforts to secure the border.

And he welcomes Starmer’s comments about the vaccine programme. He claims this contrasts with Starmer’s attitude in the past, when he expressed “derision” about its record.

Starmer can be seen shaking his head. Johnson may be referring to Labour’s comments about test and trace, not vaccines.

Starmer says this may be the “darkest moment of the pandemic”.

He says Labour will support the lockdown. But it follows a pattern, he says. The government has repeatedly been slow to act.

He says on 22 December Sage said the tiered restrictions would not be enough. But it took the government two more weeks to act.

He says he thinks the government can deliver 2m doses of vaccine a week, but he asks for an assurance the NHS will get the resources it needs to do this. Will volunteers help?

He criticises the financial package of support announced. He says it does not go far enough, and the self-employed are still not getting all they need.

On schools, he asks when pupils who need laptops will get them.

And he asks when the government will tighten controls at the border. Why has it taken so long, he asks.

Sir Keir Starmer starts by saying the Labour MP Jo Stevens, who has been in hospital with Covid, is improving.

Johnson says government under legal duty to lift restrictions if no longer needed

Johnson says the lockdown regulations will be kept under continuous review.

And he says there is a legal obligation to remove them once they are no longer needed.

Updated

Johnson says people should be 'extremely cautious' about chances of schools reopening in February

Johnson lists a series of phone companies that have agreed to offer free data or internet access to some children who will be doing classes from home.

He says pupils may be able to go back to school after the February half-term.

But people should be “extremely cautious” about that timetable, he says.

He confirms that the regulations being passed today will last until 31 March.

The emergence from this lockdown will be “gradual”, he says.

Updated

Johnson is summarising the new lockdown rules.

He says people will know how keen he was to keep children in school.

The risk to children from Covid when in school is “vanishingly small”, he says. He says the biggest risk to them would be from crossing the road on the way to school.

But he says that the government had to close schools because they could serve as a vector, allowing the virus to spread to others.

Johnson says by 15 February the NHS is committed to offering a vaccination to everyone in the top four priority groups. (See 9.28am.)

He says there are already almost 1,000 vaccination centres across the country.

Johnson starts by saying there is a “fundamental difference” between this lockdown and previous ones. That is because there is now a mechanism for getting out of it - the vaccination programme.

He says 1.1 million people in England and 1.3m people in the UK have already been vaccinated.

Updated

Boris Johnson's statement to MPs

Boris Johnson is about to deliver his statement to MPs.

Here is the call list of MPs down to ask a question.

This afternoon Gavin Williamson is to address MPs on his latest plans - or lack of them - for next summer’s exams in England, after belated official confirmation that A-levels and GCSE exams will not go ahead.

As recently as Monday morning the Department for Education was insisting that exams would take place as normal, leaving itself without back-up plans to cope with the consequences of a rampaging pandemic. For that Williamson and his special advisers are likely to be blamed.

Williamson will outline to MPs that the exam regulator Ofqual has been asked to conduct a rapid consultation over how to award grades this year. In an attempt to avoid last summer’s disastrous algorithm-based awards, this time Ofqual is likely to follow the model adopted by Wales, with school or centre assessments of grades to be “moderated” by formal assessments in core subjects to be set by examination boards. Those would most likely be taken in March or April.

Simon Lebus, Ofqual’s interim chief regulator, has released a statement:

Our message to students is this: please continue to engage as fully as you can in your education. That will be online for the majority of students, or face-to-face for those students still going in to their school, college or training provider. This will put you in the best position, whatever arrangements are made for your qualifications.

Updated

In December Conservative opposition to the government’s tiering system was led by the Covid Recovery Group, and its supporters were prominent among the 55 Tory MPs who rebelled in the vote on 1 December.

But the CRG has not commented publicly on the new lockdown announced on Monday, and its leading figures have instead been focusing on the importance of making sure the vaccination programme works properly. This is the most recent tweet from Mark Harper, the CRG chair.

And this is the most recent tweet from Steve Baker, the CRG deputy chair.

But Baker has also tweeted approvingly a link to a Daily Telegraph editorial saying that today’s debate should not just be “another rubber-stamping exercise”.

If you are looking for detailed commentary on the new regulations, as usual the barrister Adam Wagner’s Twitter feed may be the best place to start. He has a thread on them starting here.

As he explains, today’s document (pdf) does not make much sense on its own because it is just a series of amendments to regulations that are already in force. The new lockdown effectively puts the whole of England into what was tier 4, while making some minor changes to what the tier 4 rules involve.

When Boris Johnson announced the latest lockdown in his TV address on Monday night, he implied that by the middle of February the restrictions might start to ease. He said:

By the middle of February, if things go well and with a fair wind in our sails, we expect to have offered the first vaccine dose to everyone in the four top priority groups identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation ...

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.

But the lockdown regulations (pdf) being debated this afternoon include 31 March as an end date. As Katy Balls writes in a Spectator blog, this has alarmed some Tory MPs who raised the issue with Johnson when they had a Zoom call with him yesterday. Balls says that Johnson told MPs that he expected to be back in the Commons debating the measures well before the end of March. She says he also caused some confusion by trying to explain the likely length of the lockdown with a horticultural reference.

Opting for a flower analogy, Johnson promised that things would be better, in terms of restrictions being eased, by the time tulip season was over – perhaps even by daffodil season. This led to MPs frantically googling floral seasons for a clue as to when restrictions would end (Tulips: early May). MPs then made the point that the dates of each season could vary depending where in the country you were.

Updated

The ONS says its headline figure for excess deaths in England and Wales in the week ending 25 December (44.8%) is unreliable, because bank holidays skew the figure. (See 9.53am.) In a Twitter thread, John Roberts from the Covid-19 Actuaries Response Group says the real figure is more like 25%.

Scottish Labour has asked the Scottish health secretary, Jeane Freeman, to investigate a Covid vaccinations mix-up after dozens of NHS staff queued in near-freezing weather for several hours outside a Glasgow hospital.

Local media quoted staff at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary complaining about staff being left to queue outside for up to two and a half hours, some dressed only in their scrubs, because vaccination staff did not show up as planned.

GlasgowLive quoted one staff member saying:

The queue was a mile long at 11am, when we were meant to start. I queued for two and a half hours before I got my vaccination, and even that was hours after my scheduled appointment.

There were any number of surgeons in the queue and the amount of appointments for patients that have had to be cancelled as surgeons cannot make clinics or operations - it’s a huge embarrassment.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has promised to reschedule any missed vaccination appointments, and blamed a scheduling error, but Monica Lennon, Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson, said:

There is no priority greater than the vaccination programme, and that is why it is essential that Jeane Freeman gives a guarantee to the people of Scotland that such scenes will not be repeated across the country in the coming months.

It’s time for Jeane Freeman to get to grips with the vaccination programme, publish daily figures on the number of vaccinations available and administered, and ensure that our NHS staff do not pay the price of a bungled rollout.

Updated

UK Covid-related deaths reach 92,070, latest figures show

A quarter of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week before Christmas were Covid related - the highest weekly proportion since mid-May.

A total of 11,520 deaths were registered across England and Wales in the week to 25 December of which 2,912 mentioned Covid on the death certificate, or 25.3% of all deaths in England and Wales.

This brings the total number of deaths involving Covid to 92,070. The figure is higher than the government’s official toll of 76,305 as it takes into account all deaths where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate whereas the government figure only includes those deaths which occurred within 28 days of a positive Covid test.

The figure of 92,070 deaths includes all deaths recorded by the three UK statistical agencies up to 25 December and those reported by health agencies since then as published on the government dashboard.

The Conservative MP Stephen McPartland, who represents Stevenage, says he won’t vote for the new lockdown.

McPartland was one of the 55 Tory MPs who rebelled in the vote on 1 December on the tiering system.

Updated

Quarter of all deaths in England and Wales involved Covid in late December, says ONS

The Office for National Statistics has published its latest figures for deaths in England and Wales. They cover the period up to the week ending Friday 25 December (or week 52, as the ONS calls it). Here are the main points.

  • A quarter (25.3%) of deaths in England and Wales in the week ending 25 December involved coronavirus (in that it was mentioned on the death certificate). That amounted to 2,912 deaths. That was 74 fewer than the number of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales in the previous week (week 51). But there were fewer deaths overall that week, and in week 51 Covid deaths accounted for 22.9% of all deaths.
  • The number of Covid deaths in the week ending 25 December declined in five of the nine English regions compared with the previous week. But they went up in the north-east, the east and London.
  • Excess deaths in the week ending 25 December were running at 44.8%. That is the amount by which they were running above the five-year average for this time of year. But the ONS says this figure should be “treated with caution” because bank holidays skew the figures. It explains: “The five-year average was particularly low in week 52 as the years 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, all contained two bank holidays, whereas week 52 of 2020 only contained one bank holiday so would likely have more deaths registered.
Excess death figures for England and Wales
Excess death figures for England and Wales. Photograph: ONS

Updated

Dr Susan Hopkins, deputy director of the national infection service at Public Health England (PHE), told BBC Breakfast this morning that it could take 12 to 14 days for infections to come down after the introduction of lockdown restrictions. She said:

I’m hopeful that because London went into the restrictions on 18 of December, that we are starting to see a flattening in London.

It’s still rising in other parts of the country, and I would expect that if people really take heed and reduce their contacts that we will start seeing a reduction in cases in about 10 days’ time.

Asked if schools would go back after February half-term, she said:

I think it will really depends on the epidemiology of the virus... we will have to look at it by year, age group by age group, as happened the first time round, and the final decisions will lay with government over when they want to bring the students back.

Asked if it were possible that pupils could be made to stay at home beyond the February half-term, she replied:

We can’t rule it out, but they will be the first back to school, it will be the first thing to open, that would be our advice.

Updated

Vaccination minister rules out including teachers in priority list for Covid jab

This morning Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons education committee, said teachers should be given priority for getting the coronavirus vaccine, like health and social care workers. He told Times Radio:

My view is that children - educating our children - is the most important thing we can do. We are damaging their life chances every day that they are not in school, we’re increasing mental health worries, we know there are safeguarding hazards for children being at home, so the priority must be to get our kids back into school. Surely teachers and support staff must be made a priority alongside NHS workers for vaccination.

As HuffPost’s Arj Singh reports, in a briefing with MPs yesterday, Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, also floated this idea as a possibility.

But this morning Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccination minister, seemed to rule this out. When asked if teachers could be included in the list of groups getting priority for the vaccination, he replied;

I think it’s right that we focus very much on the nine categories for the most vulnerable people that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has set us. Some teachers will be vaccinated because [they’re in a vulnerable category for other reasons] ... I’ve been very clear that actually the most vulnerable should be the absolute priority.

Here is the list of nine priority groups, in order. The full JCVI advice is here.

Priority groups for coronavirus vaccination
Priority groups for coronavirus vaccination Photograph: Gov.UK

Students applying to go to university next September are to be given extra time to complete their applications following the closure of schools and colleges as part of the latest lockdown measures.

The UK university admissions service, Ucas, is expecting students to apply in greater numbers this year and has extended the January deadline by two weeks to relieve pressure after studies were moved online.

The January deadline is when the vast majority of applications are submitted and has been pushed back to Friday 29 January at 6pm, to give students additional time to complete applications and references, particularly those without access to digital devices.

Although universities will accept applications beyond that date, students are being urged not to leave it until the last minute in order to give themselves the best chance to maximise their offers.

The Ucas chief executive, Clare Marchant, said:

This decision to extend the deadline is about relieving the pressure not only on students, but also teachers and advisers. We know from our data that most students have started their Ucas application and we expect to see the number of applications submitted by 29 January exceed the numbers we have seen in previous years.

This additional time also allows schools and colleges to support students who do not have readily available access to digital devices to make arrangements to put the finishing touches to their application.

The prime minister’s decision on Monday to close schools and cancel summer exams will inevitably cause huge disruption for sixth form students who still don’t know what will replace A-levels. The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, will give further details on next steps when he addresses MPs in the Commons this afternoon.

Updated

Johnson to address parliament as MPs set to vote to approve new lockdown

Good morning. The Commons has been recalled for today - the second recall during the Christmas/new year recess - and we will get a statement from Boris Johnson on coronavirus, and a debate and vote on the new lockdown. (It has already come into force, but votes on regulations like these ones passed by secondary legislation are often retrospective.) At the start of December 55 Conservative MPs rebelled when Johnson asked them to back the three-tier restriction system (remember that?) that he was introducing for England. But today we are expecting only minimum opposition; the Covid Recovery Group, which represents anti-lockdown or lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs, has gone mysteriously quiet; it’s remarkable what a one in 50 infection rate and record hospitalisation figures can do to change the terms of the national debate.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: The ONS publishes its weekly death figures for England and Wales.

11am: Prof Ian Young, Northern Ireland’s chief scientific adviser, holds a briefing at Stormont.

11.30am: Boris Johnson makes a statement to MPs about coronavirus.

12.15pm: The Scottish government is expected to hold its daily coronavirus briefing.

12.15pm: Dr Andrew Goodall, chief executive of NHS Wales, and Dr Frank Atherton, chief medical officer for Wales, speak at a Welsh government coronavirus briefing.

1pm: Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, makes a statement to MPs about schools in England.

1.30pm: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

2pm: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, opens a Commons debate on the coronavirus regulations. MPs will vote at 7pm.

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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