Early evening summary
- Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has refused to deny a claim from Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser, that Hancock told No 10 in the early days of the pandemic that patients would be tested before being discharged into care homes. At a press conference where his evasiveness led to him facing repeated questions on this topic, he said:
Of course we committed, and I committed, to getting the policy in place but it took time to build the testing.
We didn’t start with a big testing system in the UK and then we built that testing system, and that’s why the 100,000 target was so important because it really accelerated the availability of testing because when you don’t have much testing we had to prioritise it according to clinical need.
When pressed on whether he had told the PM in March 2020 that all patients would be tested when being discharged to care homes, as Cummings said he did, Hancock replied:
My recollection of events is that I committed to delivering that testing for people going from hospital into care comes when we could do it. I then went away and built the testing capacity for all sorts of reasons and all sorts of uses, including this one, and then delivered on the commitment that I made.
Earlier Hancock faced a much happier outing in the Commons where Conservative MPs ignored his failure to answer this particular question and gave him their full support. (See 12.09pm.) At the press conference Hancock also received some support from Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency. She said that hospital discharges were only responsible for “a very, very tiny proportion” of Covid cases in care homes. A report from Public Health England (pdf) out today makes the same point. It says:
The findings of this report suggest hospital associated seeding accounted for a small proportion of all care home outbreaks.
But it also says:
Policies on systematic testing prior to hospital discharge for patients discharged to care homes were introduced on 15 April 2020. This may have supported the decline seen in these types of outbreaks, contributing to an overall reduction in care home cases.
- Boris Johnson has rejected the claim made by Cummings that tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily because of mistakes made by the government. (See 1.19pm.)
- Cases of the Indian variant have doubled within a week, a Public Health England report has revealed. PHE says:
PHE’s latest weekly variant cases data shows that cases of VOC-21APR-02 [the Indian variant] have risen by 3,535 to 6,959 since last week.
The most affected areas continue to be Bolton, Bedford and Blackburn with Darwen, which have seen 1,354, 366 and 361 confirmed cases, respectively. There are small numbers of cases of VOC-21APR-02 in most parts of the country. PHE have published a full breakdown of VOC-21APR-02 cases by lower-tier local authority.
In some affected areas, hospitalisations are rising. Hospital attendances and admissions are predominantly in unvaccinated individuals, highlighting how crucial it is that people in these areas come forward to receive vaccination.
That’s all from me for today. But our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.
These are from Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall on what Matt Hancock said at the press conference about one of the most damaging allegations Dominic Cummings made about him.
There is now a crucially important difference in the various accounts of events. Cummings says he and PM were given assurance that discharged patients would be tested before discharge to care. Hancock is saying he thinks he said they would be when testing capacity was built up.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) May 27, 2021
If this was a miscommunication or misunderstanding it was a potentially catastrophic one- because if Cummings had understood it wouldn’t be possible question would have been well can we sensibly discharge? Either that or someone is lying.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) May 27, 2021
This is from the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar.
This 👇. Why on earth, if the testing capacity wasn't yet in place, did @MattHancock sign off the discharge strategy? https://t.co/kJtyUzlFVm
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 27, 2021
And these are from Torsten Bell from the Resolution Foundation, addressing Crerar’s question.
Important question, to which I think we know the answer: because the fear of hospitals being overrun was so vivid (see Italy) that it trumped other fears https://t.co/WCoy4q4qKw
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2021
And responsibility for the truly tragic error definitely goes far beyond Matt Hancock given NHS England was arguing for the approach that was taken and the same mistake was made in Scotland
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2021
Hancock says there are some “early signs” that the case numbers in Bolton are starting to flatten, after rising sharply because of the Indian variant.
Harries also says it looks as though cases are starting to plateau in Bolton. But she says there may be a spill-over into other areas.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Q: Have you spoken to the PM about Cummings’ evidence? And has he told you you have his confidence?
Hancock says he and the PM speak all the time. They focus on getting the country out of the pandemic.
This isn’t over yet, he says. The rise in case rates shows that. There is a race between the variant and the vaccine.
Q: Do you agree with Prof Ferguson that it is “in the balance” as to whether step 4 of the roadmap can go ahead? (See 9.52am.)
Harries says she absolutely agrees with Ferguson.
She says we are “on the cusp” as to whether step 4 can go ahead as planned.
Q: Why did you sign off the discharge plan when there was not sufficient testing capacity?
Hancock says they took clinical advice on what to do. And they had to build testing capacity. That is what they did.
Q: Is it the case that you made this promise, but then found you could not deliver it because the testing capacity was not in place?
Hancock says there will be a time to go over this in great detail.
But his recollection is that he committed to delivering the testing capacity. He went away and built it, he says. That is what you do in government, he says.
He repeats the point about how there will be a time to go through this in great detail.
(If Hancock did not tell No 10 that testing for patients being discharged was already in place at the start of the pandemic, as Dominic Cummings alleges he did, you would expect him to deny it directly. But he hasn’t. So although he is claiming to have said something different, his account does not undermine the key Cummings claim.)
Hancock dodges question about whether he told No 10 patients would be tested before being discharged from hospital
Q: Did you tell the PM that everyone going from hospital to care home would be tested? Or is Cummings not telling the truth?
Hancock repeats what he said before. Of course he committed to putting the policy in place, he says. But it took time. They did not start with a testing system in place.
Q: It was common knowledge last year there were problems with care homes. Did you protect them? And did you or did you not tell Downing Street people would be tested before being discharged into care homes?
Hancock says they committed to building the testing capacity to allow people to be tested. But that took time. And he needed to use targets to build that up. (Dominic Cummings criticised his use of the 100,000 tests per day target.) This is a matter of public record, he says.
(Hancock has not specifically addressed Cummings’ claim that he said that patients were being tested before they were discharged.)
- Hancock sidesteps question about whether he told No 10 patients would be tested before being discharged.
Updated
Q: With each new variant the effectiveness of new vaccines becomes less and less. So why is lockdown relaxation continuing when most of those who spread the virus have not yet had a single vaccination?
Hancock says they are working as fast as they can to get people vaccinated.
And they are monitoring new variants carefully. He says the effectiveness of the vaccine after two jabs is effectively the same against the Indian variant as it is against the Kent variant.
Harries says Public Health Report published a report at the weekend showing both main vaccines are effective against the Indian variant after two doses.
But it is important to be vigilant, she says.
And here are the recent figures for the number of people in hospital.
Unlike with cases, there is no rise, Harries says.
But deaths are rising, she says.
Harries is now presenting the slides.
This one shows rising cases. She says some of this is due to surge testing, and more people being tested. But it is also a consequence of the Indian variant she says.
Hancock says Eddie Gray from GSK will chair the antivirals taskforce set up by the PM.
Hancock says 500,000 people have signed up for the vaccine research registry - which means they are willing to take part in vaccine trials.
He says the government is funding the expansion of another Oxford study, looking at whether vaccines can be mixed.
If it shows they can, that would speed up vaccination programmes around the world.
Hancock says the vaccine is severing the link between Covid cases and hospitalisations.
He says the latest ONS data shows that three out of our people have anti-Covid antibodies, and for the over-50s it is over 90%.
He says it is estimated that the vaccination programme has now prevented 13,200 deaths and 39,700 hospitalisations.
Hancock confirms Indian variant now dominant, saying it could account for up to 75% of new cases
Hancock says the latest data shows Covid cases rising. (See 4.42pm.)
He says the latest estimates are that more than half of new cases are the Indian variant, and it could be up to three quarters, he says.
Updated
Matt Hancock's press conference
Matt Hancock is holding his press conference.
He is joined by Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency.
Government air-passenger arrival figures released today show that more than 12 million people have flown into the UK since the start of the March 2020 lockdown, and 1.59 million between January and April this year, Labour says. About two thirds of arrivals in 2021 were non-UK nationals, adds Labour.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said:
Time and time again, the UK government promised strong border measures, but the truth is now out – millions of people have been flying in to the UK with only a tiny percentage going into hotel quarantine.
It’s beyond reckless that so many people arrived during the third lockdown when international travel was supposed to be tightly restricted. No wonder we have had so many variant outbreaks, with Conservative chaos on border protections.
Updated
UK Covid cases, hospital admissions and deaths all rising, from very low base, figures show
The UK has updated its coronavirus dashboard, and there is a mix of good news and bad news.
On the plus side, 663,577 doses of vaccine were administered yesterday. That is not a record - the biggest daily total came on 20 March, when more than 800,000 got a jab - but it is still one of the highest daily totals on record. This is from Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister.
Another big day vaccinating yesterday with 663,577 vaccines administered. 73.3% of all adults are protected with one dose and 45.6% of all adults with two doses. We continue to protect at scale. When you get the txt get the jab. 💉💉💉 https://t.co/m9AgzGSxUg
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) May 27, 2021
But on the minus side, all three key indicators on the dashboard for the virus are now heading in the wrong direction.
- Covid deaths are up 14% week on week. Only 10 deaths have been recorded today, and the total for the past week is just 57; compared to the numbers earlier this year, these are still very small. But until recently the week-on-week trend was down, and yesterday it was flat.
- Covid cases are up 20.5% week on week. Today 3,542 new cases have been recorded. Yesterday the most recent seven-day total was 18% up on the previous week.
- Hospital admissions are up 19.9% week on week. This is a lagging indicator, because the figures on the dashboard only cover the period up to Sunday 23 May, when 112 patients were admitted to hospital, but yesterday the week-on-week increase was 10.8%.
Updated
A total of 52,689,008 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between 8 December and 26 May, according to NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 574,865 on the previous day.
As PA Media reports, NHS England said 32,285,684 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 206,311 on the previous day, while 20,403,324 were a second dose, an increase of 368,554.
Updated
Gove says costs and benefits of Covid-status certificates 'finely balanced'
In his evidence Michael Gove was asked if he had come to a view as to what the balance was between the costs and the benefits of introducing Covid-status certificates. He replied: “Finely balanced”.
Updated
Michael Gove is giving evidence to the committee about Covid-status certificates - the documentation that could be used to help people access venues by giving information about people’s vaccination record, or recent test results. At one point these were referred to as Covid passports.
Gove has been leading the government review exploring the idea. As HuffPost’s Paul Waugh reports, he is not sounding very positive about them.
Feels very much like Covid passports are dead. @michaelgove sounding very downbeat, says Israel ditching its version cos of high vaccination rates.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) May 27, 2021
Adds it was “always intended it would be for a time limited period…”in the UK and not iron-clad link to June 21 opening.
And these are from the Mirror’s Dan Bloom.
NEW: Michael Gove tells MPs the UK's domestic 'Covid passports' policy won’t be spelt out until June 7 at the earliest - and appears to hint it could even, in some form/part, come later than June 21. Says there are ‘significant outstanding factors’ to be worked through.
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) May 27, 2021
Gove says there is a "hassle factor" to passports and “it was always intended to be the case for any form of Covid status certification in the UK that were we to embrace it, it would be for a time-limited period.”
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) May 27, 2021
When will Covid certification be introduced?
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) May 27, 2021
“I think that we could introduce this system in Stage Four," says Gove. Not a guarantee though.
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, is giving evidence to the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee.
At the start William Wragg (Con), the chair, asked if Gove agreed with Dominic Cummings, who told the committee hearing yesterday about how he had texted Boris Johnson to tell him the Cabinet Office was “terrifyingly shit”. Gove had a simple answer - no.
Michael Gove - up at committee on vaccine certification - is asked if he agrees with Cummings that his Cabinet Office is “terrifyingly s***”. Gove replied: “No.” Committee chair immediately refers on to the first MP with questions. pic.twitter.com/nyxgje6ebz
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) May 27, 2021
Sturgeon says failure to take 'quick and firm decisions' can cost lives in dig at Johnson
At first minister’s questions in Edinburgh Nicola Sturgeon suggested that Boris Johnson’s failure to act swiftly at certain times in the pandemic had led to “loss of life”. As the Herald reports, Sturgeon said:
Sometimes I’m afraid, in the interests of health and human life, it is necessary for people in leadership positions like me to take very quick decisions because, as we know from bitter experience over this pandemic, it’s often the failure to take quick and firm decisions that leads to loss of life.
And anybody who’s in any doubt about that only had to listen to a fraction of what Dominic Cummings outlined about what he described as the chaotic response of the UK government at key moments of this pandemic.
So I will continue to try to take difficult decisions as well as I possibly can.
I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over again from Caroline Davies.
New absence figures published by the Department for Education reveal that 60% of pupils in England were kept out of school for Covid-related reasons at some time last autumn.
The national data for the term that began when schools reopened in September shows that pupils missed 33 million days in the classroom because of Covid, through having to self-isolate or for shielding reasons. That sent the overall absence rate to nearly 12% for the term, compared with less than 5% in a normal term.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the figures confirmed the turbulence that schools had to deal with, and the lack of support they received from the government.
Barton said:
The government’s refusal to give schools any flexibility to finish in-school teaching early before Christmas, which was accompanied by threats of legal action, made matters even worse.
The prime minister’s former senior adviser spoke yesterday of the government’s shortcomings in the handling of this crisis and it is certainly the case that schools and colleges were badly let down by government leadership during the autumn term.
Updated
The Treasury did not know Greensill was struggling financially when lobbying efforts were launched by former prime minister David Cameron for funds during the pandemic, a senior official has told MPs.
Charles Roxburgh, second permanent secretary to the Treasury, told the Treasury select committee on founder Lex Greensill:
We knew about the problems he had funding his SVPs (special-purpose vehicles).
We did not discuss whether his core business was in trouble ... We knew about funding problems. We had no information about any threat to the solvency of his core business. That came much later.
Updated
A total of 52,689,008 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between December 8 and May 26, according to NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 574,865 on the previous day.
NHS England said 32,285,684 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 206,311 on the previous day, while 20,403,324 were a second dose, an increase of 368,554.
Hi. This is Caroline Davies taking over the blog for a short while.
Union membership has increased for the fourth year in a row, up by almost 120,000 in 2020, PA Media reports. PA says:
The TUC welcomed the increase, saying thousands of workers have turned to unions during the coronavirus crisis, to protect their jobs and defend their rights.
The Resolution Foundation said union membership increased from 6.2 million to 6.6 million between 2016 and 2020, a “significant” rise but still half the peak membership of 13.2 million in 1979.
My colleague Caroline Davies is taking over the blog now. I will be back a bit later.
More than 11,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales in the period in which Dominic Cummings has alleged he and Boris Johnson believed that people discharged from hospital were being tested.
Cummings claimed in his testimony to MPs yesterday that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, had told colleagues - including the prime minister - that hospital patients were to be tested before being discharged to care homes.
“We were told categorically in March that people would be tested before they went back to care homes. We only subsequently found out that that hadn’t happened,” Cummings said.
Hancock refused to deny this specific allegation in parliament earlier.
Cummings said they only discovered that people were not being tested after being discharged in mid-April. But given that deaths on average were occurring 13 days after becoming sympomatic in the first wave, it is appropriate to count all deaths occurring up to the end of May (government advice changed on 15 April to state that “all patients discharged from hospital to be tested before going into care homes as a matter of course”).
While we now know that more people died with Covid in care homes in England and Wales in the second wave of the pandemic than in the first, the same dataset shows the sharp increase in deaths in those settings in April 2020.
Data released by the ONS last week shows that there were 11,706 deaths in care homes between 13 March and 1 May 2020.
This is significantly higher than the known death toll at the time because these figures include care home residents who later died in hospital, unlike contemporaneous figures which only counted those occurring within the care home itself.
Updated
Starmer says Covid inquiry needs to be fast-forwarded to examine Cummings' allegations
On a visit to Bristol Sir Keir Starmer said the evidence given by Dominic Cummings yesterday about the government’s handling of coronavirus meant the public inquiry should be brought forward. He said:
They are very serious allegations from Dominic Cummings about the chaos and the incompetence of the decision-making in the government and there are consequences for that in relation to those that died ...
I don’t think Dominic Cummings should have the last word on this and that’s why all the evidence should be put before the committee, the health secretary should answer the allegations and the inquiry should be fast-forwarded.
It’s not about taking anyone’s word - it’s about getting to the bottom of it.
Asked if he agreed with Cummings that Boris Johnson was unfit to be PM, Starmer replied:
I don’t think the prime minister has made good decisions in this pandemic.
I was very concerned about the repeated mistakes from the first wave into the second wave, and in particular the slowness to lock down in the autumn, and I think the prime minister got that completely wrong.
There are consequences and this is what all these allegations are about and that’s why the inquiry needs to be fast-forwarded, and we can’t have this drip, drip, drip of allegations, and we need to get to the bottom of it.
Updated
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which has been campaigning for an inquiry and wants it to start now, has criticised Matt Hancock, the health secretary, for telling MPs earlier he was committed to transparency, when he has not been willing to meet the group.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice statement after Matt Hancock commons statement:
— Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (@CovidJusticeUK) May 27, 2021
In Parliament Matt Hancock claimed that he and the Govt has a track record of openness, transparency & explanation & that they ”will keep on with the spirit of openness and transparency”.
1/6 pic.twitter.com/1nr7rn0Ebt
Over 2,660 questions have been answered in Parliament but he has refused to answer a single one from us - how can he when both himself and the Prime Minister have refused to meet with us directly on seven occasions?
— Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK (@CovidJusticeUK) May 27, 2021
2/6
The number of rapid Covid-19 tests carried out in England has fallen to its lowest level in five weeks – despite all members of the public being eligible to take two rapid tests a week, PA Media reports. PA says:
Just under 4.9m rapid tests were conducted in England in the week to 19 May, according to the latest test and trace figures (pdf) – down 4% on the previous week.
It is the fourth week in a row that the number has decreased.
Updated
Public Health England has published its latest weekly Covid surveillance report (pdf). Here is the PHE summary of what it says.
Surveillance indicators suggest that at a national level Covid-19 activity increased slightly in [the week ending Sunday 23 May].
Case rates have increased or stayed level across all age groups.
Case rates ... were highest in those aged 10 to 19, with a case rate of 55.2 per 100,000 population.
The lowest case rates continued to be in those aged 70 to 79, with a rate of 4.1 per 100,000 population.
Case rates per 100,000 were highest in the north-west, at 52.8.
Case rates per 100,000 are lowest in the south-west, with a rate of 9.2.
The hospital admission rate for Covid-19 is 0.79 per 100,000 ... compared to 0.75 per 100,000 in the previous week.
Hospital admission rates for Covid-19 ... were highest in the West Midlands with a rate of 1.64.
The highest hospital admission rates continue to be those aged 85 and above.
Commenting on the figures, Dr Yvonne Doyle, the PHE medical director, said:
Covid infection rates have risen across most age groups and regions, but encouragingly the number in hospitals across the country remains low. However, we are concerned about the outbreak of the variant first discovered in India and in some areas hospitalisations have slightly risen. This is a reminder that we still have a way to go and need to remain cautious.
Updated
At the lobby briefing Downing Street has defended the meeting between Boris Johnson and the authoritarian Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, taking place tomorrow. As PA Media reports, asked what would be discussed at the meeting, the PM’s spokesman said:
As president of the Visegard Group of central European nations later this year, co-operation with Hungary is vital to the UK’s prosperity and security.
He said the meeting would “promote UK interests in these areas and discuss issues in the wider region”.
As PA reports, the spokesman also condemned comments made by Orbán on Muslims and migrants. Orbán has spoken of “Muslim invaders” and described migrants as “a poison”. The spokesman said:
On all human rights issues we do not shy away from raising them. The PM has condemned those specific comments which were divisive and wrong.
Updated
In his evidence yesterday Dominic Cummings accused Carrie Symonds, the prime minister’s fiancee, of trying to fill No 10 jobs with her friends, in a manner that broke the rules. At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesman denied this. “All appointments made in No 10 are done in the normal way,” he said. “That’s always been the case.”
What Johnson said about Cummings - Summary and analysis
Here is a fuller version of what Boris Johnson said in his pooled TV interview this morning. He was visiting a hospital in Colchester, and what was striking was how soft his response to Dominic Cummings was.
Although there was an ultra-generalised rejection of some of what Cummings was saying - “some of the commentary I’ve heard doesn’t bear any relation to reality” - Johnson did not accuse his former aide of lying (even about a claim Johnson has previously denied 100%). And although he rejected what Cummings said about tens of thousands of people dying unnecessarily, he did so in an understated way (“I don’t think so”).
This may be because No 10 does not have the evidence to refute Cummings’ claims, because they were accurate. But it may also reflect a desire to de-escalate the story, and to avoid provoking Cummings any further.
Here are the main points.
- Johnson rejected the claim made by Dominic Cummings that tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily because of mistakes made by the government. He also repeated his longstanding claim that the government followed the scientific advice. He said:
At every stage we’ve been governed by a determination to protect life, to save life, and to ensure that our NHS is not overwhelmed. And we’ve followed to the best we can the data and the guidance we’ve had.
But yesterday Cummings set out in detail how Johnson ignored scientific advice in September to order a second lockdown. This has been very well documented, and is not seriously contested.
- Johnson sought to draw a line under the controversy about whether or not he said he would rather see “bodies pile high” than order a third lockdown. In the Commons last month Johnson denied making that comment, or remarks to that effect. But yesterday Cummings said he heard the PM say it. Asked today if he did say he would rather see “bodies pile high” than order a third lockdown, Johnson replied:
I have already made my position very clear on that point. I’m getting on with the job of delivering the road map that I think is the sensible way forward.
Asked if Cummings was telling the truth, Johnson sidestepped the question. Asked if that meant he was not contesting with what Cummings said, Johnson replied: “I make no comment on that.”
Viewers might conclude that, if Johnson did not say that remark, or anything to the same effect, he might be denying it more forcefully.
- Johnson said the government did “everything we could” to protect care homes.
- He claimed that some of Cummings’ evidence was wrong - without giving details. Asked if Cummings was right to say Johnson was not fit to lead the country, Johnson replied:
I think that it’s important for us to focus on what really matters to the people in this country and I think, if I may say so, that some of the commentary I’ve heard doesn’t bear any relation to reality and what people want us to get on with is delivering the roadmap and trying, cautiously, to take our country forward through what has been one of the most difficult periods that I think anybody can remember.
- He said he could not see anything currently in the data to suggest the planned lifting of remaining restrictions in England on 21 June would have to be delayed.
- He said the government had always expected cases to rise around now. But the government was still looking at the data to see quite what effect the vaccines were having on keeping people out of hospital, he said. He said:
I want to stress that we always did expect to see an increase in cases, that was always going to happen.
So what we need to understand is to what extent the vaccine programme is starting to make a real difference in interrupting the link between infection and hospitalisations and serious illness and death.
Now, clearly, the vaccines are having a big impact already.
The question is, how big, how reliable are the vaccine fortifications, and what we do know with the [B.1.617.2] variant is the vaccines work against it, particularly with two doses.
Yesterday’s UK government dashboard figures showed case numbers up 18% week on week.
Updated
Johnson rejects Cummings' claim his decisions meant tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily
In his interview Boris Johnson rejected the claim made by Dominic Cummings that tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily because of mistakes made by the government.
Asked if tens of thousands of people died because of his inaction, he replied:
No I don’t think so. But, of course, this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we’ve taken lightly.
Boris Johnson has given a broadcast interview this morning. According to PA Media, he said lockdowns were a “very, very painful and traumatic thing” that had to be “set against the horror of the pandemic” and that he had followed the scientific data.
I will post more from the interview shortly.
Hancock's response to the Labour UQ - Verdict
Matt Hancock is off the hook - at least for now. That was the clear takeaway from his performance in the Commons just now. That is not because he has refuted (proved wrong) all or any of the allegations Dominic Cummings made about him in his select committee evidence yesterday. Most of them he did not even rebut (claim to be wrong), because as far as he could he refused to engage with the substance of what Cummings said. But Conservative MPs gave him the most solid support he could hope for, which went well beyond loyalist sycophants asking suck-up questions at the behest of the whips. Cummings was famously contemptuous of most MPs (even Brexity ones), and the feeling seems to be heartily reciprocated. Tory MPs feel much more warmly towards Hancock, and almost all of the ones who spoke showed zero interest in re-opening a debate about who in government said what when, despite the immense significance of the decisions taken.
Even Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the health committee, who has generally been a shrewd critic of government policy, and who is running an inquiry specifically intended to get to the truth of what happened, spoke about the Cummings allegations about Hancock with disdain. Until there was “evidence”, they were “unproven”, he said (see 10.49am) - as if Cummings telling MPs that he was in the room when he heard these things being said wasn’t evidence.
But it was telling that on the one Cummings allegation on which he was repeatedly questioned - that he told colleagues patients would be tested before being discharged into care homes, when in fact that did not happen - Hancock studiously avoided denying the claim. (See 11.07am.) Some of the other allegations made by Cummings did not even come up at all. It may be that the moment of reckoning has just been postponed.
Updated
Steve Brine (Con) says it is not the case (as Dominic Cummings implied yesterday that the world is “divided into people who are either useless or brilliant”. Instead the country did its best and people came together, he says.
Hancock agrees. He says people work best when they have a common mission.
And that was the last question. The UQ is over.
Labour’s Barbara Keeley asks if Hancock knew people were being discharged into care homes without being tested.
Hancock says he has answered this many times. He says they had to build the testing capacity.
Earlier the Labour MP for Bolton South East, Yasmin Qureshi suggested Boris Johnson and other ministers should be investigated for corporate manslaughter. She said:
When will the prime minister and others be investigated by the police for alleged corporate manslaughter? Last week my constituents were wrongly accused of vaccine hesitancy and then we had a quasi-lockdown that no-one knew about and many people’s travel plans were thrown in chaos.
My constituents can forgive the government for that, but I am sure that I speak for the country when I say that we cannot forgive tens of thousands of people who died and didn’t need to die - the chilling words of Dominic Cummings.
Hancock replied:
No, but what I would say to the people of Bolton is that - the people of Bolton have again risen to this challenge. The number of vaccinations happening in Bolton right now is phenomenal, tens of thousands every single day and it is heartening to see the queues of people coming forward.
Peter Bone (Con) condemns the “outrageous claims by an unelected Spad [Dominic Cummings] who broke Covid regulations, admitted he leaked stuff to the BBC and by his own admissions admitted he was not fit to be in Downing Street”.
Hancock says life in government “has got easier” since Cummings left.
William Wragg (Con) asks Hancock if he agrees that it is odd that people who used to regard Dominic Cummings as a “latter day King Herod, whose words and deeds could not be trusted” into a prophet, whose truth was written on tablets.
Hancock says the public want the government to focus on dealing with Covid.
Updated
Hancock enjoys show of support from Tory MPs
Mark Logan (Con) says his local health officials say they are fans of Hancock’s. He thanks Hancock for his engagement with MPs. And he thanks him in particular for his work for Bolton.
This gives a general flavour of the tone that Tory MPs have been adopting to Hancock in this session. Some of them have been inviting him to their constituencies too. These are from the Critic’s Rob Hutton.
This is turning into quite a jolly session for Hancock, with Tory MPs talking about how lovely it has been to welcome him to their constituencies, and him replying how lovely it was to come.
— Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) May 27, 2021
Crisis, what crisis?
Tory MPs heaping so much praise on Hancock that it's clear they think he could only have done better by sending twice as many people with Covid into care homes.
— Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) May 27, 2021
I mean, I hesitate to advise anyone on spin, but this love-in over a crisis that has seen tens of thousands die feels horribly misjudged.
— Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) May 27, 2021
Public inquiry to cover devolved administrations as well as UK government, says Hancock
Hancock told MPs the public inquiry would cover not just how the UK government handled the pandemic, but how the Scottish and Welsh governments, and the Northern Ireland executive, handled it too. But how that would be done was yet to be determined, he said.
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Hancock refuses to deny Cummings' claim he told colleagues patients would be tested before being discharged into care homes
Neale Hanvey (Alba) asks if Hancock told colleagues that people would be tested before being discharged into care homes.
Hancock says so many of yesterday’s allegations were unsubstantiated.
He says the Scottish government had to respond to the same problems, as did governments in other countries.
He says testing was increased. And because of that testing was then rolled out more broadly.
- Hancock refuses to deny Cummings claim he told colleagues patients would be tested before being discharged into care homes.
UPDATE: From the Times’ Steven Swinford
Matt Hancock careful with wording
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 27, 2021
He doesn't deny explicitly Dominic Cummings' claim that he told colleagues patients would be tested before being discharged into care homes
'So many of the allegations yesterday were unsubstantiated'
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Hancock says 10% of Covid hospital patients in hotspot areas have had both vaccine doses
Mark Harper (Con) asks about the India variant. He says he thinks the vaccines are very effective at stopping serious disease, including from the Indian variant. If that is the case, does Hancock agree that full reopening should go ahead from 21 June.
Hancock says this is the key question.
In Covid hotspots, he says one person in 10 in hospital has had both jabs.
He says this suggests that we can have a “high degree of confidence” that the vaccines are effective against serious illness.
But it also shows they are not 100% effective, he says.
He says we will know more about this in the coming weeks.
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Munira Wilson (Lib Dem) says if the government did sent people back to care homes without being tested, that was one of the biggest scandals. When was testing for discharged patients routinely offered?
Hancock says this has been a challenging time. He says the government published full details of the approach it took. It worked with the care home sector on keeping people safe, and followed the clinical advice.
Tory MP dismisses Cummings' claims as 'unsubstantiated Westminster gossip'
Cherilyn Mackrory (Con) told Hancock in the Commons he should “ignore unsubstantiated Westminster gossip” and carry on with his job.
Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the Commons health committee, says the allegations made by Dominic Cummings are serious, and as yet should be treated as “unproven”.
At yesterday’s joint select committee hearing, serious allegations were made. We asked for evidence to be provided and until such evidence is provided those allegations should be treated as unproven.
He asks if Prof Neil Fergusion was right to say the India variant is now dominant. (See 9.52am.)
Hancock says the India variant is spreading across the country. Estimates vary as to what proportion of new cases it accounts for.
He says it is too early to say if it will be safe to take further steps on 21 June.
A formal assessment will be taken before 14 June, he says
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Hancock denies being a liar - but refuses to address Cummings's allegations in detail
Hancock is replying to Ashworth.
He says “these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true”.
He says he has been “straight with people” in public and in private.
He says every day he has gone into work thinking about what he can do to save lives.
And he says he has been accountable, making more than 60 Commons statements and holding 84 press conferences.
UPDATE: Hancock said:
These allegations that were put yesterday - and repeated by [Jonathan Ashworth] - are serious allegations and I welcome the opportunity to come to the house to put formally on the record that these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true and I’ve been straight with people in public and in private throughout.
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Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, is speaking now.
He says the public deserve answers.
Are the claims false?
Why were people discharged into care homes without tests?
Did Hancock tell No 10 people would be tested?
Why did he not insist on a precautionary approach?
Hancock fails to mention Cummings, or address his allegations, in his opening statement
Vaccines are now open to people aged 30 and above, he says.
And he says it is on track to get every adult vaccinated by the end of July.
Setting ambitious targets in government is how you get things done, he says.
(That is is first reference to Dominic Cummings, who criticised Hancock over his 100,000 tests per day target.)
And that’s it. He does not address the Cummings allegations directly.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is welcomed by loudish Tory cheering as he stands up.
He says the pandemic is not over yet. The vaccination programme has reached 73% of the adult population. But that means more than a quarter of people have not been vaccinated.
He says the number of cases yesterday was at the highest level since 12 April. But he says the link between cases and hospitalisation has been broken.
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In the Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, starts the urgent question by reminding MPs that they are not normally meant to accuse each other of lying.
As well as doing interviews this morning, Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, had his first jab. He is 39.
That means every member of the cabinet has had at least one dose, Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, says.
@RobertJenrick The youngest member of the Cabinet has now had his first vaccine. We have now vaccinated the whole of the Cabinet! 💉💉💉Well done team @NHSuk @NikkiKF @Emily_JR_Lawson @jonathanleach13 @AHamiedNHS 💪🏻💪🏽💪🏿 https://t.co/L7Y1G5fqYv
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) May 27, 2021
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Hancock responds to Commons urgent question about his handling of Covid
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is about to answer an urgent question from Labour about his handling of coronavirus.
Here is my colleague Aubrey Allegretti’s preview story.
Rayner suggests government may have been 'wilfully negligent' in its handling of Covid
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, suggested the government was “wilfully neglectful” in its handling of coronavirus. In an interview with Sky News this morning she said:
The public inquiry should start immediately. But we also know that the government did a lessons learned review, and they failed to publish the results of that. I think the public need reassurance by making sure that that is in the public domain ...
There are serious questions for today, not just about what happened in the past, but how do we protect our loved ones today. And if the government were wilfully neglectful, knowing that they were going to put people’s lives at risk, people need to know that now.
It was not clear from the interview whether Rayner intended to go this far or not. There is a lot of evidence to support the claim that government errors cost lives. But to say it was done “wilfully” implies an intent to cause harm. When the presenter, Stephen Dixon, challenged Rayner as to whether that was what she really meant, she did not retract the claim, but she did not elaborate on it either.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, declined to answer questions about Dominic Cummings when he left home this morning. Speaking to reporters outside his house in north-west London, Hancock said:
I’m just off to drive forward the vaccine programme and then I’ll be going to the House of Commons and I’ll answer questions there.
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Labour has moved the writ for the Batley and Spen byelection to take place on Thursday 1 July.
The Opposition Chief Whip @alancampbellmp moves the writ for the Batley and Spen by-election which will take place on Thurs 1 July. pic.twitter.com/3IBcByXYEH
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) May 27, 2021
India variant 'now the dominant strain', says Prof Ferguson
Prof Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College epidemiologist whose modelling played a key role in persuading Boris Johnson to order the original lockdown last year, told the Today programme this morning that the variant originating in India (B.1.617.2) is now the dominant one in the UK. He said:
It’s now in well over the majority of local authority areas in the country and is now the dominant strain. The majority of new cases are of the variant - that is obviously concerning. It’s gone from being really a small minority a month ago to the majority variant.
Ferguson said this meant that whether or not England would be able to go ahead with step 4 of the roadmap - the lifting of all remaining restrictions - was “in the balance”. He explained:
Step 4 is rather in the balance, the data collected in the next two to three weeks will be critical.
The key issue as to whether we can go forward is: will the surge caused by the Indian variant - and we do think there will be a surge - be more than has been already planned in to the relaxation measures?
So it was always expected that relaxation would lead to a surge in infections and to some extent a small third wave of transmission - that’s inevitable if you allow contact rates in population to go up, even despite immunity - [but] we can’t cope with that being too large.
In the next two or three weeks we will be able to come to a firm assessment of whether it’s possible to go forward.
Ferguson also restated his claim that locking down a week early in March 2020 would have saved 20,000 to 30,000 lives. He said:
I think that’s unarguable. I mean, the epidemic was doubling every three to four days in weeks 13 to 23 March, and so had we moved the interventions back a week we would have curtailed that and saved many lives.
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Good morning. Today will be dominated by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, responding to the multiple criticisms of him made by Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former chief adviser, in his select committee evidence yesterday - Hancock is in the Commons this morning, and holding a press conference this afternoon - but Cummings did not just criticise Hancock, and it is for the government as a whole to respond too.
Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, was doing the morning interview round and he made it clear that the government is taking a dual-pronged approach. Broadly, it is not going to engage with Cummings, Jenrick implied, because he said the government wanted to wait until the inquiry, which is not due to start until next year. Jenrick said:
The last year has been uniquely challenging and difficult for everyone in ways, but very, very profoundly difficult for those people who’ve lost loved ones and they are right to seek answers and explanations. That’s why we’re having the full public inquiry next year.
I think that is the right moment to consider these things in a calm and reflective manner with all of the evidence.
But ministers are responding to some of Cummings’ allegations and Jenrick said he did not believe probably the most damning one of all - that “tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die”. Asked if Cummings was wrong to make this claim, Jenrick replied:
Yes, I think it is because you have to remember that we didn’t have all of the facts at the time that the decisions were being taken. Nobody could doubt for one moment that the prime minister was doing anything other than acting with the best of motives, with the information and the advice that was available to him ... At the very beginning of the pandemic we didn’t know much about this new virus.
I will post more from Jenrick’s interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, gives a speech on transport policy.
10.30am: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, answers a Commons urgent question about his department’s handling of Covid.
12pm: Downing Street is expected to hold its daily lobby briefing.
12pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions in the Scottish parliament.
2pm: Public Health England publishes its weekly Covid surveillance report.
2.30pm: Sir Tom Scholar, the Treasury permanent secretary, gives evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about Greensill Capital; at 4pm Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will give evidence.
2.30pm: Tony Sewell, chair of the commission on race and ethnic disparities, gives evidence to the Commons women and equalities committee.
3.30pm: Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, gives evidence to the public administration and constitutional affairs committee about Covid-status certification.
5pm: Hancock holds a press conference.
And Boris Johnson is doing a visit this morning, where he is expected to record a short TV interview.
Politics Live has been a mix of Covid and non-Covid politics recently, but today I expect to be focusing mostly on Hancock, and other reaction to Cummings’ evidence yesterday. 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.
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