Early evening summary
- Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, has said he hopes pupils in England will get “time in schools” this summer under government plans to fund catch-up school activities. Speaking at a No 10 press conference, he said:
On the summer holidays, what we have done in terms of a £200m programme is we want schools to be putting on great activities, whether it is education-led or even wellbeing-led, so we’d be hoping that schools can be offering that, draw down that funding in order to be offering that to children. Yes, we’d hope that schools are offering time in schools for children and that’s why we’ve put the funding there.
Williamson said that plans being announced in the Commons tomorrow about how exam grades will be awarded in England this summer would involve the government trusting teachers, not algorithms. He said:
We are putting trust in teachers. That’s where the trust is going - there is going to be no algorithms whatsoever but there will be a very clear and robust appeals mechanism.
And he also confirmed that secondary schools in England will be allowed to stagger students’ return to the classroom from 8 March. Primary school pupils will all go back on 8 March.
- The Department for Education has published a report showing that pupils from poorer areas have suffered 50% more “learning loss” during the pandemic than pupils from wealthier areas. (See 3.30pm.)
- Momentum, the leftwing Labour group set up to champion Jeremy Corbyn and his agenda, has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for opposing an increase in business taxes in next week’s budget. At PMQs Starmer asked Boris Johnson if he agreed with him that “now is not the time for tax rises for families and for businesses”. Johnson sidestepped the question, but a Momentum spokesperson said later:
During the pandemic big corporations like Amazon have cashed in while working people struggle to get by. Labour should support both raising corporation tax and a special Covid-19 windfall tax for sectors that have made super profits.
We should use the cash to fund a new future for Britain based on a green jobs boom, a massive program of social house building, and taking rail, mail and utilities back into democratic public ownership.
- MPs have reversed a Lords amendment to the fire safety bill which sought to prohibit building owners from passing on any remediation costs, such as the replacement of dangerous cladding, to leaseholders and tenants. As PA Media reports, the Commons voted to disagree with the Lords amendment by 340 votes to 225, majority 115. Amendments tabled by backbench Conservative MPs were not voted on.
That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.
Updated
In the preface to the new edition of his expert and provocative book, The Covid-19 Catastrophe, Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of the Lancet, says:
One hears otherwise intelligent and sensible people talking about a return to normality by the spring or summer of 2021. But there is no simple or straightforward return to the old life that we enjoyed before Covid-19. There is only a new normal to confront.
At his press conference on Monday Boris Johnson came close to saying we would get back to normal. Asked about the future of cities like London, he said he did not think there would be “fundamental change” to the way lives are lived in big cities.
According to some YouGov polling, the public don’t agree; they’re with Horton.
Boris Johnson has said he expects UK cities to bounce back to being “full of buzz and excitement again” after lockdown.
— YouGov (@YouGov) February 24, 2021
83% of Britons, however, think lockdown will have fundamentally changed cities long into the futurehttps://t.co/lIBR5V5eyj pic.twitter.com/SxEuE0ZqWA
This is from Rob Parsons, political editor of the Yorkshire Post. The paper’s full story on Boris Johnson’s comment at PMQs is here.
Asked about funding cuts to Transport for the North at PMQs, Boris Johnson says 'there has been no such cut'
— Rob Parsons (@RobParsonsYP) February 24, 2021
Have a look at this recent TFN report and judge for yourself... https://t.co/AJCQJjFzri pic.twitter.com/rxBLcFIp0V
And this is from Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader.
Either @BorisJohnson is a liar or he is simply too incompetent to know that he has cut the budget of Transport for the North by 40%.
— Angela Rayner 😷 (@AngelaRayner) February 24, 2021
Either way, as usual the Tories are treating the North with contempt as usual. https://t.co/vDGK8SaBCb
Q: Are you worried that 96% of teachers do not have confidence in your handling of schools?
Williamson says his priority is getting children back to school.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
Q: In August Boris Johnson said it was nonsensical to have children wearing masks in class. Do you agree?
Williamson says the government will follow the best medical advice.
Harries says face coverings are there to protect others. While a new variant is present, additional precautions are necessary.
She says the government will reconsider its advice on this around Easter. And she stresses it does not cover primary school pupils.
Q: Who is going to check pupils are doing the lateral flow tests at home? And who is going to staff the summer schools?
On summer schools, Williamson says schools will have the flexibility to make their own arrangements. They can either pay their own staff for this, or bring in other staff.
On testing, he says he hopes parents will supervise the testing. He says if pupils cannot get the help they need to do them at home, he hopes they can do the tests at school.
Q: William Hague has said the impact of Covid on teaching will require a revolution in teaching. How revolutionary are you willing to be?
Williamson says children are at the heart of everything they do. He says he wants to ensure he is always driving up the quality of teaching. Another is looking at the time spent learning. And another is targeting them in the best way.
He says it would be wrong to pre-empt what Sir Kevan Collins will come forward with.
Q: What assessment has been made of the damage to children’s wider development?
Harries says there are many families where children attach to significant, non-parent individuals, and not just grandparents. During the pandemic they have not been able to see these figures.
She says children’s mental health has deteriorated.
But she says, even if grandparents have been vaccinated, children should not go and see them yet. It is important to assess the impact of the vaccine rollout first, she says.
Updated
Q: A report says the Kent variant of coronavirus may infect people for longer than the original one. Does that mean the quarantine period might be extended?
Harries says the government is looking at this. But she says they have to be careful. She says the quarantine time was set to minimise inconvenience, whilst also reducing the risk of infection.
Williamson says he hopes pupils get offered 'time in schools' over summer under catch-up plans
Q: Will school days be extended? And will the summer holidays be cut short to help children catch up?
Williamson says he wants schools to put on activities during the summer. He hopes they will offer “time in schools for children”.
As for lengthening school days, he says he wants to see “a step change in what we can deliver”. That is why he has asked Sir Kevan Collins to take an extensive look at what can be done.
Q: Will it be full teacher assessment on exams, with no algorithms?
Williamson says there will be “no algorithms”. He will be putting his trust in teachers, with a rigorous appeals process. But he will give the details to the Commons tomorrow.
Q: You have provided short-term cash today. But when will you come up with a long-term plan? And are you promising all children will get help?
Williamson says he is giving schools the tools they need to help all children. He thinks they will be able to help all children. But the help should also be targeted to children who need most help, he says.
(This sounds contradictory.)
Q: Are you promising that all pupils will get help?
Williamson says schools always support all children.
Williamson is now taking questions. The first two are from members of the public.
Q: Will the roadmap out of lockdown be accelerated if the data turn out better than expected?
Williamson says there are no plans whatever to move ahead of the dates in the roadmap.
Harries says the government wants to stick to the timelines. They have been set for good public health reasons.
Williamson says Sir Kevan Collins has been appointed as education recovery commissioner.
He sums up the package announced overnight to help pupils catch-up. It will build on measures worth £1bn announced last year, he says.
It is time for children to be back in school, he says. But he also wants to ensure no child is held back by the pandemic. He says tomorrow he will announce how exam grades will be awarded in England this summer. He says he will be putting his trust in teachers.
Williamson is now talking about the route out of lockdown. (His tone has perked up markedly.)
He thanks teachers and parents for what they have done during lockdown. And he thanks pupils too for adapting, so they can continue to learn.
Everyone is longing for a return to normality, he says. The government is investing in summer schools and extra teaching.
The next steps will be cautious, he says, and “carefully managed at every stage”.
There will be a full return for schools and colleges from Monday 8 March. Primary school pupils will go back that day. And secondary schools will be able to stagger the return of pupils to allow for testing.
Gavin Williamson's press conference
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, is holding a press conference at No 10. He is with Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England.
He starts by reading out today’s Covid figures. (See 4.31pm.)
Updated
From Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister
Almost 60,000 people in Wales have now received their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
— Mark Drakeford (@fmwales) February 24, 2021
Thank you to all of our amazing vaccination teams working hard across Wales to make this happen. pic.twitter.com/KjMoL5XlyY
This is from the UK Covid-19 Statistics website, showing the latest vaccination figures.
🇬🇧 18,911,978 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered in the United Kingdom.
— UK COVID-19 (@UKCovid19Stats) February 24, 2021
+353,009 doses in the latest 24hr period.
18,242,873 people have received their first dose, with 669,105 of those having a second dose (fully vaccinated). pic.twitter.com/Z1TzwpHfNc
According to the polling company Savanta ComRes, approval of the government’s handling of coronavirus is at its highest level since last summer. Here are the key figures.
The latest figures are from an online poll of 2,189 UK adults conducted between Friday and Monday. The tables will be published on the firm’s website.
UK records 442 further Covid deaths and 9,938 more cases
The latest UK coronavirus figures are out. Here are the key figures from the dashboard.
- The UK has recorded 442 further deaths. A week ago today the daily total was 738. Week on week, deaths are down 31%. That means the rate of decline is gradually increasing; yesterday the seven-day average was down 28.4% on the previous week.
- The UK has recorded 9,938 further cases. Week on week, case numbers are down 14.7%. Again, the decline is getting a bit steeper. Yesterday cases were down 11.8% week on week.
- 326,692 people in the UK received their first dose of a vaccine yesterday.
Andy Burnham has said that the “single biggest risk” facing the government’s coronavirus exit roadmap is the issue of people not being able to self-isolate.
Speaking at a press conference, the mayor of Greater Manchester said that there was a “lack of consistent and comprehensive” self-isolation support for people who needed it. He added that it was estimated that there are at least 1,000 people per day in Greater Manchester who are unable to self-isolate, primarily due to financial reasons.
Burnham welcomed the announcement of the roadmap, saying that the focus on a national, rather than a regional, phased response from lockdown, felt like “our voice is being heard”. He went on:
The position that Greater Manchester has put forward to the government is embodied in the logic of the roadmap. It seems to learn the lessons of last year.
However, Burnham warned that while tiers were not at the front and centre of the plan, they had not disappeared completely.
Bury was the only borough in Greater Manchester to record a rise in infection rates in the week to 19 February, rising to 233 cases per 100,000 people, an increase of 13% on the previous week. Every other borough reported a decrease in infection rates.
In Greater Manchester, 91% of people over 70 have received at least one jab, as well as 37% of people aged between 50 and 69.
Updated
Speaking to the London assembly’s police and crime committee this morning, Dame Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said she was “extremely disappointed” that police officers have not been prioritised for the vaccine. She went on:
And I think I can speak for my people when I say they are disappointed.
It’s been a long tough year for them, they’ve been out there. We have not flinched from providing the best possible service that we can.
They are at a particular risk because of the way in which they are so often going from house to house, in people’s personal space, dealing with people who are spitting ... this is a many times a day occurrence for my people. And inevitably they are concerned that they may take that home, or that they may be spreading as well.
In an open letter earlier this month the Police Federation for England and Wales said officers “felt betrayed” about not being included as a priority group in the first phase of the vaccine rollout (covering all over-50s, and those with underlying health conditions). This morning Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told MPs that the JCVI did not favour prioritising groups like the police in phase two either - although Harnden also stressed that the final decision about prioritisation in phase two would be taken by ministers. (See 10.32am.)
Poorer pupils showing 50% more 'learning loss' due to Covid than wealthier ones, says DfE report
Some secondary school children have lost more than two months’ worth of learning, according to a government report, which states that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers may have widened in the pandemic, PA Media reports. PA says:
Researchers said the findings show that pupil catch-up interventions need to be “heavily targeted at the poorest pupils”.
The research commissioned by the Department for Education to understand the progress pupils make in the 2020 to 2021 academic year found that all year groups in England have experienced a learning loss in reading, ranging from 1.6 months to two months.
The learning losses in mathematics were greater, with primary school learning losses averaging just over three months, but due to small sample sizes it was not possible to provide an estimate for secondary schools.
And here are some extracts from the report (pdf) which was carried out for the DfE by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and Renaissance Learning. It says:
All year groups have experienced a learning loss in reading. In primary schools these were typically between 1.7 and 2.0 months, and in year 8 and year 9, 1.6 and 2.0 months respectively ...
The learning losses in mathematics were greater. We estimate that, on average, pupils in primary schools have experienced a learning loss of just over three months. It has not been possible to derive robust estimates for pupils in secondary school in mathematics.
There appear to be some regional disparities in the level of learning loss in reading with pupils in the North East and in Yorkshire and the Humber seeing the greatest losses. However, the differences between regions are relatively small once we control for historic rates of progress in these areas and all regions have experienced losses.
We also find schools with high levels of disadvantage have experienced higher levels of loss than other schools, particularly in secondary (2.2 months in schools with high rates of free school meal eligibility and 1.5 months in schools with low rates of free school meal eligibility).
Jon Andrews, head of analysis at the EPI, said:
Our analysis shows that learning losses in schools that have many pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds were around 50% higher than those schools with very few pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. This underlines the need for pupil catch-up interventions to be heavily targeted at the poorest pupils.
The figures in the report are based on assessments carried out in the first half of the autumn term last year. Natalie Perera, chief executive of the EPI, said that since then “pupils have faced further disruption as a result of this period of school closures”.
Updated
A total of 15,926,415 Covid vaccinations took place in England between December 8 and February 23, according to provisional NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 294,478 on the previous day’s figures.
As PA Media reports, of this number, 15,398,055 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 284,897 on the previous day, while 528,360 were a second dose, an increase of 9,581.
Delays importing and exporting goods to and from the EU have worsened since Brexit was introduced at the start of the year and will result in stock shortages and price rises for consumers, it has been claimed. My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has the story, which is based on the results of a survey by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS). It’s here.
No 10 refuses to deny report saying vaccines being held back for when people need second dose
Downing Street has refused to deny a report saying vaccination rates are falling because doses are being held back for when people need their second jab.
In his London Playbook briefing this morning Alex Wickham refers to the figures showing vaccination rates are falling. He goes on:
Playbook spoke to a senior government source yesterday to find out why the numbers have plummeted, and the message was: “Don’t panic.” An expected lack of supply at the end of this month means the NHS has decided to hold back jabs so they definitely have enough for people who need their second dose in the next few weeks. Next month, big shipments of vaccines are due to arrive, at which point first doses will ramp up massively, the source promised.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman said that people would receive a second dose within 12 weeks that supplies of the vaccine had always been a “rate-limiting factor” in the rollout of the programme.
Asked if supplies of the vaccine were being held back so that they were available when people needed a second dose, he said:
We don’t discuss supply and logistic information, but we will make sure that everybody is able to have their second dose within the 12 weeks. While at the same time, we’ll continue to roll out the first dose to more and more people.
Asked when the dip in supplies was expected to come to an end, the spokesman added:
We obviously don’t discuss details of supplies or deliveries. As we have said previously, you will see fluctuations in the number that we can provide daily, but overall you will continue to see us vaccinate hundreds of thousands of people each day.
Updated
Covid cases in Wales at lowest level since September, says minister
Cases of coronavirus are at their lowest point in Wales since the end of September, the Welsh health minister, Vaughan Gething, has said.
The incidence rate across the country has dropped to 76 cases per 100,000 people, while the R number is estimated to be between 0.6 and 0.9.
More than 878,000 people have had their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, accounting for 28% of Wales’ population and more than a third of adults in the country. Gething said:
I can today confirm that we will offer the vaccine to all eligible adults in Wales by 31 July, as long as supply matches our ability to deliver and our ambition.
He took a swipe at the UK government’s approach to exiting lockdown, saying that trying to give long-term forecasts had “made a mug of a range of people”. Gething said predicting the path of the virus beyond Easter was “getting into something that is more like astrology than science and public health advice”.
Here are the slides that were shown at today's conference 👇 pic.twitter.com/uN5Vrg5jw7
— Welsh Government #StayHome🏠 (@WelshGovernment) February 24, 2021
Updated
Boris Johnson pledges more Covid support than Labour is demanding
Here is my colleague Aubrey Allegretti’s story about PMQs.
And this is how it starts.
Boris Johnson has promised that extra Covid financial support in next week’s budget will not be “paltry”, as he refused to rule out tax rises or extending the £500 payment to more people self-isolating.
Johnson denied the claim from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, at prime minister’s questions that people on lower incomes were “at the bottom of this government’s priorities”.
He said they were, in fact, “the top of the government’s priorities” and hinted parliament would be “hearing more about that” when the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, unveils his tax and spending plans next Wednesday.
On the World at One Ruth Davidson, the Conservative leader at Holyrood, called for an independent, judge-led inquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of the harassment claims against Alex Salmond, the former first minister.
Referring to the latest developments in Edinburgh, where Salmond has refused to give evidence to a committee today after a submission about “malicious” attempts to smear him was edited following legal warnings from the Crown Office, Davidson said:
This has gone beyond Sturgeon versus Salmond, this has now got to the structure of democracy in Scotland and whether our institutions are robust or whether they have been corrupted and that matters and that should matter to everyone within the United Kingdom.
She said an independent judge-led inquiry was needed because the Scottish parliament’s inquiry was being obstructed. She said:
What we need as well is to be able to show that the parliament in Scotland has oversight over the executive in Scotland, because at the moment the government is running riot and is denying the parliament its right of scrutiny and there is no liberal democracy in the world that should allow the executive to become over-mighty and be able to snub its nose to the parliament and those elected to represent the country.
Updated
NHS England has recorded 302 further coronavirus hospital deaths. The details are here.
A week ago today the equivalent figure was 522 hospital deaths.
Scotland’s auditor general, Stephen Boyle, has called for greater transparency and candour by ministers about the impact the Covid crisis will have on public finances in future, particularly once the nearly £10bn in extra Treasury funding is exhausted.
In a blogpost accompanying a new Audit Scotland report on Covid and public spending, Boyle said the economic and financial impacts of the crisis, and keeping track of the vast sums of extra spending, made the country’s future finances much more complicated.
Boyle said Scottish finances, which before the Covid crisis were boosted by extra Treasury funding of roughly £2,000 a head against the UK average, were already under great pressure. In addition, the Scottish government has also spent nearly all its reserves, totalling £441m, to help cope with the crisis.
The NHS alone was due to take up 41% of spending, excluding tackling local council shortfalls, the impacts of Brexit and the volatility of Scotland’s new tax and social security powers.
Boyle wrote:
These issues would have tested any government at any time. Now a pandemic – and the increased costs and uncertainties it has brought – must be managed alongside them.
[Not] all the pandemic pound has been allocated so far, but that’s not surprising. Some spend, like business grants, is demand-led and other pots, like the £100m for school attainment, are spread over more than one year.
But it’s getting harder to identify what is, and isn’t, Covid-19 spending, as our latest analysis found. That’s because of the volume of announcements (over 170 to date) and, increasingly, how the spending naturally links with wider economic development and government goals. That increases the need for transparency around spending.
Updated
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, will take the No 10 press conference at 5pm, Downing Street has said.
The number of overall Covid deaths recorded in Scotland has continued to fall from their recent post-Christmas peak, offering further evidence the lockdown and vaccinations programmes are cutting fatalities.
National Records of Scotland, the government statistics agency, said 290 people died last week amongst those with Covid mentioned on their death certificate, falling for the fourth successive week from a peak of 452 deaths in the third week of January.
Overall weekly deaths from Covid peaked first in mid-April 2020, when 662 were recorded.
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, said this was encouraging data. She said that only 798 positive cases were reported yesterday. Although daily case rates have fluctuated day to day, that compares to a peak of 2,622 on 31 December.
In addition, 1,018 Covid-positive patients were in hospital, down by 58, with 93 people in intensive care, no change on Tuesday. Another 47 deaths involving Covid-positive people had also been registered, but nearly 30,000 people had their first and second dose vaccinations yesterday. That brought Scotland’s first-dose total to 1.49m people.
Following widespread criticisms from tourism firms, hoteliers, airports and businesses about her partial lockdown plan yesterday, which offered far less details than Boris Johnson’s plan for England, Sturgeon defended her caution.
She said she would be “making up” any hard and fast dates for reopening business, pubs or stadia beyond the six-week horizon she set out yesterday. She claimed Scotland’s most cautious easing of last year’s lockdown, which ended roughly two weeks later than England’s, had been justified because it delayed and reduced the second surge in Scotland late last year.
Sturgeon said more lockdown easing details would emerge once epidemiologists had studied the impact of returning younger pupils to primary school on Monday, and primaries reopening fully from 15 March. She went on:
The more we learn, the more confidence we will have that we can go further and faster, without risking a resurgence of the virus which will set us all back.
PMQs - Snap verdict
Often what matters is not what’s said, but what’s missing, and today’s PMQs is probably best understood through that prism. Last year Boris Johnson was regularly accused of contributing to the UK having a record Covid death toll because he locked down too late and eased up too soon. On Monday he effectively defused that as a live criticism with a gradual lockdown easing plan which will force England to wait at least four months until restrictions are fully lifted. A while back it seemed obvious that such a gradualist timetable would be unacceptable to many of his MPs. But the Kent variant and the January death toll have between them transformed the Covid Recovery Group from influential insurgents to fringe mavericks, and so Johnson finds himself in the happy (and surprising) position of having little substantial opposition to the main plank of government policy. It won’t last, of course, but today he had it easy, with none of the questions – from his own side, or the opposition – creating any real difficulty.
With the budget coming next week, Sir Keir Starmer and Ian Blackford both focused largely on economic matters. Blackford’s first question, attacking cuts and austerity, sounded like a rehash from the Cameron/Osborne era which did not take account of quite how much public spending has escalated over the past year, and quite how reluctant Johnson is to rein it in.
Starmer tried a subtler version of the same approach, asking Johnson to rule out “tax rises for families and for businesses” and to condemn Tory-run Hillingdon council in Johnson’s constituency for putting up council tax by 4.8%. Johnson responded by attacking the record of Labour on council tax. That particular argument did not go anywhere, but it is interesting to note that Labour is working overtime now to try to ensure that the government gets the blame for above-inflation council tax rises taking effect all over England. Whether Starmer succeeds or not is another matter; people often blame councils for council tax increases, even though Westminster to a large extent pulls the strings.
In other circumstances Starmer’s opening question, about the comments from the CRG chair, Mark Harper, questioning the government’s modelling, might have developed some traction. But since Johnson said no to the CRG quite firmly on Monday he had a plausible get-out today. Starmer’s best moment came when he made good jibe about Matt Hancock.
Here’s the difference – if you need £500 to isolate, you’re out of luck. If you’ve got the health secretary’s Whatsapp, you get a million-pound contract.
It was better than the grandiloquent swipe that Johnson took at Starmer in his final reply, when he said the Labour leader “weaves hither and thither like some sort of Druidical rocking stone”, supporting vaccination one week and opposing it the next. “He vacillates, we vaccinate,” Johnson concluded. Yesterday Johnson said he gave up journalism because he got fed up of “always abusing people”. But given this is one of his skills, luckily he’s found an alternative career where he can still indulge.
Updated
Around 99% of UK arrivals not going into hotel quarantine, MPs told
Around 99% of daily arrivals in the UK are not going into hotel quarantine, MPs have been told.
The home affairs select committee were told by the Border Force director general, Paul Lincoln, that there are around 14,000 to 15,000 people arriving in the UK through all ports each day, of which around 150 a day are going into mandatory hotel quarantine. There are currently about 1,100 to 1,200 people in total in hotels since the requirement was introduced 10 days ago.
British and Irish nationals or UK residents arriving from a list of 33 countries are now required to book a 10-day quarantine package costing £1,750 per adult. Lincoln told the MPs that Public Health England are due to publish a figure on the proportion of Covid cases believed to be coming into the country from overseas. He said previously it was estimated to be 0.5% of domestic cases but he understood it was now significantly lower.
The chair of the committee, Yvette Cooper, asked what the compliance rate was for the 99% of arrivals who were required to quarantine at home. Lincoln said the latest assessment by the police is around 85%.
Defending the whole policy, the home secretary, Priti Patel, said nearly 8,000 sample calls were taking place every day to ensure travellers were self isolating. “I would like to put this in wider context of the measures in place, this is a layered approach,” she said. She went on:
People are now familiar with the testing prior to travel, passenger locator form, all the measures put in place to give assurance ... this is all about managing the risk.
Johnson says next week MPs will hear even more about what the government will do to cautiously but irreversibly steer the country out of the pandemic, and to build back better.
And that’s it.
Stuart McDonald (SNP) asks the PM to read a Trussell Trust report on the case for making the £20 per week uplift to universal credit permanent.
Johnson says the government will continue to look after people through the pandemic and beyond.
Jack Lopresti (Con) asks if the government will ensure more affordable housing is built in the south-west of England.
Johnson says this is a problem everywhere. He praises what Tim Bowles, the mayor of the West of England, has done on this.
Alex Cunningham (Lab) asks if the PM will take action to ensure children do not go hungry.
Johnson says the government thinks “fantastic education and top quality jobs” offer a route out of poverty.
Giles Watling (Con) says pubs are being undercut by cheap supermaket booze. Could alcohol duty be cut to help them?
Johnson says the government has carried out a review of this. The chancellor is considering the findings.
Rosie Cooper (Lab) says flooding in Lancashire schools will hold up the return of pupils.
Johnson says Defra will write to Cooper about this.
Rob Roberts (Con) says CPR skills have to be taught in English schools, but not in Welsh ones. Does he agree that should change?
Johnson says he supports the teaching of CPR. This is a devolved matter, he says, but he says he agrees with Roberts that the policy should change.
Updated
Wes Streeting (Lab) says the catch-up support for pupils announced today is worth just 43p per pupil per day.
Johnson says the catch-up fund amounts to £2bn. He says Labour’s policies left the country bankrupt.
Suzanne Webb (Con) says she is launching a favourite takeaway competition in her constituency to back the hospitality industry. Will the PM back this?
Johnson thanks Webb for her plan, but says ordering a takeaway himself from Stourbridge to Westminster might not be a good idea.
Updated
Neil Hudson (Con) asks about broadband in Cumbria.
Johnson says he raises this issue almost every day. He says rural broadband is being rolled out as quickly as possible. He wants this done within the next five years.
Johnson rejects Lib Dem call for boycott of Winter Olympics in China
Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, starts by thanking the government for its announcement today about vaccinations for people with learning disabilities. He says what is happening to the Uighurs amounts to genocide. does the PM agree Team GB should boycott the Winter Olympics in China next year unless this ends?
Johnson condemns what is happening to the Uighurs. He says the UK is working with international partners to achieve change. But the government is not normally in favour of sporting boycotts, he says.
Updated
Damien Moore (Con) asks about the rail service in Southport.
Johnson says the government is investing massively in rail services in the area.
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says the UK has had its worst recession in 300 years. But the Tories are threatening austerity cuts. And now they are proposing a public sector pay freeze. Will the PM commit to a fiscal stimulus worth 5% of GDP?
Johnson says he is proud of the massive investments made by the government. He says he wishes the “Scottish nationalist” government would spend that money better.
Blackford says the hard reality is that the PM has suffered the worst slump. Covid has exposed deep inequalities. But in the US President Biden understands what is needed. He has announced a stimulus package. Will the PM do the same?
Johnson says the government is investing £640bn in infrastructure alone. He says the SNP just want to break up Britain with another referendum.
Starmer says the government has weakened the state. We have the highest Covid death toll. But the PM is just offering business as usual. Will he back Labour’s plan to give key workers a pay rise and support 100,000 start-ups?
Johnson says the budget next week will do far more than that. He accuses Starmer of constantly changing his mind, claiming he attacked the vaccines taskforce and would have kept the UK in the European Medicines Agency. He goes on: “He vacillates, we vaccinate.”
Starmer says Hillingdon council, in Johnson’s constituency, is putting up council tax by 4.8%. Does the PM approve?
Johnson says Labour councils put up council tax more than Conservative ones do.
Starmer says if you have the health secretary’s WhatsApp, you can get a £1m contract. If you need to self-isolate, the government will not help. He asks for an assurance that taxes will not go up for families.
Johnson says Labour ran on a manifesto last time that would have put up taxes.
Starmer says three out of 10 people who are meant to be self-isolating do not. People on low-paid jobs cannot afford to. Why is the government neglecting them?
Johnson says people on low-paid jobs are at the top of the government’s priority. He says the budget will say more on this next week.
Starmer says Johnson dodged the question. That is because those criticisms came from Tory MPs in the CRG. He should have a word with them.
Will the PM fix the problem with payments for people who need to self-isolate?
Johnson says the payments are being extended to cover parents and guardians who need to self-isolate because a child is ill.
Sir Keir Starmer says the PM’s cautious approach to relaxing lockdow is right. But does he agree that claims that it is based on dodgy figures are irresponsible.
He is referring to claims from the Covid Recovery Group.
Johnson says the data has been available to the Commons.
Duncan Baker (Con) asks about offshore wind.
Johnson says the government is looking at the transmission network, and developing the necessary regulatory changes.
Derek Twigg (Lab) says his local council has run out of funding for its discretionary funding for people who need to self-isolate.
Johnson says councils have had £4.3bn to help them. The chancellor will announce more on this next week, he says.
Boris Johnson starts by reading out his engagements.
The BBC presenter Jo Whiley has welcomed the news that all adults on the learning disability register will be prioritised for the vaccine. (See 10.41am and 11.19am.) Whiley, whose sister Frances has learning disabilities and has been in hospital with Covid, said:
This is a great day – I am so relieved, I’m so happy for all those people who’ve been living in fear.
I’m very grateful to the government for listening, because it’s a very complicated situation and it’s very difficult to categorise people according to their disability. It’s very, very tricky and that’s become apparent I think over the past few months.
And so this is clear, this encompasses everybody, and all those people who have been feeling very neglected, feeling like they don’t matter, that we don’t care, now know that we will be protecting them.
This is absolutely crucial and I could not be more delighted. This is a massive step forward.
Updated
Oxford team looking at possibility of creating vaccine pill, MPs told
Back in the science committee Prof Sarah Gilbert, head of the team that produced the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, said that in future the Covid vaccine could be administered in the form of a pill.
She said that her team was already beginning to look at the possibility of this, and that it would make delivering future doses of vaccine much easier.
She also suggested the vaccine could be delivered by nasal spray in future.
In response to a question from Labour’s Graham Stringer about how the vaccine might be developed in the future, she said.
We are also thinking about second generation formulations of vaccine. As you know all the vaccines have been given at the moment as intramuscular injections. That is not necessarily the best way to provide protection against a respiratory virus infection, where we want to the immune system to be active in the upper respiratory tract and then in the lower spiritual tract, which is where the virus is causing the infection.
And we have flu vaccines that are given by nasal spray. And this could be a very good approach in the future to use vaccines against coronaviruses.
It’s also possible to consider oral vaccination where you take a tablet that will give you the immunisation, and that would have a lot of benefits for vaccine rollout, if you didn’t have to use the needles and syringes for people.
Both of those approaches which we are beginning to assess. They will take time to develop. They will have to be tested to safety, and then for efficacy as well because the immune responses that will be generated by both of those approaches will be a little bit different to what we get from an intramuscular injection.
But they have potentially large advantages, and so that’s where we’re going to be focusing our attention on working out if we could use different delivery rates in the future for these vaccines.
Camp used to hold asylum seekers has seen at least 197 Covid cases, MPs told
A former military barracks being used to house asylum seekers has seen at least 197 positive cases of Covid-19 this year alone, far higher than previously reported, the most senior civil servant at the Home Office has revealed.
The total number of cases at Napier Barracks near Folkestone, Kent, is equal to more than 50% of the population at its peak of 380. Matthew Rycroft, permanent secretary at the department, told the Commons home affairs committee that in January there were 178 positive coronavirus cases returned at Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, and a further 19 recorded in February.
The asylum seekers in Napier Barracks were housed in blocks of up to 28 men and there have been repeated warnings from healthcare professionals and humanitarian groups that the site was not covid-secure.
The chair of the home affairs select committee, Yvette Cooper, struggled to contain her shock when Rycroft revealed the numbers. She said:
Oh my God, you had 178 cases at a centre which had dormitory accommodation of over 20 people in those dormitories - that’s pretty clear evidence to me that those dormitories were not Covid safe.
On what planet did you think in the middle of a Covid crisis it was safe or sensible to put over 20 people in a dorm so they are sleeping together in the same room with the same air over night each night?
The home secretary, Priti Patel, was asked if the department’s handling of the former Ministry of Defence (MoD) site fitted with the pledge made in the wake of the Windrush review to “see the face behind every case”.
Patel replied:
The answer is yes, absolutely. Every single individual who comes into the care and estate of the Home Office has personalised support.
Patel blamed the asylum seekers for not following social distancing rules. “People do mingle, and it is a fact when we looked at what happened at Napier people were not following the rules,” she said.
Cooper said her response was “astonishing”. After the border and immigration inspector announced an inspection into Napier, the Home Office significantly reduced the population to 61 asylum seekers.
Back in the Commons science committee Prof Sarah Gilbert, head of the team that produced the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine says a decision will need to be made over the summer whether people will need a booster vaccine in the autumn to give them more protection against new variants.
UPDATE: Here is Gilbert’s quote.
I think we need to make a decision over the summer, we will start to get data from the clinical trials on the immune responses to the variant vaccine, both against the virus variant and against the original virus, and we will then be able to monitor the situation and decide what should be happening in the autumn.
Currently the plans are to be ready for an immunisation campaign in the autumn, so before going into the winter season we would have a new variant vaccine available if it turns out that is what’s going to be required.
If we see the emergence of a new strain very close to that date, it is going to be difficult to go through this whole process, because we do need to conduct a clinical study and get regulatory approval, in time to be vaccinated before the winter.
Gilbert said it was therefore important to keep case numbers as low as possible to “prevent the risk of further variants arising”.
Updated
The press notice from the Department of Health and Social Care about the decision to ensure a wider group of people with learning disabilities in England are prioritised for the vaccine (see 10.41am and 10.47am) contains an important clarification. It says:
This is not a change in the JCVI priority list but an operational clarification to ensure those with a severe and profound learning disability receive their offer as part of cohort 6.
As HuffPost’s Paul Waugh reports, Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, did subsequently stress that the announcement did not mean people with a mild learning disability were being prioritised.
Very important qualification from Prof Harnden: "We don't want everybody who has a relative with a mild learning disability to come forward to be vaccinated now because that would cause problems because there's over one and a half million of those individuals..
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) February 24, 2021
"I want to emphasise this, we are talking about the severe end of the learning disability spectrum. What I don’t want to happen is lots of families who are rightly concerned about their relatives with mild learning disabilities to start banging at the door of their GPs."
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) February 24, 2021
In Scotland people with a mild or moderate learning disability are being included in priority group six, as Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, announced on Monday.
The Commons science committee is now taking evidence from Prof Sarah Gilbert, head of the team that produced the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, Dr Philip Dormitzer, chief scientific officer of Viral vaccines at Pfizer, and Madelaine McTernan, director general of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.
Labour’s Rebecca Long-Bailey asks about the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine if the second dose is delayed.
Dormitzer says the vaccine does not offer protection for the first 10 to 12 days. That is why the data about the effectiveness of a single dose after 21 days does not look impressive; it includes people getting infected in those first 12 days, when protection had not kicked in.
He says Pfizer does not have data about how much protection is offered by a single dose going further into the future.
Gilbert says there is data showing that a first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine gives good protection for three months, and then even better protection after a second dose. She says, as the real-world data comes in, she expects to see this confirmed.
At the end of her session Prof Wendy Barclay, head of the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London, was asked what she thought the chances were of a variant emerging that was fully resistant to the vaccines.
She said she did not expect to see “complete escape” (ie, a variant emerging fully resistant to the vaccines). But she said that it was more likely that there would be a “gradual loss” of effectiveness. At some point a decision would then have to be taken about updating vaccines, she said.
Helen Whately, the health minister, has just put out a press notice confirming the announcement made by Prof Anthony Harnden about another 150,000 people with learning disabilities being added to the vaccination priority list. (See 10.41am.)
She said:
I have heard first-hand how tough this pandemic has been for people with learning disabilities and their families. We are determined those more at risk from Covid should be vaccinated as soon as possible.
Following the JCVI’s updated advice and to make this process simpler and faster, we will be inviting everyone for vaccination who is on their GP’s learning disability register. This will mean those who are at a higher risk from the virus can get the protection they need.
Another 150,000 people with learning disabilities to be prioritised for vaccination, MPs told
Labour’s Zarah Sultana also asked Harnden why only people with a severe learning disability were being prioritised for the vaccine under the list drawn up by the JCVI. She pointed out that Scotland has decided to include people with moderate learning disabilities in this list.
Harnden told Sultana that an announcement was imminent on this. He said that all people with a learning disability who were the learning disability registers held by GPs would now be immunised in group six of the nine priority groups drawn up by the JCVI for phase one of the vaccine rollout programme.
He says this would lead to another 150,000 people with learning disabilities being prioritised.
He also said he would encourage GPs to reach out to people with learning disabilities to get them vaccinated.
A recent report by the ONS found that the risk of death with Covid is almost four times as high as for people without a learning disability as it is for people without one.
UPDATE: Here is a fuller quote from Harnden. He said:
We wanted to give this guidance in a very loose way as we realised there were going to be operational difficulties on the ground so our guidance was that operationally, people could interpret this how they wanted to, but we felt that the more severe end of the spectrum for learning disabilities was where the risk was.
It’s a little bit like the asthma analogy if I might bring that in.
The higher end of that asthma risk is risk for Covid, as it is for learning disability.
Whereas the lower end of the asthma and the lower end of learning disability are no more at risk than the general population.
It’s where you draw that line and it’s very, very difficult to define.
So on JCVI we felt that saying the more severe learning difficulties should be immunised within group six and left it up to people at operational level to interpret how they defined more severe learning difficulties was the most straightforward way of doing it.
But I do accept that has led to some inequalities throughout the country.
Which is why I’m saying now publicly that I think that all those on the learning disability register should be immunised now.
Updated
JCVI does not favour prioritising key workers in phase two of vaccine rollout, MPs told
Labour’s Zarah Sultana asks Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, if the JCVI has considered prioritising teachers for the vaccine.
Harnden says the JCVI is only an advisory body.
He says it has considered this in the course of drawing up its recommendations for phase two (the vaccination programme for the under-50s). He says they have looked at this issue quite carefully. But he says the ONS data shows that teachers are not at any higher risk than other members of the population. Some other professions are more at risk, he says.
So in terms of the disease, there isn’t a strong scientific argument to immunise teachers [unless they qualify by age, or underlying health condition.]
Harnden says that means this is a political decision. He says the JCVI decision is “based on the science”, and it is up to the politicians to decide what to do.
He does not say what exactly what the JCVI advice is for the second phase of the vaccination programme. But he goes on:
I would say that one of the key reasons that this programme has been so successful is that it has been simple, it’s been deliverable, and it has rolled out very quickly; you can understand it. And if you start picking out certain groups it will make it more complicated. And the risk of doing that is slowing the programme down. Slow the programme down, and it may be that some people will be exposed to virus and harm that would not have been otherwise.
This effectively confirms that the JCVI has ruled out calls for certain groups of key workers to be prioritised in phase two of the vaccine rollout programme. Harnden is hinting that the same approach will apply to the under-50s as to the over-50s - vaccination by age band, with the oldest first.
Sultana asks when the JCVI will finalise its priority list for phase two. Harnden says the committee has already decided; he says the list is now with ministers, who have to take the final decision.
Regular, combined flu/Covid vaccines may be 'most likely' scenario for future, MPs told
Barclay tells the science committee that she thinks the “most likely” scenario for the future is that people will end up needing a regular combination vaccine, protecting them from flu and coronavirus.
I feel the most likely scenario is that a combination vaccine would be given going forward in the future which would combine influenza with an updated [coronavirus vaccine]. But that really is crystal ball gazing to an extent. I think the next year will really tell us much more about the epidemiology of this new coronavirus variant, and how quickly it might mutate and necessitate vaccine updates.
Updated
Greg Clark is asking questions again.
Q: Does the modelling behind the roadmap published on Monday reflect the most up-to-date data on vaccine effectiveness?
Barclay says she thinks they did have the most up-to-date data. But she has not seen their background working, she says.
Q: What effect does delaying the second dose have on individuals? I can see there is an overall public health benefit, but what about for individuals?
Barclay says, with the AstraZeneca vaccine, delaying the second dose seems to offer more protection. But that work has not been carried out for the Pfizer vaccine, she says.
Labour’s Dawn Butler is asking questions now.
Q: What is the likelihood of people having to be revaccinated?
Prof Wendy Barclay, head of the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London, says that is hard to answer. She says we still do not know how well the current vaccines will work against new strains.
She says she cannot put a percentage likelihood on this.
Harnden says four types of vaccine are potentially available. Some of the vaccines not being used yet, like Novavax and Valneva, might be more effective against new strains.
He says at the moment they are not recommending that people mix vaccines (ie, give the first dose of one, and the second dose of another). But he says there is no theoretical reason why they should not do this. This approach could offer more protection, he says.
Greg Clark, the committee chair, asks about the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Harnden says the best data is from the Scottish study. It says the vaccine reduces hospital admissions by 94%.
The vaccine also seems to be reducing infection rates “reasonably well”, he says.
MPs question JCVI deputy chair about vaccine programme
The Commons science committee is taking evidence from vaccine experts this morning.
The first witnesses are Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and professor of primary care at Oxford University, and Prof Wendy Barclay, head of the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London.
Harnden starts by saying that he is “delighted” by how the vaccine programme is going so far. He summarises some of the reports out within the last week showing the effectiveness of vaccines.
He also says the delayed second dose strategy has been effective in reducing deaths.
A study has found Covid-19 and other similar strains of virus can survive on clothing and transmit to other surfaces for up to 72 hours, PA Media is reporting. PA says:
Research carried out by De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester looked at how coronavirus behaves on three fabrics commonly used in the healthcare industry.
Scientists said polyester poses the highest risk for transmission, with infectious virus still present after three days that could transfer to other surfaces.
The study, led by microbiologist Dr Katie Laird, virologist Dr Maitreyi Shivkumar and postdoctoral researcher Dr Lucy Owen, involved adding droplets of a model coronavirus called HCoV-OC43 - which has a very similar structure and survival pattern to that of Sars-CoV-2 - which causes Covid-19 - to polyester, polycotton and 100% cotton.
Scientists said on 100% cotton the virus lasted for 24 hours, while on polycotton it only survived for six hours.
The university said Laird advised the government that all healthcare uniforms should be laundered in hospitals to commercial standards or by an industrial laundry.
Good morning. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, is announcing funding for schools in England to help pupils catch up with the learning they have lost during Covid. The announcement includes £200m to expand the government’s national tutoring programme and an additional £300m “recovery premium” which will go direct to schools to support the most disadvantaged children. The government’s press notice is here, and my colleague Sally Weale has the story here.
The announcement does not say anything about extending the school day, but in interviews this morning Williamson refused to rule out extending the school day, or cutting the length of the summer holidays, to help pupils catch up. Asked on Sky News about extending the school day, he replied:
We’ll be looking at how we can boost and support children in a whole range of different manners. But it’s not just about time in school, it’s about supporting teachers in terms of the quality of teaching and how we can help them.
As the Daily Mirror reports, Williamson dodged this question three times. But he signalled that this issue would be considered by Sir Kevan Collins, who has been appointed education recovery commissioner to consider long-term measures to help the Covid generation of pupils.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, gives evidence to the Commons science committee. At 10.30am it will hear from Madelaine McTernan, director general of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, Prof Sarah Gilbert, head of the team that produced the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and Dr Philip Dormitzer, chief scientific officer of Viral vaccines at Pfizer.
9.30am: The ONS publishes data about the characteristics of people testing positive for Covid.
10.30am: Priti Patel, the home secretary, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.
12.30pm: Edward Argar, a health minister, replies to an urgent question about last week’s court ruling saying the government unlawfully delayed publishing details of PPE contracts.
12.15pm: Vaughan Gething, the Welsh government’s health ministers, holds a Covid briefing.
12.15pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is expected to hold a coronavirus briefing.
2pm: Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, gives evidence to the Commons international trade committee about free ports.
Around 2pm: MPs begin debating Lords amendments to the fire safety bill. Labour is urging Tory rebels to back an amendment that would protect leaseholders from having to cover the costs of making buildings safe.
2.30pm: Helen Whately, a health minister, gives evidence to the Commons health committee about burnout in NHS staff.
3pm: The UK/EU’s joint committee overseeing the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol meets.
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.
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