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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Nadeem Badshah (now); Andrew Sparrow and Josh Halliday (earlier)

Rebecca Long-Bailey sacked from shadow cabinet in antisemitism row - as it happened

Rebecca Long-Bailey has been sacked from the shadow cabinet by Keir Starmer.
Rebecca Long-Bailey has been sacked from the shadow cabinet by Keir Starmer. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

We are pausing the UK blog for now. You can head over to our global blog for all the updates on the coronavirus -

The funeral of Conservative politician Mohammad Asghar, the first ethnic minority Member of the Senedd (MS) elected in 2007, was held today.

Asghar died at the age of 74 last week.

The funeral cortege left Newport Central Mosque and made its way to Mr Asghar’s office in the city, where politicians and members of the public paid their respects.

Among those attending were Monmouth Conservative MS Nick Ramsay, Newport East Labour MS John Griffiths and Monmouthshire council Conservative leader Peter Fox.

Photo issued by the Welsh Conservative Party of Mohammad Asghar, known as Oscar, a Welsh Conservative politician who died after being taken ill.
Photo issued by the Welsh Conservative Party of Mohammad Asghar, known as Oscar, a Welsh Conservative politician who died after being taken ill. Photograph: Welsh Conservative Party/PA

Updated

Driving lessons and tests to resume in England from July 4

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced that driving lessons and tests will restart in England from 4 July.

Maxine Peake, the actor and Labour supporter, has issued a clarification of her interview which Rebecca Long-Bailey had retweeted.

David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, has accused Boris Johnson of misleading the Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions, when he claimed the government implemented 16 recommendations from his 2017 report into the treatment of ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system.

In a letter to the prime minister - seen by the BBC - Lammy urges the prime minister to correct what he calls “a catalogue of falsehoods” - and says only six of those 16 recommendations have been implemented.

His report, published in September 2017, contained 35 recommendations.

During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Johnson said: “Sixteen of the Lammy recommendations have been implemented. A further 17 are in progress; two of them we are not progressing.”

Earlier this week, Justice Minister Alex Chalk answered a written parliamentary question saying 16 had been “completed”, 17 were still in progress and two were not being taken forward.

In his letter, Lammy says he presumes the prime minister was referring to the same 16 - but says of those, only six have actually been implemented.

He writes that if the government is serious about correcting injustices, “it needs to be honest about the actions it has taken”.

Updated

From Heather Stewart, the Guardian’s political editor, on Rebecca Long-Bailey’s sacking.

Updated

On Rebecca Long-Bailey’s sacking from the shadow cabinet, Dame Louise Ellman, former Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, told ITV Granada Reports: “I’m delighted to hear this.

“It does gives me confidence that Keir Starmer is a man of his word and does want to stamp out antisemitism.

“This is dismissing somebody who is very senior, somebody who indeed stood against him as leader of the Labour party a very short time ago.

“It’s a very encouraging sign.”

Ellman quit the party last October as she believed antisemitism had become mainstream under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Updated

Councillors and an MSP have written to Police Scotland questioning the response of officers to recent protests in Glasgow city centre.

SNP councillor Ruairi Kelly raised concerns with chief superintendent Hazel Hendren claiming “fascist thugs were able to run wild in George Square” on Saturday.

The Glasgow City Council representative’s letter was sent days after an event aimed at “sending a positive anti-racist message from Glasgow’s George Square to the world on World Refugee Day”.

Kelly said peaceful protesters and members of the public were attacked on two separate occasions in the square.

He wrote: “These appeared to be planned attacks and a quick search of known social media accounts shows that groups such as the National Defence League had called people out onto the streets.

“Was there not sufficient advanced warning to keep these individuals separate from the public?”

Reaction from Richard Burgon MP to Rebecca Long-Bailey’s sacking.

Evening summary

  • The latest weekly test and trace figures published by the government have shown performance falling back on three key indicators. (See 12.12pm.)
  • The £900,000 refurbishment of RAF Voyager - the plane used by the Royal Family and the prime minister - has been completed, the BBC reports.
The RAF Voyager used by the PM and the royal family at Cambridge airport.
The RAF Voyager used by the PM and the royal family at Cambridge airport. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated

Sir Keir Starmer has recorded a longish interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg today. Here are some excerpts.

Long-Bailey's sacking: analysis and reaction from commentariat

Sir Keir Starmer has made a good start at Labour leader – an Ipsos Mori poll recently gave him the highest approval rating for an opposition leader since Tony Blair in the mid-1990s – but a common argument from commentators has been that, having run as a unity candidate in the leadership contest, he needed to do something to show the party had finally buried the electorally-toxic aspects of the Corbyn era. My colleague Polly Toynbee made this case in the Guardian just three days ago, and others have too. Now that moment has actually arrived.

In some respects the rights and wrongs of what actually happened are secondary – Starmer says sharing the article in the first place was unacceptable (see 4.16pm); Rebecca Long-Bailey says she was sacked because she would not accept the terms of the climbdown required (see 3.53pm) – because they will soon be forgotten. But what won’t be forgotten is that, after less then three months as leader, Starmer abruptly dispatched the most senior Corbynite left in his shadow cabinet. And he did so at a time when the prime minister was facing criticism, including from the Tory papers, for not being able to sack a minister who had become a liability.

It is too soon to be sure what will happen next (see Stephen Bush below), but so far no one has resigned in solidarity with Long-Bailey and the left may find its options for disruption are limited. Starmer does not look like someone at risk of losing his grip on his party.

The move will also allow him to appoint a new shadow education secretary, at a time when more or less the only line of attack the Conservatives have been able to run against Labour is the claim that the party has sided with the unions against parents wanting to see their children return to school soon. It wasn’t wholly true, but Long-Bailey is likely to be replaced by someone more attuned to the consumer interest than the producer interest in education.

This is what some other commentators are saying.

Stephen Bush in the New Statesman says Starmer has started “a major and significant fight with his party’s left flank”. Here’s an extract.

The Labour leader’s decision to sack Long-Bailey is a sign that he is serious about having a zero tolerance policy on anti-Semitism within the party – but it is also going to be the trigger for a major conflict within Labour, one which Starmer cannot be certain of winning. It’s not clear if other frontbench members of the Socialist Campaign Group, the main left-wing grouping in the parliamentary party, will opt to join Long-Bailey on the backbenches. The reaction of the party’s rank and file is, likewise, uncertain: and Starmer could yet find that his majority on the ruling national executive committee, and with it his ability to drive through changes to how the party is run, which are vital to dealing with anti-Semitism, is lost as a consequence.

Equally, of course, the row could end up with Starmer strengthened: benefiting from the clear signal he has sent about his priorities, and a further divided Labour left, with some on the frontbenches, some clustering around Long-Bailey, and others looking to leadership from Richard Burgon, who several Campaign Group MPs think did a better job of outlining Corbynite principles in the deputy race than Long-Bailey did in the main leadership contest. The outcome of Starmer’s decision today is highly uncertain.

From my colleague Rafael Behr

From the Sunday Times’ Tim Shipman

From Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall

From Matt Forde, presenter of the Political Party podcast

From my colleague Owen Jones

From the Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges

From the Tribune editor Ronan Burtenshaw

From Tom Harris, a former Labour MP and now a Telegraph columnist

Updated

From the Times’ Patrick Maguire

Here is a clip of Sir Keir Starmer explaining why Rebecca Long-Bailey was sacked.

These are from two of the MPs who left Labour when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, in part because of his record on antisemitism. They are now both, of course, ex-MPs.

From Mike Gapes

From Joan Ryan

And this is from John Mann, who was also strongly critical of the party’s record on antisemitism when he was an MP and Corbyn was leader. Mann now sits as an independent peer in the House of Lords.

Updated

Dame Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who frequently accused Jeremy Corbyn of being too tolerant on antisemitism, has welcomed the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey.

This is from the Commons all-party parliamentary group on antisemitism, and its co-chairs, Labour’s Catherine McKinnell and the Conservative Andrew Percy.

From the BBC’s Iain Watson

Long-Bailey's sacking a 'reckless over-reaction', says Momentum founder Jon Lansman

These are from Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum, the pro-Corbyn group in the Labour party, which backed Rebecca Long-Bailey for the leadership.

Updated

The FT’s Jim Pickard says Rebecca Long-Bailey may have read a version of the Maxine Peake interview before it was amended by the Independent.

A reader sent me a link to the original.

Starmer says Long-Bailey was sacked because her tweet undermined efforts to rebuild trust with Jewish community

Sir Keir Starmer said Rebecca Long-Bailey’s decision to share the Independent article undermined his attempts to rebuild relations with the Jewish community, speaking to political journalists in Scotland.

During a short online press conference on Thursday afternoon, arranged to coincide to a “town hall” hustings earlier with Scottish voters, Starmer was asked whether Long-Bailey had admitted she had made a mistake retweeting the Independent interview with Maxine Peak, and had stood down willingly.

Starmer said:

I’m not going into the ins and outs of the various conversations I may have had, interesting though they would be. I’m just very clear about my focus and that is rebuilding trust with the Jewish community. I do not consider sharing that article furthered the course of rebuilding trust with the Jewish community and that’s why I stood Rebecca Long-Bailey down.

He refused to comment when asked whether he believed his former education spokeswoman was antisemitic, quoting instead his previous statement.

I have asked her to step down because she shared that article; I have made it my number one priority to rebuild trust with the Jewish communities. In the interests of rebuilding that trust I have stood her down from the shadow cabinet.

Asked again whether he thought Long-Bailey was antisemitic, he said it was because the Peake interview contained antisemitic conspiracy theories:

I asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the shadow cabinet for sharing the article. I didn’t do that because she is antisemitic, I did it because she shared the article which has got, in my view, antisemitic conspiracy theories in it.

My primary focus is on rebuilding trust with the Jewish communities. I didn’t think sharing that article was in keeping with that primary objective.

Updated

Commenting on Rebecca Long-Bailey’s sacking, Jonathan Goldstein, chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, said:

Today we saw significant action from Sir Keir Starmer in ensuring there is zero tolerance for antisemitism within the Labour party. His actions show he understands the severity and harm that antisemitic conspiracies do to our politics. We welcome this decisive leadership and firm action.

John McDonnell says Long-Bailey shouldn't have been sacked

John McDonnell, shadow chancellor when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, says Rebecca Long-Bailey should not have been sacked. He says it has always been accepted that criticising the activities of Israel is not antisemitism.

Long-Bailey used to work in McDonnell’s shadow Treasury team and he was a strong supporter of her candidature for the Labour leadership.

Updated

Robert Halfon, the Tory MP and a strong supporter of “blue collar conservatism” (ie, the belief that the party has make a strong appeal to the working class), thinks that by sacking Rebecca Long-Bailey, Sir Keir Starmer has shown he is “a force to be reckoned with”.

Updated

Long-Bailey says Starmer's office originally approved clarification tweet that intensified calls for her sacking

Rebecca Long-Bailey has posted a thread on Twitter giving her account of the events leading up to her sacking as shadow education secretary. Here are the main points.

  • She suggests that Starmer’s office subsequently changed its mind, and demanded the withdrawal of the original tweet. She said she was not willing to do that without being allowed to issue a press statement explaining the clarification.
  • She says Starmer refused to discuss the matter with her in person before she was dismissed.
  • She says she intends to continuing supporting the Labour party under Starmer’s leadership.

Here are the tweets.

Updated

And here is the full statement from the Jewish Labour Movement.

The Jewish Labour Movement has welcomed Rebecca Long-Bailey’s sacking, Sky’s Aubrey Allegretti reports.

This is from Matt Zarb-Cousin, who worked as a media adviser first for Jeremy Corbyn when he was Labour leader and then for Rebecca Long-Bailey when she was running for leader (effectively as the candidate of the Corbynite left). Zarb-Cousin is referring to Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal earlier to call for Robert Jenrick to be sacked. (See 11.41am.)

From the Sunday Times’ Gabriel Pogrund

This is from Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, welcoming the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Here is the passage in the Independent’s interview with Maxine Peake referred to in the Labour statement (see 3.11pm) referencing an “antisemitic conspiracy theory”.

Born in Bolton to a lorry driver father and care worker mother, Peake is strident and expressive; if religion wasn’t anathema to her, she’d be perfect in the pulpit. “Systemic racism is a global issue,” she adds. “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.” (A spokesperson for the Israeli police has denied this, stating that “there is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway”.)

As my colleague Peter Walker has reported (see 2.47pm), Rebecca Long-Bailey subsequently posted a tweet saying her tweet sharing the interview was not intended to be an endorsement of everything in it. But the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was “pathetic” that she had not withdrawn the original tweet and apologised.

Updated

Starmer sacks Long-Bailey for sharing article on Twitter including antisemitic conspiracy theory

Rebecca Long-Bailey has been sacked as shadow education secretary, the Labour party has announced. Sir Keir Starmer dismissed her following her Maxine Peake tweet (see 2.47pm). A spokesman for Starmer said:

This afternoon Keir Starmer asked Rebecca Long-Bailey to step down from the shadow cabinet. The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an antisemitic conspiracy theory. As leader of the Labour Party, Keir has been clear that restoring trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority. Antisemitism takes many different forms and it is important that we all are vigilant against it.

UK records further 149 coronavirus deaths

The Department for Health and Social Care has released its latest coronavirus death figures. It says a further 149 people have died in the UK, taking the headline total to 43,230.

The full details are here.

These figures just cover people who tested positive for coronavirus and died. But the real UK figure for all deaths caused by coronavirus is more than 54,000 once people who did not test positive, but where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate, is include.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has criticised Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow education secretary, for tweeting praise of an interview with Maxine Peake in which the actor said the police tactic of kneeling on someone’s neck, which led to the death of George Floyd, was “learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services”, which Israel rejects.

Long-Bailey tweeted, “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond”, linking to the interview with the Independent.

She later added: “I retweeted Maxine Peake’s article because of her significant achievements and because the thrust of her argument is to stay in the Labour party. It wasn’t intended to be an endorsement of all aspects of the article.”

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, said Long-Bailey should delete her first tweet and apologise. She said:

As soon as we saw that Rebecca Long-Bailey had shared this we wrote to her detailing how this conspiracy theory is false and requesting she delete her tweet and issue an apology. Rebecca Long-Bailey’s response is frankly pathetic. As someone who aspires to be the next education secretary, we would expect her to read and understand materials before sharing them. If she is incapable of doing this, it raises serious and immediate questions about her suitability for the role.

Elsewhere in the interview, Peak, a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, called Keir Starmer “a more acceptable face of the Labour party for a lot of people who are not really leftwing”, adding: “As long as the Tories get out, I don’t care anymore.”

R and coronavirus growth rates remain unchanged for UK, but improving slightly for London, Midlands, North East and Yorkshire

The Government Office for Science has published its latest figures for R, the reproduction number, and the growth rate for coronavirus for the UK and for the English regions.

The headline UK numbers are the same as when the government last published these estimates on Friday last week. The growth rate remains at between minus 4% to minus 2% per day, and R remains at between 0.7 to 0.9.

R and the growth rate are both measures of whether coronavirus infections are increasing or decreasing. But, unlike R, the growth rate also reflects the pace at which this is happening. There is a full explanation of the differences here.

Here are the regional figures.

Latest R and growth rate figures for coronavirus in English regions
Latest R and growth rate figures for coronavirus in English regions Photograph: Government Office for Science

Although the headline numbers for the UK and for England have not changed since last Friday, in three of the regions the figures have changed. In all three they are getting better.

London: Last week R was between 0.7 and 1, and the growth rate was between -5% and +1%. Now R is between 0.7 and 0.9, and the growth rate is between -6% and 0%.

Midlands: Last week R was between 0.8 and 1, and the growth rate was between -4% and 0%. Now, although the growth rate is unchanged, R is between 0.7 and 0.9.

North East and Yorkshire: Last week R was between 0.7 and 0.9, and the growth rate was between -5% and -1%. Now R is the same, but the growth rate is between -5% and -2%.

This is from Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, on the street party in Brixton that led to more than 20 police officers being injured.

Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, is taking part in a Reuters newsmaker Q&A that has just started. There is a live feed at the top of the blog. The conversation is focusing at the moment on a new report from Blair’s thinktank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, about the west’s relationship with China.

Here is an extract from Blair’s foreword to the report.

New polling – conducted for YouGov on behalf of the Institute – shows there has been, during the Covid crisis, a sharp move in western public opinion to a markedly more hostile attitude towards China. In our report on the polling, published today, we explore the consequences of this and the need for the west to take a strategic and not ad hoc or purely reactive view of west/China relations. In framing such a strategic view, we should be mindful of distinguishing between two different developments. The first is that we are now dealing not with a rising China but a risen China and this rise is both inevitable and right. China is a large population country – three times the size of the USA – an ancient civilisation with deep roots of intellect and culture, an economic power, a technology innovator, and therefore for sure set to take its place as a global superpower. Given the deep economic links between China and the west, cold war analogies are misleading and dangerous.

On the other hand, in recent years China’s leadership has moved to a much more assertive/aggressive posture, internally and externally, consolidating power in the hands of the Communist party and becoming more combative in its relations with other countries with whom it has disagreements. And in respect of Covid-19, there is no doubt that there are serious questions to be asked of China’s government.

I’ll be posting highlights from the Q&A later.

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that this week’s switch in policy on Scottish schools returning in August is not a U-turn, but characteristic of the flexibility that dealing with an unpredictable virus demands.

Earlier this week, the education secretary, John Swinney, announced the move to a full-time return with no distancing from planning for blended in-school and at-home education, to allow for social distancing in schools, which had prompted a fierce backlash from parents worried about indefinite home-schooling.

Asked about comments from Swinney this morning that he might not be able to confirm that full-time return until 30 July, Sturgeon said:

None of us have a crystal ball ... I can’t say for certain what the level of virus transmission will be come 11 August so we must continue to plan carefully.

She gave her “commitment and assurance to parents that full-time return to education is what we are planning for”, but underlined that “when dealing with a virus we have to be prepared to assess things much nearer to the time”.

Larry Flanagan, the head of Scotland’s largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, yesterday described the move to planning for full-time return as “political” and warned that there were still concerns about the safety of pupils and teachers not distancing. Sturgeon said: “If the science tells us any particular measure isn’t safe we wouldn’t do that, especially with children involved. But all governments have to plan.”

She said that it was not practical to present a fixed and settled plan nearly two months in advance of school return “because we are not dealing with a situation that is fixed and unchangeable, whether that is in schools or hospitals or care homes. If we all take our eye off the ball and the virus gets out of control again [this could all change]. That flexibility we need in our planning is just a fact of life right now.”

Nicola Sturgeon.
Nicola Sturgeon. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Updated

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, has claimed that Robert Jenrick is protected by an “old boys’ network” in a government which she has described as a “farce”.

Updated

No 10 backs Robert Jenrick, saying PM now 'considers matter closed'

The Downing Street lobby briefing has finished. Here are the main points.

  • Downing Street remains determined to try to draw a line under the row about Robert Jenrick’s attempt to try to rush through approval for a housing development owned by the Tory donor Richard Desmond. Despite being asked repeatedly to justify various aspects of Jenrick’s handling of the affair, the prime minister’s spokesman refused to engage with the details of what happened and instead just repeatedly insisted the PM considered the matter closed. He said:

The PM has spoken with the communities secretary. The communities secretary gave his account in public and to parliament and published the relevant documentation. In light of the account that was given, the PM considers the matter closed.

The spokesman also said Boris Johnson still had full confidence in Jenrick.

  • The spokesman was unable to say whether the government fully supported the principle of the community infrastructure levy (CIL), an instrument that councils can use to raise money from developers for infrastructure when they are approving planning applications. The documents released last night showed that Jenrick wanted to approve Desmond’s application quickly so that he would avoid an extra £45m cost being imposed by a new CIL coming into force. Asked if the government as a whole had a view as to whether the CIL was a good idea in principle, the spokesman said he did not have a response at this point but he indicated he would address this later.
  • The spokesman defended the government’s decision not to make wearing face coverings compulsory in shops, even though the No 10 review of the 2-metre rule (pdf) published by the government last night proposed this. The spokesman said the government had made wearing face coverings compulsory on public transport (also recommended by the reviews). But shops were different, he said, because people could leave a shop, or choose not to enter, if it became crowded.
  • The spokesman defended the government’s test and trace system despite figures out today (see 12.12pm), saying the system is new and “will improve over time”. He also said it had led to more than 100,000 people being told to isolate because they had been in contact with people testing positive for coronavirus, he said.
  • The spokesman condemned the violent scenes in Brixton after police came under attack when they tried to break up a large street party. He said:

These were appalling scenes. Violence against the police will not be tolerated.

We have been clear that anyone who assaults the police or any of our emergency service workers who keep us safe should feel the full force of the law.

  • The spokesman said the government now has the capacity to carry out 282,498 tests per day.
  • The spokesman said the majority of coronavirus tests are returned within 24 hours, and 90% within 48 hours. But he was unable to say exactly how many tests are completed within 24 hours. The government has repeatedly refused to put a figure on this, with ministers and officials claiming figures cannot be released until they are statistically robust. The issue is important because contact tracing systems only work if tests are carried out and contact traced rapidly. But the spokesman said the government remained committed to the target of getting all tests completed within 24 hours by the end of the month.

Updated

Jenrick could face further questioning from Commons housing committee over planning row, chair says

Correspondence between the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, and the Conservative donor Richard Desmond will lead to further scrutiny by MPs, the head of the housing select committee said this morning.

Clive Betts, the chair of the housing communities and local government committee, said Jenrick had given parliament the impression that his contact with the property developer ended after meeting him at a fundraising dinner in November.

However, documents released on last night showed they had “extensive” contact afterwards and raises further questions about the minister’s propriety, Betts said. He told the Guardian:

The committee may well ask the minister to come to talk to us again and write and ask him for more information. The thing that surprised me was the continued connection and exchange of texts [with Desmond] after the dinner. The impression that he gave yesterday [to parliament] was he saw him at the dinner, saw a bit of video and that was it. That was clearly not what happened.

Betts said that he was shocked to see that Jenrick had apparently entertained the possibility of going to visit the site.

The arrangements to go on site would have not been appropriate and he seems to have realised that. There does appear to have been an error of judgment over his involvement.

Betts said the committee could launch an inquiry into when ministers should withdraw from planning decisions. “We should look at when ministers should withdraw from involvement once they have been lobbied, to ensure that there is not even an appearance of being susceptible to lobbying. In planning matters, appearances are important,” he said.

Asked about the minister Nadhim Zahawi’s comments this morning claiming voters could consider attending Conservative fundraising events if they want to raise planning issues with MPs (see 8.42am), Betts said:

It ought to be made clear that there is no connection between donation and planning permissions.

Updated

Test and trace figures show performance falling back on three key indicators

Here are the main points from the latest weekly test and trace figures (pdf) published by the Department for Health and Social Care. They cover the period between 11 June and 17 June.

On three of the key indicators, performance is falling behind what it was the week before.

  • Some 70.3% of the 6,923 people who tested positive for coronavirus and were referred to the service were reached and asked to provide details of their recent contacts. That is down from 75.2%, the equivalent figure for the previous week.
  • Of those people who were reached and asked to provide details of their close contacts, 69.9% were reached within 24 hours. That is down from 77%, the equivalent figure for the previous week.
  • And of those people whose names were given to the service because they had been in close contact with someone testing positive, the service reached 81.7% of them to ask them to self-isolate. That is down from 90.9%, the equivalent figure for the previous week.

From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

The Department for Health and Social Care has published the latest weekly test and trace figures.

I will take a more detailed look at the figures shortly.

Here is my colleague Matthew Weaver’s story about the violence at the mass street party in Brixton.

Some of the best reporting on the coronavirus coverage has come from Radio’s 4 statistics factcheck programme, More or Less. In particular, it has been looking at the reliability of the government’s testing statistics in detail, and generally its verdict has been withering.

But now Tim Harford, the programme’s presenter, has tried using a home testing kit himself, and the experience has left him more sceptical than ever about the value of the oft-quoted statistic given by ministers for the number of tests being carried out per day. Four categories of test contribute to the overall number, but a large proportion are tests sent to people to use at home which count in the official figures when they get sent out. Harford thinks many of them never get returned. He explains why here.

The government started to count “tests sent out” in its headline testing numbers (which implies tests completed) near the end of April, when it was under pressure to reach the 100,000 tests a day target set for the end of that month. With help from the new, elastic methodology, the target was supposedly hit. Boris Johnson then set a target of achieving the capacity to carry out 200,000 tests a day by the end of May. This goal was also reached, and now the government says it does not just have the capacity for more than 200,000 tests per day, it is doing more than 200,000 per day.

But these figures have been criticised as misleading, not just because they include tests sent out but not necessarily completed, but because if people provide a swab test (nose and throat) as well as a saliva test, that counts as two tests, not one.

At one point the government also published figures for the number of individuals actually tested per day. But, on the day it supposedly reached the 100,000 target with a headline figure for tests of 122,347, the small print showed that only 73,191 individuals had been tested. The gap between the headline figure and the total for number of individuals actually tested grew ever more embarrassing, and last moth the government stopped publishing a daily figure for the number of individuals tested. It is still not releasing that data, claiming it cannot do so until the data is robust.

Updated

A screengrab from Twitter of the confrontation with police in Brixton last night.
A screengrab from Twitter of the confrontation with police in Brixton last night.

 Photograph: Twitter/PA

It’s not just Brixton where there were large gatherings last night after the hottest day of the year so far.

There were reports on hundreds of young people congregating on the seafront in Hove, East Sussex, where police were called after “pockets” of violence broke out.

One witness said the teenagers should have finished their GCSEs and had their prom on Wednesday if it wasn’t for the coronavirus lockdown.

Large groups were also pictured gathering in the Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate in breach of the coronavirus regulations.

There was also trouble on Exmouth beach in Devon, where hundreds of people gathered before police were called to a “large group of people fighting”.

And this was the scene at the Meadows park in Edinburgh on Wednesday night. One residents said the park looked “like a nightclub” as youngsters gathered to enjoy the warm weather. The crime writer Ian Rankin photographed the rubbish left behind this morning.

Updated

Around 10,000 care home residents and staff will be repeatedly tested for coronavirus in a study forming part of the government’s testing strategy, PA Media reports. The repeat testing will give a “detailed picture” of infections in over 100 care homes in England and allow them to react quickly to outbreaks, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

Helen Whately, the care minister, said:

We know care homes are on the front line of our fight against coronavirus, with the virus affecting older people more acutely than the general population.

Not only will this study provide important reassurance to thousands of residents and staff, it will also build our understanding of the rate of infection in care homes and add to our knowledge about the risk factors that mean the virus can affect individuals differently.

The results of this study will help inform our future plans for managing the pandemic, to protect the public and those who receive care as we work to carefully return to normality.

Footage on social media shows police officers and vehicles being pelted with objects when they attended an illegal music event in Brixton, south-east London, last night.

The disorder broke out after police tried to break up the party, which was in breach of coronavirus lockdown measures. Warning: the footage below contains some bad language.

On the Today programme this morning Lord Kerslake, the former head of the civil service and the former permanent secretary at the communities department (where Robert Jenrick is secretary of state), said that even though Jenrick “got to the right place in the end”, in that he turned down a follow-up meeting with Richard Desmond to discuss the Westferry development, the documents released last night raised troubling issues. Kerslake explained:

I’m pleased the documents have come out but I do think they have raised some troubling issues, I have to say, about access and influence.

I don’t for a moment suggest the minister took his decision simply because of a donation to the Conservative party.

But the fact is, for the price of a dinner, the developer was able to present his scheme to the minister, follow up with texts and seek to influence the decision.

Kerslake said the fact that Desmond was able to raise the application with Jenrick at a dinner “creates the impression - and appearance here is really important - that the developer has some level of influence over the decisions”.

Updated

Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader, has said Robert Jenrick should resign.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, has condemned the “utterly vile scenes” of violence at an illegal gathering in Brixton last night. She said she would immediately raise the issue with Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner.

Updated

Agenda for the day

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog for the day.

Here is the agenda showing what’s coming up.

9.30am: The Office for National Statistics is due to publish its latest figures on coronavirus and the economy. It is also publishing today its latest coronavirus infection survey results.

11am: The Department for Health and Social Care is due to publish its weekly test and trace figures.

12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing.

Lunchtime: The government is due to publish its business and planning bill. As Heather Stewart reports, it will allow summer fairs, outdoor markets and car boot sales to be held without planning permission in England, while alcohol will be widely available to take away, under what are designed to be new feel-good laws drawn up by ministers.

1.30pm: Sir Keir Starmer holds a “Call Keir” virtual public meeting with people from Lanarkshire.

2pm: Tony Blair, the former Labour PM, takes part in a Reuters newsmaker Q&A.

4pm: Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the Commons health committee, takes part in a Politico Europe Q&A.

Updated

More than 20 police officers injured at illegal music event in Brixton

The Metropolitan police have said 22 officers were injured and police vehicles damaged when they attended a large unlicensed music event in breach of the coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday night.

Footage on social media showed a number of police vehicles being smashed and officers chased during a confrontation with a large crown near the Angell Town estate in Brixton, south-east London.

The Met police said a group of people became hostile when officers encouraged them to leave the event. It said 22 officers were injured, including two who required hospital treatment, though none of the injuries are thought to be serious.

Four people were arrested for assault and public order offences, the force said, adding that gatherings like these were “unlawful, as well as posing a risk to public health and against coronavirus restrictions”.

Met police commander Colin Wingrove said:

Our role is to protect the public and ensure guidelines are adhered to in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19 protecting the NHS and save lives. Our officers work incredibly hard to engage and explain the public health message and regulations to prevent such gatherings occurring.

Updated

Business minister suggests voters should attend Tory fundraising dinners to get special access

The business minister, Nadhim Zahawi, denied that Jenrick’s approval of Richard Desmond’s housing scheme represented “special treatment for a billionaire” in a testy interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Zahawi insisted that “there is no smoking gun” and that Jenrick had allowed a different minister to decide on the approval of the £1bn plan when there was a “perception of bias”.

However, Zahawi was then questioned about the special access bought by Desmond at a £900-a-head dinner at which he showed Jenrick a video of the scheme and swapped mobile numbers with the housing secretary.

Asked by the Today presenter Justin Webb what message this sent to the ordinary Conservative voter in Doncaster or Ashfield who would not enjoy this kind of access to a government minister, Zahawi said:

If people go to a fundraiser in their local area, in Doncaster, for the Conservative party they’d be sitting next to MPs and other people in their local authority. People can act with different parts of that authority.

He added:

The important this [is] the access didn’t buy this billionaire the decision. The secretary of state very clearly said to Richard Desmond: ‘I can’t see you, I can’t have this meeting’.

Zahawi’s suggestion that voters should go to Tory fundraising dinners if they want special access to decision-makers has been picked up by Westminster journalists:

Updated

The former leader of the Conservative group on Tower Hamlets council, who resigned over Robert Jenrick’s decision to approve the housing scheme against the advice of his own officials, has posted an interesting thread on the documents released last night.

Councillor Andrew Wood is the secretary of the Isle of Dogs neighbourhood planning forum so he knows the intricacies of the story probably better than most. He resigned in February, saying Jenrick’s overruling of the local planning inspector was “so shocking I knew immediately that I had to resign”.

Wood says the emails and texts released last night showed discrepancies in Jenrick’s account:

Representatives of one of Scotland’s most popular national parks, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, which is also the closest park to big cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh, have written to the Scottish government begging for help with what they describe as increasingly serious health, hygiene and safety issues as more and more day-trippers ignore the current five-mile travel limit.

Destination National Park Group and the Friends of Loch Lomond describe visitors going to the toilet on public beaches, in woodlands and in local residents’ gardens; dangerous roadside parking and tailbacks in towns and villages where the car parks have remained closed; and littering at a scale not seen in the national park for many years.

The letter goes on:

We would earnestly ask for your assistance in encouraging public sector bodies to start quietly re-opening their car park and toilet facilities to help ease the very real problems being encountered on the ground which are impacting adversely on the health and wellbeing of local residents and visitors.”

With the five-mile limit lifting on 3 July, these concerns are only likely to get worse if car parks and toilet facilities remain closed.

Back in the city, crime writer Ian Rankin, who lives near the Meadows, a large and popular city centre park in Edinburgh, has been documenting litter and unending outdoor micturition on sunny days:

We reported on the problems being caused across the UK by closure of public toilets at the start of the month. Let Libby know on Twitter if things have improved in your area recently.

Updated

Robert Jenrick leads the front pages of five of the national newspapers in England this morning, including the Daily Mail, the Guardian and the Times.

The Daily Mail splashes on the “cosy texts that damn minister”. Its columnist Stephen Glover says Jenrick must resign, in a piece headlined: “This haughty and reckless minister is now a drag on the Tories.”

The Times’ leader column says the emails and text messages released on Wednesday night leave Jenrick with “many more questions to answer”. It writes that Jenrick is “not the victim of confected outrage”, whatever he or his supporters might say, and that his cases suggests some in government see transparency as “a burden”.

The Guardian sets out its view in this leader column, which says: “Without the hefty Conservative majority and Mr Johnson’s own relaxed attitude to personal responsibility, Mr Jenrick would surely have left by now. The pandemic still consumes public attention which might otherwise turn to the case. Nonetheless, it exacerbates the perception that there is one rule for this government and its friends and another for the rest of us.”

Updated

The senior Tory MP, Bernard Jenkin, is backing calls for a “rapid” review of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic but said it should not take the place of a full public inquiry.

Jenkin, the chair of the Commons liaison committee, said the review would “ensure that every stone has been turned over and looked under” and take the form of the parliamentary banking standards committee, established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said the review should scrutinise governance, constitutional weaknesses, use of scientific advice, coordination across government, and the disproportionality of deaths of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

“Select committees are doing this scrutiny piecemeal all the time; the question is how can you bring this select committee scrutiny together,” he said.

Jenkin was also asked about Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary under pressure over his dealings with the property tycoon Richard Desmond.

Jenkin said he suspected “the storm will pass” and backed his colleague to remain in post. He added:

The cabinet secretary has been very clear that there’s no case to answer. Clearly there’s been a little bit of a mistake, where decisions have had to be rescinded, but there’s no sign of actual maladministration. And secondly, in these things what happens next depends on whether anything new comes out, and it looks as though he’s put everything on the table.

Bernard Jenkin.
Bernard Jenkin. Photograph: PRU/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Good morning and welcome to the UK liveblog.

It takes something big to knock coronavirus off the front pages but the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has succeeded this morning.

Jenrick backed the former media mogul Richard Desmond’s plans to build 1,500 flats on the Isle of Dogs in east London in mid-January, overruling the objections of planning officers and the local council.

The Guardian, Times, Daily Mail and i all lead on the release of documents last night that show Jenrick “insisted” a planning decision for a £1bn property development should be rushed through so a Tory donor’s company could reduce costs by £45m. The documents also reveal that Jenrick gave Desmond his private mobile number after he was sat next to the former Daily Express owner at a £900-a-head dinner, following which they swapped messages.

Boris Johnson indicated last night that he was sticking by Jenrick, but the pressure on the housing secretary is building this morning.

We will also have all the day’s live developments on the coronavirus pandemic. There are reports this morning that the government will on Monday confirm which European countries Britons will be able to visit without having to go into quarantine when they return to the UK.

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