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UK Covid live: minister defends keeping isolation rules for fully vaccinated until 16 August
UK Covid live: Johnson faces Starmer at PMQs amid concern over mask rule ending and self-isolation changes
(32 minutes later)
Latest updates: Kwasi Kwarteng says government is striking balance between opening up and trying to limit infections
Latest updates: PMQs after minister defends extending self-isolation for fully jabbed people until 16 August
Michael Mansfield QC, who has chaired the People’s Covid Inquiry, which has been run by the Keep our NHS Public campaign, has just started speaking at the press conference where he is announcing the inquiry’s interim findings.
Starmer says if Johnson had been listening, he would have heard the answer. He wants to open up in a controlled way, he says. Isn’t it common sense to keep the rule on face masks?
In a statement released in advance he said:
Johnson says it is common sense for people to wear a face mask on the tube. But he is moving from legal diktat to personal responsibility.
I will post more from the inquiry’s interim findings when the press conference is over, after PMQs.
If the only difference between them is face masks, that is good news.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, told MPs this morning that the Covid pandemic has not made the government rethink is plans for big investment in transport infrastructure. He told the Commons transport committee:
Starmer says the government is at risk of overwhelming its test and trace system. What will the government do to stop people deleting the test and trace app, because they can see that millions of people will be pinged this summer?
When the Labour MP Grahame Morris suggested the decision to continue with projects must be based on “more than a feeling” and that it would be “sensible to pause work” until the Department for Transport has a more complete understanding of behavioural changes caused by the pandemic, Shapps replied:
Johnson says he still cannot tell what Starmer wants. This is not like the law where people can attack from different positions, he says.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader, has joined those complaining about the government’s decision to keep the isolation rules for the fully vaccinated until 16 August. He told the Daily Telegraph (paywall) that the decision “makes a mockery” of claims that 19 July will mark the end of restrictions in England. He said:
Starmer says we should open up “in a controlled way”, keeping masks for public transport, having better ventilation and having better support for people who have to isolate.
The Queen Elizabeth cruise liner has sailed into port in Southampton after a number of crew members tested positive for Covid-19, PA Media reports. PA says:
He quotes what the FT and the Daily Mail have said about how many people might have to isolate. What is the PM’s estimate?
Dr Katherine Henderson, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told Times Radio this morning that she expected people to have to carry on wearing masks in hospitals even after 19 July, when the government plans to stop them being compulsory in England for public transport and shops. She said:
Johnson says he wants to thank everyone who has to isolate. We will move from isolation to testing over the next few days.
Ministers find it hard to get through an interview at the moment without being asked what their personal approach to wearing a face covering will be after 19 July, when the government plans to stop making them compulsory in England for public transport and shops. This is what Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, said when asked about this on Sky News this morning.
He says Starmer is trying to have it both ways. He is attacking the government for opening up too much, and then for still having isolation.
Scotland’s health secretary has hit back after the Scottish Tories claimed he had “disappeared” during the latest Covid surge because he took his family on a long-promised trip to Harry Potter Studios.
What is Starmer’s policy?
The Scottish Sun mocked up Humza Yousaf as “the invisible health chief” this morning on its front page splash, which revealed that the MSP had dared to take his kids to a theme park for the weekend.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says it is not for the opposition leader to have to answer questions. To do that, standing orders would have to change, he says.
Yousaf retorted on Twitter that he wouldn’t apologise for the very limited time he gave his family, before revealing - as he had told the Scottish Sun too - that he had bumped into the Scottish Tories’ shadow public health minister on the trip.
Starmer says rates are so high because the PM let the Delta variant, or the “Johnson variant”, into the country.
The story in the Scottish Sun includes a quote from Stephen Kerr, the Scottish Conservatives’ chief whip, who claimed that families in Scotland would be “appalled” by what Yousaf had done. A spokesman for Yousaf said the Scottish Tories were guilty of “jaw-dropping hypocrisy”.
Is the PM really comfortable with a plan for 100,000 people to catch this every day?
The Office for National Statistics has published its latest figures for the percentage of adults in the four nations of the UK who would test positive for Covid antibodies. Here are the figures.
Johnson says he will continue with a balanced and reasonable approach. The vaccines provide more than 90% protection against hospitalisation. By 19 July everyone over 40 will have been offered two vaccinations.
England: 89.8% (up from 86.6% the previous week)
He says Starmer seemed to support opening up last week. Does he still support it?
Wales: 91.8% (up from 88.7%)
Sir Keir Starmer joins the PM in his remarks about the 7/7 anniversary, and about Fay Allen.
Northern Ireland: 87.2% (up from 85.4%)
And he says the whole country will be cheering England - except perhaps the Tory MP Lee Anderson.
Scotland: 84.7% (up from 79.1%)
He pays tribute to Kim Leadbeater, the new MP for Batley and Spen, who is sitting in the Commons below a plaque to her sister, the murdered MP Jo Cox.
These figures are cover the week beginning 14 June. They are central estimates and they are subject to 95% credibility intervals, set out in the report.
Starmer asks what will happen to deaths when the government opens up in England.
Testing positive for Covid antibodies means that someone has either been vaccinated or infected. Eventually their level in the body declines to the point where they cannot be detected, but scientists are unsure how long this takes.
Johnson says there are number of projections available from SPI-M. But he says deaths are down to a thirtieth from infections.
The figures are going up mainly because of the vaccination programme, and also because of rising cases. Scotland has lower antibody rates than the rest of the UK because it had a lower rate of Covid infection in the earlier waves, which partly explains why it has seen particularly high rates recently.
Labour says opening up is reckless. Does that mean Starmer opposes it, Johnson asks.
Scotland’s education secretary has refused to confirm whether her government will adopt England’s sweeping plans to abandon protective bubbles and self-isolation for school pupils over the summer.
John McNally (SNP) asks about the retrospective loan charge.
Shirley-Anne Somerville said that at the end of the Scottish school term – which finished at the end of June - the absence rate within schools was around 4%, but only 3% had Covid and the vast majority of the rest were self-isolating. She added that schools were not seeing large outbreaks but rather community transmission coming into the education environment.
Johnson says he is acutely aware of the pain some people are suffering. “Alas” people were misguided in joining these schemes. But the line taken by the Treasury is right, he says.
“The Scottish government is looking very seriously at whether we can make changes to the self isolation advice as we go into the next academic year,” she told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland.
Boris Johnson starts by saying today is the 16th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings.
Asked whether she would consider the English changes, she said:
He also sends his condolences to the relatives of Britain’s first black police officer.
Good morning. Yesterday Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said the UK could be facing 100,000 Covid cases a day by the summer. His announcement coincided with the government saying that until 16 August people who are fully vaccinated will still have to isolate if they have been in contact with someone testing positive, and the two developments have triggered fears that millions of people face a summer of being pinged and having to isolate at home.
Perhaps he has been reading Jeremy Corbyn’s tweets.
We’ve splashed on this story, written by my colleagues Peter Walker and Heather Stewart.
Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, has also welcomed the latest antibody figures from the ONS. (See 10.01am.)
And here’s an extract.
PMQs is due to start soon.
The Daily Telegraph has splashed on the same topic. Its story (paywall) quotes analysis by the Adam Smith Institute saying rising infection rates could force up to 4.6 million people a week into self-isolation by the start of August.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
And the Financial Times is in the same territory. Its lead (paywall) says that business and health chiefs are warning that England faces “weeks of workplace chaos” because two people are asked to isolate for 10 days per Covid case, suggesting that if 700,000 a week were infected a further 1.4 million could be asked to self-isolate.
If you are looking for some positive news about Covid, Meaghan Kall, an epidemiologist at Public Health England, has a good round-up in a Twitter thread starting here.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has been giving interviews this mornings and, speaking to Sky News, he suggested that some of the reports were exaggerating the situation. “I don’t think you can necessarily conclude there will be millions [of people having to isolate],” he said. But generally he defended the rules. Pointing out that the government is also being accused of opening up too much, he told the Today programme:
She says the ONS antibody figures out today (see 10.01am) show the UK is close to achieving herd immunity for older adults.
Kwarteng also suggested there was little chance of the government changing its decision to keep isolation requirements for fully vaccinated people in England until August.
And she says the figures also reinforce the case for vaccinating 16-and 17-year-olds.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.
9.30am: Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, gives evidence to the Commons transport committee.
11am: The committee on standards in public life publishes a report on election finance rules.
11.30am: Michael Mansfield QC, chairman of the People’s Covid Inquiry, which has been run by the Keep our NHS Public campaign, holds a press conference to publicise the inquiry’s interim findings.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.
12pm: Voting closes in the election for the chairmanship of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee. Sir Graham Brady, the current chair, is facing a challenge from Heather Wheeler, a former minister seen as someone who would be less antagonistic towards No 10.
2.30pm: Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, gives evidence to the Commons international trade committee.
3.30pm: Johnson gives evidence to the Commons liaison committee. He will face questions on Covid, Brexit and Cop26.
Politics Live has been a mix of Covid and non-Covid news recently and that will probably be the case today. For more coronavirus developments, do follow our global Covid live blog.
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