Markus Andrews

The UK government’s hopes of scrapping the final social restrictions imposed on the public to tackle the coronavirus pandemic appear to be fading fast as the Delta variant of the disease continues to drive up infections.As it stands, Boris Johnson’s roadmap ends on 21 June when the last precautionary measures are due to be lifted but the threat posed by the new strain – now thought to be 40 per cent more transmissible than the first – is raising doubts about the wisdom of pressing ahead.While there is significant pressure for a return to normality as the summer weather finally arrives and after more than 14 months of hardship, frustration and uncertainty, the prime minister has previously promised to be guided by “data, not dates” in his decision-making and, at present, the former is not looking good.In his latest comments on the question, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Sky News on Sunday: “It is too early to make a final decision. We’ll keep watching the data for another week or so and, critically, watching that link on the number of cases to the number of people who end up in hospital. “And it is absolutely true that the number of people ending up in hospital is broadly flat at the moment.”But the UK recorded 5,341 new infections on Sunday as the caseload continues to rise, plus four more deaths within 28 days of testing positive, bringing the total number of fatalities since the pandemic began to 127,840.The increase has been sufficient to cause NHS staff to come forward to warn that frontline workers in particular have been “broken” by the pandemic and are “close to burnout”.“Everyone in the NHS at the moment is kind of terrified,” said Dr Megan Smith, legal and policy officer for campaign group EveryDoctor.Dr Emily Bell, a GP from the northwest of England, added: “We know there’s still a lot of unclear messaging going on, and I think unfortunately people’s behaviour has been relaxing.” “And then the beaches are packed, nobody’s wearing a mask, there’s no social distancing, and you just want to weep.“The NHS is still in crisis and we cannot cope as it is. Unlocking poses a real threat to it just collapsing, and my biggest concern is patient safety.”The public has also expressed anxiety to The Independent in a new poll that found 65 per cent of people saying they were “worried” about dropping social distancing mandates. A number of experts have also sounded the alarm about the risk involved in pushing on with stage four of the easing process.Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the government and chair of the independent Sage group, told Sky on Monday morning: “There are 5,300 new cases of the disease per day in the United Kingdom and we’re up about 2,000 on last week.“Now we’ve been discussing whether or not we’re going into a serious third wave and I don’t think we can possibly wait any longer. This is the evidence of another wave appearing.”“I think there’s a significant chance that [the date] could change,” Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told the same network last week.“We’re better off being cautious at this point and being able to progressively unlock ourselves than to overdo it and then end up having to lockdown fully all over again.”His comments followed those of Professor Ravi Gupta, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group counselling the government, who told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Bank Holiday Monday that the UK is now in the grip of an “early” third wave of Covid-19 infections spearheaded by the Delta variant.“There has been exponential growth in the number of the new cases and at least three-quarters of them are the new variant,” the University of Cambridge academic said.“Of course the numbers of cases are relatively low at the moment – all waves start with low numbers of cases that grumble in the background and then become explosive, so the key here is that what we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave.“It will probably take longer than earlier waves to emerge because of the fact that we do have quite high levels of vaccination in the population, so there may be a false sense of security for some time, and that’s our concern.”Prof Gupta pointed out that Mr Johnson’s roadmap was formulated before the existence of the variant was known and backed delaying the final easing by “a few weeks” to allow more people to be vaccinated against it.“If you look at the costs and benefits of getting it wrong, I think it is heavily in favour of delay, so I think that’s the key thing,” he said.“People are not saying we should abandon the 21 June date altogether but just to delay it by a few weeks while we gather more intelligence and we can look at the trajectory in a clearer way.”A number of other leading experts have agreed that the current date for relaxation is inadvisable given the current evidence but, so far, none are advocating new lockdowns – either national or local to hotspots like the hardest-hit north west, Midlands and London.Instead, they are united in calling for stage four to be temporarily delayed and for the public to be patient one final time in order to avoid a fresh setback that could undo much of the good work this year’s successful vaccine rollout has achieved.However, indecision over the extent of the delay required is causing fresh exasperation in some quarters, with Professor Robert Dingwall of Nottingham Trent University complaining on Times Radio on Tuesday morning that the government’s critics “can’t even agree on what delay they’d like.” More

A cabinet minister has called for Ollie Robinson to be reinstated in the England cricket squad, accusing the game’s authorities of going “over the top” by suspending him over decade-old tweets.Robinson, 27, was dropped from international cricket pending an investigation into allegedly sexist and racist messages sent when he was a teenager.Culture secretary Oliver Dowden today said that the pace bowler’s tweets were “offensive and wrong”.But he added: “They are also a decade old and written by a teenager.“The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologised. The ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again.”Downing Street later said that prime minister Boris Johnson was “supportive” of Mr Dowden’s position.The posts, from 2012 and 2013, were revealed while he was making his England debut during the drawn first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s.He was dropped from the squad for the second Test, which begins on Thursday at Edgbaston.In response to Mr Dowden’s comments, shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens said: “It is right that the ECB takes the action that they think is necessary and appropriate to tackle racism and other forms of discrimination in their sport.“They should not be criticised for doing so by the secretary of state.”Robinson’s tweets, posted when he was aged 18 and 19, came to light on Wednesday afternoon while he was on the field.After play, he apologised, saying he was “embarrassed” and “ashamed”.“I am sorry, and I have certainly learned my lesson today,” he said. “I want to make it clear that I’m not racist and I’m not sexist.” More

Some 23 cases of a new Covid mutation – sometimes referred to as the Nepal variant – have been detected in the UK, Downing Street has confirmed.Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said the “spike mutation” K417N is being investigated by Public Health England.Amid growing pressure from medical experts for the postponement of the planned 21 June lifting of further lockdown restrictions, the spokesperson said there was “nothing in the data currently” to suggest that delay will be necessary.But he said that a further assessment of the latest figures on cases, hospitalisations and deaths will be made over the coming week, ahead of a formal announcement on 14 June.The K417N strain of Covid is believed to be a mutation of the Delta variant first identified in India.Experts believe this mutation may have the potential to make vaccines less effective, and investigations are under way to determine if this is the case.A fast-growing proportion of Covid-19 infections in the UK now involved the Delta variant, which is believed to have overtaken the earlier Alpha strain – first detected in Kent – to become dominant in the country.By the end of last week, there were 12,431 confirmed cases of the Delta variant in the UK, up from 6,959 the previous week.Health secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday that the government was “absolutely open” to delaying the planned move to the fourth and final step of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown “if that’s what needs to happen”.Step 4, scheduled for 21 June at the earliest, would see the lifting of “most” remaining Covid restrictions, with the reopening of nightclubs, the end of limits on crowds at mass events and attendances at weddings, and possibly the removal of guidance on social distancing, face-coverings and working from home.But former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, the chair of the Independent Sage Group, said ministers should now announce a delay to the easing of restrictions. “I’m very reluctant to say that we should not go out of lockdown on 21 June, but I think the figures are in now, and it will be wise for the Government to announce right away a delay in opening, just so that we can all plan for the post-21 June period,” Prof King told Sky News.Asked how long the restrictions should stay, he said: “I would give a few weeks’ delay and see how the fingers are emerging. “So, I don’t know how long. “As the Prime Minister has said, it’s data, not dates, that we should be governed by, and that’s response as well.” Prof King said the current Covid-19 figures are “evidence of another wave appearing”. “(There are) 5,300 new cases of the disease per day in the United Kingdom and we’re up about 2,000 on last week,” he said. “We’ve been discussing whether or not we’re going into a serious third wave … This is the evidence of another wave appearing.”But Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said: “The prime minister has said before – and it still remains (the case) – that there is nothing in the data currently to suggest step 4 can’t go ahead at the earliest date.“But we do need to look very closely at the data over this coming week… The health secretary was purely repeating what’s always been in the roadmap – that we will be focused on data and not dates, and that we need to make sure we have all the relevant information before making a decision.”He added: “We can see that the cases are rising in the UK. That is due both to the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant and to a certain extent to the opening-up measures in step 3.“What we need to examine is whether or not the link between cases increasing and subsequent hospitalisations and deaths has been sufficiently severed for us to continue with our roadmap at the earliest possible date. That work is ongoing.”“The spokesperson said that reports of a Covid variant from Nepal had not been confirmed.But he said that PHE was looking at “a small number of cases of the Delta variant which have a mutation of concern”.Public Health England was classifying this a “spike mutation of interest” and had identified some 23 cases in the UK as of 3 June, he said. More

The UK government’s hopes of bringing an end to the social restrictions imposed on the public since 23 March 2020 to tackle the coronavirus pandemic appear to be fading as the Delta variant of the disease continues to drive up infections across the country.As it stands, Boris Johnson’s roadmap ends on 21 June when the last precautionary measures are due to be lifted. But the threat posed by the new strain – now thought to be 40 per cent more transmissible than the first – is raising doubts about the wisdom of pressing ahead.Both NHS professionals and members of the public have expressed their anxiety about the prospect of ending restrictions, with a clear majority favouring the temporary prolonging of the status quo to allow for more people to get vaccinated against the virus. Health secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News on Sunday: “It is too early to make a final decision. We’ll keep watching the data for another week or so and, critically, watching that link on the number of cases to the number of people who end up in hospital.“And it is absolutely true that the number of people ending up in hospital is broadly flat at the moment.”With Mr Hancock making clear that hospital admissions will be a key determining factor in government decision-making, here’s a graph plotting the number of people who have received medical attention after contracting Covid since Mr Johnson’s announcement of the first national lockdown last spring, based on the very latest government data. As you can see, the graph is currently registering its first uptick in weeks, a worrying development that could represent a further setback to the dreams of millions desperate for a (relatively) normal summer. More

Boris Johnson faces the prospect of defeat in the House of Commons for the first time since he won a convincing majority at the 2019 election. Rebel Conservative MPs are convinced that they have enough support to force the Prime Minister to restore the cut in foreign aid. We will find out shortly if Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, will allow a vote on the issue tonight. If Mr Hoyle selects the amendment in the name of Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative MP and former international development secretary, MPs will vote at 10pm tonight. The government has a working majority of 85, so if 43 Tory MPs switch to vote with the opposition (and provided the opposition parties muster a full turnout), Mr Johnson will lose. If the speaker rules the amendment “out of scope” – and it is a bit of a stretch to add a clause restoring the foreign aid cut to a bill to set up a science research agency – then that will only postpone the showdown. The Tory rebels are determined to force a vote in the Commons, and if they cannot use this bill they will find another way soon.Speculation is rife at Westminster that the Prime Minister will do a deal with the rebels if Mark Spencer, the government chief whip, tells him he expects to lose the vote, but the rebels will want some kind of bankable guarantee that the aid cut will be restored before they withdraw their amendment. I will be here at 4pm to answer your questions about the first big split in Conservative unity since the election. By then we may have a better idea of how the argument is going to develop. It may be that the prime minister is relatively relaxed about losing the vote, because he knows that aid spending is unpopular with most voters. It may be that he thinks the issue will help him, even if he is defeated, because he will be seen as being on the side of the people against parliament – just as he was on getting Brexit done. Previous prime ministers have been happy to be on the losing sides of parliamentary votes when they thought their position was popular: Margaret Thatcher, for example, supported the death penalty despite a large majority in the Commons against it, and Tony Blair shrugged when he lost the vote on 90-day detention of terrorist suspects, saying: “Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.”Mr Johnson’s position on foreign aid is more complicated, because the promise to spend 0.7 per cent of national income was in his own manifesto at the election, so he is not just disagreeing with the House of Commons but with himself. So if you have a question, submit it now, or when I join you live at 4pm today (June 7). All you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments below. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box to leave your question. Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they will be hidden until I join the conversation to answer them. Then join us live on this page at 4pm as I tackle as many questions as I can. More

Even his friends have to agree that Gavin Williamson is not one of the Johnson government’s stand-out successes as a minister. Even in an unusually weak field, featuring inadequates such as Robert Jenrick, Matt Hancock and Priti Patel, as secretary of state for education, Mr Williamson has been a notable underperformer in the cabinet’s remedial set. “Must try harder” you might say, though there’s no evidence he’s especially lazy. Having secured only token funding from the Treasury to secure more post-covid “catch-up” money for schools, the government’s independent education adviser, Kevan Collins, quit in disgust, and teachers and parents are left feeling disappointed and disaffected. On top of the exams fiasco last summer, and the dithering over opening or closing schools at the turn of the year, our Gavin’s not had a great time of it. He is even dangerously unpopular with the Tory grassroots, routinely finishing a distant last in the monthly Conservative Home ranking of cabinet ministers (with Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Dominic Raab the class favourites). He is prone to gaffes, has a reedy voice that is difficult to listen to, let alone be inspired by, oozes insincerity (even if he is actually sincere, sometimes), was previously sacked for leaking national security secrets (though he denies it), has no made little mark in office, has no discernible political philosophy, and will serve any leader who suits his purposes. Ideal, you may well say, for high office in today’s Conservative party, but, in all seriousness, the question is still worth asking.How does he survive? More

A controversial scheme to collect and share patients’ NHS data must be halted because of privacy concerns, Labour is urging the government.The party echoed medical groups by protesting that people are being kept in the dark about the use of the information on treatments, referrals and appointments over the past 10 years.The data will be anonymised and its collection will “save lives” by helping to develop cures for serious illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, health chiefs say.But there is criticism that it can then be shared with third parties – as well as a lack of public awareness that patients have only until 23 June to opt out.Now Labour has written to the health secretary Matt Hancock and to NHS Digital, the body directly responsible, urging them to slam on the brakes.“I echo concerns from across the health sector that the lack of transparency on which organisations can access this personal data is deeply concerning,” said Alex Norris, the party’s public health spokesperson.“Patients need to be made fully aware of which of their data is available for access and by whom, and so I have written to NHS Digital asking them to pause their upcoming GP data collection until these questions are resolved.”Last week, the British Medical Association (BMA) condemned the government’s explanations of the issue as “completely inadequate, causing confusion for patients and GPs alike”.“People need to fully understand what this programme means and crucially, how to opt-out of their data being shared, if this is what they want to do,” Dr Farah Jameel said.“Family doctors have a duty to their patients and have their best interest at heart – so are understandably hesitant to comply with something that patients may know nothing about and that they themselves do not fully understand, even if this is a legal requirement.”But an NHS Digital spokesperson said: “Patient data saves lives. We could not have delivered the Covid-19 vaccine rollout if we had not used data to ensure we reached the whole population, prioritising them in the most effective way.“The data will only be used for health and care planning and research purposes, by organisations which can show they have an appropriate legal basis and a legitimate need to use it.”The medical histories of more than 55 million patients are set to be put into a database available to academic – and commercial – groups, for research and planning.The records will be scraped from every GP practice, under a plan only announced by Mr Hancock in April, on the NHS Digital website and on flyers at surgeries.The deadline for opting out is 23 June, requiring patients to complete a form and give it to their family doctor. More

Kent County Council is threatening the home secretary with legal action as it warns its services for unaccompanied child migrants are at breaking point for the second time in less than a year.The authority said it may no longer be able to accept new unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) within days, and has served a formal letter before action to the Home Office.Kent has nearly double the number of UASCs in care the government says is safe to have, the council said.The latest move comes after the council announced last August that it had reached its capacity to care for UASCs arriving on its shores despite efforts to work with the Home Office and other local authorities.The council has taken the first steps in legal proceedings to implement a long-term solution aimed at preventing the crisis from occurring again.The proposed judicial review asks Priti Patel to use existing powers to direct local authorities other than Kent to receive their fair share of UASCs.Kent’s director of children’s services has advised the leader of the council that the current pace of arrivals and strain on care services is likely to mean he will no longer be able to safely accept any new UASC arrivals in the county before the end of this week.Border Force will then be asked to place new arrivals directly into other local authorities around the country, as they did for three months last year.Kent County Council leader Roger Gough said: “I am deeply saddened that we are now seeing a repeat of the same crisis of nine months ago.“While there have been a number of welcome measures from government – to the benefit of the Kent council taxpayer – we have not seen what is most needed: a robust national transfer scheme that prevents port authorities such as Kent coming under unmanageable pressure.“Over this last year we have argued consistently and repeatedly that this must be done through a mandatory system.“The Home Office consulted on changes to the national transfer scheme in August and September last year and have yet to publish any new proposals or a response to the consultation.“The scheme remains voluntary with insufficient incentive for other UK local authorities to transfer UASC from Kent.“Kent residents deserve a resolution to this issue. We still do not have one. The wholly disproportionate strain on Kent’s children’s services continues to be overlooked.“We must ensure that all UK local authorities with capacity share in the support of these children.“Enough is enough. A robust, long-term solution is well overdue and critical for the future welfare of all children supported by KCC, whatever their background, and the continuation of the excellent services that support them.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “Those who attempt to cheat the system place an unjust burden on the taxpayer and prevent genuine asylum seekers from getting support.“This is why the government is bringing forward the new plan for immigration which will allow us to welcome those most in need through safe and legal routes, while preventing abuse of the system.“We recognise the longstanding role that Kent County Council has played in supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and are extremely grateful for their contribution.“We continue to encourage more areas to join the national transfer scheme and do their part.“We have already consulted on how to improve the scheme to make it fairer – the outcome of which will be published very shortly.”The council said that in the absence of any substantive Home Office response to its proposal by 17 June, it will proceed to issue a claim for judicial review against the home secretary.Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “Children who travel to the UK seeking safety have endured horrific experiences including abuse and exploitation both in their home country and during perilous journeys to our shores.“On arrival, it is not unusual for them to have physical injuries, hypothermia, dehydration and be deeply traumatised.“Kent Council has been under immense pressure and not surprisingly is now unable to provide care for so many young people.“As their corporate parent this government is now failing in its duty to provide the love and care these children desperately need.“This cannot go on, we need decisive action to ensure that no child who comes to the UK alone seeking safety is neglected by the state.”Press Association More