Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson has placed England into a third national lockdown until at least the middle of February following warnings from experts that the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed. The prime minister said the new variant of coronavirus was spreading across the country at an “alarming” rate and could threaten the capacity of the NHS in just three weeks unless urgent action was taken.  He instructed the public to stay at home as he announced that from tomorrow all schools and non-essential shops will be closed in England. GCSE and A-level exams are now also unlikely to go ahead as planned.  The prime minister made his decision to lock down the country again after he was shown evidence that the number of Covid patients in hospitals in England has increased by nearly a third in the last week alone, to almost 27,000. New daily confirmed cases also reached a record high of 58,784. At the same time, the UK’s chief medical officers agreed to raise the Covid alert level from 4 to 5 for the first time, indicating a risk that health care services could be overwhelmed within 21 days.  In a sign of the problems facing parts of the country, Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had earlier announced a new lockdown north of the border, saying she believed Scotland was currently around four weeks behind London on the curve of the pandemic.In a televised message from Downing Street, Mr Johnson warned that the weeks ahead would be the “hardest yet”. Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayAlthough the restrictions will not become law until tomorrow, Mr Johnson said he was instructing the public to stay at home from tonight.  Just a day after he proclaimed they were safe for children, Mr Johnson closed every school in England.  All primary schools, secondary schools and colleges will be closed from tomorrow, although nurseries will remain open.  Workers will be told only to leave their houses if it is impossible to do their job from home.  All students will also be told to stay at home and not return to campus for the new term. It is thought the only exceptions will be for a small number of practical courses such as medicine.  All retail will be closed and while restaurants can continue to offer delivery or takeaway services they will not be allowed to sell alcohol, as ministers try to crack down on socialising.  Similarly, adults will be allowed to meet another person from a different household but only to exercise, not simply to solely socialise.  As during the March lockdown, government sources made clear the police would have the powers to implement the new rules with fines.  The tough new measures are expected to remain in place until the February mid-term break.  Ministers hope the new restrictions will give the NHS time to vaccinate millions against Covid-19 before the disease overwhelms the health service.  It is understood there will be no exemption from the lockdown for those who have recently received a vaccine.  Making the announcement, Mr Johnson said: “It’s clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out.”“In England we must therefore go into a national lockdown which is tough enough to contain this variant.”The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, warned that the success or failure of the latest lockdown would depend on the willingness of the public to obey the new rules.“I urge everybody to comply with the package that the prime minister just outlined, to follow the guidance,” he said.  “And I think that, in a way, we need to remake the contract with the British people which is … in return for you enduring these measures now for the coming weeks, the vaccine must be rolled out at speed. We need this to be mission critical.  “We were the first country to get the vaccine and we need to be the first country to have the vaccine programme rolled out.” More

The Labour leader last night called on Mr Johnson to announce a national lockdown within 24 hours, but declined to back calls from teaching unions for the reopening of schools to be delayed.Speaking today hours ahead of a TV address by the prime minister to set out new coronavirus restrictions, Starmer said that it was now “tragically inevitable” that pupils would have to stay home.In a round of broadcast interviews ahead of the Prime Minister’s address to the nation on Monday night, Sir Keir said a March-style lockdown was needed, with a tougher “stay-at-home” message.And he said the government must vaccinate 2 million people a week this month, doubling to 4 million a week in February.“The virus is out of control, everybody can see that,” Starmer told the BBC. “The tiered system clearly isn’t working.”He said lockdown measures were needed as soon as possible to “get the virus back under control, protect the NHS – which is near breaking point this January – but critically to create a space for the rollout of the vaccine, and that needs to be mission-critical”.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayThe new lockdown needed to replicate the “spirit of March”, he said during a series of interviews in his Westminster office.“You only need to go out on the streets now to see lots of people out and about, you see trains that are half-full,” said Sir Keir. “We need to go back to where we were in March with very, very strong messaging about staying at home.“I’m afraid that the closure of schools is now inevitable and therefore that needs to be part of the national plan for further restrictions.”The government’s “contract” with the public would be to ensure that the tough restrictions are used to make sure the vaccine programme is completed as quickly as possible, he said.“We need to be the first country to complete the vaccination programme, that has to be the basic deal.”Sir Keir suggested Scotland’s example of a legally enforceable stay-at-home order should not be ruled out.“I’m not saying no to that, I’m saying what comes before that is the messaging and the decision by the government that that is the message – stay at home.“That worked in March.”He told ITV News that a wartime spirit was needed to deploy millions of doses of vaccines, including the government working with the opposition.“This has to be a national mission,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest operations we have done since the Second World War, we all need to play our part.“I have offered my support to the government, I do so again and I think the government should pull everybody into this because this is the light at the end of the tunnel.”Sir Keir told Sky News that delaying the closure of schools could mean that pupils remained out of the classroom for longer.“The longer we delay, the longer we are going to be in restrictions, the longer we will have to endure things like school closures,” he said.Asked whether he backed Mr Johnson’s assessment that things will improve by Easter, Sir Keir said: “The problem with the prime minister’s predictions is they are nearly always wrong.“Back in the summer he hoped to be back to normal by November, then it was Christmas, now it is Easter.“The one thing that I know is that if you delay taking action, you prolong the agony.”Sir Keir told 5 News school closures would have to be accompanied by “a plan for working parents who will be affected by that, it has to come with a plan for children so that they can learn at home and it has to come with a plan for how you get them back, reopened, as soon as possible”. More

Boris Johnson was forced to close schools just hours after he told parents it was safe to send their children back to the classroom, amid a growing revolt by teachers and councils.  As the government appeared to lose control of the rebellion, parents across England received emails announcing their primary school would not open as planned because of staff safety concerns. Within hours Mr Johnson had announced that all primary and secondary schools and colleges in England would close from tomorrow until February half-term, except for vulnerable children and those whose parents are key workers.  In a televised statement from Downing Street, the prime minister also acknowledged that the closures mean it will not be “possible or fair” for all exams to go ahead as planned this summer.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson is to consult with regulator Ofqual before a formal announcement, but the PM’s words appeared to signal the replacement of many A-level and GCSE exams with some form of student assessment this summer.Mr Johnson said he understood the distress the late change would cause millions of parents and pupils.  And he acknowledged: “Parents whose children were in school today may reasonably ask why we did not take this decision sooner.  Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday“And the answer is simply that we’ve been doing everything in our power to keep the schools open, because we know how important each day in education is to children’s life chances.”The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Geoff Barton, said headteachers were “relieved the government has finally bowed to the inevitable and agreed to move schools and colleges to remote education in response to alarming Covid infection rates”.But he added: “This new lockdown will be disruptive to learners who have already been hugely disrupted. Schools and colleges are very worried about how exams can be made fair in these circumstances.”Patrick Roach, the leader of the NASUWT teaching union, said it was right for the PM to respond to unions’ calls for remote learning for pupils nationwide.“We have seen too much disruption to children’s education, but without tougher measures that disruption was only set to continue,” said Dr Roach.He called on ministers to “learn lessons” from previous lockdowns and engage with teachers now to develop robust and credible plans for reopening safely and avoid a repeat of last year’s qualifications fiasco.It was “extremely disappointing” that education staff were not being given priority for vaccines, he said, adding: “Keeping teachers free from Covid is the best way to ensure that children’s education does not continue to be disrupted.”Primary and secondary schools in a number of “hot spot” areas, including London, were closed indefinitely last week.  But on Sunday morning the prime minister told parents in the rest of England they should prepare to send their children to class, claiming it was “safe”.  Within hours the UK’s largest teaching union, the National Education Union, said 6,000 teachers had informed their schools they would not be going to work because of safety concerns.  Before the prime minister’s announcement Pete Bowdery, a teacher from Surrey, told The Independent he believed all schools should remain physically shut.  “I believe a two- to four-week lockdown where schools are shut in a controlled and planned manner is far better for children’s progress and mental health than a situation like last term, where entire year groups were sent home with less than three hours’ notice,” he said.While schools remained open last term, more than half a million state school pupils were off school during the final weeks of term for coronavirus-related reasons, Department for Education (DfE) estimates show.  “The short-term pain of a closure would surely mitigate future pain caused by the hokey-cokey-style schooling seen by so many over the last few months,” Mr Bowdery said.Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he understood the “anger and frustration” felt by parents and teachers, but said the school closures were “inevitable” as part of a national plan to rein in the virus.“What we now need, I think, is proper support for working parents, who will be really concerned about what to do in the coming days and weeks, proper support for children at home, because that package needs to be in place, and we need to already start working on how we can reopen again,” Starmer told the BBC.The closure of schools marks another humiliation for Mr Williamson.  Just over a week ago friends of the education secretary told a Sunday newspaper he faced a battle against the teaching unions and others to reopen schools this month.  Within days, however, Mr Williamson had been forced to announce major changes to the start of the school year, including that most secondary school pupils would not return until 18 January and that all schools in “hot spot” areas of infection would remain closed indefinitely.  But there was widespread anger when it emerged that those hots spots included most of London and involved more than half a million primary schoolchildren.  Before the latest announcement education unions had called on ministers to pause the reopening of schools for all except vulnerable children or the children of key workers.  “Bringing all pupils back into classrooms while the rate of infection is so high is exposing education sector workers to serious risk of ill-health and could fuel the pandemic,” a group of half a dozen unions said.   More

By rights, the joint session, or convention, of both houses of Congress mandated by the constitution to ratify the election of a president and vice president should be a routine if not jolly affair, like a school speech day. Usually it has been; but this time round a so-called “sedition caucus” comprised of Republican Trumpite members of the House of Representatives and Senate is dedicated to overturning the result, or, in their terms, defending democracy from a rigged election. Senator Ted Cruz (Texas) is probably the most high-profile figure in the group, along with Senator Josh Hawkey (Missouri). Both may have an eye on gaining support from the Trumpite “base” to be contenders in the 2024 contest.The joint session promises, therefore, to be acrimonious, but talk of a coup seems overcooked.  The joint session will presided over by the president of the Senate, ex-officio Vice President Mike Pence. He will open the various state submissions, lawfully certified. There will then be unusually vigorous challenges and objections to some of the state results, such as those of Georgia and Wisconsin, and of the election as a whole. The claims about voting machines, postal ballots and interference will be familiar.   More

All primary and secondary schools and colleges in England are to close for most pupils from tomorrow until February half-term, Boris Johnson has announced. In a televised statement from Downing Street, the prime minister acknowledged that the closures mean it will not be “possible or fair” for all exams to go ahead as planned this summer.Education secretary Gavin Williamson is to consult with Ofqual on which exams can go ahead under what conditions, and how qualifications can be awarded.The announcement came on the day that many primary schools reopened their doors on the orders of the government following the Christmas holidays, despite appeals from teaching unions and some councils for them to be allowed to remain closed.Mr Johnson said: “I completely understand the inconvenience and distress this late change will cause millions of parents and pupils up and down the country.”Parents whose children were in school today may reasonably ask why we did not take this decision sooner. “And the answer is simply that we’ve been doing everything in our power to keep the schools open, because we know how important each day in education is to children’s life chances.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday”And I want to stress that the problem is not that schools are unsafe for children. Children are very unlikely to be severely affected by even the new variant of Covid.“The problem is that schools may nonetheless act as vectors for transmission, causing the virus to spread between households.”University students will not be able to return to university for the start of term.Instead, they will be expected to follow their studies from their current address, with the exception of those whose physical attendance is necessary for their course, such as medical students.Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “We are relieved the Government has finally bowed to the inevitable and agreed to move schools and colleges to remote education in response to alarming Covid infection rates.”But he added: “This decision clearly raises a question about GCSEs, A-levels and other exams which are due to take place in the summer.“This new lockdown will be disruptive to learners who have already been hugely disrupted. Schools and colleges are very worried about how exams can be made fair in these circumstances.“We are keen to work with the Government and exam regulator Ofqual to make this process as fair as it can possibly be.”Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC: “A lot of staff and teachers have done all they can to get some schools back open today … and nobody wants to see schools, closing.”But I’m afraid that’s inevitable given the serious situation that we find ourselves in. I understand the anger and frustration. It is inevitable.“What we now need, I think, is proper support for working parents, who will be really concerned about what to do in the coming days and weeks, proper support for children at home, because that package needs to be in place, and we need to already start working on how we can reopen again.”Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Johnson had “ducked the difficult decisions, failed to listen to experts and acted too late”.”Just yesterday morning Johnson was telling parents that schools were safe and children should definitely go,” said Davey. “Today he is telling us that they must all move to remote learning but without any proper future plan.“The prime minister’s failure to act earlier means we are seeing record numbers of new infections, a rising death rate, hospitals overwhelmed and NHS and care staff exhausted.”Prof Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, warned that significant care and additional resources would be needed to avoid unfair disadvantage to children from poor backgrounds, leading to reduced chances and lower earnings later in life.“We must ensure that any assessment system that replaces exams is fair to all pupils particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds,” he said. “The evidence of learning losses suffered during the pandemic so far suggests that further school closures in early 2021 are also likely to exacerbate educational inequalities.“The government will need to target significant extra resources to help the most disadvantaged pupils. Unless action is taken, reduced hours of learning, persistent absence from school and weakening economic conditions at home equate to bleak prospects for the young.” More

Nicola Sturgeon has announced new lockdown rules, effective from midnight tonight until the end of January, with a legal requirement for everyone in mainland Scotland to stay at home except for essential purposes.And the first minister announced that schools and nurseries will stay closed until 1 February, rather than 18 January as planned, with pupils learning online.Ms Sturgeon’s announcement to an emergency session of the Scottish Parliament came as Boris Johnson resisted calls for an English lockdown amid rising figures of infections, hospitalisations and deaths driven by the virulent new variant of Covid-19.Ms Sturgeon said that it was essential to act now to prevent infection rates soaring to the levels currently seen in London and the southeast.“Our overriding duty now is to act quickly to save lives and protect the NHS,” she said. “Delay or prevarication in the face of this virus almost always makes things worse, not better, even if it stems from an understandable desire to wait for more data.”Ms Sturgeon said the new restrictions will apply to all of mainland Scotland, which is currently in tier 4, while island areas – other than Skye – will remain in tier 3 “for now”. Controls will be kept under review, but she said she could not rule out them being extended beyond the end of January.The “fundamental advice” is for everyone to remain at home, with Scots allowed out only for essential purposes such as caring responsibilities, essential shopping, exercise and being part of an extended household. Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayEven if they do leave the house, they should “stay as close to home as possible and stay away from crowded places”, said the first minister.Work will only be treated as a reasonable excuse to leave home it it cannot be done from home.Ms Sturgeon asked every business to “look again at their operations and to make sure that every single function that can be done by people working at home is being done in that way”.People who need to shield because of underlying health conditions are advised not to go into work at all, and the first minister said that this guidance would act as a valid “fit note” authorising absence from the workplace.It remains the case that no-one is allowed to travel into or out of Scotland, except for essential purposes.Separate restrictions coming into effect on Friday will close all places of worship during January for all purposes except broadcasting a service or conducting a funeral, wedding or civil partnership. Up to 5 people will be able to attend weddings and civil partnership ceremonies and 20 people are allowed to be present at funeral services, but wakes are banned during this month. Ms Sturgeon told the Holyrood assembly: “I know that the next few weeks will be incredibly tough.“I’m sorry to ask for further sacrifices, after nine long months of them. But these sacrifices are necessary.“And the difference between now and last March is that with the help of vaccines, we now have confidence that they will pave the way to brighter days ahead. So – for everyone’s sake and safety – please stick with it and stay home.”She also returned to the public messaging from the March 2020 lockdown, saying: “Stay home. Save lives. Protect the NHS.” More

But the prime minister resisted growing pressure for an immediate tightening of restrictions, insisting that the impact of tier 4 “stay home” orders announced on 21 December remains unclear, and any new controls would be announced “in due course”.The prime minister’s comments come after health secretary Matt Hancock admitted that the government’s regional tier system was “no longer strong enough” to deal with the virulent new strain of Covid-19 which has sent hospitalisations and death rates soaring in recent weeks.And it follows Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s demand for an immediate move to national lockdown to rein in infections as the vaccination programme is stepped up, with the first patients receiving the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab today.Teaching unions are calling for an immediate pause in the reopening of schools, apart from for vulnerable children and children of key workers, and a move to remote learning while Covid-secure working arrangements are reviewed. And former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said schools and borders should be closed and all household mixing banned “right away”.First minister Nicola Sturgeon has called an emergency session of the Scottish Parliament today, amid expectations that she will toughen up controls north of the border.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayBut Downing Street said there were no plans for a recall of the Commons after MPs’ Christmas break was last week extended to 11 January. And Mr Johnson is not convening a meeting of his Coronavirus Operations (CO) committee today to discuss possible tightening of regional restrictions.There have been calls for the remaining areas in the second-highest tier 3 – covering some 12.2m people (22 per cent of the population of England) in areas including much of Yorkshire and the southwest – to be moved up to the tougher tier 4. More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of England is already in tier 4, with non-essential shops shut and residents told to “stay home”.Liverpool’s director of public health Matt Ashton today called for stronger national controls, arguing that the regionalised system is of value only when infection rates are generally falling.Latest UK-wide figures on Sunday recorded 54,990 positive tests and 454 daily deaths, as the new variant drove a spike which has pushed numbers of Covid patients in hospital above the peaks seen during the first wave last spring.Speaking during a visit to Chase Farm Hospital in north London to meet some of the first people to receive the Oxford vaccine on Monday, Mr Johnson said there were “tough, tough” weeks to come.He said the impact of tier 4 measures introduced before Christmas remained “a bit unclear”, but added: “If you look at the numbers there’s no question we will have to take tougher measures and we will be announcing those in due course.”But Mr Hunt – now chair of the Commons Health Committee – said action was needed immediately.The current situation in NHS hospitals is “off-the-scale worse” than any winter crisis he experienced in his six years at the Department of Health, with more beds taken up by Covid patients than in the first wave last spring and evidence that cancer and heart attack victims are missing treatment, he said.“The number one lesson is that countries that act early and decisively save lives and get their economies back to normal faster,” said Mr Hunt. “We therefore cannot afford to wait: all schools should be closed, international travel stopped, household mixing limited and the tier system reviewed so that the highest tier really does bring down infection levels.“In the face of exponential growth, even waiting an extra day causes many avoidable deaths, so these plans must now be urgently accelerated.”Mr Johnson said there will be a “massive ramp up” in vaccination numbers in the coming weeks, with “tens of millions by the end of March”.The limiting factor in expanding the UK’s vaccine rollout was not supply or staff but waiting for batches to be approved, he said.“There’s a massive ramp-up operation now going on,” said the PM.“The rate-limiting factor is now not supply of vaccines – although we want that to go faster – it’s getting them properly tested and getting them to the NHS.“It’s not the ability to distribute the vaccine, it’s not the shortage of staff.“It’s getting it properly tested. That will ramp up in the weeks ahead.”AstraZeneca has said that it can produce 2 million doses a week of the vaccine, which is seen as a breakthrough because it can be stored and transported in normal fridge temperatures, allowing it to be used in a wider range of venues.But Mr Johnson said that delays were introduced in the process because each batch needs to be “properly approved and quality-controlled”.He declined to say when vaccinations would hit 2 million a week, but said he could not rule out it coming as late as February or March.Mr Johnson said it was vital that the public sticks to hygiene and social distancing rules while the vaccination programme is stepped up.“We will do everything we can to keep the virus under control and people should be in no doubt that the Government will do everything that’s necessary,” said Mr Johnson.“But I must stress at this critical moment it is so vital that people keep disciplined.”The PM said huge numbers of people were following the guidance and he recognised some were becoming frustrated.He added: “I think the public have been fantastic in the way they have tried to follow the guidance.”The national medical director of NHS England, Prof Stephen Powis, said that the new vaccine will be delivered in around 100 hospital hubs and 700 centres in GP practices and in the community by the end of the week, with plans to expand as more supplies become available.Prof Powis said that the arrival of the vaccine gave him hope that “when we get into the spring and into the summer we will be able to get more back towards normal ways of life”. 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Half a dozen unions representing teachers and support staff have called on the government to “pause” its “chaotic” reopening of schools, as councils across the country move to defy ministers.Local authorities in some areas of England say they will unilaterally keep their primary schools shut, ignoring orders from Whitehall on public health grounds.Conservative-controlled Essex is among local authorities to recommend the continued closure of its primary schools, despite government designs that some would reopen as planned on Monday.Meanwhile, Green-controlled Brighton and Hove City Council accused ministers of not being “brave enough” to take decisive action and has told its primary schools to stay shuttered.In a joint statement issued on Monday six trade unions representing school staff called for a shift to remote learning across the country, for all pupils to be given the equipment they needed to learn from home, and for school staff to be prioritised for vaccinations.”The government’s chaotic handling of the opening of schools has caused confusion for teachers, school staff and parents alike,” said the GMB, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, UNISON and Unite.”Bringing all pupils back into classrooms while the rate of infection is so high is exposing education sector workers to serious risk of ill-health and could fuel the pandemic. Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday”Unions have called for a pause in the reopening of schools for anyone other than vulnerable children and children of key workers, and a move to remote learning for all while Covid-Secure working arrangements are reviewed. All school staff continuing to work in schools should be given priority access to Covid-19 vaccinations.”The trade unions accused Boris Johnson of “casually asserting that schools are safe” and called on him to “sit down with unions to discuss a joint approach to ensuring safe working arrangements in all schools”.Defending the government’s approach in an interview with Sky News on Monday morning, health secretary Matt Hancock appeared to dismiss teachers’ safety concerns.”It is also clear that the proportion of teachers who catch coronavirus is no higher than the rest of the population,” he told the broadcaster.”So there is clear public health advice behind the position that we have taken and that is what people should follow because, of course, education is very important as well, especially for people’s long-term health.”
The Government has left us to make this decision that it is not brave enough to face and we hope to see a change of heart from them for primary schools across the south east.Green Party Councillor Hannah Clare, Chair of Brighton and Hove Children, Young People & Skills CommitteeOn 22 December the government’s own SAGE advisory committee told ministers that “R would be lower with schools closed”, noting the closure of secondary schools was “likely to have a greater effect than closure of primary schools”.But they added that it was “not known” whether closing both primary and secondary schools would even be enough to “bring R below 1 in the presence of the new variant”.Secondary schools across the country staying closed until at least 18 January except for vulnerable and key worker children, but the government wants primary schools to reopen in some areas, including Tier 4 where the virus is the strongest.Speaking on Monday afternoon Boris Johnson told broadcasters: “I would stress that schools are safe and the risk to kids is very, very small, and the risk to teachers, we’re doing everything we can to protect teachers – the risk to teachers is no greater than it is to anybody else in any other line of work but I thank them for what they’re doing.”But NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said: “To be absolutely frank, the Prime Minister needs to provide us with the evidence to support his claims.”He added that “many employers have been reporting to us that they’ve been under pressure from government not to share” information about infections.Dr Roach said: “The Prime Minister does need to act. He does need to toughen up the measures to ensure that schools can remain open safely, but he needs to do more, and that is to give parents and indeed the workforce in schools, confidence about what’s going to be happening over the next few weeks.”TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The government’s own advice from SAGE makes it clear that opening schools to all pupils now risks increasing the infection rate. That’s in no-one’s interests.“Instead of creating chaos for parents and exposing workers to risks, the Prime Minister should be talking to trade unions about what steps are needed to make sure all schools are Covid-Secure.” Announcing that primary schools would stay closed, Green Party Councillor Hannah Clare, chair of Brighton and Hove council’s education committee said: “The Government has left us to make this decision that it is not brave enough to face and we hope to see a change of heart from them for primary schools across the south east.”“Until then, we will work with our city’s primary schools to ensure they are supported in providing remote learning, while remaining open to the children of key workers, and vulnerable children.”Labour has shied away from backing teachers over school closures. Education secretary Kate Green told the BBC on Monday morning that there needed to be a “clear understanding” among the public to “stay at home”.She called for a “stronger set” of coronavirus restrictions, adding: “It is very clear that the Government has lost control of the virus, we’re seeing a really alarming rise in cases and in the spread of the infection.”And I do think that we will need a stronger set of measures… but also a very clear understanding among the whole of the public everywhere that staying at home, not going out except when it is essential, not mixing socially or unnecessarily is key to getting this virus under control.”
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