UK Politics

The legal requirement to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid and £500 quarantine support payments will end in England on Thursday, Boris Johnson has announced.The prime minister also confirmed that free Covid testing for the public will be scrapped in England from 1 April, as he set out his “living with Covid” plan in the Commons.Mr Johnson said testing had become “much less valuable” in restricting the spread of Covid, and said the £2bn-a-month cost of the system meant the government had to “scale back” what it could offer.The prime minister also told MPs the success of the UK’s vaccination programme meant the government could “lift our restrictions earlier than comparable countries”.He said: “It’s time we got our confidence back – we can rely on that sense of responsibility to one another. Let us learn to live with this virus, and continue protecting ourselves and others, without restricting freedoms.”Routine contact tracing will end on Thursday, as will the legal obligation for individuals to tell employers about their requirement to isolate.The government is also stripping back sick pay from next month. From 24 March, the £96.35 a-week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will go back to being available on the fourth day of any illness, rather than on day one.Read more: Boris Johnson ends isolation for positive cases – follow LIVEMr Johnson also said that from 1 April the use of voluntarily Covid status certification will no longer be recommended – though the NHS app “will continue to allow people to indicate their vaccination status for international travel”.Sir Keir Starmer condemned the PM’s “half-baked announcement” – criticising the end of self-isolation support payments and weakening sick pay, and questioning the decision to scale back free testing. “We can’t turn off Britain’s radar before the war is won.”Mr Johnson said the evidence for ending all curbs in England was “amply there in the scientific evidence”, before claiming that Sir Keir had shown a “ferocious grip of the wrong end of the stick”.Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford said it would be “premature and reckless” to wind back the programme, while Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would be “inexcusable negligence given ongoing risks”.The cabinet was due to sign off the prime minister’s plan, which includes a significant reduction in the NHS Test and Trace system, on Monday morning.But the green lighting was pushed back – with the unexpected delay thought to centre on a row with health secretary Sajid Javid and chancellor Rishi Sunak over how to fund the continuation of some free testing.An ally of Mr Sunak insisted the delay was “no one’s fault” but it was “just cabinet-level discussions as you’d expect”.Free testing will be massively scaled back from 1 April, and will instead be focused on the most vulnerable, with the UK Health Security Agency set to determine the details, while a degree of asymptomatic testing will continue in settings such as in social care.Downing Street sources said that no price was being set for a box of lateral flow tests after free supplies end on 1 April, and it will be down to the market to decide how much to charge.However ministers expect the price to settle at a “low single figure” for each individual test, suggesting a price of £15-30 for a pack of seven.Free tests will still be made available to some of the most vulnerable groups – likely to include the over-80s and those with immuno-suppressing conditions – in response to symptoms.And there will be asymptomatic testing free of charge for care home residents. However, NHS staff and patients and care system workers will receive free tests only if they develop symptoms of Covid-19 or if there is an outbreak which requires asymptomatic testing to be conducted.Mr Johnson said: “We will continue to provide free symptomatic tests to the oldest age groups and those most vulnerable to Covid … we’re working with retailers to ensure that everyone who wants to can buy a test.”Senior Tory backbencher Mark Harper welcome the PM’s announcement and invited him to join the group of lockdown sceptics, joking: “I will take the prime minister’s statement .. as his application to join the Covid recovery group. He’s very welcome indeed. I only wish it had been sooner.”Mr Javid lost his battle with the chancellor for additional funding to cover future testing programmes, which will be paid for entirely from existing Department of Health budgets. However, it is not expected that money will be taken from the budget for clearing the NHS treatment backlog.A new 72-hour delay between ordering boxes of tests has been introduced to prevent individuals from trying to build up stockpiles at home before the 1 April deadline and to stop a blackmarket developing in lateral flow kits.The government’s scientific advisers have made clear that the coronavirus pandemic is not yet over, and the disease has not yet settled into a predictable endemic pattern.Ministers were told that there could be significant future mutations and that new variants could be more severe and more transmissible than the currently dominant Omicron strain.The Sage scientific advisory committee, which met last week, made clear that the UK would need a strong domestic surveillance capacity to maintain public health protection.The Office for National Statistics will continue its infection survey, alongside the Vivaldi study in care homes and the Siren study into reinfections, to monitor the development of new variants.Meanwhile, UK Health Security Agency will maintain a level of PCR lab infrastructure and a stockpile of lateral flow tests to be able to respond in the case of a new variant of concern or a spike in cases. 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Boris Johnson will give a statement to MPs in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon as he sets out his government’s plan for “living with Covid”.The prime minister is scheduled to speak in the chamber at around 3.30pm when he is expected to scrap all remaining virus restrictions.At a Downing Street press conference expected at about 7pm, he will address the nation and confirm the changes, which are likely to include the scrapping of self-isolation for people who test positive and a scaling back of testing to focus on vaccination, particularly among the elderly and vulnerable. Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, will join the prime minister at the briefing.Earlier on Monday, a cabinet meeting due at 10am where the PM was scheduled to present ministers with the plan was delayed. The surprise move came after ministers had been photographed arriving in Downing Street for the discussions.The PM was forced to introduce fresh social restrictions to combat the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as it sent cases spiralling towards the end of last year.He brought back mandatory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops, cinemas, theatres and places of worship in December, asked citizens to work from home where possible and made an NHS Covid Pass or negative lateral flow test a necessary requirement for entry to crowded venues and events involving mass gatherings.However, Mr Johnson stuck to his guns and refused to impose tighter restrictions in England despite pressure from his scientific advisers to do so in response to the record-breaking rate of infection we saw in the first days of 2022, insisting on 3 January that the “Plan B” measures in place remained the “right” course of action, adding: “The way forward for the country as a whole is to continue with the path that we’re on.“We’ll keep everything on the review course we keep all measures under review, but the mixture of things that we’re doing at the moment is I think, the right one.”The PM reiterated his hope that Britain would be able to “ride out” the assault from Omicron without further measures in a press conference from Downing Street the following Tuesday evening.That strategy, backed by senior Cabinet ministers keen to safeguard the economy, appears to have paid off, given that the high case numbers failed to translate into the feared wave of mass hospitalisations that could have overwhelmed the NHS.That said, at least 24 hospital trusts did report suffering “critical incidents” of staff shortages, leading to non-urgent treatments having to be postponed to cope with the crisis.But overall, the Omicron strain, though highly transmissable, has proven to have a less severe impact on individuals than earlier variants of the virus, with the government’s tactic, of encouraging adults to get vaccine booster jabs as a matter of urgency, paying off. More

Boris Johnson is to be joined by chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance at a press conference late this afternoon to discuss the government’s plan for “living with Covid”, Downing Street has said.The presence of the “three amigos” at the Downing Street briefing will be seen as confirmation that Whitty and Vallance have signed off on the controversial plan, which will bring forward by a month the lifting of the legal requirement to isolate after a positive test for coronavirus.The announcement was thrown into chaos today as wrangling between the Treasury and Department of Health over funding force the last-minute cancellation of a cabinet meeting intended to rubber-stamp Mr Johnson’s plan.It is understood that some ministers arrived at No 10 for the scheduled in-person meeting at 10am only to find it had been delayed as further talks took place to thrash out funding for future testing and monitoring regimes.Cabinet is now expected to convene by video conference early in the afternoon, ahead of a statement to the House of Commons by Mr Johnson at around 4.30pm and the press conference at 6.30-7pm. More

The elections watchdog has made a last-gasp plea to the government to drop a planned power-grab, warning it has “no precedent” in Western democracies.The shake-up – enabling ministers to set the Electoral Commission’s “strategy” – would see ministers able to “influence the operational functions and decision-making”, it has protested.The plan, in the Elections Bill, has “no precedent in the accountability arrangements of electoral commissions in other comparable democracies”, a letter states.The legislation – which goes to the Lords this week – will give ministers the power to set the remit of the Commission and decide which organisations and activities are permitted in election campaigns.It comes after the watchdog angered No 10 by investigating the funding of the lavish refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat, by a Tory donorThe Commission has been threatened with curbs ever since it embarrassed senior Tory figures by fining Vote Leave for busting spending limits for the Brexit referendum.The organisation has also raised the alarm over the way it will be stripped of prosecution powers, warning of the risk that lawbreakers will escape punishment.In its letter, sent to the levelling up secretary Michael Gove, the Commission warns the Elections Bill flouts the good practice code of the Venice Commission, of which the UK is a member.It states: “Only transparency, impartiality and independence from political motivated manipulation will ensure proper administration of the election process.”The letter reads: “The Commission’s accountability is direct to the UK’s parliaments and should remain so, rather than being subject to government influence.”And it adds: “The Commission’s independent role in the electoral system must be clear for voters and campaigners to see, and preserved in electoral law.”The Cabinet Office insists the changes are a “necessary and a proportionate approach to reforming the Electoral Commission while respecting its independence”.But critics have warned ministers will, at a stroke, be able to ban trade unions and certain charities from taking part in elections by campaigning or donating.The Bill sailed through the Commons – with its huge Conservative majority – but faces a buffeting in the Lords, where independent peers share the Commission’s fears.In its letter, ministers are warned the Bill is “ inconsistent with the role that an independent electoral commission plays in a healthy democracy”.“This independence is fundamental to maintaining confidence and legitimacy in our electoral system,” it states.In December, John Pullinger, the Commission’s head, criticised the refusal to beef up the level of fines it can impose for wrongdoing from just £20,000 to a recommended £500,000.And, on the plan to remove the power of criminal investigation and prosecution, the Commission chair asked: “The key to me is, well, who is going to have it?” More

Boris Johnson has delayed a cabinet meeting where he was due to present ministers with his “living with Covid” plan, No 10 sources have confirmed.The surprise move came after government ministers had been photographed arriving in Downing Street for the meeting — originally scheduled to commence at 10am.However, the meeting, signing off the lifting of England’s remaining domestic Covid restrictions, is now expected to take place later on Monday after the prime minister has received further briefings.As part of the measures, the government is expected to lift the legal requirement for individuals to self-isolate after a positive test.There is also speculation Mr Johnson will set out controversial plans to end the provision free lateral flow tests and self-isolation payments for those on lower incomes.No immediate explanation was provided for the delay, but reports pointed to a rift between Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and Sajid Javid, the health secretary, over funds and testing.On Sunday, Mr Johnson told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme the UK spent £2 billion on testing in January alone and that such high expenditure did not need to continue.Paul Scully, the business minister, echoed this on Monday and told Sky News: “If you think what that £2 billion might go towards, there’s a lot of other backlogs in the NHS, other illnesses in the NHS, that that money could otherwise go for.Mr Scully said the public should not “work and live under government diktat for a moment longer than is necessary” ahead of the expected announcement.Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, however, seized on the delay of the cabinet meeting, saying: “The government is paralysed by its own chaos and incompetence and the British public are paying the price. This shambles cannot continue.“What confidence can the public have that the Conservatives are acting in the national interest, when they can’t agree a plan for Covid?“It is clear the prime minister was trying to declare victory before the war is over, simply to distract from the police knocking at the door of Number 10.It also comes after the Welsh government hit out at reports that free tests would soon end, with a spokesperson labelling any such move “premature and reckless”.“Testing has played a pivotal role in breaking chains of transmission of Covid, and has acted as a powerful surveillance tool helping us to detect and respond rapidly to emerging variants,” they added.Any decision to effectively turn off the tap on our National Testing Programme with no future plans in place to reactivate it would put people at risk. This is not acceptable.”The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, also posted on social media that if the chancellor “wins” the row, “the concern is more than just an end to free access to testing in short term (a decision I don’t agree with) – it’ll also be hard for UK to retain adequate testing capacity for longer term surveillance & response to new variants. Let’s hope common sense prevails”. More

Decisions over whether to self-isolate or go into a workplace after a positive Covid-19 test will soon be down to individuals and their employees, a business minister has suggested.The remarks from Paul Scully come as Boris Johnson prepares to scrap the legal requirement to self-isolate in an update to MPs on the end of remaining pandemic restrictions in England.At a meeting of the cabinet on Monday morning, the prime minister is also expected to set out decisions on whether to wind down the provision of free tests and self-isolation payments.Speaking on Sky News, Mr Scully insisted it was “important that we don’t work and live under government diktat for a moment longer than is necessary” after almost two years of restrictions.Asked whether he would tell a member of his own team to stay at home after a positive test — once the rules in England lapse — he said: “Like any illness, any transmissible illness, you would say stay at home”.He added that if an employee had flu, they would be expected to stay at home, “but it’ll be down to themselves or down to their employer”, in comments that are likely to cause alarm among unions.Amid speculation the government will set out a date to phase out free testing, Mr Scully also insisted the government “can’t continue forevermore spending £2bn a month on tests”.“If you think what that £2bn might go towards, there’s a lot of other backlogs in the NHS, other illnesses in the NHS, that that money could otherwise go for,” he insisted.Speaking on the BBC’s Westminster Hour, however, the Conservative MP Tim Loughton raised concerns over the end of free Covid testing, saying he had “slight apprehensions”.“I think we still do need to have testing available widely because I think that is the reassurance people can have that they’ve taken all possible precautions and they don’t want to infect other people,” he said.Mr Scully, who said guidance would be published later today on the end of self-isolation rules, also suggested in a separate interview that businesses would be liable to pay for their own testing regime if they want to continue routinely checking staff for Covid.The business minister told Times Radio “we don’t test for flu, we don’t test for other diseases, and if the variants continue to be as mild as Omicron then there’s a question mark as to whether people will go through that regular testing anyway”“But if employers want to be paying (for) tests and continuing a testing regime within their workplace, then that will be for them to pay at that point,” he said. More