Boris Johnson news – live: Keir Starmer challenges PM over handling of coronavirus crisis as Priti Patel confirms 14-day quarantine for UK arrivals
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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has challenged Boris Johnson over his handling of the coronavirus crisis at PMQs, asking the prime minister: “Who’s been in direct control up until now?”
Mr Johnson was challenged on why he had promised a “world-beating” test and trace programme when it wasn’t yet fully operational. It follows leaked figures suggesting only four in 10 coronavirus patients identified by the scheme have provided information about their recent contacts.
The scheme’s chief executive Baroness Dido Harding was asked by MPs at the health and social care committee to send “reams of letters” with data on how the programme is working to account her lack of answers, citing concerns the testing and tracing figures were not yet “validated”.
Home secretary Priti Patel confirmed to MPs the government is going ahead with a 14-day quarantine plan for arrivals to the UK from 8 June. Elsewhere, transport minister Kelly Tolhurst confirmed the government is still considering establishing “air bridges” with other countries.
Speaking at the Downing Street, Mr Johnson urged the public not to meet indoors in light of the rain, as he warned “there could be a second wave, a kind of kinetic pulse of disease sweeping across the world”, in a view echoed by Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance.
It came as new Office for National Statistics figures showed there have been more than 50,000 fatalities in the UK with Covid-19 on the death certificate – at least 10,000 more than the government’s official toll, which only includes those who had been tested.
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Government ‘winging it’, says Keir Starmer
The Labour leader has accused the government of “winging it” in its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and told the prime minister to “get a grip”.
All eyes will be on the House of Commons at midday to see how Boris Johnson performs opposite Starmer, with the PM likely to be grilled over his support for his senior adviser over his decision to take his family 260 miles away to Durham in March to self-isolate.
In an interview with The Guardian, the Labour leader said: “I am putting the prime minister on notice that he has got to get a grip and restore public confidence in the government’s handling of the epidemic.
“If we see a sharp rise in the R rate, the infection rate, or a swathe of local lockdowns, responsibility for that falls squarely at the door of No 10.
“We all know the public have made huge sacrifices. This mismanagement of the last few weeks is the responsibility of the government.”
Sir Keir added: “There is a growing concern the government is now winging it … At precisely the time when there should have been maximum trust in the government, confidence has collapsed.”
Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQs today (Getty)
Only 40 per cent of test and trace patients provided info on contacts
Only four in 10 coronavirus patients identified in the government’s new test and trace programme were contacted and provided vital information within the first four days of the scheme’s operation, leaked figures obtained by Channel 4 suggest.
Despite describing the first few days of the scheme as “successful”, health secretary Matt Hancock has so far declined to provide figures on the number of people contacted.
Only 1,831 of the 4,456 patients who tested positive completed the required forms to provide information about their contacts either online or through a phone call by the end of the weekend.
More details here:
Health minister admits he doesn’t have test and trace statistics
The junior health minister Edward Argar has suggested the number of people being tested for coronavirus is not important, as he came under fire for the failure to provide figures for nearly two weeks.
He also insisted he still did not know how many people are going through the test-and-trace programme and providing provided vital information about contacts.
Argar described those statistics – obtained by Channel 4 News – as “outdated, partial and leaked”, but admitted: “I don’t have the precise figures.”
On the daily numbers of people being tested, Argar refused three times to provide a statistic – instead arguing what mattered was the total provided (which includes multiple tests on the same person).
“That’s what we are focusing on, that’s the important statistic,” he told Sky News.
Argar also refused to say when test-and-trace figures would be provided – saying only they would be set out on “a weekly basis”. He could not say how many people used the smartphone app in trials on the Isle of Wight.
We don’t have ‘effective’ test and tracing, says Labour MP
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves urged the government to get an effective test and trace system in place.
Echoing Labour leader Keir Starmer’s call for Boris Johnson to “get a grip” on the crisis, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The government have said that we're going to have a world beating test and trace mechanism.
“Frankly we’d just like an effective one and we don’t have that today.”
She added: “And so there are practical things that government can do to make the easing of these lockdown restrictions actually work and we’re urging government to get a grip and put those things in place.”
Labour MP Rachel Reeves (PA)
Minister ‘hopes’ Brits will get holiday this year
Continuing his media appearances this morning, health minister Edward Argar has said he hoped people would still be able to go on holiday this year.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m not going to say a particular date on when that might happen because we will have to be guided by how the disease behaves, controlling any risk of a second wave and controlling the disease.”
“I hope that people will be able to go on holiday at some point this year, but I can’t make that promise and because I have to be cautious and go with the science and I don’t have that forward view yet of how a second wave or otherwise might behave.”
The prime minister’s official spokesman confirmed on Tuesday that the government is still looking at the prospect of air bridges between the UK and other countries, creating specific exemptions from the quarantine rules.
Despite pressure from some Tory MPs to drop the quarantine plan, home secretary Priti Patel will today set out the details of the 14-day restrictions on new arrivals to the UK from 8 June.
Defending the plan in The Daily Telegraph, Patel said: “We will all suffer if we get this wrong and that is why it is crucial that we introduce these measures now.
“Let’s not throw away our progress in tackling this deadly virus. We owe it to the thousands who have died.”
Meanwhile a YouGov poll of 1,565 people found that 63 per cent were in favour of the quarantine plan for travellers arriving in the UK.
Portugal seeking ‘air bridge’ with UK
Portugal’s foreign minister has said his country is in discussions with the UK about “air bridges” so tourists can avoid being quarantined.
Augusto Santos Silva told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “quarantine is an enemy of tourism”.
He went on: “During these weeks our diplomats will work together in order to guarantee that British tourists coming to Portugal would not be subjected on their return to England to any kind of quarantine.”
Italy, another country popular with UK tourists, began allowing people to travel in, out and around the country for the first time in around three months on Wednesday.
Most people arriving in the UK from Monday will be told to isolate for 14 days in an attempt to prevent coronavirus cases being introduced from overseas.
A £1,000 fixed penalty notice in England will be levied on those failing to adhere to the quarantine, with prosecution and an unlimited fine potentially to follow.
Ministers urged to pay wages of people having to self-isolate under test and trace
The government is facing calls to pay the wages of workers told to self- isolate under the new test and trace scheme.
Public health officials will ask anyone who has had close contact with a patient to isolate for 14 days, even if they do not have symptoms.
But concerns have been raised that workers could be plunged into financial hardship if they comply with the programme.
“People should not be forced to suffer financial hardship for doing the right thing and self-isolating,” Lib Dem leadership candidate Layla Moran told The Independent.
“The government has rightly offered generous support to those temporarily laid off through the furlough scheme. They must now offer the same level of support to those who need to self-isolate.”
More details here:
Will quarantine plan be ‘three-week wonder’?
As holidaymakers and the travel industry wait to hear home secretary Priti Patel’s detailed plans for 14 days of self-isolation for arriving travellers, two warring cabinet ministers appear to have confirmed that the quarantine will be a “three-week wonder”.
In a joint article for The Daily Telegraph, both Patel and transport secretary Grant Shapps signal that a series of so-called “air bridges” – bilateral no-quarantine deals – could soon be brought in to allow tourists to avoid the self-isolation rules.
The expectation is that the air bridges will take effect when the policy is first reviewed, on 29 June.
Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has more details:
Guernsey becomes first place to reopen pubs
Guernsey has become the first place in the British Isles to reopen pubs this week, as it entered phase four of its coronavirus lockdown plan with no known Covid-19 cases remaining.
In addition to pubs, hairdressers, gyms, restaurants, cafes, museums and cinemas have also been allowed to welcome customers again. Initially pubs and bars not serving meals were warned they would need to remain closed even when other businesses reopened, but that continued closure now just applies to nightclubs.
Asked about more widespread re-openings, health minister Edward Argar told Sky News this morning: “In terms of hospitality and pubs and bars reopening, we will be guided by the science.
“We are not in a position to give a date for that, we will be looking at it again in the coming weeks before the beginning of July.”
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