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.
‘We’d never known food poverty until coronavirus’
The number of families with children receiving emergency food parcels in the UK has almost doubled in a year, according to the latest figures from The Trussell Trust.
April was the busiest month ever for Trussell Trust’s food banks, with an 89 per cent increase in emergency food parcels compared with the same month in 2019.
And the number of parcels provided for children has more than doubled, while almost twice as many families with children are receiving them (a 95 per cent rise).
The Independent has spoken to some of the families suffering from jobs losses and falls in income during the lockdown, as they seek emergency help from charities for the very time.
Vulnerable children ‘may never return’ to school, MPs told
Head teachers fear many vulnerable children will never “come back” to school, with up to eight million pupils set to be at home for six months, MPs have been told.
Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield said school leaders feared the numbers staying away will grow with “more distractions” in the summer months, with primaries set to stay shut for some year groups.
“They stay up worrying if those children will ever come back, because the leap that will need to get them back in school will be so vast,” she has told the Commons education committee.
Longfield also warned ministers had only a “two-week window” to organise the summer schools she says are desperately needed to help struggling pupils.
BAME people more likely to be arrested under coronavirus laws
Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people were nearly 50 per cent more likely than white people to be arrested in London using coronavirus laws, new figures suggest.
The total number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) handed out by the Metropolitan Police between 27 March and 14 May was almost a fifth higher for those from non-white communities.
Black people make up 12 per cent of the population but received 26 per cent of the 973 fines handed out by police and accounted for 31 per cent of arrests. Asian people, who account for 18 per cent of London’s population, were handed 23 per cent of fines and were subject to 14 per cent of arrests.
The UK’s largest police force admitted “higher proportions of those in black and minority ethnic (BAME) groups were issued with FPNs or arrested across London as a whole”.
But the Met said the reasons “are likely to be complex and reflect a range of factors”, adding: “This includes interactions between the areas subject to significant proactive policing activity targeting crime hot-spots and both the variation in the age-profile and geographical distribution of ethnic groups in London.”
Poll finds Cummings’ trip factor in decline in lockdown compliance
A fifth of Britons are following the lockdown rules less strictly than before – with a third of those citing Dominic Cummings’ actions as a factor, a survey has indicated.
The YouGov poll suggested that the vast majority – some 73 per cent – followed the lockdown rules last week as strictly as they had in the previous week.
But of the 21 per cent who said they followed the rules less strictly, 32 per cent mentioned the adviser who drove to Durham as one of the reasons for their breaches.
The YouGov poll suggests that in total 7 per cent of Britons may have used Cummings’ actions as their justification for their own breaches of lockdown rules.
The survey found that younger Britons were the most likely to have adhered less strictly to the rules than in the previous week.
Dominic Cummings (Alamy News Live)
BBC considering drama based on Cummings lockdown scandal
The BBC has now expressed an interest in producing a drama based on Dominic Cummings’ controversial breaching of lockdown rules.
Piers Wenger, the controller of BBC drama commissioning, was asked by the Radio Times whether the broadcaster would consider purchasing the rights to a drama adaptation.
“In the right hands, yes,” he responded.
He also said that the BBC had already received pitches from writers who were keen to adapt the story.
‘The government wants you to think parliament is broken’
Jess Phillips has described the images of the huge queues snaking around the Palace of Westminster – as Commons’ leader Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted MPs form a giant socially-distanced line to vote for an end to voting from home – as a “ridiculous” embarrassment.
But in her latest article for The Independent, the Labour MP urged people not to lose faith in the system.
“The government want you, the general public to look at the queue which they devised and think that politics is broken. They want you to hate the establishment, well the bit of the establishment that puts them in their place.”
Read more here:
PMQs about to begin
All eyes will be on the House of Commons to see how Boris Johnson performs opposite Keir Starmer, with the PM likely to be grilled over his support for his senior adviser following his decision to drive 260 miles to Durham to self-isolate.
You can join our chief political commentator John Rentoul and our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan for post-PMQs analysis on The Independent’s YouTube channel from 12.45pm.
PMQs gets under way
Boris Johnson has told the Commons he will host the global vaccines summit on Thursday, describing it as “the moment the world comes together” to fight the coronavirus.
PM: Government takes BAME deaths report ‘very seriously’
Boris Johnson has told the Commons he takes “very seriously” the Public Health England report finding black and minority ethnic people are at higher risk of dying from the coronavirus than white people, and said the government wants to protect “all our country” from coronavirus.
Starmer ‘surprised’ Johnson hasn’t commented on George Floyd death
Labour leader Keir Starmer begins by expressing his “shock and anger” over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“I’m surprised the prime minister hasn’t said anything about this yet,” said Starmer, adding that he hopes the PM will raise concerns the next time he speaks to Donald Trump.
Johnson said Floyd’s death was “appalling” and “inexcusable” and added: “I also believed protests should take place in a peaceful way.”
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