Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
“Freedom is in our sights once again!” Sajid Javid told Conservative MPs on Tuesday, as he announced that double-jabbed people will not be required to quarantine from 16 August if they come in contact with a Covid sufferer.
That mid-August date was the one concession to caution in a package of measures for “freedom day” that was more liberal than many at Westminster had expected, and has led Labour to accuse the government of being reckless.
Boris Johnson’s “freedom day” will be a day of fear for elderly and vulnerable people and those with compromised or suppressed immune systems, for whom the efficacy of vaccines is much reduced, charities have warned.
Citing the statement by the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, that Covid infections could surge to a record 100,000 a day in a few weeks after all social distancing and mask-wearing regulations are removed in England, Blood Cancer UK has said that 19 July “will be the day that it feels like freedoms are being taken away from” many people.
“What we’re trying to do is move from a universal government diktat to relying on people’s personal responsibility,” he told Monday’s Downing Street press conference. “Clearly there’s a big difference between travelling on a crowded Tube train and sitting late at night in a virtually empty carriage on the main railway line. So what we want to do is for people to exercise their personal responsibility but to remember the value of face coverings both in protecting themselves and others.”
Prof Chris Whitty has warned that maintaining the current Covid restrictions through the summer would only delay a wave of hospitalisations and deaths rather than reduce them, as Boris Johnson announced that most social distancing and mask rules would be lifted on 19 July.
The chief medical officer for England said: 'At a certain point, you move to the situation where instead of actually averting hospitalisations and deaths, you move over to just delaying them. So you’re not actually changing the number of people who will go to hospital or die, you may change when they happen.'
However, Whitty also cautioned that while there was a 'pretty high' level of scientific agreement over the government's decision last month to delay the original lifting of restrictions for four weeks, the view in regards to opening back up is 'more mixed'.
Boris Johnson is to announce that the lifting of most remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England will go ahead on 19 July amid a backlash from government scientific advisers who have warned that doing so would be like building new “variant factories”.
Despite cases having risen to their highest level since January 2021, the prime minister is set to press ahead with the final stage of unlocking in two weeks.
Prime minister defies warnings from his own MPs concerned that bill to shake up health service will prove gift to Labour
Boris Johnson is set to spark a political row this week by announcing plans to seize greater control of the NHS, despite warnings that the “power grab” will see ministers blamed for delays in treatment and closure of local hospital units.
The prime minister has told the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, to put the long-awaited health and care bill before parliament despite Javid’s own misgivings and concerns among hospital bosses and doctors’ leaders.
Boris Johnson is facing increasing warnings of a summer of chaos in schools and workplaces, amid urgent demands for clarity over the government’s plans to tackle an unpredictable escalation in Covid cases.
Retaining advice to wear masks in certain settings and abandoning quarantine for anyone in England who is fully vaccinated are measures being examined by the government to stop a resurgence in cases and more enforced isolations – something that also risks hitting the NHS workforce.
Allowing those who have received two doses of a Covid vaccine to skip quarantine could breed resentment and result in mass non-compliance, a scientific adviser has warned.
Downing Street has confirmed it is looking at whether to drop all legal self-isolation measures for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who is infected “as part of the post-step 4 world”.
Boris Johnson is to welcome Angela Merkel to Chequers on Friday, with coronavirus travel restrictions anticipated to be high on the agenda for their meeting.
The German chancellor, who is making her final visit to the UK before stepping down, has called for quarantine for all UK travellers entering the EU, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated, due to concerns over the Delta variant.
Germany has already designated the UK a “virus variant region”, meaning anyone travelling from the UK has to quarantine for two weeks on arrival – excluding those in transit.
Lewis Hughes, 24, apologises for ‘any upset caused’ after video of incident in London went viral
A man who was called a “thug” by Boris Johnson after being filmed accosting Prof Chris Whitty has apologised for “any upset I caused”.
Lewis Hughes, 24, said if he made England’s chief medical officer feel “uncomfortable”, then “I am sorry to him for that”. He said he had lost his job as a result of the video.
Incoming secretary of state faces daunting task while mastering his new position in the Department of Health as quickly as possible
Sajid Javid may have already served in two of the most testing offices of state, as chancellor of the exchequer and home secretary. But on Saturday he walked into what is now arguably the biggest and most challenging of all: the job of health secretary.
Not only does Javid have to steer the country out of what will hopefully be the final stages of the pandemic, ensuring we reach the end of what Boris Johnson has called the “irreversible road to freedom”.
Rory Boland, travel editor for consumer group Which?, said travellers still needed to be “extremely cautious” about booking trips abroad. He said: “Countries can be downgraded quickly and with little warning, as we saw with Portugal, while several European countries have introduced quarantine requirements for UK residents. “Restrictions around international travel are changing regularly and when they do, the cost to holidaymakers is significant. “Most providers will not pay refunds if a country is moved from green to amber, and ‘free’ amendments are often anything but, with many companies requiring significant notice of any changes and bookings for new dates usually costing hundreds of pounds. Travel insurance is also unlikely to pay out in these circumstances. “It is only advisable to book if you are able to do 14 days’ quarantine, can be flexible about destination and dates, and book with a provider that guarantees refunds in the event of traffic light changes or quarantine requirements.”
Eluned Morgan MS, minister for health and social services in Wales, said: “International travel is resuming but the pandemic is not over and protecting people’s health remains our main priority.
“Our strong advice continues to be not to travel overseas unless it is essential because of the risk of contracting coronavirus, especially new and emerging variants of concern.
Boris Johnson has said he believes 19 July will be the 'terminus point' from which coronavirus restrictions in England will be lifted. The prime minister also played down the prospects of any significant easing of travel restrictions for people wanting a foreign holiday any time soon.
'I want to stress that this is going to be, whatever happens, a difficult year for travel. There will be hassle, there will be delays, I'm afraid. Because the priority has got to be to keep the country safe and stop the virus coming back in,' he said
John Bercow, the former Tory MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, has delivered an extraordinary broadside against Boris Johnson and the Conservative party as he announces he has switched his political allegiance to Labour.
In an explosive interview with the Observer, Bercow says he regards today’s Conservative party as “reactionary, populist, nationalistic and sometimes even xenophobic”.
Boris Johnson described Matt Hancock as “totally fucking hopeless” during the early stages of the pandemic, concerned by the health secretary’s promises on testing, text messages published by Dominic Cummings have revealed.
Writing on Substack, the prime minister’s former chief aide published a slew of texts and documents from emergency Cobra meetings that he said would combat what he called “lies” from Downing Street and the health secretary about the initial handling of the pandemic.
He resigned amid the fallout from a government report that dismissed institutional racism. In his first interview since, he says some members of the government are waging a culture war – and endangering the country
Samuel Kasumu is worried about what is to come. The former race adviser to No 10 has watched, dismayed, as commentators and members of the government – who he believes should know better – engage in a bitter culture war. He warns that the consequences for the UK will be severe.
“There are some people in the government who feel like the right way to win is to pick a fight on the culture war and to exploit division,” he says. “I worry about that. It seems like people have very short memories and they’ve already forgotten Jo Cox.” Kasumu believes the man who killed the MP may have been radicalised and worked into a “frenzy” by the narratives in certain newspapers that are pushed by media commentators.
Boris Johnson has once again been persuaded that he must do the inevitable and cancel “Freedom Day” – a decision that will deeply rankle with him.
The prime minister is said to have complained to aides over the weekend about briefings to newspapers at the end of last week that a four-week delay was the likely outcome, saying he had technically not made the decision yet. But one thing matters more to Johnson than being able to join crowds in a packed pub on 21 June: not having to close them again a few weeks later.
Ministers have been told that a four-week delay to easing all Covid restrictions would probably prevent thousands of hospitalisations, as Boris Johnson prepares to tell the English public they will have to wait up to another month for “freedom day”.
The government roadmap out of lockdown earmarks 21 June for the last remaining coronavirus restrictions to be lifted in England, but the prime minister is expected to announce on Monday that the timetable will be pushed back by two to four weeks amid a rapid rise in cases of the Delta variant first detected in India.
Delivering his closing press conference in the Carbis Bay hotel on Sunday, pale golden sand and azure sea visible behind him, Boris Johnson sought to play down the unseemly diplomatic spat that had marred his moment on the world stage.
“Actually, what happened at this summit was that there was a colossal amount of work on subjects that had absolutely nothing to do with Brexit,” he insisted.
Green campaigners and anti-poverty groups say Cornwall summit failed to address challenges facing the world
Boris Johnson has sought to defend the deal struck by G7 leaders at the Cornwall summit, as green groups and anti-poverty campaigners said the rich nations’ club had failed to match the scale of the challenges facing the world.
The final communique contained no early timetable to eradicate coal-fired emissions, offered only 1bn extra coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poor over the next 12 months and made no new binding commitments to challenge China’s human rights abuses.