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Category: Coronavirus

  • Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on the Coronavirus

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 9 November 2020.

    Across the country and around the world this evening,

    people are asking one question about our fight against Covid,

    does the news of progress towards a vaccine – that’s been announced today – mean we are at the beginning of the end of our troubles?

    So, let me set out our assessment.

    The Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine has been tested on over 40,000 volunteers and interim results suggest it is proving 90 per cent effective at protecting people against the virus.

    But we haven’t yet seen the full safety data,

    and these findings also need to be peer-reviewed.

    So we have cleared one significant hurdle but there are several more to go before we know the vaccine can be used.

    What I can say is that if and when this vaccine is approved, we, in this country, will be ready to start using it.

    Earlier this year the UK Government ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine – enough for about a third of the population, since you need two doses each.

    That puts us towards the front of the international pack on a per capita basis – and I should add we’ve ordered over 300 million doses from 5 other vaccine candidates as well.

    If the Pfizer vaccine passes all the rigorous safety checks and is proved to be effective then we will begin a UK-wide NHS led programme of vaccine distribution.

    We will decide the order in which people are offered the vaccination taking account of recommendations from a group of scientific experts, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

    They’re looking at a range of factors, including the different characteristics of different types of vaccines, to work out the most effective way to protect as many people as possible and save as many lives as we can.

    And we will be setting out more detail about that in due course.

    But – and you know I am going to say this –

    I must stress, these are very, very early days.

    We have talked for a long time, or I have, about the distant bugle of the scientific cavalry coming over the brow of the hill

    And tonight that toot of the bugle is louder.

    But it is still some way off.

    And we absolutely cannot rely on this as a solution.

    The biggest mistake we could make now would be to slacken our resolve at such a critical moment.

    On Friday, SAGE reported that the R is above 1 in England – though this does not take into account the current national restrictions.

    Alas, the death figures are tragically rising, running at an average of over 300 a day – sadly double where they were 24 days ago

    The number of Covid patients in hospital has risen from just over 10,000 two weeks ago to nearly 13,000 on 5 November,

    and we are heading towards the levels of the previous peak.

    Irrespective of whether there is a vaccine on the way or not

    we must continue to do everything possible right now to bring the R down.

    And that is why we hope and believe that mass testing will help.

    Our first pilot began in Liverpool on Friday, in partnership with Liverpool City Council.

    We’ve tested thousands of people there but there are still a lot more to do, so please if you are in Liverpool, get yourself along to a testing centre – there are 19 at the moment with more still to come.

    The more people get tested the better we can protect that great city, and drive the disease down in Liverpool

    so do it for your friends, for your relatives, for your community.

    And I want to thank the fantastic support of the army, the people of Liverpool and Liverpool City Council.

    And we are now going further by sending out hundreds of thousands of rapid lateral flow tests to local authorities right across England – and also of course to the Devolved Administrations.

    We’re also working with universities to establish, as soon as possible, similar mass testing capacity for students up and down the country.

    But while we are making progress this project is still in its infancy.

    And neither mass testing nor progress on vaccines –both vital arrows in our epidemiological quiver, both key parts of our fight against Covid – are at the present time a substitute for the national restrictions, for social distancing, for hand hygiene and all the rest.

    So it is all the more important to follow the rules.

    I know it’s been a tough first weekend of these Autumn restrictions

    and I’m especially grateful to the Royal British Legion and all those who worked so hard to ensure that no virus would stop us yesterday from honouring the memory of those who gave their lives for our freedom.

    But we must get through this to 2nd December, when these measures expire and we plan to move forward with a tiered approach.

    Remember the basics, hands, face, space,

    and the follow the rules,

    that is how we can together protect our NHS, save lives and get this virus back in its box.

    And that is what we will do.

    So thank you.

    And I’m now going to hand over to Brigadier Fossey to talk about how the unrivalled logistical expertise of the British army that’s helping to deliver mass testing to Liverpool.

     

  • Dido Harding – 2020 Speech to CBI Annual Conference

    Dido Harding – 2020 Speech to CBI Annual Conference

    The speech made by Dido Harding, the Interim Executive Chair of the National Institute for Health Protection, on 4 November 2020.

    If it is okay, I will start as you suggested by looking back a second. Clearly, this is a very difficult point for the country, on the weekend the Prime Minister alongside Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance were really clear that this second national lockdown is not what anyone would have wished, but it is necessary to protect our NHS capacity and protect lives. And if we look back I would like to talk briefly about what has been achieved in the last 6 months.

    I know that it is hard to see it, but the picture of the country coming into this activity, coming into this second set of national measures, is very different to the last one. Our schools and universities are open, the NHS is not yet overwhelmed, and we have the data and insight to see what is coming so that we are able to act earlier.

    As a country we are trying to balance the health of the population with the health of the economy, and society’s and individual’s needs, as Mathew just said, in terms of educating our children and our own mental wellbeing. These are clearly incredibly difficult decisions, and I have quite a large job, but those decisions are not for me, those are decisions outside of NHS Test and Trace. Those are ones for our elected leaders both nationally and locally to take.

    Let me step back a step. COVID-19 is the greatest public health challenge we have faced in modern times, and NHS Test and Trace has been built in an extraordinarily rapid way to address that. We have built a system the size of Asda, from scratch, in 5 months. We are working around the clock to keep expanding and improving it.

    To give you a sense of the scale, we have built a network of NHS, private and not-for-profit laboratories to take testing capacity from 2,000 tests a day in March to over 500,000 test a day today. Historically, this is more per head than Germany, Italy, Spain and the US. It is the largest diagnostic network the UK has ever seen, and I suspect it is the fastest growing public service we have ever built.

    Yesterday we hit our target of 500,000 tests a day, from over 600 locations. So (I’m an ex-retailer), we have opened 600 shops in 5 months. We’ve now processed close to 32 million tests. We have also built the largest outbound call centre in the UK. So our contact-testing services are dealing with 7 times the volume it was 7 weeks ago, and so far we have contacted 1.4 million people and have asked them to isolate.

    And we also have a digital wing, so you know we launched the COVID-19 app which has now had 19 million downloads in its first month, so 40% of the eligible population of the UK have it on their phones and that is a better performance than any other country where downloading isn’t compulsory.

    And the response from business has been extraordinary to the app: over 700,000 QR posters are up and about across the country. None of this would be possible without public, private, national and local partnership. So we are, as a nation, throwing everything at this, and this is a combination of national insight and firepower with local intelligence and experience.

    We have tripled the size of our local health protection teams to trace the virus and support businesses, and public sector employers locally when there are outbreaks. And we have got increasingly integrated teams which have developed some very strong relationships with local leaders and local businesses. But – and it is a big but – there is clearly more that we need to do.

    This virus is incredibly difficult to deal with. And it is deadly, with millions of people carrying the virus around the world but not displaying any symptoms. Every country is grappling with the same problem, and despite everyone’s best efforts and all of the work of our team in the NHS Test and Trace to be the second line of defence, after Hands, Face and Space, the virus is spreading far too rapidly and too widely.

    So if that’s where we are now and we look ahead as we go into another a really challenging period for us as a country, it is time for the organisation that I lead to take the next big leap forward. As lockdown slows us from the virus, we will be focusing on improving NHS Test and Trace, so that when England emerges from lockdown we are better able to live with COVID through the winter and beyond. We are thinking about that.

    The work we have got to do is in 4 main areas.

    The first one is scale. As I said, we built this extraordinary thing in 6 months but it needs to be substantially bigger and it will keep growing. We have been innovating and investing in new technologies, so these new mass testing, rapid testing technologies will give us the potential to scale testing much further. We have pilots in hospitals, schools and universities, which are showing some positive results already. As we announced last night into this morning, we will be working with Liverpool, the first city to deploy testing as a combination of the traditional swab testing and the new rapid turn around lateral tests that are quite like pregnancy tests.

    So we have got to scale up testing, and as we find more and more positive cases we’ve got to scale up contact tracing as well. We are already the largest outbound calling centre in the UK, but it’s got to get bigger as we find more people with the disease, and we’ve got to get faster. Our turnaround times for both testing and contact tracing are improving, but this is the ultimate perishable good. We need to find people who have been in close contact with people who have got the disease within 24 to 48 hours. So there is a big job of work for my team to do to keep speeding up. And we can only do this as I have said through partnership.

    This is about working in partnership with the public and the private sector, with national and local organisations and with everyone in the country. And I’m sure that many people watching this have read that Stan McChrystal’s book ‘Team of Teams’, this is the ultimate team of teams – we are actually 60 million people on the team. We have all got to change our behaviour just a little bit to come forward with the testing to isolate when we are told to. That’s how you break the chains of transmission.

    And the fourth area we are working on is how we get even better at using the data in the analysis to drive insight in action we can stamp on outbreaks faster and faster. We know so much more than we did 6 months ago about how the disease is spreading. We’ve got the data from Test and Trace, we’ve got the data from waste water. We’ve got data from all these surveys using the testing capacity we have built. We are all learning how to use that to stop it spreading.

    And I know that it is really tough and horrible for everyone as we head towards Thursday. But I am actually quite hopeful that we have more tools in the armoury than we had before. As a society we have learnt about the first line of defence, washing our hands, keeping our distance and wearing our face mask. Test and Trace did not exist in March. It is a scale organisation the same size as Asda and it will get even bigger. And so our second line of defence is growing, and technology will help us through a combination of vaccine, mass testing and better treatment. There is a lot for us actually to be optimistic about that we will crack this.

  • Theresa May – 2020 Speech on Public Health

    Theresa May – 2020 Speech on Public Health

    The speech made by Theresa May, the Conservative MP for Maidenhead, in the House of Commons on 5 November 2020.

    May I first say that I do not envy my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and the Government the decisions that they are having to take and the difficult position they find themselves in? This pandemic has challenged Governments across the world, and Ministers have been under relentless pressure in dealing with this issue. However, just as Ministers are making tough decisions, so is Parliament, and Parliament will make better decisions if it is fully and properly informed.

    I want to comment on the circuit breaker idea. I looked at the SAGE paper of 21 September and what was absolutely clear was that this was not a two-to-three-week circuit breaker, full stop, end of story. It would have had to have been repeated, possibly again and again, and I doubt if any economy could have borne the irreparable damage that would have done, with the impact on lives that that would have had, which would have been significant.

    Of course the Government introduced the tiered approach. I would echo the comment made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper) that one of the issues with that approach is that we have not had a proper analysis of its impact. The evidence from Liverpool shows that the number of cases is falling. I raised this in a briefing the other day and was told that that was because fewer students were coming forward to be tested. But when we look at the figures, we see that the number of cases is actually falling across the age ranges. We need a proper assessment of how the tiered approach is working.

    There are other examples of figures being used in a way that I think has been unhelpful to Parliament and to the public. Let me take the 4,000 figure. The decision to go for this lockdown appears to have been based—partly, mainly or to some extent—on the prediction that there would otherwise be 4,000 deaths a day. But if we look at the trajectory shown in that graph, we see that we would have reached 1,000 deaths a day by the end of October. The average number of deaths in the last week of October was 259, by my calculation. Each of those deaths is a sadness and our thoughts are with the families, but it is not 1,000 deaths a day, so the prediction was wrong before it was even used. This leads to a problem for the Government, because for many people ​it looks as though the figures are being chosen to support the policy, rather than the policy being based on the figures. We need these proper analyses; we need to know the details behind these models; and we need to be able to assess the validity of the models.

    There is one set of data that has not been available throughout. There is a lack of data on the costs of the decisions being made: costs in non-covid treatment in the NHS, and in non-covid deaths; costs in domestic abuse; costs in mental health, with possibly more suicides; and of course costs to the economy, with jobs lost, livelihoods shattered, businesses failing and whole sectors damaged. What sort of airline industry will we have as we come out of this? What sort of hospitality sector will there be? How many small independent shops will be left? The Government must have made that assessment, so let us see it and make our own judgments.

    I want to make one point about public worship, echoing the concerns of others. My concern is that the Government today making it illegal to conduct an act of public worship, for the best of intentions, sets a precedent that could be misused by a Government in future with the worst of intentions, and that has unintended consequences. The covid-secure remembrance service in Worcester cathedral will now be turned into a pre-recorded online service. Surely, the men and women who laid down their lives for our freedom deserve better than that.

    The public and Parliament want to support the Government to take the right decisions, and to do that we need to have the right figures, the right data and the proper information.

  • Keir Starmer – 2020 Speech on Public Health

    Keir Starmer – 2020 Speech on Public Health

    The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 4 November 2020.

    I know that a lot of Members want to speak, particularly on the Government Benches, and so I will keep my remarks brief.

    Nobody votes for these regulations today with anything other than a heavy heart, on both sides of the House. I did not come into Parliament to restrict people’s freedoms, ​to prevent people meeting their friends and their loved ones, or to decide when people can and cannot leave their home or how many people may attend a funeral. I do not want Parliament to be closing businesses, gyms, bars or places of worship. Frankly, I do not want Parliament to be legislating on any of these issues, least of all after the British public have made so many enormous sacrifices already.

    Parliament probably should have had more time to scrutinise the regulations, to amend them and to consult. There are going to be anomalies and inconsistencies that we cannot amend and probably could have been ironed out. I am very concerned about the impact on businesses who spent thousands of pounds becoming covid-secure, doing everything the Government asked, only now to be forced to shut. However, while these regulations are not in any way desirable or perfect, they are now necessary because the Government have lost control of the virus, and we will support them.

    The country is at—indeed, we are several weeks past—the tipping point in the fight against the virus. We must never forget that on Monday, 397 people lost their lives to covid-19, more than 1,000 patients were on ventilators and there were over 20,000 positive cases. To anybody who disputes the trajectory of the virus or what the cost of inaction would be, I would point out that when SAGE warned 44 days ago that if we did not act at that time there would be catastrophic consequences, there were then, six weeks or so ago, 11 deaths from covid-19, just over 4,000 infections and 181 people on ventilators. That is not graphs. That is not projections. That is the grim facts in the past few weeks, and we know that the figures double, then double and then double again. That direction of travel has been clear for some time, and I am afraid the reality is that the two pillars of the Government’s strategy—the £12 billion track and trace and the regional restrictions—have been washed away by the second wave. If we are to have any chance of getting the virus back under control, to prevent many more people from falling ill or losing their loved ones and to protect the NHS, we need to take decisive action now.

    There are some wider points I want to raise, and I suspect that they are shared points. There needs to be additional support during the lockdown. This is going to be incredibly hard for the British public. Millions of people tonight are really anxious about what will happen over the coming weeks. They are anxious on the health front for themselves and their friends and family, and anxious about their jobs. That is why we called for the restrictions to be put in place some weeks ago when there could have been a shorter period, which would have been better on the health front, with fewer lives lost, and better on the economic front.

    More broadly, I was struck by the words of the chief executive of Mind, who warned earlier this week that the second lockdown was likely to be even harder on people’s mental health. We know that there has already been a large increase in demand for mental health services, so there needs to be emergency support in the next few weeks to address this. I think that this is a cross-party issue that we can work on together. I am also concerned about domestic violence, which was one of the issues in the first lockdown. We saw an appalling rise in domestic violence during that period. The charity Refuge reported a 50% increase in demands to its helpline, and there was a 300% increase in visits to its ​website. I passionately believe that we need to do much more as a country and as a Parliament to tackle this, and that must start with a clear, well-resourced plan for addressing domestic abuse during this lockdown and this winter.

    I want to turn to the question of faith, which has already been raised. These regulations will have a serious impact on faith communities and places of worship. There is real concern across faiths about the lack of consultation, and I hope that the Government can urgently address that, including by convening the places of worship taskforce.

    Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)

    The leaders of every single faith community have now written to the Government asking for the evidence behind the closure of churches during the next four weeks. The fact is there is almost certainly no evidence. Can the right hon. and learned Gentleman confirm that all the faith communities —Muslims, Jews, Christians—have really done their best to comply, through cleansing and in every other way, and will he demand of the Government now that the churches, mosques and temples are opened as soon as possible?

    Keir Starmer

    On the question of whether all faiths have done their level best to comply, I do agree. A huge amount of effort has gone in, in places of worship and many other places, to try to defeat the virus. The British public have done a huge amount, and so have all the institutions and faith organisations, to try to keep the virus down, but the truth is that it is out of control. The taskforce needs to be convened so that these issues can be discussed during the next few days and weeks, because this is a very deep issue for many people.

    Tim Farron

    The right hon. and learned Gentleman is making some very important points. Does he accept that, for churches and other faith communities, although the buildings themselves may not be sacred, what goes on within them is? We have noticed over the last few months the importance of verbal and non-verbal cues when people are gathered together, which allows them to help one another when they are mentally and emotionally struggling. While I understand the logic behind the closure of these places, it is potentially hugely damaging to people’s mental health and wellbeing. Does he agree that this needs to be reviewed at the soonest possible opportunity?

    Keir Starmer

    I do agree that it should be reviewed as soon as possible. I think that is probably a shared sentiment across the House, as nobody wants these measures to be put in place. It is a bit like the care homes issue that I raised earlier. We all know the risks to care homes from the first phase of the pandemic, and we all know the toll that the next few weeks are going take—not only on those in care homes, but on the families who are desperate to visit those in care homes. That is why I think it may be possible, on a cross-party basis, to find a way to have safe visits during the next few weeks. There are very difficult questions.

    Let me turn to the question of homelessness, which is already a moral emergency in this country. The lockdown now comes as the weather has turned, the winter is setting in and sleeping rough is more dangerous than ever. It is therefore vital that the Government restart the ​“Everybody In” programme and reintroduce the evictions ban so that we do not see a further spike in homelessness. That needs to be done urgently.

    More broadly, the Prime Minister needs to show that he has a plan B on 2 December to control the virus and rebuild the economy and a clear strategy to ensure that we never, ever get into this situation again. The explanatory notes in the regulations show just how vague the plans for 2 December are, as they say: “It is expected that at the end of the 28-day period, the previous alert levels introduced in October will once again be brought into force. This policy is subject to review”. There are millions of people who have been in restrictions for many months who will be very worried about that paragraph.

    Let us take Leicester as an example. Leicester has been in restrictions for over 120 days. It is very hard to make the argument to the people of Leicester that the restrictions are working. It is very hard to make the argument to the people of Greater Manchester, who were in the equivalent of tier 2 restrictions for six weeks, that the tiered system is working. That is because the public’s experience of the tiered system is that areas that are in tier 1 or the equivalent end up in tier 2, and that areas that have been in tier 2, sometimes for weeks on end, drift towards tier 3. If the tier system worked, tier 2 areas would go back to tier 1; that would be success. But, actually, the vast majority—if not all of them—have gone up to tier 3.

    The Prime Minister sometimes says that this is a party political issue, but it is not. If the idea at the end of the exercise on 2 December is to go back to the system that we are leaving tonight, when that system—certainly in tiers 1 and 2—simply is not working, that is very hard for the public, because they know that that is not going to keep them safe, they know that it puts further health and economic matters at issue and they know that it means that Christmas is not going to be what it could be.

    Neil O’Brien

    The right hon. and learned Gentleman is talking about my constituency. I gently point out to him that during the period of the most restrictions in Leicester, the number of cases did come down from 160 to 25 per 100,000. That shows that tough controls of the kind that we are about to vote to bring in today do work.

    Mr Speaker

    Let me help people. A few Members have now intervened a couple of times. We want to get everybody in. If they go down the list, I am sure that they will appreciate that.

    Keir Starmer

    I have looked at the Leicester figures frequently; they do go up and down, but Leicester has never come out of the restrictions. It is a point that I have been making, and it is not a party political one. The point is that if an area is in restrictions and does not come out, the restrictions are not working. If an area was in tier 2 restrictions and ends up in tier 3, tier 2 did not work. To go back to that system does not make any sense. For heaven’s sake, we have got to use the next four weeks to come up with something better than that for 2 December, otherwise we will do the usual thing, which is to pretend that something is going to happen on 2 December, and then, when we get there, find out ​that what we said would happen will not happen. I can predict what is going happen because it has happened so many times in the past seven months: the Prime Minister says, “x won’t happen”; x will happen; it does happen; and we start all over again. It is not fair to the British public to pretend that something is going to happen on 2 December.

    Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)

    Is not the right hon. and learned Gentleman confounding his own logic? He has spent the past several days berating the Government for not introducing a circuit breaker, but at no time did I hear him explain how we would leave the circuit breaker, which it seems to me was simply the half-term holiday rebadged.

    Keir Starmer

    The lower the rate of infection and the lower the admissions, the more chance there is to get the virus under control. That is why you have to go early. If you want to safeguard the economy, go early. How on earth has it helped the British economy to delay and to go into a lockdown for four weeks when, on 21 September, SAGE was saying it could be two to three weeks? How on earth has it helped the British economy to miss the chance to do lockdown over half-term?

    All Members will have seen the data about schools. We all want schools to stay open. How on earth did it make sense to miss half-term? Most schools would happily have said, “We’ll get up early—the Thursday before half-term—and we’ll use Monday and Tuesday as inset days,” and we could probably have got the best part of two weeks of schools being closed naturally, because of half-term, and have the lockdown over then. I do not think there can be anybody in this House who does not think that would have been a better period for a circuit break, lockdown—call it what you like.

    It has not helped the economy to waste three weeks. If, at the end of those three weeks, the Prime Minister could say, “Well, there we are—the tiered system is now working, and I’m going to stick with it,” that would be one thing, but the Prime Minister is now saying, “I am going to do the lockdown,” which is failure. That is failure.

    The next four weeks cannot be wasted—cannot be wasted. We have got to fix test, trace and isolate. The last figures show that, in just one week, 113,000 contacts were missed by the system. Four in 10 people who should be contacted are not being contacted under the system. If you are not contacted, you cannot isolate. It is not just a number; that is 113,000 people walking round our communities when they should have been self-isolating. Hands up if you think that has helped to control the virus.

    We have been on about the track, trace and isolate system for months. The promises come by the wheelbarrow, the delivery never. Only 20% of people who should be isolating are doing it. Something is going wrong. Just continually pushing away challenge and pretending the problem does not exist is a huge part of the problem. Those figures have got to turn around, and they have got to turn around in the next four weeks. If we get to 2 December and those problems are still in the system, we will be going round this circuit for many months to come. If this is not fixed in the next four weeks, there are massive problems.

    The Government have also got to stop sending constant mixed messages: “Go back to work, even if you can work from home,” or “Civil servants, get to work,” only a ​week later to say, “Stay at home.” The constant changing of the economic plans is creating even more uncertainty. There have been huge mistakes made in recent weeks during this pandemic. We have been told so many times by the Prime Minister, often on a Wednesday afternoon, that there is a plan to prevent a second wave—it is working. Well, there was not, and it did not.

    Now, less than four months after the Prime Minister told us that this would all be over by Christmas, we are being asked to approve emergency regulations to shut the country down. That is a terrible thing for the country to go through, but there is not any excuse for inaction or for allowing the virus to get further out of control, so Labour will act in the national interest, and we will vote for these restrictions—these regulations—tonight.

  • Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on Public Health

    Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on Public Health

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 4 November 2020.

    I beg to move,

    That the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 1200), dated 3 November 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 3 November, be approved.

    We come together today to implement time-limited restrictions across England from midnight, so that we can contain the autumn surge of the virus, protect our NHS and save many lives. Of course, this is not something that any of us wanted to do. None of us came into politics to tell people once again to shutter their shops, furlough their staff or stay away from their friends and family. In common with all Members, I feel the pain and anxiety that we will all share in the month ahead. But as Prime Minister, when I am confronted with data which projects that our NHS could even collapse, with deaths in the second wave potentially exceeding those of the first, and when I look at what is happening among some of our continental friends and see doctors who have tested positive being ordered to work on covid wards and patients airlifted to hospitals in some other countries simply to make space, I can reach only one conclusion: I am not prepared to take the risk with the lives of the British people.

    I know it might be tempting to think that, because some progress has been made, we just need to stay the course and see through our locally led approach. It is true that the extraordinary efforts of millions across the country—especially those in high and very high alert level areas—have made a difference, suppressing the reproduction rate of the virus below where it would otherwise have been. I want to record again my thanks to the millions who have put up with local restrictions. I want to thank the local leaders who have understood the gravity of the position.

    But I am sorry to say that the number of covid patients in some hospitals is already higher than at the peak of the first wave. Even in the south-west, which has so far had lower case rates than most of the rest of the country, hospital admissions are over halfway to their first-wave peak. The latest analysis from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, published on Friday, suggests that the R remains above 1 in every part of England, which means that the virus is continuing to grow among the population. Every day that the number is above 1 is another day that the number of cases will rise, locking in more hospital admissions and, alas, more fatalities, pushing the NHS ever closer to the moment when it cannot cope.

    Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)

    Every one of us in this House has received numerous emails and telephone calls about the closure of church services. I understand that, and I am making a plea to the Prime Minister for that to be reviewed. For many people, it is the only outing they have in the week and the only opportunity to have any contact with people for prayer and contemplation. In Northern Ireland, churches have been able to remain open through the use of masks and ​hands, face, space. Could that be looked at? I believe that people across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would appreciate that, especially in England.

    The Prime Minister

    I know the hon. Gentleman speaks for many people in this House in raising that concern, and I feel it very deeply. It is an awful thing to restrict people’s ability to worship in a communal way. Obviously, as he knows, we are allowing private worship, but for many people that will not be enough. The best I can say is that in all reality, if we approve this package of measures tonight, we have a very good prospect of allowing everybody to return to communal worship in time for Christmas and other celebrations in December.

    The course we have before us is to prevent R from remaining above 1 and to get it down, otherwise we face a bleak and uncertain future of steadily rising infections and admissions until, as I say, the capacity of the NHS is breached. I know there has been some debate about the projections of some of these models.

    Neil Gray (Airdrie and Shotts) (SNP)

    On uncertainty, we have had a week of uncertainty from the Prime Minister and his Cabinet on whether the extension of furlough will apply to Scotland if it chooses to go into lockdown, if it needs to go into lockdown, beyond 2 December. That comes after the Prime Minister’s Government refused the request of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Governments for furlough support at the end of September.

    Can the Prime Minister finally provide us with a clear, unambiguous answer as to whether, if Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland requests 80% furlough after 2 December, it will be granted?

    The Prime Minister

    The hon. Gentleman cannot take yes for an answer. Not only will I come to that point later, but my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will be saying more about the matter tomorrow, and the hon. Gentleman can interrogate him.

    What I will say, on the point of uncertainty, is that I know there has been a debate about the statistics on how big the loss of life might be and on the precise point at which the NHS might be overwhelmed, but all the scientific experts I have talked to are unanimous on one point. As the chief medical officer has said, if we do not act now, the chances of the NHS being in extraordinary trouble in December would be very high.

    Be in no doubt about what that means for our country and for our society. It means that the precious principle of care for everyone who needs it, whoever they are and whenever they need it, could be shattered for the first time in our experience. It means that those who are sick, suffering and in need of help could be turned away because there is no room in our hospitals—even in East Sussex.

    Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)

    All of us in this place will be concerned about saving lives. What evidence has my right hon. Friend received that we will save more lives by the lockdown he proposes than we will lose from public health, from a lack of jobs and from a mental health crisis? That is the evidence I seek from the Prime Minister today in order to cast my vote his way.

    ​The Prime Minister

    My hon. Friend raises a very important point, and it is the crux of the debate. Alas, as leaders and as politicians, we have to look at the immediate peril we face. I do not in any way minimise the risks to mental health and physical health that come from the measures we have to apply. That is, of course, why we debate and insist that we explore every other avenue before we go down that route, but we have to look at the real risk of mortality, and mortality on what I think would be a grievous scale, that would stem from doing nothing.

    To give my hon. Friend a picture of what it would mean, those who are sick, suffering or in need of help could be turned away because there is no room in our hospitals.

    Several hon. Members rose—

    The Prime Minister

    I will give way in a moment.

    Doctors and nurses could be forced to make impossible choices about which patients would live and which would die, who would get oxygen and who could not. I know that some Members, like my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman), are hearing from their local hospitals that the pressure is not that great yet, but the whole point about a national health service is that when hospitals in one part of the country are overrun, sick patients are transferred to another, until the whole system falls over. Let me be clear that this existential threat to our NHS comes not from focusing too much on coronavirus, as is sometimes asserted, but from not focusing enough, because if we fail to get coronavirus under control, the sheer weight of demand from covid patients would not only lead to the covid casualties that I have described, but deprive other patients of the care they need. We simply cannot reach the point where our national health service is no longer there for everyone.

    This fate is not inevitable. We are moving to these national measures here when the rate both of deaths and infections is lower than they were, for instance, in France, when President Macron took similar steps. If we act now, and act decisively, we can stem the rising waters before our defences are breached.

    Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)

    I accept the Prime Minister’s logic and think it is far more dangerous to do nothing than to do what he proposes, but does he accept that we need to learn some serious lessons from the first lockdown, particularly about the impact on cancer patients? There was a 100,000 backlog when it came to treatment and diagnosis at one point. Cancer Research UK estimates that 35,000 people might unnecessarily lose their lives to cancer because of wrong decisions. Will he accept that, while there are many hospitals that are, shall I say, clean sites, where covid is not being treated or is not present, there is an opportunity to use those sites to treat cancer patients, catch up with cancer, save those lives and not make the same mistakes as we did first time?

    The Prime Minister

    The hon. Gentleman is exactly right and has encapsulated the argument that we make. My right hon. Friend the Health Secretary and I have talked repeatedly to Simon Stevens of the NHS and his teams about making sure that throughout this period, we continue to look after cancer patients—those who ​need the decisive care that the NHS can provide. I do believe that this approach—these regulations—are the way that we can do that.

    I know there are many in this House who are concerned about how long these measures might last and that, if people vote for these regulations today, they could suddenly find that we are trapped with these national measures for months on end. So let me level with the House: of course, I cannot say exactly where the epidemiology will be by 2 December, but what I can say is that the national measures that I hope the House will vote for tonight are time-limited. It is not that we choose to stop them. They legally expire, so whatever we do from 2 December will require a fresh mandate and a fresh vote from this House. As I have made clear, it is my express intent that we should return to a tiered system on a local and regional basis according to the latest data and trends.

    Mr Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con)

    Will my right hon. Friend give way?

    The Prime Minister

    The whole House will share my sorrow and regret at the necessity of these measures, which I know is a perspective shared by my right hon. Friend—I am happy to give way to him.

    Mr Harper

    I have listened carefully to the argument and looked at the data very carefully. What I am troubled by—when I have looked at the basis on which the modelling has been done, both in terms of SAGE and the NHS—is that the modelling does not take into account the effect of the introduction of the tier system and any of the effects of it. I think, therefore, that we have acted too soon, because we are starting now to see the tier system working. The data from Liverpool yesterday, published by Steve Rotheram, is very encouraging and shows that the tier system is working, but the modelling that the NHS is using for its capacity usage does not take into account that introduction at all.

    The Prime Minister

    My right hon. Friend makes a very important point. He is expressing a point of view that is shared by many people, but, alas, I believe that he is wrong. The facts do not support his view. I looked at the data and, unfortunately, this is what we have: hospitalisations mounting very, very steadily, which, as he knows, are leading indicators of fatalities. We have 2,000 more people on covid wards than this time last week and 25% more people today than there were last week and, alas, 397 deaths tragically announced yesterday —more than we have had for many months. The curve is already unmistakable and, alas, incontestable.

    Neil O’Brien (Harborough) (Con)

    In the past two weeks, we have gone from seeing cases mainly among young people to them being mainly among older people. We have seen it going from a problem in a few cities to a problem across the country. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we do not need a fancy model to see the numbers piling up in hospitals and to see what has happened in France—because it has not taken action as quickly as we have—to know that the thing to do is to take action now, not just to save lives, but to save the economy as well?

    The Prime Minister

    The economic dimension of what we are doing is absolutely right and the argument, as my hon. Friend rightly says, works both ways. I know how difficult it is, particularly for businesses that have ​just got back on their feet, that have done their level best to make themselves covid-secure, installing hand- washing stations, plexiglass screens and one-way systems, and, as the Chancellor has set out, we will do whatever it takes to support them. We have protected almost 10 million jobs with furlough and we are now extending the scheme throughout November. We have already paid out £13 billion to help support the self-employed, and we are now doubling our support from 40% to 80% of trading profits for the self-employed for this month. We are providing cash grants of up to £3,000 per month for businesses that are closed, which is worth more than £1 billion a month and benefits more than 600,000 business premises. We are giving funding of £1.1 billion to local authorities in England further to support businesses in their local economy in the winter months.

    Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) (SNP)

    The Prime Minister accused us earlier of not being able to take yes for an answer on differentiated furlough for the other nations of the UK. The problem is that we have not heard a clear, unequivocal yes to the question, so can he sort that out now? If Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland need to introduce lockdown measures at different times than England, will the Chancellor be there to support us with furlough?

    The Prime Minister

    Yes. I really do not know how to exhaust my affirmative vocabulary any further—they won’t take yes for an answer, Mr Speaker. All of this comes on top, as the hon. Gentleman knows—

    Several hon. Members rose—

    The Prime Minister

    With great respect, Mr Speaker, I think that I have answered the question and I think that my friends opposite are going to oppose.

    This comes on top of the more than £200 billion that we provided since March. We will also ensure that, throughout this period, our schools stay open. We will not allow this virus to do any further damage to the future of our children. I said in the summer that we had a moral duty to reopen our schools as soon as it was safe to do so, and that they would be the last element of our society to close down again. We have stuck to that pledge. Our schools will remain open, as will colleges, universities, childcare and early years settings.

    The measures before the House are designed to arrest the virus, to drive it down and to get on top of it once and for all. If we are able to test on a big enough scale to identify the people who are infected, often without symptoms and who unwittingly and asymptomatically pass the virus to others, those people will be helped immediately—this is the key thing—to self-isolate and to break the chains of transmission, reducing the spread of the virus, reducing the numbers of people in hospital, and reducing the numbers of people dying. I think that if we all play our part in this system it could be a hugely valuable weapon in our fight against covid in the short, medium and long term, and an alternative to the blanket restrictions that have been imposed in so many parts of the world.

    This week we are piloting a mass test in Liverpool, where an immense effort benefiting from the logistical skill of the armed services will offer everyone a test, and ​our aim is to make mass repeated testing available for everyone across the country. Thanks to the pioneering work of British scientists, we already have a life-saving treatment for covid and the genuine possibility of a safe and effective vaccine next year. Taken together, these achievements provide every reason for confidence that our country can and will pull through this crisis, and that our ingenuity will prove equal to the challenge.

    Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)

    Will the Prime Minister give way?

    The Prime Minister

    No, I will not—I am finishing up.

    This year, I and the whole of Government have asked much of the British people: more than any Prime Minister, I believe, has asked of the British people in peacetime. I have to say that the public have responded magnificently and selflessly, putting their lives on hold, bearing any burden, overcoming every obstacle, and tolerating every disruption and inconvenience, no matter how large or small—or inconsistent—so that they could do the right thing by their fellow citizens. I wish that it had been enough to defeat this autumn surge. But while I am more optimistic now about the medium and long-term future than I have been for many months, there can be no doubt that the situation before us today is grave and the need for action acute.

    It is absolutely right for this House to have doubts—

    Mr Speaker

    Order. I am sorry, Prime Minister, but Mr Murrison, you cannot read newspapers in the Chamber.

    The Prime Minister

    It is absolutely right for hon. Members to consult relevant documents that may contain information to the advantage and betterment of the House.

    Mr Speaker

    He could have been reading his horoscope —come on!

    The Prime Minister

    I can assure my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) that his future is rosy.

    It is right for Members on all sides of this House to have the doubts that have been expressed, to seek answers from me, and to provide scrutiny. That is the purpose and duty of the House of Commons. But while it pains me to call for such restrictions on lives, liberty and business, I have no doubt that these restrictions represent the best and safest path for our country, our people and our economy. So now is the time for us to put our differences aside and focus on the next four weeks in getting this virus back in its box. I know that once again our amazing country will respond to adversity by doing what is right—staying at home, protecting the NHS and saving lives. In that spirit, I commend these regulations to the House.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2020 Letter on Robert Jenrick on Banning Evictions

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2020 Letter on Robert Jenrick on Banning Evictions

    The letter written by Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Housing Secretary, to Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State, on 3 November 2020.

    Dear Robert,

    As we head into a second lockdown on Thursday, it is essential that renters and homeowners have re-assurance that they will be safe in their homes.

    Will you re-instate the evictions ban, as well as the ban on repossessions to protect home-owners, and come forward with a credible plan to keep your promise that no-one will lose their home due to coronavirus?

    The Government clearly accepts the need for additional protections when additional public health measures are in place. During the first national lockdown you imposed a ban on evictions, and when the previous evictions ban was lifted in September, you set out that “evictions will not be enforced in local lockdown areas and there will be a truce on enforcement over Christmas.”

    Now that England is heading for a second national lockdown, will you ensure that renters across the country are protected from eviction?

    Although landlords must now give six months’ notice for most eviction cases, this will not help those at most immediate risk of eviction, who were issued with eviction notices before 29 August and whose cases will be the first to go through the courts this winter. No-one should suffer lockdown with harassment or anti-social behaviour from neighbours, but any exemption must be framed to prevent homelessness.

    As well immediate protection from evictions, the Government must come forward with a credible long-term plan to ensure that no-one loses their home as result of Coronavirus. Many renters have struggled to keep up with payments, through no fault of their own. Shelter has estimated that 322 000 private renters have fallen into arrears as a result of the pandemic. Will you raise Local Housing Allowance to average rents, and bring forward a plan to address the arrears crisis which is putting hundreds of thousands of renters at risk of losing their home?

    During the first national lockdown, the ban prevented many evictions but there was a worrying rise in illegal evictions. The charity Safer Renting has estimated that illegal evictions are up 60% since March. What steps are you taking to ensure that renters are not illegally evicted over winter, and have access to advice and support where it is needed?

    The Prime Minister announced a second national lockdown on the very same day as the ban on repossessions came to an end. The Financial Conduct Authority’s extension of the 6-month mortgage deferral is welcome but may be insufficient to protect mortgage holders from lenders who are concerned about the long-term viability of the mortgage. The mortgage interest loan scheme is not available until 9 months have passed, by which time many home-owners may have been assessed as unable to pay by their lender and at risk of repossession. This further puts home-owners at risk of turning to more unscrupulous lenders.

    Will you now clarify the position for those borrowers who have already taken a six-month mortgage holiday, re-start the ban on repossessions and update the Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme to ensure it provides adequate support to homeowners?

    I look forward to an urgent response.

    Best wishes,

    Thangam.

  • Justin Madders – 2020 Comments on Test and Trace

    Justin Madders – 2020 Comments on Test and Trace

    The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 5 November 2020.

    Ministers know that we won’t get on top of the virus unless we see a better performing system. Despite the flurry of government announcements on testing this week we haven’t heard a single proposal on how they are going to fix contact tracing.

    It is absolutely vital they use this time in the second lockdown to finally fix test and trace.

  • Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on Lockdown (31/10/2020)

    Boris Johnson – 2020 Statement on Lockdown (31/10/2020)

    The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 31 October 2020.

    Good evening and apologies for disturbing your Saturday evening with more news of Covid and I can assure you I wouldn’t do it unless it was absolutely necessary.

    First I will hand over to Chris and then Patrick who will present the latest data.

    Thank you very much Patrick, and Chris. I am afraid that no responsible PM can ignore the message of those figures.

    When I told you two weeks ago that we were pursuing a local and a regional approach to tackling this virus, I believed then and I still believe passionately that it was the right thing to do.

    Because we know the cost of these restrictions, the damage they do, the impact on jobs, and on livelihoods, and on people’s mental health.

    No one wants to be imposing these kinds of measures anywhere.

    We didn’t want to be shutting businesses, pubs and restaurants in one part of the country, where incidence was very low, when the vast bulk of infections were taking place elsewhere.

    Our hope was that by strong local action, strong local leadership, we could get the rates of infection down where the disease was surging, and address the problem thereby across the whole country.

    And I want to thank the millions of people who have been putting up with these restrictions in their areas for so long. I want to thank local leaders who have stepped up and local communities.

    Because as you can see from some of those charts, the R has been kept lower than it would otherwise have been, and there are signs that your work has been paying off.

    And we will continue as far as we possibly can to adopt a pragmatic and local approach in the months ahead.

    But as we’ve also seen from those charts, we’ve got to be humble in the face of nature.

    And in this country alas as across much of Europe the virus is spreading even faster than the reasonable worst case scenario of our scientific advisers.

    Whose models as you’ve just seen now suggest that unless we act we could see deaths in this country running at several thousand a day.

    A peak of mortality alas far bigger than the one we saw in April.

    Even in the South West, where incidence was so low, and still is so low, it is now clear that current projections mean they will run out of hospital capacity in a matter of weeks unless we act.

    And let me explain why the overrunning of the NHS would be a medical and moral disaster beyond the raw loss of life.

    Because the huge exponential growth in the number of patients – by no means all of them elderly, by the way – would mean that doctors and nurses would be forced to choose which patients to treat.

    Who would get oxygen and who wouldn’t.

    Who would live and who would die, and doctors and nurses would be forced to choose between saving covid patients and non-covid patients

    And the sheer weight of covid demand would mean depriving tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of non-covid patients of the care they need.

    It is crucial to grasp this that the general threat to public health comes not from focusing too much on covid, but from not focusing enough, from failing to get it under control.

    And if we let the lines on those graphs grow in the way they could and in the way they’re projected to grow, then the risk is that for the first time in our lives, the NHS will not be there for us and for our families.

    And even if I could now double capacity overnight – and obviously I am proud that we have massively increased capacity, we do have the Nightingales, we’ve got 13,000 more nurses now than last year, we have many more doctors – but it still would not be enough, because the virus is doubling faster than we could conceivably add capacity.

    And so now is the time to take action because there is no alternative.

    From Thursday until the start of December, you must stay at home.

    You may only leave home for specific reasons, including:

    For education; For work, say if you cannot work from home; For exercise and recreation outdoors, with your household or on your own with one person from another household; For medical reasons, appointments and to escape injury or harm; To shop for food and essentials; And to provide care for vulnerable people, or as a volunteer.

    I’m afraid non-essential shops, leisure and entertainment venues will all be closed – though click and collect services can continue and essential shops will remain open, so there is no need to stock up.

    Pubs, bars, restaurants must close except for takeaway and delivery services.

    Workplaces should stay open where people can’t work from home – for example in the construction or manufacturing sectors.

    Single adult households can still form exclusive support bubbles with one other household, and children will still be able to move between homes if their parents are separated.

    If you are clinically vulnerable, or over the age of 60, you should be especially careful to follow the rules and minimise your contacts with others.

    I know how tough shielding was, and we will not ask people to shield again in the same way again. However we are asking those who are clinically extremely vulnerable to minimise their contact with others, and not to go to work if they are unable to work from home.

    I am under no illusions about how difficult this will be for businesses which have already had to endure hardship this year. I am truly, truly sorry for that.

    This is why we are also going to extend the furlough system through November. The furlough scheme was a success in the spring. It supported people and businesses in a critical time. We will not end it. We will extend it until December.

    There will be some differences compared to March.

    These measures above all will be time-limited, starting next Thursday 5 November. They will end on Wednesday 2 December, when we will seek to ease restrictions, going back into the tiered system on a local and regional basis according to the latest data and trends.

    Christmas is going to be different this year, very different, but it is my sincere hope and belief that by taking tough action now, we can allow families across the country to be together.

    My priority, our priority, remains keeping people in education – so childcare, early years settings, schools, colleges and universities will all remain open. Our senior clinicians still advise that school is the best place for children to be.

    We cannot let this virus damage our children’s futures even more than it has already. I urge parents to continue taking their children to school and I am extremely grateful to teachers across the country for their dedication in enabling schools to remain open.

    And it is vital that we will keep provision for non-Covid healthcare groups going.

    So please – this is really important – unless your clinicians tell you otherwise, you should continue to use the NHS, get your scans, turn up for your appointments and pick up your treatments. If at all possible, we want you to continue to access these services, now and through the winter. Indeed it’s only by taking this action that we can protect the NHS for you.

    On Monday I will set out our plans to parliament. On Wednesday, parliament will debate and vote on these measures which, if passed, will as I say come into force on Thursday.

    We have updated the devolved administrations on the action we are taking in England and stand ready to work with them on plans for Christmas and beyond.

    We should remember we are not alone in what we’re going through. Our friends in Belgium, France and Germany have had to take very similar action.

    So as we come together now to fight this second wave, I want to say something about the way ahead

    Because people will reasonably ask when will this all end

    And as I have said before I am optimistic that this will feel very different and better by the spring

    It is not just that we have ever better medicine and therapies, and the realistic hope of a vaccine in the first quarter of next year

    We now have the immediate prospect of using many millions of cheap, reliable and above all rapid turnaround tests

    Tests that you can use yourself to tell whether or not you are infectious and get the result within ten to 15 minutes

    And we know from trial across the country in schools and hospitals that we can use these tests not just to locate infectious people but to drive down the disease.

    And so over the next few days and weeks, we plan a steady but massive expansion in the deployment of these quick turnaround tests.

    Applying them in an ever-growing number of situations.

    From helping women to have their partners with them in labour wards when they’re giving birth to testing whole towns and even whole cities.

    The army has been brought in to work on the logistics and the programme will begin in a matter of days.

    Working with local communities, local government, public health directors and organisations of all kinds to help people discover whether or not they are infectious, and then immediately to get them to self-isolate and to stop the spread.

    And I can tell you tonight that the scientists may be unanimously gloomy about the immediate options.

    But they are unanimously optimistic about the medium and the long term future.

    We will get through this – but we must act now to contain this autumn surge.

    We are not going back to the full-scale lockdown of March and April.

    It is less prohibitive and less restrictive.

    But from Thursday the basic message is the same.

    Stay at home. Protect the NHS. And save lives.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2020 Speech on Restrictions in South Yorkshire

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2020 Speech on Restrictions in South Yorkshire

    The speech made by Jonathan Ashworth, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 21 October 2020.

    I thank the Minister of State for advance sight of his statement. Today, we have another great swathe of the north put into lockdown. Sheffield went into tier 2 restrictions last Wednesday, so did Ministers make the wrong judgment a week ago or has new evidence come to light that was not apparent last Wednesday? How many other areas in tier 2 today are facing the same fate as Sheffield, such as those areas in tier 2 that neighbour South Yorkshire, such as North East Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire?

    The Secretary of State could not answer yesterday the question of how long Greater Manchester will be in lockdown, or what the criteria will be for leaving lockdown, so can the Minister of State today tell us how long South Yorkshire will be in lockdown? Does the nationwide R number need to fall below 1, as the Prime Minister suggested last week, or just the regional R number? Or, if an area such as Doncaster gets the R below 1, will it be able to leave lockdown?

    The Prime Minister at the Dispatch Box earlier talked about hospital admissions, so could the Minister tell us what level hospital admissions need to come down to for an area to exit lockdown?

    As I said yesterday, my dad worked in casinos in Salford and my mum worked in bars. I know people will want to do the right thing and will understand that further measures are necessary to contain the spread of the virus, but families should not face financial ruin. The Minister wants congratulations for the package he has allocated to South Yorkshire, but why is contact tracing funding subject to the negotiations and deals? The virus is out of control because of the failures of the £12 billion test and trace system. If local areas had been given the resources months ago to put in place effective contact tracing, we would not be in this situation now. Those failures on contact tracing are having a direct impact on people’s lives.​

    This afternoon, families across South Yorkshire who work in hospitality—whether in Doncaster, Sheffield, Penistone, Rother Valley or Don Valley—will be asking why, if it was fair to pay 80% of wages in March, they should now be expected to get by on just two thirds of their wages in the run-up to Christmas. This matters to families everywhere, because we know that further restrictions will be needed. Indeed, according to sources briefing Times Radio, plans are being developed for a three-week lockdown more widely next month. Perhaps the Minister could confirm that his officials are now working on plans for a three-week national lockdown next month.

    The Communities Secretary said this morning that there was now a national formula for areas under local lockdown, but Ministers say they want a targeted local approach because circumstances vary. Yet when an area such as Greater Manchester, which has had restrictions since July, says, “Our circumstances are different,” the Prime Minister says, “Tough. Hard luck. You can’t be treated any differently,” and vindictively refuses Greater Manchester just £5 million extra to get a deal over the line. This is playing politics with people’s jobs and people’s livelihoods. We cannot defeat this virus on the cheap, nor should it be broken on the backs of the lowest paid. Public health restrictions must go hand in hand with economic support, because as night follows day, falls in employment lead to rises in chronic illness. The Chancellor must pay out to help out, and deliver a fair deal to support jobs and livelihoods under lockdown.

  • Edward Argar – 2020 Statement on Restrictions in South Yorkshire

    Edward Argar – 2020 Statement on Restrictions in South Yorkshire

    The statement made by Edward Argar, the Minister for Health, in the House of Commons on 21 October 2020.

    With permission, I would like to make a statement on coronavirus, further to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care last night.

    This virus remains a serious threat, and over a million people have tested positive for coronavirus in Europe over the past week. Here in the UK, we recorded 21,331 positive cases yesterday—one of the highest recorded daily figures. Average daily hospital admissions in the UK have doubled in the past 14 days, and yesterday we recorded the highest number of daily deaths, 241, since early June.

    We must keep working hard, together, to keep this virus under control. We have been vigilant in monitoring the data and putting in place targeted local measures so that we can bear down hard on the virus wherever we see it emerging. We have seen how local action can help flatten the curve, for example in Leicester and Bolton. This targeted local approach, supported by our local covid alert level system, means we can have different rules in places like Cornwall, where transmission is low, from those in places where transmission is high and rising.

    I would like to update the House specifically on the discussions we have been having with local leaders in South Yorkshire. The situation in South Yorkshire remains serious. There have been more cases in South Yorkshire so far in October—over 12,000—than in July, August and September combined. The number of patients with covid-19 in intensive care beds has reached over half the number seen at the height of the pandemic earlier this year, and the latest data suggests that the numbers of patients on mechanical ventilation will soon be comparable to the first peak in March. We need to act now to prevent the epidemic in South Yorkshire from continuing to grow.

    I am pleased to inform the House that, following discussions this week, the Government have reached an agreement with South Yorkshire on a package of measures to drive down transmission. That means that South Yorkshire—so the city of Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster—will be moving to the local covid alert level “very high”, taking effect at one minute past midnight on Saturday morning. That includes the baseline measures to the very high alert level which were agreed by the House earlier this month.

    As well as this, and as agreed with local leaders, unfortunately, casinos, betting shops, adult gaming centres and soft play centres will also have to close, and while gyms will remain open classes will not be allowed. On that point, the Liverpool city region and my hon. Friend the Member for Southport (Damien Moore) have also requested to bring their region into line with those measures. So gyms will be open and soft play centres will close in the Liverpool city region.​
    We know that some of the measures I have announced today are challenging and will have a real impact on people and businesses in South Yorkshire, so we will be putting in place substantial support. That includes the job support scheme, which ensures those affected by business closures are still paid. Once topped up with universal credit, those on low incomes will receive at least 80% of their normal income. The agreement also includes additional funding of £11.2 million for the local area for local enforcement and contract tracing activity. As well as that, we are putting in place extra funding so that local authorities in South Yorkshire can continue to support businesses through this period.

    From the Dispatch Box, I would like to thank all the local leaders in South Yorkshire for the collegiate and constructive way in which they have approached the negotiations. I would like to thank all hon. Members representing constituencies in the region as well. We have worked across party lines to reach an agreement that will protect public health and the NHS in South Yorkshire, while also supporting those who need it most. I know those local measures will be hard and entail further sacrifice, but through bearing down hard on the virus, wherever and whenever we see it emerge, we can help to slow the spread of this virus and protect our loved ones and our local communities. The agreement will help us to protect lives and livelihoods in South Yorkshire and I commend the statement to the House.