Category: Speeches

Below is the text of the statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 11 May 2020.

Mr Speaker, with permission, I will make a statement about the next steps in our battle against coronavirus, and how we can, with the utmost caution, gradually begin to rebuild our economy and reopen our society.

For the last two months, the British people have faced a grave threat with common sense, compassion and unflinching resolve.

We have together observed the toughest restrictions on our freedoms in memory, changing our way of life on a scale unimaginable only months ago.

All our efforts have been directed towards protecting our NHS and saving lives.

Tragically, many families have lost loved ones before their time and we share their grief. Yet our shared effort has averted a still worse catastrophe, one that could have overwhelmed the NHS and claimed half a million lives.

Every day, dedicated doctors, nurses, and social care workers, army medics and more have risked their own lives in the service of others, they have helped to cut the Reproduction rate from between 2.6 and 2.8 in April to between 0.5 and 0.9 today.

The number of covid patients in hospital has fallen by over a third since Easter Sunday.

Our armed forces joined our NHS to build new hospitals on timetables that were telescoped from years to weeks, almost doubling the number of critical care beds, and ensuring that since the end of March, at least a third have always been available.

Our challenge now is to find a way forward that preserves our hard won gains, while easing the burden of the lockdown.

And I will be candid with the House: this is a supremely difficult balance to strike.

There could be no greater mistake than to jeopardise everything we have striven to achieve by proceeding too far and too fast.

We will be driven not by hope or economic revival as an end in itself, but by data, and science and public health.

And so the Government is submitting to the House today a plan which is conditional and dependent as always on the common sense and observance of the British people, and on continual re-assessment of the data.

That picture varies across the regions and Home Nations of the United Kingdom, requiring a flexible response. Different parts of the UK may need to stay in full lockdown longer but any divergence should only be short-term because as Prime Minister of the UK, I am in no doubt that we must defeat this threat and face the challenge of recovery together.

Our progress will depend on meeting five essential tests: protecting the NHS, reducing both the daily death toll and the infection rate in a sustained way, ensuring that testing and PPE can meet future demand – a global problem, but one that we must fix, and avoiding a second peak that would overwhelm the NHS.

A new UK-wide Joint Biosecurity Centre will measure our progress with a five-stage Covid Alert System, and the combined effect of our measures so far has been to prevent us from reaching Level Five, a situation that would have seen the NHS overwhelmed, and to hold us at Level Four.

Thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of the British people by following the social distancing rules, we are now in a position where we can move in stages to where I hope the scientific advice will tell us that we are down to Level Three.

But this will only happen if everyone continues to play their part, to stay alert and to follow the rules.

We must also deal with the epidemic in care homes, where a tragic number of the elderly and vulnerable have been lost and while the situation is thankfully improving, there is a vast amount more to be done.

And of course we need a world-leading system for testing and tracking and tracing victims and their contacts so I’m delighted that Baroness Harding, the chair of NHS Improvement, has agreed to take charge of a programme that will ultimately enable us to test hundreds of thousands of people every day.

All this means we have begun our descent from the peak of the epidemic, but our journey has reached the most perilous moment where a wrong move could be disastrous.

So at this stage, we can go no further than to announce the first careful modifications of our measures, Step 1 in moving towards Covid Alert Level 3, a shift in emphasis that we can begin this week.

Anyone who cannot work from home should be actively encouraged to go to work.

And sectors that are allowed to be open should indeed be open, but subject to social distancing.

These include food production, construction, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, scientific research.

And to support this, to explain this again, we are publishing guidance for businesses on how to make these workplaces safe. Covid secure.

People who are able to work from home, as we’ve continually said, should continue to do so, and people who cannot work from home should talk to their employers about returning this week and the difficulties they may or may not have.

Anyone with covid symptoms obviously – or in a household where someone else has symptoms – should self-isolate.

We want everyone travelling to work to be safe, so people should continue to avoid public transport wherever possible because we must maintain social distancing which will inevitably limit capacity.

Instead people should drive or better still walk or cycle.

With more activity outside our homes, we would now advise people to wear a cloth face covering in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not always possible, and you are more likely to come in contact with people you do not normally meet.

The reason is face coverings can help to protect each other and reduce the spread of the disease, particularly if you have coronavirus like symptoms.

But this does not mean – and I must stress this – this does not mean wearing medical face masks, 2R or FFP3, which must be reserved for people who need them.

We have all lived so far with onerous restrictions Mr Speaker on outdoor spaces and exercise, and this is where my honourable friend interjects as I know he’s a keen swimmer and unfortunately we can’t do anything for swimming pools but we can do something for lakes and the sea. and this is where we can go significantly further because there is a lower risk from outdoors than indoors.

So from Wednesday there will be no limits on the frequency of outdoor exercise people can take.

You can now walk, sit and rest in parks, you can play sports and exercise, and you can do all these things with members of your own household, or with one other person from another household, provided you observe social distancing and remain 2 metres apart from them.

And I do hope that’s clear Mr Speaker. I’m conscious people want to come back and ask questions in more detail and I’d be very happy to answer.

We shall increase the fines for the small minority who break the rules, starting at £100 but doubling with each infringement up to £3,600.

You can drive as far as you like to reach an outdoor space, subject to the same rules and the laws and guidance of the Devolved Administrations.

I am sorry to say however, Mr Speaker, that we shall continue to ask those who are clinically vulnerable – including pregnant women and people over 70, or those with pre-existing chronic conditions – to take particular care to minimise contact with those outside their households.

And we must continue to shield people who are extremely vulnerable. They should, I am afraid, remain at home and avoid any direct contact with others.

I know that easing restrictions for the many will only increase the anguish of those who must remain shielded, so the Government will look at every possible way of supporting the most vulnerable.

Mr Speaker, all of our precautions will count for little if our country is re-infected from overseas, so I give notice that we shall introduce new restrictions at the UK border, requiring 14 days of self-isolation for international arrivals, while respecting our common travel area with Ireland.

Every day, we shall monitor our progress, and if we stay on the downward slope, and the R remains below 1, then – and only then – will it become safe to go further, and move to the second step.

This will not happen until 1st June at the earliest, but we may then be in a position to start the phased reopening of shops; to return children to early years’ settings, including nurseries and childminders; to return primary schools in stages, giving priority to the youngest children in reception and year 1, and those in year 6 preparing for secondary school; and to enable secondary school pupils facing exams next year to get at least some time with their teachers.

Our ambition – and I stress this is conditional Mr Speaker –is for all primary school pupils to return to the classroom for a month before the summer break.

To those ends, we are publishing guidance on how schools might reopen safely.

Step two could also include allowing cultural and sporting events behind closed doors for broadcast, which I think would provide a much needed boost to national morale.

But nothing can substitute for human contact and so the Government has asked SAGE when and how we could safely allow people to expand their household group to include one other household, on a strictly reciprocal basis.

Finally, and no earlier than July, we may be able to move to step three – if and only if supported by the data, and the best scientific advice.

We would then aim to reopen some remaining businesses, including potentially hospitality, cinemas and hairdressers as well as places of worship and leisure facilities.

And this will depend on maintaining social distancing and new ways of providing services, so we will phase and pilot any re-openings to ensure public safety.

And I must be clear again: if the data goes the wrong way, if the Alert Level begins to rise, we will have no hesitation in putting on the brakes, delaying or reintroducing measures – locally, regionally or nationally.

Mr Speaker, our struggle against this virus has placed our country under the kind of strain that will be remembered for generations.

But so too has the response of the British people, from dedicated shopworkers keeping our supermarkets open, and ingenious teachers finding new ways of inspiring their pupils, to the kindness of millions who have checked on their neighbours, delivered food for the elderly, or raised astonishing amounts for charity.

In these and in so many other ways, we are seeing the indomitable spirit of Britain.

And Mr speaker let me summarise by saying that people should Stay Alert by working from home if you possibly can, by limiting contact with other people, by keeping your distance 2 metres apart where possible – by washing your hands regularly, and if you or anyone in your household has symptoms, you all need to self-isolate.

Because if everyone stays alert and follows the rules, we can control the virus, keep the rate of infection down and the keep number of infections down.

And this Mr Speaker is how we can continue to save lives, and livelihoods, as we begin to recover from coronavirus, and I commend this statement to the House.

Below is the text of the statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 11 May 2020.

Good evening and thank you for joining us for this Downing Street press conference.

First of all, I want to update you on the latest data in our fight against coronavirus. I can report through the Government’s ongoing testing and monitoring programme that, as of today:

1,921,770 tests for coronavirus have now been carried out in the UK, including 100,490 tests carried out yesterday;

223,060 people have tested positive, that’s an increase of 3,877 cases since yesterday;

11,401 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus, down from 11,768 the previous day.

And sadly, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 32,065 have now died. That’s an increase of 210 fatalities since yesterday. This figure includes deaths in all settings not just in hospitals.

Before we begin questions from the public and from the media I just want to remind people of a number of important things I said in my address to the nation last night.

First, in order to monitor our progress, we are establishing a new COVID Alert Level System. The COVID Alert Level has five levels, each relating to the level of threat posed by the virus. The level will be primarily determined by the R value and the number of coronavirus cases. In turn, that COVID Alert Level will determine the level of social distancing measures in place. The lower the level the fewer the measures; the higher the level the stricter the measures.

Throughout the period of lockdown which started on March 23rd we have been at Level 4 – meaning a Covid19 epidemic is in general circulation, and transmission is high or rising exponentially. Thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of the British people in this lockdown, we have helped to bring the R level down and we are now in a position to begin moving to Level 3, in steps.

And we have set out the first of three steps we will take to carefully modify the measures, gradually ease the lockdown, and begin to allow people to return to their way of life – but crucially while avoiding what would be a disastrous second peak that overwhelms the NHS.

After each step we will closely monitor the impact of that step on the R and the number of infections, and all the available data, and we will only take the next step when we are satisfied that it is safe to do so.

Step 1 – from this week:

Those who cannot work from home should now speak to their employer about going back to work.

You can now spend time outdoors and exercise as often as you like.

You can meet one person outside of your household outside (outdoors), provided you stay 2 metres apart. The social distancing measures remain absolutely crucial to us keeping the infection rate and the number of cases down as low as we possibly can.

Step 2 – from June 1, at the earliest, as long as the data allows, we aim to allow:

Primary schools to reopen for some pupils, in smaller class sizes;

Non-essential retail to start to reopen, when and where it is safe to do so;

Cultural and sporting events to take place behind closed doors, without crowds.

And then Step 3 – no earlier than July 4, and again, only if the data says it safe, we aim to allow:

More businesses and premises to open, including potentially those offering personal care such as leisure facilities, public places, and places of worship. Many of these businesses will need to operate in new ways to ensure they are safe, and we will work with these sectors on how to do this.

So, given we have taken the first step in carefully adjusting some of the measures today, and therefore our advice to people on what to do, we have also updated our messaging. We are now asking people to Stay Alert, Control the Virus and Save Lives.

Yes – staying alert, for the vast majority of people, still means staying at home as much as possible. But there are a range of other actions we’re advising people to take as we modify measures.

People should Stay Alert, by:

working from home if you can;

limiting contact with other people;

keeping distance if you go out – 2 metres apart where possible;

washing your hands regularly;

wearing a face covering when you are in enclosed spaces where it’s difficult to be socially distant – for example in some shops and on public transport;

and if you or anyone in your household has symptoms, you all need to self-isolate.

Because if everyone stays alert and follows the rules, we can control coronavirus by keeping the R down and reducing the number of infections. This is how we can continue to save lives, and livelihoods, as we begin as a nation to recover from coronavirus.

Below is the text of the statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 10 May 2020.

It is now almost two months since the people of this country began to put up with restrictions on their freedom – your freedom – of a kind that we have never seen before in peace or war.

And you have shown the good sense to support those rules overwhelmingly.

You have put up with all the hardships of that programme of social distancing.

Because you understand that as things stand, and as the experience of every other country has shown, it’s the only way to defeat the coronavirus – the most vicious threat this country has faced in my lifetime.

And though the death toll has been tragic, and the suffering immense.

And though we grieve for all those we have lost.

It is a fact that by adopting those measures we prevented this country from being engulfed by what could have been a catastrophe in which the reasonable worst case scenario was half a million fatalities.

And it is thanks to your effort and sacrifice in stopping the spread of this disease that the death rate is coming down and hospital admissions are coming down.

And thanks to you we have protected our NHS and saved many thousands of lives.

And so I know – you know – that it would be madness now to throw away that achievement by allowing a second spike.

We must stay alert.

We must continue to control the virus and save lives.

And yet we must also recognise that this campaign against the virus has come at colossal cost to our way of life.

We can see it all around us in the shuttered shops and abandoned businesses and darkened pubs and restaurants.

And there are millions of people who are both fearful of this terrible disease, and at the same time also fearful of what this long period of enforced inactivity will do to their livelihoods and their mental and physical wellbeing.

To their futures and the futures of their children.

So I want to provide tonight – for you – the shape of a plan to address both fears.

Both to beat the virus and provide the first sketch of a road map for reopening society.

A sense of the way ahead, and when and how and on what basis we will take the decisions to proceed.

I will be setting out more details in Parliament tomorrow and taking questions from the public in the evening.

I have consulted across the political spectrum, across all four nations of the UK.

And though different parts of the country are experiencing the pandemic at different rates.

And though it is right to be flexible in our response.

I believe that as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, there is a strong resolve to defeat this together.

And today a general consensus on what we could do.

And I stress could.

Because although we have a plan, it is a conditional plan.

And since our priority is to protect the public and save lives, we cannot move forward unless we satisfy the five tests.

We must protect our NHS.

We must see sustained falls in the death rate.

We must see sustained and considerable falls in the rate of infection.

We must sort out our challenges in getting enough PPE to the people who need it, and yes, it is a global problem but we must fix it.

And last, we must make sure that any measures we take do not force the reproduction rate of the disease – the R – back up over one, so that we have the kind of exponential growth we were facing a few weeks ago.

And to chart our progress and to avoid going back to square one, we are establishing a new Covid Alert System run by a new Joint Biosecurity Centre.

And that Covid Alert Level will be determined primarily by R and the number of coronavirus cases.

And in turn that Covid Alert Level will tell us how tough we have to be in our social distancing measures – the lower the level the fewer the measures.

The higher the level, the tougher and stricter we will have to be.

There will be five alert levels.

Level One means the disease is no longer present in the UK and Level Five is the most critical – the kind of situation we could have had if the NHS had been overwhelmed.

Over the period of the lockdown we have been in Level Four, and it is thanks to your sacrifice we are now in a position to begin to move in steps to Level Three.

And as we go everyone will have a role to play in keeping the R down.

By staying alert and following the rules.

And to keep pushing the number of infections down there are two more things we must do.

We must reverse rapidly the awful epidemics in care homes and in the NHS, and though the numbers are coming down sharply now, there is plainly much more to be done.

And if we are to control this virus, then we must have a world-beating system for testing potential victims, and for tracing their contacts.

So that – all told – we are testing literally hundreds of thousands of people every day.

We have made fast progress on testing – but there is so much more to do now, and we can.

When this began, we hadn’t seen this disease before, and we didn’t fully understand its effects.

With every day we are getting more and more data.

We are shining the light of science on this invisible killer, and we will pick it up where it strikes.

Because our new system will be able in time to detect local flare-ups – in your area – as well as giving us a national picture.

And yet when I look at where we are tonight, we have the R below one, between 0.5 and 0.9 – but potentially only just below one.

And though we have made progress in satisfying at least some of the conditions I have given.

We have by no means fulfilled all of them.

And so no, this is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week.

Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures.

And the first step is a change of emphasis that we hope that people will act on this week.

We said that you should work from home if you can, and only go to work if you must.

We now need to stress that anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work.

And we want it to be safe for you to get to work. So you should avoid public transport if at all possible – because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited.

So work from home if you can, but you should go to work if you can’t work from home.

And to ensure you are safe at work we have been working to establish new guidance for employers to make workplaces COVID-secure.

And when you do go to work, if possible do so by car or even better by walking or bicycle. But just as with workplaces, public transport operators will also be following COVID-secure standards.

And from this Wednesday, we want to encourage people to take more and even unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise.

You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household.

You must obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them.

And so every day, with ever increasing data, we will be monitoring the R and the number of new infections, and the progress we are making, and if we as a nation begin to fulfil the conditions I have set out, then in the next few weeks and months we may be able to go further.

In step two – at the earliest by June 1 – after half term – we believe we may be in a position to begin the phased reopening of shops and to get primary pupils back into schools, in stages, beginning with reception, Year 1 and Year 6.

Our ambition is that secondary pupils facing exams next year will get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays. And we will shortly be setting out detailed guidance on how to make it work in schools and shops and on transport.

And step three – at the earliest by July – and subject to all these conditions and further scientific advice; if and only if the numbers support it, we will hope to re-open at least some of the hospitality industry and other public places, provided they are safe and enforce social distancing.

Throughout this period of the next two months we will be driven not by mere hope or economic necessity. We are going to be driven by the science, the data and public health.

And I must stress again that all of this is conditional, it all depends on a series of big Ifs. It depends on all of us – the entire country – to follow the advice, to observe social distancing, and to keep that R down.

And to prevent re-infection from abroad, I am serving notice that it will soon be the time – with transmission significantly lower – to impose quarantine on people coming into this country by air.

And it is because of your efforts to get the R down and the number of infections down here, that this measure will now be effective.

And of course we will be monitoring our progress locally, regionally, and nationally and if there are outbreaks, if there are problems, we will not hesitate to put on the brakes.

We have been through the initial peak – but it is coming down the mountain that is often more dangerous.

We have a route, and we have a plan, and everyone in government has the all-consuming pressure and challenge to save lives, restore livelihoods and gradually restore the freedoms that we need.

But in the end this is a plan that everyone must make work.

And when I look at what you have done already.

The patience and common sense you have shown.

The fortitude of the elderly whose isolation we all want to end as fast as we can.

The incredible bravery and hard work of our NHS staff, our care workers.

The devotion and self-sacrifice of all those in every walk of life who are helping us to beat this disease.

Police, bus drivers, train drivers, pharmacists, supermarket workers, road hauliers, bin collectors, cleaners, security guards, postal workers, our teachers and a thousand more.

The scientists who are working round the clock to find a vaccine.

When I think of the millions of everyday acts of kindness and thoughtfulness that are being performed across this country.

And that have helped to get us through this first phase.

I know that we can use this plan to get us through the next.

And if we can’t do it by those dates, and if the alert level won’t allow it, we will simply wait and go on until we have got it right.

We will come back from this devilish illness.

We will come back to health, and robust health.

And though the UK will be changed by this experience, I believe we can be stronger and better than ever before. More resilient, more innovative, more economically dynamic, but also more generous and more sharing.

But for now we must stay alert, control the virus and save lives.

Thank you very much.