Perhaps ‘freedom day’ eve was never destined to run smoothly. Nevertheless, the breaking news this morning that both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor had been contacted by NHS Test and Trace falls in the realm of absurdities that one just couldn’t make up. It had initially been announced that Johnson and Sunak would be taking advantage of a pilot scheme that would have allowed them to avoid self-isolating, under the proviso that they took daily lateral flow tests and kept their work to essential duties only.
However, it has since been announced that the pair will now self-isolate after all, with the new health secretary Sajid Javid already isolating after having tested positive for Covid, Trevor Phillips spoke to the housing secretary Robert Jenrick and asked him about how the government’s leading double act had managed to try and take advantage of the scheme in the first place:
Isolation rules could change by mid-August
Jenrick told Phillips that the government was aiming to change the rules around self-isolation by mid-August, in order to help minimise the disruption caused by being ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid app or by contact tracers:
Social care plans will be published by end of the year
Jenrick also told Phillips that the government was working to honour its commitments on a new social care strategy, and that new developments could be expected in this sphere over the coming months:
New variants ‘might develop in this country’
Andrew Marr also interviewed Jenrick and questioned him about the likelihood that, with cases beginning to rise again across the UK, another new variant of concern could emerge. There are fears that such a variant could be more deadly or more resistant to vaccines that the Kent variant turned out to be:
‘Long Covid’ sufferers will not be ‘left behind’
While discussing the government’s decision on vaccinating children — expected in the next few days — Marr raised the possibility that they might be at risk of developing ‘long Covid’, which can persist for several months after the initial infection:
‘I will carry a mask’ after unlocking
Jenrick told Trevor Phillips earlier this month that he would be looking to cast off his face mask at the earliest possible opportunity. Marr asked him if he still stuck by his statement:
Jonathan Ashworth — Johnson and Sunak U-turned because ‘they were caught out’
The shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth, who had been critical of Johnson and Sunak’s opt-out, gave a statement to BBC News in response to their change of heart:
‘I hope they will now listen to me on other matters’
Ashworth was appearing on Times Radio as the news broke, and immediately attempted to press his advantage while the going was good:
Allow people to ‘work from home if they want to’
Phillips challenged Ashworth on the Labour party’s approach to the unlocking. Despite criticism from Ashworth that the government were ‘throwing off the seatbelts’ from midnight tonight, Phillips said that he still wasn’t clear where the opposition and the government substantially differed:
‘Why would we oppose’ social care tax?
Marr asked Ashworth for his verdict on the introduction of tax specifically to fund social care, which Ashworth gave his provisional backing to:
Neil Ferguson — 100,000 cases a day ‘almost inevitable’
Marr interviewed the epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson, whose modelling on the coronavirus at Imperial College London was highly influential on securing the original national lockdown. Ferguson warned that the UK would likely see 100,000 cases a day and that the government needed to be prepared:
Helen Dickinson — Isolation will mean ‘knock-on impact’ for businesses
And finally, Daisy McAndrew spoke to Helen Dickinson, the CEO of the British Retail Consortium, about the impact on businesses of too many staff having to take mandatory self-isolation periods:
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