8.14am EDT
08:14
Welsh government to consider making falsifying Covid pass an offence
7.54am EDT
07:54
Covid rates rising in secondary school children in England, ONS figures show
7.44am EDT
07:44
ONS says Covid rates increasing in Wales and Scotland, decreasing in NI, and broadly stable in England at 1 in 80
7.14am EDT
07:14
Wales to make NHS Covid pass compulsory for nightclubs and crowded events, Drakeford says
6.30am EDT
06:30
John McDonnell claims Labour losing members ‘hand over fist’ because Starmer alienating the left
6.08am EDT
06:08
Scottish ambulance service confirms soldiers being drafted in to help deal with long waits
5.20am EDT
05:20
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson criticises Irish president for missing Northern Ireland centenary service
8.23am EDT
08:23
The number of European Union nationals who are living in the UK has fallen, figures show. As PA Media reports, ONS data for 2020 shows that within a year, the population of EU nationals in the UK dropped by 200,000, from 3.7 million to 3.5 million.
8.14am EDT
08:14
Welsh government to consider making falsifying Covid pass an offence
Steven Morris
At his news conference the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, rejected the idea that his plan to make Covid passes compulsory for some venues (see 12.14pm) was a vaccination passport in all but name, pointing out it was possible to get a pass by taking a lateral flow test. He said:
They are clearly not vaccine passports, you can get a Covid pass without being vaccinated. It avoids those difficult ethical issues of people who cannot be vaccinated.
Drakeford said it was possible that falsifying a Covid pass could be made a specific criminal offence. He said:
We will consider over the next few days whether to introduce a special offence of knowingly and deliberately falsifying a Covid pass.
8.11am EDT
08:11
At cabinet this morning Boris Johnson told his ministers they had “a record of getting things done”, Downing Street said. Summing up what happened at cabinet, the prime minister’s spokesperson said:
The prime minister opened cabinet by congratulating members on their appointments, saying he was delighted to have such a strong team in place to build back better from the pandemic and deliver on the priorities of the public.
He set out that this government has a record of getting things done, including delivering on Brexit and taking on one of the most difficult questions that has bedevilled British governments for decades through the health and care levy which will fix the social care system and enable our NHS to bounce back from the pandemic.
The spokesman said ministers were also given a briefing by Emily Lawson, head of No 10’s delivery unit. The spokesman said: “Cabinet agreed that shared data would be vital to this work, enabling ministers and the public to clearly see what progress is being made on each challenge.”
I will post more from the briefing soon.
7.54am EDT
07:54
Covid rates rising in secondary school children in England, ONS figures show
Nicola Davis
Coronavirus infection levels have risen in school children, the latest ONS data has revealed, although rates appear to be slowing down in Scotland following a recent spike that has seen Scottish hospitals put under intense pressure.
According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, based on swabs collected from randomly selected households, an estimated one in 80 people in England had Covid in the week ending 11 September – a slight drop relative to the week before – while the rate was higher in the other three nations. (See 12.44pm)
Once again, there were differences by regions, and by age. While the percentage of people testing positive rose in the north west of England and decreased in the west Midlands and the east of England, the trends were unclear in other parts of the nation.
In England secondary school-age children and over 50s also saw rises. According to the latest report, in the week ending 11 September 2021, around 2.74% of children in school year 7 to school year 11 tested positive for the virus.
Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the Covid-19 infection survey, said the results show a mixed picture across the UK. She said:
While Scotland continues to have the highest level of infection, the sharp increase over the last few weeks may now be slowing.
In England, we could be starting to see the impact of schools returning after the summer, with the highest infection levels seen in young people at secondary school.
7.44am EDT
07:44
ONS says Covid rates increasing in Wales and Scotland, decreasing in NI, and broadly stable in England at 1 in 80
The Office for National Statistics has published its latest weekly Covid infection survey. This is seen as one of the most reliable guides to the prevalence of Covid in the community because these figures are based on the results from an extensive, representative sample, not just the results from people who have chosen to get a test.
Here are the new figures for the ONS’s estimate of how many people in each country in the UK would have tested positive in the week ending Saturday 11 September
England
Covid rate: 1 in 80 people
Trend: “Uncertain”, the ONS says. Last week it gave the rate for England as 1 in 70 people, which implies an improvement this week, but the ONS is always cautious because its figures are estimates within a range.
Wales
Covid rate: 1 in 60
Trend: Covid rate continuing to increase, the ONS says. Last week it was 1 in 65.
Northern Ireland
Covid rate: 1 in 75
Trend: Covid rate decreasing, the ONS says. Last week it was 1 in 60.
Scotland
Covid rate: 1 in 45
Trend: Covid rate increasing, but the rate of increase has slowed, the ONS says. Last week it also put the Covid rate at 1 in 45.
All the ONS figures are central estimates. The 95% credible interval figures, showing the wider range within which the true figure is likely to be, are in the ONS report.
7.14am EDT
07:14
Wales to make NHS Covid pass compulsory for nightclubs and crowded events, Drakeford says
Steven Morris
People will have to show an NHS Covid pass to enter nightclubs and attend many events in Wales from next month, the first minister, Mark Drakeford, has announced.
Drakeford also encouraged everyone to work from home wherever possible and get fully vaccinated if they are not already.
He also said enforcement of other measures such as wearing face coverings in indoor public places and on public transport, would be increased.
Wales is at alert level zero – and will remain so for the next three weeks – but the Labour-led government said Covid cases were “very high”
Drakeford said:
Across Wales, coronavirus cases have risen to very high levels over the summer as more people have been gathering and meeting. Tragically, more people are dying from this terrible virus.
The very strong advice we have from our scientific advisers is to take early action to prevent infections increasing further.
The last thing we want is further lockdowns and for businesses to have to close their doors once again. That’s why we must take small but meaningful action now to control the spread of the virus and reduce the need for tougher measures later.
The NHS Covid pass allows people to use the NHS app to show that either they are fully vaccinated or that they have had a recent negative test. It is not the same as the vaccine passport floated as an option, but not yet implemented, by the UK government for England, which would only apply to people fully vaccinated,
The requirement in Wales to show an NHS Covid pass will come into force from 11 October. It will mean all over-18s will need to have a NHS Covid pass to enter:
o Nightclubs
o Indoor, non-seated events for more than 500 people, such as concerts or conventions
o Outdoor non-seated events for more than 4,000 people
o Any setting or event with more than 10,000 people in attendance
People who are fully vaccinated in Wales can already download the NHS Covid pass to securely show and share their vaccine status. It also allows people to show they have had a negative lateral flow test result within the last 48 hours.
Drakeford added:
We have high levels of the virus in our communities and while our fantastic vaccination programme has helped stop thousands more people from becoming seriously ill or dying, the pressure on the NHS is increasing.
We hope introducing the requirement to show a Covid pass will help keep venues and events – many of which have only recently started trading again – open.
Showing a Covid pass is already part of our collective effort to keep businesses open with some major events, such as the successful Green Man festival, using it. We will continue to work closely with all businesses affected to ensure a smooth introduction and operation of this system.
Updated
at 7.48am EDT
6.30am EDT
06:30
John McDonnell claims Labour losing members ‘hand over fist’ because Starmer alienating the left
Keir Starmer is being urged to hold a summit next week with some of his leftwing critics in the Labour party to stop a bitter row about expulsions destabilising conference.
The proposal has come from John McDonnell, shadow chancellor when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader. McDonnell claims that Labour is haemorrhaging party members because Starmer is alienating the left.
In an interview with the BBC, McDonnell focused in particular on the consequences of Labour’s decision to ban members of four far-left factions, although this is by no means the only grievance that the left have with Starmer.
The Labour annual conference is starting next weekend, and the left are pushing for a vote that could in theory lead to the removal of the general secretary, David Evans.
McDonnell told the BBC that Starmer would hold a meeting with his critics next week to try to address some of their concerns. He said:
The best thing that Keir and David Evans can do is get people round the table, accept there are grievances that have to be addressed. To be frank he [Starmer] lacks an element of political experience. He hasn’t been in politics that long. He needs to talk to people across the political spectrum in the party and engage more.
McDonnell claimed people were being expelled unfairly. He said:
What’s happened is a number of groups have been proscribed and we are now receiving reports of large numbers of members of the party being excluded from the party on the basis of statements or retweeting something from one of these groups before they were proscribed.
This flies in the face of natural justice … It is like being guilty of pre-crime.
McDonnell said that the party was now “losing members hand over fist” because people did not feel welcome. Asked how serious this problem was, he replied:
My understanding is we have lost at least 100,000 members so far. If you start losing that mass membership, we are undermining our ability to fight elections – which is appalling.
Labour has been asked for a response. I will post one when I get it.
Updated
at 6.39am EDT
6.08am EDT
06:08
Scottish ambulance service confirms soldiers being drafted in to help deal with long waits
Libby Brooks
Soldiers will be drafted in to drive ambulances, the head of the Scottish service has confirmed, as more horrific stories emerged overnight of patients forced to endure lengthy waits for emergency treatment and transport.
The Scottish ambulance service chief executive, Pauline Howie, told BBC Radio Scotland that logistical staff would also be made available to support paramedics and technicians, and the details would be worked out in the coming days as the service faced “unprecedented” pressure.
Welcoming military involvement, Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson, Jackie Baillie, said SNP ministers had “taken their eye off the ball” after delays were reported in June. She said:
What it demonstrates is that the ambulance service and the NHS are absolutely in crisis, and this is all before the winter starts.
After a succession of harrowing cases were highlighted at Thursday’s FMQs, including a frail elderly man found collapsed at his home in Glasgow who died after a 40-hour wait for an ambulance, the Glasgow Times reported this morning that an unconscious man suspected to be on the brink of an overdose had to wait almost three and a half hours for an ambulance in the city.
Updated
at 6.37am EDT
5.20am EDT
05:20
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson criticises Irish president for missing Northern Ireland centenary service
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has criticised the Irish president, Michael Higgins, for deciding not to attend a church service in Armagh next month to mark the centenary of partition and the creation of Northern Ireland.
The Queen is attending, but Higgins has said that the title of the event – saying it will “mark the centenaries of the partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland” – made it political. He also objected to being referred to in the invitation as president of the Republic of Ireland, not president of Ireland.
Donaldson told Radio Ulster this morning:
The president has made his position clear but I have to say I’m very surprised – I really thought that the president would have risen above the politics of all of this.
He uses language that, I think, is unfortunately retrograde. He talks about being the president of Ireland, not the president of the Republic of Ireland, despite the fact that people voted to remove the territorial claim over Northern Ireland and that there was recognition in the constitution of the Republic of Ireland of the existence of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.
I think the language used by the president is not forward-looking and doesn’t recognise the reality that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. It’s back to the old days when the president believes that he is president of the whole island, which we all know he is not.
I have to say that the comments made by President Higgins really are not conducive towards reconciliation.
Updated
at 5.30am EDT
5.08am EDT
05:08
According to PA Media, Boris Johnson made a joke about the large number of children he has had as he lectured his new cabinet on the importance of delivery. He told his ministers:
I want to thank you all because you’re all here on your merits because you’ve worked incredibly hard, but I want you to work even harder now.
I’m just thinking about delivery, I’ve seen a few delivery rooms, probably seen as many delivery rooms as anybody in this… Apart from the exception of Jacob [Rees-Mogg].
I know that delivery normally involves a superhuman effort by at least one person in the room. But there are plenty of other people in that room who are absolutely indispensable to that successful outcome.
Johnson has at least six children, although refuses to say exactly how many he has, and there is speculation there could be more. His wife, Carrie, is pregnant with their second child. Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, also has six children.
At cabinet Johnson was sitting with Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, to his right and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, to his left. Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, sat opposite Johnson, alongside Liz Truss, the new foreign secretary, and Michael Gove, the new housing secretary.
4.57am EDT
04:57
Last week, after the government announced its GBP12bn tax hike to fund the NHS and social care, a YouGov poll put Labour in the lead for the first time this year after the Tories saw their support fall five points in a week.
It has not lasted. As the Times’ Patrick Maguire reports, the latest YouGov poll shows Conservative support more or less back to where it was.
(@patrickkmaguire)
Tories bounce back to a four-point lead in this week’s YouGov poll for The Times
As national insurance hike has receded from headlines, so too has slippage from Tories to smaller parties
CON 39 (+6)
LAB 35 (=)
LD 7 (-3)
GREEN 7 (-2)
REFORM UK 3 (-2) pic.twitter.com/4FpBBJAfQY
4.38am EDT
04:38
Sarah Jones, the shadow Home Office minister, told Sky News this morning that Labour had been “calling for ages” for ministers to scrap the amber travel list because it is poorly understood by the public. She said:
We want travel to open up as safely and as quickly as possible.
We’ve been calling for ages for the amber list to be scrapped, which has been touted in the papers today, because it always added to confusion – people never quite understood what the system was.
And we’ve been calling for a proper process to work out an international vaccine passport so we can get people safely moving around.
Asked if Labour favoured getting rid of PCR tests for fully vaccinated people arriving in the UK, she said:
I think we need to make it simpler, we need to make it clearer. People have been confused about what the rules are, they have been paying extortionate prices – we need to see what the government is going to suggest and hopefully it will be based on evidence and, if it is, then we will support them.
4.30am EDT
04:30
Johnson opens cabinet with ‘half-time pep talk’ telling his ministers to work as a team
Boris Johnson opened this morning’s cabinet meeting by giving his ministers what he described as a “half-time pep talk”, PA Media reports. He told them:
This is, if you like, the half-time pep talk.
This is the moment when we spit out the orange peel, we adjust our gum shields and our scrum caps.
And we get out on to the pitch in the knowledge that we’re going to have to do it together and we’re going to have to do it as a team.
4.22am EDT
04:22
Good morning. Boris Johnson is chairing the first meeting of his new cabinet this morning. We are expecting to see some video footage from it, although whether Johnson gets his ministers to chant his dishonest “40 new hospitals” slogan, as he did when the cabinet first met after the 2019 election, remains to be seen.
And later we are expecting an important announcement about Covid travel rules. My colleague Aubrey Allegretti has a preview.
In an interview this morning George Eustice, the environment secretary, confirmed that a decision was imminent. He told Sky News:
My understanding is that no decisions have actually been taken yet, although I understand there may be a meeting today to review this. We regularly review those travel restrictions.
Obviously we took an important step earlier this summer when we removed the need to quarantine for those countries coming from amber list countries – that was a really big step forward – but we have retained the need for testing, and that’s really so we can pick up any variants of concern through that PCR test.
But, look, I know this has been raised by the travel industry, that they think some of that testing may be unnecessary, may be onerous – the government will be listening to that and the Covid subcommittee of cabinet that decide these things will be considering that probably later today.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Boris Johnson chairs a meeting of his new cabinet.
11.15am: Downing Street holds its daily lobby briefing.
12pm: The ONS publishes its weekly Covid infection survey.
Lunchtime: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, holds a press conference.
Afternoon: The government is due to announce changes to the Covid travel rules.
2pm: Mark Pack, the Lib Dem president, gives a speech opening the party’s online conference. Alistair Carmichael, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, speaks at 3.15pm.
Also in Chorley Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker (and local MP), is hosting the G7 Speakers conference today.
For more Covid coverage, do read our global live blog.
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Updated
at 4.43am EDT