UK politics live: minister rules out further lockdown as rising Covid cases prompt calls for action

Good morning. It has been a while since Covid has been leading the news but cases in the UK are going up, and they are now far higher than they are in most other European countries. As we reported overnight, the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals and other NHS trusts, is saying ministers must urgently implement sweeping “plan B” winter measures or derail efforts to tackle the backlog of 5 million patients.

This morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has been on microphone duty for the government. On Sky News he was asked about a suggestion from Prof Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at St Andrews University and one of the government’s science advisers, that the government’s refusal to act now made a future lockdown more likely.

Kwarteng said he would rule out another lockdown. He told the programme:

I will post from from his interviews about Covid, and other matters, shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, gives evidence to the London assembly on the safety of women and girls in the capital following the deaths of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa.

11am: Sarah Crew, temporary chief constable for Avon and Somerset police and the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for rape and adult sexual offences, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee inquiry into the prosecution of rape. Other policing figures, and legal experts, are also giving evidence.

12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs.

2.30pm: Katharine Birbalsingh is questioned by the Commons women and equalities committee about her proposed appointment as chair of the Social Mobility Commission.

3pm: Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, gives evidence to a joint hearing of the Commons science and transport committees about Cop26.

3pm: Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the national security adviser, gives evidence to the joint committee on the national security strategy about the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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