Good morning. Following last night’s announcement about the four-week delay to the easing of the remaining lockdown restrictions in England, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has been touring the studios this morning. A lot of what he said echoed what Boris Johnson said at his press conference, but two lines stood out from his Today interview.
- Gove suggested the UK would have to learn to live with Covid deaths at a certain level. Asked if the country could end up having hundreds of deaths a day after restrictions get lifted in July, as Prof Graham Medley, a government adviser, told the programme might happen, Gove replied:
As the prime minister and Chris Whitty said at the press conference last night, we’re going to have to learn to live with Covid, and it’s a very nasty virus. We can provide people with the best protection possible through the vaccination programme. But, as with flu, we know that that every year there are a number of people who contract it, and every year certainly there are a number of people who are hospitalised and who suffer as a result of it.
When asked if that meant living with hundreds of deaths a day, Gove did not deny the possibility, but he stressed he was not an epidemiologist. Asked if a long-term death toll like this might be acceptable, Gove replied:
I think it’s a fair question, but I’d look at it the other way around. The key thought, in my mind, is how do we provide the maximum level of protection to all.
Earlier Medley, professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told the programme that Covid deaths could rise to hundreds per day after the lifting of all remaining restrictions. “I think that’s quite possible it’s not a certainty,” he said. “There is a lot of uncertainty, but I think that’s quite possible.”
- Gove did not rule out some Covid restrictions continuing beyond July. And he also suggested that partial working from home would become permanent for some people. Asked if restrictions might continue until the spring, he said the government wanted to get rid of every possible restriction. He went on:
Now I suspect – and I’m not advocating this, I just suspect it may be the case – I think we may see different workplaces allowing people to work from home at certain points, as well as coming into the office. I think there may be changes to the way that we live … We won’t go back to the status quo ante.
When it was put to him that he was not ruling out restrictions continuing until the spring, he did not challenge this.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes its weekly death figures for England and Wales.
9.30am: Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, gives a speech on border controls.
9.45am: Sir Simon Stevens, the outgoing NHS England chief executive, gives a speech to the NHS Confederation conference.
10am: Lord Hall, the former director general of the BBC, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee about the Martin Bashir/Diana interview scandal; he will be followed by Lord Birt, another former DG at 10.45am and by Tim Davie, the current DG, and Richard Sharp, the BBC chair, at 11.30am.
10am: Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools, gives evidence to the Commons education committee about sexual abuse in schools.
11.30m: Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, gives a speech on civil service reform.
12pm: Downing Street is expected to hold its daily lobby briefing.
12.30pm: Priti Patel, the home secretary, delivers a Commons statement to mark the publication of the report into the murder of Daniel Morgan.
2.20pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, gives a statement to MSPs about Covid.
Politics Live has been a mix of Covid and non-Covid news recently, and that will probably be the case today. For global coronavirus developments, do read our global live blog.
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