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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Léonie Chao-Fong (now); Nicola Slawson and Tom Ambrose (earlier)

UK Covid: Boris Johnson announces end to restrictions in England – as it happened

Boris Johnson Covid-19 United Kingdom England Office for National Statistics Ukraine Russia Sajid Javid Ben Wallace Paul Scully

Summary

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and from the UK politics blog this evening. Here are the key events from today:

  • Boris Johnson has announced the end of all domestic Covid restrictions in England in a process starting later this week. On Thursday, the legal requirement to self-isolate with people instead advised to stay at home if they have Covid, or believe they do.
  • The £500 payment for some people on lower incomes will end on Thursday. From 24 March, statutory sick pay and employment support allowance will only start being paid after four and seven days of absence, rather than immediately.
  • Free testing for the public will end in England from 1 April, with most people having to pay for lateral flow and PCR tests. There will be some exceptions, with free symptomatic tests remaining for NHS patients and in care homes, and some asymptomatic testing for both.
  • In response, the campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said the lifting of all restrictions is “reckless and dangerous” and that scrapping free testing will cause avoidable deaths.
  • Education unions warned that the lifting of Covid restrictions could result in chaos in schools in England and put school leaders in an impossible position. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned the changes could lead to more disruption to education.
  • Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described Boris Johnson’s statement in the House of Commons as “a half-baked announcement from a government paralysed by chaos and incompetence”. He said Labour does not want to see restrictions in place “a moment longer than necessary, but we have to take the public with us, and that requires clarity”.
  • Over-75s and people with suppressed immune systems in the UK are to be offered another Covid-19 booster vaccination in the coming weeks to increase potentially waning protection, after advice from the government’s vaccines watchdog.
  • London Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed rules on wearing face coverings on public transport will be lifted, however he added that the Transport for London will “likely” continue to recommend their use on the network.

Updated

Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby asks how scientists are simultaneously urging caution by saying the pandemic isn’t over while the government eases restrictions.

Johnson replies that the government has a “clear view that Covid has not gone away”.

On the anxiety point, I don’t want you to think that there is some division between the gung ho politicians and the cautious scientists.

We have a very clear view of this that this has not gone away. We’re able to make these changes now because of the vaccines and the high level of immunity.

We have to face the fact that there could be likely will be another variant that will cause us trouble.

But I believe that thanks to a lot of the stuff that we’ve done, particularly investment in vaccines and vaccine technology and therapeutics, that we will be in a far better position to tackle that new variant when it comes.

ITV News’s political editor Robert Peston asks the prime minister if he will isolate if he gets coronavirus, adding that by removing statutory sick pay provisions, the government is making it harder for people to do the right thing.

Johnson replies:

I will exercise restraint and responsibility and try to avoid infecting other people

The BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, asks about whether scrapping free testing will be a mistake.

Boris Johnson says ending testing in April can only be done because of the high levels of immunity and relative weakness of Omicron – but says that the government will make sure vulnerable people continue to have access to free tests.

The UK will continue to invest in ongoing surveillance and “keep observing what is happening” in terms of the prospect of new variants, the PM says, and acknowledges that tests are the way to do that if the Covid situation worsens again.

We want to have the keenest eyes in the crow’s nest to watch for an iceberg in the form of a new variant.

Updated

Taking questions from members of the public, Boris Johnson is asked if people who are vulnerable are being effectively asked to stay inside and remove themselves from the world.

No, Johnson replies:

What everybody needs to do is treat people who are vulnerable in any way with the utmost consideration.

If we’re symptomatic with any disease you should treat vulnerable people with courtesy and avoid spreading it.

He says people who are clinically vulnerable will still have access to tests and any therapeutics they need.

Sir Chris Whitty adds that it is really clear that vaccination in pregnancy “is a very good thing to do” for both the mother and her baby – and urges pregnant women to get vaccinated.

Updated

Sir Patrick continues to urge caution, quoting an American colleague:

You can celebrate when the sun’s shining – but take your umbrella with you.

Updated

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance warns the pandemic is not over and “the virus has got a lot of room to evolve”.

It will continue to do so at a fast pace “probably for the next couple of years”, he says. And there is no guarantee that the next variant will be of the same reduced severity as Omicron.

As it evolves, what it’s trying to do is transmit more readily to grow. So that could be because it has got intrinsic transmissibility advantage, or escapes immunity and the change in severity is a random byproduct.

So we expect there to be further variants, and they could be more severe.

Updated

Prof Whitty says the change of restrictions is a “steady move” over a period of time rather than one big step.

This is a gradual steady change over a period of time as the rates are going down.

As we head into spring, I think it’s important to understand that context is not a sudden everything stops. This is a steady move.

People should still isolate if they have Covid-19, he urges.

As we look at the next weeks, we still have high rates of Omicron and I would urge people in terms of public health advice, and this is very much the government’s position, that people should still if they have Covid try to prevent other people getting it and that means self-isolating.

So, that is the public health advice. It would have been the public health advice, and will be the public health advice, for multiple other diseases.

Updated

The Omicron wave is still high, Prof Whitty says.

If you look around the UK, we’re still in place where between one in 21 and 25 people have got Omicron if they were tested according to ONS data.

The rates are coming down but this is still a very common infection.

He says new variants are expected:

Some of those new variants will just disappear, but some of them will cause us significant problems and they could be either more vaccine escaping but as severe as Omicron, but the net effect would be actually more people end up in hospital because a lot of our protection is from vaccination, or it could be more intrinsically severe, because Omicron came from a much earlier variant.

Prof Whitty says we “could certainly end up with something which is more likely to lead to hospitalisations than Omicron”, adding that winters are expected to be “tricky” even in the absence of significant new variants due to the combination of Covid, flu and other respiratory problems.

Updated

Prof Sir Chris Whitty says the number of people with Omicron is still very high.

The number of people in hospitals is “still significant” and putting pressure on many hospitals, but rates “have been going down steadily now for some weeks”.

The number of deaths was smaller in the Omicron peak than in previous waves. In fact, the total number of deaths in recent weeks is lower than expected at this time of year, he says.

Updated

As he announced in the House of Commons earlier today, Boris Johnson confirms that from Thursday the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive for Covid-19 will end in England.

He says:

Until April we will still advise you to stay at home if you test positive.

But after that, we will encourage people with Covid symptoms to exercise personal responsibility just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate towards others.

The pandemic is not over, Boris Johnson continues, and there may be “significant resurgences”.

Our scientists are certain there will be new variants and it is very possible that those will be worse than Omicron.

So we will continue to protect the most vulnerable with targeted vaccinations and treatments.

Today is not the day we can declare victory over Covid after “two of the darkest years in our peacetime history”, he continues.

This virus is not going away, but it is the day when all the efforts of the last two years have finally enabled us to protect ourselves whilst restoring our liberties in full.

Boris Johnson says we have “emerged from the teeth of the pandemic”. Speaking at the Downing Street press briefing, he says:

When the pandemic began, we had little knowledge of this virus and none about the vaccines and the treatments we had today. So there was no option but to use government regulations to protect our NHS and save lives.

But those restrictions on our liberties have brought grace costs to our economy, our society and the changes of our children. From the outset, we were clear that we must chart a course back towards normality as rapidly as possible.

As a result of possibly the greatest nation effort in our peacetime history, that is exactly what we have done.

Boris Johnson to hold press conference

Boris Johnson will give a Downing Street press conference at 7pm, alongside Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific officer, and Professor Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer.

You can follow here for live updates.

Updated

Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis academy trust of 52 schools across England, warned the lifting of restrictions would lead to immunosuppressed pupils turning away from schools and to home education because of health concerns.

It was “a huge gamble”, he said, adding that he feared many immunosuppressed pupils – and those living with vulnerable relatives – would be effectively excluded because of families’ fears.

I think it will become a forced form of exclusion of those who are vulnerable, those immunosuppressed children and staff who are put at increased risk. Also staff who are living with their own immunosuppressed children.

They will not be able to afford to take the gamble. I think we will see a group of children turning away from education. It will lead to a further rise in home education. It can be a route for those who are worried or scared.

All of this will play together in some unhelpful ways. The gamble in my mind is that attendance among many of the most vulnerable stops or goes down, so it becomes a form of exclusion. Removing the requirement for positive cases to self isolate puts them all at increased risk.

Updated

Here’s a look at how MPs have responded to Boris Johnson’s unveiling of the government’s “living with Covid” strategy.

From Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Streatham:

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour MP for Leicester South has also focused on the government’s decision to take statutory sick pay from day one.

From Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda:

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, writes that Johnson’s decision is “based not on any proper evidence”.

Wera Hobhouse, Lib Dem MP for Bath, accuses the PM of “throwing vulnerable people to the wolves”.

Ian Blackford, SNP Westminister leader, reiterates his claim that Johnson is “desperately trying to save his own skin”.

Prof Stephen Reicher, a member of Sage’s behavioural science subgroup and Independent Sage, says the prime minister’s rhetoric about freedom and choice hides the fact that those freedoms and choices are limited to those who have the means.

He says there are some welcome compromises – keeping free LFTs until 1 April and continuing with the ONS survey, at least in some form.

But he says there are still three “dire problems”:

The first is that lifting self-isolation and ending testing will increase infections (at a time when the ONS survey indicates one in 20 infected in England and even more – one in 13 – infected in Northern Ireland). That is why everyone from the WHO and the NHS Federation to the BMA and Nursing Unions are calling the measure premature.

The second is that it sends a very clear message that the pandemic is over and that infections don’t matter (despite protestations to the contrary) and hence undermines all protective behaviours, including vaccination and boosters (and this at a time when the booster program is stalling and nearly a third of adults still aren’t vaccinated).

Thirdly, it exacerbates inequalities for those who can’t afford to test or to self-isolate.

Indeed all the rhetoric about freedom, and about choice and about allowing people to exercise ‘personal responsibility’ hides the fact that those freedoms and choices are limited to those who have the means.

Actually, Johnson’s removal of support for self-isolation and testing takes choice away from those who cannot afford to stay home or buy testing kits. Johnson exposed the fallacy of his argument in asserting that ‘anyone who wants to can buy a test”.

No they can’t. If you are already having to choose between eating and heating, tests are an impossible luxury.

Updated

From our political correspondent, Peter Walker, on how scrapping free testing will impact clinically vulnerable people and poorer people.

Boris Johnson presented the end of all domestic Covid restrictions in England as based on liberty. But that’s not the case for ending free testing – that’s to save money, Walker writes.

And for those who are clinically vulnerable, the end of free tests will further limit their freedom.

Asked by Conservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh if he could rule out any more lockdowns in the coming decade while he remains prime minister, Boris Johnson replies:

What you can certainly rely on is that this government will take the tough decisions to protect the British people and we will have a vaccine and science-led approach to dealing with this pandemic.

Here’s a look at how some members of the UK’s scientific community has responded to Boris Johnson’s lifting of restrictions in England:

Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, said he supported the further lifting of restrictions given current trends in the data, adding that even when restrictions have previously been lifted, public behaviour has remained cautious.

If that pattern is repeated - encouraged by robust public health advice and enabled by access to testing and support for those off work - then I don’t expect this latest round of relaxations to have a dramatic impact on the short-term course of the epidemic.

However Woolhouse said the most likely medium-term problem is the almost inevitable appearance of another variant, adding it is important public health agencies across the UK are able to respond within days when it happens.

If those plans include measures such as the rapid roll-out of self-testing kits - which worked extremely well during the omicron wave - then it is vital that the infrastructure is in place to deliver that very quickly indeed.

However Prof Rowland Kao, also of the University of Edinburgh, noted that evidence suggests Covid puts a greater stress on more deprived communities.

“For example, ICU occupancy and deaths are now increasingly due to people living in the most deprived areas,” he said, adding that is likely in part down to lower uptake of Covid vaccinations as well as fewer lateral flow tests in such areas.

As the requirements to isolate are released – and therefore with no compensation for isolating – and with the expectation that free testing will also be removed, this will likely most impact those who are under the most pressure to work in places where distancing is difficult and therefore potential exposure to infection high.

Kao added that they are also people in the areas which, because of existing health deprivation, are most likely to have severe outcomes.

While it is acknowledged that continued restrictions such as we have now are unsustainable in the long term, releasing all restrictions so quickly does represent a gamble and one that, if it fails, will likely have the most impact on those who are already disadvantaged.

John Drury, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Sussex, also voiced concerns over inequalities, noting policy changes can affect public perception of Covid.

Given that financial support –or lack of it – is a major driver of adherence to self-isolation, dropping the £500 compensation for self-isolation provided to a minority of people will reduce risk perceptions, reduce self-isolation, and likely lead to a spread of infection disproportionately amongst less privileged groups.

Updated

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged the government to keep free Covid testing as he confirmed rules on wearing face coverings on public transport will be lifted.

He said:

Following the government dropping all legal Covid restrictions, and in light of falling infection levels in London, it is expected that wearing a face covering will no longer be a condition of carriage on the TfL network.

However, we know that face coverings remain a simple, effective measure that give Londoners confidence to travel, and following clear advice from public health advisers, TfL will likely continue to recommend their use on the network.

I urge passengers to be considerate of their fellow Londoners and continue to wear a face covering where appropriate unless exempt.

The government is reviewing the overseas Covid travel passenger locator form, Boris Johnson says.

Asked by Labour MP Ben Bradshaw why he is keeping the “bureaucratic and irritating” form while Europeans can travel freely by showing a vaccine certificate, the prime minister replies:

I can tell him we have one of the most open travel systems in the world and the passenger locator form, I understand his grievance against it, we are certainly reviewing it.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas says lifting restrictions in England “flies in the face” of advice from many NHS leaders and health experts and will make vulnerable people more fearful.

Telling people should take personal responsibility while taking away the means for people to do so through free tests was “utterly perverse”, she says.

For many clinically extremely vulnerable people, this “freedom day” was instead a “day of profound loss of freedom”, Lucas adds.

The campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice says the lifting of all restrictions is “reckless and dangerous” and that scrapping free testing will cause avoidable deaths.

In a highly-critical response to Boris Johnson’s announcement, Lobby Akinnola, a spokesperson for the group said:

For the over 1,000 families that have lost loved ones to Covid-19 in the last week, the pandemic is anything but over.

People will die directly because of the decision to scrap free testing, and those deaths are avoidable. Just as the government was late starting testing, costing thousands of lives, they are going to be too early finishing it, with the same consequence.

Testing is the most effective way to avoid the need for restrictions, the spokesperson continues, so scrapping free tests will not benefit ordinary people.

The prime minister talks of the country ‘needing to get our confidence back’, but this will only further damage the confidence of the millions who are vulnerable.

The prime minister “knows that it will lead to unnecessary deaths”, they say.

It’s clear from the government’s refusal to start the inquiry that even they don’t really believe that the pandemic is over, yet they are happy to use it as a slogan to justify throwing ordinary families to the wolves.

This is exactly the sort of decision making that we feared when we called Boris Johnson a ‘walking public health hazard’ and tragically our worst fears are coming true.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accuses Boris Johnson of making decisions that are “bereft of science or consultation” and “purely political and made up on the hoof”.

He claims the changes are “made for England by a failing prime minister” but that the “illogical reality of UK finance” means there will be funding implications for the devolved nations.

He adds:

A prime minister who has no moral authority to lead desperately seeking to appease his backbenchers....

This statement is not about protecting the public, it’s about the prime minister scrambling to save his own skin.”

Boris Johnson says the UK will be able to deploy a “surge” of testing in the future to deal with potentially dangerous variants of Covid.

Responding to Tory former minister Greg Clark’s question about how quickly mass testing could be deployed again, Johnson replies:

That is why we are putting so much emphasis on the ONS with its amazing granular ability to detect what is going on in local areas and as well as other forms of surveillance we want to spot the new variants of concern as soon as we can, then we want to surge our testing capacity in the way that we did before and of course much faster now.

We will have stockpiles, we will keep our labs in readiness and we will be able to surge when necessary but now is not the right time to continue with mass testing.

Former health secretary Matt Hancock agrees with Boris Johnson and says now is the right time to drop Covid measures.

He tells the House:

Isn’t it extraordinary that despite that consensus on restrictions back then, the consensus on giving people back their freedom - which is often so much harder - that consensus only appears to exist on this side of the House?”

Johnson agrees with him, replying:

I think it’s a great shame the opposition cannot find themselves to support what I think is a balanced and proportionate approach.

And one, Mr Speaker, that recognises that coronavirus has not gone away and that we cannot throw caution to the wind. “

Updated

Education unions warned that the lifting of Covid restrictions could result in chaos in schools in England and put school leaders in an impossible position.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, called for urgent guidance from the government and public health experts, and patience from parents as school leaders get to grips with yet more changes.

There is no doubt that today’s announcement by the prime minister has the potential to have an enormous impact on schools.

What is absolutely essential now is that government very quickly provides clear and unambiguous guidance so that schools and parents have a clear understanding of what to do should a child or member of staff have Covid.

Without that clarity, there is a real risk the government could create a chaotic situation in schools and put school leaders in an impossible position. We simply cannot expect schools to manage this on an individual basis, there must be clear guidance from the public health experts.

Whiteman called for co-operation between schools and families. “Judging from what the prime minister has said, the government has replaced the legal responsibility for testing and isolation with a personal responsibility to keep each other safe.

Schools and families will still need to co-operate to keep schools open. Access to lateral flow tests is an important part of any plan to live with Covid as we move forward. It’s crucial that they remain free for all pupils, or the consequences and disruption for disadvantaged pupils, in particular, could be severe.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned the changes could lead to more disruption to education.

By removing the legal requirement to self-isolate after a positive test, along with twice-weekly testing for pupils and staff in schools and colleges, there is a risk that this may actually lead to an increase in disruption if it means that more positive cases come into the classroom.

Staff and pupils are often absent not just because they test positive but because they are actually ill with the coronavirus and this will obviously not abate if there is more transmission.

We are also concerned about where this leaves vulnerable staff and pupils, or those with a household member who is vulnerable. These individuals will inevitably feel more scared and less protected by the relaxation of even the fairly limited control measures that are currently in place.

Boris Johnson says the evidence for ending Covid restrictions in England is “amply there in the scientific evidence”.

Responding to Sir Keir Starmer, he says:

The evidence for what we are doing today is amply there in the scientific evidence, in the figures for the rates of infection that I have outlined today and in all the data that is freely available to members of the House.

They can see what’s happening with infection rates, with mortality, with what Omicron is doing across the country.

On the clinically extremely vulnerable, Mr Johnson says

What we are going to do is make sure they continue to be protected with priority access to therapeutics and of course, to vaccines as well.

Responding to Starmer, Boris Johnson says the Labour leader has made “the wrong call on every single one of the big decisions” throughout the pandemic.

Johnson tells the Commons:

Month after month I’ve listened to Labour denouncing the cost of NHS Test and Trace, and now they want to continue with it when we do need to go on with it in the way that we are currently doing.

He goes on to accuse Starmer of having shown a “ferocious grip of the wrong end of the stick”, adding:

He was wrong on July 19, totally wrong, he said we shouldn’t open up on July 19. He said we needed a road map back into lockdown during December.

They wanted to stay in the European Medicines Agency, contrary to his denials in this House, he voted several times to do so.

He has been consistently wrong on all the big calls. He was wrong then, he is wrong now.

Johnson adds that his government is “moving forward in a balance, sensible and proportionate way”.

Updated

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called on the government to publish the scientific evidence behind removing the requirement to self-isolate “including the impact on the clinically extremely vulnerable”.

He says the British people will continue to act “responsibly” and “do the right thing” of testing and isolating if positive. But he can’t understand why the government is “taking away the tools that will help them to do that”.

Starmer says:

Free tests can’t continue forever, but if you’re 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go you don’t sub off one of your best defenders.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer describes Boris Johnson’s statement as “a half-baked announcement from a government paralysed by chaos and incompetence”.

He tells the Commons:

Our plan would see us learn the lessons of the past two years and prepared for new variants. His approach will leave us vulnerable.

He adds:

As a nation, there is no doubt we need to move on from Covid. People need to know their liberties are returning and returning for good.

But this is a half-baked announcement from a Government paralysed by chaos and incompetence. It is not a plan to live well with Covid.

Starmer goes on to say that the Labour party does not want to see restrictions in place “a moment longer than necessary, but we have to take the public with us, and that requires clarity”.

Updated

Boris Johnson said from April 1 the use of voluntarily Covid status certification will no longer be recommended, adding:

The NHS app will continue to allow people to indicate their vaccination status for international travel.

The government will also expire all temporary provisions of the Coronavirus Act. Of the original 40, 20 have already expired and 16 will expire on March 24, and the last four relating to innovations in public service will expire six months later after we’ve made those improvements permanent via other means.

Johnson said “targeted vaccines and treatments” will be in place for the most vulnerable, telling the Commons:

Today we’re taking further action to guard against a possible resurgence of the virus, accepting JCVI advice for a new spring booster offered to those aged 75 and older, to older care home residents and to those over 12 who are immunosuppressed.

Boris Johnson explains why the plans have been brought forward.

He says:

Restrictions pose a heavy toll on our economy, our society, our mental well-being and all the life chances of our children and we do not have to pay the price any longer.

We have a population that is protected by the biggest vaccination programme in our history. We have the advantage of the treatments and the scientific understanding of this virus and we have the capabilities to respond rapidly to any resurgence or new variants.

He says we need to get our confidence back.

We chose to compel people to be considerate to others. We can rely on that sense of responsibility towards one another by providing practical advice in the knowledge that people will follow it to avoid infecting loved ones.

Updated

Boris Johnson says levels of immunity are high and deaths are low and this is why the restrictions can be lifted now.

He says:

It’s only because levels of immunity are so high and deaths are now if anything below where you would normally expect for this time of year that we can lift these restrictions and it’s only because we know Omicron is less severe that testing for Omicron on the colossal scale we’ve been doing is much less important and much less valuable in preventing serious illness.

The cost of Covid vaccinations and testing has been immense, he says.

The “biggest testing programme per person of any large country in the world”, he said “came at vast cost”, adding:

The test, trace and isolation budget in 2020/21 exceeded the entire budget of the Home Office. It cost a further 15.7 billion in this financial year and 2 billion in January alone at the height of the Omicron wave.

Updated

Free universal testing will end in England on April 1, Boris Johnson has told MPs.

He says:

From the first of April when winter is over and the virus will spread less easily, we will end free symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public.

He said the government would continue to provide free symptomatic tests to the oldest age groups and the most vulnerable.

Boris Johnson announces that self isolation for people who test positive for Covid will be axed.

People will be asked to exercise personal responsibility just as we encourage people who may have flu to be considerate to others.

The prime minister says the time is now to move away from government restrictions and to personal responsibility when it comes to living with coronavirus.

Boris Johnson says that while the pandemic is not over we have now passed the peak of the omicron wave.

He says:

It is now time to move from protecting people with government interventions to vaccines and treatment as our first line of defence.

Boris Johnson has begun his statement on his ‘Living with Covid’ plan. He starts his speech by sending “best wishes” to the Queen, adding that her diagnosis is a reminder that Covid has not gone away.

PM to announce 'living with Covid' plans

Boris Johnson is preparing to make a statement to MPs to unveil the government’s long-term strategy for living with the virus.

The prime minister is about to announce the plan to end all Covid restrictions in England in the House of Commons.

The statement had to be put back after a delayed meeting with his cabinet to discuss his proposals this morning, which was postponed after a reported row about funding.

Johnson will then hold a news conference to reveal details to the public at 7pm.

Updated

The shadow defence secretary, John Healey, pressed the government on its plan to “cut the British Army by another 10,000 soldiers” and its focus on the Indo-Pacific.

He said:

Does Ukraine not expose the flaws in the government’s integrated review last year? With its first focus on the Indo-Pacific and with its plan to cut the British Army by another 10,000 soldiers?

Ben Wallace stressed that in the defence command paper, the government “put a premium on speed and readiness, and sometimes that premium means less mass”.

He added:

I’m now able to offer our Nato leaders true forces, forces that will actually turn up on the day rather than what we had even in my day when I was serving in West Germany or North Germany, which was fictional numbers.

Updated

Theresa May commended the UK government for its “robust” stance in response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine, adding:

President Putin wants to weaken Nato and the western alliance, but does (defence secretary Ben Wallace) agree with me that any further action to invade Ukrainian territory by the Russians can only lead to a strengthening of the determination of the UK, Nato and the western alliance to defend the rights of sovereign states and to defend democracy?

Wallace said the Conservative former prime minister was “absolutely right”, adding in the Commons:

In 2014 after the invasion of Crimea, President Putin got exactly the opposite of what he wanted - he got more forces in the east of Europe, he got more defence spending.

If he continues down this line, I suspect he’ll continue to get more forces on his border and greater defence spending across Nato - the very opposite of what he is trying to intend to do.

Wallace said he hopes Putin “learns the lesson” of Crimea, but warned: “At the moment it’s not looking good.”

Updated

For those just joining today, here’s a refresher on why Boris Johnson’s statement in the Commons did not take place as 2:30pm as planned.

My colleagues Jessica Elgot and Rowena Mason have looked into what happened this morning:

The prime minister’s announcement on his plan to end most Covid rules in England was delayed at the last minute amid a row between the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, over funds for free testing.

Cabinet ministers were told of the delay as they arrived at No 10 on Monday morning during the final wrangling over the “living with Covid” strategy expected to be announced to the House of Commons in the afternoon.

No 10 acknowledged the plan was yet to be completed with just hours to go, with sources confirming there was disagreement over how much should be spent on providing free Covid tests for older and vulnerable people.

Johnson will announce the strategy later on Monday afternoon to the House of Commons, and is likely to announce an end to mandatory isolation, contact tracing and most PCR and lateral flow testing for Covid in the community.

The Guardian revealed last week that there was a split between Sunak and Javid over how much cash should continue to be spent on testing, with the Treasury pushing for as little as £1.3bn – a 90% cut from this year’s £15bn forecast spend. The Department of Health and Social Care had asked for billions more, which could have funded free lateral flow tests for symptomatic over-50s, but this was rejected by the Treasury.

The dispute is now centred on whether the DHSC could use some of its existing budget for a continuation of more community testing for longer.

A government source said there was still no agreement between the Treasury and the DHSC on the extent of the testing cuts, although another source at the DHSC said Javid had accepted the position that most testing must end.

The source denied Javid was seeking new money and said that instead he wanted to move funds from other areas within the department to cover the additional testing. “DHSC are absolutely not asking for additional funding; they want to reprioritise within the existing budget,” the source said.

One of the issues has been that the DHSC asked for enough funding for testing to ensure the survival of the Panoramic antiviral drugs trial, which officials believe would need free lateral flow tests for over-50s and vulnerable adults under 50 until at least September. However, officials are now looking at alternative ways of funding the recruitment of people for the trial.

Read the full story here:

Ben Wallace told MPs: “We urge Russia to stick to its commitments that it has openly made and signed up to over the years.”

He added:

While we will take them at their word, we must judge them by their actions.

It is important that one of Europe’s biggest military powers the UK maintains strong lines of communications with Russia in order to avoid miscalculation or the risk of inadvertent escalations.

The UK, he said, “has not just spoken but acted”, adding:

Intimidation and aggression must not be rewarded, we should be under no illusion the Russian forces have now massed on Ukraine’s borders 65% of all their land combat power.

The formation present and action of the Russian state to date not only threaten the integrity of a sovereign state, but undermine international law and the democratic values in which all of us in Europe so strongly believe.”

He added:

The MoD will continue to monitor Russian actions, support Ukrainian defensive efforts and contribute to Nato’s response measures. We continue to hope President (Vladimir) Putin will relent and pull back from an invasion but we must prepare ourselves for the consequences if he does not.

Vladimir Putin’s “commitment” to invade Ukraine will lead to a “humanitarian crisis”, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, warned.

Wallace said:

I believe he is in danger of setting himself on a tragic course of events leading to a humanitarian crisis, instability and widespread suffering, not just of Ukrainians but also of the Russian people.

The defence secretary also warned of continued “false flag” operations orchestrated by the Kremlin, which he described as a “strong cause for concern that President Putin is still committed to an invasion”.

Updated

Russia continues to be ready to attack Ukraine and has increased troop numbers in the region, the defence secretary has said.

Ben Wallace told MPs:

In the last 48 hours, contrary to Kremlin assurances we have see a continued increase in troop numbers and a change in... position including from holding areas and potential launch locations.

All the indicators point to increasing numbers and readiness of Russia forces and, not surprising to many of us, the pledge to withdraw Russian troops from Belarus at the end of their joint military drills on February 20, were not carried out and the exercise has now been extended until further notice.

Ben Wallace says Vladimir Putin appears to still be committed to an invasion, which would be a “tragic course of events” leading to widespread suffering of Ukrainians and Russian people.

He says: “All the indicators point to increasing numbers and readiness of Russian forces,” citing two amphibious groups in the Black Sea, nine cruise missile-equipped Russian ships and further four cruise missile-capable vessels in the Caspian Sea.

He welcomes attempts to find a diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis but warns “intimidation and aggression must not be rewarded”.

For more on this topic, my colleague Jennifer Rankin is following the developments of the Ukraine/Russia crisis here:

Updated

Energy minister Greg Hands has said he supports Boris Johnson’s “living with Covid” plan and dismissed claims that it was premature.

He told the PA news agency:

We’re looking forward to living with Covid, going forward from here how do we, if you like, normalise the situation.

I’m looking forward to the prime minister laying out his proposals this afternoon in the House of Commons.

He added:

I think it’s a balanced approach.

Clearly we’re not taking our eye off the ball, but equally there comes a time when you have to learn to live with Covid and that’s what today’s proposals, I think, will be setting out how we do that.

A Conservative donor has said he cannot see himself voting for the party unless there is a “complete change of tack”.

Sir Rocco Forte, a hotelier, said he had been disappointed in the government’s approach to coronavirus restrictions and tax.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme:

My disappointment with the prime minister and this government is it’s not acting as a Conservative government.

Instead of reducing regulations, increasing it, instead of lowering taxes, it’s increasing them, and now as a lot of businesses who’ve suffered heavily through the pandemic and have become more heavily indebted as a result are facing increased national insurance costs and increased corporate taxes, and it’s completely the wrong way to approach the situation.

Asked whether he had stopped donating to the party he said:

Well, I mean, you don’t donate every five minutes to the party.

Asked whether it was on pause he said:

Yes... I’d like to see a complete change of tack by this government and if it doesn’t change tack then I won’t be even interested in voting for them.

Updated

Older and vulnerable people to be offered additional Covid booster jab

Over-75s and people with suppressed immune systems in the UK are to be offered another Covid-19 booster vaccination in the coming weeks to increase potentially waning protection, after advice from the government’s vaccines watchdog.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has formally advised a rollout of an additional booster this spring for groups of people seen as most vulnerable to severe coronavirus.

The recommendation is that additional boosters should be offered to people aged 75 or over, and residents in older people’s care homes, and anyone aged 12 or above who is immunosuppressed.

Javid said:

Thanks to our Covid-19 vaccination rollout, we are already the freest country in Europe. It has saved countless lives, reduced pressure on the NHS and is allowing us to learn to live with the virus.

Today I have accepted the advice from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to offer, from spring, an additional Covid-19 booster jab to people aged 75 years and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and people aged 12 years and over who are immunosuppressed.

All four parts of the UK intend to follow the JCVI’s advice. We know immunity to Covid-19 begins to wane over time. That’s why we’re offering a spring booster to those people at higher risk of serious Covid-19 to make sure they maintain a high level of protection. It’s important that everyone gets their top-up jabs as soon as they’re eligible.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
Sajid Javid. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Updated

Talks over a funding settlement for Transport for London will continue until Friday after the government extended emergency finances to allow time for discussion of a new deal.

The latest short-term extension comes as ministers and the mayor of London remain at loggerheads over financing the capital’s transport system after a big decrease in tube journeys hammered revenues.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, told the Commons that the government had supported TfL with more than £4.5bn in extraordinary funding settlements and had now offered a fourth agreement, which the mayor, Sadiq Khan, had until Friday to consider.

In a written statement, Shapps said:

We have recognised that demand and, therefore, passenger revenue has been volatile, and have responded accordingly, compensating TfL for that revenue loss to ensure services can be maintained.

He added:

The government is committed to supporting London and the transport network on which it depends, balancing that with supporting the national transport network.

London Underground train at a tube station.
London Underground train at a tube station. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Here is some more of that story from my colleague Helena Horton. She reports that Conservative MPs are organising a revolt against the prime minister over the scrapping of a ban on the imports and sale of fur and foie gras.

Government sources have confirmed to the Guardian that reports of a U-turn were “broadly correct”, despite the fact the bans were part of the 2019 Conservative manifesto aimed at bringing swing voters on side.

Lorraine Platt, a grassroots Tory campaigner who is known as the “unofficial whip” on animal welfare policies, is organising an influential group of MPs to lobby the prime minister to think again.

Platt is the founder of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, which counts cabinet ministers including Dominic Raab and Zac Goldsmith among its members. She said:

We can’t let Boris be swayed off course by a minority of dissenters. We’ve known for some time there’s been a small minority of MPs who are against any ban on foie gras and fur imports.

We will be taking some action on this. We will be encouraging this measure to go forwards.

Updated

Good afternoon. Tom Ambrose here and I’ll be with you for the next hour or so.

Downing Street has declined to say whether Boris Johnson backs a ban on the import of foie gras amid suggestions of cabinet opposition to the plans, according to the PA Media news agency.

The BBC had reported that the government was likely to drop the proposal after several ministers raised concerns. British farmers are already banned from producing the liver-based French delicacy because ducks and geese are force-fed during its production.

But officials said in May that the government would explore a ban on the sale of foie gras under a raft of legislation designed to protect animals.

Asked on Monday whether Johnson intends to ban the import of the product, the prime minister’s official spokesman said:

No decisions have been made on that.

The production of foie gras from ducks or geese using force feeding is rightly banned in the UK – it’s incompatible with our own welfare standards.

Pressed as to whether the prime minister would like to see a ban in the animals abroad bill, he said:

I think we will need to wait for the bill, I’m not going to pre-empt that.

I’m simply not seeking to pre-empt government policy, you’ll see the position when set out.

Updated

Here’s what you can expect this afternoon in the Commons:

  • The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, will be giving a statement on the situation in Russia/Ukraine at 3.30pm.
  • Boris Johnson to set out his “living with Covid” plan at around 4.30pm.
  • After that the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, will make a statement on the impact of the recent storms.

Then this evening, there will be a press conference regarding the easing of Covid restrictions at about 6.30pm or 7pm.

Updated

The delayed cabinet meeting is now reportedly taking place.

Downing Street is confident Boris Johnson will still deliver his “living with Covid” plan on Monday despite a delay to ministers approving his proposals.

The cabinet was due to sign off the prime minister’s plan, which includes the axing of the legal obligation to isolate after a positive test, this morning.

But the green lighting of the next step back to normality was pushed back to Monday afternoon, with the delay thought to centre on a request from the health secretary, Sajid Javid, regarding how elements of the blueprint would be funded.

Johnson’s plan is still due to be published on Monday, and that he will address the commons at around 4.30pm, which could take an hour or so.

The prime minister will then hold a press conference alongside the chief medical officer for England, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, and chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, this evening.

We’ve been told this will be at around 6.30pm but some are reporting it won’t take place until 7pm.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid strategy statement for Scotland will take place tomorrow.

Updated

Russia would respond with sanctions against the UK if Boris Johnson imposed punitive measures on Moscow.

The Russian ambassador in the UK, Andrei Kelin, suggested British efforts to build a united front in drawing up sanctions in the event of an invasion of Ukraine was a “huge overreaction to the unusual circumstances”.

Asked if Russia would retaliate, the ambassador told the PA news agency:

We will of course find ways to respond.

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and the government’s life sciences adviser, has been speaking about Boris Johnson’s “living with Covid” plans on Radio 4’s The World at One.

He said:

I think we’re in a position now where mandatory legally enforced quarantine for people who are positive is probably not necessary, given the disease we currently have is relatively benign.

The only people are really suffering badly from this disease are the unvaccinated ... I suspect we could keep going [with restrictions] if we wanted to, but it’s not at all clear to me that we’re going to have a serious problem in short/medium term.

At some point we have to decide we have to step back from this and just get on with life.

He also talked about the end of free testing and said:

I think sliding back to a purely commercial model of testing is going to be problematic ... nevertheless we are doing a lot more testing than we need to do.

Updated

Labour MP Richard Burgon has pointed out to some recent YouGov figures regarding public opinion on self-isolating after a positive Covid result.

He said:

Boris Johnson’s decision to end the requirement to self-isolate if you have Covid isn’t backed by the science - and it isn’t backed by the public.

Health and social care workers are bracing themselves for the announcement about the end of free Covid testing.

Although it’s clear the government wants to end the Covid testing programme, it remains unclear who will be eligible for free tests going forward.

Prof Karen Middleton, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), has called for free testing to remain available to staff working in all health and social care settings, not just hospitals and care homes.

She said:

Without a comprehensive testing system in place for asymptomatic people as well as those showing symptoms, we cannot reduce the spread of the virus, particularly as new variants emerge.

Removing this system and ending self-isolation is a reckless act at a time when we have barely emerged from the peak of this wave and cases remain so high.

The CSP is concerned that these changes will also have a greater detrimental impact on those in low wage or insecure employment.

There doesn’t appear to be any public health rationale behind the decision and it risks leaving the NHS and social care systems with ever greater staffing shortages – not to mention the higher risk faced by already-vulnerable patients going into health settings for treatment.

It also seems highly counter-productive for the costs of any continuation of testing to come from health budgets when pressures are so great.

Nurseries in England continue to be severely affected by the pandemic, with latest official data showing record numbers of early years and childcare settings reporting Covid cases at the end of last month.

As the government prepared to lift remaining Covid restrictions, government statistics published on Monday revealed more than 5,000 settings reported one or more cases of Covid in the week beginning the 24 January.

The total was slightly lower a week later, dropping from 5,189 to 4,559, but the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said the figures showed that staff and children were still catching and becoming ill with Covid.

Purnima Tanuku, NDNA chief executive, said NDNA survey data for the second week in February showed absence rates for staff and children beginning to drop. “This will be a major relief for nurseries and parents but with absence still around 9% this shows the impact of the pandemic is not completely over for settings or children.”

It was also confirmed by Ofsted that as of today nurseries and childminders will no longer be required to report to the watchdog if there is a confirmed case of Covid.

Tanuku said:

While settings will be relieved that the administrative burden of reporting cases will be eased … it shows that staff and children are still catching and being ill with Covid-19.

Nurseries are still telling us that Covid is impacting on how they staff and resource their setting and this must be taken into account by Ofsted inspectors when any visits take place; either by allowing deferrals or taking into account the pressures that settings and staff are under.

Updated

The elections watchdog has urged the government not to give ministers a greater say in its work, saying plans to do so would seriously undermine its independence and could affect confidence in the wider electoral system.

In a strongly worded and highly unusual public letter, the Electoral Commission said provisions in the elections bill for ministers to draw up a new “strategy and policy statement” – which the watchdog must take account of – had no precedent in comparable democracies.

“It is our firm and shared view that the introduction of a strategy and policy statement – enabling the government to guide the work of the commission – is inconsistent with the role that an independent electoral commission plays in a healthy democracy,” the letter said.

“This independence is fundamental to maintaining confidence and legitimacy in our electoral system.”

The letter was signed by the full board of the commission, representing all four UK nations, with the exception of Conservative peer Stephen Gilbert, the party’s representative on the board,. The House of Lords is now considering the bill.

Ministers have insisted the provisions will not amount to interference. However, critics and opposition parties have labelled the idea an attempt to neuter the organisation and stop it looking too closely at areas such as party funding.

In the letter, the commissioners said the plan would compel the watchdog “to have regard to the government’s strategic and policy priorities and to help the government to meet those priorities.”

The letter continued:

It would thereby provide a mechanism, driven by the then governing party, enabling that party’s ministers to shape how electoral law is applied to them and their political competitors.

While the stated position of the current government is that it would not intend to use these powers to impact on the commission’s independent oversight and regulation of the electoral system, no such assurances can be given about how the broad scope of these powers would be used over time.

The statement has no precedent in the accountability arrangements of electoral commissions in other comparable democracies, such as Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Read more here:

Downing Street said the postponed cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon would be held via a call rather than in person “because of expedience”.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said it would be a “simpler way to facilitate the discussion” after the planned in-person meeting on Monday morning was cancelled at short notice.

He said that “during the pandemic, lots of significant government policy was agreed in that format”.

He added:

I think the public would understand that meetings can be moved when discussing issues like this and when there’s other things at play including national security.

Updated

A Welsh government spokesman said any decision to change the existing Covid testing programme would be “premature and reckless”.

He said:

Testing has played a pivotal role in breaking chains of transmission of Covid, and has acted as a powerful surveillance tool helping us to detect and respond rapidly to emerging variants. It is clearly essential that this continues.

Any decision to effectively turn off the tap on our national testing programme with no future plans in place to reactivate it would put people at risk. This is not acceptable.

In Wales, we will continue to make decisions to protect the health of people based on the scientific evidence available to us.

Updated

Boris Johnson is now expected to speak to MPs at 4.30pm about his “living with Covid” plan.

This has been delayed from 2.30pm thought to be due to the cabinet meeting being delayed because of a reported row between the health department and the Treasury.

A Downing Street press conference is also expected to take place on Monday evening around 6.30pm, with the prime minister due to speak alongside England’s chief medical officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, and the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.

The delayed cabinet meeting, to be chaired by Johnson, is likely to be “a call rather than in-person”, Downing Street said.

Johnson’s official spokesman said cabinet was postponed “so that the prime minister could have both a security briefing and have further meetings to finalise the plan on living with Covid”.

Updated

Downing Street said Monday’s cabinet meeting would have been the first time the PM’s “living with Covid” plan would have been presented to ministers.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said that although “relevant cabinet ministers have been discussing this for some time now” it would have been the first time the full cabinet had discussed the proposals.

The spokesman said he would not discuss who was in meetings to “finalise” the plan or what was being debated, but he added:

It will obviously be signed off and agreed at cabinet but elements of it... as it is always an iterative process for these plans, it’s right to take the time to get it right.

The spokesman said although the prime minister had dedicated “a lot of time” to the Ukraine crisis over the weekend, that had not prevented discussions on the Covid plan.

Updated

There is still a “window for diplomacy” to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, Downing Street has said.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said ministers still believe Russia intends to mount an invasion of its neighbour with elements of Moscow’s plan beginning to play out.

The spokesman said:

Intelligence we are seeing suggests Russia intends to launch an invasion and President Putin’s plan has in effect already begun.

We are seeing elements of the Russian playbook we would expect to see in those situations starting to play out in real time.

Crucially we still think there is a window for diplomacy. I think that is what we have seen in discussions over the weekend and we want to explore those.

The spokesman said the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, would make a statement to MPs later on Monday.

Updated

Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC says the row this morning which delayed the cabinet meeting has been resolved.

There will be no more money for the Department of Health but the plan “seems instead to move money around within existing Dept of Health budget,” the political editor reports on Twitter.

The cabinet meeting is still yet to be rescheduled, she said.

Updated

Businesses will be liable to pay for their testing regime if they want to continue checking whether their employees have coronavirus, Paul Scully said earlier today.

The business minister told Times Radio “we don’t test for flu, we don’t test for other diseases, and if the variants continue to be as mild as Omicron then there’s a question mark as to whether people will go through that regular testing anyway”.

He said:

But if employers want to be paying (for) tests and continuing a testing regime within their workplace, then that will be for them to pay at that point.

Scully said the government was concerned about the most vulnerable but “we’re not going to be having a testing regime for the next 50 years”.

The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said she was frustrated by the delay in signing off the “living with Covid” plan.

In a tweet thread, she said:

The reality of UK finance flows means this decision determines the money devolved administrations (paid for by taxpayers in Sc, Wales & NI) have for testing.

Expressed frustration to Michael Gove this morning that we still don’t know & this delay deepens that.

Updated

Ian Watson of the BBC is speaking on BBC News now. He says there seems to be a disagreement over the timescale for withdrawing free testing.

Watson says sources have told him that “underlying tensions within the Department of Health and the Treasury of the £2bn monthly cost of free testing have not yet been resolved”.

The timescale of withdrawing free tests and who is eligible for continued free testing is also a source of tension, Watson says.

Boris Johnson’s statement in the Commons is still due to go ahead this afternoon but there will have to be a cabinet meeting before that takes place so it is unclear if it will have to be delayed.

Updated

Steven Swinford of The Times says the row holding up the cabinet meeting appears to have caught the prime minister “completely off guard”.

The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said the delayed cabinet meeting was a sign of “chaos and incompetence”.

He said:

The government is paralysed by its own chaos and incompetence and the British public are paying the price. This shambles cannot continue.

What confidence can the public have that the Conservatives are acting in the national interest when they can’t agree a plan for Covid?

Streeting said it was clear the prime minister was “trying to declare victory before the war is over”, simply to distract from the police knocking at the door of Number 10.

Updated

Several readers are pointing out that there has been a change on the government website where you can order free lateral flow tests, ahead of changes to Covid restrictions due to be announced today.

The system used to restrict people to one pack order per 24 hours. Now the LFT packs can only be ordered once every 72 hours. This change appears to have been introduced today. The Department of Health has been contacted for comment.

Experts have expressed particular concern about clinically extremely vulnerable people, for whom Covid still poses a more serious risk, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reported yesterday. The specialist guidance that has been in place for much of the pandemic is not expected to continue.

Gemma Peters, chief executive of Blood Cancer UK, said that the government had “deliberately abandoned” this group.

Removing free lateral flow tests would “create a massive health inequality” for clinically vulnerable people whose friends, family and colleagues could not afford to take tests before contact, Peters said, while removing the requirement to self-isolate would further ramp up “risk and anxiety”.

Read more on the prime minister’s Living with Covid plans:

Updated

The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine appears “highly likely” despite Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin tentatively agreeing to hold a crisis summit.

The US president agreed during last-ditch diplomatic efforts against the backdrop of heightening tensions to meet his Russian counterpart on the condition Moscow does not invade.

Truss, however, did not appear to be revising her concerns that the Kremlin would order an attack as she warned that the price of an invasion must be “intolerably high” for Russia.

After meeting the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, in Brussels, she tweeted:

Diplomacy must be pursued but a Russian invasion of Ukraine looks highly likely.

The UK and allies are stepping up preparations for the worst case scenario. We must make the cost for Russia intolerably high.

The prospect of talks also did little to dampen fears an attack was imminent in Washington, with the White House saying the Kremlin was continuing to prepare a “full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon”.

Updated

Cabinet has been delayed to allow further discussions between the chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid over testing budgets, the Guardian understands.

Javid is understood to have accepted the case for the end to the majority of testing, but disagreement is still continuing over the extent of the rollback.

A government source denied Javid was seeking new money but wanted to be able to reprioritise his existing budgets.

The source said:

DHSC are absolutely not asking for additional funding, they want to reprioritise within the existing budget.

The reason the cabinet meeting to approve Boris Johnson’s new Covid plans has been delayed is down to an argument about money, several political journalists are reporting.

Harry Cole of the Sun predicts it’s going to be a long day.

Kevin Schofield of HuffPost UK says it sounds like a “proper barney” and has thrown the government’s plans for the day into chaos.

Updated

Some ministers had been photographed arriving in Downing Street ahead of the planned cabinet meeting to rubber stamp the ‘Living with Covid’ plan, which has been delayed.

It is understood it has not been cancelled and is still due to take place later today, after the prime minister has received further briefings, in order for the plans to be signed off.

However, there are rumours that the actual reason for the delay is that there is a row going on.

BBC News is reporting that sources in government have suggested it’s down to ongoing tensions between the Department of health and the Treasury.

Harry Cole of the Sun has heard the same:

One thing has been made clear, the reason for the delay has nothing to do with the Queen.

Boris Johnson’s statement to Commons on the plan was due to take place after 2:30pm. It’s not clear if that will now be delayed.

There is also due to be a press conference this evening, but the time is still to be confirmed. I’ll update you on these times as soon as I have them confirmed.

Updated

A business minister suggested the £2bn spent on providing free coronavirus tests every month could be better used elsewhere.

Amid reports that Boris Johnson was to scrap free Covid tests, Paul Scully told Sky News “we can’t continue forevermore spending 2 billion a month on tests”.

He said:

If you think what that £2bn might go towards, there’s a lot of other backlogs in the NHS, other illnesses in the NHS, that that money could otherwise go for.

So for every person that is worried about a test, there may be another person that’s worried about a cancer diagnosis, for instance.

Cabinet meeting to sign off end of Covid regulations delayed

Two cabinet sources say the cabinet meeting to sign off the final Covid regulations has been “pushed back” and they haven’t got a confirmed time for later.

No 10 denying that it’s cancelled completely but no reason given.

Updated

The Labour-led Welsh government has described any scrapping of testing programmes as “reckless.”

A spokesperson said:

Any decision to change the existing national testing programme would be premature and reckless. Testing has played a pivotal role in breaking chains of transmission of Covid, and has acted as a powerful surveillance tool helping us to detect and respond rapidly to emerging variants.

It is clearly essential that this continues. Any decision to effectively turn off the tap on our national testing programme with no future plans in place to reactivate it would put people at risk. This is not acceptable.

Paul Scully denied Boris Johnson’s expected announcement on Covid rules has been brought forward to distract from the partygate saga.

Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the business minister was asked whether the plan is a “smokescreen”, but said:

No, the restrictions are all peeling back on the 22nd of March anyway, so we need to be looking at these measures and we need to be looking at the data in the round.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen told Good Morning Britain that while he welcomed the prime minister’s rolling back of measures, it did not change his decision to submit a letter of no confidence in the Tory leader.

He said there is “never a bad time to do the right thing”, and added:

The prime minister has done the right thing with regard to the Covid restrictions and that doesn’t change the status of my letter of no confidence.

Updated

There should be a “real high bar to get rid of any prime minister”, Paul Scully has said.

The business minister said he needed to “see the context” before he made any decision on Boris Johnson’s future over the partygate saga.

Asked about an alleged gathering for Johnson’s birthday, Scully said:

I understand this is one that’s not actually being investigated by the police... so in terms of lawbreaking, that’s not going to meet the reach the threshold of evidence.

But nonetheless, that’s what I mean about context, that’s why I want to see the Sue Gray report, see what the police find and then we can work through... have that conversation at that point.

I’m going to wait until I see context before I really make any more judgment on it.

Ministers will reject making misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales and urge MPs to get behind controversial legislation that has been criticised for curbing the right to protest as the government seeks to push through major changes to the criminal justice system.

In a move which will set up a clash with conservative backbenchers and opposition MPs when the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill returns to parliament next week, the home secretary, Priti Patel, will write to members on Monday saying the government will oppose a Lords amendment that would extend hate crimes to cover misogyny.

The home office said its rejection is based on a Law Commission report, which warned that extending hate crimes to cover misogyny would prove “more harmful than helpful” to victims of violence against women and girls.

The government says it is also “carefully considering” a new offence of street harassment that would criminalise the verbal abuse of women, pestering and persistent cat-calling or making lewd comments.

The letter comes after the government has been forced into a series of concessions on crime and violence against women and girls over the last few months.

Responding to the letter, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, condemned Patel for failing to introduce new legislation to tackle hatred against women.

She said:

It is shameful that the home secretary is still refusing to make violence against women and girls a strategic policing requirement so it has the same prominence as tackling organised crime.

She is also still refusing to establish specialist rape units in every police force area or minimum sentence for rape and stalking, and shockingly is still resisting Labour’s proposals for action against landlords who pressurise tenants into sex for rent.

Read the full story here:

Paul Scully said it would be down to employers and employees to make decisions over self-isolating.

The business minister told Sky News:

I would say that it’s like any illness, frankly, any transmissible illness that you would say stay at home.

He said if an employee had flu, they would be expected to stay at home, “but it’ll be down to themselves or down to their employer”.

Asked what action employees should take if their employers tried to force them in if they were ill with Covid, Scully said:

This is why we need to make sure that we’ve got really good guidance for employers.

But as I say, there will come a time when the pandemic moves to more of an endemic approach to Covid, in the same way that flu and other viruses are treated, and that’s what we’ve got to get back to.

But it’s a fine balance, clearly, and that’s why cabinet’s meeting this morning, to go through the science, to go through that balance and debate it and then, obviously, the prime minister (will) come before parliament to make his announcement.

Updated

The public should not “work and live under government diktat for a moment longer than is necessary”, a minister has said.

Business minister Paul Scully told Sky News it was important to make changes to coronavirus rules “to allow the economy to recover, to allow people to get back to a sense of normality, whilst keeping people safe, clearly”, as Boris Johnson prepared to launch his “living with Covid” plan.

Scully said:

Infections are coming down quite rapidly, the hospitalisations and deaths are following as well - they tend to lag behind, obviously, the case numbers - but nonetheless you can see the trend within that.

Scully said the prime minister will be “looking at the best advice possible but getting the balance right”.

The government’s “living with Covid” plan is due to be announced today, despite concerns from scientists, health experts and Labour that the move is premature.

Johnson said the proposal would be about “finally giving people back their freedom” after “one of the most difficult periods in our country’s history”.

The legal requirement for anyone with Covid to isolate will be ditched a month earlier than planned, while free PCR and lateral flow tests for everyone will be axed to rein in public spending and attempt to restore people’s confidence that life can return to normality. The tests will reportedly be kept for the over-80s.

The national contact tracing service is expected to be wound down and schoolchildren will no longer be told to get tested twice a week.

Fresh guidance is expected to be issued, similar to that already published about seasonal flu, designed to let individuals make their own judgments about the risk of catching or transmitting Covid, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reports.

Following meetings over the weekend the cabinet will be assembled to rubber stamp the plans today before a Commons statement by the prime minister and a press conference in the evening, likely to feature the government’s two leading pandemic advisers, Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance.

The changes will start to come into effect from later in the week, reportedly on Thursday which is being dubbed “Freedom Day” by some newspapers.

Welcome to today’s politics live blog. I’m Nicola Slawson and I’ll be taking the lead today. You can contact me on Twitter (@Nicola_Slawson) or via email (nicola.slawson@theguardian.com) if you have any questions or think I’m missing something.

You can also follow our dedicated Ukraine crisis blog here:

Meanwhile, our global coronavirus blog is here:

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