Government admits tiers not working, as Labour refuses to back school closures

Boris Johnson confirmed over the weekend that the Covid tier system of restrictions in England is “probably about to get tougher” and could not guarantee that all schools would return by January 18th as currently planned. This is hardly surprising when the Prime Minister was told on December 20th that schools would need to close and members of the government’s scientific advisory group are warning that it may not be possible to get the R rate below 1 even with the closure of schools. Equipped with that information, what have the decision-makers done? They are ignoring the concerns of education unions, insisting on a chaotic approach to schools reopening in some Tier 4 areas but not others, and have not made up their minds on how to toughen up rules.

There are more people in hospital with Covid-19 now than in April at the height of the first wave. The Kent-grown variant worried Johnson to the extent that he (belatedly) cancelled the Christmas plans of many, something he really did not want to do. Matt Hancock says he is now “incredibly worried” about the South African variant. Still, the PM insists that “schools are safe” (though they may soon be shut) and that lockdowns merely “buy you some temporary respite” (though he is “fully, fully reconciled” that tougher measures may soon be needed). The Health Secretary even stated this morning that “the old tier system is no longer strong enough”. But, confronted with the need for urgent action, they are stalling, as usual.

Keir Starmer demanded on Sunday afternoon a fresh national lockdown for England within 24 hours. Describing the virus as “clearly out of control”, he concluded that further delay would cause more problems. Asked what kind of lockdown he was proposing, a Labour source said: “We need to consider all the measures that were in place in the March lockdown. This includes a much clearer direction to stay at home, re-evaluation of non-essential services that are open and national restrictions, rather than the tier approach, which isn’t working.” One example of things to close, given to ITV, was zoos. Still not on Labour’s list is school closures, although Unite, UNISON, GMB and the biggest education unions are all calling for a pause in reopenings – and frontbenchers such as Marsha de Cordova and Sam Tarry have called for schools to be included in the lockdown.

The Labour leader said he did not want to “add to the chaos that would be caused by having all schools closed tomorrow”, but added that further closures are “inevitable”. He is citing ‘responsible opposition’ as a reason for not backing the union position, but awareness that the right-wing press would attack Labour over this issue is undoubtedly at the forefront of people’s minds. Many of those who agree schools should be “the last thing to close” acknowledge that the time for the last thing to close has arrived, however. Christina Pagel has warned that Tier 4 is not working, hospital admissions are at peak April levels and cases are still rising. It is responsible to recognise the reality of this dangerous situation.

Very, very best wishes from the LabourList team to Jo Stevens, who is being treated in hospital for coronavirus. Sign up to LabourList’s morning email for everything Labour, every weekday morning.