Keir Starmer enters coronavirus self-isolation period for third time

Keir Starmer has announced that he will work from home until Monday as he has been told to enter another period of coronavirus self-isolation after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19.

“This morning I was notified that I must self isolate after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19. I have no symptoms and will be working from home until next Monday,” the Labour leader tweeted.

The development represents the third time that the Labour leader has been told to self-isolate during the pandemic, although he has never reported contracting the virus himself or showing potential Covid symptoms.

Anyone told to self-isolate must not leave their home for any reason and try to avoid contact with household members as much as possible. The self-isolation period is ten days following contact with someone who tested positive.

If Starmer does not have Covid symptoms, he can stop self-isolating after ten days and does not need a test. If symptoms did emerge, he would need to get a test, and would need to keep self-isolating for ten days if it were negative.

Starmer’s first self-isolation took place in September after a member of his household showed possible symptoms. The negative test result was received two days later, just before Prime Minister’s Questions, at which Angela Rayner stepped up.

The opposition leader’s second self-isolation period was in early December after he came into contact with a member of staff from his private office who had tested positive for Covid-19. He did PMQs virtually while working from home.

LabourList understands that it has not yet been established whether Starmer will hand over PMQs to Labour’s deputy leader on Wednesday or lead the session again via a video link from home.