Starmer accuses Johnson of prioritising party management over public health

Say goodbye to social distancing. Say goodbye to face coverings. Say goodbye to just about all the Covid public health restrictions. Boris Johnson told the public at a Covid press conference last night that the government is pressing ahead with ‘freedom day’ on July 19th – despite saying that new cases could reach 50,000 a day before then. We are moving from “universal government diktat” to “relying on people’s personal responsibility”, he told viewers. But the announcement came with an ominous warning from his own scientific advisers, who said there is a “significant risk” in allowing cases to rise further. Keir Starmer quickly attacked the decision as “reckless” and argued that “key protections”, such as wearing face masks and increased ventilation, should remain.

Some of the measures, such as restricting the number of people who can meet up in someone’s home, are undeniably a pretty stark intrusion into people’s lives. But given that asking people to wear face coverings in certain settings comes at a low cost to individuals, you might wonder why Johnson is so keen to dispense with this one. The answer lies with his Tory backbenchers, who cried “hallelujah” in the Commons yesterday when Sajid Javid told them the news. As Starmer pointed out, ‘freedom day’ has little to do with public health and everything to do with “party management”. The Royal College of Nursing’s Jude Diggins summed it up nicely: “Public mask-wearing is straightforward and well-established – government will regret the day it sent the wrong signal for political expediency.” And while the vaccine roll-out has been markedly successful so far, concerns remain. Not least the impact of ‘long Covid’, about which too little is known.

The controversial police, crime, sentencing and courts bill completed its third reading late last night. Labour voted against the “draconian” legislation but it passed easily as 365 MPs backed the bill and 265 voted against, with not a single Tory rebelling. The far-reaching law, which had hundreds of amendments and new clauses tabled, was rushed through its final stages in the Commons yesterday much to the frustration of MPs from all parties. Conservative Philip Davies told the minister it was an “absolute abuse” that MPs were given just one day to consider such a large bill. The government rejected changes proposed on protecting retail workers, preventing harassment of women and girls, removing measures discriminatory against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, protecting the right to protest and more. Read the full write-up here.

Kate Green will today demand that the government sets out a plan for exams in 2022 by the time children return to the classroom for the start of the school year on September 1st. The Shadow Education Secretary has warned that ministers must “learn from their mistakes” (who can forget the “mutant algorithm” fiasco of 2020?) to come up with a fair plan for next summer. Speaking at an Edge Foundation event on reforming exams today, her intervention follows Gavin Williamson telling a committee last month that  exams could be subject to “adjustments and mitigations” next year, but providing no detail on what those measures will be.

Labour has been calling on ministers to protect leaseholders from the costs of having to replace dangerous cladding, and backed amendments to the fire safety bill earlier this year to that effect. The government published its building safety bill yesterday, and Labour argued it fails to do this. Section 124 of the proposed law requires only that landlords “take reasonable steps to seek other cost recovery avenues” before passing on costs to leaseholders. “Whilst this bill makes important changes to regulation into the future, we needed urgent action and leadership to protect the hundreds of thousands of people already trapped, facing huge bills to fix historic failures,” Lucy Powell said. “Rather than yet another betrayal of their promises to leaseholders, we need legal protections to ensure that millions of pounds of cladding remediation costs are not passed on to innocent homeowners and tenants.”