Boris Johnson has suggested the government will simplify the testing regime for travellers returning from safer countries because he wants holidays to be “as flexible and as affordable as possible”. (See 12.46pm.) He made the comment after his latest lockdown announcements at a news conference last night received an unenthusiastic write-up from some of the Tory-supporting papers.
This is not the first time Johnson has sought to mollify his critics after a lockdown pronouncement landed badly; two weeks ago he did something similar after his comment to the Commons liaison committee about pubs being allowed to exclude people without a vaccine passport triggered a backlash. But Johnson may find that he has little scope for opening up “affordable” foreign travel to any great extent this summer. A Sage report (pdf) published last night showed that the government’s scientific advisers are extremely worried about the risk posed by variants from abroad. It said: SPI-M-O [the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational] considers slowing importation of new variants, such as B1351 [the South African variant], into the UK a very important priority to allow for the next generation of vaccines to be developed. Whilst new vaccines can be developed, this will likely take many months. Measures to prevent and manage importation risks such as testing individuals, sequencing samples, and maintaining strict quarantine measures for those entering the country will remain important and may delay the spread of variants of concern. The chief executive of Heathrow airport has accused the government of being “too cautious” over international travel, which could result in the loss of the important summer season for travel companies. Labour has warned that Covid status certificates could be “discriminatory”, with Keir Starmer poised to vote against the measures. The pace of England’s vaccination programme could be squeezed to 2.7m a week until the end of July, meaning there would be little surplus for first doses until tens of millions of second doses had been administered. Stronger recoveries from the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, the UK and other rich western countries will result in faster than expected growth for the global economy this year, the International Monetary Fund has predicted. Labour’s candidate in the keenly-anticipated Hartlepool byelection said he would “double his efforts” after a poll suggested the party was heading for a historic defeat in the town. Downing Street has condemned a planned review by the mayor of London into the decriminalisation of cannabis as a waste of time, saying the issue is not in his remit, and that the government has no plans to change the law. The Stormont assembly is set to be recalled for an emergency debate following days of violence and disorder in parts of Northern Ireland, PA Media reports. Alliance party leader Naomi Long had called for MLAs to debate a motion condemning the recent attacks on police in loyalist areas. The party secured the required support of 30 assembly members for the assembly to be recalled from Easter recess, with a sitting likely to take place on Thursday. That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.