Gavin Williamson, the education secretary for England, has said schools may want to introduce longer days or weekend lessons as they consider how to help pupils catch up for the education they have lost this year. In a statement to MPs, in response to a Tory backbencher who proposed extending the secondary school day by 30 minutes to help pupils make up for the education they had lost, Williamson said that that idea had merit for some pupils - but that it would be for individual schools to decide if they wanted to adopt it. He said: As part of the advice that was worked up along with the Education Endowment Foundation, one of their key recommendations was looking at how you can extend the school day, how you can look at provisional weekends in order to support children who really do need that little bit of extra help in order for them to have a real impact in terms of their educational attainment. All of these measures can have an enormously positive effect and that’s why we developed a £1bn Covid catch-up fund because schools then have the ability to take such action. Labour’s Kate Green said Williamson was responsible for a “summer of chaos, incompetence and confusion that has caused enormous stress” to parents, pupils and teachers. But Williamson received very little criticism from Conservatives in the chamber, despite the fact that his U-turn over A level grades last month created abysmal headlines for the government. Boris Johnson’s claim that Britons are going back to the office “in huge numbers” (see 11.20am) has been undermined by figures showing the traditional mass return to the workplace failed to materialise in London, with passenger numbers on the tube and buses rising more slowly than usual for the end of summer. Johnson has moved to mollify angry backbenchers disillusioned by the number of government U-turns, admitting the government has been forced to backtrack on multiple issues throughout the pandemic but insisting it is on the right course. Tax increases will be needed across the board for Britain’s highest and lowest earners to bring down record levels of government debt amassed during the coronavirus crisis, leading economists have warned. Plans to lift coronavirus restrictions for more than half a million people in Greater Manchester have been thrown into “chaos and confusion” as local leaders urged the government to change course after a sharp rise in infections. Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister tipped to become a UK trade envoy, has railed against Covid “health dictatorships”, saying the economic cost of lockdowns meant families should be allowed to consider letting elderly relatives with the coronavirus die by letting nature take its course. The Scottish government will propose the timescale and question for a second referendum on Scottish independence by next spring, Nicola Sturgeon has said, as she pledged the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic would act as an accelerant and not a brake on the Scottish National party’s ambitions. That’s all from me for today. Our coronavirus coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.