Passengers who conceal travel to the UK from coronavirus hotspots could face a 10-year jail sentence, Matt Hancock has announced, as the Scottish government went further by unveiling plans for all visitors from abroad to enter quarantine hotels. Hancock has said the lifting of travel restrictions will depend on how vaccines perform against the new variants. (See 1.35pm.) The Times’ political editor, Steven Swinford, thinks this remark may have killed off summer foreign holidays.
Government scientific advisers have designated a new version of the Kent variant – the Kent variant, with a mutation found in the South African variant (or B117 with E484K, to use the jargon) – as a variant of concern. (See 5.41pm.) Covid-19 has accounted for the highest proportion of deaths in England and Wales of any week so far during the pandemic, claiming more than half of lives lost in some areas, according to new data. The government has refused to rule out lengthening the school day and shortening summer holidays in England to help pupils catch up on lost learning. Boris Johnson narrowly saw off a fresh backbench rebellion over Britain’s trade approach to countries suspected of committing genocide. As PA Media reports, MPs voted 318 to 303, majority 15, to remove two Lords amendments from the trade bill, including one which would have forced ministers to withdraw from any free trade agreement with any country which the high court ruled is committing genocide. It was replaced by a government-backed compromise amendment aimed at giving parliament a vote on whether to pursue agreements with such countries. Labour says there was a huge government rebellion in the vote which took place in the last half hour.
Lord Frost, the UK’s Brexit negotiator, has blamed the severely strained tensions with the EU on Brussels struggling to accept a “genuinely independent actor in their neighbourhood”. As PA Media reports, Frost told a committee of peers I think the EU is still adjusting somewhat, as we thought they might, to the existence of a genuinely independent actor in their neighbourhood. Giving evidence to the same committee, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, described the problems as akin to turbulence on a plane. He said: We all know that when an aeroplane takes off, that’s the point when you sometimes get that increased level of turbulence. But then eventually you reach a cruising altitude and the crew tell you to take your seatbelts off, and enjoy a gin and tonic and some peanuts. We’re not at the gin and tonic and peanuts stage yet but I’m confident we will be. That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog. It’s here.