The UK government has this afternoon tightened up its travel advice for Spain, saying it is advising against all non-essential travel to the country, including the Balearic and Canary Islands. At the weekend the islands were not included when the government advised against all non-essential travel to mainland Spain, and reimposed quarantine for arrivals from all parts of Spain, including the islands. Spain has said it is in talks with the UK about getting an exemption for the Canaries and Balearics. But government sources have indicated that no exemption will be granted soon and instead the latest moves shows the rules for the islands being tightened, not relaxed. The government has recorded just seven new UK coronavirus deaths on its daily dashboard - the lowest daily headline total since early March. See 5.06pm. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has said he is cutting short his holiday in Spain and coming home early following the decision to reimpose quarantine on arrivals from the country. He said this would allow him to get his period in quarantine over as soon as possible.
The British government “panicked” when it decided to impose a 14-day quarantine on visitors returning from Spain, according to the Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary, who called the move a “badly managed overreaction”. Imposing an earlier lockdown in England would have saved lives, according to a report into the high death rate of London bus drivers in the pandemic by a leading expert on health and social inequalities. A pet cat has been diagnosed with Covid-19, the first case of animal infection with coronavirus in the UK, the government has confirmed. Police were twice as likely to fine young black and Asian men under the lockdown rules than their white counterparts, according to new figures that underline concerns about racial bias in policing. Sir Mark Sedwill, the outgoing cabinet secretary, has said in a speech at Oxford University that “demoralising” anonymous criticism of government officials has “risen in the last few years”. He said: Any kind of anonymous briefings and sniping is demoralising for people ... It’s not completely unique but it has definitely risen in the last few years. Ministers were also victims of this sort of briefing, he said. There’s nothing more destabilising for a senior cabinet minister to read a whole load of stuff in one of the newspapers about whether or not the skids are under them because of something that’s happened. That’s all from me for today. Our coronavirus coverage continues on our coronavirus live blog. It’s here.