Labour welcomes reports on schools U-turn

The shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said Labour welcomed reports that the government was preparing to row back on calling for all primary school pupils in England to return during this academic year.

She said: “If the government confirms today that it will not be mandating reopening of schools in full before the summer this will be welcome.

“For weeks headteachers, education unions, school staff and many parents have stated that the plans to open whole schools before the summer could compromise any safety measures a school had been able to implement with reduced pupil numbers.”

Long Bailey added: “The government has completely failed to show leadership. They should have brought together all those who needed confidence in their plans, from education unions and local authorities through to parents’ associations.”

Scotland facing ‘deep cuts’ to public services

The Scottish government could be forced to make “deep cuts” to public services if ministers are not given new financial powers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Holyrood finance secretary Kate Forbes has said.

She warned that as it stands it is “increasingly difficult” for the SNP administration to fund its response to the virus without impacting on other areas.

It is now “critical” the Scottish government gets new borrowing powers, she said, arguing this is the only way ministers can reject a “return to austerity”.

Forbes became Scottish finance secretary in February, shortly before coronavirus struck.

Since then, ministers have put in place a number of schemes aimed at helping both businesses and communities left struggling because of the pandemic – with Forbes saying cash from the UK government had provided “about £3.6bn” of the £4bn being spent on these.

‘Much stronger action’ needed against serial abusers, says Yvette Cooper

The government has been urged to tackle institutional failures that allow serial abusers to subject multiple women to domestic violence and stalking.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper has put forward an amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill calling for a new category of offender, to include perpetrators of domestic abuse and stalking who are “high risk” or who repeatedly abuse victims.

Cooper said serial stalkers and domestic violence perpetrators should be monitored using the existing violent and sexual offenders register.

The influential Labour MP told The Independent “we need much stronger action against serial abusers who go from victim to victim but no one properly joins the dots so not enough is done to protect future victims or prevent future abuse”.

Our women’s correspondent Maya Oppenheim has more:

‘Huge disappointment’ if primary schools don’t return, says children’s commissioner

England’s children’s commissioner Anne Longfield has said it would be a “huge disappointment” if the government dropped its plan to have all primary school years return before the summer holidays.

She told the BBC: “It does mean that the vast majority – probably about eight million children – very likely won’t return to the classroom until September, which means that again there will be a huge variation in their learning over that period.”

“Children will remain isolated, but also many will be living with those fragile family environments we’ve heard of.”

She called for online learning and summer camps to help children and their parents cope with such a long period out of class.

Oxford City Council wants Cecil Rhodes statue removed

A majority of members of Oxford City Council have signed a letter urging Oxford University to immediately remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes – an early architect of South African apartheid.

Twenty-six councillors have signed a letter saying the figure at Oriel College was not compatible with the city’s “commitment to anti-racism”.

Oxford West MP Layla Moran has also said the Rhodes statue “must come down” and urged the university to take action “as a matter of principle and matter of urgency”.

A peaceful demonstration is planned in front of the Rhodes statue on Tuesday, part of the city’s response to the growing Black Lives Matters movement which began in the US and saw more than 200 marches take place across the UK over the weekend.

We told you so, say teaching unions

Nasuwt general secretary Patrick Roach said it has been “abundantly clear” that the government’s dates for reopening primary schools in England were “ill-considered, premature and unworkable”.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson is expected to admit on Tuesday that not all pupils school years will go back before the end of term.

“In the absence of definitive guidance from the government, many schools have struggled to understand what they need to do in order to meet appropriate health and safety standards when they do reopen,” said Roach.

He said the government must now accept that its plans for wider reopening of schools are “no longer credible”.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, added: “It has taken the government some time to recognise what was obvious to most.

“The government’s social distancing rules made it impossible for primary schools to admit all pupils before the summer holidays. Primary schools and secondary schools will not reopen to all pupils until September at the earliest.”

There should be free internet access and public buildings such as libraries and community centres could be requisitioned to provide extra space for lessons, she suggested.

Health minister blames the scientists for care home failures

The junior health minister Helen Whately did not fare well during her grilling by Kay Burley this morning when she said “follow the scientific guidance”.

Asking the minister about the failure to protect care homes from widespread outbreaks of the coronavirus, the Sky News host said: “You can’t stick this on the scientists.”

Whately replied: “Well I can.”

The Tory MP then seemed to falter and claimed: “No, no, no – that’s not what I mean to say.”

Burley: “You just said that!”

UK and Japan to start negotiations over trade deal

Negotiations on a post-Brexit trade agreement between Britain and Japan will open on Tuesday – just seven months before the end of the UK’s transition period with the EU.

Japan is currently the UK’s 11th largest trading partner, and the fourth largest outside the EU. Ministers claim the new deal could help the UK as it recovers from the economic shock created by the coronavirus crisis.

But the talks will open as the government comes under increasing pressure to help the economy by extending the transition period, a move Boris Johnson has categorically ruled out.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has more details:

Government must continue to bring back primary schools, says Tory MP

Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons’ education committee, has called for the government to push ahead with bringing back primary schools asap – after reports emerged that ministers are set to abandon plans for all year groups to return before the end of the summer term.

The Conservative MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think the government should definitely think again on this and continue with a phased reopening of schools because I think too many disadvantaged children are not getting an education.”

He added: “We could have an epidemic of educational poverty and be damaging the life chances of hundreds of thousands of young people.”

“We are potentially facing kids not learning for 40 per cent of the school year and this has a massive effect, every statistic shows, on attainment and their life chances in the future,” he said.

Halfon continued: “I appreciate that not all schools can open because they may have old buildings, it may be very difficult. But just because you can’t do it everywhere, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t open schools anywhere.”

Government’s plan for return of primary schools in disarray

The plan for children to be able to return to primary schools in England before summer look to be in disarray, with education secretary Gavin Williamson expected to admit on Tuesday that not all pupils will go back.

The aim had been for all primary pupils in England to spend four weeks in school before the summer break, but some schools say they are already full and cannot accommodate more children.

The BBC has reported that schools will now be given “flexibility” by the Government over whether or not to admit more pupils. Headteachers’ leaders said it had never been a practical possibility to open schools further.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said he was not surprised the plan had been dropped.

He said: “The ambition to bring back all primary year groups for a month before the end of the summer term was a case of the government over-promising something that wasn’t deliverable.

“It isn’t possible to do that while maintaining small class sizes and social bubbles, so we aren’t surprised that the policy has been jettisoned.”

Sadiq Khan ‘hopes’ some London statues will come down – as landmark commission launched

The London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a commission to review and improve diversity across London’s landmarks – and has shared his “hope” some statues would be taken down.

Asked whether he believes it will lead to some statues being taken down, Khan said: “I hope so” – before suggesting the case for the removal of monuments to slave traders was “clear cut”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “One of the things I realise I’ve not got ownership of these statues or the land the statues are on. But it’s a wider conversation I want to have, which is [about] the diversity of the public realm in our city.

“When you look at the public realm, street names, street squares, murals, not only are there some of slavers that I think should be taken down … but actually we haven’t got enough representation of people of colour.”

He added: “There are some statues which are quite clear cut. Slavers – quite clear cut, in my view. Plantation owners, quite clear cut.”

Asked if street names could also change, Khan said: “It depends on what the commission recommends. I’m all in favour of our city reflecting the values we have and the diversity of our city.”

Violent protesters will face ‘full force of the law’, says PM

Boris Johnson said he could not approve of Black Lives Matter demonstrators “flouting social distancing” following the mass protests across the UK against racism.

He also said he would not “indulge those who break the law, or attack the police, or desecrate public monuments” – adding the minority of violent protesters would face the “full force of the law”.

In a piece for The Voice (later delivered as a video statement), the prime minister claimed his government would not ignore the anger and “undeniable feeling of injustice” – but went on to argue the country had “made huge strides” since the rise of the National Front 1970s.

He added: “I truly believe that we are a much, much less racist society than we were, in many ways far happier and better.”

More details here:

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of events at Westminster and beyond.