Amid calls from Labour to strengthen the hotel quarantine system to protect the UK from a resurgence of the virus currently hitting the continent, Matt Hancock has refused to rule out foreign holidays this summer.

“The door is not shut, it’s just too early to say,” he told ITV’s This Morning.

Alex Salmond’s new political party is making an audacious bid to appeal to female voters in Scotland, in an effort to distance the former SNP leader from the saga over sexual misconduct complaints.

The new, pro-independence Alba Party is to stage a women-only conference on 10 April, and has pledged to put women at the “front and centre” of key decisions.

Adam Forrest has the report:

The leader of the opposition appears to be having a busy day.

Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated his call for a “comprehensive scheme” of hotel quarantine for all arrivals into the country, in a bid to protect against the third wave of the virus currently in force on the continent.

Urging caution as he welcomed the lifting of restrictions, the Labour leader told reporters: “One of my primary concerns is that, under the government’s scheme, only 1 per cent of those coming from abroad is quarantining. That seems wrong.

“We should have a comprehensive scheme of quarantine because that, it seems to me, is the single biggest threat to the progress that we are making.”

The government should hold an urgent inquiry into claims of a “rape culture” in some schools, Labour has said.

It comes after the chair of parliament’s education committee said the government need to seriously look into claims made about more than 100 institutions.

Labour leader Keir Starmer backed a call by the chair of the education select committee for an investigation into the allegations.

“I’m really worried about what we are seeing over recent days and I know many parents will be, many school teachers and staff and, of course, young people,” Sir Keir told reporters at lunchtime on Monday.

“There’s got to be an inquiry and it has got to get going very fast, this is serious.”

Boris Johnson’s press secretary has refused to say if the PM will give evidence to a Greater London Authority (GLA) inquiry into whether he acted with “honesty and integrity” in his relations with Jennifer Arcuri during his time as London mayor.

Press secretary Allegra Stratton insisted that Johnson does conduct himself in line with the Nolan Principles (which require public office-holders to behave with honesty and integrity).

But asked if he would be willing to provide evidence in person or in writing to the GLA inquiry into whether he had breached the principles, she said the question was “hypothetical”, adding: “Let’s cross all those bridges when they come.”

Arcuri has alleged had a four-year affair with Johnson between 2012 and 2016, making fresh claims in The Mirror on Monday that she slept with him at his family home.

Labour MP David Lammy has won praise for his handling of a LBC radio caller who told him: “You will never be English”.

“How can you be African-Caribbean and English?” asked Jean – who claimed she was “Anglo-Saxon” because she had “looked my name right the way back to the Middle Ages.”

The shadow justice secretary calmly replied: “Here I am, having grown up in the country, having been born in this country, and actually, the truth is it’s a myth there is one English ethnicity – there’s not … all sorts of people have passed through.”

He added: “For me, the fact I was born here, and the fact that my sensibilities are English, mean that I want to claim that heritage as well.”

Journalist Andrew Quinn said it showed why Lammy was “wasted” in opposition. “The guy is without doubt one of the most capable MPs I’ve ever encountered.”

Staying with Scottish politics for a bit, Nicola Sturgeon has promised that the SNP would double Scotland’s child benefit top-up payments if it is re-elected.

Scotland’s minister said ending child poverty would be a “driving mission” for her party in the next parliament.

The benefit is currently worth £10 a week to lower-income families with children up to the age of six – and it is set to be scaled up to children under 16 by the end of next year.

But Ms Sturgeon said in a speech on Monday that the payment would also be doubled from £10 to £20. “The message is this: if you want to put children’s rights before nuclear weapons – vote SNP.”

SNP councillor Michelle Ferns has become the latest defector to Alex Salmond’s new pro-independence outfit, the Alba Party.

The Glasgow councillor intends to stand on the regional list for the Holyrood election in May, saying she wanted to help deliver on the Alba Party’s plan for a “super majority” for Scottish independence.

Mr Salmond claimed Ms Ferns – one of four SNP councillors to defect along with two SNP MPs – had “proven she is a strong advocate for social justice and women in the city”.

Organisers behind the Museum of Brexit want the public to donate money and mementos to create a permanent exhibition devoted to the UK’s exit from the EU, Adam Forrest reports.

Brexiteers said they are aiming aims to raise £650,000 to set up the museum after winning approval for fundraising plans from the Charity Commission.

Organisers also want “treasures” from both the Leave and Remain campaigns so the history of the long-running political battle can be told “fairly and in a balanced way”.

But anti-Brexit campaigner and commentator Alex Andreou questioned whether the museum set up by Brexiteers could ever tell the story in a “balanced” way. He said: “A Brexit Museum can never be neutral, because the notion behind it is not neutral.”

Downing Street has confirmed that Boris Johnson will lead a press conference at 5pm from its new £2.6m media suite in No 9, alongside Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance.