Boris Johnson suggested education was more of a concern for the government than the economy when considering the impacts of the pandemic.

On a visit to Batley in West Yorkshire, the prime minister said he thought the economy could “bounce back” before turning to education: “The thing that really concerns me at the moment is education and the deficit in our children’s education that we have run up as a result of these lockdowns.

“That for me is one of the major, major priorities for us – making sure that we ameliorate and repair the loss of time in the classroom, the loss of educational opportunities.”

Ministers have promised schools will be the first to leave lockdown and the prime minister said the return of pupils would be “the first sign of normality beginning to return”.

Labour has accused the government of worsening regional inequality through its handling of public finances during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Speaking after the release of regional GDP figures from the Office for National Statistics, Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, said: “These figures confirm what we already know: the pandemic, and the government’s handling of it, is worsening regional inequality.

“We need a responsible approach to secure our economy and bring jobs to every village, town and city.

“Instead, the chancellor is hitting families with a triple hammer blow of cuts to Universal Credit, a massive hike in council tax and a pay freeze for millions of key workers. It’s economically illiterate.”

Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, said the EU’s bid to override part of the Northern Ireland protocol on Friday in an attempt to control the distribution of vaccines “was a mistake that everybody recognises should not have happened”.

“I mean in simple terms, you do not touch the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland without full consultation with the people who are most impacted by it,” the Fine Gael minister told Ireland’s RTE earlier.  

“The Irish government, the British government and, perhaps most importantly, political leaders in Northern Ireland.

“That’s what happened on Friday, which should not have happened. And I think lessons have been learned as a result of that, and it certainly won’t happen again.”

Arlene Foster has accused Boris Johnson of a dereliction of duty after accusing him of not doing enough to address Irish Sea trade disruption.

Northern Ireland’s first minister demanded action from the prime minister amid the continued fallout from the EU’s botched move to invoke a mechanism to suspend elements of the new trading arrangements.The European Commission was forced into an embarrassing U-turn on Friday when it backtracked on an attempt to restrict the free flow of goods across the Irish border.try to unilaterally suspend part of Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol to prevent the region being used as backdoor to move vaccines from the bloc into the UK.

The European Commission was forced into an embarrassing U-turn on Friday when it backtracked on an attempt to restrict the free flow of goods across the Irish border by trying to suspend part of Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol to prevent the region being used as backdoor to move vaccines from the bloc into the UK.

Ms Foster said the EU had “lowered the bar” for triggering suspension, which is done by invoking Article 16 of the protocol.

The DUP leader said she did not accept that the Commission’s initial move on Friday was a mistake.

“It was absolutely an act of hostility and actually they have not ruled out using it again,” she told BBC Radio Ulster.

Ms Foster said it was “patronising and offensive” to described the problems encountered by Northern Ireland businesses and consumers as “teething problems” and she called on Mr Johnson to act and move immediately to deploy Article 16.

“I have to say directly to the prime minister and to the UK government that it is a dereliction of duty for a prime minister of the United Kingdom to stand by and allow United Kingdom citizens to suffer and that is what he is allowing to do at present, so therefore action is absolutely needed,” she said.

While Article 16 suspends aspects of the protocol to facilitate negotiations on resolving the issues of concern, the first minister said she wants the protocol binned altogether. “There’s nothing positive to come from protocol,” she added.

Trade between the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain routes has fallen by 50 per cent on this time last year, according to new figures by the Irish government highlighting the impact of the post-Brexit rules, political correspondent Ashley Cowburn reports.

The government said some businesses were experiencing “severe difficulty” adapting to the new controls since the UK left the EU’s single market and customs union at the end of the transition period.

Government minister James Brokenshire has been discharged from hospital following surgery to remove his “somewhat troublesome” right lung.

Mr Brokenshire had a recurrence of a tumour on the organ and was admitted to hospital in January for the operation.

The security minister said he was keeping “positive and upbeat” as he prepared for the process of rehabilitation and recovery after leaving hospital.

The Old Bexley and Sidcup MP thanked the NHS for the “utterly outstanding” care he had received.

School closures could wind up costing pupils hundreds of billions in the long-term as they behind with their education and skills, a study has found, Maya Oppenheim reports.

The report, conducted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), estimates the Covid crisis will result in children across the UK being likely to lose out on at least half a year of schooling in person.

Researchers used data on returns to schooling to calculate the collective loss in earnings they would suffer in the long term to be £350bn.

The government is on a collision course with rail unions after revealing that pay rises for workers in the industry will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Unions said the decision is a “kick in the teeth” for frontline staff who have kept working throughout the coronavirus crisis.

They have launched a campaign aimed at halting the threat of pay freezes and cuts to standards of living of rail workers.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said: “Today, transport workers who are risking their lives keeping our country moving have found out they have been stabbed in the back by the government, who have extended the public sector pay freeze to the transport sector whilst at the same time it’s business as usual for the private companies who will continue to be able to rake in profits.

“RMT will have no hesitation in supporting national co-ordinated action to deliver our members the pay rise they deserve.”

A pledge to offer the vaccine to all care home staff by the end of January has been missed, a government minister has admitted, deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports.

Helen Whately hailed the “milestone” of making jabs available to all older residents in more than 10,000 homes, but for a small number where visits were impossible because of Covid-19 outbreaks.

But, under questioning, the care minister, admitted the target to offer jabs to all staff in those homes as well had not been achieved.

Any move to close the borders due to coronavirus is a “nuanced decision” for the government, which must also think about the economy, it has been suggested.

Professor Sharon Peacock, executive director of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium, described the situation as a “complex balance”.

She told Times Radio: “We do know that people coming into the country could be carrying the new variant in the same way that people leaving our country could be carrying the new variant.

“Quarantine and investigating people coming into the country is an effective way that other countries have gone.

“I think we have the sequencing capability to understand what people are introducing into the country.”