Hancock doesn’t recognise 10 million waiting list projection

Matt Hancock has conceded NHS waiting lists will increase as the service reopens following the concentration on coronavirus cases, acknowledging it was a “very serious problem”.

But the health secretary said he did not recognise a projection by the NHS Confederation that the numbers could more than double to 10 million by the end of the year.

“That isn’t the figure that we have got, but there definitely is an increase. Absolutely,” he told the virtual CogX technology conference.

“Our biggest problem is people not coming forward. We all know that, especially with cancer and other areas like stroke and heart disease, early diagnosis is so important in improving the survival rates.

“We have got to make sure that people come do forward for these treatments that are available again because we have restarted the NHS.”

Mr Hancock said the biggest fall in people seeking treatment had been in accident and emergency, with the greatest reduction being seen in those with the least serious injuries.

“Some of that will be people actually going to the right setting, going to their GP,” he added.

Children missing out on school ‘a tragedy’ says Rishi Sunak

Echoing the language used by the former chief inspector of schools in England, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chancellor Rishi Sunak said children missing out on their education is a “tragedy”.

Sunak told Sky News: “I personally think every day our children are not at school is a tragedy.”

On the reopening of non-essential shops from Monday, the chancellor said: “I hope that when all these shops open people should have the confidence to know that they can go out again in safety. And that’s very important.”

He also said enormous progress had been made in tackling racism in Britain. Asked during his Sky News interview whether he had experience racism, Sunak said: “Absolutely, I have. It stings in a way that very few other things have.”

‘We’ve made such a mess of it’

More now from the former chief inspector of schools in England, Sir Michael Wilshaw, who has called the handling of school closures and failed re-opening an “absolute tragedy”.

He told Good Morning Britain: “What’s happened over the last few weeks and months has been an absolute tragedy.”

He added: “I just don’t know how we’ve made such a mess of it, because headteachers, and I know lots of headteachers, will have been saying to the Department for Education, ‘You’ve got this wrong’.

“If you’re going to insist on social distancing and a maximum of 15 in a class we will need double the amount of space, we will need double the amount of teachers and we’ve got to make sure we have that.”

Two-metre rule causing ‘economic devastation’, warns advisor

The science behind the two-metre rule aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus does not take into account the “economic devastation” and deaths caused by the restriction, a leading sociologist has warned.

Professor Robert Dingwall – a member of one of the sub-groups feeding into the government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) – said that even if the distance was cut to one metre, there would still be a “safety margin” as it was “very rare” for virus particles to travel that far.

The government is coming under intense pressure from businesses and some Tory MPs to relax the rule to help more businesses reopen this summer.

A study published in the Lancet found physical distancing of at least one metre lowers the risk of coronavirus transmission, but distances of two metres could be more effective.

Prof Dingwall told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was a “problematic” study because it did not look at the economic consequences of having a larger distance requirement.

“I think it’s a question of relative risk. Even the problematic Lancet study that was published last week was really saying you’re moving from a tiny risk at two metres to a very small risk at one metre.

“You have to set that against all the other harms that are being done by the, the economic devastation that is wreaked by the two-metre rule, the deaths that will be attributable to the lockdown itself, and to the social and economic disruption that is causing.”

Slave owner’s name dropped from Barclays Bank development

Barclays Bank has dropped the name of a slave-owning tobacco lord Andrew Buchanan from a major riverside development in Glasgow.

The development on the south bank of the River Clyde (home to the multinational bank’s new Northern European hub and 300 new flats) had been marketed as Buchanan Wharf.

But following days of Black Lives Matter protests that have erupted all over the UK, Barclays has confirmed the development will now be known as simply Barclays Glasgow Campus.

10 million on waiting list by Christmas, NHS chief warns

NHS Confederation chief executive Niall Dickson said the entire health service was under “huge pressure”.

Projections by the NHS Confederation show that the combined effects of keeping up social distancing, the backlog of treatments and challenges around staffing mean the list is expected to rise from around 4.2 million currently to around 10 million by Christmas.

Dickson told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “There is going to be huge pressure to get waiting lists down. There’s also going to be huge pressure in other parts of the service – we shouldn’t just concentrate on waiting lists or hospitals but also look at what’s happening in community services and primary care.

“Because in all those areas the ability of the service to meet demand, and growing demand, over this period will be severely constrained by the fact that Covid is still around – so we are still treating Covid patients and recovering Covid patients.

“But we are also dealing with this un-met demand which has built up over this period as well as inheriting what happened before Covid, which was already a service under great strain.”

Schools look to turn hotels and church halls into makeshift classrooms 

Some school leaders have warned that headteachers have been left to find hotels and church halls to use as makeshift classrooms, as the government criticised for having “no plan” to help schools return.

Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis Academy Trust, told The Independent that Gavin Williamson’s announcement on Tuesday “throws the ball back to school leaders”.

“It’s basically a way of saying we’ve run out of ideas – we don’t know what do, over to you.”

Teachers must be paid extra for summer catch-up classes, urges former Ofsted chief

More criticism over the non-return of primary schools in England. Former schools’ chief inspector Michael Wilshaw said teachers must be paid extra to run summer catch-up classes.

He attacked the “absolutely astonishing” failure to deliver the promise that children would return before the holidays – blaming a split between No 10 and the Department of Education.

And he said: “I would be appealing to staff to come in over the summer holidays and take catch-up classes for those youngsters who need it,” adding they should be paid more.

More details here:

Gavin Williamson has presided over ‘total chaos’, says Piers Morgan

Labour’s shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey has shared “dismay” over the government’s handling of the planned re-opening of primary schools in England following education secretary Gavin Williamson’s U-turn.

Teaching unions are calling for a clear plan for re-opening in September and support for parents until then.

Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan was more scathing in his criticism this morning. “When are they doing to be back? What is happening? What is your direction Gavin Williamson? 

“What is going on, Gavin Williamson? You’re the education secretary –  this is your job. And all you’ve presided over is total chaos.”

Opportunity gaps will get wider, says former Tory education secretary

Former education secretary Justine Greening has said opportunity gaps among young people will be “wider” because of the government’s strategy on schools.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, she said: “I think many people will be very surprised that there isn’t yet a government plan in place to help our schools get back open and there’s also not a government plan in place to help children that have been most affected by the schools shutdown to be able to catch up.

“And the big risk for Boris Johnson’s government now is that unless they bring forward a proper joined-up strategy, then it won’t be a government that delivers levelling up in Britain, it will end up being a government that levels down and nobody wants to see that.”

She added: “It will open up opportunity gaps that were already there before and make them even wider.”

East London slave owner statue comes down

A statue of a slave owner has been removed by a local authority in London after Labour councils pledged to begin reviewing such monuments in their areas amid anti-racism protests across the country.

The figure of Robert Milligan was taken down from its plinth at West India Quay in the Dockland on Tuesday evening, two days after campaigners tore down a statue of a slave trader in Bristol.

The removal of the Milligan statue paves the way for a “wider conversation about confronting this part of our history and the symbols that represent it”, the Tower Hamlets mayor said.

It followed mayor Sadiq Khan launching a review into the city’s landmarks and sharing his “hope” some monuments could come down. In Oxford, hundreds of protestors crowded outside Oriel College to demand the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes comes down.

Prepare for summer riots, says government adviser

Britain must be braced for widespread riots this summer, a government adviser says – warning that poorer people will be hit harder by the coronavirus fallout.

Police and the government are being urged to prepare now for the risk of “serious public disorder” on the scale of the 2011 riots.

Professor Clifford Stott – a member of the government’s Sage group – predicted a tinderbox from a combination of inequality, anger at the police, enforcement of restrictions becoming “pretty impossible” and lingering anger over the Dominic Cummings-in-Durham affair.

Prof Stott also described the idea of local lockdowns as “very, very problematic”.

More details here:

Tory MPs angry two-metre rule will stay in place

Rules requiring customers in shops, pubs and restaurants to remain two metres apart from one another are to remain in place, business secretary Alok Sharma confirmed on Tuesday.

“The two metre rule stays in place at the moment, but as the prime minister has made clear, we keep all these things under review.”

The hospitality industry had been lobbying ministers hard to relax the rule, and one representative of bars and restaurants around the country today said that its retention will render almost every business in the sector “completely unviable”.

Plenty of Tory MPs are said to be unhappy about it too. Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt reported: “Tory MPs believe cutting the two-metre rule down to one metre is absolutely at the heart of the wider opening of the economy.

“One very senior Tory MP said to me, “Our leadership is pitiful. Boris Johnson needs to be honest. Opening up the economy brings risks. If we don’t do this we are heading for economic catastrophe.””

Zoos can reopen from Monday – as PM set to explain 15 June lockdown changes

Zoo in England are to be allowed to reopen their doors to visitors from Monday, after the government announced a further relaxation of coronavirus restrictions.

The move comes after the Boris Johnson’s father Stanley joined pleas from zookeepers and conservationists to bring forward the planned opening date from July.

The PM will use today’s Downing Street briefing to outline all the lockdown changes coming next week. We know non-essential shops in England can reopen after business secretary Alok Sharma confirmed the move to bring the high street “back to life”.

Despite speculation about the date being brought forward, Sharma revealed pubs and restaurants won’t open until 4 July “at the earliest”.

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