UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson sets new target of 200,000 tests a day during first PMQs with Keir Starmer

This is from the statistician David Spiegelhalter.

It all started when the chief medical officer for England, Chris Whitty, praised “an excellent article in today’s Guardian” last week. Boris Johnson also referenced it in today’s PMQs when Keir Starmer asked how we had reached a stage where the UK had the worst coronavirus death toll in Europe.

The former Tory chancellor George Osborne told BBC Radio 4’s PM he thought tax rises were inevitable amid reports Rishi Sunak is working on plans to “wean” Britain off the furlough scheme.

He said that as the crisis has made Britain poorer, the government would be forced into a choice between reducing public services or increasing taxes, adding:

Yes, you can borrow in the short term and of course, we’re borrowing vast amounts, now. That is not sustainable in the medium term. It’s not a problem for now and it’s not necessarily problem for this year. But ultimately, the government will have to set out a credible fiscal path to try and get the deficit down to stop the debt rising so quickly. And that will have elements of spending constraints and tax increases.

Q: Will the funding still be available to improve places like Bradford after this is over?

Jenrick says the government remains committed to this agenda.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Q: Final-year student nurses have not had bursaries. But they are now on the frontline dealing with coronavirus. Is that fair? And would you back a campaign to support this?

Jenrick says the government is very grateful to nursing and midwifery students who have joined the frontline. They will get salaries and pensions appropriate for their level. And their student loans will continue if they have opted to start work early.

Q: Sir Patrick Vallance hinted this week that some areas of the country might come out of lockdown sooner. If that were to happen, what help would the police get to deal with the influx of people?

Jenrick says the police are getting the support they need.

Doyle says the contact-tracing process being introduced will ensure that people with symptoms get isolated quickly. This scheme is essential to allow ordinary life to resume.

Q: [From Cornwall Live and the Western Morning News] Hoteliers and others fear they will lose the whole season if they do not reopen by July. What can you do to help?

Jenrick says he understands this. He says measures to help businesses announced by the Treasury have helped. Cornwall council has been one of the best in the country at getting grants out.

He says the PM has said that if further interventions are required to help a sector, the government will consider that.

Q: Will PPE be introduced in schools?

Jenrick says the government has taken advice on this. But the advice has been that staff in non-residential settings do not need PPE, he says.

Doyle says getting the confidence of parents and children will be critical.

She says there has been a lot of debate about face masks. They are probably helpful in protecting others if the wearer is infected.

But face masks alone are not enough. Good hygiene is essential.

There are issues like how schools are cleaned, and spacing, to be considered.

She says the government is working intensely on this, and look at what is happening in other countries.

On testing, this is from my colleague Anushka Asthana.

Q: Might you lift lockdown restrictions later in places like the north-east?

Jenrick says the PM will address this on Sunday.

But the government’s “strong preference” is for the UK to move as one, he says.

However, he suggests that if specific measures were need to prevent a recurrence in particular places, the government might re-impose measures locally.

Here is Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, on the latest testing figures. (See 5.09pm.)

My colleague Rowena Mason has the full story here:

Jenrick says he thinks the money given to councils so far is sufficient to meet their immediate needs.

But the government will work with them to make sure they have what they need.

He says they should continue to do essential work. And the government will then work with them to understand what the extra costs will be.

Q: [From BBC Yorkshire] What is the government doing to make sure that people who need vital operations can get them?

Kanani says in recent months the NHS had to focus on coronavirus, and essential treatments.

But now it is getting back to normal services.

Q: [From BBC West Midlands] The PM said councils would get extra help. But it looks as if that won’t be enough. Birmingham council has extra costs of more than £260m. The council says essential services will get cut if they don’t get more help.

Jenrick says the government has promised to give them what they want. It has already committed £3.2bn, he says.

In the West Midlands councils are getting £347m, he says.

If further resources are required, the government will consider this, he says.

Q: But will the extra money get through to each council. A council like Shropshire says it has not had enough. And town councils say the money does not filter down.

Jenrick says the government is committed to helping councils. He says councils have had more money than they need to meet their Covid costs.

Jenrick takes a question from Emma from Swansea. She says sport seems to have been prioritised over religion. When will people be free to worship again?

Jenrick says this has been a difficult time for faith groups.

But he says it is right to stick to the medical advice to protect others.

The government is talking to faith leaders about recommencing services when the time is right. But that time is not now, he says.

But he says his department has issued guidance allowing people to hold funerals with small numbers of family members present.

He says it was “not right” that some families were not allowed to attend funerals.

Prof Yvonne Doyle, the medical director of Public Health England, is now presenting the daily slides.

Here is the chart of testing, showing the 100,000 tests per day target has again been missed.

Here is the crude global death comparison slide. This one is shown every day.

And here is the chart showing global comparisons on a per head basis.

(Even on this chart, the UK’s performance is poor. Of the countries featured, only Spain comes out worse.)

Doyle says it takes time to get the figures that allow a fair comparison. She says it may take a year before the data is available.

Nikki Kanani, the medical director of NHS England, is speaking now. She says she is a GP.

She says she wants to thank people for following the government advice.

Primary care services are still there for people, she says. There may be more telephone calls or online consultations. But the NHS is still there, she says.

Jenrick says this week the government has announced funding to allow councils to help small businesses.

Referring to VE day, he says events will have to be marked at home on Friday.

He recalls speaking to a veteran who said, just as we recovered from the second world war, we will recover again.

Jenrick says coronavirus won’t hold back the government’s commitment to levelling up.

He says Boris Johnson will set out on Sunday how the government will move ahead.

Jenrick says his department will help local communities recover.

He says they are looking at how public transport can be made safer.

And they are looking at what can be done to make it easier for people to walk or cycle to work, he says.

A millionaire mayor who lives in a stately home and who was criticised for closing his town’s parks amid the pandemic has announced they will be reopened on VE Day.

Andy Preston, who ran a hedge fund and a charity before he was elected as an independent in Middlesbrough, previously said he was right to lock the gates in three major parks, saying the town had been officially found to be the most vulnerable to coronavirus in the country.

But since then, Preston, who owns a grade-II listed mansion with extensive grounds near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, has announced the parks will be opened again from Friday on a trial basis.

The mayor said on Twitter that the time was right to make the change, due to it being VE Day and with the “apparent levelling of infection rates”. He said play areas would remain off limits, but the “beautiful scenery” was open.

The Labour MP for Middlesbrough Andy McDonald had earlier told the Guardian some of the town’s parks could fit within the grounds of the mayor’s mansion, adding:

He can enjoy that, but people living in small terraced houses, they can’t get their lungs breathing in a pleasant environment.

And the local government minister Simon Clarke, the Tory MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, had written to all councils urging them to keep parks open.

And since we are looking at what academics are saying, this is worth flagging up. It is from Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine and it presents the latest weekly death figures for England and Wales in the form of what it calls a Florence Nightingale diagram (because she presented data in a similar way). The idea is that presenting death figures in a radial form like this makes it easier to spot variations from the seasonal norm.

Key workers in the frontline battle against Covid-19 should be paid a real living wage, the archbishop of York has told the Lords.

The Rt Rev John Sentamu said the current coronavirus crisis had underlined the need to recognise and value the UK’s key workers, and that paying them at least a real living wage would be a “litmus test” for a fair recovery after the lockdown.

Opening a virtual debate, the archbishop, who chaired the Living Wage Commission, said it was “shocking” that child poverty had not been the number one priority in the “unprecedented package of support” announced by the chancellor. He said:

The coronavirus national emergency is already exposing the inadequacy of the safety net provided by our social security system.

People not previously reliant on the system were now finding how “mean” it was and the crisis would hopefully lead to a more generous and compassionate system, he added.

The real living wage would provide an hourly rate of £9.30 across the UK and £10.75 in London. Sentamu said higher pay would benefit not just workers but businesses and allow the country to “bounce back better” from the pandemic.

One of the major unknowns in relation to coronavirus is how many people get the virus but remain asymptomatic. Some new research from the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CMMID) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests that the figure may be much higher than people assume.

The researchers looked at data from the coronavirus outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where eventually 80% of passengers and staff were tested. Combining this data with information with data about when people developed symptoms, and modelling showing how the virus would have spread, the team estimated that 72% of people on the ship infected with the virus remained asymptomatic.

The research has not been peer-reviewed, but there is a preliminary outline here, and a press release here. Here’s an extract.

The research team estimated that 72% of people infected with Covid-19 onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship remained asymptomatic. For each asymptomatic case, it remained uncertain how infectious they were although they were unlikely to be as infectious as a symptomatic case.

Overall, the team estimate that asymptomatic cases were responsible for 11-84% of all infections during the outbreak. Work will be extended with more data (where available) and to other outbreaks, which the team hopes will enable more accurate estimates of the impact of asymptomatic cases on all infections over the coming period.

Rein Houben from the CMMID, who led the research, said:

We know that a substantial number of people infected with the coronavirus are asymptomatic, and there is anecdotal evidence that this group can transmit the virus, However, there are few reliable estimates on the proportion of people with Covid-19 who don’t show symptoms, and their overall contribution to the spread of the virus.

This information is crucial for health policymakers to develop the most effective response strategies, including exiting from lockdowns. Using data from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, we aimed to help fill this knowledge gap.

Yesterday Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said that people had a duty to download the new contact-tracing app.

Lord Sumption, the former supreme court justice, told Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett earlier that he was fed up of being spoken to like that by Hancock. Sumption explained:

I’m fed up with being told by the health secretary what my duty is. My duty is to comply with the law. And that I will continue to do. As to everything else I will decide for myself if it is a sensible thing to do. And it sounds like it is.

Sumption, who has been critical of the lockdown, said it was time for the government to trust the public. He said:

The government have really got to stop treating the whole of the population as if they were children. Those who… still want a lockdown, can isolate themselves. Let those who don’t, exercise their own common sense and own sense of self-preservation, and get on with their lives. I think this should become voluntary. It would be perfectly possible to make compliance voluntary but to keep closed venues such as restaurants, pubs, theatres, football matches and so on.

In the latest episode of the Politics Weekly podcast, Heather Stewart and Kate Proctor discuss a particularly bad week for Boris Johnson’s government which saw the UK’s death toll surpass 32,000, overtaking Italy as the worst-hit in Europe.

Plus Frances Perraudin reports on how the response of devolved governments in the UK to Covid-19 might affect the future of the union.

The rate of increase in confirmed cases of Covid-19 in prisons in England and Wales accelerated in the most recent 24-hour period, data from the Ministry of Justice shows.

As of 5pm on Tuesday, 386 prisoners had tested positive for Covid-19 across 74 prisons, an increase of 7%, while the number of infected prison staff rose by 8% to 433 workers across 67 prisons in the same period.

The number of confirmed cases had been slowly rising by about 1% a day in the last week.

A total of 19 prisoners and six prison staff are known to have contracted Covid-19 and died.

There are 80,100 prisoners in England and Wales and around 33,000 staff in public-sector prisons. Public Health England modelling published last week showed the number of cases and deaths at this point in the pandemic was lower than expected but warned restrictive measures would need to remain until April next year.

The updated figures come as two major penal reform campaigners urge the government not to abandon its early temporary release scheme after documents showed a fraction of those approved for release had been freed.

A “much-loved” care home nurse died with coronavirus just days after her granddaughter was born.

Karen Hutton, 58, died at home in the town of Carnoustie, Angus, on 28 April after testing positive for Covid-19. Her only daughter, Lauren, gave birth to a baby girl just two weeks ago, according to care home operators Thistle Healthcare.

She was employed as a staff nurse in the dementia unit at Lochleven Care Home in Broughty Ferry, Dundee. Andrew Chalmers-Gall, manager of Lochleven Care Home, said:

Karen was a tenacious advocate for her residents and she always put their needs first. She was a much-loved friend and colleague, and she’ll be missed terribly by everyone at Lochleven.

A report commissioned by the judge in charge of the family courts in England and Wales raises severe doubts about the “fairness” of remote video hearings being conducted during the coronavirus crisis.

Carried out by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory on behalf of Sir Andrew McFarlane, the study says many of those involved found it “extremely difficult to conduct hearings with the level of empathy and humanity” normally required.

More than 930 people responded to the survey including judges, magistrates, barristers, solicitors and parents participating in remote video hearings. Only urgent cases were initially being dealt with by the courts during the lockdown but fear of a massive backlog of cases and the wide availability of online technology created pressure for more online justice.

The report said there were significant concerns raised about the fairness of remote hearings and there were “some worrying descriptions of the way some cases had been conducted”. Concerns related to “where not having face-to-face contact made it difficult to read reactions and communicate in a humane and sensitive way, the difficulty of ensuring a party’s full participation in a remote hearing, and issues of confidentiality and privacy”.

There were also fears about cases involving domestic abuse, parties with a disability or cognitive impairment or where an intermediary or interpreter is required, and concerns were raised about the presence of children during proceedings.

In domestic abuse cases, the report said, “there is a risk that the court process itself may be used as a coercive control tactic and increase feelings of vulnerability. …Some [victims] are distressed by being alone at home during the hearings where they might hear or see the perpetrator.”

The report noted:

Particular concerns were raised by some respondents about urgent applications for interim care orders in relation to newborn babies, with new mothers having to join hearings from hospital, with accompanying difficulties in connectivity and in ensuring any privacy while the hearing was taking place.

Some uplifting mid-afternoon news. A father-of-two who spent 19 days in an induced coma in hospital has recovered from coronavirus and returned home in time to celebrate his son’s second birthday.

Omar Taylor, 31, was welcomed home by applause and banners from neighbours after spending six weeks in hospital with Covid-19. He had been intubated, placed in an induced coma at Colchester hospital, and was on a ventilator for 30 days. His wife, Kaitlyn, had been told to prepare for the worst.

After suffering from coronavirus, double pneumonia, sepsis, heart failure and two strokes, he recovered enough to continue his recovery at home. Doctors said he would never walk again, but he left hospital – on foot – in time for his son’s birthday. He is stable but remains critical.

Kaitlyn told the BBC: “He still can’t speak, it’s very hard for us to understand him. But he’s done so well at home. It’s just going to take time.”

The BBC has the story and here is a GoFundMe page set up to support the family.

Beauty firm The Hut Group is utilising its global supply chain to donate 3.5 million items of medical-grade personal protective equipment to the healthcare system in Greater Manchester.

The total shipments include 150,000 face masks, 50,000 disposable masks, 950,000 surgical gloves, 184,000 face shields, 24,000 medical gowns, 500,000 single gloves and 750,000 FFP2 masks.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said:

I’m proud that a Manchester-headquartered global business has used its international contacts and purchasing power to support us in our hour of need to save lives and protect the NHS.

This comes on top of what they’ve already donated to support our frontline staff across Greater Manchester. What a great example of business stepping up to help others.

Discussing the “winding down” of the government’s furloughing scheme on BBC Radio 4’s World at One today, the former Treasury minister David Gauke said that although the scheme seemed to be working, there was a risk people will “get too used to it” as unfreezing the economy is set to take a while. He said:

The challenge is to strike that balance between preventing mass unemployment, which nobody wants, and laying people off from jobs that are completely viable at the end of this process, but on the other hand incurring huge costs to the taxpayers and locking people into doing nothing, when in fact everyone would be better off if they ultimately could go out and move to a different sector, a different employer where they’ve got a sustainable business.

There is a broader risk that we as a society are perhaps insulated from the economic challenges in a way that is a bit of a false position, because in the end you can’t properly be protected from the economic realities and if we don’t recognise that in the end we are going to have to pay our way, we are going to get people back to work, there are long-term risks for the economy.

I don’t think anybody is addicted yet but if over time we end up paying people for staying at home, that’s what they’ll do.

England’s Test cricketers have been told to expect daily temperature checks, regular Covid-19 swabs and possibly nine weeks away from their families under ambitious plans to get the series against West Indies and Pakistan played.

Joe Root’s side had their first briefing about the “bio-secure” measures due to be in place this summer on Tuesday and learned that a squad of up to 30 could be chosen for a run of six Tests at the Ageas Bowl and Old Trafford from 8 July.

While the plan is still fraught with hurdles and subject to guidelines for all sports being approved by central government, there is a growing belief at the England and Wales Cricket Board that the two grounds, with their on-site hotels, could see the risk of playing behind closed doors mitigated to an acceptable level.

In the House of Commons the business minister Paul Scully said that any workers asked to work in an environment they thought was unsafe should contact the health and safety authorities. He was responding to an urgent question tabled by Labour about the potential risk to employees.

Andy McDonald, the shadow employment rights minister, asked the government to publish the guidelines being drawn up for employers to follow when the lockdown starts to relax. Scully told MPs:

This is not a finished process at the moment. What we need to do is get into the technical detail to make sure that everybody has confidence, in the same way that employees need to have confidence. They should be able to discuss with their employers the steps they might take to make their workplace safer themselves, especially when we start to lift restrictions.

Where workers still feel unsafe though, they can contact the Health and Safety Executive or their local authority and where [poor health and safety is uncovered] they can take action.

The EU trade commissioner, Phil Hogan, has warned the UK needs “to get on with the job” if there is to be a deal by the end of the year. Speaking at an Institute of International and Economic Affairs virtual conference, he said:

They need a lot more intensive engagement than we’ve seen in the last few weeks and months. And if we want to achieve the outcome that is preferred by the United Kingdom, to have a deal by the end of the year, we need to get on with the job.

He said the June stock-take by both sides would be “critical” but the UK need to come up with a plan for fisheries, governance and level playing field so they could put it on the negotiating table. He went on:

We’ve been very patient in the European Union and with the United Kingdom in terms of the slow pace that it has shown in relation to engaging with the discussions, and we take account of course of the illness of the prime minister and we hope that he continues to his full recovery.

But I think that the place to do all of this work is at the table of negotiations where there’s been many opportunities, which have not been taken by the United Kingdom in recent weeks, so we hope that in the next two rounds of negotiations, one of which will be next week, that we will see much more intensive work being done much more engagement.

A “careful and cautious approach” to lifting the lockdown is required, the Welsh government’s finance minister, Rebecca Evans, has said.

At her administration’s daily press conference,Evans said the Labour-led Welsh government’s preference remained for a four-nation approach to the easing of lockdown. She said:

We’re keen to move as closely as we can with England at the moment because in Wales we have so many people living on the Wales-England border and it’s important we move in step when we can.

What I expect to see from the prime minister on the weekend is a careful and cautious approach to lifting the lockdown.

Evans called for a “tapered approach” when the furlough scheme winds up. She said:

When it does finally come to an end, as it will inevitably have to do, I think a more tapered approach would be the way to do that.

Here is our story on the Boris Johnson/Keir Starmer exchanges at PMQs. It’s by Rowena Mason and Kate Proctor.

Sir Keir Starmer and other Westminster opposition leaders will be speaking with Boris Johnson about the coronavirus response tomorrow. The Labour leader would raise the need for a “national consensus” on easing the lockdown based around keeping the public safe, a “mass expansion” of contact tracing and protecting key workers, his spokesman said.

A legal challenge has been launched over the way in which do not resuscitate (DNR) orders are being issued during the coronavirus crisis without allegedly sufficient consultation with patients or their families.

Lawyers representing Kate Masters, who brought a case over such orders in 2014, have written to the Department of Health and Social Care warning that the way in which DNRs are made is currently unlawful.

Masters believes that decision-making around DNRs has become “opaque, inconsistent and deficient”. She is concerned about her own position because of her health problems. She says she feels at significant risk of DNR decisions being made without proper process. She said:

I have watched with alarm as reports of blanket DNR orders in care homes and failures to consult with patients and their families have been reported in the news since the start of the coronavirus crisis. After all that my dad did to fight to clarify the law regarding DNRs, I am determined to ensure that my human rights and those of others are not breached due to a lack of government direction.

Merry Varney, her solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day, said:

DNRs imposed in circumstances where patients and their families have no or little information, and no consultation, often lead to a complete breakdown in trust and numerous stories reported in the media show how common it is that patients and families believe these cannot be imposed without consent. Healthcare professionals are already overburdened, our client believes it is time for the government to step up and give national guidance that will ensure consistent and lawful decision-making at a local level and also ensure patients’ fundamental human rights are being upheld.

The proportion of all Scottish coronavirus deaths happening in care homes rose to 59% last week, up from 52% the week before, adding to the sense of crisis in the sector.

National Records of Scotland, the government agency, said that deaths overall from Covid-19 had declined week on week for the first time since the outbreak began, with 523 deaths relating to the virus recorded in the week ending 3 May (see 12.22.).

That was a fall of 135 from the previous week, with the data including deaths in all settings, including hospitals, homes and other places. There were 310 care home deaths recorded in Scotland last week, compared with 339 the week before.

The NRS said 37% of all Covid-19 deaths last week happened in hospitals compared with 42% the week before. It said three-quarters of all registered deaths so far involved people aged 75 or over, and 52% of the total were male and 48% female.

Pete Whitehouse, the NRS director of statistical services, said:

These latest figures shown that for the first time, since reporting of registered deaths relating to Covid-19 began for week beginning 16 March, there has been a reduction in Covid-19 related deaths from the previous week – down from 658 to 523 Covid-19 related deaths.

Cycling could increase fivefold across London under post-lockdown plans to overhaul the city’s streets, where pavements will be widened to allow for physical distancing and queueing outside shops.

New walking and cycling routes will be constructed along major corridors, including temporary cycle lanes along routes such as Euston Road, under the “London Streetscape” plans. Transport for London (TfL) is also looking at creating temporary cycle lanes on Park Lane.

The release of the initial details by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, comes as he continues to come under pressure to increase tube services or take steps to address significant numbers of people still using the network.

Khan’s office said that millions of journeys a day would need to be made by other means, with London’s public transport capacity potentially running at a fifth of pre-crisis levels.

If people switched only a fraction of those journeys to cars, it warned that London risked grinding to a halt, air quality would worsen, and road danger would increase.

The plans were welcomed by organisations such Living Streets, a walking charity, which said the the pandemic had highlighted the importance that walking plays in people’s lives. Its director, Stephen Edwards, said:

Where London’s pavements aren’t suitable for safe social distancing, it is vital widening happens to ensure people aren’t forced into the paths of oncoming traffic.

Labour’s Lilian Greenwood asks Johnson to give councils a cast-iron guarantee that they will not lose out from coronavirus.

Johnson says the government has already given billions to councils. And that won’t be the last they get, he says.

And that’s it. PMQs is over.

Rob Butler, a Conservative, asks Johnson to support “Bernie the Bus”, a community initiative in his constituency.

Johnson does so, saying he is a supporter of buses.

The SNPs David Linden asks if the goverment will lift the benefits cap.

Johnson says the government is spending an extra £7bn on benefits.

Simon Fell, a Conservative, asks if the government supports giving a catch-up premium for schools with disadvantaged pupils, who are likely to have fallen behind.

Johnson says extra computers and laptops have been provided.

And there will be more to come, because this is a government that will pursue our agenda of uniting and levelling up.

The SNP’s Mhairi Black asks if there are any plans to increase the value of employment support allowance.

Johnson says the seven-day waiting time has been removed.

People want a wide programme of support from the government, he says.

Ben Bradley, a Conservative, asks about further education. Johnson says the government is going to need this sector badly to provide the skills required for the recovery.

Justin Madders, a Labour MP, asks Johnson if he agrees that it would be wrong for furloughed staff to get laid off.

Johnson says this scheme has been a success. He wants people to be able to go back to work safely and securely.

Rehman Chishti, a Conservative, asks the government to allow small family funerals. It is not fair that they cannot take place while cremations can, he says.

Johnson says he agrees. He wants councils to address this.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, also mentions the figures showing the UK with the highest death figures for Europe. Some estimates show the numbers could be even higher.

Will the PM follow the best scientific advice in relaxing the lockdown?

Johnson says he will. He says it would be a mistake to introduce measures that would allow a second peak.

Blackford welcomes Johnson’s comment, but says the Scottish secretary, Alister Jack, has been politicising this issue.

Will the PM agree to ensure the devolved administrations agree what is being planned?

Johnson says he wants the widest possible support for what he is announcing.

Starmer says Johnson has admitted there was a capacity problem.

He cites a survey about doctors having to buy their own PPE.

This will get worse when people return to work.

Can the PM assure people they won’t be asked to return to work until a plan is in place?

Johnson says he can.

He says the PPE shortages have been “enraging”.

There have been no national “stock outs” of any PPE item, he says.

• Johnson confirms he will set out details of his plan to start relaxing the lockdown on Sunday.

Starmer welcomes the PM’s decision to set a deadline for the 200,000 a day target.

Why was contract tracing abandoned in mid-March?

Johnson says the difficulty in mid-March was that the testing capacity could not meet demand. But now there will be a team in place that can trace hundreds of thousands of cases across the country.

As I think is readily apparent Mr Speaker to everybody who studied the situation and I think as the scientists would confirm, the difficulty in mid-March was that the tracing capacity that we had, that had been useful as he rightly says in the containment phase of the epidemic, that capacity was no longer useful or relevant since the transmission from individuals within the UK meant that it exceeded our capacity then.

Now the value of the testing, tracking and tracing operation that we’re setting up now is that as we come out of the epidemic and as we get the new cases down, we will have a team that will genuinely be able to track and trace hundreds of thousands of people across the country and thereby to drive down the epidemic.

To put it in a nutshell, it is easier to do this now, he says.

Starmer says the government publishes comparative death figures every day. So it can’t argue they don’t count.

He says the government has been too late on issues like testing and PPE.

Why has it taken so long to improve the situation in care homes?

Johnson says there has been a “palpable improvement” in care homes.

Johnson says the government is supporting tourism in Devon. The priority is to suppress this disease, he says. He says that will help tourism everywhere.

Boris Johnson starts by paying tribute to the 107 NHS workers and 29 care workers who have died.

And he pays tribute to the staff who looked after him at St Thomas’ hospital.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, opens PMQs by talking about VE day on Friday. There will be a wreath-laying ceremony in the Commons, he says.

And he says the whole country will welcome Boris Johnson back.

These are from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.

From the Labour adviser Damian McBride

Here is the “call list” (pdf) of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.

A businesswoman has told the PA news agency she is too scared to return to work when lockdown measures are eased after being spat on during her commute.

Jenny Pattinson, who is mixed race, said she was shaken and angry after the incident, which police were unable to investigate further as the CCTV footage had been overwritten.

The 41-year-old, from Ascot, Berkshire, now does not feel safe in public without her husband, and will continue to work from home for a while once the lockdown is lifted. She told PA that racist behaviour and comments are “just a day-to-day reality for Chinese people and the pandemic has made it a lot worse”. She said:

It’s escalated, it’s immediately more threatening.

I’m a professional woman, I’m 41 years old, I work in the City of London. I’ve worked hard to get to where I’ve got to, I was born here.

But I feel scared now. Even if lockdown lifts, I’m not going to be going back to work straight away because I feel quite scared without being with my husband, to be honest with you.

And that’s a feeling I have not experienced since when I used to get bullied at school, racist bullying when I was a kid, feeling that scared.

Pattinson, whose has a Chinese mother and Scottish father, said she had also noticed other commuters avoiding her on the train before lockdown was imposed.

Her mother, who is in her 70s, was sworn at and called “filthy” on a flight in March, while her cousin, a frontline hospital worker, has also received abuse.

Asked what she thinks will happen when lockdown measures are eased, she said:

I think it’ll be much worse. I’ve seen what’s on social media as well, the vitriol. Sometimes people have commented on news articles that are reporting about this virus, and just the amount of racism, the level of racism, the amount of stereotyping that’s going on is absolutely horrific.

Just seeing those things just make me feel more concerned and more worried and more scared actually, for myself and for my family members and friends.

Pattinson said it is sad that there has been no high-level condemnation from the UK government, especially after comments from the US president Donald Trump about Covid-19 being a “Chinese virus”. She urged Boris Johnson to speak out, adding:

I think there needs to be somebody standing up and saying this isn’t right.

Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has said the programme’s producers have “contingency plans” to help ensure this year’s series can go ahead despite the coronavirus disruption.

He told ITV’s Lorraine that he has his “fingers crossed” that it can go ahead, adding that there are “ways about it” that could mean the programme does not have to be cancelled.

Revel Horwood noted that not all routines “mean you are dancing together” and couples could “remain two metres apart or whatever the rules might be at the time”.

A socially distanced series “could become something really quite special”, he said.

He added that the BBC “do not want to let the people down” and that he is “pretty much on board” that the series is going to happen.

At least two people a day have been using a free train travel scheme to escape domestic abuse during the coronavirus lockdown, figures reveal.

A total of 53 people have used the Rail to Refuge scheme since 9 April, which offers free train travel to a safe refuge, the Rail Delivery Group said.

More than half of people who booked through Rail to Refuge said they would not have travelled if the journey was not paid for, the RDG said.

The scheme launched in September last year on Southeastern services and in March, GWR joined. It was extended to all train companies on 9 April amid warnings the pandemic was triggering a surge in domestic abuse cases.

Southeastern recorded just seven uses of the scheme between September and 9 April so the take-up during the lockdown suggests an increase in demand.

Nicki Norman, the acting chief executive of Women’s Aid, said:

Accessing money can be difficult for women experiencing domestic abuse, particularly if they are experiencing financial abuse. We know that this can stop women from travelling to safety and can be a huge barrier to support. We’re delighted that our Rail to Refuge scheme is removing this barrier and is allowing women to travel to the safety of a refuge without the difficulty, and sometimes impossibility, of booking and paying for their own travel.

Dozens of drug policy experts in the UK have urged the home secretary to enact laws which were amended last week to allow more flexible access to controlled medications during the pandemic.

The Royal College of GP’s has warned that Covid patients are experiencing “unnecessary” pain and distress in the final days and hours of their life due to strict bureaucratic hurdles governing the supply of controlled drugs such as morphine for which named prescriptions are required for its use.

In a letter, about 50 prominent experts and campaigners called for the recent changes to laws controlling prescribable drugs to be put into place without delay. Ian Hamilton, an expert in addiction and mental health from the University of York, who organised the letter, said:

It is encouraging to see the Department of Health recognise the need to provide flexible arrangements for the supply and use of controlled drugs during the Covid pandemic. This is long overdue as some of the regulations place onerous restrictions on health care staff and pharmacists who are already stretched.

The re-use of medicine like morphine is a sensible and pragmatic move which will not only be welcomed by health care workers but has the potential to ensure unnecessary suffering is avoided, as patients who are in pain or experience severe breathlessness can be treated in a timely and safe way.

The call comes after the home secretary Priti Patel wrote to the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs saying: “I must be clear that these measures will not come into use with immediate effect. The government, in close liaison with the NHS service and devolved administrations, will carefully consider when to ‘switch on’ these measures.”

It is understood that the new flexibilities introduced by the Home Office would only be used if demand and workforce pressures during the pandemic put local health services at imminent risk of failing to fulfil their role or in the event of a serious national shortage of a specified controlled drug.

Yesterday Downing Street told us that Boris Johnson has started taking a daily walk around St James’s Park as part of his lockdown exercise regime. Perhaps it is just a ploy to get out of changing nappies? But it suits the photographers, and here are some pictures from today.

And here he is with a dog in shot (but not his own, which doesn’t seem to get invited out on the daily walk).

Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog for the day.

Here are the main items on the agenda.

9.30am: Executives from Heathrow, ABTA, the travel association, and the Airport Operators Association are among those giving evidence to the Commons transport committee.

10am: Matt Hancock, the health secretary, takes part in a Q&A on Sky News.

12pm: Boris Johnson faces Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs. It will be the first time the two men have gone head to head in the Commons as party leaders.

12.30pm: The Scottish and Welsh governments are due to hold their daily briefings.

After 12.30pm: Alok Sharma, the business secretary, answers an urgent Commons question on workplace safety when the lockdown gets lifted.

1.30pm: Downing Street holds its lobby briefing.

5pm: The UK government is due to hold its daily briefing.

Ocado is continuing to profit from the Covid-19 pandemic. This morning it has reported a 40% surge in UK revenue so far this quarter, up from 10% growth in the first three months of 2020.

Demand surged as the lockdown began, creating an “unprecedented” level of demand from customers keen to avoid venturing to the shops.

It says:

Growth in retail revenue in the second quarter to date is 40.4% up on last year, compared to 10.3% growth in the first quarter.

The number of items per basket appears to have passed its peak but remains high, as more normal shopping behaviours have returned, and the share of fresh and chilled products in the mix, relative to ambient, is also returning to normal.

For all business updates, do visit business live:

Will coronavirus spell the end of the party for Ibiza?

My colleague Steven Morris has this report on the name change of the national assembly of Wales:

There will be no fanfare and little ceremony but the body formerly known as the national assembly of Wales has a new name.

From now it will be known as Senedd Cymru – the Welsh parliament. It is expected that the rather bulky title will be commonly shortened to “the senedd”.

The first minister, Mark Drakeford, said the new name would send out a message that it was a “full-blown primary law-making institution”.

Also changing are the titles of the 60 elected members. They are now members of the senedd (MSs) as opposed to assembly members (AMs). Or aelod o’r senedd (AS) in Welsh.

Other changes introduced today include 16 and 17-year-olds having the right to vote in senedd elections.

Drakeford said:

I think it’s important to send a message out to people in Wales that an institution which began with very modest powers has over 20 years developed into a full-blown primary law-making institution with far deeper powers and wider powers as well.

The first minister said the immediate priorities for the senedd would be continuing to shape the laws governing the coronavirus lockdown.

The name change has not been without controversy – many champions of the Welsh language have argued the new name should be Welsh only.

This interview with Ellie Orton, the chief executive of NHS Charities Together (NHSCT), by the Guardian’s David Brindle is fascinating.

As a result of the Herculean fundraising efforts of Captain Tom Moore the charity has been propelled into the limelight. Orton says:

In terms of income, the profile and the understanding of NHS trusts and boards that charity could be a key partner – well, instead of accomplishing that in five years as we had hoped under our strategic plan, it’s pretty much been done in five weeks.

But it is this paragraph that stands out:

While [NHGS charities] all stress that they are supplementing taxpayer funding, and paying for extras rather than for basics such as personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers or ventilators for patients during the current crisis, the ground rules are not as clear as is commonly supposed. An official review in 2012 concluded that “there is no hard and fast rule that charities must not subsidise or replace public services”.

Read the full story here:

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has been speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning.

Ashworth said the government needs to have a plan which should include more targeted testing and tracing to tackle the disproportionate number of deaths in poorer areas.

He told BBC Breakfast:

My worry is that Covid-19 is going to make these health inequalities in society even worse so I’m calling on the government to have a plan to tackle these health inequalities so we don’t see this widening gap in life chances and health outcomes.

Asked about the coronavirus app, which began a trial on the Isle of Wight on Tuesday, Ashworth said he will download it but urged the government to mobilise local experts “on the ground”. He said:

I will be downloading it because we want to see it succeed, although we’ve got questions about whether it will succeed, whether privacy issues have been resolved.

But I actually think to really successfully deliver the tracing service, we need boots on the ground, we need local government public health experts, you need your environmental health experts, we need to use our expertise in local primary care services because this is a very labour intensive job and they’ve got experience.

Here is a round up of the biggest stories we have today:

• Britain has the worst coronavirus death toll in Europe, official figures showed on Tuesday, prompting calls for an inquiry into the handling of the pandemic. The government’s tally of fatalities across the UK reached 29,427 for those who tested positive for coronavirus, exceeding the 29,029 recorded in Italy – until now Europe’s worst-hit country. Italy’s total does not include suspected cases.

• Britain could exit the coronavirus lockdown by relaxing restrictions on more than half of the population and beefing up protection for those over 70 and vulnerable people, scientists have said.

• Prof Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist whose modelling helped shape Britain’s coronavirus lockdown strategy, has quit as a government adviser after flouting the rules by receiving visits from his lover at his home.

• Youth unemployment in Britain will reach the 1 million mark over the coming year unless the government provides job guarantees or incentives for school leavers and graduates to stay on in education, a thinktank warns. The Resolution Foundation (RF) said that in the absence of action an extra 600,000 people under the age of 25 would swell dole queues, with a risk of long-term damage to their career and pay prospects.