Here we are. A minister and many Tory MP’s defend this wretched government trying to convince the nation. Then the government has to U turn as the public turn on them. Over and over we go.
However, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will now self-isolate following uproar over their plans to avoid staying at home after Sajid Javid’s positive COVID-19 test, Downing Street has said.
After Mr Javid, the newly-appointed health secretary, contracted coronavirus and went into quarantine, it was thought a number of other ministers and officials might also have to self-isolate.
Downing Street initially said that Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak would be taking in a pilot scheme whereby they will be tested daily and so do not have to quarantine.
Following widespread uproar this morning, however, it’s now been announced that the pair will self-isolate after all.
“The prime minister has been contacted by NHS Test and Trace to say he is a contact of someone with COVID,” a spokesperson said.
“He was at Chequers when contacted by Test and Trace and will remain there to isolate. He will not be taking part in the testing pilot.
“He will continue to conduct meetings with ministers remotely. The Chancellor has also been contacted and will also isolate as required and will not be taking part in the pilot.”
Mr Sunak tweeted: “Whilst the test and trace pilot is fairly restrictive, allowing only essential government business, I recognise that even the sense that the rules aren’t the same for everyone is wrong.
“To that end I’ll be self isolating as normal and not taking part in the pilot.”
Mr Javid revealed on Saturday that he had tested positive for COVID – only a day after the health secretary reportedly met with Mr Johnson in Downing Street.
This morning, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News: “I appreciate the frustration [the public] might feel listening to this. They, like me, or other members of the public who are pinged will have to self-isolate in the usual way.”
Latest figures show over 500,000 people were pinged by the NHS app in a week, leading to concerns millions could be forced out of work as coronavirus cases rise.
Referring to increasing numbers of people being told to self-isolate, and before Downing Street’s latest U-turn, Mr Jenrick said: “I do appreciate that this is proving to be very challenging.”
There are currently 20 organisations in both the private and public sector – including Downing Street – currently taking part in the workplace pilot testing scheme that would have exempted Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak.
The scheme allows people out of self-isolation to continue working every day they pass a lateral flow test.
These include Network Rail, Transport for London, Heathrow Airport and Border Force. It is running in conjunction with a general daily contact testing study, open to anyone identified as a close contact of a positive case.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove avoided self-isolating in June by taking part in a similar scheme.
Typically, anyone identified as a contact by the tracing scheme or NHS app would be required by law to self-isolate for 10 days.
Prior to the U-turn, the announcement prompted cross-party condemnation and accusations of double standards, with many MPs pointing out that the majority of the public would still have to self-isolate.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “There will be workers across the country that have to isolate because they’ve been pinged, including in public services, including the NHS.
“For many of them, waking up this morning to hear that there is a special rule, an exclusive rule, for Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, they will be saying that this looks like one rule for them and something else for the rest of us.”
He continued: “Nobody understands how you can get access to this special treatment or VIP lane where you don’t have to isolate yourself.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner tweeted: “By breaking the rules the PM and Chancellor have given millions of people a blank cheque to ignore the rules too. Dangerous and stupid.”
Meanwhile, leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey said: “The prime minister is making a mockery of the sacrifices millions of people have made. His decision to duck self isolation is callous and irresponsible.”
And co-leader of the Green Party Jonathan Bartley said, “anger doesn’t begin to cover it”.
He added on Twitter: “Hundreds of thousands of young people, including my children, had their education and lives repeatedly turned upside down again and again after dutifully and responsibly isolating. And now this.”
Boris Johnson also faced pressure from within his own party.
On Sunday morning, chair of the COVID Recovery Group Mark Harper reiterated his call that the isolation requirement is scrapped for vaccinated people as soon as possible.
“As I said on Friday, these rules need to change now,” he tweeted.
Dr Ellie Cannon, an NHS GP and Mail on Sunday columnist, also criticised the government.
She wrote on Twitter: “There have been low points in this pandemic. And then there have been lower points.
“Perhaps the lowest point for me was watching the funeral prayers of an acquaintance who died in particularly difficult circumstances…
“Their own child, mourning their parent’s sudden death, was not allowed in the place of worship with family because they were contact isolating from school.”
Businesses and NHS leaders have been pressing for the NHS app to be overhauled and made less sensitive amid concerns that staff shortages, caused by those self-isolating, will cripple services.
London Underground became the latest to succumb on Saturday when the Metropolitan Line was forced to close because of a lack of control room staff.
While most COVID restrictions lift in England on Monday the rules on self-isolating for contacts of people who test positive are not eased until 16 August.
Then, people who are double-jabbed will be able to take tests rather than quarantine at home.
Asked if the PM had made the right judgement, Conservative MP Damian Green told Sky News: “I think, in practical terms, allowing the prime minister and chancellor to work as normally as possible is actually quite sensible.
“I hope one of the effects of this is to accelerate the pilot scheme and, indeed, the analysis of the pilot scheme.
“Because this might be a way out of the current problems of people not being able to go to work.”
On Sunday morning Barnard Castle began trending on Twitter, with many people comparing the PM’s failure to self-isolate to when Dominic Cummings broke lockdown rules to drive to the tourist-spot.
Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates said: “The opposition will be asking – could this be a Barnard Castle moment?
“That had big political ramifications… with the government desperately trying to dampen down the damage.”
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