Coronavirus UK live: Rishi Sunak hints 2-metre rule will be relaxed – latest updates

Black Lives Matter protesters in London have begun their march through the capital to Parliament Square, PA Media reports.

One of the chants they prepared at a two-hour rally in Hyde Park beforehand was “Munira Mirza must go” – the name of the woman appointed to run the recently announced Race Inequality Commission.

Mirza has been heavily criticised for describing structural racism as “more of a perception than a reality”.

Portugal could become one of the first countries to agree to an “air bridge” with the UK, allowing citizens travelling between both countries to avoid quarantine measures, Jessica Murray reports.

Manuel Lobo Antunes, Portugal’s ambassador to the UK, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning:

We think the situation is under control and we would be happy to receive, as before, as many British as possible.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is expected to announce a small number of bilateral air bridge arrangements on 29 June, according to the Telegraph (paywall), connecting Britons to predominantly short-haul destinations with low coronavirus transmission levels from 4 July.

The government is said to be focusing on countries such as France, Spain, Greece and Portugal.

More on this story here.

Another two deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours of people who tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland, taking the total there to 2,472.

The statistics indicate that as of 9am on Saturday, 18,130 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 26 from 18,104 the previous day.

Of those who have tested positive, 519 were in hospital on Friday night. A total of 14 patients were in intensive care with either confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a fall of five in 24 hours.

There has been one further death of someone who tested positive for Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, bringing the total number of deaths recorded by the Department of Health to 545 – a toll that primarily focuses on fatalities within hospitals.

There were no new confirmed cases of the virus announced on Saturday, leaving that tally standing at 4,866.

The DHSC said 42,589 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Friday. That is a rise of 128 from 42,461 the day before.

The government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 53,000.

The DHSC also said in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Saturday, 230,550 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 1,295 positive results.

Overall, a total of 7,714,201 tests have been carried out and 303,110 cases have been confirmed positive.

The figure for the number of people tested has been “temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting” across all methods of testing.

More than 500 people gathered at an anti-racism rally in Glasgow city centre despite being warned by police to stay away.

Organisers said the Glasgow Says No to Racism event is aimed at “sending a positive anti-racist message from Glasgow’s George Square to the world on World Refugee Day”.

Police horses and riot officers were used to control their arrival in the square and when the event ended around noon they were kettled before being moved through the city, controlled by police horses and scores of officers.

NHS England said a further 71 people have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 28,292.

The number of deaths of patients with Covid-19 by region are as follows:

East of England 10

London 6

Midlands 21

North East & Yorkshire 8

North West 16

South East 10

South West 0

Total 71

Another death has been recorded in Wales, taking the total there to 1,476.

Public Health Wales said a further 25 positive cases of Covid-19 had also been reported, taking that tally to 15,026.

There was a picnic atmosphere at Speakers’ Corner for Saturday’s Black Lives Matter protest with people sitting in small groups on the grass, PA Media reports.

Four speaking points had been set up at different locations to allow demonstrators to get up and have their say.

One demonstrator, who gave her name only as Victoria said:

Before coming to the protests I was seeing everything online – all these videos of police brutality and it makes you so angry and makes you consider your own feelings about racism.

The 23-year-old, who has been to two previous Black Lives Matter demonstrations, said:

When I come to these protests it is such a release, it almost feels like peace – you have family, you have people who want to understand and it’s like a community.

Victoria said racist comments were just a fact of life and that just before shutdown a man in a club had asked her if she was “from the ghetto”.

Tash, 23, joined the Black Lives Matter protests for the first time on Saturday. She told PA Media:

This protest makes me feel hopeful but it also concerns me. We’re in a pandemic and I don’t want it to just be a hashtag and a trend. It is hopeful because people are finally listening but are they just listening because they have the time and they are bored? I want to see change, I want this to be followed through.

Describing her own experience of racism growing up in London, she said:

I’ve been asked what slave country I come from – in all seriousness – and I just think: how do I respond to that?

Time for some joy. This is from Reach’s Yakub Qureshi

Brenford’s Bryan Mbeumo has tested positive for Covid-19, Sky News reports.

The news was confirmed by the club’s head coach, Thomas Frank, as Brentford prepare to play against Fulham in the first championship match since lockdown came into force.

Frank told Sky Sports that Mbeumo was “fit and well” and wasn’t displaying symptoms.

A petition to support student nurses facing financial hardship after contracts were terminated earlier than expected has reached 90,000.

Up to 18,700 final-year student nurses joined the NHS frontline months before they were due to graduate, at a time when it looked like the coronavirus pandemic might overwhelm the health service and its workforce.

The posts they filled were advertised as six-month placements but with the pandemic now coming under control, student nurses have now been told their contracts will be terminated in July, leaving them with no income.

The Good Law Project petition asking the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to get funding reinstated until October so the student nurses can complete their practical training has now gained more than 92,000 signatures.

Here is my colleague Ben Quinn’s article on the subject.

One student nurse wrote on social media:

Some of us left jobs for this. Many of us have children and families to care for. All of us will come out with a debt succeeding £30,000 for doing a degree we have such passion for.

Protesters have started to assemble at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park for a third weekend of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, PA Media reports.

There was a heavy police presence, with 14 police vans lined up along the road by Marble Arch.

Demonstrators were offered face masks and gloves upon arrival and a sound system had been set up on the grass.

Revellers have been told to stay away from Stonehenge for the summer solstice this year, with police saying officers will be on the scene to ward off crowds.

Traditionally about 10,000 people gather at the monument in Wiltshire on or around 21 June, to watch the sun rise on the longest day of the year.

This year’s celebrations were cancelled by English Heritage, which plans to stream the sunrise on social media instead. The organisation said it expects hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to tune in.

Wiltshire police said officers would be in the area and local authorities warned people to stay away.

Supt Phil Staynings said: “We fully support the decision by English Heritage not to allow managed open access to Stonehenge for this year’s summer solstice.

“Officers will maintain a presence in the areas of both Stonehenge and Avebury in support of both English Heritage and the National Trust.

“In addition, there will be a visible presence in local communities to reassure those who may be concerned.”

A group of senior cross-party MPs from Labour, the SNP and the Green Party have written a letter to the government urging them to explore a four-day working week for the UK post Covid-19.

The MPs, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, SNP MP Mhairi Black and Green MP Caroline Lucas, are urging the government to set up a commission to explore the options for a four-day week, a policy already being discussed in Scotland as part of its Post-Covid-19 Futures Commission.

The letter argues that “shorter hours have been used throughout history as a way of responding to economic crises”.

After the Great Depression in the 1930s, shorter working time was used as a way of reducing unemployment, which led to the normalisation of the eight-hour day and the 40-hour week.

The letter goes on to say that “shorter hours should once again be seen as a powerful tool to recover from this crisis”.

Work patterns have already been dramatically altered as a result of the pandemic and we believe the time is now right to explore putting a four-day, 30-hour working week (or any equivalent variation) front and centre – including protections for those on low incomes – as the country unites behind building back better out of this crisis.

Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, has recently spoken about the four-day week as a key way in which New Zealand’s economy can recover from the crisis.

Aidan Harper, from the 4 Day Week Campaign, said:

Work has changed for ever as a result of this crisis and we want to make sure we have a better model of work emerging from it as we had going in.

The benefits of a four-day week are boundless; better mental health and wellbeing, work shared more equally across the economy, greater productivity at work, and the potential to engage in more environmentally sustainable behaviours.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has said the review of the 2-metre rule, due out next week, will “make an enormous difference” to businesses, in a major hint it will be relaxed.

In a visit to shops in North Yorkshire, he told reporters:

The outcome of that review will be announced this week, obviously that’s something that will make an enormous difference, I think, to many businesses who are keen to see a change.

Obviously, we need to go through that review, but I’m very understanding of the calls for action on that, particularly for our hospitality industry, for our pubs, for our restaurants. [They] are keen to see if there’s some change that can be made there.

He said progress made to stem the spread of coronavirus means the government can begin to “kick-start our economy” and that “starts with our high streets”.