UK coronavirus live: Dominic Cummings to give public statement later today

NHS England has announced 59 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 25,750.

Of the 59 new deaths announced on Sunday:
– 19 occurred on May 24
– 28 occurred on May 23
– five occurred on May 22

The remaining seven new deaths took place between May 16 and 21. NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago. This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.

The figures published today by NHS England show April 8 continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths on a single day, with a current total of 891.

Robert Largan, Conservative MP for High Peak, has called for Dominic Cummings to provide answers.

In a Facebook post, he said:

We can’t have a position where it is one rule for the public and another for politicians. If all the reports about Dominic Cummings are true, then I believe his position is untenable and he should resign. I don’t have all the facts and I don’t want to rush to judgement based on incomplete information, especially when many allegations are being disputed. But we need proper answers and we need them quickly. In the meantime, I have made the government aware of the strength of feeling of local people.

John Stevenson, the MP for Carlisle, said:

Poundland has said a further 26 of its stores, which have been closed throughout the coronavirus outbreak, are throwing open their doors again.

The discount retailer said trade will resume in the stores again this week after 51 shops reopened last week.

Poundland said that while it had kept most of its stores open for essential shopping, about 100 were temporarily shut in March. The closed shops were largely where there was another Poundland nearby or where shopping centres found it difficult to remain open, it added.

Boris Johnson has seriously blown it, writes Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins.

Usually he contrives himself to be his own worst enemy – now it seems to be Dominic Cummings, his chief adviser. In the affair of the Durham runner, a wise political strategist would have given simple advice. Prime Minister, just say sorry.

Ahead of Dominic Cummings’s public statement this afternoon, a number of people on Twitter are flagging the government’s code of conduct for special advisers which states they must not take “public part in political controversy”.

Point 14 states:

Special advisers must not take public part in political controversy, through any form of statement whether in speeches or letters to the press, or in books, social media, articles or leaflets.

They must observe discretion and express comment with moderation, avoiding personal attacks, and would not normally speak in public for their minister or the department.

Nicola Sturgeon said many people would have been left “angry and frustrated by stories you have heard”, after Dominic Cummings, the PM’s senior aide, travelled across the country during the lockdown.

While she conceded people may be wondering “why bother” to follow the rules, the first minister told Scots:

As far as I am concerned the restrictions and rules we put in place really matter.

It is vital that all of us stick to the rules, and not just because people like me tell you to or ask you to. The reason we ask you to stick to these rules is because they help to protect you and your loved ones, they help us protect our National Health Service and they do help us to save lives.

She said the public had “overwhelmingly done the right thing” in lockdown, with restrictions put in place more than two months ago now.

Sturgeon said: “I know many people, parents perhaps in particular, will have made very difficult decisions.

“Grandparents will not have seen new grandchildren, parents will have struggled with childcare, and no access to friends and family to support them, and many people have been denied the opportunity to say a final farewell to loved ones.”

But Sturgeon said after Thursday the advice would still be for people to “stay at home as much as possible”.

And she said while people would be allowed to meet others outside, they should “think carefully, very carefully” about the number of people they come into contact with.

“Many of the current lockdown rules will still be in place, and it will vital everybody sticks to those,” the first minister said.

Boris Johnson is facing a revolt from scores of his own backbenchers as they line up to condemn the prime minister and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings.

At least 15 Conservative backbenchers have called for Cummings to go, while several others have spoken out against his actions.

A number of MPs, including the newly elected Elliot Colburn, Paul Holmes and Jonathan Gullis, have used the used the same wording in their responses, saying they have “conveyed the strength of local feeling to relevant colleagues” after being contacted by constituents.

Conservative former minister Paul Maynard said he shared people’s “dismay” at the PM’s response, and was one of many MPs who insisted Cummings should quit or be sacked.

It is a classic case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’ – and it is not as if he was unfamiliar with guidance he himself helped draw up. It seems to me to be utterly indefensible and his position wholly untenable.

Veteran Conservative Sir Roger Gale told PA Media: “I’m very disappointed, I think it was an opportunity to put this to bed and I fear that now the story is simply going to run and run.”

The Somerton and Frome MP, David Warburton, said Cummings was “damaging the government and the country that he’s supposed to be serving”.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Monday morning, he said his own father had died alone as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.

People have made sacrifices, this is a difficult time, this is a time of national crisis.

In those sacrifices there really hasn’t been the choice to use instinct. Instinct hasn’t really been part of it. We’ve been tasked with following regulations laid down by the government.

Tory grandee Lord Heseltine said it was “very difficult to believe there isn’t a substance” in the allegations about Cummings’ movements.

“I think these unanswered questions are now on the agenda,” he told the BBC, “and I don’t think that this anxiety about the government’s position will end until we know the whole story.”

Former minister Steve Baker said if Cummings does not resign “we’ll just keep burning through Boris’s political capital at a rate we can ill afford in the midst of this crisis”.

Other critics include Peter Aldous, Peter Bone, Damian Collins, Caroline Nokes, Julian Sturdy, Robert Syms, Craig Whittaker, James Gray and Martin Vickers.

Dominic Cummings will give a public statement this afternoon after allegations he breached coronavirus lockdown restrictions, Downing Street has confirmed.

The BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, reported that Boris Johnson’s chief adviser will make a statement and take questions himself.

The move comes as calls for Cummings to resign and explain his actions mount, following revelations he travelled 264 miles to his parents’ estate in Durham while his wife was suffering coronavirus symptoms.

Today’s coronavirus figures from Scotland:

A total of 2,273 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by three from 2,270 on Sunday, Nicola Sturgeon said.

The first minister said 15,156 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 55 from 15,101 the day before.

There are 1,269 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, a decrease of 60. Of these, 40 were in intensive care, a fall of four.

The shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, has shared a letter he has sent to Priti Patel, asking a series of questions including whether guidance on travel restrictions had been updated for parents with coronavirus symptoms.

He asked:

If people are travelling in a car in the expectation that they may require childcare at some point, can you confirm that police will not be empowered to issue Fixed Penalty Notices to them?

Can you make public details of any communications between the Durham Constabulary and government officials and/or ministers since Thursday 21 May?

As you know, police officers have put themselves at extraordinary risk to keep people safe during this crisis, whilst also working with great skill to interpret and explain public health legislation.

The confusion and misinformation caused by the government’s response to these revelations appears to make this work even more difficult.