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Labour: Learn lessons as threat of 2nd wave Cases: Deaths: 297,914 45,677 Cases:15,802,717 Deaths: 639,229

possible and that’s what we’re doing.” Asked to name a mistake the Government had made, he said: “It would be invidious to single out any particular mistake. There are aspects of the way Government works that need to be faster and more responsive to the needs of the people.”

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Boris Johnson has finally admitted the Government mishandled its response. The threat of a second wave is still very real. It is imperative the Government learns the lessons.”

Figures reveal the decline in weekly cases over the past few months appears to have stopped – but the Office for National Statistics said there was no evidence it had started to increase. In the week to July 19, around one in 2,000 had coronavirus in the community in England.

But the previous week’s bulletin put the figure at around one in 2,300.

The R rate, or infection rate, in England and UK are both unchanged since last week and deaths in the UK rose by 123, bringing the toll to 45,677.

As face masks became compulsory in shops, the Police Federation urged stores to refuse entry to those flouting the rule after some high street chains said they will not penalise offenders.

Officers can hand out £100 fines. But John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said forces “do not have the resources” to widely enforce the law. Police are exempt and one officer was spotted outside a Central London branch of Tesco without a mask yesterday, while a female officer was seen wearing a covering outside a Westminster branch of Leon. And one man stunned shoppers by walking down Oxford Street in London wearing nothing but a face mask – which he was using as a thong. Meanwhile, Health Minister Lord Bethell revealed that making people wear gloves in public remains “an area that we’re looking at”.

And in Leicester, the first city to go into local lockdown, non-essential shops reopened.