‘No early end to Covid rules’ – PM
BORIS Johnson and his new Health Secretary Sajid Javid have confirmed their intention for July 19 to mark the end of England’s lockdown restrictions.
Mr Javid resisted pressure from Tory MPs to bring forward the date of Step 4 of the road map, but he said there was “no reason” why the July 19 deadline would not be met.
The Prime Minister signalled that the “terminus” date would mean going “back to life as it was before Covid as far as possible”.
In his first Commons statement since replacing Matt Hancock, Mr Javid told MPs: “There remains a big task ahead of us to restore our freedoms – freedoms that, save for the greatest of circumstances, no government should ever wish to curtail.
“So my task is to help return the economic and cultural life that makes this country so great while of course protecting life and our NHS.”
Mr Javid said he spent his first day in the new job on Sunday looking at the coronavirus data and “testing it to the limit”.
When “freedom day” was delayed from June 21, a review was announced which could have seen restrictions eased on July 5 – something ministers have now rejected.
Mr Javid said: “While we decided not to bring forward Step 4, we see no reason to go beyond July 19, because, in truth, no date we choose comes with zero risk for Covid.
“We know we cannot simply eliminate it, we have to learn to live with it.”
Mr Javid’s comments came after the Prime Minister said earlier on Monday that England was “set fair” to be free of lockdown measures and back to normality “as far as possible” by July 19 .
Mr Javid had sparked Opposition concerns that he was ignoring the “data, not dates” approach by saying his “absolute priority” was to end controls quickly.
However, during a by-election campaign visit in Batley, the Prime Minister defended the delay as “the right pace to proceed in a pandemic” and said he had held a “long meeting” with Mr Javid on Sunday.
“Although there are some encouraging signs and the number of deaths and hospitalisations remains low – though both are going up a bit – we are seeing an increase in cases,” the Prime Minister said.
“So we think it’s sensible to stick to our plan to have a cautious but irreversible approach, use the next three weeks or so really to complete as much as we can of that vaccine rollout – another five million jabs we can get into people’s arms by July 19.
“And then with every day that goes by it’s clearer to me and all our scientific advisers that we’re very likely to be in a position on July 19 to say that really is the terminus and we can go back to life as it was before Covid as far as possible.”