Politics latest news: Key workers exempt from self isolation should go to work despite union concern, minister says

Danielle Sheridan
·10 min read

Key workers exempt from self isolation should return to work despite objections by unions, a minister has said.

Vicky Ford,  the children's minister, stressed the need to "minimise disruption to the economy" as the pingdemic continues to cause havoc with key infrastructure industries, such as travel and retail.

It comes as Union leaders have launched a battle against Government plans to end the pingdemic, concerned that an exemption that allows critical workers to ignore the NHS app and go to work if they are pinged, will cause further harm than good.

Leaders of the UK’s largest unions are now encouraging key workers to ignore the exemption and stay home, suggesting they could be exposed to Covid in the workplace.

However, when pressed on Sky News if those critical workers who are doubled jabbed should ignore the ping, despite concerns raised by unions,  Ms Ford hinted this was the Government's preference. She said: "Every single employer obviously needs to look at the safety of their staff. We've got many employers who are saying, in these really crucial sectors of the economy ... if they have had the double vaccination, then they can come back if they continue to have that negative test."

However Mick Lynch, the RMT General Secretary, warned that the Government's guidance gave "very little" about "protecting the people that are having to work" with someone who might have been pinged.

"So if you're working on board a train or working in a control room, and you are supposed to be isolating, you are enhancing the risk to the other people working around you, whether they're passengers or colleagues on the railway," he told the Today programme.

"There's very little said about protecting the people that are not isolating their working normally with people who really aren't aware of the effects of the thing."

He added the whole thing is "utter confusion".

​​Follow the latest updates below.

09:26 AM

Starmer: 'PM is the master of untruths and half-truths'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he supported MP Dawn Butler when she called Boris Johnson a liar.

Labour MP Ms Butler was ordered to leave the House of Commons last week after refusing to withdraw claims that Mr Johnson has "lied to the House and the country over and over again".

Asked about the incident on LBC, Sir Keir said: "I agree with what Dawn had to say. I think the Prime Minister is the master of untruths and half-truths, and Dawn was simply giving some examples of that.

"I think there's a lot of people that feel that, you know, it's the person who's not telling the truth rather than the person who's calling it out that ought to be on the hotspot. So, I agree with Dawn on that.

"But I do want to, in fairness to the temporary speaker, Judith Cummings, who was there, she did the right thing, she followed the rules because Parliament doesn't allow you to call other parliamentarians liars in the chamber, so I don't criticise the speaker ... the deputy speaker for what she did, she was following the rules. But do I support Dawn in what she said? I absolutely do."

09:20 AM

NHS 3pc payrise 'not fair', says Starmer

Sir Keir said the proposed 3 percent increase for NHS workers was "not fair" and said he would need to see what comes out of the forthcoming negotiations.

After speaking to a psychologist from Reigate, Sir Keir told the LBC phone-in: "I don't think it's fair. Obviously, I support the fact that the unions are now consulting the workforce on what they think of it, but it's not fair and I am struck by the morale point because I've been to a lot of hospitals in the last few months, and morale is very low because it's been such a hard year and a half."

He added that the percentage point would have to be negotiated.

"15 per cent is high but I think what the unions are doing now is right, which is to say, 'we're going to go back to our workforce with the 3% of this, as it were, on the table and consultant on that. Let's see what comes out of that."

He said: "Having clapped the NHS, the government has in the end treated them very very badly, along with other frontline workers."

09:02 AM

Starmer: We want pragmatic Covid passport proposals

Sir Keir Starmer has said he wants to be "pragmatic" over proposals on the use of Covid passports.

The Labour leader was asked on LBC about the use of certification at mass events such as the Euros final at Wembley.

He said: "I think tests are actually more useful than double vaccinations, as the Health Secretary has shown. He, of course, got Covid just about 10 days ago now, I know he's through it now, but he had been double vaccinated. So, I actually think tests are much more useful.

"I think that the idea that we can go back to mass sporting events or other events without any checks is not one I would subscribe to."

Asked whether he would support the Government in a vote, he said Labour would "look carefully" at proposals and added: "What I don't want to see, just to be very clear about this, is I don't want to see vaccine passports used on an everyday basis for access to critical things like health, dentistry, food, etc.

"So, for sporting events, I'll look at what the Government puts on the table. I want to be pragmatic because we all want all business sectors and sporting sectors to return as quickly as possible. But not for everyday use."

08:47 AM

Strike action 'not the right' thing to do

Our front page exclusive this morning revealed that Steve Hedley, senior assistant general secretary of the RMT, threatened to launch strike action over Downing Street’s exemption scheme.

However, Sir Keir said he did not believe that was the right course of action to take. 

He said: "No I don't think that's the right way.  I think that if it is possible to show that with a double vaccination, and a negative test, critical workers can go back to work, I would support that."

08:35 AM

Government must end 'chaos' of pingdemic

Sir Keir said the "exemptions" list needs to be looked at "in the moment" and that he wanted the schemes being rolled out to get people into work, "to work". 

He told LBC: "I think we need to look at the way the exemptions work in the moment, there are now schemes as you know for critical workers who've been double vaccinated and testing to go back to work, keep an eye on those. I want those to work."

"So, if that works, data not dates, then we should support it and look again at the 16th of August, which is the day when the rules are supposed to change but I'm hoping we can do something because at the moment it's absolute chaos as you will know, in terms of keeping the economy going, keeping businesses going."

08:18 AM

Sir Keir Starmer

The Labour leader is doing a live phone in with LBC this morning. 

So far he's said:

- He doesn't believe strike action is the way to resolve the pingdemic

- That he believes a higher pay rise for the NHS is needed, although he cautioned a potential 15% was "very high"

- Covid passports on their own aren't enough. It has to be "passports plus testing". He warns that these can't be used for access to everyday avenues such as health and food.

08:05 AM

University students may face compulsory vaccinations

Boris Johnson is reported to have said during zoom meetings with the Health Secretary last week that he wants university students vaccinated in order for them to return to their studies. However, this could lead to push back from the Department of Education as universities are independent. 

Asked about this Ms Ford told Sky News: "We must make sure that we continue to prioritise education and if they want to be able to avoid the self-isolation such as we have said for other adults, the double-vaccinated adults by August the 16th if you have not got a positive test, if you don't have symptoms, you won't need to self-isolate."

Pressed further on the matter on the Today Programme, Ms Ford said: "I think it's really important that young people step forward for their vaccination."

She added that self isolation was challenging for students last year and that the Government has "prioritised education from the beginning". 

Asked if there was a plan to make students be fully vaccinated in order to attend lectures, Ms Ford said: "We've always considered everything we can do."

07:56 AM

Fall in cases calls for cautious optimism

Dr Mike Tildesley added that it always takes a couple of weeks for dropping case numbers to be reflected in hospital admissions.

"I would say that the fact the cases have gone down for the last five days or so is ... I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm cautiously optimistic about that, but I think we're going to have to wait another couple of weeks before we see, firstly, the effect of the 19th of July relaxation and, second, whether hospital admissions will start to go down."

He told the Today programme: "I think if they do then at that point we can be much more confident that we're starting to see hopefully this wave turning round."

He said "we need to monitor this over the next few days to see if this is consistently going down or whether we are sort of seeing a dip because schools are closed and then maybe things might level off again, so I think it remains to be seen exactly what's going to happen."

07:41 AM

Falling number of new cases positive, minister says

Vicky Ford said that while the sustained drop in coronavirus cases was "very good news", she warned against complacency.
After warning how it's possible to go back up, she added:  "I think it does show how important it is that we continue to take issues like self-isolation really seriously as well and continue to encourage people to get that vaccine, and the double vaccine indeed, because that's going to be the way that we get out of this longer term."

Meanwhile, Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group, which provides modelling evidence to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said he was cautiously optimistic about falling cases but wanted to see if hospital admissions also drop.

He also suggested schools breaking up for the summer could be behind the drop in cases.

07:31 AM

Politics today

Good morning. 

Today hopes are rising that the UK has passed the peak of third wave as the number of new cases fell for five days in a row, however a senior minister sought to dampen excitement, warning "we all know how quickly it can go back up again". 

It comes as ministers will hold a Covid O meeting today to look at whether more sectors could be exempted from isolation rules, as pingdemic continues to cause turmoil among workers.  Watch this space. 

Meanwhile, today marks Boris Johnson's final day of isolation at Chequers.