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1.40pm BST
Schools in England are being urged to press ahead with sports day, amid reports that many are mistakenly cancelling because of Covid concerns.
According to the Department for Education, in most circumstances outdoor events like sports day can go ahead as long as schools do risk assessments and and follow guidance around cleaning shared equipment and not mixing bubbles.
We’re aware that some schools are cancelling sports days and citing Covid guidance as the reason for it.
This needn’t be the case in most circumstances as outdoor events like sports days can go ahead as long as they’re thoroughly risk assessed and conducted in line with guidance around cleaning shared equipment and not mixing bubbles. This applies for parents attending too.
1.33pm BST
Here are the main points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.
All I can say is that we continue to consider the latest data and we will take a final decision in due course. It is entirely right to say we do want to remove as many restrictions as are safe to do so once we take the steps to step 4.
Currently it is down to individual EU member states to decide on the rules governing their borders.
We are moving at speed through our vaccination programme to help us curb this latest variant and that will allow us to move to step 4, and we are confident that over time it will bring cases down, and that’s the approach we are taking.
It’s a matter for Germany and France … We would obviously support engagement with Russia in order to deliver tough messages and encourage a change in their behaviour.
Received my new office portrait of The Queen today. In Australia citizens can write to their MP for a free portrait of The Queen – why can’t we do the same in the UK??
I feel a campaign coming on… @themonarchists pic.twitter.com/MqMRrbLOex
I think this is a wonderful, patriotic and unifying campaign for our country. I will be writing to the Prime Minister to ask him to give it careful consideration and looking for opportunities to discuss further in Parliament. pic.twitter.com/Y2nU4yhGRP