Latest updates: Kwasi Kwarteng says government ‘has plotted a path’ between two extremes of lockdown and opening up
Good morning. It has been a while since Covid has been leading the news but cases in the UK are going up, and they are now far higher than they are in most other European countries. As we reported overnight, the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals and other NHS trusts, is saying ministers must urgently implement sweeping “plan B” winter measures or derail efforts to tackle the backlog of 5 million patients.
This morning Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, has been on microphone duty for the government. On Sky News he was asked about a suggestion from Prof Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology at St Andrews University and one of the government’s science advisers, that the government’s refusal to act now made a future lockdown more likely.
