UK Covid: Sturgeon admits probable link between Scotland football fans’ behaviour and rise in cases – as it happened

• At least one in 20 children were absent from state schools in England because of Covid within the last week, as official figures reveal a 66% increase in the number of pupils with confirmed coronavirus infections. Commenting on the figures, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said:

The vast majority of children and young people are in school, but I am aware that sadly a minority are experiencing disruption at the moment.

Whilst pupils who are self-isolating are being immediately provided with high-quality remote education, we know that the best place for children is in the classroom. That is why I am working with the health secretary, alongside scientists and public health experts, to relax covid measures in schools in line with wider work to remove restrictions across society.

I’ll be looking closely at the issues around the need for ongoing isolation of bubbles and the outcomes of the daily contact testing trial, as we consider a new model for keeping children in education.

• Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has said the behaviour of Scottish football fans has probably contributed to the rise in Covid cases in the country. (See 2.52pm.) But she also said another factor was Scotland having a higher proportion of people susceptible to the virus than other parts of the UK, because fewer people were infected in earlier waves. (See 3.10pm.)

• Ministers have been accused of making a “mockery” of quarantine rules after it was announced some business executives travelling to England will be able to temporarily leave self-isolation.

• Chris Whitty may be given police protection after another video surfaced of England’s chief medical officer being subjected to “appalling abuse”.

• Downing Street has admitted a health minister used private emails for government business despite denying it 24 hours earlier, but defended Lord Bethell, saying he had abided by the guidance.

• The private mobile number of Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary, has been online for at least 11 years, raising questions for the security services weeks after the prime minister’s number was also revealed to be accessible to anyone.

That’s all from me for today. But our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.

Kim Leadbeater, Labour’s candidate in the Batley and Spen byelection, has defended her party’s decision to distribute a leaflet questioning Boris Johnson’s relationship with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi. Leadbeater told BBC News:

I don’t think it is a mistake. I think that leaflet is about human rights and it’s about having an MP who is going to speak out on the human rights issues in Kashmir.

And, sadly, we’ve got a prime minister who isn’t doing that, he isn’t challenging the Indian government around these issues. So you need someone who can, and that’s exactly what I would do.

We need an MP who can represent the constituents of this area on local, national and international issues.

Earlier Labour’s Yvette Cooper, who represents a constituency near Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire, said it was “very troubling” to hear that party activists had been attacked while campaigning in the byelection. She said:

This is very troubling, there seems to be a temperature in this campaign that we have not seen in previous by-elections, certainly in West Yorkshire more widely.

Obviously it’s particularly distressing for it to happen in a constituency where we lost Jo Cox five years ago to a far-right extremist.

For more on the violence that has marred the campaign, do read this story by my colleagues Maya Wolfe-Robinson and Alex Mistlin.

Labour is expected to lose the seat in the byelection, which is taking place on Thursday. A Tory victory would be disastrous for Sir Keir Starmer, who would face inevitable questions about his leadership.

There is more Guardian coverage of the contest here.

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The UK has recorded 20,479 new coronavirus cases, according to the latest update to the government’s Covid dashboard. That is down from yesterday’s total (22,868) but the total number of cases over the past week is now up 72.8% on the total for the previous week.

There have also been 23 more deaths. Week on week, deaths are up 29.7%.

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29 Jun 202111.18 EDT

Richard Adams

Schools are not alone in recording a rise in Covid-19 infections: the University of York says it currently has 258 cases among its students after positive tests, the highest number since October last year. It is averaging more than 30 new cases a day over the last week among its 20,000 students.

At the University of Kent, all non-essential student activity on campus has been cancelled after it recorded 70 cases in a week. The university is also advising students who are not isolating to travel home at the earliest opportunity to minimise risks at the end of term.

These are from Ian Jones from PA Media.

29 Jun 202110.30 EDT

Libby Brooks

It is notable that Nicola Sturgeon – who has throughout the pandemic taken a slow and cautious approach, often contrasted favourably with counterparts elsewhere in the UK – said this afternoon that she was “hopeful” that she would be able to continue with the planned easing of restrictions on 19 July and 9 August despite the steep rise in cases over the past week.

After Scotland’s health secretary blamed the Euros for some of this increase, Sturgeon revealed that data showed a peak in cases last Tuesday (when cases are measured by when the specimen was taken, not when the result was reported) and what appeared to be a slowing down of the increase in cases since then. With 80% of new cases among the under-44s and just 2% in the over-65s, she made the point that the nature of this wave is very different in terms of those affected and the impact of the vaccine.

Asked why it is that rates have risen so steeply in Scotland in recent weeks, in comparison to the rest of the UK, she pointed out that the Delta variant was first seeded into Glasgow, the country’s biggest city, and so was able to spread more quickly than elsewhere in the UK. She also reminded viewers that Scotland has lower population immunity because fewer people had the virus in earlier waves, thus there is a larger “susceptible population”. (See 3.10pm.)

David Frost, the Brexit minister, is being questioned by the Commons culture committee about the government’s failure to negotiate post-Brexit visa waivers for musicians who want to tour in the EU. According to the Telegraph’s James Crisp, Frost has been playing down the extent of the problem.

29 Jun 202110.20 EDT

Labour says DfE should not wait until September before revising self-isolation rules in schools

Richard Adams

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said the rise in absences in schools in England (see 12.38pm) “risks leaving plans for the end of the school year in tatters” with de facto rotas in operation in some parts of the country if cases continue to rise. He said:

Pupils have missed so much valuable face-to-face education in the past 15 months, and it is heart-breaking that so many will now miss end of year trips, transitions to new classes or schools, and a chance to say goodbye to friends and teachers.

The government is once again asleep at the wheel. Schools and colleges follow guidance in good faith and suffer the consequences of doing so. There are more stringent measures that could be brought in right now, and it is a mystery as to why [the education secretary] Gavin Williamson continues to do nothing.

And Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, has written to Williamson asking him to speed up the DfE’s review of self-isolation guidance, after the latest figures showed more than 330,000 pupils self-isolating last week. She said:

Parents and schools are crying out for help and they’re just not getting it. The government cannot simply wait until September to act on self-isolation and other measures we have been calling for.

Ministers must work with their expert scientific advisers now to review the bubbles system ahead of the summer holidays to ensure as many children can be in the classroom as possible.

Q: Why are you still banning people from going to Blackburn when cases are higher in Dundee?

Sturgeon says, apart from Dundee, cases are higher in Blackburn than in Scotland. But the Blackburn ban will be reviewed over the weekend, she says.

On the situation in Scotland generally, she says in England the Delta variant first seeded into Bolton, a relatively small town. But in Scotland it first seeded into Glasgow, which helped it to spread more quickly.

And she says Scotland has, but about 8 to 10%, lower population immunity. That is because fewer people in Scotland originally got the virus.

That means Scotland has, by about 10%, a bigger susceptible population. That might explain what is happening now, she says.

One measure of population immunity is what percentage of people test positive for Covid antibodies. The ONS monitors this, and here are the figures they published in a report last week. People have antibodies either because they have been vaccinated or because they have been infected in the past (although over time antibody levels fade, and so not everyone who has ever been infected will test positive for antibodies).

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Q: You have just come from your first audience with the Queen for two years. Does she agree with your assessment that Scotland would deal with Covid more easily if it were independent?

Sturgeon says conversations with the Queen are entirely private, and she is not going to breach that confidentiality in any way. But she says it was a real pleasure to be able to meet the Queen in person.

Back at her press conference, asked if the Scottish government should have done more to stop fans travelling to Euro 2020 matches, in the light of claims that this has contributed to the rise in Covid cases, Sturgeon denies taking a soft approach. But she says the government could not stop fans travelling to Wembley.

She says there probably is a link between the behaviour of fans and the rise in cases. Public Health Scotland will be doing more analysis of this, she says.

0:59

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has welcomed the Scottish government’s decision to lift the ban on non-essential travel to and from his city. (See 2.25pm.) He said:

I had serious concerns about this travel ban and the way it was introduced and I have made these concerns clear over recent days.

I am grateful to the first minister and to the Scottish government for listening and for the decision they have announced today to lift the travel ban on Bolton, Manchester and Salford.

Sturgeon says if people are going to watch the football, they should remember that the maximum group size for people indoors is six people from three households - and those three households include your own.

Sturgeon says she is still “hopeful” that the Scottish government will be able to remove some restrictions on 19 July, and remaining ones on 9 August.

She says if cases continue to rise, there will be pressure on the NHS.

She says she is appealing to people to help keep the virus at bay by taking care and following the advice.

Sturgeon says earlier in the pandemic 13% of cases, and 89% of deaths, were in people over 65.

But now just 2% of cases involve people in the age group. She says more than 80% of new cases are in people under 44.

That shows what an impact the vaccination programme has had, she says.