Good morning. We’ve got another busy day ahead, with Britain moving into a new phase in the fight against coronavirus – the “rule of six” is coming into force in England, Scotland and Wales (in slightly different forms), joining Northern Ireland (where a version already applies) and MPs will get their first chance to vote on the government legislation that would overrule the Brexit withdrawal agreement, a bill whose publication has brought relations between Brussels and London to a new low.
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, was on the Today programme this morning talking about the “rule of six” and, when pressed by the presenter Mishal Husein, he said that people should report their neighbours to the police if they thought they were ignoring the rule.
Asked about what people could do, Malthouse said:
We are in discussions about what reporting mechanisms there might be but there is obviously the non-emergency number that people can ring and report issues they wish to.
Certainly during the initial stage of lockdown, we did see a surge in those reports coming through to the police.
If people are concerned, if they do think there is contravention then that option is open to them.
Then, pressed on whether that would involve reporting a gathering of seven or more in a neighbour’s garden, Malthouse said:
It is open to neighbours to do exactly that through the non-emergency number and if they are concerned and they do see that kind of thing, then absolutely they should think about it.
Asked if he was saying residents should be concerned about local breaches of law in neighbouring properties and report them to the police, he replied: “Yes.”
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Sir Keir Starmer hosts his LBC “Call Keir” phone-in.
11.10am: Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, speaks on the first day of the TUC’s virtual annual conference.
12pm: Downing Street is expected to hold its lobby briefing.
12.15pm: The Scottish government is expected to hold its daily coronavirus briefing.
12.30pm: Vaughan Gething, the Welsh government’s health minister, holds a coronavirus briefing.
After 3.30pm: MPs begin the debate on the second reading of the internal market bill. They will vote at 10pm.
Politics Live has been doubling up as the UK coronavirus live blog for some time and, given the way the Covid crisis eclipses everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But we will be covering non-Covid political stories too, like Brexit, and where they seem more important and interesting, they will take precedence.
Here is our global coronavirus live blog.
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