Keir Starmer grilled on lockdown's 'damaging' impact on children

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a third lockdown for England on Monday night, following a rapid increase in coronavirus cases and deaths from the virus. Britons have been told to stay home, those who are clinically vulnerable have been told to shield and schools have closed in a bid to drive infection rates down.

Speaking today, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said the country was in for a “very difficult” few weeks and could give no firm date for lifting the lockdown.

He said: “The Government is doing everything it can in order to ensure that we can roll out the vaccine more rapidly, help the vulnerable by getting the inoculations they need and make sure that at the end of what will inevitably be very, very difficult weeks, that life can eventually return to normal.”

The latest data saw the UK record 58,784 new cases of Covid-19, the highest daily total since the pandemic started.

Now the alert level for the virus has risen from Level 4 to Level 5, with a new highly transmissible variant of the virus causing cases to soar.

Read More: Susanna Reid hits out at Keir Starmer over school closures

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Why do nurseries stay open in lockdown?

Announcing the measures on Monday night Mr Johnson said schools and colleges should close as soon as possible.

Mr Johnson said he recognised the “inconvenience and distress” that the late change would cause millions of parents and pupils up and down the country.

He acknowledged the confusion given many pupils had returned to schools that same day.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Johnson said: “Parents whose children were in school today may reasonably ask why we did not take this decision sooner.

“The answer is simply that we have been doing everything in our power to keep schools open, because we know how important each day in education is to children’s life chances.”

However, nurseries and early learning facilities have been permitted to stay open, as are playgrounds.

This is to provide childcare for those working, with childminders allowed to work and existing childcare bubbles allowed to stay in place.

Mr Johnson explained: “And I want to stress that the problem is not that schools are unsafe for children – children are still very unlikely to be severely affected by even the new variant of Covid.

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“The problem is that schools may nonetheless act as vectors for transmission, causing the virus to spread between households.”

However, the move has caused concern for those working in and running nurseries.

Some nurseries have taken the decision to close their doors despite being able to stay open under the Government’s rules.

Early Years Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch, said: “If the government is this concerned about the spread of the virus in primary schools, it must provide clear, scientific evidence for why the early years should be treated differently.

“If it cannot provide this vital reassurance, then it surely has no choice but take the necessary decision to close early years settings and provide the financial support providers will need to remain viable during such temporary closures.

“Those working in the early years are understandably extremely anxious about the safety and wellbeing of themselves, their colleagues, their families and the children they care for but have sadly been made to feel that their safety simply does not matter.”

The lockdown rules are due to stay in place until at least mid-February, however, today senior Government minister Michael Gove told Sky News March should mark the point at which restrictions are starting to be eased.

He said: “We will keep these constantly under review but you are absolutely right, we can’t predict with certainty that we will be able to lift restrictions in the week commencing February 15 to 22.

“What we will be doing is everything that we can to make sure that as many people as possible are vaccinated, so that we can begin to progressively lift restrictions.

“I think it is right to say that as we enter March we should be able to lift some of these restrictions but not necessarily all.”

Mr Gove said the NHS was working “24/7” to ensure 13 million people are vaccinated by the middle of February.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “We know that we’ve vaccinated one million people up to the weekend.

“We’re increasing the numbers this week and we’re hoping, as the Prime Minister outlined, to reach just over 13 million in February.”

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