Covid: Sir Keir Starmer warns of summer of chaos as infections rise

Sir Keir Starmer has warned Boris Johnson he is leading the country into a "summer of chaos and confusion" over measures to ease lockdown.

The Labour leader asked the PM how many would have to isolate if Covid infections hit 100,000 per day.

And he expressed concern that people would delete the test and trace app to avoid being told to self isolate.

Mr Johnson insisted his plan to lift Covid rules was "balanced and reasonable".

However, the prime minister failed to put a number on how many would need to self-isolate, nor an estimate of the deaths and hospitalisations expected as infections rise.

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On Monday, Mr Johnson said that most legal restrictions in England should be removed from 19 July.

The lifting of rules - which will be confirmed on 12 July after a review of the latest data - would include scrapping social distancing rules as well as the legal requirement to wear face masks.

And the government says close contacts who are double-jabbed will not have to isolate after 16 August in England.

But ministers have warned the public to expect high infection levels as the remaining restrictions are lifted.

Addressing the issue at Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said the country should open up "in a controlled way" and urged Mr Johnson to ensure masks still have to be worn on public transport.

He argued that removing all protections "in one go" was reckless and said higher infection rates would lead to "a greater chance of new variants emerging".

He also warned that, with infections projected to rise, many more people would have to isolate, whilst others would simply chose to delete the test and trace app to avoid being "pinged".

"It won't feel like freedom day to those who have to isolate... it won't feel like freedom day to the businesses who are already warning of carnage because of the loss of staff and customers." he said.

The prime minister responded that the country would be "moving to a system of testing rather than self-isolation".

He acknowledged cases were rising but said "scientists are also absolutely clear that we have severed the link between infection and serious disease and death" as a result of the vaccine roll out.

This slightly differs from Sir Patrick Vallance's comments at a press conference on Monday when the government's chief scientific advisor said the link had been "weakened" but not "completely broken".

On face masks, Mr Johnson said the government was "cautiously moving from a legal diktat to allowing people to take personal responsibility for their actions".

He said if the only difference between the two politicians was over whether face masks should be mandatory "that is good news".

Sir Keir questioned why the prime minister deemed the use of masks on transport "common sense" but wouldn't make it mandatory.

"It's clear what this is all about, he's lost a health secretary, he's lost a by-election, he's getting flack from his own MPs, so he's doing what he always does: crashing over to the other side of the aisle, chasing headlines and coming up with a plan that hasn't been thought through," he said.

Mr Johnson hit back accusing the Labour leader of failing to be clear about his own position saying: "We vaccinate, they vacillate, we inoculate, while they're invertebrate."

This is a huge change that is about to come - after more than a year of living with all of these restrictions in England.

Since the government's announcement on Monday, there's been really intense political, scientific and medical debate about whether it's the right thing to do or not.

What was interesting is that at PMQs Kier Starmer was trying to get the same information that journalists have been trying to get from the government, in the last few days.

What does the government expect in terms of new hospitalizations?

What does the government expect in terms of the number of people who may lose their lives over the next couple of months?

Boris Johnson, just didn't want to give those figures.

You may have heard the Health Secretary Sajid Javid say we might be looking at 50,000 cases a day. We might even be looking at 100,000 cases a day.

But the government just won't release the extra information and Keir Starmer didn't get anywhere with that.