this is bbc news. i'm simon mccoy. the headlines: junior minister douglas ross resigns because of the government's defence of dominic cummings and his family trip during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. though he also recognises, as a fair—minded man, that there are many other people who... who may take a different view, and i understand that. weeks before they're back at work, retailers say they're worried about how they'll cope with stringent new restrictions, if shoppers do come back. the trend in deaths from coronavirus continues downward, with the lowest rate for six weeks. back in business, doctors make final checks on the greek islands as they reopen to domestic tourism. and the final cut. councils get snippy as some

hairdressers break the rules to treat customers‘ out—of—control "lockdown hair." good afternoon. just when the government was hoping the row over dominic cummings was calming down, and news of the resignation of a junior minister. douglas ross, who was under secretary of state for scotland, quit as ministers contined to defend the actions of the prime minister's senior adviser during lockdown. mr ross said he believed that mr cummings‘ view of the government guidance, was not shared by the vast majority of people. and this afternoon the former chief whip mark harper has called on dominic cummings to resign. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. has he done enough to save his job? mr cummings, were you telling

the truth yesterday? do you think the public believe you? dominic cummings leaving home this morning, flanked by two police officers. i think what i did was actually reasonable in the... in the circumstances. downing street is hoping yesterday's extraordinary press conference, his account of why he drove his family 250 miles during lockdown to isolate, would be enough to move this story on. people will make their own mind up, and as dominic himself said, there will be many people who think his actions were wrong or mistaken, but looking at it in the round, i think his actions were reasonable. but this has been a messy few days for number ten. it has done damage to borisjohnson, and some fear it has harmed public health messaging, too, at a time when the government needs people to follow advice. douglas ross has resigned as a junior minister, one of a number of unhappy

scottish conservatives. in a letter to boris johnson, mr ross said his constituents had missed funerals to follow lockdown rules, adding that, "i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong "and one senior government adviser was right." there are others, too. i think they have to say this has gone too far. there is a huge public backlash against what has happened, and the way in which it has been handled. it has become a distraction from thejob of getting people back to work, back to school, protecting health, and rebuilding the economy. there are tory mps who think that mr cummings' account yesterday helped, and are desperate to move on to talking about something else. but others are still deeply concerned. excusing mr cummings sends out mixed messaging and risks undermining the government's authority. the anger out there in the public shows quite clearly that they feel it is one rule for them and one rule for

government advisers, and that is a very, very dangerous position for the public to be in. during a time of crisis, we need the entirety of the population to be working together to try to get through this crisis. the government wants to move the focus to easing lockdown, but there continue to be questions over its defence of mr cummings. nick eardley, bbc news, westminster. our political correspondent alex forsyth is at westminster. if they were hoping to put a lid on this, it is not happening. that is quite right. they were hoping to put a lid on this and i think there was a lid on this and i think there was a sense in downing street that if dominic cummings came out as he did yesterday, answered questions, went through his version of his actions and his justification, the through his version of his actions and hisjustification, the hope was that that would have drawn a line. it most certainly hasn't. we have had that resignation today and we have also had more conservative mps coming out to express their concern. about two points, really. the first about what this does to

the government's public health message and whether it undermines it and the second point, and this seems to be repeated from mps who say, they might have some sympathy for the dilemma in which dominic cummings found himself, that does not seem to wash well with their constituents who felt they made sacrifices that he didn't. this afternoon, we have had mark harper, a former chief whip for the conservative party, he has written a letter suggesting that dominic cummings should have resigned. he said i would expect an adviser who was damaged credibility of the garment‘s message to consider his position. we have also heard from stephen hammond, another conservative mp. he says he might have sympathy with his motives but is angry that so many have sacrificed so much for public safety and this man has decided that in his interpretation of doing the right thing he has overridden that message of stay at home. another former

cabinet minister has said that he again is talking about damaging the nature of public solidarity. they are saying that in some cases they have had a huge number of correspondence from people who are overwhelmingly angry about this and thatis overwhelmingly angry about this and that is why some of them are feeling they have to come out publicly, so if the government had hoped this would go away quickly, it does not seem that that is going to happen. how much more of this can take? that is the key question and from the opposition party's perspective, there is discussion with some of the westminster leaders this morning for top they will obviously want to keep the pressure on the prime minister and the government more broadly on this, but what is crucial is how many conservative mps are prepared to speak out about it and say what they think. we have had more than 20 who have said that dominic cummings should either have resigned or be sacked and even those who are expressing concern and criticism but not going that far does add

pressure to the government on this. 0k, thank you. joining me now to give his reaction is conservative mp robert courts. he joins us from his constituency in witney, 0xfordshire. do you think dominic cummings should stay in the job? yes, i think after that explanation yesterday, which was clear, honest and open, i have sympathy with the dilemma he was in asi sympathy with the dilemma he was in as i know many well. we saw a man who was trying to do what he thought was best for his family and particularly for his four—year—old son. when i look at the rules, the regulations we all have to comply with, under the circumstances he was then, i do think that he acted reasonably. no one would say that trip to barnard castle was a reasonable action, would they?” think you have got to remember a couple of things about that trip on the basis of what mr cummings told us the basis of what mr cummings told us yesterday put up the first is that he was knocked on a day trip, this was not an opportunity to

visit a beauty spot. it was an opportunity for him to see whether he was able to drive before he undertook that much longerjourney back to london, given he was trying to get back to work. that is what he is very much trying to do, it is not something thatis trying to do, it is not something that is being done, as i understand, on the basis of him simply having an enjoyable day out. at what point did it become demeaning to have senior government ministers defending some of who should be out of the picture, he should... ? we all want to get back to tackling this massive crisis thatis back to tackling this massive crisis that is coronavirus. forgive me, but that is coronavirus. forgive me, but thatis that is coronavirus. forgive me, but that is exactly the point. 90% of the country has been following the government guidelines and government rules. we are talking about families whose relatives, parents, some whose children have died in hospital alone because they have felt it necessary to stick to government guidelines and here you have someone who did

not, admits he did not, who has a government that is defending him, a private minister who has his back, when the members of the public who see this are clearly angry about it —— a prime minister. have you had in yourinbox, —— a prime minister. have you had in your inbox, angry e—mails from some of your constituents? yes, of course. there is no getting away from the fact that people feel very strongly about this matter. there is no doubt it raises very high passions. you're quite right to draw attention to the sacrifices that people have made and i want to be absolutely clear about this, there is no question that it should be one role that government advisers and one republic the public, that is absolutely not the case. the rules allow you to leave home, and if you have two parents who are looking after a child, that might be an exceptional circumstance was that when you look at that and you set

that against what mr cummings has done, the question that we all have to a nswer done, the question that we all have to answer is not whether we agree with mrcummings, or to answer is not whether we agree with mr cummings, or not whether we would have done the same thing ourselves, but whether what he did is reasonable. the prime minister has listened to what mr cummings has said and has formed the view it is reasonable and wants to keep them on and that is a decision i respect. mark harper does not. he is a former chief whip. he says, as though mr cummings' trip to barnard castle, there is no credible justification for this. in these circumstances, is an absolute minimum, an apology should have been made and a level of regret expressed. do you agree with him? i respect his view enormously, asi him? i respect his view enormously, as i respect all that the views of all be colleagues who take a different view and from all those constituents and others who write to express their view. in the view of the barnard castle trip, it was outside of the 14 day quarantine period as i understand, so not that real strict quarantine time and at

the point where people were allowed to go outside for one point of exercise each day. it was not a trip out to a beauty spot for the sake of it, as i understand it, but in order to see whether he was able to do that longer journey back to see whether he was able to do that longerjourney back south to london. again, was that reasonable in the circumstances? i have formed the view that having heard that open and clear explanation yesterday, that it was. open and clear explanation, some people may argue with that. whilst that may be the letter of the law, it is not the spirit of it in any way, is it? is a very difficult times and i respect the difficult decisions everyone has to take, but i do think we need to look at these matters with some compassion and understanding for top clearly, what he was trying to do was to do what was best for his family and his four—year—old son and he was in a very difficult position. he was doing what was best for him and his family, not what was best for the country, is the argument, because the country was in lockdown for that i have just had a tweet from someone, when you said you had had letters from your constituents,

why are you not representing them? how many letters have you had from constituents backing dominic cummings? i cannot give you figures. is it one to five, is it more than ten? the job i have to do... i know what yourjob is, i want to know how many e—mails you have had supporting dominic cummings. i could not give you the answer because i have not counted them all, but i have to decide whether when i look at the regulations and the explosion has been given, to see whether i think thatis been given, to see whether i think that is reasonable. and when i look at the explanation that has been given andi at the explanation that has been given and i set that gets the regulations that they were at the time which have an express it exception of looking after someone who is vulnerable, that gives your reason for leaving home and put this together and answer the question i have to answer, which is whether or not i think his actions were reasonable, not whether they were right or whether anyone agrees, i respect people will disagree... on that basis, this is

the problem, anybody that is driving anywhere in england this afternoon can say to a police officer who stops them, this is as far as i can see reasonable because that is an argument that worked for dominic cummings. if that's not the problem? the general health message here is so deleted by the actions of one person. we are in different circumstances now because the rules have changed since. but we all have to look at the rules and look at what they were proposing to do and to decide for ourselves we are applying with the rules —— look at what we are proposing to do. given that explanation yesterday, again, i accept that not everyone will agree. they will not agree because the message as i remember it was a stay at home. yes, but except

in certain circumstances. for medical reasons, for food, in certain circumstances. for medical reasons, forfood, and providing care and there is a specific section that talks about providing care to someone he was vulnerable and again i am only quoting the deputy chief medical 0fficer quoting the deputy chief medical officer who expressed it the week before in a press conference and said that the case of adults looking after a child wasn't something that might be exceptional circumstances. ijust might be exceptional circumstances. i just know there are might be exceptional circumstances. ijust know there are people watching now who have children who are very sick, not visiting them in hospital, he will feel perhaps a bit let down by the interpretation of rules that were very clear at the time to most people that stay at home meant to stay at home.” entirely accept and understand the strength of feeling people will have, i do not dispute that for a moment and i think everybody‘s case it should be looked at with compassion and that is all i propose we do in this case will top look at the rules and apply those rules to

everybody. above all, looking compassion given at the terrible circumstances that everyone is in it, the country, and dominic cummings is included in that.” it, the country, and dominic cummings is included in that. i am sorry, i'm supposed to end the interview there, but you cannot possibly say there is not sympathy around, fora possibly say there is not sympathy around, for a controversial figure, he should in most circumstances be behind the headlines, it should certainly not be being discussed in this terms, and who you are, and elected mp, defending someone. i don't know what is going on for stop i think members of the public will be watching mps and saying what is it got only one? i'm not sure what your question is that you are asking for is that i have never met dominic cummings at so i do not have a view on him personally. i hold nothing against him, that is not the purpose of this. ijust against him, that is not the purpose of this. i just express and against him, that is not the purpose of this. ijust express and that

when you look at the rules and what they were, you have to ask whether he had a reasonable excuse for leaving home. iam he had a reasonable excuse for leaving home. i am a barrister so i accept i'm looking at it from a fairly legalistic point of view, but on the basis of the law he had a reasonable excuse —— did he have a reasonable excuse —— did he have a reasonable excuse —— did he have a reasonable excuse for leaving home? and i think you did. i wonder what you would take fewer doctor. everyone will have a different view andi everyone will have a different view and i respect that. thank you. most shops are being allowed to reopen in england next month. car showrooms and outdoor markets will be able to welcome customers from next monday — other shops will follow on the isthjune. they'll have to place limits on the number of shoppers allowed in at the same time and introduce a one—way system. pubs, restau ra nts a nd hairdressers will remain closed. some smaller retailers say they may struggle to have government measures in place in time. nick beake reports.

truly scrumptious in poole has been on the high street for years, but with nobody able to buy their penny sweets for the last two months, they have been losing hundreds of pounds. i've reduced the floor space. i have installed a new glass screen to protect my staff and their customers. the government's decision to let customers return from the middle of next month gives her business a chance to survive. it is very important for my shop door to be open when it is safe to do so. we rely heavily on summer trade to see us through the difficult winter months. it has also been a difficult time for the car industry, but they will be able to open up their showrooms even earlier, from next monday. one of the uk's biggest manufacturers says they have been ready for weeks. there will have to be disinfection between test drives,

and inspections of the vehicles, but all of those things to meet government guidelines, and even go beyond, because obviously every manufacturer tends to go beyond guidelines to be doubly and triply secure. all of those things are ready now. in fact, they have been ready for two weeks. we have all got used to food shopping in a very different way during this crisis, and that will continue when other stores reopen. in each place, there is the question, "what's changed?" are there are now specific entrances and exits? there may be signs inside the store showing a new one—way system. the two—metre distance rule will still apply. if that is not possible to keep, the advice is to cover your face. we are urged to avoid touching stuff we won't buy, and when it comes to paying, contactless is best. many shoppers will be delighted that their favourite stores will soon be reopening, but not everyone will be rushing back to the shops. that's because there's still the risk of catching the virus, although we are told its much smaller now.

of course, over the past few months, many of us have been doing much more shopping online from the comfort of our homes. but retailers hope customers will go back to their old ways. as a nation, we have been penned up for some time now. before this all happened, 70% of retail sales were made in stores, so although it won't return to that in the next sort of three to six months, we are hoping that people will go out and support their high street. there is still no word on when hair salons will reopen, so we will be at the mercy of our relatives' efforts for a while yet. but more places will be able to say they are open for business, yet it is far from business as usual. nick beake, bbc news. earlier i spoke to our personal finance correspondent, who talked us through some of the concerns felt by retailers ahead of opening later this month. some stores will be worried that people will be too cautious

going onto the high street and will not be spending and they have the concern that in order to justify reopening, they need to have the turnover, the cash coming in, in order to pay their staff, particularly the case for smaller shops and they will have the challenge as well of doing all these measures within the shops to social distance when customers come in. that is a bigger ask for smaller shops than say the big shopping malls that are well set up for that already and have been planning for some time. imagine you just have one door into the shop and you are doing one way shopping for customers. 0ne suggestion that some stores are saying is they will open a door at the back to let people out that way. what shoppers will see is a com pletely what shoppers will see is a completely different to set up. they might end up queueing outside in order to restrict numbers, then when they go in, there

will be hygiene facilities inside. that is the plan and there will be perspex screens where the counter is. all sorts of measures like that and there will be challenges as well fare charity shops for instance, that have a lot of second—hand items that have been touched by members of the public, they will have to wait 72 hours before putting them on display and sorting them and making them available. i think stores will find this quite a challenge and the point about the high street reopening, it is going to be gradual. hairdressers, pubs, cafe is, they will be open at the beginning of july but they are not set to be open injune. july but they are not set to be open in june. just getting a line from my collea g u es in june. just getting a line from my colleagues in bbc scotland. just hearing that the leader of the conservatives in scotland has told the bbc he has made his views known

to downing street that dominic cummings should now consider his position, proving to be too much of a distraction in the efforts to tackle coronavirus. so, another, after the letter from mark harper, and the resignation of the undersecretary of state in scotland earlier on, another voice of dissent in the government's handling of the dominic cummings affair. we will bring you more on that later on. the number of people who've died with coronavirus in england and wales has fallen to its lowest weekly level in a month and a half. the office for national statistics says there were 3,810 deaths in the seven days to may the 15th. bbc head of statistics robert cuffe is here. what are the overall trends? in terms of the total number of deaths, there is actually a slight lift outwards but i wouldn't be too worried about that. we plot the data

and show them to people, you can see in the week up until the 15th of may, there was a slight rise in the total number of deaths registered in the uk. we can see them behind us here, just coming up to about 16000 and that is really due to death registrations that did not happen on the bank holiday. so we came down a little bit sharper than we might have bounced up a little. when you look at the blue line done at the bottom, that is at its lowest level in about six weeks and that is despite those extra floods of registrations coming in so the trend is positive and we are seeing the same in care homes and the community at large but still not down to normal. the middle is showing hammy deaths we would expect to see. it is better than a couple of weeks ago —— how many deaths we would expect to see. if you look at

this in different age groups commit you see very different patterns put up with would bring up that graph and we look at the average number of deaths, uc very different patterns for age groups. on the far left, we see those aged between 15 and 44 and there's really no difference was that we are not seeing that many more deaths than we would expect to see at this of year. 0nce more deaths than we would expect to see at this of year. once you get up to 45 to 74, we are seeing that increase we have seen but it is nearly back to normal now. the sharpest spike really happens in the over 75 is. the rate of deaths is more than double what you would expect and so it is reiterating again that age is the strongest driverfor risk of again that age is the strongest driver for risk of covid—19. inevitably, that tends to

focus —— that focus on care homes? those figures are still replicated in care homes, so there is a slight uptake in the number of deaths in care homes registered, up to around 5000, with nearly 1800 deaths, but the overall covid—19 trend is downwards. the thing it with care homes is now they are counting, certainly in england and wales, for nearly half of the registered covid—19 deaths we are seeing for top people in care homes, they're not accounting for half of the population. while you are here, i see we are getting figures from northern ireland, no deaths recorded in the last 24 hours there. it is the first day since the 18th of march that no deaths have been reported. some parts of the uk affected a lot more than others. we have seen a couple of days in london this week where there were

no covid—19 deaths recorded, not london asa covid—19 deaths recorded, not london as a whole, but the facts are, even when we're talking about tens of thousands of deaths, the figures are coming down for that they are coming down more slowly than they went up, but we are seeing reduction week on week in the number of covid—19 deaths. across the uk, of course there will be different patterns in different settings, hospitals versus ca re different settings, hospitals versus care homes, different settings, hospitals versus ca re homes, versus different settings, hospitals versus care homes, versus homes come in different parts of the uk, but overall the trend is positive and we have to watch them carefully over the coming weeks as the lockdown measures change. the nhs is appealing for more people who've recovered from covid—19 to take part in a trial in england to see if their blood plasma can treat patients with the virus. three groups of donors, men, those over 35, and people who have had hospital treatment, are most likely to have plasma rich in antibodies that can help others. our health correspondent laura foster reports. when alessandro contracted coronavirus and ended up on a hospital ventilator, he feared he'd never get to see his family again. it's why, when he recovered, he wanted to help others

by donating plasma in his blood. instinctively, the last thing you want to do is go into a hospital environment again and have a needle put there, but then i thought actually that i had been given so much, and literally those people saved my life, and you feel so hopeless and you feel so unable to help others, and that was the only way i could figure out at that point to give some of this back. when alessandro was sick, his immune system produced antibodies to help fight the virus. these antibodies are found in the gold coloured part of our blood, known as plasma. the idea is that this plasma can be given to other people, whose immune systems are struggling, to help them fight coronavirus. pop—up blood donation stations are being set up in unusual places, like the bar at the harlequins rugby ground. existing blood donation centres are also being made bigger, all part of the aim to take up to 8,000 donations a week.

it can be very, very emotional, and it does actually get you quite upset sometimes, but then you see these people have come out from the other side, and like i said, they're so enthusiastic and so willing. the researchers have found that men, those over 35, and anyone who was hospitalised with coronavirus, produce the most antibodies. there's no effective treatment known for covid yet. convalescent plasma is a potentially effective treatment, so we're really keen to explore this as a possibility. in fact, alessandro's blood contains 40 times more antibodies than the average donor. so that means i can give a lot of them away, which i'm very pleased to do, and suddenly, as my friends knew about that, they've all become very nice to me! in case they ever need it in the future. they're particularly asking for people to come forward in manchester, birmingham, and london,

where there have been a lot of cases of covid—19. starting today, plasma is now included in the biggest study in the world, the recovery trial, which looks at repurposing existing treatments. if found to be successful, plasma could be used to treat covid—19 in hospitals all over the world. laura foster, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. i think, once again today, greater london will be the one with area we re london will be the one with area were temperatures probably peeking around 27 degrees, but for some of us we around 27 degrees, but for some of us we have got a little bit more in the way of cloud in the sky, still plenty of sunshine around. the cou nty plenty of sunshine around. the county it has been around northern england and wales where we have the re m na nts of england and wales where we have the remnants of a cold front. it is not bringing any rain, just a bit patchy cloud that is breaking up and drifting southwards. 0vernight tonight, we could see some low cloud fall south—west england, the coastal

hills perhaps in some fog patches and temperatures 13 and 14 overnight, fresher airfare and temperatures 13 and 14 overnight, fresher air fare northern england, northern ireland and scotland. a fine and dry day for tomorrow. they could be a little bit of light patchy rain, perhaps working into northern ireland for a time, otherwise it is dry foot at the highest temperatures again across england and wales, but wherever you are in the sunshine, you will feel quite warmer.

hello this is bbc news. the headlines... junior minister douglas ross resigns because of the government's defence of dominic cummings and his family trip during lockdown. 0n the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did to the right thing, but also recognises as a fair—minded man, that there are many other people who may take a different view. i understand that. weeks before they're back at work — retailers say they're worried about how they'll cope with stringent new restrictions, if shoppers do come back. the trend in deaths from coronavirus continues downward, with the lowest rate for six weeks. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing, where the virus has not yet been reported. sport now. good afternoon..... world number one rory mcilroy says

he believes this year's ryder cup, due to take place in september in wisconsin, will be postponed until next year. competitive golf across the world has been suspended since march because of coronavirus, with the pga tour set to resume next month behind closed doors — but mcilroy doesn't think a ryder cup without spectators would be a viable option. the would be a viable option. majority of the players w like the majority of the players would like to see it pushed back to 2021 so that they can play in front of the atmosphere that they want to play. they want to play in front of crowds, that is what makes the ryder cup so special. and if the players aren't on board with that, at the end of the day, the players are the ones that make the ryder cup, and if they don't want to play, there isn't a ryder cup. isee they don't want to play, there isn't a ryder cup. i see it being pushed back to 2021. honestly, i think that would be the right call.

petra kvitova is on the same page. she's also called for events to be cancelled, if fans aren't allowed to attend. the two—time wimbledon champion says she would prefer this year's remaining grand slam events to be called off, if they have to take place behind closed doors. wimbledon has already been cancelled, but the us open is still set to start at the end of august, and the french open has been rescheduled for september. coronavirus testing in the premier league continues today with bournemouth‘s first choice goalkeeper aaron ramsdale confirming he's the latest player to return a positive test. ramsdale says he tested negative in the first round of testing last week, but in the second batch he was shown to have contracted the virus. he says he hadn't experienced any symptoms and is now self—isolating. clubs will vote tomorrow on proposals for a return to contact training. so with the premier league looking to restart and championship teams back in training, it looks likely that a final decision on how to end the season in leagues one and two won't be

taken until next week. the biggest issue centres on promotion and relegation. stevenage are currently bottom of the league but chairman phil wallace says there's no integrity to the plan to work out the final table on a points per game basis. when you see that we're providing teams in play—off places to play for promotion, yet if you're in a relegation spot you are denied the opportunity to play your way out of it. that's just not right and it's not just, it's not ethical and it certainly got no integrity, which is where the the efl where leaded, using that word ‘integrity‘. across europe, a number of leagues have already been postponed because of the pandemic, including in france. but now the owner of lyon has written to the french government to ask them to reconsider the decision. ligue un is the only one of the big five european leagues either not back under way or planning to resume in the next few weeks and jean michel aulas says french football is facing an "unprecedented

economic and social crisis". that's all the sport for now. let's return now to the ongoing row over the actions of the prime minister's chief aide who drove hundreds of miles after the coronavirus lockdown was imposed. ajunior minister — douglas ross — has resigned over the actions of dominic cummings. but other ministers today have continued to defend the adviser‘s claims that he acted " reasonably and legally". mps have reported their inboxes full of emails from their constituents on the matter. and 0livia paterson is one person who has written to her conservative mp about mr cummings' actions.... 0livia joins me now... let's start from the beginning. you wrote at the weekend to your mp. while? what was the tone of the letter? i wrote off the back of a tweet i sent on friday night, expressing anger, because my grandfather had died

alone, not from coronavirus, but he was alone because my family and carers in her ca re because my family and carers in her care home rightly follow the rules. i got care home rightly follow the rules. igota care home rightly follow the rules. i got a huge number of responses from that that completely bowled me over, the sympathy and other people who had been through the same thing. i also had a couple suggesting that i write to my mp to tell him what i felt. it hadn't occurred to me. i thought that was a good idea because it seems that this action... just sending a tweet isn't going to do anything, andi sending a tweet isn't going to do anything, and i wanted to do something. something about it. i think normal people do care about this, whatever dominic cummings said in his press conference. you know, it is not a westminster bubble, people are really angry about this. my people are really angry about this. my mp‘s first responsibility is to look after his constituents, to represent us, so writing to him at least lets hi m represent us, so writing to him at least lets him no how angry i and hundreds of other people are. 0livia, i think you wrote the letter

before dominic cummings and that statement. has that changed your mind? it hasn't, no. his reasons really did not convince me. i think the main thing he was talking about was childcare. you know, that wasn't used when the child needed to go into hospital, the child's sick mother took the child to hospital, exposing the hospital workers in durham to potential coronavirus or whatever it was that she did have. which was the entire point of the lockdown that we went to do that. and then the idea of putting his child and a car as a responsible pa rent child and a car as a responsible parent and going for a drive to test asi parent and going for a drive to test as i say to me seemed quite baffling. —— to test his eyesight. he quite rightly rushed home on that birthday from downing street when his wife got sick and then went back to work, so there is already a breach of the log generals before

he has gone to durham. the prime minister said that dominic cummings was acting with the instinct of a father, who was acting in the best interest of his family. indeed, that was dominic cummings‘s message yesterday. do you have something for that? i have sympathy with that, of course, but the rest of us would hold not —— told not to go there instincts, told to stay at home. i don't think there is any ambiguity, the message will stay at home if you or anyone you live with has symptoms. that is not a difficult message and, yes, your instinct might be to travel, but my instinct was to go to my family when my grandfather was dying, but i couldn't do that. so why is it that he was able to follow his instincts when the rest of us had to follow the rules? your grandfather was presumably surrounded by people who we re presumably surrounded by people who were caring for them at his death? he wasn't alone? what

dominic cummings was saying yesterday was that he had to ensure that his son was going to be in an environment where he could be looked after if his parents became incapable of doing so stop his son went hospital. my doing so stop his son went hospital. my grandfather went into a care home, just three days before the lockdown. he was under stand by confused about why he was not being visited, didn't have family around him. -- visited, didn't have family around him. —— understandably confused. all of the care homes at the moment are sort of distance caring. it is a comfort to know that there were care workers around him, but i don't think that changes everything, really. why make the media and the last few minutes, a lot of us are getting stick for hounding. .. for hounding dominic cummings and making his life uncomfortable. do you think politics is getting in the wager? no, i don't. politics is getting in the wager? no, idon't. i politics is getting in the wager? no, i don't. i don't think this is a

political issue all. some people believe this is a personal vendetta against dominic cummings because he is the man who delivered brexit, but i think all sides of the political divide have been fairly outraged by what he has done. i don't think the scrutiny of him is any different from the scrutiny that diane abbott received for drinking alcohol on a tube train. sorry, did you watch dominic cummings live yesterday?” did, yes. what was going through your main? was anything he could have said that would have made you think that you get to? he could have said sorry. he was given so many opportunities, he could have said he thought he did what he thought was right but made a lapse injudgment. that his wife was sick and he panicked because they didn't have childcare. he could have apologised for making people angry. hejust

didn't do that. the one thing he apologised for was turning up pap relate to the press conference he was running to try and control the damage —— turning up half an hour late to the press conference.” damage —— turning up half an hour late to the press conference. i am wondering if there is a personality issue here, or if it is raw politics? i have no strong feelings about dominic cummings from before this. my only opinion is that he followed one set of rules that seem to be ok for him, the rest of us would not have got away with that. wright are would not have got away with that. wrightare you... would not have got away with that. wright are you... ? do you regret the action you take with your grandfather? are you wishing you could put the clock back? no, i wish my grandmother had been able to see him. iwish my grandmother had been able to see him. i wish that things weren't as they were but i understand we all had to do this for a reason.

if any of us had gone into that care home, we could have been putting other people at risk and it wouldn't have just been my grandfather, it would have been the other residents, the ca re have been the other residents, the care workers. i understand that we did the right thing. do you think that after the last few days, people may take a different view to what is acceptable? even though the guidelines have been relaxed?” absolutely do it. my partner and i went for a walk down the high street where we live this morning, as we have done every morning for exercise, it was absolutely packed. it is like there isn't a lockdown happening any more. yes, the rules have been relaxed, but i have not seen it like that since we went into lockdown. i think people do just think, well, if he did it, why can't i? olivia, it is very good of think, well, if he did it, why can't i? 0livia, it is very good of you to join us this afternoon. thank you very much. countries across europe

are continuing to ease lockdown restrictions, as infection rates fall. greece, where the outbreak has had relatively little impact, has taken another major step. its islands have opened to domestic tourists for the first time in months. quentin sommerville reports. on a 100—mile—plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we're greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven't been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn't been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island and none of them have been tested for covid—19 until today. the village was built on a hilltop to safeguard it from pirates. they're hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has had only 172 deaths

from covid—19 and is leaving lockdown faster than expected. foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for 40 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket — flora — she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others —

not unscathed, but in better shape than most. isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. quentin sommerville, bbc news, the southern aegean. the headlines on bbc news... a junior minister has resigned over the handling of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings. they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. the world health organization halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid—19 — as it's found it could cause heart problems. an update on the market numbers for you — here's how london's and frankfurt ended the day. and in the the united states this is how the dow and the nasdaq are getting

on. as most of us know now ‘lockdown hair‘ is a thing. after months since a visit to the hairdresser — we‘re either letting nature take it‘s course — or risking a home trim. earlier this month our correspondent colin campbell reported on barbers in kent breaking the rules — and offering haircuts. now, council officers are stepping in — to remind barbers of the consequences. here‘s colin‘s latest report. posting prohibition orders through barbers‘ doors, this is trading standards‘ enforcement action to stop the spread of covid—19. they are targeting shops suspected of continuing to operate during the pandemic. some are alleged to have been secretly cutting hair at the rear of their premises. is there evidence this barber has been cutting hair? yes, absolutely. at the moment, the premises looks empty, although there are signs that somebody has been into the premises. the post has been picked up and there are signs that the till has been opened.

but, at the moment, the shop is empty. posing as a prospective customer, at the beginning of the month, i found 19 out of 50 barbers willing to break the law. hi, i‘m trying to find somewhere to get my haircut. five o'clock, is that 0k? five o‘clock? to the shop, yeah? yeah, you have to sit down in the kitchen, because i want to...like, private. i don't want anybody to see you because it's going to be a problem for me. can you get to my shop in about 10—15 minutes? to your shop in 10 or 15 minutes? yeah. at the time, few showed any real concern for the dangers posed by the virus. do you want me to wear a mask or take any other safety precautions? i don‘t care. for me, i don‘t believe in this coronavirus, so, for me, it doesn‘t matter. cracking down on rogue barbers, kent trading standards has now issued prohibition orders to 30 shops. what these select number of barbers are doing is unfair.

they are not complying with the legal requirements and they are putting people‘s lives at risk by continuing to trade. this action, welcomed by those sticking to the rules. those reputable salons that are out there, that are sitting tight, worrying about their financial future, are quite rightly feeling angry and undermined by the irresponsible actions ofjust a few in the sector. barbers are not expected to be allowed to reopen before the 4th ofjuly at the earliest, and that is if they are able to meet social distancing measures. colin campbell, bbc news, kent. the rnli is calling for the government to restrict access to beaches after a man and a teenage girl died in separate incidents along the cornish coastline on bank holiday monday. the girl had become trapped beneath a capsized boat while the man was pulled from the water by a member of the public. despite warnings not to go into the water, volunteer and off—duty lifeguards

rescued dozens of people in a spate of incidents yesterday. mark dowie is the chief executive of the rnli and spoke to us earlier 0ver over the weekend we had about 120 lifeboat lunches. that is way more than a normal weekend. certainly along the strip of course you have just referred to. all four lifeboats near those incidents were out through the course of yesterday. a very busy weekend indeed. many people being cooped up for a long time and many live by the coast, they have been able to go throughout because they haven‘t had the same difficulty with travel restrictions. we are difficulty with travel restrictions. we a re really difficulty with travel restrictions. we are really keen to see strong government support for getting the water safety messages to people, to really make sure that people are super aware of the dangers that they put themselves in when they go to the sea, particularly if they are an experience. and that people

just generally use common sense to keep theirfamily safe, generally use common sense to keep their family safe, don‘t do things like use inflatables and follow all of our water safety messaging. government help with giving all of those messages would be very helpful. it‘s 80 years since 0peration dynamo, the evacuation by small boats of more than 300,000 troops from the beaches of dunkirk — during one of the darkest periods of the second world war. duncan kennedy has been to todays commemoration in southsea, and has been hearing the remarkable story of one 99—year—old veteran. he plays last post. dunkirk, said churchill, was a miracle of deliverance. lawrence churcher was a witness to that miracle. today, aged 99, he came to portsmouth to recall dunkirk. its story of salvation and its tally of great loss. in may 1940, lawrence found himself in the chaos of dunkirk.

evacuation the only hope against the german advance. lawrence had two brothers serving somewhere in the army. but his only thought was to get off that beach. when i first started bringing them back, of course, i didn‘t think about my brothers. i thought, well, how am i going to get back? that‘s the thing, you know. but, in the confusion of evacuating more than 300,000 men, lawrence, here in the middle, literally ran into his two brothers george on the left and edward on the right. their reunion in the bomb—cratered sand dunes of a beach under siege is a moment lawrence will never forget. relief, just relief. because there were so

many soldiers there and continuous aircraft coming over, dropping bombs and things, you know. all three brothers made it off the beach with the help of the armada of little ships that had been sent from britain. and all three sailed home safely to their mother waiting in portsmouth. she was pleased, obviously, the fact that i was there for them. and then when the fellas leaned over my shoulder, came a sigh of relief, and said, "thank god we‘ve got a navy." covid—19 means this year‘s gathering of little ships to mark the 80th anniversary of dunkirk cannot take place. but one small naval ceremony was enough for lawrence churcher to remember the salvation

of his country and his family. duncan kennedy, bbc news, in portsmouth. our correspondent simonjones is at dover castle... it was a pivotal moment in the planning of this. absolutely. here they were hoping to have events to commemorate what happened here 80 yea rs commemorate what happened here 80 years ago. the start of operation dynamo. those have had to be cancelled due to coronavirus, but they are marking what happened on mine. this was a pivotal event early in world war ii. we had a third of a million british and allied troops stranded just on the other side of the channel at dunkirk. dunkirk was being bombed, the harbour was blocked with sunken ships, is thought that these men there were sitting ducks. but then this hotel are of little boats, hundreds of them came to the aid, went across them came to the aid, went across the channel and brought these troops back. let‘s get more

from english heritage. strange to think this was all coordinated from tunnels beneath our feet now? that's right, 30 metres below where we are now standing was the naval headquarters, commanded by vice admiral ramsey. it was hisjob, commanded by vice admiral ramsey. it was his job, assigned commanded by vice admiral ramsey. it was hisjob, assigned to him by the british government, to get these resources of ships together in a few days and get them across to dunkirk. it was quite a task. initially they thought they had only managed to get out and about 30,000 or so and they got out 300,000? that is correct. the best estimate was 45,002 days. it took them nine, he also entered ten days —— 45 in two days. it took them nine, he also entered ten days -- 45 in two days. we talk now of dunkirk spirit, that phrase was coined because of this operation. that is correct, it was coyne really because a lot of people

thought it was a bit of a medical to have achieved so much and so little time. —— a bit ofa medicalto achieve so much. it has entered the language as the spirit of those involved in the operation to do so much and so little time, that is where it comes from. churchill said you can truly call the retreat of british troops to be a victory, but it was hugely important, if nothing more for morale. that is what churchill said, but secretly he was very relieved indeed. because they we re very relieved indeed. because they were looking at the cooling or capturing of the greater part of the british army. had that happen, our capacity to carry on the war would have been severely jealous capacity to carry on the war would have been severelyjealous —— cooling or capturing the greater pa rt of cooling or capturing the greater part of the british army.” mentioned at the start, you were hoping this would be a big event here at dover castle with all sorts of things put on to recreate what happened 80 years ago today. that

hasn‘t been possible, but what are you doing? what we're doing, instead of having a live event to try and invoke the spirit of the time, we are having an event online. our social media channels are putting out a series of videos, short videos, several over the next nine days, which will actually chart the progress of the operation through the eyes of some people who might have been involved. we have a royal naval officer, a little ship owner and a commie, they will give their perspectives as actors, and over the next nine days, people who sign into our channels will get the personal stories about what these people went there. as we know, the cause can be here on this beautifully sunny day here on this beautifully sunny day here in dover, but they are hoping many will discover the story and find out much

more about online. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. greater london will be the hot spot again today. how is —— greater london will be the hot spot again today. how is -- across wales and northern england, this line of cloud is just what is left of a very wea k cold cloud is just what is left of a very weak cold front. no rain left on it, just a little bit of patchy cloud thatis just a little bit of patchy cloud that is breaking or drifting southwards. overnight we could well see some low cloud form across the hills of south—west england. it is a mild night, particularly in the south of england and wales, temperatures 13—14d in cardiff and london by the end of the night. pressure airfor the london by the end of the night. pressure air for the rest of the uk. over the next few days, that warmer air in the south will push

northwards, so there will be a warming trend to our weather over the next few days. wednesday, most of england and wales will be sunny start to the day, always more cloud for northern ireland and scotland, there could be an odd spot of rain in northern ireland. in the best of the century across england and wales, temperatures will reach the med and perhaps high 20s in some areas, whereas for scotland, northern ireland and the north of england temperatures into the high teens. a little bit of rain from the front teens. a little bit of rain from the fro nt m oves teens. a little bit of rain from the front moves out of the way on thursday, the warmer air will move on through the afternoon. sunshine for england and wales, a sunny day for england and wales, a sunny day for northern ireland, rain easing away from the far north of scotland, not a great amount of rain, mind you. the weather becoming tighter and warmer here as well into the afternoon. temperatures, 20 degrees in belfast, 22 in edinburgh, but still beat it really concentrated across england and wales. likely to see 26 and maybe 27 degrees in

the warmest areas. propriety, all into the warm air, although the onshore winds will keep some of our eastern coastal areas just a little bit fresher. here, temperatures generally in the very high teens to low 20s. the warmest weather in mind. in edinburgh, up to 24 degrees as we finish the week. a fine and warm into the wiki. into the weekend, the fine weather will continue. temperatures widely the entity low to mid 20s. that is your latest weather.

this is bbc news. i‘m simon mccoy. the headlines: junior minister douglas ross resigns because of the government‘s defence of dominic cummings and his family trip during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. though he also recognises, as a fair—minded man, that there are many other people who... who may take a different view, and i understand that. weeks before they‘re back at work, retailers say they‘re worried about how they‘ll cope with stringent new restrictions if shoppers do come back. back in business, the greek islands prepare to reopen to tourists. and the final cut. councils get snippy as some hairdressers break the rules to treat customers‘ out—of—control "lockdown hair."

good afternoon. in the last few minutes, it‘s been disclosed that the latest number of people who have died with coronavirus in 24 hours is 134. we‘ve also heard that northern ireland has had no hospital deaths with covid in 24 hours. just when the government was hoping the row over dominic cummings was calming down — news of the resignation of a junior minister. douglas ross, who was under secretary of state for scotland,quit as ministers continued to defend the actions of the prime minister‘s senior adviser during lockdown. mr ross said he believed that mr cummings‘ view of the government guidance, was not shared by the vast majority of people. and this afternoon the leader of the scottish conservative party hasjoined a growing number of tory mps in criticising the behaviour

of mr cummings during lockdown. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. has he done enough to save his job? mr cummings, were you telling the truth yesterday? do you think the public believe you? dominic cummings leaving home this morning, flanked by two police officers. i think what i did was actually reasonable in the... in the circumstances. downing street is hoping yesterday‘s extraordinary press conference, his account of why he drove his family 250 miles during lockdown to isolate, would be enough to move this story on. people will make their own mind up, and as dominic himself said, there will be many people who think his actions were wrong or mistaken, but looking at it in the round, i think his actions were reasonable. but this has been a messy few days for number ten. it has done damage to borisjohnson, and some fear it has harmed public health messaging, too, at a time when the government needs people to follow

advice. douglas ross has resigned as a junior minister, one of a number of unhappy scottish conservatives. in a letter to boris johnson, mr ross said his constituents had missed funerals to follow lockdown rules, adding that, "i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong "and one senior government adviser was right." this afternoon, the leader of the scottish conservatives said mr cummings had become a distraction and should consider his position will stop. there are others, too. i think they have to say this has gone too far. there is a huge public backlash against what has happened, and the way in which it has been handled. it has become a distraction from thejob of getting people back to work, back to school, protecting health, and rebuilding the economy. there are tory mps who think that mr cummings‘ account yesterday helped,

and are desperate to move on to talking about something else. but others are still deeply concerned. excusing mr cummings sends out mixed messaging and risks undermining the government‘s authority. the anger out there in the public shows quite clearly that they feel it is one rule for them and one rule for government advisers, and that is a very, very dangerous position for the public to be in. during a time of crisis, we need the entirety of the population to be working together to try to get through this crisis. the government wants to move the focus to easing lockdown, but there continue to be questions over its defence of mr cummings. nick eardley, bbc news, westminster. our political correspondent jonathan blake is at westminster. we have got a resignation of somebody many have never have heard of but there does seem to be a lot out there amongst mps. there was

hope that yesterday would draw a line under the affair and get all the details out, let the journalist asking questions and everyone can move on, but that is coolly not going to happen because that is, as you say, simmering unease amongst conservative mps. we are up to a total of 29 now who have said that mrcummings total of 29 now who have said that mr cummings should resign or that the prime minister should sack him and none of those have said as much after his statement yesterday put up as you had in nick‘s report, a junior minister has resigned, reflecting what many conservative mps are saying and that is that, while they understand he was in a very difficult position and took his decisions and did what he did for the reasons he set out yesterday at the reasons he set out yesterday at the time, perception remains amongst many in the public and in conservative constituencies, that it was one rule for him and one rule for everybody else. while that unease remains and we see conservative mps coming

out, reflecting, the messages that they have had and the heat they are taking from this in their constituencies, it will be very difficult for the government to continue, because whether you think dominic cummings was right or wrong to do what it did, whether you have an opinion or not, and ease in the conservative party, anger among the public, contribute a hollowed of noise which is one big distraction for the prime minister as they try to continue the response of the coronavirus crisis. —— continue to a whole load of noise. how long can this call one? from downing street, they will continue to try and ride this out, and while it has pushed the story on into another day and the story on into another day and the government minister has resigned and mps are still coming out calling for dominic cummings to resign, they are still in the minority and the majority of conservative mps, led‘s remember, in public at least, have

stayed quiet on this. and it may be that they just tough it out for as long as possible, but we will have another news conference at downing street this afternoon, when whichever cabinet minister steps up to the lectern will no doubt face questions about the behaviour of the senior adviser and everyday it goes on it gets harderfor them to put their message across and harder and harderfor their message across and harder and harder for them their message across and harder and harderfor them to argue their message across and harder and harder for them to argue that the public should be following the rules. and difficult for them as they read letters from a former chief whip and others, still clearly not happy with that response from dominic cummings yesterday. no, and while those of are there and while mps feel that the government is not acting properly, it creates a very difficult situation for the prime minister. he has a big majority, a majority of 80 at westminster and can still continue to govern, no doubt quite effectively, but if this unease grows and if there is a

simmering unrest in the party, it is going to make it more and more difficult for him. it is a trade off really and so far borisjohnson has calculated that keeping a dominic cummings in hisjob, albeit with the perception among parts of the public and some of his own party that he should not be there and he acted in the wrong, is better than losing him. if you work to change his mind, it would be an embarrassing move, because he has so far argued that he is right to keep them in the job and he acted in good faith. if he changes his mind now, there will be those who say he is caving in to political pressure, so it is a lose lose situation at the moment for the prime minister. every day that this saga continues. thank you very much. with all the controversy surrounding dominic cumings and the government, how has it affected the thinking of voters? chris hopkins is head of politics for the polling company savanta comres and joins me now. when was the last polling

done? did it take into account yesterday‘s conference? yes, it does. there is a daily tracker that tracks the opinion of coronavirus and all things associated with it. the data that we gathered yesterday, shows that we gathered yesterday, shows that the government approval and that the government approval and that of the prime minister have absolutely plummeted, it is —2. borisjohnson is absolutely plummeted, it is —2. boris johnson is —1. absolutely plummeted, it is —2. borisjohnson is —1. —— the government is —2. that has come down from plus 40, plus 30, throughout the pandemic. so there has been quite a swift change in public opinion. we are just looking at boris johnson‘s ratings opinion. we are just looking at borisjohnson‘s ratings on the screen now, sorry to interrupt, we are looking at that now. what expose the peaks are looking at that now. what expose the pea ks and are looking at that now. what expose the peaks and troughs? other things going at these daily news conferences, what triggers these? yes, obviously there will be slight variance everyday and public opinion. i do not think that necessarily boris has anything particularly through the process that might have affected his

rating slightly, his perceived handling of the crisis actually improved when he was incapacitated with the illness, probably down to timothy. public approval generally has been dropping over time. —— properly done to sympathy. clearly, over the weekend and the issues surrounding the government‘s chief advisor have had quite a large impact on public opinion. that is on at boris johnson‘s approval rating, what about the government as a whole? the government has followed a quite similar trajectory, the government‘s approval did tend to rise but that has risen along with other government minister approval ratings. rishi sunak has come out of this fairly well, he has had higher approval than the prime minister for large parts of the pandemic. even his now has come down in the last

few days, about 15 points in the last four days, so clearly all that government ministers are going to be tarnished by this brush, which seems to imply that the government‘s rules apply to some and do not apply to eve ryo ne apply to some and do not apply to everyone and i think that is going to have an impact on public opinion, if that is what the public are perceiving in mr cummings‘ actions. you do not have a crystal ball, but all governments go to a period of peaks all governments go to a period of pea ks and troughs, all governments go to a period of peaks and troughs, is very trend you can discern from the polling you are doing? i think what we have seen, before this big news story at the weekend, we did see a slow move towards a people not thinking that the government are handling this as well as they were, albeit they were still doing pretty well and still in plus 20 less than a week ago. those are the sort of ratings the government would be really pleased with. it is whether they can really come back from this and they

think they properly could once the news story dies down a bit, but i can imagine, we do not have data on this, but i can imagine this would have an impact on what the public see as fairand have an impact on what the public see as fair and fairness is a big thing ina see as fair and fairness is a big thing in a british public opinion. if the government are not deemed to be fairor if the government are not deemed to be fair or there is disparity in what the government are doing and what the government are doing and what the government are doing and what the public are doing, that could have a big impact on how they are perceived. thank you. the department storesjohn lewis has said it will reopen its doors on a "phased basis" starting on june 15th — that‘s when the government‘s said most shops will be allowed to start selling again. car showrooms and outdoor markets will be able to welcome customers from next monday. retailers will have to place limits on the number of shoppers allowed in at the same time and introduce a one—way system. pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will remain closed. some smaller retailers say they may struggle to have government

measures in place in time. nick beake reports. truly scrumptious in poole has been on the high street for years, but with nobody able to buy their penny sweets for the past two months, they have been losing hundreds of pounds. now, they are getting ready to reopen. i have reduced the floor space in my shop so that customers can only come in one at a time. i have installed a new glass screen to protect my staff and the customers. the government‘s decision to let customers return from the middle of next month gives her business a chance to survive. it is very important for my shop door to be open when it is safe to do so. we rely heavily on summer trade to see us through the difficult winter months. it has also been a difficult time for the car industry, but they will be able to open their showrooms even earlier, from next monday. one of the uk‘s biggest manufacturers says they have been ready for weeks.

there will have to be disinfection between test drives, and inspections of the vehicles, but all of those things to meet government guidelines, and even go beyond, because obviously every manufacturer tends to go beyond guidelines to be doubly and triply secure. all of those things are ready now. in fact, we have been ready for two weeks. we have all got used to food shopping in a very different way during this crisis, and that will continue when other stores reopen. in each place, there is the question, "what‘s changed?" are there now specific entrances and exits? once inside the store, there may be signs showing a new one—way system. the two—metre distance rule will still apply. if that is not possible to keep, the advice is to cover your face. we are urged to avoid touching stuff we won‘t buy, and when it comes to paying, contactless is best. many shoppers will be delighted that their favourite stores will soon be reopening, but not everyone will be rushing back to the shops.

that‘s because there‘s still the risk of catching the virus, although we are told it‘s much smaller now. of course, over the past few months, many of us have been doing much more shopping online from the comfort of our homes. but retailers hope customers will go back to their old ways. as a nation, we have been penned up for some time now. before this all happened, 70% of retail sales were made in stores, so although it won‘t return to that in the next sort of three to six months, we are hoping that people will go out and support their high street. there is still no word on when hair salons will reopen, so we will be at the mercy of our relatives‘ efforts for a while yet. but more places will be able to say they are open for business, yet it is far from business as usual. nick beake, bbc news. earlier i spoke to our personal finance correspondent, simon gompertz, who talked us through some of the concerns felt by retailers ahead of opening later this month. some stores will be worried that

people will be too cautious about going onto the high street and will not be spending and they have the concern that in order to justify reopening, they need to have the turnover, the cash coming in, in order to pay their staff. particularly the case for smaller shops and they will have the challenge as well of doing all these measures within the shops to social distance when customers come in. that is a bigger ask for smaller shops than say the big shopping malls that are well set up for that already and have been planning for some time. imagine you just have one door into the shop and you are doing one—way shopping for customers. one suggestion that some stores are saying is that they will open a door at the back to let people out that way. what shoppers will see is a completely different set up. they might end up queueing outside in order to restrict numbers, then when they go in,

there will be hygiene facilities inside. that is the plan and there will be perspex screens where the counter is. all sorts of measures like that and there will be challenges as well for charity shops for instance, that have a lot of second—hand items coming in that have been touched by other members of the public, they will have to wait for 72 hours before putting them on display and sorting them and making them available. i think stores will find this quite a challenge and the point about the high street reopening, it is going to be more gradual. we are going to have big gaps still. pubs, cafes, tattoo parlours, hairdressers, barbers, they are all still hoping that they will be open at the beginning ofjuly, but they are not set to open in june. supercar maker mclaren group has announced that 1,200 jobs will be lost across its operations.

that figure represents one quarter of its total workforce. the company has been struggling to deal with its production during the covid—19 pandemic, and will spread the job losses across its formula—1, road car and applied technologies operations. the rnli is calling for the government to restrict access to beaches after a man and a teenage girl died in separate incidents along the cornish coastline on bank holiday monday. the girl had become trapped beneath a capsized boat while the man was pulled from the water by a member of the public. despite warnings not to go into the water, volunteer and off duty lifeguards rescued dozens of people in a spate of incidents yesterday. mark dowie is the chief executive of the rnli and spoke to us earlier. over the weekend, we had about 120 lifeboat launches and that is way more than a normal weekend, and certainly along the strip of coast you have just referred to, all four lifeboats near those incidents were

out throughout the course of yesterday. so, a very busy weekend indeed. people have been cooped up for a long time. of course many people live by the coast and they have been able to go to the coast throughout this period, because they have not had the same difficulties with travel restrictions. i think what we are really keen to see is that there is strong government support for getting the water safety messages to people, to really make sure that people are super aware of the dangers that they put themselves in when they go to the sea, particularly if they are inexperienced. and that people just generally use common sense, keep their families safe, do not do things like use inflatables, and follow all of our water safety messages. government help with giving all those messages would be very helpful. the nhs is appealing for more people who‘ve recovered from covid—19 to take part in a trial in england, to see if their blood plasma can treat patients with the virus. three groups of donors, men, those over 35, and people

who have had hospital treatment, are most likely to have plasma rich in antibodies that can help others. our health correspondent laura foster reports. when alessandro contracted coronavirus and ended up on a hospital ventilator, he feared he‘d never get to see his family again. it‘s why, when he recovered, he wanted to help others by donating plasma in his blood. instinctively, the last thing you want to do is go into a hospital environment again and have a needle put there, but then i thought actually that i had been given so much, and literally those people saved my life, and you feel so hopeless and you feel so unable to help others, and that was the only way i could figure out at that point to give some of this back. when alessandro was sick, his immune system produced antibodies to help fight the virus. these antibodies are found in the gold coloured part of our blood, known as plasma. the idea is that this plasma can be given to other people,

whose immune systems are struggling, to help them fight coronavirus. pop—up blood donation stations are being set up in unusual places, like the bar at the harlequins rugby ground. existing blood donation centres are also being made bigger, all part of the aim to take up to 8,000 donations a week. it can be very, very emotional, and it does actually get you quite upset sometimes, but then you see these people have come out from the other side, and like i said, they're so enthusiastic and so willing. the researchers have found that men, those over 35, and anyone who was hospitalised with coronavirus, produce the most antibodies. there's no effective treatment known for covid yet. convalescent plasma is a potentially effective treatment, so we're really keen to explore this as a possibility. in fact, alessandro‘s blood contains 40 times more antibodies

than the average donor. so that means i can give a lot of them away, which i‘m very pleased to do, and suddenly, as my friends knew about that, they‘ve all become very nice to me! in case they ever need it in the future. they‘re particularly asking for people to come forward in manchester, birmingham, and london, where there have been a lot of cases of covid—19. starting today, plasma is now included in the biggest study in the world, the recovery trial, which looks at repurposing existing treatments. if found to be successful, plasma could be used to treat covid—19 in hospitals all over the world. laura foster, bbc news. countries across europe are continuing to ease lockdown restrictions, as infection rates fall. greece, where the outbreak has had relatively little impact, has taken another major step. its islands have opened to domestic tourists for the first time in months. quentin sommerville reports. on a 100—mile—plus journey, these athens doctors are the first

visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we‘re greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven‘t been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn‘t been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island and none of them have been tested for covid—19 until today. the village was built on a hilltop to safeguard it from pirates. they‘re hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has had only 172 deaths from covid—19 and is leaving lockdown faster than expected. foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for 40 years.

i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket — flora — she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others — not unscathed, but in better shape than most. isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both.

quentin sommerville, bbc news, the southern aegean. douglas ross, thejunior minister who resigned today, has been speaking to jackie o‘brien from bbc scotland. since the reports started to appear on friday evening, that mr cummings may have taken an unauthorised journey, i have been in a dated, as i know colleagues across the country have come up with constituents concerns, but i chose not to public clique comment because i did not know the details. after yesterday, mrcummings has know the details. after yesterday, mr cummings has addressed some of the points and i think he made it clear to where he took an instant decision to try and help protect his son and wife and i understand that, but there is decisions that others did not feel they could make if they we re did not feel they could make if they were following the government guidance. there also one element that i just cannot guidance. there also one element that ijust cannot reason and that is that if you are struggling your vision, you do not

tend to drive in your car for 30 vision, you do not tend to drive in your carfor 30 minutes vision, you do not tend to drive in your car for 30 minutes and vision, you do not tend to drive in your carfor 30 minutes and 30 minutes back. that was the area i really couldn‘t defend and is a government minister you should be willing to defend what the government are saying and i was not able to do that so i felt the only option to me was to resign from government. might it not have been the case that your constituents would have preferred that your pressure may have brought around his right to take nation rather than you resigning? does his resignation.” think i was making it clear that my contentions were unhappy. i have to be... represent mayhem area and i thought the best way i could do that was to resign from government but continue to stand up for this area on the backbenches for top are you satisfied that he did follow the rules ? satisfied that he did follow the rules? as i said, i have grave concerns, particularly about the journey, that he was testing as eyesight, but i have constituents

who followed the guidance and whether there were loopholes or areas that you could get around big guidance, they did not. they did not join the family to mourn if a loved one had passed away, they did not go to hospital to support a loved one when they were being treated for this virus and i think it when the vast majority of people followed the guidance to the letter of the lot because the uk and scottish governments were very clear at that time to stay home and help our front line workers beat this virus, then they are still concerned by the actions. but the prime minister has still supported his stance and for some reason, he seems to think this journey was essential, particularly when a young child‘s safety could have been in danger. and that is the element of the downing street press conference that i can understand what mrcummings conference that i can understand what mr cummings was saying. he had to make an immediate decision late at night to protect his four—year—old son and his wife and he took that decision for top i think in hindsight, given what had happened, he may do it differently andi happened, he may do it differently and i think we have to be able to express that in a way to the public

that has not so far happened, but there are other elements of that trip that i think are out with the guidance and people are still confused over why the journey into barnard castle took place, to test your eyesight if you felt you were not able to drive at that specific moment for top you are a father of a young child yourself. would you have done that? would you have subjected your wife and child to thatjourney? we have been extremely fortunate and we have not been taken down by this virus and i know it affects different people in different ways. we had planned, if either or both of us we had planned, if either or both of us had come down with the virus, to isolate here in our home and hopefully get through it that way, because that is the advice most people took and have followed and i think, when there is confusion about seeming one set of people following a certain set of guidance and the vast majority following the letter of the law, i think it is u nfortu nate of the law, i think it is unfortunate that there is that divergence in terms of opinions of what people should or should not do. do you think you need to resign? you have taken this action, should he

follow suit? it is a personal decision and i can only beat to take an accountable for my decisions. i had plans in place to cope with suffering from crude virus should that happen and my family here in moray and we would not need to take those measures. this is continuing to bea those measures. this is continuing to be a distraction. douglas ross talking there are a short time ago. you‘re watching bbc news, now time for the weather. once again, greater london will be the one area, attempt is peaking at 27, but for some of those we have a bit more clout in the sky, still plenty of such an amount foot at the claudia weather has been across northern england and wales where we have the remnants of a cold front. just a bit of patchy cloud that is breaking up and drifting southwards.

overnight tonight, we could see some at low cloud form across south—west england, the coastal hills perhaps seeing some fog patches and very mild night cross in england and wales were temperature is 13 or 14 in cardiff and london, fresher northern ireland and scotland. tomorrow, most of us will have another fine, dry and bright day come up with sunshine developing, particularly through the afternoon for top they could be a little bit of light, patchy rain, perhaps waking to northern ireland for a time foot up otherwise it is dry. temperatures high again across england and wales, but wherever you are, in the sunshine, you will feel warm. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... junior minister douglas ross resigns because of the government‘s defence of dominic cummings — and his family trip during lockdown. asa as a government minister, you must be willing to defend the government policy and what the government are

saying. i wasn‘t able to do that, so i‘ve felt the only option left to me was to resign from government. weeks before they‘re back at work — retailers say they‘re worried about how they‘ll cope with stringent new restrictions — if shoppers do come back. a further 134 people have died from coronavirus across all settings in the uk — taking the total number to 37,048. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing, where the virus has not yet been reported. sport now. world number one rory mcilroy says he believes this year‘s ryder cup, due to take place in september in wisconsin, will be postponed until next year. competitive golf across the world has been suspended since march because of coronavirus, with the pga tour set to resume next month behind closed doors, but mcilroy doesn‘t think a ryder cup without spectators would be a viable option.

the majority of the players would like to see it pushed back to 2021 so that they can play in front of the atmosphere that they want to play. they want to play in front of crowds, that is what makes the ryder cup so special. and if the players aren‘t on board with that, at the end of the day, the players are the ones that make the ryder cup, and if they don‘t want to play, there isn‘t a ryder cup. i see it being pushed back to 2021. honestly, i think that would be the right call. petra kvitova is on the same page. she‘s also called for events to be cancelled, if fans aren‘t allowed to attend. the two—time wimbledon champion says she would prefer this year‘s remaining grand slam events to be called off, if they have to take place behind closed doors. wimbledon has already been cancelled, but the us open is still set to start at the end of august, and the french open has

been rescheduled for september. coronavirus testing in the premier league continues today with bournemouth‘s first choice goalkeeper aaron ramsdale confirming he‘s the latest player to return a positive test. ramsdale says he tested negative in the first round of testing last week, but in the second batch he was shown to have contracted the virus. he says he hadn‘t experienced any symptoms and is now self isolating. clubs will vote tomorrow on proposals for a return to contact training. so with the premier league looking to restart and championship teams back in training, it looks likely that a final decision on how to end the season in leagues one and two won‘t be taken next week. the biggest issue centres on promotion and relegation. stevenage are currently bottom of the league but chairman phil wallace says there‘s no integrity to the plan to work out the final table on a points per game basis. when you see that we‘re providing teams in play—off places to play for promotion,

yet if you‘re in a relegation spot you are denied the opportunity to play your way out of it. that‘s just not right and it‘s not just, it‘s not ethical and it certainly got no integrity, which is where the the efl where leaded, using that word ‘integrity‘. across europe, a number of leagues have already been postponed because of the pandemic, including in france. but now the owner of lyon has written to the french government to ask them to reconsider the decision. ligue un is the only one of the big five european leagues either not back under way, or planning to resume in the next few weeks and jean michel aulas says french football is facing an "unprecedented economic and social crisis". that‘s all the sport for now. i‘ll have more for you in the next hour. so, we reported earlier that most shops are being allowed to reopen

as we‘ve been hearing, a junior minister in the scotland office has the leader of the scottish conservative party has joined a growing number of tory mps in criticising the behaviour of the government aide dominic cummings during lockdown. this morning, a junior minister, douglas ross, resigned because, he said, most people did not share mr cummings‘s view of the government guidance on travelling from home. he said, most people did not share mr cummings‘s view of the government guidance on travelling from home. the adviser claims that he acted ‘reasonable and legally‘. well earlier i spoke to conservative mp robert courts who told me he believes mr cummings should stay in the role: there is no question that everybody has to abide by the law as it is, there is not one rule for government and then another public. if you look at the regulations, if you look at what they allow, i am quoting the deputy chief medical officer, who said if you have two parents were capturing a child, that might be an exceptional circumstance. ——

two pa rents exceptional circumstance. —— two parents looking after a child. the question we all have the answer is not whether we agree with mr cummings or whether we would have done the same things ourselves, but whether what he did is reasonable. the prime minister has listened to what mrcummings the prime minister has listened to what mr cummings has had to say, formed a view that it is reasonable and wants to keep them on. that is a decision i respect. i‘m joined now by former director of communications for the labour party, alastair campbell. alistair, mps, some coming out and criticising openly dominic cummings, some as we have just heard supporting him. all well and good, but he is still a story. he certainly is. also, just to clarify something that your previous interviewee said, the clause that dominic cummings is courting as his defence for these exceptional circumstances for his child, that clause was inserted into the bill with the view to protecting

children at risk of violence and women in particular at risk of domestic violence, so let‘s not pretend they might pretend that this covers these circumstances. he should have stayed at home. if you go to boris johnson‘s statement the day before, the contradictions with the statement yesterday, johnson said that both of them were coming down with coronavirus. cummings couldn admits that because he went home and then went back to downing street, thereby if he had got coronavirus, putting other people at risk of infection. what you are seeing today, with these sort of cabinet ministers coming out to retreat —— to read out these ridiculous scripts they‘ve been given, the story is unravelling. all of the people that have been falling into the radio stations i have been talking to saying, please document something else? i wish we were. a crisis like this needs to be prime minister and

cabinet to be focusing on nothing else but getting the job done and every single one of them, literally the whole cabinet, the whole government, the whole government machine has been mobilised to try and save dominic. it is the most pathetic and craven act that i think we have ever had in our history. there are plenty people on twitter right now watching interviews we are doing saying that it is the media thatis doing saying that it is the media that is doing this, leave him alone, he has put his defence out there, the prime minister backs him, let‘s move on. people are entitled to believe that. they are entitled to have that opinion. but then what does that say about what sort of country we have become? i thought one of the most hysterically funny a thing today was the daily telegraph, uk returns to normality, yesterday was one of the most abnormal days in the political life of this country‘s

history. you can‘t just the political life of this country‘s history. you can‘tjust sweep the stop under the carpet. look, we may, not least because the lockdown is effectively breaking down, not least because of the way the government has handled it, we could be heading, let‘s say we are heading for another wave of infection. let‘s see at that point the prime minister has to come out, as he did a few weeks ago and say this will require the result of all of us, we all have to play our part... that you notice yesterday that when he was giving that ridiculous seven o‘clock press conference how he went through all the things the public should do, did you notice that staying at home has just been dropped? the scientific measures are out of the window. this is no crisis management on the health of millions of people being decided by this pathetic bunch of people sitting around saying, how can we get dominic off the front pages? is pathetic, simon. i know that you have to do devils advocate,

but you know it can be defended. lots of people would say there you 90, lots of people would say there you go, to media lobbies they are cut discussing the morning papers when there is a crisis out there —— media people. i agree with them. that is the point i am making. i don‘t give a damn what the papers say. i‘m saying that this law is all they ca re saying that this law is all they care about. politics ofjohnson, journalist, politics to gove, journalist. it is a game. it‘s about how you keep on with rupert murdoch, how you keep on with rupert murdoch, how you keep on with rupert murdoch, how you make sure the right wing editorials are on board. they spend more time talking to, worrying about, fretting over a small group of media people, than they do about the millions of british people or the millions of british people or the tens of thousands that their incompetence, their indifference, johnson posting about shaking hands with infected patients, then

saying they will squash it unlike the foreigners with their silly actions, . .. foreigners with their silly actions,... i know some people be watching this and saying where did all this talk is mike worded those backstreet people begin to wield all this power because mac and that sta rts this power because mac and that starts with you, doesn‘t? this power because mac and that starts with you, doesn't? get a grip. ifi starts with you, doesn't? get a grip. if i actually thought you believe that, i would laugh. this idea that the prime minister shouldn‘t have effective and strong communications people around them is immense. there have been spent doctor is around ever sincejulius caesar wrote the greatest empire of all time then the greatest empire of all time then the greatest empire of all time then epd pg. —— the greatest saying of also —— veni vidi vici. i really look forward to two things in the future. these two cha rlata ns things in the future. these two

charlatans not... things in the future. these two charlata ns not... the things in the future. these two charlatans not... the public enquiry. i have had six enquiries into my role in relation to one incident in my fairly long time alongside tony blair. cleared of the lot of them. these lot, i could take you line by line through dominic cummings press conference yesterday, i could find 12 and 15 things that ifi i could find 12 and 15 things that if i could get him for have an error, i would absolutely destroy him, because of the lies he acts told, the inconsistencies of his prime minister, of his wife. he directly contradicted what his wife had written about what happened in durham. i won‘t take the comparisons, simon. these people are liars and charlata ns. comparisons, simon. these people are liars and charlatans. they are being found out in the country deserves better. the country deserves leadership right now and to be led through this crisis. put your crisis management hat on, where does it go from here? there is no point in asking me that. from the start...

lesson. if your listeners want to know what i would think about in crisis management, i wrote a blog about nine or ten weeks ago about how... and i was being supported of the government by the way. i said at the government by the way. i said at the start, this of the skill hard, harder than anything we and tony blair had to deal with. —— off the scale hard. i said out ten points you need to do any crisis. the most important point was that government has to devise, execute and narrate strategy by taking the public into confidence about decision—making. the country has to have strong and consistent leadership, ok, johnson became ill, i accept that. but holidays, ten days in chequers, since he did the

briefing yesterday, he thinks he‘s above talking to his former colleagues the media. all these things, they still apply. the need for a strong centre. let me tell you about the centre. the centre isn‘t just about a tell you about the centre. the centre isn‘tjust about a clique in downing street. the centre, you ensure that every part of government is brought in, that includes the london mayor, the scottish first minister, the welsh first minister, what have they done with these people? they have pushed him away. they have insulted them a lot of the time. thereby they have ended up where there is not even a coherent united kingdom strategy. they are utterly hopeless. there is no point in asking me what i would do, they wouldn‘t do it. in asking me what i would do, they wouldn't do it. there absolutely is a point. you havejust done... iwas being serious as to where you would go from here. people want to know the positive from here. ok, well, i'll the positive from here. ok, well, i‘ll tell you. i‘ll get it, here. i'll i‘ll tell you. i‘ll get it, here. i‘ll tell you. i‘ll get it, here. i‘ll tell you. i‘ll get it, here. i‘ll tell you what i would do. you

need to develop, execute, narrate strategy. you have to have a clear strategy. you have to have a clear strategy. they don‘t have one. what is the strategy? don‘t know. you need to show leadership, a strong centre, you need to throw everything at the crisis. number four, centre, you need to throw everything at the crisis. numberfour, they centre, you need to throw everything at the crisis. number four, they are throwing everything at saving dominic cummings. number five, throwing everything at saving dominic cummings. numberfive, you have to use experts well. they are using experts as political cover. sex, you have to deploy a strong team. oh my god. robertjenrick, gavin williamson, these muppets at these press conferences. seven, you make the big moments came. every single peg momentjohnson is done, he —— every single peg moment johnson has done, he has misted up. you think the public with you. nine, you show genuine empathy for the public. if i hear one more time that

there are thoughts and prayers are with the people they have helped to kill, . .. with the people they have helped to kill,... ten, you give hope but you don‘t give false hope. johnson specialises in false hope. there you are. that is what i would do. they won‘t do it, because they don‘t know how to do. he used the word fluffed for anyone that thought they might have heard something different. i wish you wouldn‘t set on the fence during these interviews. it was very good talk to you. —— sit on the fence. so, we reported earlier that most shops are being allowed to reopen in england next month. by then, they will have been closed around 12 weeks — a potentially devastating length of time. there‘s been particular concern over small, independent shop owners. we can talk now to jane tritton, she‘s an independent shop owner, her outlet is called greenfinch in ticehurst in east sussex, and it sells local products and art from local independent artists. she says she‘s going to open onjune the 15th.

iam, yes. i am, yes. actually, iam, yes. actually, it i am, yes. actually, it will be tuesday the 16th. i am usually closed on a monday. yes, absolutely, looking forward to getting open again on the tuesday. i‘m getting back to business. how... i'll talk about shoppers any moment. per year, physically in the shop, how are things going to have to be different? —— for you. things going to have to be different? -- for you. i am lucky that it different? -- for you. i am lucky thatitis different? -- for you. i am lucky that it is a small, independent shop. i have got enough space in there for people to be able to move around freely without bumping into each other. i will be allowing a maximum of four people into the shop at any one time. i will have a screen up at any one time. i will have a screen up at the desk. i will have tape on the floor at the desk to ensure that two metre safety distance from people coming too close to pay. i will have is

hand sanitiser at the door and asking everybody who comes into use that hand sanitiser and to respect the two metres social distancing. so, obviously it will be very different from having a shop full of people chatting and mingling, and i quite often do a meet the artist ben, i won‘t be able to do that. in terms of the practicalities —— a meet the artist event. in terms of practicalities and safety is, a busy safety is the number one priority, and that is what we will do. —— obviously safety is the number one priority. the social distancing and hygiene has almost become second nature, so i am confident i can do that in the shop. sounds to me in a lot of your shoppers are what buys, people who perhaps want to come and browse. they are perhaps the very people who may be put up at the sense of these increased measures ——

walk buys. i understand that but equally i noticed a real shift this week and people contacted me on social media and by e—mail asking when i will open again. there has been a lot of chatter about shoppers being able to open from the 1st of june. i think people are very aware of what we all need to do to remain safe. i‘m very happy to do that and to stick to those measures. i think as long as i can, and anyone in the business environment can show that we are putting all those measures in place, i think people will be confident to come into the shop. but actually, at the end of the day, it is an individual choice and i think people will decide whether or not they want to make that choice or not. any few words, are you confident that some sort of normality will come back? —— in a few words it will be a new normality, one to? yes i am confident. i think

it is great we have a day. we have very clear guidelines about what we need to do. i am confident that people will come back into the shop and, you know, we‘ll be spending again. actually, it is great that so many people in the village who have been local, they have had to stay local, who have been around and have noticed the local shops and have said that actually they will make an effort to come and support on a regular basis. perhaps not all bad. hopefully some positive will come out of this as well. i wish you all the luck. very good to talk to you. so how‘s this all going down with voters? david macken is a conservative voter from bracknell. members of his family have travelled to help with his care during the pandemic and he is sympathetic to mr cumming‘s situation. hejoins

me now. thank you for your time. sympathetic because many families are facing very difficult decisions at the moment and your family are no exception? that's right. i am a paraplegic, i have kidney failure and there is a limited amount of support available locally for me at the moment. so, my daughter has travelled 100 miles, after a period of isolation, and my son and two weeks‘ time is coming 200 miles from loughborough to help me and recently i had to buy a used wheelchair because there is a limited service available from the

local wheelchair service. and my brother—in—law came 60 miles to deliver that for me. my family has come to me to help me during this period and i can fully understand why mr cummings wanted to do the best for his family and i think there has been far too much zeal and far too much energy put into the cummings affair by the media, when we have got things such asa media, when we have got things such as a hospital closing its doors because there is a local spike in infections, which must have happened 7-14 infections, which must have happened 7—14 days ago, if they are right about the incubation period. that means people have been going to the beach and meeting and breaking lockdown rules for a good 7—14 days ahead of

mrcummings, lockdown rules for a good 7—14 days ahead of mr cummings, ahead of the cummings affair. wright nobody listening to... nobody listening to your situation will argue with your children‘s decision to come and help you, regarding the position you‘re in. there is a matter of sense, common sense here. do you think there has been common—sense in the stories you have in the last 48 hours? i don't think so. i have seen more zeal and energy from journalists on this subject than i have throughout the entire lockdown crisis. i‘m a little bit disappointed in that, because the media are very powerful in this country, and the public are following their lead, and that‘s why you see approval

ratings dropping. and that is possibly why you are seeing a fall in compliance with lockdown in places like western, where they are losing some confidence in the government. i think the issues are not dominic cummings, ithink think the issues are not dominic cummings, i think the issues are to do with the fact that the politicians, especially, are frightened to turn around to the public and say, actually, there isn‘t many of you who are faithfully following the lockdown rules, but there is a core of people who are ignoring them and look what has happened because of that. wright do you accept what some people are saying right now on the dominic cummings matter... that when someone ina cummings matter... that when someone in a position of power that she is makes a decision to protect his family and did what he died,

the danger is that sends the wrong message? —— and did what he did, the danger is that sends the wrong message. i don't think it does send the wrong message. he was just looking after his family, which is a private affair. i don‘t think that he has done anything, assuming his account that she gave yesterday as correct, of course, —— assuming his account that he gave yesterday as correct. they can she gave yesterday seems to indicate he didn‘t put anybody at risk —— the account he gave yesterday seems to indicate he didn‘t put anybody at risk at all. i think he is a nice target for the media andi think he is a nice target for the media and i am reminded very much of the behaviour of everybody, from politicians and the media, during

the brexit issue, which was not well handled at all by our country. i felt that democracy was actually falling apart at that time. like mcdavid, we are out of time, but i am most grateful and thank you very much forjoining us here this afternoon. -- david, thank you for joining us assassin. breaking news, the leaders of many of the uk parties have co—signed a letter calling for dominic cummings to be sacked, it is now a matter of record that —— they said that it is now a matter of record that dominic cummings broke rock down two lockdown rules —— a matter of record that dominic cummings broke lockdown rules. more on that coming up and notice them for the

weather. greater london will be the hotspot today with highs... cloudy in the sky, compared with recent days. across wales and northern england, this line of cloud is what you can see of a weak cold front. no rain left on it, just a little bit of patchy cloud that is breaking up and drifting surfers. overnight we could well see some low cloud form across the hills and coast of south—west england. it is a mild night critically in the south of england and wales, temperatures 13—14d in cardiff and london by the end of the night. pressure air for northern england, northern ireland and scotland. over the next few days, that this warmer air in the south, pushing authors, a warming trend to our weather over the next few days. —— pushing authors. wednesday, sonny starts, an odd spot of rain in

northern ireland, not amounting to much. temperatures will reach high 20s ina much. temperatures will reach high 20s in a few areas, for scotland and northern ireland and north of england generally into the high teens. that warmer air is on its way. as we go through thursday, a little rain from this front moves out of the way. that warmer air pushes in through the afternoon. sunshine for england and wales, a sunnier day for northern ireland, rain easing away from the far north of scotland, not a great amount of rain manger. the weather becoming brighter and warmer here as well. temperatures 22 degrees in belfast -- 20 temperatures 22 degrees in belfast —— 20 in belfast and 22 in edinburgh. friday, we are all into the warm air. the onshore winds will keep some of our eastern coastal areas just a little bit fresher. here, temperatures generally the high teens to low 20s.

the warmest weather in man. edinburgh up to 24 degrees as we finish the week. —— the warmest weather inland. widely intraday low to mid 20s. that is your latest weather. —— temperatures widely into the low to mid 20s, that is your latest weather.

this is bbc news, i‘m ben brown. the headlines: junior minister douglas ross resigns because of the government‘s handling of dominic cummings and his family trip during lockdown. isa is a government minister, you must be willing to defend the government policy and what the government are saying and i was not able to do that soi saying and i was not able to do that so i felt the only option to me was to resign from the government. meanwhile ministers continue to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. though he also recognises, as a fair—minded man, that there are many other people who...

who may take a different view, and i understand that. a further 134 people have died from coronavirus across all settings in the uk, taking the total number to 37,048. weeks before they‘re back at work, retailers say they‘re worried about how they‘ll cope with stringent new restrictions, if shoppers do come back. back in business, the greek islands prepare to reopen to tourists. good afternoon. the leader of the scottish conservative party has joined a growing number of tory mps in criticising the behaviour of the government adviser dominic cummings during lockdown.

we‘ll no doubt hear more about that in the downing street press conference in an hour‘s time. the department of health said 37,048 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the uk, as of 5pm on monday. that‘s up by 134 from the day before. john lewis is the latest retailer to confirm a "phased opening" of its stores in england from the 15th ofjune, with open air markets and car showrooms able to open from next week and shops two weeks later. and earlier, junior minister, douglas ross, who was under secretary of state for scotland, quit in protest at the government‘s handling of dominic cummings. our political correspondent nick eardley reports. has he done enough to save his job? mr cummings, were you telling the truth yesterday? do you think the public believe you? dominic cummings leaving home this morning, flanked by two

police officers. i think what i did was actually reasonable in the... in the circumstances. downing street is hoping yesterday‘s extraordinary press conference, his account of why he drove his family 250 miles during lockdown to isolate, would be enough to move this story on. people will make their own mind up, and as dominic himself said, there will be many people who think his actions were wrong or mistaken, but looking at it in the round, i think his actions were reasonable. but this has been a messy few days for number ten. it has done damage to borisjohnson, and some fear it has harmed public health messaging, too, at a time when the government needs people to follow advice. douglas ross has resigned as a junior minister, one of a number of unhappy scottish conservatives. in a letter to boris johnson, mr ross said his constituents had missed funerals

to follow lockdown rules, adding that, "i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong "and one senior government adviser was right." this afternoon, the leader of the scottish conservatives said mr cummings had become a distraction and should consider his position. what is clear is now is that this is proving to be a huge distraction, both for the prime minister, the government, but much more importantly, on a uk successful approach towards tackling the virus and that is now where i think all our energies must lie. many mps are voicing there concerns, too. i think they have to say this has gone too far. there is a huge public backlash against what has happened, and the way in which it has been handled. it has become a distraction from the job of getting people back to work, back to school, protecting health, and rebuilding the economy. there are tory mps who think that mr cummings‘ account yesterday helped, and are desperate to move on to talking about something else. but others are still

deeply concerned. excusing mr cummings sends out mixed messaging and risks undermining the government‘s authority. the anger out there in the public shows quite clearly that they feel it is one rule for them and one rule for government advisers, and that is a very, very dangerous position for the public to be in. during a time of crisis, we need the entirety of the population to be working together to try to get through this crisis. the government wants to move the focus to easing lockdown, but there continue to be questions over its defence of mr cummings. nick eardley, bbc news, westminster. our political correspondent jonathan blake is at westminster. we had to press conferences over the long weekend from the prime minister, one from mr cummings, a very long press conference in the rose garden at downing street, and together they hope to draw a line under this affair. it does not look

like they have succeeded? under this affair. it does not look like they have succeeded7m under this affair. it does not look like they have succeeded? if they have not and still the story rumbles on. today, we have had a steady strea m on. today, we have had a steady stream of conservative mps making statements, setting out their anger, unease, disquiet, whatever you want to call it, varying levels of disagreement about what mr cummings had to say yesterday. you can tell by the wording of what these conservatives have had to say, that this is a very difficult issue for them and it reflects the fact that a lot of their constituents are getting in touch and making it known that they do not agree with what mr cummings did and they do not think that he should still be in his job. as you saw in nick‘s report, among those at speaking out is the leader of the scottish conservatives, jackson carlaw, of the scottish conservatives, jackson ca rlaw, and of the scottish conservatives, jackson carlaw, and the junior government minister here at westminster, douglas ross has resigned from his role at the scotla nd resigned from his role at the scotland office, saying he could not defend what dominic cummings has done. he has set out his reasons in

a little bit more detail and it was that drive that mr cummings talked about yesterday to barnard castle which was the clincher for him. if you are struggling with your vision, you don't tend to get in a car and drive for 30 minutes and then drive 30 minutes back again, so that was the area that i really couldn't defend. as a government minister, you must be willing to defend the current policy and what the government are saying, and i was able to do ——was not able to do that so i felt i had no option left except to resign from government. one thing from the press conference yesterday was that he had warned last year about the threat of a coronavirus pandemic. there was some doubt now being cast on what was written at last year. this is an intriguing subplot to the whole affair. as you say, in his news conference in the downing street garden yesterday afternoon, dominic cummings said, only last year i

wrote explicitly about the danger of coronaviruses and this is one issue with mrcummings coronaviruses and this is one issue with mr cummings setting out his side of the story in detail and commenting at length, as he did yesterday, is that people are now poring over every word that he had to say and people have been going back and trying to find what it was that mrcummings back and trying to find what it was that mr cummings was referring to specifically there. it appears it to bea specifically there. it appears it to be a blog he wrote early on last year which did indeed warn of the danger of pandemics starting from the leak at a biological lab, or a leak, saying that to the government should be funding attempts to improve security at such places. internet archivists have since run checks on that blog post and discovered that it was in fact edited early on this year to insert a more explicit reference to coronaviruses from an article which was linked to but not quoted

from in the original post. i know this is a little bit complicated, but bear with me. downing street sources have acknowledged that a change was made and if you want to look in detail at this, i could recommend an article by our economic editor who set out in detail what mr cummings had to say and the subsequent changes to that blog and why potentially it is important, that is on the bbc news online, and as i say, it is one issue with the high—risk strategy that the government and dominic cummings took yesterday to set things out at length, things on the record that people now go back and checkin record that people now go back and check in some detail. jonathan, intriguing stuff, thank you very much for that. joining me now is susan michie, professor of health pyschology at university college london. she is a member of the behavioural science group of sage. that is the group that advises the government on scientific matters, especially during the pandemic.

thank you for being with us. i‘m sure you watched and listened to dominic cummings yesterday, that long press conference. what did you make of what he had to say in terms of his defence of what he did during the lockdown? first of all, i would say i‘m speaking in my independent capacity. secondly, there may be a political crisis at westminster at the moment, but i think we absolutely have to remember that we have a public health crisis and alongside that, we now have a crisis of trust in the government and i think this issue of trust is absolutely paramount and needs to be built up as soon as possible. three things we know are associated with building up trust. one is being very clear, consistent and precise about the messages that are being given. secondly, being seen to be fair and just and thirdly, really respecting

the people that one is talking to and really listening to them. i think going forward, there needs to be much more engagement with communities, much more listening, much more partnership, so that trust can be built again, because if we do not have trust, then really the adherence to the guidelines is challenged even more than it is after many, many weeks and to be muddle over messages a couple of weeks ago and that will mean that the pandemic will take longer to suppress and people will suffer unnecessarily. are you saying that dominic cummings has eroded public trust? i think the story is more about the government‘s handling of the issue. i think what the public wa nt the issue. i think what the public want is direct, honest and open communication. it does not appear, from what i have seen of the public response, that the public are

satisfied with that, either in terms of dominic cummings, but also in terms of the way the prime minister and the cabinet has handled the issue. are you satisfied? because mr cummings said again and again he had acted legally and reasonably and followed his instincts. do you accept that? i'm speaking as a behavioural scientist, so what i personally believe it is neither here nor there. myjob is to understand the behaviour of the public in response to the pandemic and what the public need to do in order to try and defeat this pandemic as quickly as possible for top ina pandemic as quickly as possible for top in a nutshell, are you saying that the public will be less inclined to follow public health advice and guidance as a result of this whole affair? we are in a situation where we have been in a lockdown, a restricted situation, for many weeks and people have been amazing, the way they have risen to the challenge. up until a

couple of weeks ago, pretty much 80% plus of people were really abiding very well to the guidelines. over that time, certain groups have more challenged, certainly young people, and there has been a drop every last couple weeks because there was rather mixed messaging a couple of weeks ago. in that situation, it is more important than ever that things are very clear, that things are very fair, and that the public are listened to and that the public are listened to and they are taken with the government leadership. indeed, that is what leadership is. i think we are ina is what leadership is. i think we are in a challenging situation. the public have behaved incredibly responsibly, even before lockdown was announced from the government, individuals and organisations themselves were locking down and i hope the british public will continue to show that responsibility, that conscientiousness, despite all the challenges and rise above

the current political crisis. one of your fellow scientists the other day said that after borisjohnson defended dominic cummings, he had effectively trashed all the advice he had given on building a public trust. do you agree with your colleague? there are several papers being published by the committee that he and i sit on that outline principles of good communication, which i have mentioned already. principles of being direct and honest and open it. principles of treating the public with respect. principles of showing fairness. i think what my colleague was referring to, that there was a mismatch between the guidelines that had been, or the advice that had been given by this committee, that was obviously available to him along with other advice, and the behaviour that we saw. ok,

thank you very much indeed forjoining us. pleasure. northern ireland has reported no coronavirus related deaths in the past 24 hours in its hospitals. it‘s the first time since the 18th of march that stormont‘s department of health has had a 24—hour period when it‘s registered no deaths linked to the pandemic. the department storesjohn lewis has said it will reopen its doors on a "phased basis" starting on june 15th — that‘s when the government‘s said most shops will be allowed to start selling again. car showrooms and outdoor markets will be able to welcome customers from next monday. retailers will have to place limits on the number of shoppers allowed in at the same time and introduce a one—way system. pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will remain closed. some smaller retailers say they may struggle to have government measures in place in time. nick beake reports. truly scrumptious in poole has been on the high street for years,

but with nobody able to buy their penny sweets for the past two months, they have been losing hundreds of pounds. now, they are getting ready to reopen. i have reduced the floor space in my shop so that customers can only come in one at a time. i have installed a new glass screen to protect my staff and the customers. the government‘s decision to let customers return from the middle of next month gives her business a chance to survive. it is very important for my shop door to be open when it is safe to do so. we rely heavily on summer trade to see us through the difficult winter months. it has also been a difficult time for the car industry, but they will be able to open their showrooms even earlier, from next monday. one of the uk‘s biggest manufacturers says they have been ready for weeks. there will have to be disinfection between test drives, and inspections of the vehicles,

but all of those things to meet government guidelines, and even go beyond, because obviously every manufacturer tends to go beyond guidelines to be doubly and triply secure. all of those things are ready now. in fact, we have been ready for two weeks. we have all got used to food shopping in a very different way during this crisis, and that will continue when other stores reopen. in each place, there is the question, "what‘s changed?" are there now specific entrances and exits? once inside the store, there may be signs showing a new one—way system. the two—metre distance rule will still apply. if that is not possible to keep, the advice is to cover your face. we are urged to avoid touching stuff we won‘t buy, and when it comes to paying, contactless is best. many shoppers will be delighted that their favourite stores will soon be reopening, but not everyone will be rushing back to the shops. that‘s because there‘s still the risk of catching the virus, although we are told it‘s

much smaller now. of course, over the past few months, many of us have been doing much more shopping online from the comfort of our homes. but retailers hope customers will go back to their old ways. as a nation, we have been penned up for some time now. before this all happened, 70% of retail sales were made in stores, so although it won‘t return to that in the next sort of three to six months, we are hoping that people will go out and support their high street. there is still no word on when hair salons will reopen, so we will be at the mercy of our relatives‘ efforts for a while yet. but more places will be able to say they are open for business, yet it is far from business as usual. nick beake, bbc news. supercar maker mclaren group has announced that 1,200 jobs will be lost across its operations. that figure represents one quarter of its total workforce. the company has been struggling to deal with its production during the covid—19 pandemic,

and will spread the job losses across its formula—1, road car and applied technologies operations. the scientist leading the uk‘s largest coronavirus tracking project says that people will have probably died prematurely, as a result of attending two major sporting events that took place in march. professor tim spector, from king‘s college london, has analysed data from millions of volunteers across the uk. he identified covid—19 hotspots following the cheltenham festival, and liverpool‘s champions league match against atletico madrid. well we can speak now to tim spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at kings college london. explain a little bit more about these findings, because at cheltenham in particular, i think there was something like a quarter ofa there was something like a quarter of a million people at that event just before the lockdown. yes, most

people will know this, but we got ourapp going, it people will know this, but we got our app going, it went live on the 24th of march and within a couple of weeks, had 2 million people using it, we now have over 3.3 million people using it and this gives us, people using it and this gives us, people are reporting their symptoms so we can predict who has a covid—19 in the community, often very mild, so we get an idea in real time what is happening. what we noticed was that when the peak hit this country at around the 1st of april, we sought the classical spikes in london, birmingham, manchester, glasgow, where obviously most of the dense populations are in high numbers and you expect them to be a bit we also saw a peak in liverpool that was great than in manchester, which was kind of strange, because of the density of the populations of the two. we also saw that in the south—west of the country, which

had very little disease, there was a relative hotspot around the cheltenham area, and we also saw in south wales, a peak that was also there that you could also link to previous sporting events. we cannot prove anything to stop these are all just associations, but when you think about the various events that happened two weeks before that, which is roughly the time it would ta ke to which is roughly the time it would take to get sufficient numbers in those areas up, you can start to see a pattern and can make the inference that there must‘ve been extra cases because of those masses of people coming togetherfor top because of those masses of people coming together for top —— there must have been. the prime minister himself went to that rugby match at strychnine, very shortly before the lockdown. -- twickenham. iwould probably have gone to that

match as well without any great worry, but i think what we should learn is that learning from those mistakes and realising, looking at what other countries are doing. what are they doing better? why did they shut down first? rather than always assuming we know best in this country. there isa we know best in this country. there is a danger that we try to be too uk centric on this and we should say what i have other countries are for example listed seven symptoms of the virus that people should check before they go to work or do things? where other countries are wearing masks and having hand sanitiser is before going to events? i think we need to get all these things sorted out before sports will reopen again but i think we need to put all these things together, including getting more people to use the symptom up before we can really be safe to go out there. it is embracing all the technologies that we can to manage the risk, because there will still be risk in the weeks ahead and we haveit be risk in the weeks ahead and we have it to inform people about them.

i remember at the time of those at sporting events, the government to sing the scientific advice was that they did not pose a huge risk, they we re they did not pose a huge risk, they were not particularly dangerous. —— the government saying. what is it about those at sporting events, when you have tens of thousands of people, very closely together, that promotes a transition so rapidly?” do not think anyone knows for sure, but i think the mistake we made was to say that we were modelling like this like it was just a bad flu, because if this had been a bad flu, every four years we get a really bad flu epidemic, we do not ban at sporting events, because we think that if it is outdoors it does not spread. clearly there are some differences in the way this is being spread compared to other flus and i think we have to give a much more open mind about this. do not treat it as open mind about this. do not treat itasa open mind about this. do not treat it as a bad flu, with its symptoms and a huge range of problems, we have to actually start collecting the data that more and stop trying to think we know exactly how it will

behave. i think those are the lessons that need to be learnt as we try and get back to normality and realise we do not have all the a nswe rs realise we do not have all the answers so let‘s her on the side of caution and do as much in each area as we can, which means using all the tools we have got. i suppose what is unique about these two events is that in terms of cheltenham, you had people from all over the uk coming to that and going back across the uk, so potentially spreading the virus and in terms of the level liverpool at her to co—game, there was some thousands of people coming from spain to liverpool. love atletico game. the cheltenham one, the reason we didn‘t see huge spikes, it wasjust the reason we didn‘t see huge spikes, it was just relatively to the south—west, which was not badly affected, it was because those people left and probably had their infections a week or two later in different parts of the country and also a lot went back to ireland or france. the other

influx was probably new infections coming in from spain, madrid, where they were two or three weeks ahead of us in this pandemic and would have had lots of infectious people, but because liverpool is a large place, it has other centres, it maybe wasn‘t as obvious at the time, as it would have been if it had been a much smaller and maybe that would explain the output outbreak around newport because there was an italian tea m newport because there was an italian team visiting that same weekend, after the twickenham game, that came from northern italy, exactly where the virus was really kicking off, and that is perhaps way that south wales epidemic, plus some rock concerts etc at the same time. we are learning but we have to learn from our mistakes and move on and i think this is where epidemiology can play a vital role and wipe this monitoring of the population for the

next outbreak, which inevitably will happen, it really needs to be taken seriously and it will be great if, for example, the government would get behind us and support our app that 3.3 million people are using and get that to be used in conjunction with all these other track and trace procedures. ok, many thanks for that, very interesting to talk to you for top just to say, a government spokesman on this said from the department of culture, media and sport, it is our absolute pirated to protect people‘s health andi pirated to protect people‘s health and i advised is based on scientific expert. —— absolute priority. that is what the government have said and you can hear more on that investigation on bbc

radio 4 at 8pm tonight. countries across europe are continuing to ease lockdown restrictions, as infection rates fall. greece, where the outbreak has had relatively little impact, has taken another major step. its islands have opened to domestic tourists for the first time in months. quentin sommerville reports. on a 100—mile—plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we‘re greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven‘t been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn‘t been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island and none of them have been tested for covid—19 until

today. the village was built on a hilltop to safeguard it from pirates. they‘re hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has had only 172 deaths from covid—19 and is leaving lockdown faster than expected. foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for 40 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket — flora — she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants

and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others — not unscathed, but in better shape than most. isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. quentin sommerville, bbc news, the southern aegean.

this. the headlines. junior minister has resigned because of. handling of the affair over dominic cummings — and his family trip during lockdown. when you're a minister you must be willing to defend the government policy and what the government are saying and i wasn't able to do that so i felt the only option left to me was to resign from government. meanwhile ministers continue to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing, but he also recognises as a fair—minded man that there are many other people

who may take a different view, and i understand that. a further 134 people have died from coronavirus across all settings in the uk — taking the total number to 37,048. weeks before they‘re back at work — retailers say they‘re worried about how they‘ll cope with stringent new restrictions — if shoppers do come back. good afternoon and welcome to viewers on bbc one — in half an hour‘s time we‘ll bring you today‘s government briefing which will be led by the health secretary matt hancock. first today‘s main developments and the leader of the scottish conservative party has joined a growing number of tory mps in criticising the behaviour

of the government advisor