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

dominic cummings during lockdown. earlierjunior minister, douglas ross — who was under secretary of state for scotland — quit in protest at the government's handling of dominic cummings. the latest number of people who have died in the uk with coronavirus in 2a hours is 134. the figures show 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. and 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. we'll have more on all of these developments, but first, the row over 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. this is now proving to be a huge distraction for the prime minister and the government and more importantly in a uk successful approach towards tackling the virus and now that is where 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 mrcummings we had mr cummings and his lengthy press c0 nfe re nce

we had mr cummings and his lengthy press conference at downing street and last night the prime minister all trying to draw a line under this, it does not look as if they have succeeded. in a word now because today we have had calls continuing from conservative mps and others for dominic cummings to go. he held that news conference in the garden of downing street yesterday, a high—risk strategy and he and the prime minister took the view that it would be better for prime minister took the view that it would be betterfor him to prime minister took the view that it would be better for him to explain his actions to allow people to hear what he had to say and make up their minds accordingly. the trouble is since then at least ten or so tory mps in addition to those that already called for him to resign have today come out and said the same. and you can see what is happening here, they're getting a lot of correspondence from voters in their constituencies who clearly are unhappy about what dominic cummings has done and they are needing to do something about that hence we are seeing lengthy public statements

with these conservative mps agonising over their position and saying they've thought about it at length and carefully and in detail and they have come to a decision. as i say we have at least 30 conservative mps now saying they've made their views known to the prime minister and that dominic cummings should go. add to thatjackson ca rlaw should go. add to thatjackson carlaw the leader of the scottish conservatives and member of the scottish parliament and other boris johnson will be less concerned about this, a group of opposition party leaders here at westminster all except for labour leader sir keir starmer writing to the prime minister this afternoon saying there is deep and genuine concern across the communities about this and it is a record that dominic cummings broke multiple rules and should be removed from his post without further delay. thank you very much. joining me now to talk about the political fall out of this isjohn rentoul, chief political commentator

at the independent. do you think dominic cummings was correct to try the strategy of talking to the press and taking questions and hoping it would all go away? i do not think he was right, i think it was too late for that. if you have done that on saturday it might have done some good but i think that even then he is trying to hold back the tide which is irresistible, the tide of public opinion. yesterday he tried to blame the media for having ripped people up the media for having ripped people up and implied that if people were angry it was because the media had tell them things that were untrue but even having heard his full account i think public opinion is pretty unmoved. there was an instant poll published already today, this afternoon, suggesting that overwhelmingly the public think that he broke the lockdown rules and he

should go. and how much damage is that doing politically to the government and to borisjohnson and then to the government hopes that people will continue to obey whatever guidance that the issue during this pandemic? a huge amount of damage politically to the government. no question about that, this is absolutely disastrous. boris johnson was in very good position, an unusual position of popular with the general public. that had been fading somewhat from the early stages of the crisis, the valley to the flag effect was fading but this really has been disastrous. i think that he looks weak because he is defending a senior adviser, it looks as if he cannot operate without his chief adviser and people think it is very simple and dominic cummings must go. so the longer that he

stays the more damage is done. whether that undermines the moral authority of government in enforcing rules in the future, that is arguable. i think the lockdown seemed to be using anyway as people became more relaxed about it but i think this will not help. supporters of dominic cummings say that this is effectively a witch hunt and lots of people frankly hate dominic cummings partly because he was the architect of the brexit leave campaign and they are not settling scores with him? that could be true, i'm sure many people do not like him and there are many people notjust his political opponents. he said sir keir starmer has notjoined the opposition parties, that is a clever move by the leader of the opposition

just to stand back. because the real opposition that matters is from within the conservative party and thatis within the conservative party and that is from mps and reflecting public anger from their constituents. thank you very much for being with us. miriam cates is a conservative mp and joins me now. do you support what dominic cummings did? from all the evidence that i've seen and he gave a lengthy and heartfelt statement yesterday giving all the details, i do not think he has broken the law and broken the guidelines and i think it is clear that he has acted throughout motivated to protect his wife and family and protect the wider public. everyone saw the message to stay home but he did not stay home. the government has been clear that we are to stay home to reduce transmission of the virus and that has been very successful thanks to the hard work and

sacrifice of people but there have always been clear reasons that reasonable excuse excuses to leave your home and that has been repeated lightly at the press c0 nfe re nce has been repeated lightly at the press conference and one of those reasons is to care for a vulnerable child. i've had many e—mails from constituents throughout the pandemic as all mps have asking about their own particular individual circumstances and it is important to recognise we all have individual different circumstances and how the rules apply to them. why could they not have stayed at home in london and looked after their child? the child whose parents both of whom could become ill very quickly is clearly vulnerable but it is also the case that mr cummings and his family faced exceptional circumstances. i do not have a mob of angry media outside my house and do not face threats of violence on a daily basis and i think that we need to understand the kind of abuse and threats that he was facing at the time and it is difficult for most of

us time and it is difficult for most of us to fully comprehend how it must feel as a parent. they were not outside his house during lockdown. we've seen recent coverage of journalists not respecting the two metres distance and we know that he isa metres distance and we know that he is a controversial individual and his home has become a target and i think that before we judge him harshly and he himself has said this, not everyone would make the same decision with the same circumstances but before we judge too harshly we must respect his right as a parent to protect a child in what we difficult circumstances compared to what the rest of us are facing. everyone is facing tough circumstances but this was exceptional. i know you have children, would you have done the same thing? i do not know howl would have felt in his position. as i say it is difficult to fully empathise with the kind of fear that he may felt but i will always

act within the law to protect my own children. that is a fundamental understanding of our society that pa rents understanding of our society that parents have legal responsibility for their children and should act within the law to protect them and i will always stand up for their rights to do that. he said he followed his instincts but if eve ryo ne a cross followed his instincts but if everyone across the whole country had simply followed their instincts we would not have had a very effective lockdown. i think he followed his instincts within the guidelines and again that has always been the case, these are guidelines and the overriding principle is to stay at home to reduce the transmission but there are clear reasons why you may leave your home and they are very important. for example we need people to seek urgent medical help they need it. these are important clarifications on those guidelines and i believe that he within those and with a the right motivation. aside from the rights and wrongs what about the ruinous damage that this is doing to

your government, to the prime minister, we're hearing his opinion polls waiting have fallen 20% now 2-1. the polls waiting have fallen 20% now 2—1. the lid of the scottish conservatives jackson carlaw said this is a huge distraction from the fight against coronavirus and steve baker says the prime minister is burning political capital with this affair. as dominic cummings with all of that? it is clear that we are in exceptional times as a nation and eve ryo ne exceptional times as a nation and everyone is frustrated and angry. we've been through quite a lot of hardships and difficulties and we still are and i understand why the perception that someone may have broken the rules i think that they are above the rules stirs up anger. many of the stories circulating have not been true but... many have been true, to be honest. he actually confirmed in the press conference quite a lot of what had been

written. it is important to understand if you go into leadership it is to do the right thing and sometimes that may not be popular and you may pay for that in the opinion polls but we would all agree i think that it is unjust for someone to lose theirjob because they are unpopular if they have not actually done anything wrong and if dominic cummings has full confidence of borisjohnson as his employer thenit of borisjohnson as his employer then it is the right thing for the prime minister to stand behind him however unpopular that may feel today. 0k. miriam cates is a conservative member of parliament joining us there. thank you very much for your time. thank you. a retired chemistry teacher who spotted dominic cummings in county durham says he has some regrets about spekaing to the guardian about the incident. speaking exclusively to bbc radio newcastle,

robin lees said it had been a "difficult few days" after his account of the encounter with mr cummings was initially rejected by downing street but felt "vindicated" by mr cummings subsequent admission. he began by explaining how he recognised the prime minister's chief advisor. just by what he looks like, and the press. i had obviously seen him. you know, i take an interest in the news. i look at the bbc website every day and that sort of thing. and so ijust take an interest in politics and also its, and ijust know what he looks like. this person just looks strikingly like him, i thought. and he had a wife and child with him. what did you think when you saw him 250 miles from london? that it was slightly strange. ijust we nt that it was slightly strange. ijust went home and just looked up online and realised, you know,... i wouldn't have known what the family

looked like. i found out he had a son of the sort of age the child seems to be, so i thought, that must be him. and i remembered the number plate because it was quite easy to remember. andl plate because it was quite easy to remember. and i just plate because it was quite easy to remember. and ijust wrote it down, looked it up and found it was... that it wasn't from county durham. i thought, well, somebody might have bought it second hand. i thought i had just seen a lookalike that probably wasn't him, but at the time ijust put it out of my mind, really, but i did write the number down and i had looked up online. when the guardian story broke, i just thought, well, goodness me, it must have been that person i saw. i didn't think too much about it, but i know people had started these stories in the press saying he had been there and other people denying it, saying he wasjust stuck in his house all the time. sol it, saying he wasjust stuck in his house all the time. so ijust looked

up house all the time. so ijust looked up online to see the history and found those dates fitted with when he was meant to have been in county durham, andl he was meant to have been in county durham, and ijust read the guardian article and i e—mailed the person that wrote it and gave them the number plate. so, you know, they sent me a picture that had him standing in front of the car with the same number plate, i presumed, andl the same number plate, i presumed, and i didn't do very much else. loads of people sort of appeared at my door and ijust told them the same story, that's all. that that's what you saw. i mean, it could have been somebody who looked like him, but obviously later if the number plate was his, then... then that confirms the story. as i said, i'm not very keen on a great deal of publicity. you know,

hundreds of people saying i had seen weird things etc, and that's all i have done. people saying that being stuck in his house all the time, etc, and thatjust didn't in his house all the time, etc, and that just didn't seem in his house all the time, etc, and thatjust didn't seem quite correct. did you feel vindicated when you are at least acknowledged... yes, that word, i felt vindicated. i don't know if it would have been mentioned ifi know if it would have been mentioned if i hadn't actually said. that was robin lees there, a retired chemistry teacher who spotted dominic cummings in county durham, and he was speaking to bbc radio newcastle. and just another call from within the conservative party actually for dominic cummings to step down and thatis dominic cummings to step down and that is coming from the former attorney generaljeremy wright, and he is saying, in a pretty lengthy statement, "i know how difficult it is to serve in government but i also know that fairly or unfairly your actions are subject to greater scrutiny and have greater consequences. what is most important

at this point is that the government can give clear messages about how to defeat the virus. this is more important than the position of any individual in downing street, and therefore i have concluded it would be better for therefore i have concluded it would be betterfor mr therefore i have concluded it would be better for mr cummings to leave his position at downing street. i have communicated my view and the reasons for it to the prime minister. " that was jeremy reasons for it to the prime minister. " that wasjeremy wright, former attorney general in the conservative government, telling borisjohnson conservative government, telling boris johnson that conservative government, telling borisjohnson that dominic cummings needs to be fired. the department stores john lewis has said it will reopen its doors on a "phased basis" starting onjune 15 — 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 last two months, they have been losing hundreds of pounds. i have installed a new glass screen to protect my staff and their customers. i have installed a new glass screen to protect my staff and 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 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 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. i'm joined now by scott parsons,

the managing director for westfield in the uk, who runs europe's two largest shopping centres, both in london. i've been to both of them, scott, and they are huge and hugely busy at times, aren't they? what are your plans times, aren't they? what are your pla ns firstly times, aren't they? what are your plans firstly on reopening and how will you make sure when you do reopen it is going to be safe for customers? well, we've been through the government's safer places document with a fine tooth, and i am proud to say we are going above and beyond their recommended measures. i guess with the sheer scale of europe's two largest shopping centres we are really well positioned to draw crowds, to maintain social distancing... well, we have lost scott parsons for the time being, managing director of westfield, but he was just talking there about the difficulties of reopening huge shopping centres, and he has a

couple of the biggest ones in europe. let me tell you, while we wait for that downing street briefing at the top of the hour, just a few minutes' time, with the health secretary matt hancock, but let me tell you in the meantime the rnli is calling for the government to restrict access to beaches. that was 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 life boat launches, more than a

normal weekend. along the restricted area of the coast you referred to, lifeboats near those incidents were out during the course of yesterday, so out during the course of yesterday, soa out during the course of yesterday, so a very out during the course of yesterday, so a very busy weekend. people have been cooked up for a long time. of course many people live on the coast and have been unable to go to the coast throughout this period —— many have been able to go to the coast because they haven't had the same difficulty 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... and that people generally use come and sense, keep their families safe, don't use things like inflatables and follow all of their water safety messaging. government help giving all of those messages would be very helpful. asi as i said, we are expecting the downing street briefing at the top of the error in a few

minutes' time, matt hancock the health secretary with that. let's talk to our correspondent in the studio, sophie hutchinson. firstly let's talk about the figures on the coronavirus, because in terms of the number of deaths at least that is falling quite consistently now? it really is, down to 134 deaths as of the last 24 hours which have been reports of people —— reported people dying with covid—19. clearly that is very welcome compared to some of the figures we were seeing back in april of more than 1000 deaths per day. so it is down considerably. 0bviously for each of those families it is a terrible tragedy when one of their loved ones is dying from this virus, but definitely these figures seem to be going in the right direction. sadly, it brings the total number in terms of these daily reported figures to more than 37,000 deaths in the uk so far. but we also had some figures out from the office for national statistics today, and they

calculate the deaths they see in a slightly different way, so the daily figures of debts are confirmed cases through a swab, some kind of test, whereas —— figures of deaths. whereas the office for national statistics calculates on the basis of registrations, so some will be cases where symptoms have very clearly been involved in a death and that brings the total figure to 45,000 deaths, more than 45,000 deaths in the uk since during the pandemic from covid—19 so it is a considerable amount. matt hancock, asi considerable amount. matt hancock, as i said, giving the briefing and a couple of minutes, and of course he set a target for testing of 100,000 hits per day. the prime minister said then, actually, it will be 200,000 by the end of the month. where are we on testing and those specific targets? today they have achieved just over the 100,000 mark for the number of daily tests carried out. as you say, there was this testing target

of 100,000 by the end of april. now the government has always achieved that everyday and certainly yesterday that figure was 73,000, so it has sort of been around the 100,000 mark, orjust below, depending on the day of the week. the current target is to have double that number, so 200,000 tests by the end of may. what, we have five days to go for them to ramp it up to that? so we will be building pressure on them to show how they are going to do that, considering we are going to do that, considering we are around 100,000 mark at the moment. the test, track and trace plans the government have, and we have heard a lot about the trial of the app on the isle of wight, how is that all going as far as we know?|j think that all going as far as we know?” think the app for the isle of wight, there has clearly been some sort of problem with it. the government has said that that won't be ready at the minute, that that has been rather pushed into the long grass for the time being. the path they are trying to go down is this

track and tracing, where the track where a hotspot, an infection, might be, then they find those people and trace the contact those people have had. so they talk to them about who they have been in close contact with and they then contact those people to tell them to isolate for 14 days or whatever it is. now, we know there are around 25,000 recruits that the government has taken on in order to try and track and trace people because my contacts. we had a few days ago that those recruits are still waiting to be trained and that the government says they should be up and running by the end of the month —— trace people's contracts. so this is a large project the government is trying to tackle at the moment and we will just see whether they will be ready in time. you stay with us. i think that breathing has been slightly delayed. just while we wait for the health secretary matt hancock, let's joina health secretary matt hancock, let's join a political correspondent jonathan blake. 0f join a political correspondent

jonathan blake. of course whatever they say at this downing street press co nfe re nce they say at this downing street press conference today, it is, as has been the case over the weekend, all overshadowed by the dominic has been the case over the weekend, all overshadowed by the dominitfl will be an awkward how far for matt hancock because we've had several more conservative mps coming up today to say that dominic cummings should resign or be sacked after that news conference that he helped in the garden at downing street around this time yesterday afternoon. it does not appear to have drawn a line under the saga as downing street had hoped. i think forup to 33 downing street had hoped. i think for up to 33 or so tory mps now saying dominic cummings should resign, clearly lots of them getting correspondence from constituents. here is the downing street daily briefing. good afternoon and welcome to downing street for the daily coronavirus briefing. i'm joined

by professorjohn newton, the test and trace coordinator. before i provide an update on the work we're doing to combat coronavirus i would like to update you on the latest figures. total 3,691,295 tests have been carried out in the uk including 109,979 yesterday. 265,227 people have tested positive, an increase of 2004 cases since yesterday. sadly of those who tested positive for coronavirus across all settings 37,048 people have now died. yesterday across the uk 134 deaths we re yesterday across the uk 134 deaths were reported. but for the first time since the 18th of march i'm very encouraged to

confirm that yesterday there were no deaths from coronavirus recorded in northern ireland. i want to pay tribute to robin swann my opposite number and all those across the nhs and public health in northern ireland and the people of northern ireland who have shown such resolve to be able to bend the curve downwards. and thank them for the work that they have done. while the news may not be this positive every i look forward very to working with them to keep the virus under control in northern ireland. the figures today from the office for national statistics show across the uk as a whole the lowest number of deaths from coronavirus for six weeks. this is a national endeavour and would have read the headwinds as a country we cannot let up headwinds as a country we cannot let up on this, we have passed the peak and we are flattening the curve, we have protected the nhs and the

number of deaths is falling. we must keep our resolve. and i also want to say a massive thank you to everybody over the bank holiday weekend. to social distancing rules and especially to my colleagues in the nhs and in social care who are doing so much. even though we have passed the peak there are still 8802 people in hospital with coronavirus in the uk and still 98 nhs colleagues in hospital with coronavirus including some who are seriously ill. so we must maintain our focus and there are two areas i would like to provide an update on today, both incredibly important for the future of tackling this disease. ppe and treatments. first we had been working hard to build our supplies of personal protective equipment, i know how important this is especially to colleagues on the front line. we all heard in the

early weeks of the crisis calls from the front line for more and better ppe. and we all saw the global scramble to acquire it. i've been com pletely scramble to acquire it. i've been completely open about the scale and difficulties of this challenge, building a new supply chain from scratch and of course the operational challenge of delivering. general sir nick carter chief of defence general sir nick carter chief of d efe nce staff general sir nick carter chief of defence staff said himself that this is the single greatest logistical challenge that he had faced in his 40 yea rs of challenge that he had faced in his 40 years of service. and in response to those challenges thanks to the armed forces and to so many others including so many in the nhs we have seen a mammoth effort. we have ramped up domestic production and i can announce we have now signed contracts can announce we have now signed co ntra cts to can announce we have now signed contracts to manufacture 2 billion items of ppe here in the uk. i set a national challenge and i am delighted that lord dyson has

stepped up and is helping us deliver against it. around the world we have signed deals with over 100 new suppliers including agreeing contracts for further 3.7 suppliers including agreeing contracts forfurther 3.7 billion gloves. while we continue to improve blood logistics and work hard to get eve ryo ne blood logistics and work hard to get everyone the ppe they need these new supplies mean that we are not simply keeping up with demand but we are now able to begin to replenish the stock piles. there is a lot further to go on ppe as on so many things but we have made significant progress and i would like to thank eve ryo ne progress and i would like to thank everyone involved. and ppe of course is so important because it is about protecting the people who protect us. and we will do that for as long as the virus remains on these shores. the next thing i want to update you on some of the remarkable research and development into treatments taking place across the uk. 0ne treatments taking place across the

uk. one of our greatest strengths in the uk is our life sciences and a particular life sciences research and we are leading the world in the clinical trials that are being done here. as i said at the podium last week the very nature of scientific enquiry means that not every project bears fruit but i'm determined that we will explore every possible avenue. the recovery trial is the largest trial in the world of potential coronavirus treatments. because the nhs is a universal system which we are all part of we have some of the best data and we can do some of the best research. today i can announce that we are beginning a new trial for a selected nhs patients of an antiviral drug remdesivir. they have already been some promising early results on coronavirus patients with early data suggesting it can shorten recovery time is by around four days. as you can understand we will prioritise the use of this treatment where

it will provide the greatest benefit. this is probably the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis began. these are very early steps but we are determined to support the science and to back the projects that show promise. i would like to thank the nhs, the nhra, the devolved administrations as this is uk wide and gilead the pharmaceutical company for their work in making this happen. after all it is worth remembering that in the battle against this virus we are all on the same side. so we will keep working across the world to develop the vaccines and treatments like this. that will help us to turn a corner. but until a treatment or vaccine comes good there is no simple way to defeat the virus so we must not lose our resolve. so please stay alert, control the

virus and save lives. i will now turn to professor newton to take us through the slides. thank you, secretary of state. the first light shows changes in transport use in the country and the top three refer to motor vehicle transport, cars, light goods and heavy goods vehicles and we can see there is a small trend upwards in all three which is more or less what we would expect commensurate with the advice that has been given to people to start to return to work and of course for heavy goods vehicles the fact that many businesses have been continuing to deliver essential items to us throughout the lockdown. the slides below shall use public transport, national rail, transport in london, buses and tubes and then buses outside london and they are the trend is flat and showing really no increase in the use of transport recently. the next slide shows numbers of tests and

numbers of confirmed cases. as the secretary of state mentioned the latest number is 109000 and very close to 110000 and the total of 3.6 million tests. the numbers of tests fluctuate partly because we are sending out large volumes of tests on certain days to perform large—scale population surveys so the fact that the tests numbers fluctuate is to be expected. the graph below shows numbers of confirmed cases and again as the secretary of state mentioned the latest figure is 2004 and that also fluctuate somewhat but there is a seven rolling average trend which clearly is downwards and that is encouraging. it is important to understand that the number 2004 is an underestimate of the total number of cases in the country because of course not every case that develops is tested or presents for symptoms

but it is a good indication of the overall trend. turning then to the situation in hospitals and the first light shows the number of admissions to hospital with covid—19 and there we have a number of 471 which is down from 639 and in fact that is the lowest number recorded since we started collecting these data on the 20th of march. so that is good news. and within hospitals in the intensive care units 11% of beds with mechanical ventilators are now occupied by cover 19 patients and that again shows a steady downwards trend in that proportion. turning then to people in hospital around then to people in hospital around the country and we can see the different graphs for different regions of england and the different countries of the uk. a number

of things are apparent from this and first aid the impact has been very different in different parts of the country with a much larger peak in london and also the north—west and the midlands. all these areas show a decline and so there are fewer people in now in hospital in total, 8802 which is down from 10,118 this time last week. again a steady but slow decline which is seen all over the country. sadly people are still dying from coronavirus and 134 deaths is the latest figure. this is a relatively low figure compared to previous days if we look at this graph and we must bear in mind there a lwa ys graph and we must bear in mind there always a weekend effect and in the case of this figure a bank holiday effect but nevertheless the seven—day rolling average shows a steady decline in the number of daily deaths. total deaths recorded with a positive

test is now 37,048. return to next slide and we have additional information on deaths from cover 19 from the office for national statistics and death registrations and hear the number is higher, 45,231, these are deaths registered in the uk where cover 19 was mentioned on the death certificates are not all these cases will have had a positive effect on the figure to compare it with directly is 33,998 on the 15th of may and those with the numbers of deaths with a positive test so there isa deaths with a positive test so there is a difference. the graph on the top of the slide shows that gap between the numbers of registered deaths from cover 19 and numbers of confirmed deaths and we can see that the gap is narrowing but also we can see that there is a bank holiday effect on the numbers of death

registrations as well. and the graph below shows again from the office of national statistics data the differences in numbers of deaths by place of death and this shows the numbers of deaths occurring in hospitals and numbers in care homes and both of those are declining. the trend in deaths in care homes occurred rather later and it was smaller but both of those are now declining and in total 28.3% of coronavirus related deaths have occurred in care homes. thank you very much. thank you very much indeed. the first question is from a member of the public and, just to remind everybody, we don't see these questions in advance the same way we obviously don't see the questions from journalists in advance. the first question is from martin from brighton. it will be on the video. good afternoon. will the government review all penalty fines imposed on

families travelling for childcare purposes during lockdown? thanks. well, thank you, martin. it's a very good question. we do understand the impact and the need for making sure that children get adequate childcare that is one of the significant concerns we had all the way through this, and so i think, especially coming from a man of the cloth, i think that is perfectly reasonable to take away that question. i will have to talk to my treasury colleagues before i can answer it in full, and i will look at it and if we can get your details we will make sure we write to you with a full answer and make an announcement from this podium. i think we can make that commitment. thank you, martin. the next question is from early from

kent. —— ellie. the question is if people can shop for un—essential items and send their children back to school when we don't know where those children have been, why can't we visit another household that we know have been self isolating such as grandparents and partners? this is an entirely important question and i entirely understand where you're coming from on this. one of the most natural instinct is to see people who you know and love. 0ne natural instinct is to see people who you know and love. one of the challenges is that it's very difficult to know where the virus has passed from and two. we are on the 1st of june has passed from and two. we are on the 1st ofjune proposing to make a series of changes, including from the middle ofjune starting to open up the middle ofjune starting to open up nonessential retail, and from the 1st ofjune, up nonessential retail, and from the 1st of june, having up nonessential retail, and from the 1st ofjune, having some schools accept children in reception,

years one and six, in all schools, but as you say there is also a yearning to see people in another household, and we are looking at how we can make this happen in a safe way. john? yes, thank you, secretary of state. the issue here is all about risk, and we know that if social distancing measures are being implemented well, as they are i think very widely in places like supermarkets, then risk is really quite low. we know the highest risk of transmission is within households, so the people you're most likely to infect other people in your own household, and so that is why the advice has to be different for meeting people in households compared to other places. but the gradual increase in contact is what will get us all back to normal, but we do have to bear in mind that everything we do has risk attached to it and the objective is to reduce that risk as much as possible. fantastic. thank

you very much, ellie. the next question is from laura kuenssberg of the bbc. thank you very much, secretary. nearly 40 of your colleagues believe that the country's top adviser let the country down and they want him gone. give you stood at that lectern and said the guidelines were not advice but instructions, do you feel that way or at least see why your colleagues do as well? thank you, laura. 0n colleagues do as well? thank you, laura. on this question, mr cummings has set out all of the details, and quite extensive detail yesterday, and then invited questions on it. my view is that what he did was within the guidelines, and i can understand why reasonable people can take a different view, but myjudgment, which is the same as the prime minister's, is that what mr cummings did was within the guidelines. after all, the guidelines allow for exceptional circumstances,

particularly with regard to childcare, and if you are... and we have stated before that if you are unable to look after a small child thatis unable to look after a small child that is an exceptional circumstance. soi that is an exceptional circumstance. so i think that within the guidelines mr cummings acted, and the most important thing is that we can get on and deal with the other issues, for instance, those i have spoken about today on ppe and on treatments. butt, health secretary, do you admit it is doing damage to the government because my credibility and may be undermining the message? you just said at that lectern after a question from a memberof the lectern after a question from a member of the public that you might review some of the fines given to people if they were travelling for reasons to do with their children. this is making a difference, is it not, to what you are trying to do in government? know, ithink not, to what you are trying to do in government? know, i think it is incredibly important people keep their resolve. as we can see from their resolve. as we can see from the following number of deaths —— no, ithink the following number of deaths —— no, i think it is incredibly

important. as we see the following number of deaths in hospital admissions and as we stand up the trace and test capacity i think it is incredibly important that as a nation we keep our resolve. everybody has a part to play in this, and everybody needs to act in a way that is responsible, both for them and for their community. and i think... ido them and for their community. and i think... i do think that's important, and i think it's important, and i think it's important we all stick at it. thanks very much. robert peston from itv. secretary of state, you and your wife tested positive for covid—19, you have three young children, but you have three young children, but you chose to stay at home in london. what is the relevant difference between you and dominic cummings? the relevant difference, robert, is we had childcare readily available at home, and mr cummings didn't. thanks very much. then kentish from

lbc. thank you, secretary of state. —— then. 71% of people disagree with you and the prime minister. they think dominic cummings did break the rules and because of that confidence in the government has plummeted 20 points injust four days. given how important that confidence is to pretty much everything you are trying to do, from maintaining social distancing to reopening the economy and getting people back to work, and the track and trace system you're introducing next week, how much does that apparent loss of people's confidence worry you, and what do you say to those who say simply, "that means you are risking people's health and the health of the economy," all people think to save one number ten adviser. what do you say to them? white matter of course i understand the anger some people feel and i regret the anger some people feel, and mr cummings said with hindsight he should have got all the facts out earlier ——

yes, of course i understand. what i say is it is incredibly important as a country that we focus on what we need to do now. i've said this repeatedly through this crisis. you have to wake up everyday and work out what is the best thing to do next, and making sure, for instance, that we have the available and that we protect people on the front line, making progress on these treatments, asi making progress on these treatments, as i talked about, these are the critical next steps that we need to take, along with as you said making changes to the social distancing rules, to allow people to get back to doing some of the things that they love. if you look at the earlier question from ellie from kent, it is all about how do we get back to a position where i can see my loved ones? these are the sorts of things that the country is yearning for and i'm not underplaying the importance of the debate that there has been, and as i've said entirely reasonable that

reasonable people can disagree with... reasonable people can disagree with... over reasonable people can disagree with. .. 0ver what happened... reasonable people can disagree with... 0verwhat happened... 0ver the description of what happened over the weekend. but i'm here to focus on and really drive forward all of the other important things we need to do as well. thanks very much. said painfrom need to do as well. thanks very much. said pain from the ft —— seb. think they much. after apple not conducted today 71% of the public said after hearing mr cummings' version of events they believe his drive to durham broke the lockdown rules. you are just saying it didn't. are you saying 71% of the british public misunderstood those rules, and if so does that mean you asa rules, and if so does that mean you as a government had failed in drafting them? also, if you don't mind me asking, would you now advise britons to use that discretion while interpreting the rules? 0r britons to use that discretion while interpreting the rules? or is that discretionjust for interpreting the rules? or is that discretion just for people who work in downing street? as i have said it is incredibly important people follow the guidelines. i was

actually standing at this podium when the dcmo set out, as she put it, clearly, that if you have adults unable to look after a small child thatis unable to look after a small child that is an exceptional circumstance. and the guidelines were drafted with exceptional circumstances in mind. there were other exceptional circumstances set out that don't apply in this case, but describe some of the other exceptional circumstances that people face, and therefore i think it is reasonable to conclude that the description of events that mr cummings put out yesterday was within the guidelines, but i also, as i've said in answer i think to the first question, i do think, you know, i understand reasonable people will disagree with that, and of course i understand some of the anger that boiled up over the weekend. thanks very much. the evening standard. joe

murphy. on thursday there will be a major landmark with the beginning of the test and trace which will hopefully help beat this virus while reopening the economy. professor newton, as a noted epidemiologist, how important is it to the success of this great project that people obey the instructions they are given by contact tracers to the letter and to the spirit? can they, for example, follow their instincts to interpret this guidance? well, ifi answer first then i will hand over to professor newton. the nhs test and trace programme is going to be incredibly important, because as the evening standard itself has set out, the whole purpose here is to try to move to a system where we have a more targeted lockdown, where if you are at high risk because you have beenin are at high risk because you have been in contact with somebody who has tested positive you are asked to self—isolate, and also it will

give us self—isolate, and also it will give us the information to have local lockdowns and focus on areas where there may be flare ups, and it is very important people follow those rules, and they should do it... not do it for the government, people need to do this for themselves, for their loved ones, for their communities. it is incredibly important and it will stop those local flare ups from happening. thank you, secretary of state. the test and trace programme is a very important contribution. it will allow us to control the virus in a different phase of the pandemic while we are returning back to normal, but it's important to stress that it has to be seen alongside other measures, such as continued social distancing wherever we can and also basic hygiene, and all those things will contribute, because we know that no country in the world that adopts test and trace, you know, we will not be able to find every trace and trace every contact, but to your point the

programme will give very clear instructions, they will be phrased as instructions rather than advice, and we do expect people to follow them. thank you. mr hancock, asking families to isolate for two weeks on the say—so of an official, even if they don't have symptoms, can you make that big ask if the people who are writing the orders are not following them ? are writing the orders are not following them? as i said, joe, i think it is incredibly important that people play their part in the test entry system. it will be somebody from the nhs — these are all signed off by the nhs. so people are not doing this for me, people are doing this for their loved ones. if you are phoned up and asked to self—isolate, even though you are perfectly healthy, because you are perfectly healthy, because you have been in close contact with somebody who has tested positive, thenit somebody who has tested positive, then it is your civic duty

to then self—isolate, for yourself, for your community, for your family. and self—isolate, for yourself, for your community, for yourfamily. and we all need to come together to do this, and that will then in turn allow us to lift some of the measures that currently are blanket measures that currently are blanket measures across the whole of society, and have to be, and have to be blanket measures, until we have the nhs test entry system up and running and in place. so it is very important —— test and trace system up important —— test and trace system up and running and in place. it is important. we are asking people to do this for the community and to ensure there are not those local flare—ups limit that would then require us to take more specific targeted action across the whole area, for instance, across the whole town. thanks very much. finally, phil coleman from the news and star. we have lost phil.

yes, phil? good afternoon, secretary of state and professor newton. as we've heard already this afternoon, the impact of coronavirus has varied considerably across the uk with cumbria among the hardest hit areas. yet despite us appearing to be past the first peak, there is genuine fear of a second wave of infections and deaths, potentially fuelled by visitors flooding back to our county, primarily the lake district which has a health system designed for 500,000. what tools will you give our local officials, the police and public health officials and the like to manage any future flare—ups, and might those tools include the option of a temporary localised lockdown? secondly, you have already mentioned, mr hancock, the vital importance of ppe, how it protects the people who protect us. sadly, in cumbria, there have been examples of

front line nhs staff who have worked with ppe masks that were not properly fit tested for a number of weeks, potentially putting them at risk. what is your message to those staff, and how will you ensure they don't face that risk again in the future? i will have a go at the second question and passed tojohn for the first. on ppe we had some problems with items that were in the stockpile and put in the stockpile some time ago that we then discovered on second checking that they did not fit the requirements and we then withdrew them and acted as fast as we could as soon as we knew there was a problem. and therefore we have done the very best that we can to tackle that. i'm told and advised that the clinicians consider that the risk

was low because especially the particular item you mentioned and these were only for use in low—risk settings but nevertheless i know how important it is to get the right ppe and casillas we found out about the problem we put a stop to them going out of the warehouse and we let the system know there was a problem with these items. so what i would say to staff on the front line... apologies, the problem was not so much the kit, that was of adequate quality, but the delay in for testing the people wearing the kit to ensure that it was properly airtight and therefore it appears to have been a systemic problem rather thana have been a systemic problem rather than a problem with the actual kit so again systems failing rather than kit. i know we had problems at the start with that as well and i hope we have now resolved that, it was all part of going from needing

normal amounts of ppe to needing very high amounts of ppe and i personally will make sure the specific example that you raise is looked into and we will speak again once i have looked into that and get you a full answer. 0n the second point i know there has been a specific problem in terms of flare—ups and the number of cases particularly in barrow in furness and i've been talking to the local mp about this who is doing a brilliantjob bringing mp about this who is doing a brilliant job bringing matters mp about this who is doing a brilliantjob bringing matters to my attention locally. in the short a nswer attention locally. in the short answer is yes we will have local lockdown is in future where we have flare—ups and we have a system that we are putting in place with a combination of public health england and the new joint combination of public health england and the newjoint security centre along with local directors of public health who play a crucial role in decision—making in the system to make sure that if there is a local

flare—up that we have a local lockdown. so that will be part of the future system that we have put in place as part of the nhs test and chase system. that is the short answer! professor newton can give you the long answer. it is a pretty good answer, i think your question is good because it emphasises the fa ct is good because it emphasises the fact that whatever measures would put in place must work everywhere in the country. all different areas will have their own different considerations and the lake district isa considerations and the lake district is a special place with a lot of visitors and open spaces and it is difficult to reach parts of it. 0ther difficult to reach parts of it. other parts of the country have other challengers said the measures that we are putting in place are a mixture of national resources, the test and taste —— test and trace programme supported by technology, a web—based function but also as people will note there is

an act being trialled in the isle of wight as well. the wheels of regional resources and the health protection teams from public health england are working already with colleagues in cumbria on the issue mentioned and then we have local resources, local directors of public health and the whole of civic society and back needs to be involved with this as we are all affected and many different organisations in fact will be involved in helping us respond to that whether in local councils who help with infection control and also supporting people who may be self isolating and many other local businesses who will need to use social distancing to protect against infection and also respond when employees are asked to self—isolate. so it is a whole country ever to come up with a national component and a local company does well which needs to affect the things that you described, the special characteristics of different parts of the country.

was that answer good enough for you? thank you very much back concludes the coronavirus del e—briefing, thank you very much indeed. the political correspondence that, let's go to our. an extraordinary commitment from matt hancock to the first questioner, who asked if the government would review all the fines handed out to people who travel during lockdown but for childcare reasons, in light of the dominic cummings affair. that was the context in which the question was asked, clearly, and a very pertinent one for people who may have made similarjourneys to that which dominic cummings did on the grounds of trying to arrange childcare for their son or daughter

or children but were contravening the guidelines perhaps in doing so. matt hancock was a bit equivocal in his response and did not quite commit to reviewing or revoking all of the fines that had been handed out. he said he would talk to the treasury but he did say that the government understands the impact and meet people have for making sure the children have appropriate childcare during lockdown and if their parents have symptoms and that goes to the heart of the argument that many people have made in response to what dominic cummings set out yesterday as his justification for what he did. it may have been the case that other people were able to do what he did and drive a significant distance or travel a significant distance to arrange childcare but did not do it because they thought it was against the guidelines. it leaves the government in a tricky position because if they do review this and rescind the fines that is quite an extraordinary position to change

government policy because of one advisor and what he has done.” government policy because of one advisor and what he has done. i do not think on the basis of what matt hancock said in response to the question that we are at that point yet and it would require significant work to trawl through police records and fixed penalty notices that have been handed out in response to people flouting the guidelines. and those do vary as we have seen when the records have been released since the records have been released since the lockdown came in. wildly varying from police force to police force depending on the approach taken at local level so it would be very tricky for the government to administer but that was just one of many questions reflecting the ongoing criticism of dominic cummings and ongoing strength of feeling that is still there in response to what he did initially and his justification for that that he set out yesterday and not least amongst the 30 or so conservative mps who have now said that he should resign. and he was asked

as we may have expected several times by journalists what he felt about the dominic cummings affair especially since he was one of the ministers who was most fervently preaching the message of stay at home, and that is not advice but an instruction. undoubtedly it is awkward for matt hancock to have to stand there and deflect criticism and answer questions about the behaviour of the prime minister is mixing your adviser but he stuck to the line which has been there since yesterday and the prime minister set out in street and in fact the day before that mrcummings street and in fact the day before that mr cummings has given his reasons for acting in the way that he did. it is the view of the prime minister and matt hancock said his view as well but he acted within the guidance although they understand the anger and strength of feeling from people. there clearly is no change in position and as of this evening notwithstanding a government minister resigning and 30 or so

conservative mps saying mr cummings should resign or be removed from his job, he remains there. do you think that downing street are just hoping that downing street are just hoping that sooner or later all this will just fizzle out in the public will forget about it? i think clearly it is the hope as it was yesterday when mrcummings spoke at is the hope as it was yesterday when mr cummings spoke at length in downing street about what he did that getting all the details out there and allowing him to explain himself and allowing generous to ask questions would clear it up and make it go away to an extent. it has not really done that and a criticism has continued. we have 30 or so conservative mps, approaching 10% of the parliamentary party, not a huge number but still not insignificant. many of them the kind of people you would not necessarily think of as troublemakers or agitators sticking their heads above the parapet calling for him to go. downing

street so far has heard what they have to say but stuck to their guns and that clearly is the hope and intention of the prime minister. if it turns into some more coordinated action against the government on behalf of of conservative mps then perhaps things will change but so downing street and mr cummings are riding it out. since the government rely on the public to follow the guidelines. and they will continue to rely on the public. with future guidelines for example the idea of pointing people when they come back into the uk if have been abroad, quarantining for 14 days. all of that relies on people simply obeying the rules because that is really quite hard to police. so it relies on people doing the right thing and the fear is they may be less inclined to do that from now on. that is the fear and i'm sure that thatis that is the fear and i'm sure that that is a concern within government and you heard matt

hancock the health secretary saying again and again it was incredibly important that people stick to the rules and incredibly important that we keep at this. whatever the headlines, as he put it, i think an oblique reference to dominic cummings and the attention on him in the last few days. if it is borne out in the coming days and weeks that the behaviour of the general public changes and they are not adhering to social distancing guidelines and rules that have been in place to the extent that they have done thus far then people will continue to ask the question for what reason are they doing that. is it because people are fed up generally with them and getting a bit relaxed and complacent about the rules in general or is that the effect of seeing the senior adviser to the prime minister at flouting the thrills in the eyes of many people. we will have to see

what people do in the long term and what people do in the long term and what the government message continues to be. but it is a very important area and one they will have a close eye on because the all—important have a close eye on because the all—importa nt reproductive rate, have a close eye on because the all—important reproductive rate, the number of people who can become infected for present testing positive is hovering just below one at the moment. as soon as it tips any higher than that then we may well see lockdown restrictions tightening rather than being listened. jonathan blake, thank you. let's talk to our health correspondent sophie hutchinson. in terms of the outbreak itself, 134 deaths recorded yesterday, the lowest for some time across the uk and significantly in northern ireland for the first time since the 18th of march not a single death from coronavirus. that must be incredibly welcome news that that has happened and they have not had a single death in hospital or in the community from coronavirus. in

terms of the figures today these are low figures that we are seeing compared to the figures that we had in april. 134, not the lowest figure but certainly a low figure compared to say more than 1000 cases that we had backin say more than 1000 cases that we had back in april. and we had some data from hospitals today. this is about hospital admissions. compared to one week ago where there were 639 hospital admissions for covid—19, people with covid—19, just over 600, thatis people with covid—19, just over 600, that is now down to 471 so definitely going in the right direction and you can see that on that top graph for england, that is. thenin that top graph for england, that is. then in terms of beds with ventilators, when wicket fell 15% had patients with covid—19 in them and that is now down to 11% so there there's figures for hospitals are going in the right

direction. what about testing because of course matt hancock made that commitment to provide 100,000 tests per day by the end of april. it is 109,000 i think you said for yesterday but the prime minister has made a bigger commitment that by the end of may, this month, 200,000 per day. five days away and they have to get to that number. they've been around 100,000 for a while now, they do not a lwa ys 100,000 for a while now, they do not always manage to hit it and yesterday 73,000 always manage to hit it and yesterday 73, 000 tests always manage to hit it and yesterday 73,000 tests were carried out and today cisse around 109. so doubling that is where they've got to get to in five days. we willjust have to see if they manage to do that but getting test numbers that has been an ongoing challenge that they have not always manage to succeed in. some good news in terms of the drug remdesivir. people holding out quite a lot of hope for that but just

holding out quite a lot of hope for that butjust in terms of treating the virus and i think taking four days from the recovery time. research has been done in america looking at patients given remdesivir which is an antiviral drug use during the ebola virus outbreak and originally developed to treat hepatitis c. in terms of cover 19 it seems to have a beneficial effect and reduces stays in hospitalfrom 15 days on average down to 11 days. so it is welcome news. in the us and japan they are now going to treat patients with this who are in hospital. there is not a huge supply of remdesivir still in the uk we have not been told how much we are getting. the health secretary today announced it as a trial with patients in hospital. some nhs patients in hospital. some nhs patients will be getting this. and

what is the latest on ppe? there is the feeling that there just isn't enough ppe around still and more is needed. the health secretary today said they had made some real progress and announced they now had contracts progress and announced they now had co ntra cts to progress and announced they now had contracts to make 2 billion items of ppe in the uk. these are obviously extremely big numbers, but the nhs is extremely big, and if you think about a hospital, we have estimated about a hospital, we have estimated a hospital trust uses 72,000 items of ppe per day, so over the course of ppe per day, so over the course ofa of ppe per day, so over the course of a day in the whole of the nhs you're talking about between ten and 15 million items of ppe being needed, so vast quantities of ppe needed. clearly it is great if 2 billion items can come from somewhere in the uk, but billions

and billions will be needed. sophie, thank you so much for talking us through all of that. sophie hutchison, our health correspondent. you are watching bbc news with me, ben brown, and we havejust been hearing the latest downing street briefing, lead, as you saw, by the health secretary matt hancock, on the latest government coronavirus strategy. there were questions, plenty of questions, on the government response to dominic cummings's behaviour over the lockdown. let's look at some of the key points that came out of the briefing. matt hancock said he believed cummings acted within the government guidelines, and also said he would discuss a possible review for people who were fined for driving to access child care. he would look at that along with the treasury, and that was in response to a question from a member of the public, a vicarfrom brighton, in fact. member of the public, a vicarfrom brighton, infact. it member of the public, a vicarfrom brighton, in fact. it comes as a further 134 people have died in the uk after testing positive for

covid—19, taking the total death toll up to 37,048 people. mr hancock said although the number of deaths is falling, we must keep our resolve. and the health secretary also said contracts have been signed to make 2 billion items of ppe in the uk and he said that the drug remdesivir is probably the biggest move in treatment so far, the biggest step forward. he said it would be incredibly important that people do follow the rules for themselves and for the community in following the test and trace programme. let's get some reaction to the fallout from the dominic cummings affair in particular. we can talk to tim montgomery, political commentator and the founder of conservative home website. thank you for being with us once again, tim. we have heard from kuyt a few conservative mps who are pretty angry at dominic cummings,

calling for him to resign —— we have heard from kuyt a few. —— quite a few. i understand that in the conservative membership there is a majority in favour of dominic cummings staying, which in some sense is a good thing for him, better than the other way around, but it is not overwhelming by any means. you have a third, or 40% of tory members who are very unhappy. if the loyalist of your loyal supporters really is the tory grassroots, and they are that unhappy, it is a dangerous place for a government to be in. i think there comes a point when if you have 40, which i think is about the number now, of your own mps expressing reservations about dominic cummings staying in his position, there comes a point of respecting, you

know, yourmps, a point of respecting, you know, your mps, respecting the people you rely on in the house of commons to get legislation through. at some point. you had the leader of the scottish conservatives saying he would be considering his position if he was dominic cummings. if boris johnson really wants to maintain a united conservative party going forward , united conservative party going forward, then i think it's time for him to ask his chief adviser to go. also, in terms of borisjohnson because my own ratings, we gather from one poll they have fallen 20% and now stand at —1, i think. people must be wondering, "is it worth it? is one man worth it? is it worth keeping him in hisjob? " from the prime minister because my own political point of view.” prime minister because my own political point of view. i think it is the question we are all asking. i ama is the question we are all asking. i am a committee conservative, i want brexit to happen, i want this conservative government to succeed —— committed conservative. the agenda we promised at the last election, to bring more prosperity

and infrastructure, particularly to the northern constituencies that voted for the conservative party in such large numbers last december. but if you start to have a conservative government where people think, actually, these are the same old conservatives, whereby people who are in privileged positions can ignore rules that the rest of us have to abide by, you start undermining that important quality, which is respect and authority, that any government needs to possess, particularly during a pandemic when the message is —— the messages the government sends out one of our key defences against a dangerous virus. i don't know if you heard the briefing today but matt hancock was asked by a vicar about whether the government should look at reviewing the fines given out to people who we re the fines given out to people who were travelling around during the lockdown because of childcare reasons, like dominic cummings. he said he would look at it and talk to the treasury and get back to the member of the public was asking that

question. but people are already saying on social media, you know, is the dominic cummings affair are now shaping government policy? yeah, i saw someone tweet they could call it dominic's law, or dom's law of the retrospective legislation carved out to fit the situation with the prime minister's chief adviser. it is getting very messy indeed. i think the last time you and i were talking was to days ago and i thought we we re was to days ago and i thought we were at the point, or hoped we were at the point, when the prime minister was lancing the boil, but this whole saga shows no sign of running out, and it will be stories like that one, raised by the vicar in that queue and day, which will continue this story —— raised in that 08a does not hearing the stories of another resignation tonight, and others are ready to resign if the government not respond

to legitimate concerns and heartache that mps are receiving in their post bags. this is one of the biggest postbag is, a lot of it coming by e—mail of course these days, but one of the biggest postbags that conservative mps that i stand and can remember. people are genuinely upset about this issue. it is not just something for the westminster bubble and concerning the media, this is something that has reached all of the people who for ten weeks have been abiding by the rules and thought they were doing the right thing, and thought that the government was also abiding by those rules. dominic cummings gave a very long news co nfe re nce dominic cummings gave a very long news conference yesterday in the rose garden of downing street. the prime minister has talked about this ona prime minister has talked about this on a couple of occasions over the weekend, but they haven't managed to draw a line under it, have they? no, andl draw a line under it, have they? no, and i think the thing that was impressive about dominic cummings' press conference yesterday, unlike as we have seen with some of the downing street conferences, he

answered all of the questions, he ke pt answered all of the questions, he kept giving people, laura kuenssberg, another opportunity to ask another question if he needed something clarified, but unfortunately at the same time there was no real contrition from dominic cummings, and also he raised new issues, like this 60 mile round trip to test your eyesight, and that i think is one of the big dangers for the government now. all across social media today, people are laughing at that excuse. many politicians can cope with hatred or dislike, but when people start scoffing at you, when people start ridiculing you, that is a very dangerous place for a government to bn. and do you think it's going to affect the that people listen to the government's guidance and the guidelines they are giving on public health during this crisis? —— a very dangerous place for the government to be in. i hope not, and i think a lot of the reasons why people have abided by the guidelines is because they have made sense. most people

realise that, actually, if you travel 260 miles across the country while you are covid carriers, moving towards elderly relatives, that is not a good idea. most people didn't need government guidelines to tell them that. but, yes, on the margins, there will be people who are influenced by this row who perhaps won't now pay so much attention to government guidelines that are less instinctively understandable. we have to leave it there, i'm afraid. ten, thank you so much for talking to us, tim montgomery. at seven o'clock i will be talking to the vicarfrom brighton o'clock i will be talking to the vicar from brighton who asked that question about fines in the wake of the dominic cummings affair. sophie is here with the news at six and a couple of minutes, but first a look at the weather prospects with chris fox. —— now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. hello again. if you're hoping for some rain in the forecast today, there isn't much to offer at all,

and in fact for the next few days that's going to be the case. it will remain dry for most of us. it's going to be sunny and warm and by the weekend, for some, it will be very warm as temperatures climb from the mid to the high 20s in celsius. more clout, particularly in wales and northern england. you can see this, what is left of a very cold front. no rain, just a little patchy cloud breaking up and drifting southwards. 0vernight we could well see some low cloud form across the hills and coast of south—west england where there could be a few mist and fog patches here and there. a mild night particularly in the south of england, 13—14d in cardiff and london by the end of the night but fresher airfor and london by the end of the night but fresher air for northern england, northern ireland and scotland. however, over the next few days that warmer air in the south will be pushing northwards so there is going to be a warming trend to our weather over the next few days. wednesday, most of england and wales will have a sunny start, always a bit more in the way of cloud for northern ireland and scotland. there could be an odd spot of rain in northern ireland but not amounting to much. the best of the sunshine across england and wales and those temperatures again will reach the

mid, perhaps high 20s, in a few areas, whereas for scotland, northern ireland and generally the far north of england, temperatures in the high teens. warmer air on its way. through thursday, a little rain from this front moves out of the way and we will see that warmer air pushing into 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, and not a great amount of rain, mind you, the weather becoming brighter and warmer here into the afternoon to stop 20 degrees in belfast, and a much warmer day in edinburgh, 22, but still beat really concentrated across england and wales where we might see 26, or 27 degrees, in the worst areas. friday, we are all into the warm air, really, but onshore winds will keep some of eastern coastal area is just a little winds will keep some of eastern coastal area isjust a little bit fresher. temperatures generally in the high teens to low 20s in the warmest weather inland. look at edinburgh, 24 degrees to finish the week, so a fine and warm end to the

week, so a fine and warm end to the week there. into the weekend the weather set to continue, temperatures largely into the low to mid 20s. that is your latest weather.

life on a covid intensive care ward — as coronavirus cases fall, the doctors fearing a second peak. as lockdown restrictions loosen, we've spent a week in one of the hospitals hardest hit by the virus. exhausted doctors speak of their concerns for the future. once the lockdown is relaxed, people of course are going to have more contact with each other, so that's the way this is going to spread. a special report on the patients and staff at the sharp end of this pandemic. the other main story tonight — a junior minister resigns

and nearly 30 conservative mps call for dominic cummings to go over his interpretation of the lockdown rules. as stores in england prepare to reopen next month — we look at what shopping in coronavirus times will look like. we are live in, where people are asking why there are still no lifeguards on the beaches even though large numbers of day—trippers have started to arrive. and on the 80th anniversary of the dunkirk evacuation — the remarkable story of one veteran. and in sport, world number one rory mcilroy says he believes the ryder cup, scheduled to take place in september, will be postponed until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.