Inside Politics: Covid isolation exemption for key workers and police have ‘no confidence’ in Patel

MPs are heading back to their constituencies for a well-earned rest as parliament breaks up for summer recess. What could possibly go wrong while they’re away? The government has announced a list of key workers who will be exempt from self-isolation, amid warnings from business leaders that the economy could grind to a halt. Elsewhere, Priti Patel has lost the confidence of rank-and-file police officers and a Labour MP has been thrown out of the Commons for calling Boris Johnson a liar.

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Parliament has broken up for summer recess

-Police Federation chair John Apter on LBC at 8.05am

-Environment secretary George Eustice on ITV’s GMB at 8.30am

EXEMPT: Empty supermarket shelves, petrol stations running low on fuel and piles of rubbish building up on streets was all it took in the end. As businesses warn the economy could grind to a halt, ministers have put out an exemption list to combat the “pingdemic”. Workers in the food industry, including delivery drivers, do not need to self-isolate if they test negative for Covid and have been double-jabbed. Critical staff in the energy, waste, water, medicine, emergency services and transport sectors are also included in the plans, announced after growing discontent from industry leaders and sustained pressure from the media.

PINGING IT: Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng started Thursday morning saying he didn’t know when the list of exemptions would be published, then confirmed hours later it would be out by the end of the day. Chatter suggests there could be further movement on the list later today, and the Daily Mail has issued a fresh rallying cry for more businesses and companies to be included. “Top firms demand an end to ping peril,” its front page headline says. In other Covid news, a daily testing system in schools would be just as effective as asking children to self-isolate, according to an Oxford University study, which makes the front of the Daily Telegraph. Meanwhile, the infection rate in young people has reached the highest for any age group since the pandemic began as the government drafts contingency plans to bring back restrictions within weeks.

NO CONFIDENCE: More bad headlines for Priti Patel today. The police federation, which represents rank-and-file officers across England and Wales, says it no longer has confidence in the home secretary after she confirmed a police pay freeze. The move was quietly made on Wednesday as the government offered NHS staff a 3 per cent rise, prompting a furious backlash from top cops. “As the organisation that represents more than 130,000 police officers, I can say quite categorically: we have no confidence in the current home secretary. I cannot look my colleagues in the eye and do nothing,” the federation’s chair John Apter said in a scathing statement. Labour says Patel’s position is now “untenable”.

MARCHING ORDERS: A Labour MP was told to leave the Commons after she refused to withdraw her claim that Johnson has “lied to the House and the country over and over again”. Dawn Butler said she would not take back her remarks. “It’s funny that we get in trouble for calling out the lie rather than the person lying,” she said. Challenged twice by the temporary deputy speaker Judith Cummins to withdraw her comments, Butler refused, saying: “Somebody needs to tell the truth in this House that the prime minister has lied.”

LEVELLING DOWN: Britain is heading for the biggest cut to the basic rate of social security since the creation of the welfare state at the end of World War II, a leading think tank has warned. New analysis from JRF shows how damaging the changes will be to working families – who make up the majority of those who will be affected by the looming cuts to universal credit and the working tax credit. Elsewhere, teacher pay levels for experienced staff will be 8% lower in real terms since 2007 after an announced pay freeze in England, new analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies warns.

“The truth is, Priti Patel has badly let down police officers, who have served our country so bravely throughout this pandemic. A zero per cent pay offer is completely unacceptable – it is a real terms pay cut, exposing the hypocrisy of a Conservative government that gives warm words of praise to the police and refuses to back it up with action. This has driven the Police Federation to take the extraordinary step of declaring no confidence in the home secretary – which is a view Labour fully supports.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds on the police federation withdrawing support for Priti Patel.

From the Twitterati

“The democrats shd listen to @davidshor but I don’t think they will, Starmer shd hire him and do as he says but he won’t. If you want to understand US politics & *what actually works in politics* (most of what ppl think works is wrong), follow @davidshor, 1 of v best in the world.”

Former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings says Labour should hire data scientist David Shor.

“...spoke to some in businesses community today who also suspect there could be further movement from the government relatively soon.”

BBC Economics editor Ben Chu says there will be further movement on key worker exemption list

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