The Telegraph is reporting that chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance have paved the way for a second lockdown, warning that the UK is at a “critical point” in the Covid-19 pandemic and could see 50,000 cases per day by mid-October if further measures are not put in place.
Appearing at a Downing Street press conference for the first time in several weeks amid the recent rise in cases, the pair warned that the trajectory of the virus could bring about “200-plus deaths per day” by November.
Sir Patrick said that their warning to the public came as a means of ensuring that “we do not enter this exponential growth... that requires speed, that requires action and it requires enough [of both] to bring that down.”
Calling on the public to behave responsibly, Prof Whitty said: “This is not someone else's problem, this is all of our problem”.
On Sunday, a further 3,899 UK daily cases of Covid-19 were reported, with 18 fatalities.
Prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to outline new measures on Tuesday, and is widely believed to be considering implementing a full lockdown in England for two weeks in October to curve the spread of the virus.
Health secretary Matt Hancock warned over the weekend that more measures were needed as Covid-related hospital admissions were doubling “every eight days or so”.
Hancock told reporters: "If everybody follows the rules then we can avoid further national lockdown.”
Meanwhile, the chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs, Sir Graham Brady, has said that the government has allowed itself to get “into the habit of ruling by decree” and is tabling an amendment to the Coronavirus Act which will require the government to receive consent from MPs in a vote before any new lockdown restrictions can be enforced.
While the PM will set out new measures this week, next week there will be a key vote in Parliament where MPs will review the Coronavirus Act, which was fast-tracked through Parliament in March, to decide whether or not to continue to allow the government to use its emergency powers or support Sir Graham’s amendment.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Sir Graham said: "The British people are not used to being treated like children.”
While accepting the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic, he suggested that Parliament needed to be more involved in scrutinising the “quite extreme emergency powers” that the legislation allows, including the recently implemented rule of six.
Sir Graham said that the government had imposed the new rule without recourse to Parliament, therefore preventing scrutiny of it.
Sir Graham also questioned the viability of the lockdown strategy, highlighting the pandemic situation in Sweden where no lockdown has ever been in place.
He also rebuffed the idea that the need to bring new measures before Parliament first would prevent the government from making quick and decisive action, saying: "Governments find it entirely possible to put things to Parliament very quickly when they choose to do so.”
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said that government action has been taken "by and large with the consent of the British people" and defended ministers over their strategy.
He said: "We are not living in normal times where you have the luxury of more time to pass rules. There are these powers which enable rules to change pretty quickly... most people understand that the pressing nature of this [pandemic] is why we have to act quickly."
When asked about whether the government’s approach constituted an infringement on people’s civil liberties, Shapps said: "Our civil liberties are very much at risk if we fail to act with a virus like this. We know where it leads if you don't act - it leads you to where we were in the first lockdown, where it was actually illegal - illegal - to be outside your house for any other than one of four reasons.
"That is what happens to civil liberties... I don't dispute for one moment that Parliament needs to be involved and consulted - and it is."
Elsewhere, Labour shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds has called on chancellor Rishi Sunak to pay furloughed staff to work again part time by providing subsidies to wages.
Speaking during the Labour Party Conference, which was carried out online because of the ongoing Covid-19 situation, Dodds urged the government to introduce a “Job Recovery Scheme to enable businesses in key sectors to bring back more staff on reduced hours, with government subsidising a proportion of wages for the rest of the working week”, in order to reward firms who give people hours rather than cutting jobs.
Dodds also called for a National Retraining Strategy to help upskill the UK workforce or retrain in new industries, asking for £3 billion in funding to be brought forward for the initiative.
She has also urged the government to implement a Business Rebuilding Programme which will provide more tailored support to viable businesses is struggling sectors as the furlough scheme winds down.
She said: "Recover jobs, retrain workers and rebuild business. Three steps to a better, more secure future.
"This is an ambitious Labour vision - where security and fairness aren't just aspirations, but where they are a reality for families and communities across our country."
The existing Job Retention Scheme is set to wind down on October 31, with ten per cent of the workforce still furloughed and therefore vulnerable to redundancy.
During her keynote speech, Dodds also accused the government of financial mismanagement during the pandemic, highlighting the recalling of unused testing kits and making the decision not to use 50 million face masks that were purchased for the NHS, due to safety concerns, as examples of wasted spending.
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