Good morning. Boris Johnson is chairing the first meeting of his new cabinet this morning. We are expecting to see some video footage from it, although whether Johnson gets his ministers to chant his dishonest “40 new hospitals” slogan, as he did when the cabinet first met after the 2019 election, remains to be seen.
And later we are expecting an important announcement about Covid travel rules. My colleague Aubrey Allegretti has a preview.
In an interview this morning George Eustice, the environment secretary, confirmed that a decision was imminent. He told Sky News:
My understanding is that no decisions have actually been taken yet, although I understand there may be a meeting today to review this. We regularly review those travel restrictions.
Obviously we took an important step earlier this summer when we removed the need to quarantine for those countries coming from amber list countries – that was a really big step forward – but we have retained the need for testing, and that’s really so we can pick up any variants of concern through that PCR test.
But, look, I know this has been raised by the travel industry, that they think some of that testing may be unnecessary, may be onerous – the government will be listening to that and the Covid subcommittee of cabinet that decide these things will be considering that probably later today.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Boris Johnson chairs a meeting of his new cabinet.
11.15am: Downing Street holds its daily lobby briefing.
12pm: The ONS publishes its weekly Covid infection survey.
Lunchtime: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, holds a press conference.
Afternoon: The government is due to announce changes to the Covid travel rules.
2pm: Mark Pack, the Lib Dem president, gives a speech opening the party’s online conference. Alistair Carmichael, the party’s home affairs spokesperson, speaks at 3.15pm.
Also in Chorley Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker (and local MP), is hosting the G7 Speakers conference today.
For more Covid coverage, do read our global live blog.
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Read More: Boris Johnson chairs first meeting of new cabinet as updated Covid travel