UK Covid live 29622 new cases reported as R number falls slightly

A “yobbish” former estate agent left Prof Chris Whitty “humiliated” after he put him in a headlock when England’s chief medical officer declined to take a photo with him.

Lewis Hughes, 24 put his future at risk with “10 seconds of madness” when he accosted Whitty in St James’s Park in central London last month, Westminster magistrates’ court heard.

Footage of the incident, lasting around 20 seconds, was widely shared on social media.

Hughes, from Romford in Essex, who was sacked following the incident on 27 June, admitted a charge of assault by beating at the court on Friday and was handed a suspended sentence, PA Media reports.

Senior district judge Paul Goldspring told the defendant: “He (Whitty) goes about his very difficult job without the expectation of yobs like you accosting him, assaulting him.

“And to compound it all, he was further humiliated by that video being posted.”

Hughes, who wore a suit to the hearing, was given an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for two years and was ordered to pay a total of 307 in fines and compensation.

Goldspring said he believed Whitty would donate the £100 compensation awarded to him to charity, saying it would be the “mark of the man”.

A second man, Jonathan Chew, 24, from Chelmsford, Essex, pleaded not guilty to the same charge of assault by beating.

Chew, who wore a navy hoodie for the appearance, also denied wilfully obstructing police constable Steven Ozden on the same day.

He was granted bail and asked to appear at the same court on 23 November for a trial. Whitty is expected to give evidence.

Pregnant women are being urged to get the Covid-19 vaccine, after data from Oxford University showed they are at greater risk of serious illness from the Delta variant.

One in ten pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid requires intensive care treatment, and about one in five gives birth prematurely.

The study also found that no pregnant women admitted to hospital since the start of February this year have had both doses of the jab.

It added that 99% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with hospital with symptomatic Covid-19 are unvaccinated. This compares to 60% of the general population who are admitted to hospital and unvaccinated.

Professor of maternal and child population health at the Nuffield Department of Population Health Marian Knight, who is the chief investigator of the study said: “It is extremely good news that so few vaccinated pregnant women have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19. However, it is very concerning that admissions of pregnant women to hospital with Covid-19 are increasing and that pregnant women appear to be more severely affected by the Delta variant of the disease.

“I cannot emphasise more strongly how important it is for pregnant women to get vaccinated in order to protect both them and their baby.”

The health workers union GMB recommended that its members reject the government’s “miserly” 3% pay increase for NHS workers, branding it “offensive” and “simply not good enough”.

There were 29,622 new coronavirus cases in the UK today and 68 new deaths, the latest government figures show. In the last seven days there was a 36.1% decrease in cases and a 25.1% rise in deaths compared to the previous week.

A man pleaded guilty to assault at Westminster magistrates’ court after Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, was accosted in central London in June. Lewis Hughes, 24, of Romford, east London, was charged on 2 July after Whitty was accosted in St James’s Park on 27 June, footage of which was shared on social media.

Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he believes that Brexit issues can be smoothed out and resolved “if the political will exists”. Speaking after a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) -he said there is potential to “iron out and to resolve issues that have arisen” around the Northern Ireland protocol.

The coronavirus reproduction number, or R number, in England has fallen slightly to between 1.1 and 1.4, government figures show. Last week the number was between 1.2 and 1.4.

Labour has urged the government to follow the example of the US by allowing more Afghan interpreters who supported British troops to live in the UK. Labour leader Keir Starmer said the UK has “an obligation”.

One in 65 people in England and Northern Ireland had Covid-19 in the week ending 24 July, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as infection rates in both areas continued to rise. The rate for England is the highest level since the week to 30 January.

Keir Starmer has said he does not agree with the government’s “jabs for jobs” policy. It comes after the Labour leader earlier challenged the government to bring forward the date when fully vaccinated people in England can avoid coronavirus isolation.

A man who sent threatening messages on Twitter to SNP MP Joanna Cherry has been ordered not to contact her for five years. Grant Karte, 30, was also sentenced to a community payback order, which will be supervised for 15 months, with 160 hours of unpaid community work.

Grant Shapps defended the government’s decision to put France on the UK’s “amber plus” travel list due to the threat posed by the Beta variant which the transport secretary claims is “an issue” in the north of the country. The restrictions, which will apply to travellers coming from France but not other European countries, have been branded “discriminatory” and “excessive” by the French Europe minister, Clément Beaune.

A health workers union has recommended that its members reject the government’s “miserly” 3% pay increase for NHS workers, branding it “offensive” and “simply not good enough”.

GMB Union, which is campaigning for a 15% increase following a decade of pay cuts, said it has “no hesitation” about supporting members if they want to take industrial action. Its ballot opens on 6 August and closes on 17 September. Other health unions have not ruled out industrial action.

GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said:

A miserly 3% is simply not good enough. It’s another real-terms pay cut, and after the year health workers have had it’s downright offensive.

GMB is calling for a restorative 15% increase to make up for a decade of slashed pay under the Conservatives.

We have no hesitation in recommending members vote to reject the 3% and no hesitation in supporting members if they want to take action.

It comes as health workers planned to protest outside Downing Street over the 3% rise.

Unite London & Eastern (@UniteLondonEast)

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Join the march to Downing Street today at 5pm to tell the government that our #NHS workers will not accept the meagre and insulting pay rise of just 3%.

#NHSpay #NHSpay15 pic.twitter.com/dHra47ahJK

July 30, 2021

Unite’s national officer for health, Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, said:

We fully support our health members in their protest at the grossly inadequate and underwhelming 3% pay recommendation.

We believe that the public shares our disgust at this paltry offer, which reinforces our resolve for pay justice.

The government decision to accept the NHS pay review body’s recommendation was too little and too late after we have been asking for an early and significant pay rise for health workers for over a year.

Three per cent will do very little to staunch the escalating recruitment and retention crisis. It is estimated there are 100,000 vacancies in the health service and very little in the way of a plan to recruit the numbers needed.

There were 29,622 new coronavirus cases in the UK today and 68 new deaths, the latest government figures show.

In the last seven days there was a 36.1% decrease in cases and a 25.1% rise in deaths compared to the previous week.

Yesterday there were 5,916 patients in hospital with coronavirus and 869 patients on beds with ventilators.

Between 20 July and Monday (26 July), 6,341 people went into hospital with coronavirus - an increase of 18.9% on the previous week.

By the end of yesterday, 46,775,525 people had received their first vaccine dose and 37,962,407 had received their second.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has congratulated Apsana Begum (see 15:27), tweeting:

Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn)

Congratulations @ApsanaBegum; Always knew you to be a woman of amazing strength and fortitude and yet again that has been proven.

July 30, 2021

More on Whitty assault (see 15:19): Kalsoom Shah, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said Lewis Hughes showed “little regard” for Whitty or social distancing rules and that “his behaviour was both shocking and disgraceful”.

In more courts news, Labour MP Apsana Begum has been cleared by a jury over claims of housing fraud, reports political correspondent Peter Walker.

A prosecution brought by Tower Hamlets council claimed the Poplar and Limehouse MP had withheld information about her circumstances to obtain social housing.

Here’s the full story:

A document released on Friday from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O) and dating to 14 July has revealed experts’ concerns for the coming months â€" including that the autumn might see a rise in cases.

“SPI-M-O is concerned that September and October 2021 will be a particularly risky point in the trajectory of the epidemic. It is likely behaviours will take time to return to more normal levels and, if this coincides with the return of schools and universities in the autumn, significant pressures on healthcare could be seen. This could be exacerbated by other normally seasonal infectious diseases increasing in prevalence,” the team write.

The experts add that other concerns over the next few months should infections be high include the emergence of new variants, extended chronic pressure on healthcare services â€" even if capacity is not exceeded â€" the potential for testing capacity to become overwhelmed, and that vaccines may be less effective than expected as most estimates were made when infection levels were low.

“If vaccines protect against a given percentage of challenges, rather than a percentage of individuals, the effectiveness estimated to date may be overly optimistic,” the group write.

A man has pleaded guilty to assault at Westminster magistrates’ court after Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, was accosted in central London in June.

Lewis Hughes, 24, of Romford, east London, was charged on 2 July after Whitty was accosted in St James’s Park on 27 June, footage of which was shared on social media.

Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he believes that Brexit issues can be smoothed out and resolved “if the political will exists”.

Speaking after a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) - which he described as “good, relaxed, engaged and pragmatic” - Martin said there is potential to “iron out and to resolve issues that have arisen” around the Northern Ireland protocol.

He said:

I think there are issues in the (Northern Ireland) protocol that we can work together to try and resolve.

The British government and the European Union commission are engaging in respect of dealing with those issues.

The British government has issued a command paper, the EU have responded, the EU has extended the grace periods.

There has been a lot of work done over the last number of months.

If the political will exists, I do believe that within the framework of the withdrawal agreement that the potential exists there to iron out and to resolve issues that have arisen in terms of the smooth implementation of the protocol and the resolution of those issues.

Again, there’s obviously more work to be done there, but there is engagement between the UK government and European Union commission.

The Irish government stands ready to be helpful and has engaged with the commission on these issues and with the UK government on these issues.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland first minister Paul Givan said there is a “window of opportunity” to resolve issues caused by the protocol.

“What we have is a window of opportunity with the UK government recognising the political societal and economic harm that has been caused by that protocol,” he said.

The DUP assembly member also said that the Irish government has a key role in influencing the EU.

He said:

Nobody should be under any illusion as to the implications that the protocol has had, the manner in which it was foisted upon the Unionist community and the way in which there was engagement for the European Union, where we had photographs of border posts being bombed in the 1970s in order to get the European Union on side when it came to this protocol.

That caused huge damage within the Unionist community, by the way in which the Irish Government at that time engaged in the process, and we want to see a new relationship developed after the outworkings of the UK government and European Union engagement as a result of this command paper haven’t been published.

We share this island. It’s in our interests for those relationships to work and to be good.

This morning, Boris Johnson congratulated Olympians Beth Shriever, who won Team GB’s first ever BMX racing gold, and Kye Whyte who took silver.

Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson)

Congratulations to Beth Shriever on winning @TeamGB’s first ever gold in BMX racing, and well done to Kye Whyte for taking silver. #TeamGB #Tokyo2020 https://t.co/je32g4lUy3

July 30, 2021

Here’s more from Tumaini Carayol in Tokyo on their story:

More on the resettling of Afghan interpreters (see 12:34), Tom Tugendhat, Conservative MP and chair of the foreign affairs committee, has said the UK “needs to get on with it and fast”.

While he said the government is “trying to do the right thing”, there is no more time for ironing out “bureaucratic glitches” because with the UK withdrawing, the danger is far greater now than it was even a few weeks ago.

He told the BBC’s World at One:

I very much welcome the efforts that the government has made. But there are always going to be bureaucratic glitches, there are always going to be things that need ironing out, and up until a month or so ago we had the time to do it.

Well, now we don’t, because we are withdrawing and that means that everybody is in much greater risk than they were only a few weeks ago, and so we need to get on with it and fast.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry has said she is “very disappointed” that her party did not speak out against a man who was sentenced today after sending her “menacing and obscene” messages (see 10:58).

She said that she had not “received the same support as other women who have suffered abuse” and that Grant Karte had sent “a number of menacing and obscene private messages, including threats of sexual violence”.

Here’s more from the Press Association:

This took place on the evening of Feb 1 2021 - the day she was removed from the SNP front bench team at Westminster.

Ms Cherry claimed that happened after senior SNP politicians, staff and members of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) “wrongly accused” her of transphobia “simply because I had spoken up to defend the rights of women and girls and the right to free speech”.

The Edinburgh South West MP hit out: “These irresponsible accusations put a target on my back and given the toxicity of the current debate about gender identity and harassment, abuse and death threats I had already received, it was wholly foreseeable that further abuse and threats might be elicited, as in fact happened.”

Karte, who she said was an SNP member at the time, sent her “a number of menacing and obscene private messages, including threats of sexual violence” on evening of Feb 1 2021.

He has previously admitted sending Twitter messages that were “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character” in that he repeatedly threatened Ms Cherry contrary to the Communications Act 2003.

Ms Cherry, formerly the SNP’s justice and home affairs spokeswoman, added: “Although I have become accustomed to social media abuse, the nature of these messages, and the fact that they have been sent privately, caused me considerable fear, upset and alarm, and I informed the police immediately.”

However, she claimed that Karte was an associate of a group of men “including former and current SNP members... who have repeatedly abused and harassed me and other female SNP members on social media”.

Ms Cherry argued that if “steps been taken to address this behaviour it would not have escalated to the level of criminality”.

She continued: “I am very disappointed that no-one in the SNP hierarchy has acknowledged or condemned Grant Karte’s threats towards me, despite his criminal conviction.

“I have not received the same support as other women who have suffered abuse, often a good deal less serious and falling short of criminality.

“In recent years we have heard many fine words about the importance of condemning abuse and taking women’s complaints of harassment seriously, but ultimately actions speak louder than words.”

Ms Cherry said she hoped now that “Karte’s crime will be publicly condemned” by the party, and that “those who made wrongful accusations against me, thus exacerbating the risk of abuse and threats, will have the decency to withdraw those accusations and to apologise”.

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