England will experience a “summer of rave” not seen since 1989 because the government has failed to give “socially starved” young people any clarity on when they can start partying again legally, clubbing experts have warned.

The Guardian’s Helen Pidd reports that police forces across England have been struggling to keep up with an explosion of illicit parties in motorway underpasses, parks and industrial estates since Boris Johnson relaxed lockdown restrictions last month.

Advertised on Snapchat and Instagram, their locations are revealed at the 11th hour by WhatsApp messages, with word quickly spreading as people livestream the event on social media, dropping virtual “pins” on Google Maps for their friends to join them.

Most proceed peacefully, if in contravention of social distancing guidelines. But thousands of people attended two raves in Greater Manchester at the weekend, leaving one man dead of a suspected drugs overdose, one woman reporting a rape, and three separate reported stabbings.

The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 within the prison estate in England and Wales continues to rise, Ministry of Justice figures show.

As at 5pm on Sunday, 500 prisoners had tested positive for the coronavirus across 80 prisons, an increase of 1.6%, while there were 965 infected prison staff across 105 prisons, an rise of just 0.4%.

There are around 79,700 prisoners across 117 prisons in England and Wales, and around 33,000 staff working in public sector prisons.

Figures published in the Guardian on Monday revealed more than 1,000 prisoners were released into homelessness at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales.

YouGov has published some fresh polling this afternoon. It suggests that Sir Keir Starmer has drawn level with Boris Johnson on who would make the best prime minister.

But the Conservatives still have a significant lead over Labour in voting intention, the poll suggests.

Q: When the PM says you need to get infection rates down before the two-metre rule can be relaxed, what does he mean?

Raab says two metres will applies for now. The PM has launched a review. The government will say more than, he says.

Q: What assurances can you give to people in the hospital sector that they will be able to reopen?

Raab says 4 July was always the earliest possible date for reopening. It has to be done in safest possible way, he says.

And that’s it. The press conference is over.

Q: In April you said it would not be business as usual with China after coronavirus. How strongly do you take warnings about the danger China could do to the UK economy?

Raab says he thinks his comment may have been over-interpreted. He says it is not necessarily business as usual with any country.

He says they want a balanced approach to China.

Q: When will we see the results of the Huawei review?

Raab says that will be when the full data is back.

Q: Are you taking less notice of the science?

Raab says the science is evolving.

Science and medical experts will continue to attend the press conferences, he says.

But he says other experts will be represented too.

Q: Your colleague Nusrat Ghani said today that you don’t need any more BME reviews. You just need to implement what has been recommended already.

Raab says the commission is being set up to set a new direction.

But he stressed that a lot of progress has already been made.

He says this commission will come up with actual policies.

Q: Aren’t you just kicking the can down the road?

Raab says the government is already following up on things like the Lammy review. (See 1.28pm.)

And he says there is some encouraging Ipsos MORI polling out on this today.

Q: Do you accept that changing the two-metre rule involves a trade-off between safety and business?

Raab says there is nothing absolute about two metres. And he says the scientific evidence is constantly evolving

Q: Do you agree that the way British Airways is treating its workers is a disgrace?

Raab says firms are going through a very difficult time. He would urge them to save as many jobs as possible.

Q: What help is the government offering?

Raab says it has offered a lot of help already. He says his department, the Foreign Office, spent £75m on a charter flight regime that helped airlines.

Q: But what are you doing for British Airways?

Raab says the chancellor is looking at all vulnerable sectors.

Q: [From the BBC’s Mark Easton] Instead of announcing a new disparities review, why doesn’t the government publish the material from the Public Health England review that was suppressed?

Raab says he does not accept this is just another review. He says the government is making progress on the recommendations from past reviews.

Q: But there are leaks from the report explaining why BAME people are dying more frequently from coronavirus?

Raab says it is a sensitive topic. When the government can release further information, it will do so.

Q: What will the government do to help key workers with childcare over the summer? The normal options - summer camps, grandparents and holidays abroad - aren’t available?

Raab says that is a good question. But he says the government will fund summer activities.

Raab is now taking the first question, from Olly in Newcastle.

Q: When will the alert level fall to one, or close to one?

Raab says it is hard to say. They are trying to push it down. But the alert level is not up to politicians, he says.

And here is the slide with the death figures.

Raab is now presenting the slides.

Here are the figures for tests and news cases.

Raab says the government is monitoring the impact of its changes carefully. There is a risk of a second spike, he says.

He says the government will not move to the next stage before 4 July.

Nick Thomas-Symonds says that we need to see “deeds not words” and that, by launching an inquiry into racism and inequality and failing to act now, “the prime minister just isn’t offering the leadership required”.

Priti Patel responds that the Black Lives Matter movement and the points they have been making are “important and essential”.

She says the aim of the commission is to set out a “positive agenda for change” and that all MPs should welcome that.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds says that this weekend we were “reminded once again” about the professionalism of our front line workers.

He says he was appalled to see the images of a man urinating by the memorial to PC Keith Palmer.

On the issue of damage to memorials, he says:

The prime minister should be clear that we will not allow him to move the focus from the action to address the discrimination people face now. And let us be clear ... there should be no attempt to draw comparisons between those intent on violence this weekend and the legitimate cause of the Black Lives Matter campaigners, who have brought attention to the impact that racism and inequality continue to have both here in the UK and across the world.

Patel says she wants to see “these vicious individuals” brought to justice.

She says that large gatherings of people remain unlawful and that she urges people not to attend any future protests to “protect themselves and their loved ones” from the coronavirus.

In total, at least 100 officers have now been injured, says Patel. And at least 280 arrests have been made. “Many of the so-called protesters came with the deliberate intent of causing harm to those around them and to police officers”.

Patel says hooliganism is “utterly indefensible”. She says that the image of the man desecrating the memorial to PC Keith Palmer, who made the “ultimate sacrifice” during a terror attack, was “the most abhorrent”.

Patel says that over 210,000 have attended demonstrations across the country following the death of George Floyd. She says that there were at least 160 separate protests this weekend, the vast majority of which passed peacefully.

But counter demonstrations sparked ugly scenes. This Saturday, 2,000 people staged counter-protests in Westminster with eruptions of violence throughout the day. Racists and far-right hooligans clashed with the police and fights broke out. Smoke bombs, glass bottles were lobbed at the police in shameful scenes. 38 police officers were hurt across the country this weekend, as they were kicked, punched or pelted with missiles.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, is giving a statement to the Commons on the violence in central London this weekend.

She says she was “saddened and sickened by the far-right thugs” who came to London on “a so-called mission” to protect our heritage. They failed to understand that “our heritage is founded on a set of shared values – tolerance, respect for people and property, and adherence to the rule of law”, she says.

There is no place for their sickening conduct and hate in our society. They were violent. They were aggressive and abusive towards police officers. they were patently racist.

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, has told the House of Lords science and technology committee he would be surprised if the UK avoided a second coronavirus wave. The PA Media news agency has his comments:

I think it is possible that we might not have a second wave. But I think given the fact that the lockdown has now been largely released, we’re now back in action, and we have still – pretty rapidly declining – but a pretty reasonable level of infections in the community, I would be very surprised if we avoided the second wave.

I think the real question is, are we going to have a number of single outbursts around the country and then a second wave, or are we going to just get a second wave and when will that be?

This is from David Henig, the British trade specialist and former civil servant who heads the UK trade policy project at the European Centre for International Political Economy, on Boris Johnson suggesting July could be a deadline in the talks process. (See 4.32pm.)

Care homes have been ordered to destroy a batch of faulty Covid-19 test kits after the Department of Health and Social Care discovered the swabs could break off while being used to gather samples from residents’ tonsils and noses.

Care home managers were told on Sunday not to use the tests because they had “brittle stems at risk of snapping”. The kits were manufactured by Citotest, a company based in China, and were distributed by the government’s Covid-19 care home testing programme. It is tasked with providing tests for all staff and residents in care settings, not just people displaying symptoms.

The affected batch should be destroyed or kept in a safe area clearly marked that they should not be used, officials said, adding the problem emerged on Saturday and they were working as quickly as possible to resolve it.

You can read the full story from the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent Robert Booth here –

In the Commons Labour’s Richard Burgon says the push from Tory MPs to replace the 2-metre rule with a 1-metre one is an example of the party putting profits ahead of public safety.

Edward Argar, the health minister, says the government is holding a review so it can decide what policy is best.

And in the Commons Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative, says 1 metre is the right distance, and now is the right time to announce it.

Argar says Ellwood is making a powerful case. But he says Ellwood must await the outcome of the review.

More than 1,000 prisoners were released into homelessness at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales, figures show, prompting the government to increase funding for accommodation for prison leavers.

Figures released to the Labour MP Lyn Brown – the shadow minister for prisons and probation – show 840 men, 89 women and 85 young adults aged 18 to 24 were released into rough sleeping or other forms of homelessness between 23 March, when the lockdown was imposed, and 30 April.

A further 1,209 men, women and young adults were released with unknown circumstances for accommodation in the same period.

You can read the full story from the Guardian’s home affairs correspondent Jamie Grierson here –

In the Commons John Redwood, a Conservative, says the government should announce the reduction of the 2-metre rule to a 1-metre rule today. That would help business, he says.

Argar says he hears what Redwood is saying, but that it is important to carry out a proper review.

In the Commons the Conservative MP Bob Stewart asks, if the reproduction number is falling, why any social distancing is needed at all.

Argar says R is still close to 1. He says as it falls, the government will be able to relax lockdown measures.

From ITV’s Paul Brand

In the Commons Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, says it could be six weeks (from the liaison committee) before we get the results of this review on the 2-metre rule, even though the facts have not changed. He says the advisers are divided. Government must take a decision, he says. He says livelihoods depend on this.

(Duncan Smith favours a relaxation of the rule.)

This is intriguing. Boris Johnson is planning to make a Commons statement on “global Britain” tomorrow.

Nicola Sturgeon has denied suggestions that school children in Scotland could still be learning at home in a year’s time, and insisted the Scottish government wanted schools to resume full-time teaching as soon as possible.

The first minister told her daily coronavirus briefing she expected Scotland’s 32 councils to use “innovation and creativity” to ensure pupils had as much face-to-face learning as possible once schools reopened from 11 August onwards. She said:

It is absolutely not the case that we’re planning for blended learning to last a year or anything like it. On the contrary, we don’t want blended learning to last a single moment longer than is strictly necessary. [We] want young people to be back having face-to-face teaching for 100% of the school week as soon as it is feasible.

Educationalists have warned that the wholesale closure of schools has damaged the education and prospects for a generation of children; some councils warn they do not have the money or space to provide socially distanced learning

John Swinney, the Scottish education secretary, told BBC Scotland on Sunday it was “unlikely” schools would return to normal during the next school year. “We’ll have to maintain the social distancing approaches for some considerable time to come,” he said.

He suggested on Monday the target would be to get 50% of teaching in school from 11 August. Edinburgh council has said it planned for only a third of children to be in class once its term starts on 12 August. Swinney said that was not good enough.

Sturgeon said the Scottish government would update parents every three weeks on progress in ensuring schools would provide full timetables next term. Government officials would try to help councils struggling to find the right resources, she said.

But there have been no further coronavirus deaths in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland has said.

Public Health Wales has recorded a further a further four coronavirus deaths, taking the total to 1,448.

A zoo in Devon, Living Coasts, has announced that it will not re-open because of the forced closure due to coronavirus.

In a statement the attraction’s operator, Wild Planet Trust, expressed regret and said its next stage was to find new homes for animals, which include seals and penguins. It said:

Falling visitor numbers and the forced closure of all its zoos due to Covid-19 has meant that it has had to look at its cost base and make efficiencies. After nearly 20 years of operation the site also needed substantial maintenance that the trust is no longer in a position to afford.

It added that 44 staff were at risk of redundancy.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, will make a Commons statement on disorder this afternoon. It should start after 4pm, after the urgent question on the 2-metre rule.

Around 15% of prosecutions for alleged breaches of emergency coronavirus laws last month were incorrect or for offences that did not exist, the Crown Prosecution Service has admitted.

In its latest review of how the repeatedly updated, health regulations are being enforced, the CPS said the legislation was correctly applied in almost 85% of cases.

Out of 93 prosecutions finalised under either the Coronavirus Act or health protection regulations in May, 76 were charged correctly. All but one of the 17 erroneous prosecutions were stopped at the first court appearance, according to the CPS.

Of 84 prosecutions brought under the health protection regulations, 76 were found to be correct. Prosecutors withdrew the remaining eight charges in court - four because they related to homeless people, two because Welsh regulations had been used in England and two on evidential grounds.

All nine prosecutions brought under the Coronavirus Act were discontinued because there was no evidence they applied to potentially infectious people, which is what the act specifically covers.

Gregor McGill, the CPS director of legal services, said:

Continued hard work by the police and Crown Prosecution Service has improved the application and enforcement of the rules under the coronavirus legislation. Errors have significantly reduced, with all but one of the incorrect charges immediately identified and withdrawn by prosecutors in court.

The CPS will continue to review all finalised prosecutions where no fixed penalty notice was offered, as well as every case where someone disputes they have breached the Regulations, for as long as these laws remain in place.

The Guardian’s Sarah Butler has been out in Birmingham talking to those making the most of newly re-opened shops.

Birmingham shoppers returned to the high street with many in the rest of England on Monday, as queues formed at “non-essential” retail names such as Zara, H&M, Sports Direct and Primark.

“It’s good to get out and have a bit of normality. I’ve been coming into town fairly often and it was like a ghost town. It is a bit weird to see people again,” said Simone Radway, 37, queuing to buy some cycling gear in Sports Direct in central Birmingham after a trip to the nearby Primark.

But any retailer hoping for a Christmas-style frenzy would have been disappointed. New Street station was quiet and shoppers said they had no trouble finding a parking spot. Nonetheless, Birmingham was busier than it had been for months and shoppers were prepared to queue up outside stores, all of which have to limit the number of customers under new government rules.

Scottish ministers have finally been able to disclose how many people tested positive at UK government drive-through centres in Scotland, more than two months after the first centres opened.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said 2,343 people who used the network of drive through centres had tested positive since the first one opened at Glasgow airport on 5 April. More than 75,000 people had used the five drive through centres in Scotland at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness airports, and a college in Perth.

It has taken until now to match every test result with individual patient records because the UK and Scottish governments failed to require people using these test centres to supply their NHS numbers or postcodes until they changed the booking system in mid-May. Even then, many records still needed to be matched by hand by NHS officials.

The Guardian disclosed in May that the Welsh and Northern Irish governments had insisted that the Department of Health and Social Care changes its procedures at the start of the programme in early April, and avoided long delays in matching up test results with people’s home addresses.

Boris Johnson’s 1.30pm video meeting with EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel and David Sassoli – presidents of the commission, EU council and parliament respectively – is expected to last just one hour.

Michael Gove, Brexit negotiator David Frost and Sir Tim Barrow, the ambassador to the EU, will also attend.

Sources in London say they do not expect any “huge drama” at the meeting, a point underlined by its brevity.

The purpose of the meeting, from the UK’s point of view, is to reiterate demands for a “high quality free trade agreement” such as those the EU has with other countries including Canada and Japan, said a spokesman for the prime minister.

The next five rounds of talks, which will be face to face, will take place in July and August:

• 29 June (Brussels)
• 6 July (London)
• 13 July (Brussels)
• 20 July (London)
• 17 August (Brussels)

There is also an agreement for further talks in September, “unless otherwise agreed between the parties”.

Boris Johnson has announced a “cross-governmental commission” into racial disparities in education, health and criminal justice. It is the latest of a series of reports into ethnic injustices over recent years. Guardian political correspondent Peter Walker looks at whether previous inquiries have changed anything:

Google has apologised for an error that resulted in an image of Winston Churchill being removed from its search results, after accusations that the company had deliberately taken it down in support of the Black Lives Matter protests.

Conservative activists first noted the omission late on Saturday night, highlighting the fact that Churchill’s image was absent from the gallery results for “UK prime ministers”.

Missing too was the PM’s first historic term in office: the company’s results recorded only his 1951 to 1955 leadership.

In a statement on Sunday, Google said the removal of Churchill’s image was not accidental. Instead, the company said, it had intervened to correct a separate issue flagged by its users: that the image automatically selected for Churchill showed him at a much younger age than the “more famous and iconic” pictures of him during the war.

Because Google avoids directly dictating search results, the company had blocked the younger image, but not specifically selected a replacement. “In this case, a bug in our systems prevented a new representative image from updating,” the company said. “As a result, Churchill’s entry lacked an image from late April until this weekend, when the issue was brought to our attention.”

A man who suffered a broken wrist and damage to his arm and shoulder after he was detained outside his home in what he believes was a wrongful racist arrest is suing the Metropolitan police over his injuries.

Tariq Stanley, an insurance underwriter, said he was wrongfully detained outside his home in the Woolwich area of the city during the pandemic lockdown.

The 27-year-old black man recorded mobile phone footage of the arrest on 17 April. Stanley said it confirmed he was trying to cooperate with the police, even offering them the keys to his apartment so they could search it.

You can read the full report from Guardian reporter Henry McDonald here –

This, from Guardian writer David Conn –

A series of high-profile sporting events went ahead as scheduled in mid-March even as Covid-19 was being declared a pandemic. This podcast from earlier this month, in which David Conn investigates the scientific reasoning behind the decision, is well worth a listen.

This is from David Sassoli, president of the European parliament, referring to the the video conference that Boris Johnson is holding later with the EU about the post-Brexit trade talks.

Travis Perkins, the builders’ merchant, is cutting 2,500 jobs in the UK, almost a tenth of its workforce, and closing 165 stores. The business says it expects weaker demand for materials in the next two years in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. You can read the full story at the link below and follow more live updates on the Guardian’s business live blog here.

Music venue Colston Hall has removed lettering from the outside of its building ahead of a planned name change, PA Media reports. It was named after Edward Colston, the 17th century slave trader, and built almost 150 years after his death. Bristol Music Trust, which runs the venue, announced in 2017 that the name would be changed this year following a £49m refurbishment. The organisation said this morning that removing the lettering is “just one step on our road” to revealing the new name this autumn. The move comes after a statue of Colston was toppled and thrown into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter march last weekend.

Bristol Music Trust said:

We have taken this action as a symbolic moment and a public demonstration of the commitment we made three years ago to change our name.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that levels of anxiety among Britons appear to be reducing compared with the start of lockdown.

At the beginning of lockdown, the body noted a “marked” increase in anxiety. Between 20-30 March, almost half (49.6%) of people reported high anxiety. This reduced to 37% between 30 April and 10 May. But average anxiety scores are still higher compared with last year, and it has been estimated that 19 million adults in Britain are suffering high levels of anxiety.

The ONS report on anxiety and coronavirus (which you can read here) states:

The effect seen on average anxiety ratings throughout the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic shows a similar pattern to the theory of ‘hedonic adaptation’.

When a shock event occurs, such as the impact of the coronavirus, wellbeing is temporarily impacted but people then quickly adapt so that wellbeing partially bounces back; though not necessarily to the same level as it was before the shock.

During lockdown, new measures have been put into place, which may have also helped to alleviate high levels of anxiety.

A report by an influential group of MPs has said the Treasury should act to help more than a million people who have fallen through the cracks in the government’s Covid-19 income support schemes.

The Guardian’s Larry Elliott and Kalyeena Makortoff report that the all-party Treasury select committee said large numbers of people were enduring financial hardship as they were unable to benefit from the chancellor’s schemes for salaried employees and the self-employed.

The committee said the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, needed to make good on his promise to “do whatever it takes” to protect individuals and businesses from the impact of the pandemic. The MPs called on Sunak to address the gaps in his coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) and self-employment income support scheme (SEISS).

Employers across Britain face a deadline this week to make job cuts, as the furlough scheme is gradually wound down from August.

The Scottish National party has announced that Amy Callaghan, the 28-year-old MP for East Dunbartonshire, is recovering in hospital following emergency surgery after collapsing at home with a brain haemorrhage last week.

The party said it was linked to a manageable but unspecified medical condition, and the event could have longer-term consequences. Callaghan took the seat from Jo Swinson, the then Liberal Democrat leader, in a closely-fought contest in last December’s snap election.

Callaghan’s family said:

Amy is in good spirits and able to communicate well with family. She has been overwhelmed with the messages of support and kindness which are a huge source of encouragement. She has made great progress thus far but is under no illusion of the seriousness of her condition and the rehabilitation that will follow.

Thousands more pupils are going back to school today, but the picture across the UK is patchy.

At least parts of years 10 and 12 are returning to school to get some time with teachers ahead of their GCSEs and A-levels next year.

The government has faced criticism that it has not done more to get schools reopened, with some children facing the prospect of having been out of the classroom for almost six months by the time they return in September.

A No 10 source said Mr Johnson was “acutely aware” of the impact the extended closure was having on pupils and was working with the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, on a major “catch-up” plan.

Here’s some pics of what some of those classrooms look like:

Long queues of people formed outside ZSL London Zoo in Regent’s Park, west London. Parents and children were asked to respect 2-metre social distancing and many wore face coverings.

Jamie Turner, site manager for ZSL London Zoo, said just under 2,000 tickets had been sold for Monday and that the return of so many customers was “beautiful to see”.

Visitors are being asked to keep “a tiger’s length” apart.

The governing bodies of 80 of the nation’s leading sports – including British Athletics, British Cycling and England Netball – have published an unprecedented statement saying they have not done enough to confront racism at all levels from grassroots participation through to the boardroom, our colleague Sean Ingle reports.

There will be an an urgent question in the Commons on the 2-metre rule. Having repeatedly said that this is being regularly kept under review, ministers have now said a specific review of it is under way.

Greg Clark, the Conservative chair of the Commons science committee, has tabled the UQ. He is asking Boris Johnson to respond, although it is very unlikely that he will. No 10 is much more likely to send another minister to the Commons to respond (which is allowed).

The District Councils’ Network has put out guidance, urging the public to take extra care when visiting high streets and town centres to avoid a second spike in coronavirus infection.

The government recently announced £20m for district councils to lead the local effort to safeguarding high streets following the pandemic, and councils are urging the public to follow safety guidance.

They say they are trying to make things safer by:

• Helping marshal movements with floor markings and signage.

• Carrying out more frequent street cleaning, providing hand-sanitiser posts, adapting public seating and conveniences.

• Creating more pedestrianised spaces and streets.

• Adapting indoor and outdoor market spaces to allow traders to trade safely.

• Deploying council staff or volunteers to provide help and advice.

They say councils are planning how to save the high street, looking at measures including reshaping a mixed offer of retail, culture, entertainment and housing.

Cllr Mark Crane, DCN lead member for stronger economies, said:

We will be delighted to see visitors return to our high streets, which we’re working hard to reshape so that shops and businesses get the boost they desperately need, but without compromising public health.

But we need members of the public to respect these efforts, and take extra care when visiting their local high streets and town centres during this challenging period.

Small business minister Paul Scully has encouraged people to go to the shops as many reopen for the first time since the start of lockdown.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Monday, he said:

The high street is going to be a different place to what it was before, with the one-way systems, with the hand sanitisers, and with people not trying clothes on in the same way.

But, nonetheless, it is safe to shop. I would encourage people to be sensible, work with the people in the shop but do go out and shop, and start opening our economy gradually and carefully.”

He added the government would keep the two-metre rule “under review”.

Scully was asked how the government would respond to footballer Marcus Rashford’s plea to extend the current food voucher scheme for children normally reliant on school meals throughout the summer holidays. Scully described Manchester United player Rashford, 22, who has raised £20m for vulnerable children in the UK with the charity FareShare since the start of lockdown, as an “inspirational figure”.

What we’ve done is put £9m into summer activities, which clearly if people with children are at these activities they will get fed within that as well.

We’re also bringing in £63m worth of support to local authorities, for hardship funds, to make sure that people who do struggle can actually get access to a decent meal.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing has warned that the UK is entering into an extremely challenging time for business and calls for customers to give brands “the benefit of the doubt”.

Chris Daly, CEO, Chartered Institute of Marketing said:

Every business is having to think extremely carefully about how it uses its marketing budget in the coming weeks and months; balancing efforts to promote sales and footfall, with keeping customers safe and well informed.

Importantly, communicating to customers over the coming weeks is going to require businesses to strike a very fine balance; and not everyone is going to get it right. Some businesses have been vilified in recent weeks, especially at the start of the Covid-19 crisis, and we hope that government and consumers will be more understanding as businesses face up to this difficult situation.

We will not defend irresponsible or unprofessional marketing, but it is important that as well as celebrating the success stories, we give businesses the benefit of the doubt as they seek to bring back their customers and restart the British economy.

This letter from Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford is incredibly powerful.

Today is the first day that it will be mandatory for people travelling on public transport in England to wear a face covering over their nose and mouth for the entirety of any journeys made.

The mayor of London is asking all Londoners to wear a face covering where they can’t keep a safe distance (2 metres) from others.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, wearing a face mask is recommended but not compulsory.

You can read the full government guidance here.