Covid: Sue Gray delivers parties update as Met reviews 300 photoson January 31, 2022 at 5:55 pm

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday evening. We’ll have another update for you tomorrow morning.

After weeks of waiting, Sue Gray Day has arrived – the moment the senior civil servant’s report into No 10 lockdown parties is published. But because of a Met Police investigation – which is probing 12 of the events – Ms Gray says she is limited in what she can say at this stage. We’ve got a quick summary of the main findings here. Meanwhile, the Met says it’s been handed 300 photos and 500 pages of information to go through and its investigation won’t last longer than a year.

About an hour after Ms Gray’s update dropped, Boris Johnson made a statement to the House of Commons. He told MPs that he accepted the findings and will make changes to how No 10 and the Cabinet Office is run. But he was heavily criticised – including by predecessor Theresa May – and opposition MPs called on him to quit. Labour leader Keir Starmer said the PM had taken the public for fools. No 10 has said Ms Gray’s full report will be published after the police process ends.

Elsewhere in government, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has tested positive for Covid and says he will work from home while he isolates. His colleague Health Secretary Sajid Javid messaged him to say he was “glad you are boosted”. Meanwhile, Mr Javid is preparing to address the Commons on mandatory jabs for NHS workers in England.

Podcast host Joe Rogan has promised to try harder to offer more balanced views on his show. In an almost 10-minute long Instagram video, Rogan apologised to Spotify and said he would “try harder to get people with differing opinions on” on his show – which averages 11 million listeners per episode.

For a third day, people are protesting in Canada’s capital of Ottowa against a plan to make vaccines mandatory for truckers crossing the US-Canada border. The demonstration – called the Freedom Convoy – began as a call to end a rule that would mean unvaccinated Canadian truckers would have to quarantine when returning from the US. Read more: The truckers shutting down Canada’s capital

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As rules continue to ease in the UK, here’s a reminder of the remaining restrictions in place.

You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.

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