UK Covid news: Frost declines to say whether he thinks more ministers will quit over restrictions | Policy

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good morning. Shadow advisor Rachel Reeves was giving Labor radio interviews this morning and of course was asked about the Guardian photo showing 10 employees holding what looks a lot like a garden bar party in Downing Street, when social gatherings like this weren’t allowed.

Number 10 says it was a business meeting. But Reeves ridiculed this claim. When she was shown on the Today show that the employees pictured were at work, she replied:

I don’t know what you do at work, but I don’t spend my time drinking glasses of wine and eating cheese… I don’t take my husband to work either.

Carrie Johnson, wife of the Prime Minister, at the rally. Reeves continued:

That wasn’t a picture of people at work. That was a picture of people enjoying themselves, not only with colleagues, but also with family. So, yes I think there is evidence of a violation of the law, not just on this occasion, but on multiple occasions.

Dominic Raab, the attorney general and deputy prime minister, was on the government’s airwaves this morning and, in a Downing Street photo, stuck out as a business meeting – although he also tested the new argument. It couldn’t be a party because people were wearing suits. He told Radio Times.

The point I want to make is that the rules you were referring to were all the rules of socialization. This was not a social gathering. Obviously not a social gathering, because you had people in business suits, after the meetings they were having at work.

However, most of the questions in Raab’s interviews were not about the photo, but about whether or not the government will announce new Covid restrictions before Christmas. But in response to those questions, we’ve left almost nothing out of what we learned when Sajid Javid, the health minister, was on Andrew Marr’s Sunday show and didn’t rule it out. “I’m not going to track things where you haven’t made decisions,” Raab said today.

By the end of the day, the situation might be clearer. We will get a lobby briefing at 11:30am, and the BBC says there will likely be a press conference later, although this has not been confirmed.

I’m trying to monitor the BTL comments but it’s impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, include “Andrew” somewhere and I’ll likely find it. I try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I’ll post the question above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise that for everyone.

If you want to get my attention quickly, it is better to use Twitter. I’m on AndrewSparrow.

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