Coronavirus LIVE: Everyone in Sheffield over 40 offered Covid jab & 30-year-olds are next

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford raised the UK Covid death toll, asking: “Are you a liar, Prime Minister?”

He said: “NHS staff have given their all fighting to keep people alive, that’s why so many people find the Prime Minister’s remark that he would rather let the bodies pile high in their thousands than go into lockdown, utterly, utterly sickening.

“People are willing to go under oath confirming that the Prime Minister said these exact words… Parliamentary rules stop me from saying that the Prime Minister has repeatedly lied to the public over the last week, but can I ask the question, are you a liar Prime Minister?”

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: “Can I just say unfortunately they’re in order, but were not savoury and not what we would expect.”

Mr Johnson replied: “If he is going to relay that kind of quotation, it is up to him in a place like Parliament to produce the author, the person who claims to have heard it, because I can’t find them, he’s says that they’re willing to go oath. Perhaps they’re sitting somewhere in this building, I rather doubt it because I didn’t say those words.

“What I do believe is that a lockdown is a miserable, miserable thing and I did everything I could to try to protect the British public throughout the pandemic, to protect them from lockdowns, but also to protect them from disease … We grieve, as I know the whole House grieves, for every family that has lost a loved one.”

The watchdog said there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect an offence may have occurred, dramatically deepening the Prime Minister’s troubles over the renovations on Wednesday.

Asked when Portugal will be opening its borders to tourists from the UK, Manuel Lobo Antunes told Sky News: “As soon as possible, this is not just a unilateral matter, we have to coordinate this issue with our British friends and the UK Government.

“But we are hopeful, as we have been saying for these last months, that from the middle of May, regular mobility between the UK and Portugal and vice versa, can be established, that’s our hope.”

Asked if Britons who have not been vaccinated can travel into the country, he added: “Yes, that’s the idea, that’s what we wanted, to as much as possible go back to the regime that existed before the pandemic.

“It’s in that direction we are working and that is possible.”

Prof Openshaw, a member of the Covid-19 clinical information network, described the results as “very, very reassuring and “certainly better than many of us expected just a few months ago”.

He told the BBC Radio Four Today programme: “It shows that the immune system is doing something a lot more than we were expecting of it really.”

He said it is known from other studies that infection is “typically much milder” in people who have been vaccinated and added that with two doses the outcome is “almost certainly going to be even better”.

Asked at what stage people will be able to be close to another person if both have been vaccinated, he told Times Radio: “I think this is really difficult because of course, in a sense, this becomes more of a sort of a political decision rather than an epidemiological decision because we have been told that on June 21 all of these legal limits on contact will be removed, but it’s still unclear exactly what that means.

“Whether that means that on that date some social distancing will be in place or whether all of those will be removed and you’ll be able to go and hug your loved ones…

“I think the key thing is that if you’re both vaccinated, of course, it does reduce the risk of anyone becoming severely ill and my hope is that as we move towards that June date, we will be in a position that we can not just see our loved ones, but also we can hug our loved ones because it’s been a very long time since we’ve been able to do that.

“We obviously do need to monitor the data as we get to the main relaxation, when you are allowed to go inside people’s households, it’s really important that we monitor that data and ensure that we don’t get a resurgence at that point.”

He told Sky News: “The earliest possible unlock is May 17, so stage three of the unlock, we won’t have international travel before that.

“I have to say that so far the data does continue to look good from a UK perspective, notwithstanding those concerns about where people might be travelling to and making sure we’re protected from the disease being reimported.

“I will set out towards the beginning of May … which countries fall into the various different categories.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the NHS app is being worked on to become a health certificate for international travel.

He told Sky News: “In terms of vaccine certification, I can confirm we are working on an NHS application, actually it will be the NHS app that is used for people when they book appointments with the NHS and so on, to be able to show you’ve had a vaccine or you’ve had testing.

“I’m working internationally with partners across the world to make sure that system can be internationally recognised, as that’s the way forward.

“Actually, I’m chairing a meeting of the G7 secretaries of state for transport, my equivalents from America and Canada and all the G7 countries, next week on exactly this subject.”

The national booking system has extended for the second time in a week to allow more healthy adults in their forties to book their jab.

People in England who are aged 42 and over, or those who will turn 42 before July 1, can now arrange their vaccine appointment through the national booking website.

Boris Johnson has urged the public to be “realistic” about the prospect of the UK being hit with another wave of coronavirus infections in the future.

The Prime Minister told broadcasters that while lockdowns meant the virus was now “under control”, he warned that “there probably will be another wave of the disease”.

But Mr Johnson said that coronavirus jabs would provide “pretty robust fortifications” should there be another spike in infections going forward, as he hailed the UK’s vaccination programme.

He urged the public to take up the vaccine when offered it, with a Government campaign calling on people aged 50 and under to get their jab so the UK can “continue on the path back to normality”.

It comes as the Prime Minister denied saying he was prepared to let “bodies pile high” rather than order another lockdown, amid a bitter briefing war that has hit Downing Street.

During a visit to Wrexham, when asked if he had made the comments attributed to him, Mr Johnson said: “No, but I think the important thing I think people want us to get on and do as a Government is to make sure that the lockdowns work.

“They have, and I really pay tribute to the people of this country, this whole country of ours, that have really pulled together and, working with the vaccination programme, we have got the disease under control.

“The numbers of deaths, the number of hospitalisations, are currently very low. That doesn’t mean that we have got it totally licked, it doesn’t mean that Covid is over.

“We have got to be realistic about that, unfortunately there probably will be another wave of the disease, but I think that the vaccination programme has now been so massive – 33.6 million people vaccinated.

“We have built up what I think are some pretty robust fortifications against the next wave, we will have to see how strong they really are in due course.”

A Government campaign – called “every vaccination gives us hope” – includes a TV advert which will showcase the health workers and volunteers involved in the vaccination rollout across the UK.

The campaign will predominantly be aimed at people under the age of 50 who will be offered their first dose, as well as the over-50s who are booked in for their second dose, to encourage vaccine uptake.

In England, people aged 44 are now being invited to book their jab, with NHS England saying around half-a-million 44-year-olds would receive a text inviting them to get their jab through the national booking service.

The push for people to take up jab offers comes as restrictions ease in Wales and Scotland and after figures over the weekend confirmed more than half of the UK’s total population had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the first UK medical supplies have arrived in India and they “will be deployed where they are needed most”.

He added: “No-one is safe until we are all safe. International collaboration is key to fighting this global threat.”

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said that nine plane-loads of life-saving kit – including ventilators and oxygen concentrators – have been sent to New Delhi.

The move follows discussions with India’s government following a devastating surge in Covid-19 cases which has overwhelmed the country’s health services.

Further consignments are due to be dispatched later this week, while part of the shipment of emergency medical supplies is 100 non-invasive breathing aids from University College London (UCL).

UCL said that its continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device had been used extensively throughout the pandemic and could prevent a significant proportion of people from needing mechanical ventilation.

In Wales, pubs, restaurants, cafes and other hospitality businesses were allowed to offer outdoor service again from Monday, with organised outdoor activities also permitted for up to 30 people.

In Scotland, cafes, restaurants and beer gardens reopened again on Monday, along with non-essential shops, gyms, swimming pools, libraries and museums.

People would be able to meet others for a meal or drink, with up to six people from two households allowed to socialise indoors in a public place.