Boris Johnson should end self-isolation rules ‘tomorrow’, say business leaders

Boris Johnson should end self-isolation rules "tomorrow", the head of the UK's leading business group has said, as Labour joined calls to quicken the lifting of the restrictions.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Tony Danker, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, called for a shift from "mass isolation" to "mass testing".

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, joined Tory lockdown sceptics and industry leaders in urging the Prime Minister to act sooner to end the "pingdemic".

From August 16 in England, the double-jabbed do not need to self-isolate for 10 days if told of contact with someone who has Covid, as is currently the case. A test is advised instead.

But that change is happening on August 7 in Wales, August 9 in Scotland and August 12 in Northern Ireland, leading to calls for Mr Johnson to bring the date forward.

Sir Keir, taking a rare position of calling for Covid rules to be lifted sooner than the Tories' plan, used a BBC interview to call for England to match Wales and change on August 7.

"The Government's slapdash approach to this global pandemic is crippling our economy and creating real problems for businesses and families alike," he said.

"In these nine days difference, there are hundreds of thousands of working days that will not be lost, businesses that won't have the chaos they're facing at the moment. We have got to find a pragmatic, sensible way to end this chaos as quickly as possible."

Downing Street insists the August 16 date will not be brought forward despite devolved administrations moving earlier than London.

Number 10 figures argue that waiting until then allows for more people to be jabbed and gives a degree of protection should Covid cases begin to creep up in the coming weeks.

Mr Danker has put forward a three-pronged strategy for preventing another lockdown and keeping the economy moving this winter.

It includes replacing self-isolation with lateral flow testing for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, reinstating a number of Covid-secure workplace rules and enlisting the help of business to target vaccine-hesitant groups through events such as "organised vaccine days".

Firms are increasingly concerned at the possible end of free workplace Covid tests just as they are encouraging employees to return to the office, with the Government also hinting that people could be asked to pay for lateral flow tests from September.

Mr Danker said: "Almost all the businesses we speak to are utterly fixated with this notion of confidence. What will it take for there to be confidence in the economy and the net effect of all the decisions it occurs to me, in the last few weeks, have been to harm, not create, confidence.

"There is a high degree of confusion about how the Government's going to approach September reentry, in a world where one, people are coming back from holidays from different parts of the world; two, people are going back to school; three, most employers are implementing the beginning of their new hybrid or back-to-work strategy; and four, we're told there might be another wave.

"We think August needs to be a time where we genuinely bang heads together and talk about an integrated plan and a philosophy for managing the next six to 12 months."

Meanwhile, the number of people forced to isolate has doubled in a month, the latest ONS figures show. While three per cent of adults in Britain were self-isolating in June, this has now risen to six per cent, according to the data.

Under-30s were three times more likely than those aged 70 or older to be quarantining at home – nine per cent versus three per cent. The most common reason for self-isolating was that they had been alerted by the NHS mobile app that they had been near a Covid-19 positive person.