Coronavirus news you may have missed overnight: Tory MPs challenge Johnson over Cummings lockdown breaches as government backtracks on childcare fines review

The row over the government’s defence of lockdown breaches by Boris Johnson‘s chief adviser shows little sign of abating.

A growing number of Conservative MPs are calling for prime minister to sack Dominic Cummings amid fears the government’s denial of wrongdoing will undermine willingness to comply with restrictions designed to slow the spread of Covid-19.

A total of 37,048 people have died with the disease in the UK, according to the government’s official death toll. Worldwide, there have been more than 350,000 deaths and 5.59 million infections.

Here is your morning briefing of the coronavirus news you may have missed overnight.

Conservative MPs to challenge Boris Johnson face to face over his refusal to sack Dominic Cummings

Conservative MPs will challenge Boris Johnson face to face over his refusal to sack Dominic Cummings, as public anger about the No 10 adviser’s apparent lockdown breaches threaten to engulf the government.

More than 30 Tories – including prominent former ministers – swelled the revolt against the chief aide, some warning his failure to quit undermined support for continuing restrictions on people’s freedoms.

One said the “moral authority” to demand the public’s consent for the fight against coronavirus was being lost, while a second highlighted the impression given of “one rule for them and another for senior government advisers”.

And pressure on Mr Cummings grew when former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Downing Street aide was guilty of a clear breach of the lockdown rules on three occasions. But the Tory MP stopped short of demanding the adviser’s resignation.

Crucially, Mr Johnson will experience the anger in person when he appears before a Commons committee, with several of the Tory questioners among those attacking his backing for Mr Cummings.

‘No formal review to take place’ after Matt Hancock suggests government could refund people fined for doing what Dominic Cummings did

The government has moved to deny it will review fines issued to parents who breached lockdown rules to seek childcare, after health secretary Matt Hancock pledged he would “look at” refunds for people penalised for making similar journeys to Dominic Cummings.

Ministers have spent days insisting that Mr Cummings, who contradicted government advice by driving 260 miles to his parents’ estate in Durham at the height of the pandemic, did nothing wrong – insisting he needed to make the journey for childcare reasons.

Asked at a daily Downing Street press conference whether people who were fined for doing the same thing as Boris Johnson’s top aide could have their charges refunded, Mr Hancock pledged to go over the issue with the Treasury.

Hinting that the discussions could lead to a formal announcement, he said: “I will have to talk to my Treasury colleagues before I can answer it in full, and we’ll look at it. And if we can get your details, we’ll make sure that we write to you with a full answer and make an announcement from this podium. I think we can make this commitment.”

However, reports now suggest any review of fines is unlikely. One source told ITV News the government “doesn’t think that it’s going to have to pay any of those fines back, or there’s anything to review”. Meanwhile, a government adviser also told Sky News there would be no “formal review” of lockdown fines.

Women doctors not able to fight coronavirus crisis due to lack of childcare, BMA warns

Female doctors are less likely to be working on the front line of the coronavirus crisis because they struggle to secure childcare, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned.

The professional association for doctors said the closure of schools and childcare providers during the lockdown had caused problems for thousands of healthcare workers – forcing fit and healthy doctors to stay home when the NHS needs them more than ever.

A poll by the BMA found that 13 per cent of 4,100 doctors had been unable to work or had been forced to cut their hours for this reason.

Helena McKeown, chair of the BMA representative body, said both male and female doctors who have children are struggling but that evidence showed the burden of high childcare costs often fell particularly hard on women.

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Psychiatric effects ‘could last a decade’ as NHS fears impact of lockdown on children

Children are suffering poor mental health as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, a senior NHS director has warned, as experts revealed the virus could infect the brain and lead to psychiatric conditions lasting more than a decade.

Professor Tim Kendall, NHS England‘s national clinical director for mental health, told a Royal Society of Medicine webinar that “there’s no doubt” children were being hit hard by the impact of the lockdown, and he added that NHS trusts had been told to “be more assertive and go out and find children” who were in difficulty.

His comments follow similar warnings from psychiatrists and charities of a “tsunami” of poor mental health as thousands of patients recover after needing intensive care treatment, as well as from the effects of the lockdown and the impact on the economy.

Hungary’s government seeks to remove autocratic rule from far-right leader Orban

Hungary will seek to remove the unfettered power of far-right nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban next month in an attempt to bring to an end a backslide away from democracy in the central European state.

Mr Orban was granted the right to rule by decree throughout the coronavirus crisis – leaving no check on his power for an unlimited period of time in a move that brought the state to the brink of dictatorship under the strongman leader.

While the powers were initially approved by the country’s parliament in Budapest, where Mr Orban’s party holds a two-thirds majority, the government has prepared a bill to rescind the autocratic power of the leader by 20 June.

It comes following criticism from the European Union, which calls for democratic rule in all member states, and concern that Mr Orban’s lunge for power had made him the bloc’s first dictator.

UN Cop26 climate summit set to be postponed again

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Cop26, is expected to be postponed for a second time due to the ongoing impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

The summit, which was originally scheduled for November 2020 in Glasgow, was tentatively moved to early 2021.

However, this week the UK will ask the UN and other countries to consider a longer delay until November 2021, putting the event back an entire year. The final decision will be made by the Cop bureau on 28 May.​

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