School return date must be 'signed in blood', Tory MPs warn Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has been told by Tory MPs that reopening schools on March 8 must be "signed in blood, not a line in the sand" amid fears that date could be pushed back.

Concerns have emerged of a potential delay as the Government declined to confirm the exact date the Prime Minister will reveal his “roadmap” for easing lockdown.

Mr Johnson and his government ministers have made differing comments about the day the roadmap will be published, saying either on February 22 or later in that week.

If the roadmap is published after February 22 then the day schools reopen will likely be pushed back beyond March 8, given Mr Johnson has said two weeks’ notice will be given to teachers.

Asked to guarantee the school reopening date, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s for us to examine the data next week. That will inform the roadmap we publish on the week of the 22nd.”

Rob Halfon, the Tory chairman of the Education Select Committee, told The Telegraph: "We just need to make sure March 8 is signed in blood, not just a line in the sand.”

Watch: COVID-19 - Boris Johnson warned against 'backsliding' on schools reopening on 8 March

Mark Harper, the Tory chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said: “It’s crucial we don’t backslide on this.”

However, on Thursday night, Downing Street sources insisted they were "overwhelmingly confident" and had a "high degree of expectation" that the roadmap would be published on February 22 itself.

Next week ministers are expected to review data about the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines and push forward with planning how and when the country eases its lockdown restrictions.

Schools are due to be first to reopen, but it remains unclear whether all schools will be allowed to open their gates at once or whether some will have to wait longer.

The Prime Minister’s roadmap is due to include a series of “earliest” times when different parts of the economy can reopen, with shops likely to be back in April and pubs in May.

Categorical commitments for reopening dates are unlikely to be given because the Government has made clear it will monitor changing Covid-19 statistics as they go along.

One Whitehall source said of the reopening plan: “What is looking likely is that we see a series of reviews, spaced around three weeks apart.”

Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), has warned against naming hard and fast reopening dates for the coming months.

Sir Jeremy, director of the Wellcome Trust, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "It is not sensible to set a date when restrictions will be lifted: those restrictions can and they will be lifted, but only when the data allows that to be true.

"Setting a date now, arbitrarily, for some date in March or April, frankly doesn't make any sense.

"I appreciate that businesses have to plan and everything else, but the data has to drive us, and in 2020 we lifted restrictions too quickly when the date would not really have allowed that and, frankly, as a result the transmission went back up in this country."

Yet pressure from the other side of the debate is being applied by backbench Tory MPs who are arguing businesses need certainty to plan their reopenings and help quicken the economic recovery.

Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 committee of Tory MPs, told The Telegraph: “Clarity is essential. Certainly I think the concrete thing that can be said is schools will reopen, one hopes it will be all schools and not just primary schools.

“Some concrete planning horizons for business would also be beneficial, including for retail and hospitality. At the least, they need to know what the criteria will be.”

Watch: What you can and can't do during England's third national lockdown

Schools should not be used as polling stations for the May local elections because children have already missed so much "vital time" in the classroom, ministers have said.

A fund of £31 million will be available for councils so they can find alternative venues and "creative solutions" to ensure that schools can remain open to pupils.

The school minister Nick Gibb and cabinet minister Lord True wrote to headteachers and returning officers to say that the use of schools as polling stations should be avoided as much as possible.

"This year all children have missed vital time at school and the Government is committed to minimising any further disruption to pupils’ education," they said.

"We know that returning officers are acutely aware of this and are seeking to avoid using schools as polling stations. We support this approach of avoiding schools where it is practically possible to do so."