Dropped the ball again, Matt? Hoodie-wearing Health Secretary plays rugby with his sons - Daily Mail

Dropped the ball again, Matt? Hoodie-wearing Health Secretary plays rugby with his sons as he's seen for second time over weekend... after Boris issued urgent plea for public to 'stay at home'

• Prime Minister released a video on Friday calling on the public to 'think twice' before leaving the house
• But his sobering clarion call did little to put off crowds who headed to parks - including Health Secretary
• Lockdown rules state that people can leave their homes for exercise and does not rule out ball sports  

By Jemma Carr and Jack Elsom and Rory Tingle For Mailonline

Published: 13:24 GMT, 18 January 2021 | Updated: 15:42 GMT, 18 January 2021

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A hoodie-wearing Matt Hancock was spotted playing rugby with his sons in the park yesterday as he was seen outside for a second time this weekend following Boris Johnson's urgent plea for the public to 'stay at home'.

The Prime Minister released a video on Friday calling on the public to 'think twice' before leaving the house as he moved to cool rising optimism amid a drop in daily infections and the vaccination of more than 3.5million people.

He urged everyone to behave as if they have coronavirus, warning that asymptomatic 'silent spreaders' are unwittingly fuelling the crisis and the next person infected 'could be you'.

But his sobering clarion call did little to put off crowds who headed to public parks - including the Health Secretary, who was seen by a passer-by playing an energetic game of rugby with his two young sons on Sunday.

The Health Secretary was seen scoring a try as the boys tried tackle him. But his handling left a bit to be desired and he was seen dropping the ball several times. 

The day before, the Tory MP was seen casually walking through the park while clutching a rugby ball and wearing similar muddy attire.

Lockdown rules state that people can leave their homes for exercise by themselves with the people they live with or with one other person from outside their household. Official guidance does not rule out ball sports.

 Matt Hancock was seen wearing a hoodie and covered in mud as he played a game of rugby with his sons in a local park on Sunday  

The Health Secretary was seen scoring a try as the boys tried to pull him down during the energetic game of rugby on Sunday 

Mr Hancock rolls around on the ground while his sons compete for the ball during the run around in a London park on Sunday 

Lockdown rules state that people can leave their homes for exercise by themselves, with the people they live with or with a legally-permitted support bubble. Official guidance does not rule out ball sports

Mr Hancock lives in North London with his wife, Martha (they are pictured at a Brits award event in February 2017) 

 He day before, on Saturday, the Health Secretary was seen casually walking through Queen's Park in North London while clutching a rugby ball

On another turbulent day of developments in the coronavirus crisis:

• The Covid-19 mass vaccine programme will not have an impact on hospital admissions or death rates until 'well into February', national medical director for NHS England Stephen Powis warned today; 
• Ministers are facing a major Tory revolt over whether to extend the £20 a week uplift to Universal Credit during pandemic; 
• First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended the slower rollout of the vaccination programme in Wales – saying the Pfizer vaccine could not be used all at once; 
• NHS data showed the North East and Yorkshire made most headway in the first month of vaccinations, reaching 44 per cent of all over-80s 
• NHS figures revealed one in six Covid-19 patients in English NHS hospitals arrived without the virus but were infected there since September;
• Another 671 deaths were recorded, the highest number for any Sunday of the pandemic so far, along with 38,598 new cases; 
• Ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption sparked a row after telling stage 4 bowel cancer sufferer Deborah James on TV that her life was 'less valuable' than other people's;
• All travellers arriving in Britain face being forced to quarantine in hotels under plans to further lock down the country's borders. 

During his first outing on Saturday, Mr Hancock, who was not wearing a mask, smiled as a member of the public who remarked at how 'muddy' he is.

The witness told MailOnline: 'I was there at about 3.30 this afternoon... Suddenly I saw Matt Hancock, he was there playing rugby with his son I think. He walked right up to me and I saw he was covered head to toe in mud.'

While rugby is a favourite of his boss, the Prime Minister, father-of-three Mr Hancock is instead known for his cricketing prowess and plays for the parliamentary side. 

Covid test chaos at airports: UK-bound passengers are blocked from boarding in US 

Several passengers have been refused permission to fly to Britain from the US today after their negative Covid results were 'not sufficient' because they were lateral flow tests - despite the Government insisting they should be accepted.

There was also chaos for thousands arriving at Heathrow Airport as they were forced to wait for 90 minutes in 'chaotic' queues after all Britain's travel corridors were closed for the next four weeks from 4am this morning.

Hannah Holland, 23, from Sheffield, was left in tears after she was barred from the American Airlines (AA) service from Philadelphia via Chicago's O'Hare airport due to land at London Heathrow this morning.

She had a certificate proving a negative antigen lateral flow Covid test taken within 72 hours of departure - but AA staff at check in said it was not valid for travel to the UK despite being one of the types of tests approved by the UK government.

Miss Holland was left sobbing and was not the only person denied permission to fly, according to The Independent. She said: 'It was the easiest thing in the world until I got to Chicago. It was only then that one attendant looked at my paper and said: 'That's not sufficient, you're not getting on this flight'. She kind of threw this list of Chicago testing centres to me and was like, 'Yeah, have a look at that, goodbye'.'

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Mr Hancock, who will take a press conference from Downing Street this evening, said yesterday that the nation was 'nearly on the home straight' as 50 per cent of all over-80s in England have been vaccinated.

Some 140 a minute are receiving a jab, putting Britain on course to vaccinate all adults by early autumn. However, one coronavirus patient is being admitted to hospital every 30 seconds. 

Ministers are launching an advertising blitz to hammer home the importance of sticking to lockdown rules while the biggest vaccination drive in British history paves a path out of the pandemic.

But people are continuing to flout the rules, with a woman filmed being kicked out of Sainsbury's for refusing to wear a face covering and four people fined for driving 50 miles to 'look at the snow' before crashing.  

Footage filmed at the supermarket in Dartford on Saturday shows the unnamed shopper arguing with two officers and claiming they could not ask her to show proof of her 'disability'.

She asked them 'are you doctors?' before producing a sheet of paper printed at home that she wrongly believed proved her point and saying 'I'll be taking you to court'.

The female officer replied 'see you in court then' as she and her colleague led the woman out into the car park.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, officers stopped four people from different households who travelled to a Peak District beauty spot to enjoy the wintery scenes before sliding off the road during the journey.

Derbyshire Constabulary said the BMW driver lost control of the car and rolled on its side near Bamford, in the Peak District, Derbyshire after travelling from St Helens in Merseyside.

The force said: 'The four vehicle occupants were from different households. Is this essential? No. All were issued with Covid 19 tickets.' No one was injured.

The most recent figures showed police officers in England have now handed out 28,744 fines since the start of lockdown in March, with 80% going to flouters aged between 18 and 39.

The latest evidence of lockdown flouting comes as a senior police officer criticised the government for its approach to enforcing lockdown rules, saying that ministers had been giving 'damaging' mixed messages.

Martin Hewitt, the head of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said working with government had been 'pretty challenging' and 'at times tense and difficult'.

On Saturday, officers stopped four people from different households who travelled to a Peak District beauty spot to enjoy the wintery scenes before sliding off the road during the journey

Police on bikes patrolling Hyde Park in Central London today after the Government urged the public to stay at home when possible in stem spread of Covid

Lockdown 'set to loosen from early March' 

The brutal lockdown is on track to be loosened in England from the beginning of March amid rising hopes that target of vaccinating all adults by September could be beaten by months.

Another five million people will be invited to receive a jab from today, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider population could be covered by June rather than September.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was bullish about the longer date in a round of interviews this morning - and he also struck an optimistic tone about the prospects of easing lockdown from early March.

He said the restrictions could be taken away 'gradually' from 'two to three weeks after the middle of February, after we've protected the top four cohorts'.

Mr Zahawi also insisted that second doses of vaccines will be given within 12 weeks of the first - after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to confirm yesterday that would be the case.

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In a speech to the London College of Policing in December, he said: 'We've pushed really hard, not always successfully, to get consistent messaging and management of expectations out of government,' he said.

'It's been very damaging to our efforts where you've got different government ministers saying different things, answering questions and giving a slightly different perception.'

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Robert Jenrick have all been forced to admit to getting the rules wrong in TV interviews.

NPCC chief Martin Hewitt criticised the government in a speech he gave before the third national lockdown.

He referred to the 'challenge' of enforcing different rules as they constantly changed with the course of the pandemic.

He said the police had asked the government to make these changes 'as clear and unambiguous as they could be' but had sometimes delayed enforcing new rules until they had the specific guidance.

'On some occasions, we did not start policing a new regulation, until we had got the guidance out,' he explained.

It came Mr Johnson today faced a backlash today over a 'postcode lottery' in vaccinations today as millions of 70-somethings are offered jabs - even though some older people have yet to get theirs.

Another five million people are being invited to receive their first dose, with some in Whitehall suggesting the rollout is going so well that the wider population could be covered by June rather than September.

NHS staff administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the Totally Wicked Stadium, home of St Helen's rugby club, one of the new mass vaccination centres opened today

Drakeford blames Pfizer vaccine limits for slower rollout in Wales 

First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended the slower rollout of the vaccination programme in Wales – saying the Pfizer vaccine could not be used all at once.

The Welsh Government has faced criticism in the past week for vaccinating fewer people in proportion to its population than the other home nations.

Statistically, Wales is behind the other nations of the UK in delivering the first dose of the vaccine per 100,000.

As of last week, 3,215 had received it in Wales, compared to 3,514 in Scotland, 4,005 in England and 4,828 in Northern Ireland.

Mr Drakeford dismissed the statistics as 'very marginal differences', and went on to explain that supplies of the Pfizer vaccine had to last until the beginning of February and would not be used all at once.

'There will be no point and certainly it will be logistically very damaging to try to use all of that in the first week and then to have all our vaccinators standing around with nothing to do with for another month,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'The sensible thing to do is to use the vaccine you've got over the period that you've got it for so that your system can absorb it, they can go on working, that you don't have people standing around with nothing to do.'

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Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was bullish about the longer date in a round of interviews this morning, and also struck an optimistic tone about the prospects of easing lockdown from early March.

However, he also risked fuelling fears about a lack of fairness by confirming that people in their 70s will only be offered jabs in areas where 'the majority' of over-80s have already had their first shot. That could disadvantage areas such as London, where progress has been slower.

Meanwhile, all care home residents and most of their carers have already had their first shot in Newcastle, but the NHS-led programme in rural Suffolk is struggling to speed up. And a GP surgery in Kent has had to pause its vaccination because of supply problems.

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey complained this morning that in her constituency some individuals in their 70s were being offered jabs ahead of the more elderly. 'Vaccinations started well in Suffolk Coastal in the last few days, but something isn't quite right as in some places, patients aged 70+ are being contacted for vaccination ahead of 80+/90+ year olds,' she tweeted. 'Am following up with local NHS.'

Mr Zahawi also had to reassure the public that all second doses of vaccines will be given within 12 weeks of the first - after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to confirm yesterday that would be the case.

The wrangling came as letters started going out to people in England in the next two priority groups.

That includes 4.6million in their 70s plus another one million classed as 'clinically extremely vulnerable' because they have conditions affecting the immune system, certain cancers or are organ transplant recipients.

In London vaccinations have been trailing behind the rest of the country, with Tory MPs voicing alarm that the supplies were being based on take-up of the flu vaccine last winter.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday that the nation was 'nearly on the home straight' as 50 per cent of all over-80s in England have been vaccinated.

Some 140 a minute are receiving a jab, putting Britain on course to vaccinate all adults by early autumn. However, one coronavirus patient is being admitted to hospital every 30 seconds.

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2021-01-18 13:24:00Z
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