As it happened: PM defends isolation system at PMQs

During Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson came under fire from MPs for the continuing rules on self-isolation.

Downing Street says that self-isolating is "crucial" if you are told to do so by the NHS Covid-19 app.

The remarks were made after Business Minister Paul Scully previously said he would "encourage" people to self-isolate but the app was there to let people make an "informed decision".

Keir Starmer accused the PM of being a "super spreader" of confusion over Covid rules.

Meanwhile, Richard Burgon, a Labour MP, asked if statutory sick pay of £96 a week was enough to help people self-isolate.

Labour's Thangam Debbonaire is also on BBC Two's Politics Live.

She says rather than the slogan "keep life moving", the government's strategy is causing confusion and causing "meltdown" in certain businesses due to the numbers being pinged.

She says it will "ring really hollow" for families who have lost loved ones "that we have not got the public inquiry we need" and that people over the age of 80 "seem to have been treated with such disparagement by this prime minister".

Chair of the Conservative Party, Amanda Milling, is on BBC Two's Politics Live.

She is asked about Dominic Cummings' comments about the PM's allegedly resisting lockdown as he said only 'over 80s' were dying.

Keir Starmer and Ian Blackford raised it at PMQs - and she's whether she will apologise on the PM's behalf.

She says lockdowns are not just about health but about the impact on business and people's mental health and as a result are really difficult decisions.

She says the public recognise how hard these decisions were and her "heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones".

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Welsh Secretary Simon Hart says it would have been absurd for Dominic Cummings to campaign to remove prime minister.

Reaction continues to the interview the PM's former aide gave to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

You can read more about Cummings' interview here.

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Lib Dem Sarah Olney says her daughter was among the one million children out of school last week due to the need to self-isolate when there was a positive case in their bubble.

She asks if the PM can confirm that his approach to managing the virus will guarantee that all children will have an uninterrupted return to their learning after the summer break.

Boris Johnson says the needs of children in this pandemic are the focus and it is of "paramount importance" to keep them in school.

He says ministers will do everything they can to get schools back in September and he has every confidence they will be, but everyone offered a jab must get vaccinated.

Richard Burgon - a Labour MP - says the PM is "having to self isolate just as hundreds of thousands of people across the country are having to do thanks to his mismanagement of the pandemic".

He says not everyone has access to a country estate with a heated swimming pool (a dig at Johnson, who is self-isolating at Chequers).

He asks if the PM could survive on £96 sick pay per week.

Boris Johnson says everyone who is self-isolating has access to the equivalent of the living wage, which is sick pay.

He says some people can get additional £500 payments to help them with staying at home.

Conservative Selaine Saxby says people want to come to her north Devon constituency but what assurances can the PM give to residents that planning reforms will protect them against second home buyers?

She says unless protections are in place, "vibrant coastal communities" will become "winter ghost towns".

The PM says the government has brought in a series of measures such as higher rates of stamp duty on the buying of additional properties.

And he says his strategy is to make sure people growing up around the country have the chance of home ownership in the place where they live.

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Labour MP Debbie Abrahams says the Department for Work and Pensions is currently carrying out "124 process reviews following the deaths of 97 claimants".

She says there were 27 from serious harm, which represents a three fold increase since 2012. She says the government can't keep marking its own homework on claimant deaths. She asks him to meet her and those bereaved by the tragedies.

She warns that some are of the belief that the 97 deaths could be "the tip of the iceberg".

Boris Johnson says he will make sure she receives a full account of what the government is doing to "put this right".

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Later today, Lord Frost, the former chief Brexit negotiator for the UK, will outline to the Lords how the government wants to overhaul theNorthern Ireland Protocol.

Since its introduction, it has caused supply issues in Northern Ireland, leading to some areas experiencing food shortages.

The Protocol helps prevent the need for checks on the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Lord Frost says the deal is unfair and unsustainable.

The Protocol was negotiated by Lord Frost, but it’s expected he will say the terms need to be radically changed.

Labour's Stephen Timms raises the issue of Universal Credit and says plans to end the £20 a week top in the autumn up should not go ahead.

Will the PM follow his own talk about "levelling up" and keep the increase? he asks.

Boris Johnson says he wants to "level up" across the whole of the UK and get people off benefits and in to work.

He says he wants to see higher wages.

DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says in light of the judicial ruling in the High Court, that the Northern Ireland Protocol breaks the union, he asks what the government will do to "fully remove the Irish Sea Border".

Boris Johnson congratulates Sir Jeffrey on becoming leader of the DUP.

He says the government will be "setting out today" the steps that it will take to change the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Nothing in the Protocol threatens the "territorial integrity of the United Kingdom", he states.

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SNP Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, raises the interview Dominic Cummings gave to the BBC and says it is clear the PM was pushing to "allow the virus to run rampant".

How can anyone have faith in the PM, he asks?

Mr Johnson says the substance of what he is alleged to have said is "grossly mischaracterised" and everyone in the country understands how difficult the decisions were that ministers had to take.

There were "no good ways through", he says and there will be a full public inquiry to come.

Blackford says the over 80s were expendable to the PM and his "glib attitude" to human life is not acceptable.

He says ministers should be "made to answer under oath" and the inquiry should begin immediately before any general election is called.

The PM says it is not right to ask people to devote time to an inquiry before the spring while they are still dealing with the pandemic.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says the prime minister's answers have "no resemblence to the questions I'm actually asking him".

He says all the PM needs to do "is say sorry".

He says the PM has broken promises and has still has not unveiled a plan for social care, he's now raising working-age taxes while cutting the army and overseas aid.

The PM has let the UK have one of the worst death rates and has a damaged economy, he states.

He says there's a new three word slogan from the government this morning which is "keep life moving" - but says the slogan the government should be using is "get a grip".

Boris Johnson says that thanks to the vaccine rollout nine million people have now come off furlough and unemployment is two million lower than predicted.

And the PM says his three word slogan is "get a jab" while the government is turning "jabs jabs jabs" into "jobs jobs jobs".

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It’s been an explosive set of revelations over the past 48 hours.

On Monday morning, the BBC revealed it had secured an interview with the former Downing Street aide, Dominic Cummings. The interview was an hour long and was broadcast last night on BBC Two at 7pm.

Cummings claimed in the interview, among other things:

• That the PM was reluctant to have a lockdown last autumn, saying that Covid was mostly only killing over 80s
• He was keen to have a face-to-face the Queen at the start of the pandemic
• And that Cummings discussed with allies in Downing Street from Vote Leave the possibility of trying to remove Boris Johnson from office, days after the 2019 general election.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says on 26 May, he asked the prime minister if he had ever used words to the effect that "Covid was only killing over 80 year olds".

He says that on that day, the PM never outright denied using the words.

He says with the revelation from former aide Dominic Cummings, citing messages between him and the PM, we can now see that the PM did say that.

He asks if the prime minister will apologise for using those words.

Boris Johnson says nothing he can say or do "can make up for the loss and the suffering that people have endured during this pandemic".

He says when decisions were being made "in those incredibly tough and dark times" that the government had to try and balance the damage done by lockdown versus letting the virus spread.