Boost for plan to return ALL children to school on March 8 as Keir Starmer backs move

Boris Johnson‘s bid to get all children back to school in two-weeks’ time received a boost today as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer backed the plan – and risked a furious row with unions.

The Prime Minister wants to reopen all classrooms on March 8 and is expected to announce the proposal when he reveals his roadmap out of lockdown tomorrow.

But teaching unions are fighting for a phased return to class on safety grounds and have called for teachers and school staff to jump the vaccine queue.

However Sir Keir today said he wanted all pupils in England back in school on March 8. 

He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that more coronavirus testing and ‘Nightingale classrooms’ could address some of the issues.

Sir Keir said: ‘Ideally, I would like to see all schools back open on March 8 and all children back into schools on March 8.

Sir Keir today said he wanted all pupils in England back in school on March 8. He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that more coronavirus testing and ‘Nightingale classrooms’ could address some of the issues

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All pupils will return to school on March 8 and care home residents in England will each be allowed one regular visitor

Health Secretary Matt Hancock again rejected calls for teachers to be given priority in the vaccine queue before schools return

‘I have been worried through the pandemic – a number of people have – about the impact that being out of school has on, particularly, vulnerable children and the attainment gap is getting bigger.’

He said the Government would have to follow the data and the scientific advice on the issue, ‘but that’s what we should be working towards’.

‘If that means more testing, if that means Nightingale classrooms, if it means other measures, let’s do that because I want to get our kids back into school.’

Mr Johnson is tomorrow expected to announce all pupils will return to school on March 8 and care home residents in England will each be allowed one regular visitor.

By Easter, at the start of April, two households will be allowed to meet up outside. That will be followed shortly afterwards by the reopening of non-essential shops and pubs and restaurants for outdoor service only. 

The hospitality industry is expected to reopen fully in May. 

It came as Health Secretary Matt Hancock again rejected calls for teachers to be given priority in the vaccine queue before schools return.

He told Sophy Ridge on Sunday: ‘We’ve asked the expert group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, what order we should vaccinate in, broadly in order to reduce the number of deaths as fast as possible.

‘I think everybody can understand why we asked that as the question.

‘They set out the priority groups one to nine, which includes those who are clinically most vulnerable and their carers, and includes the over-50s, going down the age range.

‘They are currently considering, after that, what might be the best order in terms of clinical priority.

‘There isn’t strong evidence that teachers are more likely to catch Covid than any other group, but I’ll leave it for the JCVI to set out what they think is the best order in which to do this that minimises the number of deaths.’