Parents put in 'impossible position' over call to return to work, Labour claims

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer issued the warning after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an end to the Government’s “stay at home” messaging.

In an announcement on Friday, Mr Johnson said that employers would have the discretion from August 1 to decide how staff could work safely, whether from home or in offices, in consultation with employees.

However, Sir Keir said that parents would be penalised due to no extra help being provided for families over the summer holidays.

He said: “We all want society to get moving again, but it requires a clear plan and national leadership from the Government.

“Despite ordering millions of parents back to the office, the Prime Minister has refused to provide any extra help for families, penalising parents by putting them in an impossible position.

“Parents got a back-to-work notice on Friday just as the summer holidays began.”

He added: “If we are going to reopen our society and economy safely and successfully, we need the public to have confidence in the Government’s advice.

He added: “We need test, track and trace to be working properly, and we need proper support for children to learn and for parents to get back to work.”

The issue was raised in the questions from the public as part of Mr Johnson’s press conference announcing the easing on Friday.

A woman from Tadcaster, whose first name, Victoria, was only given, asked the Prime Minister if he planned to scrap the one-metre social distancing rule to allow grandparents to be given the opportunity to provide childcare.

The Prime Minister said in that circumstance grandparents would count as part of the “bubble” formed with two households indoors, so those childcare arrangements could continue.

But Mr Johnson said that social distancing was likely to have to continue until at least November, and would only be lifted if the nation continues to “make progress in our struggle against the virus”.

Downing Street later said that grandparents who were planning on stepping in to care for grandchildren while parents went to work should still respect social distancing guidelines if they were not living in a bubble with the family.

Meanwhile, the Government said yesterday 45,300 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, up by 27 from 45,273 the day before.

The Department for Health and Social Care said on Friday it was “pausing” publication of daily death figures for the whole of the UK after Health Secretary Matt Hancock ordered a review into claims by researchers that there were “statistical flaws” in the way they are calculated.