Johnson says England guidance on hugging will change, pubs and restaurants can serve indoors – as it happened

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6.41pm BST

Most of [the variants] are currently relatively stable and not increasing at a great rate. The one that is slightly concerning in terms of increasing as a proportion is the variant which has been described from India. That does appear to be increasing but from very low levels over the last two weeks.

What we know is, with all the variants, that things can come out of a blue sky and you're not expecting it and then something happens. That happened, obviously, with the B117 [the Kent/UK variant] and that has happened to India with this variant as well.

So I think it very imprudent to say [another lockdown] is impossible.

I would say that was complete nonsense and what we want to do is to protect democracy, the transparency and the integrity of the electoral process, and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask first-time voters to produce some evidence of identity.

Related: Coronavirus live news: vaccines offer high protection against death, report finds; Malaysia to enter lockdown

6.12pm BST

The public service union Unison said the prime minister's decision to lift the requirement for pupils to wear face masks in classrooms and communal areas next week was too much, too soon".

Jon Richards, Unison's head of education, said:

Everyone wants to get back to normality, but any change has to happen safely. Otherwise, all the care taken over the past few months in schools could be undone.

Face masks will still be needed in other indoor spaces like shops, restaurants and cinemas. Schools and colleges shouldn't be treated any differently. New virus variants are out in the community. Yet despite repeated requests ministers have failed to reveal the extent of the new strains in schools. Pupils, parents and staff deserve much better.

Step three of the roadmap allows people to mix indoors once again and in line with the latest data, we no longer need to recommend that face coverings are worn in the classroom.

Over the past year we have always put the wellbeing of pupils and staff first, and this step is now the right one, as vaccinations protect the most vulnerable in society and we turn our attention to building back better from the pandemic.