Politics latest news: Delay beyond July 19 would require ‘unprecedented and remarkable’ change in Covid, says Michael Gove

Michael Gove has said the world will “have to learn to live with Covid”, as he likened it to flu. 

“What we can do is use the time we have to improve the quality of protection”, the Cabinet Office minister said. 

Stressing he was not an epidemiologist, and could not forecast the number of deaths the Indian variant would cause, a sniffing Mr Gove said: “The key thought is how we provide the maximum level of protection to all.

“None of us can predict with perfect foresight the circulation rate or potential new variations.  What we can do is be confident, on the basis of everything we know, that the vaccination programme, the whole of the adult population being vaccinated, will provide us with the highest level of protection come what may.”

Asked if some restrictions could be reimposed in order to dampen the spread of cases further, he stressed it was “not the imposition of further restrictions – it is the maintenance of where we are now, with some additional flexibility.”

It was not “coercion or imprisonment”, he added.