Isabel Hardman

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Downing Street as Dominic Cummings gave his evidence to the science and technology and the health select committees this morning. As it happens, we had the chance to see Boris Johnson reacting almost in real time to the revelations and allegations from his former aide, because he was taking Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, with the main exchanges with Sir Keir Starmer falling conveniently in a 15 minute intermission in the evidence session. And the Prime Minister was clearly rattled.

What a mess. Ministers have today been defending the decision to place eight areas in what is being called a 'lockdown by stealth', after it turned out that the government had quietly published guidance to slow the spread of the Indian variant without telling anyone in those areas.  That guidance, which pitched up on the gov.uk website at 5.26pm on Friday, told people to avoid indoor meetings and avoid travelling in and out of affected areas unless it is essential. But when journalists from the Manchester Evening News approached local politicians and public health officials, it turned out that they didn't know about this guidance. Which rather begs the question of what the point of it is.

The government is sounding increasingly upbeat about the prospect of sticking to the roadmap. At this evening's coronavirus press briefing, professor Jonathan Van-Tam said the Indian variant was probably no higher than 50 per cent more transmissible than the Kent strain, at least according to initial assessments. Meanwhile, Dr Jenny Harries said there was currently no evidence to suggest that the variant was driving up hospital numbers. But Matt Hancock was keen to remind viewers that 14 June is when the final decision will be taken on whether to stick to 21 June as the unlocking date. The Health Secretary also had to deal with the ongoing confusion over the amber list.

Will the government learn the lessons of the public inquiry into its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic? Boris Johnson this afternoon confirmed he was indeed setting one up, to begin in Spring 2022. True to form, Sir Keir Starmer complained that the inquiry should start sooner; a point he makes with almost every announcement from the government. Johnson was, also true to form, thinking partly of the political landscape over the coming weeks: announcing an inquiry now means he can appear to be on the front foot with learning lessons when Dominic Cummings gives his long-awaited select committee evidence later this month.

Alex Salmond recently joked that if he wanted to destroy Nicola Sturgeon, 'that could have been done'. The former first minister clarified this weekend that he had only meant to point out that he hadn't called for her resignation when asked to by the Holyrood committee investigating the Scottish government's handling of allegations against him. But he has quite clearly not reached the end of his plans for revenge against his former protégé. I interviewed Salmond on Times Radio, and he told me that his current 'disagreement' with the First Minister is that she should be getting on with negotiations for independence.

More than 24 hours after he started trying to reshuffle his shadow cabinet, Sir Keir Starmer has finally got what he wanted. He has moved his shadow chancellor, sacked Nick Brown as chief whip and moved Angela Rayner. Yesterday he told the party’s deputy leader that he didn’t want her to be party chair or campaign coordinator, and instead that she should move to shadow cabinet. After hours of negotiations, Rayner is now confirmed as – deep breath – Deputy Leader, Shadow First Secretary of State, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work.As I reported earlier, Rayner had been pushing for some aides to be sacked from Starmer’s team.