Isabel Hardman

Despite many of his colleagues urging him to take a step back and rest now that he is in hospital, Boris Johnson is continuing to receive his red box of papers while being treated for the persistent symptoms of coronavirus. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told journalists this lunchtime that the PM ‘remains in charge of the government’, that he has been in touch with No. 10 colleagues, and that he ‘had a comfortable night and he is in good spirits’. Given how sick patients tend to be by the time they are admitted to hospital, it sounds rather odd that the Prime Minister is really attempting to work while receiving treatment. No.

Matt Hancock has threatened that the government will ban all forms of outdoor exercise if a ‘minority’ of people continue to ignore social distancing rules. Ministers had been worrying that this weekend, which is sunny and warm, would see people trying to get around the lockdown by congregating in parks. Yesterday there were reports – not all of them hugely reliable or conclusive – of large numbers of people turning up to their local parks, with police forces dispersing groups and stopping people from sunbathing. Lambeth Council has announced Brockwell Park in London will be closed today after too many people converged on it.

After both his victories in the two Labour leadership elections he faced, Jeremy Corbyn boasted about his 'huge mandate' from members to reshape the Labour Party. Today, Sir Keir Starmer has a similarly resounding backing from the party as leader: he won 56 per cent of the vote in the first round, compared to Corbyn's 59 per cent and 61 per cent in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Just as Corbyn’s leadership success was followed by the left taking over key parts of the party’s organisation, including the ruling National Executive Committee, so Starmer has seen signs of a fight-back from the centrists. In the past few minutes, the party has announced the results of elections for three places on the NEC. The ‘moderates’ won a clean sweep.

This is an exceptionally difficult time for those working in the emergency services. They are having to respond to situations they never expected to be involved with, often risking being infected with coronavirus themselves. That much is true. What is also true is that this crisis has brought out an interfering tendency in some people which goes along the lines of neighbours calling the police to demand they arrest someone who appears to be going out for a 'second run', or sitting on Twitter waiting to pounce on someone who appears to have flouted the rules by buying chocolate bars.

In the past few minutes, Boris Johnson has announced that the UK is going into lockdown from this evening. In a statement in Downing Street (which you can read in full here), he announced that people will not be allowed to leave their homes unless they are doing so for the following: - shopping for basic necessities - one form of exercise a day such as a run, walk or cycle and either alone or with other members of the same household - medical needs or caring for a vulnerable person - travelling to or from work but only when absolutely necessary. The police will be given the power to fine people and disperse gatherings and all non-essential shops and events such as weddings and baptisms will be banned.

This weekend has been dominated by photos of people having a jolly good time in groups at the park, or strolling along Columbia Road Flower Market as though nothing has changed. Sunday's Downing Street press conference was therefore dominated by questions about whether the government would clamp down on this behaviour to stop coronavirus spreading still further. But while Boris Johnson urged people to stop ignoring social distancing rules, telling them that 'even if you think you are personally invulnerable, there are plenty of people you can infect and whose lives will them be put at risk', he only suggested that there could be 'further measures if we think that is necessary'.

The Labour leadership contest has been going on for so long that two of its candidates, Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey, have taken to counting down the hours they have left. The race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn started in early January, and will finally finish on 4 April. When we meet, Nandy is feeling run-down — not because of coronavirus, but the sheer length of a contest that she had initially thought should run beyond May’s now-cancelled local elections. She regrets calling for that now. A long contest should have helped the Wigan MP. When it started, she was not as well-known as the other candidates, and needed time to establish a reputation with party members.

Why hasn't parliament been closed after Health minister Nadine Dorries contracted coronavirus? Why isn't the government demanding the cancellation of large events and school closures to help limit the spread of the illness? Why isn't it copying other countries who have introduced much more draconian measures, to the extent that Atlético Madrid fans arriving in Liverpool are watching a game that would have been closed to them in their home country? Health Secretary Matt Hancock updated the Commons on the outbreak this evening, and ended up having to answer all of these questions.

This week's Prime Minister's Questions had Tory MPs bursting out of their seats to ask Boris Johnson some lovely easy questions. There were more than usual whose contribution to the session was merely to ask him to agree with them that he had the right priorities and was doing a great job.  Claire Coutinho, recently-elected as Conservative MP for East Surrey, gave the Prime Minister a chance for a breather right after his stint sparring with Jeremy Corbyn with this question: 'My constituents in East Surrey care enormously about climate change. Does my right hon.

Dominic Cummings said he wanted to hire ‘weirdos’ and ‘misfits’ to improve Whitehall, but new adviser Andrew Sabisky (more on whether he’s actually an adviser shortly) isn’t so much a misfit in Westminster as he is a sore thumb, standing out for his views on eugenics, race and unplanned pregnancies. Today a No. 10 spokesperson refused 32 times to say whether Boris Johnson shares Sabisky’s views, and wouldn’t even comment on the conditions under which he had been employed.

Can Boris Johnson really cut violent crime by 20 per cent? James reported recently that the Prime Minister has set his Cabinet this target, and is demanding that every department get involved in realising it. Most people have focused on the most salient political problem, which is knife crime. But if the Prime Minister is really serious about driving the overall violent crime statistics down, then he already has a piece of 'oven-ready' legislation which could help him do this - if he's prepared to spend a bit more money on it. The Domestic Abuse Bill is returning to Parliament very soon, after just making it through all the prorogation jamboree in the autumn.