NHS migrant surcharge: PM faced rebellion over controversial plans.

The NHS surcharge that sees some non-EU migrant health and care workers paying £400 for access to services, whether they use them or not, is supposed to go up this year, but could it instead be scrapped? Several Tory backbenchers are joining calls for the government to dump the fee as the country recognises the importance of overseas staff in the health system. Our political editor Joe Murphy tells us Boris Johnson's own praise of the migrant workers who saved the Prime Minister's life is putting him in an awkward position in trying to defend the charge. 

More than 60,000 new Covid-19 infections are happening a week in England. The number from the Covid-19 Infection Survey, which is led by the Office for National Statistics, is far higher than the number of confirmed positive tests announced by the Government daily. Health authorities are now claiming Downing Street is in a race against time to get its delayed track and trace system up and running. The Evening Standard's Nicholas Cecil says it may have to go ahead without the app that was supposed to be the centrepiece of the entire thing.

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