One of Boris Johnson's closest allies quit as a minister today after being found to have breached the MPs' code of conduct by trying to "intimidate" a company chairman involved in a loan row with his father.

Sir Keir Starmer has urged the Prime Minister to form a "national consensus" on the next phase of the Government's coronavirus response as ministers work on plans to ease the lockdown.

Downing Street has replaced a trade minister who resigned when an investigation found he threatened a company chairman over a financial dispute with his father.

Lockdown measures may start to be lifted on Monday "if we possibly can", Boris Johnson has announced.

Boris Johnson has set out a new target of 200,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of May, as he admitted he "bitterly regrets" the crisis in care homes.

He also said he "bitterly regrets" the crisis in care homes, where staff have hit out at a lack of testing and PPE. The latest figures show that nursing home fatalities are continuing to rise, standing at 2,794 in the week to April 24, despite deaths in all settings beginning to fall.

The Government has failed to meet its 100,000 coronavirus daily testing target for the fifth day running as criticism mounts on ministers to bolster supplies.

Despite everything, the Tory party is sticking to the ideology of the free market, rather than saving lives and jobs

“How on earth did it come to this?” Keir Starmer’s question could skewer Boris Johnson at every PMQs from now on. It encompasses all the damage the government did in the last decade, as well as all it has failed to do to protect the country from Covid-19. The list of derelictions in the early stage of the crisis is long, the testing and the protective equipment still shamefully inadequate. Have lessons been learned? The auguries are not good.

Related: Picnics and sunbathing on cards as PM expected to allow more time outside

Clarity on lifting Covid-19 rules needed, from increasing time outdoors to schools returning

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Boris Johnson will address the nation on Sunday to set out a road map for how England might leave the Covid-19 lockdown. Any immediate changes have been billed as modest and incremental, but people are expecting more details on how life could differ over the next few weeks. Here are the questions the prime minister needs to answer:

'Why so much anti-Boris clips in a time when the country should be united?'

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Lockdown restrictions are set to be eased - Tom Clarke shares his reservations on the idea.

The Prime Minister was welcomed to the abbey by the Dean of Westminster, and lit a candle on the eve on the 75th anniversary of the Allied v

Current and former cabinet ministers have rushed to defend Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the wake of damning claims.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 on March 27, 2020.

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Baby Johnson joins Leo Blair and Florence Cameron to become a member of a very exclusive club.

The brother of Harry Dunn, who died outside a US airforce base, urges Boris Johnson to take up the case.

The PM says government is "working hard" to tackle it - and sets 200,000 test aim by end of month.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was discharged from hospital on Sunday, a Downing Street spokesperson said, a week after being admitted for treatment for Coronavirus. Downing Street said the prime minister would continue his recovery at his country residence, Chequers.

Johnson said on Sunday Britain "will defeat" coronavirus, in a video message released by Downing Street as he left hospital following intensive care treatment for the disease. He also thanked the state-funded NHS medics and staff for their hard work through the pandemic as he was discharged from hospital, saying he owed them his life after testing positive for the deadly virus over two weeks ago.

As of Sunday evening, the health officials said further 737 people died from Coronavirus in the UK, bringing the total to 10,612. "Today marks a sombre day in the impact of this disease," the Guardian quoted Health Secretary Matt Hancock as saying. Earlier in the day, the UK Opposition parties and some ruling Conservative Party MPs called on the government to resume Parliament after its Easter recess period on April 21 in a virtual form, given the social distancing measures in place.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be back at work in 10 Downing Street on Monday, after recovering ving a London hospital in his fight against the novel coronavirus, Xinhua news agency stated after citing British media reports on Saturday night. Johnson told his cabinet colleagues that he will be back to his normal schedule following his treatment in St. Thomas' Hospital in London for COVID-19. Depending on doctors' advice, Johnson may host Monday's daily Downing Street news conference and possibly take on the new Labour leader Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Sky News reported.

"He is 'raring to go' and will be back Monday," Sky News noted, citing a Downing Street source. Johnson said on April 12 that he had left the hospital "after a week in which the NHS has saved my life, no question." Johnson, who spent three nights in intensive care in the hospital, spent a week in Chequers, the prime minister's country house after leaving hospital.

"He had a Chequers meeting with advisers on Friday and he will be meeting the (British) health secretary, Matt Hancock, and getting back to his normal schedule," Sky News reported. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is also the first secretary of state, had been deputized by Johnson to carry out his duties during his illness.

Earlier in the day, the British Department of Health said that a further 813 people had died of COVID-19 as of 1600 GMT on Friday, bringing the death toll to 20,319 and making UK the fifth nation globally to pass the grim milestone of 20,000 deaths, after the United States, Italy, Spain and France. Care home deaths and those in the community are still excluded from the British tally.

The UK-wide figure has doubled in less than two weeks. A total of 148,377 people have now tested positive for the virus in the country, a jump of 4,913 in 24 hours.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday warned against relaxing the Coronavirus restrictions too soon as the country was still facing a moment of "maximum risk", in his first remarks since returning to work after contracting the disease that has killed over 20,000.

While declaring that the tide is being turned on the pandemic in the country, he urged the public to contain their impatience against the lockdown. "We are beginning to turn the tide. There are real signs we are passing through the peak," said Johnson, 55, on returning to Downing Street after recovering from the virus.

Boris Johnson

He promised "maximum transparency" on the decisions to be taken as the UK enters phase two of the Covid-19 fightback, which will involve one by one firing up the "economic engines" of the UK economy.

Johnson said the UK has "so far collectively shielded our National Health Service" and "flattened the peak" — but he could not yet say when or which restrictions would be lifted.

4K domestic abuse arrests
The House of Commons' Home Affairs Committee on Monday called for urgent action from the government over a surge in domestic abuse cases amid the lockdown, with London alone registering 4,093 arrests in the six weeks up to April 19. The panel found that calls and contacts to the helpline run by the charity Refuge were 49 per cent higher in the week prior to April 15, than the average prior to the pandemic.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and fiancee Carrie Symonds announced the birth of a 'healthy baby boy', delivered at a government-run hospital in London on Wednesday. The birth is believed to be slightly premature but both mother and baby are said to be doing very well.

Prime Minister of United Kingdom Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds blessed with a baby boy: UK Media. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/uSQcWcureI

— ANI (@ANI) April 29, 2020

"The Prime Minister and Symonds are thrilled to announce the birth of a healthy baby boy at a London hospital earlier this morning, a spokesperson for the couple said on Wednesday.

"Both mother and baby are doing very well. The PM and Symonds would like to thank the fantastic NHS (National Health Service) maternity team, the spokesperson said.

The news comes days after Johnson, 55, returned to 10 Downing Street on Monday after his hospitalisation for complications from COVID-19. He had been recuperating at his Chequers countryside retreat in Buckinghamshire, where he was joined by his pregnant fiancee.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/83HkS1Vjhx

— Carrie Symonds (@carriesymonds) April 9, 2020

Symonds had taken to Twitter earlier this month to express her relief at Johnson's discharge from hospital with a series of clapping hands emoticons alongside a picture of a rainbow, which has emerged as the symbol of support for the country's NHS through the course of the pandemic fightback.

The 32-year-old herself had been previously self-isolating with the couple's dog Dilyn after she developed symptoms of coronavirus but later revealed she was on the mend. The couple had announced their engagement at the end of February, when it was also revealed that they were expecting their first baby in the summer.

The last child born to a sitting UK prime minister belonged to David and Samantha Cameron, who welcomed Florence Rose Endellion into their family in August 2010. Symonds, who works for an ocean conservation charity, met Johnson during her time as the communications chief for the Conservative Party.

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UK Prime Minister Borish Johnson has been shifted from the intensive care unit, a spokesperson for the UK Prime Minister said. "The Prime Minister

Downing Street says any changes will be ‘very limited’ to avoid second peak of infections

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn spar in a televised debate just six days before the general election.

The pound has soared more than 2 per cent in its biggest rise since 2017 after an exit poll has projected a strong victory for Boris Johnson’s Conservative party.

The Conservatives secure the biggest majority in parliament since Margaret Thatcher with Labour's 'red wall' crumbling; stocks in London surge while the pound has soared more than 2 per cent in its sharpest rally in nearly three years

Britain's new prime minister Boris Johnson has set himself a 100-day deadline to achieve Brexit, with or without a deal with the European Union. Siona Jenkins discusses his chances of achieving this with Miranda Green, deputy opinion editor, and Jim Brunsden, EU correspondent.

Contributors: Siona Jenkins, editor, UK news, Miranda Green, deputy opinion editor, and Jim Brunsden, EU correspondent. Producer: Fiona Symon

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UK prime minister Boris Johnson has been accused of constitutional vandalism by curtailing the opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny of his government in the final weeks of the Brexit talks. The courts will now determine whether his decision to shut down parliament was legal or not. Henry Mance discusses what all this means for British democracy with constitutional expert Sionaidh Douglas-Scott and UK assistant news editor John Aglionby.

Contributors: Henry Mance, chief features writer, Professor Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, Anniversary Chair in Law at Queen Mary University in London, and John Aglionby, assistant UK news editor. Producer: Fiona Symon

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The Conservatives will not lightly give up their newly acquired working-class voters

Voters will not tolerate another NHS winter flu crisis with too few medical staff

The UK’s dire productivity performance since the financial crisis needs to improve

HENRY DEEDES: The PM's prognosis was: no pubs, no clubs, and no more trips to the theatre. In fact, no heading outdoors unless extremely necessary.

HENRY DEEDES: Hearing each drastic measure one by one, Boris Johnson must have felt like a Premiership footballer having the cost of his floozy's latest splurge read out to him in person.

HENRY DEEDES: As the PM took his place at the Downing Street podium to address the nation on coronavirus, it was like witnessing a frustrated footballer suddenly moving to the favourite position.