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Sir David Amess, aged 69, the Conservative MP for Southend West, was stabbed to death while taking a constituency surgery at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Police stopped a priest reaching him to administer the last rites. They arrested Ali Harbi Ali, 25, a British man of Somali heritage, who was detained under the Terrorism Act. The Queen agreed that Southend should be granted the status of a city, which Sir David had long campaigned for. Dennis Hutchings, 80, a former soldier on trial in Belfast for the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham, 27, in 1974, died after catching Covid.
In the seven days up to the beginning of this week, 830 people had died with coronavirus, bringing the total of deaths (within 28 days of testing positive) to 138,527. (In the previous week deaths had numbered 787.) Numbers remaining in hospital rose a little to about 7,086. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, called for ‘Mask wearing in crowded places, avoiding unnecessary indoor gatherings, I think working from home if you can’. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said there were shortages of NHS staff to answer 111 and 999 calls.
At least 806 migrants in three days crossed the Channel to England in small boats, bringing to 19,400 the number who had made the crossing this year. Sir Gerry Robinson, the Irish-born businessman and broadcaster, died aged 72. The government announced some plans to achieve net-zero carbon: £620 million in grants for electric vehicles and street charging points, and £120 million to develop small modular nuclear reactors. ‘We want to be the Qatar of hydrogen,’ declared Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister. People in England and Wales will be offered £5,000 from April to replace gas boilers with electric heat pumps; but the funds would only cover 90,000.
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