Richard Holden: Labour must work with new Red Wall Tory MPs for the common good – or it will be swept aside

Shotley Bridge hospital was mentioned in Parliament three times in ten years by my predecessors; and as often by me in the last six months. 

David Gauke: A localised piloting, regional approach to ending lockdown. It’s what should happen – and now it may.

Recognise that different conditions apply in different places. Advance where we can. Build up evidence when we need to. Less haste, more speed.

Iain Dale: Hancock’s claim that care homes were wrapped in “a bubble of care” has a hollow ring to it

Plus: it was down to earth with a bump for Starmer this week at Prime Minister’s Questions – as he failed to think on his feet.

Henry Hill: Sunak squares up to the SNP over the future of furlough

Also: Welsh Government abandons separate testing app to join UK-run scheme; Gove tries to downplay the Irish Sea border.

Garvan Walshe: How Covid-19 is leaving Macron’s left flank exposed

The president has lost his majority during the course of the Coronavirus pandemic. How will it affect his odds at the 2022 election?

Robert Halfon: The non-Conservatives who are urging a return to schools for our children’s sake

Plus: Don’t force MPs who are sick or shielding back to Parliament, Jacob. And: let’s divert aid money to seek a vaccine.

Luke Evans: The virus – and why the litigation nightmare that haunts our servicemen now also threatens our doctors

Defensive medicine may intellectually go against years of training and logic, but it keeps us legally protected. But it might not work in these wartime conditions.

Andy Street: Easing the lockdown means trusting the people

Here in the West Midlands we are seeing construction resuming, the housing market restarting and our all-important car industry reviving.

Neil O’Brien: Bullying, hostage taking, censorship, bribery. How China is dealing with its critics abroad.

Economically and politically, Beijing takes advantage of asymmetric openness: we’re open to them, but they are not to us.

Iain Dale: When black women Labour MPs are wrong, white middle aged men should be free to call them out

Plus: Sturgeon’s failures as a leader and her successes as a communicator. And: the lobby has a reshuffle.

Henry Hill: As predicted, the ‘four nations’ approach to Covid-19 is falling apart

Also: Kawczynski clashes with colleagues over the future of Welsh devolution; Government capitulates on an Irish Sea border; and more.

Stephen Booth: On the Northern Ireland Protocol, the UK’s negotiating hand is stronger than people think

The formal deadline for agreeing an extension to the transition period is close, but Britain is unlikely to ask for one.

Luke Evans: We must protect the long-term mental health of frontline NHS staff

We have to make sure that there are not only helplines but that both they and general mental health support are highly visible.

Ryan Bourne: A view so radical that some simply won’t see it. The driver of our problems isn’t lockdown. It’s the virus.

Impacts on the margin shouldn’t be used to mask the big picture: private activity mimicked shutdowns before they happened.

Daniel Hannan: Why are so many Burkean Tories still backing this rolling forward of state power?

The government’s initial response was in fact admirably Burkean. The full force of law was used sparingly. And you know what? It did the trick.