UK coronavirus live: minister insists there is 'no confusion' over A-level grades in England

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has responded to today’s bleak economic figures, which show Britain has entered the deepest recession since records began.

“I’ve said before that hard times were ahead, and today’s figures confirm that hard times are here,” he said.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will. But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity.”

The Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell in the second quarter by 20.4% compared with the previous three months – the biggest quarterly decline since comparable records began in 1955.

Read the full story by my colleague Richard Partington here.

Unsurprisingly, Labour has something to say about the government’s change of heart on exam results in England and Wales.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green, the MP for Stretford and Urmston in Greater Manchester, said one of the problems is many students would not have sat mock exams.

“I don’t think this is a perfect answer at all to what is now becoming a really chaotic situation,” she told BBC Breakfast.

“And very, very worrying for (A-level) students the day before they’re due to get their results finding the system changing again.”

She added: “Not all students will have even taken mock exams and what we’ve now got is a system which clearly is not fit for purpose. The government itself is clearly acknowledging that by announcing more and more changes to it.”

She insisted there needs to be a “proper robust” appeals process for students so that they are not dependant on “systems that may not fairly reflect the work that they’ve done”.

Giving students the opportunity to retake A-level exams in October is “not an adequate response”, Green said: “While it’s useful to have as a backstop, there are a couple of concerns with it. That will come too late in the day for students who, for example, want to start a college course in September, they won’t have their results on time.”

She questioned how the retakes will be organised: “Schools are already having to make a lot of changes to the school day, to the school premises, to how they organise school when children go back next month because of the need for social distancing.

“So we’re still waiting for more information as to how it is that schools will be supported to run these retakes. It’s important to have them as a backstop, but that is not either an adequate response.”

The schools minister has refused to apologise for the last minute u-turn over exam results in England and Wales, insisting there has been “no confusion” over how they will be awarded.

Talking on BBC Breakfast, Nick Gibb defended the government’s eleventh hour decision to allow A-level and GCSE students in England to use their mock exam results.

“No, there’s no confusion. We’ve been clear from the very beginning,” said Gibb about the announcement last night of a “triple lock” which means students getting A-level and GCSE results can accept that grade, based on teacher estimations, or change it for a mark gained in a mock exam. Or they can instead choose to take the exam in the autumn.

“We apologise to nobody for finding solutions, even at the eleventh hour, to stop any student being disadvantaged from this system,” said Gibb.

The move followed a climb-down in Scotland yesterday when the SNP-led government agreed to reinstate over 100,000 exams grades following a furious row that saw pupils protesting over “classist” downgrades.

You can watch a clip of Gibb saying all of the above with a straight face — if you’re into that sort of thing:

Good morning from sultry Stockport. I’m Helen Pidd and I will be looking after the blog for a few hours this morning. You can email me helen.pidd@theguardian.com