Police had not been keen to be involved in the Quarantine plans. The government confirmed they will have a limited role and will not be carrying out spot checks.

While public health authorities will conduct random checks in England to verify self isolation, police will only be involved if it is suspected a recent traveller is not complying and may face potential enforcement action.

Martin Hewitt, chair of the National police chiefs council, said public officials will carry out checks on 20 percent of recentarrivals who are not exempted. He said: “It will not be the role of police to conduct spot checks on those who should be isolating.”

I ask again, what is it about Ms Patel that causes you so much offence?

At the 5pm Downing Street press conference, the home secretary Priti Patel was asked by The Independent whether it was right that foreign NHS doctors and nurses are being given automatic visa extensions to carry on fighting coronavirus, but that lower-paid NHS workers, like hospital porters and cleaners, are not.

I have gone to the not insignificant trouble of typing out Patel’s reply in full:

“Rob, thank you for your question, and again, as I’ve just said, already the work that we’re seeing across the NHS is just absolutely incredible, erm, and I’ve also just made the point as well that, you know, this is difficult in terms of, we’ve seen the complexities around immigration, but right across the immigration system through these unprecedented times and challenges we are supporting frontline health workers, social care workers, and obviously we are finding ways in which we can support other workers as well across the NHS. Our immigration system is incredibly complex and I have said that I am looking at various schemes. We keep everything under review. In fact, this point was made earlier this year with the Law Commission’s own report on immigration rules where our immigration system is complex. I want to simplify some of these rules, I really do, so we are now looking at what changes we can bring in, very much in the same way, as was announced yesterday, around the immigration health surcharge I am working across government with my colleagues to look at what we can do in this particular space.”

That is not so much what is known as a word salad as a word jambalaya. If words really were foods, Priti Patel’s answers are what you imagine you might see in a freak motorway pile-up involving only Ocado vans.

Sometimes it is very easy indeed to forget that the point of the 5pm daily press conference is for the government to explain to the public what is going on with coronavirus. It exists as a method of reassuring us that everything, insofar as it can be, is under control.

For that reason, it is arguably fair enough that in what is now almost three full months, the government’s most senior woman, the home secretary Priti Patel, has been allowed to appear only three times.

Priti Patel’s answers

Plans to force almost all arrivals to the UK to isolate for 14 days have been confirmed by the home secretary.

Priti Patel told the Commons that Border Force will check that travellers fill out a form with their contact details and location for isolation.

Leaving isolation prematurely in England could result in a fine of up to £1,000 or prosecution, she said.

"We will not allow a reckless minority to put our domestic recovery at risk," she said.

Ms Patel told MPs that scientific advisers had said quarantine would not have been effective earlier in the coronavirus pandemic when infection rates in the UK were higher.

But now, imported cases of the virus posed a more significant threat, she said, so it was now important to "protect our hard-won progress as we move in the right direction".

It comes as the latest Department of Health figures show another 359 people have died after contracting coronavirus, bringing the UK total to 39,728. An additional 1,871 people tested positive in the last 24-hour period.

Priti Patel faces mounting calls to publish the scientific advice behind the 14-day quarantine period for new arrivals to the UK, after the government’s chief scientific adviser declined to fully endorse such a blanket policy.

Speaking at the regular No 10 press conference, Sir Patrick Vallance said the advice from the Sage advisory committee was that quarantines worked best when infection rates inside a country had dropped, but also when applied to countries with high rates of coronavirus.

Asked about the issue at the press conference, Vallance stressed the decision was ultimately one for ministers. “The Sage advice from the experts in this area is that the measures like this are most effective when the number of cases is very low, and they’re most effective when they’re applied to countries from higher rates,” he said.

Priti Patel made the comments after she visited Dover today.