The British Government has a proud record of standing up for, and protecting, human rights. To keep our people safe and defend our allies we have an obligation to robustly hold rogue states, organisations and individuals who perpetrate and profit from gross human rights violations to account.

I write this on Tuesday, moments after the Prime Minister announced a further easing of the lockdown that will commence on Saturday 4th July.

Multilateral organisations are under siege, and, by extension, so is the rules-based international order. Since at least the Second World War, Britain and her allies have stood shoulder to shoulder to defend this order; our strong alliances are our greatest strength.

Over the last week, we have reached several considerable milestones in our national battle against COVID-19.

The last weeks have been a challenging and sobering time for everyone. Not only are we battling COVID-19, but we are also witnessing the scourge of racism.

The murder of George Floyd was heart-breaking, and although almost impossible to watch the video of his brutal murder, he deserved the respect of our not averting our eyes.

We have made considerable progress in our efforts to defeat COVID-19 and have now met the five tests laid out by the Government, allowing us to slowly and cautiously reunite with one another.

When we entered lockdown just over two months ago we faced an aggressive, unseen and unknown enemy. Since my last column we have reached several significant milestones in our efforts to defeat it.

I understand that the process of returning to some form of normality presents new anxieties for residents.

In the last week the Government has made significant progress to defeat COVID-19. We have rapidly developed our small and specialised diagnostics industry and scaled it at an exponential pace.