With the number of COVID infections on the rise, two million people in north-east England are expected to face local restrictions. Areas including Newcastle and Sunderland are due to be subject to new measures. These are expected to include restrictions on households mixing and pubs being ordered to close earlier. Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes said it was hoped the temporary measures would prevent a "full lock-down". It comes as more than 100 people turned up at an A&E asking for Covid-19 tests, sparking a plea from a hospital trust for anyone who was not seriously ill to stay away. Bolton NHS Trust said dozens of people went to Royal Bolton Hospital because they could not get into test centres. The trust says it shows NHS Test and Trace is "failing", but the government insists it is "working". More lock-downs and threats of curfews come at a time our economy is struggling to get back on its feet and further restrictions are not going to help. A major rethink is needed before we cause utter devastation. The PM faced Labour's Angela Rayner at PMQs as Starmer was self-isolating. Inevitably, the problem with testing was the topic today. At 1300 we held a virtual meeting of our European Scrutiny Committee, which is ably chaired by Sir William Cash. Meanwhile, the committee stage of the UK Internal Market Bill continued to be debated in the Chamber. The SNP continue to come across as so embittered, banging on as they do about independence, which would ruin Scotland and break up our UK. I turned on my TV to watch the Liaison Committee, where senior MPs were questioning the PM. The MPs all chair the various committees, so the questions are detailed and varied. The PM told the committee that he believed the EU may not be negotiating with the UK in good faith. The PM was explaining why he wanted to overwrite parts of the Brexit deal he signed with the EU in January. He said it was to prevent the EU behaving in an "unreasonable" way if the UK fails to agree a trade deal. It came as the UK government's law officer for Scotland, Lord Keen, resigned amid a legal row over Brexit legislation. The advocate general said he had "found it increasingly difficult to reconcile" his obligations as a lawyer with provisions in the Internal Market Bill. In economic news, the Eat Out to Help Out scheme has helped push inflation in the UK to its lowest level for nearly five years. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows inflation, the rate at which the prices for goods and services increases, dropped to 0.2 per cent n August from 1 per cent in July. Finally, Barbados has announced its intention to remove Queen Elizabeth as its head of state and become a republic. It aims to complete the process in time for the 55th anniversary of independence from Britain, in November 2021.