The Breakfast Briefing: PM’s lectern comeback, testing deadline arrives, and Labour’s lockdown critique
Boris Johnson will chair today’s No 10 briefing at 5pm.
3 min read
Your morning guide to what’s moving in Westminster, from PolHome acting editor Matt Honeycombe-Foster
Boris Johnson will be back at that Number 10 lectern tonight as he gives his first coronavirus press conference since March - managing to fit in a terrifying bout in intensive care and the joy of becoming a dad again in the meantime.
Anyone expecting a break from the ‘five tests’ holding pattern on easing the lockdown should probably look away now, however, with the PM - who will chair Cabinet this morning - widely expected to reprise his theme from Monday’s speech on the steps of Downing Street and warn that easing the restrictive measures too soon will risk a second spike and further trash the economy.
Dominic Raab set the tone at last night’s presser, urging the country not to “gamble away the sacrifices and the progress that we’ve made” - and pointing to Germany, which has seen a rise in its Covid-19 transmission rate since easing up some measures, as a cautionary tale on the “delicate and dangerous moment” the UK now finds itself in.
It looks like business, at least, is in line for some meat on the bones of the Government’s exit strategy.
Of course, the Government’s critics believe the UK has a lot to learn from Angela Merkel’s handling of the crisis. In a detailed essay for our sister title The House Live, Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth specifically cites Merkel and New Zealand’s Jacina Ardern, as he says: “Other governments have discussed the implications and way forward with their citizens in a responsible and mature way.”
It looks like business, at least, is in line for some meat on the bones of the Government’s exit strategy. Amid the clamour for more information on that much-vaunted “phase two” of lockdown, the FT reports this morning that firms will get “workplace by workplace” guidance on how they can safely get back to work - with Business Secretary Alok Sharma aiming for ten papers by the weekend. That should get some of the Government’s critics on the Conservative benches off the PM’s back, at the very least.
It is, of course, the end of April, which means the deadline for that 100,000-a-day testing target - a source of tension between Number 10 and Matt Hancock since he launched it to great fanfare last month - has come screaming into view.
The latest figures show that the UK reached just over 52,000 coronavirus tests as of Tuesday - a huge leap from when the target was announced, but still far below the total promised. Professor John Newton was sticking to the pledge at Wednesday’s press conference and warned that there will likely be a lag in the data, meaning we may not know whether or not the vow has been fulfilled for a good few days.
But hospitals group NHS Providers, not exactly known for baseless shroud-waving, has a punchy report on the target out this morning which says the goal is a “red herring”, and warns: "A vast amount still remains to be done to reach a testing regime that can be described as fit for purpose.”
With issues like that in the in-tray, the nappy changing is going to feel like a blessed relief.
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