Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Dominic Raab hosts Cobra meeting on lockdown plan

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The British public don’t like rule breakers. Spurs boss Jose Mourinho is under fire after he was pictured meeting up with club midfielder Tanguy Ndombele for a training session in a London park. The lockdown remains highly popular with the British public – but there is still no certainty it will continue beyond next week’s review deadline. Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary deputising for Boris Johnson, is under pressure to set out clear timetable for what happens next. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus outbreak.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

As Boris Johnson remains in intensive care, Dominic Raab will chair a Cobra committee meeting today to consider whether to extend the UK’s lockdown measures. Ministers and senior officials will look at latest scientific data and the impact of the stringent restrictions brought in on 23 March. Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon and the leaders of the other devolved nations will join the crucial meeting to agree on an unified approach.

Daily briefing

ENGAGING BEHAVIOUR: Rishi Sunak delivered the good news that Boris Johnson’s condition is “improving” at the latest Downing Street briefing. The chancellor said the PM was now “sitting up in bed and engaging positively” with the clinical team at St Thomas’ Hospital. Asked about the review into the lockdown, Sunak told us it would be based on evidence “only available next week”. There appears to be very little chance it won’t be extended, but questions remain over exactly when and how the decision will be taken, and how long measures might last. According to The Times, political leaders across the four parts of the UK have at least agreed to launch a “Stay at Home This Easter” campaign after today’s Cobra meeting. It comes as a record daily total of 938 deaths were reported. The deputy chief scientific adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean, offered some cause for optimism. She said new cases were not “accelerating out of control”, pointing to a graph showing admissions to critical care were slowing.

FIXING A HOLE: Sunak also used the latest briefing to unveil a £750m package aimed at helping charities stay afloat. There will cash grants going to organisations providing key services during the crisis, including £200m for hospices. Labour’s Anneliese Dodds said it welcome but fell “far short” of what was need, with the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee also warning of a £4bn “black hole” faced by the sector over the next three months. There is no shortage of grim economic forecasts at the moment. More than nine million workers are expected to be furloughed by their employers, according Resolution Foundation analysis. With over a million people applying for universal credit between 16 March and 3 April, MPs in the Commons’ work and pensions committee have called on first-time applicants and long-standing claimants to tell them about their experiences of the system.

DISMISSIVE MISSIVES: The business of government of government continues with some furious letter writing. The home secretary Priti Patel has repeatedly turned down requests to give evidence to a select committee on her department’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. Patel has rejected four invitations from the home affairs committee since January, according to the BBC – with a series of missives exchanged between Patel and chair Yvette Cooper described as “acrimonious”. GMB host Piers Morgan called on Patel to explain what she had been doing since the start of the crisis. “We haven’t heard a peep from you,” he tweeted. Elsewhere, the Royal College of Nursing has written to health committee chair Jeremy Hunt to appeal for help getting more personal protective equipment (PPE) for nurses. The union said the lack of PPE is “fundamentally compromising” their safety, and revealed some have been forced to reuse single-use items.

LEAVING THE HORROR BEHIND: Donald Trump has vowed to soon reopen the US economy “with a bang”, even as the number of coronavirus deaths in the US passed the 14,500 mark. “We’re getting much closer to getting our country back to the way it was,” the president said, somewhat vaguely, at his latest press conference. “We’re going to win. We’re going to do it much sooner than people think.” In a more-insensitive-than-usual tweet, he stated: “The horror of the Invisible Enemy, except for those that sadly lost a family member or friend, must be quickly forgotten.” Trump now appears certain to face Joe Biden for the presidency, after Bernie Sanders exited the 2020 race. The president will be worried his approval ratings have dipped, as a new SSRS survey found 55 per cent disapprove of his handling of the crisis.

ROCKING THE BOAT: Police in Australia have seized the black box recorder from the ruby Princess cruise ship after a homicide investigation was launched into why 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark the virus-hit vessel off the coast of Sydney in March. There have been over 600 confirmed cases of coronavirus from the cruise liner – the country’s biggest single source of infections – and 15 people who disembarked have died. “Ships have a black box very similar to that of international planes,” said police commissioner Mick Fuller. Meanwhile, the Australian authorities reported 96 new coronavirus infections, its first daily increase of less than 100 cases in the past three weeks.

ONLY HUMAN: The World Health Organisation’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has rejected Donald Trump’s claim WHO has been China-centric, saying: “We are close to every nation, we are colour-blind.” The chief of the UN health agency also said his organisation would conduct an assessment of its performance after the emergency is over. “We make mistakes like other human beings,” he said. Meanwhile, more than 200 conservation groups have signed an open letter calling on WHO to do more to prevent new diseases emerging from wildlife trade. Scientists say the evidence points to Covid-19 originating from animals – most likely bats – in “wet markets” where both live and dead creatures are sold as food and slaughtered on demand.

On the record

“The prime minister is not only my colleague and my boss but also my friend, and my thoughts are with him and his family.”

Rishi Sunak sends his best wishes to the PM and his loved ones.

From the Twitterati

“Please can all politicians stop talking about the PM having a lot of fight in him. I wish him well. But as one who has had cancer I can tell you this suggestion that disease respects those with “fight” is deeply offensive. It implies that those who lose are somehow to blame.”

Labour MP Chris Bryant objects to the ‘fighter’ rhetoric...

“It’s a hard time, but the UK’s Foreign Sec still shouldn’t use this cliche … People aren’t dying because they aren’t trying hard enough not to.”

…and Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman objects to Dominic Raab using it.

Essential reading

Sadiq Khan, The Independent: The government must make financial support accessible to all domestic abuse victims

Jess Phillips, The Independent: Labour’s new cabinet has me feeling more confident about the future

Katy Balls, The Guardian: When will the cabinet ease the lockdown? That depends which minister you ask

Charles M. Blow, The New York Times: Focus the Covid-19 fight in black cities

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