Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Boris Johnson remains cautious over lockdown exit plan

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Thursday 30 April 2020 07:52 BST

Coronavirus: Raab says UK needs to be careful during period of 'maximum risk'

Desperate for a pint? Wetherspoons is counting on it. The chain plans to open its pubs in June – even though the government has yet to set out any lockdown end dates. It comes as police discovered drinkers hiding in the cupboards of a pub in Sheffield, allegedly breaking the rules. We don’t know if Boris Johnson wet the baby’s head after the birth of his son. We do know he will lead his first Downing Street press conference since his return to work – and is expected to dampen expectations that restrictions will be eased any time soon. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus crisis.

Inside the bubble

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

Boris Johnson will chair the weekly cabinet meeting, where ministers will discuss the advice on a possible phased rollback of lockdown restrictions from the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) – also meeting today. Under its new three-days-a-week “hybrid” timetable, the Commons will not be sitting. But executives from Twitter, Facebook and Google will appear before the culture committee to be grilled on their response to the coronavirus conspiracy theories circulating on their platforms.

Daily briefing

PLAYING IT SAFE: Boris Johnson is set to give us some more clues into the government’s thinking on lockdown easing at the Downing Street briefing later (he promised as much at the start of the week). But various reports this morning suggest he is not ready to reveal any important details, with no firm decisions made. The transmission rate going up in Germany after Angela Merkel lifted some restrictions is thought to have made No 10 more cautious. Keir Starmer was among the many offering congratulations to Johnson and partner Carrie Symonds on the birth of their son – “I really hope that this brings them incredible relief and joy” – and held “constructive talks” with the PM. But the Labour leader wasn’t messing when he went up against Dominic Raab at PMQs. Starmer again demanded an exit strategy, attacked the PM for claiming the handling of the crisis had been a “success”, and called the number of deaths from the virus “truly dreadful”.

TEACHABLE MOMENT: Raab was forced to defend the treatment of care homes at the latest press briefing, admitting there could be “no sugar coating the challenge” in getting staff and residents tested. The foreign secretary said there was “always learning in an unprecedented crisis like this”. It came as the latest figures showed a further 765 UK deaths in from the virus, as overall figures included deaths outside of hospitals for the first time. Asked whether more testing could have prevented deaths, Public Health England’s medical director, Prof Yvonne Doyle said it was “impossible to say at the moment – and that’s one thing we want to learn.” Today marks the deadline for the government to hit its target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests. But confirmation may not come until as late as Monday because of the time-lag in gathering statistics.

GO YOUR OWN WAY: Mark Drakeford is clearly feeling frustrated. The Welsh first minister claimed it has been “a bit of a struggle” to get UK ministers to engage with their Welsh counterparts on a lockdown exit plan. Drakeford said his team were now “preparing our own thinking” in case a UK-wide consensus is not possible. Could we see significant geographical variations in where rules are eased? Michael Gove said new track and trace technology could be tested on Britain’s islands – meaning restrictions would be lifted there first. The Cabinet minister also confirmed ministers were considering a sector by sector approach to lifting the lockdown. According to The Telegraph, the UK’s five biggest business groups have been asked to send “dossiers” by Sunday night to business secretary Alok Sharma explaining how different sectors might restart.

DASTARDLY PLOT: Donald Trump thinks China has it in for him. The US president claimed Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak was proof that China “will do anything they can to have me lose” November’s election. In an interview with Reuters, Trump also claimed that “in the not too distant future we’ll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other”. Elsewhere New York governor Andrew Cuomo attacked Republican leader Mitch McConnell for suggesting states should not be “bailed out”. Cuomo said: “How long are you going to play the American people and assume they’re stupid?” As New York reported another 330 coronavirus fatalities in 24 hours, Cuomo said deaths are “still disgustingly high”.

DRUG OF CHOICE: The US Food and Drug administration (FDA) plans to authorise the emergency use of Remdesivir to treat those infected with the coronavirus, as Trump task force official Dr Anthony Fauci revealed he was “very optimistic” about early results from the trials. They showed that the drug – previously used to treat Ebola – shortened recovery time for some patients from 15 days down to 11. Dr Fauci said it had a “clear cut significant positive effect in diminishing time to recovery”. Deenan Pillay, professor of virology at University College London, cautioned against overexcitement. “It is not making many people who were going to die survive,” he said.

SEOUL SUCCESS STORY: South Korea – which had been a major hotspot in the early stages of the spread of the coronavirus – has reported no new domestic cases for the first time since February. The country’s disease control body reported four new infections, all imported cases found at airports. The health authorities also concluded no local transmission occurred from South Korea’s parliamentary election this month, which required voters to wear masks and plastic gloves when casting their ballots. Seoul has been hailed for introducing an aggressive testing regime early in the outbreak.

On the record

“This virus is the enemy of the United States, they need to find the right target.”

Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, on Trump’s blame game.

From the Twitterati

“A new born baby may be a better excuse than most for missing PMQs (though he should still be doing it). I suspect we are going to see an awful lot of excuses in future. @BorisJohnson has a habit of avoiding proper questioning.”

Alastair Campbell isn’t happy the PM skipped PMQs...

“Honestly, our media’s elevation of Boris Johnson’s physical person – illness, recovery, new baby – into a symbol of the government’s character and the nation’s health would embarrass most medieval courtiers.”

…while left-wing pundit Ash Sarkar isn’t happy about any of it.