Boris Johnson news – live: Government 'far too slow' to roll out economic recovery plan, says Sadiq Khan, as Rishi Sunak unveils mini-budget
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has scrapped stamp duty for homes under £500,000 and slashed VAT on the hospitality sector – with Britons to be given money-off restaurant vouchers throughout August - in his emergency “mini-budget”, as he announced the government’s coronavirus furlough scheme will end in October.
It came after Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer clashed in the Commons, with the Labour leader accusing the prime minister of “rubbing salt in the wounds” of care home workers with his comments that they had failed to follow procedures as Covid-19 deaths soared. Mr Johnson said the government took “full responsibility” but failed to directly apologise for his comments.
Meanwhile, the finance ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also written to the chancellor to demand Westminster hand over “crucial” but “relatively limited” fiscal powers in light of the coronavirus crisis, to allow capital spending to be moved over to day-to-day revenue and bring an end to “arbitrary” borrowing limits.
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"We live in a time of signs and wonders. Scientists have found pink snow in the Alps, which might sound kind of fun and psychedelic – but it’s there because of a nasty kind of algae growing in the heat brought on by climate change," he writes.
"There is no shortage of bad signs in Britain right now – well-known businesses going to the wall and gloomy predictions of rising unemployment. Can Rishi Sunak work any economic wonders? As the chancellor unveils a jobs fund for young people ahead of today’s mini-Budget, the hard-pressed will be hoping he still has a few miracles left up his sleeve."
Labour to call for 'flexible' furlough scheme to 'avoid additional floods of redundancy notices' in face of local lockdowns
Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds will also press Rishi Sunak to spell out how he will fund his coronavirus recovery package without hiking taxes or slashing public services, as he unveils his emergency mini-budget later today.
Ms Dodds is expected to tell Mr Sunak that the at least £27.4bn spent to support 9.4 million jobs "must not have merely served to postpone unemployment".
"The scheme must now live up to its name, supporting employment in industries which are viable in the long term," the Labour MP is likely to add during their House of Commons exchange.
"And we need a strategy for the scheme to become more flexible, so it can support those businesses forced to close again because of additional localised lockdowns. There is still time to avoid additional floods of redundancy notices."
Ms Dodds is also set to warn that increasing taxes during the recovery and cutting back on public services "will damage demand and inhibit our recovery".
"The Tory manifesto committed to no rises in income tax, National Insurance or VAT and therefore it is for them to set out how any additional spending will be paid for," she should add. "It's the chancellor's job to make sure the economy bounces back from this crisis so there is money in the coffers to protect the public finances."
Nicky Morgan says 'no foundation' to reports NHS workers will have to again pay for parking - despite government confirming it in parliament
Speaking to Sky News, Baroness Nicky Morgan, a former cabinet minister, said the decision to reintroduce parking fees at a future date was “not a decision she is involved with”, adding: “It does seem very strange given as you say given how hard our NHS have worked over the last few months, that this decision has been taken”, Ashley Cowburn reports.
But appearing in a separate interview moments later, the Conservative peer struck a different tone, telling LBC radio: “Well my understanding, and I checked this morning because you’re not the first person to ask about this strangely enough, is that there is no foundation in this story.
“The government asked the NHS trusts to lift the parking charges because our health workers and care workers have done such an amazing job in looking after those of us who have been sick and ill. Nothing has changed in relation to that.”
The remarks from the Conservative peer follows anger directed at the government, with the British Medical Association describing the reports as a “rebuff to the immense efforts of staff across the country and the sacrifices they have made”.
The row comes hot on the heels of the NHS's 72nd anniversary, when Matt Hancock failed to say whether lower-paid NHS staff should be given a pay rise, and Boris Johnson called for another national clap for health workers, despite having cited his opposition to "empty gestures" when asked about taking the knee days earlier.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been accused of a “staggering lack of self-awareness” as he posed with a mug costing £180 ahead of his emergency mini-budget statement in the Commons, Adam Forrest reports.
Photos released by the Treasury showed Mr Sunak looking over his notes next to a smart mug allowing tea or coffee to be kept warm for up to three hours. The Bluetooth-enabled beaker comes with a “charging coaster” and allows the drinker to remotely programme a particular temperature for their beverage.
Mr Sunak is set to announce a “kickstart” youth jobs scheme later – yet opposition politicians pointed out that young people on the national minimum wage would have to work more than a week to be able to afford one of the “techno” mugs.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat leadership candidate, said: “At a time when millions are struggling to get by, the chancellor is posing with a £180 coffee mug.”
She added: “It would take an 18-year-old on the government’s new work placement scheme over a week to earn that much. This shows a staggering lack of self-awareness.”
Government criticised over censorship of drugs review - 'like ignoring carbon emissions in climate change report'
Drugs policy campaigners have criticised the government's alleged decision to ban Dame Carol Black's second review into drug use from looking at the role played by current legislation.
"While predictable (the same exclusion was applied to phase 1), this restriction undermines the whole enterprise," said James Nicholls, CEO of Transform Drug Policy Foundation.
"It is like commissioning a report on climate change, but telling investigators not to consider the role of carbon emissions."
Carole Black's first report, published in February laid out, in great detail, the failures of current drug policy: increasing health harms, needless criminalisation, rising social inequalities, slashed funding for treatment, more violence and more exploitation, Mr Nicholls said.
Phase two of the report is expected in December, and it will focus on preventing and treating drugs misuse.
"We desperately need a comprehensive approach to prevention, and we need a non-dogmatic approach to recovery – one which not only recognises ‘recovery’ can take many forms but that keeping people alive and well through harm reduction is absolutely vital," Mr Nicholls added.
"We also need concrete steps to better funding, and to a system that is finally able to effectively connect substance use, mental health and housing services in ways that recognise the complex drivers of harm – and which finally address the problem of people with ongoing drug issues being excluded from mental health services or housing."
Citizens Advice helping one person every two minutes with redundancy issue in England and Wales
Redundancy is now the number one search term on the charity's website, and between 29 June and 3 July, its frontline advisers helped one person every two minutes with a redundancy issue - a total of 1,605 people in England and Wales.
Benefits advice page views on the Citizens Advice website are at their highest-ever level, with 4.4 million views since 23 March.
Ahead of the chancellor’s summer economic update, Citizens Advice is calling for urgent changes to the benefits system, with chief executive Dame Gillian Guy saying: “The top concern for millions of people right now is weathering the escalating employment crisis. That much is clear from the soaring demand we’re seeing for advice on redundancy and benefits.
“Investment in jobs and training will be critical for economic recovery, but any measures have to be underpinned by a strong safety net. At this incredibly worrying time, the government must ensure that the benefits system provides people with enough to make ends meet if they lose their job.”
Breaking: Rishi Sunak ditches plan to charge income tax on coronavirus tests in latest government u-turn
The move came after the chancellor was challenged in the House of Commons by a senior Tory MP who warned it would lead to key workers being left out of pocket for tests to show they are safe to work, our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports.
The potential charge emerged in new guidance from HM Revenue and Customs, which stated: “Coronavirus (Covid-19) testing kits or tests carried out by a third party which have been purchased by you to provide to your employees, are treated as a taxable benefit in kind on the employee.”
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Sunak updates Cabinet ahead of today's emergency mini-budget
A Downing Street spokesperson says the chancellor told ministers that "we have moved through the first phase of the crisis where we supported closed sectors, businesses and families and the challenge now is to support the economy opening up".
"Crucially, this means protecting as many jobs as possible in the face of a very challenging outlook, with the OBR and Bank of England both predicting significant increases in unemployment," the spokesperson said.
"The Chancellor outlined that young people were particularly vulnerable because they are two-and-a-half times more likely to work in the sectors that have been closed.
"The Chancellor emphasised that we don't want that generation left behind and that is what today's economic update will focus upon."
Mr Sunak and Boris Johnson underlined that the measures being announced today come on top of the furlough scheme which has protected nine million jobs, the spokesperson said.
"The Chancellor outlined the details of today's 'Plan For Jobs' to support, create and protect jobs, following on from the PM's New Deal speech last week," they said.
"He spoke about how the government needs to work together to deliver the plan, for example, through encouraging businesses to participate in the 'kickstart scheme' of subsidised jobs announced overnight.
"The PM emphasised the government's commitment to delivering a green economic recovery."
London hospital in Boris Johnson's constituency closes A&E after coronavirus outbreak sees 70 staff forced to self isolate
An outbreak of coronavirus infections at a London Hospital in prime minister Boris Johnson’s constituency has led to the closure of its accident and emergency department to emergency patients with 70 hospital staff now in isolation, our health correspondent shaun Lintern reports.
Ambulances and emergency patients are now being diverted to other hospitals across the capital.
In a statement Hillingdon Hospitals Foundation Trust told The Independent: “An outbreak of Covid-19 was declared on Friday 3 July. As of Tuesday, 7 July 70 members of staff were isolating, a number of whom have tested positive for Covid-19.
“As a result, the trust has taken the precautionary decision to close Hillingdon Hospital to emergency ambulances and emergency admissions. The trust is managing the outbreak in line with Public Health England guidance.”
Amid outcry over the government's "hypocrisy" in announcing the resumption of arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite alleged war crimes in Yemen, immediately after Dominic Raab's tough talk on imposing sanctions on human rights abusers, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade's Andrew Smith writes for Independent Voices:
"If this is the first test of this government’s new commitment to upholding human rights, then it is one that it has failed appallingly. It is a shameful and morally bankrupt decision by Liz Truss and her colleagues. Over the days ahead, we will be working with our lawyers and exploring all options available to challenge this decision. "Only yesterday the government was talking about the need to sanction human rights abusers and refusing to ‘look the other way’ when abuses are being inflicted. Today it has revealed how vacuous and hollow these words are, and has shown that it will do everything it can to continue selling arms to a nation involved in one of the most brutal conflicts in the world."
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