Boris Johnson news – live: PM announces cinemas and museums to reopen, as Japan gives UK six weeks to strike post-Brexit trade deal
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Boris Johnson has set out plans to allow pubs, restaurants, cinemas, museums and galleries to re-open on 4 July in a major easing of the coronavirus lockdown in England. The prime minister said “our long national hibernation is beginning to come to an end”.
Mr Johnson also announced that the two-metre social distancing rule will be relaxed – saying it would be changed to a minimum of “one metre-plus” wherever a two-metre distance was not possible.
Elsewhere, Japan has given the UK just six weeks to strike a post-Brexit deal, putting the government under pressure to agree one of the fastest trade negotiations in history. “We must complete negotiations by the end of July,” said Tokyo’s chief negotiator.
Ban on indoor meet-ups involving two households likely to be lifted
Boris Johnson is set to reveal an expansion of the lockdown “support bubbles” – with a ban on people from different households meeting together indoors thought likely to be lifted.
The prime minister is expected to announce there will be no limit on the numbers who can gather indoors, in England, as long as they are members of just two households, although the details were still being agreed.
Families and friends would be able to visit each other’s homes, provided they stick to social distancing rules – with no hugging – but it is still unclear if they will be allowed to stay overnight.
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has the details:
Number of excess deaths passes 65,000
The number of excess deaths in the UK since the coronavirus outbreak began has passed 65,000.
Tuesday’s figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which show 59,252 excess deaths in England and Wales between 21 March and 12 June, follow figures last week showing the equivalent numbers for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Together, this means the total number of excess deaths in the UK across this period now stands at 65,101. All figures are based on death registrations.
There were 1,114 deaths which mentioned “novel coronavirus” in England and Wales in the week ending 12 June - the lowest number of Covid-19 deaths for nine weeks, the ONS said.
‘If I knew then what I know now, I’d never have voted Leave’
It was exactly four years ago that the British public voted to leave the EU. Reflecting on how much has changed since then, our associate editor Sean O’Grady shares his sense of regret.
“If I knew then what I know now, I’d never have voted Leave,” he writes. “Even now, four years on, we don’t know our terms of exit. When they become knowable, they will still lack democratic legitimacy; we really should have that second referendum - the “final say” on Brexit.”
Read more here:
Call for ‘urgent clarity’ over air bridge confusion
Health secretary Matt Hancock said he had worked through the weekend on the plan to establish so-called “air bridges” with other countries.
But the Department for Transport (DfT) insisted that the no-quarantine concept is merely “an option under consideration, not established policy”.
Many travel industry figures took Mr Hancock’s words as an indication that a list of countries will be published later this week. But a DfT spokesperson said: “International travel corridors remain an option under consideration by the UK government, not established policy.
“Conversations take place regularly with governments around the world on a whole range of issues and we will not be providing any further details at this stage.”
A spokesman for the Quash Quarantine pressure group, said “we need urgent clarity”.
Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has more:
Number of deaths involving Covid-19 passes 54,000
The number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK has passed 54,000, according to Press Association analysis the latest available data.
The total includes new figures published on Tuesday by the ONS, which show that 48,866 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to 12 June.
Figures published last week by the National Records for Scotland showed that 4,070 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to 14 June. The latest figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency showed 802 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in Northern Ireland up to 12 June.
‘Brutal reminder of how little respect Britain commands’
Plenty of reaction to the news Japan is seeking to conclude a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK by the end of next month.
Hiroshi Matsuura, Tokyo’s chief negotiator, told the Financial Times the Japanese parliament needed time to ratify any deal in the autumn. “That means we must complete negotiations by the end of July.”
Guy de Jonquières, a senior fellow at the European Centre for International Economy said the demand is a “brutal reminder of how little international respect and influence post-Brexit Britain commands”.
The FT’s news editor Matthew Garrahan said the compressed timetable “highlights the risk of being bounced into bad deals before the Brexit transition expires at the end of 2020”.
Nigel Farage’s US trip under investigation
A Democratic congressman has launched an investigation into the decision to allow Nigel Farage entry to the US to attend a Donald Trump rally, at a time when travel from the UK is banned due to the coronavirus.
Bennie G Thompson, who chairs the committee on homeland security, said the trip raised “troubling questions” and has requested all relevant documents on the trip.
US Department of Homeland Security officials exempted Farage from the country’s travel ban under a “national interest” clause.
More details here:
Changes to licensing laws will aim to bring in ‘continental-style’ drinking
The government is expected to publish new coronavirus legislation this Thursday with a series of changes to planning and licensing laws in a bid to create “continental-style” drinking and dining culture to England as the lockdown eases.
Pub car parks and hotel grounds could be allowed to convert more easily in “temporary beer gardens” according to The Telegraph.
But the government’s Business and Planning Bill will reportedly only temporarily relax the licensing laws so firms can hold outdoor events throughout July and August.
Care home testing still ‘patchy’, says sector chief
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England has said testing in care homes remains “patchy”.
He told the Commons’ health and social care committee: “What I would say is it’s patchy. The first thing to say is that if testing is going to be effective, it’s going to have to be a rolling programme of continuous testing and that needs to be for both staff and also for residents.
“I also want to see for example there is some tests, there is one programme going on in Hampshire at the moment where you can get test results within about 20 minutes. Now what we need is that testing rolled out because that will also help us not only be able to test staff and residents but also to be able to test relatives who might want to visit.
“So I think we’ve got to get testing as part of an ongoing programme, it is not a once in a lifetime activity, it’s something that needs to happen regularly, so I think also some of the testing regimes have been too complex.”
He added: “I just think you need to have a much more clear, centralised, consistent and also regular approach to testing.
Government fails to understand impact of immigration salary threshold, says care chief
Professor Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, has also been discussing changes to immigration policy and the impact of a salary threshold at the health and social care committee.
Under the new policy, there will be a minimum salary threshold of £25,600 for skilled workers. However, MPs were told the average salary for care workers in local authority-run homes was £23,700.
Prof Green it would have a “significant effect” and said: “We do have some reliance on overseas staff but what I think the government just failed to understand is that they have not got their strategy right to make sure that we have enough people in the pipeline from in-country staff.”
He later called for a long-term strategy such as the NHS 10-year strategy to fix the “appalling” way in which care is funded.
He told MPs: “We could and we want to increase our salaries and we want to see really professional salaries with proper training and development monies and we would like to absolutely be far north of £25,000 actually.”
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