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UK coronavirus: Boris Johnson announces strict lockdown across country – live UK coronavirus: Boris Johnson announces strict lockdown across country – live
(32 minutes later)
PM says people can only shop for basic necessities, limits exercise to one form a day, restricts travel only to and from essential work and tells UK to stay at homePM says people can only shop for basic necessities, limits exercise to one form a day, restricts travel only to and from essential work and tells UK to stay at home
The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) is also moving quickly to squash suggestions police officers would be assisted by troops on the streets or road blocks used to enforce the lock down. A spokesperson for the NPCC has told the Guardian:
The government’s guidance on the new restrictions makes clear that those households who are isolating, as well as the most vulnerable people, should follow the guidance they’ve already been given.
The document adds that key workers or parents of children already identified as vulnerable can continue to take their children to school.
Ken Marsh, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, has also asked the public for their support, telling Sky News:
And the home secretary, Priti Patel, has acknowledged the practical difficulties facing police forces across the country:
The national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, John Apter, has appealed for the public’s support in observing the new restrictions, saying:
A senior police source says the lockdown will involve neither the military on the streets, nor tactics such as road blocks. But details on enforcement are still being hammered out and will continue to be so over the next few days.
The former Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has asked the government to provide more information in practice:
The DUP’s leader and the first minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, has backed the new restrictions
The UK government has now published its guidance on the new restrictions (you can read it here – pdf), including when people should and should not be leaving their homes.
Here’s my colleague Peter Walker on what the new restrictions mean for you:Here’s my colleague Peter Walker on what the new restrictions mean for you:
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has backed the restrictions just announced by the prime minister, said:
Minutes after the prime minster’s announcement, police made it clear the details of the enforcement of the lockdown were still being determined.
Marin Hewitt, the chair of the National Police Chiefs Council who was at theCobra meeting this evening where the measures were approved, has said:
The swingeing lockdown brings huge challenges to police, including a dramatic change in the British style of policing.
It is seen as anathema to the British model of policing by consent, and officers being citizens in uniform: “There is absolute reluctance,” said one source. “It’s a total change of policing style.”
Officers will hope to use “persuasion” to convince those not complying, and want to avoid flashpoints.
With police forces expected to be stretched as officers go sick or have to self isolate, chiefs do not want to have to devote massive resources to enforcing the lockdown – and may not have them.
Police planners expect that as the pandemic spreads in the UK, between 20 and 25% of officers may be off work because they have the virus or are housebound themselves
And union leaders have lent their backing to the measures:
Other political leaders, including the first minister of Wales Mark Drakeford, have delivered their own addresses reiterating the new measures.
The former chancellor, Sajid Javid, has said:
One key provision that came out of Sturgeon’s press conference was that, while funerals were exempted from the lockdown, attendance must be limited to immediate family.
The chief medical officer for Scotland, Catherine Calderwood, says this is no longer a rehearsal for something that might happen. She stresses that lives will be lost if we do not change how we live our lives.
Referring to enforcement, Sturgeon says this is not guidance or advice, but a “set of rules to be followed”.
She says powers of enforcement will be handed to government later this week and they will use them, including empowering the police to issue fines and break up gatherings.
That provides greater clarity on Johnson’s address, in which he did not explicitly set out how the enforcement would work and from where it would derive its authority.
Echoing Johnson, Sturgeon says the people of Scotland must stay at home. She repeats the limited set of reasons people can leave. You can see those here.
Scotland’s first minster, Nicola Sturgeon, is now delivering an address setting out what the measures mean for Scotland.
She says the restrictions are “difficult and unprecedented”. She says she will not seek to sugarcoat it, but adds they are essential to protect people.