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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/mar/24/uk-coronavirus-live-news-lockdown-boris-johnson-sports-direct-abandons-talk-of-opening-stores-as-gove-clarifies-scope-of-lockdown-rules
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| UK coronavirus live: Gove not ruling out tighter lockdown as supermarkets police in-store distancing | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Rolling coverage of the latest UK developments in the coronavirus crisis | Rolling coverage of the latest UK developments in the coronavirus crisis |
| A photo of a four-year-old girl with cancer kissing her dad through a window has been shared by her family to illustrate the importance of self-isolation and physical distancing. | |
| Mila Sneddon, who lives in Falkirk, has been undergoing chemotherapy since she was diagnosed in November. Her parents took the decision to keep her safe by having the family live apart. | |
| Her mother, Lynda, posted the photo on Facebook, where it has been shared more than 37,000 times. | |
| The Times (paywall) has the full story. | |
| WHSmith has said it is closing 60% of its more than 1,200 stores across the UK in response to the Covid-19 lockdown. | |
| The newsagent chain had faced criticism from some of its staff who said they had been provided with little or no protective equipment. | |
| Its chief executive, Carl Cowling, told staff in an internal email last Wednesday that it would be “positioning ourselves to government as an ‘essential retailer’”, akin to pharmacies or supermarkets, as it vowed to stay open during a lockdown. | |
| But on Tuesday the 227-year-old firm said it was closing 60% of its stores and that only those providing post office services, or in NHS hospitals, key small towns and transport hubs would remain open. | |
| A WHSmith spokeswoman said: | |
| Britain’s youngest MP, Nadia Whittome, has returned to her previous job at a care agency in Nottingham to help with the coronavirus crisis. | |
| The Nottingham East MP said she would donate the salary receives from her part-time role at ExtraCare to a local Covid-19 support fund. | |
| The 23-year-old said: | |
| The prime minister’s address to the nation was seen by 21.1 million people last night on BBC1 and ITV, with another 1.7m watching on Channel 4. Add in all the other channels showing the broadcast, plus the (not counted) views via online streams and catch-up TV, and it is one of the most watched broadcasts in British TV history, says our media editor, Jim Waterson. | |
| Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, has been giving a series of interviews this morning. Here are the key points. | |
| Gove only partially rejected claims that the government had acted too late, saying that this would be for others to judge in the future. In the Commons yesterday Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, former health secretary and former Tory leadership candidate, said that “it may be too late” to avoid the UK following Italy. Hunt said: | |
| On Sky News Kay Burley asked Gove about Hunt’s comment and how he thought history would look back at the way the UK has handled this, Gove replied: | |
| Asked again if the government had acted too late, Gove said: | |
| Gove initially sidestepped a question about whether the government was still expecting hundreds of thousands of deaths before the coronavirus outbreak was contained. When pressed on this, he said it would depend on what people did. | |
| He suggested the rules announced last night could be made even stricter. He told Burley: | |
| He had to clarify that it was acceptable for children whose parents are separated to move from one household to another. In an early interview on Good Morning Britain he said this should not happen. But later he said that was wrong. | |
| This is from Good Morning Britain’s Anne Alexander. | |
| Gove said he could not see any justification for Sports Direct staying open. (Sports Direct got the message. See 9.37am.) | |
| He said that major construction work should go ahead, but that work carried out at close quarters in someone’s home should would not be appropriate. As the Times’ Mark McLaughlin points out, in Scotland the advice is different. | |
| Gove said it would be acceptable for a plumber to attend an emergency call-out. But the plumber should practice social distancing, he said. | |
| He said that the government would be proposing new measures to help the self-employed make up for the income they will lose during this crisis. | |
| He said buying items like toys and clothes online would continue. | |
| All UK supermarkets are in discussions about further, tougher measures to police physical distancing in their shops, given that they are among the few to remain open to provide “essential” services. | |
| Waitrose has announced a package of strict new measures to back the government’s plea for tighter physical distancing protocols, to help customers shop safely while ensuring its partners are protected. | |
| These include: | |
| Installing checkout screens - and special protective visors to be worn by staff. | |
| Limiting customer numbers in store so that physical distancing can be properly observed. | |
| Introducing new stickers at the floors of checkouts and customer welcome desks to manage distance between customers. These will read: ‘Leave space. Leave Safe. Help us to protect you.’ | |
| Introducing dedicated ‘marshals’ per store to ensure the 2m rule is respected when queueing inside and outside. | |
| Fewer checkouts in order to enable staff to maintain physical distancing; where two checkouts are back to back, one will close. | |
| Bérangère Michel, partner & executive director, customer service, John Lewis Partnership said: | |
| Lidl is also rolling out thousands of protection screens at checkouts at its stores in order to protect its staff and customers. | |
| Christian Härtnagel, chief executive of Lidl GB, commented: | |
| Tesco is understood to have been looking at limiting the number of customers entering a store at any one time and the possibility of banning trolleys so that shoppers can only take away a basket of shopping at a time. | |
| The Department for Work and Pensions has suspended all disability reviews and assessments for three months, and is to hire 1,500 new staff to deal with a surge of new claims for benefits. | |
| Last week the DWP suspended all face to face assessments for personal independence payment and employment and support allowance, and suspended all face to face job centre interviews, but has been forced to go further as the coronavirus crisis deepens. | |
| Last night it also unveiled plans to hire new staff and redeploy around 10,000 existing workers to roles processing new claims as tens of thousands of newly-unemployed workers apply for universal credit. | |
| Job centres will remain staffed but will not admit claimants except by booked appointment. Only the most vulnerable claimants who are unable to access claims by other means will be able to attend. | |
| The new arrangements came into place this morning. | |
| The DWP has called on people to make claims online if they can, rather than using the phone, so as to free up staff to deal with people who do not have internet access or cannot use online services. | |
| The secretary of state for work and pensions, Thérèse Coffey, said: | |
| Disability benefits assessments, which inform whether a person is deemed to be ill enough to qualify for or continue receiving support have gained notoriety in recent years for their lack of accuracy, and are regarded with dread by many claimants. | |
| An all-party MPs inquiry into Pip and ESA assessments in 2018 concluded that failings in assessment processes had contributed to a lack of trust in both benefits and risked undermining claimants’ confidence in their operation. | |
| Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has said this morning that more lives will be lost if people in London continue to travel into work unnecessarily. | Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has said this morning that more lives will be lost if people in London continue to travel into work unnecessarily. |
| He was speaking as pictures appeared on social media that appear to show some tube carriages crammed with passengers this morning. | He was speaking as pictures appeared on social media that appear to show some tube carriages crammed with passengers this morning. |
| Khan said that employers should enable their staff to work from home “unless it’s absolutely necessary”, adding: “Ignoring these rules means more lives lost.” | Khan said that employers should enable their staff to work from home “unless it’s absolutely necessary”, adding: “Ignoring these rules means more lives lost.” |
| Julia Harris, a nurse who commutes to work at Imperial College NHS trust, said she had left earlier and changed her route in a bid to avoid crowds but still found services busy. She told the PA news agency: | Julia Harris, a nurse who commutes to work at Imperial College NHS trust, said she had left earlier and changed her route in a bid to avoid crowds but still found services busy. She told the PA news agency: |
| A snap YouGov poll suggests the public overwhelmingly supports the measures announced by Boris Johnson last night. These are from YouGov’s Chris Curtis. | A snap YouGov poll suggests the public overwhelmingly supports the measures announced by Boris Johnson last night. These are from YouGov’s Chris Curtis. |
| Good morning. Britons have woken up this morning in what will in many respects feel like a new country, following the imposition of restrictions on travel and trade unprecedented in peacetime. Here is our overnight story about Boris Johnson’s announcement last night. | Good morning. Britons have woken up this morning in what will in many respects feel like a new country, following the imposition of restrictions on travel and trade unprecedented in peacetime. Here is our overnight story about Boris Johnson’s announcement last night. |
| Here is the two-page document (pdf) issued by the government last night explaining the new rules, “Full guidance on staying at home and away from others”. And here is the six-page document (pdf) from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government saying which businesses should close. | Here is the two-page document (pdf) issued by the government last night explaining the new rules, “Full guidance on staying at home and away from others”. And here is the six-page document (pdf) from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government saying which businesses should close. |
| Today ministers will be spending some of their time clarifying these rules, and we’ve already seen one unsuccessful challenge. Last night the sports chain Sports Direct argued that its stores should be allowed to stay open because exercise is vital, and it released this open letter to the PM. | Today ministers will be spending some of their time clarifying these rules, and we’ve already seen one unsuccessful challenge. Last night the sports chain Sports Direct argued that its stores should be allowed to stay open because exercise is vital, and it released this open letter to the PM. |
| This morning the firm got an answer from Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, who said Sports Direct shops should stay closed | This morning the firm got an answer from Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, who said Sports Direct shops should stay closed |
| Now the firm is complying. This is from Sky’s Tamara Cohen. | Now the firm is complying. This is from Sky’s Tamara Cohen. |
| Gove has been giving a series of interviews this morning. I will post the highlights soon. | Gove has been giving a series of interviews this morning. I will post the highlights soon. |
| Here is the agenda for the day. | Here is the agenda for the day. |
| 9.30am: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet, with many ministers participating via conference call. | 9.30am: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet, with many ministers participating via conference call. |
| 11.30am: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons. | 11.30am: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons. |
| 12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing. | 12pm: Downing Street lobby briefing. |
| 1.30pm: The Trussell Trust, the British Retail Consortium and UK Hospitality give evidence to the Commons environment committee; and at 2.30pm George Eustice, the environment secretary, gives evidence about coronavirus and food supply. | 1.30pm: The Trussell Trust, the British Retail Consortium and UK Hospitality give evidence to the Commons environment committee; and at 2.30pm George Eustice, the environment secretary, gives evidence about coronavirus and food supply. |
| 2.30pm: Public Health England, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine give evidence to the Commons health committee; and at 3.30pm the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association, the Care and Support Alliance and Care England give evidence. | 2.30pm: Public Health England, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine give evidence to the Commons health committee; and at 3.30pm the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association, the Care and Support Alliance and Care England give evidence. |
| Afternoon: The government is expected to hold its regular coronavirus press conference. | Afternoon: The government is expected to hold its regular coronavirus press conference. |
| We will be covering all UK coronavirus developments throughout the day. You can read all the latest Guardian coronavirus articles here, you can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here and here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. | We will be covering all UK coronavirus developments throughout the day. You can read all the latest Guardian coronavirus articles here, you can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here and here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. |
| If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow Lucy is on @lucy_campbell_. | If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow Lucy is on @lucy_campbell_. |
| I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone. | I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone. |
| If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. | If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. |