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Coronavirus UK live news: Gove not ruling out tighter lockdown as supermarkets police in-store distancing Coronavirus UK live news: calls for urgent help for self-employed as tighter lockdown could come in future
(32 minutes later)
Rolling coverage of the latest UK developments in the coronavirus crisisRolling coverage of the latest UK developments in the coronavirus crisis
Two supermarket vans were destroyed in “sickening” arson attacks in Bristol and police riot vans were called out soon after Boris Johnson announced the new restrictions.
The delivery vans were destroyed in the attack outside an Iceland store in Arnside Road, Southmead, on Monday night.
Richard Walker, managing director of the retailer, said:
In a statement, Iceland said police riot vans were called out and youths threw missiles at the police as they tried to disperse them. Later in the evening, the two home delivery vans were set alight and the fire brigade attended to put out the fire.
Avon and Somerset Police were also investigating other incidents that took place in Southmead and Henbury including criminal damage and a car being set on fire.
Chief Inspector Mark Runacres said:
According to Downing Street, only four people attended today’s cabinet meeting in person - and two of those were officials. The only ministers there were Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock, the health secretary.
The two officials present were Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, and Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser.
All other ministers participated via secure video conferencing.
This is the first time this has happened, No 10 says.
Funerals are one of the very few public gatherings still possible during the UK lockdown but many local authorities are taking steps to limit the number of mourners.
In Greater Manchester, Salford has become the first council to announce it will only be allowing 10 people per funeral at council-run crematoria until further notice.Councillor David Lancaster, lead member for environment and community safety, said:
Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said 60 more people had tested positive bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 478. There has been one further death, bringing the total to 17.
Dr Shankar said:
In the Commons opposition MPs have been generally praised Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, for the measures announced last week to protect workers from the risk of losing their jobs, but they are insistent that he must do more to help the self-employed.
This is what John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said.
This is what the Labour MP Wes Streeting said to Sunak.
And this is from the Labour MP Yvette Cooper.
Agencies recruiting British fruit and vegetable pickers to replace seasonal workers from abroad have been overwhelmed by thousands of applications.
Normally, 99.9% of the 80,000 workers come from abroad, mostly from eastern Europe. But travel restrictions and anxieties about the coronavirus pandemic have led many workers to cancel.
Just a few dozen British pickers have been employed in the past but the Hops, Concordia and Fruitful Jobs agencies have had 8,000 applications in the last week. “The whole industry needs even more though so we will keep the form open,” said a Hops spokeswoman.
Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers Union, said:
“There are jobs available,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.
Hops operations director Sarah Boparan said:
Workers are paid at least the minimum wage and Hops said all the farms they work with are following the correct procedures around safe working conditions during the coronavirus outbreak.
Recruitment of seasonal workers had already been impacted by Brexit, with farmers forced to leave tonnes of crops to rot last year as it struggled to find staff.
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have taken the decision to suspend enforcement of the gender pay gap reporting deadlines for this year.
In a joint statement, the minister for women & equalities, Liz Truss, and the EHRC chair, David Isaac, said:
In the Commons Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, also told MPs that he was “determined” to find a means of helping self-employed people who were losing work because of the coronavirus crisis. But he said it was “incredibly complicated” finding a way of designing a scheme that would help those in need, while not giving money to people who did not need it.
He says the Treasury had prioritised helping the 90% of workers who are employed.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is taking questions in the Commons. In response to a question from Labour’s John McDonnell, Sunak has just said that people on zero-hours contracts are eligible for help under the job retention scheme announced by Sunak on Friday last week.
Workers on zero-hours contracts are eligible for help under the job retention scheme, Sunak says.
But Sunak also confirmed that people who were having their hours reduced would not get help. He said that was not possible under the “furlough” scheme he announced last week.
Here is a lovely video of NHS workers in Belfast being applauded and handed bouquets of flowers by Tesco staff as they arrived to do their shopping.Here is a lovely video of NHS workers in Belfast being applauded and handed bouquets of flowers by Tesco staff as they arrived to do their shopping.
There are two urgent questions in the Commons today.
King’s College London has launched a new app that will allow people to record if they are suffering from coronavirus symptoms. It says it will help them track the progression of the disease. There are more details here.
If you are looking for people who are well-placed to share hints and tips on how to survive months in isolation with scarce options for outdoor exercise, you could do worse than the astronaut corps.
On Thursday, Britain’s Tim Peake, Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti, Germany’s Thomas Reiter and a handful of other European Space Agency astronauts will join an online event to talk to children and families about their experiences in confined spaces, their coping strategies and their sources of inspiration.
Physicist Brian Cox is among the guest presenters with special guests including Mayim Bialik from the Big Bang Theory and - you better shape up - Olivia Newton-John. The event’s free and you can ask questions on Twitter from today via the hashtag #SpaceConnectsUs. The broadcast will go out Thursday on ESA YouTube and ESA web TV at 3pm in Dutch, 4pm in German, 5pm in Italian, 6pm in French, and 7pm in English. All times are GMT.
In his London Playbook briefing Politico Europe’s Jack Blanchard has a telling anecdote about government policy on coronavirus testing. Blanchard writes:
Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said it has closed its construction sites, show homes and sale sites due to coronavirus.
Earlier today, competitor Redrow said its sites would remain open with “strict precautions in place including enhanced levels of cleaning, additional hygiene facilities and social distancing”.
There has been some confusion in the sector following the prime minister’s broadcast last night, due to a lack of clarification as to whether construction workers are considered “essential” workers and whether or not they should keep going to work on building sites amid the lockdown.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain earlier today, the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove 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.
Fewer school staff may be “willing or able” to work following the new restriction announced by the government last night, according to the National Association of Head Teachers.
An NAHT survey found that yesterday 94% of schools were providing emergency cover for pupils, and 84% of them have less than a fifth (20%) of their usual children attending.
But the NAHT general secretary said that in the light of what was said last night teachers may be even more concerned about the threat to their health from going into work. He explained:
London’s borough of culture programmes are being pushed back in response to the impact of coronavirus.
The borough of culture concept was based on the success of the UK’s European capitals of culture – Glasgow and Liverpool – and the UK cities of culture – Derry, Hull and, in 2021, Coventry.
Waltham Forest was the first borough of culture last year with Brent taking on the title in January. Highlights are due to include a reimagining of Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Brent-born Zadie Smith.
Justine Simons, London’s deputy mayor for culture and creative industries, said that Brent 2020 was now rescheduling until later in 2020. A summer party on Kilburn High Street and Liberty Festival, a free festival celebrating of the work of deaf and disabled artists, will take place in the summer of 2021.
Lewisham’s year of culture will move to 2022. Croydon’s 2023 date remains unaffected.
Simons said:
The UK economy is contracting at its fastest rate in at least two decades, as the service sector is hit extremely hard by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Data firm Markit reports that business activity across services and manufacturing has slumped this month, as the coronavirus deals the UK economy “a more severe blow than at any time since comparable figures were first available over 20 years ago”.
Output has slumped, new orders have contracted at their fastest pace since 2008, and business expectations have absolutely cratered.
This has dragged Markit’s survey of UK purchasing managers down to just 37.1 in March, down from 53.0 in February. That shows an extremely sharp fall in activity.
It’s the worst reading since the survey began in 1998, and means the economy is contracting much faster than after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Such a low number suggests a deep recession is inevitable this year (understandably, with so many businesses now closed due to coronavirus measures).
The services sector PMI (which covered much of the UK economy) slumped to just 35.7, from 53.2 in February.
The manufacturing PMI fell to 48.0 from 51.7 (but the true picture is worse, as the PMI calculation assumes that long delays for supplies are a sign of a strong economy).
Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, says a recession “not seen in modern history” is now likely:
You can continue to follow all the latest economic news and analysis over on our business live blog.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is making an oral statement in the Commons on coronavirus at 12.30pm.