Inside Politics: Coronavirus threatens to close parliament’s doors

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Thursday 05 March 2020 08:58 GMT

Brexit briefing: How long until the end of the transition period?

If the coronavirus shuts down the Commons and Boris Johnson needs a nice spot for a holiday, scientists have discovered an underground cave on Mars. NASA believes unknown lifeforms could be burrowed beneath a huge, mysterious hole. The PM’s team of Brexit negotiators have been burrowing away unseen for the past four days. As the first round of talks with EU counterparts breaks up today, are there any signs of life in the free trade deal Johnson wants? I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

With the nation gripped by the now apparently unavoidable coronavirus epidemic, chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty will update MPs on the latest situation. Prof Whitty appears before the House of Commons health and social care committee to answer questions on the virus and the preparations being made to contain, delay and mitigate it. And over in Brussels, the first round of talks on a post-Brexit UK-EU trade deal conclude with a press conference by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

Daily briefing

CLOSING TIME? Could the 2020 coronavirus do what Boris Johnson’s 2019 prorogation plan could not? Emergency discussions have taken place over a lengthy shutdown of parliament, if the spread of COVID-19 makes it necessary. One possibility could see MPs rise at the end of March and not return until September, according to The Times. One official said the Commons potentially contains “650 super-spreaders”. Johnson hinted at PMQs that an announcement could be made within days on possible alternatives to MPs gathering at Westminster, such as electronic voting and debates by conference call. The PM has a fresh, virus-related headache this morning: the collapse of Flybe. The company said the coronavirus was partly to blame for the stricken airline’s final demise. Meanwhile, Johnson said workers will get statutory sick pay from the first day off work, and the government has declared coronavirus a “notifiable disease” so firms can get insurance cover.

FISHING IN TROUBLED WATERS: Here’s hoping British negotiators are in good health when they return from Brussels later today. Trade deal talks are said to have been “constructive” so far. The lack of gossip suggests they have been able to agree on discretion, at least. Environment secretary George Eustice hasn’t been quite so discreet – warning the EU that the Royal Navy would step in to protect British waters if a fishing rights agreement cannot be forged. He’s not the only Tory sounding belligerent on Brexit. Sharing her highlights in office, the outgoing business secretary Andrea Leadsom said the 2016 EU referendum result was “right up there with England winning the World Cup for rugby”. Fellow Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith is no mood to look back. He’s worried about the decision to grant Huawei a role in building Britain’s 5G infrastructure – comparing it, bizarrely, to heroin addiction. “The establishment has found itself somehow locked to this Huawei process .... It is like getting someone off the addiction to heroin.” Not sure IDS knows much about drugs, or rehabilitation.

I’M STICKING WITH YOU: IDS is just one of the Brexit “Spartans” coming to the defence of Priti Patel – once known as the Spartan “queen”. It’s hard to keep track of all the claims being made against the regal one. Government staff are now contacting the Labour party with “information and allegations” about bullying at the Home Office, according to Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman. Johnson batted away questions about the home secretary at PMQs, and raised fresh doubts about the independence of the Cabinet Office inquiry by saying he was “sticking by her”. Mark Francois, the new chair European Research Group (ERG), said Patel was “an excellent home secretary who’s doing what we were elected to do”. Francois pointed to Corbyn’s peerage recommendation for John Bercow – someone else accused of bullying. I suppose there’s enough hypocrisy to go round for everyone.

RED MEAT TO THE BASE: Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey agreed to get their gruelling one-on-one Andrew Neil interviews over and done with on the same evening. Long-Bailey told Neil that Starmer hadn’t put forward any real ideas so far, urging the frontrunner to put some “meat on the bone”. Starmer had a tougher time of it. Asked whether he had enough charisma, Mr Steady replied: “There are different ways to inspire people. You can inspire people so they want to sit at your feet listening to your next word. That is not me.” Okay then. Tempting as it is to ignore his next words, Starmer did issue a strong rebuttal of his failure to declare large donations at an earlier stage than strictly necessary (as RLB has done). “I have been following ... procedures. How can you say I am hiding behind the process when it is the Labour party process?”

MONEY MIKE: It’s been an extremely good 24 hours for young Joe Biden. After winning frontrunner status in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, rival Mike Bloomberg dropped out and offered Biden his endorsement. He called the former vice president “my friend and a great American”. The words won’t matter, but the money might. Bloomberg stands to make more of an impact as a big funder of remaining moderates (i.e. not Bernie Sanders) than he did as a candidate. He has committed to spending potentially over a billion dollars to ensure a win over Donald Trump. “I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November,” said the former NYC mayor.

On the record

“How can the people of this country have faith in a prime minister who can’t be bothered to turn up, and when he does has no shame in defending bullying in his own government?”

Jeremy Corbyn questions the PM’s judgement.

From the Twitterati

“Keir Starmer tells @afneil that he thinks the voters Labour lost in the ‘red wall’ are not actually against free movement. Suspect CCHQ will be delighted by his interpretation of these conversations.”

The Spectator’s James Forsyth doesn’t think much of Starmer’s appearance...

“I just spent an hour watching the potential Labour leaders. My take? Completely lost ... Starmer, at a push, might keep Labour on life support. Long-Bailey would turn off the switch.”

...while Professor Matthew Goodwin thinks Starmer would at least keep Labour alive.