Inside Politics: Boris Johnson promises economic recovery plan, as Brexit talks resume

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Monday 29 June 2020 07:59 BST

Ed Miliband denies Keir Starmer is conducting a purge of Labour leftists

The Rolling Stones have threatened Donald Trump with legal action if he keeps on using their songs at his campaign rallies. The president used You Can’t Always Get What You Want at the latest event – much to Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie’s chagrin. Speaking of British institutions that go on and on and on and on, Brexit talks resume today. As the two sides enter “intense” negotiations in search of trade deal, will the spirit of compromise prevail at last? Will Boris Johnson’s team ever learn they can’t always get what they want? I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing.

Inside the bubble

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

UK and EU negotiators are due to meet face to face in Brussels on Monday for the first time since early March. Both sides have agreed to intensify talks but wide gaps remain, with the EU demanding a level playing field on social and environmental protections, while the UK wants the freedom to set its own rules. Elsewhere, the government is to review its 14-day quarantine policy, and the Business and Planning Bill is set to go through all stages in the Commons.

Daily briefing

LOCAL HISTORY: Priti Patel confirmed the government is considering a localised lockdown in Leicester to deal with a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the city. “With local flare-ups, it is right we have a local solution”, said the home secretary. There were 648 cases in Leicester – 25 per cent of all confirmed cases in the city – in the two weeks up to 16 June. Patel said data was still being analysed, but reports suggest Britain’s first-ever local restrictions could come into force “within days”. As four mobile testing units are set up in Leicester, the Ministry of Defence said the number of mobile units across the UK would more than double to 236 facilities in the weeks ahead. It comes as a major investigation by The Independent found delays to Britain’s testing expansion and the decision to create privatised mega-labs to process swabs cost lives during the peak of the outbreak.

FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED: The coronavirus crisis may not be over yet, but Boris Johnson is very keen to talk about recovery. The PM is set to announce £1bn for 50 school building projects in England today, before making a big speech tomorrow on restarting the economy. Johnson is creating a new task force dubbed “Project Speed”, aimed at accelerating infrastructure projects. Johnson – who performed a series of push-ups for the cameras during his Mail on Sunday interview – is also set to announce measures to combat obesity. The PM claimed he was “as fit as a butcher’s dog now,” adding: “Never felt better.” Keir Starmer said the Tory government’s promises of an infrastructure revolution has been “talk, talk, talk rather than build, build, build”.

HARD RAIN’S A-GONNA FALL: The country’s top civil servant Sir Mark Sedwill has announced he is quitting as cabinet secretary and national security adviser – apparently a victim of Dominic Cummings’ promised Whitehall shake-up. According to ConservativeHome, Cummings warned at a recent meeting that a “hard rain is coming” to both No 10 and the Cabinet Office. And according to The Telegraph, the PM and Cummings want a Brexiteer to replace Sedwill. Michael Gove used a weekend speech to moan about “group think” and “metropolitan” outlooks of people working in government. Elsewhere, law graduate Mahsa Taliefar has received legal advice from two top barristers that she has a “reasonable prospect” of securing conviction against Cummings on two possible breaches of lockdown regulations.

BETTER MAN: Ed Miliband denied any “purge” of left-wingers in the Labour party as he spoke up for leader Keir Starmer. The shadow business secretary said Starmer took the “right decision” by sacking Rebecca Long Bailey over the sharing of The Independent’s interview with Maxine Peake. Miliband said: “I don’t think [Long Bailey] is antisemitic, I believe she made a significant error of judgement.” He also said Starmer would “definitely” make a better leader than him. Starmer has reason to be cheerful about his popularity. For the first time, more people think he would make a better prime minister than Johnson. An Opinium poll for The Observer found the Labour leader on 37 per cent and the Tory leader on 35 per cent when asked who would make the best PM.

A HATE SUPREME: Donald Trump, somehow, hits a new low – retweeting a video showing one of his supporters in a golf cart raising a fist and loudly shouting the white supremacist slogan “white power”. The only black Republican senator Tim Scott urged him to remove the “indefensible” footage, which he later did. The White House claimed he did not hear the chant. Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has accused the president of “betrayal” following a report in The New York Times claiming the president was briefed months ago that Russian intelligence offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill US soldiers. Trump said it was “fake news”.

RESUMING CONTROL: The Chinese authorities have imposed a new lockdown in a county in Hebei province just outside Beijing. Anxin county will be “fully enclosed and controlled” – with restrictions thought to affect around 500,000 people. In other international news, Iran is making the wearing of face masks in public mandatory from 5 July. In Japan a poll has found more than half of Tokyo’s residents do not want the Olympic Games held in the city in 2021. The number of people who have died from the coronavirus around the world has surpassed 500,000, according to Johns Hopkins University’s latest figures – and the total number of infections has topped 10 million.

On the record

“If Covid was a lightning flash, we’re about to have the thunderclap of the economy consequences. We’re going to be ready.”

Boris Johnson promises action to get us through the economic storms ahead.

From the Twitterati

“This isn’t normal. It’s poundshop Putin territory. Britain led by a political David Brent. The sadness of a fragile male ego laid bare.”

Legal expert John Cotter isn’t impressed by the PM’s push-ups…

“Boris Johnson and the unnecessary push ups? This is how to be a manly man. Get Dom on to it? He lived in Russia after all. Probably knows a bear or two.”

…while The Guardian’s Suzanne Moore thinks it’s Putin-esque.