Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Boris Johnson sets 10-day deadline to deliver contact tracing

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Thursday 21 May 2020 07:59 BST

'That’s a huge hole in our defences, isn’t it prime minister?' Keir Starmer grills PM about test and tracing

Don’t they know there’s a pandemic on? The hottest day of the year saw sunseekers crowding onto packed beaches, while staycation holiday bookings have seen a sudden surge. Many seem to believe the lockdown is coming to an end. It means Boris Johnson is now under huge pressure – having set a ten-day target to deliver a nationwide contract-tracing system that would allow a big easing in restrictions on 1 June. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus crisis.

Inside the bubble

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin on what to look out for today:

The Commons is now in recess, but ministers will still face questions over their handling of the crisis in the Lords. Commons committees are also still sitting, and the justice committee will hear today from the director of public prosecutions. On another note entirely, at around midday the Independent Office for Police Conduct will announce whether or not it will launch a criminal investigation into allegations Boris Johnson used his position while London mayor to benefit businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri.

Daily briefing

TRACE TO THE FINISH LINE: Boris Johnson said he was confident the country would have a “world-beating” track and trace system up and running by 1 June. But it looks like it will have to get up and running without the much-hyped smartphone app. The NHS app will not be ready for the start of the next month, No 10 has admitted. Sir Keir Starmer challenged Johnson at PMQs over the 10-week absence of a tracing system that so many other countries have been able to introduce. “That’s a huge hole in our defences, isn’t it prime minister?” The NHS Confederation said an effective programme was needed “rapidly” to avoid a second surge in cases. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that either Boris Johnson or Matt Hancock is set to announce later today that NHS and social care staff will start getting antibody tests (to check if they’ve already had the virus) from next week.

PAY UP, HEROES: Home secretary Priti Patel has announced a U-turn on the bereavement scheme for the families of foreign-national doctors and nurses given indefinite leave to remain in the UK if their loved ones die. It has now been extended to cover porters, cleaners and other low-paid roles following huge pressure from Labour and the unions. But outrage remains over the surcharge fees that foreign NHS and care workers still have to pay to use the health service (due to soar from £400 a year to £624 this October). Labour called it a “gross insult” – but the PM was unrepentant in the Commons. “I’ve been a personal beneficiary of carers who have come from abroad and, frankly, saved my life,” said Johnson, yet he insisted getting money into the NHS was “the right way forward”.

SEASON OF DOUBT: Will England’s schools open up on 1 June? More than 35 councils have now warned that not all of their primaries will be ready, while justice secretary Robert Buckland admitted he didn’t know when classes would resume. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said the government hoped to get the tourism sector “up and running” by July. Dowden said he hoped some behind-closed doors Premier League games will be on the telly for free, and announced a new taskforce to help sports and the arts get back to normal. Jacob Rees-Mogg has insisted MPs must get back to normal next month. Not everyone is happy about that. Senior Tory Robert Halfon said the end of the hybrid parliament meant sick or shielding MPs would be “effectively euthanised from the Commons”. He insisted affected MPs were “not just old horses to be sent to the knacker’s yard”.

HELL OF A DRUG: Donald Trump wants us all to know he will have finished his prescription of hydroxychloroquine in “a day or two”. Despite FDA warnings about the potential risks of the anti-malaria drug, it doesn’t seem to have affected his ability to tweet. The US president resumed his attacks on China, saying the country “could have easily stopped the plague, but didn’t … Its disinformation and propaganda attack on the United States and Europe is a disgrace.” Though he did not name Chinese president Xi Jinping, he claimed that it “all comes from the top”. Meanwhile his former lawyer Michael Cohen is set to be released from prison into home confinement today due to Covid-19 concerns.

THE LONG WEEKEND: New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern suggested businesses bring in a four-day week. She said she hoped it would help give people a better work-life balance, and boost the ailing tourist industry by encouraging people to do more with their downtime – now the country’s lockdown has been largely eased. In Greece, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also wants to kickstart tourism. He has announced the country’s summer season will begin on 15 June with a tax cut for domestic travel. International flights to the country are set to gradually resumed from 1 July.

STILL SURGING: Globally speaking, the worst is not yet behind us. The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that 106,000 new cases of new coronavirus infection had recorded in the last 24 hours – the most in a single day since the pandemic began. The body expressed concern for growing problems in poor countries, even as some of the wealthier ones emerge from lockdown. “We still have a long way to go,” said the WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We are very concerned about rising cases in low and middle income countries.” According to Johns Hopkins University, almost 5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus globally.

On the record

“Will he clap on Thursday hoping that no-one really notices that he’s giving with one hand and raking it in with the other?”

SNP’s Ian Blackford accuses the PM of hypocrisy over the NHS surcharge fees.

From the Twitterati

“Good work Mr Speaker. Perhaps Mr Hancock would do well to watch his tone.”

Dragon’s Den’s Deborah Meaden is glad the Speaker threatened to boot the health secretary out of the chamber...

“They said they want the chamber full so Tory MPs can bray at Starmer and try to rouse the PM. Hancock tried it today and the speaker correctly stopped it.”

…while left-wing activist Liam Young thinks Hancock speaking over Starmer was a sign of things to come.