Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Boris Johnson taken to hospital, as Queen comforts nation

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Monday 06 April 2020 07:54 BST

Queen Elizabeth tells UK it 'will succeed' in fight against coronavirus

Millions of people tuned in to watch the head of state attempt to buck up the country’s spirits last night. The Queen called on us all to show “quiet, good-humoured resolve” and “fellow-feeling” at an increasingly challenging time. Ministers in Her Majesty’s government will need all the good-humoured resolve and fellow-feeling they can muster in the days ahead. In an alarming development, the prime minister was taken to hospital on Sunday night, 10 days on from testing positive for Covid-19. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus crisis.

Inside the bubble

Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn on what to look out for today:

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab expected to chair the coronavirus meeting on Monday morning, as Boris Johnson remains in hospital. Keir Starmer is also expected to hold virtual meetings with senior government officials on the pandemic. The new Labour leader will finalise his frontbench team after naming Lisa Nandy shadow foreign secretary. Today’s announcements could include a position for his left-wing rival Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Daily briefing

GET WELL SOON: Politicians from all sides have offered Boris Johnson their well wishes after the PM was taken to hospital on Sunday evening. According to The Times, he was given oxygen treatment at a London NHS hospital, but No 10 insisted it was only a “precautionary step” and was not an emergency admission. Earlier on Sunday, health secretary Matt Hancock revealed he was mourning two people he knew following their deaths from coronavirus. He did offer some good news, saying another 1,500 ventilators would be added to the NHS’s stock of 9,000 machines this week. But Hancock suggested the target of 18,000 ventilators would not be reached before the virus peaks within a week to ten days. After yet more photos of park sunbathing, the cabinet secretary warned that all outdoor exercise could be banned if people carry on flouting the rules. Elsewhere, Scotland’s chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood was forced to quit after she was found to have the broken social distancing guidelines – by making visits to her second home in Fife.

THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST: New Labour leader Keir Starmer was among the first to wish the PM a speedy recovery. But he made clear on Sunday he would criticise Johnson’s government whenever he found fault. He said delays over testing and lack of enough equipment for NHS staff had been “serious mistakes”, and insisted all kinds of key workers have been “overlooked and underpaid”. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “They were last and now they’ve got to be first.” Starmer made Lisa Nandy shadow foreign secretary, Anneliese Dodds shadow chancellor and Nick Thomas-Symonds shadow home secretary. Rachel Reeves was appointed the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Michael Gove’s opposite number), while Jonathan Ashworth remains shadow health secretary. Meanwhile, new deputy leader Angela Rayner offered a rebuke for Hancock, saying it was “all right for people who have got big houses and huge back gardens” to tell people to stop sunbathing in parks.

CRACKPOT CRACKDOWN: Culture secretary Oliver Dowden is set to hold meetings with tech firm representatives over the sudden upsurge in wild conspiracy theories linking the 5G roll-out to the coronavirus. It follows a series of fires reported at 5G masts in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling. A spokeswoman for the department for digital, culture, media and sport: “We have received several reports of criminal damage to phone masts and abuse of telecoms engineers apparently inspired by crackpot conspiracy theories circulating online.” Elsewhere, a new report by the Commons’ foreign affairs committee accuses China of engaging in “obfuscation” rather than transparency over the initial coronavirus outbreak, and said the country should have shared its research. The committee, led by Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, said Beijing “allowed disinformation to spread as quickly as the virus”.

TOUGHEST DAYS AHEAD: Donald Trump said America was praying for Boris Johnson’s recovery. “He’s a friend of mine, he’s a great gentleman and a great leader,” he told reporters at his latest briefing. “He’s a strong man.” The president offered both ominous warnings and cautious optimism over the weekend. Trump told his country to prepare for its “toughest week” yet, saying “there will be a lot of death”. He also said “we see light at the end of the tunnel,” and again spoked about wanting the US to “get back to work … we don’t want to be doing this for months and months and months”. New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the number of people requiring hospital treatment in his state had fallen for the first time in a week. The number of deaths from Covid-19 in New York also fell from 630 on Saturday to 594 on Sunday.

RIGHT TRACK: Spain and Italy offer an indication of what the light at the end of the tunnel looks like, as both countries appear to be through their worst weeks. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said his country was “close to passing the peak of infections”. The 674 deaths reported on Sunday was the third day in a row numbers have fallen. “We are on the right track and we will beat it,” said Spain’s chief of defence staff. In Italy, there were 525 deaths reported on Sunday – the country’s lowest daily figure since 19 March. The head of Italy’s civil protection said the number of patients in intensive care had falled for the first time since the start of the outbreak. “It allows our hospitals to breathe,” said Angelo Borelli.

SWEDISH DRAMA: Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Löfven offered his country a grim warning in a televised address. “We are facing thousands of deaths. We need to prepare for that.” It follows anger from doctors and scientists in Sweden – where schools, bars and restaurants remain open – over the government’s laissez-faire approach to social distancing. Löfven said there was no need to “dramatise” the differences with other countries. Anders Tegnell, the epidemiologist leading Sweden’s response, said he was still “very sceptical” about the value of lockdowns. In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern also gave a televised address saying “going hard and going early” with social distancing appeared to be working. “While compliance has been generally strong, there are still some I would charitably describe as idiots,” said the PM.

On the record

“We will overcome it … We will succeed, and that success will belong to every one of us.”

The Queen tells the nation we will get through the crisis.

From the Twitterati

“Wishing the prime minister well and a speedy recovery.”

Keir Starmer hopes the PM gets better soon...

“People complaining that @BorisJohnson got tested for Covid ahead of people who are not the Prime Minister. I mean, I dunno, seems reasonable for him to cut the line since he’s running the entire f***ing country. Just saying.”

…while Sean Ono Lennon says it’s not the time for complainers.