Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Boris Johnson puts UK in lockdown

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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who survived 520 days confined to the International Space Station, has a tip for spending so much time indoors – write everything down. Kelly said journaling will help “put your experiences in perspective”. Boris Johnson is now demanding we spend far more time indoors, and wants the British people to get strict new social distancing measures in perspective. Announcing a UK-wide lockdown, the prime minister told the nation staying at home will save lives. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus crisis.

Inside the bubble

Our chief political commentator John Rentoul what to look out for at Westminster today:

Rishi Sunak will have to say something about the government’s plans to protect self-employed workers, because Treasury questions start in the House of Commons at 11.30am. Under pressure to do more than £94 a week available through universal credit announced so far, speculation has built that Treasury officials have drawn up a more generous scheme. If so, the chancellor will tell us either in the Commons or at the 5pm Downing Street news conference.

Daily briefing

LOCKDOWN AT LAST: Boris Johnson has finally heeded the call to impose draconian restrictions on movement in a bid to the flatten the curve of new coronavirus infections. The PM said the “moment of national emergency” demanded an unprecedented three-week, nationwide lockdown – which includes a ban on public gatherings of more than two people, except for members of the same household. The only permitted reasons to leave home is shopping for necessities, exercising once a day, caring for a vulnerable person, or going to work (if it cannot be done from home). Shops selling non-essential goods have been ordered closed, along with libraries, playgrounds, gyms and places of worship. Police will be able to enforce the restrictions with fines. Backing the new measures, Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said they “amount to a lockdown”. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn backed them too, describing them as “the right response”.

DEMAND AND SUPPLY: Some good news on the government’s call for industry to step up and deliver more life-saving ventilators for the NHS. A collaboration between the aviation, automobile and medical equipment sectors should see 5,000 new machines supplied in the next fortnight, according to The Times. They cannot come too soon. The death toll for coronavirus across the UK rose by 54 to 335 on Monday, and recorded cases went up to 6,650. The crisis has seen new concerns raised about food supply. Three leading experts told The Independent comprehensive rationing should introduced immediately to prevent the UK running short of fresh fruit and vegetables. Tim Lang, a professor of food policy at the University of London, said the situation facing the country is so serious it is “Brexit times 20”. Labour leadership Rebecca Long-Bailey has called on the government to set up a “National Food Service” to help those who need to isolate, suggesting households receive weekly packages of free essentials delivered by the Royal Mail.

EASTER COME EARLY? The emergency bill has passed all stages the Commons, after the government relented to concerns raised by Labour and Tory MPs and agreed it would be debated and voted on every six months. After heading over to the Lords, it should be signed into law on Thursday. After that, parliament could be in for an early Easter recess. Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said the option to shut up shop at the end of this week was being “considered”. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, meanwhile, said some procedures would be changed to cut the risk of MPs infecting one another. Votes will take up to 40 minutes rather than 15 to ensure parliamentarians can keep safe distance, while committee hearings could soon happen via video-link. Elsewhere, the foreign secretary Dominic Raab has urged all British travellers to come home. The government has been seeking international action to keep air routes open for a sufficient period of time, but with new flight bans coming into force day after day, many tourists are struggling to get back home to loved ones this week.

RE-OPENING FOR BUSINESS: Johnson may have listened to those who said his response to the coronavirus outbreak was too slow. It doesn’t sound like Donald Trump is listening at all. The president has said he wants to get the US economy moving again – suggesting he might consider lifting guidelines on closures and Americans working at home when a White House-mandated 15-day period comes to an end. “America will, again, and soon, be open for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.” An exasperated-sounding Trump also told reporters: “If it were up to the doctors, they may say, ‘Let’s keep it shut down. Let’s shut down the entire world’.” Asked if Dr Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the US, agreed with his desire to re-start the economy, Trump replied: “He doesn’t not agree.”

LIGHT IN THE TUNNEL: Another day of relatively good news from Italy: the country’s death toll slowed for the second day in a row to 602, and new cases also fell. The number of patients in the hospitals in the worst-hit region Lombardy also dropped from 9,439 to 9,266. Calling it a “positive day”, the region’s top health official Giulio Gallera said: “It’s not the moment to sing victory, but we finally see light at the end of the tunnel.” The global picture remains worrying, no doubt about that. The World Health Organisation warned the pandemic is “accelerating”, with more than 350,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide and almost 15,000 deaths. In that light, the Tokyo Olympics doesn’t really matter much. Japanese media say prime minister Shinzo Abe will hold a call with the head of the International Olympic Committee tonight, with postponement surely inevitable.

PUSH-UP, CRACKDOWN: In India, the authorities are cracking down on people violating a national curfew aimed at introducing social distancing and stopping the spread of the virus. Local media, including The Times of India, showed video of police officers punishing offenders by making them do push-ups by the side of the road. Police in some areas have reportedly posted photos of alleged violators online with the message that they were “against society as they will not stay at home”. Around 80 districts across the nation, including the major cities, are thought to have imposed full lockdowns, and some states have used colonial-era law to prohibit people from gathering. India has reported 471 cases, but health experts have warned a big jump is imminent, which could overwhelm the country’s weak public health infrastructure.

On the record

“From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction – you must stay at home.”

Boris Johnson imposes draconian rules he says no PM ‘wants to enact’.

From the Twitterati

“The PM is engaged in a battle the likes of which we’ve not seen ... We live in a free society, so anyone can be a backseat critic. But if you are pushing conspiracies & launching petty barbs from your home – you’re a twat.”

Environment minister Zac Goldsmith defends Boris Johnson…

“Dear Minister, Proper scrutiny of the government’s decisions and holding it to account, is fully legitimate inside and outside Parliament. Anxious criticism of substance or messaging of those decisions does not make someone a twat.”

…prompting a sharp response from Lib Dem peer Sarah Ludford.

Essential reading

Tom Peck, The Independent: Don’t mock the panic buyers in Asda – ask why Boris Johnson lost the public’s trust

Robert Fisk, The Independent: Will this nonsense language dull our reality, or will we be bored to death before the virus reaches us?

Laura Parker, New Statesman: In Italy people are stunned by the UK government’s complacent response to coronavirus

Peter Hessler, The New Yorker: Life on lockdown in China

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