Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Government faces anger over mass testing failure

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Thursday 02 April 2020 07:58 BST

Completely unacceptable' for banks to fail to support struggling businesses warns Alok Sharma

David Hockney is trying to cheer us up by painting flowers and trees bursting into colourful blossom. Currently in lockdown in Normandy, the great artist shared work from a series called Do Remember They Can’t Cancel the Spring. We could do with a reminder there will be better days ahead, after the UK saw its biggest daily rise in new Covid-19 cases. Boris Johnson’s government is still hoping – rather than promising – that within weeks the country will have moved to mass testing to help defeat the disease. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus crisis.

Inside the bubble

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

Health secretary Matt Hancock is believed to be returning to work today after recovering from the coronavirus, and is expected to set out a new five-point plan to boost testing across the country. The ballot for the Labour leadership election finally closes at 12 noon. The winner will be announced this Saturday morning in an emailed press release, with all three candidates having to pre-record victory speeches beforehand.

Daily briefing

STUCK ON A PUZZLE: The front pages of many of today’s papers – including The Telegraph and The Daily Mail – are scathing about the government’s failure to ramp up coronavirus testing. The business secretary Alok Sharma didn’t shed much light on the matter at the latest Downing Street briefing, after it was revealed only 2,000 NHS England workers have been tested. Boris Johnson later released a video message saying nothing much other than mass testing would “unlock the puzzle”. Dr Yvonne Doyle, Public Health England’s medical director, said it was the intention for hundreds of thousands of staff to be tested “within the coming weeks”. Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said a “reagent and swab shortage” is currently limiting the amount of testing done, but there is enough test machine capacity to do 100,000 tests a day. The growing anger comes as 563 deaths from Covid-19 were reported on Wednesday – the biggest daily rise we’ve seen since the start of the outbreak.

CARRY THAT WEIGHT: The business secretary has been given something firm to announce. The COP26 climate conference Sharma is leading – due to be hosted in Glasgow in November – has been postponed until 2021. Sharma also issued a warning to banks, following concerns some firms are being denied government-backed emergency loans. “It would be completely unacceptable if any banks were unfairly refusing funds to good businesses,” he said. The bosses running Premier League businesses have been accused of living in a “moral vacuum” after Spurs, Newcastle and Norwich furloughed non-playing staff (using the government’s job retention scheme). Sadiq Khan said highly-compensated footballers should be the ones to “carry the burden”. The London mayor said: “My view is always that those who are the least well-off should get the most help.” Tory MP Julian Knight, chair of the digital, culture, media and sport committee, said: “It sticks in the throat. This exposes the crazy economics in English football and the moral vacuum at its centre.”

IDES OF MARCH: More on the economic impact of the pandemic. The Department of Work Pensions (DWP) said almost one million new universal credit claims were made in the period between the lockdown until 31 March. The fact 950,000 people attempted to get help in just two weeks was “truly shocking”, said Labour. The party said the usual five-week wait must be speeded up, and any cash advances given out should not have to be repaid. Labour has pressured the government to do more to protect renters facing potential eviction. Courts in England and Wales have now been given a clear instruction to “suspend all ongoing housing possession action”. If the pandemic hasn’t quite led to cosy bi-partisan unity, there has been greater harmony in government departments. Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA civil service union, said the coronavirus crisis has stopped the “backbiting” and “bitching” between ministers, advisers and Whitehall staff.

LIGHT SIDE: Donald Trump continues to say interesting things at his daily briefings. The US president cast suspicion on the official number of coronavirus cases in China, saying the numbers appeared to be “on the light side … and I am being nice when I say that”. He added: “As to whether or not their numbers are accurate. I am not an accountant from China.” Trump also said he was considering clamping down on domestic air travel – especially flights between US cities hit hardest by the pandemic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, has accused Trump and the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of hiding behind the “excuse” that impeachment proceedings distracted them from responding to the virus at an earlier stage. Johns Hopkins University latest figures show the US death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has surpassed 5,000.

FERRETING OUT ANSWERS: There is some good news from Australia, where the country’s national science agency has begun testing two different potential vaccines for the coronavirus. The two biological preparations, which have come from Oxford University and US firm Inovio Pharmaceuticals, will be tested on ferrets – an animal known to contract the Sars-CoV-2 virus like human beings. “Normally it takes about one-to-two years to get to this point and we’ve in fact shortened that to a period of a couple of months,” said Dr Rob Grenfell, who said he was “optimistic” about the work. The pre-clinical trials still have to make sure the vaccines would be safe for human testing. The first results from the animal tests won’t be ready until June.

MORE MASKS AT LANDMARK? Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said the number of people to contract Covid-19 globally would soon reach the one million mark (there are more than 932,000 infected, with over 46,800 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s latest figures). A top WHO panel is set to discuss whether to change its current advice on face masks. The body has said only healthcare professionals and those who are ill and should wear them, but the experts are considering a push for wider adoption. The Japanese government is planning to distribute two face masks to every household in the country, but some have complained it won’t be enough to cover large families. Meanwhile in India, authorities in Mumbai have confirmed that someone living in the dense slum of Dharavi – home to more than a million people – has tested positive for the virus.

On the record

“This is the way through. This is how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle. This is how we will defeat it in the end.”

Boris Johnson on the importance of ramping up testing.

From the Twitterati

“Alok Sharma ducking every question on the UK government’s failure to introduce mass testing is inexcusable … The public rightly demand and deserve straight answers.”

Labour MP David Lammy wasn’t impressed by the business secretary...

“Testing has to be gripped. That has been obvious for days. Whatever the issues making this so hard, spell them out … if it means bringing in outsiders or military planners just do it.”

…while Alastair Campbell says it could be time for the military to step in.