Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: ‘Civic duty’ to engage with contact tracers, says Matt Hancock

Sign up here to receive this daily briefing in your email inbox every morning

The Coronation Street crew have resumed filming on a scaled down, socially-distanced set. Producers say “brilliant dialogue played brilliantly” by the brilliant actors will make up for the lack of scenes inside the Rovers Return and Roy’s Rolls cafe. The cast of our Downing Street soap opera struggle on, not so brilliantly. After NHS Test and Trace data showed large proportion of people with coronavirus going untraced, health secretary Matt Hancock is pleading with the public to engage with the system as their “civic duty”. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the pandemic.

Inside the bubble

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

Westminster’s focus will briefly shift from coronavirus to Brexit as the UK/EU joint committee meets to discuss how to cope with the new border bureaucracy. Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, meanwhile, is expected to ditch plans for full customs checks on goods coming from EU. Elsewhere, the Equality and Human Rights Committee will be announcing plans for legal action over the Home Office’s Windrush and ‘hostile environment’ policies.

Daily briefing

TRACKS OF MY TEARS: Baroness Dido Harding, in charge of the government’s test, track and trace programme admitted the system is “not at the gold standard” after data showed around one-third of people testing positive for the virus either went untraced or did not supply lists of contacts. Health secretary Matt Hancock claimed the figures will get “better and better” and added: “Participation is your civic duty.” He said he was “not ruling out” compulsory compliance (i.e. fines). The Independent Sage group of scientists and academics said the number of people contacted in its first week was “alarming” and “well below what is required to manage the spread of the virus”. Hancock – who said last month the contact-tracing app would be an “incredibly important part” of the fight against Covid-19 – downplayed its importance and offered no timetable for its roll-out.

FEELING LIGHT-HEADED: The government is ready to abandon its plan to bring in full customs checks at the end of the 2020 transition period, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper claims a “temporary light-touch regime” is now planned for UK ports, regardless of whether a trade deal is struck with the EU this year or not. It would represent yet another Brexit climbdown for Boris Johnson, who has to worry about dire new economic figures too. The UK’s GDP shrank by a huge, staggering, record 20.4 per cent in April, official data showed this morning. CBI chief Carolyn Fairbairn has warned that British businesses would not be able to cope with a no-deal scenario. She said getting a deal with Brussels a deal “is now the only acceptable option”.

MANX FOR THE MEMORIES: The Isle of Man has said goodbye to all forms of social distancing – the first place in the British Isles to do so. Chief minister Howard Quayle said he wanted to “get society back to normal”. Nigel Farage is waving goodbye to LBC – or perhaps it’s more accurate to say LBC is waving goodbye to him. According to The Huffington Post, his exit follows pressure from staff at the radio station unhappy with his description of Black Lives Matter as “far-left Marxist” organisation. Elsewhere, Labour is calling on the Tories to pay back a £12,000 donation the party received from a property billionaire after communities secretary Robert Jenrick approved an east London scheme. Jenrick didn’t even turn up to answer questions about it all in the Commons on Thursday – sending his deputy Chris Pincher, who claimed Jenrick had acted with “propriety”.

FRIENDLESS IN SEATTLE: Donald Trump has warned the authorities in Seattle they must “take back” a police-free zone where protesters have gathered. “If you don’t do it, I will.” But the city authorities – having decided it’s not worth confrontation in the precinct right now – are not interested in what the president has to say. Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan responded: “Make us all safe. Go back to your bunker.” The White House has warned state governors Black Lives Matter protests could cause a Covid-19 spike. Yet people attending Trump’s election rally in Tulsa were asked to sign a waiver over coronavirus – promising they won’t sue the president.

LOCK AND A HARD PLACE: Despite the global praise received by New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern, some of the country’s MPs aren’t happy. Opposition politician Chris Penk – from the conservative National Party – has written a whole book attacking the “lockdown lunacy” she introduced, blaming it for devastating the economy. “Whole industries have been led like so many lambs to a no-longer-non-essential slaughterhouse,” he wrote. His self-published work is comprised of 30,000 words – so more of a long pamphlet than a book, really.

OKAY FOR KARAOKE: Karaoke venues and game arcades will reopen in Tokyo today, as the authorities in the Japanese capital prepare to end lockdown restrictions on all businesses in the city next week. The authorities in Cuba have announced the easing of lockdown from next week – including the careful re-opening of hotels – after 12 consecutive days of no coronavirus-related deaths. Meanwhile Malaysia has announced citizens will not be allowed to visit Mecca and Medina for July’s Hajj pilgrimage. Indonesia has also said its citizens are not allowed to make the pilgrimage this year.

On the record

“Is it completely perfect? No of course it isn’t. Is there stuff we all need to do better? Yes there is. But I think it’s fit for purpose as we stand today and will get better through the summer.”

Baroness Dido Harding on NHS Test and Trace.

From the Twitterati

“Some staff members at radio company Global Media called for Nigel Farage to be sacked from his LBC show for his inflammatory remarks about Black anti-racism campaigners.”

The Huff Post’s Jess Brammar on Farage’s LBC exit…

“He’ll see himself as another toppled Edward Colston.”

…and The Mirror’s Kevin Maguire has no doubt of his sense of martyrdom.

Essential reading

Mark Steel, The Independent: Toppling the Colston statue saved the council removal fees – protesters should invoice

Mark Dejevksy, The Independent: Trump may be down in the polls – but he’s not out of November’s election

Philip Collins, The Times: How Boris Johnson can fix the schools crisis

Yasmeen Serhan, The Atlantic: What the world could teach America about policing

Sign up here to receive this daily briefing in your email inbox every morning