Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Dominic Raab under pressure over exit strategy, as lockdown extended

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The coronavirus has altered almost every aspect of life on planet Earth. It’s even changing some stuff on Mars. NASA engineers driving the Curiosity Rover across the surface are working from home, awkwardly navigating the vehicle without their usual high-tech equipment. Those of us lucky enough to still have jobs will have to awkwardly navigate working from home for a bit longer. Extending the UK lockdown for at least three weeks, Dominic Raab said we remain at too “delicate and dangerous” a stage to ease restrictions. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus crisis.

Inside the bubble

Our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan on what to look out for today:

MPs will get the chance to grill Matt Hancock in a much-anticipated session of the Commons health committee. The health secretary will take part in the virtual meeting this morning, which also features a panel of experts, including Dr Alison Pittard, the dean of the faculty of intensive care medicine, and Dame Donna Kinnair, of the Royal College of Nursing. Expect plenty of questions on testing, PPE and the extension to the lockdown – subjects all likely to feature at the regular Downing Street press conference later today.

Daily briefing

RELAX? DON’T DO IT: So we don’t have an end date. Dominic Raab said the lockdown would last for “at least” three weeks, since the government had concluded that a “rush to relax” the restrictions could harm both public health and the economy by risking another spike. “Now is not the moment to give the coronavirus a second chance,” he said. Raab set out five conditions – including a “sustained and consistent” fall in the daily death rate – before the lockdown could be eased. It comes as the UK saw another 861 deaths in hospitals, a clear increase on the previous day. Sir Patrick Vallance sounded an optimistic note on the rate of transmission, saying infected people were now passing the disease on to fewer than one other person. Meanwhile, Raab said Britain could not return to “business as usual” with China, claiming he wanted “very deep dive” investigation into the cause of the pandemic.

IS THIS JUST FANTASY: Health secretary Matt Hancock faces more difficult questions on personal protective equipment today. A director of one NHS Trust said “the official line that we don’t have a shortage of PPE is fantasy”, claiming his own trust has “less than 24 hours supply”. The unnamed director contacted the BBC asking for the phone numbers of Burberry and Barbour so he could ask them to make more gowns. Elsewhere, Downing Street has promised the NHS and Public Health England would carry out a review into whether people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds were particularly at risk from the virus. Chief medical adviser Professor Chris Whitty said the evidence on ethnicity was currently “less clear” than other factors. Labour said the review must look at “underlying structural economic and social inequalities”.

THE SHY SALESMAN: Keir Starmer has said he “hated selling myself” to Labour party members and found it “very odd” to go up against colleagues during the recent leadership campaign. He told the BBC’s Coronavirus Newscast he was “much more comfortable” being in charge and making decisions. Starmer also claimed Raab “probably does know that it’s time for an exit strategy,” but thinks the foreign secretary is reluctant to sign off on it without Boris Johnson’s approval. Perhaps MPs will have better luck teasing out the government’s long-term plan. They will get to ask ministers questions inside the Commons’ chamber via Zoom under emergency plans for “virtual sittings” agreed by the parliamentary authorities. Up to 120 MPs will be able to take part at a time – but will be told not to display objects around them in their home offices (so no showing off biographies of Churchill and Atlee).

FEW PIECES SHORT OF A PUZZLE: Donald Trump, desperate to kick-start the US economy, suggested some parts the country could begin easing restrictions today, including Montana and Wyoming. “I think you’re going to see quite a few states start to open,” he said, before offering one of his unique analogies. “I call it a beautiful puzzle – you have 50 pieces, all very different, but when it’s all done it’s a mosaic … it’s going to be a very beautiful picture.” Another 5.2 million Americans have filed for unemployment, taking the total number of people who have lost jobs over the past month to a staggering 22 million.

UNDERCOUNT GOES OVERGROUND: The Chinese city of Wuhan has revised its coronavirus death toll by 1,290 – an increase almost 50 per cent. Chinese state media quoted an unidentified official saying the earlier undercount was due “the insufficiency in admission and treatment capability”. It certainly won’t ease concerns about transparency. Asked about China in an interview with the Financial Times, French president Emmanuel Macron said “clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about”. Meanwhile, China reported its worst economic figures in decades: GDP shrank 6.8 per cent in the first quarter.

POT-BANGING PROTESTS: Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has fired his health minister after clashing with him over how to fight the coronavirus – and again called for regional authorities to end the lockdowns he said were hurting the economy. “Do not think we are past a peak in growth of the virus. The health system is still not prepared for an acceleration,” the minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta had warned in parting comments. In televised remarks – met with pot-banging protests in several cities – Bolsonaro said Mandetta had not fully appreciated the need to protect jobs. “We need to return to normal,” said the president.

On the record

“Let’s not be so naive as to say it’s been much better at handling this.”

Emmanuel Macron on China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

From the Twitterati

“Another 3 weeks of lockdown but no indication of an exit strategy. No ‘better times’, or even any notion by Raab that they exist.”

Lord Adonis didn’t find Dominic Raab clear or upbeat enough...

“Though he has an odd delivery, at least Raab today gave a sense of some of the main factors underpinning forward strategy. The more they share thinking with the public the better for everyone.”

…but Alastair Campbell thinks there is some sign of a plan.

Essential reading

Mary Dejevsky, The Independent: Putting the NHS on a pedestal helps no one – least of all the health service itself

Tom Peck, The Independent: Dominic Raab confirmed the grim news – there’ll be three more weeks of Dominic Raab

Stephen Bush, New Statesman: Why the UK could still learn from South Korea on tackling the coronavirus

Jennifer Senior, The New York Times: Trump’s brain – a guided tour

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