Inside Politics – Coronavirus special: Dominic Raab unveils plan to bring stranded British tourists home

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This crisis has taken us all into unfamiliar territory, doing things that hardly seemed possible several weeks ago. Football fans are getting hooked on live matches in Belarus – the only country in Europe where games are still being played. Boris Johnson’s government is promising to bring Britons back from unfamiliar territory, setting aside £75m to charter special flights for UK nationals stuck overseas – another package that hardly seemed possible several weeks ago. I’m Adam Forrest, and welcome to The Independent’s daily Inside Politics briefing during the coronavirus outbreak.

Inside the bubble

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

Although parliament is in recess, select committees are still meeting by video. Today the Treasury committee hears from what used to be called “both sides of industry”, the CBI (bosses) and the TUC (workers), about the economic effects of the pandemic. In the afternoon the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee will hear from charities, including St John Ambulance, about the effect of the outbreak on them. Plus there will be the daily Downing Street briefing, as usual with a cabinet minister and scientific adviser.

Daily briefing

HOMEWARD BOUND: Dominic Raab used the latest press conference to announce a £75m plan to repatriate as many as 60,000 British travellers stranded overseas. The foreign secretary said Virgin, Jet2, Easyjet and Titan have signed a memorandum of understanding, while BA will also work “in the national interest” to get people home. Taxpayer funding should mean passengers should pay no more than £250-£500 for their tickets. “We are doing everything we can,” said Raab. Meanwhile, some senior figures have complained about the government’s lockdown measures. Lord Sumpton a former Supreme Court justice, said we are whipping ourselves into “collective hysteria” over the coronavirus – and should ask “whether the cure may be worse than the disease”. The peer said draconian rules risked turning the country into a “police state”. Amid complaints about police are being “overzealous”, Metropolitan Police chief Cressida Dick said she wanted officers to “educate and encourage” people to comply.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: The government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance insisted social distancing measures were “changing behaviours”, and “making a difference” in fighting the spread of the virus. Sir Patrick said there are now 9,000 people in hospitals in England with Covid-19, up from 6,000 on Friday. He said the numbers were “going up not in an increasing amount but in a constant amount – which may suggest that we’re already beginning to see some effect”. There was a bit of good news when it comes to capacity too, with the SECC in Glasgow set to be turned into a temporary NHS hospital within a fortnight. Less encouraging is the number of professionals off work. The head of the Royal College of Physicians said around one in four doctors are now absent due to illness or self-isolation. Frontline doctors, meanwhile, have told The Independent they have been gagged from speaking out about shortages of protective equipment. The number of people in the UK who have died from Covid-19 rose to 1,408 on Monday, after it claimed 180 more lives.

DOUBLE WHAMMY WARNING: The largest grouping of MEPs in the European parliament has called for an extension in the Brexit transition period. The European People’s Party MEP Christophe Hansen said it made no sense for the UK to “expose itself to the double whammy of the coronavirus and the exit from the EU single market”. He added: “I can only hope that common sense and substance will prevail over ideology.” With the PM’s all-powerful adviser Dominic Cummings now self-isolating at home after showing symptoms of the virus, might it bring about a change in perspective? A senior backbench Tory has suggested all MPs and advisers may have to shift their perspective, calling for a “virtual parliament” to allow scrutiny and voting to take place if the Commons is unable to reopen after Easter. Robert Halfon, the education committee chairman, said Westminster was “a hotbed of ill-health” and could not carry on as usual.

VENTILATOR VANITY: Donald Trump claimed the US will be in “a very good shape” to get the number of ventilators it needs. He told reporters at least 10 American companies, the best in the business, were now making more of the medical devices. “We say go ahead because, honestly, other countries – they’ll never be able to do it.” In another confusing press conference, Trump appeared to reveal a federal stockpile of existing ventilators. “We have 10,000 … We’re probably going to send some of them [to states] now,” the president said, but he also accused some hospitals of “hoarding” the machines. The US death toll from the virus has surpassed 3,000, according to Johns Hopkins University – with New York City still the worst-affected area. Governor Andrew Cuomo made a plea for health care workers to come to his state. “Please come help us … We need relief,” he said. “We need relief for nurses who are working 12-hour shifts. We need relief for doctors.”

SLOWING GROWTH: The Italian government has announced an extension on its nationwide lockdown until 12 April, Easter Sunday. More than a dozen Italian anaesthetists and doctors have warned other countries to make sure medical workers are protected from the virus, after large numbers of Italian staff became sick themselves. There is hope of a declining infection rate in the badly-stricken country. Although there were another 812 deaths in Italy on Monday (compared with 756 the day before), the number of new infections reported was 1,648 – far lower than the 3,815 reported the previous day. There is similar hope of the outbreak slowing in Spain. The country’s foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez said the latest figures show the upward curve could be beginning to flatten. New Covid-19 cases are increasingly at about 12 per cent a day, compared with 20 per cent before 25 March.

BUSINESS AS USUAL: Facebook has pulled a series of videos posted by Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has claimed people should get back to work and boost the economy. The social media giant said it had to remove “misinformation that could lead to physical harm”. It follows a similar move by Twitter. Bolsonaro, meanwhile, has threatened to fire his health minister if he publicly criticises his handling of the pandemic, according to Brazilian media reports. Strangely, Sweden has taken a similarly laid-back approach to the outbreak. Most schools are running and meetings of up to 50 people permitted, while cafes and restaurants can remain open, so long as they space out the tables. A group of 2,000 doctors, scientists and public health specialists have penned a letter to the country’s authorities urging them to take stronger action on social distancing.

On the record

“We are working ourselves up into a lather in which we exaggerate the threat and stop asking ourselves whether the cure may be worse than the disease.”

Lord Sumption, defying the public health strategy, warns of a ‘police state’ during the lockdown.

From the Twitterati

“Did Raab just lick his finger before turning a page???”

The BBC’s Jennifer-Anne Scott notices a jarring moment foreign secretary’s press conference…

“This, surely, is the very, very bottom of the barrel. There is nowhere left to go.”

…while The Independent’s Tom Peck finds it jarring that Raab is at the helm.

Essential reading

Anna Kettley, The Independent: It will take a lot more than vouchers to stop thousands of children going hungry this summer

Borzou Daragahi, The Independent: Religious extremists are making the coronavirus pandemic even worse

Nick Cohen, The Spectator: Whatever happened to parliamentary democracy?

Gloria Borgor, CNN: Trump’s coronavirus briefings lack a crucial element – empathy

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