Inside Politics: Boris Johnson to announce 10pm pub curfew

The prime minister is preparing to move the country further towards a second lockdown, despite Tory backbench disquiet about creeping ‘authoritarianism’, writes Adam Forrest

Boris Johnson speaks at cabinet meeting (AFP via Getty Images)

We’ve all made sacrifices since the virus hit. What more will we have to give up? The Royal Academy is thinking about flogging off a £100m work by the great Michelangelo in order to save precious jobs. The sacred art of late-night pub drinking is about to be sacrificed as the coronavirus rules change yet again. All those who prefer the inside of their local boozer to the Sistine Chapel will have to be off home before 10pm, as Boris Johnson announces a new curfew for England and other nationwide measures today.

Inside the bubble

Chief political commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson will brief cabinet this morning before making a lunchtime statement in the Commons about new measures to control coronavirus. Labour leader Keir Starmer, meanwhile, gives a speech by Zoom to his party’s online conference around 9am. This afternoon MPs will debate the internal market bill – including the government’s amendment promising a further vote before actually breaking the withdrawal agreement.

Daily briefing

LAST ORDERS COME EARLY: Boris Johnson is expected to announce that all pubs and restaurants in England must close by 10pm, and table service must become mandatory in the hospitality sector. Having one of his busy days, the prime minister chairs a Cobra meeting this morning and addresses the nation in a live broadcast at 8pm. Widespread reports suggest Johnson will urge people to work from home if they can, but the PM will not yet ban mixing different households, according to The Telegraph. It follows an official upgrade in the UK’s coronavirus alert level from 3 to 4. Chief scientific advisor Sir Patrick Vallance warned of up to 50,000 new cases a day by mid-October and 200-plus deaths a day by mid-November at current infection rates. He said “action” and “speed” were required to get the infection rate down. Will Johnson be active and speedy enough?

CHILD’S PLAY: Backbench Tory MPs, who have been quietly sulking over the coronavirus restrictions, are now throwing their toys out the pram. The 1922 committee chair Sir Graham Brady said ministers had “got into the habit of ruling by decree” and said parliament must be given the chance to approve any new curbs. “The British people aren’t used to being treated as children,” he huffed. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey complained about the new 10pm curfew rule as “a step backwards … we cannot allow thousands of jobs to disappear overnight.” Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon will make her own statement this afternoon, and warned that additional restrictions will “almost certainly” be put in place north of the border. It comes as Northern Ireland and four more areas in Wales bring in regional bans on different households mixing indoors from 6pm on Tuesday.

MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF ME: Keir Starmer will try to wrap Labour’s red flag in the red, white and blue one when he makes an appeal to patriotism in his first conference speech as leader. Speaking from Doncaster, Starmer will say he wants Britain to be the “best country to grow up in and the best country to grow old in. A country in which we put family first.” In an unashamedly unsubtle appeal to the “red wall” voters who abandoned the party, he will state: “I ask you: take another look at Labour. We’re under new leadership. We love this country as you do.” Will he have much to say about Brexit? Probably not. The row over Downing Street’s international law-breaking bill continues, nevertheless. Former PM Theresa May said she could not support the bill because it would “weaken the UK in the eyes of the world …our reputation as a country that sticks by its word will have been tarnished”.

RUBLE SCRUPLES: Tories won’t hand back the £1.7m donated by Lubov Chernukhin, despite leaked files reportedly showing show her husband received £6.1m from a politician sanctioned in the US over his ties to the Kremlin. The Conservative party insisted Ms Chernukhin, a British citizen, has “the democratic and legal right to donate to a political party”. Labour MP Chris Bryant said the party should return “every penny”, adding: “Successive Tory prime ministers have been utterly complacent and naive about accepting vast slabs of cash from Russian cronies of Putin.” Elsewhere, there was a more minor controversy involving Boris Johnson’s former political secretary. Tory MP Danny Kruger admitted he “forgot” to put on a face covering while on the hour-long train journey from Wiltshire to London. “I do apologise for my mistake.”

THEY SEEK HIM HERE, THEY SEEK HIM THERE: Much of the Twitterati got their flight paths in a twist after Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper published a story claiming Boris Johnson flew into Perugia earlier this month for a secret weekend trip. No 10 said it was “completely untrue”. Perugia Airport then retracted its claim Johnson had been there – saying staff had mistook perma-tanned Tony Blair for the current British PM. Easily done, I suppose. On the Friday he was supposedly in Italy, Johnson held an online video call with Tory MPs worried about his law-breaking Brexit bill. Screengrabs of the Tory leader inside the Cabinet room were shared on Twitter – but it hasn’t convinced the conspiracy-minded. Incidentally, the UK and EU have now agreed to hold another joint committee meeting on 28 September, despite all the bad blood over the Internal Market Bill.

WISHFUL THINKING: Donald Trump mocked the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish that she not be replaced until a new president can be installed – suggesting it was something the Democrats came up with. Asked about Ginsburg’s statement (dictated to her granddaughter), the president told Fox News: “I don’t know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and [Chuck] Schumer and [Nancy] Pelosi?” Trump said that he was “constitutionally obligated” to nominate someone for the Supreme Court, and told supporters in Ohio he was looking at “five incredible jurists ... women that are extraordinary in every way”. The president also held a private meeting at the White House with Amy Coney Barrett – the candidate most strongly backed by anti-abortion conservatives.

On the record

“Science will in due course ride to our rescue, but in this period of the next six months … we have to take this collectively very seriously.”

Prof Chris Whitty asks for patience and obedience with the rules.

From the Twitterati

“President of Perugia airport tells me Boris Johnson ‘definitely’ did not come through here this month. Says original press release confused him with Tony Blair, who did.”

The Telegraph’s Nick Squires appears to draw a line under Perugia-gate…

“Downing Street is denying it – but backbenchers certainly believe [The Repubblica] exclusive, claiming the PM was in Perugia this month.”

…but his Telegraph colleague Cat Neilan says some Tory MPs find the story believable.

Essential reading

Jess Phillips, The Independent: The eviction ban is over. How will the government protect tenants?

Tom Peck, The Independent: Boris Johnson has found a way to reassure the nation – not turning up

Polly Toynbee, The Guardian: Starmer’s greatest challenge is defeating the Tories on patriotism

Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker: The massive legal fight coming after the US presidential election

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