Raab: China and Russia ‘took advantage’ of Covid to break international law October 6, 2020 China and Russia have used the Covid pandemic to carry out cyber attacks and clamp down on human rights, according to foreign secretary Dominic Raab. Raab said today that the “usual suspects” of Iran, Russia and China have tried to “take advantage of the crisis”, with Beijing’s Hong Kong clamp down used as an example. [...]
Boris Johnson calls on the private sector to rebuild Britain after Covid October 6, 2020 Boris Johnson has vowed a complete post-Covid transformation of Britain that will be driven by the private sector and the free market. The Prime Minister’s Conservative party conference speech outlined the government’s vision of a new Britain by emphasising improved infrastructure, fixing the country’s housing shortage, investing in wind power and increasing skills for young [...]
Rishi Sunak signals that tax hikes will be delayed for some time October 6, 2020 Rishi Sunak has signalled he will hold off on tax rises and Budget cuts until the UK’s economic recovery is further along. Sunak said today that the UK needs to balance its books “over time”, just a day after saying at his conference speech that the Tories had a “sacred responsibility to future generations to [...]
Business secretary Alok Sharma hits out at Extinction Rebellion for its ‘innefective’ methods October 5, 2020 Business secretary Alok Sharma has hit out at Extinction Rebellion for its methods, saying the environmental group’s actions will not lead to any real change. Sharma said at the Conservative party conference that the way to “achieve climate action” was not by “glueing yourself to trains, by glueing yourself to buildings [or] by disprupting peoples [...]
Matt Hancock: Covid data glitch did not affect policy decisions October 5, 2020 A technical glitch that resulted in almost 16,000 positive Covid cases not recorded in the official data last week did not affect the government’s policy decisions, according to health secretary Matt Hancock. The government implemented more stringent lockdown restrictions in the North West last week, including in Liverpool, but the health secretary said no other [...]
UK eyeing closer financial services regulation alignment with non-EU countries, says Sunak October 5, 2020 The UK is looking to align its financial services regulation with major economic powers outside the EU, according to Rishi Sunak. The chancellor said today at a fringe event at the Conservative conference that the government will “review our regulatory framework” on financial services and that “not being inside the EU more generally gives us [...]
Rishi Sunak vows to protect UK’s entrepreneurs in conference speech October 5, 2020 Rishi Sunak has vowed to create opportunities for the UK’s entrepreneurs after the Covid crisis, while also foreshadowing future “hard choices” on public spending. Sunak used his first conference speech as chancellor to say it was his “single priority” to to “create, support and extend opportunity to as many people as I can” and “to [...]
Boris Johnson: Contacts of missing positive Covid tests now being traced October 5, 2020 Boris Johnson has said that contacts of all 16,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus, but were not logged into the database, are now being contacted by NHS Test and Trace. Johnson said that some of the missing data “got truncated and it was lost”, but that everyone who tested positive has been contacted and [...]
Rishi Sunak warns Boris Johnson against another Covid lockdown October 5, 2020 Chancellor Rishi Sunak has today called his government’s 10pm curfew “frustrating” as he warns against the prospect of a future national lockdown. Sunak, who is the cabinet’s leading voice against imposing more stringent Covid restrictions, also denied that his Eat Out to Help Out scheme helped spur the country’s second spike in infections. On the [...]
UK launches £238m Covid unemployment programme October 5, 2020 The government has today launched a £238m unemployment programme to provide skills and training to people who have lost their jobs during the Covid crisis. The Job Entry Targeted Support scheme will provide participants with CV and interview training, individual work coaches and “specialist advice on how people can move into growing sectors”, according to [...]
