Boris Johnson’s fiancee Carrie Symonds gives birth to baby boy April 29, 2020 Boris Johnson’s fiance Carrie Symonds has given birth to a “healthy baby boy” at a London hospital this morning, according to a Downing Street spokesperson. The baby and mother are both said to be doing well. There has been no announcement on what they have named their newborn son, but Coral bookmakers has Alexander as [...]
Renewed calls for change to UK’s post-Brexit immigration system April 28, 2020 There have been fresh calls for the government to amend its post-Brexit immigration proposals in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis. Home secretary Priti Patel laid out the government’s proposal for a post-Brexit EU immigration system in February, which included a requirement for applicants to have a job offer with a wage of £25,560 or [...]
Matt Hancock opens coronavirus testing to all NHS and social care workers April 28, 2020 Coronavirus tests will now be available to all NHS and social care worker staff, along with everyone living in a care home. All NHS patients and all over 65s with coronavirus symptoms will also be eligible to receive a Covid-19 test, health secretary Matt Hancock announced today. Hancock said 43,453 tests were administered yesterday and [...]
Councils criticised for slow rollout of coronavirus business grants package April 28, 2020 Business groups have criticised councils for the slow rollout of the government’s coronavirus grant scheme as new figures reveal that almost 40 per cent of all eligible businesses are still waiting for the emergency funding. Councils across the country were given £12.33bn by the government four weeks ago on 1 April to distribute to businesses [...]
Plans to ease UK lockdown unlikely to be announced this week April 28, 2020 Downing Street has quashed suggestions that Boris Johnson will this week outline how the government plans to ease its coronavirus social distancing measures. Multiple media outlets said this morning that Johnson was drawing up plans for the next stage of the coronavirus lockdown and would set out the next steps by Friday. However, the Prime [...]
Coronavirus business loans: Liberal Democrats leader calls for ‘loan marketplace’ April 27, 2020 The Treasury should create a “loan marketplace” to better facilitate the coronavirus business loan scheme, according to Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. Davey today called for the government to create a website for businesses to browse a wide range of emergency loan options from different banks, similar to websites such as Compare the Market does [...]
Michael Gove: Brexit trade deal by 31 December ‘entirely possible’ April 27, 2020 Michael Gove has said a post-Brexit free trade deal between the UK and EU is “entirely possible” before 31 December and is “better than 2/1” odds to happen. Gove said today that the firm deadline would “concentrate minds” and would not be changed, despite the coronavirus crisis. There has been sustained calls for the 31 [...]
UK ‘on track’ to reach 100,000 coronavirus tests target by Thursday April 27, 2020 Health secretary Matt Hancock has said the UK is on track to reach 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by Thursday, despite only testing 37,000 people yesterday. Speaking at today’s press briefing, Hancock said “we are broadly where we expected to be” on testing. There were 37,024 Covid-19 tests administered yesterday, which was a marked increase [...]
Rishi Sunak unveils 100 per cent state-backed ‘bounce back loans’ for small businesses April 27, 2020 The UK’s smallest businesses will have guaranteed access to loans of up to £50,000 within 24 hours of applying, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced today. The new “bounce back loans” will be 100 per cent guaranteed by the Treasury, meaning the government will take on all the default risk, and will be available from next Monday [...]
Cameron’s ex-adviser: Row over Dominic Cummings attending Sage meetings is ‘bonkers’ April 27, 2020 The recent furore over Dominic Cummings’ attendance at the government’s scientific advisory meetings is “bonkers”, according to a former Downing Street adviser to David Cameron. Daniel Korski told City A.M.’s daily podcast The City View today that it was standard for senior Number 10 advisers to attend high-level meetings. He added it was important Cummings [...]
