Raab rebuffs calls to release coronavirus lockdown ‘exit strategy’
Dominic Raab has said the government will not publish any plans for how the UK will ease the coronavirus lockdown until next week at the earliest.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) today, Raab said the government was still waiting for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) to give its guidance on how to approach the next stage of lockdown, which will be “in the next week or so”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer pushed the foreign secretary, filling in for Boris Johnson after his fiancee gave birth this morning, to publish an “exit strategy” so schools, businesses and trade unions have more clarity of what is coming in the months ahead.
“I’m not asking for the lockdown to be lifted,” Starmer said.
“We support the government on lockdown and we’ll continue to do so.
“I’m not asking for a timeframe. I said I wouldn’t ask for the impossible and I won’t.
“I’m asking for the government to be open with the British people about what comes next.”
Downing Street yesterday distanced itself from media reports that Johnson was preparing to give details on the next phase of the coronavirus lockdown at the end of the week.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Number 10 was “focussing on 7 May”, the date when the lockdown will be reviewed.
He added that more details would be given this week on how the government is assessing the five tests the UK must have passed to ease social distancing restrictions.
Today, Raab said the government would not publish any proposals until it has clear advice from Sage, its key scientific advisory body.
“I will just gently say that based on the advice and evidence we have from Sage, it would be very difficult to set out those proposals before we’ve had that subsequent advice from Sage,” Raab said.
“If [Starmer’s] suggesting we can set out concrete proposals now, despite clear evidence and advice from Sage, and that we should not wait for their review of evidence in the next week or so, I will gently say that is the wrong thing to do.
“If [Starmer] thinks he knows better than Sage and the scientists who have suggested that, he needs to explain it.”
On Monday, the Prime Minister said the UK was “approaching the end of the first phase” of its social distancing restrictions, but warned that lifting them too early could cause a second peak in infections.