Reviews in for Keir Starmer’s first PMQs as Labour leader

There’s been a generally positive response to the new leader of the opposition’s performance, with former chancellor George Osborne saying: “Britain has an opposition again”.

Government response ‘way behind other European countries’, says Starmer

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more on Keir Starmer’s first performance at PMQs as Labour leader.

The leader of the opposition has accused the government of being “way behind other European countries” in its response to coronavirus as Labour released a list of dozens of UK companies who say their offers of PPE were ignored.

WHO ‘not perfect’, says Raab

Labour MP Angela Eagle has asked Dominic Raab whether the government believes the World Health Organisation still has a “critical” role in security global health security, given Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal of US funding.

She called Trump’s action “disgraceful vendetta”.

Raab replied: “On the WHO, we recognise it has a role to play. It is not perfect, no international institution is, we do need to work to reform it. But we’ve made clear we consider an important part of the international response.”

Labour backbencher suggests government hasn’t followed expert advice

Labour MP Barry Gardiner has claimed that Sage, the government’s scientific advisory group, recommended a lockdown at the end of February. “The government likes to claim it has been following the scientific advice. But it hasn’t, has it?”

Raab rejected the idea – claiming the government had followed scientific advice at all times.

“We’ve protected our NHS – it hasn’t been overwhelmed in the way some had feared … we are starting to come through this peak, and that has only happened because we’ve taken the right decisions based on the evidence we’ve had.”

SNP MP calls for universal basic income

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford is the first MP to get to ask a question remotely.

He said his party is calling for a universal basic income (UBI) to help everyone struggling financially during the crisis, before asking Raab whether the government would support the move. “It will leave no-one behind,” he said.

Raab said he didn’t agree an universal basic income wasn’t necessary – pointing to existing benefits and the support packages outlined by the chancellor.

Labour leader says ‘pattern’ of failures emerging

Keir Starmer said PPE manufacturers had got in touch with the opposition about their struggle to get a reply from the government on offers to supply the NHS with vital kit.

“Something is going wrong,” said the Labour leader. “There is a pattern emerging here. We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment and now slow to take up these offers.”

He urges the government to work with the opposition to get some of these offers taken up “as soon as possible”.

Raab replied by saying “I don’t accept his premise that we’ve been slow,” and claiming ministers were guided by scientific advice.

Raab: 69 NHS staff have died of Covid-19

Dominic Rabb said 69 NHS employees had now died after contracting the coronavirus, after Keir Starmer asked for the figures for health service and care workers.

“I don’t have the precise figure for care homes,” the foreign secretary said.

Starmer said he would ask again next week. “Hopefully we can get a better answer.”

Care workers ‘desperate’ for tests, says Starmer

Keir Starmer says care home workers are “desperate” for coronavirus tests. “There is obviously a problem,” said the Labour leader – asking why tests remained around 20,000 a day when the capacity was now 40,000.

Dominic Rabb replied by saying the focus needed to be on testing NHS workers – but wider testing would soon be expanded. “We will deliver. And those tests will be crucial, not just in controlling the virus, but in moving to the next stage.”

All set for first ever ‘virtual’ PMQs

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock says he is “suited, booted and ready” at home.

UK death toll more than double hospital figure, analysis suggests

New analysis indicates the real death toll from coronavirus in the UK could already be more than 40,000.

Ministers announced on Tuesday that there have been 17,337 fatalities, but this counts only those who have died in hospitals. Meanwhile, the  ONS has found the number of registered deaths in the week ending 10 April was 75 per cent above normal in England and Wales, at 18,516.

Now the Financial Times has used that figure to calculate the likely number of “excess deaths” since the coronavirus struck the UK – concluding it could be as many as 41,000.

More details here:

Welsh government extends free school meals

The Welsh government has said disadvantaged children will get free school meals during the summer holidays, the first nation in the UK to do so.

Kirsty Williams, education minister for Wales, said: “I can confirm we will provide £33m to enable local authorities to continue free school meal provision until schools re-open or up to the end of August.”

Government ‘worried’ about domestic violence, says minister

The women and equalities minister Liz Truss, giving evidence to the committee of the same name, said the government was “extremely worried” about domestic violence during lockdown.

She said: “We recognised straight away that this was one of the major issues with the lockdown, that it would put domestic violence victims potentially at more risk of abuse, which is why we have been very clear from the start that if you are a victim of domestic abuse, the rules about lockdown do not apply, you should leave the home if you are able to.

“If you are in a domestic abuse situation, you should absolutely be able to leave that property where you are facing domestic abuse.”

Asked about the lockdown, Truss said it was more important to “save lives” than to protect jobs.

“The most important thing, as it says on our strapline, is that we save lives. We will not lift lockdown until we fulfil the conditions of those five tests (including drops in the daily death rate, and the rate of infection).

“But at the same time it is right that we prepare for the lifting of lockdown and make sure that it has the minimum economic damage that we can deliver.”

Three-quarters of care home staff unable to get tested

A survey by the National Care Forum has found 75 per cent of care home workers who want a coronavirus test have not been able to access one, according to the BBC’s Norman Smith. He said the survey also showed care home staff were having to make, on average, as 62-mile round trip to access drive thru testing sites.

Minister admits testing numbers ‘really troubling’

The care minister Helen Whately has admitted the low number of coronavirus tests being carried out is “really troubling” and hinted at mistakes in the strategy.

After weeks of the government defending its record – despite fewer than 20,000 daily tests, way short of the pledge of 100,000 next week – Whately acknowledged failures.

She also admitted that care workers were unable to reach the drive-through centres set up, which meant mobile tests were now being offered, with some home testing available very soon.
 
“It clearly is really troubling where our strategy is to increase capacity and get as much testing happening as possible,” Whately said.

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has more details.

Sadiq Khan calls for ‘triple lock’ rent protection

The London mayor has called on the government to ban ‘no fault’ evictions during the lockdown, stop evictions after the lockdown based on rent arrears built up during the crisis, and also wants an increase in housing benefits.

Calling it a “triple lock” for London’s three million private renters, Khan said: “With millions of low paid renters in London now facing increased financial uncertainty we face a ticking timebomb of debt, arrears and widespread evictions once the suspension in court proceedings is lifted.

“The government must urgently put in place measures that will prevent private landlords from evicting tenants who go into arrears as a result of COVID-19.”

Government must be reordered, says Blair

More now on Tony Blair’s interview on GMB this morning. The former Labour prime minister suggested that the whole of the government needs to be reordered in order to tackle the crisis, and said mass testing is of vital importance.

He said a senior minister should be in charge of different key elements and they should be backed up by good people outside the government who have the necessary skill sets.

“You have got to get the point where you have the capability of dealing with all the different dimensions and not getting overwhelmed.”

He also recalled that it was only when he repositioned the government as he was dealing with the foot-and-mouth crisis that “we accelerated our ability to deal with it and got on top of it”.

Of the current crisis, he said the suppression phases “is probably a simpler task than how you exit from the lockdown”.

He added: “How you exit is really, really complicated and, unless you have the right skill set there at the centre of government right from the very beginning, then it’s going to be very hard to do things like mass testing, which I can’t see any other way out of this.”

‘I don’t believe a word of this’

Labour MP Chris Bryant – who questioned the Foreign Office’s permanent secretary Sir Simon McDonald at a virtual select committee hearing on Tuesday – has said he doesn’t believe a letter top civil servant later wrote correcting what he said.

Sir Simon made an extraordinary U-turn – withdrawing his own claim the UK made a “political decision” not to take part in an EU scheme to secure vital equipment.

Johnson has ‘got to get better’, says Blair

Tony Blair has said ‘you can’t have a void of decision making” as the prime minister recovers from symptoms of the coronavirus.

The former Labour PM said Boris Johnson has “got to get better” and he would be consulted on major decisions regarding the government’s response to the pandemic.

Blair also told Good Morning Britain: “I think in a situation where every day matters and where every day decisions have to be taken, I think the person who is the acting prime minister along with what is essentially the war cabinet – the top four ministers that are meeting together – that person has got to be taking those decisions.

“You can’t have a void of decision making.”

Blair, who said he “completely” sympathises with Johnson given his present condition, added that some important decisions have to be “taken now”.

These include matters such as how the government is organising itself, what needs to be done now to prepare to exit from the lockdown and various issues around things including schools and business sectors.