UK Coronavirus Live: Johnson Faces SNP Wrath Over Scotland Permission; nearly 1,000 deaths in England in one week | Politics

Good Morning. Yesterday, during his marathon declaration from Commons, Boris Johnson appeared to make an important promise to Scotland; He suggested that the Treasury would fund a licensing scheme for Scotland after November if it needed it because it was back in lockdown, even if England wasn’t by then. Johnson’s words were not 100% clear, but in the Scottish media (see here, or here, or here) they were taken as a strong statement of intent.

But this morning (and not for the first time) a promise from Johnson is starting to look pretty hollow. Robert jenrick, the community secretary, was doing the morning broadcast round for issue 10 and, when asked if the prime minister’s comment meant Scotland could run its own permitting plan beyond November if necessary, simply said that the permit would continue as a UK-wide Plan until 2 December, and what happened after that would be a chancellor’s decision.

On Sky News, Kay Burley pressured Jenrick four times about this. But he kept giving the same answer (or no answer).

So far the licensing scheme has functioned as a UK-wide scheme. But Scotland is now in a different lockdown cycle than England. Nicola sturgeon introduced its own version of a firewall on Friday October 9, almost a month before the English lockdown begins, and the Scottish government wants to know that it will be able to access the licensing scheme if it needs another lockdown later. Sturgeon has also been more cautious about opening up the economy than Johnson, at one point in the fall suggesting she would have tightened restrictions further if she could fund better support for workers (i.e. a leave plan).

After Jenrick’s interview, Sturgeon posted this on Twitter.

We’ll hear more later, because there is a UQ that covers this in the Commons.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30 am: The ONS publishes its weekly death figures for England and Wales.

12:00 h: Downing Street plans to hold its daily briefing in the lobby.

12:15 pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s prime minister, is expected to hold her regular briefing on the coronavirus.

12:15 pm: Dr Andrew Goodall, Executive Director of NHS Wales, gives a briefing on the coronavirus situation in Wales.

12.30 pm: A Treasury minister responds to an urgent question from Labor about financial support for workers and businesses during the shutdown.

2.30 pm: Professor Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Sir Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser, provide evidence to the Commons scientific committee as part of their research on “the capacity and influence of UK science, research and technology. Joined in the global disease outbreaks. “

17:00 h: Dido Harding, head of testing and tracing for the NHS, speaks at the CBI conference.

Politics Live is now doubling down as the UK’s coronavirus live blog and given the way the Covid crisis overshadows everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But we will also cover political stories that do not belong to Covid, and when they seem more important or more interesting, they will take precedence.

Here’s our global coronavirus live blog.

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