Brexit news – live: Watchdog gains power to block chlorinated chicken and Nigel Farage’s party from renaming

Sunak lobbied on legal sick pay … and dodges questions

Rishi Sunak, on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, you are asked if you will increase statutory sick pay as a means of improving NHS Test and Trace.

He was also asked whether he will extend eligibility and increase self-isolation payments “to help encourage people to obey instructions” of quarantine. and help track contacts.

He says: “We need to make sure that track and trace works effectively, it is obviously a vital tool.

“I think I would pay a huge tribute, first and foremost, to the team for expanding the amount of testing we are doing.”

Pressed further, Mr Sunak says: “The most important thing is to be able to trace, to identify, the most important thing that we can do when we look at all the ways that the models work, is to identify people who have coronavirus.”

“That is the most important factor in reducing R through that program.

“You’re right, once we find people, we need to make sure they isolate themselves and their contacts to the extent that we can find them too.”

The chancellor describes the current £ 500 self-isolation payment as a “significant incentive”.

On statutory sick pay, he says: “We have improved both the way it works for employees and the self-employed, with the equivalent of being paid from day one. We also did it very early in this crisis ”.

Pressed further on whether to make any changes to the line of questions asked, Mr. Sunak says the “key” is the additional funding provided to city councils to boost local contact tracing.

Cleaning up backlogs in courts and hospitals will require investment, ministers said

Ministers have been urged to splurge to reduce delays in hospitals and courts, once the coronavirus lockdown has ended.

A report by the Institute for Government (IfG) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy has highlighted the impact of Covid-19 on public services and the delays caused in education and in the courts and the NHS.

The 2020 Performance Tracker report recommended that money be set aside for laptops, routers, and other technology to help students catch up on learning time lost as a result of missing school during the national spring lockdown.

It also calls for additional funding to continue faster hospital discharges beyond the current crisis.

While the number of people on hospital waiting lists has decreased during the coronavirus, the report released Monday predicted that the lists are likely to “increase rapidly once GP referrals to hospitals return closer to normal levels. “.

Inside Politics: Boris Johnson Tries to Quell Tory Lockdown Rebellion

The country was united; the judges unanimously. Former Flatfoot Labor Minister Jacqui Smith had to leave, becoming the first contestant to be expelled Strictly come dance. Despite Boris Johnson’s best efforts to sabotage Strictlyprogram with its closing announcement, the show must go on, writes Adam Forrest.

Not much more will happen in the gloomy weeks to come. Johnson appears to have united nearly the entire nation against him. While many feel it was too late (again), others are furious at the economic debris that lies ahead. Johnson is lucky not to face a public vote every weekend.

Covid breaker weeks ago ‘definitely would have saved thousands of lives,’ says Sage member

Locking a circuit breaker a few weeks ago “would definitely have saved thousands of lives” and inflicted substantially less damage on the economy, a government scientific adviser claimed. writes Ashley cowburn.

Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Body for Emergencies (Sage), said the threat from Covid-19 had been “repeatedly underestimated” and waiting to see if less intense measures would work was a “dangerous” strategy.

Farage changes the name of the Brexit Party to Anti-Blockade Reform in the UK

Nigel Farage will relaunch his Brexit Party as an anti-blockade party called Reform UK while campaigning against measures imposed by the UK government to curb the spread of the coronavirus. writes Vincent Wood.

The party has presented documents requesting the change of name to the Electoral Commission. In an article of the Daily telegraph, Farage and party chairman Richard Tice said they would adopt an anti-lockdown platform to give a “political voice” to opponents of the Covid-19 restrictions.

‘Nobody wanted to see the blockade’

Jon Ashworth of Labor has been on Sky News making the same criticism of the government that critics of the government have been making since news of the shutdown broke.

Full suit and tie, in the kitchen, at 7.30 am.

The shadow health secretary said: “Nobody wanted to see a lockdown, a lockdown is disastrous for the economy or has long-term implications. It is terrible for mental health, but on the other hand, the virus is out of control.”

“Scientists advised the government on September 23 to do a short shutdown, we suggested a few weeks ago that they should do a short shutdown during the school semester. They rejected the advice of scientists, they told us in the Labor Party. We were opportunists.

“The consequence of this delay is that we are now facing, we are on the eve, of a longer blockade, a more restrictive blockade, than perhaps it would not have been necessary.”

However, he said, Labor would vote to institute the shutdown.

He said the Labor Party wanted children to stay in school because closing classrooms would harm their development.

But the main question: Ashworth wants to know how long the shutdown will last, given Michael Gove’s suggestions that it could be extended. You and us both, Mr. Ashworth.

Activists Praise Government’s Dramatic Fall In Battle To Protect Post-Brexit Food Standards

A drastic government reduction will protect food quality after Brexit, activists say delighted, after fears that chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef will be allowed in. writes Rob merrick.

In another U-turn, Liz Truss has given in to pressure to give force to a new watchdog to prevent trade agreements, particularly with the US, from diluting animal feed and welfare standards.

Just three weeks ago, as The Independent revealed, the Commerce Secretary used an obscure Commons rule to deny MPs to vote on the controversy, sparking outrage.