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“I really don’t know how to exhaust my affirmative vocabulary further,” Boris johnson told a SNP MP in the Commons yesterday, when asked for the umpteenth time if the government would agree to fund a licensing plan beyond November, if Scotland needed a lockdown but England did not. “They will not take yes for an answer.”
This issue has been bubbling up for three days and this afternoon in the Commons we should finally get a resolution. It may sound technical Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, will explain how the holiday leave policy might work into the new year, but it is about how power and spending are distributed in the UK, and about the extent to which the return will allow policies to vary lock.
Tl: dr – London seems to be giving up a bit more control.
Health policy is transferred, but Westminster decides the licensing policy, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have complained that this means that they cannot order their own closures if the Treasury does not pay to help companies that have to close. In the last month or so, the problem has worsened because the three delegated administrations have started their own firewall blocks long before England.
English regions do not control their own health policy, but areas placed under the strictest level 3 conditions complained that workers received only 67% of their normal salary under Treasury support, not the 80% that was applied under the original permit. But magically, as soon as the government decided that all of England would have to shut down (that is, the south and not just parts of the north), the money was available for an 80% scheme.
This week, the government has come under pressure to agree that if delegated administrations want to maintain their own lockdowns after November, or if strict regional lockdowns continue in England, the 80% permit will remain available. All we got on Monday was a vague promise that the UK government would support us. Yesterday Johnson was sounding more specific and today we get the full announcement. Here is my colleague Richard PartingtonPreview of what we are waiting for.
And here is the key excerpt.
The chancellor was preparing to announce that the flagship wage subsidy scheme, which pays 80% of workers’ wages, would continue to be available to parts of the UK under the highest levels of Covid restrictions, the sources said, in a significant decline for the government.
But will this be enough? And what if, say, Scotland wants a four-week lockdown, but the Treasury thinks it’s unnecessary and refuses to pay.
These are some of the comments we have had before the announcement.
Since Carolyn fairbairn, outgoing director general of the CBI
Carolyn fairbairn
(@cbicarolyn)As shutting shutters close for many businesses, extending the permit until next spring is the right thing to do. Businesses and employees need more certainty and stability to plan and recover; a JRS extension will help. @RishiSunak You should act tomorrow on your statement to protect jobs.
Since Frances O’Grady, the secretary general of the TUC
Working families need financial security to get through the tough times ahead. And employers need to put an end to last minute decisions. The chancellor must extend the licensing regime and support for the self-employed until spring.
Since Kate Forbes, the Scottish government finance secretary
Despite repeated calls this week for full details of the prime minister’s commitment to a Scotland and SEISS-only license [self-employed income support] scheme, we are not further ahead yet and we remain in the dark about what these schemes will be like … I hope that today’s statement will finally give us the clarity we need.
Since Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
Andy Burnham
(@AndyBurnhamGM)Does this mean that we have finally agreed to the principle of an 80% license for all in a company forced to close? 👇
Hopefully. https://t.co/nI4aakipPe
We’ll find out later.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30 am: The ONS publishes data on the economic impact of the coronavirus.
10 am: Sir Tom Scholar, permanent secretary of the Treasury, and other officials give evidence to the Commons public accounts committee on the Rebote loan scheme.
10.30 am: A health minister responds to an urgent question from Commons about how the lockdown affects people’s ability to travel abroad for assisted death.
11 a. M.: Mark Drakeford, Prime Minister of Wales, speaks about Welsh living standards at the Resolution Foundation event.
11am: NHS Test and Trace publishes its weekly performance figures.
Around 12 pm: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, makes a statement to MPs about the licensing plan.
12:15 pm: Ken Skates, the Welsh Minister of the Economy, gives a briefing on the coronavirus.
12.20 h: Nicola Sturgeon answers the Prime Minister’s questions in the Scottish Parliament.
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.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, put “Andrew” somewhere and you’re more likely to find it. I try to answer questions and if they are of general interest I will post the question and answer above the line (ATL), although I cannot promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to get my attention quickly, it’s probably best to use Twitter. I’m in @ AndrewGorrión.
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