[ad_1]
Good Morning. As MPs will vote tomorrow on the three-tiered coronavirus restrictions for England that will take effect when the lockdown ends on Wednesday, Downing Street continues its efforts to contain the revolt planned by skeptics of the Tory lockdown at the Covid Recovery Group that han was angered to discover that his districts are unexpectedly at levels 3 or 2.
On Saturday night Johnson wrote a letter to all MPs offering a number of concessions related to parliamentary scrutiny of the rules, including a hint that some areas could be moved down a notch just before Christmas. Last night he wrote a letter to the CRG appealing to “unity”. And today the government must publish a cost-benefit analysis of the health, economic and social impact of the restrictions, a key demand of CRG.
George Eustice, The environment secretary told Sky News this morning that up to 100 MPs had concerns, but that the government wanted to assure them that it had a “clear route” back to normalcy. He said:
The main whip will obviously be talking to MPs who have concerns. I’ve seen suggestions that there could be up to 100 people who have concerns. I think there is great frustration with the emergency measures we have had to take to deal with this pandemic.
We have not taken them lightly. We had to take them to control the virus. What we have to show to these Members and to the country in general is that we have a clear route to solve this problem and to go around the corner.
Here is the agenda for the day.
12:00 h: Downing Street plans to hold its daily briefing in the lobby.
12:15 pm: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh Prime Minister, holds a briefing where he is expected to announce changes to coronavirus restrictions.
12:15 pm: Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Prime Minister, conducts her regular briefing on the coronavirus.
3.30 pm: Sturgeon delivers his speech at the SNP conference.
At some point, the UK government must also publish its cost-benefit analysis of the economic, health and social impact of the three-tier lockdown restrictions for England. Boris Johnson has also visited North Wales.
And, for about the fourth time this month, the UK-EU trade talks enter what is billed as the final decisive week that will determine whether a deal is reached, etc.
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 priority.
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.
[ad_2]
