Michael Gove – We’re confident children and teachers will be safe
Michael Gove was in charge of the government’s media rounds this morning. Andrew Marr was keen to ask him about the provisions being made for children returning to school. The government wants primary school children in reception, Years 1 and 6 to return to the classroom from 1st June. The Cabinet Office Minister told Marr that he had been reassured that it would be safe to do so without significant fear of the coronavirus causing significant new outbreaks:
MG: I talked to the [government’s] chief scientific advisor yesterday… and we’re confident that children and teachers will be safe… The only outbreaks that have occurred in schools have been when you’ve had a significant number of additional people in a school setting. They haven’t occurred in traditional classroom settings.
Class sizes will be capped at 15
Gove outlined some of the measures that the government would be putting in place to help halt the spread of Covid-19 in schools, citing Denmark as an example that UK schools should follow:
MG: Children will have to be distanced now… We can do that by making sure that we have staggered lunch breaks, staggered breaks for play and we can have children arriving in a staggered fashion as well. And we can make sure that… you cap class sizes at 15.
Angela Rayner – ‘Test, track and trace’ would reassure parents and teachers
The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has stated that the government’s ‘test, track and trace’ approach, which is still being trialled in the Isle of Wight, would be fully rolled out before 1st June. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner argued that this was critical and implied that the government should consider pushing the schools deadline back if ‘test, track and trace’ was not fully operational by then:
AR: If we’ve got the test, tracking and tracing in place for schools that would reassure parents… We do want as many pupils as possible to go back into the classroom as quickly as possible, but we’ve got to reassure the teaching professionals… that it’s safe to do so.
Michael Gove – Care homes ‘absolutely’ have been protected
Niall Paterson stood in for Sophy Ridge this week. Also interviewing Michael Gove, Paterson challenged him on the government’s record on care homes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that a ‘protective ring’ had been thrown around the care sector. Gove doubled down on Hancock’s claim:
NP: Can you justify that statement?
MG: Yes, I think that’s absolutely right. What we’ve seen is detailed instructions going to care homes… additional support going to local authorities and care homes… and we’ve also seen fewer people being discharged from hospitals into care homes this year than last year.
EU trade deal ‘is there to be done’
Paterson also questioned Gove about reports that the post-Brexit trade talks might have broken down in as little as 15 days from now. Gove denied that this meant the talks were in an irreconcilable state and put the government’s side of the story:
MG: The EU want us to accept their rules… and they want to have access to our fish even though we’ve left. We’re making it clear to the EU that we can’t do a deal on those terms, but I’m confident that a deal is there to be done. It just requires a degree of flexibility on the EU side.
Rachel Reeves – UK mustn’t ‘crash out without a deal’
Rachel Reeves, who is Gove’s opposite number in Parliament, told Paterson that Labour was just as firmly rooted as before the election in its opposition to a no deal Brexit once the transition period is over by the end of 2020:
RR: We want the government to focus wholly at the moment on tackling the coronavirus… We’re saying that they mustn’t rush this, and if they are not going to secure a deal, we mustn’t crash out without a deal.
Liam Fox – China should have acted earlier to stop Covid-19
The former International Trade Secretary took aim at the Chinese government’s role in the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that if they had not denied the existence of the virus in its early stages then it could have been more readily contained and many more lives could have been saved across the world:
LF: China seems to have been aware since mid-November that there was a new virus… They also knew that human to human transmission was possible in December, but were still denying it in January. And international research suggests that if China had taken action between 1 and 3 weeks earlier, then the number of cases would have been reduced by 65 – 95 per cent.
Carolyn Fairbairn – UK needs to ‘get people flying again’
The director general of the CBI has called for ‘an international standard’ on flying to be agreed in order to reignite global trade. Carolyn Fairbairn expressed her concerns about a 14 day quarantine for those entering the UK and argued that aviation would be critical in restoring the economy after the Covid crash:
CF: I think getting people flying again would be an incredibly powerful boost to our economy… I think what we would like to see is an international standard, because at the moment you’ve got different countries doing different things, and that is very bad for global trade.
Paul Farmer – We’ve heard of increasing ‘anxiety and loneliness’ in young people
And finally, Paul Farmer, the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, told Paterson that the lockdown could have a significant effect on the mental health of young people and stressed the need for availability of the relevant services once people begin to return to normal life:
PF: We know that young people are missing their friends… The quicker we can get young people back into their normal cycle of activity, the better that will be for their mental health… We’ve heard of increasing levels of anxiety and loneliness amongst young people.
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