My name is mike embley. Our top stories governments around the world are trying to contain the coronavirus embracing the Economic Impact as stock markets fall. The World Health Organization says some countries are not taking the threat seriously enough. A ceasefire agreed between the russian and turkish president have come in force in idlib including a safety corridor. Escalated fighting has escalated fees between direct confrontation between russia and turkey, sending a Million People away from their homes. Elizabeth warren has dropped out of the race to become the nominee for the Democratic Party to fight donald trump. One time seen as a front runner she failed to win massachusetts in the super tuesday primary. She has declined to endorse joe biden albany standards for the
nomination. You are up to date on the headlines. Time for thursday in parliament. Hello and welcome to thursday in parliament. The headlines from westminster englands chief medical officer says the nhs could face huge pressures in the worst Case Scenario for coronavirus, but he has reassurances too. Its easy to get a perception that if you are older and you get virus then you are a goner. Absolutely not. The great majority of people will recover from this virus, even if they are in their 80s. The government rejects accusations that it sat on its hands as the Airline Flybe collapsed. Unfortunately, in a competitive market, companies do fail, and its not the role of government to prop them up. And on International Womens day, a grim roll call of the women whove been killed by men in the past year. Mirium, a woman who lived on the street next to the street that i live on, and i saw the sirens and heard the roar, and knew i would have to read out her name. But, first, the chief medical officer for england has told mps that its highly likely that coronavirus is now being passed from person to person within the uk. He said the aim now was to try to delay spread of covid i9 so that cases were more likely to peak after other winter pressures on the Health Service had slackened off. Professor chris whitty also said he thought it would take a year before a vaccine would become available. He was appearing before the health committee. The original plan, well come back to this, was very much predicated on the idea of if it could be controlled in china and contained everywhere else, this might. This virus might go away. I think the chances of that
happening are now very slim. So, i think slim to 0. He said he expected the numbers to go up. There are now several, not large numbers, but several cases where we cannot see where this has come from, in terms of a clear transmission, either cos someone has come directly from overseas returned from overseas. And that, i think, makes it highly likely, therefore, that there is some level of Community Transmission in this virus in the uk now. I think we should work on the assumption it is here, at very low levels at this point in time, i think it should be the working assumption on which we go forward from this point onward. So how exactly is it transmitted . There is a lot of debate and some urban myths about this, but just some sense as to how similar it is or different it is to flu, which is, you know, the virus that we are most familiar with. This is primarily a respiratory droplet infection, so that means someone who coughs or sneezes, usually within a couple of metres of someone, and usually within relatively and reasonably prolonged contact, thats the usual way with these. Probably a secondary route via the hands. The way that hands do this is by getting, touching mouth and nose and eyes, and the great majority of people, the only people who allow them to touch their eyes nose and mouth are themselves, their partners, or their children. So, this is the reason that it is so critical that people wash their hands, because thats the way in which germs which are on surfaces go from a surface to the individual. Thats the route of transmission. The two routes of transmission. Sojust to make this absolutely clear, if someone sneezes into their hands, not a tissue, and they then shake hands with someone else, they could potentially pass the virus on . It looks, well, most of these viruses dont survive on hands terribly long. So if you happen to see someone cough straight into their hand, put their hand out to you, maybe. I would encourage you, whether or not there was coronavirus, to avoid taking that particular hand. But, if for social reasons, you felt you had to come of the key thing, it doesnt get in through the skin, so the key thing is if someone washes their hands between that time and when they then touch their face, it is unlikely that transmission will occur. So washing hands is actually really the key. If someone who had the virus holds a handrail on a bus or a tube and you touch that same handrail two or three hours later, is there a risk of transmission . The risk of transmission, there will be some risk, and the risks sort of peaks immediately after theyve done it and goes down over time. Its probably largely gone by 48 hours and almost completely gone by 72 hours, so on a hard surface. Soft services, viruses last for shorter periods. So, there is a difference between those. But you could catch it
if you touch the same surface on the same day, for example . Not by, and this is the key, intermediate steps. Just touching it will not give you the virus. Its if you touch it and then touch yourface, having not washed your hands between them. So, if you go into the tube and you touch the rail, thats fine, butjust keep. Be aware of what you do with your hands. Dont touch your face, wash your hands, and then you can do what you like. So, just translate that advice, if i may ask you, to someone who is perhaps living in the same house as someone who has the virus. In that situation, providing you washed your hands regularly, youre not going to catch it through breathing the same air as someone who has it . Washing your hands will prevent the route by you have touched a surface they have coughed over and then it goes into your mouth, that they will deal with that. What it wont do is obviously if there are droplets in the environment. I think its widely known, for example, that one of the first routes of transmission in the uk was in a ski chalet, lots of People Living very close together, and windows probably closed and things, and that will be a prolonged exposure
to a relatively sealed environment. So thats the other route by which you can get it. Can fit and Healthy People die from this virus . Yes. I mean, fit and Healthy People can die from virtually anything. But its incredibly rare to happen. So any of you and i could die from the flu, but its very very unlikely to happen. In your modelling, what is the mortality rate for the over 80s . So in people who dont. Lets put both sides of the equation in a sense, for people who are under the lower end of the age spectrum, its well below i . It does start to increase above 60, more above 70, and by the time you get up to 80, and chinese data, mainly from wuhan, which is a very very heavily stretched Health Service, and these are big caveats, but lets just report the numbers as they are, the mortality rate looked as if it wasnt somewhere around 8 9 . Put that the other way around, that means that more than 90 of over 80 year olds survived it, even in a stretched Health Service in china in this epidemic. So i think, i know its clear that the risk is very heavily weighted towards older people, but i think people translate that into if i am old and then i get it, i meant, you know, im likely to pass away. Actually, the great majority of people will survive this, even if they are in their 80s. Professor whitty turned to the impact on the nhs. One of the things that is clear from the way the epidemic, if you model out the epidemic, is we will get 50 of all the cases over a three week period, and 95 of the cases over a nine week period. If it follows a trajectory we think its likely too. So, if all of those were spaced out on the nhs over 2 3 years, that would be easily manageable, but its the fact that they are so heavily concentrated. Now, that has pros and cons with regard to the service,
but therefore, there will be a period, beginning middle and end this before it, people were seeing no major impact on the nhs, some reconfiguration, and then after it, the nhs will be back to its normal state, there will be a period in the middle, if this goes to the top end of the range, and it may well not, but if it does, where the nhs has huge pressure on it for a relatively short of time. Period of time. What would your advice be to members of the public around taking any sort of general precautions at this stage, such as stocking up on food and drugs . There is no need at this stage to be stocking up on anything. Remember, this is going to be you know, to go back to the point the secretary of state has made in the house multiple times, a marathon, not a sprint. And its going to be a long period, there is going to be a lead time before the actual serious take off of this virus, which we will be able to indicate. Obviously, we are working with all of the supply chains, you know, and our own departments, looking specifically at health products. So, there is nothing in the current
environment that would rationally lead someone to want to go and stock up on stuff. Professor chris whitty. The government has rejected claims that it sat on its hands as the Airline Flybe collapsed. The downfall of the exeter based carrier has put 2,000 jobs at risk. It went into administration after a bid forfresh Financial Support failed. Passengers have been told not to turn up at airports. The aviation minister Kelly Tolhurst said ministers stood ready to help at what she called this sad and challenging time. Flybes failure came two months after the government announced a rescue deal for the airline. Since then, we have been working tirelessly to explore multiple options with flybes shareholders to find a solution. Flybe outlined that problems with their business have been compounded by the outbreak of coronavirus. Which in the last few days has resulted in Significant Impact on demand. The directors, therefore,
decided it was not viable to keep flybe operating, unfortunately, in a competitive market, companies do fail, and it is not the role of government to prop them up. The collapse of flybe is disastrous news for passengers and employees alike, and will cause real anxiety many regions throughout this country. The loss of 2000 jobs, many areas relying very heavily reliant on aviation will be an extremely heavy blow, as will a wider impact on supply chains and regional economies. He welcomed the offer by other businesses for free travel for flybe staff and passengers. But, yet again, Airline Workers face an anxious and uncertain future, whilst a government is sitting on its hands and allowed this to happen. I disagree with his statement that we have sat on our hands. We, as a government, have been absolutely working hard
and been determined to make sure that we have been able to work with shareholders and work with the company in order to secure flybe into the future. I must be really clear, we are in this situation today because flybe shareholders on the directors, took the decision to place the business into insolvency. This is not where i, as the aviation minister, wanted to be with flybe. There is no doubt that flybe management have questions to answer, the warning signs have been clear for many, many years, however, while i do not blame the uk government for flybes demise, it too has some serious questions to answer, the secretary of state stood at that dispatch box and spoke of the rescue of flybe, yet, here we are. These next months will be extremely challenging for the entire travel and holiday sector, what assurances can she give
that her business will go to the wall, as her statement contains nearly warm words and no actions. The minister said logan air would take over 16 of the flybe routes. But conservative mps whose constituencies include Regional Airports queued up to highlight the consequences of the collapse. Flybes headquarters are based in my constituency of east devon, at exeter airport. This is devastating news for devon and regional connectivity for the southwest. Now is the time to invest in the southwest, and my colleagues and i will be watching the budget with great interest. 84 years ago, the first spitfire flew from southhampton airport in my constituency on march the 5th 1936, the news last night will be devastating to the 1,500 people that rely on southhampton airport in my constituency. The minister will know that 95 of flights are provided by flybe at southhampton airport and that short runway means its unlikely that other carriers will be able to take the brunt of the replacement services. This weekend, Newcastle United fans were due to fly to southhampton for the premiership match, now, Newcastle United fans have enough to deal with with ownership, without having to make a rip off last Minute Travel plans. So what will she do to ensure that they get to the match, and to support newcastle, the airport that is, not the team, welcome i can say to the honourable lady that i support the airport, but i dont actually support that much football, mr speaker, but newcastle are a great team. Kelly tolhurst aviation minister and football pundit. Youre watching thursday in parliament with me, mandy baker. Peers are demanding the Government Act with intense urgency over the post office it scandal. Hundreds of sub post masters were accused of theft from branches after accounting shortfalls were discovered. Many workers were convicted and fined or in some cases jailed. Those accused blamed flaws in an it system called horizon, provided by fujitsu. After denying there was a problem the post office agreed at the end of last year to pay nearly 58 Million Pounds to settle a legal battle with 550 sub postmasters over the software. The Prime Minister said thered be an independent inquiry, but peers said those involved had been stamped on and had their lives destroyed. Many of your lordships will have been delighted to have heard last week in Prime Ministers questions, the Prime Minister say that there would be an independent inquiry into what he described as the post Office Horizon it system scandal. Can my noble friend please give us details of that inquiry and in particular how it will be independent not only of the post office but also of the government . The government recognises the strength of feeling about the negative impact the courthouse has had on postmasters as my honourable friend announced on tuesday, we are looking at what needs to be done and will outline the next steps following the Prime Ministers announcement as soon as possible. Can the noble lord the Prime Minister come
from that there will be an independent inquiry and on what time scale that would be . We do agree there needs to be a full examination, with the rigour of what happened and what the next steps will be but i cannot go any further as i said to the noble lord earlier, we will announce next steps following the Prime Ministers announcement. We on the benches welcome the Prime Ministers commitment to an independent inquiry into what he himself described as a scandal. It is to be hoped that those who did not take legal action will get full and rapid compensation. But of course no compensation can make up for the emotional trauma, loss of reputation, livelihoods, health, that has cost them dear. Would the noble lord the minister agree with me that he as we will press for a full compensation as well as restoration of monies lost . I think the noble baroness makes an important point and indeed a scheme will be announced in the near future with the aim of addressing the historic shortfalls that are not part of the indication. It is important remembering in this case a Major National organisation providing a Public Service has stamped on and destroyed the lives not only of local innocent people but local key members of their communities, serving the community and the community spirit. So can this be addressed with intense urgency because otherwise it is very sad personal tragedies will follow . A noble lord is absolutely correct and i agree with what he had to say about it, there were a number of tragedies, some committed suicide as a result of this and no question the post Office Management at the time behaved disgracefully,
none of them are now in position but it is very important that we get on these matters as quickly as possible. The honourable lord will know i cannot comment on but i hope there will be a resolution as soon as possible for the sad and unfortunate individuals. What lessons has the government drawn from this, this is a public corporation, it has acted in an authoritarian way to trash the reputations of pillars of the community, respected in the local community. There must be lessons drawn by the government and what will those be . I think the noble lord is entirely right, there are lessons that need to be drawn and the post office is an independent company, 100 owned by the government, we appoint a director onto the board but clearly during the unfolding of this scandal, officials were misled by the post office on the information
provided was not correct. We are looking at a new Governance Framework as to how these matters can be addressed Going Forward and again an announcement will be coming in due course on that. Lord calla nan. The trade secretary has again defended the governments plans for negotiating trade deals with both the eu and the United States. Liz truss was challenged at question time over the proposals she set out earlier this week for when talks with the us would begin. Labour says the benefits of a deal with america will do little to help the economy. Its spokesman cited concerns raised by the british ceramics confederation. The bcc warns of the dangers of this governments proposed mutual recognition clauses. That is where the flood of low Quality Imports will come. The scoping assessment says nothing about the effect of cheap goods on uk manufacturing either so will you listen to industry . Should the government re think the approach the us agreement and look after our own excellent Manufacturing Centre rather than pursuing
a policy of America First . I do find this pretty ludicrous. He saw from the scoping assessment that virtually every sector of the uk economy including manufacturing, including agriculture will benefit from the us trade deal. A fantastic company i recently visited in stoke on trent has also welcomed the potential removal of tariffs on their products, up to 28 on dinnerware and they say it will help them expand their operations. Are the us negotiations being conducted in tandem with eu ones, with fully trained teams aware of what each other is doing so this can be factored in for any future relationship . I am sure other countries will be thinking the same, particularly as our objectives seem
to be so diverting from the uss America First aims. I understand, mr speaker, that the honourable lady attended a briefing on the negotiations led by our valiant chief negotiator and she asked whether in fact we are pursuing concurrent negotiations with the eu and United States and the answer is yes we are, and exactly the way the eu are currently negotiating with the United States. That shifted the questioning towards the talks on a free trade deal with the eu which began this week. Can we be absolutely clear about one thing, there is no such thing as in australia free trade deal with the eu, so the australian terms is actually a no deal brexit and no amount of spend or repackaging can hide that fact and can the minister say that no deal is an acceptable outcome given the report that talked about two and a half day waits
at ports for lorries. The interest now and the opportunities for the United Kingdom to engage bilaterally now that we control our own independent trade policy for the first time in almost 50 years around the world is almost unquenchable. I can think of the last six months, the conversations we had with the gcc, with vietnam, with brazil, with morocco, with chile, with algeria, the commonwealth trade ministers, ijust hope the honourable gentleman plus my constituents will welcome the opportunities that we are giving them to trade with the world and enjoy the ever increasing prosperity. Given that there is no deal between australia and the eu, could the government confirm whether or not they are actually happy to accept a new deal
between the uk and eu . Australia trades perfectly effectively with a number of side deals with the eu but what ever happens we will deliver on the referendum result, fully leave the European Union and provide British Business and british people opportunities of global free trade. Ministers were also urged to reassure farmers. Last weekend there were wearing comments are and send a mail questioning the need for farming and agriculture for our economy, at the time when they are having really difficult conditions, they did not need that on sunday. She will notice in the us negotiating objectives and statement, agriculture will benefit because they will be more opportunities to export our fantastic lamb, beef, we can cut tariffs on Dairy Products and lots of opportunities
and i want those farmers to take those up. Liz truss. Each year, the commons holds a debate to mark International Womens day. And while there are debates that celebrate womens achievements, it has become a grim tradition for the labour mp, jess phillips, to read out the role call of women who have been killed by men in the past year. It took her four minutes. Zoe altan, beatrix jackson, levi ogden, tessa gary, gabra mirium, a woman who lived on the street, next to the street i live on and i saw the sirens and heard the roar and knew i would have to read out her name. The honourable lady is making a very powerful speech as she does every year, she mentioned helen, ithink and it brings him to everyone, if you know one of those people or my son went to school with the girl, if you know that, they are not statistics, they are real people so it is a very powerful thing
she does every year, congratulations. We seemed to have accepted this as normal and that is why no one gets upset about that and it should not be normal and we should use occasions like this to call it out and ijust wish that some of our male colleagues were here, participating, showing solidarity with us on this instead of making smart as comments like oh are we having International Mens day . If i had a pound for every time someone said that to me, i would be very rich. Jackie doyle price. Finally, the Times Newspaper on its front page claimed parliament could be shut for months in an attempt to tackle coronavirus, the fear being that mps travelling between westminster and their constituencies could become superspreaders trampling the virus across the country. The leader of the commons had seen the report. There is no medical reason on current advice to think that shutting parliament will be necessary or helpful. Our approach will be guided by the best Scientific Evidence and medical advice and we will take all necessary measures to deal with the outbreak. I can assure the house that i am engaging with the
parliamentary authorities to make sure any decisions are taken in line with the advice of the chief medical officer and a cross Parliamentary Group of senior managers is meeting daily and ensuring Business Continuity input from her majestys government. The reader of the house i said there are no plans to close parliament and parliament has been very resilient over the years and of course we should be about our business but is there any thinking about potentially planning to restrict Public Access in any way . Mr speaker, the current medical advice is that there would be no advantage in doing that. Piped the house authorities will be guided by medical advice. Jacob rees mogg. So rest assured, i will be back at the same time tomorrow for a review of the whole week in parliament. But for now from me, mandy baker, goodbye. Good morning. Parts of south east england had over an inch and a half of rain on thursday. Now that area of rain on thursday. Now that area of low pressure is bringing heavy rain, hailforce gusts of of low pressure is bringing heavy rain, hail force gusts of winds across the near continent, also bringing significant snowfall over the alps as well. But behind it, clear skies, lighter the alps as well. But behind it, clearskies, lighterwinds. The alps as well. But behind it, clear skies, lighter winds. So the alps as well. But behind it, clearskies, lighterwinds. So it means for us the chilly start to our friday morning, with many places offering around or just friday morning, with many places offering around orjust below freezing. The exception of the far south east, singing onto some cloud, and maybe into northern ireland. Here we could see some showers from the word go. Elsewhere there could bea the word go. Elsewhere there could be a little bit of Early Morning mist and fog, that will lift away to dry, sunny spells kameni. Some of those showers out to the west almost together for longer spells of rain into the afternoon and some of the showers will lingerfor a into the afternoon and some of the showers will linger for a time. But elsewhere it stays dry, largely fine, with temperatures ranging from
7 11 fine, with temperatures ranging from 7 11 degrees. As we move out of friday into the start of the weekend, there is another area of low pressure starting to showers its head from the atlantic. But its really worth emphasising, for many of us this weekend, we will see some usable dry weather in the story. Here winds they were going to become a feature once again, increasingly windy and there will be some rain around our times. But, windy and there will be some rain around ourtimes. But, hopefully, for most of us it arrives through the night. So you can see on saturday, despite it clouding over and being a windy day, a good deal of my weather. The heaviest of the rain through the afternoon through western scotland, northern ireland, and eventually into north west england as well. The winds will strengthen, too, with gusts in excess of 50 mph. Highs ranging from 7 11 excess of 50 mph. Highs ranging from 7 ii celsius again. Now, as we move out of saturday into sunday, that wet and windy weather sweeps its way steadily south east, driven along by those Gale Force Gusts of winds at times. So there will be a spell of heavy rain as its movies wait south east, but hopefully it will
clear south east england first thing on sunday, and then leave another day of sunny spells and scattered showers. But with strong, blustery winds, some of these jobs could be heavy, with some rumbles of thunder and some hail mixed in there as well. Just with the nature of showers, some of you may escape them altogether and some of you, articulately the further west you are, could be quite frequent. And it looks as though this theme is said to continue into the early half of the new working week. Sunny spells, scattered showers, and blustery winds to go with it. Thats it. Take care. A very warm welcome to bbc news. My name is mike embley. Our top stories. Israel and palestinian authorities declare a state of emergency and place bethlehem under quarantine with seven cases of coronavirus. Shares fall on World Markets as prices are affected on international exchanges. A ceasefire in syria s Idlib Province but civilians are counting the cost after months of brutal conflict. This is from the bomb . Yes, civilians, civilians, we are civilians. Elizabeth warren ends her run for the white house but does not endorse Bernie Sanders or
joe biden. And meghan and