Europe for 30 days to try to limit the coronavirus pandemic. Ex ex basques have confirmed that the coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic. Donald trump said the 30 day ban will start on friday but wont apply to the uk. He also announced plans to provide a billions of dollars in loans to small businesses. In italy, new restrictions close all shops except food stores and pharmacies. It is estimated 12,500 people are infected with the death tolljumping by over 200 and last day alone to 827. Harvey weinstein is sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. He was found guilty ata sexual assault. He was found guilty at a trial in new york last month. Its 2 30am in the morning and are up to date on the headline. It is time for wednesday in parliament. Hello, and welcome to wednesday in parliament, where the new chancellor unveils his budget with a multi billion pound package to help mitigate the impact of coronavirus. Whatever extra resources our nhs needs to cope with coronavirus, it will get. Hear, hear rishi sunak announces other measures on everything from roads to whisky, but labour reckons its a bitter disappointment for voters. The reality of todays announcements will become clear, and the hard sell and the spin will fade away and this budget will then be seen to be a lost opportunity. Also on this programme, a senior minister defends
the governments description of a potential deal with the eu as oven ready. I think it is the case that people often have frozen foods which are indeed, oven ready, theyjust take slightly longerfor the microwave to ping. But first, hes only been chancellor for a few weeks, but at 12 30pm, rishi sunak was in front of mps for one of the big parliamentary events of the year, the budget. He announced rises to the National Insurance threshold, a freeze on fuel and alcohol duties, £600 billion for transport investment and £22 billion a year for research and development. Thered also be a tax on Plastic Packaging and an end to the tampon tax. But with the number of cases rising, his focus at the start of the statement was on help for businesses and workers to combat the impact of coronavirus. Our economy is robust, or public finances are sound. 0ur Public Services are well prepared. For a period, its going to be tough. But im confident that our Economic Performance will recover. He said thered be a temporary disruption to the economy with up to one fifth of the working age population needing to be off work at any one time. Whatever extra resources our nhs needs to cope with coronavirus, it will get. Hear, hear so whether its research for a vaccine, recruiting thousands of returning staff, or supporting our brilliant doctors and nurses, whether its millions of pounds or billions of pounds, whatever it needs, whatever it costs we stand behind our nhs. He said statutory sick pay would be available for people who self isolated, and hed make it easierfor those who were self employed or in the gig economy to access benefits. Thered be help for businesses, too. For businesses with fewer than 250 employees, i have decided that the cost of providing statutory sick pay to any employee off work
due to coronavirus will, for up to 1a days, be refunded by the government in full. Hear, hear that could provide over £2 billion for up to 2 million businesses. Any eligible retail, leisure, or Hospitality Business with a rateable value below £51,000 will, over the next financial year, pay no Business Rates whatsoever. He said in total, hed announced a £30 billion boost for the uk economy, including 12 billion in emergency measures to respond to coronavirus. Moving on to other measures, he set out an ambition to raise the living wage to £10. 50 an hour. Hed fulfil a manifesto promise to raise the level at which people began paying National Insurance. Wages, up, National Insurance, cut, the tampon tax, abolished. Spirits duty, frozen, beer duty, frozen, wine and cider duty, frozen, fuel duty, frozen. We promised to cut taxes and the cost of living, and we got it done. Hear, hear he announced £22 billion pounds a year for research and development, a new Plastic Packaging tax and money to tackle flooding and remove combustible cladding. Thered be £50 million to fix potholes and more money for broadband, railways and roads. Today, im announcing the biggest ever investment in strategic roads and motorway. Over £27 billion of tarmac. That will pay for work on over 20 connections to ports and airports, over 100 junctions, and over 4000 miles of road. And he finished with this. This is the budget of a government that gets things done. Creating jobs, cutting taxes, and keeping the cost of living low, investing in our nhs, investing in or Public Services,
investing in ideas backing business, protecting our environment, building roads, building railways, building colleges, building houses, building our union. A budget that delivers on our promises, a peoples budget from a peoples government and i committed to this house. Hear, hear well, traditionally, its not the chancellors labour shadow who responds to the budget, but the leader of the opposition, and so it wasJeremy Corbyn who stood to reply. He said the chancellor showed brass neck boasting that measures to deal with coronavirus were only possible because of his partys management of the economy. We have to be straight with people, its going to be much tougher because of the last ten years of deeply damaging and counterproductive cuts to all of our essential Public Services. We are going into this crisis with our Public Services on their knees. And as todays figures confirm with a fundamentally weak economy, which is now flatlining with zero growth, even before the impact of coronavirus. He said the budget didnt come close to delivering on the governments election promises to working class communities. The governments boast of the biggest investments at the 1950s is, frankly, a slight of hand. Its, in fact, only the biggest since they began their slash and burn assault on our services, economic infrastructure, and Living Standards in 2010. And having ruthlessly forced down the Living Standards, and life chances of millions of our people for a decade to commit the talk of leveling up is a crueljoke. He said the government had shown complacency about the climate emergency. Jeremy corbyn said young people would be dismayed about the lack of urgency in reducing emissions. They rightly see this as the conservatives once again putting the prophets of big polluters and Oil Companies above peoples safety and well being. And when the chancellor announced with such aplomb a Huge Investment in road building across the country, where is the Environmental Impact assessments to be made of that policy, or the increased pollution that will come from increased car use and traffic across this country. And he concluded. The conservative party, whatever they say, will never stand up for working class communities. They will always, always put the interests of their wealthy friends first. The reality of todays announcements will become clear, and the hard sell and the spend will fade away, and this budget will then be seen to be a lost opportunity. A failure of ambition and of bitter disappointment, to all those people who had been promised so much. After the labour leader had had his say, it was the turn of other Party Leaders and senior rank and file mps to give their verdict on the budget. The snp leader at westminster said
that after the cornonavirus outbreak, more needed to be done to help those in the tourism industry. The snp is advocating a package of measures including a temporary drop in the vat rate to 5 to help businesses reduce their costs. I am also, i can hear the Prime Minister say we have cut interest rates, but the problem, welcome a Business Rates, but the problem, Prime Minister is that these businesses are facing a crisis not of their own making. And many of the businesses in my part of the world, in the highlands of scotland come through the period over the winter. And its notjust an issue that they are going to see a reduction in business, in some cases they are going to be desperately short on cash coming
in through the door. But a conservative former Prime Minister wondered if the chancellor had been too generous and questioned the new system with the pm and the chancellor sharing advisers. I trust that in the discussions that were held prior to this delivery of the budget, that there was the necessary tension between number ten and the treasury in developing in this budget. Generally. Laughter. Generally speaking, Prime Ministers want to spend money, and chancellors want to manage the public finances prudently. At least, conservative chancellors want to manage the public finances. Hear, hear while spending a lot of money may be popular, and may seem the natural thing to do, there is, of course, that necessity of having a realistic assessment of the longer term impact of those decisions. The longer term consequences. And a necessity to ensure that we have that restraint and caution that enables us to make the public finances continue to be strong into the future. The man who quit as chancellor last month praised his successor. He had only four weeks to write this budget, and he has risen to the challenge. Hear, hear although i do recognise much of it, it is different in one significant respect. There has been a dramatic change, as he set out in the global economy, and this means that we have to, of course, face these challenges as a nation. Therefore, he has been absolutely right to focus his attention on the threat posed by the coronavirus. And he said rishi sunak should stand by to do more. But labour mps were sceptical about the chancellors plans. And lets face it, we have heard it all before. Lets wait and see what they deliver before we pat them on the back. And never forget the government would not have to allocate £2. 5 billion to fix 50 million
potholes they had not neglected our road system with their ruinous austerity policies in the first place. And we heard nothing, except in the chancellors preparation, about social care. No solution for that sector. And if you talk to people in the National Health service, they know that without investment in social care, that any money thrown at the Health Service will have limited effect. And in the Current Situation of the coronavirus, its particularly vital that we protect social care. The budgets Environmental Impact divided opinion. Theres been plenty of green rhetoric in the budget, for sure, but the treasury decisions continue to drive the climate emergency. Weve got a freeze on the fossil fuel duty at the freeze and if fuel duty, weve got over 20 billion in new roads compared to just 1 billion on Green Transport, and no commitment to remove any climate destroying duty to maximise the economic recovery of fossil fuels. So would he not actually agree that when it comes to show how muddled
he is in green issues, this chancellor is absolutely getting it done . We cant come on one hand, say that we want to protect jobs, we want to keep peoples standard of living of couple we want to keep peoples cost of living down, want to give them freedom to go on their holidays or eat what they want, and then at the same time say but lets get, lets absorb our selves with this carbon obsession. Which affects all of those things. And then members cant have it both ways, and i think we do need to have a discussion as to where the priorities ought to be on this particular issue. But the lib dems were disappointed. The government has been trying to pretend that this is a budget thats going to take action on climate change. Well, lets look at it. A fuel duty freeze again, £27 billion on 4,000 miles of road, that does not sound like a Green Transport policy to me, mr deputy speaker. And then they announce, as if its going to make a difference £1 billion on Green Transport measures. This is absurd. Sir ed davey there. Youre watching wednesday in parliament on the day the chancellor, rishi sunak, presented his first budget. Now, Prime Ministers question time took place just before the budget, and just like that statement, in the shadow of coronavirus. Borisjohnson and Jeremy Corbyn both wished the health minister, nadine dorries, a speedy recovery after she became the first mp to be diagnosed with the illness. ButJeremy Corbyn focused his questions on a different topic the impact of the governments policies on women. Can the Prime Minister explain why, according to a report by the institute of health equity, Life Expectancy has gone down for the poorest women in our society . Well, mr speaker, overall Life Expectancy stands at its highest level, but i will not. Its highest level ever, which is a tribute to the consistent work of this government and others. But it is absolutely true
that there are too many instances in too many parts of the country where we are seeing Life Expectancy not rise in the way we would like. And it is true that there are parts of this country where one in 50, for instance, pregnant women are smokers and parts of the country where only one in four pregnant women are smokers. And what we want to see is a uniting and a levelling up across this whole country thats why were putting record sums, £12 billion into public health, mr speaker thats why this is the government, this is the party of the nhs that is now putting record investment into our nhs, precisely for that purpose Jeremy Corbyn pressed on to look at changes to the welfare system. Child tax credits for new claimants are now capped at two children, but mothers who have a third child as a result of rape can be exempted. But the labour leader pointed out to the pm that that meant providing evidence. Why does he think its right that 200 mothers have to prove to the government their child was conceived as a result of being raped so they can keep their child tax credits . On his point about the recipients of benefit, it is obviously that he draws attention to an injustice and we will do everything that we can to rectify it. Jeremy corbyn turned to some of borisjohnsons own past remarks. The Prime Ministers made repeated offensive remarks against single mothers and their children. Yes. And he described them as ill raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate. Against muslim women, saying they look like bank robbers. Against working women, suggesting the best way of dealing with advice from a female colleague is just to pat her on the bottom and send her on her way. Words have consequences. His offensive words are backed up with offensive and discriminatory policies, from the rape clause to dismantling local services which women, particularly disabled women, disproportionately rely on. Can the Prime Minister apologise for his offensive comments and ensure that these discriminatory policies are reversed by his government . Mr speaker, im proud of what this government has done to promote the rights of women. Im proud that we have a record numberof female mps in our party today. Im proud that this is the only party that has produced two female, not one, but two female Prime Ministers. And wouldnt it be an extraordinary and amazing thing, mr speaker. Wouldnt it be an amazing thing if that party were to produce a female leader of their own . Dont dont hold your breath, mr speaker and i will take no lessons in sexism
from a party where women, good women, good, female mps are bullied out of their partyjust because theyve had the guts to stand up against the climate of anti semitism in the labour party borisjohnson. Now, theres a new Commons Committee on the block set up to examine the uks future relationship with the eu. The chair is the labour mp hilary benn, who chaired the now disbanded Brexit Committee. The uk might have technically left the eu, but the government still has to sort out a trade deal and decide how to work with fellow European Countries on a host of issues. So, mps had a lot of questions for michael gove, whos second in command to borisjohnson. Now, the Government Produced a 60 page Impact Assessment for the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the United States of america. Are you planning to do the same for your proposed Free Trade Agreement with the eu . No. Why not . Because were going to take a different approach. Were going to invite
from across a range of organisations their views on what the impact of a Free Trade Agreement with the eu and consequent changes might be. I am personally sceptical of efforts to say that any given Impact Assessment by a Government Department is an accurate prediction of the future. As mr gove tried to explain what he meant, his attempt to pour water went a little awry. So, if thats the case, why did the government publish 60 pages of Economic Assessment of the Free Trade Agreement with the united state of america if youre not persuaded of the benefit of such assessments . It is an evolving picture, and i am certain. I think its called a contradiction. No, i dont think it is. I think it is an evolving picture, and im not persuaded of the merits of publishing assessments and then assuming that those are going to give us an accurate prediction of the future. So, when your colleagues extol the virtues of a Free Trade Agreement with the United States
of america, praying in aid of the Economic Assessment that has just been published, youre not persuaded that that is correct . No, i think thats not what i said. I think that its important recognise that there are always going to be a range of views about what a particular course of economic action would lead to. A labour mp thought there was a lot of work to be done on reaching a deal. Do you not think its a problem that this was sold in the general election as oven ready, when in fact it was in the back of the frozen food section . No, i think it is the case that you can often have frozen foods which are indeed oven ready, they just take slightly longer for the microwave to ping. He said both sides wanted to achieve a deal involving no tariffs and no quotas. The deal that we want to put forward is one that is built on precedents. We want to say in this respect, its similar or completely analogous to the relationship that you have concluded with canada or with japan or with south korea. So, therefore, in that sense, rather than having, to extend the metaphor,
rather than having to assemble all the ingredients from scratch and try to cook altogether, its an already prepared set of dishes rather like the Marks Spencers deal where you get a starter, a main course and a pudding and then you can decide which of the three you want to get, but all for £9. 99 and then youre way. Sounds absolutely delicious, mr gove. 0ne conservative said brexiteers had been let down before. Would it happen again . People came here and sat at where you are, sir, told the Brexit Committee wonderful things. The secretary of state for exiting the eu told us lots of things just as you were doing there. And we were all happy, people went to downing street, we were all engaged and it was great. And then chequers came along. The current Prime Minister resigned, to secretary of state for exiting the European Union resigned, and there had been a secret policy
developed in the Cabinet Office completely undermining what everyone thought was going to happen, and everything we had been told. Now, why should i now believe anything youre saying today when that happened in the past . You can say, well, im not convinced yet. It will be the patient work of the government over the course of the next few months to seek to reassure you and others that were putting our words into action. And with that, he poured another glass of water, but there were no spillages this time. Now, back to the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization has now declared a pandemic. Were all being told to wash our hands more thoroughly more often. And theres intensive cleaning in places where anyone with the virus may have been. Scientists still dont know exactly how the new virus is spread, but it does seem to be very infectious. In the lords, a peer reckoned more could be done to keep Public Places clean. This virus can remain infectious on surfaces for up to 96 hours. My question stems from my observation that many public and private buildings, facilities and spaces may have been swept and cleaned, but theyve not been cleansed. And theres a very important difference here. In his reply, the minister quoted the chief medical officer, or cmo, professor chris whitty. Can i try to persuade the noble lord that we only have a limited amount of resources, we only have a limited amount of time of those who are involved in the cleaning processes and we only have a limited amount of goodwill from the public . And so, the question of timing is absolutely essential when we are delivering measures that combat the spread of covid 19. The cmo has been very clear in this matter. It is the personal hygiene of washing hands and avoiding the spread of the virus to the face and to the skin that should be the priority for all of us, and that is the focus of the governments
efforts at this stage. Im told on good Scientific Evidence that the coronavirus is surrounded by a fatty skin, and that therefore the only way to deal with it effectively is using hot water and soap. And i wonder whether the government could modify slightly its advice because im not sure that gels or cold water will have the effect that is intended. Only hot water and soap. The cmo has been very clear on this important point, and i thank the noble baroness for making it. The virus is washable. Hand sanitisers, cold water and soap do work, but undoubtedly hot water and soap for 20 seconds while singing a song of your choice is by far the best lord bethell. And at the end of the day,
the Health Secretary came back to the commons to update mps on coronavirus. As of today, here at home, a56 people have tested positive and eight people are now sadly confirmed to have died. Mr speaker, earlier today, i chaired a meeting of cobra. 0ur response will be built on the bedrock of the science. Its clear that we will need legislation to ensure the best possible response. I can tell the house that ive invited the official opposition to meet with me first thing tomorrow to discuss the proposed emergency bill that well set out before the house next week. We welcome the opportunity to discuss emergency legislation, and i can tell him we will engage constructively on that front. He knows we have concerns about statutory sick pay and other areas, but we will engage constructively on that front and will look to pass emergency legislation in a timely, timely manner. With cases having increased by 13 times outside china injust two weeks, it has of course been declared by the who as a pandemic. But they do describe being concerned
at levels of inaction. They call for quicker and wider testing so that milder cases are diagnosed quickly, isolated and the spread reduced. She asked for more testing. We are absolutely ramping up the testing capabilities and have been commended for the approach that were taking by international bodies. Matt hancock with an update on coronavirus. And thats it from me for now. Dojoin me on Bbc Parliament on thursday night at 11pm for another round up of the day here at westminster. But for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. Hello. Yes, it is the start of spring, but winter is not that far behind us. It will feel more wintry, if anything, in the next 48 hours or so. Temperatures have gone into the mid teens lately. Low pressure driving our weather today, sunshine and showers across the board and is low pulling polo air right across the uk for the end of the week. You can see the blue line there advancing into the north of france. The showers most frequent to the north, closest to the centre of the area of low pressure stop after a cold night and with the showers, i say risk just about anywhere where we are seeing showers. And there could be a covering of snow in a few places, may be some fresh falling snow across scotland and parts of Northern England through the morning, but the snow level will actually rise as the day progresses. Showers as you can see coming in quite thick and fast you part of scotland, Northern England and northern ireland. Much more
scattered later, the showers when they do arrive could be pretty lively. It will feel chilly thanks to the polar air lively. It will feel chilly thanks to the polarairand lively. It will feel chilly thanks to the polar air and strength of the wind. Widely gusting up to 40 miles an hour away from the low centre in the north, but for southern scotland, northern ireland, Northern England, the peak of the gusts are a thing, up to 60 miles an hourfor a time. Showers hitting their way into the evening and small hours of friday, then we pick up a northerly wind, they could bring some wintry showers to the east and as a first developed by the end of thursday night for friday morning, ice again could be an issue here. But actually friday looks comparatively quieter because briefly, we are going to see a ridge of High Pressure extend across the uk. Showers can easily move offshore into the north sea, sunshine across the uk and light winds on friday. Still feeling cold, were still the polar hour. 0ur temperatures on the face of it a bit below average but i think it will feel somewhat chillier than these
numbers may imply. Then towards the south west, our next area of low pressure m oves south west, our next area of low pressure moves in. Its the weekend, we cant seem to have a weekend at the moment without one. Saturday will be a case of building cloud in the majority of rain sweeping through on sunday. So overcast skies for many of us for the first of the weekend but largely dry, sunday looking rather soggy. A very warm welcome to bbc news. Our top stories President Trump bands or flights from mainland europe for 30 days to try and limit of the coronavirus pandemic. To keep new cases from entering oui keep new cases from entering our shores, will be suspending all travel from europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules were going to affect friday at midnight. We have a special report from inside one of south koreas super labs when they are processing thousands of samples a day in the fight against virus. In italy, new restrictions close all shops except food stores and pharmacies. Tom hanks and his wife rita wilson confirmed that they have been tested positive for the virus in australia and
will self
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.