Matthew Taylor

Robert Jenrick – 'None of us' want to return to national lockdown This morning Andrew Marr interviewed the Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, amid news that the UK's 'R' number (the rate of transmission of the coronavirus) is now estimated at between 1.2 and 1.5, remaining stubbornly above the critical number 1.0. With the Prime Minister poised to announce a new series of restrictions in the Commons on Monday, and despite a warning from the deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam that the country was at a 'tipping point', Jenrick told Marr that the government was determined not to wind up in the same position as it had been in March: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1315227672767799296?

Boris Johnson – People must behave 'fearlessly but with common sense' The Prime Minister joined Andrew Marr this morning, and inevitably the interview began with a focus on Covid-19 and the government's efforts to suppress the virus. Johnson's key message for the public was one of stoicism, saying that the virus would still be hovering around for a long time yet, and that the UK needed to adapt itself accordingly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1M--XYW-Go BJ: We have to keep our economy moving and keep our society going... What we want people to do is behave fearlessly, but with common sense... To follow the guidance, whether national or local, get the virus down, but allow us as a country to continue without priorities... as far as we possibly can.

Steve Baker - Liberty 'dies like this' with 'draconian powers' unchecked The government has come under fire from its own side this morning as it prepares to renew the Coronavirus Act six months after it was first put into effect. Graham Brady, the chair of the influential 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, is spearheading an amendment to the act which would ensure that Parliament could vote on the emergency measures that ministers wish to take. Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, gave his reasons for supporting this amendment: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1310124361563725825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw SB: I doubt really anyone understands what [the] law is...

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was one of the two big political guests of the day on the Andrew Marr show. The government is preparing to introduce a new system of fines and restrictions to combat a winter wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Andrew Marr asked about the government's strategy if the rate of re-infection did not come down over future weeks and months: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1307601064808583173?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw MH: We face a choice... If everybody follows the rules, then we can avoid further national lockdowns, but we of course have to be prepared to take further action if that's what's necessary. AM: So we might be facing a further national lockdown if people don't obey the rules? MH: That's exactly right. I don't rule it out.

Robert Buckland - 'I will resign' if government breaks law in 'unacceptable' way The Justice Secretary Robert Buckland was put on the spot this morning over the government's proposed Internal Market Bill, which is due to be introduced to the House of Commons tomorrow. The bill intends to override aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol – a part of the official Withdrawal Agreement – to give ministers the right to modify rules on customs, if there is no final trade deal agreed by December. Andrew Marr quizzed Buckland about whether using these powers would breach international law: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1305068709183131648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw AM: Is that the moment that [you] resign from the government – if we break international law?

Dominic Raab - This week is 'the moment of reckoning' for EU deal The Sunday interview shows return this week to general fanfare across the nation... The first government guest to join Sophy Ridge was the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who was asked about the prospect of the UK reaching a satisfactory trade deal with the EU by the end of the year. James Forsyth has written this week about how Downing Street puts the likelihood of a deal down to 30 to 40 per cent, but Raab professed a greater optimism that an agreement could be reached, citing the thorny subject of fisheries as one of the few remaining 'bones of contention': https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1302526946019020800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw DR: This week the negotiations will be really important...

Dominic Raab - 'Swift decisive action' needed on new quarantine rules The government updated its rules on foreign travel yesterday so that anybody returning to the UK from Spain has to self-isolate for 14 days. The new guidance reflects the discovery of 971 new coronavirus cases in Spain in one day, prompting fears of a second wave in the country. Sophy Ridge interviewed the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and asked him to justify the rapid imposition of the new quarantine guidance: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1287301425295437824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw SR: Why was the decision taken with so little notice? DR: ...We took the decision as swiftly as we could. We can't make apologies for doing so. We must be able to take swift, decisive action...

Liu Xiaoming - No Muslim concentration camps in Xinjiang Today's Sunday interviews took a heavier focus on foreign affairs than usual, with Andrew Marr counting not one, but two ambassadors among his guests. He began by speaking to Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador, and confronted him with aerial footage appearing to show restrained Uighur Muslims preparing to be transported to ‘re-education’ camps, alongside testimony that Uighur women were being forced to undergo sterilisation procedures. Liu denied that such human rights abuses were Chinese government policy and tried to brand the claims as fake: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1284771337970552832?

Michael Gove - We want to see more people back on the shop floor It was Michael Gove's turn to lead the government's broadcast rounds this morning. Sophy Ridge began by seeking clarification from the Cabinet Office Minister about the government's message on returning to the workplace: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1282228898852462593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw MG: We want to see more people back at work, on the shop floor, in the office, wherever they can be. Of course, in some cases it's appropriate and convenient for some people to work from home, but we want to make sure that... the economic engines of this country are fired up again. Wearing face masks while shopping is 'good manners' Andrew Marr asked Gove if wearing face masks should be required while in shops.

Matt Hancock - 'I'm pleased with what happened yesterday' The Health Secretary was Sophy Ridge's first guest this morning. Pubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen yesterday, prompting concerns from some quarters that the public would overindulge themselves. Ridge asked Hancock how he felt so-called 'Super Saturday' had gone: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1279681822159507456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw MH: From what I've seen... very, very largely, people have acted responsibly... Overall I’m pleased with what happened yesterday.

Priti Patel - Violence against police will be met with 'full force of the law' Sophy Ridge interviewed the Home Secretary Priti Patel, asking her about the difficulties involved in policing Britain under lockdown. Recent weeks have not only seen mass protests on the streets, but also scenes like an illegal street party in Brixton where police officers were attacked. The Metropolitan Police's chief commissioner Cressida Dick has said that around 140 officers have been hurt over the past three weeks. Patel told Ridge that the government was tightening measures to protect key workers: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1277164245315174400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw PP: I'm committed, and we'll be putting measures in place to double the sentencing on assaults on emergency workers...

Rishi Sunak – Protest violence 'shocking and disgusting' The Chancellor of the Exchequer led the batting for the government this morning. Recent weeks have seen considerable unrest playing out in the heart of British cities, and on Saturday central London played home to a 'counter-demonstration' prompted by the defacing of the Cenotaph and the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square. Six people were hospitalised as a result and the Metropolitan police made more than 100 arrests. Speaking to Sophy Ridge, Sunak condemned the violence that had taken place: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1272080603974979585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw RS: I think the scenes we saw yesterday were both shocking and disgusting.

Professor John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who has been advising the government throughout the Covid crisis, spoke to Andrew Marr this morning. Edmunds told Marr that, with the UK's official death toll having now passed 40,000, the UK should have locked down faster in retrospect: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1269553742476648448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw AM: [Do] you have some regrets about some of your advice, about what you thought at the time? JE: Yes. We should have gone into lockdown earlier. I think it would have been hard to do it... but I wish we had... I think that has cost a lot of lives unfortunately.

Nicola Sturgeon – England's care home deaths are under-reported Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has argued that the reason for Scotland's relatively high rate of Covid-19 deaths in care homes could be because the figures for England and Wales are artificially low: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1267004284891267072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw NS: It's often put to me that the death rate for... care homes in Scotland is higher than it is in England and I just don't believe that that is the case... It's not for me to explain England's figures, but I think here there is, at least on the face of it, a question of under-reporting in England.

Grant Shapps - Dominic Cummings won't resign A media storm has been battering the government this morning after it emerged that the Prime Minister's key adviser Dominic Cummings could have breached the government's strict advice against travel during the lockdown. In March, Cummings and his family left London to self-isolate in his native Durham, in order to be near to close relatives should he and his wife be unable to look after their 4 year old son. Cummings and the government insist that he did nothing wrong. The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps defended Cummings' decision and denied that his job was on the line: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1264492870880428032?

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: https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1261950305664548864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw MG: I talked to the [government's] chief scientific advisor yesterday... and we're confident that children and teachers will be safe...

Robert Jenrick - Staying at home still 'very important' Sophy Ridge began this morning interviewing Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick. The Prime Minister will address the nation at 7pm tonight, updating the government's Covid-19 strategy, and it is anticipated that he will outline a vision for the end of the lockdown. The official message will change from 'stay at home' to the more open-ended 'stay alert'. Jenrick said that this did not mean the public should expect to see enormous changes in the near future: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1259388108153458688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw RJ: Staying at home will still be a very important part of our message to the public. But people will also need to go to work, they'll need to go and do essentials...

Grant Shapps - Raw mortality figures don't tell the whole story Sophy Ridge's first guest this morning was the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. There have been over 28,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19, now that the government is including figures from care homes and the wider community. Ridge confronted Shapps with comparisons of known mortality figures in other countries, pointing out that the UK was poised to become second only to the United States in the total number of deaths. Shapps argued that there is not enough data available at this stage to say whether the UK is faring objectively worse than other countries: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1256878786236370944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw SR: The objective of this government is to save lives... Haven't you failed?

Dominic Raab: Vaccine ‘not likely’ this year The Foreign Secretary was in charge of the government’s media round this morning. Yesterday, hospital figures showed the UK’s official death toll for those displaying symptoms of Covid-19 had now passed 20,000. Acknowledging this ‘grim milestone’, Dominic Raab told Sophy Ridge that the government was ‘driving forward’ in its efforts to combat the virus, but said that previous hopes for a vaccine being ready as early as the autumn were misplaced: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1254328810826346496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw DR: We’re looking at the possibility of a vaccine.