Economy
Express
BRITAIN is set to boom now that the EU shackles have been removed, a pro-Brexit economist has suggested after a new economic survey suggested spending by businesses was set to surge in the coming months following a difficult year due to the Covid pandemic.
And Professor David Blake said with the uncertainty now behind it, the nation was in a fantastic place to capitalise on all the benefits of standing outside the bloc. The Professor of Economics at City, University of London was speaking after the publication of the new Deloitte chief financial officer (CFO) survey which indicated more than half of UK finance chiefs said they have also seen a full recovery in demand for their businesses, or expect to by the end of the year. It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to announce the easing of all remaining Covid restrictions will go ahead on July 19, with the aim of boosting the economy.
Meanwhile, roughly 76 percent also said they expect to see increases in hiring over the year ahead – with expectations for both recruiting and spending at their highest levels in almost seven years.
A similar story can be found in the Guardian
Civil service
Times
Permanent secretaries should be scrapped and all ministers made to work together in a single office to “build a sense of team”, a government-backed report recommends.
Boris Johnson should set up a prime minister’s department and move his office out of Downing Street to parliament or a Westminster conference centre, a cross-party group says.
The Commission for Smart Government calls for the appointment of ministers who are not MPs or peers to bring in outside knowledge, arguing that a grand committee of parliament could be used to ensure they are accountable.
Lord Herbert of South Downs, the former minister who chairs the commission, said Covid had revealed that the civil service needed a “fundamental overhaul” and that it was “impossible to be too radical”.
Freedom day
Mail
Boris Johnson will today warn that people should ‘expect’ to keep wearing masks in enclosed spaces such as supermarkets and trains even after Covid restrictions are lifted on July 19.
The Prime Minister will use a Downing Street press conference this afternoon to confirm plans to end most Covid laws next Monday, despite surging cases.
But last night he said that the plan to restore our freedoms ‘must come with a warning’.
The PM said that cases will inevitably continue to rise as restrictions are eased, adding: ‘Caution is absolutely vital, and we must all take responsibility so we don’t undo our progress, ensuring we continue to protect our NHS.’
It comes as Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England, insisted people should continue to work from home and try to social distance after July 19.
The ‘Freedom Day’ was meant to herald a return to normality but the PM will also publish new ‘guidance’ setting out precautions people should continue to take.
Mr Johnson will say England is ‘tantalisingly close to the final milestone in our road map out of lockdown, but the plan to restore our freedoms must come with a warning.’
He will insist that vaccinations have ‘weakened’ the link between Covid infections and hospital admissions, while warning ‘the global pandemic is not over yet.’
However, the PM has dropped claims that the end of Covid restrictions is ‘irreversible’ following warnings from top scientists that easing restrictions could end in disaster.
Telegraph
The public will still be “expected” to wear masks and urged to work from home after July 19, ministers and officials said on Sunday, as MPs warned Freedom Day risked being “watered down”.
On Monday afternoon, Boris Johnson is set to confirm at a Number 10 press conference that step four in his roadmap out of restrictions will go ahead, as planned, next Monday.
It will mark the end of all legal Covid regulations, but concerns have arisen that government messaging will curb people’s ability to take advantage of some freedoms again.
The Prime Minister is expected to say the four tests that will allow him to proceed with the final stage in his roadmap have been met, but he issued a note of caution on Sunday night.
“We are tantalisingly close to the final milestone in our roadmap out of lockdown, but the plan to restore our freedoms must come with a warning,” he said.
Similar stories can be found in the Guardian, Sun, Evening Standard, ITV News, Guido
Test & trace
Independent
The government’s test and trace service is “panicking” in a rush to fill thousands of vacant contact tracing positions – just months after making thousands of clinical staff redundant – amid fears a summer wave of coronavirus will see a 100,000 infections a day.
The Independent understands the private companies running the service, Serco and Sitel, have been asked to recruit up to 7,000 new call-centre staff to speak to patients who have tested positive for Covid-19.
Under the plans, the new recruits will have no clinical training and be paid at substantially cheaper rates than the nurses and other clinical staff who were made redundant en masse in May as test and trace bosses said demand on the service had reduced.
Another 8,000 contact tracing staff were let go with just one week’s notice in March, as the service cut its workforce from 22,000 to 14,000 after the January surge had passed.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed it was now recruiting staff again to meet the increase in infections being seen across the country.
Lorry drivers
Telegraph
Ministers have launched secret talks on a short-term visa scheme for foreign lorry drivers as they race to prevent a shortage of staff from overwhelming the haulage industry.
Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) are consulting industry chiefs on how to tackle the crisis, with an estimated shortfall of 100,000 truckers delaying deliveries of everything from clothing to food and fuelling a rise in prices.
Transport leaders are understood to have recommended a temporary easing of immigration controls as the only way of quickly solving the problem.
But the Home Office is strongly opposed to relaxing controls, which were tightened when free movement ended after Brexit.
As a result, DfT officials have asked the industry for compelling evidence to demonstrate the value of a temporary visa scheme.
One person with knowledge of the discussions said: “Everyone involved is sworn to secrecy as the Home Office is taking a very hard line.
“The Home Office has the final decision on this and the DfT knows it has a very tough sell, so need the very best evidence.”
Informal discussions are understood to have begun at the start of the month. The talks could still fail to deliver a result if the Home Office holds firm.
The source said: “There has been a subtle change of heart from Government.
“They know they need to explore how this can be solved.”
Illegal immigrants
Morning Star
THE Home Office is reportedly detaining Channel-crossing asylum-seekers en masse with a view to deporting them without considering their claims.
Since early May, hundreds of people arriving to Britain in small boats have been immediately locked up, rather than housed in the community, immigration lawyers have said.
Among them are people believed to be victims of trafficking and children wrongly classed as adults by the Home Office, the Guardian said today.
Immigration lawyers told the newspaper that Harmondsworth detention centre near Heathrow and Brook House at Gatwick airport are “overwhelmed” with hundreds of small-boat arrivals.
The lawyers are said to be planning a legal challenge against the policy shift, describing it as a “potentially grave abuse of power.”
The Morning Star understands that some residents of Napier Barracks in Kent who arrived in small boats have also been told that their claims will not be processed.
Under new immigration rules introduced in January, the claims of asylum-seekers who are believed to have travelled through a “safe” country on the way to Britain can be deemed inadmissible.
Last week, ministers introduced new laws to the Commons seeking to cement these rules in primary legislation.
Obama
Breitbart
Britain’s Foreign Office has denied reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson personally intervened to block Joe Biden from tapping former president Barack Obama to serve as America’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.
A report from the Sunday Express, citing sources within the British government, claimed that Boris Johnson blocked a potential Barack Obama ambassadorship over the ex-president’s opposition to Brexit.
“It’s absolutely true that the Government has privately objected to an Obama appointment. It’s also true that this is why there is a delay [in an ambassador being appointed],” a Whitehall source supposedly told the paper.
Another senior source added: “Obama is just unacceptable. The back of the queue comment alone makes him unacceptable.”
The paper also claimed that there were concerns that the former American president would overshadow the Prime Minister, with a source saying that Obama would “create a rival court in Britain to the court of Boris and Carrie”.
“You can imagine he will have an open door to former Remainers, opponents of the Government. Michelle [Obama] will carry on touring schools. It will be a rival focus to the government especially with question marks over the relationship between Biden and Boris.”
The Foreign Office has denied the claims, however, telling the Daily Mail that it was “categorically untrue” that Boris Johnson blocked Obama from becoming the ambassador to Britain.
“These reports are untrue. Questions on U.S. appointments are for the U.S.,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
World Cup
Express
BORIS JOHNSON is expected to go head to head with the EU in a bid to bring the World Cup to the UK in 2030.
Mr Johnson met Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and made the case for the iconic competition to be played in the UK and Ireland, ahead of today’s Euro 2020 final between England and Italy. But the UK is set to face tough opposition from the European Union who are understood to be backing a joint bid by Spain–Portugal to host the FIFA World Cup bid.
The bid was first announced by the football federations in Lisbon and Madrid October 2020 and is expected to put pressure on European governing body Uefa, who are reportedly keen that a single European candidate is selected before a final vote to select a venue is held in 2024.
Any formal bidding process to find a host country will begin in 2022 and a final host will be selected at the FIFA congress in 2024.
Although a formal bid is yet to be announced by the UK Government, the move, talks have taken place with the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and Welsh, Ulster and Irish counterparts.
A UK Government source told the Express that a bid would “put Brexit Britain on the world stage” and bring the “UK together.”
Usual half truths, innuendo and speculation, on how much freedom we will get.