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:
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… Otherwise we risk re-infection into the UK, potentially a second wave here, and then another lockdown.
Holidaymakers ‘should get in touch with insurance companies’
The new rules leave travellers who have booked holidays in Spain in a difficult position. The Foreign Office has not forbidden travel to Spain, instead only advising against doing so, meaning that insurance companies may not cover cancellations:
SR: If you have got a holiday booked in Spain in the next couple of weeks… are you going to get your money back?
DR: The way it works is that the insurance companies respond to the changes in travel advice. It will be up to holidaymakers to get in touch with their insurance companies.
14-day quarantine rule backed by ‘clear law and sanctions’
Ridge also pressed Raab on how the government planned to enforce the 14-day quarantine, the inconvenience of which may prompt some holidaymakers to ignore it:
SR: There’s not really any way you can check, is there?
DR: …You’re absolutely right, there is an element of personal responsibility, but it is also backed up by very clear law and sanctions in relation to non-compliance.
Government expects employers ‘to respond flexibly and in an understanding way’
Ridge put it to Raab that the quarantine may put people in an awkward situation with their employer if they are unable to leave their home for two weeks. Raab said that the government expected employers to uphold their end of the bargain, but didn’t go far beyond that:
DR: You cannot be penalised in this country lawfully for following the rules and a law that’s in place, and obviously we expect employers to respond flexibly and in an understanding way to those who have… had enforced on them… those quarantine rules.
Grant Shapps’s predicament ‘shows the risk for everyone’
One unexpected side effect of the hastily announced quarantine policy was that the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, himself on holiday in Spain, will have to self-isolate along with everyone else:
SR: What was your reaction when you heard the Transport Secretary had been trapped by his own quarantine?
DR: I think it shows you the risk for everyone… Like anyone, I think he empathised with many other people going through that… [but] we have to take these measures.
Jonathan Ashworth – ‘We need clarity’ on support for holidaymakers
Ridge also spoke to the shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth about the impact of the government’s quarantine decision. Ashworth was unimpressed with the government’s decision to just trust employers in safeguarding their employees pay during self-isolation:
JA: The government just say, ‘we hope employers co-operate’. To be frank, I hope that I’ll win the lottery on Saturday… We need clarity from government now as to whether those who are asked to quarantine [will] get financial support if their employers refuse it to them.
Labour ‘is not a pro-independence party’
Ridge asked Ashworth if the Labour party, under Keir Starmer’s leadership, would consider backing a second referendum on Scottish independence – especially as recent polls have been tending towards this result:
JA: We are not a pro-independence party. We are a party that believes in the strength of the union… Our policy is not to support an independence referendum, and we won’t be campaigning for [one].
Anti-Semitism went ‘unchallenged for too long’
Ashworth also distanced himself from the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s response to damages paid to seven ex-Labour staffers. The staffers featured in a BBC Panorama programme examining anti-Semitism within Labour, had been suing the party for defamation. Corbyn described the payout and corresponding apology as ‘a political decision, not a legal one’:
JA: I think Keir Starmer has shown exceptional leadership in dealing with this poison of anti-Semitism, which was allowed to go unchallenged for too long in the Labour party. I entirely support the decision that [he] and our general secretary made last week.
Tony Blair – Another lockdown would be ‘devastating’ and ‘unrealistic’
Ridge also hosted a pre-recorded interview with the former prime minister Tony Blair. While discussing face masks, Blair said that he felt the economy was in too fragile a position to weather a second lockdown of the same magnitude as the first:
TB: If you think that we can’t go back into lockdown, and I think it’s just unrealistic that we’re going to be able to do that…
SR: Why not?
TB: Because I think that the economic consequences, even from the lockdown we’ve had, are so severe… I’m already horrified by the potential economic damage… [A second lockdown] would be devastating.
‘Foolish’ to think Russian interference caused Brexit
Blair poured cold water on the suggestion that Russian interference had swung the 2016 EU referendum in favour of Brexit, but said that an investigation by the government into the UK’s cyber security was well worth pursuing going forward:
TB: I don’t believe that the referendum result was because of Russian interference. That would be foolish in my view. But you should know, and the government should investigate for the future… This interference is going to be more and more widespread
Boris Johnson isn’t going to save the union
And finally, Ridge also sought Blair’s views on Scotland’s political situation, asking if he felt that Boris Johnson was in a good place to be able to save the union, after the Prime Minister embarked on a tour of Scotland last week:
TB: Obviously, he’s not going to be the person who saves the union in that sense. But you need a viable opposition in Scotland, and… other than that period of time when Ruth Davidson was leading the Tories, there was no one who was really able to provide a coherent alternative to Nicola Sturgeon.
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