Boris Johnson ‘wants to slash social distancing to one metre’

Boris Johnson is pushing to reduce social distancing from two metres to one metre under plans to accelerate the reopening of the economy after he was warned millions of jobs could be lost.  

Mr Johnson is believed to be keen to slash the distancing rule if the science shows it is safe to do so. 

A group of six senior ministers – dubbed the Save Summer Six – has been set up to figure out how to get the UK back to something approaching normal life by July.      

The group believes changing the social distancing rule is the key to restarting the economy and that if two metres remains the standard it will prevent many businesses from being able to reopen.  

Business Secretary Alok Sharma is said to be speaking to his counterparts in other European nations like the Netherlands and Denmark to see how they moved to one metre – the minimum recommended by the World Health Organisation. 

Mr Sharma reportedly told Mr Johnson in a meeting last week that if the hospitality sector is unable to get back up and running it could cost 3.5 million jobs, prompting the PM to blurt out: ‘Christ!’

As a result the PM is believed to have resolved during a meeting with Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Friday to quicken the easing of lockdown with one Cabinet source saying the premier wants the country to be ‘back to normal or as near as possible to it by the summer’. 

Accelerating the easing of lockdown will prompt concerns among scientific experts after some studies suggested the R rate of infection could be above the crucial one number in certain parts of the country. 

But Health Secretary Matt Hancock today moved to assuage any concerns as he said there was no ‘trade off’ between the economy and the health of the nation. 

Mr Hancock insisted the Government will proceed on a strictly ‘safety first’ basis. 

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is expected in the coming weeks to use a major speech to set out his plans to ‘rebuild Britain’ in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic as he looks to effectively relaunch his domestic agenda. 

The speech is likely to include a pledge to accelerate major infrastructure projects – including Tory manifesto pledges to build 40 new hospitals and key road upgrades.

Mr Johnson will this week chair a meeting of his Cabinet to update ministers on the next lockdown-easing steps for a number of sectors, which are expected to take effect from June 15.

The Sunday Times reported that the PM will bring forward plans to relax planning rules to allow pubs, restaurants and cafes to use outdoor areas for seating. 

Meanwhile, restrictions on weddings and funerals could be eased next month to allow up to 10 people to attend the events while hairdressers could reopen before July 4. 

The PM has also told Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to step up work on creating ‘travel corridors’ to holiday hotspots so they are in place by June 28. 

Downing Street announced on Saturday night that churches and other places of worship are set to open for private prayer from June 15, but worship groups, weddings and other services will still not be permitted.

However, any move to quicken the reopening of Britain will cause concern among some experts after recent reports suggested the R rate of transmission may already be above one in parts of the country. 

If R is one or higher, the virus will spread exponentially through the population, while a value less than one indicates the virus is in decline.

Health chiefs have also said that there should be no further easing of lockdown before the test and trace system has been proven to work. 

Mr Hancock today insisted the R number is below one across the country, telling Sky News: ‘Overall R remains below one, between 0.7 and 0.9 by the best estimate of SAGE including in all parts of the country so we are able to proceed. 

‘But again I come back to this, and I will keep coming back to this, we proceed with caution and we proceed with safety first, making sure that as those shops do reopen that it is safe to do so and they do so in a way that is compliant with the Covid safe working guidelines.’ 

He also insisted lockdown restrictions will be lifted ‘cautiously’ to avoid a second spike of the disease. 

‘People do ask me about the economy but my view is that the worst thing for the economy would be a second spike and so there isn’t this trade off that much is made of in the media between the health and the economy,’ he said. 

‘I care deeply about getting the economy going and the best way to get the economy going is to ensure that we get the number of new infections right down. 

‘That is what matters for the future of the economy as well. So it is easy to write stories about a trade off. What really matters for this whole country is that we get the number of infections right down, we keep that R below one and then we can cautiously, cautiously, reopen some of the things that make life worth living.’  

The Government is facing growing pressure from Tory MPs and the hospitality sector to reduce the social distancing rule to one metre. 

Pub chiefs have warned that if the two metre rule remains in place then two thirds are likely to remain shut.  

But if it is reduced to one metre then three quarters could reopen immediately. 

Polling has also suggested that 40 per cent of pubs would not be able to survive until September if they have to remain closed.

The coronavirus crisis has been the Government’s overwhelming focus since February and ministers are keen to get back to delivering on the pledges made at the 2019 general election.  

Mr Johnson is also said to want to fast-track recruitment campaigns for doctors and nurses to increase the NHS’s resilience before the winter.

A Whitehall source told the Sunday Telegraph that ‘getting the immediate crisis under control remains the Prime Minister’s main focus’, but said the Government is ‘also preparing for tough economic times ahead’.

‘The PM wants to explain that rebuilding after this crisis won’t be a repeat of 2008,’ the source said.

‘In the election the PM made the right diagnosis of the problems many people face. He believes now is the time to be even more ambitious with his plans to unite and level up the country.’ 

In other coronavirus developments today:

• An Opinium poll suggested just under half of the population disapprove of the Government’s handling of the crisis, while the Tories’ lead over Labour is down to just three points; 
• Anti-racism protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis were held across the UK – despite a plea from the Health Secretary for people not to gather during lockdown;
• Healthcare chief Chris Hopson said NHS trusts were not consulted on plans for all hospital staff to wear surgical face masks and visitors and outpatients to wear face coverings from June 15;
• The Department of Health and Social Care said another 204 people had died after testing positive for coronavirus yesterday, taking the death toll to 40,465. The total toll for all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK is thought to have passed 50,000. 

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick yesterday announced that places of worship will be allowed to reopen for private, individual prayer from June 15.

He said: ‘People of all faiths have shown enormous patience and forbearance, unable to mark Easter, Passover, Ramadan or Vaisakhi with friends and family in the traditional way.

‘As we control the virus, we are now able to move forwards with a limited but important return to houses of worship.’ 

It came as Tory MPs expressed concern about ‘growing cracks’ between Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak, with Cabinet splits widening over post-Brexit economic policy and the UK’s tense relationship with China.

Differences between the two most powerful members of the Government came to a head last week in meetings about the security threat posed by Beijing and the scope of a new trade deal with Washington.

Sources also claimed that a rift has opened up over coronavirus strategy – although allies of both men insisted last night they are ‘on the same page’ in terms of managing a swift exit from the lockdown and avoiding austerity measures during the recovery.

Meanwhile, rumours continue to swirl around Westminster that the Prime Minister is struggling to recover fully from being infected with Covid-19, and requires ‘power naps’ of two to three hours during the day – something Downing Street says is ‘completely untrue’.

The claims have fanned febrile talk on the backbenches – also denied – that Mr Sunak is already positioning himself for a run at the party leadership if it falls vacant in the next couple of years.

One of the sharpest differences between No 10 and No 11 is over China as Ministers have been alarmed by sabre-rattling from Beijing. 

The Chinese embassy in London is understood to have passed on warnings that Beijing will take ‘economic revenge’ if the Government continues to warn it to respect democracy in Hong Kong – or goes ahead with a mooted U-turn on letting Huawei help to build the UK’s 5G mobile phone network.

At a meeting of the National Security Council on Tuesday, Mr Johnson unveiled plans for a new relationship with Beijing which would limit the UK’s economic dependence on the Communist state. 

However, it was met with stark warnings from Mr Sunak that ‘putting up an economic wall’ risked hampering Britain’s GDP and slowing the crisis recovery.

Mr Sunak was apparently backed by Business Secretary Alok Sharma and the pair made ‘a forthright case’ for continued Chinese investments in a range of sectors including nuclear power and steel.

But sources within the top-level meeting of senior politicians and spy chiefs argue that Mr Johnson sided with ‘more hawkish’ Ministers such as Home Secretary Priti Patel, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who are pushing for a much tougher line on Chinese relations.

A source said: ‘The economic departments were obviously worried about their balance sheets and made that very clear. Rishi was reading from the Treasury’s script that we are all doomed if we don’t do as they say.’ 

But a defender of the Chancellor said he was clear that ‘we need to be more transactional with the Chinese’, but warned there would be an economic hit if we disregard the world’s second-largest economy.

Mr Sunak is also thought to disagree with Mr Johnson over the terms of a new trade deal with America.

At a meeting on Monday of the XS Cabinet sub-committee, the Prime Minister rejected calls by Mr Sunak and International Trade Secretary Liz Truss for controversial US produce such as chlorinated chickens and hormone-filled beef to be allowed to enter the UK without being subject to high tariffs.

Mr Johnson, who chairs the meeting, sided with Environment Secretary George Eustice and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, who called for UK farmers to be protected from the new competition.

Mr Johnson has set himself against traditional Treasury orthodoxy by rejecting calls for tax rises and spending cuts to try to salvage the public finances following the huge financial hit of the pandemic.

One Conservative MP said: ‘The sense among my colleagues is that Rishi is allowing more cracks to grow between him and Boris. 

‘His approval ratings are better than the PM’s, which seems to have given him the confidence to push back in areas where they disagree.

‘The chatter about Boris needing naps of two to three hours a day has added to the sense that Rishi’s time could come sooner than expected.’

Last night a senior source confirmed that the austerity debate was ‘a very live discussion’ in No 10. The source said: ‘The issue is not so much with Rishi as with the senior Treasury mandarins, who are institutionally geared towards saving money.

‘But the PM’s position is that there is not going to be a repeat of 2008 by cutting public spending. His priority is to protect people and jobs.

‘This is a very live discussion in the building at the moment. While Rishi is alive to the human costs, the Treasury’s departmental mindset is geared towards austerity.’

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, Mr Sunak has been the leading ‘hawk’ calling for lockdown measures to be eased as quickly as safely possible.

While Mr Johnson was originally more cautious about lifting the restrictions – chastened from his instinctive liberalism by his brush with death – he is now understood to agree with Mr Sunak that the economy could suffer irreparable damage if the social-distancing rules are not relaxed more rapidly.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the leading lockdown ‘dove’, is ‘no longer in the driving seat in the issue’, sources say.

On China, an ally of Mr Johnson said: ‘The Prime Minister is trying to steer a moderate course between the China-bashers on the backbenches and those, such as the Chancellor, who worry about retreating into economic isolationism’. 

A Government source said: ‘No 10 and No 11 are as one in their joint determination to steer the country back to economic recovery in the safest possible way’.

Downing Street said it was ‘completely untrue’ that the Prime Minister needed to sleep during the day, or that Mr Sunak had leadership ambitions.

British Airways, Ryanair and easyJet SUE the government over ‘irrational and disproportionate’ 14-day quarantine rules

Ministers have been hit with an unprecedented joint legal action by UK airlines infuriated by plans to impose a two-week quarantine period on travellers entering Britain. 

British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair have joined forces to argue that the measure is illegal on the grounds that it is discriminatory, irrational and disproportionate. 

The carriers say that the move, which is due to be implemented tomorrow, was drawn up without consultation and will destroy their attempts to rebuild their businesses. 

A ‘pre-action’ letter, seen by The Mail on Sunday, highlights that while ‘weekly commuters’ such as French bankers travelling on the Eurostar will be exempt from the rule, British families going on their summer holidays will not. 

Lawyers working for IAG, the parent company for BA, say that the Statutory Instrument laid down by the Government last Thursday to introduce the rules is so ‘irrational and disproportionate’ as to be rendered unlawful. 

The letter points out that the 14-day quarantine period is more stringent than the guidelines applied to people who have tested positive for Covid-19, that the rules will not apply if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and that the controls will even relate to countries which have lower rates of infection than Britain. 

The airlines have told Government lawyers: ‘The Government has failed to identify a valid justification for the blanket nature of the regulations. 

‘The effect is to establish a wholly unjustified and disproportionate restriction on individuals travelling to England… and will inevitably mean that there is very little increase in the numbers of persons leaving and entering the country.’ 

Their letter adds: ‘The estimated proportion of the population infected with coronavirus is far higher than in other European countries… 

‘The disparity is so great that it reinforces the fact that it is illogical and irrational for the Government to be imposing self-isolation on persons entering the UK from Union countries.’ 

They add that the regulations ‘cannot possibly be justified, since individuals arriving in the UK in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales or living in those regions will not be bound by them’.

The move comes after Willie Walsh, the chief executive of IAG, wrote to MPs to explain the damage the policy would cause to his business and snubbed a meeting with Home Secretary Priti Patel, the architect of the plan. 

Mr Walsh said that the new rules – which some critics have called ‘crazy’ – had ‘torpedoed our opportunity to get flying in July’. 

BA had hoped to operate about 40 per cent of its scheduled flights next month but is now reworking its plans. It is burning through £20million a day and has racked up an additional £800million in short-term debt. 

The airline has also become embroiled in a dispute with unions over its plans to lay off up to 12,000 of its 43,000 staff. 

Bosses see this as vital as BA prepares to shrink to cope with lower demand for flights even after the pandemic subsides. 

In his letter to MPs, Mr Walsh said: ‘We find ourselves in the deepest crisis ever faced. A crisis not of our making but one which we must address. 

‘We will do everything in our power to ensure that British Airways can survive and sustain the maximum number of jobs consistent with the new reality of a changed airline industry in a severely weakened global economy.’ 

On Friday at 4pm, airline and airport bosses were sent a 23-page document setting out the new measures. 

The document, seen by the MoS, shows passengers will be asked to fill in a ‘Pre-Travel Passenger Locator’ form up to 48 hours before travelling. 

Anyone who refuses will be denied entry to the UK.