Boris Johnson news – live: Tory MPs self-isolate after minister struck down with coronavirus, as recession warnings issued after Budget

The post-Brexit battleground of twinned towns

Brexit has pulled the twinning of British and European towns into sharper public focus. While some pressing local authorities to erase their town’s longstanding relationships with partners on the continent, others have doubled down on their commitments in a bid to show openness.

Oxford City Council marked the 31 January date by raising the flags of its European twin towns and launching a new campaign to facilitate community cohesion.

Holly Eva Ryan has taken a closer look:

Stop public coming into parliament, says Labour MP

Bell Ribeiro-Addy has said it is “irresponsible” to keep parliament open as public tours continue despite politicians testing positive for coronavirus.

The Labour MP told Sky News: “The problem is, we haven’t stopped the public coming into the building. We are giving out tours, PMQ tickets, we’re having receptions – and I just don’t think that’s responsible.”

The MP for Streatham also told MPs she was “concerned we’re potentially spreading the virus”.

She added: “I’m genuinely concerned about older members of this House and older members in our constituencies and those with underlying health conditions.”

‘If we close schools, thousands of children will go hungry’

Ireland is closing all schools and cancel all public gatherings for the next two weeks amid the coronavirus outbreak, premier Leo Varadkar has announced.

Our chief business commentator James thinks some children will go hungry if schools across the UK are closed in the weeks ahead.

“There will be a social cost from doing that, and it needs to be considered too,” he writes.

“One obvious issue school closures present is childcare. This is obviously a big problem for children with working parents, particularly those who can’t work from home. 

“Another issue is that some pupils rely on schools for food. For thousands of children, schools provide their only hot meal of the day.”

More here:

Austerity will continue ‘for long time’ in key areas, says IFS

The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank has offered its analysis of the Budget – and said austerity would continue in key areas of public services “for a long time to come”.

Paul Johnson, the director of the IFS: “While austerity is clearly at an end in the sense that spending is rising, spending levels in many areas are set to remain well below 2010 levels for a long time to come. Expectations may be disappointed.”

Johnson said the overall spending package was “substantial”. He said: “It looks fairly well designed. It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to support public services, support the vulnerable and insulate the economy from long-term effects.”

The IFS chief also said tax increases could be on the way to pay for Rishi Sunak’s spending plans, which he said were not as generous as they seemed. “The current spending plans are nothing like as generous as they appear,” he said.

‘Superficial’ PM has no grasp of public health, says expert

Prof John Ashton, the former regional director of Public Health England, has offered a scathing critique of Boris Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

“We have a superficial prime minister who’s got no grasp of public health ... Our lot are behaving like 19th-century colonialists playing a five-day game of cricket.”

“Boris Johnson should have convened COBR himself over a month ago and had regular meetings with the chief medical officer with the evidence,” Ashton told The Guardian.

He added: “Our lot haven’t been working openly and transparently. They’ve been doing it in a (non) smoke-filled room and just dribbling out stuff.”

Public want parties to work together, says Labour MP

Labour MP Wes Streeting said the co-operation between health secretary Matt Hancock and his opposite number Jon Ashworth has been “reassuring” during the coronavirus crisis.

“I think that’s what the public want to see – politicians working together, not squabbling about it, and most importantly being guided by the evidence.”

Former Tory cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom added: “Now is a time where you cannot afford to be playing games with this.”

‘Spending plans nothing like as generous as they appear’

Our political editor Andrew Woodock has more on the Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis of the Budget. The respected think said austerity was not over for most public services – pointing out that day-to-day spending per person remain almost a fifth lower than 2010 levels to the middle of this decade.

When spending which simply replaces EU funding is taken into account, departments other than health will find their day-to-day current budgets 19 per cent lower per person in 2024/25 than when David Cameron came to power.

“The current spending plans are nothing like as generous as they appear,” said IFS chief Paul Johnson.

All the details here:

PM’s plan little better than no-deal Brexit, UK’s former ambassador to EU warns

The limited EU trade agreement Boris Johnson wants could be little better for the economy than a no-deal Brexit, the UK’s former ambassador to Brussels Sir Ivan Rogers has warned.

Sir Ivan, who served as the UK’s top official in the EU capital under both David Cameron and Theresa May, said: “I think you could reach a quick and dirty, skinny, very thin, FTA [free trade agreement]. You might question how much economic value it has in comparison with no-deal.”

But Sir Ivan also told a think-tank event in Whitehall he was not optimistic at the prospect of any deal being reached by the end of the year.

“Do I honestly sit here optimistic at the moment that all of this is going to happen? Of course not. I persist in saying regularly to financial market players here ... that the risk of no-deal is very considerably underestimated.”

Our correspondent Jon Stone has the details:

Scotland set to cancel big public events

Large gatherings look set to be cancelled in Scotland, following an announcement by Nicola Sturgeon.

The Scottish first minister said she would recommend cancelling gatherings of more than 500 people to protect frontline services during the coronavirus outbreak as it was now “inappropriate” to continue as normal.

The advice on cancellations is expected to start from Monday.

“This is a decision that we are basing on resilience issues and not simply on the action that we are required to take to reduce the spread of the virus,” she said at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday.

UK at risk of ‘smug insular complacency’, says Rory Stewart

The London mayoral candidate has been one of the fiercest critics of the government’s staggered response to trying to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Stewart said the UK urgently needed to “learn lessons” from China and elsewhere.

“This is at risk of becoming an example of smug insular complacency – refusing to pay any attention to what any other country is doing or the successful public health approach in Asia,” he tweeted.

Stewart said the PM should close schools, and ban public gatherings today.