Johnson Pressed on Impact of Plan to End Curbs: U.K. Update

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a busy afternoon of questions in Parliament on a vast array of topics, from his gamble to end most Covid restrictions in England on July 19 to foreign policy, Brexit and climate.

The action kicked off at noon with Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, with Labour leader Keir Starmer pressing Johnson for detail on the expected impacts of his Covid plan. Johnson’s bigger test, though, will be a two-hour grilling by senior MPs at 3:30 p.m.

The scrutiny comes as millions of fans prepare to tune in to see England play Denmark in the semifinal of Euro 2020, bidding to reach its first major soccer championship final in 55 years.

Key Developments:

U.K. to Phase Out Universal Credit Uplift (1:30 p.m.)

The government will phase out from September a 20-pound ($28) a week uplift in welfare payments under its Universal Credit program, U.K. Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.

While the increase in weekly payments to the low-paid and unemployed had always been badged by the Treasury as a temporary pandemic measure, winding it down has proved tough for Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak because of opposition from political opponents as well as backbenchers within his own Conservative Party. That pressure led him earlier this year to extend the uplift until the end of September.

“Ahead of October we will start communicating with the current claimants who receive the 20 pounds to make them aware that that will be being phased out and they will start to see an adjustment in their payments,” Coffey told the Work and Pensions Committee. “It is being phased out in line with all the other temporary measures that are also being removed.”

Johnson ‘Deeply Sorry’ For Pandemic Deaths (12.40pm)

Labour MP Tan Dhesi spoke of the personal sacrifices made by his own family in adhering to strict funeral restrictions during the pandemic -- and said government ministers had been “sycophantic” and “hypocritical” to support Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings, who broke Covid rules last year.

Johnson said the government had tried “throughout this pandemic to minimize human suffering and loss of life.”

“I apologize for the suffering that the people of this country have endured,” he said. “Nothing I can say or do can take back the lost lives, the lost time spent with loved ones that he describes. I’m deeply, deeply sorry for that.”

PM Slaps Down Tory Aid Rebels (12:30 p.m.)

Johnson’s former Cabinet colleague David Davis demanded to know when MPs will get a binding vote on the government’s decision to cut the U.K.’s overseas aid budget. It’s an issue that’s sparked a major revolt within the government’s ranks.

The premier did little to calm the situation, telling Davis that lawmakers had already been given a chance to vote on the policy but “mysteriously” decided not to. That’s unlikely to win Johnson any friends on his own side.

Johnson Quizzed Over Self-Isolation (12.15 p.m.)

Questioning Johnson in the House of Commons, Starmer warned the prime minister that his plan to lift restrictions will lead to the “next big problem” -- self-isolation for potentially millions of people this summer if Covid-19 infections rise to 100,000 a day.

“It won’t feel like ‘Freedom Day’ to those who have to isolate,” Starmer said at Prime Minister’s Questions. Johnson is planning to end virtually all remaining curbs in England on July 19, but the requirement to self-isolate if a person comes into contact with a Covid case will stay in place until August 16.

People could start deleting the NHS Covid-19 app on their phones to prevent being “pinged” and told to stay home, Starmer said, warning that that would risk undermining the whole test and trace system. Johnson said the U.K. was moving to a “system of testing rather than self-isolation” and from “legal diktat” to “personal responsibility”.

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