Govt steps in to save railways
LONDON: The UK government stepped in to shore up the country’s rail operators after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Britons they face “tougher measures” to fight the coronavirus outbreak, including a potential full lockdown if they continue to ignore calls to stop social gatherings.
The Department for Transport said yesterday that it will take on the revenue and cost risk for the nation’s rail services for six months, with operators continuing to manage day-to-day services for “a small predetermined management fee”.
With the UK’s weekend newspapers full of reports about people meeting in parks and travelling to coastal towns, the prime minister said his government may be forced to take more stringent methods to enforce social distancing and will consider options over the next 24 hours. The UK death toll surged to 281 on Sunday from 177 on Friday, with total cases rising above 5,500.
“We need to think about the kinds of measures that we’ve seen elsewhere, other countries that have been forced to bring in restrictions on people’s movements altogether,” Mr Johnson said at a televised news conference on Sunday. “Some people are not making it easy for us because they are congregating in a way that helps spread the disease.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock doubled down on that message yesterday, telling BBC TV “nothing is off the table” when it comes to tackling the outbreak. He later told BBC radio the police had been given powers to shut pubs, bars and restaurants if they weren’t already heeding the government instruction to close.
This week, the government will seek to fast-track emergency legislation through parliament, giving it more power to close meeting places and detain people who are a danger to public health. The measures reflect the growing sense of crisis, with Mr Johnson warning on Saturday that the National Health Service is as little as two weeks away from being swamped.
But in a potential complication for Mr Johnson, the government faces a revolt in the House of Commons over the draft legislation. A group of cross-party MPs — including prominent Conservatives David Davis and Andrew Mitchell — want to shorten the law’s duration from the government’s planned two years.
Mr Davis told BBC radio yesterday that he would like to see the bill shortened to a year, and that if the government needs an extension of the powers, it should draft a new bill after nine months, incorporating all of its learnings.
“You’ve got a 300-page bill being looked at in one day, you have a oneday debate and it’s take it or leave it,” Mr Davis said. “It turns into a rubber stamp.”