i've spoken to alok sharma in the last hour and he is doing fine.ing to say is, the important thing to know, actually, is there are a whole series of pieces of legislation including legislation directly to help fight coronavirus, and going back to the previous question, of things we need to be doing which are passed through a process called secondary legislation and those happen in smaller committees of mps and there are dozens of them, dozens and there are dozens of them, dozens and dozens. we simply haven't been able to pass that legislation, and that in turn puts the country at risk. it's not thing that parliament came back because it fancied it, it came back because it fancied it, it came back because it fancied it, it came back because it needs to do things on behalf of the nation. however, parliament also ensured there was a strict social distancing measures in place involved in the votes early in the week. you were two metres apart at all times. and indeed, i know it's also the case that the prime minister has always been two metres apart fro

let's pick up with alok sharma first of all, awaiting the results of that covid—19 test.o see a full return to a virtual house of commons, virtual voting?” full return to a virtual house of commons, virtualvoting? i think it will encourage them to try again, to bring about a return to virtual voting, which mps voted against on tuesday, by quite a large majority, nearly 60 but, i have to say, many of those conservative mps voting for the return of business as usual did so through gritted teeth. there was a lot of muttering and chuntering as they were going through voting for it. the difficulty is, you know, that vote was only two days ago, it would be hard to revisit it so soon, albeit there is actually a vote tonight from a sort of concession offered by the government to allow proxy voting for those mps who have to shield for health reasons or because they are over 70, so there will be a vote tonight that will allow proxy voting for those who have to shield. the question is, will some mps seek to amend that motion, possibly, to press for a full return to a virtual parliam

meanwhile, the business secretary alok sharma announced he'd be self—isolating after becoming ill inhis nose and mopping his brow. he said he'd stay away while awaiting the result of a covid test. next day, there were more calls for the hybrid parliament to continue. and a lib dem, who'd made an 18—hour journey to get back to westminster, asked for an emergency debate. of course we debated this matter on tuesday, the sight of members queuing for that division was a truly memorable one. as we shuffled around the lawn in the palace yard waiting to join the queue in westminster hall, i couldn't help but feel that it was like exercise hour in a category c prison for white—collar criminals, rather than the mother of all parliaments. laughter. he said anyone with any doubts about being present and queuing to vote should have had them dispelled by the sight of alok sharma struggling at the despatch box. he illustrated perfectly the way in which we are all subject to pressures to carry on when we should not. one of the first rules of politics is that when you are in a hole, you should stop d

yes, business secretary alok sharma, you can see him in the house of commons at the dispatch box, clearlyt the speech. a spokesman said he started to feel u nwell spokesman said he started to feel unwell in the chamber. he did then leave and he is self—isolating to stop he has been tested for coronavirus but hasn't the result yet. many mps have seized on this, saying they don't think they should have been forced back to parliament and they want to keep on working remotely. the commons authorities say they followed procedures and did extra cleaning, the things you're supposed to do if there is a suspected case of covid i spoke to the minister who sat next alok sharma most of today and he said they were social distancing at all times. the prime minister pledged last month that the uk would have a world—beating test—and—trace system up and running by the 1st ofjune, capable of tracking 10,000 new cases a day. but the woman who's been put in charge of it told mps today that she couldn't say what proportion of tests come back in 2a hours, or how many people have been contact traced, because th

we will be asking alok sharma about that soon. where is that responsibility rely, with individuals, with landlords? how do you make sure that continues?m individuals, with landlords? how do you make sure that continues? it has to be both. people have to take responsibility for not breaching the new rules but another landlords, the people i spoke to in my constituency hearing quarter north will be looking to make sure their customers are kept safe. people won't want to start coming back to their businesses if they think it is going to be safe. the clarity about the rules is absolutely critical to getting this right but an important pa rt getting this right but an important part of this is, this is not the end of the lot down. this is just moving toa of the lot down. this is just moving to a different phrase. it's going to be very different to what we've seen before. he said that about talking to your constituents, is that a concern that comes to you when you are speaking to people? it's an absolute concern. the problems we've had w

alok sharma looked in some distress yesterday in the commons, mopping his brow.t colleague suggested he might have had a bad bout of hayfever, so we will await medical advice. the second thing to say is he had this 45—minute meeting with the prime minister and chancellor in downing street ahead of the cabinet on tuesday, before he was showing symptoms. when contact tracing takes place, assuming that he was found to be infected, there is guidance on how that will proceed. for example, you should really have to be in close contact with people at a distance of less than two metres for 15 minutes or more before you have to say that contact of yours has to be traced and informed that you have the virus. what downing street insist is that all meetings in downing street are now socially distanced and that meeting in the cabinet room was socially distanced, which means they sat more than two metres apart, so in that sense i think it is highly unlikely the prime minister and chancellor would have to self—isolate. there is other guidance that if they are in close contact,

. —— alok sharma.me in ten weeks. but it is not as many people as others are allowed, it is just one person. let's talk right now to cancer patient angela statham and cancer specialist professor carol ‘s ago. thank you forjoining us. angela, first of all, was a bit about yourself and you have been shielding for some time, haven't you? yes, iam yes, i am on day 79, and yes, iam on day 79, and i yes, i am on day 79, and i am counting. i have chronic leukaemia, so my immune system would make me catch in are very, very risky. so when you hear that you would be able to go out, what you think? no, i am not going anywhere. i think it is incredible that they have decided to, well, first of all, they put shielding on in a sort of blanket way, so, it was not specific to individual situations or cases or locations. and they seem to be lifting it in the same way. on the very day that they have decided to allow more people to go out and about, i live in a village in wales which has a waterfall, which is a beauty sp

but the business secretary alok sharma said that the government was taking a very cautious approach.ll four uk nations will have guidelines in place allowing more than two people to meet outside. vulnerable people in england and wales, who have been advised to stay home since the lockdown began, will also be able to go outdoors again. shielding advice in northern ireland and scotland hasn't changed. the first phase in the reopening of schools has begun in england, with children in nurseries, reception, and years one and six allowed to return. and provided they meet safety guidelines, open air markets and car showrooms in england can also start to trade again. it comes as another 113 deaths were recorded in latest 2a hour period — which brings the total number who've died with coronavirus to 38,489. our first report is from danjohnson, who's been to meet some families preparing for their first day back at school in ten weeks. so you've got your uniform already, jack? yes. time to getjack back to school again. ready! how do you feel about going back to school, jack? very, very, very, v

the business secretary, alok sharma, says he's tested negative for the coronavirus.eaking at the despatch box, in the commons. south korea is using new technology, to try to track down people infected with the coronavirus, in less than an hour, as it attempts to clamp down on those breaking quarantine rules. the country has had one of the most successful strategies in the world for dealing with the virus, with fewer than 300 people having died. our seoul correspondent, laura bicker, has more details. each gasp for breath. each drop of blood painted an alarming picture. do you have any cough? no cough. headache? wan yu from wuhan, china, was south korea's first coronavirus patient. her scans revealed she had been ill for days before showing symptoms. doctors realised then that carriers could infect others without knowing they were sick. at the peak of the outbreak, hundreds of contract tracers were mobilised, lessons south korea learned from previous epidemics. she is allowed to ask personal questions and record private details because of special laws brought in to co

uk business secretary alok sharma is self—isolating after becoming unwell in parliament.arlier, mopping his brow several times while speaking. a spokesman said the mp had since been tested for coronavirus and was waiting for the result. scientists are running a trial to see whether a type of ibuprofen can help treat coronavirus patients. they hope the low cost drug, which is an anti—inflammatory as well as a painkiller, could address breathing difficulties, and keep patients off ventilators. they are recruiting patients now, and don't expect to complete the study until next year. previous studies have recommended against the drugs, use saying it can worsen symptoms. a german prisoner has been identified as a new suspect in the disappearance of madeline mccann from a holiday resort in portugal 13 years ago. the man, in his 405, is a convicted sex offender who had been living in the algarve at the time, travelling around ina campervan. madeleine mccann was three years old when she went missing from praia de luz in 2007. they want to speak to someone he spoke to on the phone

let's get some of the day's other news: here in the uk, business secretary alok sharma is self—isolatingma looked uncomfortable while taking part in a debate earlier, mopping his brow several times while speaking. a spokesman said the mp had since been tested for coronavirus and was waiting for the result. sweden's top epidemiologist says the country's decision not to impose the kind of strict lockdowns seen elsewhere, was a sound strategy but admitted more restrictions could have been imposed. anders tegnell says he has faith in what he called the country's long—term approach to tackling covid—19 but said more should've been done to prevent deaths in care homes. scientists are running a trial to see whether a type of ibuprofen can help treat coronavirus patients. they hope the low cost drug which is an anti—inflammatory as well as a painkiller could address breathing difficulties, and keep patients off ventilators. they are recruiting patients now, and don't expect to complete the study until next year. previous studies have recommended against the drug's use, saying it can worsen sympt

. —— alok sharma. 13 years after the british girl madeleine mccann disappeared in portugal, a germaneleine mccann investigation. with its distinctive colours, police hope it will trigger someone's memory and lead to new evidence about their as yet unnamed suspect. the suspect also used this jaguar car at the time. he registered the car into someone else's name the day after madeleine mccann disappeared. the three—year—old went missing on may the 3rd 2007. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcmikeembley. much more on the bbc news website. hello there, we are going to end this week on a very different note than we began the week certainly. we have lost our area of high pressure and low pressure starting to take control, it is going to bring windier, wetter, and cooler conditions and thursday looks like being another cool day, cooler than it was on wednesday in fact, and we will have some spells of rain at times too. 0ur area of high pressure is continuing to retreat away westwards, low pressure is beginning to develop to our east and that is going t

the business secretary, alok sharma, who appeared in the commons yesterday looking ill, is today saidhe awaits his result of a coronavirus test. mr sharma went into self—isolation after his appearance at the dispatch box. new figures from the office for budget responsibility suggest the cost of the uk's emergency spending and tax cuts, intended to soften the economic hit from coronavirus, will add up to £133 billion. this is a £10 billion increase on its previous estimate. there's also been a further collapse in car sales. borisjohnson has told a global vaccine some of that finding a coronavirus inoculation will provide cooperation on a scale not anything we've ever seen before. a summit of more than 50 countries and donors is aiming to raise a £6 billion for the vaccination of children. in scotland, the coronavirus infection rate has reduced slightly in the past week. the first minister, nicola sturgeon said the r number, which estimates how many people an individual will infect, is now 0.7 to 0.9, down from 0.7 to one. the new figures do not reflect the situation since the lockdown

alok sharma, the business secretary, was spotted at the dispatch box in the commons yesterday lookingdkerchief. how is he? it turns out he's all right, actually. breaking news! he was sweating, didn't look well at all. the spokesperson said he'd gone home and was isolating and everybody thought, this is the moment where the coronavirus rears up again in the house of commons, where they're complaining about being back there, but he says he has had a test and it's negative and he's fine. all this week on the coronavirus newscast, we've been sort of broadening our agenda, as they call it in newsrooms across the country, looking at some of the other big stuff that's happening in the world at the moment, obviously with coronavirus as the backdrop to everything. so, monday, tuesday, wednesday, we looked at the protests in the us after the death of george floyd and the political reaction to that and, last night, there was a jaw—dropping moment when we got the statement from the british police, the portuguese police and the german police appealing for information from the public about the dis

it is worth emphasising that most of what alok sharma talked about was for england.s a measure that will only apply in england. we don't know when that will happen in scotland and wales. it is slightly earlier in northern ireland, this friday. but anyone who was hoping the business secretary might be able to give as a hint whether we can get a haircut or head back to the pub, it is still the earliest the start ofjuly for that next phase of things moving forward. at the same time, the figures on coronavirus seem to be going in the right direction, although 286 deaths, a horrific death toll but the statistics are moving ina death toll but the statistics are moving in a downward direction? that is why we look at the seven day rolling average for the number of deaths for people who have tested positive for coronavirus because often there is a lag at the weekend. we saw some low figures on sunday and monday and it has gone back up again today. we are often told it is for the simple reason people are not reporting at the weekend as much. every death is an individual and pe

but the uk business secretary alok sharma says the government is taking a very cautious approach.uk nations will have guidelines in place allowing more than two people to meet outside. vulnerable people in england and wales, who have been advised to stay home since the lockdown began, will also be able to go outdoors again. and provided they meet safety guidelines, open air markets and car showrooms in england can also start to trade again. our first report is from danjohnson, who's been to meet some families preparing for their first day back at school in ten weeks. so you've got your uniform already, jack? yes. time to getjack back to school again. ready! how do you feel about going back to school, jack? very, very, very, very happy. i've never known my boy to be so excited. but he has always loved school. he misses his friends and he loves his teacher. so he's really excited to go back, yeah. i'm a bit excited... five—year—old khadija is almost as enthusiastic. i do like maths and i am quite excited about maths. i'm in two minds, but i think it's good for the children to intera

business secretary alok sharma said retailers can open as long as they follow safety guidelines, or they, bars and hairdressers, will remain closed until 4 july at the earliest. joining us now from london is yael selfin, who is the chief economist at kpmg. welcome to you. thank you very much for being with us. the economy here desperately needs this, doesn't it? yes, absolutely. i think businesses generally need to get this reopening, because they need the business to start going, so thatis the business to start going, so that is very good news for them. the big question is whether consumers will come back and spend sufficiently at this time, when there is so much uncertainty. do you think we will see a big change in third—quarter gdp as a result of these shops opening, or is it just of these shops opening, or is itjust going to be too much of a slow trickle? so as a result of the broader measures, as well as the ones that were announced just recently, we expect gdp to rise significantly in the third quarter, and probably clawback about half of the contraction we saw in q2. but we are in

business secretary alok sharma said:. the uk is open for investment, but not for exploitation.ificial intelligence or encryption technology. it follows a similar move by the european union, which announced in april it planned to block foreign takeovers of european firms struggling with the virus downturn. joining us now from london is yael selfin who's the chief economist at kpmg. we've seen similar moves by the eu and australia, but with high debt levels, will this put off fdi? explain why the uk government is taking this step now and what it is concerned about? is taking this step now and what it is concerned abounm is evident from the current pandemic that we have health risks that the government would wa nt to risks that the government would want to protect against as much as possible. this is one of the measures to make sure we have the technology with the capacity within the uk to try and protect the population against these risks which are genuine risks. we now the issue here potentially is what we also want is continued cooperation internationally in order to combat the

matt ryder and alok sharma. in the moss side area, where the incident is believed to have taken place. officers said two men, aged 36 and 21 went to hospital with gunshot wounds at around 1am. british holidaymakers will be able to visit spain from today, without having to quarantine on arrival. the country is lifting the restriction for european travellers, but for the moment uk tourists will still have to isolate on their return. spain's foreign minister said british expats played a part in the decision. president trump has held his first campaign rally since the coronavirus lockdown began. he announced on twitter that almost a million people had requested tickets for the event in oklahoma, but tulsa's 19,000 capacity arena was far from full. our north america correspondent david willis reports. it wasn't entirely the comeback donald trump had been anticipating. shortly after it emerged that six members of his campaign team had tested positive for the coronavirus, a warm up event nearby was cancelled for lack o

coronavirus briefing from the government in half an hour, today led by the business secretary, alok sharma a lot of families will struggle. i do think that children should start going back to school gradually, because we got to get back to normality. some sort of normality. around 6a,000 more people than usual have died in the uk since the coronavirus outbreak began — but the weekly figures are improving. jailed for two years... the mother of nine—year—old frankie macritchie — who was killed by a dog after being left alone with it in a caravan. and remembering george floyd — mourners gather for the funeral in texas of the man whose death sparked protests across the world. good afternoon and welcome to viewers on bbc one ahead of the daily downing street coronavirus briefing, led by the business secretary, alok sharma. our main story — the government has abandoned plans to get all primary pupils in england back to school before the end of term. the death toll has risen by 286 to ao,883. the government has abandoned plans to get all primary pupils in england back to school before the end of

one last question, we understand that alok sharma is awaiting a test for coronavirus, he looked veryliament‘s refusal to do scenario with people being wooded by parliament's refusal to do what most people are doing, which is work from home. first of all, we are ahead of ourselves. i saw the images, we haven't got the results back yet. we don't know if he has the coronavirus but i would say, we have got structures there with proxy voting for those who can't come in but the house authorities have done a huge amount of work. very much to ensure that if somebody in the house of commons is there making sure we scrutinise the government and get on with the legislative agenda, both the covid and wider issues, i think thatis the covid and wider issues, i think that is important but doing so, following the proper guidelines, a huge amount of work there. the house can function properly following the guidelines. brandon lewis, we appreciate your time this morning. you very much. a lot of issues covered there. one of them was quarantine and that is something that sean is looking at as well becau

yesterday i asked the question of alok sharma and the business secretary, and we were allowed to comesked a couple of times and they are not answered, people see through that pretty quickly. right. thank you very much. ten million people in england could be waiting for medical treatment by the end of the year, because of the backlog caused by coronavirus. the nhs confederation, which represents hospital trusts, says the health service is facing an ‘uphill battle‘ to restart normal treatments while still dealing with the pandemic. richard galpin reports. for months, staff in many hospitals have battled to save the lives of tens of thousands of people infected by coronavirus. but now increasingly they are also under pressure to treat people with other serious illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke and cancer. and yet capacity to treat them is reportedly around half of what it should be. staff burn—out and the need for social—distancing measures in hospitals part of the reason. we are trying to rebuild services as covid—19 is still around within our hospitals and within our communities

the business secretary alok sharma said it was on the effect of self interest of businesses to complyo remain open. if there are occasions where things are not going according to plan, and particularly, employers and workplaces are not keeping their workers safe, there is an opportunity for people to talk to the local authority inspectors, to talk to the health and safety executives, and they are able to respond. but what i can tell you from the conversations that i have with businesses on a daily basis is that they want to make sure that their workplaces are safe, they are welcoming, and they want their business to grow. the last thing anybody wants is for a second peak. is for a business to be shutdown because it is not observing the guidelines and rules. and the only way that we will continue to be able to open the economy in a safe and cautious manner is by people continuing to observe the rules and guidelines. the other thing to say, victoria, is that these guidelines yesterday are meant for business, but quite a bit of it applies to us as consumers. so, if you want to go out in