tulip mazumdar and simon gompertz, thank you both very much. today's other news. the bbc has seen details of another complaint of bullying against the home secretary priti patel. it follows the resignation at the weekend of the top civil servant in the home office, who also accused her, amongst other things, of bullying. the documents show a settlement of £25,000 was paid to a former staff member four years ago, after ms patel was accused during her time as employment minister. the home secretary's spokesperson denied she knew anything about the complaint. rianna croxford has the story. are you a workplace bully, home secretary? she is one of the government's most senior ministers. no more allegations have emerged about her treatment of staff. —— no more. on saturday, the most senior civil servant in a home office resigned and announced he was suing the government for constructive dismissal. in an extraordinary statement, he said he was aware of a number of complaints against the home secretary. this afternoon, the minister for home secretary.

our personalfinance correspondent simon gompertz joins us now from west london. ite a tall order, to ask you to suddenly stop that. yes, it is a tall order and also very worrying for people who are involved in chains of buying and selling houses. in normal times, if you sign and exchange contracts, you are committed to pay the money and to move on a designated date. but what the government is saying is the two parties, the buyer and the seller, should make an amicable agreement to extend that date to beyond a time when restrictions on human contact are lifted. now, there will be exceptions. in some cases, they admit it would be unavoidable to change and they don't want to change critical house moves. not clear what thatis critical house moves. not clear what that is but it could be situations where key workers are moving, for instance, or where elderly people are moving out of a home into somewhere they can be cared for. and in terms of the wider property market, like so many parts of the economy, it had been slightly on the up economy, it had been slightly on the

good morning. 0h, he's not there. 0ur personal finance correspondent simon gompertz is in the bbc newsroom morning. good morning. nice to know that you are there. hannah is in devon and recently quit her full—time job hannah is in devon and recently quit herfull—timejob to form hannah is in devon and recently quit her full—time job to form a folk band so it means that you are very much looking after your own income at the moment. how is it all going? yes, thanks, just playing folk clubs and gigs as much as we can, really. what are your concerns with the virus, then? my concerns are that my earnings are pretty unpredictable in normal circumstances, so we play between two and seven gigs a week and sometimes we have weeks of depending on what we can get booked and we are relying on people continuing to attend gigs and festivals going ahead. because we arejust festivals going ahead. because we are just starting out, festivals going ahead. because we arejust starting out, if festivals going ahead. because we are just starting out, if things continue to worsen this spring and summer, continue to

our business correspondent simon gompertz is at heathrow tonight, earlier he said the impact on businessthe cancellation of dozens of flights. british airways is saying more than 200 flights will be cancelled between march 17 and march 28. now, 171 of those are two european destinations from here, heathrow, thatis destinations from here, heathrow, that is italy but also germany, france, switzerland, ireland, belgium as well. 12 other flights from here to jf belgium as well. 12 other flights from here tojf kennedy airport in new york are being cancelled and also flights from london city airport and some from gatwick as well. passengers are being told they can rebook or get their money back. they might even be put on other carriers, and one other carrier, ryanair, has a 25% of its flights to italy are going to be cancelled in the second half of march and the first week of april. there is evidence that planes are going half empty, people are simply not turning up empty, people are simply not turning up flights. it is a measure of how worried they are and how that is affecting bookings. jere

simon gompertz is our personal finance correspondent. who are we talking about?thouse. the reason we are particularly worried is that it has just been confirmed they are going into administration. this is the terrible news that 2400 staff have been waiting for, and their 240 shops as well. although people rely on them for things like washing machines and tvs, they have been widely criticised for their charges. they faced a price cap. they are losing money after that. they are losing money after that. they are losing money after that. they are facing mis—selling claims from former customers, and the coronavirus and the blight that has brought to the high street has also hit them. it has been confirmed they are going into administration. it is not entirely clear what customers, what will happen to them as a result, but we will wait to see what administrators have to say. president trump has said restrictions imposed because of coronavirus will be in place across the us until at least the end of april. he had previously said that he hoped to relax the measures at ea

simon gompertz reports.ddenly on their knees, like alfredo's in the city of london. people are working from home, or wary of gatherings. sales have disappeared, the bills cannot be paid and he is likely to close. we are losing money, we cannot make money to pay the rent and rates and everything. my staff, i have to send two of them home. what about the food? we throw it away. for places where we sit inside to eat and drink the situation is if anything worse. what do you do when people are warned not to come to your business? restau ra nt warned not to come to your business? restaurant c 100% cancellation of bookings, some are closing. for pubs, it has turned from hoping for the best to a battle for survival. there are a million people employed and under threat massively and these are community assets. if they close for good they will be gone for ever so we need help from the government, action now, a package that will get the cash flowing and they have literally 2a hours. the cash flowing and they have liter

we can speak now to our business correspondent simon gompertz. simon, good morning to you. do you think there could be completions going ahead on house sales that are done entirely online? yes, good morning. you're right, it's all about social distancing. it's also the case that you can pay money online. there's nothing to stop that happening, so much is done that way nowadays. the problem is actually getting close to people during the process of moving house. the government doesn't have particular worries about unoccupied homes, so if you're just buying a home that doesn't have anyone in it, that's not a particular worry. it's where you might come into contact with the current owners of the home who are moving out or with the various professionals involved and indeed with house movers. and house movers, incidentally, their association has said there will be no more service from now on for this very reason. so yes, things can be done online but you can't actually move your body online and that's what the particular worry is. clearly, the notion of being shown around houses

our personal finance correspondent simon gompertz has the latest on companies threatened by the coronavirusa price cap, so they were losing money after that, they are facing mis—selling claims, and the coronavirus and the blight that has brought to the high street has also hit them, and it has been confirmed they are going into administration. it‘s not entirely clear what will happen to customers as a result, and we will wait to hear what the administrators have to say. the spanish government has told all nonessential workers to stay at home for the next 11 days, as part of a series of tighter restrictions. more than 7,300 people in spain have died. our correspondent, guy hedgecoe, is in madrid and explained what the new measures were. spain has already been under lockdown for the last two weeks or so and under quite a strict lockdown, whereby you are not allowed to leave your home without a specific reason to do so, whether it is buying food, going to work or buying medicine. as of today, nonessential workers are not allowed to travel to work — they also have to stay home. that is the main

simon gompertz, our personalfinance correspondent. the fight against coronavirus, as well as appealing for hundreds of thousands of volunteers. 0ne returning nurse is anne carr, and she joins us now from conwy. thank you for being with us. why did you want to volunteer to come back? everybody looked very seriously ill when you see it on the tv, and i think i've got a lot of skills left to come back, and i would like to help and help my colleagues and be pa rt help and help my colleagues and be part of a team again. and how long is it since you've been away from the health service? i was working as a nurse practitioner 18 months ago, so only a year ago, and i have had 37 years experience in nursing, varied roles from district to palliative care to school nursing, soi palliative care to school nursing, so i feel as if i've got a lot to offer. and do you know where you might be working? would it be in a hospital, or would it be as a district nurse? at the moment, the nmcjust confirmed my registration and said that my details would be pas

our personal finance correspondent simon gompertz explained that delaying sales will be a tall orderut what the government is saying is the two parties, the buyer and the seller, should make an amicable agreement to extend that date to beyond the time when restrictions on human contact are lifted. now, there will be exceptions. in some cases they admit it will be unavoidable and they don't want to change critical house moves. not clear what that is but it could be situations where key workers are moving, for instance, or where elderly people are moving out of a home into somewhere where they can be cared for. and in terms of the wider property market, like so many parts of the economy, slightly on the up in recent times but we can only speculate what this is going to do to it now. a huge impact i think because you have to take this alongside the fact there will be no viewings of properties, estate agents are closed, removals companies are not taking on any new business and the impact is going to be a very sharp fall in transactions and inactivity in the housing market. 0n the plus si

our business correspondent simon gompertz is here with me in the studio.hose whose employers do not pay sick pay and who rely on a weekly wage to pay loans and utility bills, will they be penalised for missed/late payments? well, i guess palmer means we'll day, the employer, be penalised if they don't pay statutory sick pay, which the employer has to do. they don't pay statutory sick pay, which the employer has to dolj didn't which the employer has to do.” didn't read it that way but all right. if your employer doesn't pay you statutory sick pay, then they themselves are subject to a penalty. it is £300. 60p per day for each day they don't pay it. if they are persistent, there are thousands of pounds per penalties. there is a regime to punish employers who don't pat’- regime to punish employers who don't pay. the problem is they don't have to pay to everyone. you need to be earning up to a certain threshold, so people who are part—timers, doesn't work so well for them. and what you get is £94 a week. that is something but it is a lot less than average earn

let's speak now to our personal finance correspondent simon gompertz.aw the queues outside supermarkets, we saw the empty shelves. we know there are stock piling going on. what we have got today from two big market research companies are the first figures that really show us the skill of it. and they've looked at the four weeks up until saturday 21 march. so just at the four weeks up until saturday 21 march. sojust over a week at the four weeks up until saturday 21 march. so just over a week ago. they show us that in the last week of february in the first couple of weeks in march, there was a solid increase. that 20% spend was up. what we were buying was close things you would imagine as being the essentials, cleaning products, medicines and staples for the cupboard like flour, pasta, rice and tins, that sort of thing. and then in the last weeks, that's the week up in the last weeks, that's the week up to the 21st, there was a dramatic escalation of it. and this was the week in which we were told by the prime minister that schools would have to close an

simon gompertz reports.knees, like alfredo's in the city of london. people are working from home, or wary of gatherings. sales have disappeared, the bills cannot be paid and he is likely to close. we are losing money, we cannot make money to pay the rent and rates and everything. my staff, i have to send two of them home. what about the food? we throw it away. you cannot keep it. for places where we sit inside to eat and drink the situation is, if anything, worse. what do you do when people are warned not to come to your business? restaurants are seeing 100% cancellation of bookings, some are closing. for pubs, it has turned from hoping for the best to a battle for survival. there are a million people employed in pub sector and under threat massively and these are community assets. if they close for good they will be gone for ever, so we need help from the government, action now, a package that will get the cash flowing and they have literally 24 hours. shops that sell essentials have seen a rush, but for th