2 2GM Monday July 27 2020 | the times
News
Downing Street is facing questions
from parliament’s spending watchdog
over a surge in public money being
spent on opinion polling.
Analysis by The Times reveals that
the Cabinet Office spent at least
£833,000 with polling companies
between January and May this year,
more than was spent during the whole
of last year. Meg Hillier, Labour chair-
woman of the Commons public ac-
counts committee, will write to the
Cabinet Office this week over the in-
crease. “This is a big increase in fund-
ing,” Ms Hillier said. “There are good
reasons to engage with the public, but
we should know more about how this
money was spent and what benefit the
polling has delivered to taxpayers.”
The figures put the department on
track to spend £2 million on polling by
the end of the year, which would be
triple the £686,000 spent last year.
The Cabinet Office has a contract
with YouGov to conduct a daily track-
ing poll on public attitudes to govern-
ment policy, which is set to last until
June next year. The contract is meant to
be worth up to £318,700, but The Sunday
Times reported last month that thebe added to the quarantine list. On Fri-
day France, which has not closed its
border with Spain, recorded 1,130 new
cases, almost three times the average at
the start of last month. In the past two
weeks Croatia has recorded three times
as many cases per head of population as
Britain.
Mr Charles said: “People are cancel-
ling not just Spain but other short-haul
bookings. We’ve heard of lots of cancel-
lations for holidays to France, Italy and
Greece. Dominic Raab said they
wouldn’t hesitate to introduce quaran-
tine measures on other countries and
that’s simply put fear into people.
“The implications of not gettingCOMMENT 27
THUNDERER 28
LEADING ARTICLES 31MARKETS 46
REGISTER 48
LAW REPORT 51Global
confirmed casesUK confirmed
casesCORONAVIRUS SUMMARY
SPORT 55 & THE GAME
CROSSWORD 64
TV & RADIO TIMESSetback for sufferers
People who suffer long-lasting
symptoms after coronavirus
infection are losing jobs and
struggling to get the care they
need, according to campaigners.
Patients have reported more than
170 prolonged effects, including
fatigue, hair loss, vision problems,
incontinence and disrupted
menstrual cycles. However, since
many were never admitted to
hospital and did not have a
positive test for the virus early in
the outbreak, they say that some
GPs are refusing to refer them to
rehabilitation programmes. Page 8Mask wearing is low risk
Wearing a mask to protect against
Covid-19 does not give a false
sense of security, a study claimed.
Cambridge University and King’s
College London said concerns that
people wearing masks might skip
other infection-control measures,
such as hand washing or staying a
safe distance from others, were a
“dead horse” and potentially
hindered public health policy.
The research said mask wearing
in all enclosed public spaces,
rather than, as now, only in shops
and on trains, planes and buses,
was to be encouraged. Page 915,785,641 640,299,426 45,Private school clamour
Demand for private schooling has
jumped by up to 30 per cent amid
growing concern among
middle-class parents that their
state-educated children have
fallen behind during the lockdown.
The Independent Schools
Association said there had been an
upsurge in inquiries from
“high-aspirational, worried”
parents looking for places from
September, and the Independent
Association of Prep Schools says
demand has grown considerably
over recent weeks. Page 11Kim locks down city
Kim Jong-Un locked down a
North Korean city of 300,
people and declared a state of
emergency after what is reported
to be the first coronavirus case
in the country, in a defector who
secretly returned from South
Korea. The lockdown of Kaesong
was announced at an emergency
politburo meeting. The man, who
defected three years ago, is said
to have returned on July 19 after
being suspected of rape. Page 13Britons drank less
Alcohol consumption fell during
the lockdown because a rise
in drinking at home was far
outweighed by the closure of
pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants.
When the extra off sales of the
past four months were subtracted
from total sales last year, both on
and off licensed premises in the
same period, Britons drank
547,878,276 fewer litres of alcohol.
However, it is not hard to see why
people assumed the reverse as
spending on alcohol in stores
was up £1.9 billion. Page 10Recovery hopes fade
The economy will not return to
pre-pandemic levels until 2024
as hopes of a V-shaped recovery
vanish amid rising unemployment,
weak consumer spending and
depressed investment, the EY Item
Club has warned. The forecaster
expects a record recession as the
economy contracts 11.5 per cent
this year, then a slow rebound.
Unemployment will climb to 9 per
cent, leaving three million out of
work as furloughing ends. Page 37Global deathsUK deathsCOMMENT
Covid-19 offers a chance to repurpose empty
city shops and offices into badly needed homes
LIBBY PURVES, PAGE 29Murray for US Open
Andy Murray will play in the
US Open despite concerns from
other sportspeople over the
pandemic in the United States. He
is confident of the biosecure
bubble for the event, starting on
August 31, including designated
accommodation, testing and no
spectators. It will be his first grand
slam event since the 2019
Australian Open and his third in
three years, during which he has
twice had hip surgery. Page 59Netanyahu protests
Police in Israel made arrests as
new protests against Binyamin
Netanyahu’s handling of the virus
crisis, fears for the economy and
anger at the corruption charges he
faces threatened his leadership. A
demonstration at the prime
minister’s residence in Jerusalem
was broken up yesterday with
water cannon. Israel is seen to
have lifted its lockdown too early,
prompting more infections than at
the start of the crisis. Page 12Please note, some sections of The Times are available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland
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No 10 faces challenge over
rising cost of opinion polls
Eleni Courea, George Greenwood figure had already been exceeded. The
Cabinet Office had already spent
£525,000 with YouGov by May this
year, plus a further £250,000 with
Public First, according to transparency
releases. On top of this, a £705,000 con-
tract has been agreed with Kantar for
“social research services” between
April and October.
The polling is being conducted not
only on coronavirus but also on work
related to Brexit and other projects.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow Cabinet
Office minister, called on the govern-
ment to explain “why spending these
colossal sums on opinion polling is in
the public interest and what the full
purpose of this is”. “This Conservative
government once claimed to follow the
science during this crisis and we de-
serve to know if they’ve been chasing
the polling instead,” she said.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said:
“During this unprecedented pandemic
it has been vital that people follow
public health messages to save lives.
“To that end we have a comprehen-
sive programme of research to under-
stand public attitudes and behaviour.
This work has helped us to deliver com-
munications campaigns to support the
UK’s response.”towards recovery the government will
continue to support businesses as far as
possible, but it must also ensure that the
tax system raises sufficient revenue to
fund the services that have been
essential parts of the pandemic re-
sponse, as well as public services more
broadly.”
During the crisis Mr Sunak intro-
duced a one-year £10 billion business
rates holiday for the retail, hospitality
and leisure sectors. The Treasury said
this had led to a 40 per cent drop in
revenue from business rates.
In its proposal for an online sales tax,
the Treasury highlighted concerns that
the business rates system “imposes an
unreasonable burden on retail”.
However, the call for evidence also
noted that some retailers had warned
that an online sales tax “would simply
increase the costs for consumers of
regularly purchased items”.
The business rates system is based on
shop rental values, calculated every five
years and paid by tenants, rather than
landowners. It is viewed as outdated
because companies that need a pres-
ence in town centres pay higher rates
than online and out-of-town rivals.
Retail sales rose by 13.9 per cent last
month after shops reopened, fuelled by
a drive towards online shopping. This
has risen by a record level and now
accounts for £3 in every £10 spent.
Leading article, page 31The independent anti-slavery commis-
sioner has called for stricter rules on
businesses to stamp out the exploita-
tion of workers after it emerged that no
company had been censured for fail-
ings.
Dame Sara Thornton said that the
sanctions for failing to stop exploita-
tion, including low pay and poor condi-
tions, should be “toughened up”.
Her comments come after revela-
tions of mistreatment of workers in the
textile industry. Companies with an
annual turnover of more than £36 mil-
lion are required to produce an annual
statement outlining the steps they have
taken to deal with the risk of slavery and
ensure that there is no human traffick-
ing in their supply chain.
Dame Sara said that the only avail-
able sanction under section 54 of the
Modern Slavery Act was for the home
secretary to issue an injunction against
a company and force it to write a state-
ment. In the five years since the legis-
lation was introduced that had never
happened, she added.
Dame Sara said that while the sanc-
tion needed to be beefed up, theTighten business rules to stop
slavery, urges commissioner
Fiona Hamilton Crime Editor requirements for companies in writing
the statement were also “not tough
enough”. She said: “There is one thing
writing a statement, it’s a completely
separate issue about whether you’re do-
ing the right thing and behaving ethi-
cally. It’s possible to have a pretty com-
prehensive statement but does that re-
flect reality?”
She said that some big companies, in-
cluding John Lewis and Marks and
Spencer, took modern slavery seriously.
Others had produced statements one
page long which were not being proact-
ive, she said.
The Home Office carried out a con-
sultation on the legislation last year and
the results should be published soon.
Dame Sara said: “There are all sorts
of concerns that the requirements are
not tough enough. We definitely need
to toughen up the requirement of the
sanctions in section 54.”
She said that a series of initiatives was
being considered including the French
system in which non-governmental or-
ganisations and law firms could seek
remedy on behalf of workers, rather
than just the home secretary. Another
proposal by a group of MPs is that
retailers and brands should be madelegally accountable for human right
abuses in their supply chain.
Dame Sara said that there needed to
be more incentives in the system to en-
sure businesses did the right thing.
Her appeal comes after her office is-
sued a report last month saying that
some of Britain’s largest supermarkets
and companies were “paying lip service”
to slavery and must do more to stop
exploitation of the vulnerable. Dame
Sara said “no supply chain is safe from
modern slavery” and no one could af-
ford to be complacent about the threat.
The National Crime Agency is in-
vestigating allegations of slavery and
exploitation in Leicester’s textile indus-
try after Boohoo, the fast fashion giant,
was accused of profiting from unethical
practices in its supply chain.
The Times revealed this month that
workers were being offered as little as
£3 an hour to make clothes for the fash-
ion label Quiz. Both Boohoo and Quiz
said that they would not tolerate non-
compliance in the treatment of work-
ers. Quiz began an investigation after
being presented with evidence while
Boohoo said it had terminated links
with suppliers when evidence of mis-
treatment was found.continued from page 1
Online sales tax planbookings throughout late summer
means that there will be many more job
losses in the travel industry and more
businesses will go under. Many were on
a cliff edge, this will push them over.”
He added: “Travel companies put in
place a lot of flexible options to stimu-
late bookings and people are now
taking advantage to cancel. This is the
nail in the coffin for many firms. They
were relying on a late summer surge.”
Gemma Antrobus, head of the travel
agents’ arm of the Association of Inde-
pendent Tour Operators, said: “It feels
like the rug has been pulled from under
our feet. The fact such a drastic change
can happen to Spain, the UK’s most
popular destination, will really worry
people that it could happen to any des-
tination. It’s a huge blow and meanspeople will be put off committing to
going away. Others will be worried
about going in case the rules change.”
Arancha González Laya, the Spanish
foreign minister, said talks were being
held with Britain to exempt the Cana-
ries and Balearics from the quarantine
list. “Spain is safe for tourists and Span-
iards,” she said. “Like in any other Euro-
pean country we are seeing outbreaks;
the outbreaks are controlled.”
Charlie Cornish, the chief executive
of Manchester Airport Group, said:
“The government must develop a
system which enables people to enjoy
holidays in regions with low infection
rates, while retaining the flexibility to
restrict travel to areas with rising rates.”
Scramble to flee Spain, page 8
Leading article, page 31continued from page 1
Quarantine shadow on holidays