2 2GM Friday July 31 2020 | the times
News
January 3 and May 29, England had 7.
per cent more deaths than the five-year
average. Spain was in second place with
6.65 per cent and Scotland in third with
5.11 per cent. Wales was fifth and
Northern Ireland was eighth.
Under present rules two households
are allowed to meet indoors as long as
they observe social distancing.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater
Manchester, said that he agreed with
the new measures. “There has been a
marked change in the picture with re-
gard to the spread of Covid-19. We have
gone from a falling rate of cases in nearly
all of our boroughs last week to a rising
rate in nine out of ten affecting commu-
nities across a much wider geography. In
Rochdale, the one borough where cases
have fallen, they are still too high.
“We have always said that we will
remain vigilant and be ready to respond
quickly should the need arise. In line
with that approach, I have agreed with
the health secretary that it is right to act
on the precautionary principle and in-
troduce modest measures now to bring
down the rate of new infections.”
Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham and
the shadow transport minister, said
that there needed to be more clarity
over what the government was doing to
support those areas. He tweeted: “On
the face of it, for Oldham residents this
is the same restriction announced
already this week, replicated in further
areas. As well as publishing a list, I’m
sure all of us would welcome the gov-
ernment adding what more they will do
to support us, jobs and our economy.”
Reports, pages 8-COMMENT 23
LETTERS 26
LEADING ARTICLES 27WORLD 28
BUSINESS 33
REGISTER 49Global
confirmed casesUK confirmed
casesPlease note, some sections of The Times are available only in the United Kingdom and Ireland
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CORONAVIRUS SUMMARY
WEATHER 56
CROSSWORD 68
TV & RADIO TIMESFight against lockdown
A businessman leading the fight
against lockdown has launched an
appeal after being denied
permission to seek a judicial
review over the regulations. Simon
Dolan, an aviation and
accountancy entrepreneur said his
movement gives its supporters
something to live for. “I get
hundreds of messages a day,” he
said. “I’ve had 30 or 40 people
write to me to say, ‘Without you I
don’t know what I would’ve done.’ ”
If he can appeal he says he will
invest as much as half a million
pounds fighting the case. Page 8Musk ‘is outrageous’
The philanthropist and former
Microsoft chief Bill Gates has
taken his fellow tech billionaire
Elon Musk to task over
controversial statements he has
made about coronavirus. Musk,
the founder of Tesla, has doubted
the severity of the pandemic,
claimed that children are immune
and called lockdown orders facist.
Mr Gates said Mr Musk’s “position
is to maintain a high level of
outrageous comments”, adding:
“He makes a great electric car... I
hope that he doesn’t confuse areas
he’s not too involved in.” Page 916,812,755 662,
302,301 45,
Staycations ruined
Families who have rented cottages
for staycations are having their
holidays cancelled by owners.
Holidaymakers who booked using
Cottages.com have received emails
telling them that the houses and
apartments they had reserved
were no longer available. Many
had already paid and were days
from checking in. A spokesman
said: “Some [proprietors] are
choosing the use the property
themselves.” It added that some
stays were being cancelled because
of technical errors. Page 11More pain for Spain
Spain has recorded its highest
daily number of new infections
since the start of May, raising
concern over the government’s
ability to control the virus. The
majority of new cases are in
Catalonia and Aragon, with
Madrid also rising. The increase
has happened despite preventative
measures. Mask wearing is
compulsory in indoor and
outdoor public spaces in most
of the country. Page 12Regional test and trace
Councils are launching their own
track-and-trace systems as concern
mounts that too many cases are
missed by the national scheme.
Sandwell, in the West Midlands, is
among local authorities taking
action. Lisa McNally, the area’s
director of public health, told Sky
News: “I wouldn’t quite go as far as
to say we’ve given up on Test and
Trace, but we’re not happy with
just allowing them to do their job
any more. I don’t see the urgency
to fix this; I don’t see them
running around in a panic.” Page 10Britons seek an escape
Interest in migrating to New
Zealand has risen by 40 per cent
in Britain and by 160 per cent in
the United States. New Zealand
succeeded in eliminating
community transmission of
Covid-19 with a strict lockdown
from March to May. There has not
been a single local transmission
there for 90 days. Its success has
generated a surge in activity on its
immigration website, visited by
46,800 Britons last month. Page 13Global deaths
UK deaths
COMMENT
If Covid-compliant love scenes mean the return
of subtlety to our screens, would that be so bad?
RICHARD MORRISON, TIMES2, PAGE 6
House price warning
House prices could fall by between
3.7 and 9.5 per cent this year,
according to modelling by Lloyds.
The bank, which is Britain’s
biggest home-loan lender, said
that it had granted 472,
mortgage payment holidays
during the coronavirus crisis. It
also expects GDP to decline by
10 per cent and forecasts that the
unemployment rate will rise to
7.2 per cent. Commercial property
prices could fall by a third. Page 34Travel agent closures
Tui, the UK’s biggest tour
operator, will close almost a third
of its high street shops in Britain
and Ireland. It plans to close 166
outlets as it faces the “greatest
crisis” in the industry’s history and
customers turn increasingly to
online bookings. It is thought that
up to 250 jobs will be lost. In May
the company said that it planned
to cut about 8,000 jobs globally as
it sought to reduce overheads by
30 per cent. Page 11China will stop recognising British
National Overseas passports as valid
travel documents, its ambassador to
London said, potentially trapping up to
three million people in Hong Kong.
Liu Xiaoming accused Britain of
breaking the terms of the handover
agreement with Beijing by offering
residents eligible for the BNO passport
five-year visas and a route to British
citizenship. “Since the UK violated the
pledge and commitment on BNO, weChina passport veto over ‘poisoned relations’
have to take other measures not to
recognise the BNO as a valid travel
document,” he said.
Britain’s offer was extended after Bei-
jing imposed a new national security
law in the territory that Boris Johnson
said effectively terminated the “one
country, two systems” agreement made
when the former colony was returned.
About 350,000 Hongkongers hold a
BNO passport, though about three mil-
lion are entitled to apply for one.
He insisted that the move was not a
threat, castigating the British press for
reporting his warnings of “consequen-
ces” for the ban on Huawei’s participa-tion in the 5G network as well as for the
decision offering citizenship.
“We make no threats. We threaten no
one,” he said. “We just let you know the
consequences.” He also warned that
the rows over Huawei and Hong Kong
had “seriously poisoned the atmos-
phere” of China-UK relations. Mr Liu’s
warnings came as poll authorities in
Hong Kong disqualified of 12 pro-
democracy candidates from running in
elections scheduled for September 6.
Lord Patten of Barnes, the last
governor of Hong Kong, called the dis-
qualifications “an outrageous political
purge of Hong Kong’s democrats”.Catherine Philp
Diplomatic Correspondent
Didi Tang BeijingRuth Davidson is poised to take centre
stage for the Scottish Conservatives
again after Jackson Carlaw was forced
out as party leader.
Less than six months since he took
charge Mr Carlaw, 61, said in a state-
ment that he had reached the “simple if
painful conclusion” that he was not the
best person to guide the Tories through
the coronavirus crisis and into the
Holyrood election next May.
It is understood that he was pres-
sured to quit by senior figures in the
Scottish party who are backing Doug-
las Ross, 37, the former Scotland Office
minister, to be his replacement. Mr
Ross left the government in May over
Dominic Cummings’s 260-mile drive to
Durham during the lockdown.
Ms Davidson, 41, who stood down
from the role last August, will stand in
for him at first minister’s questions until
he is elected as an MSP. The move does
not alter her plans to leave the ScottishScottish Tory leader ousted to
make way for Cummings critic
Kieran Andrews Scottish Political Editor parliament in March. She is expected to
be given a peerage.
Mr Ross, the MP for Moray, will stand
on the Highlands and Islands regional
list for Holyrood if he becomes leader.
Last night Ms Davidson was making
phone calls to lobby for Mr Ross. His
campaign will be run by John Lamont,
Ms Davidson’s former chief whip at
Holyrood who is now the MP for Ber-
wickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk.
“Jackson Carlaw has served @Scot-
Tories at almost every level for over 40
years,” Ms Davidson tweeted. “I can’t
thank him enough for the eight years
we served together as my deputy and
you see the class of the man in his resig-
nation this evening.”
There has been grumbling about Mr
Carlaw for months, with elected mem-
bers privately questioning his perform-
ance as leader and grassroots activists
writing letters of complaint to the Scot-
tish Tory headquarters in Edinburgh.
Some 48 per cent of the Scottish elect-
orate do not know who Mr Carlaw is,according to polling by YouGov. Ten
per cent of voters felt favourably to-
wards him, compared with 42 per cent
who did not, giving him a net favour-
ability rating of minus 32.
By contrast, 25 per cent of Scots were
unaware of Rishi Sunak, the chancellor,
Matt Hancock, the health secretary,
and Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader.
The only politician with less presence
than Mr Carlaw was Richard Leonard,
the Scottish Labour leader, who is un-
known by 56 per cent of voters despite
having been in post for more than two
years.
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of
Scotland, returned a net favourability
rating of 36; Boris Johnson’s was minus- YouGov polled 1,134 adults in Scot-
land from July 28 to yesterday.
Mr Carlaw, the MSP for Eastwood,
said: “I simply believe that a new leader
will be able, as we recover from the
Covid emergency, to make the case for
the Scottish Conservatives and the
Union better than me.”
continued from page 1
Rules tightened in North Behind the story
M
any of
the areas
affected
by the
new
measures have
recorded rising
infections only in the
past fortnight.
Cases in Greater
Manchester had been
falling almost across
the board last week
but now nine in ten
boroughs report rises.
Rochdale, the only
place in the area
where cases had
fallen, was previously
cited as a hotspot and
cases are still among
the region’s highest.
However, questions
were being asked as
to why all of Greater
Manchester had to
adopt the same
advice. William
Wragg, MP for Hazel
Grove, said: “Greater
Manchester is not one
homogeneous area. I
will update
constituents as soon
as I am given further
information.”
Graham Brady, the
MP for Altrincham &
Sale West, agreed,
pointing out thatinfections in Trafford
were still low.
Meanwhile, there
was widespread
confusion even
among MPs, about
what the guidance
actually meant.
Lucy Powell, MP for
Central Manchester,
tweeted that her
social media feed and
inbox was “full of
questions which I
can’t answer”.
Another local MP,
Jonathan Reynolds,
said: “I have to say a
few tweets from a
minister late at night
is not the way to
announce something
as significant as this.”
Many residents had
taken the advice to
understand that they
could not go to pubs
or restaurants.
However, Andy
Burnham, the mayor
of Manchester, said
that people could still
go to pubs with their
support bubbles
despite not being
allowed to meet
friends in private
gardens.
In many of the
worst-affected areas,local measures had
already been
introduced, including
Blackburn with
Darwen, Rochdale
and Oldham. These
included limits on
meeting people from
other households,
vulnerable residents
instructed to continue
shielding, limitations
on care home visits
and rules on masks in
indoor spaces.
Oldham had one of
the largest rises, with
cases quadrupling in
the past week to a
rate of 53.1. Katrina
Stephens, director of
public health for
Oldham, said this
week: “It’s household
transmission that
seems to be the
particular risk for us
at the moment.
“We know what our
leisure centres, places
of worship and
businesses are doing.
Many have taken
really good steps to
help keep people safe.
But we know people
within the home, for
instance, don’t have
two-metre markings
on the floor.”