Testing falls below 100,000-a-day target for third day in a row as UK deaths rise by 693 and trial begins for new contact-tracing app
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5.57pm BST
Michael Gove has hinted that the UK would be prepared to abandon its goal of getting zero-tariff, zero-quotas trade deal with the EU if it did not relent on its demand for a level playing field.
Speaking to the House of Lords EU committee, the Cabinet Office minister said it might be a way of showing the EU how serious the UK was. He explained:
It is a ‘for instance’ of an area where we would say, okay, we’re prepared to modify our ‘ask’ because of the importance that we maintain over regulatory autonomy. It may be that the EU doesn’t resolve that in ways that would be helpful, but it is one of the ways in which we would be prepared to show leg.
Were it the case that the EU were to say, ‘you know what, we don’t think we can give you that unless you sign up to all our level playing field arrangements’, so we said ‘okay, we’re not signing up for those LPF arrangements, we will have non-regression clauses and agreements, so you can be sure about our standards’. But, if it is the case that we ended up like CETA [the EU-Canada trade deal] with tariffs on a small number of goods, we will regret that, we will think it is a missed opportunity, but if that is the price that we have to pay, then, there we go.
5.47pm BST
Here is a clip of the moment Matt Hancock, the health secretary, criticised the ‘tone’ of Labour shadow minister and A&E doctor Rosena Allin-Khan after she said the government’s lack of testing had cost lives. She also said the figures were being manipulated to achieve a goal of 100,000 tests a day.
I will respectfully challenge the Government – I want our country to succeed.
However, I will not ‘watch my tone’ when dozens of NHS and care staff are dying unnecessarily.
A clip of my Q to the Health Sec today. pic.twitter.com/5jjQRXyIm3
