778 Coronavirus related deaths were record by the NHS today. This brings the total of recorded deaths to 12,107. One in four recorded deaths are now linked to Coronavirus. 

The Office for Budgetary Responsibility reported that the UK economy faces a 35 per cent plunge in output in the second quarter of 2020 if a lockdown to fight the spread of coronavirus remains in place for three months. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak started his evening briefing by acknowledging the findings of the report but insisted that the government had made the right decision to impose a lockdown. 

The Labour Party has been beset by a scandal after their submission to the ECHR enquiry on anti-Semitism within the party revealed that factionalism prevented Labour from dealing with the problem. 

Today saw the opening of the new 4,000 bed hospital in the ExCel centre in London, the first of the government’s emergency field hospitals built to treat Coronavirus in the City. The hospital was opened in nine days and has so far been fitted with 500 beds. 

The death toll increased again today up to 684 in the past 24 hours. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who continues to give the daily briefing in place of the Prime Minister, stood by the government’s commitment to increase testing to 100,000 by the end of this month. The government was again challenged on the lack of widespread and affective antibody tests, after promising 2.4 million working tests within days on 25^th March. In his briefing the Health Secretary stated that the government is still looking for an effective antibody test. 

It was Jeremy Corbyn last day as leader of the Labour Party today, in his email to Party members he described his time as leader as having been an “honour”. 

Gyula Péter [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Key findings of the report include:

• A Positive ‘Referendum Effect’ Fails to Materialise. There has been no positive ‘referendum effect’ on public attitudes after the June 2016 EU vote, of the kind witnessed after the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. Claimed interest in (53%) and knowledge (49%) of politics have declined (by four and six percentage points respectively) compared to last year. Satisfaction with the system of governing Britain has barely changed and remains low at 31%.
• Changes in Political Behaviour? Although the public’s attitudes are proving hard to shift, there are some positive signs of change in political behaviour. After the high turnout in the EU referendum, people’s certainty to vote remains at a high watermark. There are also signs of some improvements in public engagement with Parliament. Just over half the public say they have engaged with Parliament in some way in the previous 12 months – a 10-point increase on last year.
• Perceptions of Parliament. The public clearly value Parliament, with a substantial majority (73%) believing it is essential to democracy. However, overall satisfaction with the way Parliament works (30%) is now six points lower than when the first Audit was published in 2004. Claimed knowledge of Parliament has declined by seven points from last year to 45%, but remains higher than at the same stage of the political cycle after the 2005 and 2010 elections. In relation to its core functions, the public think Parliament could do a better job of scrutinising the use of public money, representing ordinary people’s interests, and encouraging public involvement in politics.
• The EU Referendum Support for more referendums has declined by 15 points. But a clear majority of British people (61%) still think referendums should be used more often for determining important questions. Eighty-eight percent of UKIP supporters support the use of more referendums compared to just 42% of Lib Dems who say the same, while the views of Labour and Conservative supporters are broadly identical (59%).  On top of this, just 43% claim to feel knowledgeable about the EU, a rise of just five points since last year’s study.

To read the report in full click here. To find out more about The Hansard Society, their work and publications visit www.hansardsociety.org.uk

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Young Disabled People are holding a meeting on Wed 19th April at 14:30 in the Attlee Suite.

Guest speakers at this meeting will include:

• Susan Louwerse, Head of Guest Services at intu, who run over a dozen shopping centres across the UK
• Chris Fry, solicitor at Unity Law, who represents disabled people who have experience discrimination
• Mei-Yee Man Oram, co-lead of the Accessible Environments Team at Arup, an independent company providing services on the built environment
• Joanne Connah, Development Officer at Changing Places/Mencap, who campaign for accessible toilets for disabled people

For further information and queries please contact [email protected]

Please note that links to the old Parliamentary intranet have been removed as of October 2023. Please use search on ParliNet to find relevant current details, if available.

https://parlinet.parliament.uk/house-of-commons-members-staff/

The new Health e-Hub app has launched, providing a dedicated resource to support your personal health and wellbeing.

Key support features available from Health e-Hub include:

• Personal and work life advice and support
• Physical and emotional health support
• Medical information and guidance
• Support videos and webinars on-demand
• Mini health and wellbeing checks
• Four week wellbeing challenges.

The Health e-Hub app is available for free download in the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.

See the full story here.