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UK coronavirus live: Treasury opposing bid to use private hospitals to tackle NHS backlog

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By PressNewsAgency
UK coronavirus live: Treasury opposing bid to use private hospitals to tackle NHS backlog










On top of the agenda for Raab’s discussions with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, ahead of his visit to London today will be how to save summer.

The British government continues to be cautious with the foreign secretary warning there is a risk of legal challenges if the UK tries to form travel bridges with particular countries to the exclusion of others.

Raab told BBC Breakfast: “What we are going to look at is how (international travel) can be done safely and responsibly.

“Of course there is a risk of legal challenge if you open up for one country and not others so we want to make sure we can open up – and this is our starting point – as soon as we can safely and responsibly do so.”

He added: “If you open up the airports and don’t open up the Eurotunnel or if you open up to one country but not in relation to others there is always a risk of legal challenge.

Raab said public health had to be “front and centre” of decision making and that the UK needed to avoid “reinfection by the back door”.

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Bit more from Dominic Raab this morning – the foreign secretary has accused Russia and other states of trying to exploit the challenges created by the coronavirus crisis.

Asked if Russia had intervened in the coronavirus response in the UK, he said: “I don’t think they’ve made a material difference to our response in health terms but certainly Russia and other countries and indeed non-state actors see the challenges that Covid has created and are trying to exploit it.

“And we’re making sure we have got the resilience, the defence and the capabilities to prevent them from doing so.”

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If you have any tips or stories or anything you think we should be covering on the blog could you please email on nazia.parveen@theguardian.com or follow me on Twitter and message me at https://twitter.com/NParveenG










Treasury officials opposing bid to use private hospitals to clear NHS backlog

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Nazia Parveen

Morning and welcome to the Guardian’s UK coronavirus live feed, bringing you the latest information and updates on the health pandemic.

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said the government wants to “open up” the UK when it “safely and responsibly” can, ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to London.

The prime minister, Boris Johnson, is expected to raise the coronavirus quarantine with the French president during bilateral talks on Thursday.

Raab told Sky News: “We’re going to look at it very carefully. As we’ve always said, the quarantine is there to stop the risk of reinfection precisely because we’ve got Covid down.”

Asked why it was in place when UK infection rates were higher than France, he said: “It’s not quite as simple as that though because we’ve seen in Europe and in Asia that as countries come out of lockdown the risk of second waves and second spikes.

“But we will look at all the factors very carefully. We want to open up as soon as we safely and responsibly can and we will look at all the mechanisms to do so and of course we’ll have a good conversation with the French.

“I’ll be in Berlin tomorrow so we’re talking to all of our European partners about these things.”

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