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A throng of clubbers stumbling out onto the streets of Soho is a common sight.
But the last six months have seen numbers dwindle. The eager few remain, but tonight’s 10pm curfew on bars, pubs and restaurants has been described as the final nail in the coffin for the hospitality sector in London.

The legendary party district of London is preparing to bear the brunt of the latest round of coronavirus restrictions. Businesses in Soho have survived the summer of uncertainty, but a curfew threatens to close some venues forever.

Image: The curfew means Jonathan Downey will have to shut his bar
Milk & Honey is the latest to go under. The venue has been open since 2002, a classy cocktail bar famed for shaping the speakeasy revival at the start of the millennium. But the pandemic has killed business.
The founder, Jonathan Downey, says the curfew has finished them off.

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Speaking to Sky News he says he’s at a loss of how to operate with what he sees as last-minute, ever-changing restrictions.

“We’ve got no choice, it’s impossible to continue.

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“We will lose 50% of our revenue, and we’re already operating at 60% of what we’d normally operate at, so because of COVID-19, our sales are 60% of what they normally are and because of this curfew they’ll drop to 30%.”
Mr Downey says whilst he’s come to terms with the bar closing, he feels for the staff.
“It’s devastating for me personally but I feel more for the people who work here. We used to have 15 people working here, we’ve now got six and they’ve all lost their jobs. It’s far worse for them.”
The prime minister hopes that the measures announced for England on Tuesday – including a 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants and the wider use of face coverings – will avoid the need for tougher interventions such as a second lockdown.

Image: James O’Donnell says there’s nothing more he can do to keep customers safe
But at the Bill Murray comedy club there’s now very little to smile about – staff there view the new curfew as a lockdown in all but name.
They’ve installed clear plastic screens and lowered capacity from 90 to 30. Despite this, they too will need to shut their doors at 10pm sharp. A sucker punch to the usual trading hours.
Co-founder James O’Donnell says there’s nothing more he can do to keep customers safe.
“A lot of bars will tell you that they sell most of their drinks between 10pm, till 1am, that’s when the money is really made.
“We’ve made the place COVID-19 secure, we’ve put up the screens, it’s safe going in and out, we’ve got the track and trace and now, there’s the sudden 10pm curfew as well.”
London’s night time economy is worth £26bn a year and trade bodies warn there could be 540,000 jobs at risk because of new rules such as closing early and table-only service.
A joint survey by the British Beer and Pub Association, UK Hospitality and the British Institute of Innkeeping revealed high levels of concern about the future of the pub and wider hospitality sector even before the new restrictions were announced by the prime minister.

Image: Taxi driver Howard Taylor believes the curfew will cut his business
Taxi driver Howard Taylor has been ferrying partygoers around for more than 30 years. Late nights and early mornings are best for business. But with England’s new curfew, revellers will be no more.
He says it’s a sad day for London: “It’ll be deserted. They’ll be tumbleweed rolling down Shaftesbury Avenue. There’ll be nobody around, there’s nowhere for them to go and they won’t come in.”
When crowds are the enemy, our social spaces have been forced to change to allow schools and workplaces to function.
For how long is anyone’s guess – so it’s a scramble for last orders – as tonight – it’ll be pints down and lights out at the stroke of 10.

Rishi Sunak is unveiling an emergency COVID rescue plan to protect jobs that is expected to include wage subsidies, VAT cuts and more cheap loans for struggling businesses.
In a dramatic move, the chancellor has ruled out an autumn budget and instead will launch a “Winter Economy Plan” after MPs and unions warned of the risk of a “tsunami” of job losses.

Live updates on coronavirus from UK and around the world

Sky News’ Ed Conway takes a closer look at the Chancellor’s schemes to support workers and the economy during the pandemic.

The aim is to help the economy cope with the new coronavirus restrictions announced by Boris Johnson this week, including a 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants and ordering office staff to work from home.
And as the government prepared to launch its NHS COVID-19 App, the latest figures showed 6,178 new cases of coronavirus in the UK, taking the overall number to 409,729.

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The centrepiece of the multi-billion-pound package is expected to be a scheme, modelled on one in Germany, in which taxpayers subsidise the wages of workers returning to work part time after being furloughed.

Other moves are likely to be extending a VAT cut to 5% for the lockdown-ravaged hospitality and tourism industries, which was introduced earlier this year, from next January until the end of March.

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And four loan schemes for hard-hit businesses are likely to be extended until the end of November, with the terms increased from six to 10 years to reduce monthly repayments.
The chancellor has taken the highly unusual step of not having his November Budget because “now is not the right time to outline long-term plans and people want to see us focused on the here and now”, it was revealed.

Aviation and retail worst hit in UK economy

A Treasury source told Sky News: “No-one wanted to be in this situation but we need to respond to it. The chancellor has shown he has been creative in the past and we hope that people will trust us to continue in that vein.
“Giving people reassurance and businesses the help they need to get through this is uppermost in his mind.”
According to the Treasury, the chancellor is promising a “flexible and adaptable approach to economic support, because people have needed the help and they’ve needed it quickly and at the right time”.
Allies said he would be “very honest with people” about the “difficult trade-offs” the government faces as it tries to deal with the twin challenges of rising infection rates and an economic slump.
“It is not about health versus the economy, but about the balance between keeping people in jobs and finding them new ones,” a source said.

Return of virus ‘not an act of God’

And the source added: “What remains true is that our priority is one word: jobs.”
Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds told Sky News that Labour has been “saying for a very long time that it’s critical we have a targeted system of wage support in place”.
Speaking to Kay Burley, she added: “I’ve called for that 40 times and 20 times the government has said they’re not willing to put that into place.
“Obviously, if the government has shifted, I’m pleased. It’s come very late, however.
“We’ve already seen a number of redundancies because of the one-size-fits-all withdrawal of the furlough scheme.”

‘We’ll get through this winter together’

Previewing the chancellor’s statement, the prime minister told MPs: “What we will do is continue to put our arms around the people of this country going through a very tough time and come up with the appropriate creative and imaginative schemes to keep them in work and keep the economy moving.”
That prompted the Labour MP Grahame Morris to demand a targeted expansion of a COVID job retention scheme and to tell Mr Johnson: “Make no mistake: a tsunami of job losses is in the pipeline within 38 days.”
Later, in a TV address responding to the PM’s broadcast 24 hours earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the government to come up with a “plan B” for the economy ahead of the furlough scheme for workers ending in October.
“It makes no sense to bring in new restrictions at the same time as phasing out support for jobs and businesses,” he said, as he warned of a “wave of job losses this winter”.
The shop workers’ union also warned of “a tsunami of job losses” and called for an online sales tax to save the high street.

Here’s how the government could make lockdown measures even tougher

“If we are going to save the high street, there needs to be radical and bold action to level the playing field between online retail and ‘bricks and mortar’ shops,” said general secretary Paddy Lillis.
“The time is long overdue for the government to look seriously at introducing some form of online sales tax.
“As a society we have a choice, do we want to see the high street go to the wall or do we want to save it.
“Retail is the cornerstone of our towns, cities and communities. It employs around three million people and needs urgent assistance to get the industry back on its feet.”

Bakery chain Greggs has insisted supplies of its sausage rolls will be unaffected after a coronavirus outbreak among factory staff.  
A “small number” of the 300 workers at the chain’s production hub north of Newcastle have tested positive for COVID-19 and bosses have moved to close down production.

The firm is now working with local public health teams to minimise the impact on the wider community.

Image: Supplies will still be able to reach stores, the chain says
A Greggs spokesperson said: “Following a small number of colleagues having tested positive for COVID-19 at our Balliol manufacturing facility, we have taken the decision to temporarily stop production as a precautionary measure to keep our teams as safe as possible.”
The firm told Sky News that even though production had been halted, they had a large reserve of frozen stock which would ensure supplies reach their 1,700 shops around the UK.

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“We do not foresee any stock shortages in our shops at this time” the spokesperson added.

Around two million people are currently under tighter coronavirus restrictions due to rising infection rates in Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and County Durham.
Elsewhere in the UK, several other food manufacturing plants have also been hit by coronavirus outbreaks in recent months, resulting in mass testing and deep cleans before production was allowed to resume.

This isn’t widely known but Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme was actually in some ways one of the fruits of Brexit.
Back before COVID-19, the Treasury had a number of options for policies to impose in the event of a catastrophic no-deal Brexit, one of which was to introduce something similar to a German system – the kurzarbeit.

Kurzarbeit dates back a century or so but really came of fame during the financial crisis when it helped shore up the German labour market even as many other countries faced massive increases in unemployment.
The principle is that if companies need to cut workers’ hours, the state will step in and help supplement their pay – hence the name, which roughly translates as “short-time working”.
Live updates on coronavirus from UK and around the world

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In the fraught days before Boris Johnson imposed his first lockdown, Treasury officials dusted off the plan, made some adaptations and so the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – or furlough to the rest of us – was born.

The UK furlough scheme actually went a fair bit further than kurzarbeit, with the state paying a bigger chunk of people’s salaries and insisting they stay at home in exchange (whereas the German scheme was more about topping up the wages of people working fewer hours).

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Either way, the furlough was born and the rest is history: 9.6 million jobs supported and 1.2 million businesses helped.
Around three million jobs are reckoned to be supported even now, as the scheme is run down and the generosity of those government payments drops.

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All told, it has been one of the most expensive economic interventions in British history, with a total cost of £39bn pounds and counting.
That is more than the monthly NHS budget, so you can probably see why the chancellor has repeatedly said he will phase it out.
But that comes at a tricky time.
The latest measures of economic activity suggest that while the economy bounced back quite sharply from the initial shock of the virus and lockdown, that rebound may be losing steam.
The latest purchasing manager’s index seems to indicate that much of the momentum stopped in September, perhaps after the end of the chancellor’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
Few parts of the economy have been left untouched by the events of the past six months but some have been more affected than others.

Aviation and retail worst hit in UK economy

Sky News’ analysis of job losses announced so far shows that aviation, retail and hospitality are the worst affected sectors.
Perhaps then it is no surprise that hospitality and aviation chiefs are among those calling for more targeted support in the coming months.
But what would that actually entail?
One option which looks likely is an extension of the business loans schemes which have lent more than £57bn so far.
They are currently due to come to an end this month.
But for some companies – especially those already with high leverage – that won’t be enough. They want an extension of the furlough scheme.
And while Mr Sunak does not want to bring back the full furlough scheme, he is considering returning to that original German model – a new kind of “kurzarbeit” or short work scheme for Britain.

‘Not right to endlessly extend furlough’

Something less generous than the furlough, perhaps, which tops up the wages of workers whose hours have been cut – rather than paying them for staying at home.
In one sense it would be a more generous version of the Job Retention Bonus unveiled in the Summer Statement in July.
Strikingly, both the CBI and TUC have backed ideas along these lines – a relative rarity for both businesses and unions to be in the same court – which would help support about 50% of workers’ wages.
The attraction for the chancellor is that this would keep people in the workplace and support jobs that are still viable – but be much less expensive than the furlough scheme.
However, it does not do much for those who cannot even work part time.
Live entertainment, nightclubs, events and such sectors are facing a lost year, where they simply cannot operate at all.
The worry is there will again be more people left behind during this second wave of the virus.

New coronavirus restrictions are “necessary” but were “not inevitable” and represent the government’s failure, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.
From Thursday, pubs, bars and restaurants will have to close at 10pm under a series of new COVID-19 measures set out by Boris Johnson.

In a Labour Party broadcast, used as a response to the prime minister’s TV address, Sir Keir offered his support for the government’s action but blamed ministers for the recent rise in coronavirus cases.

“While these restrictions are now necessary, they were not inevitable,” he said.
“The return of this virus, and the return of restrictions, are not an act of God; they’re a failure of government.

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“The British people have done everything asked of them, but I’m afraid the government has not.

“We’re a great country, we shouldn’t have one of the highest death rates in the world, or one of the worst recessions.

More from Boris Johnson

“It’s a national scandal that we still don’t have a testing system that works or a plan to protect our care homes.
“It shouldn’t be like this – people shouldn’t have to travel hundreds of miles to get a test for their child for themselves or for their relatives.
“And we should be able to give our older people the dignity, security and respect they deserve.”

Image: Sir Keir questioned Boris Johnson’s ‘character’ in dealing with the pandemic
Sir Keir called on the government to fix the problems with its testing programme “fast”.
And he urged ministers to come up with a “plan B” for the economy ahead of the furlough scheme for workers ending in October.
“It makes no sense to bring in new restrictions at the same time as phasing out support for jobs and businesses,” he added.
Sir Keir warned of a “wave of job losses this winter” as he reiterated his offer to work with the prime minister on a “national effort to protect jobs and prevent a second lockdown”.
“That offer remains open and my door is always open,” he said.

Image: Chancellor Rishi Sunak is under pressure to announce new economic support
On Thursday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to update the House of Commons on the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
But it is understood that Mr Sunak will not publish another budget this year, despite previous suggestions he was preparing another economic announcement for November.
Sir Keir had earlier explained, in an interview with Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, that Labour was supporting the government’s new coronavirus restrictions as “a matter of principle”.
“It’s very important that communications are clear, and they will only be clear if it’s done on a cross-party basis and we’re all saying, as they are, ‘follow the government advice’,” he said.

COVID testing programme ‘in chaos’ amid 185,000 swab backlog, leaked documents show

But he added that Labour’s support was accompanied by two concerns.
“One is that, just when we need testing to be really effective, it’s near collapse,” he said.
“The other is that, as the government is introducing new health restrictions, it’s phasing out economic support.
“Businesses, trade unions, the CBI, the governor of the Bank of England – you name it – they’re desperate to say to the prime minister ‘think again’.
“Because businesses now, as a result of these new restrictions, are going to be put under huge strain and you owe it to them to put a support mechanism in place.
“The government really should have done that yesterday, so it’s already slow into this.”

Starmer on PM’s new coronavirus restrictions

Despite Labour’s support for the coronavirus restrictions, Sir Keir questioned the prime minister’s “character” in dealing with the pandemic.
“It’s very rare, in all of our lives, that the whole nation is going through something together and they’re looking to the government – and the prime minister in particular – and they’re totally reliant,” he said.
“They want the government to succeed because, if the government fails, then it has an implication for every family on the health side, and every family on the job side.
“Character really matters at a time like this.”

Image: The PM introduced new COVID-19 restrictions on Tuesday
Asked if he personally disliked Mr Johnson, Sir Keir replied: “I’m frustrated that, just when our nation needs leadership, we’ve got serial incompetence and it really matters.”
He added: “The prime minister and the government, collectively, are guilty, in my view, of serial incompetence – there have been 12 U-turns.
“I’m quite prepared to accept that a government will make mistakes in a pandemic like this and one or two U-turns are probably a sign of a government listening and then changing.
“But when you’ve got 12 in a row, the only conclusion is serial incompetence.”

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Pressed on whether he thought Mr Johnson should resign as prime minister, Sir Keir replied: “He has not led us through this pandemic well.
“We’ve got one of the highest death rates in the world, and we’re heading – on current forecasts – for one of the deepest recessions.
“Our country is better than that, we deserve better than that.”

Lorry drivers exporting goods to Europe through Kent after the Brexit transition period ends will need to have a permit or face police action, a senior minister has told MPs.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said getting one will be a “relatively simple process”, adding the scheme is designed to avoid congestion in the county.

The UK will stop following the rules of the EU’s single market and customs union once the Brexit transition ends at the end of the year, moving instead to new customs rules.
“That system has been developed, it’s being shared with business and we want to make sure that people use a relatively simple process in order to get what will become known as a ‘Kent Access Permit’, which means that they can then proceed smoothly through Kent,” Mr Gove told the Commons.

Gove’s ‘worst case scenario’ for Brexit

Mr Gove’s answer came in response to a question from Ashford MP Damian Green, who asked for a guarantee that the Smart Freight system will be up and running by January.

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“The prospect of 7,000 trucks queuing to cross the Channel will send a chill through my constituents because we know what effect that has on all the roads in Kent and it’s disastrous,” he said, referring to a leaked “reasonable worst-case scenario” from the government that emerged earlier.

Under this scenario, between 30-50% of trucks crossing the Channel will not be ready for the new regulations coming into force on 1 January 2021, while a “lack of capacity to hold unready trucks at French ports” could reduce the flow of traffic across the strait to 60-80% of normal levels.

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According to a government consultation launched last month, KAPs would be required for hauliers driving to the Port of Dover or Eurotunnel in Folkestone.
It is part of Operation Brock contingency planning for possible disruption to cross-Channel trade.

Why trucks have stalled Brexit trade progress

KAPs would be issued to drivers who have been given a green or amber result from the online Smart Freight system and be valid for 24 hours to cover a single trip.
This is being developed by ministers to try and make sure goods are ready to cross the border before journeys begin.
Drivers who are found travelling to Dover or Folkestone without a KAP face being given a £300 fine by the police or the Vehicle Standards Agency.
Trade association Logistics UK warned last month that the move will create “more red tape for businesses”.
“Our members are dismayed that the onus for compliance will be placed on drivers themselves, leaving them personally liable for a fine if they do not comply with the new rules,” policy manager Chris Yarsley said.
“The current proposals create an internal UK border by introducing Kent Access Permits, adding more red tape to the work which hauliers will be obliged to comply with.”

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Mr Gove also told MPs that “many” businesses have not taken all the steps necessary to prepare for the end of the transition period.
He said that just one in four firms think they are “fully ready” for the UK’s post-Brexit arrangements to kick in.
The Cabinet Office minister said businesses are becoming more prepared but there are “still many” who have “not quite taken the steps they need to”.
Labour’s Rachel Reeves hit back, with the shadow Cabinet Office minister telling the Commons: “It is all well and good to tell businesses to act now.
“But without the systems in place, frankly it’s like telling me to bake a cake but forgetting to turn the oven on.”
A government spokesperson said: “We are prioritising the smooth movement of outbound HGVs over 7.5 tonnes through Kent to prevent unnecessary queues at the border.
“HGV drivers, or those acting on their behalf, will be able to follow a simple process to get a ‘Kent Access Permit’ using the newly developed Smart Freight webservice.
“We have been engaging with industry on this for some time and we will set out more detail on this shortly.”

This is a critical time for the UK’s nuclear energy industry.
The construction of the UK’s first new nuclear power station for a generation, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, is well advanced and EDF Energy, the French-owned energy giant building the plant, is keen to pick up the pace on its next big infrastructure project.

Sizewell C, in Suffolk, is envisaged as a replica project to Hinkley Point C.

Image: Construction is under way at Hinkley Point C
EDF Energy says that the two, once operational, will provide low carbon electricity to meet 14% of UK demand and power around 12 million homes.
But the future of new nuclear build in the UK has again been thrown into doubt by last week’s decision by Hitachi, the Japanese company, to abandon the Horizon project – which would have seen new nuclear power stations built at Wylfa Newydd on Anglesey and at Oldbury on Severn in south Gloucestershire.

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Meanwhile, a cash-strapped government is unlikely to want to provide the financial support that its predecessors have given Hinkley Point C, under which EDF Energy was guaranteed a minimum price of £92.50 per megawatt hour (MWh), inflation-linked, for 35 years.

Under the contract, signed by David Cameron’s government, the government pays the difference between the wholesale energy price and the price it has guaranteed EDF Energy.

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The current wholesale electricity price is around £43 per MWh.
It was the cost of this guarantee which has made ministers wary of funding new nuclear build in the same way as Hinkley Point C and, ultimately, is why Hitachi decided to walk away.

Image: The contract for Hinkley Point C was signed by David Cameron’s government
The National Infrastructure Commission has urged the UK to spend more on power generation from renewable energy – the cost of which has plunged.
But Simone Rossi, chief executive of EDF Energy, insisted today that it was still crucial to press ahead with the construction of Sizewell C.
Speaking to Sky News from Hinkley Point, Mr Rossi said that the falling cost of renewables was “great news” but said it was important nuclear remained part of the energy mix, because it provided an unbroken supply of energy for times when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.
He added: “You don’t want to have all your eggs in the same basket.”
Mr Rossi said that Sizewell C would be cheaper to finance than Hinkley Point C and, because it was already designed and would benefit from the experience and the supply chain that had been established to build Hinkley Point C, would be cheaper to build.
He went on: “We cannot miss this opportunity because Sizewell C can create another 25,000 jobs in construction, engineering, manufacturing.”
The unions are enthusiastic about the project and, in particular, the skills for life with which it would equip young workers in East Anglia.
EDF Energy last week raised the number of apprentices it is aiming to employ at the plant from 1,000 to 1,500.

‘Role of new nuclear is uncertain’

The big question is how Sizewell C is financed.
It is hard to see how it happens without some form of government support and ministers are expected to set out a financing framework in the Energy White Paper due to be published before the end of the year.
Mr Rossi said the “really disappointing” cancellation of Horizon “underlines the importance for government to put in place an investable framework for new nuclear”.
He is campaigning hard on the jobs that would be created should Sizewell C get the go-ahead and how the project fits into Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ agenda to support less prosperous regions across the UK.
As an example, Mr Rossi pointed out that much of the steel being used in Hinkley Point C has been sourced from Wales, whose steel industry is fighting for its life.
He said that, in addition, one in five of the workers employed at Hinkley Point C were Welsh.
The company’s figures suggest the construction of Hinkley Point C has seen £1.7bn spent with more than 1,100 companies across the West Country, while spending on contracts with businesses across the Midlands and the North of England had hit almost £1.1bn, taking in around 2,500 companies across the supply chain.
Another question raised over Sizewell C is the involvement of CGN, the Chinese state-owned nuclear energy company, particularly given the recent controversy surrounding Huawei’s involvement in the building of the UK’s 5G mobile network.

Chinese firms in the UK face increased scrutiny

CGN owns 20% of the project and, as such, is committed to making a big financial contribution to a project expected to cost £18bn.
Mr Rossi said CGN was already making a valuable contribution to the success of Hinkley Point C and was committed to participating in the development of Sizewell C.
He added: “When it comes to the final investment decision, it will be up to the government to determine how they want to move forward with which kind of investors – and we are ready to work with the government to implement that.”
Some may also be sceptical about the time taken to build these enormous pieces of infrastructure.
Hinkley Point C was originally due to be up and running by the end of 2017 but after numerous delays – and a sharp increase in the predicted cost of completing the plant – the target is now 2025.
There has also been a row with National Grid about the cost of connecting the new reactor to the UK’s power network.
Asked whether Hinkley Point C would be operational by 2025, Mr Rossi replied: “That is our target, but we need to be humble.
“These are massive projects and this year was particularly challenging with the coronavirus crisis.

Is Hinkley Point C value for money?

“When lockdown hit, we had to slow down activity, we put the health of our employees and the communities around the site first.
“We had to make the site safe.
“It is now safe, so we are delivering our milestones and are happy about where we are, but we need to remain prudent about the future.”
It will be a tricky decision for the government.

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On the one hand, nuclear represents a great opportunity to accelerate the UK’s move to zero carbon, as well as creating well-paid jobs and skills for the future.
On the other, ministers may well be wary of CGN’s involvement, while above all they will be wanting to involve saddling taxpayers with a heavy bill along the lines of Hinkley Point C.
So – a critical time for the UK’s nuclear energy industry.
Although, in fairness, that could have been said at any point during the last couple of decades.

The British government is launching a new telecoms diversity task force to find a supplier capable of filling the void left by a ban on Huawei’s equipment within the UK’s 5G infrastructure.
Mobile networks in the UK will be banned from purchasing 5G kit from Huawei from the end of this year, leaving only two large-scale suppliers active in the British market: Ericsson and Nokia.

Although the ban took place on security grounds, according to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) the dependence on just two suppliers also introduces a significant risk for the long-term security of UK networks.

Huawei: The company and the security risks explained

The security provided by a more diverse marketplace was the main reason NCSC gave for initially assessing that Britain’s 5G networks were safer for including Huawei equipment as well as that manufactured by Ericsson and Nokia.
However, following a decision by the White House to ban American companies from providing computer chips to Huawei – potentially pushing it to adopt chips produced by less trusted manufacturers – the NCSC was forced to upgrade the risk posed by Huawei equipment.

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The US sanctions were criticised as “arbitrary and pernicious” by Huawei, which has confirmed that 40% of the roles within its enterprise business group in the UK are being made redundant as a result.

On Wednesday the government said it planned to publish a telecoms diversification strategy later this year “to address a market failure where mobile companies are limited to using just three major suppliers in their telecoms networks”.

More from Huawei

“This restricts choice and poses a risk for the security and resilience of the UK’s future digital networks,” the statement added.
It comes ahead of the government introducing a Telecoms Security Bill this autumn, around the same time as which the government will also be publishing its telecoms diversity strategy.
The bill will make the prohibition on purchasing new Huawei equipment from the end of this year, and the requirement to remove all existing Huawei equipment from 5G networks by 2027, a legal obligation.

‘We convinced many countries not to use Huawei’

A task force to develop and implement the strategy will be led by Lord Livingston of Parkhead, a Conservative peer and the former chief executive of BT Group, who will be joined by senior executives within the telecoms sector to ensure that the government is listening to the industry’s needs.
Lord Livingston said: “It is vital that we position ourselves for the next generation of technology, particularly 5G, by having a wide choice of secure, innovative and high quality suppliers.
“I look forward to chairing this team of experts from industry and academia who can provide advice to government as to how it can best achieve these aims,” Lord Livingston added.
Although the digital secretary Oliver Dowden described the task force’s role as to “break through the barriers stopping suppliers from entering the UK,” there are currently no obvious third companies who could replace Huawei.
NCSC already requires that mobile operators use at least two vendors to provide the radio antennas in their network, meaning from the end of this year the UK mobile companies will effectively be required to purchase Nokia and Ericsson equipment.
Part of the task force’s work will be to enable other companies who provide Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment, such as Samsung, to be interoperable with the core equipment used in the core of the 5G infrastructure.
Speaking to Sky News, Matt Warman MP, who has the infrastructure portfolio under the Digital Secretary, said he did not expect that the key cause of the UK’s change in approach – the US decision to restrict Huawei’s computer chips – would be reversed.
“The most important thing to say is that we’ve taken the right decision for this country,” Mr Warman said.
“If I look across the Atlantic, actually this is an issue where – while the language might be different – there is considerable bipartisan support that is in line with the decision we’re taking,” he added.

The outgoing chief executive of Tesco has used an interview with Sky News to plead for customers to shop normally as coronavirus restrictions are ramped up.
Dave Lewis told Ian King Live that stockpiling was “unnecessary” as there was no disruption in supply chains as a result of the new measures, which fall short of a full lockdown to tackle rising COVID-19 infection rates

Supermarket shelves were overwhelmed in early March as households stocked up on essentials – with toilet rolls among the items rammed into trolleys as a siege mentality set in ahead of the stay at home order.

Image: Empty shelves for household essentials were common in the run-up to the national lockdown in March
Tesco and its rivals were forced to implement purchase limits on a range of products which were slowly lifted as stocks recovered.
“The message would be one of reassurance. I think the UK saw how well the food industry managed last time, so there’s very good supplies of food,” Mr Lewis said.

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“We just don’t want to see a return to unnecessary panic buying because that creates a tension in the supply chain that’s not necessary.

“And therefore we would just encourage customers to continue to buy as normal,” he concluded.

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Mr Lewis, who is due to step down at the end of the month after six years in charge, said he did expect to see some limited precautionary purchasing initially but signalled it would be nothing on the scale of the scenes witnessed in March.
The grocery sector has been forced to invest heavily in its online delivery operations to meet demand as it was one of a handful of core services to remain fully open during the dark days of the lockdown.

Where jobs have been lost in the UK economy

Tesco – the country’s dominant supermarket chain by market share – announced last month that it was creating 16,000 permanent roles to bolster its delivery capabilities.
Online sales now account for 16% of its grocery business.
Tesco said then it was serving 1.5 million customers a week online, up from around 600,000 at the start of the outbreak.

Tesla’s share value dropped by $50bn (£39bn) last night as investors reacted to speeches by Elon Musk and other company executives at the company’s battery day event.
The astronomical figure – in the range of the UK’s annual spending on defence (£38bn) – is more a mark of how much the company has grown over the past year than it is the billionaire chief executive’s celebrity status.

Last September, all of Tesla’s shares were worth around $39bn, but even after last night’s drop the company remains valued at around $390bn – a 1,000% increase in 12 months.

Image: Tesla’a shares have increased by roughly 1,000% in a year
Tesla overtook Toyota to become the world’s most valuable car company earlier this year, despite the Japanese company manufacturing and producing more vehicles.
Its shares closed 5.6% lower and fell another 6.9% in after hours trading on Tuesday as investors, who expected the company to announce a significant milestone in reducing the price of an electric vehicle, were left disappointed.

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Musk and Tesla’s other executives instead gave presentations on the company’s new battery technologies and manufacturing strategies, but their outlook was cautious – explaining that the new developments wouldn’t be ready for a number of years.

“In three years… we can do a $25,000 car that will be basically on par [with], maybe slight better than a comparable gasoline car,” Musk told an online audience of more than 270,000.

More from Elon Musk

Manufacturing an affordable electric car “has always been our dream from the beginning of the company,” Musk added – but the only new vehicle announced was far outside of this range.
Deliveries of the new Model S Plaid, a 520-mile sedan with a top speed of 200 miles per hour (320km), will start in 2021 and is listed on Tesla’s website for nearly $140,000 (£117,00).
Even further into the future – about three years away – Musk said the company was developing a new generation of batteries which will be more powerful, longer lasting and half the price of the ones it currently produces.
Battery development is the key focus for investors, but the company failed to excite everyone.
“Nothing Musk discussed about batteries is a done deal. There was nothing tangible,” Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin told Reuters.