The first plane carrying 150 'critically important' Romanian fruit and vegetable pickers landed at Stansted this afternoon. The...
The first plane carrying 150 'critically important' Romanian fruit and vegetable pickers landed at Stansted this afternoon.
The young Romanians, a mix of men and women and all wearing face masks and gloves, filed out of the near empty airport in groups of five to comply with social distancing rules.
They were then transported by buses to a 7,000 hectare super farm in East Anglia ahead of the start of the picking season on Monday.
The Romanians are joining the fight to save the UK's harvest with the British 'land army', which was created to prevent crops being left rotting in fields.
The Country Land & Business Association has said more than 30,000 people have signed up as volunteers, but that 80,000 workers are needed to ensure fruit and vegetables are picked on time, ready to feed the nation.
Workers from Romania arrive at Stansted airport in Essex this afternoon to be greeted by masked armed police and masked officials before boarding coaches to a large farm in East Anglia
Fruit pickers from Romania walk through a deserted Stansted airport this afternoon
Young Romanian workers step out of Stansted and get ready to be taken to a farm in East Anglia
A fruit picker wearing gloves and a face mask sits on the coach this afternoon ready for it to go to a farm in East Anglia
The plane carrying farm workers lands at Stansted this afternoon. The fruit and veg pickers will then be heading to a farm in East Anglia
In recent years, British farms have come to rely on an army of 90,000 fruit and vegetable pickers from Eastern Europe to collect the summer harvest.
But this year with almost all European countries are in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Travel has been hugely restricted and there are real fears crops could go to waste in fields.
Food giants G's Fresh paid around £40,000 for the Titan Airways AirBus 320 flight because flights have been cancelled and borders closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beverly Dixon, HR director for the company, said: 'By putting on this flight we are honouring our commitment to those who have worked with us over a number of years.
'They are critically important to collecting the crops, in this case gem lettuces. They will underpin our efficiency as we train up the new British staff. Without them we would have crops rotting in the field.'
Fruit pickers wait in the airport, wearing masks and at a safe social distance, before boarding coaches this afternoon
Workers move their luggage towards the buses before taking the trip to East Anglia
Romanian workers are guided to where they can put their luggage before getting on the bus
The buses left Stansted this afternoon and went to a farm in East Anglia to pick fruit and vegetables
With 450,000 new unemployment benefit claims lodged since the Covid-19 crisis began, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs put out an appeal for a home grown land army.
So far around 32,000 have signed up for the scheme but only 4,000 have actually made themselves available for interview.
The Country Land and Business Association warned that crops could be left to rot if farmers failed to find workers.
G's Fresh said they had offered jobs to 500 Brits and hoped that 60 per cent of the 1,250 seasonal workforce would be home grown.
'We have been encouraged by the number of British people who have applied' added Miss Dixon. 'There were many more who made an initial enquiry but some decided not to go ahead.
'From our perspective, to go from zero to 500 is a good start but if everybody was brand new it would be very hard.
'These workers from Romania know about the food safety. They will provide the platform while we train up the Brits.'
Usually such workers arrive in Britain by car and ferry but this year the closure of borders across Europe due to the Covid-19 pandemic, made that impossible.
The costs of their travel will be borne by the company this time
Those flying in from Iasi in Romania had their temperatures taken before boarding the flight where they were not allowed to sit next to one another.
There were no further medical checks when they arrived at Stansted, but G's said there would be more checks after their arrival at the farm.
'We have split them into household groups and they will work and mix exclusively with the other members of their household,' said Miss Dixon.
'We cannot afford them to get ill so we will be going to great lengths to maintain social distancing.
'We have increased the stock of the onsite shops at the farm so they will not have to leave the site and are colour coding each household and restricting when they can go to communal areas.'
They said all workers would be paid at least the living wage - £8.72 per hour for those aged over 25, and the most efficient pickers could expect to earn up to £15-an-hour.
Their shared accommodation is provided and they are each charged just over £50-a-week to stay.
Their flight was organised by the Air Charter Service.
Their spokesman Glenn Phillips said: 'This is the first and I am expecting there will be quite a few more.
'We have already done 10 flights into Germany from Romania and one from Bulgaria.
A man sits with his face mask on getting ready to go to a farm in East Anglia and start fruit picking
Graph shows the UK's average daily coronavirus deaths for the previous seven days, based on official figures. The dip at the end shows the numbers falling for two days - the first drop since the crisis began. Although it could be a sign of numbers plateauing, Chris Whitty yesterday said he expected a rise in deaths today as officials catch up with a lag in reporting over Easter
'DEFRA were looking to fill the gap of 90,000 workers who normally come and I understand after their appeal they are still looking for 70-80,000.'
It comes as Dominic Raab tonight declared that coronavirus lockdown will stay for at least another three weeks despite growing alarm at the economic consequences.
The Foreign Secretary confirmed the public's 'efforts are starting to pay off' but draconian curbs cannot yet be lifted after he chaired a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee.
He said scientists believe transmission in the community is 'almost certainly' below the level at which the outbreak will peter out, although there is still spread in hospitals and care home.
'Based on this advice the government has decided the measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks,' he told the daily Downing Street briefing.
The government is under massive pressure to set out an 'exit strategy' from the social distancing measures, after its own watchdog warned GDP could plunge by a third and two million people lose their jobs. It came as the UK announced 861 more deaths from the coronavirus, taking the total number of victims to 13,729.
Dominic Raab tonight declared that coronavirus lockdown will stay for another three weeks despite growing alarm at the economic consequences
In another dark milestone Britain has now officially diagnosed more than 100,000 people with the virus - making it only the sixth country in the world to do so. But the rising number of cases remains stable, with just 4,618 positive tests in the past 24 hours resulting in a total case count of 103,093.
However, Mr Raab said the biggest threat to the economy was from failure to stay on top of the outbreak and rejected calls for transparency. 'We are being as open as we responsibly can at this stage,' he said.
Instead he merely offered five criteria for when the lockdown could start being loosened. They are certainty that the NHS will not be overwhelmed, a consistent reduction in the death rate, evidence that transmission is at manageable levels, capacity for wide scale testing and PPE provision, and low danger of a 'second peak'.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested earlier that the public cannot be trusted with a blueprint for how the restrictions could be eased, as they might assume the rules are lifted.
But Nicola Sturgeon risked enraging Westminster counterparts by insisting the public does have a right to know how politicians plan to get out of the crisis, as it threatens to rip the economy to shreds.
In a sombre speech in Downing Street, Mr Raab - who is deputising for Boris Johnson as he recuperates at Chequers - said: 'Overall, we still don't have the infection rate down as far as we need to.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks via videolink at the opening of the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham today
'As in other countries we have issues with the virus spreading in some hospitals and in care homes and in sum, the very clear advice we have received is that any change to our social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in the spread of the virus.
'That would threaten a second peak of the virus and substantially increase the number of deaths.
'It would undo the progress we have made to date and as a result would require an even longer period of the more restrictive social distancing measures.
'So early relaxation would do more damage to the economy over a longer period and I want to be really clear about this.
'The advice from SAGE is that relaxing any of the measures currently in place would risk damage to both public health and our economy.'
He added: 'Based on this advice which we very carefully considered the government has decided that the current measures must remain in place for at least the next three weeks.'
Mr Raab said the public needed to show 'patience' and stick with the restrictions to stop the spread of the virus.
'There is light at the end of the tunnel but we are now at both a delicate and a dangerous stage in this pandemic,' he said.
'If we rush to relax the measures that we have in place we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress that has been made.
'That would risk a quick return to another lockdown with all the threat to life that a second peak to the virus would bring and all the economic damage that a second lockdown would carry.'
Mr Raab said when the government has met its criteria it will look to adjust the measures to make them 'as effective as possible in protecting public health whilst allowing some economic and social activity to resume'.
'But we will only do it when the evidence demonstrates that it is safe to do it,' he said.
'It could involve relaxing measures in some areas while strengthening measures in other areas.'
Mr Raab insisted 'there is light at the end of the tunnel' but refused to set out a 'definitive timeframe' for easing the lockdown measures.
He said: 'The Prime Minister said at the outset that it would take three months to come through the peak and I think that, broadly, is still the outline.
'We can't give a definitive timeframe, that would be to prejudge the evidence, that wouldn't be a responsible thing to do.
'But our message to the British public is: there is light at the end of tunnel, we are making progress, but at the same time we must keep up the social distancing measures.'
But the stance contrasted with that of Ms Sturgeon earlier, when she pledged to set out a 'framework' for loosening lockdown when the time comes.
Answering questions from other Scottish party leaders over video conference this afternoon, Ms Sturgeon said: 'We must continue the lockdown measures for at least another three weeks... we are not yet confident enough that the virus has been suppressed sufficiently.'
Ms Sturgeon said 'people do want to know what the thinking is for beyond that period and she wanted to 'share the thought process'.
'I hope over the course of next week to not announce those decisions... but to set out the framework of decision making.'
In a bad-tempered interview earlier, Mr Hancock said he recognised that 'everybody wants to know what the future looks like'.
But he flatly dismissed calls for the government to flesh out how the restrictions will finally be eased, despite mounting fears that they are wreaking havoc on the economy.
Mr Hancock said the 'clarity of messaging' had a 'direct impact on how many people obey' social distancing rules.
In a round of broadcast interviews, Mr Hancock insisted it was 'too early' for an exit strategy.
Mr Hancock said he did not want to 'waste' the efforts of the public by lifting the lockdown measures prematurely, because coronavirus would 'run rampant once again'.
'I'm not going to pre-judge the formal decision that is going to be taken, however, I think everybody can see that we've been clear that we think that it is too early to make a change,' the Health Secretary told BBC Breakfast.
Health minister Nadine Dorries suggested last night that a vaccine is the only true 'exit strategy' from coronavirus lockdown
'And whilst we have seen a flattening of the number of cases, and thankfully a flattening of the number of deaths, that hasn't started to come down yet, and as far as I'm concerned is still far too high.'
Mr Hancock added: 'I understand those who are calling for an end to the lockdown or some kind of exit strategy to start now, but I think it's just too early for that.'
Asked about comments from health minister Nadine Dorries urging people to stop asking about an exit plan, Mr Hancock told Good Morning Britain that it is 'far too early' for things to return to normal.
'What Nadine is saying is that this talk about an exit strategy, with the idea that we go immediately back to exactly how things were before, it is far too early for that,' he said.
'We are seeing that peak, but it's still far too high. And so it is too early to be making changes.'
In bruising clashes with Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4''s Today programme, Mr Hancock angrily told the interviewer to stop interrupting.
'The communications are part of the policy. That is why we will not be distracted in to confusing that messaging. The scientists can say what they like, the commentators can say what they like,' he swiped.
Mr Hancock defended the government's handling of testing, despite it already having missed a target of carrying out 25,000 tests a day by mid-April. Levels have been hovering around 14,000.
Mr Hancock said the daily capacity for testing was 25,000.
The Health Secretary told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'In the middle of March, we expected the rate to be, in around four weeks, at around 25,000.
'That is what our capacity is today.'
Asked why the full capacity of testing was not being reached, Mr Hancock said: 'We have increased the capacity, over the Easter weekend far fewer people came forward to be tested frankly than we expected.
'Hence, yesterday, I could say that all social care staff who needed to be tested can be tested, and residents in social care and people coming from hospital to social care, precisely because we have got that capacity.
'We've increased the capacity and that is on a trajectory to get to the 100,000 by the end of the month'.
Meanwhile, one of the government's own key experts warned curbs cannot be eased until mass testing is in place.
Professor Neil Ferguson insisted schools and more shops should not be open until everyone with symptoms, and everyone they have come into contact with, can been screened. Even then, he warned there is no possibility of the country returning to 'normal' until a vaccine is produced.
The epidemiologist - who has been modelling the outbreak for the government - delivered a withering verdict on the performance of ministers, urging them to 'accelerate action'. He suggested the organisation in Whitehall was not on the same scale as the effort on Brexit, despite the crisis being much bigger.
Discussing whether lockdown measures could be eased after another three weeks, Professor Ferguson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think that will very much depend on quite how quickly case numbers go down, and that does require us to get on top of things like transmission rates in hospitals and care homes.
Research for MailOnline by Redfield & Wilton found 80 per cent would not feel safe going back to everyday life at the moment
Around half the public are now resigned to the draconian 'social distancing' curbs being in place into June
'I think the other thing I would say is that it really requires a single-minded emphasis in Government and the health system on scaling up testing and putting in place the ability to track down cases in the community and contact-trace.
'Because without that, our estimates show we have relatively little leeway; if we relax measures too much then we'll see a resurgence of transmission.
'What we really need is the ability to put something in their place. If we want to open schools, let people get back to work, then we need to keep transmission down in another manner.
'And I should say, it's not going to be going back to normal. We will have to maintain some form of social distancing, a significant level of social distancing, probably indefinitely until we have a vaccine available.
Asked whether the Government is moving towards having an exit strategy in place, Prof Ferguson said: 'I'm not completely sure. I think there's a lot of discussion. I would like to see action accelerated.
'We need to put in place an infrastructure, a command and control structure, a novel organisation for this.
'I'm reminded by the fact we had a Department for Brexit for Government - that was a major national emergency, as it were - and we're faced with something which is, at the moment, even larger than Brexit and yet I don't see quite the same evidence for that level of organisation.'
Prof Ferguson added: 'There needs to be more co-ordination I think, yes. That may be going on, I don't have unique insight, but I think it could be enhanced.'
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said a three-week extension of lockdown measures would be 'reasonable'.
Mr Ashworth told BBC Breakfast: 'We would expect the lockdown to continue, we would support that, I actually called for a lockdown before the Government introduced one.
'But we also want more details from the Government about what happens next.
'I mean, last night the junior health minister Nadine Dorries was complaining on Twitter saying that people shouldn't be asking about an exit strategy because there's no exit strategy until we get a vaccine.
'Well that could be 18 months away so if the Government are saying we're in lockdown for 18 months they probably need to tell us.'
'And I would argue that the best way to come out of lockdown or to manage a way out of lockdown is to move to a testing and contact-tracing strategy.'
A report drawn up by Conservative peer Lord Gadhia and GlaxoSmithKline chairman Sir Jonathan Symonds has suggested a way out of the lockdown.
It called for a small number of high street stores to open as Britain 'must learn to live with Covid' until a vaccine is mass produced in 12 to 18 months.
All of these shops will have to practise social distancing with gaps between tables to ensure they are safe.
The report, seen by the Sun, says: 'The initial focus for reopening the economy should be on sectors that have the greatest multiplier effects with minimum risks — such as coffee shops and restaurants which support agriculture.
'The property market is another that has wide multiplier effects. We need to avoid a stop-start economy which would sap public morale and damage business confidence yet further.'
Several high street chains like McDonalds, Primark and Topshop have closed their doors due the coronavirus outbreak.
Recently, Burger King, KFC and Pret have announced plans to partially reopen.
Their shops will open near hospitals and GP surgeries for delivery and takeaway services only.
Ministers could be given the green light to start planning an exit from the lockdown within ten days, the Chief Medical Officer suggested last night.
Chris Whitty said Government experts hoped to have enough evidence about the transmission of the coronavirus by that point to 'judge how we can go into the next phase'.
It is just a day after the Government's watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, today warned the economy could shrink by more than a third this quarter alone with two million people made jobless if the lockdown continues for two more months.
Shocking analysis from the OBR underlines the trade-offs being made to combat the deadly disease by putting the country into lockdown.
It warns curbs staying in place for three months will slash GDP by 35 per cent, with unemployment soaring to 10 per cent and the government's deficit hitting £273billion - the highest level since the Second World War.
The watchdog ominously said it was assumed 'for now' there will not be any permanent economic damage, and much of the crash will be unwound as pent-up demand is unleashed when the lockdown finally ends.
However, the resulting 13 per cent year-on-year drop will still be worse than anything in the last century.
Responding to the chilling scenario - which emerged as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted the worst global downturn since the Great Depression in 1929 - Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: 'People should know there is hardship ahead.'
The apocalyptic figures emerged the day before Dominic Raab confirmed the lockdown restrictions will continue for 'at least three more weeks.'
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