Westminster goes back to work

By Gareth Jones, Associate Partner

With the end of the summer holidays and children finally returning to school – today also saw MPs return to Westminster, as Parliament begins again for the Autumn. The Prime Minister also chaired his first Cabinet meeting since the summer, in which he claimed that the country “was getting back on its feet” and expressed confidence that the UK can deal with further Covid-19 outbreaks.

As politics returns, the Prime Minister’s in-tray over the next few months is considerable to say the least. The Government will need to determine how to manage the next phase of the pandemic, with the prospects of extensive local lockdowns across the country, it will need to find a way to get a breakthrough on Brexit talks or face the prospect of no-deal in January, it will need to manage public finances and potentially raise taxes in the Autumn Budget without causing too much of a political backlash, it will need to progress with its policy and legislative agenda to ‘level up’ parts of the country while defining new laws for post-Brexit agriculture, environmental regulations, trade and immigration. All this will have to be dealt with while (as many media reports have indicated) backbench Conservative MPs are growing ever more discontent over the Government’s competence, with recent policy U-turns leading to accusations that the Government has ‘lost its grip’.

Despite the range of issues, it is clear that the Government’s immediate priority has been to ensure the reopening of England’s schools goes smoothly and, once achieved, that people’s working pattens can return to “closer to normal’. The Education Secretary made a statement in the House of Commons late this afternoon on the plans for schools reopening – although we are unlikely to know how successful and smooth the return has been until next week. Recent data from Scotland (where schools have already opened) suggests that attendances are down on normal, but not dramatically so.

The successful reopening of schools is seen as a crucial factor in enabling more people to return to work in offices. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor have made several statements over the past few days, imploring workers to return to offices and city centres – amid widespread fears over the economic damage and rising unemployment.  It is also noteworthy that today also sees the start of the Government’s furlough scheme winding down, with employers now more liable for the costs of the scheme. As the scheme ends fully next month, the impact will soon be felt across the country – and unemployment could well emerge as the preeminent political issue this Autumn.