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Tuesday evening news briefing: Seaside 'super-spreader' shuts three businesses

Chris Price
·7-min read
Businesses will look to Rishi Sunak for help in tomorrow's 'mini-Budget'.  -  Simon Walker/HM Treasury
Businesses will look to Rishi Sunak for help in tomorrow's 'mini-Budget'. - Simon Walker/HM Treasury

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'Super-spreader' forces three businesses to close

A single positive coronavirus case is believed to have caused the closure of three businesses after the man went out drinking on Super Saturday. A pub, a vape bar and an Indian restaurant in Burnham-on-Sea all closed their doors for deep cleaning. It is believed that the unnamed drinker visited The Lighthouse Inn before heading to Vape Escape. A driver from Saagar Indian had also been in the pub in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, and the restaurant closed as a precaution. Pubs in Batley, West Yorkshire, and Gosport, Hampshire, also closed after separate customers tested positive for Covid-19. Read how the suspected "super-spreader's" Super Saturday jaunt led to mass shutdowns days after the hospitality sector reopened. It comes as data released by Apple shows the UK reaching close to pre-lockdown levels of travel on Saturday. Click here to see the most active cities, including some with the highest rates of new coronavirus cases. On Thursday, the Business and Planning Bill goes before Parliament and will, if rubber-stamped, allow late-night pubs and bars to sell takeaway alcohol. Angela Epstein explains why we should not treat pubgoers like children, but trust them to drink responsibly.

Meanwhile, fish and fisheries will be on the menu tonight as David Frost welcomes his EU counterpart Michel Barnier to London for the latest round of Brexit talks. The two negotiators will sit down to an informal dinner, with fisheries and the level-playing field top of their pair's agenda. Earlier, Mr Barner warned the EU will introduce full border checks with the UK on January 1, regardless of a trade deal and even though the UK won't be ready for full border checks until July. It comes as the Prime Minister's spokesman declined to apologise for Boris Johnson's suggestion that more than 20,000 care home residents had died during the outbreak because "too many care homes didn't really follow the procedures". Our liveblog has the latest.

Rishi Sunak to announce immediate stamp duty cut

Rishi Sunak will announce a temporary cut to stamp duty tomorrow to give the housing market and the wider economy a shot in the arm, sources have told The Telegraph. The Chancellor is expected to raise the threshold for paying the tax on the purchase of a home in England and Northern Ireland to £500,000, effective immediately. However, it remains unclear whether the tax break will apply to all house purchases or only to first-time buyers. Gordon Rayner outlines what we know. Jeremy Warner analyses why Mr Sunak will need to do something radical to avoid a surge in unemployment. It is a warning echoed by former chancellor Lord Lamont. A weekend poll put Mr Sunak's approval rating ahead of everyone in the Government. Yet Camilla Tominey writes his honeymoon period may be about to end.

Johnny Depp 'is not and never has been a wife beater'

Johnny Depp's lawyers accused his ex wife, the actress Amber Heard, of being the "abuser" in their relationship as his libel action against The Sun newspaper got underway at the High Court. In a written opening note at the start of the three-week trial in London, the actor's lead counsel, David Sherborne, said the Hollywood star has come to court "to clear his reputation". He said Mr Depp "is not and never has been a wife beater" and his libel action against The Sun newspaper is "not a case about money" but about "vindication". Mr Depp, 57, is suing the tabloid's publisher, News Group Newspapers, and executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an article which called him a "wife beater". Read on for details.

At a glance: Latest coronavirus headlines

Also in the news: Today's other headlines

Fears Trump won't accept defeat | With four months to go until voting day, a question once considered unthinkable is now being asked: What if the US president does not accept election defeat? To understand how seriously the concerns are being taken, and how widespread they are shared, The Telegraph talked to close to 20 well-placed individuals, including members of the Republican party. It emerged officials are war-gaming plans in anticipation of a legal challenge.

Around the world: Inside Maxwell's 'troubled' prison

Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred to a New York prison notorious for its history of bad conditions and mistreatment of inmates while she awaits trial on charges of sex trafficking for the dead financier Jeffrey Epstein. Ms Maxwell has been charged with recruiting women and girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse. Read the inside story on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn whose most notable former inmates include the actress Alison Mack and the singer R Kelly.

Tuesday interview

Could the Boohoo bubble burst as quickly as it ballooned?

 

 Boohoo CEO John Lyttle - Dana Pleasant/Getty Images
Boohoo CEO John Lyttle - Dana Pleasant/Getty Images

In June Boohoo was valued at £5.2 billion (more than rivals Marks & Spencer and ASOS combined). But now, with a police investigation launched into the group’s alleged connections with Leicester-based ‘sweatshop’ factories, and more than £1 billion wiped off its share value overnight, it has made front page news for all the wrong reasons. Caroline Leaper spoke to chief executive John Lyttle.

Read the full interview

Comment and analysis

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Business and money briefing

TikTok leaves Hong Kong | Mike Pompeo said he is considering banning viral video app TikTok, which has 65 million users in the US, because of concerns that the app could be forced to hand over user data to the Chinese government. Pompeo's comments came ahead of TikTok's announcement it would stops operations in Hong Kong. Read more.

Sport briefing

Beaten and starved | British Gymnastics is reeling from a new child abuse scandal after two women publicly accused its coaches of having bullied, beaten and starved them. Catherine Lyons, a former junior and British champion, and Lisa Mason, an Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, came forward in the wake of Netflix documentary Athlete A, about the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal. Read more.

Tonight's TV

The Battle of Britain: 3 Days That Saved the Nation, Channel 5, 9pm | For the next three nights, the historian Dan Snow and the presenter Kate Humble present an impressively detailed minute-by-minute guide to three pivotal days. Read on for more.

And finally... for this evening's downtime

'Love thy neighbour' – they're colleagues | Working from home means we are suddenly noticing what those on our street are up to like never before, and we don't always like it. With complaints over next-door noise soaring during lockdown, Rosa Silverman asks what we can do to get along a little more easily.