Culture secretary tells BBC review of rules on physical distancing likely to conclude in the coming days as pressure mounts to ministers to relax them
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A group of senior cross-party MPs from Labour, the SNP and the Green Party have written a letter to the government urging them to explore a four-day working week for the UK post Covid-19.
The MPs, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, SNP MP Mhairi Black and Green MP Caroline Lucas, are urging the government to set up a commission to explore the options for a four-day week, a policy already being discussed in Scotland as part of its Post-Covid-19 Futures Commission.
Work has changed forever as a result of this crisis and we want to make sure we have a better model of work emerging from it as we had going in.
The benefits of a four-day week are boundless; better mental health and wellbeing, work shared more equally across the economy, greater productivity at work, and the potential to engage in more environmentally sustainable behaviours.
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has said the review of the 2-metre rule, due out next week, will “make an enormous difference” to businesses, in a major hint it will be relaxed.
In a visit to shops in North Yorkshire, he told reporters:
The outcome of that review will be announced this week, obviously that’s something that will make an enormous difference, I think, to many businesses who are keen to see a change.
Obviously, we need to go through that review, but I’m very understanding of the calls for action on that, particularly for our hospitality industry, for our pubs, for our restaurants. [They] are keen to see if there’s some change that can be made there.
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