Sadiq Khan to attend coronavirus Cobra meeting
Sadiq Khan will attend today’s coronavirus Cobra meeting at Downing Street, after being shut out of earlier talks.
City Hall confirmed today that Khan will be at the meeting, which will see Boris Johnson and the UK’s health chiefs discuss stricter measures to combat the spread of Covid-19.
The first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also be in attendance.
Boris Johnson will hold a press conference after the meeting to discuss potential new measures to combat Covid-19 going forward.
Yesterday, health secretary Matt Hancock said the government would soon tell all over-70s to isolate themselves for up to four months.
Large public gatherings are also expected to be banned this week.
The mayor of London has complained over the past two weeks about not being invited to the regular Cobra meetings, with Number 10 saying he was not allowed as they were national meetings and that he was a local politician.
He told LBC he had been invited to past meetings in similar national crises and that his role as mayor of London should get him a seat at the table.
“If anyone thinks London is local then they clearly have a breathtaking ignorance about our city and the relevance to our continent,” he said.
“We have Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport basically serving our city; we’ve got Eurostar serving our city.”
Number 10 did not respond to questions on why the mayor was admitted to today’s meeting, but not earlier ones.