Minister: Government wants to ‘encourage people to go back to work’
The government wants to encourage people to go back to work as it unveils its new coronavirus slogan, according to housing secretary Robert Jenrick.
Boris Johnson will unveil a new slogan to replace the government’s “stay home, protect the NHS, save lives” mantra it has repeated throughout the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Sunday Telegraph reported it would be changed to “stay alert, control the virus, save lives” from tonight.
Speaking to Sky News today, Jenrick said the new message reflected that the government now wants “to have a message which encourages people to go to work”.
It comes after Tory backbenchers, donors and supporters have pressured the government for weeks to re-open the economy.
Universal Credit claims have risen by 1.8m since the start of the crisis and a further 6.3m are being paid by the state through the job retention scheme.
“They will be able to understand this message which is that you should be staying at home as much as possible, but when we do go to work and go about our business, we need to remain vigilant, we need to stay alert,” Jenrick said.
“That means things like respecting others, remaining two metres apart, washing your hands, following the social distancing guidelines because the virus continues to be prevalent.”
Johnson is expected to slightly ease the coronavirus lockdown in a 7pm address tonight, just a day after the official UK Covid-19 death toll rose to 31,587.
The Prime Minister is expected to tell people they can now exercise more than once a day and are allowed to sunbathe in public spaces as long as they keep a safe distance from others.
Garden centres and some workplaces are also expected to re-open as the government seeks to get the economy moving again.
However, the government’s new slogan has already come under fire today for being too vague.
When asked if the new slogan was “too woolly” by Sky News today, Jenrick said: “Well, I hope not. The message that the public have adhered to very well for the last few weeks of staying at home, now does need to be updated.
“We need to have a broader message because we want to slowly and cautiously restart the economy and the country… we want now to have a message which encourages people to go to work, as we begin to ease some of the lockdown measures to take advantage of those but always to be cautious.”