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8.04am BST
UK government borrowing hit its highest level on record last month amid the Covid-19 pandemic, as retail sales across the country plunged at a record pace.
The Office for National Statistics reported that public borrowing in April is estimated to have surged to £62.1bn. That’s £51.1bn more than in April 2019, and the highest borrowing in any month since records began in January 1993.
Borrowing in April 2020 was £62.1 billion, £51.1 billion more than in April 2019 and the highest monthly borrowing on record https://t.co/wWD0xjcMyo pic.twitter.com/YUugAZTMjt
Related: UK government borrowing hits record high in April and retail sales slump – business live
7.59am BST
The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, has defended the timing of the new quarantine measures.
Asked by Sky News why the government hadn’t implemented the idea sooner, he said:
As the virus spread is falling here in the UK as our R number is falling, obviously, that marginal impact of people coming in has a real effect in a way that it just didn’t a few weeks ago. And some weeks ago, we were still returning many many Britons back to the United Kingdom.
People who come over to the United Kingdom will have to do quarantine and a few countries around the world are looking at this or have already introduced this. There’ll be more details later on today – the Home Secretary will be doing the press conference at 5pm. day. As our R number is down we want to ensure that we don’t get that second spike that could be one of the most damaging things for our economy in the long run.
We’re a country a that welcomes people from all over the world. But it is appropriate that we say ‘if you’re coming to the United Kingdom, we need to protect your own health and the health of the people of the United Kingdom’. And the best way is to make sure that people go through that quarantine period to ensure they have no symptoms and are not able to add to the spread of the virus.
For UK citizens coming back, they will be able to go home and quarantine at home but for visitors they will need to make arrangements for where they can do that quarantine for 14 days.