DON'T BLAME BORIS
Government denies Boris Johnson mishandled coronavirus after claims he was absent from vital meetings
THE Government last night published an extraordinary denial over claims Boris Johnson had mishandled the Covid-19 crisis.
Ministers had earlier been forced to defend the PM after claims that he was absent from COBRA meetings held to discuss a possible pandemic coming out of China in January and February.
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The Government was also accused of failing to organise mass testing quickly enough and for allowing stocks of protective equipment for NHS and care workers to dwindle.
But last night Downing Street authorised the release of a powerful statement shooting down claims made in yesterday’s Sunday Times.
Livid Number Ten officials released a 14-point assessment of the article which they said “misrepresents” their work.
The response said: “This article contains a series of falsehoods and errors and actively misrepresents the enormous amount of work which was going on in government at the earliest stages of the Coronavirus outbreak.
“This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.
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“The Government has been working day and night to battle against coronavirus, delivering a strategy designed at all times to protect our NHS and save lives.
“Our response has ensured that the NHS has been given all the support it needs to ensure everyone requiring treatment has received it, as well as providing protection to businesses and reassurance to workers.
“The Prime Minister has been at the helm of the response to this, providing leadership during this hugely challenging period for the whole nation.”
The statement addresses claims that the Government failed to properly equip the NHS to deal with the crisis.
Claims made about the government and its response
CLAIM: On the third Friday in January, the Government said the risk to the UK public was low.
RESPONSE: Ignores the Health Secretary’s work after he was first told about the virus on January 3.
CLAIM: Government ignored study by Chinese doctors in medical journal The Lancet comparing Covid-19 to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed up to 50 million people.
RESPONSE: The editor of the Lancet, on exactly the same day, January 23, called for “caution” and accused the media of “escalating anxiety” by talking of a killer virus.
CLAIM: Government advisor Professor Neil Ferguson said Covid-19 was more infectious than the Spanish Flu and warned the Government.
RESPONSE: The Government said infectivity has no bearing on a virus’s health impact and says it is “sloppy and unscientific to use this number alone to compare to Spanish flu”.
CLAIM: No10 played down the looming threat from coronavirus and displayed an “almost nonchalant attitude for more than a month”.
RESPONSE: The Government said: “The suggestion that the Government’s attitude was nonchalant is wrong. Extensive and detailed work was going on in government because of coronavirus.”
CLAIM: Little was done to equip the National Health Service for the coming crisis in this period.
RESPONSE: The Government said: “This is wrong. The NHS has responded well to Coronavirus, and has provided treatment to everyone in critical need.”
CLAIM: Lockdown introduced days or even weeks too late — causing many thousands more unnecessary deaths.
RESPONSE: The Government started to act as soon as it was alerted to a potential outbreak.
CLAIM: Scientists said the threat was clear and one of the Government’s key advisory committees was given a dire warning a month earlier than has previously been admitted.
RESPONSE: The Government followed scientific advice at all times.
CLAIM: A rehearsal for a pandemic in 2016 predicted the collapse of the health service and highlighted a long list of shortcomings — including a lack of PPE and ventilators.
RESPONSE: The Government was ready for a pandemic and had introduced new laws that could rapidly be tailored.
And it deals with criticism over the massive PE shortage and claims the government sent 279,000 items of its depleted stockpile of protective equipment to China.
The statement says: “The equipment was not from the pandemic stockpile. We provided this equipment to China at the height of their need and China has since reciprocated our donation many times over.
“Between April 2 and April 15 we have received over 12 million pieces of PPE in the UK from China.
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“The Department for Health began work on boosting PPE stocks in January, before the first confirmed UK case.”
It also deals with claims that the Government thought the risk of Covid-19 was “low” and ignored warnings about the virus in the medical journal The Lancet.
Number Ten also queried one of the sources of the paper who claimed there had been a “failure of leadership” in Downing Street.
The statement said: “This anonymous source is variously described as a ‘senior adviser to Downing Street’ and a ‘senior Downing Street adviser’. The two things are not the same.
“One suggests an adviser employed by the government in No10. The other someone who provides ad hoc advice. Which is it?”
Earlier yesterday, Cabinet minister Michael Gove had admitted the Government had “made mistakes.”
But he defended Boris Johnson from accusations the Government had “sleepwalked into disaster” in the 38 days before the crisis started.
He said claims that Boris skipped early COBRA meetings were “grotesque”.
“The truth is that there are meetings across government, some of which are chaired by the Health Secretary, some of which are chaired by other Ministers but the Prime Minister took all the major decisions.
“Nobody can say the Prime Minister isn’t throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus.
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“By definition all governments make mistakes, including our own and we seek to learn and to improve every day. His leadership has been inspirational at times.”
Last night, Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted a link to the rebuttal and said: "We've been working day and night to battle against coronavirus, delivering a strategy designed at all times to protect our NHS and save lives.
“Not everything you read in the papers is true - read our comprehensive response to today's Sunday Times here."
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