PM surfaces – and vows that Britain will not be defeated
BORIS Johnson took personal charge of handling the coronavirus outbreak last night and declared that Britain ‘will not be defeated’.
The PM had previously faced criticism for delegating the issue to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Today Mr Johnson will publish a ‘battle plan’ for coping with a potentially major outbreak of the virus in the UK.
Last night he gave his first major interview on the issue, in which he conceded Britain could be facing a ‘mass epidemic’, but insisted preparations were in hand.
The moves follows Labour claims that Mr Johnson was a ‘part-time prime minister’, an allegation that appears to have stung him. In recent weeks, he also faced major criticism for refusing to visit areas devastated by the February floods.
Officials yesterday said the PM had been receiving daily updates on the virus and holding twice-weekly meetings with Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty since January. But the jibes appear to have jolted No 10 into action to reassure voters that the PM has a grip on the situation. Yesterday he chaired his first emergency Cobra meeting on the matter after leaving Mr Hancock as chairman of the previous five.
In an interview with the BBC last night, Mr Johnson said the Government had taken ‘every possible precaution’ in its preparations for a possible outbreak - and said the NHS would get all the resources needed to handle an unprecedented challenge.
He said that today’s ‘ battle plan’, which will include proposals to shut down mass gatherings if the situation worsens, was ‘intended to give people a sense of... the menu of options that we have to try to stop that expansion, that spread of the disease.’
He added: ‘The most important thing now is that we prepare against a possible very significant expansion of coronavirus in the UK population – that’s clearly on the cards. And I’ll just remind everybody what I’ve said for a while now: this country is very well-prepared, we have a fantastic NHS, we have a fantastic ability to conduct largescale testing.’
The PM acknowledged that the UK was likely to have ‘thousands’ of cases of the virus in the coming months, although privately officials acknowledge that there could be millions in a worst case scenario.
Mr Johnson also warned that the disruption caused by people being off work would hit the economy. He said: ‘Something like a mass epidemic is going to have all sorts of consequences and there is always the potential for an economic downside as well... But don’t forget the fundamentals of the UK economy are very strong.’
He added: ‘I have absolutely no doubt that this country will not be defeated by coronavirus and that we will come through it very well, in the end.’
A ‘war room’ has been set up in the Cabinet Office to bring health and communications experts together ahead of a major public information campaign. Meanwhile, it emerged the UK is set to pull out of a European scheme for tackling virus pandemics.
Downing Street said the UK would look to develop alternatives to the Early Warning and Response System after the Brexit transition expires despite health experts and the NHS urging ministers to retain membership of the scheme.