Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A SORRY EXCUSE
Anger at PM’S lockdown 2 delay ... but he still refuses to apologise
BORIS Johnson was accused of a “catastrophic failure of leadership and judgment” yesterday as he refused to apologise for delaying England’s second lockdown.
The bullish Prime Minister told the Commons he had been “right to try every possible option” before finally performing his U-turn at the weekend.
And he made “absolutely no apology” for rejecting the idea until now – claiming that we can still “defeat this virus by the spring”.
But Labour leader Keir Starmer accused him of blind optimism, saying: “At every stage, the Prime Minister has been too slow, behind the curve.
“At every stage, he has ignored advice and put what he hoped would happen above what is happening. Rejecting the advice of his own scientists for over 40 days was a catastrophic failure of leadership and of judgment.”
On September 21, the day the SAGE advisory group urged a two- to threeweek “circuit breaker”, there were 11 deaths from Covid-19 and just over 4,000 infections.
By the time the PM made his U-turn at the weekend, announcing a fourweek lockdown from Thursday, there were 326 daily deaths and 22,000 cases.
Professor Andrew Hayward, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, said: “I think if we had chosen a two-week circuit-break at that time we would definitely have saved thousands of lives.
“And we would have inflicted less damage on our economy than the proposed four-week lockdown will.”
The death toll rose by 136 yesterday while there were 18,950 new cases. And as the nation braced for Thursday, the
confusion that has been the hallmark of the pandemic response remained.
Over-60s are now being asked to “be especially careful to follow the rules and minimise contacts with others” – but getting little specific guidance.
Ministers say they should “continue to wash hands carefully and more frequently” and “maintain thorough cleaning of frequently touched areas in your home”. The guidance to “be especially careful” previously applied to over-70s but will now be extended to up to 5.9 million more people.
Liverpool, the first city to go into Tier 3, will pilot rapid testing from Friday. Everyone living and working there will be offered repeat tests, even if symptom-free, in a bid to break transmission chains. If successful, mass testing could be rolled out nationally.
The lockdown measures – which have
Labour support – are set to pass tomorrow. But the PM faces a backlash from his own MPS after ridiculing the idea for weeks.
Sir Graham Brady, leader of the backbench Tories, said it would take an “enormous toll” on the nation’s mental health and warned of “the lives that will be lost”.
The PM tried to persuade them by saying Covid deaths over the winter could be “twice as bad or even worse” as during the first wave. And he vowed the lockdown will end on December 2 “whatever happens”, with a return to regional tiers in England.
But Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said on Sunday measures could stay in place if the infection rate had not fallen sufficiently.
Mr Starmer also yesterday blasted the “totally inadequate” contact-tracing system.
And outgoing NHS Test and Trace director Sarah-jane Marsh admitted the service is “by no means perfect”. But the Government said it had hit its target of increasing testing capacity to 500,000 a day.