Mask or pay up on holiday isles

BRITISH tourists in Ibiza, Majorca and Minorca will face fines of £90 from tomorrow for not wearing a mask in public.

Everyone aged over six must comply, unless doing sport or if they have some health problems.

Beaches and pools are exempt, but on restaurants and bar terraces masks must be worn until food or drink arrives.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer blasted the PM and led calls for an urgent inquiry before a feared second wave of Covid-19 strikes.

Sir Keir has ordered his staff to compile a list of demands for what the inquiry should cover.

He said: “It is no good the Prime Minister flailing around trying to blame others. It is time he took responsibility for his own failures.”

Of the PM’s lack of an apology to care workers in the Commons, he added: “This is absolutely defining of the Prime Minister, a man who never takes responsibility for his actions.”

Sir Keir spoke as the UK death toll rose 148 to 44,798 yesterday – and after a catalogue of errors.

There was the row over PPE equipment, delays in getting tests, criticism for delaying lockdown, devastation in care homes, mixed messages on herd immunity, the track and trace app shambles, whether to wear masks and ongoing fears for the jobs of millions of workers. Last week’s insult to care workers – when the PM blamed some homes for not following guidance – was salt in an ever-growing wound.

Liz Kendall, Shadow Minister for Social Care, said: “Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, Boris Johnson has tried to pass the buck.

“It is clear the PM does not want to be held accountable for his Government’s failure on care homes.

“His refusal even to apologise shows the lengths he is willing to go to pin blame on anyone but himself.”

An urgent inquiry is backed by

Labour, unions, care workers and constitutional experts who fear a full public inquiry could take years.

It comes amid suspicions the PM is delaying in the hope a full inquiry will not report until after the next election.

HUNT

Prof Gabriel Scally, of Bristol University, said the care home workers slight was “only a matter of time – the hunt was on to identify the fall guy for a gross and widespread failure”.

But it was just the latest attempt by the PM to shift blame. Earlier this year he referred to “parts of government that seemed to respond so sluggishly” – clearly blaming doctors, scientists and officials at Public Health England.

Doctors have not escaped the finger pointing. When confronted with the fact care homes were told to accept virus-carrying patients from hospitals, Mr Johnson told MPs: “No one was discharged into a care home without express authorisation of a clinician.”

Scientists were in the firing line too. Mr Johnson told a committee of MPs: “I think the brutal reality is this country didn’t learn the lessons of SARS and