Who said it

“It’s easy to ask these questions, but what is hard is to deliver PPE in the teeth of a pandemic. And that’s what my team did. And yes, there were individual challenges in access to PPE, but we never had a national shortage, because of my team” - Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

“Workers across the UK, particularly those in the care sector, were left distressed and in danger because of the lack of protective kit in the early days of the pandemic. Pretending this didn’t happen or that somehow it was not a national problem is rewriting history and ignoring the facts” - Gavin Edwards, senior national officer for the union Unison, criticises Matt Hancock’s remarks.

“Not everyone has been as lucky as us. So many have died or are suffering from ‘long Covid’ because they were simply not protected. We need to show them that they are not forgotten and we care” - Jo Whiley gives an update on her sister Frances who has been seriously ill with Covid as she renewed her call for people with learning disabilities to be prioritised in the vaccine rollout.

“Last year, following similar (government) announcements, we saw bookings peak at one every 11 seconds, but this time demand has exceeded our expectations and comfortably broken that record. It is clear that Brits are desperate to get away, and now have the clarity and confidence to book” - Simon Altham, group chief commercial officer of Awaze, whose brands include cottages.com and Hoseasons, speaks after the firm sold more than 10,000 UK breaks on Monday at a rate of up to one per second.