Starmer hits out at ‘awful’ death toll

Government strategy ‘far from success’ as mortality rate set to be Europe’s worst

Britain is on course to record one of the worst coronavirus death tolls in Europe, after new data revealed more than 26,000 people had died since the beginning of the outbreak.

Two days after Boris Johnson spoke of “success” in the battle against Covid-19, updated figures, which account for care home, hospital and wider community deaths, showed the week ending April 17 was the UK’S deadliest since records began in 1993.

The total reached by the new method of reporting is around 17% higher than in previous data showed and includes an extra 3,811 deaths recorded since the start of the outbreak. Of these, around 70% were outside hospital settings and around 30% were in hospital.

Keir Starmer has hit out at the “truly awful” coronavirus death toll, saying the figures now point to the UK having the worst mortality rate in Europe.

More than 20,000 people have died form Covid-19 in UK hospitals, but that figure is much higher when care home deaths and deaths in the community are also taken into account.

Sir Keir, speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, said the strategy was “far from a success”.

The Labour leader said: “Six weeks ago on March 17 the government’s chief scientific adviser (Sir Patrick Vallance) indicated the government hoped to keep the overall number of deaths from coronavirus to below 20,000.

“He said that would be ‘good’, by which, in fairness to him, he meant successful in the circumstances. But we’re clearly way above that number and we’re only part-way through this crisis and we’re possibly on track to have one of the worst death rates in Europe.

“On Monday, the prime minister said in his short speech that many were looking at our apparent success in the UK. But does the first secretary agree with me that far from success, these latest figures are truly dreadful?”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who was standing in for Mr Johnson, responded: “This is an unprecedented pandemic, a global pandemic, and I think, in fairness, we shouldn’t criticise either the CMO (chief medical officer) or the deputy CMO for trying to give some forecast in response to the questions that many in this chamber and many in the media are calling for.”

Sir Keir went on to say that England could fall behind other countries, including Scotland and Wales, if the UK Government does not publish an exit strategy soon.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, appearing remotely from his Skye home, reiterated calls for the UK Government to extend the Brexit transition period.

He said: “What we should be doing is removing uncertainty and putting a stop to these talks, we should be making sure we protect our businesses.

“The failure by the first secretary to rule out a no-deal Brexit should alarm us all.”

Mr Raab replied: “If his desire is to avoid more uncertainty then the right thing for us to do is to double down, get a deal by the end of this year.”