Gove defends ‘inspirational’ PM and early action on the UK outbreak
Minister rejects allegations that Boris Johnson took a ‘back-seat role’ in preparing for the pandemic
THE Government launched a defence of its early response to coronavirus yesterday, as it said criticism of the Prime Minister’s role, as well as its handling of protective equipment and ventilators, was unfair.
Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, rejected criticism of Boris Johnson for missing five Cobra crisis meetings in the weeks leading up to the outbreak in Britain.
The Prime Minister was accused of taking a back seat role in shoring up the nation’s pandemic defences, despite mounting concern from scientists over the accelerating health emergency in Wuhan, China.
It also emerged that the Government shipped 260,000 items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to China amid warnings from doctors that the UK was underprepared to cope with a pandemic.
Mr Gove, one of the so-called “quad” of ministers steering the Government’s response while Mr Johnson recovers from the virus, said the allegations by The Sunday Times were “off-beam”.
He confirmed Mr Johnson did not attend the Cobra meetings, but added: “He didn’t. But then he wouldn’t. Because most Cobra meetings don’t have the Prime Minister attending them.
He added: “The idea that the Prime Minister skipped meetings that were vital to our response to the coronavirus, I think, is grotesque.
“The Prime Minister took all the major decisions. Nobody can say the Prime Minister wasn’t throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus. His leadership has been clear. He’s been inspirational at times.”
Mr Gove confirmed that the Government had shipped 260,000 items of PPE to China but said it had not come from the UK’S pandemic stockpile, and Beijing had since sent back “far more” than was dispatched to the country.
Last night the Health Department issued a detailed rebuttal, claiming the article contained “a series of falsehoods and errors, and actively misrepresents the enormous amount of work which was going on in government at the earliest stages of the coronavirus outbreak.”
Mr Johnson is said to be in regular contact with Cabinet ministers, including commissioning advice on the lockdown from Chequers, where he is recuperating after hospital treatment.
Ministers have been told by officials, however, that he is not expected to return to No10 this week, as he abides by the advice of doctors to rest and recover. “He’s in cheerful spirits,” said Mr Gove.
Dominic Raab met the Prime Minister at Chequers for three hours on Friday before briefing Cabinet colleagues on Saturday.
Mr Gove’s department also took the unusual step yesterday of publishing a detailed rebuttal of claims in the Financial Times that “muddled thinking” in Government had affected the development of plans for a British ventilator.
The Cabinet Office claimed the report included “multiple inaccurate and misleading” claims about the UK’S work to procure and manufacture ventilators in response to the Covid-19 public health emergency.
Insiders had said the procurement effort was plagued by disjointed thinking that sent off non-specialist manufacturers designing products that clinicians and regulators deemed unsuitable for treating Covid-19 patients.
“This assertion neglects to mention that designing and manufacturing new devices was always only one pillar of the Government’s strategy,” said the Cabinet Office.
“Non-specialist manufacturers were engaged alongside specialists because there was an urgent risk that NHS ventilator capacity would prove insufficient for the rapidly-growing demand, and that the other two pillars would not, by themselves, provide sufficient new ventilators to meet that growing demand.”