Starmer attacks tardy response in his first outing as Labour leader
The government has been too slow in reacting to the coronavirus outbreak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said in his first appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Dominic Raab was forced to admit that there would have to be an “exponential increase” in the number of coronavirus tests carried out each day if the government is to reach its 100,000 target in just a week.
And despite saying he would offer “constructive criticism” of the government’s actions, Sir Keir was scathing about what he called a “bad plan” to ask healthcare workers with coronavirus symptoms to use drivethrough testing centres, when many do not have private cars.
The new Labour leader and Foreign Secretary Mr Raab – deputising for Boris Johnson as the Prime Minister continued his recovery from Covid-19 – faced each other in a sparsely attended House of Commons as the majority of MPS participated remotely.
“There is a pattern emerging here,” Sir Keir said. “We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment and now slow to take up these offers from British firms.”
Labour later said 36 companies had approached them to claim that offers of help to supply PPE had been ignored.
They included Issa Exchange Ltd in Birmingham which said it offered a quarter of a million aprons and masks, Network Medical Products in Ripon, which says it can provide 100,000 face visors per week and CQM Learning, which says it can provide 8,000 face shields per day.
Mr Raab told the Labour leader that the government was guided by scientific advisers and that if Sir Keir “thinks he knows better than they do, with the benefit of hindsight, then that’s his decision”.
Mr Raab said 8,000 British businesses had responded to a call for assistance on PPE and they had all received a response, with 3,000 followed up where it was “sensible” if they could supply in sufficient volume.
He said it was an “incredibly difficult and competitive international environment” to source PPE from overseas.
On testing, the latest figures showed that less than half of the available capacity was being used and fewer than 20,000 tests had been carried out in a 24-hour period.
Ministers have repeatedly insisted 100,000 target will be met and Mr Raab said “those tests will be crucial not just in terms of controlling the virus but allowing the country to move to the next phase”.
He said mobile labs were now being used, with the Army also helping to get tests to where they were needed.
Mr Raab refused to commit to holding a judge-led public inquiry when asked by the acting Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey.
And he also ruled out a universal basic income after 110 MPS including the SNP’S Westminster leader Ian Blackford called on the government to “put cash in people’s pockets”.
At PMQS, Mr Blackford warned “thousands” of businesses and individuals have found themselves with “no income, with no support and no end in sight, all because of arbitrary cut-off dates and bureaucratic barriers imposed by the UK government” on its wage guarantee schemes.