MPs attack Chernobyl star for criticising the Government’s response to pandemic
JARED HARRIS, the Bafta-winning actor, is “no public health expert”, MPs said after he compared the Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis to Chernobyl.
The 58-year-old won the Leading Actor award at Friday’s virtual ceremony for his performance as Valery Legasov in a drama about the nuclear power plant catastrophe in the Soviet Union in 1986.
However, Harris has been criticised for airing his views on the Covid-19 pandemic, and claiming the production resonated with audiences because it illustrated how people in positions of power seek to preserve their own status rather than tackle the problem.
Chernobyl, a five-part drama broadcast on Sky, dramatises the craven response of the government committee charged with doing something about one of history’s worst man-made disasters.
Harris told BBC Radio 4’s
“It’s power protecting itself rather than trying to fix the problem. Their first instinct is to try to mitigate the damage that they think is going to happen to themselves … then they lie about it. They lie about the scale of the problem or how to fix it.”
His comments have prompted a backlash from MPs, who have accused him of “abusing his platform” by straying into science and politics without qualifications to do so.
Tim Loughton, Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, told The Sunday Telegraph: “I am sure Jared Harris is a fine actor, but winning an award for Chernobyl doesn’t qualify him as an epidemiologist and public health expert.” Marcus Fysh, Conservative MP for Yeovil, added: “It’s utterly ludicrous and offensive to say such a thing when so many are working their hearts out and have been for months to protect and help the people of this country.”