Starmer accuses Johnson of ‘winging it’ over coronavirus crisis
Labour leader Keir Starmer has accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of “winging it” in his handling of the coronavirus crisis which he says risks triggering a second wave of infections.
Starmer said Johnson needed to “get a grip” of the situation and said government mishandling of the crisis risked making a “difficult situation 10 times worse,” the Guardian reported.
He also questioned whether some recent eye-catching measures to relax the lockdown were introduced “to try to deflect attention away” from the Dominic Cummings scandal.
“My [worry] is that after a week or more of mismanagement, I’m deeply concerned the government has made a difficult situation 10 times worse,” Starmer said.
“We’ve called for an exit strategy. What we appear to have got is an exit without a strategy.
We want to see society reopen, we want to see more children back at school, obviously people want to see their families and we want to see businesses open.
“But like many people across the country, there is a growing concern the government is now winging it. At precisely the time when there should have been maximum trust in the government, confidence has collapsed,” he said.
Starmer blamed the collapse in public confidence on the government’s defence of Cummings, despite a widespread public belief that he had broken the lockdown rules and should be sacked.
“It’s blindingly obvious to me that the prime minister is just too weak to sack [Cummings],” Starmer said.
He also pointed at “mismanagement,” identifying the government’s decisions to lift shielding restrictions for 2.2m vulnerable people without advance notice for GPs or public health directors.
Starmer also critcised slow progress with the test and trace system and the decision to reopen schools without consulting widely enough with teachers, unions and parents.
“I am putting the prime minister on notice that he has got to get a grip and restore public confidence in the government’s handling of the epidemic … if we see a sharp rise in the R rate, the infection rate, or a swathe of local lockdowns, responsibility for that falls squarely at the door of No 10.
“We all know the public have made huge sacrifices. This mismanagement of the last few weeks is the responsibility of the government.”