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Sir Keir Starmer has accused the government of being too slow to respond during the coronavirus crisis, as he grilled foreign secretary Dominic Raab over testing and the struggle to get personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff at the first “virtual” PMQs.
It comes after an RAF plane sent to collect a shipment of PPE from Turkey landed back in the UK in the early hours of Wednesday. Labour claimed there had been a “shambolic” response to credible offers of vital kit from several companies.
Health secretary Matt Hancock is facing questions in the Commons about participation in an EU scheme to secure equipment, after the Foreign Office’s top civil servant Sir Simon McDonald made an extraordinary U-turn – withdrawing his own claim the UK made a “political decision” not to take part.
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‘Do not discriminate against elderly when lockdown is lifted’
The Conservative peer said older people “feel acutely” the enforced separation from loved ones during the current pandemic.
However, responding, the health minister Lord Bethell stressed it was the disease which was the “discriminator”, not the government.
Speaking via video link during today’s PMQs, Lord Lamont said: “When we do get to the stage eventually of lifting restrictions, may I urge the government not to discriminate against the elderly… and not to treat the elderly as a single category.
“They are conscious of their own vulnerability and perfectly sensible and don’t need the threat of law to protect them.”
Lord Bethell replied: “The government will be guided by clinical advice, although the effect of safeguarding and lockdown on the elderly is fully understood and we will put in as many mitigation measures as we can.”
Government to ban gender confirmation surgery for under-18s
Liz Truss said the government’s full response to reforming the Gender Recognition Act will be published this summer, two years after former women and equalities minister Penny Mordaunt launched a public consultation into how trans people change their legal gender on their birth certificates.
Under the existing Gender Recognition Act, a trans person has to undergo a two-year waiting period and a review from a specialist panel before being able to change their gender legally.
Addressing the Women and Equalities Committee on Wednesday, Ms Truss outlined “very important principles” the government would set out over the act, including the “protection of single-sex spaces” and “making sure that transgender adults are free to live their lives as they wish without fear of persecution”.
But she also signalled plans to ban under-18s with gender dysphoria from genital reconstructive surgery.
Currently, people under the age of 18 are allowed surgery with parental consent – although the process is so long drawn out that in reality few teenagers are able to undergo irreversible surgery before they reach adulthood.
The UK’s minister for women and equalities has downplayed concerns that female NHS staff are being placed at increased risk during the coronavirus crisis because protective gear has been designed for men, women’s correspondent
Liz Truss insisted insisted health workers required “the same protection … regardless of what gender you are”, despite the leading doctors’ body warning women were being forced to wear ill-fitting and “inadequate” personal protective equipment (PPE.)
Her comments to MPs on Wednesday came a day after The Independent reported on the British Medical Association’s (BMA) concerns over the shortage of correctly sized PPE – such as gloves, visors, aprons, and face masks – for women.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “If PPE is available and, crucially, if it meets the standards which are required for usage in the NHS and care homes – because obviously its vital that staff are protected in the proper way – then we will look to obtain this material from within the UK as quickly as possible.”
Priority was being given to firms which have the largest amounts of stock and those which have items in high demand, the spokesman said.
Downing Street has said a consignment of personal protective equipment from Turkey is being “inspected and processed” after being brought to the UK by the RAF this morning.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said that was a standard procedure when PPE was brought in from overseas.
“They are processing it now and they will move it on to the frontline as quickly as possible,” the spokesman said.
Sir Keir Starmer has called for the inquiry into the leaked anti-semitism dossier to be “swift” ahead of a meeting of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) on Thursday.
His spokesman said: “The NEC is meeting tomorrow and at that meeting they will agree the terms of reference for the inquiry.
“Keir has made it clear that he wants it to be a swift investigation.”
Pressed on how quick “swift” is, the spokesman replied: “A matter of months. That’s his objective as part of rebuilding the Labour Party and improving trust. There will be more clarity tomorrow.”
Mr Hancock has committed to having mental health support available for all frontline NHS workers until long after the pandemic has concluded.
Responding to Tory Dr Luke Evans’ (Bosworth) concerns for health care workers’ well-being, Mr Hancock said: “We’ve put in place a helpline for all frontline workers in the NHS to make sure that they have the support that they need, and I will make sure, working with the honourable members and others, I’ll make sure that support stays in place long after this crisis is over.”
In response to the SNP’s Patrick Grady’s question on the number of European nurses, Mr Hancock said: “There is no impact at all of Brexit on our coronavirus response.”
Matt Hancock has said the government cannot promise “free masks” for the public if widespread usage is recommended by experts to combat coronavirus, political correspondent Lizzy Buchan reports.
The health secretary said it would be an “extraordinary undertaking” to provide face coverings for ordinary people amid immense pressure on supplies of protective equipment for frontline healthcare staff.
Experts from the government’s scientific advisory group met yesterday to discuss whether the public should be advised to wear masks at work and on public transport as part of future efforts to ease the lockdown measures.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt asked if it will be possible to track and trace every new Covid-19 case in the community in the next two weeks, at the point the cabinet will consider whether to lift the lockdown.
Mr Hunt, chairman of the health select committee, also asked Mr Hancock: “Will he appoint a big-hitter from outside frontline politics to really make sure this happens in a very short period of time, as he has very sensibly done with Sir Paul Deighton on PPE?”
Mr Hancock replied: “We are ramping up our testing capacity and our capacity for contact-tracing in a matter of weeks, and we’ll have it ready to make sure that we can use that as and when the incidence of transmission comes down.
“It isn’t as tied to the specific decision that we’re required by law to take in just over two weeks’ time.
PA
Both Dominic Raab and Keir Starmer have resisted Lib Dem calls for an inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 Crisis.
Speaking during PMQs, Mr Raab said: “I have to say I won’t take up his offer of committing to a public inquiry.
“I think there are definitely lessons to be learned and when we get through this crisis it will be important that we take stock and we come together to understand with an unprecedented challenge on an international scale what can be done to avoid it happening again.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the new Labour leader said: “Keir has said he believes serious mistakes have been made in the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and ministers do need to be held accountable for those mistakes.
“The priority now has got to be on how the government fixes the current mistakes it is making.”
Hancock says 15 care home staff have died from Covid-19
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has asked Matt Hancock whether the government would publish the minutes of crucial Sage meetings, and also suggested the deaths for the coronavirus in care homes should be recorded on a daily basis.
The health secretary said 15 care home staff had died after contracting the virus. Earlier foreign secretary Dominic Raab told the House that 69 NHS workers had died, bringing the number of heath and care staff killed so far to 84.
“All deaths in care homes are of course recorded,” said Hancock.
“Yesterday there was some debate over whether the ONS figures showed that the deaths … outside of hospitals were 40 per cent higher. It turns out that wasn’t turn and that was comparing apples with pears, and the real figure is closer to 20 per cent.”
Spare capacity in critical care, says Hancock
Health secretary Matt Hancock has made a statement in the Commons, revealing there are now more than 3,000 spare critical care beds in the NHS.
He said large scale contact tracing will be introduced as the coronavirus cases are brought down, and claimed we were now at the peak of the virus – as he thanked the public for maintaining social distancing during the lockdown.
“It is making a difference … we are at the peak.”
Reviews in for Keir Starmer’s first PMQs as Labour leader
There’s been a generally positive response to the new leader of the opposition’s performance, with former chancellor George Osborne saying: “Britain has an opposition again”.
Government response ‘way behind other European countries’, says Starmer
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more on Keir Starmer’s first performance at PMQs as Labour leader.
The leader of the opposition has accused the government of being “way behind other European countries” in its response to coronavirus as Labour released a list of dozens of UK companies who say their offers of PPE were ignored.
WHO ‘not perfect’, says Raab
Labour MP Angela Eagle has asked Dominic Raab whether the government believes the World Health Organisation still has a “critical” role in security global health security, given Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal of US funding.
She called Trump’s action “disgraceful vendetta”.
Raab replied: “On the WHO, we recognise it has a role to play. It is not perfect, no international institution is, we do need to work to reform it. But we’ve made clear we consider an important part of the international response.”
Labour backbencher suggests government hasn’t followed expert advice
Labour MP Barry Gardiner has claimed that Sage, the government’s scientific advisory group, recommended a lockdown at the end of February. “The government likes to claim it has been following the scientific advice. But it hasn’t, has it?”
Raab rejected the idea – claiming the government had followed scientific advice at all times.
“We’ve protected our NHS – it hasn’t been overwhelmed in the way some had feared … we are starting to come through this peak, and that has only happened because we’ve taken the right decisions based on the evidence we’ve had.”
SNP MP calls for universal basic income
The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford is the first MP to get to ask a question remotely.
He said his party is calling for a universal basic income (UBI) to help everyone struggling financially during the crisis, before asking Raab whether the government would support the move. “It will leave no-one behind,” he said.
Raab said he didn’t agree an universal basic income wasn’t necessary – pointing to existing benefits and the support packages outlined by the chancellor.
Labour leader says ‘pattern’ of failures emerging
Keir Starmer said PPE manufacturers had got in touch with the opposition about their struggle to get a reply from the government on offers to supply the NHS with vital kit.
“Something is going wrong,” said the Labour leader. “There is a pattern emerging here. We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment and now slow to take up these offers.”
He urges the government to work with the opposition to get some of these offers taken up “as soon as possible”.
Raab replied by saying “I don’t accept his premise that we’ve been slow,” and claiming ministers were guided by scientific advice.
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