Sir Keir Starmer today took the gloves off in his battle against Boris Johnson as he battered the Prime Minister over the Government’s test and trace programme, decision to reopen schools and transparency.
Sir Keir tried to use PMQs this lunchtime to score body blows on the PM over key parts of the Government’s coronavirus response.
But a furious Mr Johnson hit back and accused the Labour leader of delivering ‘endless attacks on public trust and confidence’.
Labour had adopted a largely constructive approach to the crisis to date, with the shadow cabinet seemingly reluctant to blast the Government in public.
But today marked a dramatic shift in approach as Sir Keir told Mr Johnson: ‘The Prime Minister is confusing scrutiny for attacks.’
Sir Keir also looked to capitalise on reports that the PM has now decided to take more control of the Government’s coronavirus strategy.
In an apparent reference to Mr Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings, the Labour leader said: ‘The Telegraph is reporting this morning that the Prime Minister has decided to take direct control of the Government’s response to the virus.
‘So an obvious question for the Prime Minister, who’s been in direct control up until now?’
Mr Johnson replied: ‘I take full responsibility for everything this Government has been doing in tackling coronavirus and I’m very proud of our record’.
Despite the bruising exchanges, Tory spirits were likely to have been lifted by Mr Johnson’s robust responses after a number of performances in recent weeks in which pundits suggested Sir Keir had got the better of the PM.
The clashes at PMQs came as the Government faced growing pressure over the roll out of the NHS Test and Trace programme.
Reports suggest that the system is failing to trace the contacts of approximately 60 per cent of people who have tested positive for the disease.
Sir Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson repeatedly clashed at PMQs this lunchtime over the Government’s coronavirus response
Mr Johnson accused Sir Keir of launching ‘endless attacks on public trust and confidence’ rather than working with the Government
Sir Keir said Mr Johnson had failed to deliver on his promise to deliver a world beating test and trace system by June 1
The face-to-face showdown between Sir Keir and Mr Johnson at PMQs came as:
- McDonald’s will open another 497 drive-thru restaurants today and is aiming to have more than 1,000 back in business by next week. Monstrous queues have been pictured outside those that have reopened;
- The Government is doubling down on its 14-day quarantine rule for travellers entering Britain. Home Secretary Priti Patel said it was necessary to prevent more coronavirus outbreaks and deaths;
- West London – Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow – is the area of the capital where people have received the most police fines for breaking lockdown rules. 165 fines were issued there between March 27 and May 14;
- UK charity the Health Foundation has warned of a ‘digital divide’ that could be caused by the NHS’s contact tracing app because elderly people, the unemployed and manual workers are less likely to download it;
- Death rates in some parts of London are double what they have been in a usual year because of the pandemic, according to new analysis.
Overnight, Sir Keir had attacked Mr Johnson for ‘winging it’ over easing the coronavirus lockdown.
The Labour leader said the premier will personally be to blame if coronavirus deaths spike again.
He also jibed that the way Mr Johnson had loosened the rules suggested there was ‘an exit but not a strategy’.
He stepped up his criticism of the PM at PMQs as he took Mr Johnson to task over apparent test and trace failings.
‘Two weeks ago today at the despatch box the Prime Minister promised that we will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world beating and yes, it will be in place by June 1,’ he said.
‘But it isn’t. A critical element, the ability of local authorities to respond to local spikes is missing.
‘As one council leader put it to us, ‘we are weeks away from having this up and running, we simply weren’t given enough warning’.
‘The Prime Minister mutters it is not true. Dido Harding, the Prime Minister’s own chair of the track and trace system has said that this element will not be ready until the end of June.
‘The Prime Minister must have been briefed on this problem before he made that promise two weeks ago. So why did he make that promise?’
A furious Mr Johnson hit back and said: ‘I am afraid he is casting aspersions on the efforts of tens of thousands of people who have set up a test, track and trace system in this country from a standing start.
‘We now have 40,000 people engaged in this. Every person, thousands of people are being tested as he knows every day.
‘Every person who tests positive in this country, the track and trace system, is contacted, then thousands of their contacts are themselves contacted… and I can tell the House at the moment as a result of our test, track and trace system which was up and running on June 1 as I said, contrary to what he said, as a result of their efforts thousands of people are now following our guidance, following the law and self-isolating to stop the spread of the disease.’
The Government launched NHS Test and Trace without an NHSX contact tracing app with the current system entirely reliant on contact tracers physically tracking down people who have interacted with someone who has tested positive.
Sir Keir then accused Mr Johnson of failing to use statistics in an appropriate manner after UK statistics watchdog David Norgrove yesterday delivered a devastating rebuke to Health Secretary Matt Hancock for his ‘misleading’ figures on testing.
‘The problem when the Prime Minister used statistics is that the statistics authority have had concerns on more than one occasion,’ he said before adding that Mr Johnson’s approach was ‘damaging’ to ‘public trust and confidence’ in the Government.
Mr Johnson replied: ‘I really do not see the purpose of his endless attacks on public trust and confidence when what we are trying to do, and I think what the public want to hear from politicians across all parties, is our clear messages about how to defeat this virus.
‘Test and trace is a vital tool in our armoury and contrary to what he says, we did by the end of May get up to 100,000 tests a day and we got up to 200,000 by the beginning of this month.’
Sir Keir sniped back: ‘The Prime Minister is confusing scrutiny for attacks. I have supported the Government openly and I have taken criticism for it.
‘But boy he makes it difficult to support this Government over the last two weeks.’
Sir Keir and Mr Johnson also clashed over the decision to reopen primary schools and falling levels of trust in the Government after the Dominic Cummings lockdown travel row.
Responding to Mr Johnson’s demand for ‘more co-operation’ from Labour, Sir Keir said he had written to the Prime Minister two weeks ago to offer help to build a consensus for getting children back into schools but he had received no response.
Sir Keir said: ‘This is a critical week in our response to Covid-19.
‘Whereas lockdown and stay at home were relatively easy messages, easing restrictions involves very difficult judgement calls.
‘So this is the week, of all weeks, where public trust and confidence in the Government needed to be at its highest.’
The Labour leader noted that the director of the Reuters Institute said they had never seen such a significant drop in trust in government in 10 years, as Sir Keir added: ‘How worried is the Prime Minister about this loss of trust?’
Sir Keir said he had written to the PM on May 18 to offer Labour’s help in arriving at a consensus on reopening primary schools
Mr Johnson denied the claim he had not responded, saying he ‘took the trouble’ to ring Sir Keir.
Labour subsequently said the phone call referred to by Mr Johnson was not a one-on-one call but actually a briefing with numerous other opposition leaders.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir accused the PM of a lack of transparency over how lockdown easing decisions have been made and whether they have been linked to the Government’s coronavirus alert system.
A visibly frustrated Mr Johnson slapped the despatch box as he replied: ‘He knows perfectly well that the alert level does allow it and he didn’t raise that issue with me when we had a conversation on the telephone and he knows the reason we’ve been able to make the progress we have – the five tests have been fulfilled.
‘So yes the alert level remains at four but as Sage will confirm we’ve managed to protect the NHS, got the rate of deaths down, rate of infection down, the PPE crisis, difficulties in care homes, the question of the R, they have been addressed.
‘The question for him is whether he actually supports the progress we’re making, because at the weekend he was backing it and now he is doing a U-turn, now he seems to be against the steps this country is taking.’
Mr Johnson also faced a grilling from MPs during PMQs after the Government yesterday published an official report which showed Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (Bame) Britons were dying at a higher rate from coronavirus than their white counterparts.
Labour MP Andy Slaughter asked the PM what action will be taken to address the situation and to demonstrate that ‘black lives matter’.
Mr Johnson replied: ‘He is wrong when he says that this Government was somehow forced to publish a review – this Government commissioned the review because we take it incredibly seriously, it is our review.
‘Yes, I do think it intolerable that Covid falls in such a discriminatory way on different groups and different communities in our country and that is why we are going to ensure that our minister for equalities takes up that report and sees what practical steps we need to step to protect those minorities.’
The Government launched the NHS Test and Trace system last week but it has been dogged by claims of early problems.
A leaked report suggested virus sufferers had provided details of 4,634 people they might have infected, of whom just 1,749 had been texted or emailed by contact tracers.
The Government has insisted the figures are out of date and do not paint an accurate picture.
Polls have suggested confidence in Mr Johnson has been slumping in the wake of the spat over Dominic Cummings’ lockdown trip to Durham (pictured in Downing Street yesterday)
Ministers are also under pressure over the scale of the testing regime with the Government not revealing how many people are actually being tested, instead focusing on the number of tests carried out.
Health Minister Edward Argar today suggested it was not ‘important’ for the Government to know exactly how many people have been tested.
He told Sky News: ‘What we have always said is we were talking about the number of tests carried out.
‘There is a very good reason for that which is because some people will have to have multiple tests and Matt has been very clear throughout this that the target number he is using is the number of tests carried out.’
Asked directly how many individuals were tested yesterday, Mr Argar said: ‘We carried out 135,645 tests. That is what we are focusing on. That is the important statistic.’
The current data on tests carried out is skewed by the fact that some people are tested more than once.
There is also growing scrutiny of test turnaround times with former health secretary Jeremy Hunt warning it is ‘absolutely essential’ checks are processed within 24 hours.
The chairman of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: ‘My biggest concern at the moment is the time it is taking for tests to be turned around.
‘The Government advisory committee, Sage, their minutes of May 1 which have now been published say that to be effective you have to get people’s close contacts to isolate within 48 hours.
‘Now if the test results themselves take 48 hours to come back, that is going to be impossible.
‘So I strongly welcome the Prime Minister’s new 24-hour test turnaround target.
‘But at the moment the Government isn’t saying how many tests are being met within that target and for test and trace it is absolutely essential that they all are.’