Bradshaw bashes Boris

PM should have acted sooner say Exeter MP

Ben Bradshaw, the Labour MP for Exeter, cannot hide his anger over the chain of events that have led to a second national lockdown set to be imposed later this week. “It’s an absolute tragedy for lives and livelihoods and Boris Johnson’ dither and delay and inability to deliver has led to this," he says. "there has been no trade-off between public health and economy – we have one of the worst death rates and one of the worst economic hits due to their serial incompetence and the continued scandalous failure of the test track and trace system.”.

Mr Bradshaw is likely to vote in favour of the new lockdown when it MPs consider the government's plans on Wednesday, although he says any final decision would not be made until the wording of the legislation is proposed. But he said that had the prime minister listened to SAGE and Sir Keir Starmer for a two-week lockdown some weeks ago, then the measures needed to be taken now wouldn’t be so long or so intense.

He said: "The Prime Minister ignored the advice, and we are now in a much worse situation as a result, and this is an absolutely tragedy for those who lives are affected, for business who face further uncertainly, for those whose jobs are on the line, and those in the front line dealing with a very different situation.

“I will wait to see exactly what is proposed but I will probably voting in favour of the measures in general because it is better late than never. The lessons of covid have been swift and decisive action saves lives and protects the economy and the clear advice from science is that if we don’t act now, then the NHS would be overwhelmed and the death toll far worse than the spring, so with a heavy heart, I will be voting in favour of the measures

“But the Government must publish clear criteria for an exit route to the lockdown and on what basis a decision to extend or end it will be taken. Sir Keir Starmer asked for this weeks ago at Prime Ministers’ Questions as to whether getting R Rate below 1 was the objective, and this is important but is it sufficient? People need something to plan and to something to aim at as if it is just a vague lockdown with no obvious exit, it will increase frustrating and desperation and damage the level of compliance

“People are really fed up and fed up with the serial incompetence of Boris Johnson and his government. Compliance was shot very badly by the Dominic Cummings scandal and has never recovered as people took the view of it is one rule for them and another for the rest of us. A huge amount of damage done to trust and levels of compliance, but I would urge people to stick to the rules and advice as one person’s behaviour has a big impact on other people and we all have a responsibility to get through the crisis.”

Mr Bradshaw was also called for the government to immediate publish the modelling that they produced in the charts that were shown as part of Saturday’s press conference, saying they have to be completely transparent. His call emerged before experts questioned the legitimacy of those graphs which were based on an estimate R Rate of 1.3-1.5, when the government’s own figures show the R Rate is between 1.1-1.3.

The Exeter MP said: “Clearly the rate of increase is very serious and it would eventually impact on the hospitals, even in a region like ours when infection rates lower, but it is vital that the government publishes the modelling and is completely transparent about the information on which these decision are being made, and does it quickly and doesn’t wait several weeks.

“The problem we had was that Keir Starmer’s call was based on advice that was three weeks old, so they must publish SAGE advice immediately and stop treating the public like children who cannot be privy to the information. They need to publish the full impacts and modelling as they have continued to overpromise and under deliver on everything

“The lesson I hope we learn that dither and delay, which we have had is lethal for lost lives and for the economy. There has been no trade-off between public health and economy as we have among the worst death rates and the worst economic hits due to their serial incompetence and the continued scandalous failure of the test, track and trace system.

“The tracing is non-existent and they need to immediately to hand it down to local public health officials, and GPs and take it out of the completely useless private hire companies that have made a complete pig ears of the system, and if we had an effective system then we wouldn’t be where we are, and the repeated failures to deliver on promises on this has been one of the biggest scandals of the affair.

“There needs to be provided support to people, and businesses and local authority needs to be given proper support and to improve people self-isolating, as if by self-isolating you impoverish yourself then people are just not doing it and compliance will be less.”

He added: “A combination of Boris’ dither and delay and inability to deliver led to this. He has been over optimistic on everything and it would be a foolish politician to predict anything that will happen. The great hope is that a vaccine comes online and works, along with a combination of treatment, testing, as well as a test, track and trace and isolate that works, and if we get some of them then we can live with the virus better and open more of the economy, but we need two of the three in place.”

And he said that it was vital that as far as possible that school and university’s do stay open, if safe to do so, as the level of risk to young people and children is far less severe, and the least well off suffer the most when their education is interrupted and been disrupted enough.

He continued: “When it is all over, there needs to be a fair and just reckoning between the ages as young people have paid a huge price and have been far more economically and socially impacted and affected by this and will have to the devastating fiscal effects to deal with for the rest of their lives."