Labour: Government made ‘monumental mistakes’ in handling of pandemic
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth
(REUTERS)Labour today said the Government had made "monumental mistakes" in its handling of the pandemic.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said it was “horrendous” that the UK had surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths.
It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he took “full responsibility” for every action his Government took and insisted they had done “everything we could” to limit the fatalities.
Mr Ashworth told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We're roughly 12 months on from the first case being identified in the United Kingdom, to think that we've lost 100,000 people in the past 12 months is horrendous.
"We talk about statistics but every individual would have had families, friends, who are grieving and will be grieving particularly today I suspect, and of course within that cohort of people we've lost thousands who were in care homes and I'm afraid were left exposed and unprotected."
He added: "It's just horrendous on every front... I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I just do not believe that Boris Johnson did everything we could, I just can't accept that.
"We all accept these are challenging times for any government, this is a virus which has swept across the world with speed and severity and it continues to spread ferociously.
"But monumental mistakes have been made, we have had a litany of errors in the last 12 months, and he didn't have to make these mistakes."
He also said it was not fair to say Labour had pushed for measures only when they were about to happen.
He added: “No I don’t think that’s fair. As soon as we saw, for example, in the Autumn that the virus was rising at huge levels we called for a circuit break lockdown and Boris Johnson ridiculed us and said no you can’t do that and then he was forced into it.”
The UK is the first European country to officially record more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths and the fifth nation in the world to reach six figures, after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.
Mr Johnson told a sombre press conference last night: “I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and of course as prime minister I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done.
"We truly did everything we could and continue to do everything that we can to minimise loss of life and suffering in what has been a very, very difficult stage and a very, very difficult crisis for our country, and we will continue to do that.”
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