PMQ: COVID-19 Death Toll and Border Control

The United Kingdom Parliament met together for the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions Time. Labor Party and Opposition Leader Sir Keir Starmer asked multiple questions to Prime Minister and Conservative Party Leader Boris Johnson regarding the COVID-19 death toll and border security.

Starmer started off by saying that the United Kingdom has reached 100,000 deaths from COVID-19.

“Behind every death is a grieving family,” he said.

 He shared that this is the highest death toll in Europe, and he asked Johnson why this has happened.

Jonson responded by saying that he takes full responsibility for what happened in the pandemic.

“I mourn every death in this pandemic and we share the grief of all those who have been bereaved,” he said.

However, he made clear that despite everything that has happened, this is not the time to reflect on lessons. At this moment, the UK Parliament should be focused on working together to roll out the vaccine program.

Starmer repeats his statement about the death toll, and says that Johnson should answer his question. He brings up the Chief Scientific Officer and says that they should have been more aggressive on the virus and should have dealt with it earlier.

He asked Johnson if he agrees with the Officer’s statement.

Johnson made clear that this is something that has taken the UK Government by surprise. This current virus has a completely new variant, and the government is dealing with new dilemmas. However, he says that they have worked hard to vaccinate 6.9 million people.

Starmer made clear that Johnson has been slow on the lockdowns three different times since the virus first hit the UK.

“I fear that he still hasn’t learned that lesson,” he said.

Starmer said that Johnson has been slow on border control. Johnson knew about the new virus variant since December.  He asked him why he hasn’t implemented a new policy to quarantine foreigners who enter the country.

Johnson pointed out Starmer’s hypocrisy and said that he constantly takes a side and then immediately attacks it. He said that the UK has one of the toughest borders in the world, and it is especially tough on countries that have high rates of COVID-19. The UK Parliament’s main focus should be to be united and deal with the virus together.

Starmer transitioned to talk about the families who lost loved ones to COVID-19. The last time he met with families, he asked Johnson to give him a message that he could give to them.

“He replied with a pre-prepared, childish gag. I could tell the Prime Minister just how badly that went down with those families,” he said.

He is having another meeting with families, and asked Johnson to give a more proper message that he could give to them.

Johnson said that he is grateful that Starmer has met with the families.

“I, of course, deeply personally, regret the loss of life, the suffering of their families,” he said.

However, he believes that the  best thing they can do to honor the victims and the families is to contain the virus and bring it down.

He pointed out that Starmer cares about scoring political points, and will always be hypocritical. He has attacked the vaccine force in the past and has attacked the pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccine, despite supporting the vaccine now.

“We will go on, with or without his help, in taking this country forward, fighting the pandemic and getting coronavirus down.”