PMQ: Government Response to COVID-19

The United Kingdom Parliament met together for the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions Time. Labor Party and Opposition Leader Sir Keir Starmer asked six questions to Prime Minister and Conservative Party Leader Boris Johnson regarding how the government handled COVID-19.

Starmer opened up by saying that one of Johnson’s former advisors said that when the public needed the government the most, they failed. He also pointed out that one year ago, Johnson regarded this same advisor as trustworthy.

Johnsons responded by saying that this pandemic had been incredibly hard on everyone. This was one of the hardest things the country had to do in a long time. However, at every stage of the process, Johnson worked to minimize the loss of life, and protect the NHS.

Despite all that had happened, Johnson appointed a public inquiry that would investigate the pandemic. But, he said that Starmer and the Labor Party chose to look in the rear-view mirror while Johnson was focused on distributing the vaccine and getting the job done.

“We are increasing our vaccination program at such a rate that we can now ask everybody over thirty to come forward, Mr. Speaker, and get vaccinated,” he said.

Starmer said that Johnson had spent more time attacking him, when it was his former advisor who criticized him. He went forward to discuss allegations that Johnson’s health secretary had misled health officials. As a result, one of his cabinet secretaries stated that he had lost faith in the health secretary.

This was a major problem that Starmer pointed out. If the cabinet secretary was telling the truth, then Johnson needed to address the allegations. However, if the cabinet secretary was not telling the truth, then Johnson’s judgement on appointing officials was in question. 

“There was clearly a lack of planning, poor decision making, and a lack of transparency,” he said.

Johnson said that when looking in hindsight, Starmer voted to stay in the EU’s medicine agency. If the vote passed, then the UK Government would not have been able to roll out the vaccine as fast as they could have.

He said that Starmer spent more time playing political games, while the UK government was battling the pandemic. Through his leadership, Johnson had created 14 new hospitals, 8,000 more police were patrolling the streets, more young people were getting housing opportunities, and 60 million people were vaccinated.