PMQ: Reopening the Economy

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 on reopening the economy in the midst of a pandemic.

Starmer said that the economy could be opened up in either a controlled or chaotic way. Johnson’s health secretary reported that infections could go as high as 100,000 per day. If that was the case, Starmer asked Johnson how many hospitalizations, deaths, and long-term illnesses he expected.

Johnson did admit that he expected a wave of cases due to the delta variant; however, he also made clear that scientists had severed the link between infections and serious illnesses and deaths. This was made possible because of the vaccine rollout. He asked Starmer whether he supported the progress the UK had made or not. 

Starmer admitted that the link had been weakened, but not broken. He said that the number of cases would surge, and this was because Johnson was taking off all protections in one go. Higher infection rates would lead to a greater chance of new variants. 

Johnson said that the vaccine provided a 90% protection rate, and that by July 19, every adult would have received their first vaccine dose. He accused Starmer of not supporting his plan of reopening the economy.

Starmer corrected him by saying that he did support opening the country, but in a controlled way. This included keeping protections “such as masks on public transport, improving ventilation, making sure the track and trace system remains effective, and ensuring proper payments for self-isolation,” he said.

With the rise of cases, this would include millions of people being quarantined, and some news outlets expected up to 2 million people per week in self-isolation. This would greatly disrupt families and businesses. He asked Johnson how many people he expected to self-isolate.

Johnson said that with the massive vaccine rollout, he could move to a system of testing rather than self-isolation. Furthermore, he again accused Starmer of hypocrisy by saying he was once in favor of reopening the economy, but now was against it. Instead, he needed to provide an alternative to Johnson’s plans.

“To oppose, you must have a credible and clear alternative,” he said.

Starmer again repeated that he was in favor of reopening, but in a controlled way. He said that it was vital to keep baseline protections as a means of keeping infections down. However, he went out to argue that even though Johnson recognized it as common sense, he would not make it mandatory. He said that after Johnson lost his health secretary, bi-election, and received criticism from his own MPs, he is chasing headlines and coming up with poorly thought out plans as a result.

“Instead of a careful, controlled approach, we’re heading for a summer of chaos and confusion,” he said.

Johnson had admitted that these were difficult decisions, but ones that were being carried out in a balanced way. 

“It takes a great deal of drive and it takes a great deal of leadership to get things done,” he said.

Other members of Parliament asked question during the remainder of the PMQs.