HOUSING Secretary Robert Jenrick has defended the UK’s 100,000 death toll and vowed “we took the right action at the right time”.
It follows Boris Johnson said he was “deeply sorry” for each life lost, saying he took “full responsibility” for the Government’s decisions in the pandemic.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
Mr Jenrick said this morning there will be a time to look a “lessons learned”, but insisted now was not that moment, saying the Government had done everything it could to protect the country during the pandemic.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, the Housing Secretary said ministers had done “all we possibly could to shield people and to help the country through this period.”
When asked if some of the deaths could have been avoided, Mr Jenrick said: “I’m sure that we could or would have done some things differently with the benefit of hindsight, almost certainly. But there wasn’t a textbook.”
He added: “I can give you this assurance, that on each occasion they took the best possible scientific and medical advice, they took their responsibilities extremely seriously.”
And he said he was “proud” of how the Government has “looked after the most vulnerable in society like the homeless and the shielded”.
It comes as:
- Boris Johnson is set to reveal a route out of lockdown on February 15
- Parents are facing a “real danger” kids could be learning from home until the summer
- The PM said he was “deeply sorry” for the more than 100,000 deaths from coronavirus in the UK
- The EU row over vaccines deepened last night as Hungary broke out to try and grab its own supplies from the UK and Russia
And speaking to Sky News, Mr Jenrick lashed out at suggestions the PM had failed to admit mistakes had been made.
“The Prime Minister said he takes personal responsibility for the steps that have been taken, nobody has worked harder than the Prime Minister.
“He’s worked extremely hard to guide the country through the pandemic, but there were no easy answers.”
Mr Jenrick shifted the blame onto the new super-contagious variant of coronavirus, stressing the Government took “very fast” action once the full extent of its transmissibility was discovered.
