Boris Johnson refuses to apologise to care workers at PMQs
Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to apologise to care workers on Wednesday after claiming that some homes failed to follow “the correct procedures” during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.
The prime minister said on Monday: “We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have, but we’re learning lessons the whole time.”
At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, confronted Johnson with the remarks and pressed him to apologise.
Johnson replied: “The last thing I wanted to do is to blame care workers for anything that’s happened. When it comes to taking blame, I take full responsibility for what has happened.”
He praised care workers, saying rates of infection in care homes had fallen significantly. “That’s thanks to our care workers, and I pay tribute to them,” he said.
But he claimed that on Monday he had been highlighting the fact that no one had known during the early stages of the outbreak what the right procedures were – a line used repeatedly by Downing Street since he made the comments.
Urged again by Starmer to say sorry, Johnson said: “He keeps saying that I blamed or tried to blame care workers and that is simply not the case. The reality is we now know things about how the coronavirus is passed, person to person, without symptoms, that we just didn’t know.”
Starmer pointed out that as many as one in 20 care home residents may have died in the pandemic, according to official figures, a statistic he called “chilling”.
“By refusing to apologise, he rubs salt into the wounds of the very people he stood at his front door and clapped,” he said.
Starmer also raised the issue of hospital parking charges, which reportedly could be reimposed for NHS staff.
Johnson did not deny the reports. “Hospital car parks are free for NHS staff for this pandemic; they’re free now – and we are going to get on with our manifesto commitment to make them free for patients,” he said.
He returned to an attack line he has used against Starmer repeatedly, accusing him of flip-flopping over his support for government policies, and teasing him for being a lawyer, saying he took one brief one week and another the next.
