- Lib Dems: Yet more lies from PM as he tries to dodge blame for care homes crisis
- Davey: We must match the scale of the crisis with the courage to invest
Lib Dems: Yet more lies from PM as he tries to dodge blame for care homes crisis
Responding to Boris Johnson’s comments during Prime Minister’s Questions that “no one knew early on in the pandemic that the virus was being passed on asymptomatically”, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Munira Wilson said:
Yet again, we are seeing more lies from the Prime Minister. He and his Ministers knew about the asymptomatic transmission of this virus, but they still allowed those who hadn’t been tested to enter our care homes.
It was not the case that we didn’t know coronavirus could be asymptomatic, and it is not fair to say that care homes were not following procedures. The truth is there was no protective ring around care homes.
Our social care system was left tragically exposed under Boris Johnson’s watch. It is time he stopped trying to dodge the blame.
The Prime Minister must start taking some responsibility for his Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and back Liberal Democrat calls for an inquiry. The mistakes that have been made cannot be allowed to happen again.
Davey: We must match the scale of the crisis with the courage to invest
Speaking after the Chancellor’s Summer Statement, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said:
Coronavirus has left countless families facing serious financial hardship. More than a million people have lost their jobs and many more are worried about losing theirs in the weeks and months ahead.
While I welcome short term measures to help people now, the Chancellor has no serious long term economic strategy for dealing with unemployment, climate change and inequality.
Totally absent today was any measure to help the millions excluded from Covid support – like new starters, newly self-employed people and freelancers. They haven’t been helped at all so far and yet represent some of the most vulnerable groups. They must not be left behind.
Fundamentally, we need a radically new approach to building a radical new green economy for everyone. We must match the scale of the economic and climate crises with the courage to invest £150 billion over three years in a Green Recovery Plan for green jobs in all parts of our country.
Sadly, Ministers have fallen far far short of what is needed for people and for the climate.
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2 Comments
“Totally absent today was any measure to help the millions excluded from Covid support….. They must not be left behind.”
“We must match the scale of the economic and climate crises with the courage to invest £150 billion over three years in a Green Recovery Plan”
Are we talking about help for the “left behind” or a “green recovery plan”? I was listening to a self employed curtain fitter who had somehow fallen through the cracks on TV earlier. So we shouldn’t mix up help for people like him with a Green issues. I’m not sure how he can fit green curtains in other than the literal sense. He probably has a perfectly serviceable petrol or diesel van so helping him replace it with an electric one isn’t going to solve his immediate problem.
In any case, £150 billion over three years isn’t going to do either. The climate issue will need our attention for many more years than that. £50 billion, this year, sounds a lot but already the Govt is running a budget deficit of £100 billion this quarter and its going to be at least £300 billion for the the year. So £50 billion is more likely to be much less than the margin of error than represent any serious figure for what is likely to be required to solve both problems.
In other words, it’s neither here nor there!
Yes, let’s have Green Recovery.
And one area that needs urgent attention is “How do we deliver energy to the new generation of Electric Vehicles?”
As 10 million cars move from Internal Combustion Engine power to Electric the way that the energy for transport has to have a Major revolution. No more petrol pumps, replaced by 12 million charger points at homes, in the streets and across our road network. EVs do 200-300miles per charge, ICEs did 500-600. And you could fill your ICE in minutes at frequent, open and available garages. Now we have to build urgently a radically different kind of energy delivery network.