LONDON: Sir Keir Starmer has accused the government of “bobbing all over the place” without anchors in the face of the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
The Labour leader said Prime Minister Boris Johnson had presided over “serial incompetence” while dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak. Speaking at a Cooperative Party virtual conference, Sir Keir said: “At the moment, amongst my concerns is that the government hasn’t really got any anchors. It’s bobbing all over the place.”
With new restrictions expected to be imposed in parts of England next week, Sir Keir was critical of the business aid package unveiled by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Friday. The Labour leader said: “The scheme that was unveiled yesterday goes a bit further, but there are still gaps in it.
“I think, though, that the government has lost sight of the guiding principle, and the guiding principle should be that restrictions are always accompanied by appropriate economic support. If that had been the principle throughout, we wouldn’t be in the mess that we are in at the moment.”
Sir Keir said the Prime Minister was spouting rhetoric about the test and trace system rather than ensuring it worked properly. He said: “Test, trace and isolate is critical. The Prime Minister said we would have a world-beating system — we didn’t need that, we just need an effective one that works.
“‘World-beating’ is just Johnson rhetoric. Getting a test quickly, getting the result quickly and then reaching the contacts so that self-isolation works — that’s not working properly, which means that thousands and thousands of people are walking around today who should be in self-isolation. So, that bit needs to be fixed.”
The Labour leader added: “I think it is 13 or 14 U-turns now. If it was one or two, I think many people across the country, if the government made a mistake and then U-turned, would say ‘well, fair enough, we are dealing with a pandemic’. But when you have 12, 13, or 14 U-turns the only thing that can be read into that is serial incompetence.”
