Labour’s Emily Thornberry has criticised plans set out by the government for the repatriation of British people trapped abroad during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary says the commitments made so far by Dominic Raab would fail to address the issues faced by hundreds of thousands of Brits around the world.
In an interview with Sky News, she said: “We just heard more of: we’re going to keep the airports open, we’re working with commercial airlines, we may or may not charter flights.”
Thornberry told Sky that Labour had been trying to help the Foreign Office by passing on information and pressing them for action, but “we haven’t got the answers we should”.
Commenting after the appearance by Dominic Raab at the Covid-19 press conference on Monday, Thornberry said there had only been “vague promises” with “none of the commitment or urgency other countries like Germany have put into this”.
She concluded: “We need a comprehensive and fully-funded strategy to bring our British nationals home, using every option at the government’s disposal, and to give them all the practical support and help they need in the interim.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary @EmilyThornberry says the government has not provided proper answers to Brits trapped abroad.#KayBurley
Read the latest on #COVID19 here: https://t.co/Jn9xL5RXHv pic.twitter.com/XEpDzaA2lH
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 31, 2020
More from LabourList
‘We can’t beat the Greens treating them like a naughty Labour faction’
‘Too much timidity and factionalism’: Burnham issues a radical rallying cry
Lou Haigh: ‘We need change that spark fights – and a new economic settlement’