WATCH: Criticism of government “easy with hindsight”, says Blair

Tony Blair has described the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic over recent weeks as “somewhat behind the curve”, but said that it is “easy” to criticise “with hindsight”.

In an interview with BBC News this morning, the former Labour Prime Minister reflected on how quickly and effectively Boris Johnson’s administration had responded to the crisis.

“Most people would accept the government was somewhat behind the curve, but it’s easy to say that with hindsight,” Blair told the BBC. He stressed that next steps were crucial.

The government “rightly again has provided support for business… and support for people as we go through this difficult period”, the former PM said.

Blair urged the government to use the next three weeks to set up “all the measures of preparedness that we need”. He told viewers that he is “terrified about the long-term economic and social damage”.

The government has been accused of “sleep walking” into the health crisis after an investigation by the Sunday Times, which highlighted that the Prime Minister failed to attend five coronavirus COBRA meetings in February.

There are a total of 120,067 recorded cases of coronavirus and 16,060 related deaths – but this data does not include people who have died in the community and with low levels of testing the true number of cases is thought to be much higher.