WATCH: Nandy on why Labour is calling for a ‘vaccine tsar’

Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy has set out why the party is calling for the installation of a ‘vaccine tsar’ amid warnings against vaccine ‘nationalism’ that could harm the fight against Covid-19.

Explaining the demand, Nandy said: “What we’re engaged in at the moment is a scramble amongst nations to try to appropriate any potential vaccine for themselves. And Britain will lose out from that.

“The whole world will lose out, but Britain hasn’t got the manufacturing capacity we need. We have a couple of candidate vaccines but that is a risky gamble to take to hope that they become the eventual winner.

“We think we need a vaccine tsar, just like we’ve got one for PPE and for testing, to actually go out and make sure there is coordination around this to take this issue seriously. This is the next crisis that the government is going to face.”

“This is the next crisis the government is going to face.”@lisanandy tells @KayBurley why Labour is calling for a vaccine tsar to lead coordination for ‘the next challenge’ in the #coronavirus crisis.

Today’s top stories: https://t.co/4eb20VVtRl #KayBurley pic.twitter.com/UYZzeux1ZM

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) June 4, 2020

Nandy was asked about Labour MP and former shadow cabinet member Barry Gardiner breaking social distancing rules in order to join a Black Lives Matter protest on Wednesday.

She said: “He’s not on the frontbench anymore, so I think the best thing to do would for him to acknowledge that he got that wrong and correct it. I do think that’s important. It’s important that we project the right message.”

The opposition frontbencher also raised concerns about the possibility that Alok Sharma has Covid-19 and the end of remote voting for MPs, saying: “There is no reason for this, this is a complete mess of the government’s own making.”