PM claims “too many care homes didn’t follow procedures”

You know that whole thing where tens of thousands have been dying in care homes due to coronavirus outbreaks? Well, according to the Prime Minister, “too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures”. Glad we got that one cleared up. 10 Downing Street has denied that Boris Johnson was blaming care homes since he made that comment, which is up there with the weakest of rebuttals they have had to issue. Liz Kendall has pointed out: “Care workers have gone above and beyond the call of duty, and many of them in care homes have seen really traumatic things.” The other crucial fact is that the “procedures” were often wrong: care homes were shutting doors to visitors before being told to do so, and they were being advised for too long that staff did not need to wear face masks.

The Tories like to talk a good game about ‘coming together’ and that sort of thing. They are more than happy to do a bit of clapping for key workers. But ultimately they will shift the blame on to individuals when government failures lead to many avoidable deaths. Meanwhile, frontline workers are being forced to take matters into their own hands. As Shelly explores in the return of her TU-esday round-up column today, postal workers have had to stage walkouts when colleagues test positive for Covid-19, and there have been serious outbreaks in meat factories where safety assessments were not conducted. And then there are those workers who are being laid off in huge numbers.

Labour’s Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has set out ten things to look for in Wednesday’s speech from the Chancellor on LabourList. Her detailed list of priorities for the opposition party will no doubt be used by Labour MPs to assess the announcements made by Rishi Sunak tomorrow and develop their criticisms. This is an important moment: both because the government plans must match up to the scale of the crisis and because the prospect of eminently popular Sunak taking over from Johnson before the next general election (don’t you think he looks tired?) is a worrying one.

This evening, I will be holding our next LabourList ‘in conversation’ event with Jonathan Ashworth, just a couple of days after the 72nd anniversary of the NHS. We will be talking about the Service, the coronavirus crisis and the future of social care, of course, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on what else I should be asking the Shadow Health Secretary. Feel free to email with suggestions, and remember to join us from 6pm on this LabourList page where the event will be broadcast live.