Exclusive: Labour’s Jim McMahon criticises “whack-a-mole” Covid approach

Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon has criticised the “whack-a-mole” approach taken by Boris Johnson to the coronavirus crisis and specifically the government’s failure to roll out airport testing.

In an interview with LabourList on Monday evening, the shadow cabinet member set out his analysis of why the government has continued to use the “blunt tool” of 14-day quarantines after travel to certain countries.

McMahon said: “Boris Johnson himself has articulated the reason for the strategy: when he talks about ‘whack-a-mole’, he really means it. You wait for the mole to pop up, you whack it, and quite often you miss it.”

Speaking at a coronavirus press briefing in May, and again in later interviews, the Prime Minister described his own Covid-19 strategy of managing local lockdowns as one comparable to the game “whack-a-mole”.

Labour is pushing for a change to the quarantine policy and recommending a “mutual test support” system whereby people could be tested four days from departure in a travel corridor country. Their test on arrival in the UK would be “more robust”.

It has been reported that many British holidaymakers are ignoring the quarantine rules, which are enforced for particular countries at short notice, and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has himself described the system as “confusing”.

Commenting on the government’s handling of international travel over the summer, McMahon told LabourList: “They know that aviation is heavily seasonal. That summer period is really important for the travel industry and aviation, and that’s where they make their profit for the rest of the year.

“If you don’t have that summer season, you’re really going to struggle to be able to get the money and get the support for winter and into the new year. The government knew that. But when they were asked to provide a sector deal… they said ‘we don’t need to do that’.”

McMahon suggested that the behaviour of British Airways and easyJet, which have cut staff, “could have have been dealt with” if the government had said “you’re not going to get a penny of taxpayers’ money if you don’t look after the welfare of your staff”.

Unite, the TUC and other other aviation unions are calling for a package of measures to support the aviation industry, including extension of furlough, suspension of air passenger duty and business rate relief for airports.

Asked whether Labour backs these proposals, McMahon said: “Yes. We’ve been very clear that the furlough scheme needs to be extended. We back the calls from the trade unions to see that extended until March.”

On the view of activists who would prefer Labour to be advocating a transition towards green industries, the Shadow Transport Secretary replied that “there is a tension” and the climate emergency is “not something you can put on the back burner”.

But McMahon added: “The point I would make, and I say this with absolute respect, is that the Labour Party is the party of working people. If we are not the voice when people are faced with redundancy, then, quite frankly, we don’t deserve the support of working people.

“We have to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the workers who are faced with redundancy because of the mishandling of this crisis by this government. I say that for the workers but also for how we transition to a green economy.

“My view is that the best way to do that is from a position of strength. An aviation sector that is sustainable, but also where we allow it to be financially sustainable in the medium- and long-term.”

On his appointment to the shadow cabinet by Keir Starmer in April, McMahon said: “I’m not somebody that you would see on the TV all the time. I’m the kind of geekier person that gets to the data, likes research, likes exposing where the government has maybe got its eye off the ball.”

He told LabourList that he was keen to move away from local government because he had been a councillor for 13 years, also leader of the Local Government Association Labour group, and wanted to try a different policy area.

Asked whether Starmer was looking for someone who would “bring a very nerdy approach to transport”, the new shadow cabinet member replied: “I’m not sure if he was looking for it but he certainly got it.”

On Starmer’s leadership style, he said: “Keir is a person that has real attention to detail. You can counter him to Boris Johnson, who has no work ethic at all, is a part-time Prime Minister, who barely turns up, who doesn’t understand there’s a crisis until weeks afterwards.

“Then you’ve got Keir, who I think is really in tune with where the public are. More than just articulating people’s concerns, he’s really in on the detail, and I think Boris stumbles because of it.”

Below is the full interview with Jim McMahon MP.