Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to Michaels Gove’s comments about the Sunday Times investigation, said:

“There are serious questions about the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which cannot be dismissed as ‘off beam’. The severity of this crisis has been clear for some time and the public will want to know why the Prime Minister skipped five COBRA meetings.

“Our frontline NHS staff don’t have enough protective equipment to keep them safe, testing is not at the level needed, and hospitals have been delivered the wrong type of ventilators.

“None of us expects the impossible. But we need to understand what was going on and people deserve an explanation. These reports only reinforce the need for total transparency from ministers over their exit strategy plans, so they can learn from mistakes.”