Sir Keir Starmer believes the government has made “serious mistakes” in its response to coronavirus and wants ministers to be “held accountable”, his spokesman has said.
Speaking after PMQs, the spokesman said Sir Keir was resisting calls for an independent inquiry into the handling of the crisis, saying the “priority” must be that the government “fixes the current mistakes it is making”.
In his first PMQs at Labour leader, Sir Keir told the House of Commons that a “pattern is emerging”, with the government apparently “slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment”.
He gave First Secretary Dominic Raab what many described as “forensic” questioning over the UK’s testing capacity, its target, and the struggle for care workers to get tested.
Mr Raab is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who watched PMQs from Chequers, where he is recovering from coronavirus, his spokesman said.
Sir Keir asked, with the government claiming Covid-19 test capacity was at 40,000 per day, why just 18,665 had been carried out.
“We have been very slow” on testing, the Labour MP said, adding: “We’re way behind other European countries”.
He also pointed to the government’s target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of April and asked “what does the secretary of state expect to happen in the next eight days?” in order to reach the target.
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