PMQs began with a question from Labour MP Claudia Webbe as to whether the government would be taking action “now” to address the disportionate numbers of deaths from people who are black, Asian or from a minority ethnicity (BAME). The Prime Minister simply repeated what we already know: the eminent Professor Kevin Fenton is leading a report into Covid-19’s disproportionate impact on BAME communities, as was reported at the end of April. It won’t report until the end of the month.
Keir Starmer dispensed with praise for the government’s approach this week, but retained his measured tone. The Labour leader cited the evidence given to the health select committee by the chief executive of Care England, as well as citing the government’s advice from between 2 and 15 April that “negative tests are not required prior to transfers [or] admissions into care homes”, and asked if it was indeed the case that people had been admitted into care homes without testing. The Prime Minister was visibly rattled as this line of inquiry continued, and the Speaker admonish the Health Secretary for his heckling of the Labour leader. Johnson’s only defence was that no one was discharged into a care home without the express approval of a clinician: which, of course, concedes the point on testing.
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