Covid-19 Update

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Monday 21st September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab/Co-op)]

I welcome advance sight of the Secretary of State’s statement, and we particularly welcome the action that he has taken on childcare. There can be no doubt that the presentations that we saw today from the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser were stark and deeply concerning. The Secretary of State yesterday described this, and he repeated it today, as a tipping point. I agree that we are at a perilous moment.

The exponential growth in the virus cannot be ignored. This virus takes lives, and it leaves many with long-term debilitating conditions. Every reasonable action must be taken to save lives, minimise harm and keep our children in school. That means a suppression strategy to drive infections down, so will the Secretary of State reject those siren voices telling him that the virus has lost potency or that we should let it rip through the herd while the vulnerable shield?

We support the local restrictions that the Secretary of State has had to impose, including in Chorley, Mr Speaker, and we understand why he has made that decision. Neither he nor I came into politics to place upon individuals a heavy burden of curtailments on our freedoms, and while we, as the official Opposition, would always welcome greater parliamentary scrutiny of the restrictions, we will continue to work constructively on a cross-party basis where restrictions are necessary to arrest the spread of this virus.

May I also say to the Secretary of State, ever so politely of course, that the tone of his remarks yesterday rather gave the impression that he was blaming people for breaking the rules and allowing the virus to grow? The reality is that people have done everything that they were asked to do. They have missed birthday celebrations, weddings and funerals. They have sent their children back to school, quite rightly. They have gone back to work. They have done what they were asked to do; in return, Ministers were supposed to fix test, trace and isolate, so that we could, in the words of his own Government adverts,

“get back to the things we love.”

Before the summer, the Government commissioned the Academy of Medical Sciences to scenario plan. It modelled that the R value could rise to 1.7 in September—that is what Imperial College currently estimates it to be—and it recommended significantly expanding the capacity of the test, trace and isolate programme to cope with increasing demands over the winter. Ministers were warned, but pillar 1 and pillar 2 testing capacity did not increase significantly over the summer.

In recent weeks, only half of all tests have been received in less than 24 hours. The Secretary of State has repeated his point about asymptomatic people asking for tests. Will he publish the pillar 2 data, which breaks down how many of the people asking for those tests were symptomatic and how many were asymptomatic? Many parents report going to walk-in centres with their sick children when they themselves had no symptoms and being given a test. Was that a national policy and has that national policy been abandoned?

We welcome the recognition that people need financial support to isolate. We have been saying that for months, but, as I understand it, it is available only to those low-paid workers who are also on benefits and not to all low-paid workers, so will the Secretary of State consider expanding the eligibility criteria?

We have always said that when testing breaks down, tracing breaks down and the virus gets out of control. We are now facing a second wave of infection. We do not want a second wave of ministerial mistakes. All of us want to avoid a further national lockdown. Lockdowns or circuit breaks exact a heavy social and economic price, especially on the poorest and more vulnerable, but controlling the virus and protecting the economy are linked objectives, not in conflict with one another.

I understand that the Secretary of State will tell us that we have to anticipate the Prime Minister’s statement, but can he confirm that during a lockdown, if we have one, he will use the time wisely, expand NHS lab capacity, put public health teams in the lead on contact tracing, quickly assess the university pilots on saliva testing, and validate polymerase chain reaction pool testing, so that when those lockdown restrictions are lifted we can contain the virus in the future?

I welcome what the Secretary of State said about prioritising NHS staff, care workers and teachers, but can he clarify why he has issued guidance to hospital trusts placing restrictions on the numbers of tests that they can carry out, and how he will protect care homes? According to reports today, many care homes have had to wait over two weeks for their test results, and data from Public Health England shows that more than 200 care homes have had an outbreak of covid in the last two weeks. Will he ensure that no one is discharged into a care home without having a covid test? Given where the virus is, what is his advice to the shielding community? What protections is he putting in place for those from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, given that there are disproportionate numbers from those communities in intensive care units today?

None of us wants to see another lockdown or circuit break, and we will of course understand if one becomes necessary, but test, trace and isolate should have been fixed. That failure has left us vulnerable and exposed. Now we must act with speed to save lives and minimise harm.

[Matt Hancock]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his constructive approach in these difficult times. He and I agree that the strategy of suppressing the virus while protecting the economy and education is the right one. In so doing, it is important to act fast so as not to have to act bigger later. I also agree that no one in this House came into office to put in place restrictions like these. He asked about the importance of people following the rules that we have put in place. It is vital that all people follow the rules. The vast majority have done so throughout but, critically, enough have not, meaning that in many cases we have had to make the rules mandatory, rather than relying on people’s sense of civic duty. That is the fundamental judgment behind making self-isolation mandatory, as I announced in the statement.

The hon. Gentleman asked about testing. Of course, we have record testing capacity right now—a record 233,000 tests were done on Friday—and lab capacity will continue to grow. He also asked about the NHS testing capacity, which will also continue to grow. In fact, I had a meeting about that earlier today with Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England. The hon. Gentleman asked about pool testing and saliva testing, which are just two of the many new testing capabilities that we are bringing to bear. He also asked me to ensure that there will be no admissions to care homes without a test. That is our policy: not just no discharges from hospital into care homes without a test, but no admission from anywhere into care homes without a test. That was reiterated in the social care winter plan that we set out on Friday.

I suppose that at the heart of the official Opposition’s response, and at the heart of my response to the hon. Gentleman, is the fact that we are united in wanting to tackle this virus, and in sending the message to everyone across the country that it is critical that we all follow the rules and play our part so that we can suppress the virus while protecting, as much as possible, the things that we love.