Covid-19: International Response

Lord Truscott Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Truscott (Ind Lab)]

My Lords, never in the field of human suffering has the incompetence of a few caused the death of so many in our country. There must be a public inquiry into the Government’s handling of Covid-19. In terms of deaths per head of population, the UK response has been the worst in the world. What countries like South Korea and Taiwan did but the UK singularly failed to do was to introduce at the outset of the pandemic a system of testing, tracking and contact tracing combined with isolation. If flights from China has been restricted from the beginning and foreign nationals either repatriated or quarantined, most of our current woes could have been avoided.

Too much of the Government’s so-called independent scientific advice, including advice from SAGE, has been politicised. That is why action was not taken sooner. This is also yet another cost of Brexit because during the early months of this year the Government were overly obsessed with Brexit issues following last December’s general election when they should have been preparing for the coronavirus outbreak. The failure to control our borders, to ban mass gatherings and to develop an adequate testing and tracking system, along with our unpreparedness with PPE, has been a national disgrace. Our care homes have ended up bearing the brunt. The Minister and the Government owe the country and your Lordships’ House an apology.