Oral Answers to Questions

Ruth Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The only comment I would make on all that was that I was genuinely amazed that the leader of the Unite union should make a remark of the kind that he did, and that the Labour party should remain in receipt of funding from Unite and take no steps to dissociate itself from that union after that remark. I did find that absolutely astonishing.

[Ruth Jones (Newport West) (Lab)]

  Happy anniversary, Mr Speaker.This week, the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee stated that centralised contact tracing will always be less effective than a locally driven model. Given the fact that in Wales track and trace cost £32 a head, is run by local authorities and works, whereas the English system cost £1,700 a head, is run centrally and does not, when will the Prime Minister introduce a more effective track and trace system driven by local authorities?

[The Prime Minister]

I am not going to pretend that every aspect of NHS Test and Trace has worked in the way that I wanted to, but as I said earlier on, it has achieved some very considerable things. What I think it has also done throughout the pandemic, from the get-go, is work with local authorities and local people. What we will be doing now, as we roll out the mass testing that I have described to the House in Liverpool and elsewhere, will be led by local people, and we will be working with those local authorities to deliver those programmes.