Oral Answers to Questions

Sam Tarry Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my right hon. Friend. He is completely right about the paramount importance of keeping our schools open. Out of this crisis has come at least one potentially innovative idea that can really help exactly the types of pupils he is talking about: one-on-one tutoring of the kind that we have been able to support with our catch-up premiums and our national tutoring programme. As we come out of this pandemic, I want to see us keeping up with one-on-one tutoring because I believe it can make a huge difference to children’s confidence and academic attainment.

[Sam Tarry (Ilford South) (Lab)]

I put on the record my congratulations on your first year, Mr Speaker, and the thanks of the many young MPs you have supported in the past year. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies recommended a circuit breaker more than six weeks ago. The Prime Minister has clearly not listened to scientific or medical advice for more than six weeks. What will he say to the families of the 12,000 people who will die by Christmas, as SAGE forecasts?

[The Prime Minister]

I listen to a huge range of scientific advice, and indeed there are eminent scientists and epidemiologists who say that we should not do any kind of lockdowns or measures like this at all—David Nabarro of the World Health Organisation, whom I esteem greatly, for instance. We have to take a balanced decision and make a judgment about when the right moment is. The hon. Gentleman talks about the long-term effects on people’s lives. We have to make a balanced judgment about the effects on people’s mental health, livelihoods and prospects, the prospects of young people, and the importance of saving lives and protecting our NHS. That is the balance we are trying to strike tonight, and I hope he will support it.