Covid-19 Update

Yvette Cooper Excerpts
Tuesday 5th May 2020

(3 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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Yes, I am incredibly proud of the work that was done to put in place the Nightingale hospitals across the country. Most of them were put in place in under two weeks. The London Nightingale, which was open first, is the prime example of the whole team—the NHS, the private sector and the armed forces—all pulling together. It was a great accomplishment, but a greater accomplishment still is that it was never full and that this country has managed to flatten the curve. Now we are able to put it on standby, meaning that it will be physically there in case there is a second spike, but as an insurance policy, rather than as an active hospital. That is a very, very positive step that should be welcomed by all. I tend not to take much notice of some of the noises off, which sometimes criticise me for not having full enough hospitals and sometimes criticise me for not having enough people wanting test capacity. Frankly, we will get the capacity up and then hope we do not use it. That is the attitude we should take to the extra hospitals, and I pay tribute to everybody involved in the project.

Lindsay Hoyle Portrait Mr Speaker
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We will have to go across to Stuart Anderson.

--- Later in debate ---
Lindsay Hoyle Portrait Mr Speaker
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We will now try to reconnect Yvette Cooper.

Yvette Cooper Portrait Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Lab) [V]
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I am grateful, Mr Speaker. The Health Secretary told me that he would make public the evidence behind the Government’s repeatedly confirmed decision, in contrast with other countries, not to ask people arriving at our ports and airports to self-isolate. However, that evidence was not included in the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies papers published today, even though the papers say we were affected by many cases arriving or coming back from Italy and Spain. Surely, we need to see the evidence and scrutinise it in order to get border policy right. Why has it been withheld?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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I will look into the question that the right hon. Lady raises.