'Would you send one of YOUR family into a coronavirus ward in a cagoule?': Piers Morgan rages at Cabinet Minister Simon Clarke over 'shameful' handling of PPE and him 'not having a clue' how many health care staff have died

Piers Morgan slammed a government minister today over his failure to ensure NHS staff treating coronavirus patients have the protective equipment they need.

The Good Morning Britain presenter criticised Local Government Minister Simon Clarke over his 'shameful' handling of the problem during the pandemic.

Morgan said Mr Clarke 'didn't have a clue' how many healthcare workers had died from the virus - with Mr Clarke saying 49, but Morgan insisting it was over 100.

Tearful nurses are being forced to wear these overalls after NHS staff in the Yorkshire and Humber area said they have been 'provided with clothing that resembles cagoules'

The host also held up a photo from today's Daily Mail of nurses wearing cagoules because they did not have proper equipment to protect them from the infection.

And Morgan, who was alongside Susanna Reid this morning, asked the Conservative MP: 'Would you send one of your family into a COV-19 ward wearing a cagoule?'  

It comes as Parliament returns today amid mounting criticism of the Government over its failure to ensure NHS staff have the protective equipment they need.

During the interview, Mr Clarke urged every business in Britain that could help with providing PPE to contact the Cabinet Office to offer their resources.

On the number of healthcare workers who have died, Mr Clarke said: 'The figure for that is 49 and obviously every single one of those cases represents a human tragedy - we are determined we will understand in each case what has happened.'

Morgan accused the MP of 'underestimating it by 50 per cent', but Mr Clarke insisted that the 'official government statistic' is 49.

He added: 'Clearly we work to reconcile all the figures. We do not, when someone is hospital and tragically they die, always know their occupation at the outset. With great respect to the newspaper industry it doesn't quite hold to the same standards as data collection of the government.'

Mr Clarke was also asked how many people in care homes have lost their lives, but he said this was being collated for an 'accurate figure rather than fuel speculation'.

He added: 'I'm trying to explain the difference between how we get that figure, if you'll let me, which is that we know the number who died in hospitals and then we had the ONS data, which comes at a time lag, so the overall number of deaths in society at any given time. We're working to close that data lag.'

Pressed further by Morgan, Mr Clarke continued: 'Piers, what matters is that we get the right PPE into the system, what matters is that we provide the right care, we matters it that we save jobs, what matters is that we shield the most vulnerable – and those are the things that we are doing. Getting into this battle about statistics…'

But Morgan replied: 'They are not statistics, Mr Clarke, they are human lives, they are people's parents, they are people's grandparents, they are people's aunts, they are people's uncles. Don't you dare just call them statistics, because they are not.

Mr Clarke said back: 'And don't you dare try and turn this into something that it isn't. What I'm saying is that we are working very hard to make sure we have proper facts.'

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clarke said the UK was seeing 'exponential growth' in terms of testing capabilities.

But he said organising contact testing was not his responsibility. 

Today host Nick Robinson asked Mr Clarke: 'I want to ask you about something for which you do have direct responsibility. Testing, as you know, is pretty pointless without contact tracing afterwards.

'If somebody is found to have symptoms you really want to find out who they've been in touch with and to isolate them.

'Have you, as Local Government Minister, spoken to councils yet about using the 5000 council environmental officers who are used to this sort of contact tracing and using them in this endeavour?'

Mr Clarke replied: 'That falls under the agents of the HFC - the future contact tracing - we haven't taken responsibility for that role.' 

Robinson told him: 'But isn't this a problem of silos once again.

'There are 5000 environmental workers who have, I'm told and their institute says, offered to help contact tracing. This is what they do. This is what they understand.

'Public Health England only have about a couple of hundreds, they have 5000 potentially. And what you're saying to me is 'well, it's not my responsibility.''

Morgan held up a photo from today's Daily Mail of nurses wearing cagoules because they did not have proper equipment to protect them from the infection

'We are doing our very best to make sure we hit that target,' Mr Clarke added this morning.

'It's the right target, it's both what our science and the WHO's (World Health Organisation's) approach would suggest is the right thing to do.'

The Government is working to ensure more key workers are eligible to have the tests so 'every possible slot is filled', he continued.

Mr Clarke said it was 'highly unfair' to Mr Hancock to suggest that the Government's ambition to reach 100,000 tests a day was not 'empirically grounded'.

He added: 'As I say, we are going to move from 26 current testing facilities to 50. That will in turn obviously bring those centres closer to more people and make it more viable to go there.

'We're increasing the groups of key workers who can go and be tested.'

Ministers have insisted they are pursuing 'every possible option' to secure more kit but said that, with unprecedented global demand, the situation is 'very challenging'.

The first of three RAF flights finally left yesterday for Turkey to begin collecting a consignment of personal protective equipment including 400,000 surgical gowns.

But it is unclear when the items will arrive in the UK - with Mr Clarke, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland's MP, saying only that it would be in the 'next few days'.

It comes as:

• Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves accused the Government of ignoring offers from British manufacturers to fill the gap.
• Dentists and anaesthetists became the latest groups to warn that they are working without adequate PPE.
• Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and NHS trusts in England, warned that the NHS's supply of face masks could be jeopardised if the Government begins advising the public to wear them, saying 'clear evidence' would be needed before advice was changed.
• The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, Sage, which advises the Government, will reportedly consider the evidence at a meeting today.
• Manjeet Riyat, the first Sikh to work as an A&E consultant in the UK, was named among the latest healthcare workers to die after contracting Covid-19.

The Government said meanwhile that 140,000 gowns had arrived from Burma - but with the NHS using 150,000 a day, the demand on resources remains intense.

With fears that staff in hospitals and care homes are risking their lives, the TUC called for an independent inquiry into the Government's handling of the issue.

The cagoule picture was released after nurses in the Yorkshire and Humber area said they have been 'provided with clothing that resembles cagoules'.

A Royal College of Nursing official said: 'They are so worried and afraid. They cry before they go to work, they cry at work and they cry when they come home.'

The latest figures show 16,509 patients had died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday, up by 449 on the previous day.

At the daily press conference yesterday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak insisted the Government was improving its sourcing of PPE internationally and domestically.

But the medical director of Public Health England, Professor Yvonne Doyle, indicated that staff could refuse to work if they believe they are not properly protected.