'If that is your biggest complaint, I think things are fine': Matt Hancock is caught grimacing at being asked to provide 'clarity' on 'confusing' lockdown exit roadmap and gives a series of flippant responses during bad-tempered morning interviews
Matt Hancock has been involved in a series of ill-tempered live TV and radio interviews today where he appeared frustrated when repeatedly asked for 'clarity' on how Britain would be eased out of the coronavirus lockdown.
The Health Secretary was grilled on whether the Government's 'road map' was confusing and even appeared to roll his eyes ahead of his appearance on BBC Breakfast this morning.
Mr Hancock's off-guard moment came as host Louise Minchin said Labour had demanded 'more clarity' on how people would return to normal life - and his look to the sky appeared to be aimed at someone behind the camera.
And then around half an hour later on BBC Radio 4 he was asked about the confusion surrounding whether people should have returned to work on Monday or Wednesday and said: 'I think that if that is the biggest complaint the Today programme has then I think things are fine', adding: 'I think we've been clear throughout'.
Mr Hancock also moaned that criticism for 'letting down' care homes was 'really unfair', despite almost 10,000 residents UK residents dying, poor testing and a lack of PPE for staff.
The Tory Health Secretary, who declined to face Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, made a series of tense appearances on the BBC and Sky News and appeared exasperated at times.
Later in an interview with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on ITV's This Morning, he denied that social distancing rules about not being able to see both parents at the same time were 'utterly bonkers', insisting it is 'common sense'. He also advised against hugging strangers until a coronavirus vaccine is found, encouraged people to make their own face masks and admitted that 'lavish international holidays' were unlikely for Britons this summer.
Boris Johnson has been accused of offering 'vague' advice and 'failing to give the public clear directions' on the way out of the crisis, but again sent one of his ministers out to defend his policies despite Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab's disastrous media round yesterday.
Matt Hancock rolled his eyes at the beginning of a BBC TV interview today (pictured) as pressure grows over the clarity in the Government's lockdown plan
The Health Secretary also looked frustrated during his interview with Kay Burley on Sky News
Later in an interview with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on ITV's This Morning, he denied that social distancing rules about not being able to see both parents at the same time were 'utterly bonkers'
British people are unlikely to be able to go on international holidays this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
Asked on ITV's This Morning show if people should accept that the normal summer holiday season for travelling abroad was cancelled, he replied: 'I think that's likely to be the case.'
While the government is slowly trying to open up different segments of the economy, some form of social distancing will be required for some time.
'The conclusion from that is it is unlikely that big, lavish international holidays are going to possible for this summer,' he said.
Phillip Schofield also asked Mr Hancock why Britons were being asked to 'pick a parent' by only allowed people to see one at a time.
The minister replied: 'You can see one and then the other, and that's fine. Another thing we are looking at is whether two households can come together and interact a lot more but we need to do some more science on the impact on the spread of the virus'.
Mr Schofield said: 'So can I see my parents ten minutes apart? Don't you see that's utterly bonkers'.
Boris Johnson wants people who can't work from home to return to work from tomorrow as part of a five-step plan to lift UK out of lockdown by the Autumn.
The Health Secretary, who has faced calls to be sacked over the slow start to Britain's testing regime, also repeatedly refused to directly answer whether people have a legal right not to go to work if they do not feel safe due to coronavirus.
He was asked the question twice on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning. In response, he said: 'Well this needs to be a collaborative effort. Absolutely workplaces need to follow the guidelines on making a workplace safe for Covid, so that is very important.
'Critically, everybody who can work from home should continue to work from home.'
Asked for a second time whether people are protected by law if they felt unsafe in the workplace, Mr Hancock said: 'Well, employment law has not changed, but that isn't the point.
'The point is that businesses and employees should be working together to make the best of a very difficult situation.'
The Health Secretary said there was a 'common sense' principle as to why children can be looked after by child minders, but not other family members from outside their household.
Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast: 'For some people's livelihoods they need a child minder in order to earn an income and so that is important we allow that to happen.
'But at the same time we don't want to encourage the large scale, we don't want to encourage people, especially when grandparents are older, and we know this virus kills more older people than younger people, so we don't want to encourage kids to stay with their grandparents, but we do want to allow people, where possible to get back to work.
'So again, there is a common sense principle as to why we've come up with that proposal. I know it can be frustrating for people.'
People who wish to meet with one other person from outside their household should only do so in public places, the Health Secretary said.
Asked if someone could meet a friend in their garden, as long as distancing rules were adhered to, Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast: 'It's not necessarily more safe than meeting in a park, and we said that should only happen in public places.
'For instance, a lot of people can only get to their garden by going through their house, and being with people indoors is not as safe as outdoors, and so that is why we have come to this judgment.'
On whether hospitals had sent patients with coronavirus back to care homes in England, Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast: 'We put in place testing to ensure when people leave hospitals, they are tested and then if they are going to a care home, they are isolated until they get the results of the test.'
Asked if some patients went back with coronavirus, he said: 'At the start of this crisis, before there was widespread coronavirus in the community, then at that point we did take a lot of people who were in hospital but could clinically be in a care home, and put them in care homes. But that was before there was widespread coronavirus in the community .
'We then introduced the testing on leaving hospital to make sure people leaving hospital were tested whether they were displaying symptoms or not.'
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News the reproduction rate of the virus was 'broadly in the middle of the range' of 0.5 to 0.9 but was definitely below one.
He also confirmed people could meet more than one person per day outside as long as the two-metre distance was maintained.
Commenting on new workplace guidance, Mr Hancock said cleaners coming to people's homes should exercise social distancing and follow other good practices such as washing hands regularly.
Asked why grandparents could not see their grandchildren but children could see there carers, Mr Hancock said it was a 'scientific fact' that older people were more vulnerable to Covid-19.
He added: 'The principles are really clear and the public has been sensible so far. The Great British public have really understood what social distancing means, why we need to do it... the principles are outside is better than inside, stay two metres away, wash your hands and clean the surfaces, and see as few people as you can, outside of your household because that virus spreads but we do also at the same time need to get people back to work.'
The government issued a series of graphics last night to illustrate the potential path out of the coronavirus lockdown
Asked about the continuation of the furlough scheme, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News: 'We have said that shouldn't be a cliff-edge in the furlough scheme, but at the same time, we do need to try to get the economy back to something more like normal.'
He defended sending tests to the US for processing when equipment failed in the UK, calling it an 'excellent piece of contingency planning by my team'.
Regarding the new contact-tracing app, Mr Hancock confirmed it would be rolled out across England in mid-May.
He said: 'We're rolling out in mid-May. The Isle of Wight project has gone well so far, we've learned a lot about how the app operates, also about people who don't have the app - how to make sure that they can get testing and the contact tracing can work for them - the interaction of the technology and the human-based contact tracing.
'We're pleased with progress, and we're going to bring it in. And we're going to learn the lessons from the technical improvements that we're making from what we've seen on the Isle of Wight.'
Matt Hancock said providing personal protective equipment (PPE) to staff was the 'responsibility of the employer' but support was available.
On face coverings, Mr Hancock said they would not help in offices or schools.
'There is some evidence, it's weak, but there is some evidence that the face covering can help if you're in an indoor place where there are other people who you don't see regularly,' he said.
'If you're stuck in an office with them for a long time, then the face covering doesn't help, or in school, for instance, that's why we don't recommend them for offices or schools.'
He said children would not have to be 'sprayed with disinfectant' before being allowed to return to school.
'I did see that one proposal from a union, that is absolutely not going to happen,' he said.
He told ITV's This Morning that he understood parents' fears about sending children back to school.
But he said: 'We wouldn't be proposing this if we didn't think that it was safe.'
Asked about the 14-day quarantine for travellers arriving in the UK and the impact on the airline industry, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News: 'There's lots of things that we're having to do to control this virus that I wish we didn't have to do... but it's a matter of fact that we have to control this virus.
'Because otherwise hundreds of thousands of people will die so it is something that we are going to have to do.'
'If that is your biggest complaint, I think things are fine': Matt Hancock is caught grimacing at being asked to provide 'clarity' on 'confusing' lockdown exit roadmap and gives a series of flippant responses during bad-tempered morning interviews
!['If that is your biggest complaint, I think things are fine': Matt Hancock is caught grimacing at being asked to provide 'clarity' on 'confusing' lockdown exit roadmap and gives a series of flippant responses during bad-tempered morning interviews]()
Reviewed by Your Destination
on
May 12, 2020
Rating:
No comments