Ridge on Sunday

New Labour leader Keir Starmer said there was a “mismatch” between what the government and frontline health workers have said about the supply of personal protective equipment. He also called for parliament to be recalled as soon as possible. But he acknowledged that he was “trying to resist calls for apologies or criticising past decisions”.

On the high figures recorded over the weekend in relation to the number of Covid-19 deaths: “The whole nation desperately wants those figures to go down.”

On support for the government: “Whatever measures are necessary now for the government to take… to get those figures down, we will support it.”

Asked if the government acted quickly enough: “There are questions about whether the government was too slow, but now is not the time for those. The national effort has to be about reducing those numbers.”

On parliament being recalled: “It is very important at a time like this that parliament is sitting… Parliament must be recalled as soon as possible.”

He added: “The sooner we can scrutinise decisions the better. You’ve seen just this weekend a real issue about protective equipment, with the government saying one thing and the frontline saying another.”

On this lack of PPE: “The Health Secretary said on Friday that there was enough equipment, the frontline says otherwise. There’s a mismatch and that’s the sort of thing that parliament needs to pursue… we need accountability in this.”

Asked if the government should apologise: “It would be smart of the government to acknowledge that their ambition for the equipment to be where it should be… isn’t being matched and probably just to apologise for that.”

But he added: “I’m trying to resist calls for apologies or criticising past decisions. What we need is: what’s the problem, where are the real issues, and what can we do to fix it?”

On what he is changing about Labour as leader: “The first thing I did was to be absolutely clear about things like antisemitism. And that’s why I issued an apology in my acceptance speech, the first opportunity that I had, to our Jewish communities.”

On the shadow cabinet appointments: “I put together a very talented, diverse shadow cabinet from across the whole of the UK to demonstrate that we’ve got the strength and talent in depth across the Labour Party to take this forward.”

On whether Corbynism is dead: “I’ve never accepted these labels, based on an individual… What I say to my top team now is: don’t look to the past for people to cling to.”

Asked about Alan Johnson’s comments last week about the need to purge Momentum: “I want to hear all the voices in the Labour Party… I will talk to everybody within our party.”

On the aftermath of Covid-19: “We can’t go out every Thursday and clap for our key workers who are keeping us going in this period and then at the end of this return to business as usual.”

Asked whether taxes would need to be increased after the crisis: “We may well have to raise taxes, of course, but you’re asking a question that nobody can realistically answer. We don’t yet know what the damage to the economy is going to be.”

"Is this the end of Corbynism?" – @SophyRidgeSky. Labour leader @Keir_Starmer insists he has "never accepted these labels". More from #Ridge: https://t.co/z9GQBGA5fl pic.twitter.com/zavIw2XhH0 — Sophy Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) April 12, 2020

Business Secretary Alok Sharma also appeared on the show this morning. He refused to apologise to health and care workers for the shortfall in personal protective equipment.

The Andrew Marr Show

Lisa Nandy, who unsuccessfully ran for the leadership but was appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary, talked about the coronavirus response. Her comments were in line with Starmer’s approach of not highlighting past failures of the government and instead emphasising support for government measures during the crisis.

She called for more funding for charities, and for an interim Foreign Secretary to be appointed while Dominic Raab is deputising for the Prime Minister. She confirmed that Labour would support a further five-month lockdown if the government said it was necessary.