Labour leader says people need to ‘see light at the end of the tunnel’

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is pushing for a government strategy on the return of schools and getting businesses back to work after the lockdown, as he raised concerns about it causing inequalities.

He said his party would support whatever measures were necessary to bring down the UK’s death rate. But he said it was essential for more details to be disclosed about how the government plans to leave the lockdown, as ministers would need to start planning for the availability of mass community testing.

In a round of broadcast interviews on the BBC, LBC and Sky, Starmer said the government “can’t just park this” and ought to publish its “principles and approach” so that people can have an idea how the lockdown might end.

He said, for example, there was a good argument for measures such as the mandatory use of face masks, which France and Austria were looking at.

Starmer also expressed concerns that inequalities would be growing between children whose parents were putting effort into homeschooling them and those who were not.

“The longer the schools are closed, the bigger the gap between children who are getting pretty good homeschooling and those that aren’t,” he said.

He said he thought reopening schools and mass testing should be among the first priorities but he could not set out his own timetable or a “rival strategy”.

His requests for an exit strategy were set out in a letter to Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, who is deputising for Boris Johnson while the prime minister recuperates from coronavirus at Chequers.

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A government source dismissed the idea of setting out a plan this week before the death rate has come down, saying: “Our strategy is focused on saving lives. We have been clear that all decisions will be guided by the scientific advice and data. Talk of an exit strategy before we have reached the peak risks confusing the critical message that people need to stay at home in order to protect our NHS and save lives.”

Scientific advisers including Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, have said it is too early to talk about lifting the lockdown.

There are splits in the cabinet about when to end the lockdown but an exit plan is unlikely to emerge until Johnson is back at work and the tide has begun to turn on the UK’s high death rate in hospitals and care homes.

With projections showing a huge hit to the economy, Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, said he agreed that it was important to “phase out this lockdown as soon as we possibly can based on scientific advice”.

He also told the BBC’s Today programme that he would as chancellor have looked at guaranteeing 100% of emergency loans to businesses amid reports that banks are refusing to lend.

Asked about Labour’s strategy of trying to be constructive in its criticism, Starmer said there was a need to challenge the government without scoring points.

He said he was worried about the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medics and care workers, the failure to hit testing targets and a lack of transparency around scientific advice to the government.

On testing, he said: “I’m not as confident as I would like to be. We are supposed to be at 100,000 tests in two weeks’ time. I haven’t heard a good answer about why we are behind the curve still.”

He said the government had been too slow in bringing in a lockdown, while stressing that now was not the time to interrogate past mistakes.

Asked whether the government should publish details about the scientific advisers on the crucial Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and their advice, he said: “I think they should and I genuinely think this is a situation where the more the public can see the more they will trust.”

He said everyone was “anxious” about the lockdown and their economic positions, and people needed “hope and light at the end of the tunnel”.

Helen Whately, a health minister, defended the government’s position on Wednesday morning, and promised testing would be increased for care home workers and residents.

She told BBC Breakfast: “We have been doing everything that we can to protect those really vulnerable people living in care homes or receiving care at home.

“From the moment it looked like coronavirus was coming our way ... we have been working really hard to do whatever we can to protect those receiving care from this truly awful, horrible illness.”

But she also risked infuriating medics and care workers by suggesting some PPE was not always being used appropriately.

“People have been crying out wanting to use PPE all the time for everything and actually that is not the best use for it. It has to be used when necessary,” she said.