Eddie Mair asks Sadiq Khan why he didn't act sooner to protect bus drivers

By Fiona Jones

By Fiona Jones

Eddie Mair's challenged Mayor Sadiq Khan over his why he didn't act to protect bus drivers sooner.

The whole Cabinet attended the COBRA meeting via video call as well as the First Minister of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Chief Scientific Adviser and the Chief Medical Officer, Sadiq Khan revealed.

"We went through where we are in relation to our current updated situation and the evidence in relation to social distancing working or not.

"The good news is the concerns we had about the number of new cases, hospital admissions and deaths, as heartbreaking as those are, are not accelerating at the level they were.

"This shows the social distancing is working and I want to thank everyone, the vast, vast majority of Londoners who are following that advice. These are rules, these aren't optional, and it's really important we do so."

Eddie then challenged Sadiq Khan on the moves made to protect transport workers during the pandemic.

Sadiq Khan said it "breaks his heart" that so many transport workers have lost their lives and he is going above and beyond Public Health England advice to keep staff safe, including providing anti-viral sanitiser in each vehicle and protective films over glass in buses.

From Friday, he confirmed passengers will only be permitted to use middle entrances to buses.

Eddie pushed Mr Khan to answer whether he should have acted earlier to provide transport workers with adequate protection, to which he replied they have been taking precautionary measures for "some weeks."

He added that it would not have been possible to provide PPE to all transport staff as this would mean three million items a month.