Michael Gove hits back at claims they cost lives by failing to act on coronavirus early enough Boris Johnson did not attend the first five Cobra meetings to discuss the UK response to Covid-19

The Government is locked in a furious war of words over claims ministers lost the chance to prevent the coronavirus crisis by acting more quickly in January and Feburary.

A report in the Sunday Times revealed that Boris Johnson did not attend the first five Cobra meetings called on Covid-19 and suggested austerity had weakened the Government’s ability to fight a pandemic.

Labour MPs said the revelations proved ministers had “cost thousands of lives” through a lax attitude during the early stages of the virus. But Michael Gove defended the Prime Minister saying it was “grotesque” to accuse Mr Johnson of not working hard enough.

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Whistleblowers told the newspaper that UK Government officials had been too distracted by issues such as Brexit to discuss how the country could prepare for an outbreak of infectious disease.

Obsessed with herd immunity

They also claimed that the Prime Minister’s scientific advisers were fixated with the idea of “herd immunity”, letting the virus infect a large proportion of the population, because all the previous pandemic planning had been based on the assumption that the disease in question would be a form of flu, which is less deadly than Covid-19.

Tan Dhesi, the shadow rail minister, said: “Failures in January and February have cost thousands of lives in March and beyond.” Labour MP Wes Streeting attacked Mr Johnson for failing to attend five emergency meetings on the virus, which were instead chaired by Matt Hancock – he said: “I can’t think of a single prime minister, Labour or Conservative, who would show the same lack of commitment to the job and to the detail as Boris Johnson.”

‘Grotesque’ claims

Mr Gove hit back, telling Sky News: “The idea that the Prime Minister skipped meetings that were vital to our response to the coronavirus I think is grotesque… I think that anyone who considered what happened to the Prime Minister not long ago, nobody can say the Prime Minister isn’t throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus.”

Armed Forces minister James Heappey said the meetings were “energetic and thorough” and dismissed the claim that Mr Johnson’s absence rendered them irrelevant.

Ministers also defended the decision to send 280,000 items of personal protective equipment to China at the time the country’s epidemic was peaking. They insisted that it was right to help and pointed out that China has sent even more equipment to the UK in return since then.

Sir David King, the former Chief Scientific Adviser, said: “What really is emphasised in that piece is the fact that the government ministers had their eye off the ball. They were totally focused on other issues such as Brexit, and the celebration of us emerging from Europe.

Scientific advice

No 10 sources are adamant they have followed the advice of their scientific advisers at all times.

On Sunday Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries said it was too early to judge that the UK has been worse affected than other countries such as Germany, warning that it could take up to two years before the true toll of Covid-19 becomes clear.