This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/19/michael-gove-fails-to-deny-pm-missed-five-coronavirus-cobra-meetings

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Michael Gove fails to deny PM missed five coronavirus Cobra meetings Boris Johnson missed five coronavirus Cobra meetings, Gove says
(about 1 hour later)
Minister accused of weakest rebuttal in history after report UK also shipped PPE to China PM missed string of emergency meetings in buildup to crisis in February, minister concedes
Michael Gove has declined to deny that Boris Johnson missed five consecutive emergency meetings in the build-up to the coronavirus crisis, or that the UK shipped protective equipment to China in February, as the government faced intense pressure over its response to the pandemic. Michael Gove has conceded that Boris Johnson missed five consecutive emergency meetings in the buildup to the coronavirus crisis, and that the UK shipped protective equipment to China in February.
Pressed on a series of allegations about delays and failings as the virus started to spread from China, detailed in the Sunday Times, Gove said that some elements of the story were “slightly off-beam”, but repeatedly declined to say which. The government faced intense pressure on Sunday over its initial response the pandemic, as Labour accused Johnson of having been “missing in action” during the crucial weeks when the virus first arrived in the UK.
Speaking after Gove on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show, Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said he had given “possibly the weakest rebuttal of a detailed expose in British political history”. Gove initially insisted a Sunday Times story detailing failures during this period had numerous inaccuracies and would be corrected.
Ridge asked Gove, who holds the cabinet role of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, three times whether it was true the UK sent hundreds of thousands of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to China during February. Asked on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show whether Johnson missed five meetings of the government’s Cobra emergency committee, and about the shipment of hundreds of thousands of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) to China during February, Gove refused to comment.
A shortage of PPE for NHS and care home staff has been a repeated criticism of the UK response to coronavirus, with the Guardian revealing on Friday that NHS staff had been told to wear plastic aprons if stocks of protective gowns ran out. “I won’t go through, here, a point-by-point rebuttal of all the things in the Sunday Times story that are a little bit off-beam, but that will be done later,” he said.
Asked about this, Gove said: “There are one or two aspects of the Sunday Times report that are slightly off-beam, but the most important thing to stress is that the fight against the coronavirus is an international effort.” But in a subsequent interview on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, Gove, who holds the cabinet role of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, accepted that both were correct. He said missing Cobra meetings was normal for a PM.
Asked what was incorrect about the story, Gove said: “I won’t go through, here, a point-by-point rebuttal of all the things in the Sunday Times story that are a little bit off-beam, but that will be done later.” “Most Cobra meetings don’t have the prime minister attending them,” Gove said. “That is the whole point.” Cobra meetings were “led by the relevant secretary of state in the relevant area”, he argued.
Pressed on the issue, he said there would be and “appropriate response” later, adding: “I think it’s important that we share facts in a transparent way, and those facts will be shared later today.” “Whoever is chairing those meetings reports to the prime minister. The prime minister is aware of all of these decisions and takes some of those decisions. You can take a single fact, wrench it out of context, whip it up in order to create a j’accuse narrative. But that is not fair reporting.”
Gove was also asked about the claim in the Sunday Times that Johnson missed five meetings of the government’s Cobra emergency committee during a period in February where he spent an entire parliamentary recess out of sight at his official country retreat of Chequers. Gove is correct in that prime ministers do not always, or even routinely, chair Cobra meetings. But it is common for them to do so during a major crisis.
Prime ministers do not always chair Cobra meetings, but generally do during a crisis. The Sunday Times quoted one unnamed senior adviser as saying Johnson “didn’t work weekends”, and “there was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning”. The five meetings Johnson missed came during a period in late January and February where he spent an entire parliamentary recess out of sight at his official country retreat of Chequers, prompting Labour to accuse him at the time of being a “part-time prime minister”.
Gove rejected the charge of a lack of leadership, but did not explicitly deny that Johnson had missed the Cobra meetings. The Sunday Times quoted one unnamed senior adviser as saying Johnson “didn’t work weekends”, and “there was a real sense that he didn’t do urgent crisis planning”.
It was wrong, he said, to argue that Johnson had been “anything other than energetic, focused, determined and strong in his leadership against this virus”. Gove told the Ridge show that it was wrong to argue that Johnson had been “anything other than energetic, focused, determined and strong in his leadership against this virus”.
“The idea that the prime minister skipped meetings that were vital to our response to the coronavirus I think is grotesque,” Gove said.“The idea that the prime minister skipped meetings that were vital to our response to the coronavirus I think is grotesque,” Gove said.
“The truth is that there are meetings across government. Some are chaired by the health secretary, some are chaired by other ministers, but the prime minister took all the major decisions. On the shipment of PPE to China, in his interview on the Ridge show, Gove refused to say three times whether this had happened, saying only that some aspects of the Sunday Times story were wrong.
“Nobody can say that the prime minister wasn’t throwing heart and soul into fighting this virus. His leadership has been clear, it’s been inspirational at times.” A shortage of PPE for NHS and care home staff has been a repeated criticism of the UK response to coronavirus, with the Guardian revealing on Friday that NHS staff had been told to wear plastic aprons if stocks of protective gowns ran out.
Speaking after Gove, Ashworth told the Ridge show that there were “serious questions as to why the prime minister skipped five Cobra meetings throughout February, when the whole world could see how serious this was becoming”. But on the Marr show he accepted it was true, saying this was done “to help with the most extreme outbreak in Wuhan”. The PPE had not come from pandemic stockpiles, Gove said, and since then the UK had received “far more” PPE from China, he added.
Asked whether the government had made mistakes in its response to the pandemic, Gove accepted this broad point: “All governments make mistakes, including our own. We seek to learn, and to improve every day. It is the case, I’m sure, at some point in the future that there will be an opportunity for us to look back, to reflect and to learn some profound lessons.”
Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, told the Ridge show that Gove had given “possibly the weakest rebuttal of a detailed expose in British political history”.
There were, Ashworth added, “serious questions as to why the prime minister skipped five Cobra meetings throughout February, when the whole world could see how serious this was becoming”.
He said: “And we know that serious mistakes have been made. We know that our frontline NHS staff don’t have the PPE, that they’ve been told this weekend that they won’t necessarily have the gowns which are vital to keep them safe. We know that our testing capacity is not at the level that is needed.”He said: “And we know that serious mistakes have been made. We know that our frontline NHS staff don’t have the PPE, that they’ve been told this weekend that they won’t necessarily have the gowns which are vital to keep them safe. We know that our testing capacity is not at the level that is needed.”
In this context, he added, the knowledge Johnson had missed key meetings “suggests that early on he was missing in action”.In this context, he added, the knowledge Johnson had missed key meetings “suggests that early on he was missing in action”.
Johnson is back at Chequers, recovering from a bad case of coronavirus which saw him briefly placed in intensive care. Gove said the PM was “in cheerful spirits” and had talked on Friday, to Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, who is standing in for him.Johnson is back at Chequers, recovering from a bad case of coronavirus which saw him briefly placed in intensive care. Gove said the PM was “in cheerful spirits” and had talked on Friday, to Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, who is standing in for him.
Gove rejected the idea that on aspects of the response to the virus, including PPE and testing, the government had consistently been playing catch-up, arguing that it had instead been “considered”.Gove rejected the idea that on aspects of the response to the virus, including PPE and testing, the government had consistently been playing catch-up, arguing that it had instead been “considered”.
He said: “There is a temptation, of course, to act in certain circumstances because of understandable pressure from commentators and elsewhere. But our approach is to be guided by the science, and to move in a way that is not kneejerk but considered.” He told the Ridge show: “There is a temptation, of course, to act in certain circumstances because of understandable pressure from commentators and elsewhere. But our approach is to be guided by the science, and to move in a way that is not kneejerk but considered.”
Asked whether he could guarantee NHS and care staff would have all the PPE they needed, with new shipments arriving, Gove said that it was “the first priority of government” to try to do so.