Ministers are blaming people for simply doing what they were advised – Jonathan Ashworth

“It beggars belief that after weeks of encouraging people to have a test if feeling unwell, ministers are seeking to blame people for simply doing what they were advised. With children returning to school and thousands returning to the office it’s obvious extra testing capacity would be needed. The fact ministers failed to plan is yet more staggering incompetence.”

Ends

Note to editors:

Matt Hancock, BBC Radio 4 – Today Programme Interview Transcript (09/09/2020)

MH: “The problem we’ve got is that in the last couple of weeks we’ve seen a sharp rise in the number of people applying for test, getting a test, who are not eligible.

“..what I'm telling you is the reason we have constraint at the moment is not because capacity has gone down, far from it, capacity has gone up. It is that we've suddenly seen this rise in demand of people who are not eligible.”