Jo Johnson assesses the government's handling of the pandemic
21 May 2020, 19:51 | Updated: 21 May 2020, 19:54
Jo Johnson assesses the government's handling of the pandemic
Jo Johnson, former Universities minister and brother to the PM, assessed how well the government has handled the coronavirus crisis.
On Nick Ferrari's LBC show, Mr Johnson said he is not focusing on the "day to day point scoring in Westminster" and instead is focusing on the "two big things the government has done really well."
Firstly, putting in place the furlough scheme, the "biggest welfare programme that this nation has ever seen" and "probably the most important thing the government could have done."
"That has been a real success and is providing invaluable support to hundreds of thousands of families across the country right now. In the absence of which people would be going through real difficulties," he told Nick.
The second success of the government was ensuring the NHS was able to cope with this extraordinary pandemic.
"The NHS, we feared, was going to collapse. It hasn't, its capacity limit's never been breached.
"I think those two things together are for me the two things the nation absolutely required the government to do and they've done it," Mr Johnson said.
Nick asked whether these achievements were at the expense of the care home sector.
"That's a debate to be had, let's see what lessons can be learned in the future," Mr Johnson said, "but for me the essential things are those two things.
