"You can't pay your bills with civic duty": People should be paid to quarantine, says caller

26 July 2020, 16:20 | Updated: 7 June 2023, 08:56

"You can't pay your bills with civic duty" caller on 14 day rule

This caller insisted that if the Government want people to quarantine on return from Spain, they should offer to pay their wages.

David Lammy began his call with Ben by joking about the predicament Grant Shapps has found himself in. After the UK announced a 14 day quarantine for anyone travelling to the UK from Spain, the Transport Secretary has become the most high profile victim of the quarantine.

Caller Ben insisted that the Government should "should reimburse all those people that are going to lose money and pay them two weeks wages," to give people incentive to obey quarantine rules.

"That's the honourable thing to do, because they booked the holidays on the government advice that it is alright to go."

Ben added that "the test track and trace is a shambles too" and if we had an effective system, we wouldn't need to quarantine in the first place.

David agreed, stating that "if you've got in place a good track and trace scheme, a lot of this blunt instrument is unnecessary and what we know is we haven't got in place a good track and trace."

He went on to side with Ben and say the Government "should have a scheme available for people in quarantine because they will need support with their employment."

The caller suggested that it should be the rule that "if you don't isolate, you'll be fined heavily.

"But, they should also offer the carrot, and say 'we'll pay your wages for two weeks.'" Ben was baffled that this isn't already being proposed by government and scoffed at the thought that people are being expected to serve their civic duty by quarantining for two weeks for free.

"You can't pay your bills with civic duty," the caller told David.