Justice Secretary admits government probably won't meet testing target today

30 April 2020, 08:25 | Updated: 30 April 2020, 09:01

Nick Ferrari asked the Justice Secretary how the British people can have confidence in what the government say after he admitted they won't meet their target on coronavirus testing today.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock pledged to increase coronavirus tests to 100,000 by the end of April. That day has now come and yesterday, just over 52,000 tests were carried out.

Speaking to Robert Buckland this morning, Nick asked him to admit that they will fail to meet that target.

The Justice Secretary responded: "We'll know the stats in a couple of days and even if we don't get there today, we're going to get there very, very soon.

"We were on 52,000. Even if we don't get there today, I think we'll get there pretty soon. It's frustrating, we want to meet targets that we set. It's right that we're bold about it, rather than setting a mealy-mouthed target, meeting it and then being proud of ourselves, we're being deliberately challenging."

Nick then asked him: "What confidence do you think it gives us, the people, in you, the people who govern this country, that you set the targets and you clearly will come so lamentably low in hitting it?

"What confidence will we have in you? You can't provide kit and you can't hit the targets you set yourself."

Mr Buckland insisted: "Well we are providing kit and we are travelling in the right direction."

Watch the interview at the top of the page.

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