Nick Ferrari savages minister who has not read damning Covid report

12 October 2021, 08:17 | Updated: 12 October 2021, 08:28

By EJ Ward

@EJWardNews

This is the moment Nick Ferrari savaged a government minister who admitted he had not read a report and had no brief from the Prime Minister on how to respond.

Serious errors and delays at the hands of the Government and scientific advisers cost lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a damning report from MPs.

But, when LBC's Nick Ferrari asked Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay if the Prime Minister had "sent round a note or email in response to this report," the answer was no.

"Well, this report came out at midnight," the minister replied.

Nick pointed out that being Prime Minister was a "24-hour job," which Mr Barclay agreed with.

He told the LBC presenter that given he was on the media round he thought it was "reasonable he had a chance to read this report later today."

Read more: Govt's 'catastrophic' Covid response biggest public health failure in history - report

"See, I'd have done it the other way round," Nick shout back, "call me crazy but when I read that this is the most devastating report into a failure of this size ever witnessed by a UK government.

"Call me crazy but I might have put a call into Marbella to ask for a response."

Earlier during the interview, the minister refused several times to apologise for the government's handling of the Covid crisis when asked by Nick Ferrari

The study, from the cross-party Science and Technology Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee, said the UK's preparation for a pandemic was far too focused on flu, while ministers waited too long to push through lockdown measures in early 2020.

Read more: 'What's so hard about sorry?: Minister refuses to apologise for Covid failures eight times

Mr Barclay said: "I recognise the devastation to the families concerned, but we took logical decisions at the time, based on the information we had."

Asked for an apology to those who lost relatives during the pandemic, he told LBC: "Well I recognise it's devastating and my heart goes out to any family, any of your listeners where they lost a loved one."