Former Tory MP and doctor: Utter nonsense to call UK's coronavirus response a "success"
30 April 2020, 07:45
Former Tory MP and doctor: Nonsense to call UK response a "success"
A doctor and former Conservative MP has told LBC that the UK's governance has failed spectacularly over the response to Covid-19.
Dr Phillip Lee is uniquely qualified to discuss the government response, having served as a Conservative Minister as well as a doctor.
He told Nick Ferrari that there have been a lot of unnecessary deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic and questioned why the primary goal of the government wasn't to reduce the loss of life.
He said: "The scale of unnecessary loss of life in this country is unacceptable. What angers me most is we could have done so much better.
"I'm very conscious of the fact that comparing figures at the moment by country is somewhat difficult for a variety of different reasons.
"However, when you see Taiwan, population 23million, has lost six lives and the UK, population 66m, have lost 26,000 and counting, it really does beg the question of how is it that we're counting in the thousands and they are counting one here, one there. The difference is stark.
"We have to ask ourselves why our governance has failed so spectacularly."
Nick asked him whether the government is right to call the UK's response a success and Dr Lee was equally blunt in his response.
He said: "It's utter nonsense. I think they are trying to clutch at straws here. They can see that this hasn't gone very well at all.
"I do find it a rather odd thing to aim for, the protection of the NHS. We all value the NHS, but how about an aim of let's try to reduce the loss of life as the primary goal.
"The Health Service has withstood this, but at what cost to other services?"
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