Lord Foulkes attacks government over "ageist" shielding plan

3 August 2020, 07:55

A Labour peer has told LBC that reports over-50s will have to shield to protect themselves from coronavirus are "ageist" and simple designed to divert attention from the government's failures.

Reports suggest that people aged between 50 and 70 may be given “personalised risk ratings”, which would add a large number to the 2.2million who were already told to shield.

Tom Swarbrick spoke to Lord Foulkes, the former chair of Age Scotland, who criticised the proposal.

He said: "This is both ageist and ill-thought-out.

"It's ill-thought-out because some people under 50 have underlying health conditions and are at risk. And some people over 50 are fit and well and are key to the economy.

"This is a diversionary tactic from Number 10 to get discussion away from their failure on Test & Trace, from all the deaths at care homes.

"What they do at Number 10 is, at the weekend, they brief on something like this to divert discussion away from the things that really matter."

Watch his interview at the top of the page.