'People should be required to wear masks on public transport'

MP for Ellesmere Port

IN THE House of Commons on Monday Opposition members were accused by the Vaccinations Minister Nadhim Zahawi of playing 'petty politics' over our approach to the pandemic.

That is not a view that I and my fellow Shadow Health Ministers would accept over our handling of the run-up to so-called Freedom Day on July 19.

Regular readers of this column will know I have consistently called for an end to repeated mixed messaging when it comes to what the public can reasonably expect now all Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted in England.

Our demands are clear and concise: people should be required to wear masks on public transport and in other settings where close contact with public officials can be expected; we want urgent work to be carried out to improve ventilation and filtrations systems in public buildings and particularly in schools where tasks can be carried out during the summer holidays; and we want improved financial arrangements for those men and women who are required to stay at home - either because they have Coronavirus or because they have been 'pinged' by the Test and Trace system.

Instead we go from one farcical situation from the Government to another, as demonstrated by what happened within a few hours on Sunday morning which would be worthy of a comedy political sketch, were matters not as serious as they obviously are.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid goes down with Coronavirus and has to self-isolate. He has been in close contact with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor who are both pinged so they are due to self-isolate too.

But no. Another member of the Cabinet, Robert Jenrick, is dispatched to the media to inform the nation that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have been chosen for a trial where self-isolation is not necessary and can be replaced by the taking regular hopefully negative Covid-19 tests.

Needless to say, there was a predictable public outcry and no sooner had Mr Jenrick left TV studios in Birmingham that he discovered there has been a swift policy change and Messrs Johnson and Sunak were indeed self-isolating - in Boris Johnson's case in his Prime Ministerial Chequers residence in Buckinghamshire and not in Downing Street as Mr Jenrick had suggested.

So the PM, Chancellor and Health Secretary will all have to serve their 10-day self-isolation sentence alongside thousands of other electors up and down the land but it is clear they did not intend to and only changed tack when the public’s reaction was known.

Sir Keir Starmer has written to the PM demanding to know how he and Mr Sunak came to be "magically" selected for the self-isolation trial survey in the first place as it again looks like one rule for them and another for the rest of us.

Coronavirus cases continue to rise sharply. Mercifully the severity of the attacks is nowhere near as severe as was once the case, thanks to the ongoing success of the vaccination programme.

However - and we go back to clear messaging - we must now do all within our powers to persuade as many 18 to 30-year-olds as possible to get both their jabs.

Millions in this age range remain unvaccinated and they may well be spreading the Delta variant without realising that they are doing so.