LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2021) The leader of the UK Labour Party, Keir Starmer, on Wednesday demanded that Prime Minister Boris Johnson explain why the United Kingdom has recorded over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, the highest number of fatalities in Europe.
"The question on everyone's lips is why," Starmer asked Johnson during the prime minister's questions in parliament.
As he did on Tuesday after the Department of Health Social Care announced the grim milestone, Johnson told the House of Commons on Wednesday that he mourns every death in this pandemic and that his government takes full responsibility for what has happened, but his answer did not please the leader of the opposition.
"The prime minister was slow into the first lockdown last March, he was slowly getting protective equipment to the frontline, slow to protect our borders, slow on testing and tracing, slow to the second lockdown in the autumn, slow to change the Christmas mixing rules, slow again into this third lockdown," Starmer stressed.
Johnson claimed, however, that "there are no easy answers" and the "perpetual lockdown" was not one of them either.
Criticized by the delay in imposing hotel quarantines for passengers arriving in the UK, he added that the government will announce tougher measures for countries where new coronavirus variants have been identified.
The prime minister is also scheduled to brief parliament on school reopening and the COVID-19 situation later on Wednesday.
