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Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to apologise to care home workers amid claims he is attempting to blame them for the spread of coronavirus.
Labour leader Keir Starmer pushed the PM to say sorry in the Commons several times after he sparked fury for saying “too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures” during the crisis.
The PM and his ministers have said that Johnson was referring to the fact asymptomatic transmission between patients was not known about, but he stands accused of “insulting” front line workers.
The virus has spread rapidly among care homes as the disease disproportionately affects the elderly and 257 care workers have also lost their lives.
Martin Green, the boss of Care England, is among many who say the government had a “policy of emptying hospitals and filling care homes” when coronavirus began to grip the country in order to protect the NHS.
Claiming “the last thing I wanted to do was blame care workers for what has happened”, the PM said: “When it comes to taking blame, I take full responsibility for what has happened.
“But the one thing that nobody knew early on in this pandemic was that the virus was being passed asymptomatically from person to person in the way that it is and that’s why the guidance and the procedures changed.”
“That’s not an apology and it just won’t wash,” Starmer countered.
“It was clear what he was saying and the prime minister must understand just how raw this is for many people on the front line and for those who have lost loved ones.”
The Labour leader then quoted Mark Adams, who runs the charity Community Integrated Care, to the PM.
Adams had called Johnson’s comments “cowardly” and said the PM was guilty of a “travesty of leadership”.
Johnson again refused to apologise and said he would invest in care homes, before branding Starmer “captain hindsight”.
“By refusing to apologise, the prime minister rubs salt into the wounds of the very people he stood at his front door and clapped,” Starmer said.
“The prime minister and the health secretary must be the only people left in the country who think they put a protective ring around care homes.
“Those on the front line know that that isn’t the case.”
Johnson went on to say he would bring forward long-awaited reforms to the social care sector, something which has been promised by the Conservatives since the party took power 10 years ago.
Starmer said the PM refused to acknowledge other mistakes and had been “too slow to act” and “typically flippant”.