Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer risk nation’s health with PMQs virus fight – The Yorkshire Post says

All they proved is the extent to which Coronavirus has also become politically toxic when national unity is required to stop the rise in infections, hospital admissions and, yes, deaths.

And for Ministers and MPs to portray their respective leaders as ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, as the acrimony spilled over into TV studios, left politics even more diminished.

After all, both men failed to address the flaws in their respective approaches as they put partisanship before pragmatism.

The PM appeared to be stymied by his policy of regional lockdowns appearing to contravene the advice of Government scientists who, it now emerges, have advocated a so-called national ‘circuit break’ – and all previous promises by Ministers that they would ‘follow the science’ at all times. Tellingly, he did concede: “I rule nothing out.”

Meanwhile Sir Keir’s advocacy of a ‘circuit break’, less than 48 hours after appearing to back the PM’s ‘three tier’ approach, left him open to the charge of opportunism and was at odds with his own health spokesperson, and some sceptical Labour leaders in the North, who fear such a move will be ruinous for the economy and only delay the virus’s future spread.

As splits emerge in both main parties, The Yorkshire Post reiterates previous calls for both leaders, and others, to work together in the national interest. That is because neither strategy has any chance of success unless there’s a fully functioning Track and Trace programme and total public compliance with health protocols, two points overlooked by PMQs where the breakdown of any sort of consensus now risks hastening the spread of Covid at a time of maximum danger for the nation.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson