Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman brands Government coronavirus response as 'shambolic'

Speaking virtually in the House of Commons today Labour’s Mr Sheerman told Matt Hancock he was “letting down the NHS” and that many did not believe he was being truthful in his remarks about coronavirus.

Mr Hancock said Mr Sheerman “completely misses the tone” and his remarks saddened him.

Mr Sheerman said: “Looking from the Yorkshire point of view, I think the management and leadership of this present crisis has been shambolic.”

He said the UK was lagging behind Germany, and said: “The fact of the matter is every time the Secretary of State speaks, he thinks it’s a triumph what he is doing.

“I believe that is a shambles of leadership and management.

“I think we’re letting down NHS staff, and they have been let down, and indeed I’m particularly cross and particularly angry at the fact that I understand those early whistleblowers were so lent on and threatened with disciplinary action that was to stop brave young doctors and nurses standing up and telling what it was like on the frontline.

“Is that a fact and can he get his act together?”

Mr Hancock said: “I think that the member who just spoke completely misses the tone and has missed the point of what we're trying to do as a nation to pull together in this time of grave difficulty.”

He said the goals had been to “flatten the curve and to make sure that the NHS always has the capacity to treat everybody who needs it”.

He said: “Of course, there are challenges, there are enormous challenges, distributing a billion pieces of PPE is not straightforward.”

And he added: “On the point he makes about whistleblowers, he is completely wrong to say that it is not possible to raise an issue within the NHS by contrast, thousands of people do it in public and in private, every single day.”