Boris Johnson has been accused of misleading Parliament again, over the government’s care home policies during the pandemic.
And Number 10 dismissed early warnings from its own top scientists over asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 as “unsubstantiated”.
It comes after the High Court ruled the government had acted unlawfully by admitting people to care homes from hospital without testing or quarantine.
On Wednesday the Prime Minister defended the government’s actions by claiming “we didn’t know in particular was that covid could be transmitted asymptomatically.”
But senior scientists, including the WHO, SAGE scientists and Sir Patrick Vallance, had already raised the alarm about asymptomatic transmission as early as January 2020, months before the care home policy was brought in.
Labour ’s Thangam Debbonaire raised the PM’s remarks in the Commons, telling Speaker Lindsay Hoyle she believed he “may have inadvertently misled the House.”
She added: “It wasn’t until 15 April that the Government’s guidance was changed to require patients were tested before being discharged to care homes.” - before demanding the PM return and correct the record.
But Mr Johnson’s spokesman dismissed the warnings as “unsubstantiated reports.”
He said: “All of those comments were made at slightly different times and noting reports of something is [different to] concrete advice to government.
“There were some reports of asymptomatic transmission, some of which you may be referring to, but what there wasn’t at that time was certainty and concrete views on this.”
Asked if the Prime Minister misled the house, he insisted: “No I think the PM was being clear.”
He said the government “cannot simply act on unsubstantiated reports.
“It’s the Government’s job to consider all the advice and act accordingly,” he said.
“But every government was facing a great deal of uncertainty about how exactly this virus operated, and it was against that backdrop that decisions were being made.”
