Boris Johnson was on the rack over care homes last night following an explosive confrontation with Sir Keir Starmer over whether they had been abandoned to coronavirus.
The Labour leader accused the PM of misleading the House of Commons after he denied the Government had previously said the virus was unlikely to break out in care homes.
Almost 10,000 care home residents have now died of coronavirus, accounting for a quarter of all victims.
He ambushed Mr Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions by quoting official guidance that had been in place until March 12 – well after coronavirus had started being transmitted in the UK.
In a section on face masks, Public Health England advice to the care sector said: ‘It remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home or the community will become infected.’
The Labour leader took aim at the Prime Minister over official guidance from February which he said advised ‘it remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home will become infected’.
Sir Keir said it showed the Government had been ‘too slow to protect people in care homes’.
Mr Johnson replied that ‘it wasn’t true’ to say the advice said that. He later refused to apologise and accused Sir Keir of quoting selectively from the guidance.
The Prime Minister admitted to MPs however, that the lockdown could not be lifted until the coronavirus crisis in care homes had been dealt with.
He said: ‘Solving the problem in care homes is going to be absolutely critical – getting the R down not just in care homes, but across the country – to our ability to move forward as a nation with the stepped programme that I announced on Sunday.’
The Labour leader also called on Mr Johnson to account for official figures showing 10,000 ‘unexplained’ deaths in care homes last month.
Sir Keir said there were 18,000 more deaths in April in care homes than the average for that month – but only 8,000 were recorded as coronavirus-related.
In a letter, Sir Keir pointed out the official guidance published on February 25 said it was ‘very unlikely that anyone receiving care in a care home or the community will become infected’
In a later letter in reply to the Labour leader, Mr Johnson said: ‘I would remind you of the commitment you made, when you became the Leader of the Opposition, to work constructively with the Government in the face of this unprecedented pandemic.The public expects us to work together’
He pointed to figures from the Office for National Statistics which showed at least 40 per cent of coronavirus deaths in England and Wales occurred in care homes.
The Government last night announced an extra £600million for councils to improve infection controls in care homes such as by purchasing PPE and testing staff, as Mr Johnson admitted that the number of deaths among residents has been ‘too high’.
But the care home scandal has become highly damaging for the Government, with ministers struggling to get a grip on the crisis. The guidance quoted by Sir Keir yesterday was first published on February 25, before the transmission of the virus in the UK.
However it was in place until May 12, after transmission had started. Sir Keir later wrote to the PM, asking him to ‘correct the record’ in the Commons.
But No10 refused to back down, confirming the PM would not return to Parliament.
Mr Johnson wrote back: ‘I am disappointed that in the House today you chose to quote Public Health England advice selectively and misleadingly, and I stand by my comments.’
He added: ‘At this time of national crisis, it is more important than ever that Government ministers are accurate in the information they give’
He added: ‘I would remind you of the commitment you made, when you became the Leader of the Opposition, to work constructively with the Government in the face of this unprecedented pandemic. The public expects us to work together.’
He said the guidance had made clear that it was ‘intended for the current position in the UK where there is currently no transmission of Covid-19 in the community’.
However by March 12 there had been 31 coronavirus-related deaths in England, including one in a care home, according to the ONS.
On March 5 Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty told MPs it was ‘highly likely’ there was ‘community transmission’ in the UK.
But at the daily press conference last night, deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries said there was no ‘sustained community transmission’ before March 13, when the Government’s advice that it was ‘very unlikely’ care home residents would become infected with Covid-19 was withdrawn.
She said: ‘It needs to be taken in the background of what the epidemiology was at the time of the incident or the advice and that will apply to any documents which Public Health England has produced.
‘And I think at that time we did not recognise there was any sustained community transmission – we clearly had cases around.’
Figures released yesterday suggested that care home deaths accounted for some 40 per cent of coronavirus-related fatalities registered in England and Wales in the week ending May 1.
It came as Sir Keir also accused Mr Johnson of a coronavirus cover-up after Downing Street stopped publishing an international death toll comparison.
The global death toll comparison graph has been a fixture of the daily Number 10 press conference during the outbreak.
But the slide was not released yesterday and Sir Keir claimed at PMQs that the data is now being withheld because it shows the UK is the worst affected nation in Europe.
Mr Johnson hit back and said it was ‘premature’ to make such comparisons as he labelled coronavirus a ‘once in a century epidemic’.
Two two leaders faced off for the second time in the mainly deserted House of Commons this afternoon as the Government struggled under a weight of criticism over its lockdown message and plans for the economy.
Addressing deaths in care homes, Mr Johnson added: ‘Coronavirus is an appalling disease which afflicts some groups far more than others, I think the whole country understands.
‘And in particular the elderly, and he’s right to draw attention, as I said, to the tragedy that has been taking place in care homes.
‘The Office of National Statistics is responsible for producing the data that they have, the Government had also produced data which not only shows that there has been, as I said, a terrible epidemic in care homes but since the care homes action plan began we are seeing an appreciable and substantial reduction, not just in the number of outbreaks but also in the number of deaths.’
But Keir Starmer said: ‘The Daily Telegraph this week carried the following quote from a cardiologist – ‘we discharged known, suspected and unknown cases into care homes which were unprepared with no formal warning that patients were infected, no testing available and no PPE to prevent transmission. We actively ceded this into the very population that as most vulnerable’.
‘Does the Prime Minister accept that the cardiologist is right about this?’
Mr Johnson replied: ‘I have the upmost respect for all our medical professionals who are doing an extraordinary job in very difficult circumstances but what I can tell the House is that actually the number of discharges from hospitals into care homes went down in March and April.
‘And we had a system of testing people going into care homes and that testing is now being ramped up.’