Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O’Flynn

In praise of Labour’s coronavirus response

It is not often these days that one gets a chance to praise the Labour party. Even with Jeremy Corbyn soon on his way out, the party has learned nothing from its election drubbing and seems determined instead to make the same mistakes. But it has, somewhat remarkably perhaps, covered itself in glory this week. And it would be wrong to pass up the opportunity to praise Corbyn for the way his party has so far responded to the coronavirus outbreak.

Perhaps you have not noticed how they have reacted to the crisis? In which case, that in itself speaks volumes. Because you will no doubt have seen the way Piers Morgan has responded with a series of ‘do something’ rants on social media. Or seen how Rory Stewart has set himself up to be amateur polymath of the year, garnering huge rolling coverage for his frankly comic London mayoral campaign.

Arguably, Morgan has turned himself into the real Leader of the Opposition in some people’s eyes through his hyperbolic utterances to his audience of seven million Twitter followers. It would have been perfectly possible for Jeremy Corbyn or his shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth to do the same: to take a bet on being able to convince voters that Boris Johnson and the Tories, through a complacent attitude and under-powered response, should take the blame for the inevitable large death toll from coronavirus that is coming down the tracks.

But to their credit, they have chosen not to do so. Instead Ashworth has been content to lay down some sensible markers and probe ministers in relatively low-key but important ways about those measures the Government has taken – and the measures they have not.

As he said yesterday, Labour has been ‘broadly supportive’ of the Government and backs moving from the contain phase to the delay phase in the overall action plan.

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