Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: ‘Grotesque’ to suggest the PM skipped meetings, says Gove

Michael Gove on Sky's Sophy Ridge

Michael Gove – Government is not thinking about lifting lockdown restrictions yet

Sophy Ridge began the morning interviewing the Cabinet Office Minister, Michael Gove. On Thursday, the government announced it would be extending the UK’s lockdown for a further three weeks to best tackle Covid-19. Gove downplayed reports that the government had drawn up a three-stage plan to end the lockdown, and explicitly quashed the idea that schools could be open again from mid-May. Instead, he told Ridge that the government’s efforts would continue to be guided by the science, and would not be drawn on a timescale:

MG: We’ve set some tests which need to be passed before we can think of easing restrictions in this lockdown… We do not want to take steps too early because the most important thing is to make sure that the NHS and public’s health is protected… We should not be thinking of lifting these restrictions yet.

It is our priority ‘to protect those on the frontline’

Ridge challenged Gove on the government’s efforts to procure personal protection equipment (PPE) for NHS staff, which has been found to be in short supply in many hospitals across the country. There have been particular calls for extra gowns, with concerns raised that typically single-use gowns may have to be reused. Doctors have been told by the British Medical Association that they can refuse to treat patients if they feel their PPE is inadequate. Gove said that more PPE was coming and cited the setting up of a new taskforce designed to focus solely on the issue:

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