Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows roundup: Keir Starmer – nurseries ‘probably should be closed’

Keir Starmer on the Andrew Marr Show

Keir Starmer – Covid restrictions ‘may not be tough enough’

Sir Keir Starmer was in the hot seat this morning as the latest of Andrew Marr’s series of interviews with the major party leaders. Marr’s first question to Starmer was about the government’s heightened Tier 5 restrictions. The conversation comes at a time when the UK’s official Covid-19 death toll has passed 80,000, and with the Office for National Statistics reporting figures showing that as many as one in 50 people have had the virus over the last week of 2020. Marr asked if the restrictions were tough enough to slow the spread:

KS: They are tough, and they’re necessary… They may not be tough enough, but in a sense I think the most important thing is for people to get that message [to] stay at home… I would like to see the Prime Minister out there every day with a press conference making sure that that message is absolutely getting through.

People ‘need clarity’ over Tier 5 rules

On Wednesday, two women were stopped by police and each fined £200 for driving five miles to go for a walk at a south Derbyshire reservoir. Their cases have since been put under review after making national headlines. Marr asked Starmer for his perspective on tough penalties for breaking the rules:


KS: The police by and large have done a really good job in very difficult circumstances… I think there’s a move from the police today to say ‘We’ll give one warning and then we’ll move to a fine’, and I don’t quarrel with that… [The public] need clarity about what exactly is asked of them

School staff and unions are owed ‘an apology’

The government has received plenty of criticism for its quick volte-face regarding the opening of schools, with the Prime Minister stating this time last week that children should ‘


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