The comments made by Piers Morgan, the media commentator, on Twitter on 7 December 2021.
Boris Johnson is continuing to lie about last year’s illicit Christmas party at No. 10 – even when we’ve all now seen his own spokeswoman on video laughing about it & wondering how best to lie about it to the media.
Even by his standards, this is absolutely shameful.
The comments made by Gary Lineker on 7 December 2021.
After all the sacrifices the people of this country have made, they’re laughing at us. Pretty unforgivable.
The comments made by Roger Gale, the Conservative MP for North Thanet, on 7 December 2021.
The No.10 party has all the hallmarks of another ‘Barnard Castle’ moment. No.10 clearly has some serious questions to answer. Fast.
The comments made by Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, on 7 December 2021.
Starting to feel like everyone except me got an invite to the No.10 Christmas parties…
Can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want me at an illegal party held whilst millions of people were separated from their family and friends.
The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 7 December 2021.
People across the country followed the rules, even when that meant being separated from loved ones.
They had a right to expect the government was doing the same.
To lie and to laugh about those lies is shameful.
We have a Prime Minister who’s socially distanced from the truth.
The comments made by Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, on Twitter on 6 December 2021.
Docile acceptance of No.10 ‘reassurances’ by Kit Malthouse leaves him unable to answer straightforward question on #r4today about No.10 Xmas party. Met police must urgently investigate this question of PM ignoring his own rules as others forced to cancel their Xmas gatherings
The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 5 December 2021.
Healthcare professionals and volunteers around the UK are working so incredibly hard to roll out booster jabs. It is vital that we all support them and our NHS for the winter ahead by playing our part and getting a booster vaccination as soon as invited to.
It is frustrating and worrying that medics are seeing too many hospital beds and NHS resources are taken by those that have chosen not to get the vaccine. I am calling on those who are eligible but unwilling to get vaccinated to consider the impact of their decision and think again.
We are stronger when we all come together and act to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our communities from the virus.
But with the number of vaccinations down a quarter from the peak earlier this year, we simply cannot afford for the Government to take its eye off the ball in speeding up the rollout of the booster programme. The Prime Minister needs to break the habit of his tenure by stepping up and getting a grip.
The statement made by Kemi Badenoch, the Minister for Levelling Up Communities, in the House of Commons on 3 December 2021.
I am publishing today my final report on progress to address covid-19 health disparities among ethnic minority groups.
When the Prime Minister asked me to lead this work in June 2020, we knew that ethnic minorities were more likely to become infected and to die from covid-19 but we did not know why. Thanks to analysis from the Government’s race disparity unit and new research backed by over £7 million in Government funding, we now have a much better understanding of the factors that have driven the higher infection and mortality rates among ethnic minority groups. These include occupation, living with children in multigenerational households, and living in densely-populated urban areas with poor air quality and higher levels of deprivation.
We also know that once a person is infected, older age, male sex, and having a disability or a pre-existing health condition (such as diabetes) increase the risk of them dying from covid-19. Genetics may also play a role in survival rates from covid-19. 61% of south Asian people carry a gene which doubles the risk of respiratory failure and death from covid-19 in under-60-year-olds, compared with 16% of people of European ancestry.
These insights have been crucial in shaping our response to covid-19.
Early action, informed by the emerging data and scientific advice, focused on reducing the risk of infection and protecting key frontline workers who were most at risk, particularly our NHS workers. Our approach evolved as our understanding of the risk factors developed. For example, in the second wave of the pandemic, we published guidance on preventing household transmission, recognising that people from the Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic groups faced a higher risk of dying from covid-19 and are more likely to live in multigenerational households. We also piloted approaches where families could get jabbed together at vaccine sites to promote uptake in these groups.
The most significant measure to protect ethnic minorities from the risk of covid-19 has been the vaccination programme. We led the way in terms of the scale of our programme to approve, procure and deploy the covid-19 vaccines. The largest mass-vaccination programme in British history has been delivered through an unprecedented partnership approach between citizens, national and local government, health agencies, and the voluntary and community sector. This has involved tackling misinformation and building trust with ethnic minority groups through measures such as housing vaccination centres in places of worship and providing over £23 million in funding to the community champion scheme, which has used trusted local voices to drive up vaccination rates. These learnings are informing our approach to the current roll-out of the booster programme to ensure we continue to drive up vaccination rates in ethnic minority groups.
Through these combined efforts we have seen increases in both positive vaccine sentiment and vaccine uptake across all ethnic groups since vaccine deployment began.
There are a number of wider public health lessons that we must learn from these experiences and these are reflected in the recommendations in my report, which the Prime Minister has accepted in full. These recommendations will still be applicable even as we see the emergence of new variants. Work on addressing covid-19 disparities will now be taken forward by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities as part of our longer-term strategy to tackle health disparities.
The comments made by Louise Haigh, the Shadow Transport Secretary, on 5 December 2021.
Many flying home for their first Christmas since the pandemic began will be hit with scandalous testing costs.
Unscrupulous private providers are pocketing millions, and leaving many families forced to shell out huge sums.
Ministers are sitting on their hands while people who want to do the right thing are paying the price for this broken market.
The Government must act ahead of the Christmas travel period, implement the recommendation of the regulator, and urgently consider bringing in a price cap to tackle the extortionate prices.
The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 2 December 2021.
With scientists around the world working tirelessly to learn more about the Omicron variant, we have never been more indebted to the extraordinary power of Life Sciences.
Today I am bringing global industry leaders together to discuss our renewed efforts against Covid-19, while ensuring we are better equipped to tackle future healthcare challenges.
As we press ahead with our goal to become a science superpower, the new investments made today will help us forge life-changing breakthroughs against other diseases, such as cancer and dementia, while creating hundreds of high-skilled jobs across the country.