Piers Morgan has lashed out at the UK government’s care minister, branding her numbers on Covid-19 deaths in the health and care sector “complete nonsense” as anger grows over the apparent lack of protection for frontline workers.
The 55-year-old Good Morning Britain TV presenter grilled Care Minister Helen Whately in a heated interview on Wednesday morning on the working conditions for health and care staff at the center of the coronavirus crisis.
Morgan asked Whately what the death toll was for health and care professionals who have fallen victim to the deadly Covid-19 disease. The stuttering minister replied: “So the latest figures we have for NHS workers is that 19 [NHS] workers have sadly died.”
‘We don’t have a figure for that’ – Helen Whately @piersmorgan questions the Care Minister over the number of healthcare workers that have died on the front line from the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/VFcqFJX5SE
Morgan, cutting in before Whately could finish her sentence, sniped: “That’s complete nonsense.” He added that the Mirror newspaper had reported as recently as Tuesday that 38 had died so far.
On care sector deaths in the community – which comes under her portfolio – the Tory MP for Faversham and Mid Kent rather shockingly revealed that “we don’t have a figure for that.”
Morgan then accused the lawmaker of laughing at reports that there had been 4,000 deaths in care homes, raging: “What do you find funny about this?” He added: “What’s the matter with you?”
Piers Morgan says to Care Minister Helen Whately – “Is it true that 4000 people have died in care homes, yes or no?… why are you laughing?.. what’s the matter with you?” pic.twitter.com/UzuabJWxdV
If the minister thought that was the end of the hostile questioning, she was soon to be very disappointed as the TV co-host reminded Whately that she and other Tory MPs voted against giving nurses a pay rise in 2017, while accepting a sizable wage increase as lawmakers.
No two ways about it, Piers Morgan absolutely smashed this interview.I just wish any mainstream journalist had been doing this job lately. We might have saved a lot of lives.pic.twitter.com/DRsqlW7snu
It comes after new ONS figures released on Tuesday showed the Covid-19 death toll in England and Wales rising dramatically, with one in every five fatalities linked to coronavirus. The new data prompted accusations that the UK government has been underreporting deaths in its daily numbers by omitting fatalities in care homes; focusing on hospital deaths only.
Figures published by the Department for Health and Social Care on Tuesday showed that 93,873 people in the UK had tested positive for the coronavirus in hospital since the start of the outbreak. Of these, 12,107 died – 778 in the last 24-hour period.
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