PMQs: Boris boasts UK 'has the fastest growing economy in the G7'

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BBC’s Question Time on Thursday evening from Newport, featured guests such as conservative MP George Eustice, Plaid Cymru MS Delyth Jewell, and Labour MS Vaughan Gething. The topic of the Government’s proposed changes to self-isolation rules set one audience member into a rant.

The Prime Minister announced at Prime Minister’s Questions that by the end of the month he plans to drop all the remaining Covid restrictions in England which includes the rules surrounding self-isolation.

This is part of the PM’s strategy for the country to start “living with Covid” once Parliament returns from recess at the end of February.

When asked about the criticism from some that the restrictions are being lifted too soon, Conservative MP and Environment Secretary George Eustice replied:

“No, I think it’s the right thing to do. The reality is that we’ve had a plan now for the last year which has been based on getting very high levels of vaccination. 

“We’ve now got around 37 million people who have had that booster jab and although those infection rates peaked very sharply around Christmas and continued to rise for a few weeks after, they are now tapering down quite sharply.”

He added: “We have dramatically reduced the severity of infections and dramatically reduced the mortality associated with it.

“The death rates that we are seeing, although it’s a tragedy where you have those, they are obviously tapering down quite sharply. 

“And you know at some point we’ve got to get back to living life normally and learning to live alongside Covid.

“It does now feel that we’re at the stage where we are getting weaker strains of variant and the success of the vaccine means it is the right time to do this.”

Delyth Jewell, MS for Plaid Cymru strongly disagreed with Mr Eustice and slammed Boris Johnson by stating:

“We need to make decisions motivated by facts. I think everyone can tell this decision has not been made with the facts in mind and really I think it is quite distasteful that the Prime Minister is willing to imperil people’s lives in order to save his own skin politically.”

The Welsh government’s response to the PM’s plan is due to be announced on Friday about possible changes to the restrictions in Wales.

Across the pandemic, Wales have taken a stricter stance in terms of Covid regulations in an attempt to fight off the rising cases.

While the people of Wales wait for the announcement, the audience in Newport had their say.

One audience member sternly stated: “It’s obviously a purely political decision for Boris Johnson to make this announcement right now. 

“Anybody who thinks it isn’t a ‘save his own skin’ exercise is a bit deluded.”

As a member of the Bereaved Covid Families Cymru (BCFC) the woman added:

“I lost my dad to hospital-acquired Covid in January last year, over a quarter of deaths in Wales from Covid are through hospital-acquired Covid.” 

“There’s been no investigations at all, nothing has been learnt and in the latest infection report from a hospital in December, the same mistakes are being made over and over.”

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The BCFC are calling for a Welsh Covid enquiry investigating these issues. The woman said that “everybody in Wales is behind it except Welsh Labour who make the decisions here in Wales. It’s wrong and we deserve answers.”

She punctuated her point to finish stating that “we should be having that discussion, learning lessons and healing as a country.”

MS Vaughan Gething the Labour Welsh Government Economy Minister responded to the audience member, arguing that:

“We want to have a UK enquiry that properly considers what happened here in Wales, the choices we have made, including the choices I made as health minister, choices made by the first minister and welsh government ministers including the points about people acquiring covid when they were in hospital. 

“Our ambition is not to have the truth hidden, but we want an inquiry that properly takes account of UK-wide choices that affected the decisions we made here in Wales.”

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