The Minister for Care was accused of laughing today as she was asked about the number of care home deaths amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Helen Whately was asked whether it was true that 4,000 people had died due to outbreaks of the virus in care homes across the UK. She then appeared to laugh when presenter Piers Morgan held up the front page of the Daily Mail.

She then explained her ‘reaction’ was because she couldn’t see the newspaper he was showing her, causing Piers to ask: ‘Why are you laughing? I am telling you what it is. It’s actually very serious.’

Whately was then accused of laughing again as Piers asked her: ‘Just answer, is it true that 4,000 people have died in care homes?’ He then asked her: ‘What are you finding funny about this?’, causing her to respond: ‘I don’t think it’s funny in the slightest’.

She added: ‘I am not laughing at all. Please don’t suggest for a minute I am laughing. I have not been. It feels like you are shouting at me and not giving me a chance to answer.’

The Care Minister then accused Piers of ‘point scoring’ and said: ‘I don’t get my data from newspapers, I have to get it from the NHS and scientists’.

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She stated that according to the latest government figures, revealed by the Health Secretary last weekend, 19 NHS workers are confirmed to have died after testing positive for coronavirus. She added that there is not yet data available for care homes.

Whately continued: ‘It’s not that I’ve not checked the number [of care home deaths], it’s just that every death has to be verified. The deaths have to be appropriately recorded, there is a process that needs to be followed.

‘We need to make sure we are sharing accurate information with the public.’

She added that focusing too much on the figures ‘moves away from the fact we are talking about individual people and lives here.’ She continued: ‘We need to recognise that every single death is somebody’s family.’

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