Jon Ashworth was accused of offering no solutions of his own after criticising the Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Labour’s shadow health secretary dodged questions on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday about his party’s own ideas for dealing with the crisis. However, the Labour frontbencher did not waste time in laying into Boris Johnson and his cabinet, claiming they were “treating people like children”.

He responded to Michael Gove’s denial that Boris Johnson had missed a series of crucial early coronavirus meetings 

Speaking earlier, the cabinet office minister called the reports “grotesque” and defended the Prime Minister. 

In response, Mr Ashworth said that Mr Gove’s defence that the allegations were off beam was “possibly the weakest rebuttal of a detailed expose in British political history”.

He said the Government would need to address “serious questions” about the claims that the Prime Minister skipped five Cobra meetings

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When Mr Ashworth urged the Government to release a lockdown strategy, Ridge grilled him on what Labour’s own ideas were.

He responded: “Well, we first need to understand what the government plan is between now and when a vaccine is available, which could be 18 months from now.”

Critics online took issue with Mr Ashworth’s hostile tone, as tweets read “plenty of criticism but offered no positive solutions” and “point scoring at every opportunity”.

One user tweeted: “Whinge whinge whinge whinge, not one constructive comment or idea.”

Viewers also noted that Mr Ashworth laid all the positive points about the coronavirus response at the door of the NHS and frontline staff, while reserving all criticism for the Government.

Ridge pointed out that evidence didn’t chime with his claims that the UK had acted “worse or slowly than our neighbours”. 

Mr Ashworth responded: “I have nothing but praise for the NHS and the way they have opened up the Nightingale Hospitals across the country.”

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One person said: “Jon Ashworth on Sky this morning says all the good things ie Nightinggale Hospital that have been done to combat CV19 is down to the NHS but anything that has gone wrong ie shortage of PPE is down to the Government. Good old Labour eh?”

Another noted that Mr Ashworth was “going further than before in criticising the government”.

The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, also accused the Government today of dragging its feet in dealing with the pandemic. 

Sir Keir said: “The government was too slow to enter the lockdown. It has been too slow to increase the number of people being tested.

“It has been too slow in getting NHS staff the critical equipment they need to keep them safe. We need to make sure these mistakes are not repeated.”

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