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Prime Minister’s Questions erupted into a row this week as Sir Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson faced off over the Government’s coronavirus advice for care homes. The Labour leader quoted Government advice from March, which said it was “very unlikely” that people in care homes would become infected. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis hit back at the claim when BBC Today show host Justin Webb used it as an example of the Government’s “chaotic” strategy.

Mr Lewis told Radio 4: “First of all, I think it was disappointing to see Keir quoting things out of context at PMQs.

“He was playing politics at a stage where I think people want to see us just focused on looking after people’s healthcare.

“What we were doing and have always been focused on with care homes was giving people advice on leaving hospital and isolating and such.

“As soon as we were able to upscale those testing capacities, we got that into the care homes.”

The latest ONS figures have shown that almost 40 percent of all deaths from COVID-19 were in care homes.

Sir Keir accused the Government of being “too slow” to protect people in care homes during PMQs.

However, the Prime Minister hit back that “it wasn’t true that the advice said” what the Opposition leader had quoted.

Mr Johnson told the Commons: “We brought the lockdown in care homes ahead of the general lockdown, and what we’ve seen is a concerted action plan to tackle what has unquestionably been an appalling epidemic in care homes.”

More to follow…

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