Health Secretary Matt Hancock is coming under mounting pressure over his handling of the coronavirus crisis as eminent statistician Profes...
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is coming under mounting pressure over his handling of the coronavirus crisis as eminent statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter said his testing figures are 'completely embarrassing'.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, he accused the government of misleading the public over the number of tests carried out daily by conflating the number done with the number posted out.
It follows reports Hancock urged Boris Johnson to ‘give me a break’ in a furious bust-up over the coronavirus crisis, and his department's failure to hit its 100,000 tests-a-day target for the seventh day in a row.
The escalating row – which raises questions over the beleaguered Minister’s Cabinet future – can be revealed as the Prime Minister prepares to use a televised address to the nation this evening to set out his roadmap for easing the national lockdown.
The government has been criticised for its daily tests data, which conflates the number of tests carried out with the number posted to homes across the country
The statistician, who chairs the Winton Centre at Cambridge University, said in a fiery interview: 'We got lots of big numbers (at the most recent daily press briefing), precise numbers of tests done...
'Well that's not how many were done yesterday, it includes tests that were posted out.'
Bristling with criticism, he continued: 'We are told 31,587 people have died - no they haven't, it is far more than that.
'So I think it is not trustworthy communication of statistics, and it is such a missed opportunity.
'There is a public out there who are broadly very supportive of the measures, they are hungry for details, for facts, for genuine information.
'And yet they get fed what I call number theatre, which seems to be co-ordinated much more by a No10 communications team rather than genuinely trying to inform people about what is going on.
'I just wish that the data was being brought together and presented by people who really know its strengths and limitations and could treat the audience with some respect.'
Prof Spiegelhalter has also written a book on numbers, called The Art of Statistics.
The government has repeatedly referenced his article on global coronavirus data to suggest that UK deaths should not be compared to other countries.
In a tweet on May 6, however, he rebuffed their claims writing: 'Polite request to PM and others: Please stop using my Guardian article to claim we cannot make any international comparison yet.
'I refer only to detailed league tables - of course we should now use other countries to try and learn why our numbers are high.'
Matt Hancock is coming under increasing pressure over his handling of the coronavirus crisis. He is pictured above approaching Downing Street on VE day
Hancock claimed the UK had reached his 100,000 tests-a-day target on May 1, with 122,347 completed, but numbers have dramatically slid backwards since then.
Yesterday Department of Health figures say just 96,878 tests were completed, 3,000 below the initial target. They fell to a low of 69,463 on May 6.
As criticism mounted it has also emerged that 50,000 coronavirus tests have been sent to the US for analysis following capacity issues in the UK.
The government has blamed this on 'operational issues' while the Department of Health said it was among the 'contingencies' to deal with 'problems'.
The prime minister will be announcing how the UK's lockdown is set to continue after 7pm today.
His plans include introducing a five-stage alert system – similar to that used to highlight the risk of a terrorist attack – to signal the risk of infection in different parts of the country.
While a green Level One alert would mean life carrying on normally, a red Level Five means that the NHS is in a critical state and on the brink of being overwhelmed.
No 10 is also preparing to launch a new slogan – ‘stay alert, control the virus, save lives’ – to replace advice to stay at home, indicating a gradual move to a less draconian set of restrictions.
But the Government will take a cautious approach after scientific advisers warned that Covid-19 is ‘ripping through care homes’.
The PM will speak to the nation at 7pm on Sunday outlining his five-step exit plan out of lockdown. This weekend, he is expected to announce that garden centres will be allowed to open from Wednesday and publish guidance for safer working in offices
A surge in the R-number, which measures how quickly the virus is spreading, came in a ‘chilling briefing’ from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) to the Cabinet.
A source said: ‘Sage say we are one wrong move away from R going back to where it was in March.’
Pressure intensified on Mr Hancock over his handling of the crisis last night after more than 25 million goggles were found to offer frontline NHS workers inadequate defence against the deadly virus.
The latest in a string of embarrassing Government failures over Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) came as senior sources suggested to The Mail on Sunday that Mr Hancock was now living ‘on borrowed time’ in the Cabinet.
One source claimed Boris Johnson had raised questions with Mr Hancock about his department’s grip on the crisis, only for the Minister to plead: ‘That’s not fair – give me a break.’
The 25.6 million pairs of Tiger Eye goggles bought for the NHS are not fit for purpose, according to the British Standards Institute: 15.9 million of them have already been distributed, with hospitals now being told to withdraw the remaining 9.7 million from use.
Mr Hancock’s spokesman said Ministers were ‘furious’ about the mistake with the goggles, which they said had been ordered by Gordon Brown’s Labour Government in 2009.
A Health Department source dubbed them ‘Gordon’s goggles’ and added that they were bought against 2001 standards of protection which were superseded by the time they were purchased. ‘Even a decade on, we are still having to clear up Labour’s mess’, the source added.
Around 3 million eye protectors are used every day in hospitals, meaning more than eight days’ supply has been lost. But a Department of Health spokesman insisted the NHS had enough stock to be able to immediately stop using the Tiger Eye goggles.
However, the latest PPE fiasco will be damaging to the Health Secretary, coming days after it emerged that surgical gowns ordered from Turkey and flown into the UK amid great fanfare did not all meet British safety standards.
‘The feeling is that Hancock is on borrowed time,’ said a senior Government source.
‘He has fallen out with the most powerful figures in the Government, from the Prime Minister down.
'Nothing will change immediately. But once we have beaten this thing, expect him to be moved.’
A source close to Mr Hancock admitted tensions had run high in the run-up to the deadline for hitting a target of 100,000 tests a day, but said ‘the PM was full of praise for his performance’.
‘We’ve been working incredibly well with the PM and the whole No10 team and have had nothing but total support from them,’ the source added.
‘During Cabinet the PM praised Matt for doing an “amazing job in hellishly difficult circumstances.” ’
Mr Johnson will address the country after leading a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee this afternoon.
A No 10 source said: ‘This is a critical moment so, having assessed the evidence carefully, the Prime Minister will ask for the public resolve as we continue to do whatever is needed to defeat this devastating virus.’
In a similar way to how the level of terror threat is set by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and MI5, the Covid alert level will be set by medical and data experts working for a new ‘Joint Biosecurity Centre’.
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