Masks a ‘small measure’ to keep people safe says Starmer

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme this morning that masks are a “small measure” that people can use to protect themselves and everybody else, adding: “It’s not much to ask.”

He also added that pop-up vaccine centres need to be reinstated to prevent boosters not being rolled out until 2022, claiming that the Prime Minister has “taken his eye off the ball”, on the issue.

This comes after shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme yesterday that the government’s “dither and delay” to reintroduce coronavirus restrictions “risks causing problems for the future”, and said that the government’s Plan B, which would likely see the reimplementation of mandatory face coverings, along with vaccine passports and the advice to people work from home.

Labour was accused of muddling over their stance on plan B last week after “Sir Keir said on Friday that whether it was time to activate Plan B was the wrong focus”, and that “The question we need to ask is why is plan A failing? And it’s failing because the government has allowed that wall of the vaccine to crumble” just minutes after shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth claimed the party had shifted “…in favour of plan B.”