Tory MPs lash out at ‘sanctimonious’ Jeremy Hunt who ‘left us unprepared’ for the coronavirus pandemic as tensions over the Government’s ‘too slow’ testing regime boil over
- Tory MP brand Jeremy Hunt ‘sanctimonious’ after his appeals for more testing
- Mr Hunt condemned by senior Minister as ‘the person who left us unprepared’
- He was Health Secretary from 2012 to 2018 when NHS failed pandemic exercise
Jeremy Hunt faced a withering coronavirus backlash from Tory colleagues yesterday as tensions over the Government’s ‘too slow’ testing regime burst into the open.
Former Health Secretary Mr Hunt, who is spearheading calls for more mass virus testing, was condemned by one senior Minister as ‘the person who left us unprepared’ for the pandemic.
Another Tory MP angrily branded Mr Hunt, who is now the select health committee chairman, ‘sanctimonious’ given how recently he was in charge of the NHS.
Jeremy Hunt faced a withering coronavirus backlash from Tory colleagues yesterday as tensions over the Government’s ‘too slow’ testing regime burst into the open
The bitter row centres on what Mr Hunt did in response to a 2016 pandemic ‘exercise’ which reportedly showed the NHS did not have enough ventilators and would simply ‘fall over’ in the face of hundreds of thousands of people dying.
Mr Hunt, who was Health Secretary from 2012 to 2018, says he did take action, with ‘a massive amount of work’ done to prepare for a pandemic.
His allies said the preparations included work on emergency legislation ahead of last month’s Coronavirus Act being passed.
But one senior Minister contradicted that, saying that the existing emergency legislation was ‘unusable’.
The Minister said: ‘He (Mr Hunt) is the person who left us unprepared.’
A backbench Tory MP added: ‘If we’re woefully unprepared, he can’t escape some of the blame.’
But Morecambe MP David Morris said: ‘Just think how bad this situation could be if Jeremy hadn’t won his battle with the Treasury for an extra £20 billion for the NHS?’
![The bitter row centres on what Mr Hunt did in response to a 2016 pandemic ‘exercise’ which reportedly showed the NHS did not have enough ventilators and would simply ‘fall over’ in the face of hundreds of thousands of people dying. A stock image is used above [File photo]](https://i0.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/04/04/22/26700160-8187989-The_bitter_row_centres_on_what_Mr_Hunt_did_in_response_to_a_2016-m-3_1586035249621.jpg?resize=634%2C398&ssl=1)
The bitter row centres on what Mr Hunt did in response to a 2016 pandemic ‘exercise’ which reportedly showed the NHS did not have enough ventilators and would simply ‘fall over’ in the face of hundreds of thousands of people dying. A stock image is used above [File photo]