Jeremy Corbyn, 70, turns up at the House of Commons on first day of ‘virtual Parliament’ to watch from the backbenches as new Labour leader Keir Starmer makes PMQs debut – despite advice for the elderly to self-isolate as much as possible
- The Islington North MP took his seat on the deserted backbenches today
- He made six-mile journey in from north London to grill Matt Hancock in person
- Official guidance says those aged 70 and over should limit time outside homes
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn defied coronavirus advice for the elderly today as he attended the House of Commons in person, despite technology being put in place to allow MPs to take part remotely.
The Islington North MP, 70, took his seat on the deserted backbenches despite official guidance that those aged 70 and over should limit their movement outside their homes.
It came as Parliament used webcam technology for the first time in its centuries-long history to allow MPs to remain safely at home and still take part in Prime Minister’s Questions and other debate.
But Mr Corbyn made the six-mile journey in from his Islington home to pay tribute to NHS staff and grill Health Secretary Matt Hancock in person about the Government’s flawed testing programme.
Viewers watching proceedings on television and online demanded to know why the left-winger had taken the risk.
One, Gabriel Gavin, tweeted; ‘How can it be right that Jeremy Corbyn still refuses to obey NHS guidelines and stay home?
‘It’s one thing to pay tribute to NHS workers, but I think they’d prefer he didn’t contribute to their caseload.’
Mr Corbyn made the six-mile journey in from his Islington home to pay tribute to NHS staff and grill Health Secretary Matt Hancock in person about the Government’s flawed testing programme
The Islington North MP took his seat on the deserted backbenches despite official guidance that those aged 70 and over should only leave home for ‘essential’ travel
Earlier Sir |Keir Starmer had faced Dominic Raab at his first Prime Minister’s Questions as Labour leader
Official Government advice on coronavirus measures says that those aged 70 or over ‘regardless of medical conditions’ should ‘be particularly stringent in following social distancing measures’.
This includes advice to ‘work from home, where possible’ – which the virtual Paliament was set up specifically to allow.
Asking his question Mr Corbyn raised the WHO’s warnings about the pandemic and importance placed on testing.
Viewers watching proceedings on television and online demanded to know why the left-winger had taken the risk
He said: ‘The director general of the WHO said the way of dealing with it is test, test, test in order to ascertain the levels of infection across our society, we didn’t do that.’
He added: ‘It’s still nowhere near the level that is necessary. Can he assure us that there’s going to be a really rapid increase in the level of testing and the availability of testing to get on top of this dreadful virus?’
Mr Hancock replied: ‘The development of testing has been at pace throughout this crisis entirely contrary to the story told by (him).
‘We were one of the first countries in the world to develop a test, we rapidly increased the number of tests to 2,000 at the start of March to 10,000 – that’s multiple of five times during March and now going up further.
‘This is an area where we’ve had our foot on the gas all the way through because it is incredibly important.’