Government criticised for its communications strategy on coronavirus
The government has been criticised for its communication strategy over the coronavirus pandemic, after news of new quarantine measures were leaked to the press before they were formally announced.
ITV reported news of the government’s plan to force over-70s into isolation for up to four months came this morning.
ITV was briefed on the measure by “a senior government source” before health secretary Matt Hancock confirmed the plans to Sky News and BBC.
Hancock also wrote an op ed for the Sunday Telegraph on the developing situation, but was initially behind a paywall.
Labour Manchester mayor Andy Burnham took to Twitter to tell the government to learn from his experiences in dealing with the 2009 swine flu when he was health secretary under Gordon Brown.
He said in 2009 that “mixing political comms/briefings with official government statements” was problematic and and he made a decision to “dial down the former and up the latter”.
“I think we’ve hit the same moment as I hit in the summer of 2009,” he said.
“So, now, we need to hear more from the [chief medical officer and chief medical officer] and less from the politicians.
Shadow health secretary John Ashworth echoed Burnham’s comments and called for the government to “take the public” with them.
Speaking to Sky News, he said: “It is utterly unacceptable for government sources to be briefing journalists overnight on issues which are very, very fundamental to how we deal with this virus, very fundamental to how our society is going to operate in the coming weeks.
“If things have changed since…the Prime Minister’s press conference on Thursday, then really the Prime Minister should be doing another press conference today and explaining why things have changed.”
Number 10 and the health department declined to comment.