Matt Hancock is really struggling to get his words out today!

[Teddypops]

Gosh he is struggling. Forgot the name of one of the advisers.

[mrsnw]

They really need to pull it together tomorrow. Whitty, Patrick and Raab? Painful to watch today.

[pussycatinboots]

He looked ill.
My guess is he rushed off so he could rush to the loos and chuck.
Lets face it, it wouldn't be great doing that live on tv.

[Inkpaperstars]

Where was it said that we turned down lifesaving equipment due to not being in the EU?

[Baaaahhhhh]

they lied about PPE from Turkey

They didn't lie about it coming, it's on it's way. The delay was with it leaving the manufacturers. I am sure the manufacturers said, yes it is coming on Sunday, only for it not to leave the factory gate. You honestly can't blame them for a failure of manufacturer to transport it. It happens all the time.

[bluebeck]

I am sure BJ is having a lovely time at Chequers though eh?

Van Tam looks like he is going to try to sell someone a dodgy motor at any point.

I think MH should resign before they throw him under the bus. Agree with PP - he really did look like he was going to cry today, more than once.

[LastTrainEast]

"The knowledge they don't know how to get out of this now" What does that even mean? We didn't choose to have a virus. We'll certainly be 'getting out of it'. With a smaller population or a much smaller population depending on how it goes.

[CendrillonSings]

vera99

Johnson is rumoured to have done. They truly are a nasty bunch of arrogant toffs, man and boy.

You love your stupid smears, don’t you?

[vera99]

They are a bunch of lying liars in office but not in power in a world heading into unprecedented uncharted waters. May God have mercy upon us all and thank God (even though I'm an atheist) for the decency of my fellow man and women, for in that I trust.

[The80sweregreat]

I've always felt a bit sorry for him. Early on he looked wiped out, then he had the virus and now all these problems with Ppe.
I'm no fan of this government at all , but he is going to be the whipping boy here and it should be more of a team effort. Too many people ready to kick you when your down in politics. It's ruthless. I'd be worried if I had the likes of Michael Gove and Priti Patel on my ' team'! They are all not to be trusted.
I know I'm going soft in my old age.

[SouthernComforts]

He was definitely struggling today wasn't he.

[wouldyouadamandeveit]

There was a sorry on the BBC website y'day about some NHS or associated organisation representative stating that only 22,000 out of the 220,000 gowns were received from China. Complete bullshit. I know for a fact that 244,000 were delivered. Don't believe everything you read.

[MrsBlobbyOnLockdown]

In most situations there’s a fall guy, it was going to be Boris, now Boris is out of action it’s Matt Hancock. He knows this too

[jasjas1973]

I do feel sorry for him. He’s not getting everything right but you can see he is trying

I don't want leaders who are trying, how about succeeding? People eventually accepted Chamberlain wasn't up to the job, no matter that he tried and was a nice guy!
But what i really don't want is people who fucking lie!! just be honest, say you ve made mistakes and what you'll do to put it right, that is what a real statesman does, not treat us like children.

Then again, we've a PM who is ringing up Trump who is probably insane and not ringing Merkel or Macron who are not.

[vera99]

@CendrillonSings welcome back to the thread we look forward to your 'lines to take'. Though today we shall no doubt need the 'if pressed' lines. I'll offer up Sir Simon McDonald's 'it was a political decision'. Which is mandarin speak for nothing to do with me guv.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8241937/Top-civil-servant-says-ministers-political-decision-DELIBERATELY-snub-EU-PPE-scheme.html

[MrsBlobbyOnLockdown]

@jasjas1973 I’m guessing if you were in his position you’d get this right then. As another PP said above he hasn’t lied about PPE from turkey, it’s on its way are we blaming MH for a distributors delay. We literally need trillions & trillions of PPE, so does everybody else. IMO being honest and owning up to a mistake will just give people another opportunity to stick the boot in ( from what I’ve seen on here)

Maybe the people who are heavily contributing in this thread when he’s been sacked

[MrsBlobbyOnLockdown]

Should apply for his job *

[Jaxhog]

I really feel for him. It must be exhausting dealing with some of the petty territorial behaviour of some non-front-line NHS departments and other public services. Don't forget he isn't making every single decision himself but is trying to get things done quickly against some breathtaking bureaucracy (pun intended).

[B1rdbra1n]

a PM who is ringing up Trump who is probably insane
when the most powerful person in the world is unstable and petulant with a limited intellectual capacity it is probably best to humour him to some extent...do you not think?

[AuldAlliance]

Inkpaperstars
Here:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-uk-eu-medical-equipment-ventilators-boris-johnson-brexit-latest-a9476811.html

[ToffeeYoghurt]

I'm not sure about knives being stuck in. Boris is still recovering. He's not deliberately leaving others to it. None of them including Matt and Boris are blameless. They made some bad decisions. They failed on the PPE provision and the care homes situation is a scandal. But, a lot of this is inherited. Jeremy Hunt certainly has as much if not more to answer for than does Hancock. Previous governments going back decades have mismanaged and underfunded both the NHS and care home provision. It was Labour that saddled/crippled the NHS with PFI debt. None of the political parties come out of this looking good. As for lying. It's a rare politician that doesn't.

We can only move forwards. We have a choice in the future. Learn from mistakes and do things better, or repeat them whilst blaming all the others.

[Theworldisfullofgs]

Probably because just before the press conference, it came out that it was a political decision not to participate in the EU scheme. It wasnt missed emails. It wasnt incompetence. It was a decision.

[woodchuck99]

Perhaps he's still not feeling that great after catching coronavirus. Most people who have had it to feel tired for weeks afterwards. I wonder if that's why we're not much of Chris Whitty too.

[Frazzled2207]

I actually know him (not well). He’s well intentioned as others have said but woefully out of his depth. That said he has the worst job in the UK at the moment.
Twitter believes he is going to be made a scapegoat which is harsh. I’m not a big fan but he’s definitely one of the more competent of the lot of them, even if the PPE thing has been a disaster. John crace on Twitter interestingly pointed out that he may made the decision to join the EU PPE procurement thingy but got overruled (eg by Boris)

[Delatron]

Whitty is calm and collected. Get him back on.

I think Matt needs a break for at least a week.

[AuldAlliance]

And on when the UK actually ordered PPE from Turkey (acc to 2 Turkish sources):
news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-uk-only-formally-asked-turkey-for-ppe-shipment-after-it-said-it-was-already-on-its-way-11976238