Responding to Boris Johnson’s speech to Conservative Party Conference, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: “The Prime Minister’s speech utterly failed to deliver a credible plan to beat Coronavirus. With the Government’s tracing system in meltdown, a quarter of the UK in lockdown and millions set to face unemployment, this speech was nothing more than a pipe dream.
“People and business need not only reassurance from the Prime Minister, but concrete measures to help them face the next six months of this pandemic. They got neither.
“Even when talking of recovery, Johnson’s plans were unambitious at best – the money being spent on wind power is just a fraction of what is needed to ensure we achieve a green recovery. Equally, it is more than ironic for the Prime Minister to cast himself as the saviour of the care sector, given the treatment of carers by his Government during this crisis.
“It is time Boris Johnson got a grip of the crisis at hand, and committed to an independent public inquiry to begin its work straight away. This is the only way that this Government can learn the necessary lessons as we face a second wave of the pandemic.”