Jacob Rees-Mogg believes the lockdown restrictions cannot continue “just to keep hospitals from being full”.
The Conservative MP for North East Somerset said in his ‘Moggcast’ podcast that ‘the NHS is here to serve the British people, not the British people over there to serve the NHS’.
Commons Leader Mr Rees-Mogg said “infections are no longer what matters” and the number of Covid deaths should be the main consideration as the lockdown loosens.
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The cabinet minister was asked about the threat of the Indian ‘Delta’ variant and hospitals being ‘clogged’ with a backlog of non-Covid cases, the Huff Post reports.
Mr Rees-Mogg said: ‘At the end of the day the NHS is there to serve the British people, not the British people out there to serve the NHS, and so we may have to spend more money on them. hospitals, but you can’t run the company just to stop the hospitals being full.
“Otherwise, you would never let us get in our cars and drive anywhere or do anything other people want to do. There has to be some proportionality inside of that. The government does not have the right to take over people’s lives just to prevent them from seeing the doctor.
He added: “In fact, otherwise we would never be allowed in our kitchens where a disproportionate number of accidents occur at home or in our bathrooms, so we would have become very hungry and very smelly on that basis.”
Mr Rees-Mogg was speaking just hours before Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the lifting of restrictions, or “Freedom Day”, would be postponed from June 21 to July 19.
“If everyone in the first nine categories has had the double vaccination and had it two weeks after, people below those categories are not at particular risk,” said Mr Rees-Mogg.
“Infections aren’t what matters anymore. Two things that matter: can the NHS cope and the number of deaths. The number of deaths is extremely important. The people who go to the hospital for a few days and come out, it’s not very important. If they die, it is very important.
The comments drew criticism from the Labor Party, reports the Huffington Post.
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Shadow Minister of Health Justin Madders said: “Rees Mogg spends so much time with the nanny he thinks the nanny state is lurking around every corner. Comparing a pandemic to accidents in the home is a ridiculous analogy to make and shows complete detachment from how this virus has affected people.
“His statement that it is not the government’s job to protect the NHS is senseless in the extreme and of course contrary to his own government’s policy for the past year. The mask has slipped off if he doesn’t think the NHS deserves protection. As for his comments that people hospitalized with Covid for a few days is “not very important”, has he even heard of Long Covid?
“His claim that ‘infections are no longer what matters’ is clearly contrary to the advice of government science advisers, as it was the increase in Delta variant infections that delayed Freedom Day, which is entirely due to the negligence of the government. “
When asked if Rees-Mogg represented the government’s position in saying the company could not be run to keep hospitals from being full, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson told The Huffington Post: “The position we use is that of the four tests.
“And based on that, we do not respond to these four tests and that is why we do not proceed.”
He said that before the July 19 date, the government “will decide to use the four tests when we get to that period one week in advance.”
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-06-15 21:10:23
