Government preparation for pandemic ‘wanting and inadequate’, Nadine Dorries admits

Comments in attack on Jeremy Hunt amount to ‘indictment’ of government, says Labour

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Nadine Dorries (James Manning/PA) (PA Wire)

Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries has come under fire after effectively admitting that the Conservative government failed to prepare the UK for a health emergency like Covid.

In a scathing Twitter attack on Jeremy Hunt after his announcement he would vote against Boris Johnson in this evening’s confidence vote, Ms Dorries said that the former health secretary had overseen pandemic preparations which were “wanting and inadequate” during his time in office from 2012 to 2018.

Shadow home secretary Wes Streeting said that the comment was “a damning indictment” of the government’s preparedness which showed that the Conservatives were “not fit to govern”.