The large number of fatalities in this country was not inevitable and my heart goes out to those who’ve suffered a loss. This government has made a religion of cuts and non-intervention – this led them to delay the decision to go into lockdown.

The Prime Minister has changed the message to be alert, but it’s the government that must stay alert. Without an effective and efficient tracking and tracing system easing the lockdown is a reckless move. It has already caused confusion. People were given 12 hours notice to go back to work yesterday but the detailed guidance was not published until after they’d gone back.

The Government was too slow to lockdown, too slow to secure the supply of PPE, and too slow on testing. Now they are too rushed to end the lockdown in a coherent and planned way.

The performance of the people has been superior to the government’s. The government must improve if we are to keep people safe as we come out of this crisis.