Leicester Mayor has no idea if rumours of isolated lockdown "are fact or fiction"

28 June 2020, 10:33

Sir Peter Soulsby, Mayor of Leicester on possible lockdown

After rumours of a lockdown on the horizon for Leicester, the Mayor told LBC that he has no idea what plans the government have.

Sir Peter Soulsby is the Mayor of Leicester and following rumours that Health Secretary Matt Hancock is worried about a spike in coronavirus cases in the city, the Mayor told LBC that he doesn't "know if it is fact or fiction" that there could be an isolated lockdown.

"We've been struggling to get them to secure the level of testing in Leicester" said Sir Peter, and revealed that his team have been asking for the last ten days for information from the government.

He told Andrew Castle that "three days ago we started to get some information from the government" but he cannot yet say whether an isolated lockdown will be needed in Leicester, adding "we won't know until we get all the information."

Andrew wanted to know how Sir Peter and his team have been finding out about the alleged plans for an isolated lockdown, to which the Mayor told him that they've spoken to Mr. Hancock's team. He added however that the flaws in the system are clear, as information has "taken ages to come through."

"They've all been very helpful but it just takes so long to get anything out of them" said the Mayor of Leicester. He argued that if there is an emergency in his city, the government's ability to share information has been a serious problem and has slowed the response.

A confused Mr Soulsby told Andrew that the cases in Leicester currently "reflect the national picture" but some of his advisors have told him that there has been "a spike in positive results" which may have been where the fears from government have come from

He told Andrew that there will be a meeting on Monday morning to "understand whether it is something that is widespread" but stressed again that "we need to have the information" if the city is to tackle the problem efficiently.

"Frustrating is certainly a mild way of describing it" said Sir Peter, who was clearly irritated by the lack of communication.

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