Downing Street verdict: LBC callers review Matt Hancock's "baffling" briefing

11 June 2020, 18:35 | Updated: 11 June 2020, 18:38

Eddie Mair's Downing Street Verdict

Two LBC listeners Catrina and Christian scrutinise the Health Secretary's daily briefing in the Downing Street Verdict. Do you agree with their take?

Teacher Catrina called Matt Hancock "particularly waffly" today, with Christian agreeing and citing the phrase "we are working through the plan and the plan is working."

Test and trace chief Dido Harding gave an update on the first week's figures which saw two-thirds of people who potentially had the virus being contacted.

Catrina responded: "If only two-thirds of the people have actually said that they will self-isolate, how is that successful?"

"The whole business about not testing people because they should just stay at home or something, that seems very vague and strange. If somebody rings you up and tells you to self-isolate, the best thing you say is well I need a test then because I want to get back to work."

Christian said that Matt Hancock "dodged" questions over what a company was expected to do if all its employees were told to self-isolate for 14 days.

"I feel a bit sorry for them... I mean we saw this coming in January, didn't we? Other countries got off the mark straight away and went OK track and trace is the way forward," Catrina said, "it's closing the stable door after the horse has bolted."

She told Eddie that she has a friend working in an NHS contact centre and "lots of people" refuse to give details of others.

"Them saying 66% is good, well I'm a teacher and it's a grade C so it's up to them whether to say it's good or not, doesn't it?"