Shelagh Fogarty's furious reaction to claims Government's Covid response was "spectacular"
17 September 2020, 22:03
Shelagh Fogarty furious with Conservative Candidate for London Mayor
This was Shelagh Fogarty's furious reaction to the Conservative London Mayor candidate after he claimed the Government has "got some things spectacularly right" in the pandemic response.
Candidate Shaun Bailey insisted "the NHS wasn't overwhelmed, we've been able to control the amount of deaths we've had...some things we've got spectacularly right."
Shelagh outright refused to accept this, "Absolutely not. Out of the respect to the 50,000 families who lost somebody because of what did not happen and what did happen between January and March, can we not talk about a spectacular success in this virus?
"Maybe we'll have one between now and Christmas, pray to God we do, but we did not in the first half of this year.
"Shame on you for suggesting we did!" Shelagh said, "50,000 people. Dead."
Shaun Bailey responded that he said there were some things the Government got right, such as the furlough scheme, but not all.
"I don't live in a bubble, here in London we were affected by Covid very badly, particularly in my community. I understand the level of deaths but it could have been worse," Mr Bailey said.
"Is it perfect? 'Course not. Unless not one single person died, you couldn't use the word perfect, but we are trying."
Shelagh retorted that he had used the word "spectacular" which Mr Bailey was forced to acknowledge.
He continued that the pandemic was a learning curve for the country: "If we keep talking about this in a way that it has defeated us, it will do in the long run."
