Helen Whately’s BBC Breakfast interview savaged by viewers: ’Answer the f***ing question'
HELEN WHATELY MP was welcomed onto BBC Breakfast this morning to speak to Dan Walker about the latest restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus and address concerns there will be a second national lockdown.
Helen Whately was probed by BBC Breakfast’s Dan Walker about the latest coronavirus restrictions but those tuning into the interview were far from impressed with her answers. As Walker asked if a second national lockdown was on the horizon, viewers felt Whately did not give a definitive answers and took to Twitter to complain.
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Walker began: “Lots to talk to you about this morning. Can I start by asking you about a report in one of the papers this morning saying ministers are preparing to enforce a total social lockdown across much of Northern Britain and potentially London to combat a spiralling second wave of coronavirus?
“This says under new emergency plans all pubs, bars and restaurants will be ordered to shut for two weeks initially, households will be banned from meeting each other indefinitely at any indoor location. Is that going to happen?”
“Well, good morning and good to be speaking to you,” Whately replied. “So what we heard from the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Officer last week, is we are in this really serious point in time where Covid rates are going up again and they are going up rapidly.
“We are also seeing increased rates of hospitalisation, people being sick enough to go into hospital and very sadly, from what we know about the previous peak of the pandemic and also we see in France and Spain, that leads to more people dying.
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“So we really need to take decisive action to get this under control, as we have done. We had the introduction of the rule of six very clear about restricting the size of gatherings and we had the further introduction of restrictions last week, and the toughening up of the enforcement of these measures.
“The majority of people have been doing the right thing, we’ve seen not everyone has been doing. We continue to keep the restrictions of these measures under control. What I will say is restrictions are put on with real reluctance.
“We know how hard it is for people, the sacrifices that made, the impact on the economy and in particular, the impact on the hospitality sector on pubs and bars and restaurants and restricting people socialising and being out and about.
“We know the impact on that on people’s livelihoods as well as their lives. We don’t want to bring in restrictions anymore than we have to but of course, we know we must have Covid under control.”
Walker responded: “I know you don’t make these decisions lightly Minister but from what you are saying it seems like there is truth in that story; you are considering that total social lockdown across Northern Britain, Northern England.”
“Well what I can say is we continue to keep the situation under review,” Whately hit back.
“We formally meet and make decision weeks and there are reviews between those points in time as well to look at the rates and the local situation. The really valuable information that we receive from the test and trace system, which tells us in different areas, ow the virus is mainly spreading.
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“Whether this is from household gatherings of from people being out and about. There are different things going on in different areas and so some of the restrictions where they have been introduced locally have been to target particular way the virus is spreading.
“But what we have seen is the rate increasing across the whole country in the last couple of weeks and that’s why we have the restrictions more nationally.”
BBC Breakfast viewers took to Twitter to slam Whately for failing to give a definite answer.
“We know what the situation is, Helen Whateley, just tell us if there’s going to be a lockdown! #bbcbreakfast,” one viewer wrote.
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Another shared: “#helenwhately #BBCBreakfast Answer the f**king question!”
A third continued: “#bbcbreakfast helen whately ffs! not listening to any questions just spewing pre-prepared statements.”
“@BBCBreakfast Do all politicians go to special training sessions on how not to answer questions, and how to repeat the same inane cr*p for as long as possible to avoid further questions? #bbcbreakfast,” someone else posted.
A fifth tweeted: “Helen Whately is waffle waffle piffle paffle. #bbcbreakfast.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily on BBC One at 6am.
