The Health Secretary has branded Londoners who left the city in huge crowds on Saturday night as ‘totally irresponsible’.
It comes after the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced at 4pm that the capital would be placed into tier four, meaning people risked being arrested for leaving the capital after midnight.
That sparked huge numbers of people unable to social distance crowding into rail stations as the scramble to leave was compared to ‘the last train out of Saigon’.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge, Mr Hancock hit out at people trying to flee the capital last night. Sighing dramatically and shaking his head, he said: ‘This was clearly totally irresponsible behaviour. The Chief Medical Officer (Professor Chris Whitty) was absolutely clear that people should unpack their bags if they have them packed.’
The Government has been slammed for the U-turn – which it blamed on a more contagious variant of Covid-19 – and was this morning accused of not following the science.
Mr Hancock continued: ‘I think it is relatively small numbers and the large, vast majority of people throughout this whole pandemic have followed the rules, been responsible and played their part and I want to thank everybody for doing that.
‘It is more important than ever that people are responsible, not only stick to the rules, but even within the rules restrict social contact as much as is possible because this is deadly serious.’
But the Government has come under fire for changing the rules at the last minute, with many suggesting online that the scenes in London should have been planned for.
And the British Medical Association (BMA) joined the pile on this morning implying the Government had not ‘managed’ the change well or followed the science.
When asked on Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday how concerned he was about the new strain of coronavirus, Dr Nagpaul said: ‘We were concerned at the time the Prime Minister announced the five-day relaxation for Christmas because the science told us then that the virus was spreading week-on-week.
‘It just did not follow the science to relax the rules.
‘Last Wednesday, before the new variant was announced, it was obvious that the infection was spreading at a dangerous level, the NHS was in a dangerous state, and again, the science wasn’t followed when in fact we should have reversed the Christmas relaxation rules.
‘So whilst there is a new variant, we didn’t need the new variant to reverse this rule and the public could of course have been given greater notice, but there’s no doubt it was the right and necessary decision.’
When asked what action the Government could take he said that it was making sure there were crowd-control measures.
But Dr Nagpaul also implied criticism of those crowding into station last night, some of whom were seen not wearing masks properly.
He added: ‘You would not see those scenes in east Asian countries that have managed pandemics well in the past.
‘It’s more than rules, what I think is really important for the public to understand is this is an unforgiving virus.
‘Whilst Christmas is obviously going to be ruined for many, the worst thing we could be doing is infecting our loved ones.
‘That’s not being alarmist, that’s unfortunately the way this virus behaves.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/20/matt-hancock-slams-totally-irresponsible-brits-trying-to-leave-tier-4-london-13779575/