Now that the worst of Omicron appears to have passed without restrictions in England, Labour are quickly trying to get on the front foot by publishing a ten point ‘living with Covid’ plan, and insisting the country never returns to lockdown. They are doing this because, once again, they called it wrong when the data were less clear. 

Yesterday on Sunday Morning, Sir Keir insisted that Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting never called for further restrictions beyond Plan B. Streeting himself has said the same thing. It is simply untrue. 

On 20 December 2021, Streeting appeared on BBC News to discuss Labour’s position on Omicron, where newsreader Clive Myrie confronted him directly on Plan B:

“You say that Plan B isn’t stringent enough… you clearly are basing the suggestion that Plan B isn’t good enough on the data that’s out there…so what would you do differently?”

At no point did Streeting dispute Myrie’s claim. On the contrary, he nodded and proposed “new measures around social distancing, or indoor mixing in households or businesses. There are a wide range of options.” Now it’s clear all of that would have been unnecessary, they’re pretending Streeting never said it. Just like how they conveniently ignore Starmer’s claim that unlocking in July would cause “chaos and confusion”…