Keir Starmer reveals one of his children has tested NEGATIVE for coronavirus as he leaves sel-isolation but still skips PMQs
- Sir Keir Starmer is out of self-isolation after one of children tested negative
- The Labour leader said he had only got a test because wife works for the NHS
- Condemned the government’s ‘unacceptable’ testing system and slammed PM
Keir Starmer today revealed that one of his children has tested negative for coronavirus and he has left self-isolation.
The Labour leader said he was ‘pleased and relieved’ to have had the news after two days waiting for the result.
However, he will still skip PMQs this lunchtime, with deputy Angela Rayner standing in against Boris Johnson.
Sir Keir tweeted today: I’m very pleased and relieved that the test result for one of my children came back negative this morning.
‘Thank you to the NHS hospital where my wife works for ensuring that their staff and family members have quick access to a test.
‘However, I know the situation is desperate at the moment for thousands of families across the country who are struggling to get a test. They deserve answers and for this problem to be fixed.
Sir Keir tweeted today: I’m very pleased and relieved that the test result for one of my children came back negative this morning.’
Sir Keir Starmer told the TUC conference by video link yesterday that he had only been screened because his wife works for the NHS.
Angela Rayner deputised for Sir Keir at the dispatch box against Mr Johnson today. The PM swiped that he was not sure why Sir Keir had not come himself
Sir Keir delivered a stinging attack on the government’s testing shambles from home yesterday.
Addressing the TUC conference via video link from his north London home, Sir Keir nsisted the only reason he had been able to be checked was that his wife Victoria works for the NHS, adding: ‘for thousands up and down the country it is a very different story’.
And turning his fire on Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock, he said: ‘It is not the British people that are to blame for these mistakes. It is not the civil service…
‘It is the government that is holding Britain back.’
Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock have both suggested that the system is under pressure because people are seeking tests when they don’t have symptoms.
Meanwhile, health officials have blamed the crisis – which experts fear will rumble on for weeks – on a staffing shortage in laboratories.
Desperate bosses have now admitted they may have to hire students to plug gaps in the rota in the face of sky-high demand.
Sir Keir announced he was going into self-isolation hours after taking a phone-in in the LBC radio studios yesterday.
He lives with wife Victoria and their son and daughter, thought to be aged 10 and eight respectively, in north London.
Mr Johnson tweeted his best wishes and said he had called Sir Keir.
