British Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, on Thursday denied accusation that he lied about the COVID-19 pandemic, saying “we have been straight with people.”
Hancock said this in response to an attack by former Downing Street top aid, Dominic Cummings.
“These allegations that were put yesterday are serious allegations and I welcome the opportunity to come to the house to put formally on the record that these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true.
“I’ve been straight with people in public and in private throughout.
“We’ve taken an approach of openness and transparency and spoke of what we do and don’t know,” Hancock told the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament.
One of the attacks by Cummings on Wednesday was that the health secretary lied about COVID-testing people before they returned to care homes.
Addressing the issue, Hancock said: “we followed the clinical advice on the appropriate way forward.
“So many of the allegations were unsubstantiated,” he added.
British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, also denied claim by Cummings that thousands of people needlessly died because of his leadership.
During a visit to a hospital on Thursday, Johnson said: “No, I don’t think so.
“But of course, this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we’ve taken lightly.
“And you’ve got to recognise that when you go into a lockdown it’s a very painful, traumatic thing for people, for people’s mental health, for their lives, their livelihoods, and of course you’ve got to set that against the horrors of the pandemic and of COVID.”
Cummings quit his role in Downing Street last autumn reportedly following a power struggle.
Britain was the first country in Europe to pass the grim mark of 100,000 deaths.
The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,748.
These figures only include people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
More than 38.3 million people, or more than 70 per cent of adults in Britain, have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
Experts have warned that coronavirus may continue to evolve for years to come, and eventually it is likely current vaccines will fail to protect against transmission, infection, or even against disease caused by newer variants.
To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.
