Piers Morgan slams minister Helen Whately for 'laughing' in heated debate about care home death toll

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Jacob Jarvis15 April 2020

Minister Helen Whately was accused of "laughing" by Piers Morgan in a row over coronavirus deaths in care homes.

On Tuesday, it was announced 217 people had died after contracting the virus in care homes as of April 3, though it is expected this number is now higher.

Mr Morgan asked Ms Whately to "just answer straight questions" as he pressed on the figures, with reports of thousands of fatalities put to her.

At this point she appeared exasperated to which he asked: "Why are you laughing?"

Ms Whately, who is Minister for Care, told him: "I'm trying to answer your questions... I don't think it's funny in the slightest."

Mr Morgan went on: "So why do you keep laughing then?"

Ms Whately said: "I'm not laughing... I have not been, but it feels like you're shouting at me and not giving me a chance to answer".

Pressed on a 4,000 figure, reported by the Daily Mail, Ms Whately said she believed the figure was higher than 217, but would not speculate on the number.

"I don't think it's appropriate for me to give you a ball park figure for something as serious as this," she said.

Elsewhere in the interview, she conceded the Government does not know how many social care workers have died amid the coronavirus outbreak as she clashed with Mr Morgan. ​

Quizzed over staff deaths related to Covid-19, she told Good Morning Britain: “We know that also some workers have died who work in social care and, I’ll be straight with you, we don’t have a figure for that.”

Mr Morgan also asked her about the number of NHS workers who had died, with Ms Whately stating the confirmed toll stood at 19.

He branded that toll as "complete and utter nonsense", stating reports which branded the figures as potentially twice that number.

"I don't get my number from newspapers I have to get it from the NHS and from our scientists," she said.

"Your focus on figures slightly blows the fact that we're talking about individual people's lives here," she also told Mr Morgan during the row.

It comes as the Government promised to ramp up testing in care homes , while it has also been urged to release daily figures from them alongside the hospital numbers.

Questions have also been raised over the supply of personal protective equipment in the care sector.

Ms Whately told Sky News that more than 1,000 care workers had been tested for Covid-19 and more than 2,000 others referred for testing.

Defending the Government, Ms Whately told BBC Breakfast: “We have been doing everything that we can to protect those really vulnerable people living in care homes or receiving care at home."

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