5 Fibs You Were Told This Week
It’s that time of the week again where HuffPost UK takes a look back at which of those in public office treated the truth with as much respect as Kanye West shows a Grammy.
This week was once again dominated by the continuing shambles over the NHS Test and Trace system and features the relatively novel experience of two government ministers saying completely opposite things at almost exactly the same time.
So let us begin.
Priti Patel
Priti Patel and Matt Hancock have similar jobs, work for the same Tory party and, you’d imagine, come into contact with each other on an at-least semi-regular basis.
Which is why on Tuesday it was so absolutely confounding that they both acted as if the other had never existed, never mind both be responsible for running large, complex and exceedingly important parts of the same government.
In a series of increasingly painful TV appearances, Patel vigorously defended the government’s test and trace system in the face of mounting criticism and continuing reports of massive failings.
Despite widespread complaints that tests are unavailable, people are waiting more than 24 hours for results or are being forced to travel large distances to get a test, Patel continued to dispute the facts on the ground.
She said: “Well you’ve already heard me say tests are available. You’ve heard me say as well particularly in local lockdown areas, I’ve seen this myself, I’ve seen the teams working on this.
“Mobile testing is going in, capacity is going into local areas where lockdowns have been undertaken and are taking place. So it’s wrong to say tests are not available, new booking slots are being made available every single day, mobile testing slots are being made available and on top of that, home testing kits are being issued across the country but specifically in local lockdown areas.”
But this was a fib. A MASSIVE fib. And how do we know?
Because just a few hours later Hancock got up in the Commons and admitted tests would have to be...
