Eddie Mair confronts minister over government's coronavirus strategy | LBC

This is the moment Eddie Mair challenged the policing minister over the government's "forcefield of denial" about their strategy during the pandemic.

Eddie asked the policing minister Kit Malthouse why Cheltenham Festival was allowed to go ahead from 12-13 March while in this country and around the world sporting fixtures before and during that festival were being postponed or cancelled.

"We now know the postcodes surrounding Cheltenham Racecourse have had the highest number of coronavirus hospital admissions," he said.

The jockey club wrote to local councillors explaining why the festival was not cancelled, citing that "Boris Johnson had attended the England Wales rugby match on March 7."

"There is a direct link between Boris Johnson attending a rugby match, Cheltenham going ahead, and an increase of the number of people getting sick. Again, we need to trust his advice, and I wonder if you think that was wise?" Eddie asked.

The policing minister replied that it's "perfectly right" for Eddie to want to go back and examine these decisions: "A lot has changed since then and a lot has been learnt about the nature of the disease that means that decisions now will look very different to decisions then."

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