Alex Armstrong has been left furious at recent revelations about Sir Chris Whitty's role in Covid care home guidance, declaring on GB News that "this looks like a barefaced lie".
The comments come after Government emails showed Whitty's office signed off guidance allowing untested hospital patients into care homes, despite the Chief Medical Officer telling the Covid Inquiry he was "not closely involved" in such decisions.
The guidance permitted care homes to take in Covid-positive patients from hospitals, as well as untested patients who could be looked after "as normal" if they showed no symptoms.
Speaking about this on GB News, Alex fumed: "I mean, this is the thing. This is why people do not trust the Government.
Alex Armstrong fumed over the reports
GB NEWS
"We’re told, ‘Trust us, we know what we’re doing.’ But this is, in my opinion, and I’m not saying this is fact because it’s alleged, but this looks like a barefaced lie."
Matthew Torbitt, former Labour adviser, agreed: "Yeah, it's not great if it is [true]. And I suppose that’s the benefit of the inquiry, people tell their own stories and, hopefully, we will get to the bottom of things.
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"I'm all for forgiving people who make mistakes at work, but this is a pretty big mistake, to be honest with you. If this possibly resulted in many deaths as Covid ripped through care homes up and down the country then it’s extremely serious.
"As I was saying off air, a special mention to Brent Council: I was working for a Labour MP in that area at the time, and they were unsure about this guidance.
"I think they were definitely the only local authority in London, possibly in the UK, who said, ‘We don’t feel comfortable doing this,’ and made alternative provisions.
"They put older patients who had been discharged with Covid into an empty care home, rather than placing them back in with vulnerable people. That decision may well have saved many lives."
Co-host Nana Akua added: "It seems quite obvious to me that you wouldn’t put people who are potentially sick into an environment where, by that time, we already knew older people were the most vulnerable to the disease."
The emails were obtained by The Telegraph following a years-long Freedom of Information battle, though the Government continues to withhold dozens more documents.
Whitty had previously told the Covid Inquiry in 2023 that whilst he was aware of decisions to discharge patients to care homes, he was "not closely involved" in them.
The guidance has been branded "irrational" by the High Court and is considered one of the worst mistakes of the pandemic.
Whitty had previously told the Covid Inquiry in 2023 that whilst he was aware of decisions to discharge patients to care homes, he was "not closely involved" in them
PAOfficial figures show nearly 18,500 care home residents in England died between March 14 and June 12, 2020, accounting for around 40 per cent of deaths involving Covid during this period.
Former Social Care Minister Helen Whately warned colleagues that sending Covid patients into care homes "surely materially increases" the risks to residents, according to the emails.
Staff summarising her concerns wrote: "Do we really want to be discharging patients with Covid into care homes unless it already has Covid cases?
"MSC [minister for social care] is concerned that a patient will take Covid into a care home, and even with PPE that surely materially increases the risks to others in the facility."
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