Brexit is putting lives at risk

Submitted by AWL on 21 April, 2020 - 8:52 Author: Jim Denham
Britain and Europe

As hapless Health Secretary Matt Hancock blames first NHS medics and then clinicians for the desperate shortage of PPE and NHS bosses ask doctors and nurses to work without full-length gowns or re-use single-use PPE, the Guardian has revealed that:

“Britain missed three opportunities [on 28 February, 17 March and 25 March] to be part of an EU scheme to bulk-buy masks, gowns and gloves and has been absent from key talks about future purchases...

“European doctors and nurses are preparing to receive the first of €1.5bn (£1.3bn) worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) within days or a maximum of two weeks through a joint procurement scheme involving 25 countries and eight companies, according to internal EU documents.

“The EU’s swift work has led to offers of medical equipment, including masks, overalls and goggles, in excess of the number requested, a spokesman for the European commission said. The EU is separately establishing stockpiles within member states, with the first being set up in Romania”. (Guardian, 14 April)

This scandalous act of anti-EU dogmatism (and/or sheer incompetence) is already costing lives and follows on from the revelation that the government missed out on EU mass procurement of ventilators (despite still being eligible to participate), and instead called on UK manufacturers like their pro-Brexit friend Dyson to design and build machines from scratch – with miserable results.

Downing Street at first said the UK would not be joining the ventilator scheme because “we are no longer members of the EU”. They later changed their story, claiming that they’d missed the deadline because there an email had gone missing (!) This pathetic excuse is either an admission of total incompetence or of putting Brexit before breathing. Either way, it’s a disgrace.

Meanwhile the Tories pig-headedly insist that the December deadline for the end of the transition period will not be extended.

Even the pro-Brexit Sunday Times has noted (18 April) “the impression that this is a government that puts Brexit above everything else ... It fits with a narrative of a government so obsessed with Brexit that it was slow to respond to the coronavirus danger in January and February.”

But it’s not just a question of an “impression” or a “narrative”: these latest revelations prove Brexit triumphalism and anti-EU dogma has cost lives and continues to put lives at risk due too the UK’s desperate lack of PPE and ventilators.

At a time when international co-operation is more essential than ever before Brexit has been shown to be deadly. It must be stopped: Starmer take note!

• To sign Labour for a Socialist Europe and Another Europe is Possible's call for Labour to fight to halt Brexit, click here
• See also Keir Starmer imposing "No Brexit" on the working class? More like the other way round!, on The Clarion

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