Boris Johnson Faces Calls to Release Data Behind U.K. Lockdown
Boris Johnson Faces Calls to Release Data Behind U.K.’s Lockdown
(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson is facing calls to release data showing why he needed to lock down the U.K. to slow the spread of coronavirus last week.
The British prime minister ordered the most sweeping curbs on the population ever imposed, shutting restaurants, gyms, schools and shops, and banning people from gathering in public.
In the hours before Johnson made his decision on March 23, his official spokesman, James Slack, said such a crackdown would be based on data on footfall in shops and streets, as well as information on how people were interacting in parks and other public spaces.
Yet despite repeated questions to Johnson’s officials, the government has refused to provide this data that prompted the lockdown. Now members of Parliament from across the political spectrum are calling on Johnson’s government to release it so the public can see why the stringent measures were needed -- and whether they could or should have been taken earlier.
Johnson’s government has faced repeated questions over its virus strategy, which has differed from other countries in the speed and extent of the lockdowns imposed, and on the use of testing. By Tuesday, 1,789 people in the U.K. had died, up from 1,408 the day before -- the biggest daily rise so far.
While it was “entirely proper” for ministers to base their decisions rigorously on the data, “the basis of the decision should be put in the public domain immediately,” said David Davis, a senior Conservative who has served in the cabinet alongside Johnson. “There is no excuse for delay since the information must have been available before the decision was taken.”
Legislators said the government must work harder to be transparent at a time when people’s liberties had been dramatically curtailed and Parliament has been closed. There are also concerns that police are misusing new powers handed to them in emergency legislation, targeting individuals for buying certain items in shops such as chocolate Easter eggs.
‘Extraordinary Powers’
“We’ve handed over extraordinary powers to the government for obvious and good reason,” said opposition Labour Party MP Wes Streeting. “But it’s important that the Government is clear and transparent about how and why those powers are being used.”
The Scottish National Party and the Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru also demanded the data be released. “It would be better if the Government is as transparent as possible,” said Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster Leader. “The data should be published.”
The U.K. and Welsh governments cannot even provide vital virus testing or protective equipment for health workers, “let alone lockdown data” for the public, said Liz Saville Roberts, Westminster leader for Plaid Cymru. “They may well be happy to operate without legitimacy as they’re evidently operating without competency.”
Asked again on Tuesday -- a week after the question was first put to him -- why the government is not releasing the data, Slack said the government would be transparent where possible but was bound by European Union data protection rules.
“Where it’s possible to publish data, and where we think doing so will give the public a better understanding of the threat of the virus, then we are committed to doing so,” Slack told reporters. Officials added that there was evidence transport use had fallen dramatically since the lockdown was imposed.
Democracy campaigners at the Electoral Reform Society urged House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to convene the Liaison Committee of senior parliamentarians during recess, to scrutinize the government’s expanded powers.
“Cabinet is showing that politics can continue to function during this crisis,” Chief Executive Officer Darren Hughes said. “Parliament must show the same, with the speaker leading the way in providing accountability at this urgent hour.”
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