Sky host erupts at Grant Shapps for failure to shut down UK border amid COVID-19 crisis
SOPHY RIDGE grilled the Transport Secretary over the decision to keep UK borders open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grant Shapps shut down by Sophy Ridge over UK border
The Sky News host erupted at Mr Shapps over the lack of restrictions placed on people entering the UK amid the coronavirus crisis. Mr Shapps stated this was because over 3 million British citizens had to return to the UK during March. The Transport Secretary added the Government's scientific advisors outlined that placing restrictions on arrivals into the UK would not have been effective once the infection rate reached a certain level.
Mr Shapps said: "The first thing to say is we had millions of British nationals to bring home.
"In March on average 3 million Brits would go abroad and many of those had to be returned home.
"That process has been continuing for a while.
"The second thing is when the virus is prevalent in your own society the medical experts tell us there is precious little point if it is already in your existing communities."
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Ms Ridge asked: "So why didn’t we do it before it was prevalent?"
Mr Shapps replied: "As I say there were millions of Brits to get home."
The Sky News host said: "You can still quarantine them through."
The Transport Secretary responded: "The rules exist that everybody in this country has to be at home right now, it is illegal not to be."
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At the time of writing, Britain has the fourth-highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world.
The UK has more than 182,000 cases in total at the time of writing.
The death toll in Britain is currently higher than 28,000 people.
A total of 315 people died as a result of coronavirus today in the UK.
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Worldwide there have been more than 3,500,000 COVID-19 cases at the time of writing.
The death toll has reached more than 245,000 at the time of writing.
More than 1,100,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus across the globe.
The United States has the highest amount of COVID-19 cases in the world with more than 1,100,000 confirmed cases.