Priti Patel leaves people speechless with ‘outrageous’ claim that Britain has been ‘ahead of the curve’ in the pandemic

Priti Patel’s “outrageous” claim that the British government has been “consistently ahead of the curve” during the pandemic has left people speechless.

The home secretary told the BBC:

“The government has consistently, throughout this year, been ahead of the curve in terms of proactive measures with regards to coronavirus.”

She added that there was “nothing last minute in terms of the work that was undertaken by government in terms of the planning and preparing for tier 4”.

Boris Johnson placed London and other parts of the south of England under tier 4 measures before it was even publicly known that a tier above 3 existed.

He also retracted the Christmas travel window he promised, just days after vowing he wouldn’t.

While it’s true that UK regulators approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (developed primarily by Turkish immigrants in Germany) faster than any other country, we haven’t always been so quick throughout the pandemic.

The government was criticised for locking down late, firstly, possibly because of indecision on Boris Johnson’s part and the hope that people would build herd immunity.

The second national lockdown was also announced weeks after Labour backed Sage’s recommendation of a circuit-breaker lockdown.

On top of this, test and trace took months – and billions of pounds – to set up and has been riddled with issues. Those working in the arts and entertainment would also find it difficult to accept that the financial support eventually offered to their industry was “ahead of the curve”.

Patel was ridiculed for the “unbelievable” suggestion.

Being in the top three countries in Europe for numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases doesn’t exactly scream “ahead of the curve”.