Sky News Breakfast: India's COVID crisis and the PM's sleaze deflection

good morning it's seven o'clock you're watching the only breakfast show live from westminster and today well no signs of the sleaze row simmering down forcing new denials from downing street this morning working pension secretary will be on the show shortly along with the shadow health secretary now a man for all seasons 2012 hero greg rutherford joins us later to discuss how he's hoping to make olympic history and may the fourth be with you the auction date to sell off star wars treasures like this love that we'll get a glimpse of what's going under the hammer it is tuesday the 27th of april race for aid uk supplies arrive in india as sky news visits hospitals going to drastic lengths to treat patients they've had to build tents in the car park to cope with the over spill all these people are suffering from coronavirus all of them need oxygen gross distortions downing street hits back at new claims about alleged comments from the prime minister a holidays on the horizon the greek tourism office suggests to sky news the uk could be edging closer to issuing a health pass for international travel the cost of miscarriage calls for action to better support the mental health of parents ufo why space command is investigating this supposedly close encounter which triggered a false alarm and it's looking cooler and cloudy across many areas today with some showers but some spots will have sunshine and water still find out where the sunshine and warmth will be with me later in the programme a very good morning to you in india now the epicenter of the global covid pandemic the need for medical supplies in hospitals beds has grown so desperate patients are being treated in makeshift tents in car parks more than 300 000 new coronavirus cases have been recorded for a sixth consecutive day with another 2770 deaths reported although health experts believe the real tally is far higher from new delhi our special correspondent alex crawford reports the struggle to save lives is now tied up with the struggle to find oxygen and every person in this hospital is part of that fight and across the indian capital it's almost an hourly battle emotionally we are drained we have not seen so many mortalities in our icu as well as in our near and dear ones i get maybe uh around 50 calls every day somebody's asking for beds somebody's asking for cylinders somebody's asking for drugs we don't have anything available and patients are dying india's still reporting global record high numbers for coronavirus cases and they're struggling now is requiring at least 15 liters a minute that means at this rate every three hours is a struggle for us to arrange for the neo auxin cylinders they've got nearly double the number of patients in this hospital and they're expecting worse to come the situation is critical right now this pandemic is the worst we have ever seen till now and these two weeks are going to be a hell for us i want you to have a look at this because it's hard to illustrate the scale of a problem with a country the size of india and with the population of india but this is just what one hospital has done to cope with a rising number of coronavirus patients and it keeps on rising they've had to build tents in the car park to cope with the overspill all these people are suffering from coronavirus all of them need oxygen they can't take in any more and these are the lucky ones who managed to get help international help including from britain is on its way but it can't come soon enough with patients struggling for breath and worrying if their lifelines will run out sometimes this is working sometimes this other cylinder is finishing sometimes two hours here they are picking so they are nearing the oxygen level though it is immediate like it should be more so this is the problem india's calamity is the rest of the world too with a new more virulent variant called a double mutation and doctors saying they're seeing alarming resistance to medicines and vaccines the double mutant it bypasses everything even the medicines are not very effective on that so the medicines which were very helpful in the earlier last week last week which we used to give in the mild cases it doesn't seem to work now there are many more people needing much more oxygen and they're having to beg barter and buy from wherever i'm buying oxygen at the rate of gold you know it has the situation come to that level it was like 20 22 rupees per kg oxygen and today i sanctioned for 50 rupees per kg and the black marketing is happening render severe injection which is like 4000 rupees or 2000 also people are buying at 40 000 rupees the government is urging its citizens not to panic and not to hoard but the oxygen demand has risen around 20 nationally with some hospitals coming within minutes of running out of supplies so they're not prepared to listen right now alex corford sky news in new delhi well the first consignments of uk aid have now arrived in india these are the latest pictures of the equipment being unloaded late last night the foreign secretary said international collaboration is key to fighting this global threat and now if you've seen the papers this morning they're all full of the latest sort of allegations sleaze allegations really is the only way to describe it against the prime minister against number 10 let's talk to the working pension secretary terese coffey who's here it's good to see you good morning i mean look when you look at the papers this morning i mean it's depressing stuff how do you feel about all of all of this well the pm answered a lot of questions yesterday um continues to uh say that uh we our main priorities get on the job whether that's about being tackling the virus or indeed about getting young people into work uh which we're doing through kickstart uh but i think it's just part of the ongoing uh aspects of uh recognizing there's a number of uh different inquiries underway cabinet secretary spoke to parliament yesterday as well and frankly we just uh our focuses on other things i think is the best way to say i mean do you think mistakes have been made somewhere along the way well undoubtedly the um you know things that we were discussing actually with the chief scientist and uh chief medical officer you know as was suggested perhaps last year when certain assumptions were made about how the virus might be transmitted we have a different understanding of that now so there's different elements that have gone along the way but the key thing is we've now got 33 million people vaccinated with their first dose nearly 13 million with their second dose uh so it's all been about trying to make sure that we tackle uh the coronavirus and actually get on with the road map to recovery uh because by trying to have also saved lives we're actually been trying to save livelihoods and we now need to get the economy really flowing again uh look away from the prime minister if you like but on on a personal level to you if someone ever said you know let the bodies pile high are they comments you could ever personally condone the prime minister says he didn't say them and he said that i think yesterday i think to sky uh and so yeah i take the prime minister on his word but but away from the prime minister if anybody else said it could you ever condone it well i'm not aware that any politician has said anything like that so indeed any other person i'm aware of but there's an element here about to say trying to keep on with the main uh task at hand uh we've got through this uh challenging time we're still not out of it that's why we're still encouraging people to take up their vaccines but also the work like kickstarter getting young people back into work yeah look i know we're going to talk more about kickstarter in just a moment but in terms of some of the other allegations floating about and to do with the flat in number 11. what's what's going on with what's going on with that it's a confusing picture well the prime minister has said that he has paid for the uh redevelopment that happened um he's asked simon case who's the highest civil servant in the land to undertake a review of exactly what happened simon was not the cabinet secretary when all this started so it's important that simon's been allowed to do that and he said that he would share that with the select committee in parliament but the point is that uh i guess for a number of people it's just uh while we're trying to make sure that we get through and tackling the virus and get people back into work i don't think the majority of the bishop public are in any way interested about some wallpaper or sofas or something like that so i do understand that we need to keep moving on as it were in terms of uh what's going to make a difference to people's lives in the years ahead yeah i mean charles walker um deputy chair of the 1922 committee said last night you know to paraphrase him couldn't give two figs about who paid for the flat as long as it wasn't his constituents well i think it's important that uh you know the prime minister will make the declarations in the usual way these sorts of things often get tidy up in something called the annual accounts uh which get published by departments every year so it's just uh the right declarations will be made the prime minister paid for it personally and meantime he's out leading the government in trying to get back on the road roadmap to recovery and i think we're making good progress on that i mean i know you know to this point all these allegations have have been denied but i mean do you accept there is a growing perception of sleaze i mean this there was a there's a poll in in i think it's the eye this morning um saying that you know public opinion is shifting i mean this is the damages it whether whether or not any allegations are true the perception seems to be sticking what i do see is uh being out on the doorsteps uh campaigning which i have been doing myself during this campaign people are generally optimistic they're pleased with how we're now getting on they're excited by the prospect of getting this virus properly under control recognizing it won't go away forever but uh seeing the say the number of vaccines uh out there and actually life starting to come back to normal and so it's about uh i i genuinely believe people are just more interested in getting on with their daily lives and the actions that we're taking to help them to get back to more of a new normal as it were post covered what do you think dominic cummings is playing at i don't know if you if you had any dealings with him particularly when he was still working in number 10 but what's he playing at um i don't know he was an adviser to the prime minister he didn't really have a lot to do with dwp i think i had one message about kickstart funnily enough last year and that's about it in my interaction which i think is a reflection of how with department work and pensions have really got on with the task at hand and spending uh an extra seven billion pounds on welfare in the last year because many people have turned to benefits for the first time we were able to meet that challenge but our challenge is now to recognize nearly a million people have lost their jobs many millions more 5 million being protected by the furlough scheme and we're particularly focusing on young people and i'm pleased that over 16 000 young people have started their kickstart role but we've created and approved nearly 200 000 jobs to be filled over the next year so it's a really exciting time but that's happening more quickly now as we move along the road map to recovery but i mean look i i get that there is a need to focus on what is happening now and what the government is working on at the moment but there is some concern me from william hague former leader of course who said with the with the prospect of dominic cummings giving evidence before one of the committees william hague said um in the times i think it was it would be a mistake to dismiss these allegations as a fleeting problem dominic cummings he says he's likely to turn up to this committee with a trail of digital evidence well a lot of people will have seen dominic coming to the first time ever last year uh when he gave a press conference in the rose garden number 10. they'll have come to their own views i'm sure the public um and meanwhile the prime minister continues to get on with the key things that really do matter to people the people's priorities so you know there's an element here that we have a real level of transparency within government we publish aspects about on a quarterly basis about our meetings that we have those sorts of things so it's it's important that we say keep focused parliament does its job of scrutiny which is doing uh and we uh as i say really focus on things like helping people get back into work well and in terms of that and the kickstart you know i think it was about two-thirds of those who've lost their jobs during the pandemica are under 25. it is very difficult for those people to get places in employment 16 500 places is impressive in itself but there's still a you know we're talking half a million people here so you're absolutely right stephen and i've got to get people back up and running quickly haven't we you're absolutely right stephen i'm conscious um with aspects of the lockdown it's proving challenging to get some of these jobs uh kind of underway but we've seen a real uptick in the number of employers opening their doors getting young people in giving that sort of training that job experience later today i'm going to a leading retailer again to look at how they've taken on nearly 300 people and they're going to be learning a variety of tasks and opportunity experiencing opportunities during their time with the retailers so you know we are trying to provide opportunities for people so they get that first first foot on the ladder of getting back into work what's what's the the the appeal to employers for this as you try and get more people into this scheme as businesses reopen well kickstart in particular is um actually the flagship scheme of our plan for jobs more broadly where we're trying to help people of all ages but employers get basically wages subsidised 25 hours free employment in return it's a mutual benefit they have to provide that sort of real role but also the employability support so young people are ready to get the next hopefully long-term job can i just ask you quickly about uh nazanin zagari ratcliffe i mean hugely distressing for her and her family and friends about what's happening the foreign secretary says the uk is going to do all it can what can we do what options are on the table well i think that we just keep making representations in the standard diplomatic way i'm conscious that you know this is decision of the iran regime the iran iranian judiciary system and just as we have tried to support this family along the way we will keep doing so and keep making the case on why we don't think this is appropriate and in order to try and get has been reunited with her family as quickly as possible there's coffee it's good to see you this morning thank you just a reminder that if you want to catch up on any of the interview with therese or watch the program when you're out and about this morning then you can do so just by getting on the mobile app or our website go to the live blog to watch the program and you can catch up uh with the interviews on my twitter as well that's at sky stephen okay let's talk to our political correspondent kate mccann who's with us now what do you think kate i think it's really interesting isn't it because we've been talking about these allegations against boris johnson the prime minister against david cameron former prime minister now for how long a couple of weeks at least maybe over a month and it's still there it's still the main chunk of an interview when a government minister comes on any political programme and that's a problem for the conservatives because it's now become a narrative and that's what labour is hoping for that's why they keep talking about tory sleeves what the conservative party has to do is try and get out from under that and you heard to raise coffee there trying to do that trying to say you know it's all about moving on she actually did acknowledge that there will be some things that the government did get wrong and that will of course form part of an investigation and an inquiry later on but one of the most fascinating bits for me and maybe that's just because i'm a bit of a westminster geek was that bill at the end where she talked about dominic cummings and you said you know dominic comments is going to come before a committee is going to have lots of evidence and she said well the public saw dominic cummings for the first time when he did that press conference after of course barnard castle that's trying to undermine his credibility and i just wonder whether that might be something that we start to see more of as we go through the next couple of weeks okay kate thank you now at half past seven we're going to ask the chair of the foreign affairs select committee tom toucan hat what next for nazanin zagari radcliffe after she was sentenced to another year in prison in iran true lava the icelandic couple who had their wedding in front of an erupting volcano very brave and you want a big night i'll give you a big night a half-past nine how london theaters are scouting out the next generation of talent while looking ahead to the next stage of lockdown lifting now could a summer holiday to greece soon be on the horizon the country's tourism office has suggested things could be moving in the right direction well let's talk to aisha zahid who's in the newsroom for us this morning a lot of people will be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of this what's been said aisha they certainly will be but it's important to note that this comes with confusion as well now as you said the greek tourism board have said they will be willing to open their borders to british travelers as long as they can prove that they have been vaccinated through official documentation and in a statement they said our understanding is that a health pass will be forthcoming now it's not clear what this health pass will be the times today reported that greece will be accepting the handwritten nhs vaccine card until there is a digital format and other countries like portugal have said this won't be enough for them due to forgery risks now the uk tourism minister nigel huddleston has said that britain is working with the eu on vaccine passports for travel and that's as far as we know now according to the roadmap out of lockdown non-essential travel will be permitted it could be permitted from 17th of may through a traffic light system with green listed countries not requiring a quarantine period while amber and redlisted countries do now there's still no clear indication of which countries will be in which list greece and portugal have said they're confident that they will be on the green list due to the coveted situation in their countries but we've got no clarification on this and foreign travel has been disrupted for more than a year now people are going to be more keen than ever to take their holidays and with that date approaching we've only got three weeks now they're certainly going to be looking for answers i said thank you let's look at some of the main stories for you this morning and coronavirus fines are muddled discriminatory and unfair and should be reviewed that's according to mps and peers on the joint committee for human rights who say all 85 000 fines that have been issued need to be reviewed let's have a look at the latest coronavirus figures for you today and 2064 new cases have been reported in the most recent 24-hour period with six more deaths that means the total number of people who've died it is 127 434. another 79 695 people have had their first vaccine 260 801 have had their second that means more than 46.65 million injections have been given out across the uk an application has been made to pardon george floyd for a previous drugs conviction mr floyd was arrested in houston in 2004 by officer gerald goins for selling 10 worth of crack goings now faces a series of charges including two for murder after a couple died in the drugs raid in 2019. more than 160 drugs convictions tied to the officer have since been dismissed the u.s justice department is to open a sweeping probe into policing in louisville kentucky following the death of emergency worker briana taylor ms taylor had been studying to become a nurse and was shot in bed by officers as part of a drugs raid no drugs were ever found in a house it's the second investigation into a police force announced by the biden administration this week just remind you that you can catch up on the day's big business news and interviews on the ian king business podcast which is available on the sky news app or wherever you get your podcasts now there are calls to do more to help support parents who've been through a miscarriage new figures suggest the cost to society from subsequent mental health issues is more than 400 million pounds becky cottrell reports laura bradshaw was glowing on her wedding day but as happy as she was to be marrying her husband chris it was not an easy day for them both one month earlier laura had a miscarriage i think for me personally it was a huge shock to have a miscarriage i've obviously i know about miscarriage and i i've seen about it on you know i don't know various things but you don't ever really think it's going to happen to you and because no one really speaks about it it's when it does happen you're just so isolated and you just feel so lonely laura's had three more miscarriages since then but only after the third was she eligible to have tests through the nhs to determine whether there were any underlying medical issues it's yeah it's really really difficult and it feels like because they're saying you have to have three like it's not a big deal it feels like they're saying we don't really care come back when you've you know had more the charity tommy's found that parents who go through a miscarriage are twice as likely to experience depression and four times as likely to attempt suicide and the risk of a future miscarriage increases by 10 percent each time a woman loses a pregnancy the study also found black women are 40 percent more likely to have a miscarriage than white women for long miscarriage has been seen as a isolated physical event it's not it has got profound implications in terms of future pregnancy risks such as an increase in the risk of preterm birth and it has profound implications in terms of the psychological effects that couples who've had miscarriages suffer for example post-traumatic stress disorder tommy's estimate that one in four pregnancies end in a miscarriage the charities calling for better care for women after their first miscarriage and more mental health support for women and couples laura is finally receiving treatment that she hopes will improve her chances of having a child but she says she shouldn't have had to wait four years and four miscarriages to get to this point becky cottrell sky news essex well this is sky news breakfast let's have a check on the weather for you this morning naz how's it going to be today say please stay bright there will be some brightness stephen yes that's uh correct across southern areas where actually it is going to still be quite mild but elsewhere although a mild start it's generally cool and cloudy with some showers [Music] look forward to brighter skies the weather sponsored by qatar airways good morning so generally speaking we are going to be seeing cooler conditions for many areas for the next few days it's going to be largely cloudy as well still a bit of brightness here and there but also quite wet at times there will be scatter showers that could be locally heavy and perhaps even more persistent rain across parts of the south uh towards the weekend and the return of overnight frost so a real difference compared to last week to begin with this morning it's not so cold compared to previous mornings because we've had cloud cover overnight so it's quite a dull start to the day for many areas a little bit of brightness here and there but generally speaking quite cloudy there are some showers scattered across the north of ireland northern ireland over northern england towards the northeast perhaps even the north wales and across scotland more persistent spells are rain mainly across the northeast there but across central and southern areas it's a chilly start but it's sunny and locally there's a frost in some spots now going into this afternoon we're going to see little change on the story really it's going to stay mostly cloudy there will be some breaks in the cloud here and there so there will be a bit of brightness but in between those bright or sunny spells there will be showers dotted about and some of them could be locally heavy as they become more widespread across much of ireland northern ireland wales northern england perhaps eastern england later as well and that rain across scotland will slowly edge its way further southwards as well so the northeast becoming a bit dry later but a brisk wind there but the south sunny dry and warm the weather sponsored by qatar airways yes thank you now of course i love a space story so have a look at this it's impressive picture space debris appears to have narrowly missed four spacex astronauts shortly after they settled into orbit last friday it's a sizable chunk as well isn't it the crew were ordered back into their spacesuits having been worn there was a risk of their capsule colliding with the object but although the debris looks to have flown close by in these pictures there was in fact no threat of collision and the review is underway into what they're now tagging as a false alarm now just a day later the spacex team docked with the international space station the number of astronauts on board rising to 11. it's the biggest number to be in the station in a decade of course it's about 260 miles above the earth and uh at the minute we think above the indian ocean to keep a close eye on where it is it's always good when you can see it passing in the skies overhead still to come for you this morning we're going to be talking about nazanin zagari ratcliff and her extended prison sentence we'll talk to the chair of the foreign affairs select committee in just a moment there are things we all take for granted as the rivers and tides flow the sun will rise the wind will blow and the earth will spin but are we now spiraling into a climate crisis which cannot be avoided no one can predict the impact that it's going to have close to the peak here this is really the moment it's true expected to be hit very hard indeed what can be done to reverse the spiral the daily climate show on sky news will look for the answers you know it's not exactly a zoomed in sort of ceremony because they didn't want that from the start but then you know to have the the cameras set up in different parts of the world in london and paris and to have some people be able to to be there and and show their presence uh was really wonderful and in the room itself which was in union station which you can see illuminated behind me it's a beautiful historic building in downtown los angeles never hosted anything fabulous like the oscars before but they they had the setup so that the nominees would rotate in and be in the audience so you didn't have those usual cutaway shots of george clooney sitting there skulking or chuckling or uh you know the major stars that are always there just in the room to add that sort of uh that sort of energy but it was a different kind of energy it was an homage to just the films that were nominated in the films that won there was so much more diversity last night in fact those two women being nominated for best director and one winning and being the first woman of color to win uh was was a very very different sense than the oscars of days gone by so yes a different ceremony but it was a show of determination for hollywood that's kind of coming out of its shell putting the gowns back on getting out of the sweatpants putting on a little lipstick because there were no masks that we could see in the camera shots they were treating it as a movie set they said that when the cameras were off the masks went back on everyone had been tested vaccinated sitting far enough apart to be safe but hollywood has been back in business shooting movies and tv shows and and for the last few months as far as we know with very strict protocols and those were all in place in the theater last night [Music] [Music] now as nazanin zagari ratcliffe faces up to another year in jail the foreign secretary has called an iranian court's decision to impose a new sentence totally inhumane and wholly unjustified meanwhile nazanin's husband richard ratcliffe says she's being used as a political bargaining chip well let's talk to the chair of the foreign affairs select committee tom toucanhack good to see you this morning look we're talking to terese coffee just a few minutes ago and she said the government is is applying as much diplomatic pressure as it's as it can clearly that's not enough what more can be done well i think the uh aspect of the law that was changed yesterday introducing corruption as one of the means of sanctions is an important change i think it means that we can sanction many of the corrupt business people who are supporting this appalling regime and i think we need to expose quite clearly and in every means possible that this is a regime that is using a mother as a hostage in order to extract leverage that is an act of complete barbarity it goes against everything in islamic law in humanitarian action it's it's absolutely horrific but it's again it is very difficult to know quite what can be done i mean even if you can apply sanctions on on wealthy people propping up the regime that it's no guarantee of action and even if it is it could take quite some time no there is no guarantee of action that's true it is the decision of the mullahs and their acolytes in tehran who have decided to hold on to a young mother and separate her from her family that is their decision it is a decision by ayatollahs claiming to act in the name of the iranian people they're not they're tyrants and they're holding an entire country hostage not just a a young mother and and it's an act of complete barbarity so you're right we can't force uh the ayatollahs to change their mind we can't force the revolutionary guard commanders to change their mind but what we can do is we can make it very plain uh by revealing where they're getting their money from how they're stealing off the iranian people and and where it's all going it's going into their pockets and it's going into wars like the war in syria look what is she being held for in terms of this idea of being a bargaining chip what what is the regime trying to achieve well it's very difficult to know they claim that it's about a 400 million pound debt the british government absolutely agrees that it owes to the iranian government the only reason it hasn't been paid back is because the iranian government is sanctioned when the american government gave back a similar sum a number of years ago the iranian government released six americans and a few months later took another six so this is simply a means of doing business by the ayatollahs and a way of extracting leverage on other countries and by the way there's a german who's being held there was an australian this is how the iranian government behaves it's not just about the debt and so settling the debt i'm afraid that may bring temporary release would not be a long-term solution no but it may bring well temporary release in some respects it may bring permanent release for nazanee it could do and you know many of us support uh settling the debt but that's a separate matter unless of course you think it's an acceptable form of uh international uh diplomacy to take hostages we happen to think that's a bad way of conducting business and i i would hope that in fact i would be absolutely certain that your viewers think it's an absolutely horrific way of conducting business and so the iranian government needs to decide whether it wants to behave like a mafia hit squad or like a responsible government and you talked about the foreign secretary and imposing sanctions on countries that have sort of severe levels of corruption now no one's suggesting it's quite the same here in the uk but the the sleaze allegations are certainly causing uh i mean they're all over the papers on every paper this morning how concerned are you by what we're seeing reported well i think integrity matters in politics and i think these allegations are serious but let's not uh overlook the fact that this is in many ways an internal dispute between two people now i hope very much that uh the accusations will cease and that we can get back to doing what we need to do which is to recover after the most extraordinarily painful year for many many people we need a real recovery in this country we need a boom of jobs and growth not just because we need to rebuild the country but we need to build rebuild communities we need people to come back together to look to enterprise to look to opportunity and to show that the uk really is the place to do business look i've you know whether you're investing in newcastle or glasgow or bristol or belfast it doesn't matter we need this country to be booming because this country is a brilliant place to do business and that means that the government needs to be focusing on that well yes but i mean and that's all that's all well and good a lot of people would agree with you but you know it's it's it's only going to be seen as a good place to do business and a good place to do a lot of other stuff if we think those in power are acting with integrity now there are questions as to whether the prime minister is well as i say there's a lot of gossip going on at the moment i look forward to the investigations that my parliamentary colleagues have launched releasing their findings william rag my fellow chair of a committee he chairs public administration is already looking into this so you know we'll find out the answers as soon as he's done that but my focus is absolutely on making sure this country booms now my focus as you know as chair of the foreign affairs committee is making sure that we have partnerships and relationships with countries around the world with whom we can work together on everything from vaccine diplomacy to trade so i hope that we're going to be building in the kind of partnerships we need to make sure that this country sees the opportunities for every citizen in every community tom toucan good to talk to you thank you well let's just bring more on those sleaze claims faced by the government and indeed the prime minister the times has more allegations this morning including that the prime minister told aides he would rather let coronavirus rip than impose a second lockdown downing street has described the reports as gross distortions well earlier we spoke to the work and pension secretary therese coffey she admitted the government's understanding of how to tackle the virus has changed over time well undoubtedly the um you know things that we were discussing actually with the chief scientist and chief medical officer you know as was suggested perhaps last year when certain assumptions were made about how the virus might be transmitted we have a different understanding of that now so there's different elements that have gone along the way but the key thing is we've now got 33 million people vaccinated with their first dose nearly 13 million with their second dose so it's all been about trying to make sure that we tackle uh the coronavirus and actually get on with the roadmap to recovery well let's talk to the shadow health secretary jonathan ashworth who's here in the studio good to see you this morning look therese coffee's saying yeah i mean there are still lessons to be learned in how we handle the coronavirus pandemic i mean is that an indication as to say well perhaps some of the language has you know has been has been wrong do you think i mean she denies that in one sense but clearly an indication that things do need to be looked at again well there definitely are lessons to be learned i mean we're still not paying people decent sick pay so they can isolate themselves for example i think that is a monstrous failing in the government's response but the question is did boris johnson say these sickening crass words about allowing bodies to pile up there's more sources telling very respected journalists that he definitely said it apparently shouted it in anger from his office i mean there'll be so many people who have lost a mum or a grandma or a father in this crisis who never got the chance to say a proper goodbye never got the opportunity of a proper family funeral and those remarks were just oh well they were disgusting really weren't they and i think it is serious if there's more and more sources telling newspapers and journalists that he definitely said it but you know he's denied saying it michael gove who was in the room at the time said he he never heard those words so who do we believe well i mean this is why it's slightly bewildering isn't it because he well my gov didn't entirely deny just that he wasn't in the room but you've got you have got very serious respected political journalists that in the newspapers and on the broad and on broadcast channels saying they've definitely got sources who have who are telling them he definitely said it and he shouted it down the corridor from his office in anger the key thing is that the handling of this crisis hasn't gone well there are things that we got desperately wrong like not paying sick pay not having the proper ppe for nhs staff early on not protecting our care homes where so many people died so i'm delaying going into the lockdowns i mean that's what this is about isn't it johnson didn't want to put us into the lockdowns his former right hand man dominic cummings who he brought into the heart of downing street he's letting it be known that he wanted the lockdowns sooner this is this is such a mess at a time when the country is in crisis politicians the government they've got to be better than this what you're saying you're believing you believe what dominic cummings has to say the man who you know so you say he wanted locked down soon he was the one who was tripping off to barnard castle i mean you can you can't you can't disbelieve him on one thing and believe them on them well in some ways it's difficult to know who to believe because it's such a mess isn't it i mean i've been talking about the fact that we've got 400 000 people uh waiting over a year for treatment now that's people waiting longer for cancer treatment for waiting longer with heart disease we've got the highest weights on record now for children with eating disorders i mean these are the issues i want the prime minister and the cabinet to focus on but you've got boris johnson ringing up journalists himself to slag off dominic cummings i mean it's crazy when the country is in such a mess that this is what they are focusing on this fighting and backbiting surely the country deserves better than this well well a lot of people may agree with you so why then are you so determined as a party to to get people to focus on his flat refurbishment of all things i mean why does that matter at this time when we're told there's going to be an investigation but we're also told that he's paid for this himself well i think i think it does matter because we know he wanted to upgrade his flat because he didn't think the john lewis furniture uh was good enough i mean i think john lewis furniture is pretty pretty good actually pretty posh stuff but yeah but the second thing they've given thirty thousand pounds a year to make changes that's excellent but he wanted a more lavish upgrade of the flat but yesterday he said he paid for it overnight we've had reports that the tory party head office paid for it we know they were asking uh business people to fund it so we want we need to know whether he's had a loan from somebody uh uh is he paying it back to them is he paying it back to them of interest and who he is beholden to because if somebody has funded his sofas and his bedding and the betty sleeps in at night we need to know whether that person has an interest in government policy whether that person has an interest in winning government contracts but the reason why there's so many questions this morning the reason why you're asking me questions this morning is because boris johnson still hasn't offered a full and frank explanation and we deserve transparency because when you're the most powerful politician in the land we need to know who you are beholden to yeah but he he has said that or it has been made known if it's come from him directly to be fair but the the prime minister has paid for all of that refurb now out of his own pocket well we don't know that because overnight we're hearing that sorry the tory party had officers funded it well donations so we still don't have that but the implication is if that if that was the case it's been paid back yeah but but to whom so if you're the most powerful politician in the land and somebody's coming along and donating to you so you can buy a bed and a sofa and cushions and rugs for your flat we need to know who that is because we need to know what you then owe that business person because if you're responsible i mean we've seen so many contracts haven't we go out to sort of uh tory party donors in this crisis and so many business people have got contracts which have turned out for the ppe and they turned out it was duff ppe we had a contract going to somebody based in a jeweler based in miami who and all the ppe they sent wasn't up to scratch we need to know this stuff we need to know who the prime minister has obligations to which is why you're supposed to declare it all in a ministerial register but he's not done that so why hasn't he done that people will assume he's got something to hide unless he offers that full and frank explanation do you think the public care i mean in the sense that i mean therese coffee again and it's a valid point in the way saying look people have got more to worry about in their own lives particularly at the moment than what wallpapers going up in number 11. i think the public want politicians to act with integrity and to be honest if i walk down the street in leicester and even if nobody raises it with me as i walk down the street in leicester i still think it's important that politicians here fight for honesty and integrity in public life and that's what this is about if we're not prepared to stand up for integrity in public life what is the point of being in politics look you mentioned earlier on about the the number of people on waiting lists in the uk on the nhs i mean you're putting forward a recovery plan there's a very big question as to quite what you can do and if that recovery plan is just going to put an exponential amount of pressure on the nhs staff already strained to the very limit yeah i mean that's a really really fair point because our nhs staff have really been through it haven't they and they are facing i mean a lot of them are facing trauma and burnout after the year that they've had but of course we've got these waiting lists getting just growing getting higher and higher and higher and that will mean people will die people will or people will be left with permanent disability so we need a plan to deal with this so you've got to treat your staff properly properly you've got to give them a fair pay rise for a start you've got to give them a proper sort of recuperation support and well-being support but you've also got to get the money into the nhs so you can start bringing these waiting lists down again as i say we've got the highest weights on record now for children with eating disorders we've got people waiting longer for cancer treatment for for treatment to do with that you know heart problem treatments people are going to die unless we get something in place to deal with this yeah but but again i'm want to push you on on what i mean yeah a lot of people are going to say yes they need a better pay rise yes they need more support but that doesn't speed up the process of clearing a backlog does it i mean what actually can you put in place that is going to clear a backlog more quickly well i'm not underestimating the scale of the challenge and you're clearly not going to resolve this overnight but it does start with funding properly it starts with funding equipment we have some of the lowest numbers per head of mri scanners ct scanners in the oecd it starts with funding beds we've cut around 15 000 beds over the last 10 years in their nhs so there are things you can do to start bringing those waiting lists down but but obviously it's not going to happen overnight i'm not going to be dishonest with the british public on that but you've got to make a start on it because the longer we leave this the worse this is going to get okay jonathan ashraf good to talk to you this morning thank you now let's return to india where record numbers of coronavirus cases have left health services absolutely on their knees well our special correspondent alex crawford joins us now from haryana state outside of delhi just what is the current situation alex well there's still a very acute shortage of oxygen it seems across india certainly one of the hospitals that we went to yesterday was telling us how they go hour to hour really and they were trying to get through the next six hours and this morning they put out yet another red flag warning about the shortage of oxygen these people here have set up their own impromptu very small but just trying to do their bit they traveled around the state they went 500 kilometers away to try to source oxygen which they bought in as many cylinders as they could it was only about a dozen or so and people have been camping out here under the trees just to get access to that oxygen many of them as we've been finding in many of these places and and the number of the hospitals that we visited have been turned away from hospitals even the government hospitals the private hospitals because they too are running short on oxygen and clearly that's put everyone in a very high state of distress delhi and india has posted yet more record global record highs in the number of coronavirus cases it dipped slightly today on the sixth day but it's still a global record high in the spike of of cases and international aid is finally beginning to arrive the british aid arrived this morning vital medical supplies along with i understand about 20 oxygen ventilators well that's grasped with great gratitude from the people of india but clearly it's not going to go very far when you just have a quick look here at just this small little patch under trees and how many people are actually needing oxygen one woman told us she'd been here for two days already when clearly she should probably be in a hospital well one of the people who are running it is ishan singh let's try and have a quick quick word with him ishan you're live on on sky news tell me how critical is the situation here and how much trouble have you had in finding oxygen see if i talk about the ground situation over here we have patients who are waiting here for two days they're not finding any hospital they just wanted oxygen because their doctor has advice they have they're on high antibiotics so that lady over there if you see she is here with our sons they rented a car and they came here two days back and still they cannot find any hospital they cannot find any bed they are still here because their doctor is advised if we see over there there's a man behind me he came here three days back he was fine he went back again he came back so his oxygen is going up and down there's no medical facility proper facility yes and what do you think as as a as an indian of this state of affairs when it's reduced to charities like yourself trying to provide people with air what do you think make of that as a as an indian actually it's not just about an indian i being a sikh i can come from a sikh religion so we have always given the service to people starting from guru nanak dev ji our first guru starting way back in 1469 so he gave free food to hungry people and it started from there and when guru gobind singh ji our tenth guru he was in wars i don't mean to interrupt you i totally understand the history lesson i just wanted to get a sense as indians how desperate you're feeling um clearly the sikhs have got a long history in helping people but just a a a global view on how desperate you're feeling the rest of the world is looking in on you and seeing that you've got the global record hides in coronavirus cases and you're running out of basic things like oxygen actually the thing is over here we don't see as a anyone is a stranger we all are a family this lady over here i call her as my mother as my sister and everything this part this old man over here i call him as my grandfather or father so i when i see my family over here struggling for oxygen strongly for medicines i have to come here and i have to serve my people that's what we feel and our charity called himkun foundation we started ten years back in and in the lockdown last year we were on the ground we were delivering food and everything well you're doing a great job thank you very much ishan singh from the hickman foundation one of many who are set up to try and help ordinary people because it doesn't matter where you are throughout india there seems to be a real acute shortage of oxygen and that is clearly having an impact on on getting people better and and a lot of people very suspicious about the the numbers and questioning whether they're absolutely accurate they could be a lot worse okay alex thank you well let's talk to dr lance pinto as a consultant respirologist at hinduja hospital in mumbai good to see you this morning what is the situation like in the hinduja hospital today so fortunately the city of mumbai doesn't seem to be facing the kind of challenges that we've heard from across the country we've not really faced a situation where oxygen levels have been low to such an extent that we've had to compromise patient care ever so far and we have been constantly reassured that oxygen oxygen will be taken care of it we've been told to ration oxygen to be sensible about how we use oxygen uh but not once have we had to compromise patient care fortunately but i do realize this may not be the the state of affairs in the rest of the country why do you think the country has got so bad i think nobody anticipated the scale or the magnitude of what we are facing right now i think all of us got a little complacent based on the fact that the numbers uh reduced to such low levels in the month of january that we thought that the worst was behind us i think covet 19 has been a lesson for all countries across the world that we need to be prepared for escalation in healthcare whenever the situation demands it and we cannot be complacent about healthcare and i think that's a universal lesson that all countries across the world have learned during this pandemic in terms of of india's specific requirements i mean clearly you'll say you're in a better position than most but but what is needed now i mean is it a supply of of oxygen is it ventilators is it vaccines what does india need the most so i think what we need are could be split into what we need immediately and clearly what we need immediately is escalation and oxygen supplies escalation and ventilators bed availability to patients who desperately need it and i think a lot has been done i think there's a lot of aid coming in from countries across the world where we have oxygen tanks which are being sent to us we have compressed oxygen that's moving across the country using the country's railway system uh to get it to the places that need it the most i think the lockdowns have been extended to a great extent there are hotels which are being recruited uh towards patient care um i think this is the short-term requirement which we really need including ventilators and and thankfully i think everybody is is risen to the occasion in trying to help india to the best of their capacities from a more long-term perspective of course we need to escalate our vaccination drive i think uh one lesson that has been consistent across the world is that finally it's the vex it's it's vaccination coverage it's universal coverage with vaccination that is going to help us overcome the pandemic and i think we need help in terms of whatever supplies whatever uh supply channels need to be in place for us to be escalated to to be able to escalate our vast vaccination production and distribution okay dr lance pinto it's good to torture this morning thank you very much indeed we'll bring you more on the escalating situation in india in the next hour on sky news breakfast

Channel: Sky News

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Keywords: sky, news, news.sky.com, breakfast, stephen dixon, india, covid, coronavirus, boris johnson, sleaze, tories, conservativs, politics, nazanin, iran, headlines, weather, prime minister, health, nhs, travel, holidays, vaccine, vaccination, passport

Id: MKM5PZZPHH4

Length: 55min 49sec (3349 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 27 2021