Priti Patel, an MP who is no stranger to the occasional slip up when speaking publicly, told Andrew Marr on Sunday that it is “absolutely virus” that Covid measures stay in place in the UK.
Appearing on the BBC’s flagship Sunday morning politics programme, the home secretary was asked about a number of subjects, from migrant crossings from France and the tragic death of David Amess, who was murdered in his constituency on Friday.
Patel was also asked about the continued battle against coronavirus, as cases, hospitalisations and deaths have again begun to increase amid the colder months starting.
Marr asked Patel if the UK “has the virus under control” to which she replied “that we are all living with the virus” and praised the vaccine rollout.
Marr then shifted to asking if the government’s “plan b” of shifting to home working, mandatory masks and vaccine passports will be enough to stop the spread of Covid?
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Patel replied by further championing the vaccine, which is now available to school-aged children, before adding:
“Working with the health secretary and others in making sure we can continue [as normal]. We’ve got to live with the virus but ensure all the protective measures are in place and that’s absolutely virus. We want to protect people’s health and well being.”
Sorry, say that again?
"We've got to live with the virus, but ensure that all the protective measures are in place and that's absolutely virus"#Marr pic.twitter.com/u5dqdlcLcZ
— Matt 'TK' Taylor (@MattieTK) October 17, 2021
Maybe we can forgive Patel on this occasion as “virus” and “vital” have at least two letters the same but this is another classic word salad from the home secretary on the pandemic.
Who could forget the time she said that there had been “300,000; 34; 974,000” test carried out in the UK at the height of the breakout?
To be fair, “absolutely virus” does sound like a piece of slang that the kids might be used to compliment something. Maybe this will start a trend?
