A TORY minister has failed to remember what SAGE stands for in a car crash Question Time appearance.
Welsh MP Robert Buckland was asked whether the UK Government is giving the public mixed messages.
He said: "The advice that is going to be given by the strategic ... the SAGE group ... the strategic advisory group on ... the group that meets to deal with emergencies, they will guide the government."
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies provides scientific and technical data and advice to support the Government’s chief decision-makers in the Covid-19 crisis.
Buckland also admitted that Germany has been able to minimise deaths, thanks to widescale testing – something not seen in the UK.
He added: “Germany has a particular advantage in that their diagnostics industry is much bigger than ours, and we’re starting from a much lower base… And their death rate is lower because of course their rate of testing has been much, much higher.
“If we were testing much more widely, we might have a different set of statistics,” Buckland said.
There have been roughly 4000 deaths in Germany so far, compared to nearly 14,000 in the UK.
Not the best planning from the Tories ...
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