Boris Johnson must not use coronavirus to delay vital decisions on climate crisis, insists John McDonnell

Boris Johnson should not use the coronavirus as an excuse to delay vital decisions on tackling the climate crisis and the social emergency created by austerity, insisted John McDonnell.

In his last pre-budget speech before resigning from the post of fictional chancellor, McDonnell also urged the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak to contain the situation and reassure the public and financial markets.

This comes as the number of positive tests for the virus in the UK rose to over 300 as the Prime Minister held a Cobra meeting to reassess the government's response.

Speaking in central London, McDonnell said the immediate and pressing challenge of Wednesday's budget must be to ensure that the NHS has the resources to defeat the coronavirus.

But, he added: the natural emphasis on the coronavirus should not be a reason or an excuse for not dealing with the equally serious and dangerous threats of social emergency created by a decade of decline and the climate change crisis that we also face.

The scale of government intervention on these two emergencies discussed so far does not recognize the importance of the threats we face due to the degradation of our public services and the lack of of time to stop the climate crisis.

After his speech, he continued: What worries me in this budget is that the virus is used to postpone key decisions and that we are just having another round of consultations. To be honest, I think there is an element of consultation fatigue that we need at the moment.

Addressing Response # 10 to the virus, Mr. McDonnell said this was not the time for party politics or partisan behavior, but suggested that Mr. Johnson should have called the Cobra government emergency committee earlier.

Jeremy Corbyn's main ally also claimed that ministers had been too slow to respond to the threat to economic confidence, and the postponement of any statements until the date of the budget itself does not seem to appreciate the & # 39; Urgency of the action that is needed.

What concerns me, and continues to do so, is the Chancellor's delay in seeking to reassure the public and the markets more fully that the government is ready, he said.

He continued: Whatever criticism people may have of Gordon Browns' political strategy in the banking crisis, no one can question the international leadership he has shown and the concentration and the determination he has made to deal with these events on a global scale.

I regret that we have not seen this capacity for leadership, commitment, even political, diplomatic and even management, on the part of the Prime Minister or the Chancellor. I'm just saying softly, someone needs to take control.

The fictional chancellor also suggested that if the UK's negotiations with the EU on a future trade deal were important, they should be treated as a secondary issue while attempts are made to contain the virus.

Ask by The independent If the Brexit talks should be suspended while the government deals with the Covid-19 hatching, he replied: We are trying to work on a non-partisan, multi-party basis.

But we are hearing more and more rumors from companies and others about their problems they will face when preparing for the implementation of Brexit, given that they have also been able to make facing the threat of this virus epidemic.

In addition to this, others have questioned the limits of bandwidth in government to be able to cope with a global crisis and the negotiations themselves on the timetable that the government has now set.

This is an issue that must now work well on a multi-stakeholder basis to reach a form of agreement what we need to do now is save lives. Brexit, while important and important, must be a secondary issue to ensure the security of our people.