Lord Sugar: Boris Johnson is being too cautious in lifting lockdown

London
London
Coronavirus
Politics
Thursday 18 June 2020 at 1:50pm

Lord Sugar pictured in June 2019

Alan Sugar has said Boris Johnson is being “too cautious” in bringing the UK out of lockdown and the country should follow the example of the US.

The Apprentice star has been living in Florida, which has been out of lockdown for six weeks, and said: “Who’s dead? I’m not.”

Lord Sugar claimed that the Prime Minister’s own time in hospital with Covid-19 has affected his decision-making. Appearing on Jeremy Vine on Channel 5, he said:

Look, I’m not a doctor and I don’t want to be giving medical advice and all that stuff. The only thing I can say is that I have been here in Florida for six months and so I have lived through the crisis, the shortage of ventilators, the no masks available, the no bodywear available, the hospital beds being full up, blah blah blah blah blah blah. And I have now seen the transition of restaurants opening, tennis courts for example opening, golf clubs opening, restaurants opening 50% capacity, shops have been open all of the time, quite honestly, and this has been going on now for six weeks, and so I just logically say, well, hold on, six weeks, we’ve come out of this so-called lockdown. Who’s dead? I’m not. I’m still alive. My wife, thank God, is still alive. So’s everybody else I know. No-one else has caught anything. So, I suppose it is a bit of a clue there that says that maybe we have reached a peak. And maybe it’s time for us to follow the example of America, or indeed France that have opened up, or indeed Spain. I think Prime Minister Johnson unfortunately had a problem himself and I think he’s being a little bit too cautious if you ask me, just slightly.

Mr Johnson has said doctors prepared to announce his death as he battled coronavirus in April.> The PM spent three nights in intensive care at St Thomas’ in London, where he said medics gave him “litres and litres of oxygen”.