Gove's 'We Had 10,000 Tests Yesterday' Lie - Actually LESS Than The Three Previous Days
Michael Gove began Sunday with an interview on the Andrew Marr Show, in which he smoothly stated:
"We had 10,000 tests yesterday...ahead of the deadline set by the Health Secretary"
He repeated the claim to the Ridge on Sunday programme on Sky shortly afterwards.
Good news, you might think? But it wasn't true.
The government's own figures for the period show that 127,737 tests had been carried out, up from 120,776 the previous day - a rise of just 6961.
And not only is today's daily tests figure not 10,000 - it isn't even as many as the number of tests carried out in the three days preceding it - the closest the number has got to 10,000 was last Friday with 8911.
Doubtless there will be some excuse trotted out about delayed figures - or indeed 'confusion' which is apparently the reason the government ignored an offer of 25,000 ventilators.
But the fact remains; at the exact time the official government figures were being finalised, a government spokesman was telling the British public something which was not true. If he could not give the exact figure, he was quite able to say so - as he did when asked in the same interview how many NHS staff were off sick due to coronavirus.
But he didn't. He chose to lie instead...