Nursing body complains about MP's lockdown drink comments

Claims nurses and teachers would drink in their staff rooms during lockdown are "demoralising and factually incorrect", a nursing body says.

Most nurses would spend their time cleaning uniforms and keeping away from family to protect them, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said.

Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant told BBC News he knew of nurses and teachers who went for a quiet drink after shifts.

The RCN said it wanted to formally complain.

General secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said she wanted to complain to the MP and also sent a copy of the letter to party chairman Oliver Dowden.

Ms Cullen criticised the MP's comments and said nurses and nursing support staff would, after finishing well past the end of their shifts, "get home, clean their uniforms, shower and collapse into bed" rather than "have a quiet one in the staff room".

"It is utterly demoralising - and factually incorrect - to hear you suggest that our diligent, safety critical profession, can reasonably be compared to any elected official breaking the law, at any time," she said.

He said the prime minister needed to think hard and apologise, although he did not think that Mr Johnson believed he was breaking the law.

"I think at the time just like many teachers and nurses who after a very, very long shift would tend to go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink which is more or less what he has done.... I don't think he thought he was breaking the law, but of course that doesn't make any sort of excuse...," he said.

In a statement later, Mr Fabricant said a teacher and two nurses had told him they had some sympathy with the prime minister "as after an exhausting day at work they, too, had had a drink with their work mates".

He said: "They felt it safe as they had not mixed with others and, frankly, I cannot blame them."

He said he fully understood the anger of people who obeyed the rules, "couldn't visit relatives, and missed weddings and funerals".

He said: "I was in lockdown in Lichfield all the time so I know exactly how they feel.

"But Boris Johnson's mother died during lockdown too and he himself ended up in intensive care so he will also understand their anger."