The Prime Minister was meeting members of the North Yorkshire Police today – including officers on two legs, four legs and two wheels.
Boris Johnson was joined by Home Secretary Priti Patel on a tour of the police HQ in Northallerton.
It was to promote news that police forces in England and Wales have hired more than 4,000 extra officers in the first eight months of the Government’s recruitment drive to sign up 20,000 more over the next three years.
Mr Johnson also talked about the government’s efforts to control the coronavirus pandemic during his visit.
“Broadly speaking, the only way to control coronavirus is if everybody collectively obeys the social distancing rules and works together to drive the virus down.
“So that’s why I make this point that I do – we’ve done a huge amount. Together we’ve really reduced the incidence of the virus and we’ve got the number of deaths down.”
Asked if he was ashamed over an Office for National Statistics analysis showing England had the highest excess death rate in Europe, he said: “We mourn every loss of life that we’ve had throughout the coronavirus epidemic.
“What I would say to them (families of the deceased) is that we really owe it to them to continue our work in driving the virus down.
“Clearly this country has had a massive success now in reducing the numbers of those tragic deaths.
“We’ve got it at the moment under some measure of control. The numbers of deaths are well, well down.
“But I have to tell you that we’re looking at a resurgence of the virus in some other European countries. You can see what’s been happening in the United States.”
