Boris Johnson’s opening words in a coronavirus crisis phone call with Donald Trump were ‘we need ventilators’, the US president has revealed.
The Prime Minister has been urging businesses to ramp up production of the life-saving machines, which are desperately lacking in the UK.
Mr Trump has invoked Korean War-era legislation to order the General Motors car giant to switch production lines to make the devices.
The President said the PM issued an instant plea to him regarding ventilators when they spoke after Mr Johnson’s positive test for Covid-19 on Friday.
The Prime Minister (pictured in a video conference as he self-isolates with coronavirus) has been urging businesses to ramp up production of the life-saving machines
President Trump (pictured today) said the PM issued an instant plea to him regarding the machines when they spoke after Mr Johnson’s positive test for Covid-19 on Friday
Mr Trump said: ‘If we make too many that’s going to be OK because I spoke to the Prime Minister of the UK yesterday.
‘And before I even was able to get a word out of him… I said, ”How you doing?” and he said, ”We need ventilators”.
‘The UK needs ventilators, a lot of countries need ventilators, badly.’
Downing Street said 8,000 additional ventilators had been ordered by the Government to boost the stock of 8,000 already available to the health service.
But with Covid-19’s peak expected to strike the UK in around three weeks, officials said thousands may not arrive for a number of months.
Britain saw a huge increase in deaths on Saturday as 260 people died bringing the total to 1,019.
But the global focus has shifted to the US where 1,963 people have been killed by the deadly virus, while there are 104,007 infections.
The Cabinet Office issued a detailed rebuttal of claims the UK Government had missed opportunities to procure ventilators.
Andrew Rayner, the managing director of MEC Medical, which makes ventilator parts, told the FT he could have delivered 500 ventilators ‘if they got back to me straight away’, adding: ‘They’ve missed the boat.’
But the Government department took the unusual step of rebutting ‘a number of inaccurate claims’.
A statement said: ‘We would expect suppliers of ventilator parts, like MEC Medical, to receive orders from companies for some of the components needed to scale up production of UK ventilator manufacturers.’
The spat comes after Britain’s embassies were urged to source vital equipment for the NHS and ship it home.
And a further row ensued as the EU rejected claims a missed email was to blame for the UK not taking part in the bloc’s ventilator scheme.
The government is said to have instructed UK embassies to try to source ventilators and protective equipment from their host countries and export it to Britain.
Boris Johnson’s spokesman initially said the UK had not joined an EU ventilators scheme because Britain is no longer a member of the bloc but it was later blamed on computer trouble
The move, first reported by the Financial Times, is designed to plug holes in NHS supplies.
But the request is believed to have caused some disquiet among staff given the difficulty of trying to find equipment to send home without causing offence to a host nation.
It came amid a row over why the UK failed to join a four-pronged Brussels’ initiative to source and buy ventilators quickly and cheaply to aid the fight against coronavirus, with the government blaming an email mix-up.
Number 10 had originally said the UK was not taking part because it was no longer a member of the bloc and was ‘making our own efforts’ but it later blamed its absence on an ‘initial communication problem’.
It is thought computer problems meant the UK did not receive a critical email asking if it wanted to participate so Britain missed the deadline but will be able to take part in future rounds of procurement.
Yet the European Commission appeared to cast doubt on Britain’s version of events, as a spokesman said: ‘If the UK want to join in a future procurement scheme they are most welcome to join. They were also most welcome to join in the first four.’
The EU is using its collective bargaining power to try to acquire ventilators cheaply and in rapid time.
The UK was eligible to take part because while it formally split from the bloc in January the two sides are now in a ‘standstill’ transition period lasting until the end of the year.
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said Thursday morning ‘we are no longer members of the EU’ when he was asked why the UK was not participating.
Pressed if the decision was related to Brexit ideology, the spokesman said: ‘No, as I say, this is an area where we’re making our own efforts.’
The comments prompted fury from pro-EU critics of the government as Lib Dem MP Layla Moran accusing Boris Johnson of putting ‘Brexit over breathing’.
But Number 10 subsequently rowed back on its initial explanation as it emerged the actual reason for not joining the scheme was computer trouble.
A UK government spokesman said: ‘Owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint procurements in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
‘As the Commission has confirmed, we are eligible to participate in joint procurements during the transition period, following our departure from the EU earlier this year.
‘As those four initial procurement schemes had already gone out to tender we were unable to take part in these, but we will consider participating in future procurement schemes on the basis of public health requirements at the time.
‘We are working round the clock with industry, the NHS, social care providers and the army to ensure the supply of PPE over the coming weeks and months and will give our NHS and the social care sector everything they need to tackle this outbreak.’