Susanna Reid SLAMS Priti Patel after Home Secretary’s ‘confusing’ Covid press conference

Susanna Reid has slammed Home Secretary Priti Patel following her Tuesday night Downing Street briefing.

Patel held a press conference to address the widespread confusion that the public have over outdoor exercise, during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Patel insisted the rules were ‘simple and clear’ – but Susanna begged to differ.

Taking to Twitter – and trending as a result of it – the Good Morning Britain host, 50, wrote: ‘No one is as good at using a lot of words to fail to answer a question as Priti Patel.’

This was met with a slew of agreement – and some objections – from followers.

A furious row erupted after the Home Secretary urged people to rely on their judgment and be ‘conscientious’ when deciding whether their daily exercise was within coronavirus regulations.

She confirmed police had issued 45,000 Covid-related fines since March, including 13,000 in the past three weeks as police dramatically ramped up enforcement.

But Susanna’s Twitter followers were sure to have their say. 

‘It’s meaningless drivel. She might as well have given the weather forecast, it would have been more useful,’ one replied.

‘There was a lot of repeating the same line but with different words that sounded relevant to the question that was asked. Politicians [are] the only people who are supposed to solve questions that end up leaving you with more question and no answers,’ another wrote.

‘Agreed. Priti (Awful) Patel turns incoherence into performance art. Though, thanks to her spiteful, deliberate, rejection of an EU wide visa offer for performing artists, she cld perform her ‘art’ in EU countries only by completing a lot of country-by-country paperwork,’ remarked a third.

‘The purpose of words is to communicate. She fails that basic test every time. Long, rambling, vacuous emptiness sums it up. Communication it isn’t. The irony is, her favoured opening line is ‘let me be clear’. We’ve fallen a long way and in oh so many ways. Tragic,’ penned a fourth.

Others supported Patel, however, with one typing: ‘Priti Patel is a future leader/2nd female PM. Mark my words she is loyal.’

Another snidely remarked: ‘No one is as good at using a lot of words to fail to ask an intelligent question as Susanna Reid.’

On Tuesday evening, police leaders demanded more clarity on exercise regulations after Patel’s press conference. 

National Police Chiefs’ Council chairman Martin Hewitt said it would be ‘challenging’ to draw up rules covering every eventuality.

He resisted setting a maximum distance which members of the public could travel for exercise from their homes.

It means the guidelines in England will remain less rigid than those in Northern Ireland, where people must remain within ten miles of home, and in Scotland, where those exercising must not venture more than five miles from their local authority boundary.

In response, Police Federation chairman John Apter told the Daily Mail: ‘What we really need is more clarity on the legislation and the guidance, not just for the police but for the public as well.

‘Without that we will continue to be accused of targeting so-called minor infractions of the rules and more confidence will be lost as a result. Some of the rules are still cloudy, such as what exactly constitutes local when it comes to travelling somewhere for exercise. ‘What is local for one person will not be local for another.’

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick also called for extra guidance, telling the BBC’s Today programme: ‘Anything that brings greater clarity for officers and the public in general will be a good thing.’

But Miss Patel said: ‘The rules are actually very simple and clear. We are meant to stay at home and only leave home for a very, very limited number of reasons.’ She added that outdoor exercise should happen in a ‘very restricted and limited way, staying local.’

Asked if more detailed rules were on the cards, a Home Office source said: ‘What we want to avoid is more bureaucracy. People should be taking personal responsibility for their decisions.

‘We don’t think it would be helpful to set a specific distance from home, because police officers would have to start asking people where they’ve come from and then work out how far they’ve travelled.

‘It’s more sensible to say something more general, such as if you are exercising you should leave from your front door under your own steam and come back to your front door.’

The NPCC said last Friday that 32,329 fixed-penalty notices were issued by forces in England and Wales between March 27 and December 21. Miss Patel said the figure had risen to just under 45,000, meaning about 13,000 have been handed out in three weeks.

Government advice urges people to stay ‘local’ but does not specify a distance in law, which has resulted in officers making their own interpretations and incorrectly fining walkers driving just five miles from home.  

Boris Johnson, who has himself come under fire for cycling in the Olympic Park seven miles from his Downing Street flat, has been urged to follow the devolved administrations and set clear boundaries.  

Rejecting calls to set a distance on travel for exercise, Mr Hewitt said: ‘I think you have to ask yourself two questions. If there is an exemption, the first question is ‘is me going out and doing this today essential?’

‘If the answer to that question is ‘yes’, then you have to ask yourself how can I conduct this exercise in the safest way possible?

‘I understand why the issue of ‘local’ has become quite totemic, but I think it is the wrong question to ask.’

The lack of concrete rules has left forces across England grappling with lockdown enforcement at a time when ministers are concerned with fraying compliance with the rules.

Chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Federation Brian Booth said: ‘The guidance is that you should be local in your own community near where you live but people are far exceeding that.

‘Officers have no power in law to deal with it, so it is a bit of a nonsense really. The guidance is people’s moral judgement, should they be doing it, but with regard to policing it – it’s impossible.’

Asked whether the Government should bring in a legal definition of what constitutes ‘local’, Mr Booth said: ‘You can’t just leave it woolly like you’ve done and expect officers to work miracles. It’s just setting the officer up for a fall.’

His withering assessment of the current rules were echoed by Chairman of Leicestershire Police Federation Adam Commons, who said that officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales are trying to interpret something ‘incredibly vague’.  

Yet Patel warned that police would be enforcing the law and handing out fines, as it was revealed almost 45,000 penalties have been issued during the pandemic.

The senior Tory also refused to criticise her leader, Mr Johnson, for travelling across London from Westminster for a bike ride in Stratford.

Adding it was important to exercise away from other people, she said this ‘is clearly what the Prime Minister did when he was taking his daily exercise’.   

It followed a similar tone from the No10 press secretary Allegra Stratton, who was earlier asked if Mr Johnson regretted his Sunday cycle ride seven miles from Downing Street.

She said:  ‘There is however nothing special about the Prime Minister going on a bike ride and nor should there be’. 

She added: ‘He will be doing bike rides again – you all know how much he loves his bike.’ 

Policing Minister Kit Malthouse also defended Mr Johnson’s bike ride but accused the public of ‘searching for the loopholes in the law’ by flouting the third national lockdown – comparing it to pubs serving scotch eggs to stay open last year – and insisted that it is the police’s job to scrutinise where people are going and who they are meeting outdoors.  

He said: ‘I understand that this is a sort of scotch egg moment where people are searching for the loopholes and the problems in the law. Unfortunately we can’t legislate for every single dynamic of human existence. If you can get there under your own steam and you are not interacting with somebody … then that seems perfectly reasonable to me’.

Dame Cressida made a veiled swipe at the PM’s Olympic Park bike ride.

She said: ‘For me, a reasonable interpretation of that is that if you can go for your exercise from your front door and come back to your front door. The public are looking to all of us as role models’. But she said the PM’s trip was not unlawful.

No 10 is yet to confirm if Mr Johnson cycled to the Olympic Park himself or was conveyed to east London by car as some Tory MPs complained that too much power is being handed to police. 

Dame Cressida has also asked the Government to enshrine the definition of ‘local’ in law to make it easier to police as it emerged that officers in Devon and Cornwall are even using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology to make sure only essential journeys are being made during lockdown – and hunt down people travelling to second homes.

Hampshire Police are also using drones to watch people visiting the waterfront at Southsea to ensure they are social distancing and not meeting in groups.   

Mr Malthouse also said all supermarkets ‘reassume their responsibility’ and refuse entry to anyone without a face mask and start limiting numbers inside again with flouters facing police fines. But West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Brian Booth said this morning: ‘We just don’t have the resources to stand at every supermarket’. 

But Dame Cressida said her officers would also be prepared to assist supermarket staff if customers became ‘obstructive and aggressive’ when they were told they must wear a face covering.

Her warning came as Morrisons said customers who refused to wear a mask without a medical exemption will be told to leave its stores, while Sainsbury’s said its security staff would ‘challenge’ shoppers who were not wearing masks or entering stores in groups.

Dame Cressida said: ‘We will move more quickly to enforcement, and particularly where somebody is breaking the law, breaking the regulations, and if it is absolutely clear that they must have known, or do know that they are, then we will move very swiftly to enforcement and fining people.’

Kit Malthouse’s argument that long bike rides are allowed has been undermined by Kerrin Wilson, Assistant Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police, who said of one local rider going 50 to 60 miles: ‘What you have to understand is if he falls off his bike and is so far away from home , how is he going to get help if he gets a puncture. Other people are potentially being put at risk’.

Despite the confusion over what is and isn’t allowed during the current lockdown, like stopping on a bench or for a takeaway coffee during a walk with a friend, Britain’s most senior police officer said it is ‘preposterous’ that people could be unaware of the need to follow the third national lockdown and warned that rule-breakers will be fined. 

Met Police chief Dame Cressida said people are still holding house parties, meeting in basements to gamble, and attending unlicensed raves despite rising numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths. 

She warned that anyone caught breaking the rules or failing to comply would result in officers ‘moving much more quickly to enforcement action’ and urged the Government to enshrine the definition of ‘local’ in law like in Scotland and Wales.