Mayor asked ‘why are your workers dying?’

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan told Sky News that fourteen transport workers have now died after testing positive for coronavirus.

Nine bus drivers have died, and three Transport for London (TfL) workers, a worker who was a supplier for TfL and an Underground employee.

Kay Burley erupted at Khan’s inability to protect transport workers during the pandemic, and engaged in a tense row.

Khan was asked why he cannot guarantee the safety of the staff during the outbreak across London.

Burley asked, “Why are your workers dying?”

Khan replied: “That is unfair Kay, we have had 14 people who have lost their lives tragically working for public transport in London.

“We have had lots of people losing their lives in London I’m afraid.

“The bad news is we have more than 1,700 deaths in our city.

“It is tragic for the families that are grieving and who are in bereavement.

“We will have to wait and see at what the contact tracing leads to in relation to the causes of them catching COVID-19.

“One of my frustrations for some time has not just been the lack of testing, unlike other countries who are looking into contact tracing, we are not sure how people catch COVID-19.

“What I am sure about is unless we keep our social distance this virus will spread faster and more people will die.

“That is why it is really important, even though the weather may be good this weekend, that everyone stays at home unless you have a very good reason not to.

“Reasons like to get food, medicine, exercise once a day or if you really have to go to work, if not, stay at home.”

The Sky News host blasted Khan and said it is incorrect to claim we don’t know how coronavirus spreads.

She told Khan, “Well it is incorrect to say we don’t know how people get it, they get it from other infected humans.

“To that end, we believe the government has asked you to run more London Underground tube trains so that people can stay separate more easily.

“Apparently yesterday one commuter wrote in a tweet that more than 100 people were on the platform in Leytonstone.

“That is because you are running only 55% of the tubes, why is that?”

Khan answered, “We have got about a third of our transport workers off because they are self-isolating because a member of their family has the symptoms and they can’t get the test so they have to stay home for two weeks.

“Or they themselves have COVID-19 symptoms. We are running the maximum amount of tubes we can run safely and the maximum amount of trams and busses we can run safely right now.”