SALISBURY MP John Glen has said claims the government missed the boat on testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) "could not be further from the truth".

It comes as The Sunday Times published a piece that also claimed the Johnson administration "just watched" as the death toll mounted in Wuhan, China.

The piece stated the Prime Minister had not attended five meetings of the government committee Cobra, in the run-up to the crisis.

Mr Glen said: “The allegation in the Sunday Times that the government took its eye off the ball in the weeks leading up to the Covid-19 outbreak could not be further from the truth.

"The Department for Heath and Social Care has set out a comprehensive line-by-line rebuttal, explaining how the article overlooks the amount of work undertaken across the government to prepare in advance of coronavirus reaching our shores.

"Covid-19 was brought to the Health Secretary’s attention on January 3 and the Prime Minister’s attention four days later. The government’s scientific groups began meeting in mid-January with Matt Hancock chairing daily meetings on the issue.

"Remember that as late as January 24, the editor of The Lancet [a peer-reviewed general medical journal] was downplaying the virus to his readers, arguing that coronavirus had “moderate transmissibility and relatively low pathogenicity”, and that the World Health Organization was reluctant to declare Covid-19 to be a pandemic until March 11."

Mr Glen added: "The government began making preparations to boost the PPE supply in the final week of January, with the first additional order placed by the NHS on January 30.

"At all times, the Prime Minister has been guided by the very best advice of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA), who lead teams of the UK’s foremost experts on infectious diseases. It is incumbent on those who claim that the government has made significant mistakes to point out exactly when and how the advice of the CMO and CSA should have been ignored.”

Danny Kruger, MP for Devizes, added: “I strongly refute allegations made in the Sunday Times this weekend that the government failed to recognise the threat posed by a coronavirus outbreak.

"With the benefit of hindsight we will be able to analyse the government’s initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak, but decisions then were being made – as they are now – with the best scientific advice, and in line with professional opinion both here and around the world.

"The government has been working around the clock to ensure that the NHS and wider care sector has the equipment and support they need to tackle this outbreak.

"To suggest, as some media have done, that there has been indifference, conscious neglect, or some sort of deliberate strategy to do harm, is deeply irresponsible.”

Downing Street also accused the newspaper of "falsehoods" and "errors", and a government spokesman said: "This article actively misrepresents the enormous amount of work which was going on in government at the earliest stages of the coronavirus outbreak.

"This is an unprecedented global pandemic and we have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.

"The government has been working day and night to battle against coronavirus, delivering a strategy designed at all times to protect our NHS and save lives.

"Our response has ensured that the NHS has been given all the support it needs to ensure everyone requiring treatment has received it, as well as providing protection to businesses and reassurance to workers.

"The Prime Minister has been at the helm of the response to this, providing leadership during this hugely challenging period for the whole nation."