Yahoo Finance Shadow attorney general 'very, very sorry' for describing COVID as 'the gift that keeps on giving'
Labour's shadow attorney general is "very, very sorry" for describing the pandemic as the “gift that keeps on giving for lawyers”, Ed Miliband has said.
Lord Falconer was said to have used the phrase during a briefing for a top City law firm in June last year, according to the Mail on Sunday.
Miliband, the shadow business secretary, described the it as “a very poor choice of words” and said the peer was sorry for his actions.
Miliband told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: "He shouldn't have said it. He was talking in the context of lawyers and the way the law was changing.
"It was a very poor choice of words. I have spoken to Charlie this morning and he is very, very sorry and apologises for what he said.
"It shows that we have to be careful with our words, all politicians have to be very careful with our words.
"I know Charlie very well and Charlie thinks the country has been through a terrible, terrible trauma and this in no way reflects his view about the COVID crisis."
Read more: Starmer faces questions after denying past Brexit remarks put to him by PM
In the Mail on Sunday recording, Lord Falconer can reportedly be heard telling a room full of lawyers: “This is a gift that keeps on giving.
“The law keeps on changing, keeps on getting more complicated, and is always interesting.”
At the time of the webinar on 29 June, some 43,575 people had died with coronavirus and the UK had the highest death toll in Europe.
Watch: Starmer plays down reports of 'heated' row with PM
It comes after Labour leader Keir Starmer was forced to apologise last week after making false accusations against Boris Johnson during PMQs.
On Wednesday, Starmer’s spokesperson issued an apology from the Labour leader for a misunderstanding, although reiterating that the prime minister had previously been misleading.
“On a number of occasions the prime minister has wrongly claimed that Labour wanted to join the EU’s vaccine programme,” Starmer’s spokesperson said. “That is inaccurate and the claim has been found to be untrue.
“This afternoon during prime minister’s questions, Keir misheard the prime minister and assumed he was making the same false accusation again. Keir accepts that on this occasion the prime minister was referring to old comments about the European Medicines Agency, and Keir admits he was wrong and made a mistake in his response.”
Miliband also dismissed claims on Sunday that something is going wrong with Labour under Starmer as leader because the party is behind in the polls.
"Leaders have good weeks and bad weeks but what's the most important thing that Keir Starmer has said since he became leader is that, after this crisis is over, there can be no return to business as usual,” Miliband said.
He added: "That means we have got to create a fairer, more just and more equal country."
Recent polls put the Tories three points ahead of Labour, while one survey found that just 16 per cent of people thought Starmer would have done a better job in handling the pandemic.
Watch: Could the Oxford Vaccine Change the Course of the Pandemic?
