The MP has issued the apology after unions made a formal complaint about the comments.
An MP has apologised after claiming nurses and teachers had a “quiet drink” in staff rooms during lockdown.
Defending Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the MP, said, “At the time, just like many teachers and nurses who after a very, very long shift would go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink, which is more or less what he has done.”
Conservative MP Michael Fabricant has issued the apology after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), and teaching unions write to the MP to make a formal complaint about the claims.
Mr Fabricant explained it was not his intention to “cause offence” or “demoralise.”
However, the MP does remain adamant that “a small minority” of nurses and teachers did drink in staff rooms after “a number of other cases” were brought to his attention.
A debt to health and education professionals.
A NursingNotes survey following the claim found that just under half (47%) of healthcare workers were not even permitted to each lunch together.
The letter reads: “I applaud the work of nurses, GPs, and others in the medical and teaching professions who worked long hours under difficult, and sometimes impossible, conditions during the height of the Covid pandemic to keep us all safe and to educate our children.
“We all have a debt to them which will be difficult to repay.”
Mr Fabricant continued, “In a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with BBC Television News, I explained that I was neither judging nor chastising the minority of nurses or teachers who chose to unwind with a few work colleagues after a long shift. Nor did I suggest that any were drunk. I know of none who were so.”
“My error in one part of the programme – which was then repeated on tv – was to give the impression this was general practice by nurses and teachers: this was never the case.”
