Watford politicians have blasted Boris Johnson after he said some care homes “didn’t really follow the procedures” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Liberal Democrat County Group Leader Stephen Giles-Medhurst said the comments were "insulting valued care workers", while Watford Labour group leader Nigel Bell said they were a "new low".

Boris Johnson’s remarks came after he was asked what he made of NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens’ desire to see plans to adequately fund the adult social care sector within a year.

Mr Johnson said: “One of the things the crisis has shown is we need to think about how we organise our social care package better and how we make sure we look after people better who are in social care.

“We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have but we’re learning lessons the whole time.”

Hillingdon Times:

Mr Johnson made the remarks during an interview (photo Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

Watford MP Dean Russell said it was his understanding that Mr Johnson "was referring to the fact that nobody knew what the correct procedures were when this new virus hit".

He said: "There are more than 14,000 care homes in the U.K so a variation in approach and practice is to be expected, but there is no suggestion that care homes haven’t worked incredibly hard under tough circumstances.

"Personally I am grateful to all social care workers across Watford and Hertfordshire. My admiration and support for carers is unwavering as I know they have been facing a huge challenge through the pandemic."

But the Prime Minster faced a backlash for his comments, and some of the town's politicians have reacted furiously to them.

Cllr Bell, who represents the Holywell ward, said that the comments were an "abject dodging of responsibility by the Prime Minister".

He added: "The Prime Minister’s comments are a new low.

"Care home workers do incredible work and have done so at great personal risk throughout this pandemic.

"The government failed to provide personal protective equipment, it failed to roll out testing fast enough and it was the government’s guidelines that said patients should be discharged from hospital and sent back to care homes without needing to be tested for Covid-19 (until April 15).

"How dare he try and shift the blame for his failure of leadership on to care home workers. He should apologise immediately."

Cllr Giles-Medhurst, who called for a ‘full independent inquiry’ into the management of Covid-19 in the care sector in Hertfordshire last month, added: "This is disgraceful. This is trying to deflect blame from the government's failure to ensure testing of all those released to care settings before April 15th.

"It is now clear that measures taken in panic have led to unnecessary deaths. He is insulting valued care workers."

In the House of Commons today (Wednesday) the Prime Minister said the "last thing" he wanted to do was blame care workers when he said "too many" care homes had not properly followed procedures, but refused to apologise for the remarks.

He said that "when it comes to taking blame, I take full responsibility for what has happened".