Claims that nurses and teachers are drinking in their staff rooms during lockdown are “demoralizing and factually incorrect,” a nursing association says.
Most nurses would spend their time cleaning uniforms and staying away from family to protect them, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said.
Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant told BBC News he has known nurses and teachers who went out for quiet drinks after their shift.
The RCN said it wanted to make an official complaint.
General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said she would complain to the MP and also sent a copy of the letter to party leader Oliver Dowden.
Ms Cullen criticized the MP’s comments, saying nurses would “come home, clean their uniforms, shower and go to bed” after their shift was over, rather than “having a quiet one in the staff room”. “.
“It is absolutely demoralizing — and factually incorrect — to hear you claim that our hardworking, safety-critical profession can reasonably be compared at any time to any elected official who breaks the law,” she said.
Mr Fabricant made the claims while reacting to Boris Johnson being fined for attending a birthday party thrown for him during a Covid lockdown.
He said the Prime Minister needed to think hard and apologize, although he didn’t think Mr Johnson believed he was breaking the law.
“I think at the time just like a lot of teachers and nurses who, after a very, very long shift, tended to go back to the staff room and have a quiet drink, which is more or less what he did… I don’t know, I think.” not that he thought he was breaking the law, but of course that’s no excuse…” he said.
In a later statement, Mr Fabricant said a teacher and two nurses had told him they felt some sympathy for the Prime Minister “as they had also had a drink with their work colleagues after a hard day’s work”.
He said, “They felt safe not mingling with anyone else and honestly I can’t blame them.”
He said he understood the anger felt by people who were sticking to the rules, “unable to visit relatives and missed weddings and funerals.”
He said: “I’ve been locked up in Lichfield the whole time, so I know exactly how they feel.
“But Boris Johnson’s mum also died during lockdown and he ended up in intensive care himself, so he’ll understand her anger too.”
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