One of Boris Johnson's ministers rejected criticism that the U.K. prime minister isn't involved enough in the government's response to flooding in parts of the country.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said last week that Johnson's failure to make any public appearances in the past nine days and refusal to convene the emergency committee known as Cobra showed “zero leadership.”
“It's not true that the prime minister's not been engaged in this,” Environment Secretary George Eustice said on Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday show. “In a cabinet government, it's not a one-man show, and it's right that the prime minister would ask one of his cabinet ministers to lead.”
Eustice, who took up his post just over a week ago, was also asked why Johnson visited flooded areas during his election campaign in November but not now. He said there weren't ministers at that time and Johnson wanted to fend off claims the government was reacting slowly. There's no need to call a Cobra meeting now because there's already a flood response center, he said.
Separately, the Sunday Times reported that the U.K. Treasury will announce plans to move large parts of its operations outside of London. Officials will also funnel billions of pounds of additional infrastructure spending across the north of the country, the paper reported, without saying where it got the information.
--With assistance from Jessica Shankleman and Alex Morales.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Swint in London at bswint@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, Todd White
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