Coronavirus: Lord Tebbit says this is worst crisis for UK since WWII – but hopes it will spur national unity

Lord Tebbit, who said he joined the Conservative Party in 1946, and later rose to become its chairman, added his voice to those wishing Boris Johnson a quick return to Number 10.

A minister under Margaret Thatcher, and now aged 89, Lord Tebbit told the News Letter that the last time a Prime MInister’s health was in serious jeopardy was “probably when Anthony Eden was taken ill – it was during the Suez affair [in the mid-1950s]”.

However he also noted that the IRA’s 1984 Brighton Bombing (which left his wife severely injured and killed five others) had been a “close escape” for then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Asked if we have ever been in a period of national crisis like Covid-19 he said: “Not anything akin to this.

“The Second World War was a very different affair – at least we could effectively shoot back at the Germans as they approached our coast.

“We haven’t found an effective way of shooting back at this virus.”

Would this be the biggest crisis since World War Two?

“Oh yes indeed,” said Lord Tebbit – although he noted that the Cuban Missile Crisis had also been a grave, albeit quite different, threat to life.

Once the crisis abates, he said questions of Brexit and the Irish border will once again need addressing, and a “pretty stern” budget will need to be delivered.

“The only thing I can say is that we have to stick together,” he said.

“We have to follow the instructions about how we live, the best available instructions or medical advice, and regroup once we’re through.

“I think that it could help to bring us together when we come out of it, to realise we’ve got to rebuild. And I hope that we’ll be able to do that with a good deal of common ground.”

At time of writing, the global death toll of people with coronavirus (according to Johns Hopkins medical university) was just under 76,400.

Meanwhile, a former Northern Ireland Secretary has revealed he has been battling what he believes to be a Covid-19 infection for weeks.

Owen Paterson, who was in post from 2010 to 2012, said: “Three weeks ago today I got the very first symptoms and I went into isolation on the Wednesday. It takes a long time to shake it off.”

When it comes to the PM’s health, he said: “We all wish him the very best and, for his own sake and for the country we want him to recover as rapidly as possible and get back in the swing 100%. I’m not a medic. Everything is speculation. But all we want to do is see him well.”

Lord Tebbit has been outspoken on the issue of Northern Ireland, and was a harsh critic of the IRA throughout his career.

For instance, the Irish Times quoted him as saying he refused to forgive Martin McGuinness for his IRA deeds, because “forgiveness requires confession of sins and repentance” – and he believed that Mr McGuinness had simply been forced to sue for peace by the successes of the UK security services.

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