MATT HANCOCK was condemned by MPs today for claiming that there was “never a shortage” of personal protective equipment (PPE) in Britain during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Health Secretary was also urged by his Labour counterpart to recover taxpayers’ money that the government had spent on “duff” PPE.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth urged Mr Hancock to apologise for awarding emergency contracts for useless PPE to companies, many of which had no history of supplying such equipment.