Piers Morgan slams Culture Secretary for ‘actively encouraging’ people to attend Cheltenham Festival

Oliver Dowden defended his decision to argue that the Cheltenham Festival race event should have gone ahead, despite Italy opting to quarantine 16 million people due to the number of coronavirus deaths.

GMB presenter Mr Morgan accused him of "actively encouraging" people to attend the likes of the Cheltenham races and the Liverpool versus Atletico Madrid football match after the Government decided not to ban major events until late March.

Mr Dowden said: "The scientific evidence we were being given was that, at a mass gathering, the threat at a mass gathering relates to the people who immediately surround you - the people in front of you and behind you.

"The risk at mass gatherings was no greater or less than it would have been in pubs or restaurants, and the advice at that point was that we did not need to ban mass gatherings."

Asked whether the advice was wrong, the Cabinet minister replied: "As the situation developed, the scientific advice changed and we changed our guidance off the back of it.

"But mass gatherings are not different to any of those other events I described and at the appropriate moment we took the decision to close pubs, to close restaurants."

Asked whether Victoria Beckham, whose family is reportedly worth £350 million, should be able to furlough staff at her fashion company, Mr Dowden said the scheme should not be used by companies that could afford to keep staff on.

GMB's Mr Morgan said the business was "failing" and was a "loss-maker".

But Mr Dowden said he would not comment on Ms Beckham's individual situation.

"We are facing an unprecedented global health crisis and in response to that we have taken unprecedented measures which are clearly having a big effect on the economy," said Mr Dowden.

"I think each person and each company should ask themselves: do they have to rely on the taxpayer? Because this scheme is meant to be for, if you are about to make someone redundant and you haven't got the money to continue to employ them, then you can rely on the Government to stop people being made redundant.

"I don't know the details of her (Victoria Beckham) fashion business. I'm not going to comment on each one in turn, but the clear principle is: you should only be using it if you have to."