Keswick’s MP admits she is lucky to have escaped coronavirus after having worked closely with prime minister Boris Johnson at Westminster before he was struck down with the illness.
Trudy Harrison is parliamentary private secretary for Mr Johnson, who was admitted to the intensive care unit at St Thomas’ Hospital in London on Monday night after his condition worsened.
The Tory leader had tested positive for coronavirus 10 days earlier, just three days after he had taken part in Prime Minister’s Question at the House of Commons, seated in front of Mrs Harrison before parliament broke up for Easter.
Speaking today to the Keswick Reminder back in her Copeland constituency, the Conservative MP said: “I was nervous when I returned from London and was very aware I had been in the PM’s office and with him in the chamber, sat right behind him. I am very aware there was a risk I could have been affected.
“I stayed in my home the next few days and nothing emerged. None of my family have been affected or infected that we know of – and none of my team. We are all healthy. We are very lucky.”
Mrs Harrison, who will be 44 this month, has only been in contact with the prime minister by text since then and she paid tribute to his strength of character and leadership. Describing his absence from 10 Downing Street as “a real worry,” she added: “He is in good spirits but we will miss the PM’s dynamism in charge and his optimism and positivity. That will be missed for sure.
“We really, really want him back. We need a strong leader. Boris Johnson is the best man for that job and we want him back. He is such a positive, enthusiastic man.”
Mrs Harrison has personal and recent experience of the trauma of intensive care wards as her father, who suffered from motor neurone disease, was treated at the one at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven before he died in January. Her family background also gives her a real insight into the difficulties of sticking to the Government’s advice to stay at home to avoid spreading coronavirus.
“As a mother of four daughters aged 17 to 21, I understand how difficult it is for parents to encourage their children to stay at home. I have every sympathy, trying to speak to your children about how this disease can affect you and what it does. It can get anyone.
“I am also an MP who really appreciates the visitor economy. I (normally) want to encourage more visitors but the message now is ‘don’t come to Cumbria. Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives’. Something I hope I never have to say again.”
