The British government was accused on Sunday of not taking seriously the heat wave which will hit the United Kingdom on Monday when forecasters believe that there could be deaths.
Resigning Prime Minister Boris Johnson missed a crisis meeting in Downing Street on Saturday, busy bidding farewell to friends at his Checkers country home in north-west London. And on Sunday, his deputy Dominic Raab seemed to be delighted that temperatures could exceed 40 degrees in England for the first time.
“We should enjoy the sun”
“Of course there are common sense tips – hydrate, avoid the sun at the hottest times and put on sunscreen, that sort of thing,” he told Sky News. But “we should enjoy the sun,” he added, assuring that the country was resilient enough to cope with the heat and that there was no reason for schools to close.
These comments have raised eyebrows among health professionals and meteorologists. “It’s not a nice sunny day where you can put on some sunscreen, go out and go swimming or eating outside,” warned Tracy Nicholls, manager at the College of Paramedics.
A risk to life
“This is severe heat that could, in fact, lead to fatalities because it is too fierce,” she added. “We are not equipped for this kind of heat in this country. Transport Minister Kit Malthouse warned of “significant disruption” to transport, while London Mayor Sadiq Khan advised to only take public transport when “absolutely necessary”.
Britain’s Met Office meteorologist issued a ‘red’ extreme heat warning for the first time on Monday and Tuesday, stressing there was a ‘risk to life’. Temperatures could exceed 40 degrees in London, a first in the country. The absolute record recorded in the United Kingdom dates back to July 25, 2019, when the mercury peaked at 38.7 degrees in Cambridge, in the east of England.
Ambulance services are in a state of crisis and schools have already announced that they will remain closed. The Met Office attributed this heat wave to global warming.