MPS have reflected on lessons we have learnt as the city marks one year since its first coronavirus case.

Today is the first anniversary of the city’s first case, who was also Britain’s first confirmed patient with the disease.

To mark the occasion, all three Brighton and Hove MPs joined The Argus for its One Year On podcast to reflect on the year.

We ask what lessons from the previous year we can take into the next as the death toll passes 100,000, what the impact has been on the city’s residents and what might in store for the year ahead.

“It’s such a grim death toll and each and every one of those numbers is someone’s life and someone’s loved one,” Green MP Caroline Lucas said.

“If you look at the country as a whole, I think there are some very clear reasons as to why we’ve had such a terrible death toll.

“A huge amount of it, I’m afraid, has to be laid at the door of this government, which has been utterly incompetent from the start to where we are now.”

Ms Lucas was joined by Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, MP for Hove and Portslade, Peter Kyle, Argus editor Arron Hendy and reporter Jody Doherty-Cove.

Peter Kyle said that government decisions made earlier on in the pandemic meant the country lost control of the virus. 

He said: “It wasn’t an accident that we have these new variants that are coming up in our country, because we failed to keep a lid on it in the first place.

“That’s because way back then, they cancelled track and tracing and they moved to a new policy and that new policy failed to keep a lid on Covid in our country.”

Ms Lucas added: “We were told we couldn’t go into lockdown too soon because people would get fed up with it. 

“It’s been estimated that decision alone has cost thousands and thousands of lives.

“The catalogue of mistakes continues when you look at the billions wasted on a privatised test and trace system that doesn’t work properly. 

“We don’t give people enough money to isolate and then we get surprised when only 22 per cent of people who should be isolating are doing it – because they simply can’t afford to do it. 

“It’s not rocket science, there are plenty of examples around the world of where they are doing it so much better.”

The podcast also covered why mortality rates within the city have been relatively low, how and why the virus has spread, the impact on the local economy and the unique issues our city has faced.

The city representatives also praised the remarkable efforts of some of city resident’s over the year, who went an extra mile to help their neighbours through this time of crisis.

“There were two girls who went swimming for 30 days – my goodness, I read that and I dropped them a note as I can’t believe they did it,” Mr Kyle said.

“Nothing would get me into that water in the winter.”

  • We need you to support our fantastic team of local journalists. You can subscribe to The Argus’s online Premium subscription to see more news from your area each month for an introductory price of £2 for two months. That way you will be supporting community journalism, getting unlimited advert-light access and benefitting from a host of reader rewards and discounts. >> Click here to subscribe