Coronavirus: RAF plane lands in UK with PPE from Turkey

A delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Turkey is being inspected, Downing Street said, following its late arrival in the UK.

An RAF aircraft that landed at RAF Brize Norton on Wednesday morning is believed to have delivered up to about half of the promised kit.

Other RAF planes were said to be on standby to collect the rest.

The delivery was originally expected to arrive on Sunday, and had been due to include 400,000 surgical gowns.

It is not clear exactly what supplies the flight contained and no clear reason was given for the delay.

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A spokesman for the prime minister said the consignment was being "processed" in line with standard procedure and will be moved "on to the frontline as quickly as possible".

The RAF aircraft that flew the shipment, which left to pick up the delivery at around 17:00 BST on Monday, can carry about 40 tons of cargo - about half of the consignment.

On Monday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the flight had been delayed by problems in Turkey.

However, Turkey's ambassador to the UK, Umit Yalcin, said his government only learned about the deal with a private company on Sunday and insisted it had done everything to help.

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The government remains under pressure for failing to supply enough PPE.

On Monday, Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers - which represents healthcare trusts across England - said that while the 400,000 gowns from Turkey would be welcome, NHS staff were getting through approximately 150,000 gowns a day.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, care minister Helen Whately said there was a global shortage of PPE and that some deliveries faced delays or did not turn up.

"The really important thing therefore is that we are working to secure an excess of supply to make sure that we, in due course, will have more than we need and at least what we need," she said.

Helen Whately stressed the importance of reciprocal relationships with other countries over PPE

Asked about reports that some PPE was being shipped from British warehouses to countries like Germany, Spain and Italy, she said there was an "international market" in PPE and stressed the importance of maintaining "reciprocal working relationships" with other countries.

She added that the UK was a "net importer of PPE" and has been supplied "many, many times over" by China in return for equipment it sent at the peak of the epidemic in Wuhan.

The delivery from Turkey comes after a number of British companies told the BBC their offers to help had gone ignored.

During the first virtual Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said some "are now supplying other countries" and therefore could have supplied the UK.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is acting as the prime minister's deputy while he recovers from coronavirus, said it was "not quite right" to assume that they must have been "acceptable to UK standards just because they are supplying different needs in different countries abroad".

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs that offers go through a "rigorous system of verifying" because not all are credible, and it was important to "focus on the biggest, most credible offers first".

He said the government was "actively engaged" with more than 1,000 companies who buy from abroad and was working with 159 potential manufacturers in the UK.

The government has delivered more than one billion items of PPE since the start of the crisis, he added.

Earlier, Ms Whately said that while some organisations which offered help already have established supply chains, others that have been set up in the past few days did not and might be unable to provide the standard of equipment required.

The RAF plane was loaded in Turkey before flying back to the UK

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told the BBC Breakfast it "doesn't matter" if some firms could only make small quantities.

"We need everybody doing what they can as part of this national effort," he said.

It was "understandable" that the government "probably [hasn't] got enough resources" to respond to all requests, he added.

Meanwhile, the government is facing fresh questions over the the time it took to join an EU scheme to bulk buy medical equipment - including potentially life-saving ventilators, protective equipment and testing kit - that could be used to tackle the coronavirus.