Boris Johnson has been accused of trying to shift the blame for coronavirus deaths onto care homes after saying that “too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures”.

His words have sparked anger in the care home sector, with one charity boss calling them “clumsy and cowardly”.

Mark Adams, who runs the charity Community Integrated Care, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the prime minister’s comments were ‘cowardly’.

“If this is genuinely his view, I think we’re almost entering a Kafkaesque alternative reality where the government sets the rules, we follow them, they don’t like the results, they then deny setting the rules and blame the people that were trying to do their best.”