THE Lancashire Resilience Forum has taken a large delivery of personal protective equipment, including £2.1million worth of safety kit paid for by the county council.

The LRF, co-ordinating the public sector response to the coronavirus pandemic, said this 'substantial supply' had mainly gone to nursing and care homes.

News of the delivery came as a row over PPE stocks broke out between Lancashire County Council's Conservative leader Cllr Geoff Driver and his Labour opposition counterpart Cllr Azhar Ali.

An LRF spokesman said: "We took delivery last week of a substantial supply of personal protection equipment (PPE) including aprons, gloves, masks and eye protection from central government. These have been distributed primarily to adult social care providers such as nursing and care homes, through local authorities."

Nelson East's Cllr Ali has accused the government of 'playing Russian roulette with care workers lives by not providing sufficient PPE equipment' and written to acting Prime Minister Dominic Raab asking for efforts to support frontline care workers to be stepped up.

Cllr Driver said: "The LRF recently too a large delivery of PPE including £2.1m worth of items paid for the the county council from a Lancashire firm.

"I authorised the spending of up to £3m for this vital safety equipment when I realised we could source it from within the county.

"One thing you can always rely on is that Cllr Ali will never miss an opportunity to seek to score political points from people's hardships.

"Instead of knocking those doing their best in this crisis, he should reflect that if we hadn't resolved the financial mess his colleagues left the county council in we would not be in a position where we can do whatever is necessary, whatever it costs."

Cllr Ali said: "The government is playing Russian roulette with care workers lives by not providing sufficient PPE equipment for the sector.

"I have been talking to staff in care homes and agencies across the county who have staff going into people's homes without the correct PPE.

"Of course the government has delivered some PPE but it is not enough.

"I had some care workers contact me in tears worried about catching the virus and then passing it on to family and people they look after."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have provided 7.8m pieces of PPE to over 26,000 care homes, including home care and hospices, around the country. A further 34m items of PPE were released last week across 38 LRFs including 8m aprons, 4m masks and 20m pairs of gloves.

“The full weight of the government is behind this effort to make sure care staff have the protection they need to continue to deliver care safely.”