The Government published two lengthy blog posts yesterday hitting back against Sunday Times and Financial Times articles about its handling of the coronavirus crisis – but both newspapers stand by their reporting.

The Department of Health’s 2,127-word rebuttal against a Sunday Times Insight article outlining how Britain “sleepwalked into a disaster” was the first post on its blog since November 2018, and the first to respond to a specific news story since June 2016.

Meanwhile the Cabinet Office published 2,903 words in a post rebuffing the FT’s exposé of the “muddled thinking” in a procurement programme that has left Britain below its target for the number of ventilators (pictured) thought to be needed by this stage in the pandemic.