Boris Johnson’s coronavirus response has been ‘anything but a success’, says Piers Morgan

Piers Morgan has slammed Boris Johnson on his first day back at work, calling his government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak a failure.

Criticising the prime minister's claims that he had done a good job at containing the coronavirus during his first public appearance since becoming ill, Morgan said the response had been anything but a 'success'.

The Good Morning Britain presenter tweeted: 'Boris Johnson just said 'many people will be looking at our apparent success' in relation to Britain & Coronavirus. Our death toll is heading to be the 2nd worst in the world.

'This is not a 'success', prime minister - apparent or otherwise.'

Morgan's view was shared by some on Twitter. One person wrote: 'Exactly. In some senses we may be the worst affected nation in the world. The US has 4x our population but only 2x the number of deaths. And that's only hospital figures. When you count care home and community deaths we are about the same. Unforgivable.'

Another posted: 'If you read any global newspaper, the rest of the world doesn't look at Johnson's actions with admiration.'

Others were not so convinced. One user wrote: 'Piers is just bitter that the real PM is back and that people won't be as interested in his own constant negativity.'

Morgan also criticised the prime minister for failing to present a clear lockdown exit strategy.

The prime minister returned to work on Monday following a month-long battle with the coronavirus. In his first statement, Johnson told the public that the UK was at 'peak risk' and that any easing of lockdown restrictions could unleash an 'economic disaster' and see a second surge of the virus.