No10's focus on Brexit 'crowded out' pandemic preparation plans

No10’s focus on Brexit ‘crowded out’ pandemic preparation plans, claims Covid inquiry lawyer as long-awaited probe finally kicks off – 2 YEARS after Boris Johnson ordered it

• The Inquiry’s lead lawyer Hugo Keith KC said the nation was ‘taken by surprise’ 
• A ‘dignified vigil’ was also held outside the Inquiry by bereaved relatives

The Government’s focus on Brexit preparations distracted it from the vital work needed to tackle the pandemic, the Covid Inquiry’s lead lawyer said this morning, as the long-awaited probe officially got underway.

Hugo Keith KC said work around a possible no-deal exit from the EU drained resources and ‘crowded out and prevented’ No. 10 from fully preparing a Covid strategy. 

Britain was not ‘very well prepared at all’ to deal with the pandemic, he also argued.

Launching the first public hearing this morning two years after it was ordered by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett also vowed that those who suffered in the pandemic will ‘always be at the heart of the inquiry’. 

The retired Court of Appeal judge – who previously led the inquests into the 7/7 London bombings – welcomed the ‘dignified vigil’ held by bereaved relatives outside the building in west London.

Hugo Keith KC told the Inquiry this morning that the nation was ‘taken by surprise’ by ‘significant aspects’ of the disease that has been recorded on 226,977 death certificates

Launching the first public hearing this morning, Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett also vowed that those who suffered in the pandemic will ‘always be at the heart of the inquiry’ 

She vowed ‘their loss would be recognised’ and she would undertake the thorough investigation they deserve. 

The inquiry will examine the single biggest crisis in the UK’s recent history, offering an honest assessment of the Government’s failings. 

While over 200,000 Britons have died with Covid since the virus emerged, many more facing the health consequences of the pandemic’s impact on the NHS through delayed cancer diagnoses and record care backlogs.

In recent months there has been much criticism of the UK government’s handling of the pandemic, including the fact the country seemed to lack a thorough plan for dealing with such a major event. 

Lockdowns given ‘very little thought’ by Government prior to pandemic 

A lockdown was given ‘very little thought’ ahead of the pandemic and there was a failure to consider the ‘potentially massive impact’ it might have, Hugo Keith KC also argued today. 

Addressing inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett, he said: ‘Extraordinary though it may seem, given that it’s a word that’s forever seared in the nation’s consciousness, there was very little debate pre-pandemic of whether a lockdown might prove to be necessary in the event of a runaway virus, let alone how a lockdown could be avoided.

‘Very little thought was given to how, if it proved to be necessary, something as complex, difficult and damaging as a national lockdown could be put in place at all.

‘Equally, there appears to have been a failure to think through the potentially massive impact on education and on the economy in trying to control a runaway virus in this way.’

By March 26, 2020, almost every aspect of public life in the UK had been impacted by the pandemic, with work from home mandates implemented, international travel suspended and restrictions on education, hospitality, retail and the leisure sectors. 

Mr Keith said: ‘Huge, urgent and complex policy decisions were required to be taken in relation to shielding, employment support, managing disruption to schools, borders, lockdowns, and non-pharmaceutical interventions, restrictions, social restrictions, and, equally importantly, the profoundly unequal impact of the pandemic on the vulnerable and the marginalised.

‘Few of those areas were anticipated, let alone considered in detail.’

Mr Keith told the inquiry this morning, that the nation was ‘taken by surprise’ by ‘significant aspects’ of the disease. 

In his opening statement, he said the Department of Health and Social Care, along with the three devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, had published a Covid action plan in March 2020 ‘setting out how they planned to tackle the coronavirus outbreak’.

He added: ‘The plan stated that the United Kingdom was well prepared to respond in a way that offered substantial protection to the public. 

‘Whether that was actually the case will be examined in module one.

‘Even at this stage, before hearing the evidence, it is apparent that we might not have been very well prepared at all.’

He told the chair of the inquiry: ‘The pandemic struck the United Kingdom just as it was leaving the European Union.

‘That departure required an enormous amount of planning and preparation, particularly to address what were likely to be the severe consequences of a no-deal exit on food and medicine supplies, travel and transport, business borders and so on.

‘It is clear that such planning, from 2018 onwards, crowded out and prevented some or perhaps a majority of the improvements that central government itself understood were required to be made to resilience planning and preparedness.

‘Did the attention therefore paid to the risks of a no-deal exit – Operation Yellowhammer as it was known – drain the resources and capacity that should have been continuing the fight against the next pandemic, that should have been utilised in preparing the United Kingdom for civil emergency?

‘Or did all that generic and operational planning in fact lead to people being better trained and well marshalled and, in fact, better prepared to deal with Covid and also to the existence of improved trade, medicine and supply links?

‘My lady on the evidence so far, but it will be a matter for you, we very much fear that it was the former.’

The Operation Yellowhammer document, which was published by the Government in 2019, set out a series of ‘reasonable worst-case assumptions’ about what would happen if the UK did not reach a deal with the EU.

It suggested there would be real risks of a rise in public disorder, higher food prices and reduced medical supplies.

Mr Keith also said the significant risks of pandemics had been long assessed and officials had planned for them.

‘But fundamentally, in relation to significant aspects of the Covid pandemic, we were taken by surprise,’ he added.

The lawyer said there is a need to question whether the health services were sufficiently funded or suffered from ‘under-investment’ ahead of the pandemic that ‘left in its wake death, misery and incalculable loss’.

Health inequalities and high levels of diabetes, respiratory illness, obesity and heart disease are also relevant to the state of the nation entering the pandemic, he said.

Members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group lined up outside, holding pictures of loved ones as they expressed frustration at feeling ‘excluded from sharing key evidence’

The inquiry will be split into six areas, with the first looking at whether the UK was adequately prepared for the pandemic. Interim reports are scheduled to be published before public hearings conclude by summer 2026. Pictured, people hold pictures of loved ones lost during the pandemic, outside the UK Covid-19 Inquiry

Baroness Hallett – who previously led the inquests into the 7/7 London bombings – also welcomed the ‘dignified vigil’ held by bereaved relatives outside the building in west London. Pictured, people hold pictures of loved ones lost during the pandemic, outside the UK Covid Inquiry 

‘Huge, urgent and complex policy decisions’ were necessary in areas including shielding, employment support, schools, borders and lockdown restrictions,’ he added.

‘Few of those areas were anticipated, let alone considered in detail.’

He also told the first public hearing that while it might seem ‘extraordinary’, given it is a ‘word that’s forever seared in the nation’s consciousness’, there was in fact ‘very little debate pre-pandemic of whether a lockdown might prove to be necessary’. 

He added: ‘Very little thought was given to how, if it proved to be necessary, something as complex, difficult and damaging as a national lockdown could be put in place at all.

What topics will the inquiry cover?

There are currently six broad topics, called modules, that will be considered by the inquiry.

Module 1 will examine the resilience and preparedness of the UK for a coronavirus pandemic.

Module 2 will examine decisions taken by Mr Johnson and his then team of ministers, as advised by the civil service, senior political, scientific and medical advisers, and relevant committees.

The decisions taken by those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also be examined.

Module 3 will investigate the impact of Covid on healthcare systems, including on patients, hospitals and other healthcare workers and staff.

This will include the controversial use of Do Not Attempt Resuscitation notices during the pandemic.

Module 4 meanwhile will assess Covid vaccines and therapeutics. 

It will consider and make recommendations on a range of issues relating to the development of Covid vaccines and the implementation of the vaccine rollout programme in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Modules 5 and 6 will open later this year, investigating government procurement and the care sector.  

The inquiry has the power to announce further modules during its lifetime.

It has no formal deadline but is due to hold hearings across the UK until at least 2025.

‘Equally, there appears to have been a failure to think through the potentially massive impact on education and on the economy in trying to control a runaway virus in this way.’

While other inquiries have opened across the world, the UK’s will be the first to reach public hearings with evidence from witnesses.

Many faces thrust into the limelight during the pandemic are expected to make an appearance.

This could include Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance and members of the Independent SAGE group of scientists – who advocated for harsher lockdowns.

Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s former chief aide, is among other names likely to appear. 

Claire Mitchell KC, the lawyer for Scottish bereaved families, told the inquiry this afternoon that it would hear from former health secretary Matt Hancock as well as Sir Oliver Letwin, former minister for Government policy.

According to the Covid inquiry’s terms of reference, it will ‘listen to and consider carefully’ the experiences of bereaved families and others affected by the pandemic.

It ‘will not consider in detail individual cases of harm or death’, but ‘listening to these accounts will inform its understanding’.

As the inquiry got underway, members of the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group lined up outside, holding pictures of loved ones as they expressed frustration at feeling ‘excluded from sharing key evidence’.

Lady Hallett said she had set out an ‘ambitious’ timetable for the inquiry, adding: ‘To conduct the kind of thorough investigation the people of the United Kingdom deserve takes time and a great deal of preparation.

‘I hope they will understand when they see the results of the work we are doing that I am listening to them. Their loss will be recognised.’

The inquiry also saw a 17-minute video played of testimonies from some of the families who lost loved ones during the pandemic. 

It showed people describe the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on themselves and their loved ones, including those who had died alone.

One woman cried as she said her father had died, followed, just a few days later, by her sister, and that she suffered guilt over the way they had died.

Another woman said she had ‘lost everything’, while others described suffering anxiety.

People also told how they had not hugged each other at family funerals because they were sticking to Covid social distancing rules laid down by the Government.

The hearing was also told that people could not be buried in outfits chosen by families because body bags had to remain sealed.

Baroness Hallett told the inquiry she intends to answer three key questions: was the UK properly prepared for the pandemic, was the response appropriate, and can lessons be learned for the future? 

The inquiry will be split into six areas, with the first looking at whether the UK was adequately prepared for the pandemic.

It has no formal deadline but is due to hold hearings across the UK until at least 2025. 

Interim reports are scheduled to be published before public hearings conclude by summer 2026.

A separate Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry chaired by Lord Brailsford is looking at the pandemic response in devolved areas in Scotland.

Source: Read Full Article