Yorkshire’s 10,000 Covid deaths show why Boris Johnson must delay no longer on inquiry: Ed Davey

For many bereaved families I’ve spoken to, alongside their grief comes anger, dismay and frustration at how the Government has handled the pandemic.

Despite the rollout of the vaccine moving forward, many still feel they have paid a heavy price for how the pandemic itself has been mismanaged by Boris Johnson and his government. 

In June last year, I secured a promise from the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons, that the Government would launch an independent public inquiry into how it has handled the Covid pandemic.

I argued it was particularly important Ministers learnt from mistakes in the first wave, ahead of an expected second wave.

Eight months have passed since that Prime Minister’s promise, the second and third waves have hit us and over 50,000 people have been taken. Yet the Government has made no effort to deliver on the commitment to establish that inquiry. 

No-one disputes the basic truth, that any government would have struggled with this pandemic. But equally bereaved families in particular look at the other basic truth, that the UK has suffered one of the highest death rates in the world, and ask why? Why have we seen more total deaths, by some distance, than any other European country?

Some of the answers we already know. Take the vital decisions the Prime Minister had to make about restrictions and lockdowns. It’s now widely accepted that the decision on last March’s lockdown was made several weeks too late, at a high cost in the first wave.

But then the Prime Minister dithered and delayed over the second lockdown decision. Government scientists and medical experts on the Sage committee were urging him for a second lockdown – “a national circuit breaker” – back in mid-September. Yet they were ignored and opposition politicians who then challenged the Government on this were called names by the Prime Minister.

Then the Prime Minister for a third time acted slowly, ignoring advice about the new more contagious variant emerging from Kent and the state of our NHS, to allow Christmas easing of restrictions, before slamming on the breaks again after the festive period. 

By seeing a trade-off between health and wealth, the Prime Minister’s unwillingness to take tough decisions has led to a worse health crisis than other countries, and a worse economic crisis than other countries. 

One could point to many other areas where poor decisions were repeated, with no learning from the past – from the continually hopeless decision-making over English schools by the hapless Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, to the never-fixed failures over the test, trace and isolate system.

One could forgive the odd individual mistake, but from the failure to follow the recommendations of the taxpayer-funded pandemic simulation back in October 2016 to the scandal of the deaths in our care homes, the charge list is too long to forget.

And while many of us have welcomed the recent decision to police our borders to preventing travellers arriving from countries with high infections rates, sadly, this has come 10 months too late for many families.

There are many arguments for an independent public inquiry into all this. But the bereaved families represent over 112,000 good ones.

And we must learn from previous injustices, such as Hillsborough and Primodos, which saw public inquiries buried for years.

Just like now, families seeking answers and justice were told to wait, causing more unnecessary pain.

A public inquiry must be established as soon as possible by the Government with clear reporting deadlines set. 

An urgent interim inquiry now – as other countries have established – could identify lessons now, which might still save lives as this pandemic remains with us into the summer and perhaps beyond.

That could then turn into the full-scale public inquiry that is essential for the bereaved families.

By continuing to delay his promise of a public inquiry, the Prime Minister is repeating his record throughout this pandemic of dither and delay – and yet again, it is other people who are paying the price.

Sir Ed Davey is the leader of the Liberal Democrats. He was a Cabinet minister in the 2010-15 coalition.

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