Expedite Covid inquiry, Labour says as new leaks allege fresh Government mismanagement

But the imperative of learning lessons for any future outbreaks, as well as the obligation to those who lost loved ones mean the Government should do everything it can to speed the process up, leader of the opposition Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday.

The preliminary opening of the full public inquiry sat on February 14 this year, with the inquiry due to begin hearing evidence into the country’s pandemic preparedness in May.

But this was delayed by a month on the day of the opening, due to delays over the number of redactions the Government says were required to the official records before they could be made public.

Calls for the expediting of the inquiry come as new allegations come to light over the timings of the introduction of covid testing for those living and working in care homes.

A legal row has erupted over private messages apparently sent between Chief Scientific Officer for England Professor Sir Chris Whitty, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock and several other senior Government figures.

The messages - on encrypted messenger service Whatsapp, were leaked to the Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was handed them by Mr Hancock while she worked on his Pandemic Diaries memoir.

They reportedly suggest England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty told the then-health secretary in April 2020 that there should be testing for “all going into care homes”.

Mr Hancock described it as “obviously a good, positive step”.

But the exchanges, from April 14 2020, suggested Mr Hancock ultimately rejected the guidance, telling an aide the move just “muddies the waters”, and introduced mandatory testing only for those coming from hospitals rather than the community.

Allies of Mr Hancock said that was because a lack of testing capacity meant it was not possible to check everyone entering a care home.

A spokesman for Mr Hancock said yesterday the messages had been “stolen”, and he is understood to be considering legal action regarding a non-disclosure agreement signed by Ms Oakeshott.

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer called for Mr Sunak to ensure the inquiry had all the support it needed “to report by the end of this year”.

The Labour leader said: “Families across the country will look at this, and the sight of politicians writing books portraying them as heroes will be an insulting and ghoulish spectacle for them.”

Mr Sunak responded: “Rather than comment on piecemeal bits of information, I’m sure the honourable gentleman will agree with me that the right way for these things to be looked at is the Covid inquiry.

“There is a proper process to these things, it is an independent inquiry, it has the resources it needs, it has the powers it needs and what we should do in this House is to let them get on and do their job.”

Ms Oakeshott, who has described lockdowns as an “unmitigated disaster”, said she was releasing the messages because it would take “many years” before the end of the official Covid inquiry, which she claimed could be a “colossal whitewash”.

“That’s why I’ve decided to release this sensational cache of private communications – because we absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers,” she said.

Mike Padgham is a Yorkshire care home owner and chairman of the Independent Care Group.

He said: “At face value, these messages seem to expose a tragic betrayal of those most vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We can only guess how many lives were lost because the spread of the virus in care and nursing homes was not prevented sooner.

“The cavalier attitude being taken towards care settings makes a nonsense of the claims that the Government was throwing “a protective ring” around care homes. It was doing anything but.”

“The ICG believes the Government was slow to see the risk to care home residents in the first place.

“At the outset we were told we didn’t need to do anything differently.

“Then we had the panic of people being discharged from over-run hospitals into care homes without testing and here we have the evidence that the health secretary ignored advice that would have helped.

“As ever, social care was badly let down and the care of the most vulnerable was seriously betrayed. There are some very serious questions to be answered.”