Covid inquiry set to publish findings into pandemic decisions made by Boris Johnson – live updates

My charity has supported families throughout the pandemic and was a core participant in the official UK Covid-19 Study. Our evidence, and that of other children’s rights charities, clearly shows that children from low-income families suffer the greatest losses in education, well-being and opportunity. The youngest in our communities have had to shoulder the long-term costs.

In October 2023, the inquiry heard from diary entries in which Lord Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, criticized Boris Johnson’s “impossible flip-flop” and “bipolar decision-making”.

In a note on social distancing, Lord Vallance wrote: “As always, number 10 is chaos.

“It became clear at the two-metre rule meeting on Friday that no one in Number 10 or the Cabinet Office had actually read or taken the time to understand the scientific advice on two metres. It is quite extraordinary.”

In other writings he described how he felt scientists were being “used as human shields” by ministers.

And on September 19, 2020, around the time a possible “circuit breaker” quarantine was being discussed, he wrote: “(Johnson) is all over the place and so completely incoherent. You can see why it was so difficult to get an agreement on the quarantine the first time.”

WhatsApp messages from 2020 also submitted to the Covid inquiry revealed senior civil servant Simon Case complained about the influence of Carrie Symonds, who is now Mr Johnson’s wife.

Mr Case, who met with Dominic Cummings, then a Downing Street adviser, joked that he was “the real person in charge”.

In other messages, Mr Case said the Government appeared to be a “tragic joke” and told others that Mr Johnson “cannot lead and we cannot support him”.

Meanwhile, Mr Cummings told the inquiry the Government had no plan to deal with Covid and was in “total chaos”.

Giving his own evidence, Boris Johnson insisted it was “very unlikely” the first Covid lockdown could have been prevented by earlier action.

He said he had “thought” repeatedly about whether the lockdown was doing more harm than good, but maintained: “We were between a rock and a hard place, the devil and the deep blue sea.”

The UK group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said in a statement: “More than 230,000 of our loved ones have been killed due to the failures of those in power.

“Each of them, and the entire community that has suffered from the mismanagement of the epidemic, deserves accountability.

“We fought for this investigation because the decisions made by political leaders created chaos and led to preventable deaths.

“We have waited five years for this moment. The investigation has already exposed the Prime Minister’s abuses and inexcusable incompetence.

“On Thursday, he will finally give his verdict on the political leadership of Boris Johnson and others during the pandemic. The inquiry must not back down.”

“This cannot be an exoneration. Justice means holding those in power to account, no matter how high-ranking or well-connected they are, and that’s what we expect the investigation to do.”

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry will publish its findings on Thursday about decisions made by former prime minister Boris Johnson and his senior advisers.

Key players, including Mr Johnson and former health secretary Matt Hancock, gave evidence to the inquiry about what they were thinking in 2020, including before the first lockdown was announced in March.

They were questioned in a series of hearings about government measures implemented during the pandemic, such as Covid testing, social distancing and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme designed to support businesses.

Chair Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge, heard wide-ranging criticism of Mr Johnson and his team, WhatsApp messages and emails detailing disagreements in the inquiry.

The full report of the investigation will be published at 4pm on Thursday.