Here’s the first reaction from a bereaved families group.The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK says:“The evidence from the inquiry is clear, and while it is vindicating to see Boris Johnson blamed in black and white for the catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic, it is devastating to think of the lives that could have been saved under a different prime minister.“We now know that many of our family members would still be alive today if it weren’t for the leadership of Boris Johnson and his colleagues.“As the report has found, the government’s approach to the pandemic was undermined from the beginning.“If Johnson had listened to scientific advice and locked down even a week earlier, around 23,000 people could have been saved.

Instead, throughout the pandemic, Boris Johnson put his political reputation ahead of public safety.“He pandered to his critics when the UK needed decisive action.“In delaying lockdowns he made them longer, more damaging to the economy and less effective, he ignored scientific advice that didn’t fit his agenda, and he ignored the impact of his decisions on the front line, repeating the mistakes of the first wave and prolonging the second.”The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report into the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK says it “is devastating to think of the lives that could have been saved under a different prime minister”.

In a written parliamentary statement, Keir Starmer has addressed the failings identified in today’s report of the previous government.(See 17.45)While perhaps the most stinging criticism is directed at Johnson and his team, notably his then adviser Dominic Cummings, the report also targets the three devolved governments and scientific advisers.Nicola Sturgeon, who is criticised in the report, insisted she tried to work constructively with other leaders across the UK but “it was very difficult with Boris Johnson”.(see 18.

29)Dominic Cummings calls inquiry a “mix of cover ups and rewriting of history” in response to piercing criticism of former aide in report,Shabana Mahmood says four new criteria will apply to people wanting settlement: no criminal record, A-level-type English, NI contributions and no debt in a statement to MPs today,(see 13,36)The former Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has joined the Green party, it has announced,Russell-Moyle, who represented Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, was a leftwinger who was banned from standing as a candidate at the 2024 election on the basis that Labour had received a complaint about him.

For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog,It’s worth remembering that the first of several reports from the inquiry was published last year,The recommendations included:The leader or deputy leader of each of the four nations should chair a cabinet-level committee responsible for civil emergency preparedness,A UK-wide pandemic response exercise to run at least every three years and a new whole-system civil emergency strategy be put in place,External “red teams” should regularly challenge groupthink on the principles, evidence and advice on emergency plans.

A radical simplification of civil emergency preparedness and resilience systems, (the current system’s flow chart looked like “a bowl of spaghetti”).While the key flaws described in the report were:The UK being prepared for the wrong pandemic, focusing on influenza.The institutions responsible for emergency planning being “labyrinthine in their complexity”.The government’s sole pandemic strategy (for flu, dating from 2011) being outdated and lacking adaptability.Failure to appreciate the impact of the pandemic, and the response to it, on minority ethnic communities, and people in poor health and with other vulnerabilities.

Failure to learn from earlier civil emergency exercises and disease outbreaks.A “damaging absence of focus” on systems such as test, trace and isolate that could be scaled up.The second pandemic report focuses on decision-making, organisation and messaging by senior politicians including Boris Johnson.Here’s an explainer by the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent Jessica Murray on the report’s key findings.Dominic Cummings – a special adviser to Boris Johnson during the Covid pandemic came in for criticism in the report for “destabilising behaviour”.

(See post 17.34)Now Cummings has issued a statement accusing the inquiry of a mix of “coverups and rewriting history”.He said in a lengthy social media post:He was offered the chance to respond to the inquiry’s findings before the report was released, but declined, declaring it “insider corruption”The inquiry “has enabled a vast rewriting of history” by failing to represent the fact that scientists and experts “were completely wrong” on “most of the big questions” at the start of 2020.He suggests experts “advised us to do almost nothing” and “advised against any serious restrictions” as the country would reach “natural herd immunity” by SeptemberThe inquiry failed to get statements from “crucial people”It also “suppressed” his efforts to “change the physical layout of government so it could deal with a crisis”Lessons won’t be learned because of a system “devoted to anti-learning and covering up for official failure”“If the inquiry says I got anything right, bear in mind it’s probably got this wrong too”“Only regime change can fix our pathological institutions.”Government failures laid bare, says Long Covid charityMore than 1.

9 million people (including 100,000+ children) in the UK are estimated to be living with Long Covid, according to the ONS, making it one of the largest mass disabling events in modern British history.The Covid-19 Inquiry has found that the UK Government should have acknowledged Long Covid and made the risks clear to the public.It has found that by October 2020 the UK Government knew Long Covid was a significant health and policy issue.Despite this, the UK Government failed to acknowledge Long Covid and failed to warn the public of the indiscriminate risk to adults and children.Nigel Rothband, chair of the charity Long Covid Support, said:“For years, people with Long Covid have been dismissed and disbelieved.

The Inquiry has recognised what we have long known – there was greater suffering than there needed to have been, as a result of the government’s decisions and its lack of ability to foresee long term consequences of the virus and make prompt appropriate decisions,Recognition is an important first step, but accountability and change must follow,”The Inquiry’s Long Covid specific recommendations for future pandemics are:Consideration of long term symptoms must be built into any strategy and supporting plans – there was no public health messaging on the known risk of long-term consequences of viral conditions,The potential for long term symptoms arising from infection and any developing understanding should be communicated to the public,First minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill said the report is a “welcome milestone in the long journey of recovery after the pain and trauma” of the pandemic.

“Covid was an unprecedented global emergency and this report will provide further lessons from the experience at all levels of society,” O’Neill added.Those lessons must inform our preparedness for, and response to, any future pandemic or society-wide emergency in the future,” she said.Adding that her thoughts are with those who lost loved ones.It comes after the inquiry noted that the Northern Ireland Executive’s approach to tackling the pandemic was “incoherent” as a result of political divisions.Plaid Cymru would conduct dedicated ‘gap inquiry’ to scrutinise Welsh governmentHeledd Fychan, a Plaid Cymru Senedd member, described the report as a “damning condemnation” of the government.

She said:Neither Labour nor the Conservatives took decisions quickly or effectively enough – and people in Wales paid the price.Crucially the report finds that the decisions taken by Labour ministers were the ‘likely’ reason Wales suffered the highest mortality rate, which will be devastating to all those who lost a loved one at this time.The truth is we will never fully understand the true impact of the pandemic on Wales because Labour refused time and again to hold a Wales-specific inquiry, and blocked Plaid Cymru’s attempts to establish one.A Plaid Cymru government in 2026 would conduct a dedicated ‘gap inquiry’ to properly scrutinise the Welsh government’s decisions at the time – providing the transparency and accountability that this inquiry could not deliver.”First minister Eluned Morgan said:“I welcome the publication of the second report by the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry.

“I would like to thank the inquiry chair, Lady Hallett, and her team for their work and for today’s report.It is important that we remember the immense loss and suffering of so many people due to Covid-19.“Today, our thoughts must first and foremost be with them.We will take time to read the report and will work with the other UK governments over the coming months to carefully consider and act on its recommendations.“We are committed to learning lessons from the pandemic and continue to be actively involved in the UK inquiry.

”Speaking to reporters at the Scottish parliament former first minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was inevitable, given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, that “mistakes and misjudgments would be made” and said she would “carry an acute sense of responsibility for this for the rest of my life.”Addressing the criticism that her leadership was overly centralised, she said that she stood by what she described as a “conscious and deliberate decision to lead from the front and be very clear the buck stopped with me.”She said she agreed with the Inquiry’s assessment that restrictions should have been introduced earlier, but said that all governments were concerned that earlier implementation might have affected public compliance.She insisted she tried to work constructively with other leaders across the UK but “it was very difficult with Boris Johnson”.“He took a particular approach to leadership that I fundamentally disagreed with and it was my job as first minister to take decisions in the best interests of the people of Scotland”Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondentThe inquiry also chided Sturgeon and other senior figures for making the “inappropriate” and unhelpful claim they were aiming to “eliminate” the Covid virus from Scotland, even though that was “destined to fail” because of its open border with England.

Lady Hallett began her report by describing Sturgeon, then first minister of Scotland, as a “serious and diligent leader who took responsibility” for her decisions but she said the decision to talk of eliminating the virus in late June 2020 was misguided,There had been no deaths and no new cases that day, however the government’s formal policy at that point was the maximum suppression of the virus,Even so, Sturgeon, Jeane Freeman, her health minister, and Gregor Smith, then chief medial officer, used “elimination” in public and in parliament,Prof Devi Sridhar, a public health expert at Edinburgh University and an adviser to Sturgeon, had said that created the “unintended consequence” of suggesting to the public that life could return to normal,The report noted:“The idea of eliminating the virus from Scotland was inappropriate and destined to fail in the light of an open border with England and there being no agreement with the UK government to close it.

“[It] may also have had another unintended and unfortunate practical effect,Public Health Scotland suggested that the use of different language by the Scottish government to express policy intent led to challenges in its development of guidance,”Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editorI just want to go back again to Brenda Doherty, who lost her mother, Ruth Burke, in the first weeks of the pandemic,She’s been speaking in the freezing cold this evening to media at the Covid memorial wall along the Thames in London,The report lays blame squarely at the feet of governments who acted too slowly, she says.

Boris Johnson did not enact a lockdown until 23 March.“My mummy died on 24 March 2020,” she says, her voice breaking.The report made it clear that had the lockdown been a week earlier, people like my mummy would have been saved.”In a written parliamentary statement, Keir Starmer has addressed the failings identified in today’s report of the previous government.“[It] has found that the Government fell short, with advice lacking proper economic and social modelling, the impact on vulnerable people not sufficiently considered, and the culture in the centre of government described as “toxic”.

He notes that decisions were made in the context of the UK being not properly prepared.He says: “Since then, improvements have been made to the way the government would respond to a major crisis.That said, it is clear that local government and our public services, including the NHS, are under immense pressure and in many cases have not fully recovered from the pandemic.”About 23,000 deaths could have been prevented if the first Covid-19 lockdown was introduced even a week earlierChaotic government response summarised as “too little, too late”.All four governments failed to recognise scale and threat of the virusBoris Johnson, cabinet ministers and government scientists underestimated or ignored warning signs of the virus’ spread in Italy and ChinaThey made repeat mistakes in delaying action on lockdowns and restrictions, an “inexcusable” action given repeat wavesJohnson was too “optimistic” over pandemic’s trajectory and presided over a “toxic culture” at Downing Street which prevented clear actionSpecial adviser Dominic Cummings singled out for “destabilising behaviour”Early health advice to public was “weak”, focusing largely on hand hygiene.

Face masks were “positively discouraged”Key scientists failed to act with enough urgency in government adviceAlcohol-filled parties in Downing Street “undermined public confidence in decision-making”Children “were not always prioritised” and “suffered greatly from the closure of schools and requirement to stay at home”.The pandemic “brought ordinary childhood to a halt”.