Covid inquiry roundup: Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings provide worrying insight into No 10
Ministers and officials “laughed” at Italy as the country’s health system became overwhelmed by Covid at the start of the pandemic, a former top civil servant has told the inquiry.
Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary and ethics chief, is giving testimony on her role in government during the pandemic.
Revealing a persistent culture of rule-breaking in government, Ms Mac Namara said: “I would find it hard to pick one day when the regulations were followed properly inside that building”.
She also hit back at Dominic Cummings, saying she was both “surprised and not surprised” by his expletive-laden messages about her.
On Tuesday, Mr Cummings apologised for the language used in a series of foul-mouthed messages criticising members of the government but denied misogyny, saying he had been ‘much ruder’ about the men.
Ministers with kids in private schools did not understand ‘experience of whole population’
Speaking near the end of her evidence, Helen MacNamara said there was not enough thinking in government about children in state schools who make up the “vast majority” of those in the country, Archie Mitchell reports.
The former top civil servant said while her own children are “fortunate in many ways”, they do not have the same privileges as those whose parents are in rooms taking decisions in Whitehall.
Similarly to the government’s oversight of potential victims of domestic abuse, Ms MacNamara said states should be able to “know and understand the whole population in your decision-making”.
“It causes problems if you think that your life is the same as everybody else’s,” she added.
Helen MacNamara has now finished giving evidence.
Professor David Halpern, president and founding director of the Behavioural Insights team, is now giving testimony.
‘Boris Johnson wanted it all and changed his mind often’
Boris Johnson “wanted it all and changed his mind often”, with his decision-making “swinging between extremes”, Helen MacNamara has said, Archie Mitchell reports.
One of Britain’s top civil servants during the pandemic has said the then prime minister was caught between his “undoubted liberal instincts” and “the extremes of shutting everything down”.
“In reality all of the discussion and debate and choices were in the middle,” she told the Covid inquiry.
‘Elastic capacity of NHS meant staff working themselves into the ground,’ inquiry hears
Helen MacNamara said she realised during the pandemic that the “flexible” nature of NHS capacity meant “the capacity of people working in the NHS to work themselves into the ground to keep people alive”, Archie Mitchell reports.
The former top civil servant said officials “kept being told” that NHS capacity was elastic, but soon realised the knock-on impact would devastate the health service.
Ms MacNamara told the Covid probe that “what is happening now” in the NHS – with record waiting lists and industrial strife – is a consequence of “stretching it too far” during the pandemic.
Top officials ignored whether PPE fit women’s bodies for weeks
Helen MacNamara and Downing Street’s deputy chief of staff Cleo Watson had “lots of conversations” about why top officials were not addressing PPE for women, Archie Mitchell reports.
After Ms MacNamara, Britain’s second most senior civil servant at the time, raised the issue with the head of the Cabinet Office’s Covid taskforce, it took two weeks for it to be discussed at a meeting with the prime minister.
MacNamara: ‘Women have died as a result of this’
Helen MacNamara sent a plea to a Cabinet Office colleague saying “women have died” as a result of not enough being done to consider how the pandemic was affecting them, Archie Mitchell reports.
The former top civil servant said issues that stemmed from a sexist culture in Whitehall included weeks of confusion about whether women could access abortion during the lockdown and not making provision for victims of domestic abuse.
“It is very difficult to draw any conclusion other than women have died as a result of this,” she told a colleague in an email seen by the Covid inquiry.
Calling for tangible changes, she said: “It isn’t enough that we keep observing this phenomenon.”
‘Lack of female perspective led to disproportionate focus on shooting and fishing’
The lack of female perspective when key decisions were made led to a disproportionate focus on football, hunting, shooting and fishing, Helen MacNamara has told the Covid inquiry, Archie Mitchell reports.
“There was a serious lack of thinking about domestic abuse and the vulnerable, about carers and informal networks for how people look after each other in families and communities,” the ex-top civil servant said.
Ms MacNamara also said there was a lack of guidance for women who might be pregnant or were pregnant and what those who were key workers should do.
She cited the “absence from the room” of women, and said many key issues affecting women were not even considered.
‘Nobody in centre of government understood NHS,’ MacNamara
Helen MacNamara has told the Covid inquiry she cannot remember anyone working in the centre of government who “understood how the NHS operated, Archie Mitchell reports.
One of Britain’s top civil servants during the pandemic, Ms MacNamara said the Treasury and national security are overrepresented, while the management of the state is underrepresented.
She said it was something she “observed” at the time, but it is now “striking” and speaks to “what needs to be different in the future”.
MacNamara: ‘Disappointing’ Johnson didn’t pick up on misogynistic language
It was disappointing that Boris Johnson did not pick up on “violent and misogynistic language” from Dominic Cummings, Helen MacNamara said.
Asked about Mr Cummings’ messages in which he made expletive-laden remarks about her, the former deputy cabinet secretary said: “It is also revealing of exactly the wrong attitude to the civil service. I was doing my job as a civil servant and I am confident about that.
“The way in which it was considered appropriate to describe what should happen to me, yes, as a woman, but, yes, as a civil servant, it is disappointing to me that the prime minister didn’t pick him up on the use of some of that violent and misogynistic language.”
MacNamara: I hav ‘profound regret’ about providing karaoke machine
Helen MacNamara, who provided a karaoke machine for a lockdown-busting leaving-do on June 18, 2020, said she had “profound regret” about the situation.
She said she was worried about the “kind of culture” that staff were working in and the need for them to have space to spend time together.
“My profound regret is for the damage that’s been caused to so many people because of it, as well as just the mortifying experience of seeing what that looks like and how rightly offended everybody is in retrospect,” she said.
“I absolutely knew and thought it was actually important for there to be space for – particularly the private office – to be able to gather together and spend time together.
“That was entirely because of the kind of culture that they were working in and entirely because I was really worried about individuals breaking and suffering, and whether they were going to be okay, and how important their colleagues were to each other.
“I’m saying none of that in excuse of my own misjudgment. I’m saying none of that in excuse of thinking any of these things were okay. But it was a much more complex situation than has allowed to be presented for lots of different reasons.”
She added: “Mainly, I feel very strongly that is unfair on the junior civil servants who were caught up in it.”
