Chaos at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government and his failure to take Covid seriously led to 23,000 deaths, a damning report into pandemic decision-making has found.
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry also found the then prime minister and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, presided over a “toxic and chaotic culture” at the heart of No 10, which saw the views of women ignored.
The report found that more than 20,000 lives could have been saved in England if the lockdown had been implemented just a week earlier, in March 2020.
Westminster and the three devolved nations were all found to have done “too little, too late” as the virus spread.
Children were ordered home from school, and families missed out on the chance to say a final goodbye to dying relatives, when measures were finally introduced.
From 16 March 2020, self-isolation and social distancing came into effect, with schools and pubs closed later that week, before ministers took the unprecedented step of ordering the first full lockdown on 23 March.
“Had more stringent restrictions short of a ‘stay at home’ lockdown been introduced earlier than 16 March […] the mandatory lockdown that was imposed might have been shorter or conceivably might not have been necessary at all,” the report said.
However, had the mandatory lockdown been in place from that earlier 16 March date, “modelling has established that the number of deaths in England in the first wave up until 1 July 2020 would have been reduced by 48 per cent – equating to approximately 23,000 fewer deaths”.
The report also found that:
- Partygate and other instances of Covid rule-breaking caused “huge distress” to the public, particularly “bereaved people who had complied with the rules and guidance despite massive personal and financial costs”. The Downing Street party saga, in particular, led to a “self-reported” reduction in people following the rules over Christmas 2021
- Mr Johnson “repeatedly changed his mind” in September and October 2020 “on whether to introduce tougher restrictions”, and “failed to make timely decisions”. The report says that his “oscillation enabled the virus to continue spreading at pace”, and led to the second four-week lockdown that November
- The “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme in summer 2020, which offered a discount on restaurant meals in an effort to inject cash into the struggling hospitality industry, was “devised in the absence of scientific advice” and “undermined public health messaging”. Mr Johnson and his chancellor Rishi Sunak “failed to seek scientific advice” about the potential risks of the scheme, despite being advised by Professor (now Sir) Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, about the risks of indoor settings
- Attempts to relax the rules around Christmas 2020 to allow people to gather with their families – which then had to be scaled back or reversed – “gave rise to false hope” among the general public
- The health secretary at the time, Matt Hancock, “gained a reputation among senior officials and advisers at 10 Downing Street for overpromising and underdelivering”, while Sir Chris Wormald, now the country’s most senior civil servant, who was running the Department of Health and Social Care at the time, did not “rectify the overenthusiastic impression” Mr Hancock had given No 10. Their actions between them “obscured the reality and the need for more action” during spring 2020
- There was “no clear plan setting out the arrangements” and Dominic Raab, the first secretary of state, was “unclear how he was to do the job” when Mr Johnson was incapacitated with Covid. There was “no clear plan setting out the arrangements to be put in place to ensure continuity of leadership and decision-making”. The report said it is “not clear how critical decisions would have been made” if the then prime minister had fallen ill earlier in March, before “key decisions” had been made, or if he had not recovered
The inquiry heard evidence about “the destabilising behaviour of a number of individuals”, including Mr Cummings, then a senior adviser to the PM.
“By failing to tackle this chaotic culture – and, at times, actively encouraging it – Mr Johnson reinforced a culture in which the loudest voices prevailed and the views of other colleagues, particularly women, often went ignored, to the detriment of good decision-making,” the report found.
Mr Johnson is also said to have demonstrated a “failure to appreciate the urgency of the situation” in the early days as the virus took hold, and that was put down to “his optimism that it would amount to nothing”.
Mr Cummings was described as a “destabilising influence” whose behaviour “contributed significantly to a culture of fear, mutual distrust and suspicion that poisoned the atmosphere in 10 Downing Street and undermined the authority of the prime minister”.
Mr Cummings – who became known for the Barnard Castle scandal in which he travelled from London to County Durham during lockdown – “strayed far from the proper role of a special adviser” and “sought to make key decisions in 10 Downing Street which were for the prime minister to make”.
Releasing the report on Thursday afternoon, inquiry chair Heather Hallett said leaders across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were “presented with unenviable choices as to how to respond”, and that “whatever decision they took there was often no right answer or good outcome”.
However, when the virus was spreading in early 2020, “all four governments failed to appreciate the scale of the threat or the urgency of the response it demanded.”
“They also had to make decisions in conditions of extreme pressure,” Baroness Hallett added. “Nonetheless, I can summarise my findings of the response as ‘too little, too late’.”
The report’s release comes after a series of hearings that took evidence from more than 160 witnesses, including Mr Johnson, Mr Cummings and Mr Hancock.
They were questioned on measures such as public testing, social distancing, and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which it had been hoped could inject cash into businesses that had been forced to shut during the spring.
The inquiry is still ongoing, and publications will be expected at a later date on modules covering issues such as vaccines, children and young people, and the economic response to the pandemic.
Reacting to Thursday’s report, Sir Keir Starmer said that the “next crisis” would be faced from “a position of national resilience”. He also said that the government would “respond in due course” to the findings of Baroness Hallett’s report.
Bereaved families have said that Mr Johnson “put his political reputation ahead of public safety” and “pandered to his critics”.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said: “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.
“He pandered to his critics when the UK needed decisive action.”
