The COVID Inquiry took a political turn this week when a number of key figures who served in Downing Street during the pandemic faced questioning from the probe’s lawyers.
Hours of evidence were presented to the inquiry’s chair, and there were a raft of revelations uncovered – from the attitudes shown by senior ministers to the virus through to the shocking vocabulary of top advisers.
We’ll take you through the key moments from the headline grabbing week – and what we learned.
Indecision and chaos
The overarching theme coming out of the hearings was the apparent disarray playing out behind the door of Number 10 and how long it took for the people in charge to make the big calls – especially the prime minister.
In written evidence to the inquiry, Boris Johnson’s most senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, suggested this boss was distracted from his duties as the build up began in early 2022 – with a “divorce to finalise”, “financial problems” and his then girlfriend wanting to “finalise the announcement of their engagement”.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson “wanted to work on his Shakespeare book”.
Concerns from scientists about the virus were growing in January and February, and frightening scenes began playing out in other countries.
But there still appeared to be a reticence to act, according to those working in Downing Street, and numerous senior figures – including Mr Johnson – took their half-term breaks regardless.
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At the start of March, Mr Johnson’s former director of communications, Lee Cain, sent a message to Mr Cummings, claiming the PM “doesn’t think [the pandemic] is a big deal and he doesn’t think anything can be done and his focus is elsewhere”.
It added: “He thinks it’ll be like swine flu and he thinks his main danger is talking economy into a slump.”
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Cain asked if Downing Street was in ‘chaos’
In another message between the pair days before the UK’s first lockdown came into force, Mr Cummings said the prime minister was “melting down” and had gone “back to Jaws mode” – referencing the mayor in the 1970s film who kept the beaches open despite shark attacks.
The chief adviser said he warned Mr Johnson of the NHS imploding “like a zombie apocalypse film” on 12 March – 12 days before lockdown was implemented – and a decision was finally taken the next day to act.
But it still took a further 11 days for the lockdown to be implemented, with Mr Cain blaming days of “oscillating” from the PM.
“The system works at its best when there’s clear direction from Number 10 and the prime minister,” he wrote in his evidence. “These moments of indecision significantly impacted the pace and clarity of decision-making across government.”
Mr Cain also told the inquiry that “anyone who’s worked with the prime minister for a period of time will become exhausted with him sometimes” as he can be “quite a challenging character to work with” due to his indecision.
And that lack of decisiveness appeared to carry on throughout the pandemic, with Mr Cain saying the prime minister hesitated yet again over a circuit breaker lockdown in 2020 because it was “very much against what’s in his political DNA”.
“[Mr Johnson] felt torn where the evidence on one side and public opinion and scientific evidence was very much caution, slow – we’re almost certainly going to have to do another suppression measure, so we need to have that in mind – [whereas] media opinion and certainly the rump of the Tory party was pushing him hard [in] the other direction,” he said.
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1:46
Cummings says PM was known as a ‘trolley’
Mr Cain concluded that COVID was the “wrong crisis for this prime minister’s skillset”, adding: “It required quick decisions and you need people to hold the course and have that strength of mind to do that over a sustained period of time and not constantly unpick things because that’s where the problems lie.”
Mr Cummings stood by his somewhat harsher view.
He said a text in which he called ministers “useless f***pigs, morons [and] c****” actually “understated the position as events showed in 2020”.
Lack of a plan
While the public was looking to the government for help as the country was hit by crisis, evidence given to the inquiry suggests they weren’t prepared for what was coming.
Deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara said she realised how much trouble the UK was in on 13 March 2020 – 10 days before the first national lockdown – after speaking to an official at the Department for Health, Mark Sweeney, who “had been told for years that there is a whole plan” for a pandemic.
“But there was no plan,” he told her.
Ms MacNamara described how she then walked into the prime minister’s study, where Mr Cummings was sat with other senior officials, and told them: “I think we’re absolutely f****d, I think this country is heading for a disaster, I think we’re going to kill thousands of people.”
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‘Country heading for disaster’
Asked to what degree decision-makers considered ethnic minority groups, domestic abuse victims and others in the run-up to imposing a national lockdown, Mr Cummings said: “I would say that that entire question was almost entirely appallingly neglected by the entire planning system.”
He told the inquiry there was no shielding plan for the most vulnerable, claiming the Cabinet Office had even tried to “block” Number 10 from implementing one.
But according to evidence from Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, the then prime minister “blew hot and cold” over newly formed plans to tackle the vital issues arising, leading to “very difficult consequences” for the country.
Mr Reynolds said when he did decide on the course of action, “within hours or days, he would take a contrary position”.
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2:20
A chaotic picture of Downing Street
His evidence was echoed in messages from the head of the civil service, Simon Case, to Mr Cummings, accusing Mr Johnson of “changing strategic direction” and saying he “cannot lead”.
“IT HAS TO STOP!” wrote Mr Case, adding: “Govt [sic] isn’t actually that hard, but this guy is really making it impossible.”
But Mr Case’s criticism was not limited to the boss, blaming the “weak team” around him too – naming then health secretary Matt Hancock, then education secretary Gavin Williamson and the head of Test and Trace, Dido Harding.
The confidence of Mr Hancock
Mr Hancock came in for a lot of criticism during the week’s hearings.
Ms MacNamara told the inquiry he had shown “nuclear levels” of confidence at the start of the pandemic, describing one particularly “jarring” encounter after she expressed her sympathy that his job amid COVID must have been tough.
“He reassured me that he was ‘loving’ the responsibility,” she said. “And to demonstrate this, he took up a batsman’s stance outside the cabinet room and said: ‘They bowl them at me, I knock them away’.”
But the accusations went beyond bravado.
Ms MacNamara also claimed Mr Hancock “regularly” told colleagues in Downing Street things “they later discovered weren’t true”.
This accusation was backed up by Mr Cummings, who gave the example of the then health secretary having “sowed chaos” by continuing to insist in March 2020 that people without symptoms of a dry cough and a temperature were unlikely to be suffering from coronavirus.
In his coarser language, he also described Mr Hancock as a “proven liar”, a “problem leaker” and a “c***”.
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Cummings says he sent emails to Johnson that he was being “misled” by Hancock
By April 2020, there was a “lack of confidence of what he said was happening, was actually happening”, said Ms MacNamara.
This included Mr Hancock saying things were under control or being sorted in meetings, only for it to emerge in days or weeks that “was not in fact the case”.
There was a “pattern of being reassured that something was absolutely fine and then discovering it was very, very far from fine”, she added.
Andrew O’Connor KC, the lawyer for the inquiry, asked Ms MacNamara: “Does it come back to the fact that Mr Hancock regularly was telling people things that they later discovered weren’t true?”
“Yes,” she replied.
Sir Simon Stevens, who was head of NHS England during the pandemic, claimed that during discussions over what to do if the NHS was overwhelmed, Mr Hancock thought that “he – rather than, say, the medical profession or the public – should ultimately decide who should live and who should die”.
The health boss added: “I certainly wanted to discourage the idea that an individual secretary of state, other than in the most exceptional circumstances, should be deciding how care would be provided.”
Asked if Mr Hancock could be trusted, Sir Simon told the inquiry: “For the most part, yes.”
The former minister’s spokesperson said: “Mr Hancock has supported the inquiry throughout and will respond to all questions when he gives his evidence.”
Misogyny
Ms MacNamara told the inquiry of the “unbelievably bullish” approach to coronavirus by the government early in the pandemic, including the shocking revelation that ministers sat “laughing at the Italians” in meetings as the virus ripped through the country.
She said Mr Johnson was “confident the UK would sail through”, and her “injections of caution” in January and February 2020 “did not register”.
Why? Well, Ms MacNamara put this down to a “toxic” and misogynistic culture in Number 10, which saw “women being ignored”.
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11:31
Sky News’ Stuart Ramsay visited a Naples hospital back in 2020 to witness the extreme procedures they’re using to contain the coronavirus
Westminster and Whitehall are “endemically sexist” environments, she added, but Number 10 and the Cabinet Office became even worse during the pandemic when women had to “turn their screens off” on Zoom meetings or were “sitting in the back row” and “rarely spoke”.
As a result of the “macho” culture, certain issues were being ignored, including how to help domestic abuse victims, the impact on carers, childcare problems, and access to abortions.
“[The] failure to appreciate all the time that what we were doing was making decisions that were going to impact on everybody’s lives, and that meant lots of real people and real consequences,” said the former civil servant.
“I don’t think there was ever enough attention paid to that.”
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Ex-civil servant on ‘macho culture’
Asked about Mr Cummings’ use of a four letter to describe her, she said it was “both surprising and not surprising to me, and I don’t know which is worse”.
She added: “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.”
Notes from the government’s former chief scientist Sir Patrick Vallance dated August 2020 described a “bonkers set of exchanges” with the prime minister, saying he was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going”.
Another note from Sir Patrick shown to the inquiry and dated December 2020, revealed the influence of the wider Tory party on decision making in Number 10, saying while the PM had acted early and “the public are with him”, a number of his MPs were not.
The key scientific adviser wrote: “[Mr Johnson] says his party ‘thinks the whole thing is pathetic and COVID is just nature’s way of dealing with old people – and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them. A lot of moderate people think it is a bit too much’.”
The cost of having staff is going up this Sunday as the increase in employers’ national insurance kicks in.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the October budget employers will have to pay a 15% rate of national insurance contributions (NIC) on their employees from 6 April – up from 13.8%.
She also lowered the threshold at which employers pay NIC from £9,100 a year to £5,000 a year, meaning they start paying at an earlier point on staff salaries.
This is on top of the national minimum wage rising, the business relief rate for hospitality, retail and leisure reducing from 75% to 40% and the rising cost of ingredients and services.
Sky News spoke to people working in some of the industries that will be hardest hit by the rise in NIC: Nurseries, hospitality, retail, small businesses and care.
NURSERIES
Nearly all (96% of 728) nurseries surveyed by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said they will have no choice but to put up fees because of the NIC rise, leaving parents to pick up the shortfall.
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The NDNA has warned nurseries could close due to the rise, with 14% saying their business is at risk, 69% reducing spending on resources and 39% considering offering fewer places with government-funded hours as 92% said they do not cover their costs.
Sarah has two children, with her youngest starting later this month, but they were just informed fees will now be £92 a day – compared with £59 at the same nursery when her eldest started five years ago.
“I’m not sure how we will afford this. Our salaries haven’t increased by 50% during this time,” she said.
“We’re stuck as there aren’t enough nursery spaces in our area, so we will have to struggle.”
Karen Richards, director of the Wolds Childcare group in Nottinghamshire, has started a petition to get the government to exempt private nurseries – the majority of providers – from the NIC changes as she said it is unfair nurseries in schools do not have to pay the NIC.
She told Sky News she will have to find about £183,000 next year to cover the increase across her five nurseries and reducing staff numbers is “not off the table” but it is more likely they will reduce the number of children they have.
Image: Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said parents are yet again having to pay the price for the government’s actions. Pic: Pregnant Then Screwed
Joeli Brearley, founder of the Pregnant Then Screwed campaign group, told Sky News: “Parents are already drowning in childcare costs, and now, thanks to the national insurance hike, nurseries are passing even more fees on to families who simply can’t afford it.
“It’s the same story every time – parents pay the price while the government looks the other way. How exactly are we meant to ‘boost the economy’ when we can’t even afford to go to work?”
Purnima Tanuku, executive chair of the NDNA, said staffing costs make up about 75% of nurseries’ costs and they will have to find £2,600 more per employee to pay for the NIC rise – £47,000 for an average nursery.
“The government says it wants to offer ‘cheaper childcare’ for parents on the one hand but then with the other expects nurseries to absorb the costs of National Insurance Contributions themselves,” she told Sky News.
“High-quality early education and care gives children the best start in life and enables parents to work. The government must invest in this vital infrastructure to make sure nurseries can continue to deliver this social and economic good.”
HOSPITALITY
The hospitality industry has warned of closures, price rises, lack of growth and shorter opening hours.
Dan Brod, co-owner of The Beckford Group, a small southwest England restaurant and country pub/hotel group, said the economic situation now is “much worse” than during COVID.
The group has put plans for two more projects on hold and Mr Brod said the only option is to put up prices, but with the rising supplier costs, wages, business rates and NIC hike they will “stay still” financially.
Image: Dan Brod, co-owner of The Beckford Group, said the government does not value hospitality as an industry. Pic: The Beckford Group
He told Sky News: “What we’re nervous about is we’re still in the cost of living crisis and even though our places are in very wealthy areas of the country, Wiltshire, Somerset and Bath, people are feeling the situation in their pockets, people are going out less.”
Mr Brod said they are not getting rid of any staff as their business strongly depends on the quality of their hospitality so they are having to make savings elsewhere.
“I’m still optimistic, I still feel that humans need hospitality but we’re not valued as an industry and the social benefit is never taken into account by government.”
Image: Chef/owner Aktar Islam, who runs Opheem in Birmingham, said the rise will cost him up to £120,000 more this year. Pic: Opheem
Aktar Islam, owner/chef at two Michelin-starred Opheem in Birmingham, said the NIC rise will cost him up to £120,000 more in staff costs a year and to maintain the financial position he is in now they would have to make “another million pounds”.
He got emails from eight suppliers on Thursday saying they were raising their costs, and said he will have to raise prices but is concerned about the impact on diners.
The restaurateur hires four commis chefs to train each year but will not be able to this year, or the next few.
“It’s very short-sighted of the government, you’re not going to grow the economy by taxing hospitality out of existence, these sort of businesses are the lifeblood of our economy,” he said.
“They think if a hospitality business closes another will open but people know it’s tough, why would they want to do that? It’s not going to happen.”
The chef sent hundreds of his “at home” kits to fellow chefs this week for their staff as an acknowledgement of how much of a “s*** show” the situation is – “a little hug from us”.
RETAIL
Some of the UK’s biggest retailers, including Tesco, Boots, Marks & Spencer and Next, wrote to Rachel Reeves after the budget to say the NIC hike would lead to higher consumer prices, smaller pay rises, job cuts and store closures.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), representing more than 200 major retailers and brands, said the costs are so significant neither small or large retailers will be able to absorb them.
Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, told the Treasury committee in November that job losses due to the NIC changes were likely to be higher than the 50,000 forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Image: Big retailers have warned the NIC rise will lead to higher prices, job cuts and store closures. File pic: PA
Nick Stowe, chief executive of Monsoon and Accessorize, said retailers had the choice of protecting staff numbers or cancelling investment plans.
He said they were trying to protect staff numbers and would be increasing prices but they would likely have to halt plans to increase store numbers.
Helen Dickinson, head of the BRC, told Sky News the national living wage rise and NIC increase will cost businesses £5bn, adding more than 10% to the cost of hiring someone in an entry-level role.
A further tax on packaging coming in October means retailers will face £7bn in extra costs this year, she said.
“This huge cost burden will undoubtedly reduce investment in stores and jobs and is likely to lead to higher prices,” she added.
SMALL BUSINESSES
A massive 85% of 1,400 small business owners surveyed by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in March reported rising costs compared with the same time last year, with 47% citing tax as the main barrier to growth – the highest level in more than a decade.
Just 8% of those businesses saw an increase in staff numbers over the last quarter, while 21% had to reduce their workforce.
Kate Rumsey, whose family has run Rumsey’s Chocolates in Wendover, Buckinghamshire and Thame, Oxfordshire, for 21 years, said the NIC rise, minimum wage increase and business relief rate reduction will push her staff costs up by 15 to 17% – £70,000 to £80,000 annually.
To offset those costs, she has had to reduce opening hours, including closing on Sundays and bank holidays in one shop for the first time ever, make one person redundant, not replace short-term staff and introduce a hiring freeze.
The soaring price of cocoa has added to her woes and she has had to increase prices by about 10% and will raise them further.
Image: Kate Rumsey, who runs Rumsey’s Chocolates in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, said they are being forced to take a short-term view to survive. Pic: Rumsey’s Chocolates
She told Sky News: “We’re very much taking more of a short-term view at the moment, it’s so seasonal in this business so I said to the team we’ll just get through Q1 then re-evaluate.
“I feel this is a bit about the survival of the fittest and many businesses won’t survive.”
Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the FSB, said the NIC rise “holds back growth” and has seen small business confidence drop to its lowest point since the first year of the pandemic.
With the “highest tax burden for 70 years”, she called on the chancellor to introduce a “raft of pro-small business measures” in the autumn budget so it can deliver on its pledge for growth.
She reminded employers they can claim the Employment Allowance, which has doubled after an FSB campaign to take the first £10,500 off an employer’s annual bill.
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1:46
National Insurance rise impacts carers
CARE
The care sector has been warning the government since the October that budget care homes will be forced to close due to the financial pressures the employers’ national insurance rise will place on them.
Care homes receive funding from councils as well as from private fees, but as local authorities feel the squeeze more and more their contributions are not keeping up with rising costs.
The industry has argued without it the NHS would be crippled.
Raj Sehgal, founding director of ArmsCare, a family-run group of six care homes in Norfolk, said the NIC increase means a £360,000 annual impact on the group’s £3.6m payroll.
In an attempt to offset those costs, the group is scrapping staff bonuses and freezing management salaries.
It is also considering reducing day hours, where there are more staff on, so the fewer numbers of night staff work longer hours and with no paid break.
Image: Raj Sehgal said his family-owned group of care homes will need £360,000 extra this year for the NIC hike
Mr Sehgal said: “But what that does do unfortunately, is impact the quality you’re going to be able to provide, at a time when we need to be improving quality, but something has to give.
“The government just doesn’t seem to understand that the funding needs to be there. You cannot keep enforcing higher costs on businesses and not be able to fund those without actually finding the money from somewhere.”
He said the issue is exacerbated by the fact local authority funding, despite increasing to 5%, will not cover the 10% rise.
“It’s going to be a really, really tough ride. And we are going to see a number of providers close their doors,” he warned.
Nadra Ahmed, executive co-chair of the National Care Association, said those who receive, or are waiting to access, care as well as staff will feel the impact the hardest.
“As providers see further shortfalls in the commissioning of care services, they will start to limit what they can do to ensure their viability or, as a last resort exit the market,” she said.
“This is very short-sighted, with serious consequences, which alludes to the understanding of this government.”
Government decided to ‘wipe the slate clean’
A Treasury spokesperson told Sky News the government is “pro-business” but has “taken the difficult but necessary decisions to wipe the slate clean and properly fund our public services after years of declines”.
“Our budget choices have already delivered an NHS with falling waiting lists, a £3.7bn rescue package for social care, and vital protection for Britain’s small businesses,” they said.
“We’re making tough choices today to secure a better tomorrow through our Plan for Change. By investing in economic growth and early years education while capping corporation tax, we’re putting more money in working people’s pockets and giving every child the best start in life.”
Russell Brand has been charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1999 and 2005.
The Metropolitan Police say the 50-year-old comedian, actor and author has also been charged with one count of oral rape and one count of indecent assault.
The charges relate to four women.
He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2 May.
Police have said Brand is accused of raping a woman in the Bournemouth area in 1999 and indecently assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2001.
He is also accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Westminster in 2004.
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1:59
Ashna Hurynag discusses Russell Brand’s charges
The fourth charge alleges that a woman was sexually assaulted in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.
Police began investigating Brand, from Oxfordshire, in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations.
The comedian has denied the accusations and said he has “never engaged in non-consensual activity”.
He added in a video on X: “Of course, I am now going to have the opportunity to defend these charges in court, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.
“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”
Search teams are looking for a 16-year-old boy who went missing after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London.
Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Police said the boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.
In a statement, officers added that emergency services are “co-ordinating a search” and “the park has been evacuated”.
Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.
Image: Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon
The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres. It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.
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“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.
“We are still at the scene working alongside our emergency services partners.”
Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.