UK could have avoided lockdown if better prepared, says Jeremy Hunt

Jeremy Hunt arriving for the Covid inquiry in London on 21 June. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

The UK could have avoided a Covid lockdown if it had prepared better for a pandemic, Jeremy Hunt has argued, saying there was too much focus on a fast-spreading flu-type illness and an assumption that Britain “knew this stuff best”.

Hunt, who was health secretary from 2012 to 2018, told the Covid public inquiry that he took some responsibility for what he called the “deeply entrenched” planning assumption that it would be impossible to stop the spread of a pandemic.