NHS was ‘within hours’ of running out of gowns during pandemic, Hancock tells Covid inquiry – as it happened

5.15pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• John Prescott, the former British deputy prime minister and stalwart of the New Labour movement, has died aged 86.

• Keir Starmer has condemned Kemi Badenoch for breaking what he said had been a cross-party consensus on reducing carbon emissions. (See 11.27am.)

• Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, has told the Covid inquiry that England’s hospitals were within “hours” of running out of some items of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the early months of the pandemic. (See 5.08pm.)

• Steve Reed, the environment secretary, has promised to reform the food system to ensure farmers are paid fairly for the food they produce, after many filled the streets of Westminster to campaign against inheritance tax changes.

• School leaders have said they lack the resources to manage a rising tide of challenging behaviour since the Covid pandemic, after figures revealed a significant rise in the number of pupils being suspended and expelled in England.

• Nigel Farage’s group campaigning against the World Health Organization (WHO) is staffed by consultants who work with the nicotine products industry, the Guardian can reveal.

• Elon Musk has said UK MPs “will be summoned to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens” in a fresh escalation of tensions between the world’s richest man and Labour.

Updated at 5.18pm GMT

5.08pm GMT

This is what PA Media has filed from the Covid inquiry hearing this afternoon.

England’s hospitals were within “hours” of running out of some items of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the early months of Covid, Matt Hancock has said.

The former health secretary told the Covid inquiry some PPE was in very short supply during the first wave of the pandemic.

He also said he believes vaccines should be mandatory for NHS and social care staff in any future pandemic, while masks should be worn in hospitals from day one.

Lead counsel to the inquiry, Jacqueline Carey KC, asked Hancock: “Do you accept that entering the coronavirus pandemic as we did, without a single gown, severely hampered the ability to provide safe and appropriate PPE for healthcare workers?”

Hancock replied: “The stockpile that we had was not as good as it needs to be in the future, absolutely.”

Asked if England ever ran out of PPE, he said: “As a whole? No, but individual locations did.

“We came extremely close. We came within small numbers of items on a regular basis during April and May 2020 – by the second wave, we were in better shape.”

Asked about no more stock of gowns in April 2020, he said: “Gowns I think at one point we got to within six or seven hours of running out.

“We were working incredibly hard to make sure that we didn’t (run out). We nearly did.”

On the question of whether facemasks should be worn by hospital staff, visitors and workers in a future pandemic, he said: “It should be brought in immediately, and supplies need to be ready, preferably in each hospital, to make that possible.”

Furthermore, Hancock said, ensuring health and social care workers are fully vaccinated is a “reasonable step that should be expected” and should be brought in to the NHS and social care at the same time.

Vaccination as a condition of deployment came into effect in November 2021 and required Care Quality Commission-registered care home staff to be fully vaccinated in order to be deployed in care homes unless medically exempt from April 2022.

Hancock said he regretted that decision as social care and the NHS should have had the rule at the same time, adding: “If you are employed to care for others, then you should take reasonable steps to ensure you are not harming those in your care.

“A clinically proven vaccine is a reasonable step that should be expected.”