We are now closing the blog. Here is a summary of today’s events.
The UK Covid inquiry heard from the former prime minister’s top aide Dominic Cummings, and Lee Cain, the former Downing Street director of communications. We were told that:
Boris Johnson suggested “Covid is nature’s way of dealing with old people”, according to Sir Patrick Vallance.
Dominic Cummings said vulnerable people were “appallingly neglected”.
Cummings frequently called for the sacking of Matt Hancock and other cabinet ministers.
Cummings used misogynistic language to denigrate the deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara. But he claimed foul-mouthed messages about his colleague were not misogynistic, saying he was “much ruder about men”.
Johnson urged Cummings to end an “orgy of narcissism”.
Cummings was unrepentant about his trip to Durham at the height of lockdown.
Cummings said Johnson’s relationship with the press was “extremely damaging” to the government’s Covid response.
Cummings defended helping to make Johnson PM even though he thought he was unfit to handle the pandemic.
Cummings claimed he told Johnson in early February containing Covid was impossible - but accepted there’s no written record of this.
Cummings said the UK could have avoided lockdown if massive test and trace capacity had been in place by March 2020.
Cain tried to resist Sunak’s “eat out to help out” scheme in the summer of 2020.
Cain said it was a “huge blunder” to ignore Marcus Rashford’s campaign on free school meals.
Susie Flintham, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said there was “nastiness, arrogance and misogyny at the heart of government during the pandemic”.
Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she has “nothing to hide” as 14,000 messages to be handed over to the UK Covid inquiry.
Rail ticket office closures in England have been scrapped in a government U-turn
Gillian Keegan says she hopes much-delayed trans guidance for schools in England to be out before Christmas.
English councils seek £100m to avert collapse of homelessness services.
Rishi Sunak spoke with the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas telling him the UK will continue to support diplomatic action to protect Palestinian civilians.
Rishi Sunak also spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu about the importance of minimising civilian casualties.
Human rights campaign group Amnesty International was among several organisations that were critical of Keir Starmer’s stance on the conflict in Gaza, following a speech the Labour leader gave today.
Updated
‘Nastiness, arrogance and misogyny’ of UK government exposed at Covid inquiry
A toxic culture of government incompetence, backstabbing and misogyny was laid bare at the Covid public inquiry on Tuesday with messages revealing Boris Johnson’s dismissive attitude to millions of old people at risk from the virus.
The former prime minister’s top aide Dominic Cummings was accused of “aggressive, foul-mouthed and misogynistic” abuse after messages showed he tried to sack top civil servant Helen MacNamara saying No 10 was “dodging stilettos from that cunt”.
Johnson’s chaotic indecisiveness delayed lockdown measures, the inquiry heard, while he had told senior advisers the Covid virus was “just nature’s way of dealing with old people” and he was “no longer buying” the fact the NHS was overwhelmed during the pandemic.
Bereaved relatives reacted to the fresh evidence with horror after a bruising session of the Covid inquiry, with Cummings and Lee Cain, the former No 10 director of communications, questioning Johnson’s suitability for leading the country during the pandemic.
Susie Flintham, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: “The nastiness, arrogance and misogyny at the heart of government during the pandemic is core to the awful decision making that led to thousands of unnecessary deaths and tore families like mine apart. When you see that these figures had such a shocking disregard for each other, you can only imagine the disregard they had for families like mine.”
Read the full report here.
Updated
