The Covid inquiry has descended into a tabloid TV game show

Matt Hancock being forced to deny that he is a liar was the star turn in an undignified circus that appears increasingly unlikely to teach us any useful lessons, writes John Rentoul

Matt Hancock, the health secretary during the pandemic, has been called a liar (PA Wire)

A public inquiry chaired by a judge is supposed to be the British state at its most serious, considered, and self-critical. And what have we learned so far from Baroness Hallett’s inquiry into the government’s handling of Covid?

One of the country’s most senior civil servants tells me that we have learned three simple things: “Cummings is psychotic, Boris is chaotic, and Matt Hancock is a narcissist.”

It is an unedifying show, and the focus on people being rude about each other on WhatsApp seems to be a distraction from the inquiry’s core purpose, which is to learn lessons for future public health crises.