Covid inquiry live: Priti Patel admits policing of Sarah Everard vigil was ‘totally inappropriate’
Ex-home secretary says police generally struck right balance between protest and Covid restrictions
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Your support makes all the difference.Dame Priti Patel has admitted to the Covid inquiry that the policing of a vigil for murdered marketing executive Sarah Everard was “totally inappropriate”.
The former home secretary said she was “dismayed” by the policing of the vigil in early 2021. The Metropolitan Police have since apologised and paid damages to two of those who were arrested.
However, Dame Priti said she felt the police generally struck the right balance between enforcing coronavirus restrictions and upholding people’s right to protest – despite such matters feeling “uncomfortable” at the time.
Earlier today, former top police chief Martin Hewitt criticised localised Covid rules, the speed at which they changed, and the tier system of different regulations for different areas of the country.
He told the inquiry that localised tiers made it “incredibly difficult for even a perfectly law-abiding and committed citizen to understand precisely what that meant for them in their own personal circumstances”, while having different regulations “on opposite sides of the same road” made policing more difficult.
Jun Pang, the policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, is also giving evidence to the inquiry.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s coverage of the Covid inquiry.
Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, will give evidence from 10am.
Mac Namara is the civil servant who was heavily criticised in expletive-laden texts written by Cummings.
The former ethics chief also became the first person to confirm she had been fined over lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.
David Halpern, president and former chief executive officer of the Behavioural Insights Team, will give evidence after Mac Namara at 2pm.
Stay tuned for live updates.
Watch - Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings provide worrying insight into No 10
Covid was ‘wrong crisis’ for Boris Johnson to handle, ex-Comms chief tells inquiry
Covid was the “wrong crisis” for Boris Johnson to handle as he frustrated advisers by oscillating between decisions, the official inquiry has heard.
Mr Johnson dithered between supporting a lockdown and wanting to keep the country open in what was described as his Mayor of Jaws “routine”, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry was told on Tuesday.
Lee Cain, his long-term adviser who served as No 10’s communications director in the pandemic, said Mr Johnson’s erratic decision-making was “rather exhausting”.
Messages between Mr Cain and Dominic Cummings, who served as the then-prime minister’s chief adviser, showed them venting their frustrations on WhatsApp.
“Get in here he’s melting down,” Mr Cummings wrote on March 19 2020, days before the first lockdown, adding that Mr Johnson was “back to Jaws mode wank”.
Covid was ‘wrong crisis’ for Boris Johnson to handle, ex-Comms chief tells inquiry
Lee Cain said Mr Johnson’s erratic decision-making was ‘rather exhausting’
ICYMI - Boris Johnson’s chaotic ‘flip-flopping’ made it ‘impossible’ to tackle Covid, advisers’ messages reveal
Scathing WhatsApp messages sent between Boris Johnson’s top team accused the former PM of creating chaos during the Covid crisis – complaining that he “flip-flopped” every day on direction and made it “impossible” to tackle the pandemic.
A series of startling new revelations emerged at the Covid inquiry, as messages shared between cabinet secretary Simon Case, chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance and top adviser Dominic Cummings exposed the disdain they held for Mr Johnson.
It also emerged that Mr Johnson’s key aide Martin Reynolds set messages to “disappear” in a key Covid WhatsApp group only weeks after the ex-PM promised the Covid inquiry.
The ex-principal private secretary – dubbed “Party Marty” for his “bring your own booze” email during Partygate – said he was “deeply sorry” for his role in organising the infamous event and Mr Johnson’s birthday gathering at No 10.
Boris flip-flopping’ made it ‘impossible’ to tackle Covid, advisers’ messages reveal
Cabinet secretary warned that Johnson ‘cannot lead’ during crisis – as ex-No 10 aide admits he ‘disappeared’ WhatsApp messages
Boris Johnson asked if blowing hairdryer up nose could kill Covid, says ex-aide Cummings
Boris Johnson asked whether Covid could be killed by blowing a hairdryer up the nose, according to his former top aide Dominic Cummings.
The theory was quickly dismissed at the time by scientists as a crank idea with no foundation.
Jane Dalton reports:
Boris asked if blowing hairdryer up nose could kill Covid, says ex-aide Cummings
Sacked former top aide claims in dossier of evidence that ex-PM could have been leaking fake news to media
Top civil servant referenced in ‘misogynistic’ messages to give inquiry evidence
The former top civil servant criticised by Dominic Cummings in expletive-laden WhatsApp messages is set to appear before the Covid-19 inquiry.
Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, will become the latest pandemic-era senior official to face questions about the response on Wednesday after two days of hearings revealed the dysfunction, indecision and dithering inside Boris Johnson’s government.
The ex-civil servant, who departed the civil service in 2021, was namechecked in proceedings on Tuesday as Mr Cummings denied he had behaved in a misogynistic way during his time in Downing Street.
WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry revealed that Mr Cummings had labelled Ms MacNamara “that c***” and said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street.
“I don’t care how it’s done but that woman must be out of our hair – we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that c***,” he wrote.
Top civil servant referenced in ‘misogynistic’ messages to give inquiry evidence
Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, is set to appear before the Covid-19 inquiry
ICYMI - ‘Eat Out to Help Out made absolutely no sense whatsoever’
The Eat Out to Help Out scheme and the policy of sending people back to work during the pandemic “made absolutely no sense whatsoever”, Boris Johnson’s former director of communications told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
Lee Cain said he was critical of the Eat Out to Help Out policy when it was implemented by the then chancellor Rishi Sunak in August 2020.
Mr Cain told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry: “I, and particularly the other communicators as well, were just finding it very, very difficult because a huge part of what our role and responsibility is at that point is ‘what are we signalling to the public?’
“At this point of developing policy, we are indicating to people that Covid is over – go back out, get back to work, crowd yourself on to trains, go into restaurants and enjoy pizzas with friends and family – really build up that social mixing.
“Now that is fine if you are intent on never having to do suppression measures again – but from all the evidence we are receiving, from all the advice we are receiving, it was incredibly clear that we were going to have to do suppression measures again.
“We knew that all the way through, that was the strategy from the start.”
ICYMI: So, ‘Party Marty’, why were No 10’s WhatsApp messages set to disappear?
Former Boris Johnson aide Martin Reynolds struggled to answer questions at the Covid inquiry today. But with Dominic Cummings about to give evidence, it could be Johnson and Rishi Sunak who will soon be doing the squirming, writes Sean O’Grady.
Read Sean’s full piece here:
Why were No 10’s WhatsApp messages set to disappear?
Former Boris Johnson aide Martin Reynolds struggled to answer questions at the Covid inquiry today. But with Dominic Cummings about to give evidence, it could be Johnson and Rishi Sunak who will soon be doing the squirming, writes Sean O’Grady
What we have learned from the Covid inquiry so far this week
A busy two days at the Covid-19 inquiry saw appearances from some of the key figures in Downing Street during the early stages of the pandemic.
Here’s what we learned from the appearance of Dominic Cummings, Lee Cain and others over the course of Monday and Tuesday.
– Downing Street and governmental dysfunction
The inquiry heard multiple references to Mr Johnson as “the trolley” who tended to “wild oscillations”, while former No 10’s communications director Mr Cain admitted that his former boss’s erratic decision-making was “rather exhausting”.
And in WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry, the UK’s top civil servant Simon Case said that Mr Johnson “cannot lead” and was making government “impossible”.
Read the full piece here:
What we have learned from the Covid inquiry so far this week
Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain were among the high-profile witnesses this week.
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