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.
Starmer battles to maintain Labour discipline over Israel-Hamas war
Sir Keir Starmer battled to maintain Labour discipline with members of his frontbench in open revolt about his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Labour leader has resisted pressure from within his own party to call for a ceasefire, instead urging both parties in the conflict to agree to a humanitarian pause to allow aid in and people out of the war zone.
Shadow ministers are among senior Labour figures demanding a change in his stance, with frontbencher Alex Cunningham calling for an “immediate ceasefire” less than an hour before Sir Keir delivered his speech.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also criticised Sir Keir, claiming he had made “hurtful” comments about the conflict and there was “repair work to do” to mend bridges with Muslim communities.
Sir Keir insisted he took collective responsibility - the principle that members of his frontbench team adopt a unified position - seriously, but he gave no indication he was about to sack those who had spoken out.
“It is for me to address collective responsibility, I recognise that,” he said.
“It matters and I take that duty extremely seriously, but I put it in the context of understanding what is driving people in the call for a ceasefire, which is in my judgment not the call that we should be making as things stand.”
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.
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.
Dithering Johnson suggested Covid was nature dealing with elderly, inquiry hears
Boris Johnson's chaotic indecisiveness delayed lockdown measures, two of his top advisers have said, as it was alleged he believed coronavirus was "nature's way of dealing with old people".
Dominic Cummings told the Covid inquiry on Tuesday how the "dysfunctional system" during a "meltdown of the British state" failed to deal with the crisis, as the former prime minister downplayed the pandemic.
Lee Cain, who served as No 10's communications director, criticised Mr Johnson's tendency to "oscillate" between decisions for holding up the Government's response.
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry saw diary entries from Sir Patrick Vallance saying Mr Johnson was "obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life" and getting the economy running.
Cummings denies misogyny despite foul-mouthed messages about civil servant
Dominic Cummings has insisted he is not a misogynist despite referring to a top civil servant as “that c***” in a series of foul-mouthed messages to Boris Johnson.
In an astonishing day of Covid testimony shedding new light on a culture of sexism at the heart of the former PM’s government, Cummings apologised for the “deplorable” language and claimed he “was much ruder about men”.
To audible gasps, the inquiry was shown Cummings’ WhatsApp texts about then deputy cabinet-secretary Helen MacNamara from 2020, in which he said he would “handcuff her and escort her” from Downing Street.
Read more here:
Dominic Cummings denies misogyny claims despite
The offensive messages shed new light on a culture of sexism at the heart of Boris Johnson’s Covid government
In pictures: Cummings and Cain after appearing at inquiry
Cummings’ bombshell four-letter Covid WhatsApp rants explained
Dominic Cummings branded Boris Johnson “exhausting” and in a foul-mouthed tirade said the cabinet was “useless f***pigs” in explosive WhatsApp messages revealed today at the Covid-19 inquiry.
In a pivotal day, Mr Johnson’s former communications chief Lee Cain gave evidence, followed by Mr Cummings, the former prime minister’s chief of staff during the pandemic.
Mr Cummings apologised to the inquiry for the “appalling” language he used in messages but said that he was reflecting “a widespread view” about the incompetence shown by ministers who were “dealing with this crisis extremely badly”.
Joe Middleton reports:
Bombshell WhatsApp messages reveal Cummings’ secret foul-mouthed rants about Johnson
Dominic Cummings said in a meeting with Boris Johnson he had to explain ‘the same thing 10 f****** times and he still won’t absorb it’
Sturgeon says she ‘gave my all’ in response to pandemic
Nicola Sturgeon has said she “gave my all” in the response to the pandemic.
Addressing journalists at Holyrood on whether she deleted WhatsApp messages relating to the pandemic, the former first minister said: “I gave my all to the management of the pandemic.
“Transparency for the families affected, by everybody affected by the pandemic, matters really a lot to me.
“I did my best everyday, as you heard me say many times over the course of the pandemic, I did not get everything right but I did my best and I want the process of these inquiries to get to the heart of what happened – the things that Governments got right and the things that Government’s and leaders alike didn’t get right.”
‘I did not manage Covid response by WhatsApp,’ says Sturgeon
Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I did not manage the Covid response by WhatsApp.”
Speaking to reporters at Holyrood, she said she was not a member of any WhatsApp groups and she took decisions on the response at the Scottish Government headquarters at St Andrews House in Edinburgh.
She said she has “nothing to hide” and is “committed to full transparency” for both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 inquiries.
Sturgeon says she dealt with messages ‘in line with policies' of Scottish Government
Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she dealt with messages “in line with policies” of the Scottish Government.
Speaking to journalists in Holyrood, Ms Sturgeon said: “Any messages I had I handled and dealt with in line with the policies set out by the Deputy First Minister.”
Her comments come after the Scottish Government published its policy on social media messages, which says “business conversations” through informal messaging channels should be deleted “at least monthly”.
Barnard Castle trip ‘did cause lot of people pain’, says Cummings
Dominic Cummings said that the handling by Downing Street of the fallout from his trip to Barnard Castle was an “absolute car crash” and “did cause a lot of people pain”.
He was quizzed on the high-profile controversy and the impact it had on confidence in the Government during his appearance at the Covid inquiry.
He said: “It was certainly a disaster, the whole handling of the situation. But there were other factors involved with it all as well – testing and PPE and many other things were all going haywire at the time.”
He said it was “completely reasonable” for security reasons to move his family out of his house, but on the Barnard Castle revelations he said the way it was “handled it was an absolute car crash and disaster and did cause a lot of people pain”.
But he added: “In terms of my actual actions in going north and then coming back down I acted entirely reasonably and legally and did not break any rules.”
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