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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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.
Working with Johnson’s team was like ‘taming wild animals’
Working with Boris Johnson’s “brutal and useless” team was like “taming wild animals”, the two most senior civil servants who worked with the former prime minister have said, Archie Micthell reports.
Cabinet secretary Simon Case said that Mr Johnson and the allies he surrounded himself with are “basically feral”, messages shown to the Covid inquiry on Wednesday revealed.
The exchange was the latest damning assessment of Mr Johnson’s administration that Mr Case made with his predecessor as the head of the Civil Service, Lord Mark Sedwill.
Lord Sedwill complained that Mr Johnson’s administration was “brutal and useless”, according to an August 2020 extract from the diary of former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
The peer said he does not remember saying those words but added: “I can’t actually recall what might have prompted it but... I don’t doubt Sir Patrick’s memory. It must have been a moment of acute frustration with something.”
Mr Case, days before joining No 10 in May 2020, shared his concerns with the then-cabinet secretary.
“Honestly, Mark, I don’t want to go near these people. If as part of all this there are some guarantees about behaviour, I will give it a go for a very short period.”
Lord Sedwill then gave him some advice about how to handle Mr Johnson’s former top adviser Dominic Cummings “so he can’t run interference”.
Later, in June 2020, Mr Case wrote to Lord Sedwill: “It is like taming wild animals. Nothing in my past experience has prepared me for this madness.
“The PM and the people he chooses to surround himself with are basically feral.”
Lord Sedwill replied: “I have the bite marks.”
Sedwill: My ousting was ‘destabilising for the civil service'
Lord Sedwill has said his ousting as cabinet secretary was “destabilising for the civil service”, but so were “constant hostile attacks on the cabinet secretary and also the office of the cabinet secretary”, Archie Mitchell reports.
The former cabinet secretary said those attacks predated Boris Johnson’s government, but it was “particularly his government” leaking things which in some cases “were simply untrue” to the press.
DHSC ‘did not even understand the regulations they authorised’
Lord Sedwill lashed out at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for its “laissez faire” attitude for Covid programmes it was responsible for, WhatsApp messages shown to the inquiry reveal, Archie Mitchell reports.
He said the attitude was arguable the government’s “biggest failure”.
Then No10 permanent secretary Simon Case said Matt Hancock was hardly convincing those in government that the health system was “on it”.
Lord Sedwill also lashed out at DHSC as “totally incompetent” and said “they don’t even understand the regulations they authorise”.
Matt Hancock’s candour was ‘clearly damaging’
Britain’s former top civil servant has said Matt Hancock’s candour was “clearly damaging” to the government’s response to the pandemic, Archie Mitchell reports.
Lord Sedwill told the Covid inquiry officials had to “double check” what they were being told be the then health secretary. And Lord Sedwill said “to save lives, and protect the NHS”, that Mr Hancock should be sacked.
Lord Sedwill said it was “gallows humour, echoing the government’s slogan”.
Boris Johnson decision-making is ‘exhausting for his inner circle’
Boris Johnson’s decision-making process was “exhausting” for those in his inner circle, Lord Sedwill has said, Archie Mitchell reports.
The former cabinet secretary was asked if he agreed with criticisms from former Johnson advisers that he “oscillates, is unable to manage a cohesive team and direct government machinery consistently and effectively”.
“I recognise them, but would not express it in that way,” Lord Sedwill said.
The former top civil servant cited Mr Johnson’s decision-making process around the Brexit process, in which at one moment he would be “gung-ho” for a no-deal exit, while the next he would be “much more reflective”.
He added: “That is how he got to big decisions, it’s exhausting for the people in his inner circle.”
Britain’s former top civil servant apologises for suggesting chickenpox-style Covid parties
Former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill has apologised for suggesting Boris Johnson should encourage people to hold chickenpox-style parties during the pandemic.
The ex-national security adviser admitted making the suggestion but insisted he was only using it as a way of shielding the most vulnerable while others developed immunity.
Archie Mitchell has the full report:
Former top civil servant apologises for suggesting chickenpox-style Covid parties
The former cabinet secretary acknowledged the remarks could seem ‘heartless and thoughtless’
Matt Hancock was seen as a ‘big problem’, WhatsApp messages reveal
Matt Hancock was referred to as a “big problem” for the government during the pandemic, WhatsApp messages seen by the inquiry reveal, Archie Mitchell reports.
A conversation between former cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill and then No10 permanent secretary Simon Case yet again cast doubt on the ex-health secretary’s trustworthiness.
Referring to an ongoing argument between Mr Hancock and Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby, Lord Sedwill said: “Mayor actually a class act. Hancock trying to scapegoat him. Who do you believe?”
Further messages showed Mr Case complaining there was “no one around driving the policy side of operational lockdown on [Matt Hancock’s] behalf. Weird absence.”
Lord Sedwill replied: “Welcome to the last six months.”
Barnard Castle affair ‘dangerously eroded’ confidence in government
Dominic Cummings’s trip to Barnard Castle “dangerously eroded” confidence in government, WhatsApp messages shown to the Covid inquiry have revealed, Archie Mitchell reports.
As ministers were trying to implement local restrictions in the wake of national lockdowns, then No10 permanent secretary told Lord Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary, that for “obvious reasons” the legitimacy of the government had taken a hit.
Asked whether it was Mr Cummings’s infamous lockdown trip to Barnard Castle they were referring to, Lord Sedwill told the inquiry: “Yes, I presume that’s what we were referring to there.”
Lord Sedwill called ‘genius’ for sidelining Vallance and Whitty from Boris meeting
Simon Case said Lord Sedwill was a “genius” for sidelining Sir Patrick Vallance and Prof Chris Whitty in a meeting with the prime minister about the plan to ease lockdown measures in May 2020, Archie Mitchell reports.
“It removed that dynamic,” Mr Case told Lord Sedwill in WhatsApp messages shown to the Covid inquiry.
Mr Case, then permanent secretary in No10, said that during the meeting Boris Johnson and then chancellor Rishi Sunak “readily agreed a package, quite quickly”.
Lord Sedwill was asked whether he “did not want the prime minister to feel the full force of the scientific advice” from Sir Patrick and Prof Whitty.
The former cabinet secretary denied the suggestion, and said Sir Patrick was in fact “happy” with the package that was agreed.
Department for Health and Social Care was ‘unable to bear the weight’
Lord Sedwill produced a note in May 2020 saying that DHSC was “unable to bear the weight” of the pandemic despite having a “can-do minister [Matt Hancock]” and Britain’s most experienced civil servant, Archie Mitchell reports.
The former cabinet secretary said it straddles “byzantine bureaucracy” in the NHS, “underpowered” Public Health England and the “fragmented” provision of adult social care.
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