Covid inquiry live: Hancock ‘wanted to decide who should live or die if NHS became overwhelmed’
Lord Simon Stevens says Cabinet ministers ‘avoided’ Cobra meetings chaired by then-health secretary
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Your support makes all the difference.Ex-health secretary Matt Hancock believed that he – rather than doctors or the public – should decide “who should live and who should die” if hospitals became overwhelmed with Covid patients, the former NHS chief executive has said.
Lord Simon Stevens said that “fortunately this horrible dilemma never crystallised”, as he told the Covid inquiry on Thursday that it would have to look “very carefully” at the issue of asymptomatic Covid patients being discharged from hospitals into care homes.
Meanwhile, Mr Hancock, who was health secretary at the start of the Covid outbreak, told Public Health England’s then medical director Yvonne Doyle “not to patronise him” when she warned that the virus could be in the UK, she told the inquiry.
She said she was barred from doing media interviews for a time after that, and apologised to him, even though she had been telling the truth.
It comes a day after former top civil servant and ethics chief Helen MacNamara said the “female perspective” was missed during the pandemic as she condemned a “toxic” and “macho” culture at the highest levels of Mr Johnson’s government.
Matt Hancock wanted to decide who should live and who should die during Covid – former NHS boss
An unhappy struggle between panto and principle: the Covid inquiry’s winners and losers so far
Matt Hancock told Public Health England director ‘not to patronise him’
Boris Johnson’s No 10 was toxic, sexist and devoid of humanity, says former top civil servant
Dominic Cummings denies misogyny claims despite obscene sexist rant at UK’s most powerful female mandarin
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 testimony at the Covid inquiry, shedding new light on a culture of sexism at the heart of the former prime minister’s government, Mr Cummings apologised for the “deplorable” language and even claimed he “was much ruder about men”.
Rod Ardehali reports:
Dominic Cummings denies misogyny claims despite obscene sexist rant
The offensive messages shed new light on a culture of sexism at the heart of Boris Johnson’s Covid government
Final message from Boris Johnson before Dominic Cummings blocked him revealed
The final text messages between Boris Johnson and his former chief aide Dominic Cummings have been revealed at the Covid Inquiry.
While Mr Cummings was giving evidence, a particular Whatsapp message was shared in which the former prime minister criticises a “disgusting orgy of narcissism” in government, after stories appeared in the media about his wife Carrie Johnson.
Holly Evans reports:
Final message from Boris Johnson before Dominic Cummings blocked him revealed
The texts came two days after Mr Cummings left No 10 for the final time
ICYMI: Top civil servant ‘cannot recall single day when lockdown rules obeyed in No 10’
Boris Johnson’s Downing Street displayed an “unbelievably bullish” and dismissive approach to Covid despite being warned of a “total disaster”, a former senior top civil servant has said.
Helen MacNamara, former deputy cabinet secretary, said she could not recall “one day” when rules were followed at No 10 – and added that hundreds of officials and ministers broke the guidelines.
Adam Forrest reports:
Top civil servant ‘cannot recall single day when Covid rules obeyed in No 10’
Helen MacNamara hit back at Dominic Cummings’s sexist rants – condemnng the ‘toxic macho culture’ at No 10 where women were overlooked
Former civil servant says Dominic Cummings texts to ‘handcuff her’ are ‘horrible’
A former senior civil servant has said the Whatsapp messages sent by Dominic Cummings were “horrible”, after he called her a “c***” in an exchange with then-prime minister Boris Johnson.
Helen MacNamara, the former deputy cabinet secretary, said the texts were “both surprising and not surprising”, and that Mr Cummings was “frustrated” with her, while she said she was just “doing my job as a civil servant”.
Holly Evans reports:
Former civil servant says Dominic Cummings texts to ‘handcuff her’ are ‘horrible’
Helen MacNamara said it was ‘disappointing’ that former PM Boris Johnson did not pick up Dominic Cummings on his ‘misogynistic language’
How the top female civil servant abused by Dominic Cummings took quiet and deadly revenge
Helen MacNamara, Whitehall’s most senior woman, told the Covid inquiry how Boris Johnson sanctioned behaviour that was “miles away from what is right or proper or decent or what the country deserves”, writes John Rentoul
Read John’s take on today’s evidence from Mc MacNamara below:
How the female civil servant abused by Dominic Cummings took quiet and deadly revenge
Helen MacNamara, Whitehall’s most senior woman, told the Covid inquiry how Boris Johnson sanctioned behaviour that was ‘miles away from what is right or proper or decent or what the country deserves’, writes John Rentoul
ICYMI: It was the most shocking evidence ever heard at a public inquiry
The language was obscene, the disregard for the lives of the elderly callous, and the incompetence monumental… Dominic Cummings’s first day of evidence at the Covid Inquiry damned a chaotic, dysfunctional government – but did it provide lessons for the next public health crisis? John Rentoul sifts the evidence.
Read John’s full piece here:
It was the most shocking evidence ever heard at a public inquiry
The language was obscene, the disregard for the lives of the elderly callous, and the incompetence monumental… Dominic Cummings’s first day of evidence at the Covid Inquiry damned a chaotic, dysfunctional government – but did it provide lessons for the next public health crisis? John Rentoul sifts the evidence
Summary of the day’s evidence session
During her evidence earlier, Helen MacNamara recalled the government being unprepared for the pandemic - a theme that has come up repeatedly during the inquiry.
She also described a “macho” and “toxic” culture at the top government and criticised Boris Johnson for not condemning a message sent to him by Dominic Cummings in which he referred to Ms MacNamara as a “c*nt”.
The former deputy cabinet secretary and ethics chief, one of the first to confirm she had been fined over a lockdown-busting event, also revealed that she could hardly recall a day when Covid rules were followed in Downing Street.
On one of the few days when the rules were adhered to, she said that members of the cabinet “moaned” about it afterward”.
Before the pandemic hit the UK, she claimed that officials at the heart of government “laughed” at how the crisis was being handled in Italy, where hospitals had been overwhelmed by the virus.
Baroness Hallett has closed today’s session after hearing evidence from Helen MacNamara and Professor David Halpern.
Miss what happened earlier? Stay tuned for a recap of all of the action from today and yesterday.
Lots of ‘good people’ trying to do ‘the right thing'
Lots of “good people” trying to do “the right thing” characterised the early part of the pandemic, professor Halpern tells the inquiry.
He said that one of the challenges he faced was translating scientific knowledge into advice that members of the public could understand, citing the Covid tracing app as one example.
He adds that he was promised the app would be available to use with “two to three weeks” but its delivery ended up taking six months.
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
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