Toxic No 10 culture, unnecessary deaths and failed children: Key takeaways from the Covid Inquiry report
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world
Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email
Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email
Boris Johnson presided over a “toxic and chaotic culture” at No 10 while poor decision-making and delays in introducing a lockdown contributed to the deaths of 20,000 during the pandemic, a highly critical report has found.
The second report from the Covid-19 Inquiry also found that the views of women often went ignored by the former prime minister and his closest aides, while Mr Johnson was also said to have a “failure to appreciate the urgency of the situation” in the early days.
During a series of hearings, chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge, heard wide-ranging criticisms of Mr Johnson and his team, with WhatsApp messages and emails detailing disagreements disclosed to the inquiry.
open image in gallery
Boris Johnson was found to have failed to appreciate the urgency of the situation ahead of the first lockdown (PA)
Evidence was taken from more than 160 witnesses including Mr Johnson, his aide Dominic Cummings, and former health secretary Matt Hancock. They were questioned on measures such as public testing, social distancing, and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which it had been hoped could inject cash into businesses that had been forced to shut during the Spring lockdown.
Summarising her findings, Baroness Hallett found that while No 10 had to make decisions under pressure, the response was “too little, too late”, while 23,000 lives could have been saved had measures been implemented a week earlier.
Here are the key takeaways from the damning report:
‘Toxic culture’ at No10
The report found that Mr Johnson failed to appreciate “the urgency of the situation” after the virus began to spread in early 2020, and displayed “optimism that it would amount to nothing”.
He was also found to have “repeatedly changed his mind” in September and October 2020 on whether to introduce tougher restrictions and “failed to make timely decisions”. The report says that his “oscillation enabled the virus to continue spreading at pace” and led to the second four-week lockdown that November.
His senior advister, Mr Cummings, was described as a “destabilising influence” whose behaviour “comtributed significantly to a culture of fear, mutual distrust and suspicion that poisoned the atmosphere in 10 Downing Street and undermined the authority of the prime minister”.
open image in gallery
Former adviser Dominic Cummings was described as a ‘destabilising influence’ (James Manning/PA) (PA Archive)
The report found: “By failing to tackle this chaotic culture – and, at times, actively encouraging it – Mr Johnson reinforced a culture in which the loudest voices prevailed and the views of other colleagues, particularly women, often went ignored, to the detriment of good decision-making.”
Mr Hancock had also “gained a reputation among senior officials and advisers at 10 Downing Street for overpromising and underdelivering”.
Lockdowns and deaths ‘could have been avoided’
The report into the government’s core decision making and political governance found that more than 20,000 lives could have been saved in England if the lockdown had been implemented just a week earlier than it was in March 2020.
“Had more stringent restrictions short of a ‘stay at home’ lockdown been introduced earlier than 16 March […] the mandatory lockdown that was imposed might have been shorter or conceivably might not have been necessary at all,” the report says.
However, had the mandatory lockdown been in place from that earlier March 16 date, “modelling has established that the number of deaths in England in the first wave up until 1 July 2020 would have been reduced by 48 per cent – equating to approximately 23,000 fewer deaths.”
Partygate ‘undermind confidence’
Alcohol-filled parties in Downing Street, involving Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak and senior staff, “undermined public confidence in decision-making” and significantly increased the risk of the public abandoning lockdown rules.
They were also a blow to people who had “endured huge personal costs” to stick to the rules – including those “unable to be with their loved ones when they died”.
The Downing Street party saga in particular led to a “self-reported” reduction in people following the rules over Christmas 2021.
The final weeks of 2021 were dominated by reports of alleged rule-breaking by officials in government buildings while lockdown rules were in place. This included a gathering of around 30 people in the Cabinet Room on 19 June 2020 to present Mr Johnson with a birthday cake, at a time when most indoor gatherings were banned.
Both the prime minister and Mr Sunak received fines after a Met Police investigation.
Eat Out to Help Out went against advice
The ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme in summer 2020 was “devised in the absence of scientific advice” and “undermined public health messaging”.
While its intention was to inject cash into the hospitality industry by offering discounted restaurant meals, Mr Johnson and then-chancellor Rishi Sunak “failed to seek scientific advice”.
This was despite being warned about the potential risks of the scheme by Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical adviser to the government.
Children ‘failed’ by school closures
While the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 undoubtedly saved lives, the report found they also “left lasting scars on society and the economy, brought ordinary childhood to a halt, delayed the diagnosis and treatment of other health issues and exacerbated societal inequalities”.
The vast majority of children were not at risk of serious direct harm from Covid-19, “but suffered greatly from the closure of schools and requirement to stay at home”.
Children “were not always prioritised” and the government was not prepared for the “sudden and enormous task” of educating children in their homes “and failed sufficiently”.
