By Ben Kerrigan-
Families bereaved by Covid-19 have called on Boris Johnson to relinquish control over topics to be investigated in the pandemic public inquiry, due to allegations of lockdown-breaking at Downing Street which they say inevitably compromises his position.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group have expressed their concern that current arrangements in which the prime minister has a final say over inquiry topics, could allow him to water down examination of how his own conduct and that of senior officials may have undermined public trust in infection control measures that the bereaved say cost lives.
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The group, representing over 6,000 families, is calling on the prime minister to commit to accepting terms of reference presented by the chair to the inquiry, Lady Hallett, after a public consultation, and not to interfere at all.
There is no guarantee the prime minister will accept the recommendation of the group. Lockdown breaches at downing street is currently being investigated by the police and senior civil servant Sue Gray released her report over a week ago. The Covid inquiry to take place this spring seeks to determine whether the Uk government could have done more than it did to prevent the large number of deaths caused by Covid-19, and also examine other aspects of the pandemic, which the Covid-19 bereaved families do not want Boris Johnson to contribute to.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that it’s not good enough for him to just take the chair’s recommendations for the terms of reference as advice and he needs to commit to implementing them in full,” said Hannah Brady, a member of the bereaved group. “The fact his office is under police investigation for breaching the rules shows he is compromised and cannot be allowed to have a final say on what the inquiry looks into.”
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The UK Guardian which broke the story reports than 159,000 people in the UK have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, and more than 180,000 had Covid on their death certificates. This means that 30,000 people who had covid on their death certificates did not actually die of Covid-19 , since the Uk government established the 28 days parameter between the time of a positive covid test and the date of death to separate those who died of other causes but had covid-19 put on their death certificate.
The precise reason for over 30,000 excess deaths on death certificates will also be an important aspect of an inquiry about covid deaths in the Uk.
The call for control over the inquiry’s terms of reference to be handed to Hallett was backed by the Labour party.
“This inquiry is one of the most important in living history yet it is being supervised by a government paralysed by total chaos,” said Fleur Anderson, the shadow paymaster general. “If the prime minister had any respect for the bereaved families he would accept and implement the chair’s recommendations in full, not half-heartedly or under advisement. We cannot allow an administration currently under police investigation to mark its own homework on how it handled the pandemic.”
A government spokesperson said: “As the prime minister has previously stated, the Covid inquiry is set to begin its work in spring 2022. Bereaved families and the wider public will be consulted on the inquiry’s terms of reference before they are finalized.
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