Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that “we should be mindful” of the scale and the resources the inquiry requires, so that it doesn’t inadvertently distract the NHS workers “at the peak our struggle against the disease.”
In an official statement on Covid-19 updates and the lifting of lockdown restrictions, Johnson confirmed the decision to investigate the initial government response to the pandemic.
He added that Westminster was in talks with the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to set the terms of the inquiry.
Right Timing
The right moment for the inquiry, according to the PM, is Spring 2022.
Johnson suggested that if the nation was to recover as “One Team UK”, it must also learn lessons together through a process that “will place the state’s actions under the microscope”.
Johnson also warned that the end of the lockdown did not mean the end of Covid-19, as the threat of new variants remained with “high likelihood of a surge this winter”.
Leader of the opposition, Labour’s Keir Starmer, welcomed the PM’s commitment to a transparent inquiry but questioned its time frame. Starmer asked why the inquiry won’t be starting earlier and advised the government to not only consult the devolved leadership but also the bereaved families, and the NHS workers.
Johnson retorted by calling it “the right timing” and argued against dedicating “huge amounts of public health workers’ time to an inquiry when they very well may still be in the middle of the pandemic”.
“Tory Chums”
Scottish National Party MP Allan Brown criticised the government for failing to control borders and delaying the lockdown, and asked the PM if the inquiry was “going to have to look at the original decision making process.”
He also questioned whether the inquiry would look into the “electronic communications between government ministers and their Tory chums who got contracts” to supply PPE during the pandemic, referring to the appointment process of Dido Harding.
Indian Variant
The PM also commented on the spread of the Indian variant – B.1.617.2 – suggesting it could be “considerably more transmissible”. He added that the government is looking at all the potential solutions for spikes, such as in Bolton and in other parts of the country.
The United Kingdom has seen a rapid increase in detection of lineage B.1.617.1 and, to a greater extent, B.1.617.2, associated with travel to India and onward community transmission, as reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Britain has lost more than 127,000 people to Covid-19 and has been under one of the world’s strictest national lockdowns, since the beginning of the pandemic.
The UK government has been widely criticised since the onset of the crisis in 2019 for failing to take appropriate measures on time, leading to a greater loss of life.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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