Key Summary
- The second report of the UK public inquiry said that if the first lockdown was imposed earlier, it could have prevented 23,000 deaths in England
- The report found a "lack of trust" between Boris Johnson and leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
- Johnson's top adviser Dominic Cummings was castigated for being "a destabilising influence"
About 23,000 deaths could have been prevented in England if the first Covid-19 lockdown had been introduced sooner at the start of the pandemic, a UK public inquiry found Thursday (20), also slamming a "toxic" and misogynistic culture at the top of government.
The second report from an inquiry into the UK response to the Covid-19 pandemic criticised the government led by Boris Johnson for a "lack of urgency" in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, adding the lockdown was "too little, too late".
Inquiry chair Heather Hallett said there was a "serious failure" by the government to "appreciate the level of risk and the calamity that the UK faced and the need to inject urgency into the response".
Modelling shows that if the first lockdown had been imposed earlier, it could have prevented 23,000 deaths in England alone in the first wave, according to the 800-page report.
"Had the lockdown been imposed one week earlier than March 23, the evidence suggests that the number of deaths in England alone in the first wave up until July 1, 2020 would have been reduced by 48 percent," Hallett, a retired senior judge said.
The inquiry chair called February 2020 a "lost month", adding that if restrictions had been introduced sooner, the mandatory lockdown could have been shorter, or "might not have been necessary at all".
The report also criticised "repeated" failures and delays in introducing sufficient restrictions to control subsequent Covid-19 waves.
The inquiry, which was ordered by Johnson in May 2021, also castigated his top adviser Dominic Cummings.
'Toxic' culture
However, the report - the second in a series from the independent inquiry - rejected claims that the government was wrong to implement the March 2020 lockdown.
"Without it, the growth in transmission would have led to an unacceptable loss of life," the report said.
The UK suffered one of the worst Covid-19 death tolls in Europe, recording more than 128,500 fatalities by mid-July 2021.
More than 226,000 people have died from Covid in Britain since the start of the global pandemic in early 2020.
Johnson, who was prime minister from 2019 to 2022, has been criticised on various fronts for the pandemic response, including a lack of preparedness and failing to have enough protective equipment for frontline staff.
Hallett said Johnson had failed to appreciate the seriousness of the virus after it emerged at the start of 2020, believing it would amount to nothing and was distracted by other government business, with Britain at the time bogged down in talks over its departure from the European Union.
The report found a "lack of trust" between Johnson and leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have devolved public healthcare systems, as well as a "toxic" culture in government.
"At the centre of the UK government there was a toxic and chaotic culture," the report stated, adding the cabinet was "often sidelined in decision-making" and women's voices "often went ignored".
The report singled out the "destabilising" behaviour of Johnson's former top aide Cummings, slamming the ex-prime minister for failing to tackle the "toxic culture", and "at times, actively encouraging it".
Hallett said by the time Johnson announced a lockdown on March 23 it was "too little, too late", a repeated criticism she levelled at the British government and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Had Britain locked down just a week earlier on March 16, as the consensus of evidence said it should, the number of deaths in the first wave up to July would have been reduced by about 23,000 or 48 percent, the report concluded.
'Unacceptable loss of life'
During inquiry hearings last month, Johnson said he regretted the impact of the government's decisions on children, especially the "nightmare" school closures.
The first inquiry report published in July 2024 found that UK ministers and officials had been woefully underprepared for a global pandemic.
In a statement, a group representing families who lost loved ones during the pandemic slammed the government's "catastrophic mishandling".
"We now know that many of our family members would still be alive today if it weren't for the leadership of Boris Johnson and his colleagues," Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said.
The report recommended changes, including reforming decision-making structures during emergencies and improving consideration of the impact of decisions on vulnerable groups.
UK public inquiries are government-funded but have an independent chair. They investigate matters of public concern, establishing facts about what happened, why and what lessons can be learned.
They do not rule on civil or criminal liability, and any recommendations are not legally binding.
The Covid-19 inquiry, which began in 2023, is scheduled to wrap up hearings in 2026.
Partygate scandals
Johnson was forced from office in July 2022, with revelations of parties at Downing Street during COVID lockdowns among the many scandals that ended his premiership.
Both he and Rishi Sunak, the finance minister during the pandemic who later became prime minister, were fined for breaking lockdown rules.
Then health minister Matt Hancock also quit after photos emerged of him kissing and embracing an aide in his office in breach of restrictions. His "truthfulness and reliability" in meetings had also been a cause for concern, the inquiry found.
Some of the harshest language was directed at Cummings, who quit his job in November 2020.
While acknowledging his "commendable" role in helping change policy at the start of the pandemic, he was "a destabilising influence" who "used offensive, sexualised and misogynistic language" and strayed far from his proper role as an adviser.
Cummings told the inquiry that the Cabinet Office, which supports the running of government, had failed during the pandemic. Neither he nor Hancock made any comment on its findings.
