Boris Johnson commits to independent coronavirus inquiry
Boris Johnson has committed to hold an independent inquiry into the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs).
Johnson told the House of Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions that there would be an inquiry, marking it the first official confirmation that the government’s response would be officially scrutinised.
The format of the inquiry is yet to be made clear.
“I do not believe now in the middle of combating, still as we are, a pandemic is the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry, but of course we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future,” Johnson said.
“Certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened.”
The government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been much criticised, after more than 45,000 people have officially died from the disease.
Per capita, the UK has one of the highest few death rates in the world.
Johnson’s commitment to an inquiry came after a question by Liberal Democrats acting leader Ed Davey.
“Under this prime minister we suffered one of the worst death rates in the world and Europe’s worst death rate for health and care workers,” he said.
It comes as a new report from the Academy of Medical Sciences, which was commissioned by chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, warned of a potential second spike if the government does not take action now.
The report said that there could be a further 120,000 deaths from coronavirus from September to June next year if actions are not taken to reduce and keep down the Covid-19 rate of transmission.
However, the report does not take into account potential government measures to reduce the UK’s Covid-19 infection rate.