Buck stops with Boris Johnson for unnecessary Covid deaths, says Starmer

The buck stops with Boris Johnson for decisions which led to unnecessary deaths from Covid-19, Keir Starmer has said.

The Labour leader stepped up demands for an immediate public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, following dramatic claims from former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings that “tens of thousands of people died who didn’t need to die”.

The prime minister today said that some of the commentary around Mr Cummings’ evidence to a House of Commons inquiry “doesn’t bear any relation to reality”.

Asked if tens of thousands died unnecesarily because of his inaction, Mr Johnson replied: “No I don’t think so, but of course this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we’ve taken lightly.”

But he made no specific denial of his former right-hand man’s central claims that the government initially pursued a “herd immunity” approach to the outbreak and that health secretary Matt Hancock wrongly claimed that testing was being carried out on all patients discharged into care homes.

After being branded a serial liar by Mr Cummings on Wednesday, the health secretary today told the Commons that “these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true”, insisting he had been “straight with people in public and in private throughout”.

But he did not explicitly refute allegations that he knowingly allowed hospital patients to be sent untested to care homes, telling MPs: “The challenge is we had to build testing capacity, and at that time of course I was focused on protecting people in care homes and in building that testing capacity so that we had the daily tests to be able to ensure that availability was more widespread.”

Challenged on Mr Cummings’ claim that it was “nonsense” to suggest that care homes were shielded from the disease, Mr Johnson acknowledged that “of course what happened in care homes was tragic”.

Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Essex, he added: “We did everything we could to protect the NHS, to minimise transmission with the knowledge that we had.

“We did everything we could to protect the NHS and to protect care homes as well… We put £1.4 billion extra into infection control within care homes, we established a care homes action plan, I remember very clearly, to ensure that we tried to stop infection between care homes.”

In response to Mr Cummings’ judgement that he was not a fit person to be leading the country, the PM said: “I think, if I may say so, that some of the commentary I have heard doesn’t bear any relation to reality.

“What people want us to get on with is delivering the road map and trying – cautiously – to take our country forward through what has been one of the most difficult periods that I think anybody can remember.”

But Sir Keir said: “What we need to do is put what Dominic Cummings said alongside the facts we know. We’ve got one of the highest death tolls in Europe and the families who have lost someone are entitled to answers in relation to this. Bad decisions have consequences. In this case, I’m afraid, they’re unnecessary deaths.”

Speaking on a visit to Bristol, the Labour leader said: “They’re very, very serious allegations. They paint a picture that actually leads to the prime minister - the buck stops with him.”

Sir Keir said that it was now essential to bring forward the public inquiry into the handling of Covid, which Mr Johnson has said will not start until the spring of 2022.

“I don’t think Dominic Cummings should have the last word on this and that’s why all the evidence should be put before the committee, the health secretary should answer the allegations and the inquiry should be fast-forwarded,” said Starmer.

“It’s not about taking anyone’s word – it’s about getting to the bottom of it.

“We also have to look at the other evidence. We know people were discharged from hospitals to care homes without tests, we know protective equipment didn’t get to the frontline on time and we know the prime minister was slow to lockdown, particularly in the autumn and we know the consequence of that was the highest death toll in Europe.”

Helen Keenan, whose mother Kathleen died in a care home from coronavirus after being transferred from hospital, told Sky News: “I would like to see the statutory public inquiry brought forward, because waiting until 2022 is frankly insulting to the people that have lost loved ones . There is no excuse for leaving it any longer.

“We’ve learnt from Grenfell and Hillsborough how important it is to have these inquiries and to have a rapid review process where we get the messages through as early and as quickly as possible to prevent any further deaths.”

The chair of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, said: “Bereaved families and NHS workers on the frontline are desperate for answers about what went wrong during the pandemic.

“Instead all they got from Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock today were more attempts to duck scrutiny for the catastrophic errors that happened under their watch.

“This shows the urgent need for a public inquiry that is genuinely independent and has full access to the relevant communications between ministers and civil servants.”