Covid inquiry live: Priti Patel admits policing of Sarah Everard vigil was ‘totally inappropriate’

Lord Sedwill has told the Covid inquiry it took Boris Johnson a “long time” to recover from his bout with Covid, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former cabinet secretary said he was concerned about the then prime minister’s “stamina”.

He said Mr Johnson’s “decision-making style”, having been repeatedly compared to a veering trolley during the inquiry, was “a separate question”.

Inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC promised “we will come back to that”.

If the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had been better structured and resourced for a public health crisis, the UK could have had an alternative to locking down during the pandemic, Lord Sedwill has said, Archie Mitchell reports.

One example the former cabinet secretary put forward is contact tracing capabilities, which would have provided “more options” at the beginning of the pandemic.

Lord Sedwill has denied he was “wedded” to the government’s initial herd immunity strategy to tackle Covid, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former cabinet secretary was asked whether he was “unimpressed” by the government’s decision to introduce measures attempting to control the pandemic.

“I was not wedded to it,” Lord Sedwill said. “The government had no choice but to accelerate into these measures,” he added.

Lord Sedwill has told the Covid inquiry an earlier lockdown could have resulted in a shorter lockdown overall, Archie Mitchell reports.

“Earlier would have been better.” the former cabinet secretary said.

He was asked about Boris Johnson’s March 16, 2020 statement, asking people to avoid pubs and clubs and work from home, and whether if it was given earlier a national lockdown could have been avoided.

Lord Sedwill said: “I am highly sceptical that it would have been possible to avoid the lockdown altogether.

“It might well have been possible for it to have been less prolonged.”

Lord Sedwill gave Sir Patrick Vallance “an evil eye” in a meeting in which the then chief scientific adviser urged an acceleration of the government’s approach to the pandemic, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former cabinet secretary said he did “not remember being furious” and Sir Patrick did not tell him at the time he had “pulled a face”.

But diary entries by Sir Patrick, submitted to the Covid inquiry, said at a meeting on March 15, 2020, Lord Sedwill was “furious, gave him a very sour look or tentatively gave him an evil eye”.

Lord Sedwill has said he did not believe Covid was only as serious as chickenpox and “knew it was a much more serious disease”, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former cabinet secretary has come under fire during the Covid inquiry for advising the prime minister to “explain that this is like the old days with chickenpox and people are going to have chickenpox parties”.

Asked about his stance, Lord Sedwill said: “That was not the point I was trying to make. As soon as I realised… I dropped it, because I realised the analogy was causing confusion.”

Lord Sedwill said: “I understand how… it must have come across that someone in my role was both heartless and thoughtless about this.

“I genuinely am neither. But I do understand the distress that must have caused and I apologise for that because it certainly wouldn’t have been my intention.”.

Lord Sedwill accused Boris Johnson’s government of acting like a “dictatorship” and railed against key decisions being taken by “a bunch of No10 Spads”, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former PM’s top adviser Dominic Cummings tried to convene a meeting chaired by himself and Mr Johnson’s comms chief Lee Cain in March 2020 to “bring key players together”.

But, responding to the email shown to the Covid inquiry, the former cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill said: “We are not running a dictatorship here and the PM is not taking nationally significant decisions with a bunch of number 10 Spads and no ministers, no operational experts and no scientists.

“If necessary. I will take over the 8.15am slot and chair a daily meeting myself.”

Lord Sedwill has accepted the government’s emergency planning body could not cope with the “once in a century” pandemic which Covid represented, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former cabinet secretary told the Covid inquiry the pandemic was “a wholly different magnitude” and was beyond the capacity of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS).

Inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC questioned why it was not prepared, given one of its own “tier one” risks was a “serious pandemic” causing as many as 820,000 deaths.

“They didn’t have the capacity to deal with this on their own at this scale,” Lord Sedwill said.

Lord Sedwill has said control of the virus had been “lost” by the time a Covid action plan was published by the Department of Health on March 3, Archie Mitchell reports.

The plan set out the UK’s contain, delay and mitigate approach to the pandemic. But inquiry counsel Hugo Keith KC asked if the former cabinet secretary would accept that control had already been lost by then.

Lord Sedwill said: “We didn’t understand that at the time but, and indeed, that wasn’t the advice I think Sage gave us at the time.” But given what officials then discovered, “that is a fact”, Lord Sedwill added.

The Covid inquiry has heard officials at the top of government believed the Covid pandemic was “not going to happen” and that there “was optimism bias”, Archie Mitchell reports.

Former cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill was asked by inquiry lead counsel Hugo Keith KC whether, as previous witnesses have suggested, “elements of the government just believed it wasn’t going to happen, that there was optimism bias”.

Lord Sedwill said that is a “fair” way of putting it.

He added: “It’s hard looking back to recall quite how extraordinary were the measures we later took, they were unconscionable at the time.

“And therefore I think your point about this instinctive human reaction is true.”