Covid Inquiry - Tories Still Bent

When Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister unopposed - maybe his party thought this the best course of action after Tory members had previously chosen Liz Truss - we were told that his appointment would herald a new era of openness and transparency. Some were foolish enough to believe this tosh. Because we are getting nothing of the sort, as the Covid inquiry shows.

Cross-bench peer Baroness Hallett was appointed to head the Covid inquiry, and this week the moment of reality emanating from that appointment has arrived. She has demanded information be handed over to the inquiry; Sunak is digging his heels in, resisting to the extent of applying for Judicial Review in an effort to prevent the release of a trove of WhatsApp messages.

And much of that trove is, it seems, down to disgraced former occasional Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, despite Bozo claiming that he had handed all his WhatsApps over in unredacted form. As so often, he talked well, but lied badly: his messages from February 2020 to April 2021 were not handed over. They have still not ALL been handed over.

Bozo changed phones in April 2021: perhaps we will be told that Dilyn ate the old one. Then writer and historian Philip Stephens mused “Unavoidable question now is whether cabinet secretary Simon Case has his own reasons for withholding information from Covid inquiry”. And, after the 31st May deadline passed, Dan Bloom at Politico London confirmed that. And more.

Several people had been asked for their WhatsApps, and by late April those not yet complying included Bozo, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove and Kemi Badenoch, and also Munira Mirza, James “Enemies of the People” Slack, Dan Rosenfield, and … Simon Case.

Have he and the others since complied? We are not told. But we are told that a list of questions has been prepared by the good Baroness for Bozo’s perusal and reply. George Grylls has said “some of them are pretty savage”, but I disagree: these are the questions that many who lost friends and family to Covid want answering - by the person who was in charge at the time.

Questions like “did you have any concerns regarding the performance of any Cabinet Minister between January 2022 - February 2022? … did you receive advice from the then Cabinet Secretary that Matt Hancock MP, should be removed from his position? … To what extent did you believe that coronavirus was akin to influenza? Did you hold and express the initial view in early 2020 that Covid-19 was not a serious threat and was akin to swine flu?”

There was more. A lot more. "Why did you not attend any COBR meetings in relation to Covid-19 prior to 2 March 2020, given the seriousness of the emergency? … Were you advised or requested to attend any of the previous meetings on 24 January, 29 January, 4 February, 12 February, and 18 February? Why did you attend a personal/social meeting on the evening of 19 March, after you had called on the UK on 16 March to stop all non-essential contact with others?” Ooh interesting! Back to the Baroness’ questions.

“Why did the UK Government not advise the public in February or March 2020 to wear face coverings on a precautionary basis? … Did you inform the then Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, during a phone call on or around 13 March 2020 that you ‘wanted herd immunity’, or words to that effect?”

“Please confirm whether in March 2020 (or around that period), you suggested to senior civil servants and advisors that you be injected with Covid-19 on television to demonstrate to the public that it did not pose a threat?” If he did suggest that, he’s off his head. Do go on.

“In or around Autumn 2020, did you state that you would rather 'let the bodies pile high' than order another lockdown, or words to that effect? … Please explain what impact, if any, you consider alleged breaches of social restriction and lockdown rules by Ministers, officials and advisers ... had on public confidence and the maintenance of observance of those rules by the public?”

And all of that is before we get to the Covid contract largesse of Johnson’s Government. Tens, hundreds of millions spaffed up the wall, to use Bozo’s happy phrase, on useless PPE purchased through companies which had been placed in the administration’s “VIP lane”. The public wants answers.

The public would also like those involved to take the inquiry seriously, and one intervention from Fionna O’Leary suggests they are not doing so: “In the interests of completeness … the actual S21 notice specific to these evidence sources was issued by Hallett on 28 April. So they all sat on them for a full month … albeit the Cab Office tried to argue on 15 May that Hallett’s order was ultra vires (outside the scope)”. Time for the Tories to listen up.

People want answers. If that means shame and humiliation for those in power at the time, and makes the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press look even worse than it does now, so be it. If the inquiry’s revelations cause the scales to fall from a few more pairs of eyes, even better. Give the inquiry the information it has demanded. Let it follow the evidence.

Anyone might think the Tories have something to hide. No change there.

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