Covid-19 inquiry opens as families fight for 'justice and accountability'

Campaigners disappointed only one of them can give evidence in person

Members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice hold photos of relatives who died during the pandemic, as they demonstrate outside the venue for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, ahead of its first day in west London on June 13, 2023. An enquiry probing the UK government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic kicks off Tuesday with the investigation mired in controversy even before the first witness is called. The UK suffered one of the worst Covid-19 death tolls in Europe with over 128,500 deaths recorded by mid-July 2021. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

Aamer Anwar (centre), lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, speaks to the media outside Dorland House. PA

Members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice become emotional. AFP

The inquiry into the UK government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic started on Tuesday. AFP

A sign put in place outside the venue for the inquiry. AFP

People hold pictures of loved ones lost during the pandemic. PA

Families who lost loved ones to Covid-19 have vowed to continue their push for “justice and accountability” on the opening day of the independent inquiry into the UK government’s handling of the pandemic.

Members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group formed a solemn line outside Dorland House in west London on Tuesday morning on the opening day of the inquiry, and held up photos of their deceased relatives.

More than 6,500 relatives of Covid victims are represented by the group.

Many of those who turned up were dressed in red, to signify the loss of life that the coronavirus inflicted on the population.

The group expressed frustration at feeling “excluded from sharing key evidence” at the inquiry after their request for people to give testimony in person was rejected on logistics grounds.

“Never did we imagine that on the first day of the Inquiry we would feel as excluded and marginalised as ever. And yet we are,” the group said in a statement on social media.

They said it was “incredibly disappointing” that only one member would be called on to give evidence.

In a message to Baroness Hallett, the inquiry’s chairwoman, they said: “We will never forget the loved ones we lost in the pandemic, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure that their deaths are learnt from so others don’t have to face the same awful and preventable fate.

Charles Persinger, who lost his wife and mother to the virus, said he hoped the inquiry would lead to “justice and accountability for all of us”.

In a series of videos posted on Twitter, he said he and his friend had “fought for [the inquiry] for so long”.

The inquiry is expected to last years and cost more than £100million. It has been split into six modules. Public hearing are set to wrap up by summer 2026, and interim reports will be published before then.

The public hearings opened with Hugo Keith KC, the lead lawyer to the inquiry, saying that the UK may not have been “very well prepared at all” to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that the nation was “taken by surprise” by “significant aspects” of the disease that has been recorded on 226,977 death certificates.

He argued that preparations for Brexit had distracted Boris Johnson’s government from making the improvements required to the strategy on how to tackle a deadly pandemic.

Baroness Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge, vowed that those who suffered in the pandemic will “always be at the heart of the inquiry” as she launched the first public hearing.

The inquiry on Tuesday heard from bereaved families in a series of moving video interviews, which included harrowing stories of people dying alone from Covid.

Pete Weatherby KC, representing the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, read a press release from 2015 quoting former prime minister David Cameron saying the “world must be far better prepared for future health pandemics” following the ebola outbreak, and particularly respiratory diseases.

Bereaved families want to know what Mr Cameron's administration and subsequent Tory governments did after he raised this, Mr Weatherby said.