Matt Hancock cracked with emotion while giving evidence to the official Covid inquiry this morning, his voice breaking with sadness as he told the room of his “profound sorrow” for the Government’s “flawed doctrine” that caused problems when trying to battle the virus.
He told the inquiry that there had been a “huge error in the doctrine that the UK – and the whole Western world – had in tackling a pandemic”, adding that doctrine “underpinned many of the problems that made it extremely difficult to respond”.
Mr Hancock said he was “profoundly sorry for the impact that had”.
“I’m profoundly sorry for each death that has occurred, and I also understand why for some it will be hard to take that apology from me. I understand, I get it.”
He continued: “But it is honest and heartfelt and I’m not very good at talking about my emotions and how I feel but that is honest and true and all I can do is ensure this inquiry gets to the bottom of it and that for the future we learn the right lessons so that we stop a pandemic in its tracks much much earlier and that we have the systems in place ready to do that”.
Matt Hancock added his concern that the systems put in place over the course of the Covid pandemic to tackle a virus outbreak are “being dismantled as we speak”.
Mr Hancock told the inquiry that the UK’s preparation had been primarily focusing on planning for the consequences of a deadly pandemic rather than preventing one.
“The attitude, the doctrine of the UK was to plan for the consequences of a disaster: can we buy enough body bags; Where are we going to bury the dead? And that was completely wrong.”
“Of course, it’s important to have that in case you fail to stop a pandemic, but central to pandemic planning needs to be – how do you stop the disaster from happening in the first place? How do you suppress the virus?”
While the UK had been rated as one of the best-placed countries in the world at responding to a potential pandemic, Mr Hancock said that “turned out to be wrong”.
Mr Hancock also said that resources were moved away from pandemic planning in favour of focusing on a potential no deal Brexit.
“In the face of Brexit and the threats that a disorganised Brexit could do, resources were moved across the department to focus on that threat including away from pandemic preparedness planning.
“This was proposed to me by the permanent secretary and the [Chief Medical Officer] and I signed it off.
“I regarded the Secretary of State’s job not to run the department in terms of resource allocation but to set the direction but I signed off that decision.”