Whitehall’s pandemic ‘dystopian nightmare’

The Covid Inquiry has been taking evidence from Helen MacNamara, Deputy Cabinet Secretary from 2020 to 2021. During Dominic Cummings’s cross-examination yesterday it was revealed that he had wanted to ‘handcuff her [MacNamara] and escort’ her out of No. 10. Yet much of her evidence this morning corroborates his account (or rather criticism) of Whitehall in March 2020.

One key point of agreement was the lack of effective planning for these scenarios. According to MacNamara, Matt Hancock, the then Health Secretary, told cabinet ‘time and time again’ shortly before the pandemic that the government had plans in place to deal with Covid. In her oral evidence, she says she heard Hancock say this in person, and assumed he was right, but that these plans never materialised. His evidence session is likely to focus on addressing these claims.

Another example of a lack of poor planning was provided when the then Prime Minister fell ill with Covid.