has written to today to demand that the Secretary of State for
Health and Social Care addresses unanswered questions about the
Government's handling of the covid-19 crisis, highlighting
mistakes on testing and PPE and a failure to protect vulnerable
people in care homes.
The letter comes following Mr Hancock's refusal to answer the
questions in the House of Commons, which have been raised
following allegations made by in his testimony to the Health and Science and
Technology Select Committees yesterday.
In the letter, demanded the Health Secretary provide full and
transparent answers to grieving families, saying:
"It is extremely disrespectful to those who have died and their
loved ones, for you not to have addressed such pressing questions
in the Chamber when you first had the opportunity to do so. Out
of respect for the families, I am therefore writing to urge you
to admit to your mistakes and take action."
"The families of the 128,000 who have lost their lives deserve
full and transparent answers, and we must ensure that these
mistakes are never allowed to happen again."
Ends
Full text of the letter:
Dear Mr Hancock,
Re: The Government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic
I am writing to you today to seek a full and transparent
explanation in answer to the significant recent criticism of your
handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in your capacity as Secretary
of State for Health and Social Care. Honesty and integrity of
Ministers is critical to maintaining public confidence in
Government decision-making, and I urge you to provide an honest
response to the many unanswered questions that have been raised
in recent days.
In testimony to the Health and Science & Technology Select
Committees, the Prime Minister’s former Chief Advisor made
incredibly serious allegations about your conduct and criticised
the decisions made by you in responding to the Covid-19 crisis.
In the Chamber today, I gave you the opportunity to respond to
these allegations and put to you a series of questions regarding
the Government’s handling of the pandemic.
Unfortunately, you failed to answer every single question I asked
and evaded every allegation. Instead of giving answers to the
grieving families who need an explanation now, you gave us
details about the number of press conferences you have given. I
am therefore writing to put these questions to you again, in the
expectation that you will answer fully.
On care homes and testing:
You promised to put a ‘protective shield’ around care homes, yet
over 30,000 care home residents have died. Why were 25,000
elderly people discharged from hospitals into care homes without
any test?
Given the evidence for asymptomatic transmission, why did you not
insist on a precautionary approach and test all going into care
homes from hospital?
Did you tell Downing Street in March that people discharged from
hospital into care homes had been tested, even though it wasn’t
until 15th April that there was a requirement for testing to take
place?
On 6th May 2020 you claimed that for elderly people in hospital,
it was “safer for them to go to a care home”, yet 12,000 people
died in care homes in the early months of the pandemic. How can
you justify that comment?
On PPE:
How do you respond to allegations that whilst you were telling
the public in March that PPE supplies were “extensive”, in
Downing Street you blaming Simon Stevens for the lack of PPE? How
many deaths could have been avoided if PPE was in place?
It is extremely disrespectful to those who have died and their
loved ones, for you not to have addressed such pressing questions
in the Chamber when you first had the opportunity to do so. Out
of respect for the families, I am therefore writing to urge you
to admit to your mistakes and take action.
In addition to answering these points, it is imperative that the
Government brings forward the public inquiry into the handling of
the pandemic. Work must begin to set this up in June, once
restrictions are lifted, to ensure the lessons learned can be
used immediately as we continue to battle the virus and to help
us to be better prepared when the next pandemic strikes.
The families of the 128,000 who have lost their lives deserve
full and transparent answers, and we must ensure that these
mistakes are never allowed to happen again.
I will be releasing a copy of this letter to the press.
