EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: There is a reason why the PM is resisting a public inquiry

On Tuesday, we all came together in shared remembrance of those we have lost, those who we couldn’t say goodbye to and those who are alone in their grief. The Prime Minister chose to mark this sombre occasion by jubilantly stating on Tuesday night to a private gathering of his MP’s: ‘The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends.’

This isn’t true. For one, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is being sold at cost price, not for profit. The reason the vaccine is a success is because of our NHS, our frontline workers. It has nothing to do with this Government. But then the Prime Minister regularly lies with impunity and abandon.

Tuesday night’s offering was just another line in grotesque comments from someone whose reckless behaviour and poor decision making has led us to having one of the highest death rates in the world, over 126 000 people dead. Their families, friends, loved ones and neighbours will never see them, hold them or hear their voice again.

A grotesque comment from someone whose handling of the pandemic has led to a ‘lost’ generation, a mental health crisis, a cancer treatment backlog, an economy on its knees and rising poverty levels.

It is little wonder that, when he states in public he is ‘deeply sorry’ and that the Government ‘did everything we could’, these words ring hollow.

There is a reason he is resisting a public inquiry. He knows that he and his Cabinet have failed us all. He knows that his disinterest in key Cobra meetings at the outset of the pandemic, the decision to lock down late, lift lockdown early, not close our borders, not put in place effective track, trace and isolate amongst many other errors, have led us to where we are now.

A public inquiry is urgently needed. It can’t happen in years to come when those responsible are ensconced somewhere in the wealth they amassed off the back of this pandemic.

It must begin now; they must be held to account.