Public inquiry into No 10's Covid-19 response inevitable, peer says

The scale of the coronavirus outbreak and the response it has required from government means a large-scale public inquiry is now inevitable, a former head of the civil service has said.

Sir Bob Kerslake said the scope of the decision-making undertaken by politicians and officials had been vast, and, as some of it had already been challenged, there would need to be a chance to reflect upon the UK’s response in case of another pandemic.

“There will need to be some sort of inquiry after we get through this to learn lessons,” said Lord Kerslake, who is a crossbench peer. “This is one where we might face the same situation again.

“I hope that even during this clear crisis moment there is a proper record being kept of who made decisions and why, because that will be very, very important. Not to lay blame – though clearly there will be a bit of that – but to plan for the future. We could face this again and it could be even worse.”

Kerslake also warned Downing Street against appointing people with election skills and backgrounds in political messaging over those with the exact skills for the task in hand.

His intervention echoes repeated acknowledgments by ministers that their decisions are likely to be scrutinised at a future inquiry and No 10 accepts that this is likely to be on the horizon.

A senior Tory source said questions over testing, the government’s initial consideration of herd immunity, ventilator stocks, the way ideas have been briefed to the press, and the delivery of personal protective equipment would all be issues any inquiry might want to look at.

They said: “There has to be a public inquiry about how decisions were taken and what was happening beforehand while the virus was still in Wuhan in China. What was the planning, what was flagged to who and when?”

An ex-No 10 staffer said no one working on coronavirus from within Downing Street would be overly concerned about a forthcoming inquiry, but they would always have “one eye” on what would be subject to a freedom of information request and any leaks of information, particularly when they involved worst-case scenario planning.

Downing Street is said to be urgently bringing trusted people back on board to help deal with the crisis, including Isaac Levido, the head of the Tories’ successful 2019 general election campaign. He has been tasked with improving the party’s public health communications campaign.

Tom Shinner, a civil servant who was formerly head of no-deal Brexit planning, has been drafted back into Downing Street to coordinate Whitehall’s response to Covid-19.

Kerslake said Shinner had clearly impressed the government over Brexit and that Levido was known for his skills with election communications, but that the job now required a firm grasp of data and science.

He said: “This is more about how do you keep the public on side because this requires massive voluntary effort. People have to choose to follow the rules and how do you keep confidence with the public.

“The communication task goes beyond producing messaging. If that’s all Levido does, I’m not sure he will add a lot, but if he can recognise the … task that’s needed now and how different it is to an election campaign, then he might bring something to it. If he does a rerun of the election, he’s got it wrong.”

A No 10 insider said Shinner was a brilliant civil servant and exactly the right person to work on Covid-19. The senior Tory source said they were worried about the new appointees – particularly Levido – because of their political background.

They said: “You need people who understand the logistical challenges. Experts in disaster relief. A lot of these people already exist within government who look after crisis briefs. Winning elections is good but undoubtedly this is different.”