Key findings from the 2023 Covid inquiry show NHS failed to prepare PPE amid ‘carousel of chaos’

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. "It is clear that such planning, from 2018 onwards, crowded out and prevented some or perhaps a majority of the improvements that central government itself understood were required to be made to resilience planning and preparedness.” Evidence likely to show ‘chaos’ in government Evidence is likely to show a lack of responsibility in government and "chaos" which led to a slow reaction to a pandemic where "lost time is measured in lost lives", the Covid inquiry has been told. open image in gallery Former prime minister David Cameron giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry Referring to austerity, Mr Cameron said “I think it was the right economic policy.” And Mr Cameron added that the time spent focusing on flu during contingency planning was “the thing I keep coming back to” when considering the “horrors of the Covid pandemic”. open image in gallery Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden previously said some information requested by the Covid inquiry needed to be protected Mr Keith asked Mr Dowden on Wednesday about a 2019 memo about the National Security Council threats programme which suggested that work on pandemic influenza was expected to be affected by the “step-up in planning for a no-deal exit from the EU”. Mr Dowden said: “It was the case at that time that ‘no deal’ was the default position of the government … this is worth remembering the kind of frankly, apocryphal warnings that were being delivered about the consequences of no-deal Brexit.” Matt Hancock gives evidence - 28 June Matt Hancock, who served as health secretary during the pandemic, admitted that the UK was not properly prepared for Covid– claiming officials were more concerned with counting bodybags than preventing the spread of the virus.