Labour says ministers “failed the public” as report finds UK wasn’t ready for Covid

Labour has accused ministers of having “failed the public” by not preparing adequately for the Covid pandemic after a report found that the government had not put in place plans for diseases with similar characteristics to coronavirus.

Commenting after the National Audit Office published a report into UK pandemic preparedness this morning, shadow minister Fleur Anderson MP said there is a “glaring system failure in the UK’s emergency planning that the Conservatives did not fix and are not willing to fix”.

The NAO said preparations for a flu pandemic or highly infectious diseases, like Ebola, were prioritised over Covid-like diseases, which have a lower mortality rate than Ebola but can spread in communities with asymptomatic infected people.

Its report suggested that had some mitigations measures in place for a pandemic, such as a stockpile of personal protective equipment, but lacked preparation for the “wide-ranging impacts” that Covid had on society more generally.

The spending watchdog concluded that although the government did announce a furlough scheme and send letters to some people instructing them to ‘shield’, for example, it had not had detailed plans in place for such measures before the crisis.

“A Labour government will learn the lessons to create a more resilient Britain and ensure that never again is our country left unprepared and dithering when crisis hits. It is vital that preparedness and planning is addressed in the public inquiry into the Conservatives’ mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Anderson added.

The NAO argued that the pandemic “exposed a vulnerability to whole-system emergencies”, suggesting that there was “limited oversight and assurance” of the plans in place. It criticised ministers for not learning from pandemic simulations such as ‘exercise Cygnus’ ran in 2016, which specifically suggested government consider “the ability of staff to work from home” for example.

A government spokesperson said: “We have always said there are lessons to be learned from the pandemic and have committed to a full public inquiry in spring.

“We prepare for a range of scenarios and while there were extensive arrangements in place, this is an unprecedented pandemic that has challenged health systems around the world.”

A cross-party parliamentary report published last month found that a “deliberate policy” pursued by ministers and government officials to take a “slow and gradualist approach” to Covid early in the pandemic led to a higher initial death toll.

Labour has been pushing for a public Covid inquiry to be held “as soon as possible“. Boris Johnson announced earlier this year that a full public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic will not begin until spring 2022.