Sir Chris Whitty will testify at the Covid inquiry today in a highly anticipated appearance.
It comes a day after Sir Patrick Vallance, the former chief scientific adviser, offered his thoughts on Boris Johnson and his ministers’ handling of the pandemic.
Sir Patrick’s diary entries have offered extraordinary insights into his views of Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak and the decisions made by politicians as the crisis unfolded.
Lady Hallett’s inquest heard on Monday that Mr Johnson was “bewildered” by the graphs and data presented to him and was a “devastated” man at times.
The inquiry heard how Johnson sometimes struggled to retain scientific information, “clutching at straws” and at one point asked whether Covid was spreading “because of the great libertarian nation that we are”.
Sir Patrick’s diaries also suggested that Sunak, then chancellor, thought it was “right” to “just let people die”.
Follow the latest developments below.
