Johnson promises future independent inquiry

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson committed to an ‘independent inquiry’ into the coronavirus pandemic.

Responding to a question from acting leader of the Lib Dems, Ed Davey, the Prime Minister said it was not right to devote ‘huge amounts of official time’ to an inquiry when the UK is ‘in the middle’ of a pandemic, but did say that ‘certainly we will have an independent inquiry in to what happened’.

This is the first time that Johnson has committed to an independent inquiry, despite repeated calls from opposition MPs for him to do so. It is worth noting that this would be an independent inquiry, not a public one.

Layla Moran, who chairs an all-party group on coronavirus and is coincidently Davey’s rival for the Lib Dem leadership, called on the Prime Minister to ‘commit to a public inquiry now, not kick this into long grass’. She stressed that ’there is no time to waste’ and told fellow MPs that ‘we must learn the lessons from this crisis ahead of a potential second wave this winter’.