UK COVID inquiry lays bare ‘toxic and chaotic’ leadership that cost 23,000 lives

A scathing public inquiry into the UK’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has concluded that a “toxic and chaotic” culture at the very heart of government fatally slowed the response and led to around 23,000 more deaths than necessary.

The report, commissioned by Boris Johnson in 2021 and chaired by former judge Heather Hallett, delivers a brutal verdict on how Downing Street handled the crisis, from hesitant decision-making to rule-breaking behind closed doors and the influence of Johnson’s then top adviser Dominic Cummings.

“The failure to appreciate the scale of the threat, or the urgency of response it demanded, meant that by the time the possibility of a mandatory lockdown was first considered it was already too late and a lockdown had become unavoidable,” the inquiry found. “At the centre of the UK government there was a toxic and chaotic culture.”

The inquiry states that if Britain had entered lockdown on March 16 rather than March 23, 2020, deaths in the first wave could have been almost halved. Instead, the delay meant an additional 23,000 people lost their lives, a figure that lingers as one of the most damning findings.

“Had the UK been better prepared, lives would have been saved, suffering reduced and the economic cost of the pandemic far lower,” the report adds.

As case numbers surged later in the year, similar hesitation once again triggered harsher and longer lockdowns, according to the inquiry, compounding social and economic damage.

For families who lost loved ones, the findings are devastating.

Johnson has so far not responded to the report.

The UK ultimately recorded more than 230,000 COVID-related deaths, a toll comparable to the US and Italy but noticeably worse than many other western European countries. Economically and socially, the aftershocks still ripple through public services, the healthcare system and the cost of living.