Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby piles the pressure on Boris Johnson to launch public inquiry into Covid crisis as he says the time ‘must be coming close’ for an independent probe
- Justin Welby said independent inquiry into crisis must be held ‘at the right time’
- Archbishop of Canterbury said he believes that time ‘must be coming close now’
- Boris Johnson has guaranteed a public inquiry but yet to set a timetable for one
The Archbishop of Canterbury has piled the pressure on Boris Johnson to launch a public inquiry into the coronavirus crisis as he said the time for an independent probe ‘must be coming close’.
Justin Welby said a formal investigation into the handling of the pandemic should focus on ‘lessons to be learned’.
He also stressed the probe should be ‘very independent’ and ‘very wide-ranging’.
He made the comments during a visit to the National Covid Memorial Wall in central London.
Mr Johnson has guaranteed there will be a public inquiry into the coronavirus crisis but he is yet to set a timetable for one to be held.
Justin Welby said a formal investigation into the handling of the pandemic should focus on ‘lessons to be learned’. He made the comments during a visit to the National Covid Memorial Wall in central London.
Boris Johnson has guaranteed there will be a public inquiry into the coronavirus crisis but he is yet to set a timetable for one to be held
The Archbishop said in comments issued by the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group: ‘I’ve said since very early on that there should be a public inquiry at the right time and again I think that must be coming close now.
‘It should be very independent, very wide-ranging. I think a public inquiry has to be very much about lessons to be learned.’
Mr Welby visited the memorial yesterday alongside Rabbi Daniel Epstein, Imam Kazeem Fatai of Old Kent Road Mosque and St Thomas’ head Anglican Chaplain the Reverend Mia Hilborn.
The memorial wall, located opposite Parliament on the south bank of the River Thames, consists of more than 150,000 individually hand-painted hearts representing every person who has died with Covid-19 listed on their death certificate.
It was co-ordinated by Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice which is pushing for an independent and judge-led inquiry into the crisis.
Mr Johnson said in March this year that the Government will launch a public inquiry into the crisis ‘as soon as it is right to do so’.
Mr Welby was joined by (pictured left to right) Rabbi Daniel Epstein from the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, Imam Kazeem Fatai from the Old Kent Road Mosque and St Thomas’ Hospital head Anglian Chaplain, Mia Hilborn
He said the probe will take place ‘as soon as it would not be an irresponsible diversion of the energies of the key officials involved’.
The Prime Minister said the Government is ‘committed to an inquiry, to learn the lessons, to make sure that something like this can never happen again’.
He had originally committed to a public inquiry last July, telling the House of Commons: ‘As I have told the House several times, I do not believe that now in the middle of combatting still as we are a pandemic, is the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry.
‘But of course we will seek to learn the lessons of this pandemic in the future and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened.’
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