LONDON — Boris Johnson, look away now.
The 800-page report from Britain’s official inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic landed Thursday evening.
It makes for grim reading for the country’s former prime minister, and much of his top team. Johnson has yet to respond.
But the inquiry machine-guns a “too little, too late” government response to the early raging of the virus in 2020, a “toxic culture” in No. 10 Downing Street under the then-PM — and a serious failure to take heed of mistakes made.
“Unless the lessons are learned and fundamental change is implemented, the human and financial cost and sacrifice of the Covid-19 pandemic will have been in vain,” the inquiry’s chair Heather Hallett, warned as the report was published Thursday.
POLITICO pored over the full report to full out some of the biggest recipients of criticism.
1) Boris Johnson couldn’t make his mind up
Johnson is roundly criticized for failing to take the virus seriously enough in the initial months, for “oscillating” between different decisions on whether to actually introduce a lockdown, and for a host of controversial comments which caused offense to victims’ families when they came out during the inquiry’s evidence gathering process.
Particular criticism is reserved for Johnson as boss. The culture in Johnson’s No. 10 is described as “toxic and chaotic.” He is accused of “reinforcing” a workplace where the views of others, particularly women, were ignored — and of “encouraging” the behavior of his chief aide, Dominic Cummings.
2) Dominic Cummings made the culture way worse — but saved lives
Cummings arguably comes in for even harder criticism than Johnson.
The report accuses the then-PM’s chief aide of having “materially contributed to the toxic and sexist workplace culture at the heart of the U.K. government.” It says he was a “destabilising influence” at a time of crisis — and that he was at fault for a “culture of fear, mutual suspicion and distrust” in government.
Cummings is, however, praised by the report for his “commendable action” in bringing about a change in the government’s early pandemic strategy, which saved lives.
3) Matt Hancock wasn’t trusted to be straight with people
The short-lived reality TV star Matt Hancock is a figure of fun in U.K. politics these days — but he once held a role of enormous importance as health secretary during the pandemic.
For his contribution to Britain’s efforts as the virus initially spread, Hancock earns multiple instances of harsh criticism in the report.
Hancock is slammed for the “overenthusiastic impression” he gave to Johnson and top officials on his department’s readiness to face a pandemic, and it is said he gained a reputation for “overpromising and underdelivering.”
The report even says concerns were raised about Hancock’s reliability and trustworthiness in meetings as Britain grappled with how to respond in the early days.
The report ultimately says Britain should have locked down a week earlier than it did in March 2020, blaming officials, politicians and scientists for not moving quicker. It argues that the failure to do so came at a cost of around 23,000 lives.
4) Chris Wormald should’ve done more
Government officials were concerned that the Covid inquiry could prove embarrassing for Chris Wormald — who now serves as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet secretary, a supremely powerful role at the head of Britain’s civil service.
During the pandemic, Wormald was the top civil servant at Hancock’s Department of Health and Social Care, which is repeatedly criticized for giving false impressions on how prepared it was.
While Hancock is widely blamed for this, the report does slam Wormald for failing to “rectify” the health secretary’s overconfidence. It says his failure to take any action “gave rise to additional concerns about the effectiveness of Wormald’s leadership.
That was as bad as it got for the current Cabinet Secretary, who might breathe a sigh of relief.
5) Bits of the British state itself were seriously shaky
Whitehall itself comes in for some stark criticism, although the report stops short of a damning indictment of the whole system.
The Cabinet Office — often referred to as the wiring at the center of government — is particularly slammed for failing to take more of a lead in early pandemic decision making.
The report says that the government’s decision making structures “required improvement” during the pandemic, and that Johnson often sidelined his cabinet in favor of “centralised decision making.”
Brief sections on Welsh and Scottish governing cultures during the pandemic conclude that neither had real issues with relationships, though then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is accused of hogging the limelight with her daily lockdown press conferences, even if there’s praise for her “serious and diligent” approach to leading Scotland through the pandemic.