Covid inquiry – live: David Cameron gives evidence as ex-PM is accused of ‘appalling failure’

David Cameron told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry: “This is the thing I keep coming back to, which is that pandemic was a ‘tier one risk’ – pandemics were looked at, but … much more time was spent on pandemic flu and the dangers of pandemic flu rather than on potential pandemics of other more respiratory diseases like Covid turned out to be.

“And, you know, I think this is so important because so many consequences follow from that.

“And I’ve been sort of wrestling with… I think the architecture (to deal with large-scale emergencies) was good – the National Security Council, the National Security Adviser, the risk register, and also this new security risk assessment, which was perhaps a bit more dynamic.

“But that’s where I keep coming back to… is, so much time was spent on a pandemic influenza and that was seen as the greatest danger – and we had very bad years for flu so it is a big danger…

“But why wasn’t more time and more questions asked about what turned out to be the pandemic that we faced?

“It’s very hard to answer why that’s the case. And I’m sure this public inquiry is going to spend a lot of time on that.”

Former prime minister David Cameron said his government was “very concerned” about pandemics but may not have spent enough time preparing for viruses other than flu.

He said: “I think this was a government and Prime Minister that was very concerned about potential pandemics and about dangerous pathogens and the bad things like antimicrobial resistance and all the rest of it so we weren’t backward in thinking about it. But it does still come back to this issue of why so much time spent on a flu pandemic and not so much on these others.”

He added: “The pandemic was a tier one risk. Pandemics were looked at but… much more time was spent on the danger of pandemic flu rather than potential pandemics of other, more respiratory diseases.”

Former prime minister David Cameron has begun giving evidence to the Covid inquiry in London.

The session began by Mr Cameron being sworn in.

The former prime minister is the first politician to appear at the inquiry under oath.

Watch live as the UK’s Covid inquiry continues, with David Cameron expected to give evidence on Monday 19 June.

The former prime minister has been accused of an “appalling” failure to properly prepare the UK for the pandemic and will be questioned on how austerity impacted the UK’s ability to deal with the virus.

Ahead of the session, the British Medical Association launched a scathing attack on Mr Cameron and said government cuts to NHS funding “left us so unprepared” for the pandemic.

“The UK was severely on the back foot when Covid took hold, and this proved disastrous – for the doctors I represent and the millions who suffered at the hands of the virus,” Professor Philip Banfield, the BMA council chair and a consultant obstetrician of 30 years, said.

“‘No healthcare system could have come through a pandemic unscathed’ is the defence often parroted by those who were calling the shots.

“But the question to Cameron, [George] Osborne and [Jeremy] Hunt must be: how did you allow the NHS and public health to get to such a parlous state, and fail to prepare so appallingly, that many didn’t stand a fighting chance when the wave crashed over them?”

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry opened its first public hearing on 13 June in London, beginning a three-year investigation into the British government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The inquiry will seek to understand the decision-making that led to the imposition of strict lockdown measures on the public, how our evolving understanding of the virus guided policy, what the government got right and what mistakes were made, with a view to being better prepared for future pandemics and public health emergencies.

When then-prime minister Boris Johnson announced the first “stay at home” order on 23 March 2020, British citizens came together in a rare moment of national unity, for the most part, diligently adhering to social restrictions introduced to help stop the spread of the contagious respiratory disease.

A doctor whose father died after contracting Covid has said the inquiry will be a “farce” if bereaved families are not able to give evidence.

The Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group had put forward 20 people to be considered as witnesses for the first module of the Covid-19 Inquiry, but said none have been called to give evidence.

Six weeks of hearings are planned for the first module of the inquiry, which will focus on resilience and preparedness.

Former prime minister Mr Cameron will become the first politician to appear under oath at the inquiry when he is sworn in today at 11am, the inquiry has said.

He will be followed by former chancellor Mr Osborne, as well as Jeremy Hunt, the current Chancellor who served as health secretary in the austerity-era Government of the 2010s.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said that funding cuts reduced the country’s capacity to respond to the crisis, leaving the NHS and the social care sector “dangerously understaffed”.

Public services capacity was damaged by “steep cuts” to almost every part of the public sector, the union added.

Safe staffing levels in health and social care were undermined by a series of pay caps and pay freezes over a number of years, which impeded recruitment and increased staff turnover, the report found.

Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne are expected to push back against the claims of the damage done by austerity cuts when they give evidence to the Covid inquiry today.

There was “no doubt that both staff and patients were put in harm’s way” because of underfunding in the decade running up to Covid‘s arrival, BMA council chairman Professor Philip Banfield said ahead of the Covid inquiry hearing today.

In a blog written for the union’s website, he writes: “I have seen first-hand the damage wrought by years of austerity and a failure to prioritise the nation’s health. The UK was severely on the back foot when Covid took hold, and this proved disastrous – for the doctors I represent and the millions who suffered at the hands of the virus.

“It is therefore critical that Cameron, Osborne and Hunt are taken to task over the decisions they made that left us so unprepared, and to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated when we face our next health emergency.”

He added: “The question to Cameron, Osborne and Hunt must be: how did you allow the NHS and public health to get to such a parlous state, and fail to prepare so appallingly, that many didn’t stand a fighting chance when the wave crashed over them?”

The BMA and the Trades Union Congress are among core participants to the inquiry.