Last week we delivered our 200,000-strong petition for a statutory public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic to Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock. Within the petition were heartfelt messages from those personally bereaved and from all of you who have supported our call in your thousands. As we delivered the petition, a small group of our members visited Westminster and set up a Christmas table to bring home the message that tens of thousands of families will have an empty chair this year.

Today we have received a response from the Prime Minister, once again reiterating that the Government do not believe now is the time for an inquiry and that their focus is now wholeheartedly on the rollout of the vaccine. This isn’t good enough.

The shambolic U-turn we’ve seen this week, where families were given the promise of togetherness only to have it ripped away from them, shows once again the impact of failing to learn lessons from earlier stages of the pandemic. Once again, the Government has overpromised and underdelivered and families will continue to pay the price. Boris Johnson’s warning from March still sadly rings true; many more families will still lose loved ones before their time. Every day more people are joining our group, some on the very day they’ve been bereaved. For those of us who lost loved ones at the start of the pandemic, it seems their stories could be our own and it’s devastating to see the stark human cost of the failure to learn lessons.

That’s why this Christmas we want to thank you for your ongoing support for our cause, and ask that you continue to help us show the Government the time to learn lessons can only be now. You can support our cause by:

• Continuing to share our petition on Twitter and Facebook
• Contributing to our crowdfunder if you are able

Wishing you all a safe and restful festive period, however you spend it,

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice team