Dear Friend,
This is it.
The prime minister has had our seventh, and final, letter calling for an independent, judge-led statutory public inquiry. He’s ignored us and even refused to meet us and learn the lessons from our loved ones passing six times previously.
The Prime Minister has promised an inquiry, but seems unable to get it started. How many more families have to suffer the loss of a loved one before he realises how urgent this inquiry is?
On each of those six previous occasions we’ve asked the government to commit to not pursuing costs against the bereaved if we go to a judicial review.
Six times they have refused.
In reality this means the government are effectively threatening us with huge sums of money in the hope we won't pursue our case and it’s vital that we keep fundraising so if the government once again says no to our requests we can still go to court.
Each penny you’ve given us is helping us to achieve this and if everyone reading this could give £1 more we’d have the money almost instantly.
We represent more than 2,800 families who have lost loved ones and the prime minister can’t look these families in the eye but you’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with them and we’ll never be able to thank you enough.
It is not just us bereaved families who are calling for an inquiry either. Senior doctors, nurses, government scientific advisors and millions of others across the UK are fighting for answers.
And this week alongside the Guardian calling for an inquiry, the Labour Party changed its policy to say an inquiry should start at the end of the roadmap to unlock and that the issues an inquiry should look at should help be set by bereaved families.
But it needs more than just support from newspapers and political parties, it needs you and it could need court action.
If that’s what it takes then that’s what we will do.
We hope you can help support our campaign by:
2) Signing and sharing our petition
3) Signing up to volunteer with our campaign
Thank you for everything you have already done and keep doing for us all and know that however many times we say thanks, it will never be enough for all the continued hope you keep giving us.
Jo Goodman and Matt Fowler, Founders of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice