The evidence from the Covid Inquiry is worse than what bereaved families feared was happening at the time. Back then, we were often criticised for being “unfair” on the Government when we raised our concerns. It’s clear now we weren’t being anywhere near critical enough.

In March 2020, when I was panicking about the reports coming out of Italy and how best to protect my family if Covid-19 struck the UK, Boris Johnson was “laughing at the Italians” and joking that “we were going to be great (at Covid-19)”. 

Meanwhile Matt Hancock was displaying "nuclear levels" of overconfidence, literally pretending “to bat away criticism like a cricketer”, and assuring everyone that there were plans in place that never actually materialised. 

When the pandemic did strike, and our NHS became overwhelmed, I had to say goodbye to my Dad, Ian for the last time. He was just 56 years old, recently retired and was looking forward to spending more time with his family. I’d do anything for another day with him, and if it hadn’t been for the utter chaos in Number 10, we might have had many more years together.

By the time second wave came around and many thousands more had died, Boris Johnson had learned nothing. He was saying that if you caught Covid you would “live longer”, that he didn’t buy “all this NHS overwhelmed stuff” and agreeing that “we should let the old people get it”. 

Meanwhile, our now Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak was ignoring all scientific advice and insisting people “eat out to help out”. We now know this contributed to the loss of thousands of lives, put unnecessary pressure on the NHS and plunged the country into a brutal second lockdown, damaging the very businesses he was supposed to be helping. The Chief Medical Officer was calling it “eat out to help out the virus”, and our current Chief Scientific Advisor was calling him “Dr Death the Chancellor”. How can he be trusted to manage a pandemic in the future, knowing that he caused such devastation last time?

Whilst all this was going on, we’ve been told that Government decisions were being controlled by a group of special advisors from privileged backgrounds. It was an “orgy of narcissism” as Boris Johnson himself put it. They were more interested in “football and shooting” than they were in issues like domestic abuse, or how their decisions would impact the disabled, low income households, at risk children and others who weren’t like them.

Some of them, like Dominic Cummings, used obscene, misogynistic language to describe their colleagues. When you see that these figures had such a shocking disregard for each other, you can only imagine the disregard they had for families like mine.

They left our most vulnerable with the least protection. Their response had a “lack of humanity” as the second most senior civil servant at the time said today. 

Families like mine will have to live with the cost of that inhumanity for the rest of our lives. Meanwhile Boris Johnson has a new handsomely paid TV show on GB News, and is paid hundreds of thousands as an after dinner speaker. Elsewhere Matt Hancock whines that he is a victim of “injustice” whilst being paid a fortune to appear on SAS Who Dares Wins, fresh from his appearance on I’m a Celebrity… 

They ‘fail upwards’ into more money and power, whilst families like mine are left ripped apart by their callousness and brutality.

If there is to be any injustice from this awful period, it will come from this inquiry and the truth finally being known. If it wasn’t for your support this inquiry wouldn’t be happening, the consensus would be that Johnson “got the big calls right” and we’d almost certainly be going into another pandemic in just as sorry a state.

We’ll never stop fighting to make sure that the truth comes out about why our loved ones, no matter how painful it is to hear. And we will never give up in our quest to hold those responsible to account.

If you’re able to donate even just a small amount to support us, please do. Every penny helps us go an extra mile in the fight for justice: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/covid-bereaved-must-be-heard-at-the-covid-inquiry

Matt Fowler, co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK