Responding to the Science and Technology Select Committee’s report on the government’s handling of the pandemic, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: “This report chronicles an almost unimaginable crisis of leadership in slow motion. As every mistake was made, experts and politicians, including the Liberal Democrats, warned this incompetent government.
“Whether it was the snail’s pace reaction in the early months of the spread, the failure of test and trace or the failure to pay self isolating people properly, the Conservatives were begged to change course. They either refused or acted too late.
“Perhaps the saddest and most abiding image of the pandemic was families watching a loved one’s funeral over a computer. As this report confirms there were far more funerals than there needed to be, far too many people died.
“The sheer scale of government failure is only beginning to come to light now and the tragedy for bereaved families is still very raw.”