Khan says he felt ‘almost winded’ when he realised he had been ‘kept in dark’ by No 10 about seriousness of Covid
But Khan did attend a Cobra meeting on Monday 16 March, he tells the inquiry.
He says he was told for the first time at this meeting how bad the situation was. (This was the day Johnson told people to stay at home.)
He says he was told about the “really serious” problem posed by people with Covid in intensive care units in London hospitals.
And he says Johnson described this as the biggest challenge facing the country since the second world war
He says he felt he had been “kept in the dark as the elected mayor of London”.
I had been kept in the dark as the elected mayor of London and I felt almost winded in relation to what was happening in London and also realising there were things we could have done in relation to some of these issues.”
I was alarmed by what I was being told in relation to where we were and where we may go to. I will never forget that sort of feeling of lack of power, lack of influence, not knowing what was happening in our city.
There were things he could have done if he had known was the situation was, he says.
Some measures he had taken – like enhanced cleaning on the Underground.
But he was alarmed by the situation, he says – and concerned by his lack of power.
Heather Hallett, the chair, says Khan was warned by Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, that a pandemic was coming. She asks what Khan would have done differently.
Khan replies:
Some of the things that happened subsequently.
So it was me that lobbied the prime minister to go to lockdown, it was me that lobbied the prime minister in relation to the inability to keep social distance on public transport so people shouldn’t be using public transport unless they had to.
Hallett says it would still have been for government to take the actual decisions.
Khan accepts that, but he says if he had been at Cobra, he could have pushed for those earlier.
Key events
Sunak says Cameron as foreign secretary won’t try to bring back ‘golden era’ approach to relations with China
Turning away from the Covid inquiry, Rishi Sunak told the global investment summit that the appointment of David Cameron as foreign secretary did not mean the government wanted a return to the “golden era” approach to relations with China promoted by Cameron when he was PM.
Sunak said:
If David was here what he would say is the China of today is not the China he dealt with over a decade ago.
It has changed, it’s right that our strategy evolves to take account of that.
Our strategy can be summarised in three approaches: it’s to protect, align and engage.
We have got to protect the UK against the risks, where they manifest themselves.
Sadiq Khan is now being questioned by Brenda Campbell KC, who is representing Northern Ireland Covid Bereaved Families for Justice and Covid Bereaved Families for Justice.
Khan says it was “frustrating” that UK ministers did not seem to trust the metro mayors. This was surprising given that they are willing to trust mayors when dealing with issues like terrorism, he says. He says there was an assumption of bad faith which was unfair.
Khan told the inquiry that, if the government had acted earlier in the autumn of 2020, as he was proposing (see 12.27pm), a second lockdown could have been avoided. And, if that had happened, there would have been less damage to the economy, he said.
Sadiq Khan wrote to Boris Johnson in September 2020 saying he thought further restrictions were needed, the inquiry hears. Andrew O’Connor, counsel for the inquiry, shows an extract from the letter.
Khan says he realised early on that ethnic minority people were being disproportionately affected by Covid. He says he wrote to the families of all Transport for London staff who died, when he had their details. The names were all ethnic minority ones, he says.
Back at the Covid inquiry Sadiq Khan has resumed giving evidence.
He says there were nine metro mayors at the start of the pandemic. He says they used to talk regularly, on a cross-party basis. Subsequently the number of mayors went up to 10, he says.
He says he also had calls with first ministers of the devolved governments.
Andrew O’Connor, counsel for the inquiry, shows an extract from Khan’s witness statement describing one of these calls. It took place on 19 May 2020, and the participants thought the UK government was “not engaging sufficiently” with them, Khan said.
Badenoch says she applauds Israel for taking ‘great pains’ to stay within international law in war against Hamas
The Covid inquiry has stopped for a short break.
Turning back to Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, in an interview with Sky News this morning she went further than some other ministers have gone in defending Israel over its conduct in the war against Hamas. She said as far as she was not aware, Israel had not broken international law. She went on:
It looks like they have taken great pains to make sure we are staying within the confines of the law. We applaud them for that.
This is not the view of many experts, including António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general.
Johnson was still uncertain about ordering full lockdown day before it was announced, inquiry hears
After Sadiq Khan sent his letter to Boris Johnson on 22 March 2020, the pair spoke by phone. O’Connor showed the inquiry extracts from a transcript of the call. They show that Johnson was concerned about the “great economic cost” of a lockdown.
Khan said he thought at this point Johnson had still not yet decided to go ahead with a full lockdown.
Inquiry hears how Khan tried to pressure Johnson into ordering full lockdown as Johnson delayed on 22 March 2020
O’Connor reveals a private letter that Khan sent to Johnson on Sunday 22 March.
In the letter, Khan called for a mandatory lockdown, and said that if Johnson did not order one, he would tell Londoners himself that they should act as if one were in place. Khan said that the government’s messaging was not clear, that people were ignoring the message to stay at home, and that as a result lives were at risk.
Johnson not aware other countries had imposed lockdowns four days before he ordered one for UK, inquiry told
Khan tells the inquiry he had a meeting with Boris Johnson at No 10 on Thursday 19 March. He says the discussed doing a press conference together. But this was cancelled. O’Connor says Dominic Cummings, the PM’s chief adviser, subsequently said one reasons for cancelling the press conference was the desire not to alarm the financial markets.
Khan says he attended another Cobra meeting on Friday 20 March. But that was not chaired by the PM, he says.
UPDATE: PA Media reports:
Boris Johnson was “not aware” that other countries had imposed lockdowns in March 2020, Sadiq Khan has said.
The London mayor met the then-prime minister in Downing Street on 19 March, and said it was “clear” to him that some proposals for lockdown measures “had been surfaced, but the prime minister wasn’t persuaded”.
He told the Covid-19 Inquiry: “The prime minister wasn’t aware that in other parts of the world they had lockdowns in place and fines could be issued if you breached the lockdown. I was surprised he wasn’t aware of that in relation to what was happening elsewhere.”
Khan said he felt that the UK’s “advantage” in being able to see what was happening in the rest of the world “wasn’t being used”.
Johnson ordered the full national lockdown on Monday 23 March – four days after the conversation described by Khan.
Khan says he felt ‘almost winded’ when he realised he had been ‘kept in dark’ by No 10 about seriousness of Covid
But Khan did attend a Cobra meeting on Monday 16 March, he tells the inquiry.
He says he was told for the first time at this meeting how bad the situation was. (This was the day Johnson told people to stay at home.)
He says he was told about the “really serious” problem posed by people with Covid in intensive care units in London hospitals.
And he says Johnson described this as the biggest challenge facing the country since the second world war
He says he felt he had been “kept in the dark as the elected mayor of London”.
I had been kept in the dark as the elected mayor of London and I felt almost winded in relation to what was happening in London and also realising there were things we could have done in relation to some of these issues.”
I was alarmed by what I was being told in relation to where we were and where we may go to. I will never forget that sort of feeling of lack of power, lack of influence, not knowing what was happening in our city.
There were things he could have done if he had known was the situation was, he says.
Some measures he had taken – like enhanced cleaning on the Underground.
But he was alarmed by the situation, he says – and concerned by his lack of power.
Heather Hallett, the chair, says Khan was warned by Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, that a pandemic was coming. She asks what Khan would have done differently.
Khan replies:
Some of the things that happened subsequently.
So it was me that lobbied the prime minister to go to lockdown, it was me that lobbied the prime minister in relation to the inability to keep social distance on public transport so people shouldn’t be using public transport unless they had to.
Hallett says it would still have been for government to take the actual decisions.
Khan accepts that, but he says if he had been at Cobra, he could have pushed for those earlier.
Khan confirms he was again refused permission to attend a Cobra meeting on Covid on Thursday 12 March. “To say I was frustrated is an understatement,” he says.
Khan claims lives could have been saved if No 10 had let him attend Cobra meetings on Covid earlier
At the inquiry Sadiq Khan is being questioned by Andrew O’Connor, counsel for the inquiry.
O’Connor has presented email exchanges showing that in early March Khan was asking to be invited to the Cobra meetings where Covid was being discussed. He showed emails showing that No 10 twice refused to let him attend.
In one exchange, on Monday 9 March, Edward Lister, Boris Johnson’s chief of staff, argued that Khan should not be invited because, if he came, other metro mayors, like Greater Manchester’s, would have to be invited too.
Khan told the inquiry that he thought London was a special case, because of its large population, the number of people travelling by public transport, its role as a transport hub, and the fact that virus seemed to be spreading there faster than in other parts of the country.
But he also said he did not see why other mayors could not attend too. They could participate by Zoom, he said.
UPDATE: Khan said:
In this particular case, I can see no explanation at all why … the Greater London Authority, the mayor of London were not around the table.
I think lives could have been saved if we were there earlier.