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'Serious questions' need to be answered over Government's handling of Covid-19 after pandemic

"Serious questions" need to be asked of the Government's handling of the Covid-19 once the pandemic is over, a council leader has said.

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Birmingham City Council leader Councillor Ian Ward

Birmingham City Council leader Ian Ward said there needed to be an inquiry but said the sole focus was rolling out testing at the moment.

It comes after a study last month – of weekly data – showed the UK had the highest daily Covid-19 death rate per million people in the world.

Councillor Ward said: "I do think, when we're out the other side of this, questions do need to be asked of the UK Government.

"I recall that when we entered the first lockdown, at the beginning of the pandemic, the Prime Minister himself made a number of statements about world-beating apps, world-beating PPE supply, world-beating programme of test and trace – unfortunately, those turned out to be promises that were not delivered.

"And back in the summer, the Prime Minister did agree that there should be an inquiry into the prorgess of the pandemic through the United Kingdom and I do think that needs to be done.

"But now is not the time and we need to deal with the roll-out of the vaccination programme to ensure people are vaccinated and we can emerge from this pandemic and emerge to a normal way of life. But once we are out of it, I think there are serious questions for the Government to answer."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to an "independent inquiry" into the coronavirus pandemic in July last year – but he said it was not the right time for an investigation and there would "certainly" be one "in the future" so lessons could be learned.

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