Matt Hancock was reportedly rebuffed by bereaved people who lost relatives to Covid at the public inquiry into the pandemic today.
The MP for West Suffolk was giving evidence to the inquiry, as he was the health secretary who saw the UK’s response to Covid up until June 2021. He then resigned after breaching his own social distancing rules.
Once he stepped down from the witness stand after a three-hour grilling, Hancock approached the public gallery to speak to the bereaved families who lost loved ones during the pandemic.
According to the BBC’s health reporter, Laura Foster, he approached Amanda Herring Murrell of the national Covid memorial wall group, and said: “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
But, he was abruptly cut off by the families, who allegedly said: “Go away! Get your face out of it!”
Herring Murrell then turned her back on him, prompting Hancock to leave.
She was quickly comforted as she broke down in tears by those around her.
She told the BBC: “I will star at him when he’s that far away but I cannot have him that close to me.”
Hancock was also heckled as he left the inquiry, with members of the public shouting “killer” and “how many have died?”
Various pandemic support groups waiting outside the building also allegedly turned their backs on him when he hurried to his car.
His arrival at the inquiry also sparked an emotional reaction from the members of the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group, who hugged one another.
Lorelei King, a widow who lost her husband at the start of the pandemic, started to cry upon Hancock’s arrival.
She told Sky News that seeing the former health secretary was “particularly difficult” because he visited her husband’s care home before Covid, and shook the care home resident’s hand.
King continued: “Two years later my husband was dead. I don’t believe he was protected.”
She also carried two photos as she stood outside the inquiry, one of her husband with Hancock, and one of her husband’s coffin.
King said she wanted Hancock to be held “accountable”, and that his “apology would mean nothing”, she just wanted “honesty”.
Hancock opened his statement by saying he was “profoundly sorry for each death”, but said he understood “why this apology would be hard to take from someone like him”.
But, during his time giving evidence, he said that he had inherited a “flawed” health system which was not designed to deal with a pandemic not related to influenza.
He also claimed that he had no power over adult social care, saying it was local authorities’ responsibility.