PRESS RELEASE – FAMILY STATEMENT – FOLLOWING THE EVIDENCE OF DAVID CAMERON AT THE UK COVID-19 PUBLIC INQUIRY

PRESS RELEASE- FOLLOWING THE EVIDENCE OF DAVID CAMERON AT THE UK COVID-19 PUBLIC INQUIRY

My name is Aamer Anwar- I am the Lead Solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved- this was a statement issued on their behalf following our questioning of David Cameron at the UK Covid 19 Public Inquiry today.

This morning, David Cameron, former Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016, was the first politician to give evidence- he was questioned by our senior Counsel Dr Mitchell acting on behalf of our clients the Scottish Covid Bereaved.

One of Mr. Cameron’s first acts as Prime Minister was to set up the National Security Council which he chaired given its importance.  Cameron claimed that as leader of the United Kingdom he was interested in long-term planning to ensure that when a pandemic occurred, the UK could be fully prepared for it. So proud was David Cameron of his work on protecting the UK against a future pandemic he had said –“…economic resilience enabled us to deliver resilience towards future threats and hazards-we ‘fixed the roof while the sun was shining….I strongly believe the architecture across the Government was more ready to address serious domestic and international health crises when I left office than that which I inherited in 2010.”

As lawyers acting on behalf of the ‘Scottish Covid Bereaved’ we asked David Cameron why as Prime Minister he did not plan for the economic impacts of a future pandemic, leaving it to the Government to scrabble around, making ad hoc decisions on furlough, business planning, for people as well as businesses who faced economic devastation.

David Cameron’s government failed in planning for the inevitable pandemic to ensure that essential medical items such as ventilators, stockpiles of PPE, hygiene control were readily available – not only for the people at risk of losing their lives, but also frontline health and care workers who risked their own lives to save lives.

A decade of austerity began by David Cameron left the UK woefully underprepared for the virus that swept its shores, whilst subsequent leaders presided over a carousel of chaos. Despite Mr. Cameron’s so called economic plans the fact is that the UK was not prepared, years of underfunding, cuts, discrimination, & Brexit impacted on the devastating scale of death.

Human remains were treated as toxic waste- families were denied the right to attend funerals, whilst members of the Government were busy partying. Over 227,000 died, yet today David Cameron still failed to take any responsibility for his actions, claiming he set up a ‘superior architecture’- but he was the architect of the Government’s miserable failure to plan for the economic impact of a pandemic, which led to catastrophic loss of life when Covid-19 hit the United Kingdom, four years after he stepped down.

Across an unprepared United Kingdom millions were betrayed and lied to, the cries of the dying went unheard, it is time our political leaders accepted that austerity and cuts ultimately cost lives.