Top Merseyside lawyer says Covid inquiry 'too little too late' for thousands of families

A top Merseyside Lawyer says the Prime Minister's plans for a public inquiry into the pandemic comes 'too little too late' for thousands of families.

Boris Johnson's says he'll hold an official review into the Government's handling of Covid in Spring next year.

That's prompted calls from loved ones of some of those who have died to speed up the process.

Elkan Abrahamson acts for around 4000 members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group :

"It's tragic really that the inquiry didn't take place last year in some form and to some extent.

"Last Summer we were pursuing an urgent phase of an urgent inquiry to look in particular at the timing of lockdown two. The group is now up to about four thousand bereaved families and a lot of those are as a result of extra lives lost as a delay of locking down on the second occasion.

"What's important now is that the families stand front and centre. I would expect the Prime Minister to start talking to people and that can be done over the next few months.

Then begins the process of collating all the documents because there will be a lot of documents and if they start that quickly there's no reason why they couldn't start hearings early next year. What the Prime Minister is talking about is starting the process early next year which I think leads to some delay".

The Prime Minister has said it has to start next year once the threat of another spike in cases has passed.