Covid inquiry live updates: Sadiq Khan ‘had to chase’ government for information – BBC News
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Summary
- London mayor Sadiq Khan says he was “kept in the dark” over the seriousness of Covid at the beginning of the pandemic
- He tells the Covid inquiry he was not invited to early emergency Cobra meetings, and felt “almost winded” when he finally attended one in mid-March 2020
- “I will never forget that feeling of lack of power, lack of influence, not knowing what was happening in our city,” he says
- Khan says “lives could have been saved” if he had been invited to key meetings earlier
- Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham is now giving evidence – he says he “repeatedly” asked to attend Cobra but wasn’t invited
- Meanwhile, the UK’s current top civil servant Simon Case will not give evidence this year for health reasons; he’s featured in several WhatsApp exchanges shown to the inquiry
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-67523823
