Families of Covid victims set to sue Boris Johnson as calls mount for the Prime Minister to hold an immediate public inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic
- Britain’s death toll of 124,419 is the worst in Europe and fifth-highest in the world
- Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK want to have Government inquiry
- Group lawyers Pete Weatherby QC and Elkan Albrahamson will write to ministers
- Will tell them that a High Court judicial review is being pursued by the group
Boris Johnson is being sued by 2,000 families of loved ones who died of Covid-19 in a bid to force the Government to hold an inquiry into the UK’s death toll.
Britain’s death toll of 124,419 is the worst in Europe and fifth-highest in the world, behind only the US, Brazil Mexico and India.
Campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK want to force the Government to hold a judge-led Statutory Public Inquiry into its handling of the pandemic.
The group’s lawyers Pete Weatherby QC and Elkan Albrahamson will write to ministers this month, informing them that a High Court judicial review is being pursued.
Mr Johnson has so far refused to hold a review into the Government’s pandemic response – instead insisting the Covid risk needs to be reduced further first.
The lawyers say countless Britons died needlessly due to Government failings, and an inquiry must be held as a matter of human rights, The Times reports.
The group says it wants to prevent the UK’s high death toll from happening again, with its website reading: ‘Family members, and the country, deserve answers.’
Boris Johnson (pictured) is being sued by 2,000 families of loved ones who died of Covid-19 in a bid to force the Government to hold an inquiry into the UK’s death toll
The campaign group’s website reads: ‘The UK Government’s actions have led to the highest death toll in Europe.
‘But this isn’t about statistics.
‘Every single one of the tens of thousands of deaths from Covid-19 recorded in the UK represents a living, breathing person, taken before their time.
‘We can’t let this keep on happening.’
The group says its ‘hard not to think that the Government would rather save its reputation than save lives’.
They say the inquiry must be independent from ministers so the ‘Government doesn’t get to mark its own homework’.
In a positive sign that the UK’s latest Covid wave may be nearing an end, the country today recorded another 6,040 new coronavirus cases marking a 19 per cent drop in positive tests week-on-week.
Under current plans heavily criticised by anti-lockdown Tory MPs, England will have some lockdown restrictions in place until at least June 21. Pictured, Boris Johnson
Today’s death toll of 158 marks a drop of 45 per cent on the 290 deaths recorded last Saturday.
Government data up to March 5 shows that of the 22,887,118 jabs given in the UK so far, 21,796,278 were first doses – a rise of 437,463 on the previous day – and 1,090,840 were second doses, an increase of 56,772.
Yesterday, official statistics recorded 236 fatalities – down by a third week-on-week, with the Health Secretary boasting the decline was becoming ‘faster and faster’.
Mr Hancock claimed the figures offered proof that the once ‘unbreakable’ link between cases inevitably turning into deaths was ‘now breaking’.
The Office for National Statistics estimated that 248,000 people across England are infected with the coronavirus, down from 370,000 in its estimate last Friday
He told a Downing Street press conference on Friday: ‘The vaccine is protecting the NHS, saving lives right across the country. The country’s plan is working.’
Two-fifths of adults have now had the vaccination – with one million people receiving both their first and second doses.
The Health Secretary’s comments came after an array of official data revealed Covid cases are falling rapidly, fuelling calls for No10 to relax lockdown measures sooner.
Under current plans heavily criticised by anti-lockdown Tory MPs, England will have some lockdown restrictions in place until at least June 21.
Recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show England’s outbreak shrank by a third in the week to February 26, with 248,000 people infected – the equivalent of one in every 220 people.
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