Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Ed Davey Excerpts
Wednesday 15th July 2020

(4 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I thank my hon. Friend for her question. Our thoughts are very much with Eva and her family, and we will of course look at everything we can do to support her and her travel arrangements.

Ed Davey Portrait Sir Edward Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
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Under this Prime Minister, we have suffered one of the worst death rates in the world and Europe’s worst death rate for health and care workers. Previously, he has refused my demand for an immediate independent inquiry, saying that it is too soon, even though, back in 2003, he voted for an independent inquiry into the Iraq war just months after that conflict had started. If he still rejects an immediate inquiry, will he instead commit in principle to a future public inquiry: yes or no?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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As I have told the House several times, I do not believe that now, in the middle of combating the pandemic as we are, is the right moment to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry, but of course we will seek to learn the lessons of the pandemic in the future, and certainly we will have an independent inquiry into what happened.