Covid-19 Update

Jack Dromey Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

That is right. We looked very closely at the southern end of Lincolnshire, which is a long way from where the rates are incredibly elevated around Lincoln, the coast and West Lindsey, but unfortunately it was not possible to bring any of the lower-tier local authority areas in Lincolnshire out of tier 3, and over the border in Peterborough we have seen a very sharp rise. So we are not there yet, but I hope that we can make significant progress, especially if everyone listens to my right hon. Friend and takes personal responsibility for their actions and tries to do everything they can not to pass the disease on.

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab) [V]]

Jane Roche is a great champion of her community of Castle Vale. Her dad, Vincent, died of covid. Her sister Jocelyn died five days later of covid. They are two of the nearly 10,000 in the west midlands who have died of covid. Jane and her family are devastated. They grieve for the loss of their loved ones who will not be with them this Christmas. She asks the Secretary of State this: why have we had the largest number of deaths in Europe? Can we be confident that lessons are being learnt and that the mistakes made will not be repeated? She also asks: when will the inquiry into what happened over covid be established and, crucially, will the Secretary of State meet her and other relatives of those who have sadly died from across Birmingham?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, I am very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and constituents to hear their stories. Many of us have lost those close to us in this terrible pandemic. We are constantly learning how to do things better, and we are constantly learning more about the disease. For instance, the news earlier this week about a new variant was because our surveillance system enables us to look out for changes and try to understand them. There are huge challenges, as he knows, but I always try to approach this by looking at how we can get the country through what is an incredibly difficult and unprecedented time with as few people as possible suffering in the way that his constituent, Jane, has.